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HARMS WORTH
HISTORY
OF THE WORLD J^l
KING EDWARD VII.
rroin the statue l.j George Wade crcctt-il at Rendini;
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SEVENTH VOLUME
The Re-Making
OF Europe
The European
Powers To-day
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CARMELITE HOUSE
LONDON
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The Brt;sh
Empire
The Atlantic
OCFAN
K
CONTENTS
OF THIS VOLUME
S:XTH
SIXTH GRAND DIVISION
EUROPE
DIVISION— THE RE-MAKING
OF EUROPE
General Survey of Europe since 1 8 1 5
EUROPE AFTER WATERLOO
The Great Powers in Concord
The British Era of Reform
Queen Victoria in Her Coronation Robe
Colour plate facinj
The Reaction in Central Europe
The Restored French Monarchy
The Cross and the Crescent
Fall of the Bourbon }iIonarchy
The New Revolutionary Period
The Welding of the States
The New Kingdom of Greece . .
The State of Religion in Europe
The Spread of Liberalism
EUROPE IN REVOLUTION
The Fall of Louis Philippe
Italy's Fruitless Revolt
The Hungarian Rebellion
Struggles of the German Duchies .
The Second Republic in France
The Problem of the German States
Reaction in Central Europe
THE CONSOLIDATION OF THE POWERS
Saving the Colours facing
The United Kingdom intheMid-\'ictorian
Era
Turkey after the Crimean \\"ar
The Second Empire of France
The L'nification of Italy
Prussia Under King William I
Prussia and Austria on the Eve of \^'ar. .
The Advance of Prussia
The Prussian Ascendancy
The Decline of Napoleon HI
The French Soldiers' Unrealised Dream
of Victory facing
The Downfall of the Second French
Empire
The Birth of the German Empire . .
Scandinavia in the Nineteenth Century. .
EUROPE SINCE 1871
The Close of the ^'ictorian Era
Peace with Honour facing
Reaction Triumphant in Russia
The German and Austrian Empires
France L'nder the Third Republic . .
Minor States of ^^'estcrn Europe . .
4779
4791
4797
4817
4825
4839
4849
4859
4871
4881
4887
4892
4898
4905
4925
4933
4943
4949
4957
4970
4975
4975
5005
5015
5033
505 1
5063
5069
5081
5093
51^5
5153
5163
5193
5193
5^13
5 --3
S2i2
THE SOCIAL QUESTION
Britain's Industrial Revolution . . . . 5237
The Rise and Fall of Chartism .. .. 5245
The Triumph of Trades Unions . . . . 5249
The March of Social Reform 5255
Social Problems in France 5260
Social Democracy in Germany . . . . 5268
Great Dates from the French Revolution
to Our Own Time 5-279
SEVENTH DIVISION
EUROPEAN POWERS TO-DAY
Glimpses of Europe's Capital Cities . . 5281
Russia 5295
Turkey, Greece, and the Balkans . . . . 5317
Austria-Hungary 5329
Germany .. 5339
Holland and Belgium 5357
The Grand Duchy of Luxemburg . . . . 5362
Switzerland 5365
Italy 5371
The Republic of San Marino 5375
France 5377
The Principality of Monaco 5 396
The Republic of Andorra 5397
Spain 5401
Portugal 5406
The Scandinavian States 54ii
United Kingdom 5417
Tvpes of British Battleships 5425
THE BRITISH EMPIRE
The Empire in the Making 5441
British Trade and the Flag 5465
Slave Trade as a Factor in Colonial
Expansion 5473
Colonies Grown from Convict Settle-
ments 5479
Wars of the Empire 5483
British Conquests in the East . . . . 5497
Britain's Contests in Africa 5509
Fighting Forces of the British Empire. . 5525
Outposts of Empire 5537
Composition of the Empire 5545
Great Britain's Inner Empire . . . . 5557
Parliaments of the Outer Empire .. .. 5573
The Sinews of Empire 55^1
British Expansion in Europe 5599
British Expansion in America . . . . 5610
Britain's Great Indian Empire .. .. 5615
British Expansion in Africa 5623
.Man's Triumph over Nature 5631
Civilisation and Christianity 5639
The Future of the Empire 5644
THE ATLANTIC O^EAN
The Atlantic Before Columbus . . . . 5657
The Age After Columbus 5663
i
GENERAL SURVEY OF THE PERIOD
By Oscar Brow^ning, M.A.
THE CONTINENT
By Dr. H. Zimmerer, Dr. Heinrich Schurtz,
Dr. Georg Adler, Dr. G. Egelhaaf,
Dr. H. Friedjung, and other writers
EUROPE
SIXTH DIVISION
THE RE-MAKINQ OF
EUROPE
We enter now upon the last phase of completed European
history — the century which has all but run its course since the
decisiv5 overthrow of Napoleon's ambitions at Waterloo.
Although during this period the United Kingdom and the
Eastern Powers, Russia and the whole Eastern peninsula,
pursue their course in comparative independence of the com-
plications which involve the rest of Europe, the latter being no
longer in isolation sufficient to warrant us in maintaining the
earlier complete separation of East and West.
Following immediately after Waterloo, we have a period of
strong reaction against the political ideas of the French
Revolution, a period 'in which the claims to power and
to territory of "legitimate" dynasties are looked upon as
paramount, while the control of the Sovereign People and
demands for the recognition of nationalities are held in check,
though Greece attains her liberation from Turkey. The second
period opens and closes with two revolutions in France — the
expulsion of the Bourbons and the coup d'etat of Napoleon III.
During this period the demands of Constitutionalism and of
Nationalism are fermenting, Germany in particular making
futile efforts in the latter direction. The third period coincides
with that of the Second Empire in France, and is marked by
the unification of Italy and the triumph of German nationalism
in the new German Empire, consummated by the Franco-
German war, and attended by the establishment of the Third
French Republic.
Finally we follow the fortunes of the novi reconstructed
Europe — the whole narrative having interludes associated with
the modern Eastern Question — until we reach our own day.
THE BRITISH ISLES
By A. D. Innes. M.A., and H. W. C. Davis, M.A.
477:
MAP TO ILLUSTRATE THE SIXTH DIVISION OF EUROPE
The above map shows the Europe of our own time, with the boundaries of the various states as we know them
to-day. The period thus illustrated is not the whole of the time covered by "The Re-making- of Europe," but rather
the eventual settlement of the Continent, as a result of the movements which were initiated on the downfall of Napoleon,
and involved such international conflicts as the Crimean War, the Italian revolt against Austria, the Franco- Prussian,
the Russo-Turkish, and the Greco-Turkish wars. The changes in the m.p of Europe since the close of the
Franco-Prussian War have been insignificant. The areas within 250 and 50li miles of the coast are also indicated.
GENERAL SURVEY OF THE PERIOD
By Oscar Browning, M.A.
EUROPE SINCE THE YEAR 1815
D EFORE the French Revolution Europe
•*-' was in a condition of unstable equili-
brium. Anyone who studies the condition
of the map of Europe in the last years of
the eighteenth century will perceive this
to be the case. France, Spain, and Great
Britain were in a fairly homogeneous
situation, but the position of the rest of
Europe was intolerable. The German
Empire, the mere phantom of its glorious
past, was honeycombed by the territories
of ecclesiastical princes, while its neigh-
bours, Hungary and Poland, better con-
solidated than itself, were a menace to
its permanence. Russia was in the throes
of expansion to the east, west, and south.
The Turkish Empire, when it crossed the
Bosphorus, found itself ruling dominions
which it could not hope to maintain,
and which were now slipping from its
grasp. Greece and Bosnia, Moldavia and
Wallachia, Servia and Bulgaria were
moving from a position of subjection
to vassalage, from vassalage to indepen-
dence. Berlin was divided from Konigs-
berg by a long stretch of territory which
could not in any sense be called Prussian.
Italy was cut up into a number
of impotent and warring states,
he crossed the Channel found it reduced
to nothing before his return by the charges
of perpetual discount. The awakening was
rude. Sluggish Europe shook herself to
resist the dangers of the Revolution.
She threatened to march to Paris to
punish the regicide miscreants who bore
^. n . swav in the capital, and to
The Rude - - '^
Awakening
of Europe
restore the Bourbon to his
throne. But regenerated France
Barriers to
European
Solidarity
which denied it a voice in
European affairs. Naples and
Sicily were parts of Spain. Norway was
a part of Denmark. There was no soli-
darity, no unity in the component parts ;
railways, had they existed, would have
been impossible, commerce was impeded
by every kind of artificial barrier. A
traveller who changed a sovereign when
laughed gaily at this unwieldy
Titan. She threw ofi with ease the attacks
directed against the missionaries of a new
political gospel, and carried war into the
territories of those who had assailed her.
Her generals were everywhere victorious ;
but from among them arose Napoleon, the
greatest of all generals of modern times.
It is too common to represent this
commanding genius as a man of blood —
insatiable with slaughter, uncontrolled
in ambition, and regardless of the
sacrifices with which it might be grati-
fied. The empire of Napoleon was, at
least in part, a carrying out of the
programme of the Directory, and the
consummation of the efforts which
France had originally begun to resist
intrusion. When that empire had reached
its height, it was. either in direct govern-
ment or in powerful influence, nearly
coterminous with civilised Europe, with
the exception of Russia and England,
who remained imsubdued. Spain and
Portugal were under France, Belgium and
Holland were a part of her dominions, the
kingdom of Italy reached to the frontier
of Naples, and Naples was French.
4779
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
Switzerland was devoted to the man who
had given her a good government, the
Confederation of the Rhine inchided the
kingdom of Westphaha as well as the
tributary states of Saxony, Bavaria,
Wurtemberg, and Baden ; Scandinavia
listened to the advice of the Tuileries ;
Prussia was reduced to insignificance.
The Grand Duchy of War-
saw, a French creation, lay as
The Unstable
Empire
of Napoleon
a buffer state between Prussia
and Austria ; and Austria,
having given an empress to the French
throne, was in a position in which her
best hope of influence and power lay in
her alliance with Napoleon, a position
which she had not the wisdom to realise.
But Napoleon's empire was itself in a
condition of instability. What form it
would have taken if he had continued to
reign, we do not know. The claims of
nationality had begun to assert themselves
before his fall — indeed, they had been to
a large extent the cause of his ruin ; and
if he desired to rear a lasting edifice he
must have found a way of reconciling
them with his scheme of a European
Empire. He wished for a second son,
and if such a one had been born and
grown to manhood, or at least to ado-
lescence, the formation of a united Italy
might have been anticipated by many
years. But his empire, constituted as it
was, was certain to perish at his fall, and
his fall came sooner than was expected.
We do not yet completely know the
causes of the great Russian war, and we
cannot properly apportion the blame of
it between the emperor and the tsar.
He believed that this would have been his
last enterprise, his last war. Russia once
brought to his feet, Europe would be at
peace. But he miscalculated the difficulty
of the task, and the stohd stubbornness
of Russian resistance. Fortune turned
against him, his star paled, and his em-
pire was no more. It is a mistake to sup-
^. ^ . pose that he could have made
The Fatal ^ _ . . _ ..
Error of the
Hapsburgs
peace at Frankfort or at Chatil-
lon; the terms offered him
were delusive, and were in-
tended to be so by Metternich. Had
Austria obeyed the voice of honour and
of interest the empire might have been
preserved, but by deserting these funda-
mental principles, the empire of the
Hapsburgs, which has made so many
mistakes, committed a last fatal error,
which it has since most bitterly expiated.
4780
The Congress of Vienna endeavoured to
repair the shattered fabric, but the un-
prejudiced observer will not credit the
diplomatists of that assembly with
much wisdom or with much prescience.
Ignorant of, or ignoring, the principle of
nationality, which has since governed the
world with a dominating force, they were
led by Talleyrand to adopt the principle
of legitimacy, which they had not the
courage to follow out when it became a
question of punishing Napoleon's friends
or rewarding his enemies. Consequently,
many arrangements of Vienna have been
upset. Belgium has been divorced from
Holland, Norway from Sweden, Prussia
has united its severed territories and
secured the headship of Germany. Italy
has consolidated herself at the expense
of the provinces and the prestige of
Austria ; and Turkey has lost, one after
another, the dominions which it was a
disgrace to civilisation that she should
have held at all.
The change from the Restoration which
succeeded the fall of Napoleon to the
conditions of the present day is divided
. , into certain well-defined epochs
ritain s j^g^j-j^g(j by periods of disturb-
Electoral -^ ^ , .• tu
_ , ,. ance, wars, or revolutions, ihe
Revolution • i 1 ^ o jo
period betv/een 1820 and 1830
is one of disheartening reaction, controlled
by a desire to suppress everything which
could remind the world of the principles
of 1789, and to undo everything which
the administrative ability of the great
emperor had accomplished. This led to
the Revolution of July, accompanied
by other disturbances in Europe, and
indirectly to the emancipation of the
Catholics in England and the Reform Bill
of 1832. It is characteristic of our country
that the only revolution which we have
experienced since the close of the seven-
teenth century has been an alteration in
our electoral system, a change quite as im-
portant as, and more permanent than, any
which has taken place in any other country.
After 1830 the democratic strivings of
the nations of the Continent were either
suppressed or appeased, but the fire
broke out with greater intensity in 1848,
when a series of revolutions either shook
or shattered every throne in Europe but
our own. Then followed a series of
wars — the Crimean war of 1854, the
Italian war of 1859, ^^^^ Danish war
of 1863, the Austrian war of 1866, and
the Franco-Prussian war of 1870. Since
THE RE - MAKING OF EUROPE : GENERAL SURVEY
1870 Europe has been at peace, and the
severance of Norway from Sweden and
the final consohdation of Italy have been
brought about without an actual conflict.
Belgium is no longer the cockpit of
Europe— that has to be sought further
afield. Rivalries which have a European
side to them are fought out in Asia and
in Africa, and we dread the time when
the horrors of war may possibly be brought
within our own experience.
Yet progress, in which international
jealousies must have a part, still goes on,
and war, if averted, is often threatened.
The world knows of many mortal struggles
which have never taken place, but which
have been regarded as inevitable by well-
informed and responsible statesmen. At
one time we were certain to have a war
with Russia, at another time with France,
at another time with America, and a final
war with Germany is looked upon by so
many as the doom of fate that they
think it useless to discuss its probability
or even to take means to avert it. If the
possibility of these catastrophes is known
to the public at large, how many are in
the cognisance of Ministers who
are acquainted with the secrets
of foreign affairs ? Happily,
the past is quite sufficient to
occupy the historian, without troubling
too much about the future.
Let us consider separately the effect of
each of these crises on the course of
European politics. The Revolution of
July in Paris had broken out as a quarrel
between the people and the king; it ended
by establishing the authority of the
people. The royal title was changed from
King of France to King of the French.
The Charter was a Bill of Rights on the
English model, dear to the heart of Guizot.
It fixed the limits within which the people
were willing to accept the government of
a king. It was a decided advance towards
democracy. The new constitution which
followed the Revolution in Belgium was
framed on similar lines, and in the spirit
of the English Revolution of 1688.
It laid down the principle that all power
emanated from the people, and that the
king possessed no authority beyond that
given him by the constitution. He
could do no executive act except through
the Ministers, and they were responsible
to the Chambers. If the Ministers failed
to command a majority in Parliament,
it was their duty to retire. The English
French
Revolution
of 1850
colour of these arrangements seems to
have suited the character of the Belgian
people and the temper of the king.
The Revolution of July produced a
powerful effect upon Switzerland, and
inaugurated what is called the Period of
Regeneration. It began with a move-
rhent to reform the constitutions of some
_ . . ..of the cantons, in order to
Switzerland s • 1 -4.1 „
. give a share m the govern-
n^"" ° ° ,. ment to classes who did not
Regeneration •. 'ni t> t. r
possess it. The torest Can-
tons, the ancient heart of Switzerland,
remained passive, but the population of
the others bombarded their Governments
with petitions for reform, and reform was
speedily accorded. Ziirich was the leader
of the movement. The programme of the
radical party was sovereignty of the
people, universal suffrage, direct election,
freedom of the Press, of petition, of
religious belief, and of industry.
The movement was essentially demo-
cratic, and the struggle became so severe
that the Federal Government had to inter-
vene. The Canton of Basle was separated
into two half cantons, Basle Town and
Basle Country. Seven cantons formed
a separate confederation, and a counter
league was organised to oppose it. The
conflict, embittered by the presence of
refugees from other disturbed countries,
lasted till the convulsions of 1848.
In Spain and Portugal the struggle
between the Constitutionals and the
Absolutists was complicated by a dis-
puted succession. In the first country,
Isabella was the watchword of the Liberals,
Don Carlos of the reactionaries, their
place being taken in Portugal by Maria
da Gloria and Don Miguel. In Italy the
agitation was more serious. It seized
upon the states which had not been affected
by the previous movements of 1820.
At Rome the death of Pius VIII. gave the
signal. Louis Napoleon took part in the
plot to make his uncle, Jerome, King
of Italy. In the Romagna and
Italy in ^j^^ Marches provisional govern-
a State of ^^^^^^^ ^^^ national guards were
the order of the day. Govern-
ments of this kind, with a dictator
at their head, were formed in Parma and
in Modena. But the movement came
to nothing. Louis Philippe would not
help, and Metternich was at hand with his
Austrian army. With their assistance he
brought back the Duke of Modena, and
pacified the States of the Church. But
4781
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
the " Young Italy " of Mazzini was born
in the conflict, a secret society devoted to
the realisation of the unity of Italy under
the form of a republic. Eventually the first
object was attained, but the second was not.
A similar impulse animated the Liberals
of Germany, who had long been discon-
tented with the policy of the Holy Alliance.
The War of Liberation had
o an s o onlvsubiected them to a worse
Stand for j j
Independence
despotism than that of Napo-
leon. Brunswick, Hesse-Cassel,
Saxony, and Hanover obtained constitu-
tions ; in Bavaria and Baden men of
enlightened minds were allowed to express
themselves more freely. A stronger move-
ment took place in Poland, then divided
between two parties, the Whites and the
Reds. The Whites were composed of the
large proprietors, the higher officials, and
the clergy. Provided that Poland was
suffered to retain a nominal independence,
they were content to wait for constitutional
reforms. The Reds were patriots and demo-
crats, but they were violent and impatient.
In the last month of 1830, when the
emperor had mobilised the Polish army in
order to suppress the revolution in France
and Belgium, the national troops turned
against their oppressors. The students of
the Military College seized the palace at
Warsaw, and the Grand Duke Constantine
fled for his life. The Romanoff dynasty
was deposed, and the union of Poland with
Lithuania was proclaimed. Britain and
France were sympathetic, but refused to
give active assistance ; the Polish army
was crushed by superior numbers, and a
military dictator was set up. The end of
Poland had arrived. In 1835 the Emperor
Nicholas told the Poles plainly that unless
they gave up the dream of a separate
independent nationality the guns of the
newly built citadel should lay Warsaw in
ruins. We see, therefore, that the Rev'olu-
tion of July had made a great breach in
the system established by the Congress
p of Vienna. The Bourbons,
° * '*^* . who based their title on the
Changes m •• i j- i •. •
g . f prmciples of legitimacy, w^ere
succeeded by a king of the
barricades, professing the doctrines of 1789,
and waving its flag. The British Constitu-
tion remained unshaken, but the Reform
Bill of 1832 brought about a revolution
in the balance of political power not less
momentous than the others, because it was
pacific, and destined to produce results not
less important although slow in coming.
4782
Eighteen years later the Revolution broke
out with greaten violence, and spread with
the rapidity of a plague. It began in
Switzerland in 1847, showed itself in Sicily
in January, 1848, and overthrew the throne
of Louis Philippe in France in February
of the same year. The fall of monarchy in
France gave the signal for disturbances
throughout Europe. England, the Iberian
Peninsula, Sweden, Norway and Russia
alone escaped. In Holland, Belgium and
Denmark it ran a comparatively mild
course. The symptoms were more severe
in Austria, Prussia, Germany, and Central
Italy ; it led to bloodshed in Northern
Italy, Schleswig-Holstein, and Hungary.
The outbreak in Switzerland was the
result of a conflict which had been smoul-
dering for many years. It was caused by
two movements, one civil, the other
religious ; one an effort to democratise
the constitution, the other a desire to
restrain the influence of the Roman
Catholic Church. The Liberal party was
divided into Moderates and Radicals, but
the Moderates gradually lost their in-
fluence. The Radicals were strengthened
and stimulated by the refugees
. ^° " ^°^ of other nationalities, who had
e .^ , . found an asylum in Switzerland
Switzerland , ■, ■ -^ ^ r ^i •
when driven out of their own
countries. The Poles organised raids
against Neuchatel and Savoy ; Mazzini
used Switzerland as a place of arms.
Austria and Bavaria demanded the extra-
dition of German " patriots," and when this
was refused, broke off diplomatic relations.
France insisted upon the expulsion of the
supposed authors of the conspiracy of
Fieschi, and sealed their frontiers against
the passage of the stubborn Switzers.
A few years later they asked for the
surrender of Louis Napoleon, who had his
home at Arenenberg. The Catholics based
their hopes on the peasants, and posed as
the supporters of democracy. In Schytz
the two parties of " Horns " and " Hoofs "
came to blows over the use of the public
pastures ; in Canton Ticino, the Radicals
won by force of arms ; in the V' alley of the
Rhone the Upper and Lower districts were
in hopeless disorder. The Puritans of
Zurich drove Strauss, the author of the
" Life of Jesus," from his professorial
chair. The Jesuits succeeded in founding
Catholic Colleges at Schytz, Freiburg, and
Lucerne. Argau answered this challenge
by suppressing eight convents, and de-
manding the expulsion of the Order. The
THE RE - MAKING OF EUROPE : GENERAL SURVEY
result of this prolonged tension was a civil
war. In 1845 the seven Catholic cantons
formed a " sonderbund," a separate
league, which the government deter-
mined to svippress by force, and in three
weeks General Dufour effected this object.
The Radicals were victorious, the Jesuits
were expelled, and civil war was averted.
The result of this struggle was the forma-
tion of a new constitution, by which
Switzerland, from being a statenbund — a
confederation of states — became a federal
state — a bundesstat. A new nation came
to life in Europe.
The French Revolution of 1848 was
equally a surprise for the victors and the
vanquished. It raged for two days, the
first of which witnessed a revolt of the
reformers against Guizot, the second a
revolution of the Republicans against the
monarchy. At 10 a.m. on February 24th,
the Palais Royal was captured ; at 4.30
p.m. the throne was destroyed in the
Tuileries, and shortly afterwards the
Republic was proclaimed at the Hotel de
Ville. The result of this was a democratic
movement throughout Europe. In Holland
the personal government of
_* ^ '" . ^ the king was changed into a
Revolt against . .. .• 1 ^ ■
. . constitutional monarchy ; in
Belgium the Liberals were
confirmed in power ; in Denmark the
accession of a new king presented an
opportunity for substituting a constitution
for absolutism and for setting the Press free.
Italy was shaken from Monte Rosa to
Cape Passaro. The movement began in
Sicily, where for a fortnight in January
the insurgents fought against the Royal
troops, demanding the constitution of
1812. At Naples, Ferdinand accorded a
constitution based upon the French
Charte, and appointed a Carbonaro as
Prime Minister. At Turin, Charles Albert
promulgated a constitution, which, in
all the storm of conflict, has never
been abrogated, and the Grand Duke of
Tuscany did the same.
At Rome, Pio Nono nominated three
lay Ministers, but the supreme power
remained with the College of Cardinals.
The passionate desire of the Italians was to
shake off the hated domination of Austria.
They shouted, in the words of the
"Garibaldi hymn": " Va fuori d'ltalia,
va fuori o Stranier ! " [From Italy from
sea to snow, let the hated stranger go ! ]
For this the revolution in Vienna gave an
opportunity. Here the storm broke in
March, the direct consequence of the
French Revolution of February. The
desires of the people were voiced by book-
sellers, students, and Liberal clubs ; they
demanded liberty of religion, of teaching,
of speech, and of writing, and a budget
controlled by a representative govern-
ment. Their cry was : " Down with
Metternich ! Down with the
/c? ^ , soldiery!" and Metternich was
of St. Mark j- - j i-, n ^
. ,, . dismissed. The emperor fled
m Venice . , 1 t- 1 j ii a 1
to the lyrol, and the Arch-
duke John, the darling of the people, took
his place. A Constituent Assembly met
at Vienna in July. In Hungary, a country
better suited for self-government, the
change took a more solid shape. The seat of
Parliament was transferred from Pressburg
to Budapest. It issued a coinage, and
formed an army under the Hungarian tri-
colour. Austria was compelled to weaken
her garrisons in Italy in order to subdue
her revolted provinces north of the Alps.
In March, Milan rose, and Radetsky
retired within the Quadrilateral. Modena
and Parma were left to themselves, and
obtained constitutions. Cavour called the
Piedmontese to arms ; Tuscany, Rome and
Naples sent their troops to join their
brethren of the North. In Venice,
Daniele Manin, like-named but not like-
minded with the last Doge, awakened to
life a Republic of St. Mark. A revolution
was organised, at once Liberal, monarch-
ical, and national, under the three colours
of the Italian flag, the emblems of passion,
purity, and hope.
The dream of liberty was short lived.
It vanished before the approach of foreign
armies. The Austrians defeated the Sar-
dinians at Custozza, and reconquered the
whole of Lombardy. A still more fatal
blow fell at Novara, where Charles Albert
was routed in March, 1849, ^^'^ abdicated
in consequence. The crown came to his
son, Victor Emmanuel, who afterwards
became the first monarch of a united
Italy. Venice fell, after a long
siege, in August of the same
Modena and Parma,
who had joined themselves to
Piedmont, were occupied by Austria, and
their ducal governments were restored.
Tuscany suffered the same fate, and the
Grand Duke was compelled by the Aus-
trian army of occupation to abrogate the
constitution of 1848, so that his country
became less free than it was before the
revolution. Four Catholic Powers —
4783
The Siege
and Fall
of Venice •'
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
France, Spain, Austria, and Naples —
offered their assistance to the Pope, but
the main burden of recovering the Holy
City fell upon France. Rome, defended
by Mazzini and Garibaldi, was captured
in June, 1849 ; the Cardinals came into
power with Antonelli at their head. The
tricolour was surrendered. Italy was
c ,• again spht into fragments,
ta y pit (jgpgndent upon foreign force.
P ° Sardinia alone remained a
ragmeo s g^^.^^ ^^ liberty and hope.
In Austria, the champion of reaction, the
war of nationalities, which has always been
to her a danger, now proved her salvation.
A Panslavic Congress had been sum-
moned at Prague, which was attended
not only by Bohemians, Moravians, and
Silesians, but by Russians, Poles, and
Servians. But the Croatians turned
against the Magyars, and the South Slavs
against their brethren of the North.
Prague was bombarded and Bohemia
conquered ; the Croats marched upon
Budapest. The emperor, who had fled
from his capital and sought refuge in
Moravia, made a common war against the
German democrats and the Hungarian
rebels, who had chosen Kossuth as their
leader. Croats attacked Vienna from the
east, Bohemians from the north. After a
short struggle they were victorious ; the
Hungarians, who had come to the assist-
ance of the friends of liberty, were repulsed
and an absolute government was restored.
Hungary held out a little longer.
A Hungarian Republic was established,
with Kossuth as President. But the Rus-
sians declared themselves the enemies of
revolution, and Nicholas came to the aid of
his brother emperor. An army 80,000 strong
entered the country from the Carpathians.
The Magyars capitulated at Vilagos, pre-
ferring to fall into the hands of the
Russians rather than into those of their
ancient tyrants. Kossuth, after burying
the Hungarian crown, sought refuge in
_ _ . Turkey. Metternich was again
_ . .'^ master, and the last state of
^j jj the rebellious provinces was
"^^''^ worse than the first. Prussia
also had her " days of March," but here
the middle-classes stood aloof, and the
Liberals were left to fight out their battle
against the army.
The chief object of their attack was the
Prince of Prussia, brother of the king, who
was destined at a later period to be the
first Emperor of Germany. The king at
4784
first tried to temporise. He promised a
constitution, withdrew his troops, and
sent the Prince of Prussia to England. He
adopted the German tricolour, threw him-
self upon the affection of his Prussians,
and invoked the confidence of Germany.
He granted a written constitution and a
National Assembly elected by universal
suffrage. But he soon discovered his mis-
take, and was obliged to follow the example
of Austria. The army re-entered the capital,
took possession of the Parliament build-
ings, dissolved the National Guard, and
soon afterwards dispersed the Assembly.
Absolute government was restored, veiled
under the forms of a constitution.
The Provisional Government in France,
which succeeded the Orleans monarchy,
was formed by a coalition, and therefore
contained within itself the seeds of
dissolution. One party aimed at the
establishment of a democratic republic
based on universal suffrage, the other
desired a democratic and social republic,
the chief object of which should be the
elevation of the working classes. The
tricolour of 1789 was opposed by the red
flag of Louis Blanc. The battle
• Vk St**" raged round the organisation
'"f P^ • "^ ^ °^ labour and the establish-
ment of national workshops.
However, the Socialists had opposed to
them the whole of France and half the
capital, and they were unable to hold
their own. A civil war broke out in the
streets of Paris, and three days' fighting
was required for the capture of the
suburb of St. Antoine by General Cavaig-
nac. The Socialist prisoners were shot
or transported and their newspapers were
suppressed. Eventually a constitution
was agreed 'upon, which established a
single chamber, a president holding office
for four years, and a Council of State.
The president was to be chosen by
universal suffrage, and the election took
place on December loth, 1848. Ledru
Rollin was the candidate of the Socialists,
Cavaignac of the Democrats, but both
had to give way to Louis Napoleon, the
inheritor of a mighty name, who was
chosen by an overwhelming majority.
This election could have no other result
than the establishment of a monarchy.
The coup d'etat of December 2nd, 1851,
dissolved the Assembly, and arrested the
leaders of the Republican party. Follow-
ing the example of his uncle, Louis
Napoleon was first made president for
THE RE - MAKING OF EUROPE : GENERAL SURVEY
ten years, and shortly afterwards Emperor.
The plebiscite accepting him as Emperor
of the French was taken four years, to a
day, after he had been elected president.
By the events we have described
absolute government was established over
the whole of Europe, excepting Switzer-
land and the countries which had not
been affected by the revolutions of 1848.
However, France preserved her principle
of universal suffrage, Prussia and Sardinia
their constitutions, with the fixed resolve
of achieving the unity of Germany and of
Italy, founded on the principle of nation-
ality, which had been ignored by the
Congress of Vie'nna. We now pass from the
epoch of. revolutions to the epoch of war.
The Crimean War of 1854 belongs to
those events of history of which we do
not precisely know the cause. There are
probably few Englishmen who feel satisfied
with their country's share in it, or who
support it as an act of political wisdom.
There are few, also, who would deny that
we were led into it by the Emperor of
the French. Louis Napoleon came to the
throne of France pledged by conviction
and by honour to effect the
liberation of Italy from the
Austrian yoke. This could not
be done without war, and
although France was strong enough to
meet Austria in the field, she could not
contend against Austria and Russia united.
It therefore became necessary to weaken
Russia before such a war could be under-
taken, and the question of the Holy Places
was seized upon with great adroitness as
a colourable pretext for a war with Russia.
Britain was easily, too easily, stirred
to defend Turkey against aggression
and dismemberment, and thus a conflict
was begun of which we have little reason
to be proud. Russia was prepared to
meet an attack in the Baltic, in Poland,
or on the Danube, but the Crimea was
only feebly garrisoned. Still, Sebastopol
held out, and the resources of the allies
were strained to the utmost. A winter
campaign became necessary in a desert
country, subject to intense cold. The
British lost half their troops, and no
assistance came from Austria or Prussia.
In the spring of 1855 the Emperor
Nicholas died, and the war no longer had a
motive. However, it continued under his
successor, and Sebastopol did not fall until
six months afterwards. Napoleon was
ready to make peace, although Palmerston
The
Crimean
War
wished to go on fighting, and a treaty was
eventually concluded at the Congress of
Paris. Turkey lost the Danubian pro-
vinces, but the integrity of her empire was
guaranteed, while she promised reforms
of administration which were never carried
into effect. The navigation of the Danube
was declared free, and the Black Sea
^ neutral. Cavour had been
Consequences , \ a. • ■ .1
f tK clever enough to jom the
^ . ,„ alliance, although Sardinia
Crimean War , , ■ . . ",.
had no mterest, du-ect or m-
direct, in the questions in dispute. This
gave him a right to take part in the
congress, and the liberation of Italy
entered for the first time into the domain
of practical politics. The war undoubt-
edly raised the prestige of the French
Emperor, and gave him a commanding
position in European affairs. It called
Roumania into existence, and it recognised
the claims of nationality in Italy. It was
another blow to the principles of the
Congress of Vienna, and it weakened the
influence of Austria.
It will be seen from this narrative that
the Crimean War led directly to the
Italian War of 1859. By adroit diplo-
macy Austria was induced to invade
Sardinian territory, and the armies of
France crossed the Alps to defend her.
The two allied armies were able to con-
centrate at Alessandria before they could
be attacked in detail. The Fattle of
Magenta, having been lost in the morning,
was won in the afternoon, MacMahon
playing the part of Desaix at Marengo.
The Austrians evacuated Lombardy
and retired into the Quadrilateral to
defend Venetia. After a hard struggle
the Austrians were again defeated at Sol-
ferino, but the bloodshed had so unnerved
the emperor, and the quarrels between his
marshals had so disgusted him, that he
broke his promise of setting Italy free to
the Adriatic, and made a peace which
secured only Lombardy to Sardinia. He
received in exchange Savoy
The Damaged and Nice, but this second war
Prestige of ^^^^^ ^^ ^^^^^ ^^ j^^^ prestige as
Louis Napoleon ^j^^ first had been favour-
able. Italy alone profited by the result.
Parma, Modena, and Tuscany drove out
their dukes ; Romagna set herself free
from the Pope ; provisional governments
were established in these provinces, ready
for incorporation with the kingdom of
the House of Savoy. Cavour, who had
resigned after the Peace of V'illafranca.
4785
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
again became Prime Minister. The spell of
Austrian domination was broken, and the
establishment of an Italian kingdom, so
long the dream of poets and patriots,
became only a question of time.
The scene of our drama shifts to another
quarter. What Cavour had done for Italy
Bismarck was to' do for Germany. The
. rivalry between Austria and
Fatar"* ^ Prussia for the leading position
_^ * in Germany, and for the in-
heritance of the Holy Roman
Empire had been active ever since the
Congress of Vienna. The policy of Napo-
leon would have annihilated Prussia and
strengthened Austria, but Metternich com-
mitted the fatal blunder of joining the
coalition of which the profits were to come
to his rival instead of himself.
There was a time when Hanover might
have disputed with Prussia the first place
in a Teutonic Empire, but it was im-
possible that such a position could be held
by a King of England, and the sovereignty
of the British Isles was regarded as more
valuable than the chances of a Continental
crown. The share which Prussia had
taken in the Waterloo campaign rendered
her reward certain, and the world was
disposed to favour Protestant progress
rather than Catholic stagnation.
Still, it is doubtful if Prussia would
have gained the position which was the
object of her desires unless Bismarck
had been in her service, who, with a
mixture of statesmanship and craft, of
courage and audacity, half untied and half
cut the Gordian knot of the situation. The
Danish War of 1864 would probably never
have taken place unless Bismarck had
conveyed to the Danes the false assurance,
based probably upon an intercepted
dispatch, that she was certain to receive
the support of Britain. The defeat of
Denmark was speedy and inevitable, and
the arrangements made by the Peace of
Vienna ceded the duchies of Schleswig
. and Holstein to Austria and
th^^p °"^ ° Prussia under conditions which
J. y.. madeafuturequarrelinevitable.
The Schleswig-Holstein diffi-
culty rose in great measure from the fact
that whereas Holstein was almost entirely
German — and, indeed, claimed to be a part
of the old German Empire — Schleswig was
more than half Danish, and yet the two
duchies were united by a permanent bond
which national feeling declared was never
to be broken. " Schleswig-Holstein sea
4786
surrounded " was the text of their patriotic
hymn. The arrangements for the joint
occupation of the provinces by the two
conflicting rivals provided that the Ger-
man province should be occupied by
Austria ; the semi-Danish by Prussia.
This made a quarrel certain. The Prus-
sian governor of Schleswig persecuted the
partisans of independence ; the Austrian
governor of Holstein encouraged them.
The rupture was delayed for a time by the
Convention of Gastein, but it came at last.
In order to attack Austria with success
it was necessary that Prussia should have
Italy on her side. But Italy could not
act without the consent of France, and
this implied the approval of the Emperor
Napoleon. At the interview of Biarritz, in
October, 1865, Napoleon agreed to support
Prussia against Austria, and declared him-
self in favour of the unity of Italy, if some
compensation were given to his own coun-
try by an increase of territory. He desired
to tear up the settlement of Vienna, so
hostile to Napoleonic ideals. Bismarck
adroitly encouraged these aspirations, but
took care not to commit himself. It was
found difficult to overcome the
»^f ]^^ , , distrust which the Italians felt
Distrust of r T-,- 1 T^, , J ,
_. , for Bismarck. Ihey hoped to
Bismarck , , • ^^ i^- xu x
obtam Venetia without a war,
possibly by ceding the newly-created
Roumania to Austria. Even King William
was averse from force, and Bismarck stood
alone, supported by his clear insight and
his iron will. At last, in April, 1866, an
offensive alliance with Italy was concluded
for three months. Italy was to support
Prussia in obtaining the hegemony of
Germany, and was to receive Venetia in
return. She asked for Trieste, but it was
refused to her. Napoleon promised to
remain neutral.
In June, Prussia declared the federative
tie which bound her to Austria dissolved.
But she found herself alone. Bavaria,
Wurtemberg, Saxony, and Hanover, to-
gether with Hesse-Nassau, and Baden,
supported Austria. Prussia had to rely
upon her well- drilled army and her
admirable arrangements for mobilisation.
Napoleon hoped that between combatants
so equally matched the war would be of
some duration, and that, when both were
exhausted, he could come forw^ard as
a mediator, and make his own terms. But
these hopes were shattered by the rapidity
of the Prussian movements. Before the
end of June the arm.y of Hanover had
THE RE - MAKING OF EUROPE : GENERAL SURVEY
capitulated, Saxony was occupied, Bohemia
invaded, and on July 3rd the Battle of
Koniggratz, won largely by the genius of
the Crown Prince Frederic, ended the
struggle, and the way lay open to Vienna.
At the same time the Italians were
defeated at Custozza by a force inferior
in numbers, but this did not prevent the
Austrians having to surrender Venetia to
Napoleon, who gave it to the Italians.
The southern states of Germany were
incapable of effective action. They were
beaten in detail ; Frankfort was occupied,
Austria was compelled to abandon her
allies, who had no alternative but to make
peace; Prussia became the undisputed
head of the German confederation. Europe
was dazed and bewildered by the rapidity
and completeness of her success.
Napoleon found himself deceived, and
every step which he took to recover his
position led to new disasters. His attempt
to gain possession of the Grand Duchy of
Luxemburg proved a failure. He looked
about in vain for allies. A triple alliance
was proposed with Austria and Italy, but
Austria was exhausted and dreaded another
war, while Italy demanded
the withdi awal of the French
The Greatest
War of
Modern Times
from Rome. Nothing could
be obtained beyond general
declarations of sympathy and friendship. A
proposition made in the beginning of 1870
for a mutual disarmament came to nothing.
At last, at a moment when peace seemed to
be assured, war broke out with the sudden-
ness of an earthquake. The clumsiness of
a French Minister who, not satisfied with
a material victory, demanded a humiliating
declaration from the Prussian king, the
genius of Bismarck, who seized an un-
equalled opportunity for precipitating a
conflict which he regarded as inevitable,
so as to have the nation and the sovereign
on his side, caused the greatest war of
modern times, by the results of which
Europe is still dominated.
War was declared on July 19th, and the
emperor left for the front. But he had no
illusion as to the result. The empress who,
stung to the heart by the taunts of Ger-
many, had stimulated the conflict, was
unable to inspire him with hope. He left
St. Cloud, accompanied by his son, as a
victim led to the slaughter, and the final
catastrophe was not long delayed. The
war of 1870 was more than a local conflict.
It must be reckoned among the vital
struggles which have convulsed Europe
since the fall of the Roman Empire ; a
scene, but probably not a closing scene,
in the secular rivalry between the
Roman and the Teuton.
It was said at the time that Sedan
avenged Tagliacozzo, that the French
emperor expiated on that field the murder
of the Hohenstauffen Conradin by the
^ ^. - brother of St. Louis. Regarded
Creation of r ■ -j. <•
,. „ from a more prosaic pomt of
theU'rinan •, J^ ,, \-,- r
„ . view, it upset the politics of
™ "^^ Europe. It created a German
Empire, with Prussia at. its head, and
gave that country a preponderance in
Europe. It achieved the unity of Italy,
and destroyed the temporal power of the
Pope. It opened the question of the East
by putting an end to the neutrality of the
Black Sea. It established in France a
republican government which seems to be
durable, and it transferred that neutral
territory between Neustria and Austrasia- —
which appears to have come into existence
from the accident of Lewis the Pious
having three sons instead of two — ^from
the French to the German side of his
dominions. Whether this arrangement
will be permanent or not, none can say.
It produced by force a settlement of
Europe very different to those which were
established at Miinster, at Utrecht, or
at Vienna, and we still lie under the
conditions which it created.
Nearly forty years have elapsed since
the war of 1870, almost as long a period as
intervened between the Battle of Waterloo
and the Crimean war. Can Europe be now
declared to be in a state of equilibrium, or
is she menaced by convulsions similar to
those which we have sketched ?
Political prophecy is always dangerous ;
rarely can the most far-sighted statesman
foresee what is going to happen. The
danger long dreaded frequently never
comes, and the catastrophe arises in a
season of complete security. Still, if we
pass the map of Europe in review, we shall
_. _ , . find a great improvement
The Relations ^-^^^ ^^^^ Congress of Vienna,
of France , i: r ii <- ^ ,^
. „ ., . and we may believe that our
and Britain , , -^ x i j i „
hopes of peaceiul develop-
ment for Europsan nations rests upon a
firmer basis. France appears to be firmly
established in the form ot a republic, and is
supported by the friendship of the British
Empire. Even if she were to change her
government, it would not necessarily pro-
duce a European war. Spain is recovering
from her disasters and entering upon a new
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
career of prosperity, while Portugal will
probably follow her example. Both
monarchies are, however, menaced by the
presence of a strong republican party, which
is encouraged by the presence of a republic
in France. The two most momentous
events in the period under discussion have
been the creation of a united Germany
and a united Italy. Both of
Changes these seem likely to be perma-
"^ A V.^^^^ nent. The divergence between
* ^ the feelings and interests of
Northern and Southern Germany has, to a
large extent, disappeared, and the friend-
ship which animates them has become
stronger in the course of years. It was the
King of Bavaria who proposed, in the
great gallery of Versailles, that the King
of Prussia should be Emperor of Germany,
and in doing so he expressed the sentiments
not only of the present, but of the future.
No one who was acquainted with Italy
in the days before Magenta and Solferino
can fail to recognise the change which has
come over that country.* The debt in-
curred in extending the Italian railways,
in piercing the Alps and the Apennines,
has been completely justified, and the
prei'^ience of those who brought it about
has been proved by its success. There is a
constant movement of the population
between south and north, and the
National Army of Italy has proved not
only a potent instrument of education,
but a means of creating a feeling of
nationality for which the provincialism of
earlier days left no scope. It has even had
an effect upon the language and literature
of the country. Italian has now sup-
planted French as the language of the
higher classes, and books are now written
in Italian which in old days would have
been written in dialect.
The position of the Pope at Rome is
still a cause of discord, but there is hope
that by concessions on each side these
differences may disappear. As we move
further east, the outlook
What is
the Future
of Austria ?
becomes less favourable. Who
can foretell the future of Austria
or of Russia ? Austria, an
ill-assorted congeries of discordant nation-
alities— Magyar and Czech, Italian and
Slavonic — is held under a German head
by the force of old traditions and the fear
of a civil war, wliich might be caused by a
disruption. But it is probable that even
here the danger may be averted, and at the
death of the present emperor means may be
4788
found of reconciling differences, which
appear irreconcilable, by the exercise of
political common sense, and of a patriotism
which, if not based on sentiment and affec-
tion, may at least be founded upon interest.
Russia, the unwieldy giant, a huge
territory sparsely peopled by discordant
elements, governed from an artificially
created capital, which is removed every
day further away from the centre of gravity
of affairs, as the frontiers of the empire
spread further to the east, may, perhaps,
split up into its component elements,
Asiatic and European, or, by a wise
extension of constitutional government,
may continue to exist for a considerable
time. Many prophecies of its fall have
been shown to be false, and those who
know it best have the surest confidence
in its stability. Turkey must always remain
an apple of discord. The forces which
have, during a long course of years, dis-
membered its territory and gradually
liberated suffering provinces from its
yoke will continue to be active, and, when
the intelligence of Europe has leisure to
attend to it, will free Constantinople from
her servitude, and drive the
The Startling
Revolution of
the Year 1908
Ottoman Turk into Asia ;
unless, indeed, the startling
revolution of igo8 proves
the true precursor of a transformation in
his character and methods without his-
torical parallel. Portions of the world
to which culture owes so much, which
have had so glorious a past, which gave the
world so much of Greek literature, philo-
sophy and eloquence, which were the first
to feel the awakening influence of Chris-
tianity, cannot remain for ever in a
condition of inglorious slumber.
Greece, which has completely justified the
enthusiasm for liberty which called her into
existence, will receive not only Crete,
but other provinces which once belonged
to her, and the Bulgarians will enjoy the
reward of their patient industry and their
solid capacity for practical affairs. The
world has seen the principles of territorial
sovereignty, of the balance of power, of
so-called legitimacy, which so long
dominated the politics of Europe, receive
their consecration in the Congress of
Vienna. It has seen the principle of
nationality, unfortunately ignored in the
arrangements of that congress, create a
new Germany and a new Italy, and work
powerfully among the Slavs, still subject
to the domination of alien masters.
THE RE-MAKING OF EUROPE: GENERAL SURVEY
It is probable that the principle which is
destined to conciliate divergent interests,
to reconcile rivalries, and to establish
the government of Europe upon a firm
basis of stable equilibrium, is the principle
of federation, a mode of government which
is possible only in an advanced state of
civilisation, and is certain to be accepted
in proportion as civilisation advances.
Much of the unrest which now renders
government difficult is due to the fact
that legislation which benefits one part of
a country is harmful to another part.
Ireland cannot be governed satisfactorily
on English methods, and measures which
are beneficial to Lombardy are inapplicable
to Sicily. The particularism of Spain,
which makes Catalonia a centre of disorder,
can be remedied only by a policy which
allows the provinces of that country to a
large extent to govern themselves. The
woi'ld is shrinking. The trend of affairs
in the world of our time is towards the
creation of vast empires, the formation
of large political units.
But this spirit of what is sometimes
called imperialism can be safely carried out
only by strengthening the smaller political
units of which the larger units are com-
posed. Extensive outlooks, the manage-
ment of affairs on a vast scale, cannot be
indulged in unless care is taken not to
weaken the intensive feelings which are
equally essential to political well-being.
A statesman must rely not only on the
wider patriotism, which carries with it
untold benefits wherever it is found, but
on the domestic virtues of local and
municipal patriotism, the love of our
country, our province, and our town.
The tendency to foster local languages
and local ties, which is sometimes regarded
as injurious to the higher interests of
humanity, is in reality the outcome of. a
natural instinct of self-preservation. Long
ago the Romans taught us that the two
essential bases of all government are
Imperium and Libertas — ill-translated
Empire and Liberty — one the exercise ol
firm rule, the other the concession to the
freedom of individual action. The recon-
ciliation of these two forces is to be found
in federation, a form of government which
is constantly making progress among us.
By this every citizen owes a double
allegiance, one to his municipal sur-
roundings, which appeals to sentiments
which belong to his birth, his education
and his race ; and the other to his imperial
position, which enables him to enjoy a
larger life and to take his proper share in
the administration of the world. The
Roman Empire, the Holy Roman Empire,
have passed away ; a British Empire and
other similar combinations are coming
into being. The scientific pursuit of this
ideal, guided by the best political thought,
and carried into execution by the highest
political wisdom, is the only means by
which we may hope to realise the theme
of poets, the dream of statesmen, a goal
which is yet far distant, but which is
not impossible, the Federation of the
World. Oscar Browning
QUEEN
GREAT EXHIBITION IN liOi
4789
47QO
teUBOPE^WATffiK®
THE GREAT POWERS IN CONCORD
AND THE FAILURE OF THE HOLY ALLIANCE
AT the Congress of Vienna nations were
but rarely, and national rights and
desires never, a subject of discussion.
The Cabinets — that is to say, the princes
of Europe, their officials, and in particular
the diplomatists — arranged the mutual
relations of states almost exclusively with
reference to dynastic interests and differ-
ences in national power ; though in the case
of France it was necessary to consult
national susceptibihties, and in England the
economic demands of the upper classes
of society came into question. The term
" state " implied a ruling court, a govern-
ment, and nothing beyond, not only to
Prince Metternich, but also to the majority
of his coadjutors. These institutions were
the sole surviving representatives of that
feudal organism which for more than a
thousand years had undertaken the larger
proportion of the task of the state.
Principalities of this kind were not
founded upon the institutions of civic
life, which had developed under feudal
society ; the rule of the aristocracy
had fallen into decay, had grown anti-
quated or had been abolished, and as the
monarchy increased in power at the ex-
pense of t]ie classes, it had invariably
employed instruments of government more
scientifically constructed in
<aropean detail. Bureaucracies had
governments ^ j. i j •
. „ . ,. arisen. Governments had m-
in Evolution , j ^ j. j
tervened between princes and
peoples and had become , ends in them-
selves. The theory of "subordination,"
which in feudal society had denoted an
economic relation, now 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, re-
sulted in the theory that the guidance of
society was a governmental
.J * J?.*^^! task, and consequently laid
Idea of The • ^ \. x
n- V* r « ,, an ever-mcreasmg number of
Rights of Man , • i j j
claims and demands upon
the government for the time being.
To this conception of the rights of
princes and their delegates, as a result of
historic growth, the French Revolution
had opposed the idea of " the rights of
man." To the National Assembly no
task seemed more necessary or more
imperative than the extirpation of errone-
ous theories from the general thought of
the time ; such theories had arisen from
the exaggerated importance attached to
monarchical power, had secured recogni-
tion, and had come into operation, simply
because they had never been confuted.
Henceforward sovereignty was to be
based upon the consent of the community
as a whole. Thus supported by the
sovereign will of the people, France had
entered upon war with the monarchical
states of Europe where the exercise of
supreme power had been the ruler's
exclusive right. It was as an exponent
of the sovereign rights of the people that
the empire of Napoleon Bonaparte had
attempted to make France the paramount
Power in Europe ; it was in virtue of the
power entrusted to him by six millions
of Frenchmen that the Emperor had led
his armies far beyond the limits of French
domination and had imposed his personal
4791
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
will upon the princes of Europe by means
of a magnificent series of battles. Within
a period of scarce two decades the balance
of power had swung to the opposite
extreme, and had passed back from the
sovereign people to the absolute despot.
Monarchs and nations shared alike in the
task of overpowering this tyranny which
. had aimed at abolishing en-
c rowing ^-j-gjy ^j^g rights of nations as
.1. n 1 such ; but from victory the
the People . , ^ • ^ ^
prmces alone derived advan-
tage. With brazen effrontery literary time-
servers scribbled their histories to prove
that only the sovereigns and their armies
deserved the credit of the overthrow of
Napoleon, and that the private citizen
had done no more service than does the
ordinary fireman at a conflagration.
However, their view of the situation was
generally discredited. It could by no
means be forgotten that the Prussians had
forced their king to undertake a war of
liberation, and the services rendered by
Spain and the Tyrol could not be wholly
explained by reference to the commands of
legally constituted authorities ; in either
case it was the people who by force of
arms had cast off the yoke imposed upon
them. The will of the people had made
itself plainly understood ; it had dechned
the alien rule even though that rule had
appeared under the names of freedom,
reform, and prosperity.
Once again the princely families re-
covered their power and position ; they
had not entertained the least idea of
dividing among themselves the spoils
accumulated by the Revolution which had
been taken from their kin, their relations,
and their allies ; at the same time they
were by no means inclined to divide the
task of administering the newly created
states with the peoples inhabiting them.
They tacitly unitecl in support of the
conviction, which became an article of
faith with all legitimists, that their position
, and prosperity were no less im-
e u jec s pQj-^g^j^^ than the maintenance
th*^s? ofsocialorderandmorality.lt
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 increase
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
4792
sacrifices which had been made to help
those states threatened by the continuance
of the Napoleonic supremacy, and in many
cases already doomed to destruction.
The value of their services aroused them
to question also the value of what they
had attained, and by this process of
thought they arrived at critical theories
and practical demands which " legitimist "
teaching was unable to confute.
The supreme right of princes to wage
war and conclude peace rested upon
satisfactory historic foundation, and was
therefore indisputable. In the age of
feudal society it was the lords, the free
landowners, who had waged war, and not
the governments ; and their authority had
been limited only by their means. Neither
the lives nor the property of the com-
monalty had ever come in question except
in cases where their 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. After the conception
of sovereignty had been modified by the
ideaof "government" the situa-
Evii Results ^ .^^ ^^^ ^gg^ changed. Military
of the J J i.-
_ . . powers and duties were now
dissociated from the feuda:l
classes ; the sinews of war were no longer
demanded from the warriors themselves,
and the provision of means became a
government duty. However, no new rights
had arisen to correspond with these
numerous additional duties. The vassal,
now far more heavily burdened, demanded
his rights : the people followed his
example. That which was to be supported
by the general efforts of the whole of the
members of any body politic must surely
be a matter of general concern. The state
also has duties incumbent upon it, the
definition of which is the task of those
who support the state. Such demands
were fully and absolutely justified ; a
certain transformation of the state and of
society was necessary and inevitable.
Few princes, and still fewer officials,
recognised the overwhelming force of these
considerations ; in the majority of cases
expression of the popular will was another
name for revolution. The Revolution had
caused the overthrow of social order. It
had engendered the very worst of human
passions, destroyed professions and pro-
perty, sacrificed a countless number of
human lives, and disseminated infidelity
THE GREAT POWERS IN CONCORD
The Tsar's
Lost Faith in
Liberalism
and immorality ; revolution therefore
must be checked, must be nipped in the
bud in the name of God, of civihsation
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 was known as Con-
servatism ; its supporters availed them-
selves of the unnatural limitations laid
upon the subject un-
duly to aggrandise
and systematically to
increase the privileges
of the ruling class;
and .this process re-
ceived the name of
statecraft. This
conservative state-
craft, of which Prince
Metternich was proud
to call himself a
master, proceeded
from a dull and spirit-
less conception of
the progress of the
world ; founded upon
a complete lack of
historical knowledge,
it equally failed to
lecognise any distinct
purpose as obligatory
on the state. Of politi-
cal science Metternich ,, ,, r nTlf''^ ""^•"^'i^.^T.^ -u
I , , After the fall of Napoleon, in isin, Metternich stepped
IldQ none, ne maue into the place vacated by the emperor as the first person-
gOOd the deficiency ality in Europe, and, as the avowed champion of Con-
bv the general ad- servatlsm, opposed forces that were destined to ultimate
„• 1 • 1-1 1 • triumph. He was overthrown in 1S4S, and died in 1S59.
muation which his
intellect and character inspired. His diaries
and many of his letters are devoted to
the glorification of these merits. A know-
ledge of his intellectual position and of
that of the majority of his diplomatic
colleagues is an indispensable
preliminary to the under-
standing of the aberrations
into which the statesmen of
the so-called Restoration period fell.
The restored Government of the
Bourbons in France was indeed provided
with a constitution. It was thus that
Tsar Alexander I. had attempted to
display his liberal tendencies and his
good-will to the French nation ; but he
u 23 G
The Restored
Government of
the Bourbons
had been forced to leave the Germans and
Italians to their fate, and had satisfied,
liis conscience by the insertion of a few
expressions in the final protocol of the
Vienna Congress. Subsequently he
suffered a cruel chsappointment in the case
of Poland, which proceeded to
misuse the freedom that had
been granted to it by the con-
coction of conspiracies and by
continual manifestations of dissatisfaction.
He began to lose faith in Liberalism as
such, and became a convert to Metternich's
policy of forcibly suppressing every popu-
lar movement for freedom. Untouched
by the enthusiasm of
the German youth,
which for the most
part had displayed
after the war of
liberation the noblest
sense of patriotism,
and could provide
for the work of re-
storation and reor-
ganisation coadjutors
highly desirable to a
far-seeing adminis-
tration; incapable of
understanding the
Italian yearnings for
union and activity,
and for the founda-
tion of a federal state
free from foreign in-
fluences, the great
Powers of Austria,
Russia, and Prussia
employed threats and
force in every form,
with the object of
imposing constitu-
tions 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 Con-
servatism declined to use for the con-
solidation of the federation, which Austria
at the same time desired to exploit for her
own advantage. Conservatism never, in-
deed, gave the smallest attention to the
task of uniting the interests of the allied
states by institutions making for pros-
perity, or by the union of their, several
artistic and scientific powers ; it seemed
more necessary and more salutary to limit
as far as possible the influence of the
4793
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
popular representatives in the adminis-
tration of the alHed states, and to prevent
the introduction of constitutions which
gave the people rights of real and tangible
value. The conservative statesmen did
not observe that even governments could
derive but very scanty advantage by
ensuring the persistence of conditions
which were the product of no
Austria s national or economic course
of development ; they did
Surrender
to Russia
not see that the power of the
governments was decreasing, and that
they possessed neither the money nor the
troops upon which such a system must
ultimately depend. In the East, under
the unfortunate guidance of Metternich.
Austria adopted a position in no way
corresponding to her past or to her religious
aspirations ; in order not to alienate the
help of Russia, which might be useful in
the suppression of revolutions, Austria
surrendered that right, which she had
acquired by the military sacrifices of the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, of
appearing as the liberator of the Balkan
Christians from Turkish oppression.
Political history provides many ex-
amples of constitutions purely despotic, of
the entirely selfish aspirations of persons,
families, or parties, of the exploitation of
majorities by minorities, of constitutions
which profess to give freedom to all, while
securing the dominance of individuals ;
but illusions of this kind are invariably
connected with some definite object, and
in every case we can observe aspirations
for tangible progress or increase of power.
But the Conservatism of the Restoration
period rests upon a false conception of
the working of political forces, and is
therefore from its very outset a policy of
mere bungling, as little able to create as
to maintam. Of construction, of purifi-
cation, or of improvement, it was utterly
incapable ; for in fact the object of the
conservative statesmen and
Defects of
Restoration
Period
their highest ambition wer.'
nothing more than to capture
the admiration of that court
society in which they figured in their uni-
form? 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
^linisters, their masters of ceremonies, and
their ofticers professed themselves able to
uphold their rights and their possessions ;
many, indeed, have disappeared for ever
4794
from the scene of history, while others
have passed through times of bitter trial
and deadly struggle.
From their armed alliance against
Napoleon a certain feeling of federative
union seized the European Cabinets. The
astounding events, the fall of the Caesar
from his dizzy height, had, after all the free
thinking of the Revolutionary period and
the superficial enlightenment, once more
strengthened the belief in the dispositions
of a Higher Power. The effect on the
tsar, Alexander I., was the most peculiar.
His temperament, naturally idealistic,
moved him to an extreme religiosity,
intensified and marked by strong mystical
leanings, to many minds suggestive of
the presence of something like mania. He
was not without friends who encouraged
him to regard himself as a special " in-
strument " with a religious mission, who
was to raise Europe to a new level of
Christianity through his power as a ruler ;
in contradistinction to Napoleon, whom
he probably, in common with a good
many other mystics, had come to regard
as Antichrist. Alexander did not pose
as the champion of a Church,
The Tsar ^^^ j,^^ wanted to assume the
HoTTma"ce '°'^ "^ ^^'^ '^^^^ Christian
brother monarchs along the same path. Un-
fortunately, the conception of the divine
mission developed the idea of divine mon-
archical authority ; so that from his early
notions of Liberty he passed to the stage of
identifying the cause of Absolutism and of
Legitimism with the cause of Christianity.
Thus, he was moved to materialise his
ideals in the form of a Christian union
of nations, a Holy Alliance. This scheme
he laid before his brother rulers.
Frederic William HI., also a pietist in
his way, immediately agreed ; so did
Francis L, after some deliberation. On
September 26tli 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 psaceableness ; regarding each
other as brothers, they wished to help
each other on every occasion. As pleni-
potentiaries of Divine Providence they
promised to be the fathers of their subjects
and to lead them m the spirit of brother-
hood, in order to protect religion, peace,
and justice ; and they recommended their
THE GREAT POWERS IN CONCORD
ovn peoples to exercise themselves daily
in Christian principles and the fulfilment
ol Christian duties. Every Power which
w( uld acknowledge such principles might
join the alliance. Almost all the states
of Europe gradually joined the Holy
Alliance. The sultan was obviously ex-
cluded, while the Pope declared that he
had always possessed the Christian verity
and required no new exposition of it.
Great Britain refused, from regard to her
constitution and to parliament ; Europe
was spared the presentation of the Prince
Regent as a devotee of the higher morality.
There was no international basis to the
Holy Alliar^^e, which only had the value
of a personal declaration, with merely a
moral obligation for the monarchs con-
nected with it. In its beginnings the Alliance
aimed at an ideal ; and its founders were
sincere in their purpose. But it soon
became, and rightly, the object of universal
detestation ; for Metternich was master
of Alexander, and from the promise of the
potentates to help each other on every
opportunity he deduced the right to
iiiterfere in the internal affairs of foreign
states. The Congresses of
eaguc Carlsbad, Troppau, Laibach
uropean ^^^ Verona were the offshoots
of this unholy conception.
In addition to the Holy Alliance, the
Treaty of Chaumont was renewed.
On November 20th, 1815, at Paris,
Russia, Great Britain, Austria, and Prussia
pledged themselves that their sovereigns
would meet periodically to deliberate on
the peace, security, and welfare of Europe,
or would send their responsible Ministers
for the purpose. France, which had so
long disturbed the peace of Europe, was
to be placed under international police
supervision, even after the army of occu-
pation had left its soil.
The first of these congresses met at
Aix-la-Chapelle, and showed Europe that
an aristocratic league of Powers stood at
its head. Alexander, Francis, and Fred-
eric William appeared in person, accom-
panied by numerous diplomatists, among
them Metternich, Gentz, Hardenberg,
Humboldt, Nesselrode, Pozzo di Borgo,
and Capodistrias ; France was represented
by Richelieu ; Great Britain by Welling-
ton, Castlereagh, and Canning. The
chief question to be decided by the con-
ferences, which began on September 30th,
1818, was the evacuation of France. The
Duke of Richelieu obtained on October
gth an agreement according to which
France should be evacuated by the allied
troops before November 30th, 1818, in-
stead of the year 1820, and the costs of the
war and the indemnities still to be paid
were considerably lowered. On the other
hand, he did not succeed in forming a
quintuple aUiance by securing the ad-
. mission of France as a member
the Hoi ^ ^^^'^ ^^^^ quadruple alliance. It
^Ij. ^ is true that France was received
on November 15th into the
federation of the Great Powers, and that it
joined the Holy Alliance ; but the recip-
rocal guarantee of the five Great Powers,
advocated by Alexander and Ancillon,
did not come to pass ; the four Powers
renewed in secret on November 15th the
Alliance of Chaumont, and agreed upon
military measures to be adopted in the
event of a war with France. We have
already spoken of the settlement of the
dispute between Bavaria and Baden ;
the congress occupied itself also with other
European questions without achieving
any successes, and increased the severity of
the treatment of the exile on St. Helena.
Alexander I. of Russia, who was now
making overtures to Liberalism throughout
Europe and supported the constitutional
principle in Poland, soon returned from
that path ; he'grew colder in his friendship
for the unsatisfied Poles, and became a
loyal pupil of Metternich, led by the
rough " sergeant of Gatshina," Count
Araktcheieff. Although art, literature, and
science flourished in his reign, although
the fame of Alexander Pushkin was at
its zenith, the fear of revolution, assas-
sination, and disbelief cast a lengthening
shadov/ over the policy of Alexander, and
he governed in a mystic reactionary spirit.
\\nien it became apparent that Alexan-
der had broken with the Liberal party,
Metternich and Castlereagh rubbed their
hands in joy at his conversion, and the
pamphlet of the prophet of disaster,
Alexander Stourdza, " On the
Present Condition of Germany, ' '
The Tsar's
Break with
the Liberals
which was directed against the
freedom of study in the univer-
sities and the freedom of the Press, when
put before the tsar at Aix-la-Chapelle,
intensified his suspicious aversion to all
that savoured of liberty. The conference
of ambassadors at Paris was declared
closed. The greatest concord seemed to
reign between the five Great Powers when
the congress ended on November 21st.
4795
PORTRAITS OF QUEEN VICTORIA IN THE EARLIER. YEARS OF HER LIFE AND REIGN
«ti
4796
THE
RE-MAKING
OF
EUROPE
EUROPE
AFTER
WATERLOO
II
THE BRITISH ERA OF REFORM
THE LAST OF THE GEORGES, WILLIAM IV.,
AND BEGINNING OF THE VICTORIAN AGE
IN the nature of things, the British
* nation at all times stands to a certain
extent outside the general course of Con-
tinental pohtics. The political organism
developed far in advance of other nations ;
the English polity, assimilating Scotland
and Ireland, had achieved long before the
French Revolution a liberty elsewhere un-
known. Political power had become the
property not indeed of people at large,
but, in effect, of the whole landowning
class, a body altogether different from the
rigid aristocratic castes of Europe ; and
absolutism or the prospect of absolutism
had long vanished. In the latter half of
the eighteenth century there had been
indications of a democratic movement, to
which the beginnings of the French Revo-
lution gave a considerable impulse. But
its later excesses gave a violent check to
that impulse throughout the classes which
held political power, causing a strong anti-
democratic reaction ; although a precisely
contrary effect was produced in the classes
from whom political power was withheld.
That is to say. Europe in general and the
United Kingdom, like Europe, showed the
common phenomenon of a proletariat
roused by the French Revolution to a
desire for political power, and rulers who
were convinced that the granting of such
power would entail anarchy and ruin ;
while material force was on the side of the
rulers. But the distinction between the
composition of the ruling class in the
United Kingdom and in the Continental
states remained as it was before
the Revolution : though the ex-
isting Ministry in Great Britain
was reactionary to an ex-
ceptional degree, the sympathies of the
ruling class were with constitutionalism,
not with absolutism. Moreover, Great
Britain was free from any idea that she
had a divine mission to impose her own
pohtical theories on her neighbours, and
had a conviction, on the whole wholesome,
Britain's
Reactionary
Ministry
that her intervention in foreign affairs
should be restricted as far as possible to
the exercise of a restraining influence in
the interests of peace.
Thus we find Great Britain in the nine-
teenth century for the most part pursuing
her own way ; taking her own course of
Great Britain P^'^^^^^^ development, influ-
_ ,. . enced only m a very second-
a rattern to -, -^ , ^ .
Other Lands f^y '^^^'^.^ ^j affairs on
the Contment, on which
she in turn exercises usually only a very
minor influence, save as providing a
pattern for reformers in other lands.
Her part in world-historj^, as distinct from
domestic history, is played outside of
Europe altogether, in the development of
the extra-European Empire, as already
related in the histories of India, Africa,
and Australasia, and to be related in the
American volume. In European history,
interest centres not in these islands,
but in the readjustments which have
issued in the reorganisation of Germany
as a great and homogeneous Central
European power, in the German Empire
which we know to-day ; in the re-
organisation of France as the Republic
which we know to-day ; and in the
hberation and unification of Italy, and
of minor nationalities.
Great Britain had played her full part —
a conspicuously unselfish one — in the
Congress of Vienna and the settlements
of Europe after the final overthrow of
Napoleon. In the period immediately
ensuing she made her influence felt, not
by her intervention, but by her refusal of
pressing invitations to intervene, and pre-
sently by her refusals to countenance the
unwarranted intervention of other Powers.
Thus the British representatives dechned
to join the Holy AUiance of the gi-eat
Powers which was formed at Vienna in
1815 for the repression of liberal prin-
ciples, and the foreign policy of the Tories
was marked by a strong sympathy for the
4797
,^v;^WA»A^AWA'A^A^A'A'^AVAvX^A«AVA^AVAVA>AlAU>A»AV>JX*ArAVAVAU»A!AVA^A?7T7
DISTINGUISHED STATESMEN OF THE EARLY NINETEENTH CENTURY
The four statesmen whose portraits are given above— Peel, Canning, Huskisson and Palmerston — exercised a powerful
influence upon the Cabinet which they joined in 1822, moderating: the foreign policy of the Tories and informing it with a
strong sympathy for the principles of liberty. Three of them— Peel, Palmerston, and Canning— became Prime Ministers.
principles of liberty and nationality. But
this was due to the influence of the
l\Ioderates— Peel, Canning, Huskisson, and
Palmerston — who joined the Cabinet in
1822. The extreme Tories sympathised
with the aims of the Holy Alliance, and
had resolved under no circumstances to
impede its efforts. The refusal of Great
Britain to assist in bolstering up the
Spanish dynasty ; her consent to
recognise the independence of the
4798
Spanish colonies and Brazil ; her defence
of Portugal against the forces of Dom
Miguel, the absolutist pretender, and Fer-
dinand Vn. of Spain ; her intervention
to save Greece from the Sultan and
Mehemet Ali — all these generous actions
were the work of Canning, and would
never have been sanctioned by Castle-
reagh, his predecessor at the Foreign
Office. In domestic policy the spirit of
reaction reigned supreme. During the
THE BRITISH ERA OF REFORM
3^ears 1815 to 1822 class interests and the
morbid fear of revolution were responsible
for a series of repressive enactments which
were so unreasonably severe that they
increased the popular sympathy for the
principles against which they were directed.
After 1822 came the period in which the
extreme Tories-gave way tardily and with
the worst of graces.
The peace was inaugurated with a new
corn law, framed in the interests of the
landowning classes, from which both
Houses of Parliament were
chiefly recruited. This pro-
hibited the importation of
foreign corn until the price of
80s. a quarter should be reached ; that is,
until the poorer classes should be reduced
to a state of famine. The statutory price
before this date had been mereh' 48s. The
change was naturally followed in many
places by bread riots and incendiarism.
The Government replied by calling out the
soldiery and framing coercive measures.
In 1 81 9 a mass meeting which ' had
assembled in St. Peter's Field, at Man-
chester, was broken up with considerable
bloodshed ; Parliament, which had already
Bread Riots
at
Manchester
suspended the Habeas Corpus, pro-
ceeded to pass the Six Acts giving the
executive exceptional powers to break up
seditious meetings and to punish the
authors of seditious libels. The })owers
thus obtained were stretched to their
utmost limits, on the pretext that such
hare-brained schemes as the Cato Street
Conspiracy, 1820, constituted a serious
menace to public order.
It was not until 1823 that the Cabinet
consented to attack the root of social
disorders by making some reductions in
the tariff. It began by concessions to the
mercantile classes, whose prospects were
seriously affected by the heavy duties upon
raw materials, and to the consumers of
various manufactured commodities, such
as linen, silk, and cotton stuffs, upon
which prohibitive duties had been im-
posed in the interests of British industrj'.
But in the all-important question of the
corn laws, affecting the poor rather than
the middle classes, the Tories would only
concede a compromise, the sliding-scale
duty of 1829. The demand of the chief
commercial centres for the repeal of the
Navigation Laws was met b}' an Act
BREAD RIOTS AT MANCHESTER: THE YEOMANRY CHARGING THE MOB IN 1619
Suffering: hardship in consequence of the high price of bread, the people in many places resorted to violence. The
Government's reply was to call out the soldiery and frame coercive measures. A mass meeting- which had assembled in
St. Peter's Field, at Manchester, in 1819, was broken up, as shown in the above picture, with considerable bloodshed.
4799
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
providing that the ships of any foreign
Power should be allowed free access to
British ports if that Power would grant a
reciprocity ; the Combination Acts, framed
to make trades
unions illegal,
were repealed;
consi derable
amendments
were introduced
into the criminal
law. But to
several reforms of
paramount neces-
sity the Ministers
showed them-
selves obstinately
averse. They
would not repeal
the disabhng laws
which still re-
mained in force
against the
Catholics, al-
though three-
fourths of the Irish
for
THE SCENE OF THE CATC STREET CONSPIRACY
In Cato Street, London, shown in this picture, was conceived a plot
to assassinate Castlereagh and other Ministers at a Cabinet dinner
in 1820. The plot being discovered, the revolutionaries were
captured, five of them being hanged and five transported for life.
nation were calling
this act of justice. They would do
nothing to reform the House of Commons.
They would not deprive the landowning
classes of the profits which
the corn duties afforded.
It was now that the
nation discovered the use
which could be made of
two rights which it had
long possessed. Freedom
of speech on political
matters was guaranteed by
Fox's Libel Act of 1792,
which left to the jury the
full power of deciding
what constituted legi-
timate criticism of the
administration. Freedom
of association and public
meeting existed, indepen-
dently of special enact-
ments, under the protec-
tion of the common law.
These weapons were used
with extraordinary skill
by O'Connell, the leader
of the Irish Catholics. The
Catholic Association,
formed in 1823, learned from him the art
of intimidating without illegality by means
of monster meetings. Proclaimed as an
illegal body in 1825, the association con-
trived to continue its existence in the
4800
DANIEL OCONNELL
The leader of the Irish Catholics, O'Connell
was foremost in the agitation for the rights
of his countrymen, and patriotically sur-
rendered personal interests for the advance-
ment of the national cause. He died in 1847.
guise of a philanthropic society. At the
Clare election in 1828 O'Connell, although
a Catholic, and therefore disquahfied, was
returned by an overwhelming majority.
Peel persuaded
his colleagues
that the time had
come when eman-
cipation must be
granted. Bills
for that purpose
were accordingly
passed and sub-
mitted for the
royal assent.
This afforded
George IV., who
had succeeded
his father in 1820,
an opportunity
of asserting him-
self for once
in a matter of
national concern.
A prodigal and
a voluptuary, who had systematically
sacrificed honour and decency to his
pleasures and had broken his father's
heart by his want of shame and filial piety,
he now declared that
nothing could induce him
to accept a measure which
that father had rejected.
After long expostulations
he broke this vow, as he
had broken every other,
and Catholic emancipa-
tion was finally recorded
on the Statute Book.
George IV. died in
1830. He was succeeded
by his brother, the Duke
of Clarence, under the
title of William IV., a
more respectable char-
acter than " the first
gentleman in Europe."
but a pohtician of poor
abilities, great tactless-
ness and greater obstinacy.
In their resistance to the
next popular agitation
the Tories found him a
valuable ally. The
triumph of the Irish Catholics was
followed by a revival, in England, of
the cry for parliamentary reform, and
to this purpose the tactics of O'Connell
were steadily applied by the Liberals
THE BRITISH ERA OF REFORM
of the great manu-
facturing centres.
The energy with
which the Whigs
|)ushed their attack
is explained by their
conviction that the
defects of the repre-
sentative system con-
stituted the main
obstacles to social,
political, and fiscal
reforms of the utmost
weight and urgency.
The House of Com-
mons no longer ex-
pressed the opinions
of the country. The
most enlightened,
industrious, and
prosperous portion of
the community were
either unrepresented
or ludicrously under-
represented. Since the
time of Charles II. no
new constituencies
had been created, and
of the borou£fhs which
KING GEORGE IV.
He became Prince Regent in 1810 owing- to the mental
derangement of his father, George III., and succeeded
to the throne ten years later. Without any qualities
that endeared him to his people, he possessed failings
and vices that were conspicuously displayed, and there
were few to regret his death, which occurred in 18:30.
had received repre-
sentation under the
Tudors and the
Stuarts, the greater
part owed their privi-
lege to the Crown's
expectation that their
elections could always
be controlled. Many
1^0 roughs which
formerly deserved to
lie represented had
I alien, through the
decay of their for-
tunes or through an
excessive limitation
of the franchise,
under the control of
the great territorial
families. Close
boroughs were so com-
pletely an article of
commerce that the
younger Pitt, when he
proposed a measure
of parliamentary re-
form, felt himself
bound to offer tlie
patrons a pecuniary
A SITTING OF THE BRITISH HOUSE OF COMMONS IN THE YEARS 1821-23
From the engraving by J. Scott. I'hoto by W'.ilker
480:
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
H *■
aX
j^-JTW _^ 5
J'«yr»MWKai6ftfll»uww>iW^E4,~
"A-:
."A^er*^ g
■'t:^i
■ compensalion. It was by means of
" pocket " boroughs that the Whigs had
held the first two Hanoverians in bondage,
and that George III. had maintained his
personal ascendancy for twenty years. In
1793 it was computed that 307 members
of Parliament were returned by private
l^trons. Matters had improved in the
last forty years ; but still on the eve of the
reform legislation 276 seats \\'ere private
property'. Three-fourths of these be-
longed to members of the Tory aristocracy.
The state of the county representation
was somewhat better. But the smallest
shires returned as many members as the
largest, with the solitary exception that
Yorkshire, since 1821, returned four
members in place of the usual two. The
county franchise was limited, by a law of
1430, to freeholders, and the owners of
large estates had established their right
to plural or " faggot " votes.
The faults of this system, its logical
absurdities, are glaringly manifest. With
the votes of about half the House of
Commons controlled by a few families,
with great cities imrepresented, with
small and large counties treated as of
equal weight, with franchises varying in
different localities, it might rather be said
that there was no system at all. But it is
a peculiarly British characteristic to regard
anomalies as desirable in themselves, as
it was characteristic of the theorists of
the Revolution to discover the universal
panacea in symmetrical uniformity.
Entirely apart from personal interests,
the large proportion of the ruling class
had a firm conviction that the consti-
tution was incapable of improvement,
that it provided the best possible type of
legislator and administrator. The unen-
franchised masses saw in these Olj^mpians
a group who neither understood nor cared
for anything but the interests of their own
class ; they acquired a rooted conviction
that, when they themselves obtained
political power, the millennium would
arrive. But among the enfranchised, the
minority, who had always refused to be
terrified by the Reign of Terror, now grew
into a majorit}' who believed that political
intelligence existed in other sections of
the community, who might be enfranchised
without danger, and that flagrant anoma-
lies might be removed without under-
mining the constitution. Wlien France
once more overturned the Bourbon
monarchy and established the citizen-king.
4802
GEORGE IV,, KING OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, IN HIS ROYAL ROBES
From the painting by Sir Thomas Lawrence, P.K.A.
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4805
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
Changes in the
Constitution
of Parliament
districts of equal size. They enlarged the.
representation of some counties. Thev
suppressed or partially disfranchised
eighty-six decayed boroughs. They gave
representatives to forty-two of the new
boroughs. But they kept intact the old
distinction between county and borough,
and sedulously avoided the subdivision or
amalgamation of constituencies which
possessed organic unity and historical
traditions. In this and other respects the
later Reform Bills have been more drastic.
That of X867 abandoned the
principle, which had been
steadily maintained in 1832,
that the franchise should be
limited to those who paid direct taxes in
one form or another. That of 1885 endeav-
oured to equalise constituencies in respect
of population ; in order to attain this end,
counties and boroughs were broken up
into divisions, without respect for past
traditions. Such legislation is necessarily
of a temporary character, since no measure
of redistfibution can be expected to satisfy
the principle of equality for more than a
few years. And this is not the least
important consequence of the legislative
change which the nineteenth century
effected in the
constitution of
Parliament. The
Lower House in
becoming demo-
cratic has ceased
to represent a
fixed number of
communities
with fixed in-
terests and
characteristics.
The reformed
Parliament was
not long in
justifying the
hopes which had
been formed of
it. Those, indeed,
. _ ^ _ who had ex-
THE FIRST STEAMBOAT ON THE CLYDE pected that the
givinP' nnlitirnl "^h® early part of the nineteenth century witnessed progress along rn PTriKprc rp
1VIH5 puiiLiccti many lines^the_ introduction of steamboats being a noteworthy ill e ui u c i s i c-
Touis Philippe, on the throne with a con-
stitution in which the political power of
the bourgeoisie was the prominent feature,
effecting the change without any excesses,
the phantom of the ancient Reign of
Terror dwindled, and the Reform party
was materially strengthened.
The king and the Duke of Wellington
refused at first to believe that any change
was either desirable or necessary. But
they were compelled in 1830 to admit that
it was necessary ; and Lord Grey was per-
mitted to construct a reform Cabinet of
Whigs and moderate Tories. Their Bills
passed the House of Commons without
difficulty, receiving the votes of many
members whose seats were known to be
doomed by its provisions. The House of
Lords, encouraged by the king, endeav-
oured to obstruct the measure which they
dared not openly oppose. But a new
agitation, threatening the very existence
of the Upper House, at once arose. The
duke, with greater wisdom than his royal
master, reahsed that further resistance
was out of the question, and induced the
Lords to give way in June, 1832.
The Reform Bill of 1832 fell far short of
the democratic ideal which the English
admirers of the :
French Revolu-
tion had kept in
view. Jeremy
Bentham, 1748-
1832, the greatest
of those writers
and thinkers who
prepared the
minds of men for
practical reform,
was of opinion
that the doctrine
of natural equal-
ity ought to be
the first principle
of every constitu-
tion; but the
followers of Lord
Grey contented
themselves with
advance. The Comet, shown in the above illustration, was built
by Henry Bell, and began sailing on the Clyde in the year 1812.
power to the
middle classes.
This work has since been supplemented by
the legislation of 1867, 1884, and 1885 ; yet
even at the present day the doctrine of man-
hood suffrage is unknown in English law.
Still less were the first reformers inclined
to map out the country in new electoral
4806
turned under the
new system
would all be Whigs or democrats soon
found reason to revise their judgment.
This is not the only occasion in English
history on which it has been proved
that aversion to ill-considered change is
a fundamental trait in the national
THE CORONATION PROCESSION OF WILLIAM IV. AND QUEEN ADELAIDE AT THE ABBEY
The third son of George III., William IV., the " Sailor King," succeeded to the throne of Great Britain and
Ireland on the death of his eldest brother, George IV., in 1830, and along with his consort, Adelaide, the eldest
daughter of the Duke of Saxe-Meiningen, whom he married in 1818, he was crowned on September 8th, IS." I.
From the drawing by Gcorjjc Callcniiole
character. The Tories, although for a
moment under a cloud, soon recovered
their spirits and a certain measure of influ-
ence in the country. Under the leadership
of Peel, they adopted the new name of Con-
servatives, and shook off the instinct of
dogged and unreasoning obstruction. Peel
was unable to procure a majority in the
House of Commons when first invited by the
king to form a Ministry, and accordingly left
Melbourne and the Whigs in 1835 to carry
on the government. But political opinion
was swinging round to his side ;
e usy he obtained a majority in 1841.
I *^.^ ° . So far the unforeseen had
cgis a ion hg^ppgj^g(j_ Qj-^ ^hg other hand,
the work of remedial legislation proceeded
with vigour whether the Whigs were in
or out of office. In fact both parties had
become possessed by the idea that their
main business was to devise and carry
sweeping measures. Legislation was re-
garded as the worthiest function of a
sovereign assembly ; it seemed as though
there could never be too much of legisla-
tion. Experience has brought a decline
of faith in the panacea. But it must be
admitted that for twenty years the new
Parliament had necessary work to perform
in the way of legislation, and performed it
with admirable skill. A few of the more
important measures may be mentioned.
The Emancipation Act of 1833 com-
pleted a work 'of philanthropy which had
been commenced in 1807. The Ministry of
All the Talents had abolished the slave
trade. The new Act emancipated all the
slaves who were still to be found in British
colonies, and awarded the owners the sum
of twenty millions as a compensation.
Costly as the measure was for the mother
country, it was still more costly for the
colonies. The sugar industry of the West
Indies had been built up with the help ot
slave labour. The planters lost heavily
through being compelled to emancipate
the slave for a sum which was much less
than his market value, and the black
population showed a strong disinclination
to become labourers for hire. This was
particularly the case in the larger islands,
where land was abundant and a squatter
could obtain a sustenance with little or no
labour. The prosperity of Jamaica was
destroyed, and the West Indies as a whole
have never been prosperous since 1834.
4807
^nS
THE BRITISH ERA OF REFORM
Free trade completed their ruin, since they
had only maintained the sugar trade with
the help of the preferential treatment
which they received from England. The
hasis of their former
wealth was wholly arti-
ficial, and it is unlikely
that slavery and protec-
tion will eVer be- restored
for their benefit ; but it
may be regretted that
the necessary and salu-
tary reforms of which
they have been the
victims could not have
been more gradually ap-
plied in their case.
For the new Poor Law
of 1834 there can be
nothing but praise. It
ended a system which for
more than a generation
had been a national curse,
demoralising the labourer ,
encouraging improvidence
and immorality, taxing
all classes for the benefit
of the small farmer and
employer whom the misplaced philanthropy
of the legislature had enabled to cut down
wages below the margin of subsistence. Up
to the year 1795 the
English Poor Law had
been, save for one serious
defect, sound in principle.
The defect was the Law
of Settlement, first laid
down by an Act of 1662,
which enabled the local
authorities to prevent the
migration of labour from
one parish to another,
unless security could be
given that the immigrant
would not become a cliarge
upon the poor rate.
The result of this law
had been to stereotype
local inequalities in the
rate of wages and to take
from the labourer the
chief means of bettering
his position. It was
mitigated in 1795 to the
extent that the labourer
could be no longer sent back until he
actually became a charge upon the rates.
But about the same time the justices of
the peace began the practice of giving
c ' *8 tJ
LORD GREY
A disting'uished statesman, he succeeded his
father in 1807 as the second Earl Grey ; in the
first reformed Parliament he was at the head of
a powerful party, and passed the Act abolish-
ing slavery in the colonies. He died in 1S45.
LORD MELBOURNE
Twice Premier, he was in office at the accession
of Queen Victoria in 1S37. He was an " indolent
opportunist," and "kept his place in the early
years of Queen Victoria chiefly through the
favour of the young queen." He died in 1.S48.
poor-relief in aid of wages, and of making
relief proportionate to the size of the
applicant's" family. This practice was
confirmed by the Speenham-land Act of
1796. The legislature
acted thus in part from
motives of philanthropy,
in part under the behef
that the increase of popu-
lation was in every way
to be encouraged. The
Act was at once followed
by a drop in the rate of
agricultural wages and a
portentous increase of
poor-rates. In 1783 poor-
relief cost the country
about ;^2, 000,000 ; by
1 817 this sum had been
cpiadrupled. The evils
of the new system were
.lugmented by the absence
of any central authority
possessing power to en-
force uniform principles
and methods of relief.
The proposal to introduce
such an authority, and in
other respects to revive the leading ideas
of the Elizabethan Poor Law, was made by
a Royal Commission after the most careful
investigations. The new
Poor I.aw, 1834, em-
bodied the principal sug-
gestions of the commis-
sioners. It provided that
the workhouse test should
be once more rigidly
applied to all able-bodied
pauj^ers ; that parishes
should be grouped in
poor-law unions ; that
each parish should con-
tribute to the expenditure
of the union in propor-
tion to the numbers of
its paupers ; and that a
central board should be
appointed to control the
system. The new Poor
Law is still in force, so
far as its main principles
of administration are con-
cerned. But there have
been changes in the con-
stitution of the central authority, by
Acts of 1847, 1871, and 1894. The
Poor-law Board has been merged in the
Local Government Board ; and the
4809
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
Boards of Guardians, which control the
local distribution of relief, are now demo-
cratic bodies, whereas, under the original
Act the justices of the peace held
office as ex-officio members.
The Poor Law Act was
followed by others for the
reform of municipal govern-
ment in 1835, o^ the Irish
tithe system in 1838, and for
the introduction of the
penny post in 1839. The new
Poor Law and the new mimi-
cipal system were also applied
to Ireland by special legisla-
tion. But larger questions
slumbered until the fonnation
of great political societies
forced them upon the un-
wiHing attention of ^Ministers
and both Houses of Parliament.
of the young queen. The Conservatives,
impatient for a return to power, were dis-
posed to bid against the Whigs for popular
favour. Neither . party desired extreme
reform. Lord John Russell
expressed the general senti-
ment when he stated his
conviction that the Reform
Bill had been the final step in
the direction of democracy'.
But neither party was strong
enough to resist external
pressiire. The rise of the
Chartist organisation in 1838
seemed likely, therefore, to
produce sweeping changes. It
was recruited from the labour-
ing classes and animated by
hostility to capital. It pro-
posed the establishment of
JEREMY BENTHAM
manf lociar/ncfpoift^li Sms radical dcmocracy as a panacea
The period of 1840-1850 which characterised the early vic- for the wrongs of Workmen.
'orian era were suggested by him. ,-r^^ ,, • , r . i i >
ihe five points of the people s
was peculiarly faxourable to
the democratic agitator. The Reform
WTiigs had maintained themselves in power
till the death of William IV. But their
majority was small, and their chief leader,
Melbourne, an indolent opportunist. He
kept his place in the early years of
Queen Victoria chiefly through the favour
charter were manhood suffrage, voting by
ballot, annual parliaments, payment of
members, and the abolition of the property
qualification for membership. These de-
mands were supported in the House of
Commons by the philosophic Radicals,
among whom Grote, the historian, was
THE REFORM RfCfTS AT BRISTOL IN OCTOBER, I8:n
From the drawing by L. Hagbc
4810
DESTRUCTION OF THE HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT ON OCTOBER IOth, 1s:U
This graphic scene depicts the aestruction by fire, on October 16th, 1834, of the Houses of Parliament, the picture
being made by the artist from a sketch taken by him by the light of the flames at the end of Abingdon Street.
From the drn-.ving by William Heath
influence was felt not
only in England but
in Wales, where it con-
tributed to produce
the Rebecca Riots,
1843. But the next
occasion on which
Chartism invaded the
capital was in 1848,
the year of revolu-
tions. It was an-
nounced that half a
million of Chartists
would assemble at a
given place on April
loth, and march in
procession to lay their
demands before the
House of Commons.
The danger seemed
great ; extensive
military preparations
were made under the
old Duke of Welling-
KiNG WILLIAM IV. ton, and the authori-
Though a Whig before his accession to the throne of tic^ anUOUUCed Oil the
Great Britain and Ireland in 1830, he became a Tory after appointed day that
his coronation, and used his influence to obstruct the .-r ij t ^
passing of the first Reform Act in 1832. He died in 1837. tncy WOUlQ USC lOrCC,
481I
the most conspicuous,
while in Feargus
O'Connor the Chart-
ists possessed a
popular orator of no
mean order. The
House of Commons
refused to consider
the first petition of
the Chartists in 1839.
The refusal was, how-
ever, followed by riots
in various localities;
and a second attempt
was made to move
Parliament in 1842;
when the Conserva-
tives, under Peel, had
wrested power from
the Whigs. But the
new Ministers were no
more pliable than the
old ; and a series of
prosecutions against
prominent Chartists
forced the movement
to assume a subterra-
nean character. Its
"YOUR MAJESTY!": ANNOUNCING TO PRINCESS VICTORIA THE FACT OF HER ACCESSION
On the death of King William IV. at Windsor Castle in 1837, his niece, Princess Victoria, succeeded to the throne.
Riding' through the night from Windsor to Kensington Palace, Dr. Howley, Archbishop of Canterbury, and the
Marquess of Conyngham. Lord Chamberlain, awakened the young girl about five o'clock in the morning to tell her that
she was Queen of Great Britain and Ireland. This dramatic incident is admirably represented in the above picture.
l-/.'ij. ilie ijaiiuing by .Mary L. Gow, by pcrinibsioii of the Berlin I'liotojjr.iiiliie Co.
4812
QUEEN VICTORIA IN HER CORONATION ROBES
Succeeding to the throne in 1837, at the early ag-e of eighteen years, Queen Victoria was crowned at
Westminster Abbey on June 28th, 1838. The youthful queen of Great Britain and Ireland is in this picture
represented in her coronation robes, standing in the dawn of the longest and most glorious reig^n in the nation's history.
rrom the paiming by Sir Gcc>rji<' H.t\-tcr
4813
4814
4^15
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
if necessary, to check the march of the pro-
ci^ssion. The Chartist leaders were cowed,
and contented themselves with submitting
their petition for the third time. A large
number of the signatures, which had been
estimated at 5,000,000. turned out to be
fictitious ; and amidst the ridicule ex-
cited by this discovery the Charter and
Chartists slipped into oblivion.
The collapse of Chartism was significant,
for the great Chartist demonstration was
contemporaneous with a series of revo-
lutionary movements on the Continent.
It meant that in England the people at
were the product of the great war. They
had been established for the protection of
the agricultural interest, and had alto-
gether excluded foreign corn from the
English market except while the price ol
English corn stood above eighty shillings,
so that the price of bread was maintained
at a very high figure. A modification had
been introduced, by which duties were
imposed on foreign corn, in place of the
import being prohibited, while home-
grown corn stood below eighty shillings,
the amount of the duty falling as the
price of English corn rose, and vice versa.
THE CORONA nON PROCESSION OF QUEEN VICTORIA
i ]■>'}. i the dr.iwingby Champion
large declined to believe in physical force
as the necessary means to attaining
political reforms, preferring the methods
of constitutional agitation. Chartism dis-
solved itself in the fiasco of 1848. But
the pohtical demands of the Chartists
were adopted by constitutional reformers,
and were in great part conceded during
the following half century — though they
have not brought the millennium. The
episode emphasised the sobriety of the
masses ; and the result was probably in
measure due to the improvement in the con-
ditions of the industrial population owing
1 ) the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846.
We have remarked that the Corn Laws
4816
But this did not remove the obvious fact
that the cost of the staple food of the
working classes was kept high artificially,
in order to benefit or preserve the agri-
cultural interest. Apart from philan-
thropic considerations — though these
carried their due weight in many quarters —
the capitalist manufacturers, now the dom-
inant power in the House of Commons,
began to perceive that if the price of
bread fell the operatives could live on a
lower money wage, that the wages bill
would be lowered, and with it the cost of
production ; that is to say, the middle
classes saw that their ow^n interests would be
served by the abolition of the Corn Laws.
THE BRITISH ERA OF REFORM
The Anti-Corn Law League, first formed
in 1838, owed its existence to a serious
depression of the manufacturing indus-
tries. Cobden, Bright, and others of the
leading organisers were philanthropists
who saw the iniquity of artificially main-
taining the price of food when wages were
low and employment uncertain. They
recruited their supporters to a great
extent among the starving operatives of
the North and Midlands. But the funds
for the Free Trade campaign were largely
their own prospective ruin. The working
classes, however, were not convinced by
the Chartist doctrine, and felt that if
bread were cheaper life would be easier.
An Irish famine completed the conversion
of the Conservative leader. Sir Robert
Peel, who had already been agitating his
party for Free Trade measures and the
removal or reduction of duties protecting
British industries. He took a number of
his colleagues with him, but not the party
as a whole. Peelites and Whigs together
QUEEN VICTORIAS FIRST OFFICIAL VISIT TO THE CITY OF LONDON
The £rst official visit of Queen Victoria to the City of London was on Lord Mayor's Day, November 9th, 18:!7, and in
this picture her carriage is seen passing Temple Bar on the way to the Guildhall The picture is interesting not only
on account of its historic value, but also by reason of the glimpse which it gives of a part of London now entirely altered.
supplied by manufacturers. There was no
thought of giving to the masses the
franchise as a means of self-protection.
Accordingly, the extreme Chartists hated
the Free Traders, and openly opposed their
propaganda, on the ground that the
charter would secure to the people all,
and more than all, that was hoped from
the repeal of the Corn Laws. The class
character of the Free Trade agitation
was a source of weakness, because the
working-class agitators did not believe
that the labouring class would benefit by
it ; while the landed interest saw in it
carried the repeal of the Corn Laws, but
had hardly done so when the Protectionists
and extreme Radicals combined to defeat
the Ministry, and Peel's career as Prime
Minister was closed. The Whigs, sup-
ported by Peelites, assumed the govera-
ment, and were presently combined in
the Liberal party.
Colonial development has been dealt with
in detail elsewhere ; but certain points must
here be noticed. During the period under
consideration nearly the whole of the
Indian peninsula passed under the British
dominion as a result of the great Mahratta
4817
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
nar ; while the first Burmese war added
territories beyond the Bay of Bengal.
Under Bentinck's rule, progress was made
in the organisation of administration and
the development of education. On the
north-west, however, the aggression of
Persia, more or less under the agis of
Russia, produced British
intervention in the affairs
of Afghanistan, with dis-
astrous consequences, of
which the evil effects were
at any rate diminished by
the skilful operations of
Pollock and Knott. In the
same decade, however, the
British supremacy was
challenged by the Sikh
armyof thePimjab. Beaten
in the first struggle, the
Sikhs were renewing their
challenge in 1848, when
Lord Dalhousie arrived in
India to take up the gage ^
of battle and extend the
in North America, with the exception of
Newfoundland, as states of the Canadian
Dominion. The foundation was laid for
that system under which the colony was
no longer to be treated as a subordinate
section of the empire, but was to receive
full responsible government — a govern-
ment, that is, in which the
Ministers are responsible to
the representative assem-
blies as Ministers in England
are responsible to Parlia-
ment ; to become, in fact,
mutatis imitandis, a counter-
part of the United Kingdom,
practically independent ex-
cept in matters affecting
war and peace. Canada,
indeed, did not immediately
achieve this status even
after the Act of Reunion ;
but that Act may be re-
garded as initiating the
change which has since
been carried out in nearly
PRINCE ALBERT
British dominion, in 1849, "^^^ y'^ungfer son of the Duke of Saxe- all the British colonies where
over the Land of the Five ^:^::^iS:^.'^^S^X the white population has
Rivers up to the mountain and were married in i84o, the Prince then ccascd to bear the character
passes, thus completing the receiving the title of Royal Highness, ^f ^ garrisou. Of the
ring-fence of mountain and ocean girdhng religious movements in this period some
the British Empire in India. account will be found in a late^ chapter
In Australia the settlements, which at of this section. But we have still to review
first had been penal in character, were
assuming the form of true colonies, but
were not yet emancipated. In South
_ . Africa, transferred to Great
IhC Union r, ■. ■ ^J. i .^ tvt
of British ^^"i^am as a result of the Napo-
Colonies leonic war, a part of the Dutch
population — partly in conse-
quence of the abolition of slavery — began
here a development of English literature
which has no parallel except in the Shake-
spearean era, for the beginnings of which
we must go back to the Revolution epoch.
During three-fourths of the eighteenth
century, classicalism had dominated prose
and poetry alike. In place of poems,
satires, epigrams, admirable essays and
during the fourth decade of the century to dissertations in verse had been produced
remove itself beyond the sphere of British
interference, and to found the com-
munities which developed into the Orange
Free State and the Transvaal Republic.
It was, however, almost at the moment
of Queen Victoria's accession that' dis-
satisfaction with the existing system in the
colonies of Upper, and Lower Canada,
which had been established in the time of
the younger Pitt, reached an acute stage,
issuing in insurrection and in the dispatch
of the epoch-making commission of Lord
Durham. The report of the commissioner
was the starting-point virtually of a new
theory of colonial relations. It led
directly to the Act of Reunion of 1842,
which was gradually followed by the
federal union of all the British colonies
4818
in abundance in strict accord with rigid
conventions ; no scope had been granted
to the lyrical utterance of passion, and
spontaneity had been repressed as barbaric
or at least- impolite. But the spirit which
was rousing itself to a stormy attack
on social and political conventions was
not to spare the conventions of literature.
, These were, indeed, set at
The Genius j^^^gj^^ ^y ^^g jy^ical genius
° , _ of Robert Burns, whose first
Robert Burns . c j ■
volume of poems appeared lu
1786. Burns, however, was not a pioneer
in the true sense— consciously promul-
gating a new theory. Essentially his
work was the most splendid expression
of a poetical type which had always
flourished in Scotland outside the realms
THE BRITISH ERA OF REFORM *
of polite literature. But its power and
fascination arrested attention, and carried
the conviction that subjects forbidden
by the critics as vulgar were capable of
treatment which was undeniably poetical.
He demonstrated anew that the poet's
true function is to appeal to the emotions
of men, and that this may be done through
the medium of language which is not at
all cultured. Unlike Burns, however, the
so-called " Lake School " of. Wordsworth
and Coleridge were conscious exponents of
a theory which defied the crit-
f Gel\ ^^^^ dogmas of the day. But
p '** Coleridge's practice contra-
dicted a part of his own theory,
and when Wordsworth acted upon it in its
entirety, he did not write poetry. Their
revolt against artificial language and
artificial restrictions of subject led them
virtually to affirm that the best poetry
may treat of commonplace matters in
commonplace language.
The paradox becomes obvious when we
perceive that Coleridge is never common-
place, and that it is precisely when he is
not commonplace that Wordsworth is
great, though unfortunately he never
recognised that truth himself. The familiar
fact must yield the unfamiliar thought ;
the familiar terms must combine in the
unfamiliar phrases which stamp themselves
upon the mind. The current criticism erred,
not in condemning the commonplace, but
in identifying the commonplace with the
superficially familiar, and treating con-
ventions as fundamental laws of art.
Til at these were errors was conclusively
proved by the practice rather than by th(;
critical expositions of the Lake school.
The volume of " Lyrical Ballads," which
contained " Tintern Abbey" and the
" Ancient Mariner," was a sufficient
refutation of the orthodox doctrines.
The poetical work which was produced
in the twenty-six years- which passed
between the publication of the " Lyrical
Ballads," 1798, and the death of Byron,
1824, travelled far enough from the
standards of the eighteenth century.
Within that period Sir Walter Scott
adapted the old ballad form to metrical
narrative, and turned men's minds back
to revel in the gorgeous aspect of the
Middle Ages, somewhat forgetful of their
ugly side. Byron burst upon the public,
an avowed rebel, whose tragic poses were
unfortunately only too easy of imitation
A ROYAL ROMANCE : THE MARRIAGE OF QUEEN VICTORIA IN 1840
The interesting ceremony represented in the above picture took place at the Chapel Royal, St. James's, on February
10th, 1840. Queen Victoria was then in her twenty-first year, while Prince Albert was three months her junior.
From the painting by Sir George Hayter
4819
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
by a host of self-conscious rhymesters, and
gave vice a morbid picturesqueness ; but
redeemed himself by tlie genuineness of
his passion for liberty, and died at Misso-
longhi fighting for the
liberation of Greece.
Shelley, a rebel of another
kind, shocked the world
by his Promethean defi-
ance of an unjust God, of
tyranny in every form,
but was, in fact, the
prophet not of atheism
and materialism, but of
an intensely spiritual
pantheism ; the most
ethereal, most intangible,
most exquisite among the
masters of song. John
Keats died when he was
only five-and-twenty, but
he had already lived long
enough to win for him-
self a secure place in the
elysium of " poets dead
and gone." His poetry
RICHARD COBDEN
'The Apostle of Free Trade," he denounced
as iniquitous artificially to maintain the price
of food when wages were low and employ-
had already developed a new type of the
novelist's art, in the " Pickwick Papers " ;
but his great contemporary and rival,
William Makepeace Thackeray, had not
yet achieved fame in this
field. The Bronte sisters,
however, with " Wuther-
ing Heights" and "Jane
Eyre," 1847, had just
given convincing proof,
if any were needed after
Jane Austen, Scott's con-
temporary, that the novel
is a literary instrument
which woman can handle
as successfully as man.
By that time all the great
poets of the Revolution
era had passed away,
save Wordsworth, who
was all but an octo-
genarian ; but the stars
of Tennyson and Brown-
ing had already appeared
above the horizon.
The time of ferment
is the practical expression ment uncertain, and to his labours was largely which produCCd thls OUt-
, r \. , due the abolition of the Corn Laws in 1846. •, , r -i-, ,■ ■,
of his own dictum :
" Beauty in truth, truth beauty ; that is
all. ye know on earth, and all ye need to
know." Among great English poets there
is no other whose work
is so devoid of all ethical
element, none in whom
the sense of pure beauty
is so overmastering or its
rendering more perfect.
Among the poets whom
we have named, Byron's
influence alone was Euro-
pean ; but that influence
pales by the side of
Walter Scott's in the
realm of prose romance.
There were novelists
before Scott, but it was
he who gave to the novel
that literary predomin-
ance which at one time
characterised the drama.
Practically it was he who
burst of literary activity
was also responsible for two new movements
of English thought, the utihtarian and the
idealist. Utilitarianism is the sceptical
, and inductive spirit of
such eighteenth - century
thinkers as David Hume,
I applied to the study of
morals and social institu-
tions. The movement
began with the French
Encyclopaedists ; it came
to England through
Jeremy Bentham, 1748-
1832, than whom no man
has exercised a more far-
reaching influence on the
thought or government of
modern England. Most
of the social and political
reforms which charac-
terise the early Victorian
era were suggested by
Bentham. His two great
JOHN BRIGHT
revealed the capacities of Along with Cobden and others in the agitation works, the "Fragment on
prose romance 'for the against the Com Laws, John Bright used Government," 1776, and
yLKjjy^ 1 wiiiu-iiv^v- xKJi i-iiv^ his great eloqueuce both in Parliament and OH i, n ■ • i r n/r i-
portravalof character and the public platform to further the cause of Free the Prmciplcs ot Morals
of picturesque incident,
through the amazing achievement of the
series of "Waverley Novels," whereof the
first appeared in 18 14. Before the close of
our period, the genius of Charles Dickens
4820
Trade. He held office in later Ministries
and Legislation," 1789,
belong chronologically to the age of the
Revolution ; but it was only in later life
that Bentham became a prophet among
his own people. His greatest disciple was
THE CHRISTENING OF THE PRINCESS ROYAL AT BUCKINGHAM PALACE IN K40
Froiu the paintin ^ by C. R. Leslie
CHRISTENING THE PRINCE OF WALES, THE PRESENT KING EDWARD, IN 1S41
From llie painting l>y Sir Gcrge H.rytcr
DOMESTIC EVENTS IN THE LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA
4821
Robert Burns, 1759-96 William Wordsworth, 1770-1850 S. T. Coleridge, 1772-1 s:S4
W. M. Thackeray, 1811-63
Charles Dickens, 1812-70
Charlotte Bronte, l,sUi-5.j
GREAT MEN AND WOMEN OF LETTERS FROM BURNS TO CHARLOTTE BRONTE
4822
THE BRITISH ERA OF REFORM
John Stuart Mill, 1806-1873, whose versa-
tile genius never showed to more advantage
than when he was handling social questions
in Bentham's spirit. Milf was not so
rigorous a thinker as Bentham : but the
mora! enthusiasm of the younger man, his
power of exposition, and his suscepti-
bility to the best ideas of his time gave
him the resi)ectful attention of all thought-
tuj minds. What Bentham did for the
theory of legislation. Mill did for the
theory of wealth. Mill's "Political Eco-
nomy," 1848, although largely based
upon the investigations of Adam Smith,
Ricardo, and Malthus, marks an era in
the history of that science. Mill was the
first to define with accuracy the proper
limits of economic study.
He originated a number
of new theories. He
diagnosed the economic
evils of his time and sug-
gested practical remedies.
Above all, however, he
was the first to see the
parts of economic science
in their true pro})ortions
and to connect them as
an ordered whole. The
tendency of modern
thought is to belittle the
deductive school of econo-
mists which Mill repre-
sents ; but his claim to
be regarded as the classic
of that school has never
SIR WALTER
been disputed. Similarlv, . ^ . ,. . c- ..
1 ■, ■ f ■ ■ ' As poet and novelist Scott occupies
by his later WntmgS on place among the worlds writers.
trade of the Tractarians, whose attempt
to imbue Anglican dogmas with a new
significance and to destroy the insularity
of the Established Church is the most
remarkable phenomenon in the religious
history of modern England. The idealists
found a })owerful though erratic ally in
Thomas Carlyle, 1795-1881. In literature
a romantic of the most lawless sort,
unequalled in power of ]?hrase, in pictorial
imagination, and in dramatic humour, but
totally deficient in architectonic skill.
Carlyle wrote one history, " The French
Revolution," 1837, and two biographies,
" Cromwell," 1S45, " Frederick the
Great," 1858-1865, of surpassing interest.
But his most characteristic utterances
are to be found in " Sartor
Resartus," 1833, and
Heroes and Hero-
Worship," 1841, the first
a biting attack upon
formalism and dogma, the
second a vindication of
the importance of indi-
vidual genius in maintain-
ing and in reforming the
social fabric. Carlyle's
gospel of labour and
silence, and his preference
for the guidance of instinct
as opposed to that of
conscious reflection, have
exercised a great, though
indeterminate, influence
upon man\ thinkers who
are unconscious of their
a unique , , . , , ■
From his det:)t tO hUU.
Carlvle's characteristics
SCOTT
I iKfir+T7 " T^iTi anrl fertile pen ca.me a rich library of stirring tales
l.iueity, ^^y), d-llU ^11 aglow with the magic of romance and
' Representative Govern- revealing a creative genius unmatched since can hardly be brought out
„ i. " ^01^ -u u Shakespeare. Born in 1771, he died in 1S32. '^ -ji ai „ u
ment, 1860, he became ^ more vividly than by
placing his work beside that of Thomas
the accredited exponent of Enghsh
Liberalism ; while his essay on " Utili-
tarianism," i86r, by giving a larger and
less material interpretation to Bentham's
formula, " the greatest happiness of the
greatest number," did much to bring out
the common basis of belief on which
Liberals and idealists have conducted
their long controversy. ■
The idealist movement begins with
Coleridge, whose philosophic writings,
notably the " Aids to Reflection," pub-
lished in 1825, although fragmentary and
unsystematic, are the first sign of a
reaction among English metaphysicians
against Hume's disintegrating criticism.
In a diluted and theological form the new
tenets formed the intellectual stock in
Babington Macaulay, no idealist, but a
typical Whig, whose clear-cut antithetical
style made him the past-master of popular
exposition, and the still prevalent model
for the essayist and the historian.
Finally, we note the appearance of John
Ruskin, whose " Modern Painters " began
to appear in 1842. Entering the literary
field primarily as a critic of the arts of
painting and architecture, Ruskin extended
his criticism, constructive and destructive,
to literature and economics, the essential
characteristic of his teaching being insist-
ence on the ethical basis o." all human
energies : teaching expressed with unsur-
passed eloquence.
H. W. C. Davis; -A. D. Innes
4823
AS SEEN FROM THE FANALE MARITTIMO LIGHTHOUSE
THE TOWN AND HARBOUR VIEWED FROM THE NORTH - EAST
Photochrome
TRIESTE, THE CHIEF SEAPORT OF AUSTRIA ■ HUNGARY
4824
THE
RE-MAKING
OF
EUROPE
EUROPE
AFTER
WATERLOO
III
THE REACTION IN CENTRAL EUROPE
AND THE ASCENDANCY OF METTERNICH
'"FHE Austrian state, totally disor-
* ganjsed by the period of the French
Revolution and Napoleonic wars, had
nevertheless succeeded in rounding off
its territories at the Congress of Vienna.
In internal affairs Francis I. and Metter-
nich tried as far as possible to preserve
the old order of things ; they wished for
an absolute monarchy, and favoured the
privileged classes. There was no more
tenacious supporter of what was old, no
more persistent observer of routine than
the good Emperor Francis. He was an
absolute ruler in the spirit of conservatism.
He saw a national danger in any move-
ment of men's minds which deviated from
the letter of his commands, hated from
the first all innovations, and ruled his
people from the Cabinet. He delighted to
travel through his dominions, and receive
the joyful greetings of his loyal subjects,
since he laid the highest value on popu-
^ ^ . larity ; notwithstanding all his
-. ^"^ keenness of observation and
P*"** *". his industry, he possessed no
ideas of his own. Even Metter-
nich was none too highly gifted in this
respect. Francis made, at the most, only
negative use of the abundance of his
supreme power. Those who served him
were bound to obey him blindlv : but he
lacked the vigour and strength of character
for great and masterful actions ; his
thoughts and wishes were those of a
permanent official. Like Frederic William
HI., he loathed independent characters,
men of personal views, and he therefore
treated his brothers Charles and John
with unjustified distrust.
The only member of his family really
acceptable to him was his youngest
brother, the narrow-minded and character-
less Lewis. On the other hand, Francis
was solicitous for the spread of beneficial
institutions, and for the regulation of the
legal system ; in 1811 he introduced the
" Universal Civil Code," and in so doing
completed the task begun by Maria
Theresa and Joseph II. His chief defect
was his love of trifling details, which de-
prived him of any comprehensive view of
a subject ; and his constant interference
with' the business of the Council of State
prevented any svstematic conduct of affairs.
. . , Francis owed it to Metternich
„. , „ ... that Austria once more held
High Position ,, 1,- 1 - •.•
. r the highest position in
in Europe „ « /u r 1 j
Europe: he was thereioreglad
to entrust him with the management of
foreign policy while he contented himself
with internal affairs. Metternich was the
centre of European diplomacy ; but he
was only a diplomatist, no statesman like
Kaunitz and Felix Schwarzenberg. He
did not consolidate the new Austria tor the
future, but only tried to check the wheel
of progress and to hold the reins with
the assistance of his henchman Gentz ;
everything was to remain stationary.
The police zealously helped to main-
tain this principle of government, and
prosecuted every free-thinker as sus-
pected of democracy. Austria was in
the fullest sense a country of police ;
it supported an army of " mouchards "
and informers. The post-office officials
disregarded the privacy of letters, spies
watched teachers and students in the
academies ; even such loyal Austrians as
Grillparzer and Zedlitz came into collision
with the detectives. The censorship was
blindly intolerant and pushed its inter-
ference to extremes. Public education,
from the university down to the village
school, suffered under the suspicious
tutelage of the authorities ; school and
Church alike were unprogres-
sive. The provincial estates,
both in the newly-acquired
and in the recovered Crown
lands, were ins'gnificant, leading, as a
matter of fact, a shadowy existence,
V hich reflected the depressed condition of
the population. But Hungary, which,
since the time when Maria Theresa was
hard pressed, had insisted on its national
4825
Reign of
Suspicion and
Espionage
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
Szechenyi " the
Greatest of
the Hungarians"
independence, was not disposed to descend
i>om its h-ight to the g-neral insignificance
of the other Crown lands, and th; Archduke
Palatine, Joseph, thoroughly shared this
id.^a. It was therefore certain that soon
there would be an embittered struggle with
th-^ 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 exclu-
sive rule of the nobility.
The violent onslaught of the
Reichstag against the Govern-
ment led, it is true, to no
result; the standard-bearer of
that g "oup was Count Stephen
Szechenyi, whom his antago-
nist, Kossuth, called " the
greatest of the Hungarians."
The Archduke Rainer, to
whom the viceroyalty of the
ItaHan possessions had been
entrusted, was animated by
the best intention of pro-
moting the happiness of ths
Lombard- 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,
4826
FRANCIS I. CF AUSTRIA
He succeeded his father, Leopold
II., as Emperor of Germany, but
in 1804 he renounced the title of
German-Roman Emperor, retain-
ing that of Emperor of Austria.
both there and in Germany, as outcomes
of the revolutionary spirit. Yet the hopes
of the nations on both sides of the Alps
were not being realised ; the " Golden
Age " had still to come.
The condition of the Austrian finances
was deplorable. Since the year 1811,
when Count Joseph Wallis, the Finance
Minister, had devised a system which
reduced by one-fifth the nominal value of
the paper money — which had risen to the
amount of 1,060,000,000 gulden — per-
manejit 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
Stadion, the former Minister of the
Interior, undertook the thank-
less duties of Minister of
Finance. He honestly exerted
himself to improve credit,
introduce a fixed monetary
standard, create order on a
consistent plan, and with
competent colleagues to de-
velop the economic resources
of the nation. But various
financial measures were neces-
sary before the old paper
money could be withdrawn
en bloc, and silver once more
put into circulation. New
loans had to be raised, which
increased the burden of in-
terest, in the years 1816 to
1823, from 9,000,000 gulden
to 24,000,000, and the annual
expenditure for the national debt from
12,000,000 to 50,000,000. The National
Bank, opened in 1817, afforded efficient
help. If Stadion did not succeed in
remodelling the system of indirect taxes,
and if the reorganisation of the land-
tax proceeded slowly, the attitude of
Hungary greatly added to the difficulties
of the position of the great Minister of
reform, who died in May, 1824. The state
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 Govern-
ment built commercial roads and canals,
The Promised
Land of
Restrictions
THE REACTION IN CENTRAL EUROPE
still the trade of th- 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 mak^ it in
1833, a focus of the trade
of the world by foundinc:
the Austrian-Lloyd Ship
ping Company. Rfd
tape prevailed in the
army, innovations were
shunned, and the reforms
of the Archduke Charles
were interrupted. This
was the outlook in
Austria, the " Faubourg
St. Germain of Europe."
Were things better in
the rival state of Prussia ?
Frederic William III. was
the type of a homely
bourgeois, a man of
sluggish intellect and of
a cold scepticism, which
contrasted sharply with
its opponents, although the old tutelage
of the Church under the supreme bishop
of the country still continued to be felt,
and Frederic William, both in the secular
and spiritual domain, professed an abso-
lutism which did not
care to see district and
provincial synods estab-
lished by its side. The
union, indeed, produced
no peace in the Church,
but became the pretext
for renewed quarrels ;
nevertheless it was intro-
duced into Nassau,
P>aden, 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
mto negotiations with
METTERNICH IN LATER LIKE
the patriotic fire'and self- ^l:''"r'^VTN^''T °' ■'^T.Tt^^^^^^^ Cuna, which were
i . r 1 • after the fall of Napoleon in 181.j stands out j i. j u +1
devotion of his people, prominently in the history of the period. He COndUCtCd by tllC am-
His main object was to was the centre of European diplomacy, but he baSSador Barthold G.
secure tranquillity ; the ""^^ °"'y ^ diplomatist and not a statesman. Niebuhr, a great historian
storm of the war of liberation, so foreign but weak diplomatist. Niebuhr and Alten-
to his sympathies, had blown over, and
he now wished to govern his kingdom
in peace. Religious 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 Reformed
Churches, an at-
tempt to which
the spirit of the
age seemed very
f a V c u r a b 1 1
When the tri-
centenary of the
Reformation was
commemorated
Szucht-nyi
Josepa
LEADERS OF HUNGARIAN INDEPENDENCE
Insisting: on its national independence, Hungary was unwilling to
descend to the insignificance of the other Crown lands under Austria,
in the year 1817, and both the Archduke Palatine, Joseph, and Count Stephen Sztxhenyi
he appealed for assisted the movement in assembUes and elsewhere. Szechenyl was de- Paderbom, BreS-
the union of the scribed by his antagonist Kossuth as "the greatest of the Hungarians." |^^^^ Kulm, and
Ermeland bishoprics, each with a clerical
seminary. The cathedral chapters
stein, the Minister of Public Worship, made
too many concessions to the Curia, and
were not a match for Consalvi, the
Cardinal Secre-
tary of State.
On Jtily i6th.
1821, Pope Pius
VIL issued the
Bull, " De salute
a n i m a r um,"
which was fol-
lowed by an ex-
planatory brief,
" Quod de fide-
lium." The king
confirmed the
agreement by an
order of the Cabi-
net ; Cologne and
Posen became
archbishoprics,
Treves, Munster,
Iby hisantagon
two confessions, and found much response.
The new Liturgy of 182 1, issued with his
own concurrence, found great opposition,
especially among the Old Lutherans ; its
second form, in 1829, somewhat conciliated
were conceded the right of electing
the bishop, who, however, had neces-
sai'ily to be a persona grata to the king.
4827
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
The truce did not, indeed, last long ;"
the question of mixed marriages led to
renewed controversy. Subsequently to
1803, the principle held good in the
eastern provinces of Prussia that the
children in disputed cases should follow
the religion of the father, a view that
conflicted with a Bull of 1741 ; now, after
1825, the order of 1803 was to
be vahd for the Rhine province,
The Problem
of Mixed
Marriages
which was for the most part
Catholic. But the bishops of the
districts a})pealed in 1828 to Pope Leo XII.
He and his successor, Pius VIII., con-
ducted long negotiations with the Prussian
ambassador, Bunsen, who, steeped in the
spirit of romanticism, saw the surest pro-
tection against the revolution in a close
adherence between national governments
and the Curia.
Pius VIII., an enemy of all enlighten-
ment, finally, by a brief of 1830, permitted
the consecration of mixed marriages only
when a promise was given that the children
born from the union would be brought
up in the Catholic faith ; but the Prussian
Government did not accept the brief, and
matters soon came to a dispute between
the Curia and the Archbishop of Cologne.
It was excessively difftcult to form the
new Prussian state into a compact unity
of a firm and flexible type. Not merely
its elongated shape, its geographical inco-
herency, and the position of Hanover as an
excrescence on its body, but above every-
thing its composition out of a hundred
territorial fragments with the most diver-
sified legislatures and the most rooted
dislike to centralisation, the aversion of
the Rhenish Catholics to be included in the
state which was Protestant by history and
character, and the stubbornness of the
Poles in the countries on the Vistula, quite
counterbalanced a growth in population,
nowmorethan doubled, which was welcome
in itself. By unobtrusive and successful
labour the greatest efforts were made to-
_, - , wards establishing some deeree
The New r •, ^, ■? , j. '^■,
p . of unity. 1 he ideal of unity
cj could not be universally realised
in the legal system and the ad-
ministration of justice. The inhabitants,
therefore, of the Rhenish districts were con-
ceded the Code Napoleon, with juries and
oral procedure, but the larger part of the
monarchy was given the universal common
law. The narrow-minded and meddlesome
system of the excise and the local variations
of the land-tax system were intolerable.
4828
The root . idea of the universal duty of
bearing arms, that pillar of the monarchy,
was opposed on many sides. This institu-
tion, which struck deeply into family life,
met with especial opposition and discon-
tent in the newly acquired provinces. In
large circles there prevailed the wish that
there should no longer be a standing army.
But finally the constitution of the army
was adhered to ; it cemented together the
different elements of the country. The
ultimate form was that of three years'
active service, two years' service in the
reserve, and two periods of service in the
militia, each of seven years. The fact
that the universal duties of bearing arms
and defending the country were to be
permanent institutions made Frederic
William suspicious. His narrow-minded
but influential brother-in-law, Duke
Charles of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, the sworn
opponent of the reform legislation of Stein,
Hardenberg, andScharnhorst, induced him
to believe that a revolutionary party,
whose movements were obscure, wanted
to employ the militia against the throne,
and advised, as a counter precaution, that
the militia and troops of the
n- -A A ■ t ^''^^ should be amalgamated.
V c m -g^^^ ^j^^ originator of the law
of defence, the Minister of
War, Hermann von Boyen, resolutely
opposed this blissful necessity. An ordin-
ance of April 30th, 1815, divided Prussia
into ten provinces ; but since East and
West Prussia, Lower Rhine and Cleves-
Berg were soon united, the number was
ultimately fixed at eight, which were
subdivided into administrative districts.
Lords-lieutenant were placed at the
head of the provinces instead of the
former provincial Ministries. Their ad-
ministrative sphere was accurately defined
by a Cabinet order of November 3rd, 1817 ;
they represented the entire Government,
and fortunately these responsible posts
were held by competent and occasionally
prominent men. The amalgamation of the
new territories with Old Prussia was
complete, both externally and internally,
howev-er difficult the task may have been
at first in the province of Saxony and
many other parts, and however much
consistency and resolution may have been
wanting at headquarters, in the immediate
vicinity of Frederic William. But the
struggle with the forces of local particu-
larism was long and obstinate. The
great period of Prince Hardenberg,
THE REACTION IN CENTRAL EUROPE
Chancellor of State, was over. He could
no longer master the infinity of work
which rested upon him, got entangled in
intrigues and escapades, associated with
despicable companions, and immediately
lost influence with the king, himself the soul
of honour ; his share in the
reorganisation of Prussia after
the wars of liberation was
too small. On the other hand,
he guarded against Roman en-
croachment, and assiduously
worked at the question of the
constitution. His zeal to
realise his intentions there
too frequently left the field
open to the reactionaries in
another sphere. Most of the
higher civil servants admired
the official liberalism of the
chancellor, and therefore, like
order to recommend themselves to the
Governments as saviours of the threatened
society. The indignation at their false-
hoods was general ; there appeared
numerous refutations, the most striking of
which proceeded from the pen of Schleier-
machcr and Niebuhr. The
Prussian and Wiirtemberg
Governments, however, stood
on the side of Schmalz and
his companions, and rewarded
his falsehood with a decora-
tion and acknowledgment.
Frederic William HI., indeed,
strictly forbade, in January,
1816, any further literary
controversy about secret
combinations, but at the
same time renewed the pro-
hibition on such societies, at
which great rejoicings broke
Hardenberg and Stein, ap- frederic william hi. out in Vienna. He also for
peared to the reactionaries He ascended the throne of Prussia ]-,j^(je tj^g further appearance
as patrons of the extravagant Teste^'i;! TeUgiou? qSons," he ^i the " Rhenish Mercury,"
enthusiasm and Teutonis- did much to further the union of the which demanded a constitu-
ing "agitation of the youth — Lutheran and Reformed Churches, tion and liberty of the Press,
as secret democrats, in short. Boyen was Gneisenau was removed from the general
command in Coblenz. Wittgenstein's
spies were continual!}' active. The
emancipation of the Jews, m contradiction
to the royal edict of 1812, lost ground
The Act for the regulation of landed pro-
, perty proclaimed in Septem-
ber, 1811, was "explained"
in 1816, in a fashion which
favoured so greatly the pro-
perty of the nobles at the
cost of the property of the
peasants that it virtually re-
pealed the Regulation Act.
In the course of the last
decade there had been fre-
quent talk of a General
Council. Stein's programme
of 1808 proposed that the
Council of State should be the
highest ratifying authority for
acts of legislation. Harden-
berg, on the other hand, fear-
the closest supjiorter of Hardenberg ; the
Finance Minister, Count Biilow, lormerly
the distinguished Finance Minister of the
kingdom of Westphalia, usually supported
him. while the chief of the War Office,
Witzleben, the inseparable ;
coimsellor of the king, who
even ventured to work counter
to the Duke of Mecklenburg,
was one of the warmest advo-
cates of the reform of Stein
and Hardenberg. The re-
actionaries, under Marwitz
and other opponents of the
great age of progress relied on
the Ministers of the Interior
and of the Police, the over-
cautious Schuckmann and
Prince William of Wittgen-
stein. The latter was a bitter
enemy of German patriotism
and the constitution, and the
best of the tools of Metter- thoid 'Niebuhr""in" i82-r7oo'k up ing for his own supremacy,
nich at the court of Berlin, his residence at Bonn, and gave had Contemplated in 1810
The reaction which naturally a great impetus to historicaiiearn- giving the council a far more
f 11 1,1 1 .1 r '"ET °y n's lectures m that city. " i , »i t-> j. -ii,
followed the exuberant love of modest role. But neither
NIEBUHR THE HISTORIAN
Distinguished as a historian, Bar-
freedo n shown in the wars of liberation
was peculiarly felt in Prussia. Janke,
Schmalz, the brothei -in-law of Scharn-
horst, and other place-hunters clumsily
attacked in pamphlets the " seducers of
the people " and the " demagogues," in
scheme received a trial ; and in many
quarters a Council of State was only
thought of with apprehension. When,
then, finally the ordinance of March 20tli.
1817, established the Council of State, it
was merely the highest advisory authority,
4829
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
the foremost rounsellor of the Crown, and
Stein's name was missing from the list of
those summoned by the king.
The first labours of the Council of State
were directed to the reform of the taxa-
tion, which Count Biilow, the Finance
Minister, wished to carry out in the spirit
of modified Free Trade. His schemes were
very aggressive, and aimed at
The Aggressive
Schemes of
Count Biilow
freedom of inland commerce,
but showed that, considering
the financial distress of the
mom.enf. the state of the national debt,
which in 1818 amounted to 217,000,000
thalers, ^33.000,000, the want of credit,
and the deficit, no idea of any remission
of taxation could be entertained. In
fact, Biilow demanded an increase of the
inchrect taxes, a proposal which naturally
hit the lower classes very hard. Humboldt
headed the opponents of Biilow, and a bitter
struggle broke out. The notables convened
in the provinces to express their \'iews re-
jected Billow's taxes on meal and meat, but
pionounced in favour of the direct personal
taxation, graduated according to classes.
Biilow was replaced as Finance ]\Iinister
at the end of 1S17 by Klewitz — the extent
of whose office was, however, much dim-
inished by all sorts of limitations — and
received the newly created post of Minister
of Trade and Commerce. In Altenstein,
who between 1808 and 1810 had failed to
distinguish himself as Finance Minister,
Prussia found a born Minister of Pul^lic
Worship and Education.
In spite of many unfavourable conditions
he put the educational system on a sound
footing ; he introduced in 1817 the pro-
vincial bodies of teachers, advocated uni-
versal compulsory attendance at school,
encouraged the national schools, and was
instrumental in uniting the University of
Wittenberg with that of Halle, and in
founding the Universit}' of Bonn in 1818.
Biilow, a pioneer in his own domain,
not inferior to Altenstein in the field of
. Church and school, adminis-
u ow s tei-e(j the customs department.
nana on the . j u .11 j
^ supported by the shrewd
Maassen. The first preparatory
steps were taken in 1816, especially in
June, by the abolition of the waterway
tolls and the inland and provincial
duties. A Cabinet Order of August ist,
1817, sanctioned for all time the principle
of free importation, and Maassen drew
up tfic Customs Act, which became law
on May 26th. 1818, and came into force
4830
at the beginning of 1819, according to
Trcitschke "' the most liberal and matured
politico-economic law of those days " ; it
was simplified in 1821 to suit the spirit
of Free Trade, and the tolls were still more
lowered. An order of February 8th, 1819,
exempted from taxation out of the list
of inland products only wine, beer, brandy,
and leaf tobacco ; on May 30th, 1820, a
graduated personal tax and corn duties
were introduced.
Thus a well-organised system of taxation
was founded, which satisfied the national
economy for some time. All social forces
were left with free power of movement and
scope for expansion. It mattered little if
manufacturers complained, so long as the
national prosperity, which was quite
shattered, revived. Prussia gradually
found the way to the German Customs
Union. No one, it is true, could yet
predict that change ; but, as if with a
presentiment, complaints of the selfish-
ness and obstinacy of the tariff loan were
heard beyond the Prussian frontiers.
What progress had been made with the
constitution granting provincial estates
and popular representation,
Retrogression ■ j u i.i i • u j.u
promised by the king by the
«r-.,^^ ^"*^ edict of ]\Iav 22nd, 1815 ?
1 he commission promised tor
this purpose was not summoned until
March 30th, 1817. Hardenberg directed the
proceedings since it had assembled on July
7th in Berlin, sent Altenstein, Beyme, and
Klewitz to visit the provinces in order to
collect thorough evidence of the existing
conditions, and received reports, which
essentially contradicted each other.
It appeared most advisable that the
Ministers should content themselves with
establishing provincial estates, and should
leave a constitution out of the question.
Hardenberg honestly tried to make pro-
gress in the question of the constitution
and to release the royal word which had
been pledged ; Frederic William, on the
contrary, regretted having given it, and
gladly complied with the retrogressive
tendencies of the courtiers and supporters
of the old regime. He saw with concern
the contests in the South German chambers
and the excitement among the youth of
Germany ; he pictured to himself the
horrors of a revolution, and Hardenberg
could not carry his point.
The Federal Diet, the union of the princes
of Germany, owed its existence to the
Act of Federation of June 8th. 1815, which
THE REACTION IN CENTRAL EUROPE
could not possibly satisfy the hopes of a
nation which had conqtiered a Napoleon.
Where did the heroes of the wars of
liberation find any guarantee for their
claims ? Of what did the national rights
consist, and what protection did the whole
Federation offer against foreign countries ?
Even the deposed and mediatised princes
of the old empire were deceived in their
last hopes ; they had once more dreamed
of a revival of their independence. But
they were answered with cold contempt
that the new political organisation of
Germany demanded that the princes and
counts, who had been found already
mediatised, should remain incorporated
into other political bodies or be incorpor-
ated afresh ; that the Act of Federation
involved the implicit recognition of this
necessity. The Act of Federation pleased
hardly anyone, not even its own designers.
The opening of the Federal Diet, con-
vened for September ist, 1815, was
again postponed, since negotiations were
taking place in Paris, and there were
various territorial disputes between the
several federal states to be decided.
, Austria was scheming for Salz-
f *f"/^ burg 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 dismemberment. The two chief
powers disputed about Mainz until the
town fell to Hesse-Darmstadt, but the
right of garrisoning the important federal
fortress fell to them both. Baden only
joined the Federation on July 26th, 18 15,
Wiirtemberg on September ist. Notwith-
standing the opposition of Austria and
Prussia permission was given to Russia,
Great Britain, and France to have am-
bassadors at Frankfort, while the Federa-
tion had no permanent representatives at
the foreign capitals. Many of the South
German courts regarded the foreign am-
bassadors as a support against the leading
German powers ; the secondary and petty
states were most afraid of Prussia.
Finally, on November 5th, i8i6, the
Austrian ambassador opened the meeting
of the Federation in Frankfort with a
speech transmitted by Metternich. On
all sides members were eager to move
resolutions, and Metternich warned them
against precipitation, the very last fault,
as it turned out, of which the Federal Diet
was likely to be guilty. On the question
of the domains of Electoral Hesse, with
regard to which many private persons
took the part of the elector, the Federation
sustained a complete defeat at his hands.
The question of the military organisation
of the Federation was very inadequately
solved. When the Barbary States in 1817
T,. ,. , extended their raids in
The Idea of 1x1 i i ,
_ „, ^ search of slaves and booty as
a German h leet r ^1x1^10 i
Abandoned ^^ North Sea, and
attacked merchantmen, the
Hanseatic towns lodged complaints before
the Federal Diet, but the matter ended in
words. The ambassador of Baden, recalling
the glorious past history of the Hansa, in
vain counselled the federal states to build
their own ships. The Federation remained
dependent on the favour of foreign mari-
time Powers ; the question of a German
fleet was dropped. Nor was more done
for trade and commerce ; the mutual
exchange of food-stuffs was still fettered
by a hundred restrictions.
How did the matter stand with the per-
formance of the article of the Act of
Federation, which promised diets to all
the federal states ?
Charles Augustus of Saxe- Weimar had
granted a constitution on May 5th, 1816,
and placed it under the guarantee of tht
Federation, which also guaranteed the
Mecklenburg constitution of 18 17. 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 v/is-
dom of each federal government." Austria
and Prussia, like most of the federal
governments, rejoiced at this evasion ;
it mattered nothing to them that the
peoples were deceived and discontented.
The samiC evasion was adopted in the
case of Article XVHL, on the liberty
of the Press. The north of Germany,
which had hitherto lived apparently
undisturbed, and the south, which was
„^ ^ , . seething with the new constitu-
Ihe Feudal .• 1 -j 1 .
_ tional ideas, were somewhat
. ^\^^ abruptly divided on this point.
In Hanover the feudal system,
which had been very roughly handled by
Westphalian 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
4831
HARMSWORl'H HISTORY OF THE WORLD
from London, sided with the nobihty ; the
constitution imposed in 1814 rested on
the old feudal principles. The estates
solemnly announced on January 17th,
1815, the union of the old and new terri-
tories into one whole, and on December
7th, 181C), Hanover received a new con-
stitution on the dual-chamber system, and
with complete equality of rights for the
two chambers. The nobilit}^ and the
official class were predominant. There
was no trace of an organic development
of the commonwealth ; the nobility con-
ceded no reforms, and the people took little
interest in the proceedings of the chambers.
Charles insulted King George IV., and
challenged Miinster to a duel. Finally,
the Federal Diet intervened to end the
mismanagement, and everything grew ripe
for the revolution of 1830.
In the kingdom of Saxony, so reduced
in t'.'rritory and population, matters re-
turned to the old footing. Frederic Au-
gustus I. the Just maintained order in the
peculiar sense in which he understood the
word. Only quite untenable conditions
were reformed, otherwise the king and
the Minister, Count Einsiedel, considered
that the highest political wisdom was to
persevere in the old order of things.
GENERAL VIEW OF THE TOWN OF BREMERHAVEN, FOUNDED IN 1S27
The preponderance of the nobility was
less oppressive in Brunswick. George IV.
acted as guardian of the young duke,
Charles 11.^ and Count Miinster in London
conducted the affairs of state, with
the assistance of the Privy Council of
Brunswick, and promoted the material
interests of the state, and the country
received on April 25th in the " renewed
system of states " a suitable constitution.
Everything went on as was wished imtil
Charles, in October, 1823, himself assumed
the government and declared war on the
constitution. A regime of the most de-
spicable caprice and licence now began ;
■48.32
Industries and trade were fettered, and
there was a total absence of activity. The
officials were as narrow as the statesmen.
In the Federation Saxony always sided with
Austria, being full of hatred of Prussia ;
Saxony was only important in the develop-
ment of art. Even under King Anthony,
after May, 1827, everything remained in
the old position. Einsiedel's statesman-
ship was as powerful as before, and the
discontent among the people grew.
The two Mecklenburgs remained feudal
states, in which the middle class and the
peasants were of no account. Even the
organic constitution of 1817 for Schwerin
Charles II.
Frederic Augustus
William I.
REACTIONARY RULERS OF EUROPEAN STATES
Assuming the government of Brunswick in 1823, Charles II. declared war on the constitution, and a regime of the most
despicable caprice and licence went on until the Federal Diet intervened to end the mismanagement. Known as the Just,
Frederic Augustus I. of Saxony followed in the old order of things, and thus the country was stunted in its industries. King
of Wiirtemberg, William I. promised a liberal representative constitution, but did not fulfil his pledges ; he died in 1821.
made no alteration in the feudal power
prevailing since 1755 ; the knights were
still, as ever, supreme in the country. The
Sternberg Diet of i8ig led certainly to the
abolition of serfdom, but the position of
the peasants was not improved by this
measure. Emigration became more com-
mon ; trades and industries were stagnant.
Even Oldenbiu-g was content with " poli-
tical hibernation." Frankfort-on-Main
received a constitution on October i8th,
1816, and many obsolete customs were
abolished. In the Hansa towns^ on the
contrary, the old patriarchal conditions
were again in full force ; the council ruled
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 every-
thing back to the footing of 1806, when he
left his countn^ ; he declared the ordin-
ances of " his administrator Jerome " not
to be binding on him, recognised the sale
of domains as little as the advancement
of Hessian officers, but wished to make the
fullest use of that part of the Westphalian
ordinances which brought him personal
advantage. He promised, indeed, a liberal
THE FAMOUS UNIVERSITY OF BONN, FOUNDED IN THE YEAR 1818 Photochron,.-
4833
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
representative constitution, but trifled
with the Landtag, and contented himself
with the promulgation of the unmeaning
family and national law of March 4th,
1817. When he died, unlamented, in
1821, the still more capricious and worth-
less regime of William II. began, which
was marked by debauchery, family quar-
rels, and public discontent.
the Grand ^^^ """^^'^ edifying was the state
n^, 'J^^ . of things in Hesse-Darmstadt,
Uuke Lewis , fi r- 1 ta 1 t •
where the drand Duke, Lewis
I., although by inclination attached to the
old regime, worked his best for reform, and
did not allow himself to, be driven to re-
action after the conference at Carlsbad. He
gave Hesse on December 17th (March i8th),
1820, a representative constitution, and was
an enlightened ruler, as is shown, among
other instances, by his acquiescence in the
efforts of Prussia toward a customs union.
The most unscrupulous among the
princes of the Rhenish Confederation,
Frederic of Wiirtemberg, readily noticed
the increasing discontent of his subjects,
and wished to meet it by the proclamation
of January nth, 1815, that ever since
1806 he had wished to give his country a
constitution and representation by estates ;
but when he read out his constitution to
the estates on May 15th, these promptly
rejected it. The excitement in the coun-
try increased amid constant appeals to
the " old and just right." Frederic died
in the middle of a dispute on October 30th,
1816. Under his son, William I., who was
both chivalrous and ambitious, a better
time dawned for Wiirtemberg. But the
estates offered such opposition to him that
the constitution was not formed until
September 25th, 181Q ; but the first diet of
1820-1821 was extremely amenable to the
government. William was very popular,
although his rule showed little liberalism.
Bavaria, after the dethronement of its
second creator, Napoleon, had recovered
the territory on the left bank of the Rhine,
- . . and formed out of it the
_ , Rhenish Palatinate, whose
Recovered , .• • j r ^
rr .. population remained tor a long
time as friendly to France as
Bavaria itself was hostile. " Father Max "
certainly did his best to amalgamate the
inhabitants of the Palatinate and Bavaria,
and his premier. Count Montgelas, effected
so many ])rofitable and wise changes for
this kingdom, which had increased to more
than thirteen hundred square German
miles, with four million souls, that much
4834
of the blame attached to this policy might
seem to be unjustified. His most danger-
ous opponents were the Crown Prince
Lewis, with his leaning towards roman-
ticism and his " Teutonic " sympathies
and hatred of France, and Field-Marshal
Count Wrede. While Montgelas wished not
to hear a .S3'llable about a new constitution,
the crown prince deliberately adopted a
constitutional policy, in order to prepare
the downfall of the hated Frenchman.
Montgelas' constitution of May ist, 1808,
had never properly seen the light. He
intended national representation to be
nothing but a sham. The crown prince
wished, in opposition to the Minister, that
Bavaria should be a constitutional state,
a model to the whole of Germany. Mont-
gelas was able to put a stop to the intended
creation of a constitution in 1814-1815,
while his scheme of an agreement with the
Curia was hindered by an increase in the
claims of the latter. He fell on February
2nd, 1817, a result to which the court at
Vienna contributed, and Bavaria spoke
only of his defects, without being in a
position to replace Montgelas' system by
another. The Concordat of
r- ^ .-fZ- r }\xnQ 5th, 1817. signified a
Constitution of -' / o
Bavaria
complete victory of the Curia,
and was intolerable in the
new state of Bavarian public opinion ; the
" kingdom of darkness " stood beside the
door. The Crown met the general dis-
content b}^ admitting into the constitution
some provisions guaranteeing the rights
of Protestants, and thus naturally fur-
nished materials for further negotiations
with the Curia. On May 26th, 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 Rhenish-
Palatinate were opened up to Bavaria by
arrangements with Austria. The ruling
House of Zahringen, except for an ille-
gitimate line, was on the verge of extinc-
tion, and the Grand Duke Charles could
never make up his mind to declare the
counts of Hochberg legitimate. At the
urgent request of Stein and the Tsar
Alexander, his brother-in-law, Charles, had
already announced to Metternich and
THE REACTION IN CENTRAL EUROPE
Hardenberg in Menna on December ist,
1814, that he wished to introduce a repre-
sentative constitution in his dominions,
and so anticipated the Act of Federation.
Stein once more implored the distrustful
man, " whose indolence was boundless/' to
carr}' out his intention ; but every appeal
rebounded from him, and he once again
postponed the constitutional question.
The Bavarian craving for Baden terri-
tory became more and more threaten-
ing. A more vigorous spirit was felt in
the Baden Ministry after its reorganisa-
tion. At last, on October 4th, Charles,
by a family law, proclaimed the indivisi-
bility of the whole state and the rights of
the Hochberg line to the succession.
It was foreseen that Bavaria would not
submit tamely to this. German public
opinion, and even Russian influence were
brought to bear in favour of a constitution.
Baden was forced to try to anticipate
Bavaria in making this concession. Even
the Emperor Alexander opened the first
diet of his kingdom of Poland on . the
basis of the constitution of 1815, and took
the occasion to praise the blessing of
... liberal institutions. Then Ba-
. ®-'°'^"^8s varia got the start of Baden.
Q Tettenborn and Reitzenstein
^ represented to Charles that
Baden must make haste and create a still
more liberal constitution, which was finally
signed by Charles on August 22nd, 1818.
It was, according to Barnhagen, "the
most liberal of all German constitutions, the
richest in germs of life, the strongest in
energy." It entirely corresponded to the
charter of Louis XVIII. The ordinances
of October 4th, 1817. were also contained
in it and ratified afresh. The rejoicings
in Baden and liberal Germany at large
were unanimous. In Munich there was
intense bitterness. The Crown Prince
Lewis in particular did not desist from
trying to win the Baden Palatinate,
and we know now that even Lewis II.
in the year 1870 urged Bismarck to obtain
it for Bavaria. Baden ceded to Bavaria in
i8ig a portion of the district of Wertheim,
and received from Austria Hohengerold-
seck. The congress at Aix-la-Chapelle had
also pronounced in favour of Baden in 1818.
Nassau, before the rest of Germany, had
received, on September 2nd, 1814, a
constitution, for which Stein was partl^
responsible. But the estates were not
summoned until the work of reorganising
the duchj' was completed. Duke William
opened the assembly at la«^t on March 3rd,
1818, and a tedious dispute soon broke
out about the Crown lands and state
property. The ^linister of btate, Bieber-
stein, a particularist and reacti'onary of
the purest water, adopted Metternich's
views. In popular opinion the credit of
the first step was not given to Nassau,
y because it delaj^ed so long to
g"**^" ^ . take the second. If Metternich
the Diets looked towards Prussia, he saw
the king in his element, and
Hardenberg in continual strife with Hum-
boldt ; if he turned his e3'es to South
Germany, he beheld a motley scene,
which also gave him a hard problem to
solve. In Bavaria the first diet led to
such unpleasant scenes that the king con-
templated the repeal of the constitution.
In Baden, where Rotteck and Baron
Liebenstein were the leaders, a flood of
proposals was poured out against the
rule of the new Grand Duke, Lewis I. ;
the dispute became so bitter that Lewis,
on July 28th. 1819. prorogued the chambers.
In Nassau and in Hesse-Darmstadt there
was also much disorder in the diets.
The reaction saw all this with great
pleasure. It experienced a regular trivmiph
on March 23rd, 1819, through the bloody
deed of a student, Karl Ludwig Sand.
It had become a rooted idea in the limited
brain of this fanatic that the dramatist
and Russian privy councillor, August von
Kotzebue, was a Russian spy, the most
dangerous enemy of German freedom
and German academic life ; he therefore
stabbed him in Mannheim. While great
and general sympathy was extended to
Sand, the governments feared a con-
spiracy of the student associations where
Sand had studied.
Charles Augustus saw that men looked
askance at him. and his steps for the pre-
servation of academic liberty were unavail-
ing. Metternich possessed the power, and
made full use of it, being sure of the assent
,, . . . of the majority of German
Universities i. r n • j x
XI. u .1 J governments, of Russia, and ol
the Hotbeds 9, , t-. ^ ■ r t-
,, . . Great Britam; even from r ranee
of Intrigues . . ,
approval was showered upon
him. Frederic William III., being com-
pletely I'uled by Prince Wittgenstein and
Kaunitz, was more and more overwhelmed
with fear of revolution, and wished to abolish
everything which seemed open to suspicion.
The universities, the fairest ornaments
of Germany, were regarded by the rulers
as hotbeds of revolutionary intrigues ;
4835
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
they required to be freed from the danger.
The authorities of Austria and Prussia
thought this to be imperatively necessary,
and during the season for the waters at
Carlsbad they wished to agree upon the
measures. Haste was urgent, as it seemed,
for on July ist, 1819, Sand had already
found an imitator. Karl Loning, an apothe-
_ Gary's apprentice, attempted
-, '°^ to assassinate at Schwalbach
PrTssir ^^^^ ^°^ ^^^^^' ^^^® president
of the Nassau Government,
whom, in spite of his liberal and excellent
administration, the crackbrained Radicals
loudly proclaimed to be a reactionary. The
would-be assassin committed suicide after
his attempt had failed. In Prussia steps
were now taken to pay domiciliary visits,
confiscate papers, and make arrests. Jahn
was sent to a fortress, the papers of the
bookseller Reimer were put under seal,
Schleiermacher's sermons were subject to
police surveillance, the houses of Welcker
and Arndt in Bonn were carefully searched
and all writings carried off which the
bailiffs chose to take. Protests were futile.
Personal freedom had no longer any pro-
tection against the tyranny of the police.
The privacy of letters was constantly
infringed, and the Government issued falsi-
fied accounts of an intended revolution.
On July 29th Frederic William and
Metternich met at Toplitz. Metternich
strengthened the king's aversion to grant
a general constitution, and agitated against
Hardenberg's projected constitution. On
August ist the Contract of Toplitz was
agreed upon, which, though intended to
be kept secret, was to form the basis of the
Carlsbad conferences ; a censorship was
to be exercised over the Press and the uni-
versities, and Article 13 of the Act of
Federation was to be explained in a corre-
sponding sense. Metternich triumphed, for
even Hardenberg seemed to submit to him.
Metternich returned with justifiable self-
complacency to Carlsbad, where he found
« ». ... his selected body of diplo-
Metternich s , • , j li t t r
matists, and over the heads of
Reactionary
Measures
the Federal Diet he discussed
with the representatives of a
quarter of the governments, from August
6th to 31st, reactionary measures of the
most sweeping character. Gentz, the secre-
tary of the congress, drew up the minutes
on which the resolutions of Carlsbad were
mainly based. Metternich wished to grant
to the Federal Diet a stronger influence on
the legislation of the several states, and
4836
through it indirectly to guide the govern-
ments, unnoticed by the public. The inter-
pretation of Article 13 of the Act of
Federation Was deferred to ensuing con-
ferences at Vienna, and an agreement was
made first of all on four main points. A
very stringent press law for five years
was to be enforced in the case of all papers
appearing daily or in numbers, and of
pamphlets containing less than twenty
pages of printed matter ; and every federal
state should be allowed to increase the
stringency of the law at its own discretion.
The universities were placed under the
strict supervision of commissioners ap-
pointed by the sovereigns ; dangerous
professors were to be deprived of their
office, all secret societies and the universal
student associations were to be prohibited,
and no member of them should hold a
public post. It was enacted that a central
commission, to which members were sent
by Austria, Prussia, Bavaria, Hanover,
Baden, Hesse-Darmstadt, and Nassau,
should assemble at Mainz to investigate the
treasonable revolutionary societies wliich
had been discovered ; but, by the distinct
^, _, _. declaration of Austria, such
Ihe 1 e Ueum , i j i
. . commission should have no
_ .. . judicial power. A preliminary
Reactionaries ■• ,• ^ , / , . /
executive order, to terminate
after August, 1820, was intended to secure
the carrying out of the resolutions of the
Federation for the maintenance of internal
tranquillity, and in given cases mihtary
force might be employed to effect it.
On September ist the Carlsbad con-
ferences ended, and the party of reaction
sang their Te Deum. Austria appeared to
be the all-powerful ruler of Germany. " A
new era is dawning," Metternich wrote to
London. The Federal Diet accepted the
Carlsbad resolutions with unusual haste
on September 20th, and they were pro-
claimed in all the federal states. Austria
had stolen a march over the others, and
the Federal Council expressed its most
humble thanks to Francis therefor. All
free-thinkers saw in the Carlsbad resolu-
tions not merely a check on all freedom and
independence, but also a disgrace ; nev^er-
theless, the governments, in spite of the
indignation of men like Stein, Rotteck,
Niebuhr, Dahlmann, Ludwig Borne, and
others, carried them out in all their harsh-
ness. The central commission of inquiry
hunted through the Federation in search
of conspiracies, and, as its own reports
acknowledge, found nothing of importance,
THE REACTION IN CENTRAL EUROPE
but unscrupvilously interfered with the life
of the nation and the individual. Foreign
countries did not check this policy,
although many statesmen, Capodistrias at
their head, disapproved of the reaction.
The Students' Association was officially
dissolved on November 26th, 18 19, 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 Met-
t e r n i c h pre-
scribed. Every
suspected per-
son was re-
garded in Berlin
as an imported
conspirator.
The edict of
censorship of
1819, dating
from the day
of liberation,
October i8th,
breathed the
unholy s])irit
of W o 1 1 n e r ;
foreign journals
were strictly
supervised. The
reac t i on was
nowhere more
irreconcilable
than in Prussia,
wliere nothing
recalled the say-
ing of Frederic
the Great, that
every man
might be happy
after his own
fashion. The
gymnasia were
as relentlessly
persecuted as
the intellectual
exercises of university training ; nothing
could be more detestable than the way in
which men like Arndt, Gneisenau, and
Jahn were made to run the gauntlet,
or a patriot like Justus Gruner was
ill-treated on his very deathbed, or
the residence of Gorres in Germany ren-
dered intolerable. This tendency obviously
crippled the fulfilment of the royal promise
of a constitution — a promise in which
Humboldt
Frederic William had never been serious.
Hardenberg and Humboldt were per-
petually quarrelling ; Humboldt attacked
the exaggerated power of the chancellor,
who was not competent for his post ;
Hardenberg laid a new plan of a constitu-
tion before the king on August nth, 1819.
The king, in this dispute, took the side of
Hardenberg, and the dismissal of Boyen
and Grolman was followed, on December
31st, 1819, by that of Humboldt and
Count Beyme.
Metternich re-
joiced ; Hum-
boldt, the
"thoroughly
bad man," was
put on one side
and thence-
forth lived for
science.
Hardenberg's
position was
once more
strengthened ;
his chief object
was to carry the
revenue and fin-
ance laws. On
January 17th,
1820, the ordi-
nance as to the
condition of the
national debt
was issued, from
which the
Liberals re-
ceived the
comforting as-
surance that the
Crown would
not be able to
raise new loans
except under
Eichhorn
A GROUP OF DISTINGUISHED GERMANS the joiut
Entering the service of Prussia in 178(1, Baron von Stein worked for pro- guarantee Ot
gress and laid the foundations of Prussia's subsequent greatness. +]-,p nroOO^ed
Rotteck, a professor at Freiburg, was eminent as a historian and publicist ; r r
famous as a naturalist and traveller, Humboldt explored unknown assembly of the
lands, while Eichhorn was a prominent Prussian statesman and jurist. , 4.0c. ^r>A
est ares, ano
that the trustees of the debt would furnish
the assembly with an annual statement of
accounts. Shipping companies and banks
were remodelled ; the capital account
was to be published every three years.
Hardenberg then brought his revenue
laws to the front, and in spite of many
difficulties these laws, which, though
admittedly imperfect, still demanded
attention, were passed on May 20th, 1820.
4837
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
Ideal
of Union
In accordance with the agreement made
in Carlsbad, the representatives of the
inner federal assembly met in Vienna, and
deliberated from November 25th, 181Q.
to May 24th. 1820, over the head of the
Federal Diet ; the result, the final act of
Vienna of May 15th, 1820, obtained the
same validity as the Federal Act of 1815.
„ . In the plenary assembly of June
8th. 1820, the Federal JDiet pro-
moted it to be a fundamental
law of the Federation. Particu-
larism and reaction had scored a success,
and the efficiency of the Federal Diet was
once more crippled. The nation was
universally disappointed by the new-
fundamental law, which realised not one
of its expectations ; but Metternich
basked in the rays of success.
The question of free intercourse between
the federal states had also been discussed
in Vienna, and turned men's looks to
Prussia's efforts towards a customs union.
The Customs Act of May 26th, 181 8, was
unmercifully attacked ; it was threatened
with repeal at the Congress of Aix-la-
Chapelle, but weathered the storm, and
found protection from Johann Friedrich
Eichhorn. In the field of material interests
Eichhorn had a free hand ; he was a hero
of unobtrusive work, who with inde-
fatigable patience went towards his goal —
the union of the German states to Prussia
hy the bond of their own interests. In
1819 he invited the Thuringian states,
which formed enclaves in Prussia, to a
tariff union, and on October 25th in that
year the first treaty for accession to the
tariff union was signed with Schwarzburg-
Sondershausen ; since this was extremely
advantageous to the pett}^ state, it
served as a model to all further treaties
with Prussian enclaves.
The German Commercial and Industrial
Association of the traders of Central and
Southern Germany was founded in Frank-
fort during the April Fair of i8ig, under
^. -, , the presidency of Professor
I he Oeneral -r-, ■ f • i y • T x t---i_-
^ . , rnednch List of Tubmsren.
Commercial ^, • i r ,i °-
. ... Ihe memorial of the associa-
Association , . , , .. .
tion, drawn up by List and
presented to the diet, pictured as its
ultimate aim the universal freedom of
commercial intercouise between every
nation ; it called for the abolition of the
inland tolls and existing federal tolls on
foreign trade, but was rejected. List now
attacked the several governments, scourged
in his journal the faults of German
4838
commercial policy, was an opponent of the
Prussian Customs Act, and always recurred
to federal tolls. Far clearer were the
economic views of the Baden statesman
Karl Friedrich Nebenius, whose pamphlet
was laid before the Vienna conferences.
He too attacked the Prussian Customs Act :
but his pamphlet, in spite of all its merits,
had no influence on the development of the
tariff union. Johann Friedrich Benzenberg
alone of the well-known journalists of the
day spoke for Prussia. Indeed, the hos-
tility to Prussia gave rise to the abortive
separate federation of Southern and
Central Germany, formed at Darmstadt in
1820. Such plans were foredoomed to
failure. All rival tariff unions failed in the
same way.
Hardenberg's influence over Frederic
William III. had been extinguished by
Metternich, and the Chancellor of State
was politically dead, even before he closed
his eyes, on November 26th, 1822. A
new constitution commission under the
presidency of the Crown Prince Frederic
William (IV.), who was steeped in roman-
ticism, consisted entirely of Hardenberg's
opponents, and would only be
.*.*'* content with charters for the
T^'**" h several provinces. The king
consented to them. After
Hardenberg's death the king could not
consent to summon Wilhelm von Hum-
boldt, but abolished the presidency in the
Cabinet. The king contented himself
with the law of June 5th, 1823, as to the
regulation of provincial estates.
Bureaucracy and feudalism celebrated
a joint victory in this respect. Austria
could be contented with Prussia's aversion
to constitutional forms, and, supported
by it, guided the Federal Diet, in which
Wiirtemberg, owing to the frankness
and independence of its representative,
Wangenheim. now and again broke
from the trodden path. Wangenheim
suggested the plan of confronting the great
German powers with a league " of pure
and constitutional Germany," under the
leadership of Bavaria and Wiirtemberg,
pioposing to create a triple alliance. But
the Menna conferences of Januarj-, 1823,
arranged by Metternich, soon led to
Wiirtemberg'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 unhapp}' Central
Enquiry Commission at Mainz in 1828.
THE
RE-MAKING
OF
EUROPE
EUROPE
AFTER
WATERLOO
IV
THE RESTORED FRENCH MONARCHY
REACTION TRIUMPHANT IN THE LATIN STATES
TTHE restored Bourbon monarch of
•■• France found himself in an exceedingly
difficult position. At his first restoration
in 1814, he had been disposed to maintain
the attitude of absolutism, and had con-
sented to grant a constitution in the form
of a concession bestowed by the benevo-
lence of the Crown. This "Charta" had
estabhshed two Chambers — .one of peers,
nominated by the Crown, the other of
representatives elected under a high
franchise. But the Royalists even then
had shown a zeal which Louis had not
restrained for the recovery of old rights
and of the old supremacy. The masses
of the people had thereby been alienated.
Louis recognised his error, and was now
determined to abide by his constitution ;
but the Royalists saw only that their side
was uppermost. Like the English Cavaliers
when Charles IL came back to " enjoy
his own again," they hoped to get back all
that they had lost with interest.
ims o j^^^^ ^j_^^ English Cavaliers
the French °
Royalists
had learnt very promptly to
recognise that the old order
had gone never to return ; the French
Royalists were not equally capable of
reconciling themselves to that doctrine.
More royalist than the king, they made
haste to seek to impose their views upon
him. Socially, the democratising of France
had not been swept away under the
Empire, though it had been so politically.
The political centralisation of the Empire
was only modified by the Charta ; but
the Royalists aimed at reversing the social
democratisation as well. Their head-
quarters were naturally established in the
entourage of Artois, the king's brother,
and the circle became known from his
residence as the Pavilion Marsan.
Louis, both from calculation and from
grasp of the situation, held fast to his con-
stitution, and was involved in continued
conflict with his brother and the Royalists
" quand meme," the party of no com-
promise. He had promised an amnesty,
but he did not succeed in checking the
" White Terror," the outbreak of royalist
violence in Southern France. In Mar-
seilles, Avignon, Nismes, Toulouse, and
other places disorders broke out, in
which religious fanaticism also played
its part. Bonapartists and Protestants
Th "Wh't "^^^^ murdered wholesale,
_, ,, ' among them Marshal Brune,
- Generals Lagarde and Ramel ;
courts and local authorities
were powerless to check the outrages.
Fouche 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 Bedoyere 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 conspir-
ing with the Duke of Orleans, being also
anxious to overthrow Talleyrand.
Fouche was attacked, nevertheless,
on all sides, was compelled to resign
the Ministry of Police in September,
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
Chamberlain, and replaced, to the satis-
faction, and indeed at the wish, of Russia,
by the former governor-general in Odessa,
the Duke of Richelieu, an emigre quite
unacquainted with French affairs. Louis,
who could not exist without
Favourites favourites, had given his heart
of the °
French King
to the former secretary of
Madame Mere, Decazes. As
Fouche's successor, he sided with the
Pavilion Marsan, passed sundry capri-
cious and arbitrary measures to main-
tain order, but was still far too mild
for the ultra-Royalists, who exercised a
sort of secondary government, and piro-
cured Talleyrand's help against him.
4839
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
The King
Dissolves the
The violence of this extreme section had
found its warrant in the first election to
the Chamber of Deputies in which it had
effected an electioneering victory. But
when the Pavilion Marsan and the deputies
wished to cap the repressive measures of
Decazes by making a farce of the very neces-
sary amnesty for their political opponents,
Louis found it necessary to
dissolve the Chambers, and
^, . the Royalist successes were
Chambers , -^ , ^ . ^^
not repeated at the new
election. The majority were supporters
of the moderate Richelieu, while Decazes
was, comparatively speaking, a progressive.
The new Chambers passed the Electoral
Law of 1817, which secured power to the
middle-class, in whom the ultra-Royalists
saw their strongest opponents, and the prin-
ciple adopted, that one-fifth of the deputies
should retire annually, in fact assured an
annual increase in what may be called the
existing Liberal majority. The Royalists
then turned their efforts to procuring a
very much lower franchise, in the belief
that the peasantry would be much more
amenable to the influence of clericals and
landowners than the now dominant classes.
Richelieu soon found himself alarmed
by what appeared to be the revival of
the revolutionary spirit, emphasised _ at
the elections of 1818 by the appearance
among the new deputies of Lafayette and
Benjamin Constant. His position seemed
strengthened by the success of France at
the Conference of Aix-la-Chapelle, where
he represented her in person and procured
the immediate withdrawal of the allied
garrisons. Nevertheless, his representa-
tions that the electoral law must be modi-
fied to check the democratic movement
failed to convince the king, and Richelieu
retired in December, 1818.
The Ministry of Dessoles, which now
took the lead, was dominated by Riche-
lieu's rival, Decazes, who became Minister
of the Interior. An arrangement was.
E t d d effected with the Curia on
Liberties ^^^S^st 23rd, 1819. Freedom
. p 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 Constitutionalists, 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
4840
batch of new peers in March, 1819, did not
give the Crown the hoped-for parliamen-
tary support. An alteration of the elec-
toral law seemed imperative ; it was
essential to show fight against the Left.
On November 20th, 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 opportunit}'' to get rid of
him. On February 13th, 1820, the king's
nephew, Charles Ferdinand, 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
king to dismiss his favourite, and Louis
dismissed Decazes on February 21st, 1820.
Richelieu became first Minister once
more. Decazes went to London as
ambassador, and received the title of
duke. This compulsory change of minis-
ters seemed to the king like his own
abdication. Exceptional legislation
against personal freedom was indeed
necessary, but it increased the
bitterness of the Radicals, who
Renewed
Bloodshed
. p . were already furious at the men-
ace of the Electoral Law of 1817.
Matters came to bloodshed in Paris in
June, 1820 ; the Right, 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. Richelieu admin-
istered the country in a strictly monarchical
spirit, but never became the man of the
ultra-Royalists of the Pavilion Marsan.
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. Fer-
dinand VII., the king so intensely desired
by the Spaniards, had soon shown himself
a mean despot, whose whole government
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 despicable party or
camarilla of favourites and courtiers
persecuted all liberals and all adherents of
Joseph Bonaparte. He restored all the
monasteries, brought back the Inquisition
and the Jesuits, and scared Spain once
REACTION TRIUMPHANT IN THE LATIN STATES
more into the deep darkness of the Middle
Ages ; he destroyed all benefits of govern-
ment and the administration of justice,
filled the prisons with innocent men, and
revelled with guilty associates. Trade
and commeice 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 ^-iretcnce at pursuing a
the influence of the Powers, particularly
of Russia, 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.
Regiments intended to be employed
against the rising in South America had
been assembled at Cadiz, but at this
centre a conspiracy against the Govern-
ment in Madrid broke out. On New
Year's Day, 1820, the colonel of the regi-
LOUIS XVIII. OF FRANCE DRAWING UP THE "CHARTA" AT ST. GUEN IN 1814
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 defection
from the mother country, in spite of all
counter measures; and the rising world
power of the United States of North
America was greatly strengthened. By
ment of Asturia, RiegO; proclaimed in
Las Cabezas de San Juan on the Isla de
Leon the constitution of 1812, arrested at
Arcos the commander-in-chief of the ex-
peditionary 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 ; Riego's
march through Andalusia turned out
disastrously, and he was forced on March
4841
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
iith to disband his followers at Bien-
venida. Quiroga also achieved nothing.
But the cry for the constitution of 1812
found a responsive echo in Madrid.
Galicia, Asturia, Cantabria, and Aragon
revolted. The royal government com-
pletely lost heart, since it had too evil a
conscience. The king, always a coward,
capitulated with undignified
eac ion alacrity, declared himself ready
. "^'g ™? *'' to gratify " the universal wish
of the people," and on
March 9th took a provisional oath of
adherence to the constitution of 181 2.
The whole kingdom was at the mercy
of the unruly and triumphant Left. It
was headed by Quiroga and Riego, and
the Government was obliged to confer upon
both these mutineers the rank of field-
marshal. Quiroga was the more moderate
of the two, and as Vice-president of the
Cortes, which met on July 9th, endea-
voured to organise a middle party. Riego
preferred the favour of the mob ; at
Madrid he received a wild ovation,
August 30th to September 6th, 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 cap-
tain-general of Galicia and Aragon, Riego
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
VL, who was absent in Brazil. A national
conspiracy against the British was quickly
suppressed in 1817 ; but the feeling of
indignation smouldered, and when Beres-
ford himself went to Rio Janeiro for
commands, secret societies employed his
absence to stir up fresh sedition. The
rebellion broke out on August 24th, 1820,
under Colonel Sepulveda and Count
p Silveira in Oporto, and Lisbon
or uga s fQ|iQ^.g(j g^j^ Q^ September
spirit of , , n^^ ■ j_ ■ ,-, , ^ ■
jj. 15th. the juntas mstitutedm
both places amalgamated into
one provisional government on October ist,
and when Beresford returned on October
loth, he was not allowed to land. The
Cortes of 1821 drew up, on March 9th, the
preliminary sketch of a constitution which
limited the power of the Crown, as it had
already been limited in Spain. All the
authorities swore to it ; Count Pedro
4842
Palmella, the foremost statesman of the
kingdom, advised John VL to do the same.
Jolm appeared in Lisl)on, left his eldest
son Dom Pedro behind as regent in Brazil,
and swore to the principles of the consti-
tution on July 3rd, 1821.
In Italy, m-anwhile, there was a strong
movement on foot in favour of republi-
canism 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 everything
that had occurred since 1789 to be simply
null and void. There was no prospect of
freedom and a constitution while he con-
tinued to reign. His prospective 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 role 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
Peaceful
Rule of Duke
Ferdinand
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 discontent,
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 Napoleon's
wife, the Empress Marie Louise, held sway.
InTuscany, the Grand Duke Ferdinand III.
reigned without any spirit of revenge ; 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 Leopold II.,
who continued to govern on the same
lines and with the same happy results.
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 civilised
lay state, especially after Consalvi was
REACTION TRIUMPHANT IN THE LATIN STATES
removed and Leo XII., 1823-1829,
assumed the reins of government. Secret
societies and conspiracies budded, and
brigandage took a fresh lease of hfe. The
secret society of the Carbonari, having
become too large for Neapolitan soil — 1808
—maintained re-
lations with the
Freemasons, who
had influence in
the Italian dis-
putes, and with
Queen Mary
Caroline of
Naples. Later,
the Government
vainly tried to
suppress the
Carbonari, who,
though degraded
by the admission
of the most no-
torious criminals
was powerless against them. The ne.vly
revived citizen militia was immediately
infected by the Carbonari, which tempted
it with the charm of a " conscitution."
Gughelmo Pepe, an ambitious general,
but fickle character, became the soul ot
the Carbonari in
theSicilianarmy,
and gave them a
considerable de-
gree of military
efficiency. He
contemplated in
1819 the arrest
of the king, the
Emperor and
Empress of Aus-
tria, and Met-
ternich, at a
review. The
plan was not
executed, but the
spell of the
THE DUKE OF RICHELIEU AND DECAZES
The Duke of Richelieu, an emigre and formerly g-overnor-general at
Inrl o-oinprl dhnlH Odessa, was appointed to succeed Talleyrand as High Chamberlain Qi^oniQh insnr-
liaa gainea anoia though he was quite unacauainted with French affairs, while Dccazes, '^P'il"^'" ^"^Ui
on every stratum who supported the Bourbon restoration, became a great favourite of rCCtlOU and the
- -^ the king. He was dismissed in 1S20, and went to London as ambassador. „p^ COnstitutioU
of society
The misgovernment of Naples and Sicily
gave a plausible excuse for revolutionary
agitation. King Ferdinand IV., a phleg-
matic old man, full of cunning and trea-
chery, licentiousness and cruelty, had not
fulfilled one of the promises which he had
given on his return to the
throne, but had, on the con-
trary, secretly promised the
Court of Vienna that he would
not- grant his country a con-
stitution until Austria set
him the example. On Dec-
ember nth, 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 abolishing
ensnared him and his partisans. On July
2nd, 1820, two sub-lieutenants raised the
standard of revolt at Nola, and talked
foohshly about the Spanish constitution,
which was totally unknown to them. On
the 3rd this was proclaimed in Avellino.
. Pepe assumed the lead of the
movement, which spread far
and wide, and marched upon
Naples. The Ministry changed.
Ferdinand placed the govern-
ment temporarily in the hands
of his son Francis, who was
detested as the head of the
Calderari, and the latter
accepted the Spanish consti-
tution on July 7th, a policy
which Ferdinand confirmed.
On the 9th, Pepe entered
Naples in triumph, with
soldiers and militia ; and
Ferdinand, with tears in his
eyes, took the oath to the
A LEADER OF REVOLT
Riego was at the head of the Madrid
the constitution which Lord ri^'ng of if ^ : his march through constitution on the 13th, in
iiiv^ <^wii.oi.j.i.Lii,iwii vvlll^-ll A^KjLyu. Aij(jalusia tumcd out disastrously, -^
Bentinck had given them in and he disbanded his followers. He
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 Cal-
derari, a rival reactionary society. The
army was neglected. Secret societies and
bands of robbers vied with each other in
harassing the country, and the Government
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 indig-
nant Metternich that all his oaths and
promises had been taken under com-
pulsion and were not seriously meant.
4843
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
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 July 14th ; on the i8th
there was fighting in the streets of Palermo.
The governor, Naselli, fled, and the mob
ruled ; immediately afterwards a provisional
government was installed. The
,. *^_ ° independent action of Sicily
the Governor ^ j . j- . . ■"
p, ... aroused great discontent m
Naples. General Florestan
Pepe 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 5th, and sacrificed Pepe to
the clamour of the Neapolitan Parliament ;
the gulf between the two parts of the
kingdom became wider. Met-
ternich 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 in-
tentions of Ferdinand's
" paternal " government.
The insurrection in Spain
had made such an impression
on Alexander that in a cir-
cular of May 2nd, 1820, he
invoked the spirit of the
Holy Alliance, and emphasised
the danger of illegal constitu-
tions. Metternich strength-
ened the Austrian forces in
Upper Italy, and stated, in a circular to
the Italian courts, that Austria, by the
treaties of 18 15, was the appointed guar-
dian of the peace of Italy, and wished for
an immediate armed interference in the
affairs of Naples ; but he encountered
strong opposition in Paris and in St.
Petersburg. Alexander, whom Metternich
actually suspected of Carbonarism, advised
a conference of sovereigns and Ministers ;
the conference met on October 20th,
1820, at Troppau. Alexander brought with
him Capodistrias, an enemy of Metternich ;
Francis I. brought Metternich and Gentz ;
Frederic William III. was accompanied by
Hardenberg and Count Giinther von Bern-
storff ; the Count de la Ferronays appeared
on behalf of Louis XVIII. ; and Lord
Stewart . represented the faint-hearted
pjlicy of his brother Castlereagh, which
4844
JOHN VI OF PORTUGAL
After acting as reg-ent for his
mother, he succeeded to the throne ;
a rebellion broke out in ISiO, and
the king agreed to a constitution
limiting the power of the Crown.
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 tsar.
Alexander saw before his own eyes how
the Spanish and Italian military revolts
excited imitation in the Russian army.
Frederic William was equally conciliatory
to Metternich, and was more averse than
ever to granting a constitution on the
model of Hardenberg's schemes. In the
protocol of November 19th, Austria,
Prussia, and Russia came to an agreement,
behind the back of the two
Western Powers, as to the
position which they would
adopt towards revolutions,
and as to the maintenance
of social order ; but France
and Great Britain rejected the
idea of changing the principles
of international law. Fer-
dinand took fresh oaths to his
people and set out for Troppau.
After Christmas the con-
gress 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, 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 Bour-
bons : the widow of Berry gave birth, on
September 29th, 1820, to a son, the Duke
Henry of Bordeaux, who usually appeared
later under the name of Count of Cham-
bord.- The legitimists shouted
for joy, talked of the miracu-
lous child 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 Chat-
eaubriand had drawn from the Jordan. The
Spanish Bourbons looked askance at the
b'rth : they were already speculating on the
f iiture succession to the throne. and the Duke
of Orleans secretly suggested in the English
The "Mir'clj
of the French
Bourbons
REACTION TRIUMPHANT IN THE LATIN STATES
Press suspicious of the legitimacy of the
child. Louis successively repressed several
military revolts, but had constantly to
Scruggle with the claims of the ultras, who
embittered his reign. Although in his
heart opposed to it, he nevertheless as-
sented at Laibach to the programme of
the Eastern Powers.
Austria sent an army under
Frimont over the Po, and
ujAeld 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 Feb-
ruary 26th, 1821, the deli-
berations 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 resolu-
tions were not voluntary,
preparations for resistance were so de-
fective that the Austrians had an easy
task. The Neapolitan army broke up
after the defeat of Guglielmo Pepe at Rieti
on March 7th, 1821, and on March 24th
Frimont's army marched int( ■
Naples with sprigs of olive 111
their helmets. Pepe fled ti>
Spain. In Naples the re-
action perpetrated such ex-
cesses that the Powers inter-
vened ; the victims were
countless, while the Austrians
maintained order.
In Piedmont the revolu-
tion broke out on March
loth, 1821 ; Charles Albert
of Carignan did not keep
aloof from it. The tricolour
flag, red, white, and green, of
the Kingdom of Italy was
hoisted in Alessandria, and a
arrival, accepted, contrary to his inward
conviction, the new constitution, and swore
to it on March 15th. Charles Felix, how-
ever, considered every administrative
measure null and void which had not
emanated from himself. Charles Albert
was panic-stricken, resigned the regency,
and left the country. Alex-
ander and Metternich agreed
that there was need of armed
intervention in Piedmont.
Austria feared also the corrup-
tion of her Italian provinces,
and kept a careful watch upon
those friends of freedom who
had not yet been arrested.
At Novara, on April 8th, the
Imperialists 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 occu-
King of Sardinia from 1^ 1 4, he was pied by the imperial army ; the
a bigoted, narrow-minded ruler. • > • i i ir- j_
His retrogressive policy led to a JUUta resigned, and VlCtOF
rising in 1821 and he abdicated in Emmanuel renewed his abdica-
favour of his brother Charles Pelix. j. a -i .i -kt-
tion on April 19th, at Nice.
Charles Felix then first assumed the royal
title and decreed a criminal inquiry. On
October i8th he made his entry into Turin
amid the mad rejoicings of the infatuated
mob, suppressed every sort of political
and ruled in death-like quiet, being
supported by the bayonets
of Austria and by the do-
minion of the Jesuits in
Church, school, and State.
The Austrians did not leave
his country until 1823. ^^
May I2th, 1821, a proclama-
tion issued from Laibach by
the Eastern Powers announced
«K9*j3 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
VICTOR EMMANUEL
But their
]varty
GUGLIELMO PEPE
An ambitious general, but fickle
provisional junta on the t^h'e cfrbona.w 'n triicman ar'myf Chancellor of State, stood at
Spanish model was assembled, and in 1 820 he assumed supreme the zenith of his success when,
Turin proclaimed the parlia- ^°'"'' ^' commander-in-chief, on May 5th, 1821, Napoleon I.,
mentary constitution on March nth, and the man who had contested his importance
the Carbonari seized the power. Victor
Emmanuel I. abdicated on March 13th in
favour of his brother Charles Felix. Ckarles
Albert, a vacillating and untrustworthy
ruler, who was regent until the latter's
and had ruled the world far more than Met-
ternich, died at St. Helena. The black and
3'ellow flag waved from Milan to Palermo ;
princes and peoples bowed before it.
Legitimacy had curbed the revolutionary
4845
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
craving, and Italy was further from
unification than ever. The apostles of
freedom and unit}^ men like Silvio Pellico,
disappeared in the dungeons of the
Spielberg and other fortresses in Austria.
Russia was now on the most friendly
terms with Austria. The result was soon
seen when the monarchs and Adnisters, still
at Laibach, received tidings
of disorders in the Danubian
An Era of
Conspiracy
d A h pi'Jiicipalities and in Greece, and
^ the tsar, under Metternich's in-
fluence, repudiated the Greek leader, Ypsi-
lanti, who had built on the theory that he
could reckon on the warm support of Russia.
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
Richelieu preferred neutrality. The ultra-
Royalists, however , became more and more
arrogant in France. The Pavilion Marsan
expelled Richelieu in December, 1821,
and brought in the Ministry of Vill le ;
the reaction felt itself fully victorious, and
the clergy raised their demands. The
Carbonari 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 Vill ie was not
royalist enough for the ultras. Ferdi-
nand VII., on the contrary, favoured the
Radicals, in order to employ them against
the Liberals. Riego 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 surrendered those who had sacri-
ficed themselves for him. In the north
guerrilla bands spread in every direction
_ . on his behalf; in Seo de Urgel
e ragic ^ i-egency for him was estab-
-, ., . lished on August 15th, and an
Castlereagh „. x j • I j^i
alliance entered mto with
France. At the preliminary deliberations
for the congress intended to be held at
Verona, Metternich reckoned upon his
" second self," Castlereagh, now the
Marquess of Londonderry ; but the latter
died by his own hand on August 12th, 1822.
His successor in the Foreign (JiS.ce, George
Canning, a " Tory from inward conviction,
4846
a modern statesman from national neces-
sit}'," 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 bril-
liant since that of Vienna. In October,
1822, came Alexander, Francis, and Fre-
deric 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 Ferro-
nays, and the Marquis of Caraman ;
Great Britain by Wellington and Viscount
Strangford. Entertainments were on as
magnificent a scale as at Vienna. Metter-
nich wished to annul the Spanish and
Portuguese revolution, and with ii the
extorted constitution ; the Eastern Powers
and France united for the eventuahty of
further hostile or revolutionary steps
being taken by Spain ; Great Britain
excluded itself from their agreements,
while Chateaubriand's romanticism in-
_ , toxicated the tsar. When the
C/ongress of /^ i < ii i j.
p Greeks at the congress sought
y help against the Turks, they were
coldly refused. On the other
hand, an understanding was arrived at
about the gradual evacuation of Pied-
mont 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, ac-
cording to the example given by the
United States of North America, in March,
1822. The Congress of Verona ended
toward the middle of December.
Chateaubriand, now French Minister
of Foreign Affairs, urged a rupture with
Spain, at which Louis and Vill le still
hesitated. The thr-eatening notes of the
Powers at the Verona congress roused a
storm of passion in Madrid, while the
dijjlomatists 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. should be repeated with
another background in the case of Ferdi-
nand VII. The Spanish nation revolted
REACTION TRIUMPHANT IN THE LATIN STATES
against the arrogance ot foreign interference.
The rupture was made ; the ambassadors
of Russia, Austria, Prussia, and France
left Spain in January, 1823. The adven-
turous George Bessie res venKu-ed 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
ne])hew, Duke Louis of
Angouleme, at the head of
an army of 100,000 men.
which was to free Ferdinand
from the power of the
Liberals and put him ance
again in possession of
despotic power. In the
Chamber at Paris the
Liberals, indeed, loudly de-
cried the war, and trembled
at the suppression of the
CHATEAUBRIAND
professions. He was accorded a state
reception by Angouleme on October ist,
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 Ferdinand
exclaimed: " The wretches
do well to fly from their
fate ! " The Powers of
Europe viewed his action
with horror. Angouleme,
whose warnings had been,
scattered to the winds, left
Madrid in disgust on Nov-
ember 4th. Riego was
hanged at Madrid on
November 7th, 1823 ; on
the 13th Ferdinand returned
ti^iumphant, only to reign
as detestably as before.
Spanish revolution, although This eminent French writer and poii- Talleyrand called the war
Canning openly desired the ^^^^^ l.lTuu^ahl-u'utZ^^^^^^^^ of intervention the begin-
victory of the Spanish a vicomte, and for two years repre- iiing of the end ; the rcsult of
people. Ferdinand and the ^""'"'^ ^''""^^ ^' '^^ ^"''''^ ^°"'-^- it was that Spain floundered
Cortes went to Seville. Angouleme crossed
the frontier stream, the Bidassoa, on April
7th, and found no traces of a popular rising ;
nevertheless, he advanced, without any
opposition, was hailed as a saviour, and
entered Madrid on May 24th. He appointed
a temporary regency, and in
order not to hurt the national
pride, avoided any inter-
ference in internal affairs,
although the reactionary zeal
of the regency caused him
much uneasiness, and only re-
tained 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
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 ; all the subtleties
of the congress at Verona and of Chateau-
briand could not change that
fact. At Canning's proposal
the British Government, on
January ist, 1825, recognised
the independence of the new
repubhcs 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 Russia and Prussia.
The Spanish insurrection
naturally affected the neigh-
bouring country of Portugal.
Angouleme made forced dona maria 11. da gloria The September Constitution
marches to Cadiz, and on the Joun^^d^by Ped^o'Yv'^'orB^azfr ^^ ^^^o, far from improving
night of August 31st stormed in favour of his daughter, but when matters there, had actuallv
Fort Trocadero, which was Sng in'^if^^he°rSnf d V"her introduced new difficulties,
considered impregnable. An father, and was restored in 1834, ConstitutionaHsts and abso-
expedition of Riego to the Isla de Leon lutists were quarrelling violently with each
ended in his arrest, and on September 28th
the Cortes, in consequence of the bombard-
ment of Cadiz, abandoned their resistance.
Ferdinand VII. voluntarily promised a
complete amnesty and made extensive
other. Dom Pedro, son of John VI., who
had been appointed regent in Brazil, saw
himself compelled by a national party,
which wished to make Brazil an indepen-
dent empire, to send away the Portuguese
4847
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
ti'oops. He assumed in May, 1822, the
t'tle of permanent protector of Brazil,
and convened a national assembly at
Rio de Janeiro, which on August ist and
on September 7th announced the inde-
pendence of Brazil, and proclaimed him,
on October 12th, 1822, Emperor of Brazil,
under the title of Dom Pedro I. 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 Miguef, the
clergy, and many nobles, to restore the
absolute monarchy. A counter re-
volution 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 consti-
tution ; the Cortes were
dissolved. John promised a
new constitution, and trium-
phantly entered Lisbon with
his son on June 5th. Por-
tugal was brought back to
absolutism. John was a mere
cipher ; but Miguel and Char
lotte ruled, and did
on March loth, 1826, reigned for a short
period over his native country as Pedro IV.
Then, on May 2nd, Pedro renounced the
crown of Portugal in favour of his daugh-
ter,- Dona Maria II. da Gloria. On June
25th, 1828, Dom Miguel proclaimed him-
self king, favoured by the British Tory
Cabinet of Wellington. His niece, Maria da
Gloria, was forced to return to her father
in Brazil.
The 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 XVm. " It was not
merely under Napoleon that victories were
won ; the restored Bourbons knew this
and the "hero of Trocadero"
was hailed as their "cham-
pion " by the king on
December 2nd, 1823. The
elections to the Chambers of
1824 were favourable to them ;
and a law in June of the same
year prolonged the existence
of the Second Chamber to
seven years, which might
seem some check on change
and innovation. VilLle
stood firm at the helm,
o V e«- 1 h r e w Chateaubriand,
secret
DOAl 1> JGUEL
rie became regent of Portugal on and guidcd Baron DamaS,
not ^^^*'^ °f ,•?'- "'«« ^^'J?;: ^"?f his successor at the
being- ambitious, proclaimed hiraself ^^^k.^^^^^,. vj... m^
shrink even from the king, when Maria recovered the FoiTigu Office. But Chateau-
murder of opponents. Miguel crown, Miguel withdrew to Italy. ^^-^^^ rcvengcd himself by
h. aded a new revolt against his father
on April 30th, 1824, in order to depose him.
But John made his escape on May gth
to a British man-of-war. The diplomatic
body took his side, and at the same time
liie pressure brought to bear by the British
Government compelled Miguel to throw
himself at his father's feet and to leave
Portugal on May 13th. An amnesty v/as
proi-laimed. The return of the old Cortes
vv.iich had sat before 1822 was promised,
and by British mediation the Treaty of Rio
was signed on August 2C)th, 1825, in which
the independence and self-government of
Brazil were recognised. On April 26th,
1826, Portugal received a Liberal Constitu-
tion by the instrumentality of Dom Pedro
I. of Brazil, who after his father's death,
the most bitter attacks in the Press.
Louis thereupon, at the advice of Villele,
revived the censorship on political journals
and newspapers, August i6th, 1824. The
much-tried man was nearing his end. He
warned his brother to uphold the Charta
loyally, the best inheritance which he
bequeathed ; if he did so, he too would
die in the palace of his ancestors.
Louis XVIII. died on September i6th,
1824. France hailed Monsieur as
Charles X., with the old cry, " Le roi est
mort, vive le roi." But Talleyrand had fore-
bodings that the kingdom of Charles would
soon decay ; and, with his usual coarseness
of sentiment, he said over the corpse of
Louis: "I smell corruption here!"
Arthur Kleinschmidt
^ '^ liliiillitli III '"ill iiii
4848
THE
RE-MAKING
OF
EUROPE
mtmoj
EUROPE
AFTER
WATERLOO
V
THE CROSS AND THE CRESCENT
REVOLT AND OPPRESSION IN RUSSIA
AND THE LIBERATION OF GREECE
"\Y7E have seen that the Tsar Alexander I.,
^ when he ascended the throne of Russia,
was full of liberal ideas. If he wavered
between antagonism to Napoleon and
alliance with him, it was, in part at least,
because Napoleon's own career bore a
double aspect ; if he was an aggressive
CQnqueror who sought to impose his own
will on Europe regardless of international
law, he was also the incarnation of anti-
feudalism. It was not until after the
Congress of Vienna and the Peace of Paris
that the change came over the tsar
which made him a force in Europe hardly
less reactionary than Metternich himself.
But it is with his domestic policy, his
policy within the borders of his own
empire, that we are here concerned ; his
foreign policy has already appropriated a
conspicuous share of earlier chapters.
On his accession, then, he
reigned in a liberal spirit, and
The Tsar's
Desire for
Reforms
surrounded himself with men of
the same views ; among them
his Secretary of State, Michael Speranskij,
was conspicuous. Magnanimous plans
were proposed, and the emperor himself
spoke of the buiden of an absolute
monarchy. There was a wish to introduce
reforms on the English model, or, as Sper-
anskij suggested, an imitation of the
French Constitution. People talked, as
Catharine had once done, of " the rights of
the subjects, and the duty of the Govern-
ment," and of the abolition of serfdom ;
and a sum of a million roubles yearly
was laid aside in order to buy estates
with serfs for the Crown.
The German nobility of Esthonia, Cour-
land, and Livonia took the first step by
the emancipation of the Lettic and
Esthonian serfs. The coercive measures
were repealed, the frontier opened, the
" Secret Chancery " as well as corporal
punishment for nobles, citizens, priests, and
church officials abolished. Schools and
universities were founded, and the empire
was divided into six educational districts.
In place of the old boards dating from the
days of Peter, real Ministries and a Council
of State were created for the first time.
Alexander thus reigned "according to the
principles and after the heart of Catharine "
.,, , , until 1812, when he suddenly
Attempt to 1 J 1, • 'Ti
„ , ^. changed his Views. Ihe ene-
Kestorc the • r x j j^i /^t_ i
rkij i% J mies 01 freedom, the Church
Old Order . . i_ ■ i_ j
once more at their head,
strained every nerve to overthrow Sper-
anskij, and restore the old order of things.
Even the great historian, Nikolaj Karam-
sin, recommended serfdom and autocracy
in his memoir on " Ancient and Modern
Russia." Others also recommended the
same policy. Speranskij was overthrown
from a " wounded feeling of disappointed
inclination " ; Count Alexej Araktshejev,
an apostle of slavery, as an all-powerful
favourite, guided the affairs of government.
Alexander did, indeed, make the attempt,
to which he had always been attracted, of
giving his reconstructed Poland a constitu-
tion ; but Poland was incapable of working
a constitution. Another of bis experiments
was that of establishing military/ colonies
all over the empire. The theory was that
the soldiery, planted on the soil, would
maintain themselves by agriculture, and
would at the same time provide centres
_ for recruiting and for military
ew o.m ^j.j^jj^jj^„ jgg practical effect.
Of Russian , '^ 1.1 i-
^ . however, was merely the appli-
cation of a new form of oppres-
sion to the already sufficiently oppressed
peasantry. The latter years of Alexander's
life were embittered by a sense of the
ingratitude of mankind. Conscious of his
own high purposes, he found his own
people, instead of recognising their nobility,
still murmuring and discontented, infected
even by the mutinous spirit of the Latin
4849
HARMS WORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
peoples. He expressed repeatedly a
desire to abdicate, and when he died at
Taganrog in December, 1825, it was with
no reluctance that he escaped from the
cares of sovereignty.
He left no children. Constantine, as
the elder of his brothers, would have had
the next claim to the throne had he not
formally renounced it in 1820
and 1822, in order to be able
to marry a Polish countess,
Johanna Grudzinska. The
idea that his brother Nicholas
had learnt nothing of this
before the memorable Decem-
ber days of the year 1825 is no
longer tenable. The homage
paid by the younger brother
to Constantine, who was stay-
ing in Warsaw, was a rash act
chiefly due to Count Milorado-
vitch, the miUtary Governor-
General of St. Petersburg at
that time, and it cost trouble
attention was given to the publication of
the legal code. His government aimed
at " stopping the rotation of the earth,"
as Lamartine aptly puts it. He recognised
no peoples or nations, only cabinets and
states. The Press was therefore once more
gagged, printing-offices were watched and
schools were placed under strict super-
vision. The Government's
mistrust of education was so
great that all lecture courses
on philosophy were entrusted
to the clergy. Even the Church
was watched, and the em-
peror's adjutant, Protassov,
a general of hussars, was
attached to the Holy. Synod
as Procurator-General, and
i for twenty years conducted
! the business of the Church
i on a military system. But
the movement towards ci\dlisa-
tion and hberty did not "f^ul
to have some influence even
noble contest of magnanimity between the
two brothers. But the idea of freedom had
already struck root so deeply under Alex-
ander I. that the supporters of a constitu-
tion, who had been secretly organised since
1816, especially in the corps of officers,
wished to use the opportunity of placing
the liberal-minded Constantine on the
throne. The rumour was spread
that Constantine's renunciation
Rebellion
Crushed by
Nicholas I.
NICHOLAS I. OF RUSSIA
enough to cancel it in the davs The son of Paul i., he succeeded on this iron despot, for he
between December 9th and S l-rf/orerliexk^defi.'^He advocated throughout his
24th, 1825. There is accord- aimed at absolute despotism but whole Hfc the abohtion of
ingly no need to suppose a «'°" ^^^ affection of his subjects, serfdom, and allowed even the
peasants to acquire property. Such was
the autocrat whose iron hand was to rule
Russia for thirty years after his accession.
In taking up the thread of the history
of the Ottoman Empire, we must note
certain events in the Napoleonic period
which have hitherto passed unrecorded,
as standing outside the general course of
our account of Europe. The movement,
which has by degrees turned one after
another of the provinces into practically
if not completely independent states, was
initiated in 1804 ^Y ^ Servian revolt,
caused by the violent methods of the
Turkish Janissaries, and headed by George
Petrovitch, otherwise known as Czerney, or
Karageorge. The insurrection broke out
locally at Sibnitza, Deligrad, Stalatz, and
Nish. Before long, Russian influence
^. ^ . brought to its support the
The Turks <- i-tt j • 1
D f tab ^^"^^^ Hospodars, or provmcial
iK^ S^ \ ^ administrators of Moldavia and
Wallachia, Constantine Murusiv
and Constantine Ypsilanti. The flame
spread, and in 1806 and 1807 the Serbs
inflicted defeats on the Turks at Shabatz
and Ushitze, imder the command of Milos
Obrenovitch, captured Belgrade, and estab-
lished the popular assembly, or Skuptskina.
Shortly before this, however, the Sultan
Selim had set himself to overthrow the
was only fictitious ; that he was
being kept a prisoner at Warsaw.
The troops shouted : " Long live Constan-
tine!" and when the cry "Long live the
Constitution ! " mingled with it, the
troops thought that it. was the name of
the wife of Constantine.
Nicholas L crushed the rebellion on
December 26th, 1825, with great firmness.
Several " Decabrists " were executed and
many exiled. Possibl}- that was one of
the reasons why Nicholas was throughout
his whole reign a sworn enemy of popular
liberty. A man of iron strength of character
and energy, he was, with his immense
stature and commanding presence, the
personification of absolutism. But he
was fully alive to the duties and respon-
sibilities which his great position threw
upon him, and he devoted all his powers
to the affairs of the country. His first
4S50
THE CROSS AND THE CRESCENT
Opponents
of the
New Sultan
dangerous power of the Janissaries by
means of a reorganisation of the army,
" Nisan Jedid." A further movement in
the same diiection in 1807 brought
disaster. The Janissaries rose ; Sehm was
deposed and murdered. The outcome of
a brief and bloody period of struggle was
that the one surviving prince of the royal
family, Mahmud, found himself placed on
the throne, and, to all intents and pur-
poses, in the hands of the Janissaries, who
had proved themselves to be the masters
of the situation. Hence the first act of
Mahnmd was to recognise these
praetorians in a solemn Hatti-
sherif, issued on November i8th,
as the firmest support of the
throne. The army and the population
greeted the one surviving descendant
of the Ottoman house with enthusiasm,
and the " Chok yasha Sultan Mahmud!"
resounded from thousands of throats in the
mosques and on the public squares. The
Ottoman dynasty had been saved as by a
miracle. The sultan, who was then twenty-
three years of age, was confronted by two
dangerous opponents, the Serbs and Rus-
sians. The latter were supporting the
Serbs and also the Montenegrins against
the Turks and the French in Dalmatia.
However, the war upon the Danube was
continued with - ^ -
no great vigour.
It was not until
the Peace of
Frederikshamn.
of September
17th, 1809, when
Russia acquired
Finland from
Sweden and
secured a guaran-
tee from Napo-
leon that the
Polish kingdom ^^^ -.?«^^^^»aiBa«K-
should not be ^^^^^^^^^^^/Bii
restored that ^-Hg- sultans selim hi. and mahmud
the lurkish War Sultan of Turkey, Selim HI. made an effort to overthrow the
affain took a ^^^n&erous power of the Janissaries, but the attempt ended in
° . disaster, Sehm being: deposed and assassinated in 1808. He was suc-
promment place ceeded on the throne by Mahmud IL, during whose reign Greece estab- mOSt
in R 11 «;';i a n I'^^ed its independence. Mahmud suppressed the Janissary troops.
policy. In 1810 Prince Bagration was
replaced by Count Kamenskii as supreme
commander over 80,000 men. He im-
mediately crossed the Danube, and on
June 3rd captured Bazarjik, which was
followed by the conquest of Silistria,
Sistova, Rustchuk, Giurgevo, and Nico-
polis. The fear of Napoleon and of a
Polish rising prevented further enterpiise.
After the death of Kamenskii, Kutusorf,
who was sixty-five years of age, utterlj;
defeated the Turks on October T2th, 1811,
at Slobodse and Rustchuk. This victory
decided the war. The British fleet made
a demonstration before the Dardanelles to
prevent the sultan agreeing to the Conti-
nental embargo of Napoleon.
The Peace of Bucharest, May 12th, 1812,
reconfirmed the conventions of Kiitchuk-
Kainarje and Jassy, ceded Bessarabia to
Russia, and gave the Serbs an amnesty,
greater independence, and an extension
of territory. The brothers Murusi, the
sultan's Phanariot negotiators, were ex-
ecuted upon their return home on
account of the extravagance of the
concessions made by them to the tsar.
The Russians had secured an influence
in Servia, which Austria had obstinately
disdained. When, however, in May, 1813,
the Russians appeared on the Oder and
Elbe the Turkish army again advanced
into Servia ; George Petrovitch fled to
Russia by way of Austria. The Ottomans
exacted a bitter vengeance upon the coun-
try, but on Palm Sunday, April nth,
1815, Milos Obrenovitch appeared with
the ancient banner of the voivodes. The
people as a whole flocked to the standard,
- and the Turks
were left in pos-
session only of
their fortresses.
On November
6th, 1817, Milos
was recognised
by the bishop,
the .Kneses and
people as voi-
vode ; while
Karageorge, who
had returned to
the country to
ally himself with
the Greek
H e t ffi r i a, was
murdered. Al-
c on tem-
porary with the
Society of the Philomusoi, which was
founded in Athens in 1812, arose in Greece
the secret confraternity of the " philiki,"
whose energies after some years brought
about the open struggle for freedom. Three
young Greeks— Skuphas of Arta, Tzaka-
loph of Janina, and Anagnostopulos of
Andritzena — founded the new Hetccria at
4851
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
Odessa in 1814, and swore " to arrive at
a decision between themselves and the
enemies of their country only by means of
fire and sword." Oaths of appalling solem-
nity united this growing band of comrades.
It aimed at complete separation from
Turkey, and the revival of the old Bj'zan-
tine Empire. This yearning for liberation
I proceeded from and was sus-
„ . * - tained by an intellectual renas-
Th G k ^^'^ce of the nation, rrom the
time of the conquest of Byzan-
tium by the Turks the Greeks had been
deprived of all political freedom. But under
the ecclesiastical protection of their patri-
arch in Phanar and in monasteries, at
Athos and Janina in Epirus. and in the
theological school of the Peloponnese at
Dimitzana, the spark of culture and
freedom had glowed amongst the ashes,
and was kept alive in the language of the
Church and the Gospel.
As was the case with the Armenians and
the Jews, superior intelligence and dexter-
ity secured the highest positions for the
Greeks in the immediate proximity of
the Padishah. After the position of first
interpreter of the Porte had fallen into
their hands, at the end of the seventeenth
century, all negotiations concerning foreign
policy were carried on through them ; they
were preferred for ambassadorial posts in
foreign courts, and from the eighteenth
century the Porte made a practice of
choosing from their numbers the hospodars
of Molda\da and Wallachia.
The opinion of an English diplomatist
upon these " Phanariots," shortly before
the outbreak of the Greek Revolution, is
well known : " Under the oppression
exercised b\' Turkish despotism with a
daily increasing force, the Greek character
acquired a readiness for subterfuge and a
perversity of judgment on questions of
morality, which a continuance of servitude
gradually developed to an habitual double
dealing and treachery, which strikes
Q^ the foreigner from the first
r c e c c nioment ." However, the Greeks
Devastated i i i • i ^ t-. •
„ „ • looked anxiously to Russian
oy Jcynemies , i i-,
champions and liberators, not-
withstanding all the apparent privileges
received from the Porte, from the time of
the Peace of Posharevatz, when the whole
of Morea fell into the possession of the
Turks. In the devastation which Russia's
attempt to liberate the Morea had brought
down upon Greece in 1770, when Hellas
and Peloponnese suffered inhuman devas-
4852
tation from the Albanians whom the Turks
called in, Athens and the islands had been
spared ; in 1779 the Turks found them-
selves obliged to send Hasan Pasha to
destroy the unbridled Albanians at Tripo-
litsa. In the Peace of Kiitchuk-Kainarje
in 1774, Russia had again been obliged to
abandon the Greeks to the Ottomans,
though the Turkish yoke became lighter
as the power of the Porte grew feebler.
The Hellenes enriched themselves by
means of commerce ; the sails of the
merchantmen sent out by the islands
covered the Mediterranean. During the
French Revolution almost the entire
Levant trade of the Venetians and the
French fell into their hands. The number
of Greek sailors was estimated at ten
thousand. In their struggles with the
pirates their ships had always sailed pre-
pared for war, and they had produced a
race of warriors stout-hearted and capable,
like the Armatoles, who served in the
armies of Europe. In the mountain
ranges of Mania, of Albania, and Thessaly
still survived the independent spirit of the
wandering shepherds, or " klephts," who
_ had never bowed to the Otto-
-..^ ^^ , man sword. The children of the
p . rich merchants who traded with
the coasts of Europe studied
in Western schools, and readily absorbed
the free ideals of the American Union and
the French Revolution. In the year 1796,
Constantine Rhigas of Pherae sketched in
Vienna a plan for the rising of his nation,
and secured an enthusiastic support for
his aims, which he sang in fiery ballads.
When he was planning to enter into
relations with Bonaparte, whom he re-
garded as the hero of freedom, he was
arrested in Trieste in 1798, and handed
over by the Austrian police, with five of his
companions, to the Pasha of Belgrade,
who executed him. He died the death of a
hero, with the words: " I have sown the
seed, and my nation will reap the sweet
fruit." Adamantios Korais, 1748-1833,
of Smyrna was working in Paris, together
with his associates, before the fall of
Napoleon, to bring about the intellectual
renascence of the Greeks, the " Palin-
genesia." The only thing wanting to these
associations was a leader, as was also the
case with the Serbs.
This leader was eventually provided by
Russia. Alexander Ypsilanti, born of a
noble Phanariot family, was a grandson of
the hospodar of Wallachia of the same
THE CROSS AND THE CRESCENT
name who had been murdered by the
Turks in 1805 at the age of eighty ; he was
a son of that Constantine Ypsilanti who,
having supported the Servian insurrection,
had been deposed from the post of hospodar
of Wallachia, and had fled into exile. As
the tsar's adjutant during the Vienna
Congress, he had inspired that monarch
with enthusiasm for the Hetsria.
Relying upon the silent consent of his
master, he went to Kishinefl[, in Bessarabia,
in September, 1820, with the object of
communicating with the leaders of the
federation in the Danubian principalities,
in Constantinople, and upon the mainland.
Availing himself of the difficulties caused
to the Porte by the revolt of Ali Pasha
of Janina, Alexander Ypsilanti, accom-
panied by his brother Constantine and.
Prince Cantakuzenos, crossed the Pruth
on March 6th, 1821, entered Jassy, sent
a report on the same night to the tsar,
who was awaiting the result of the con-
gress at Laibach, and forthwith issued
an appeal to the Greek nation. On
March 12th he started for Wallachia ;
not until April Qth did he reach Bucharest
« ,. ^ with =^,000 men. But from
now the Tsar -i , . ,, .
jj . . that moment the movement
Th^^G* k proved unfortunate. The
tsar, whose hands were tied
by the Holy Alliance and the influence
of legitimist theories, declared the Greeks
to be rebels, and the Russian consul in
Jassy openly disapproved of the Phanariot
enterprise. It now became manifest how
feeble was the popularity 01 these leaders on
the Danube. They were opposed by the
Boyars, the peasants fell away from them,
the Serbs held back, and treachery reigned
in their own camp. To no purpose did the
" Sacred Band " display its heroism at
Dragashani, in Little Wallachia, on June
19th, 1821, against the superior forces of
the Pasha of Silistria and Braila.
On June 26th, Ypsilanti escaped to
Austrian territory, where he spent the
best years of his life at Munkacs and
Theresienstadt in sorrowfiil imprisonment ;
his health broke down, and he died shortly
after his liberation on January 31st, 1828.
The last of the ill-fated band of heroes,
Georgakis, the son of Nikolaos, blew
himself up on September 20th, in the
monastery of Sekko, Moldavia. The
fantastic ideal of a greater Greece, em-
bracing not only the classic Hellas, but
also the Danube states of Byzantine
Greece, thus disappeared for ever. The
Morea was already m full revolt against
the Turks. On April 4th, 1821, the
insurgents took Kalamate, the capital of
Messenia, and Patras raised the flag of the
Cross. The fare of revolt spread on every
side, and destruction raged among the
Moslems. The insurrection was led by
the national hero, Theodore Kolokotroni,
J . , _ a bold adventurer and able
A *^ ^t th'"^ general, though his followers
C h*'" ■ ^ often did not obey their head ;
and the fleet of the islands did
excellent service. The successes of the
Greeks aroused boundless fury in Constanti-
nople. Intense religious hatred was kindled
in the Divan, and at the feast of Easter,
April 22nd, 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.
Enthusiasm for the Greek cause spread
throughout the whole of Europe. The
noblest minds championed the cause of the
warriors, who were inspired by their noble
past with the pride of an indestructible
nationality, and were defending the Cross
against the Crescent. Since the occupation
of Athens by the Venetians in 1688, the
eyes of educated Europe had turned to the
city of Athene. The Venetian engineers,
Vermada and Felice, had then drawn up
an accurate plan of the Acropolis and of
the town, which was published by Fran-
cesco Fanelli in his " Atene Attica," 1707.
Du Cange wrote his " History of the
Empire of Constantinople under the
Prankish Emperors " in 1657, and in 1680
his " Historia Byzantina." Since the
days of George, Duke of Buckingham,
1592-1628, and Thomas, Earl of Arundel,
1586-1646, a taste for the collection of
examples of Greek art had been increas-
ing in England. Wealthy peers sent
their agents to Greece and the East,
or journeyed thither themselves, as did
Lord Claremont, who corn-
Greek Art j-nisgioned Richard Dalton to
J* . . make sketches of the Greek
Fashion . , , c . •
monuments and works of art m
1749. James Stewart and Nicholas Revett
published sketches of " The Antiquities of
Athens " in 1751. In 1776 appeared
Richard Chandler's " Travels in Greece."
In 1734 the Society of Dilettanti had been
founded in London with avowedly Phil-
hellenic objects. In 1764 appeared Winc-
kelmann's " History of Ancient Art," and
4853
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
Europe
Inspired by
Greek Songs
in 1787 Edward Gibbon completed his
" Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire."
From 1812 onwards Beethoven's opera,
" The Ruins of Athens," had aroused tears
and sympathy in every feeling heart.
Numberless memories and recollections
now carried away the sympathies of
Europe, which had only just shaken off
the yoke of the Corsican con-
queror. In 1821 Philhellenic
unions were formed upon all
sides to support the "heroes of
Marathon and Salamis " with money and
arms. The banker, Eynard of Geneva, the
Wiirtemberg General Norman, the French-
man Comte Harcourt, the United States,
England, King Lewis I. of Bavaria, an
artistic enthusiast, and the painter Hei-
degger sent money, arms, and ships, or
volunteer bands. The populations of Europe
were inspired by the Greek songs of Wilhelm
Miiller and the verses of Lord Byron
" The mountains look on Marathon, and
Marathon looks on the sea," and later by
his heroic death, April 19th, 1824, at
Missolonghi. Even Goethe, the prince of
poets, with all his indifference to politics,
was fascinated by the fervour of the Greek
and Servian popular songs, and cast his
mighty word into the scale of humanity.
The Russian people had felt ever since
the beginning of the Hellenic war of in-
dependence the warmest sympathy for
their oppressed brethren, and after the
horrors of April 22nd the Government
could no longer resist the exasperation felt
against the Turks ; a storm of indignation
swept through the civilised world.
The Russian ambassador, Baron Stroga-
noff, a Philhellene, spoke vigorously for
the Christians, and suspended relations
with the Porte in June ; and Capodistrias
announced to the world, in his Note of
June 28th, an ultimatum to Turkey that
the Turks were no longer entitled to re-
main in Europe. A mood very unpleasing
to Metternich had come over the fickle
». .. .1 tsar ; the Cabinets of Vienna
Metternich j Ci. t -ii. x • l
. and St. James saw with astonish-
p. . J r-. ment that Stroganoff left Con-
stantinople in August. Metter-
nich once more laid stress on the fact
that the triumph of the Greek revolution
was a defeat of the Crown, while Capodi-
strias was for the support of the Greeks
and for war against Turkey. The Porte,
well aware of the discord of the Euro-
pean Cabinets, showed little wilUngness
to give way and agree to their demands.
4854
Kolokotroni had invested the Arcadian
fortress of Tripohtza since the end of
April, 182 1. AH Turkish attempts to
relieve the garrison proved futile, while
the militia had been drilled into efficient
soldiers, and on October 5th, 1821, Tri-
pohtza fell. The Greeks perpetrated gross
barbarities. Demetrius Ypsilanti, Alexan-
der's brother, who also had hitherto
served in Russia, 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. Alexander Mav-
rogordato, a man of far-reaching imagina-
tion, undertook, together with Theodore
Negri, the task of giving Hellas a fixed polit-
ical system. In November, 1821, Western
and Eastern Hellas, and in December the
Morea, received constitutions.
The National Assembly summoned by
Demetrius Ypsilanti to Argos was trans-
ferred to Piadlia, near the old Epi-
dauros, and proclaimed on January 13th,
1822, the independence of the Hellenic
. nation and a provisional con-
srat""!? stitution, which prepared the
P^^ ground for a monarch3^ While
it broke with the Hetaeria, it ap-
pointed Mavrogordato as Proedros (presi-
dent) of the executive council to be at the
head of affairs, and in an edict of January
27th 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 the fall of Ali Pasha of Janina,
which freed the Turkish army of occupation
in Albania, subjugated the Suliotes.
As a result of the objectless instiga-
tion 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 Miaouli and Constantine
Kanari on June igth. 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
Mavrogordato and General Count Nor-
mann-Ehrenfels, famous for the attack
on Kitzen, Suli was lost, owing to the
THE CROSS AND THE CRESCENT
defeat at Peta on July 16-17, and Western
Hellas was again threatened. The bold
Markos Botzaris lell on August 21st, 1823,
with his Suliotes, in the course of a sortie
against the besiegers of Missolonghi.
In his necessity the sultan now sum-
moned to his aid his most formidable
vassal, Mehemet Ali of Egypt. He first
sent his son Ibrahim to Candia for the
suppression of the revolt, in command of
his troops, who had been trained by
French officers. This leader then ap-
peared in the Morea, February 22nd,
1825, where the bayonet and his cavalry
gave him a great superiority over the
Greeks, who, though brave, were badly
disciplined and armed. None the less the
Greeks vigorously pro-
tested against the protocol
of peace, which was issued
by the Powers, of August
24th, 1824, recommending
them to submit to the
Porte and promising the
sultan's pardon, after
almost the whole popula-
tion of the Island of Psara
had been slaughtered on
July 4th. Three parties
were formed amongst the
Greeks themselves, one
under Mavrogordato
leaning upon England,
that of Capodistrias lean-
ing upon Russia, and that
of Kolettis leaning upon
France. British influence
prevailed. On December
2 1st, 1825, the Tsar Alex-
ander died at Taganrog
help given to the Greeks at that time by
Lord Cochrane and General Church, by
Colonels Fabvier, Vautier, and Heydeck,
did not stop the Turkish advance. On
June 5th, 1827, the Acropolis again capitu-
lated, and with it the whole of Greece was
Th S *^"^^ again lost to the Hellenes.
e u an However, a bold attack de-
Vt -J . livered at a most unexpected
point shook the throne of the
sultan. On May 28th, 1826, Mahmud
II. issued a Hatti-sherif concerning the
reform of the Janissaries. Upon the
resistance of these latter they were met
on the Etmeidan by the well-equipped
imperial army, supported on this occasion
by the Ulemas and the people, and were
mown down with grape-
shot. The sultan forth-
with began the formation
of a new corps upon
European models. It
was an event of the most
far-reaching importance
for the empire when
Mahmud first appeared
at the head of the faithful
in an overcoat, European
trousers, boots, and a red
fez instead of a turban.
His triumph, however,
was premature, his army
was momentarily weak-
ened, and the reforms
were not carried out.
The invader was already
knocking once again at
the door of the empire.
- BYRON AS A GREEK SOLDIER q^ Qctobcr 6th, 1826, his
The brave figrht for independence made by , • , , • • j
Greece against the Turks stirred the enthusi- plenipotentiaries Signed
and the youthful Nicholas h\Z^lg7p^!in7roniJ'Z^^^^^^^ an agreement at Akker-
I. ascended the throne, on January 4th, 1824, and died on April KHh. niau, agreeing ou ail poiuts
He quickly suppressed a military revolution to the Russian demands for Servia and the
in St. Petersburg, and showed his deter-
mination to break down the influence of
Metternich. Canning, whose whole sym-
pathies were with the Greeks, now sent the
Duke of Wellington to St. Petersburg, and
on April 4th, 1826, Great Britain and Russia
signed a protocol, constituting
Greece, like Servia, a tributary
vassal state of the Porte, with
a certain measure of indepen-
dence. Charles X. of France agreed to
these proposals, as his admiration had been
aroused by the heroic defence of Misso-
longhi, where Byron had fallen. Austria
alone secretly instigated the sultan to
suppress the Greek revolt. Even the
The Heroic
Death of
Loi d Byron
Danubian principalities, but refusing that
for Greek freedom. In vain did the
sultan send an ultimatum to the Powers
on June loth, 1827, representing that
the right of settling the Greek problem
was his alone. On April nth, 1827,
Capodistrias became President of the free
state of Corfu, under Russian influence,
and Russia, Britain, and France deter-
mined to concentrate their fleets in
Greek waters on July 6th, a month before
the death of Canning, which filled Greece
with lamentation. The result of the
movements was the battle of Navarino,
October 20th, one of the most murderous
naval actions in the whole of history ; in
4855
THE BAY OF NAVARINO AT THE TIME OF THE GREEK FIGHT FOR FR5,ED3M
four hours nearly 120 Turkish warships
and transports were destroyed. This
" untoward event," as Welhngton called
it — to the wrath of all Canningites —
implied a further triumph for Russian
policy, which had already acquired Grusia.
Imeretia — Colchis, iSix, and Gulistan,
18x3, ill Asia, and had secured its rear
in Upper Armenia by the acquisition of
Etchmiadzin, the centre of the Armenian
Church, in the Peace of Turkmanchai,
1828. Capodistrias, elected to the presi-
dency of Greece, entered on that office in
January. However, the sultan proved
:n')re obstinate than ever. In a solemn
Hatti-sherif he proclaimed in all the
mosques his firm intention to secure his
independence by war with Russia,
" which for the last fifty or sixty years
had been the chief enemy of the Porte."
He was without competent officers, and his
chief need was an army, which he had
intended to create had he been granted
time. Thus the main power of the Porte,
as at the present day, consisted in the
unruly hordes of Asia, whose natural
impetuosity could not replace the lack of
European discipline and tactical skill.
" Pluck up all your courage," Mahmud
tlicn wrote to liis Grand Yiz'w nt +!:-'
THE MURDEROUS" NAVAL BATTLE OF NAVARINO ON OCTOBER
4856
THE CAPITULATION OF THE TURKISH STRONGHOLD VARNA ON OCTOBER 10th, 1828
From the drauiiij^ bv Zu'ei-'le
4857
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
The Grand
Vizir's Army
n Flight
military headquarters, " for the danger is
great." On May 7th the Russians crossed
the Pruth in Europe, and on June 4th, the
Arpaichai in Asia. Ivan Paskevitch con-
quered the district of Kars and Achal-
zich, between the Upper Kur and Araxes,
and secured a firm base of operations
against Erzeroum. The Russians on the
Danube advanced more slowly.
It was not until the fall of
Braila, on June 17th, and of
Varna, on October nth, 1828,
that they ventured to attack the natural
fortress of the Balkans. But the approach
of winter suspended the indecisive struggle.
A second campaign was therefore
necessary to secure, a decision. In Eastern
Roumelia the Russians seized the harbour
of Sizebolu. February 15th, 1829, in order
to. provision their army. On February
24th, Diebich took over the
supreme command, crossed
the Danube in 'Slay, and on
June nth defeated and put
to flight, by means of his
superior artillery, the army of
the Grand Vizir Reshid
Mehemed, at Kulevcha.
Silistria then surrendered,
June 26th, and in thirteen
days, July I4th-26th, Diebich
crossed the Balkans with two
army corps ; while on July
7th Paskevitch had occupied
Erzeroum in Asia. The
passage of this mountain
GENERAL DIEBICH
general, on September 14th, offered con-
ditions sufficiently severe. Before the
war the tsar had issued a manifesto
promising to make no conquests. Now,
in /\ugust, 1828, he demanded possession
of the Danube islands, of the Asiatic
coast from Kuban 'to Nikolaja, the
fortresses and districts of Atzshur,
Achalzich, and Achalkalaki, with new
privileges and frontiers for Moldavia,
Wallachia, and Servia. The sultan, under
pressure of necessity, confirmed the
London Convention of July 6th, 182 1,
in the tenth article of the peace. The
president, Capodistrias, received new sub-
sidies, and loans from the Powers; more-
over, on July 19th, 1828, the Powers in
London determined upon an expedition
to the Morea, the conduct of which was
entrusted to France. Ibrahim retired,
while General Maison oc-
cupied the Peninsula,
September 7th. The Greek
army, composed of Palikars,
troops of the line, and
Philhellenes, was now armed
with European weapons ; it
won a series of victories at
the close of 1828 at
Steveniko, Martini, Salona,
Lutraki, and Vonizza, and
by May, 1829, captured
Lepanto, Missolonghi, and
Anatoliko. In 1828 the
Cretan revolt again broke
out, with successful results.
barrier, which was regarded a Russian fieid-marshai, he fought On July 23rd, 1829, the
as impregnable, produced ifurkfsh^war on,s!" waT^iven thi National Assembly, tired of
-.' was given the
an overwhelmmg impression surname of "Sabaikanski," which internal
„ _ i.i_ TT 1 X signifies "Grosser of the Balkans." , j ^ ji ij. j •
upon the lurks, many of had repeatedly resulted m
dissensions, which
whom regarded the Russian success as sf
deserved punishment for the sultan's
reforms. Diebich " Sabaikanski " ad-
vanced to Adrianople. However, Mustafa,
Pasha of Bosnia, was already advancing.
Fearful diseases devastated the Russian
army, which was reduced to 20,000 men.
None the less Diebich joined hands with
Sizebolu on the Black Sea, and with
Enos on the ^Egean Sea, although the
British fleet appeared in the Dardanelles
to protect the capital, from which the .
Russians were scarce thirty miles distant.
Both sides were sincerely anxious for
peace. However, the sultan's courage
was naturally shaken by the discovery of
an extensive conspiracy among the old
orthodox party. The Peace of Adrianople,
secured by the mediation of the Prussian
4858
civil war, conferred dictatorial powers
upon the president. The Peace of
Adrianople was concluded on September
14th, 1829 ; this extended Russia's terri-
tory in Asia, opened the Black Sea to
Russian trade, and obtained for Greece a
recognition of its independence from the
Porte. The Western Powers
did not at all wish it to become
a sovereign Power under Rus-
sian influence, and it was
finally agreed, on February 3rd, 1830,
that the independent state should be con-
fined to as narrow limits as possible, from
the mouth of the Aspropotamos to the
mouth of the Spercheias, the Porte
assenting on April 24th.
Vladimir Milkowicz
Heinrich Zimmerer
Independence
of Greece
Established
THE
RE-MAKING
OF
EUROPE
EUROPE
AFTER
WATERLOO
VI
FALL OF THE BOURBON MONARCHY
LOUIS PHILIPPE "KING OF THE FRENCH"
'"THE French were the first nation to put
-■■ an end to the weak policy of the
Restorations. Their privileged position
as the " pioneers of civilisation " they
used with that light-hearted energy and
vigour by which their national cha acter
is peculiarly distinguished, while main-
taining 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 w^ere 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 con-
nection 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
XVL, whose members had lost their lives
_ . under the kniie of the guillo-
Of^th ^^^^^ tine, were unable to appreciate
„ , .. the spirit which animated the
Revolution ^ ^
trance of Aapoleon Bona-
parte. 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 indispensable to th.> Government if it
was to free itself from the burden of a
foreign occupation. By the decree of
April 27th, 1825, the reduced noble
families whose goods had been confiscated
by the nation were relieved by the grant
of ;^40,ooo,ooo. 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 XVIIL, a well-disposed monarch,
and not without ability, died on September
Ch X ^^^^' 1824, and was succeeded
J,. ■ by his brother Charles X., who
^r'l? had, as Count of Artois, in-
Oi I" ranee 1,1 i- r t-
curred the odmm of every Euro-
pean 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
remnants 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
griined him the enthusiastic praise of Victor
Hugo, but hislibei'al tendencies disappeared
after a short period. Jesuitical priests
played upon his weak and conceited mind
with the object of securing a paramount
position in France under his protection.
The French, however, nicknamed him,
from the words of Beranger, the bold
song writer, " Charles le Simple " when he
had himself crowned in Rheims 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 censor-
ship introduced by his Minister, Villele.
When he dissolved them, barricades were
again raised in Paris and volleys fired upon
citizens. Villtle could no longer remain at
the helm. Martignac, the soul of the new
^Ministry which entered on office
Z .""T • January 5th, 1828, was a
Ministry in -' r 1 j ■ 11
p man of honour, and especially
adapted to act as mediator.
His clear intellect raised him a head and
shoulders above the mass of the Royalists.
He wished for moderation and progress,
but he never possessed Charles's affection,
and was no statesman. Charles opposed
Martignac's diplomacy with the help ol his
4859
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
contidants, Polignac and others ; and
while Martignac seemed to the king to be
" too Uttle of a Villele," public opinion
accused him of being " too much of a
Vill le." 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
Abbe Lamennais, 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 religious 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. 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
Russia and Turkey. But when Martignac
CHARLES X,, KING OF FRANCE
On the death of Louis XVIII. in lS2t, his brother, Charles X., succeeded to the throne. Prior to that, the direction of
affairs had been largely in his hands owing to the weakness of the king, and by his obtrusiveness and his avowed
contempt for the people he had incurred the odium of every European court. Though he was fairly well received upon
his accession, he quickly alienated the sympathies of his people, and he was compelled to abdicate in 183t).
4860
Viliele
Martignac
Polignac
THREE NOTABLE MINISTERS OF FRANCE UNDER CHARLES X.
The rapidly-growing unpopularity of the French king, Charles X., was shared by the Ministry of Villfele, which was
defeated at the polls. Martignac, the soul cf the new Ministry, which entered office on January 5th, 18'28, aimed at
moderation and progress and met with opposition from Charles. When Martignac withdrew, in 1820, his place was
taken by Polignac, but his position as head of the Bourbon Ministry did not commend itself to the people of France, and
the revolt against 1;he rule of Charles soon drove that monarch from the throne, thus ending the Bourbon regime.
wished to decentralise the French admini- commanded him to cut off the head of the
stration, and brought in Bills for this pur-
pose in February, 1829, he was deserted
by everyone. The extreme Right allied
itself with the Left ; Martignac withdrew
the proposals in April, and on August 8th,
1829, Polignac took his place.
The name of Jules Polignac seemed to
the country a presage of coups d'etat and
3nti-constitutional reaction. The new
Ministry included not a single popular
representative amongst its members. 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 ciel
t'aidera"; republicans, eager for the fray,
grouped themselves round Louis Blanqui,
Etienne Arago, and Armand Barbcs.
The newspaper, " National," began its
work on behalf of the Orleans family,
for whom Talleyrand, Thiers, Jacques
Laffite the banker, and Adelaide, the
sister of Duke Louis Philippe, cleared
the road. Even Metternich, Wellington,
and the Emperor Nicholas advised that no
coup d'etat should be made against the
Charta. Charles, however, remained the
untaught emigrant of Coblenz, and did not
_. _, understand the new era; he
The Dreamer ,-i . ■ ^■ .
Q, . saw. in every constitutionalist
R»c«^-«f:«« 3- supporter of the revolution-
Kestor.ation ^'^ ^ , t , •
ary party and a Jacobin.
Polignac was the dreamer of the restora-
tion, a fanatic without any worldly wisdom,
whom delusions almost removed from the
world of reality, who considered himself,
with his limited capacity, to be infallible.
The Virgin had appeared to him and
hydra of democracy and infidelity.
Polignac, originaUy only Minister of
Foreign Affairs, became on November
17th, 1829, President of the Cabinet
Council. In order to gain over the nation,
. . which was hostile to him, he
giers in tried to achieve foreign suc-
thc Hands of r .l tt i • i
,. P . cesses lor it. He laid stress on
the principle of thi 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 oppor-
tunity 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 rem-onstrances,
France made preparations by land and
sea. In June, 1830, the Minister of War,
Count Bourmont, landed with 37,000
men near Sidi-Ferruch, defeated the Al-
gerians, sacked their camp, and entered
the capital on July 6th, where he cap-
tured much treasure. He banished the
Dey, and was promoted to be maishal
of France. Algiers became French, but
Charles and Polignac were not destined
.to enjoy the victory.
The new elections, for which writs were
issued after the Chamber of Deputies had
demanded the dismissal 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,
4861
r *" "^ *>, "■■"'v^r^T^^'^^ T'X"^!-?'^**^
■sSSSPB^'^?»a
"^^ZTT" ;,^
ALGIERS AS IT WAS IN THE YEAR 1830 WHEN TAKEN BY THE FRENCH
From an engraving of the period
and were in France more 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, including
the dauphine Marie TherCse.
Meanwhile, the Press and the parties
in opposition became more confident ;
Royer-Collard candidly assured Charles
that the Chamber would oppose every one
of his Ministries. Charles, however, only
hstened to Polignac's boastful confidence,
and at the opening of the Chambers on
March 2nd, 1830, in. his speech from the
throne he threatened the opposition in
such unmistakable terms that doctrinaires
as well as ultra-Liberals detected the un-
shtathing of the royal sword. Pierre
Antoine Berryer, the most briUiant orator
of legitimacy, and perhaps the greatest
French orator of the century, had a lively
passage of a^ms in the debate on the
address with Fran(;:ois Guizot, the clever
leader of the doctrinaires, and was de-
feated ; the Chamber, by 221 votes against
181, accepted on March i6th a peremp-
tory answer to the address, which in-
formed 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
4862
unalterable, and insisted that he would
never allow his Crown to be humiliated.
He prorogued the Chambers on March
19th until September ist, and dismissed
prefects and officials ; whereupon the
221 were feted throughout France. Charles
in some perturbation then demanded from
his Ministers a statement of the situation.
But Polignac's secret memorandum of
April 14th 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 th:? Chambers on May
1 6th, and summoned a new one
for August 3rd. Instead of
recalling Villele, he strengthened
the Ministry by followers of
On May 19th 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
public opinion, for there was hardly an
individual more hated in France ; he now
continually advised exceptional measures
and urged a coup d'etat against the
provisions 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 13th
that he would not give in. But the
society " Aide-toi, le ciel t'aidera " secured
The King's
Defiance of
the People
Polignac.
FALL OF THE BOURBON MONARCHY
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
influence, inclined towards the plan of
adopting exceptional measures and re-
asserting his position as king. On July
26th 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 dis-
solved ; a new law for reorganising the
elections was proclaimed, and a chamber
to be chosen in accordance with this
method was summoned for September
28th. In other words, war was declared
THE CAPTURE OF THE HOTEL DE VILLE BY THE CITIZENS OF PARIS
The Paris Revolution of 1830 was brief but decisive, ending in the dethronement of Charles X. For three days — from
July 2t3th till the 29th— Paris was in a state of revolution. The populace attacked the Hotel de Ville and the Tuileries,
the capture of the former, after a spirited defence by the National Guard, being shown in the above picture.
48b3
LEADERS IN THE FRENCH REVOLUTION OF 18^0
The best known political writer in France at the time, Adolphe Thiers, wrote the " Histoire de la Revolution Fran(,'aise,"
which obtained a rapid popularity. An opponent of tiie Polignac administration, he declared for a change of dynasty,
and in his liberal policy was supported by the financiers Jacques Laffitte, and Casimir Perier, who had a large
following, enjoying unlimited influence among the property-owning citizens, who were joined by some of the nobility.
upon the constitution. According to para-
graph 14 of the charter, the king " is chief
head of the state. He has command of
the mihtary and naval forces ; can declare
war, conclude peace, alliances, and com-
mercial 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, ^s indeed was maintained
by the journals supporting the Ministry,
ventured to claim the power
of ruling through his own
decrees, for which he alone
was responsible, then all
regulations as to the state of
the legislature and the sub-
ordination of the executive
would have been entirely
meaningless. Paris, desiring
freedom, was clear upon this
point, and immediately set
itself with determination to
the task of resistance. The
first day began with the
demonstrations of the
DrinterS who found thpir Author of the " Rights of Man
piiiiLcis, wnu I^Liil^ l^il^il theory, and the patriarch of th
LAFAYETTE
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, born in
Marseilles, April 15th, 1797, and practising
as advocate in Aix in 1820. In 1821 became
to Paris and entered the office of the
" Constitutionnel," and co-operated in the
foundation of several periodicals, writing
at the same time his " Histoire de la
Revolution Fran^aise," in ten volumes,
1823-1827. This work was
rather a piece of journalism
than a scientific history. It
attained rapid popularity
among the liberal bourgeois
as it emphasised the great
successes and the valuable
achievements of the Revolu-
tion, while discountenancing
the aberrations of the lament-
able excesses of an anarchical
society ; constitutionalism and
its preservation were shown
to* be the results of all the
struggles and sacrifices which
France had undergone to
occupation considerably re- Revolution, he commanded the Na- sccure freedom and power of
A.,-,^r.A K,r +U^ -D^^^^ tional Guard in the rising of 1830. __,. i_^ ■_,■ j^ _.■ _
duced by the Press censor
ship. This movement was accompanied
by tumultuous demonstrations of dis-
satisfaction on the part of the general
public in the Palais Royal, 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 autho-
rities. They contained a manifesto couched
in identical language and including the
4864
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, ho\,'ever, must be
retained in their entirety and protected
from the destructive influences of malicious
misinterpretation. Such protection he
considered impossible under the govern-
ment of Charles X. He was equally dis-
trustful of that monarch's son, the Duke
FALL OF THE BOURBON MONARCHY
of Angouleme, 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 journal-
istic friends were supported by a number
of the advocates present in Paris, in-
cluding the financiers Jacques Laffitte
and Casimir Perier. They also possessed
a considerable following and enjoyed
unlimited 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 Marmont,
the Duke of Ragusa and military com-
mander in Paris, strove, with the few
troops at his disposal, to suppress the noisy
gatherings of the dis-
satisfied element, which
had considerably in-
creased by July 27th.
Paris began to take up
arms on the following
night. On the 28th,
thousands of workmen,
students from the poly-
technic schools, doctors,
and citizens of every
profession, were fighting
behind numerous barri-
cades, which 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,
The Soldiery
Desert to
the Revolters
LOUIS PHILIPPE, KING OF FRANCE
After the Revolution of 1830, which drove
Charles X. from the throne, Louis Philippe,
the eldest son of Philip " Egalitc-," received waS UOW forCcd tO Clldure
to withdraw the ordi- t'^« "°«'"' ^"'^ """^^^ ^er "citizen king" the aspersions of treachery
support the king's cause to the last. The
troops, however, were by no means iix
love with the Bourbon hierarchy, and n .
one felt any inclination to risk his life ok
behalf of such a .ridiculous coxcomb as
Polignac, against whom the revolt appeare* I
chiefly directed. The regi-
ments advancing upon Paris
from the neighbouring pro-
vinces halted in the suburlDS.
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 forenoon of July
2gth, Marmont continued to hold the
Louvre and the Tuileries with a few thou-
sand 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
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 ne-
gotiations 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
France regained some of her old prosperity.
have caused
nances. Even then a
rapid decision might nave caused a
change of feeling in Paris, and have
saved the Bourbons, at any rate for the
moment ; but neither the king nor
Polignac suspected the serious danger
confronting them, and never supposed
that the Parisians would be able to stand
against 12,000 troops of the hne. This,
_ . . indeed, was the number that
Fans in ^r , ,
. . ^ Marmont may have concen-
Arms against , , 1 r ^i
.. J,. trated 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 unexception-
able, and assuming their readiness to
uttered by the Duke of
Angouleme before the guard. This member
of the Bourbon family, who had been
none too brilliantly gifted l^y Providence,
was entirely spoiled by the ultra legitimist
rulers and priests, who praised his Spanish
campaign as a brilliant military achieve-
ment, and compared the attack on the
Trocadero to Marengo and Austerlitz. 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
4865
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
the dismissal of Polignac, by the recogni-
tion of recent elections, or even by abdica-
tion in . favour of his grandson Henry,
afterwards Count of Chambord. The fate of
the Bourbons was decided on July 30th,
and the only 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 Phihppe, son of the Duke of
Orleans and of the Princess Louise Marie
Adelaide of Penthievre, had been given
on his birth, October 6th, 1773, the title
of the Duke of Valois, and afterwards of
Duke of riiartre?. Duiintj tlie Revolution
visited almost every country in Europe,
and in North America had enjoyed the
opportunity of becoming acquainted with
the democratic state and its powers of
solving the greatest tasks without the
support of princes 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 ^nd daughters, and in wet weather
i .-■^^^;^*^r■*ffl»^A^^:^-^:.-^a^w«^A»ga»»»ia^^ .
THE DEPUTIEB OFFERING THE LIEUTENANCY OF FRANCE TO THE DUKE -ANS
Meeting at the Bourbon Palace on July 30th, is.'.n.i, the deputies offered the " lieutenancy of the kingdi.^^ ._ . ._ Duke
of Orleans, who had become popular with the people. He at first hesitated, but on the following day, acting, it is said,
on the advice of Talleyrand, accepted the office. Reading from left to right, the figures in the above picture are :
Aug. Piirier, Aug. Hilarion de Keratry, Berard, Baron B. Delessert, Duke of Orleans, General Sebastiani, A. de St.
Aignan, Charles Dupin, Andr6 Gallot, Dugas-Montbel, Duchaffaud, General Count Mathieu Dumas, Bernard de Rennes.
he had called himself General Egalite,
and Duke of Orleans after the death of his
father, the miserable libertine who had
voted for 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 flight 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
4866
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
Raincy 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 ?nd invest him with full power.
fc. oH
4867
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
He then returned to Paris, and was there
entrusted by Charles X. with that office
in his own name and as representative
of Henry V., who was still a minor.
He conformed his further procedure to
the spirit of these commands
as Ions; as he deemed this
The Doom of
the Bourbon
Mon archy
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 31st it was definitely decided
that France should be permanently re-
lieved of the Bourbons who had been
imposed upon her ; however, concerning
the future constitution widely divergent
opinions prevailed. The decision lay with
the Marquess of Lafayette, the author of
the " Rights of Man " theory, the patriarch
of the Revolution, 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
THE MARCH OF THE NATIONAL GUARD TO RAMBOUILLET
Realising that the nation was at last tired of the Bourbon dynasty, Charles X. abdicated in favour of his youno:
grandson Henry V. ; but France preferred Louis Philippe, and he was called to the throne. He naturally wished to have
his inconvenient cousin out of the country, and to hasten his departure a march of the National Guard to Rambouillet,
where Charles was at that time residing, was organised. The march was more like a holiday procession than an
intimidating movement, being joined by crowds of people, some on vehicles and others on foot, singing the Marseillaise
and shouting " Vive la libertii ! " The movement, however, had the desired result, Charles leaving France for England.
4868
1
'J
^'^^^\% %i >'
LOUIS PHILIPPE TAKING THE OATH O^ THE CONSTlIUTluN ON AUGUST iii l-.i)
Before a bnlliant assembly of the Chambers, as shown in the above picture, Louis Philippe took the oath
of the Constitution on August 9th, 1830, and from that time entitled himself "The King of the French."
effect to the different tendencies
Legitimists, and permanently to secure
the powers of government so soon as peace
had been restored. For this pm'pose 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 pleni-
potentiary 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
rancc s j^^i^g became head of the state
^^* *-^ .• by the national will, and was to
Constitution •' , , ,,
swear to observe the constitu-
tion 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
which
were indispensable to the existence of a
constitutional monarchy as conceived by
liberalism was reserved for the legislature.
Such were the provisions for trial by
jury of offences against the Press laws, for
the responsibility of Ministers,
<-M.^ I ''' V*^ for full liberty to teachers, for
Charles at , i . •• xi
_ . .... compulsory education m the
Rambouillet i , -^ , i r ,^
elementary schools, for the
yearly vote of the conscription, and so
forth. The deputies chosen at the last
election passed the proposals by a ferge
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.
■ In the meantime Charles had retired
from Saint Cloud to Rambouillet, retaining
the Guards and certain regiments which
had remained faithful ; he ^ once again
announced his abdication, and that of
Angoiileme, 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 con-
fined his efforts to getting, his incon-
venient cousin out of the country, which
he already saw at his own feet. When his
representations produced no effect in this
direction, his adherents organised a march
of the National Guard to Rambouillet, a
movement which, though more like a
4869
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
The Death
of
Charles X.
holiday 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 "Legiti-
mist " sword. With ostentatious delibera-
tion a move was made from
Rambouillet to Cherbourg
without awakening the smallest
sign of sympathy. Charles X.
betook himself for the moment to England.
On November 6th, 1836, he died in Gorz,
where the Duke of Angouleme also pissed
away on June 3rd, 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 Vendee
against the government of the treacherous
Duke of Orleans, and of weaving, at the
risk of her life, intrigues for civil war in
France. In spite of her capture, Novem-
ber 7th, 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 mar-
riage with a son of the Sicilian prince of
Campofranco, the Conte Ettore Carlo
Lucchesi Palli, to whom she bore a son,
the later Duca della Grazia, while in
captivity at Blaye, near Bordeaux. Her
last son by her first marriage, the Count
of Chambord, contented himself through-
out 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 con-
stitutional monarchy. The Republicans
were surprised at their deser-
''j''-? VI fion by Lafayette ; thev could
and its New j _ j j
Dynasty
not but observe that the mass
of people who were insensible ■=
to political conviction, and accustomed to
follow the influences of the moment, hailed
with acclamatiori the new constitution
adjusted by the prosperous Liberals. For
the moment they retired into private life
with ill-concealed expressions of dissatis-
faction, and became the nucleus for a
party of malcontents which was speedily
4870
reinforced by recruits from every direction.
" The King of the French," as the Duke
of Orleans entitled himself from August
9th, 1830, at the very outset of his govern-
ment 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 considera-
tion 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 ob-
served that the influences of the Left had
been nullified, and that the new king was
making a serious effort to suppress that
party. The Austrian chancellor fully re-
cognised that Louis Philippe, in preventing
the formation of a Republic
uccessors ^^ j^j^ intervention, had done
B K good service to the cause of
reaction ; he readily thanked
him for his erection of a constitutional
throne, whereby the monarchies had been
spared the necessity of again taking the
fi.eld against a Republican France. The
Bonapartists had proposed to bring for-
ward an opposition candidate to Louis
Philippe in the person of the highly gifted
and ambitious son of Napoleon L, "le fils
de I'homme," and the Archduchess Marie
Louise, who had been brought up under the
care of his grandfather in Vienna.
The untimely death of the excellent Duke
of Reichstadt, who succumbed to a gallop-
ing consumption on July 22nd, 1832, which
was not, as often stated, the result of
excessive self-indulgence. freed "the citizen-
king " from a danger which had threatened
to increase with every year. At the end
of August England recognised uncon-
ditionally and without reserve the new
government in France ; her example was
followed by Austria and Prussia, to the
extreme vexation of the Tsar Nicholas L
The House of Orleans might thus far con-
sider itself at least tolerated as the successor
of the French Bourbons.
Hans von Zvviedineck-Sudenhorst
Arthur Kleinschmidt
THE
RE-MAKING
OF
EUROPE
EUROPE
AFTER
WATERLOO
VII
THE NEW REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD
NATIONALIST AND CONSTITUTIONAL
MOVEMENTS IN THE 'THIRTIES
THE events of 1830 in Paris introduced
a new revolutionary period in Europe
which was to prodnce far more compre-
hensive and permanent transformations
than the Revolution of 1789. From that
date was broken the spell of the reaction-
ary theory which forbade all efforts for the
identification of monarchical and popular
rights, and demanded blind submission to
the decrees of the government.
This tyranny had been abolished by the
will of a people which, notwithstanding
internal dissensions, was united in its op-
position to the Bourbons. Thirty or forty
thousand men, with no military organisa-
tion 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 stamed by atrocities
„ of any kind; at no time was any
rancc attempt made to introduce
Under a New j-,- c i tt
T^ . 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 l)y the joint action of
the leading citizens, a new regime had been
established in everj^ branch of the adminis-
tration, 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
wcie 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 under
conditions apparently or actually intoler-
able might be tempted to follow
auses ^j_^-g gxample and to revolt.
of National t^, • 1 f r r • 1
P . . ihe 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 cha'"acters 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. Repugnance
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. Irritated ambition, exag-
gerated pride, the under and over estima-
tion of defects and advantages, are so
many causes of national friction, with
tremendous struggles and poHtical con-
vulsions as their consequence.
To prefer national sentiment to political
necessity is naturally an erroneous doctrine,
because contrary to the fundamental laws
of civilisation, which define man's task as
the conquest of natural forces by his in-
tellectual power for his own good. Yet
_ such a doctrine is based at
/n^ °.^.°*^!* least upon the ascertained
of Political r . , 1 , ,1 i 1-
Vitalit- • 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 de-
velopment of inherent national powers was
4871
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
entirely justified, if only because for
centuries it had been neglected and
thwarted, or had adv^anced, if at all, by a
process highly irregular. Many European
countries had developed a political vitality
under, and as a consequence of, monarchical
government : and if this vitality was to
become the realisation of the popular will
it must first gain assurance of
, „ -its own value and nnportance,
In Frocess of , • ., • i . r u
rt . .. and acquire the right oi seli-
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 the Vienna Congress. Hence
it is that cabinet governments were
gradually forced to undertake 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 civilised 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 dissolu-
tion. Among the Slav races of the Balkans
the Servians had freed themselves by their
own power, and had founded the begin-
nings 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 their
^ numbers into a self-contained
,, .. ,.^ state. In Germany and Italy the
Nationality , . , -^ , , -',,
c , national movement, together
with the political, had been
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 Revolution
would produce some tangible effect. It was,
however, in two countries, where systems
unusually artificial had been created
by the arbitrary action of dynasties
4872
and diplomatists, that these influences
became earliest and most permanently
operative : in the new kingdom of the
United Netherlands, and in Poland under
the Russian protectorate.
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 abolished their
aristocratic republic, which had been
replaced by a limited monarchy ; the son
of their last hereditary stadtholder, Prince
William Frederic 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. 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 in-
competent bureaucratic policy of Prince
_ Metternich. The Orange king
e gian naturally regarded this unex-
Union with ^ , -^ °. . .
H II J pected accession of territory as
Holland ^ . . - ^
a recognition 01 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 s'-.bjects 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 disas-
trous mistake, and they proceeded to
demand separation. Not only by the
Catholic Conservative party, but also by
the Liberals, the difference of religious
belief was thought to accentuate the opposi-
tion of interests. The attitude of hostility
to their Protestant neighbours which the
Catholic provinces of the Netherlands had
adopted during 150 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, on August 25th,
THE NEW REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD
1830. Personal intervention might even
then perhaps have saved the pohtical union
of the Netherland countries. 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
Frederic, -who had 10,000 men at his
command. On November loth, 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 coincide
with the hopes of the Revolution leaders,
w ho were inclined to republicanism.
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 formed, an
ultramontane majority would
inevitably secure tyrannical
supremacy, and all freedom of
thought would be im.possible.
A royal family, if not so intel-
lectually incapable as the
Bourbons, would never consent
to 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 at-
tempted perversion of power.
Declaration
of Belgian
Independence
The British proposal to call a conference
at London for the adjustment of the
Dutch-Belgian difficulty was received
with general approbation. On December
20th the independence of Belgium was
i-ecognised by this assembly, and the
temporary government in Brussels was
invited through ambassadors
to negotiate with the confer-
ence. The choice of the new
king caused no great difficulty;
the claims of Orange, Orleans, 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
June 4th, 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 October 15th,
1 83 1, the conference passed
twenty-four articles, propos-
ing a partition of Luxemburg,
and fixing Belgium's yearly
contribution to the Nether-
land national debt at 8,400,000
gulden. On two occasions it
became necessary to send
The ready proposal of the william i. of Holland French troops as far as Ant-
Belgians to accept a monarch- Sj;;%^^:f^neVtht^f:°rTf ^erp to protect Belgium, a
ical government was received Napoleon, Belgium and Holland w-eak military power, from
with satisfaction b)^ the Great were united under one sovereign, reconqucst by Holland ; and
Powers, who were reluctantly Wiiiiam i., who abdicated inis40. ^^ ^^^^i occasion diplomatic
considering the necessity of opposing the negotiation induced the Dutch to retire
Revolution by force. The Tsar Nicholas
had already made up his mind to raise his
arm against the West ; his attention, how-
ever, was soon occupied by far more press-
ing questions within his own dominions.
Metternich and Frederic William III. were
disinclined, for financial reasons, to raise
. . . contingents of troops ; the
JUS mg e scantyforcesat the command
Dutch-Belgian r a . ■ • ^ ■
jj.j.,. J. 01 Austria were required m
Italy, where the Carbonari
were known to be in a state of ferment.
Louis Philippe decided the general direction
of his pohcy by declining to listen to the
Radical proposals for a union of Belgium
with France, and thereby strengthened
that confidence which he had already
won among the Conservative cabinets.
G 26 ^
from the land which they had occupied.
It was not until 1838 that peace between
Belgium and Holland was definitely
concluded ; King William had fruitlessly
strained the resources of his state to
the utmost, and for the increased severity
of the conditions imposed upon him he
had merely his own obstinacy to thank.
Belgium's share of the payment towards
the interest due upon the common national
debt was ultimately fixed at 5,000,000
gulden. On August 9th, 1832, King
Leopold married Louise of Orleans, the
eldest daughter of Louis PhiUppe ; though
not himself a Catholic, he had his sons
baptised into that faith, and thus became
the founder of a new Catholic dynasty in
Europe, which rapidly acquired importance
4873
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
through the pohtic and dignified conduct
of Leopold L 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 with Russia. She had
been a nation on an equality with Russia,
with a constitution of her own ;
„ , , , her resistance now reduced
Poland under , j. ^.i. x- r
_ . her to the position ot a
Kussian j- ,i ■ j
^ . province oi the empire, de-
prived of all political rights,
and subjected to a government alike
despotic and arbitrary. The popular will
was unable to find expression, 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.
Theie 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,
teachers, etc., who had identified them-
selves 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 productive 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 from exertion, incapable of
achievement, and eaten up by preposter-
ous 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 sojiie , display of
resolution and enthusiasm. It
The Poles
Strike for
Freedom
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 Russians,
but there is no reason to suppose that it
was in any way more unjust or more cor-
rupt than the monarchical republic that
had passed away. It cannot be said that
4874
the Russian administration prevented the
Poles from recognising the defective re-
sults 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 oppression far
more intolerable than the arbitrary rule
of individuals, officials, and commanders.
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
^^ r k ^^ *^^ nation at large. Events
Fotuh P'""^^^ that the struggle be-
n , ^. tween Poland and Russia
Revolution , ■, ■, -11
cannot be described as purpose-
less. The revolutionary party had long
been quietly working, and when the pro-
gress 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 storming of the Belvedere,
November 29th, 1830, occupied by the
governor, the Grand Duke Constantine,
that personage was so far intimidated as
to evacuate Warsaw with his troops. On
December 5th, 1830, a provisional govern-
ment was already in existence. On
January 25th, 1831, the Assembly declared
the deposition of the House of Romanoff,
and in February a Polish army of 78,000
men was confronting 100,000 Russians,
who had been concentrated on the fron-
tiers of Old Poland under Diebitsch-
Sabalkanski, and his general staff officer,
Karl Friedrich, Count of Toll. -These
achievements wei'e the unaided work of
the nobility; their .military organisation
had been quickly and admirably successful.
Their commander-in-chief , Prince Michael
Radziwill, who had served under Thaddeus
Kosciuszko and Napoleon, had several
bold and capable leaders at his disposal.
THE NEW REVOLUTIOxNARY PERIOD
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 Government would have had
to deal. Notwithstanding the victories of
Bialolenka and Grochow, February 24th
and 25th, 1831, Diebitsch did not dare to
advance upon Warsaw, fearing to be
blockaded in that town ; he waited for
reinforcements, and even began negotia-
tions, considering his pDsition extremely
unfavourable. However, Volhynia and
Podolia took no serious part in 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 public rising on an
extensive scale took place.
On May 26th, 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 advan-
tage was decidedly on the
side of the Russians. The
outbreak of cholera, to
which Diebitsch succumbed
on June loth, might perhaps
have produced a turn of
fortune favourable to the
Poles. Count Ivan Feod-
vitch Paskevitch-Erivanski,
who now assumed the chief
command, had but 50,000
men at his disposal, and would hardly
have dared to advance from Pultusk if
the numerous guerrilla bands of the
Poles had done their duty and had been
p.operly supported by the population.
Never, however, was there any general
rising ; terrified by the ravages of the
p cholera, the mob declined
_ H h ^^ obey the authorities, and
^. ^ ^ their patriotism was not proof
against their panic. Skrzynecki
and his successor, Henry DernlDinski,
had 50,000 men under their colours
when they attempted to resist the
advance of Paskevitch upon Warsaw ;
but within the capital itself a feud had
broken out between the aristocrats and
the democrats, who were represented
End of the
Polish Dream
of Freedom
KING OF THE BELGIANS
When the independence of Belgium was
recognised, the choice of a new king fell
upon Prince Leopold George of Coburg,
and on July 4th, isyi, the National Con-
gress appointed him King of the Belgians.
among the five members of the civil
government by the historian Joachim
Lelevel, after the dictatorship ol Joseph
Chlopicki had not only abolished but
utterly shattered the supremacy of the
nobles. The government, at the head of
which was the senatorial president. Prince
Adam George Czartoryiski,
was forced to resign, and the
purely democratic adminis-
tration which succeeded fell
into general disrepute. Military operations
suffered from lack of concerted leadership.
The storming of Warsaw on September 6th
and yth, carried out by Paskevitch and
Toll, with 70,000 Russians agaiftst 40,000
Poles, decided the struggle. The smaller
divisions still on foot, under the Genoese
Girolamo Ramorino, 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 free-
dom was at an end. The
Kingdom of Poland, to
which Alexander I. had
granted nominal independ-
ence, became a Russian
province in 1832 by a
constitutional edict of Feb-
ruary 26th ; henceforward
its history was a history of
oppression and stern and
cruel tyranny. However,
the consequent suffering
failed to produce any puri-
fying effect upon the nation,
though European liberal-
ism, with extraordinary
unanimity, manifested a sympathy which,
in Germany, rose to the point of ridicu-
lous and hysterical sentimentalism.
It was by conspiracies, secret unions, and
political intrigues of every kind, by degrad-
ing 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 Cracow, which was occupied by Austria
at the request of Russia, and eventually
incorporated with the province of Galicia.
The psasant revolt, which was charac-
terised by unexampled ferocity and
cruelty, made it plain to the world at
large that it was not the Russian, the
4875
SkrzyHecki
Paskevitch
Constantine
LEADERS IN THE POLISH - RUSSIAN WARS
General Jan Boncza Skrzynecki was in command of the main Polish array at Ostrolenka, where it suffered defeat ;
Count Ivan Feodvitch Paskevitch-Erivanski commanded the Russian troops opposed to Skrzynecki and Dembinski,
crushing the Poles and taking Warsaw ; while the Grand Duke Constantine, brother of the Tsar of Russia and governor
of Warsaw, after the storming of the Belvedere on November 29th, 1830, was so far intimidated as to evacuate Warsaw.
Austrian, or the Prussian whom the
Pohsh peasant considered his deadly
enemy and oppressor, but the Pohsh noble.
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 f
continued their
activities in
secret after the
subjugation of
Piedmont and
Naples by the
Austrians in
1821. The chief
Austrian adher-
ents were to be
found in the
Church states ;
there, however,
an opposition
union, that of
the"Sanfedists,"
had been formed,
with the counten-
ance of the
papacy. While striving for the maintenance
of the papal power and the strengthen-
ing of religious feeling, the party occu-
pied itself with the persecution of all
Liberals, and rivalled the Carbonari in the
use of poison and dagger for the attain-
ment of its ends. Cardinal Consalvi had
availed himself of the help of the Sanfe-
dists ; but he allowed their power to extend
4876
DUKE OF BRUNSWICK KING OF HANOVER
When Charles, Duke of Brunswick, proved his incompetence, his
brother William, at the request of Prussia, offered himself for the high
office and was received with acclamation. King of Hanover, Ernest
Augustus exhibited a weak narrow-mindedness by refusing the con-
stitution between the nobility and the representatives of the peasants.
only SO far as it might be useful for the
furtherance of his political objects. How-
ever, under the government of Pope Leo
XIL, 1823-1829, the influence of the
party increased considerably, and led the
Cardinal Rivarola, the legate of Ravenna,
to perpetrate cruelties upon the Carbonari
in Faenza, a policy which contributed to
increase the general ill-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 at-
tempts at aggran-
disement resulted
in the temporary
success of the
revolution in
Bologna. This
movement had
been long pre-
pared, and broke
out on February
4th, 1 83 1, when
Menotti in Parma
gave the signal for action. The Duke of
Modena, Francis IV., imprisoned Menotti
in his own house ; feeling himself, however,
too weak to deal with the movement, he tied
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 February 2nd, 1831, formerly
THE NEW REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD
Bartolommeo Cappelleri, general of the
Camaldulensian (.rder, whose supremacy
was no longer recognised by the Umbrian
towns which had broken into revolt, by the
legation, or by the Marks.
The Austrian chancellor thought it advis-
able 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 tlie Church states
as a casus belU, .
Pius VII.
he occupied
Bologna, March
2ist, after seizing
F e r r a r a and
Parma in the
first days of
March. Ancona
was also forced
to surrender ; in
this town the
provisional
government of
the R o m a g n a
had taken refuge,
together with
Louis Napoleon
Bonaparte, son
of the King of
Holland and of
Hortense Beau-
harnais, who first
came into con-
nection with the
revolutionary
party at this
date. The task
of the Austrians
was then brought
to completion.
On July 15th
they retired from
the papal states,
but were obliged
to return on
January 24th,
1832, in conse-
quence 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 Itahan Liberal party by occupying
Ancona at the same time, February 22nd.
Neither France nor Austria could^ oblige
the Pope to introduce the reforms which
he had promised into his administration.
The ruHng powers of the Curia were appre-
hensive of the reduction of their revenues,
and steadily thwarted all measures of
reorganisation. When Gregory XVL en-
listed two Swiss regiments for the main-
tenance of peace and order, the foreign
troops evacuated his district in 1838.
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
Leo X II.
Pius VIII.
A GROUP OF NINETEENTH CENTURY POPES
During tlie restless period in the first half of last century, St. Peter's
Chair was occupied in turn by the Popes whose portraits are given
above. Pius VII. died in IS-'.'i, and was succeeded by Leo XII. At his
death, Pius VIII. became Pope, ruling only from March, 1829, till
November, 1830. He was followed by the reactionary Gregory XVI.
to nationalist
movement be-
come apparent.
Liberal and Radi-
cal groups were
to be found side
by side, divided
by no strict fron-
tier line ; more-
over, operations
in common were
inconceivable, for
no common ob-
ject of endeavour
had yet b e e h
found. In par-
ticular federal
provinces special
circumstances
gave rise to re-
volts intended to
produce a change
in the relations
subsisting be-
tween the rulers
and the ruled.
Brunswick was
a scene of events
as fortunate 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 towards his relations
of England and Hanover with an utter
want of tact ; and towards his subjects,
whose constitutional rights he declined
to recognise, he was equally haughty and
dictatorial. After the events of July he
had returned home from Paris, where he
had spent his time in the grossest pleasures.
4877
Gregory XVI.
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
and immediately opposed the nobles and
the citizens as ruthlessly as ever. Dis-
turbances broke out in consequence on
September 7th, ,1830, and so frightened
the cowardly libertine 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
D k * ^™ ^^^' o^^i'^cl himself to the peopje
„ • k '^^ Brunswick, who received
him with acclamation. Not-
withstanding the opposition of Metternich
in the diet, the joint action of Prussia and
England secured WilUam's recognition
as duke on December 2nd, 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 representatives
of the Orders in September, 1830, and to
assent to the constitution which they
speedily drew up. On January 8th, 1831,
the elector, in the presence of the Crown
Prince Frederic William, signed the docu-
ments and handed them to the Orders ;
however, the people of Hesse were unable
to secure constitutional government. They
declined to allow the elector to leside
among them in Cassel, with his mistress,
Emilie Ortlopp, whom he made Countess
of Reichenbach in 1821, and afterwards
Countess of Lessonitz ; they forced him to
withdraw to Hanover and to appoint the
Crown Prince as co-regent, September
30th, 1831, but found they had merely
fallen out of the frying-pan into the fire.
In August, 1 83 1, Frederic William I.
married Gertrude Lehmann, nee Falken-
stein, the wife of a lieutenant, who had
been divorced b}^ her husband in Bonn,
made Countess of Schaumburg in 1831,
and Princess of Hanau in 1853 ; as a
result he quarrelled with his mother, the
Princess Augusta of Prussia, and with
• the estates, who espoused the
c yran ^^^^^ q| ^j^g iniured electress.
He was a malicious and stub-
born tyrant, who broke his
plighted word, deliberately introduced
changes into the constitution through his
Minister, Hans Daniel von Hassenpflug,
whom he supported in his struggle with
the estates until the Minister also insulted
him and opposed his effprts at unlimited
despotism. Hassenpflug left the service
of Hesse in July, 1837, first entering the
4878
Frederic
William
civil service in Sigmaringen, November,
1838, then that of Luxemburg, June,
1839, ultimately taking a high place in the
public administration of Prussia, 1841.
The people of Hesse then became con-
vinced that their position had rather
deteriorated than otherwise ; the Landtag
Was -continually at war with the govern-
ment, 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
revenues from the demesnes and the trust
property by the death of his father on
November 20th, 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, Ernest Augustus, who
had contracted debts amounting to
several million thalers as Duke
of Cumberland, was so
narrow-minded as to reject
the constitution which had
been arranged after long and difficult
negotiations between the nobility and the
representatives of the peasants. Seven
professors of Gottingen, Jakob and Wil-
helm Grimm, . Dahlmann, Weber and
Gervinus, Ewald and Albrecht, protested
against the patent of November ist, 1837,
which absolved the state officials from
their oaths of fidelity to the constitution.
The state prosecution and merciless dis-
missal of these professors aroused a general
outcry throughout Germany against the
effrontery and obstinacy of the Guelphs ;
none the less, the estates, 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 Assembty of
the estates, thereby enabling the king to
maintain that in form at least his state
was constitutionally governed in the spirit
of the Act of Federation. In vain did that
indomitable champion of the popular
rights, Johann Karl Tertern Stiive, burgo-
master of Osnabriick, protest before the
The brave
Professors of
Gottingen
THE NEW REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD
tendencies proved incompatible with the
favour which the Saxon Court attempted
to show the CathoUc Church, the two
princes considered in 1843 that they were
able to dispense with his services. The
great rise in prosperity
manifested in every de-
partment of public life
under his government was
invariably ascribed to his
wise statesmanship
and his great capacity.
Not entirely discon-
nected 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,
THE BROTHERS GRIMM were mcapablc of satisfy-
Jakob and Wilhelni Grimm, two prominent mg tnC people aS a WnoIC,
educationists of Gottingen, were among- tiie qj- Qf creating a bodv
J --.- professors dismissed in 1837 for protesting re ■ ,1 .
Frederic against the absolution of state officials from polltlC SUtnCieutly StrOUg
their oaths of fidelity to the constitution. . SCCUre the prOgrCSS
of sound economic development. Nowhere
throughout Germany was the parlia.-
mentary spirit so native to the soil
as in Baden, where the democrats, under
the leadership of the Freiburg professors
Karl von Rotteck
Federal Council against the illegal imposi-
tion of taxes by the Hanoverian govern-
ment . The prevailing disunion enabled the
faithless 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 in-
terpreted as a return to
the old legal constitution,
a return adopted, and
therefore ratified, by the
estates themselves.
The Saxons had
displayed far greater in-
clination to riot and con-
spiracy ; however, in that
kingdom the transition
from class privilege to
constitutional govern-
ment was completed
without any serious nap-
ture of the good relations
between the people and
the government ; both
King Anthony and
his nephew
Augustus II., whom he
had appointed co-regent, possessed suffi-
cient insight to recognise the advantages
of a constitution ; the co-operation of
large sections of the community would
define the distribution of those burdens
which state ne-
cessities inevit-
ably laid upon
the shoulders of
individuals.
They supported
the Minister
Bernhard August
of Lindenau, one
of the wisest
statesmen in
Germany under
the old reaction-
ary regime, when
he introduced the
constitution of
Sei)tember 4th,
1 83 1, which pro-
vided a sufficient
measure of repre-
sentation for the citizen classes, and
protected the peasants from defraudation ;
they continued their support as long
as he possessed the confidence of the
Second Chamber. When his progressive
AUGUST OF LINDENAU
and Karl Theodor
W e 1 c k e r, the
Heidelberg jurist
Karl Joseph
Mitterm.ayer, and
the Mannheim
high justice
Johann Adam
von Itzstein, had
become pre-
dominant in the
Second Chamber.
The constitu-
tions of Bavaria
and Hesse-Darm-
stadt gave full
licence to the
expression of
pubHc opinion in
KARL THEODOR WELCKER
"One of the wisest statesmen in Germany," Bernhard August of
Lindenau introduced the constitution of September -tth, 1831, which
provided a sufficient measure of representation for the citizen classes,
and protected the peasants. Karl Theodor Welcker was one of the
Freiburg professors who became predominant in the Second Chamber.
the Press and at public meetings. But hberal-
ism was impressed with the insufficiency of
the means provided for the expression and
execution of the popular will ; it did not
attempt to create an administrative policy
4879
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
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 im-
Discontent
Encourageii
by the Press
mediate 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 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 ; the animosity of the mob was, how-
ever, purposely fostered and exploited by
the chiefs of a democratic conspiracy who
„, ^ were preparing for a general
1 he Germans ■ • t \t -^o^^ 4-\ t> j-
rismg. In May, 1832, the l<adi-
reparing or ^^^^ prepared a popular meet-
ing at the castle of Hambach
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 mani-
festation proved a great attraction. The
turgid outpourings, seasoned with violent
invectives against every form of modera-
tion, emanating from those crapulous
scribblers who were transported with
delight at finding in the works of Heinrich
Heine and Lewis Baruch Bornes induce-
ments to high treason and anti-monarch-
ical feeling, inflamed minds only too
accessible to passion and excitement. As
vintage advanced feeling grew higher, and
attracted the students, including the
various student corps which had regained
large numbers of adherents, the remem-
brance of the persecutions of the 'twenties
having been gradually obliterated.
At Christmas-time, 1832, an assembly of
the accredited representatives of these
corps in Stuttgart was induced to accede
to the proposal to share in the forthcoming
popular rising. The result was that after
the emeute set on foot by the democrats
in Frankfort-on-Main on April 3rd, 1833,
when an attempt was made to seize the
federal palace and the bullion there stored,
Tk T -ki it was the students who chiefly
Fafe of" ^^^^ ^^ P^y ^'^^' ^^^^^^ irrespon-
ii.* \f J i sibility and lack of common
the Students •'., . .
sense ; the measures of intimi-
dation and revenge undertaken by the
German Government at the demand of
Metternich fell chiefly and terribly on the
heads of the German students. No dis-
tinction was made between the youthful
aberrations of these coips, which were
inspired merely by an overpowering sense
of national feeling, and the bloodthirsty
designs of malevolent intriguers — for ex-
ample, of the priest Friedrich Ludwig
Weidig in Butzbach — or the unscrupulous
folly of revolutionary monomaniacs, such
as the Gottingen privat-dozent Von
Rauschenplat.
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
punitive measures of justice then enforced,
far from creating a salutary feeling of
fear, increased the existing animosity,
as is proved by tlie horrors of the Re-
volution of 1848.
4880
THE
RE-MAKING
OF
EUROPE
EUROPE
AFTER
WATERLOO
VIII
THE WELDING OF THE STATES
THE GERMAN FEDERATION AND
THE GERMAN CUSTOMS UNION
P\URING the period subsequent to the
■^ Congress of Vienna a highly import-
ant modification in tlie 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 pro-
tect the common mterests 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 pre-
„ iimmary to such a movement,
Progress j. • i i r .
. J a certam level of prosperity
m Germany , ^ • , i j .n
and financial power, had thus
already been attained. This achievement
was due to the excellent qualities of most
of the German races, to their industry,
their thrift, and their godliness. The capi-
tal necessary to the economic development
of a people could only be gradually re-
covered and amassed after the enormous
losses of the French war, by petty land-
owners and the small handicraftsmen.
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 300 years
by provincial separatism. Of this oppres-
sion the disunited races were themselves
largely unconscious ; what one considered
a burden, 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 qualifi-
cations were wanting to the Austrian
Government, which had formed the German
_,. , Federation according to its
1 he Ignorance •, t- j.i 1
J p r own ideas. Fven those who
j>l ,. . . admire the diplomatic skill of
Prince Metternich must admit
that the Austrian chancellor displayed sur-
prising ignorance and ineptitude in dealing
with questions of internal administration.
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 members of the bureaucracy whom
he had collected and employed were, with
few exceptions, men of limited intelligence
and poor education ; cowardly and subser-
vient to authority, they were so incompe-
tent to initiate any improvement of
existing circumstances that the first pre-
liminary 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
- V^ " ^ forces at work beneath the sur-
Jonn as J- r ^ j j ■
„ , face, a man of steady and persis-
Reformer , . re j
tent energy, suiiered many a
bitter experience 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,
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
which imphecl unconditional opposition to
every form of human endeavour — an
aversion to pronounced abiUty. Metter-
nich's long employment of Gentz 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 realismg his own
views or aims, he never had
any desire. Men of indepen-
dent thought, such as Johann
Philipp of Wessenberg, were
never permanently 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
Conception
of the State
FREDERIC WILLIAM IV.
Crowned Kingr of Prussia at
.. , . Ill Konig-sberg in 1840, he promised
reform was disregarded, and the introduction of reforms, which
he fell into bad odour at the were not carried out. Becoming
London conference, when his '"^^"^ '" ^^^^' ^^ ^'""^ ^" i^*^i-
convictions led him to take an independent onslaught.
position with reference to the quarrel
between Belgium and Holland.
The fate of the German Federation lay
entirely in the hands of Austria, and
Austria is exclusively responsible for the
^ .. ... ultimate fiasco of the Federa-
Metternich s , ■ i • i, i j_ ■\^ ^
tion, which she eventually de-
serted. The form and character
of this alhance, as also its after
development, were the work of Metter-
nich. People and Government asked for
bread, and he gave them a stone. He
conceived the state to be merely an insti-
tution officered and governed by police.
When more than twenty millions of
Germans 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 importance to bring forward
than proposals for limiting the effec-
tiveness of the provincial constitutions as
4882
compared with the state governments, for
increased severity in the censorship of the
Press, and 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
were disappointed in her ex-
pectations of the German
federal states, her feelings
originated only in the fact that
Prussia, together with Bava-
ria, Wiirtemberg, Saxony, and
Baden, entertained loftier
views than she herself upon the
nature of State existence and
the duties attaching thereto.
The kingdom of Prussia had
by no means developed in
accordance with the ex-
pectations entertained by
Metternich in 1813 and
1815 ; it was a miUtary
state, strong enough to
repel any possible Russian
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 un-
conscious of her high calling ; she was
wholly spellbound by Austrian federal
policy, but none the less she had com-
pleted a task incomparably the most im-
portant national achievement since the
attainment of religious freedom — the foun-
dation of the pan-Germanic Customs Union.
Cotta, 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 Lewis L of Bavaria from the in-
roads of his occasionally violent paroxysms
of personal vanity, and had
secured the execution of the
Inauguration
of a Federal » . . -at at. o
^ . ,, . Act of May 27th, 1820, pro-
Customs Union ... r 1
vidmg for a commercial
treaty between Bavaria- Wiirtemberg 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 Friedrich List, the
national economist, had believed, then
became so incontestable a fact that the
THE GERMAN FEDERATION AND CUSTOMS UNION
commercial treaty took the form of a
customs union, implying an area of uni-
form economic interests.
The "Central German Union," which was
intended to dissolve the connection between
Prussia and South Germany, and to neu-
tralise the advantages thence
o apse o derived, rapidly collapsed. It
the Central , i ii -
^ ,, . became clear that economic
Oerman Union ... , .,
mterests are stronger than
political, and the dislike amounting to aver-
sion of Prussia, entertained 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 possible to fill the state ex-
chequers. The electorate of Hesse had
taken the lead in opposing the Hohen-
zollern policy of customs federation ; as
early as 183 1 she recognised that her
policy of commercial isolation spelt ruin.
A similar process led to the dissolution of
the so-called " Einbeck Convention " of
March 27th, 1830, which had included
Hanover, Brunswick, Oldenburg, and the
electorate of Hesse. Saxony joined Prussia
on March 30th, as did Thiiringen on May
nth, 1833 ; on May 22nd, 1833, the
Bavarian- Wiirtemberg and the Prussian
groups were definitely united. On
January 1st, 1834, the union included
eighteen German states, with 23,000.000
inhabitants ; in 1840 these numbers had
risen to twenty-three states with 27,000,000
inhabitants. In 1841 the union was
joined by Bninswick, and by Luxemburg
in 1842 ; Hanover did not come in until
September 7th, 185 1, when she ceased to
be an open market for British goods. The
expenses of administration and of guard-
ing 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
shilling and sixpence per head ; in
1840, to more than twenty silver
groschen, two shillings.
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 Leipzig foresaw the decay of her
great markets. The credit of completing
this great national achievement belongs
almost exclusively to the governments
THE STATELY COLOGNE CATHEDRAL I'hotochroma
The foundations of this magnificent structure, regarded as one of the finest examples of Gothic architecture extant, were
laid in 124s ; the work was renewed in 1S42, and in 18S0 the building- was completed according to the original plan.
4883
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
and to the expert advisers whom they
called in. 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
^. o, . industrial and manufacturing
I he Shadow • , , i-i ^ ■ • i
-, „ .... , interests. 1 he people miagmed
of Political ^, ^ ^r 1 •■ •
Q .. that a process ot division was
Separation /T u • i i
even then beginning which
was bound to end in political separation ;
but the importance of Prussia, which
naturally took the lead in conducting the
business 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 Wiirtemberg 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 Rights,
State and Church," he expounded the
programme 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 inter-
national 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 Ger-
many than the retention of
these countries by a power
connected 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."
It was now necessary for Prussia to come
to some agreement with the German
people and the State of the Hapsburgs.
4884
Prussia's
Relations with
Germany
For more than three centuries the latter
had, in virtue of their dynastic power,
become the representatives of the Romano-
German Empire. Their historical position
enabled them to lay claim to the leader-
ship of the federation, though their power
in this respect was purely external.
Certain obstacles, however, lay in the way
of any settlement. It was difficult to'
secure any feeling of personal friendship
between the South Germans and the
Prussians of the old province. Some
measure of political reform was 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.
Finally, there was the peculiar tempera-
ment of Frederic William IV., who had
succeeded to the government of Prussia
upon the death of his father, Frederic
William III., on June 7th, 1840. In
respect of creative power, artistic sense,
and warm, deep feeling, his character
can only be described as brilliant. He
was of the ripe age of forty-five, and his
first measures evoked general astonish-
^. „ .... ment and enthusiasm. But he
Ihe Brilliant ,-j , xi ^
P . did not possess the strong grasp
xirt,- t\T of his great ancestors an i
William IV. ,, . o . J- ^,
their power of guiding the
ship through critical dangers unaided.
He had not that inward consciousness of
strength and that decisiveness which
shrink 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
finances, and of legislating in conjunction
with the Crown. On May 22nd, 1S15,
Frederic William III. had made some
promises in this direction ; 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. Such danger un-
doubtedly existed.
The organisation of the newly-formed
provincial federation was a process
which necessarily affected private interests
and customs peculiar to the individual
areas which had formerly been indepen-
THE GERMAN FEDERATION AND CUSTOMS UNION
dent sections of the empire, and
were now forced into alliance with other
districts with which little or no connection
had previously existed. The conflicting
views and the partisanship inseparable
from parliamentary institutions would
have checked the quiet, steady work of the
Prussian bureaucracy, and would in any
case have produced a continual and un-
necessary agitation. The improvements in
the financia.1 condition created by the
better regulation of the national debt, by
the limitation of military expenditure, and
the introduction of a graduated system of
taxation, could not have been more
successfully or expeditiously carried out
than they were by such Ministers as
Billow and Klewitz.
So soon as the main part of this trans-
formation of the Prussian state had been
accomplished, prosperity began to return
to the peasant and citizen classes, and the
result 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
Coronation
Pledges of
Prussian King
found possible to emphasise
these demands by reference to
the example of the constitutional govern-
ments existing in neighbouring territories.
The speeches delivered by Frederic William
IV. at his coronation in Konigsberg on Sep-
tember loth, 1840, and at his reception of
homage in Berlin on October 15th, 1840, in
which he displayed oratorical powers
unequalled by any previous prince,
appeared to point to an immediate fulfil-
ment of these desires.
The king was deeply moved by the out-
burst of national enthusiasm in German}^
which was evoked by the unjustifiable
menaces directed against Germany by
France in the autumn of 1840 during the
Eastern comphcations. The Minister,
Thiers, who had been in office since March
ist, suddenly broke away from the Great
Powers during the Turco-Egyptian war,
and initiated a policy of his own in favour
of Egypt — a short-sighted departure which
obliged Great Britain, Russia, Austria, and
Prussia to conclude the quadruple alliance
of July 15th, 1840, with the object of com-
pelUng Mehemet Ali to accept the con-
ditions of peace which they had arranged.
With a logic peculiarly their own, the
French considered 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
rnt « . .• so insolent an act of aggres-
The Relations • ■■ , i n i-
- „ sion, and showed all reachness
of Uermany , ^ . u 1 r
. „ to support the proposals for
armed resistance. INikolaus
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 towards
France. Then was the time for Frederic
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 intimidated
France both at the moment and for the
future. However, he confined himself
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 op-
portunity for securing the federal pre-
dominance of Prussia by means of her
military power, for she could have con-
centrated a respectable force upon the
German frontier more quickly than any
other member of the Federation. More-
over, 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 September4th, 1842, produced
no deception as to his lack of political
decision. Whenever a special .effort was
expected or demanded in an hour of crisis,
Frederic William's powers proved unequal
to the occasion, and the confidence which
the nation reposed in him was deceived.
Hans von ZwiEDINECK-StiOENHORST
4885
Frederic
William a
Failure
THE MASSACRE OF THE MAMELUKES BY MEHEMET ALI IN 1811
Prom the palming by liul.i wi the Metropolitan Museum of Art. New Vork
4886
THE
RE-MAKING
OF
EUROPE
4- I
EUROPE
AFTER
WATERLOO
IX
THE NEW KINGDOM OF GREECE
RUSSIA AND THE SUBLIME PORTE
AFTER the Porte had given its consent
to the protocol of February 3rd, 1836,
the Great Powers of Europe addressed
themselves to the task of reorganising the
Greek kingdom. Thessaly, Epirus, ' Mace-
donia, even Acarnania, remained under
Turkish supremacy ; but a considerable
portion of the Greek people, forming a
national entity, though hmited in extent,
was now able to begin a new and free
existence as a completely independent state.
This success had been attained by
the rerharkable tenacity of the Greek
nation, by the continued support of
Great Britain, and, above all, by the
pressure which the Russian co-reJigionists
of the Greeks had brought to bear upon
the Turkish mihtary power. The work
of liberation was greatly hindered by the
diplomacy of the other Great Powers, and
particularly by the support given to the
. , Turks, the old arch enemies of
us na s Christendom, by Catholic Aus-
th''*T°'^k° ^^^^' ^° Austria it is due that
the Greek question has remained
unsolved to the present day ; ^ that
instead of developing its inherent strength
the Greek nation is still occupied with
the unification of its different tribeS; and
that the Turkish state, which was hostile
to civilisation, and has justified its ex-
istence only by means of the bayonets of
Anatolian regiments, still exists on suffer-
ance as a foreign body within the political
system of Europe. Once again the ob-
stacle 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 influ-
ence which might be useful in the peninsula.
The true basis of such influence was not
as yet understood. It is not the states-
manship of ambassadors and attaches
which gives a nation influence abroad, but
its power to assert its will when its interest
so demands. National influence rests
upon the forces which the state can com-
mand, upon the industry of its traders,
the value and utihty of its products, the
creative power of its labour and capital.
The Greeks were now confronted with
the difficult task of concen-
trating their forces, accommo-
Greece
After its
Wars
dating themselves to a new
political system, and making
their independence 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 un-
settled the country, but reduced it almost
to desolation. The noblest and the bravest
of the nation' had fallen upon the battle-
fields or under the attacks of the Janissaries
and Albanians, or 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 work of recon-
struction consisted of a king under age
and 2,400,000 pounds at a high rate
of interest. Prince Leopold of Coburg,
the first candidate for the Greek throne,
had unfortunately renounced his project ;
he would have proved a capai)le and
benevolent ruler, and would perhaps have
adapted himself to the peculiar character-
istics of Greek life and thought, with the
• eventual result -of providing a
ro cm o starting-point for the introduc-
thc Oreek , • r ^ - -,• , ^
^,. tion of more Civilised and more
modern methods, in conse-
quence of his retirement, the presidency
of Capodistrias continued for some time,
until the murder of this statesman/ who
had deserved well of his people, on October
gth, 1831 ; then followed the short reign
of his brother Augustine, who did not enjoy
4887
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
the recognition of the constitutional party,
the Syntagmatikoi. Ultimately, by work-
ing on the vanity of King Lewis of
Bavaria, European diplomacy persuaded
this monarch to authorise his son Otto,
born on June ist, 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
»ng o i^i'ought about by the London
"Quadruple Convention" on
May 7th, 1832, and is one of the most
ill-considered pieces of work ever per-
formed by the 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 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 superin-
tendence, of pacification, of disentangling
the various complications, and restraining
party action within the bounds of legality.
The Bavarian officials, who might
perhaps have done good service in
Wiirzburg or Amberg, were unable to
accommodate themselves to their Greek
environment ; their mistakes aroused a
passionate animosity against the Germans,
resulting in their complete expulsion from
Hellas in 1843. On March i6th, X844,
King Otto was obliged to agree to the in-
troduction 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. Consequently he did not observe
_. -, , this constitution with sufficient
„. . conscientiousness to regain the
vismiss
rr. ■ v national respect. Disturbances
Their King ■ ^., ^ f i ^i /- ■
in the Last and the Crimean
War proved so many additional obstacles
to his efforts, which were ended by a
revolt in October, 1862, when the Greeks
declined to admit their king within the
Piraeus as he was returning from the
Morea, and thus unceremoniously dis-
missed him from their service. In 1830,
Greece was definitively separated from
4888
Turkey ; and at the same time the
insolence of the Dey of Algiers, hitherto
under the Ottoman suzerainty, gave the
Bourbon monarchy the chance of trying
to recover its prestige with the nation
by the seizure of Algeria. The piratical
activity of the Barbary States was brought
to an end. In Turkey also that move-
ment was now beginning, which will be
considered later, the literary and political
revolution of the Young Turkish party.
The indefatigable Mahmud, however,
again resumed his efforts to secure the
unity of the empire. But he was forced
to give way to his Pasha of Egypt, Mehe-
met Ali, one of the most important rulers
whom the East had produced for a long
time. He was born in 1769 at Kavala, in
Roumelia, opposite the island of Thasos.
He had gone to Egypt in 1800 with some
Albanian mercenaries ; in the struggle
with the French, English, and Mamelukes
he had raised himself to supremacy, had
conquered the Wahabites, subjugated
Arabia and Nubia, and created a highly
competent army by means of military
reform upon a large scale. When Mahmud
II. declined to meet his extensive demands
„ . in return for the help he had
Russian 1 ■, • j. xt. r- i
J. . rendered agamst the Greeks,
th T k Ihrahim, an adopted son of Me-
hemet, a general of the highest
class, invaded Syria in 1831, defeated the
Turks on three occasions, conquered Akka,
X832, and advanced to Kiutahia, in Asia
Minor, in 1833. Mahnmd appealed to
Russia for help. Russia forthwith sent
15,000 men to the Bosphorus, whilst the
fleets of France and England jealously
watched the Dardanelles. Mehemet Ali was
obliged to make peace on May 4th, 1833,
and was driven back behind the Taurus.
The most important result of these
events, however, was the recompense
which the Sultan was induced to give
to the Russians for their help. He had
been shown the letters of the French
Ambassador, which revealed the intention
of the Cabinet of the Tuileries to replace
the Ottoman dynasty by that of Mehemet.
The result was the convention of Hunkyar-
Skalessi, the imperial stairs on the Bos-
phorus, July 8th, or May 26th, 1833. In
this agreement the terrified Sultan made
a supplementary promise to close the
Dardanelles in future against every Power
that was hostile to Russia. When this
one-sided convention, concluded in defi-
ance of all international rights, became
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
known, the Western Powers were naturally
irritated, and Prince Metternich wittily
designated the sultan as " le sublime
portier des Dardenelles au service du
tsar." The naval Powers withdrew their
fleets from the Dardanelles, after entering
a protest against this embargo. Mean-
while, the will of the tsar was supreme
both in Athens and Stamboul.
T arwas Obeying his instructions,
sar was ]y];ai-im^(j refused to allow the
upreme Austrians to blast the rocks
on the Danube at Orsova, or to permit
his subjects to make use of the ships of
the Austria-Hungarian Lloyd Company,
founded in Trieste in 1,836 ; notwith-
standing this prohibition the company
was able to resume with success the old
commercial relations of the Venetians
with the Levant. The Russian ambas-
sador discountenanced the wishes of the
grand vizir and of the seraskier, who
applied to the Prussian ambassador.
Count Konigsmark, with a request for
Prussian officers to be sent out, in view of
a reorganisation of the army, which was in
fact carried out under the advice of Moltke.
In 1837 the first bridge over the Golden
Horn was built, between Unkapau and
Asabkapusi ; not until 1845 and 1877 was
the new bridge constructed which is
known as the Valide, after the mother of
Abd ul-Mejid. On August i6th, 1838,
the British ambassador Ponsonby secured
the completion, in the house of Reshid
Pasha at Balta-Nin on the Bosphorus, of
that treaty respecting trade and customs
duties, which has remained the model of
all succeeding agreements. By way of
recompense the British fleet accompanied
the Turkish fleet during all its manoeu-
vres in the Mediterranean, until its seces-
sion to Mehemet Ali. War was declared
upon him by Sultan Mahmud in May,
1839, when the Druses had revolted against
the Syrian authorities in the Hauran.
However, the sultan died on July ist,
before he could receive the
«,** ° news of the total defeat of his
M* h**^ a ^^^^y ^t Nisib on June 24th,
and the desertion of his fleet in
Alexandria on July 14th. At a later period,
after his return to the Sublime Porte,
Moltke vindicated the capacity which Hafiz
Pasha had shown in face of the lack of dis-
cipline prevailing in his army, although
the seraskier had treated the suggestions
of the Prussian officers with contempt.
Ibrahim did not pursue his master's troops,
4890
as his own soldiers were too exhausted
to undertake any further movements.
Mahmud II. died a martyr to his own
ideas and plans ; even his greatest reforms
remained in embryo. However, his work
lives after him ; he was the founder of a
new period for Turkey, as Peter the Great,
with whom he liked to be compared, had
been for Russia. The difficulty of the
political situation, the incapacity of his
predecessors, the slavery imposed by the
domestic government and court etiquette,
were the real source of those obstacles which
often caused him such despondency that
he sought consolation in drunkenness, to
the utter destruction of his powers.
Abd ul-Mejid, 1839-1861, the son of
Mahmud, undertook at the age of sixteen
the government of a state which would
irrevocably have fallen into the power of
the Pasha of Egypt had not the ambitious
plans of France been thwarted by the
conclusion of the Quadruple Alliance on
July 15th, 1840, between England, Russia,
Austria, and Prussia. The interference of the
alliance forced the victorious Pasha Mehemet
Ali to evacuate Syria ; after the conclusion
of peace he obtained the Island of Thasos,
^, _ , , the cradle of his race, from the
The Sultan s , , t j-u
„. sultan, as an appanage 01 the
thcpLha viceroys of Egypt, in whose
possession it still remains.
An important advance is denoted by the
Hatti-sherif of Giilhane on November 3rd,
1839, which laid down certain principles,
on which were to be based further special
decrees. The reformation proclaimed as
law what had in fact long been customary,
the theoretical equality of the subjects of
every nation, race, and religion before the
law. It must be said that in the execution
of this praiseworthy decree certain prac-
tical difficulties came to light. Reshid
Pasha, the creator of the " hat," was not
inspired by any real zeal for reform, but
was anxious simply to use it as a means for
gaining the favour of the Christian Powers.
As early as 1830, for example, a census
had been undertaken, the first throughout
the whole Turkish Empire, the results of
which were valueless. No official would
venture to search the interior of a Moslem
house inhabited by women and children.
It was, moreover, to the profit of the
revenue officials to represent the number
of houses and families in their district as
lower than it really was, with the object
of filling their pockets with the excess.
The Porte, unable to secure the obedience
THE NEW KINGDOM OF GREECE A.ND THE SUBLIME PORTE
of the SjTians by a strong government
like the miUtary despotism of Ibrahim,
was equally unable to win over the
country by justice and good administra-
tion, for lack of one necessary condition,
an honest official service. It was not to the
" hat " of Gulhane of 1856, nor yet to the
later Hatti-humayun, that reform was
due, but to the European Powers associ-
ated to save the crescent. These Powers
suggested the only permanent solution
by supplying the watchword "A la
franca" ; and urged the Turks to acquire
a completer knowledge of the West, to
learn European languages and sciences,
to introduce the institutions of the West.
Literature also had to follow this
intellectual change. Towards the end of
the eighteenth century, a poet endowed
with the powers of the ancient East had
appeared in Ghalib, and a
court poet in the unfortunate
Sehm III. Heibet ullah Sul-
tana, a sister of the Sultan
Mahmud II., and aunt of the
reforming Minister Fuad, also
secured a measure of popu-
larity. These writers were,
however, unable to hinder the
decay of old forms, or rather
the dawn of a new period,
the Turkish " modem age."
The study of the languages of
Eastern civilisation became
neglected in view of the need
Persecution
of Protestant
Armenians
Shah into the Arabian Irak, Suleimanieh,
Bagdad, Kerbela, and Armenia, a war
wath Persia was threatened, and the dis-
pute was only composed with difficulty by
a peace commission summoned to meet
at Erzeroum. Within the Danubian
principalities the sovereign rights of
the Porte were often in conflict with
the protectorate poweis of
Russia. In Scrvia, Alexan-
der Karageorgevitch was
solemnly appointed bashbeg,
or high prince of Servia, by the Porte on
November 14th, 1842 ; Russia, however,
succeeded in persuading Alexander
voluntarily to abdicate his position,
which was not confirmed until 1843 by
Russia, after his re-election at Topchider,
near Belgrade. The Roman Catholic
— uniate — Armenians, who had already
endured a cruel persecution in
1828, secured toleration for
their independent Church in
1835 and a representative of
their own. A similar per-
secution, supported by Russia
from Etshmiadsin, also broke
out against the Protestant
Armenians in 1845. It was
not until November, 1850,
that their liberation was
secured by the energetic am-
bassador, Stratford Canning.
Even more dangerous was the
diplomatic breach between the
of "^ the study of the West, in mltfcotdudeype^Jf wSh Porte and Greece, 1847. This
The new generation kne-w Mehemet ah of Egypt, and in young state had grown insolent;
i- T T' 1 ■ Tv/r J 1853 his resistance to Russia s -' ",, , +i,„ -d,,^ : „
more of La Fontaine, Mont- claims to a protectorate over his supported by the Russian
esquieu, and Victor Hugo subjects led to the Crimean war. party which dominated the
than of the Moslem classics. The poUtical Chamber of Deputies, Greece had availed
need of reform made men ambitious to
secure recognition for the drafting of a
diplomatic note rather than for the com-
position of a Kassited, or of a poem with
a purpose. In the East as well as in the
West mediaeval poetry became a lost art.
By the Dardanelles Convention, which
. , was concluded with the Great
ussias Powers in London on July
Bi*"k 's ^3th, 1841, the Porte consented
to keep the Dardanelles and the
Bosphorus closed to foreign ships of war
in the time of peace. By this act the
Turkish Government gave a much desired
support to Russian aims at predominance
in the Black Sea. In the same year it was
necessary to suppress revolts which had
broken out in Crete and Bulgaria. In
consequence of the incursions of Mehmet
herself of the helplessness of the Porte
against Mehemet Ali, at the time when Abd
ul-Mejid began his reign, to send help to
the Cretans. The Prime Minister, Kolettis,
1 844- 1 847, had repeatedly demanded the
union of the Greeks. Continued friction
ended in 1846 with a collision between
the Turkish ambassador and the Greek
king, with the breaking off of diplomatic
relations, and with a revenge taken by
the sultan upon his Greek subjects, which
might almost have ended in war between
Greece and Turkey, England and France.
Not until September, 1847, ^^as an under-
standing between the two neighbours
secured, by the intervention of the tsar
on the personal appeal of King Otto.
Hans von Zwiedineck-Sldenhorst
Heinrich Zimmerer
4891
THE
RE-MAKING
OF
EUROPE
EUROPE
AFTER
WATERLOO
X
THE STATE OF RELIGION IN EUROPE
AND THE PROGRESS OF SOCIAL MOVEMENTS
""THE great revolutions which had taken
•■• place in the political world since 1789
were not calculated to produce satisfac-
tion either among contemporaries or
posterity. 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 un-
certain 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 ^/earning for the restoration of true
Christian feeling. It was a desire that
„ ^ . _ evoked attempts at the for-
Restored Power , • r t • - , •
, .. mation of religious societies,
Catholic Church o^^«=n °^ ^ very extraordin-
ary nature, without attain-
ing any definite object ; on the other hand,
it opened the possibility of a magnificent
development of the power of Catholicism.
The progress of the movement had 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 this
supremacy will in turn become intolerable
and the foundations of ultramontanism
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
4892
purely artificial. Jesuitism has no ideals ;
for it, religion is merely a department of
politics. By the creation of a hierarchy
within 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
The Scheming , • - , r r
_ ,. , has no special preference lor
Policy of , ^ ^.u \ ■*.
th J t monarch}^, though it simu-
lates such a preference for
dynasties which it can use for its own pur-
poses ; 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 accom-
panied by the grossest superstition, and
this latter is one of its most valuable
weapons. While fostering imbecility and
insanity, it shares in the hobbies of science,
criticism and research. One maiden marked
with the stigmata can repair any damage
done to society by the well-meaning
efforts of a hundred learned fathers.
On August 7th, 1814, Pope Pius VII.
issued the encyclical Sollicitiido oniniinn,
reconstituting the Society of Jesus, which
retained its original constitution and
those privileges which it had acquired
since its foundation. 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
Jesuit Order
Supported by
the Papacy
with the papacy, undertake
the interests of the roval
houses — a device successfully
employed even at the present day. This
action of the papacy, a step as portentous
for the destinies of Europe as any of those
taken during the unhappy years of the
first Peace of Paris, appeared at first com-
paratively unimportant. The new world
power escaped notice until the highly gifted
Dutchman, Johann Philip of Roothaan,
TFIE STATE OF RELIGION IN EUROPE
took over the direction on July gth, 1829,
and won the Germans over to the Order.
The complaisance with which the French
and the Italians lent their services for the
attainment of specific objects deserves ac-
knowledgment. But even more valuable
than their diplomatic astuteness in the
struggle against intellectual freedom weie
the bUnd unreasoning obedience and the
strong arms of Flanders, Westphalia, the
Rhine 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. B3' 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.
The struggle raged with
special fury in Prussia, though
this state, considering its
very modest pecuniary re-
sources, had endowed the
new-created Catholic bishop-
rics very handsomely. The
Jesuits declined to tolerate
a friendly agreement in things
spiritual between the Catholics
and Protestants in the
Rhine territories, to allow
the celebration of mixed
marriages with the "passive ' - — -
_• . ^^ ., r ., n .^ 1 ARCHBISHOP OF COLOGNE
assistance of the Catholic . , , . , r. ^. ^
,, 1 . , 1 , ,, Archbishop Ferdinand worthily
they objected to the fulfilled the duties of his hi^h
pastor
arranged by his predecessor. His repeated
transgression of his powers and his treat-
ment of the Bonn professors obliged the
Prussian Government to pronounce his
deposition on November 14th, 1837, ^nd
forcibly to remove him from Cologne.
The Curia now protested in no measured
terms against Prussia, and displayed
Disloyal ^ gaUing contempt for the
Prelate Pi'ussian ambassador, Bunsen,
Punished ^'^^° ^^^^ exchanged the profes-
sion of archagology for that of
diplomacy. Prince Metternich had for-
merly been ready enough to claim the
good services of the Berlin Cabinet when-
ever he required their support ; his
instructive diplomatic communications
were now withheld, and with some secret
satisfaction he observed the humihation
of his ally by Roman statecraft. The
embarrassment of the Prussian adminis-
tration was increased both by
the attitude of the Liberals,
who, with doctrinaire short-
sightedness, disputed the
right of the government to
arrest the bishop, and by the
extension of the Catholic
opposition to the ecclesiast-
ical province of Posen-Gnesen,
where the insubordination and
disloyalty of the archbishop,
Martin von Dunin, necessi-
tated the imprisonment of
that prelate also. Those
ecclesiastical dignitaries who
were under Jesuit influence
teaching of George Hermes, office and died on August 2nd, 1 8:35. p^ceeded to persecute such
professor in the Cathohc faculty at the
new-created university of Bonn, who
propounded to his numerous pupils the
doctrine that belief in revelation neces-
sarily implied the exercise of reason, and
that the dictates of reason must not
therefore be contradicted by dogma.
After the death of the excellent Arch-
bishop Ferdinand of Cologne on August 2nd,
The Defiant -"-^^D) the blind confidence of
Archbishop the government elevated the
of Cologne Prebendary Klemens August
Freiherr von Droste-Vischer-
ing to the Rhenish archbishopric. He
had been removed from the general vicar-
iate at Miinster as a punishment for his
obstinacy. In defiance of his previous
promises, the ambiguity of which had
passed unnoticed by the Minister Alten-
stein, the archbishop arbitrarily broke off
the agreement concerning niixed marriages
supporters of peace as the prince- bishop
of Breslau, Count Leopold of Sedlnitzky,
in 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, resistance
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 sup-
posed to be one of Christ's garments,
an imposture which had long before
been demonstrated ; an additional cause
was the disorderly pilgrimage thereto
promoted by Bishop Arnoldi. The
chaplain, Ronge. characterised the
exhibition as a scandal, and denounced
4893
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
the " idolatrous worship of reUcs " as one
of the causes of the spiritual and political
humiliation of Germany. He thereby
became the founder of a reform move-
ment, which at once assumed a character
serious enough to arouse hopes that
the Catholic Church would now undergo
the necessary process of purification and
_. _ . separation, and would break
The Ruinous ^ ^^^^^ ^^^^ ruinous in-
Influcnce ^^g^^g ^^ Jesuitism. About
of Jesuitism ^^^ hundred "German
Catholic " congregations were formed in
the year 1845, and a Church council was
held at Leipzig from March 23rd to 26th,
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 uniting power of a new
idea, brilliant enough to attract the uni-
versal gaze and to distract attention from
established custom and its separatist
consequences. Great and strong characters
were wanting, though these were indispen-
sable for the direction and organisation of
the different bodies who were attempting
to secure their libej'ation 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, pro-
claimed its own war-cry to be the only
talisman of victory, and adopted new
idols as its ensign, so long were they over-
powered by the determined persistency of
the Society of J esus.
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." The movement was based
upon the conviction that belief should be
„ , ^. controlled by the dictates of
Revelations j ^ i i • j
, „ . ..„ reason and not by ecclesiast-
01 Scientific 1 ., ^:( T^
Criticis ^ 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, as these
4894
results were utilised by Strauss in his " Life
of Jesus," 1835, and his "Christian Dogma,
explained in its Historical Development
and in Conflict with Modern Science,"
1840-X841, works which made an epoch
in the literary world, and the importance of
which remained undiminished by any
measures of ecclesiastical repression.
Among the Romance peoples religious
questions were of less importance than
among the Germans. In Spain, such ques-
tions were treated purely as political
matters ; the foundation of a few Protest-
ant congregations by Manuel Matamoros
exercised no appreciable influence upon
the intellectual development of the Span-
iards. The apostacy of the Rorrian prelate
Luigi Desancti to the Waldenses and the
appearance of scattered evangelical socie-
ties produced no effect upon the position
of the Catholic Church in Italy. In France,
the liberal tendencies introduced by La-
martine and Victor Hugo remained a
literary fashion ; the efforts of Lacordaire
and Montalembert to found national free-
dom upon papal absolutism were nullified
by the general direction of Roman policy.
There was, however, one phenomenon
deserving a closer attention
-a phenomenon of higher
Lamennais the
Fiery Champion
, ^. „ importance than any dis-
of the Papacy i j 1 . i ■
played by the various
attempts at religious reform during the
nineteenth century, for the reason that its
evolution displays the stages which mark
the process of liberation from Jesuitism.
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
Revolution a Christian-revolutionary
periodical, " L'Avenir," with the motto,
" Dieu et Liberte — le Pape et le Peuple."
By his theory, not only was the Church
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 ;
THE STATE OF RELIGION IN EUROPE
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 sub-
mission, interdicted him from issuing any
further publications. Lamen-
nais, 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 " in 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
Religion in
England
and Scotland
greatly prized possession was, however,
threatened by the system of the Established
Church, which forced upon the congrega-
tions ministers who were not to their
liking ; but this was in itself merely
incidental to the more important and
comprehensive fact that the " establish-
ment " was subject to civil control, and
that questions affecting it might be
carried for decision to a court which was
Scottish only in the sense that it contained
a Scottish element — the House of Peers.
The view rapidly gained ground that in
matters regarded as spiritual the Church
ought to be subject to no authority save
its own ; in other words, that it ought to
be free from state control. But that view
was not general, nor was the state pre-
pared to recognise it. It only remained,
Newman Keble Pusejr
LEADERS OF THE TRACTARIAN MOVEMENT
Inspired by the desire to " awaken into new life a Church wliich was becoming- torpid by a revival of mediasval ideals
and mediaeval devotion," and with the aim of counteracting the " danger to religion arising from a sceptical criticism, "
the Tractarian movement in England had as its most notable champions Newman, Keble, and Pusey. Their
teachings were in many quarters regarded as nothing but barely veiled "Popery," a view tliat was strengthened
when Cardinal Newman went over to the Church of Rome, whither lie was followed by many of his disciples.
men in the enjoyment of this world's goods.
But in England and in Scotland there
was considerable ferment on religious
questions during the 'thirties and 'forties.
German rationalism indeed would hardly
have been permitted to obtain a foothold
in either country ; when respectability
was at its zenith, German rationalism
was not regarded as respectable. In
Scotland the crucial question was not one
of theology, but of Church government ;
in that country the national system of
education combined with the national
combativeness of character to make every
cottar prepared to support his own religi-
ous tenets with a surprising wealth of
scriptural erudition; and " spiritual inde-
pendence " was fervently cherished. That
therefore, for the protesting portion of the
community to sever itself from the state
by departing from the Establishment and
sacrificing its share in the endowments
and privileges thereto pertaining. In the
great Disruption of 1843 hundreds of
ministers resigned their manses and
churches rather than their principles ;
and the Free Church took its place side
by side with the Established Church as a
self-supporting religious body, although in
point of doctrine there was no distinction
between the two communities, which were
both alike Calvinist in theology and
Presbyterian in system.
The Tractarian movement in England
was of a different type. On the one side,
it was inspired by the desire to awaken
4895
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
into new life a Church which was becoming
torpid, by a revival of mediaeval ideals and
mediaeval devotion, to be attained through
insistence on mystical doctrines, on the
apostolic character of the priesthood, on
the authority of the fathers of the Church
as against the miscellaneous unauthorised
and ignorant interpretations of the Srri]>
tures, and on the
historic and
aesthetic attrac-
tions of elaborate i§
ceremonial. On
another side it
sought especially
to counteract
the danger to
r^eligion arising
from a sceptical
criticism, and ^
from the attacks
of the scientific
spirit which de-
clmed to regard ^^^ social reformers owen and fourier
convictions in the large spinning-works at New Lanark in Scotland, of which he StOOd
and resulting in a movement which soon
affected every nation. The great revolu-
tion had accomplished nothing in this
direction. The sum total of achievement
hitherto was represented by certain dismal
experiences of " State help " in the dis-
tribution of bread and the subsidising of
'Kikf^rs. The phrase inscribed in the
"Cahiers " of the
deputies of the
Third Estate 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." Babeuf,
the only French
democrat who
professed com-
munistic views,
was not under-
by the
^ r] rt n i f^ r\ nn was manager, Robert Owen put into practice his socialistic theories, i-naccAc onrl Kie
d-UupLCU uu but his experiment was not permanently successful. Equally futile "'''•^^^^' '^"^ ^"^
authority as be- and unsatisfactory was Charles Fourier's project of the " Phalan- martyrdom. OUC
ing knowledge. ^'^'^'" ^ "^"^ '""'^^ comnmnity having all things in comn-.on. ^^ ^^^ ^^^^ ^^^_
The "Tracts for the Times," from which
the movement took its name, the teaching
of John Henry Newman, of Keble, and of
Pusey, who were its most notable cham-
pions, alarmed the popular Protestantism
— the more when Newman himself went
over to the Church of Rome, whither he
was followed by many of his disciples ;
and " Puseyism " was commonly regarded
as nothing but barely veiled " Popery."
Newman would have had many more
imitators if the greatest of his colleagues
had not maintained their view that the
doctrines of " The Church " are those of
the Anglican Church, and refused to sever
themselves from her. They remained,
and it will probably be admitted that while
their movement inspired the clerical body
--not only their adherents, but their
opponents also— to a renewed activity at
the time, it had the further effect ulti-
mately, though not till after a consider-
able lapse of time, of attaching to itself a
majority of the most energetic and the
most intellectual of the clergy.
That Christian sociahsm to which
Lamennais had been led by reason and
experience was a by-product of the
numerous attempts to settle the pressing
question of social reform, attempts begun
simultaneously in France and England,
4896
necessary political murders of the Direc-
tory, had aroused no movement among
those for' whom it was undergone.
The general introduction of machinery
in man\ 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 de-
privation of the very necessaries of exist-
ence, broke into riot and insurrection ;
factories were repeatedly destroyed in
England at the beginning of the
ac ory century ; the silk weavers of
Kiots in T -• o 1 xt,
p. . . Lyons in 1831 and the weavers
'^^ ^^ of Silesia in 1844 rose against
their masters. These facts aroused the
consideration of the means by which
the appalling miseries of a fate wholly
undeserved could be obviated.
Among the wild theories and fantastic
aberrations of Saint-Simon were to be
found many ideas well worth considera-
tion which could not fail to act as a
stimulus to further thought. The
pamphlet of 18 14, " Reorganisation de
la Societe Europeenne," had received no
consideration from the Congress of Vienna,
for it maintained that congresses were not
THE STATE OF RELIGION IN EUROPE
the proper instrument for the permanent
restoration of social peace and order.
It was, however, plainly obvious that
even after the much- vaunted " Restora-
tion " 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 manufacturers, in-
dustrial potentates, l')usiness men, and
financiers, with warnings against the
prevailing sweating system ; not in vain
did he assert in his " Nouveau Chris-
tianisme," 1825, that every Church in exist-
„ , ence had stultilied its Chris-
£ u rope s , • •. , ,,
_ tiamty by suppressmg the
„ , ^ loftiest teaching of Christ, the
Development i . ■ r i_ ^^i 1 1
doctrme of brotherly love.
No immediate influence was exerted upon
the social development of Europe by
Barthelemy 'Prosper Constantin's pro-
posals for the emancipation of the flesh,
and for the foundation of a new "theo-
cratic-industrial state," or by Charles
Fourier's project of the " Phalanstere," a
new social community having all things in
common, or by the Utopian dreams of
communism expounded by Etienne Cabet
in his " Voyage en Icarie." Such theorising
merely cleared the way for more far-seeing
thinkfers, who, from their knowledge of
existing institu-
tions, could de-
monstrate their
capacity of trans-
formation.
In Britain,
Robert Owen,
the manager of
the great spin-
ning-w o r k s at
New Lanark, in
Scotland, was the
first to attempt
the practical
realisation of a
philosophical Marx
social svstem pioneers c
o<j>-ia,i o J o I. >^ 111 . yjjg founder and guide of an international organisation of the pro
Owen S theories letanat, Karl Marx - '"
facts thus ascertained were worked into
a sociaUst system by the efforts of
a German Jew, Karl Marx, born in 1818
at Treves, a man fully equipped with
Hegelian criticism, and possessed by an
extraordinary yearning to discover the
causes which had brought existing con-
ditions of life to pass, a characteristic
due, according to Werner Sombart, to
" hypertrophy of intellectual energy."
He freed the social movement from the
revolutionary spirit which had been its
leading characteristic hitherto. He placed
one definite object before the movement,
the " nationalisation of means of pro-
duction," 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 afterwards in London. There
he gained an accurate knowledge of the
social conditions of Western Europe, de-
voting special attention to the important
developments of the English trades-union
struggles, and thus became specially
qualified as the founder and guide of an
international organisation of the prole-
tariat, an indispensable condition of victory
in the class struggle he had proclaimed.
In collaboration with Friedrich Engel of
Elbcrfcld he created the doctrine of
^^ socialism, which
remained the
basis of the
sociahst move-
ment to the end
of the nineteenth
centur}'. That
movement chief-
ly centred in
Germany, after
Ferdinand Las-
salle had assured
its triumph in
the sixties. The
social movement
exerted but httle
political in-
theories letariat, Karl Marx, a German jew, freed the social movement flueilCe UpOU the
from its revolutionary spirit and placed before it the definite object p^,p,,fo aricincr
P 1 *-* " of nationalisation of means of production. Ferdinand Lassalle was eveilTS arising
may o
nounced
finite 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 1 istorieal development, and that
competition is not an indispensable
stimulus to production, but is an obstacle
to the true utilisation of labour. The
g^ cle- also a prominent worker in the cause of social democracy in Germany, out of the Tulv
Revolution ; its influence, again, upon the
revolutions of the year 1848 was almost
inappreciable. It became, however, a
modifying factor among the democratic
parties, who were looking to political
revolution for some transformation of ex-
isting public rights, and for some alteration
of the proprietary system in their favour.
4897
THE
RE-MAKING
OF
EUROPE
EUROPE
AFTER
WATERLOO
XI
THE SPREAD OF LIBERALISM
AND THE COLLAPSE OF METTERNICH'S SYSTEM
The Zenith
of Metternich's
Influence
HTHE lack of initiative displayed by the
•^ King of Prussia was a valuable help to
Metternich in carrying out his independent
policy. The old cliancellor in Vienna had
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 dis-
coverer of a political system
by which alone civilisation, morality, and
religion could be secured. The great
achievement of his better years was one
never to be forgotten by Germany — 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 personalities 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 deter-
mined his earlier policy in every
political question which arose during the
European supremacy which he was able
to claim for a lull decade after the Vienna
Congress. His belief in the system — a
belief of deep import to the destinies
of Austria — was materially
Co^ ^Y f sti'erigthened by the fact that
„ .. . . Alexander L, who had long
Metternich , , r . i
been an opponent of the
system, came over to its support before
his death and recognised it as the
principle of the Holy Alliance. The
consequence was a degeneration of the
qualities which Metternich had formerly
developed in himself. His clear appre-
ciation of the situation and of the main
•4898
interests of Europe in the summer of
18 13 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
influence. 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
acquisitioris of territory which Metternich
had obliged Austria to make were a source
of mischief and weakness from the very
outset. The Lombard- Venetian kingdom
implied no increase of power, and its
administration involved a constant drain
of money and troops. The troops, again,
which were drawn from an unwarlike
^ . , population, proved unreliable.
Death of K^,^ ^ ■. ir
Ine possession itself neces-
c mperor gj^g^^gj-| interference in Italian
affairs, 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 out of con-
sideration for this kingdom, and acquisi-
tions likely to become highly profitable
were declined. Within the kingdom a
state of utter supineness prevailed in
spite of the supervision bestowed upon it,
and the incompetence of the administra-
tion condemned the state and its great
natural advantages to impotence.
Far from producing any improvement,
the death of the Emperor Francis L, on
March ist, 1835, caused a marked dete-
rioration in the condition of the country.
The Archdukes Charles and John were
unable to override the supremacy of
Metternich. As hitherto, they were unable
to exercise any influence upon the govern-
ment, which the ill-health and vacillatioi;
of Ferdinand L. the successor, had
THE COLLAPSE OF METTERNICH'S SYSTEM
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 Tsar Nicholas upon his visit to
Toplitz and Vienna, in 1835, had remarked
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 and his determination to repress
the very forces which should have been
developed. The Archduke Lewis, the
emperor's youngest uncle and a member
of the State Conference, was averse to
any innovation, and therefore inclined to
uphold that convenient system which laid
down the maintenance of existing institu-
tions as the first principle of statesmanship.
Within Austria herself, however, the
state of affairs had become intolerable.
The government had so far decayed as to
be incapable of putting forth that energy,
. the absence of which the Tsar
_" '' . ^ had observed. The exchequer
Roused to J. T_ - J 1
. . accounts betrayed an annual
deficit of thirty million gulden,
and the government was forced to claim
the good offices of the class representa-
tives, and, what was of capital importance,
to summon the Hungarian Reichstag on
different occasions. In that assembly the
slumbering national life had been aroused
to consciousness, and proceeded to supply
the deficiencies of the government by
acting in its own behalf. Count Szechenyi
gave an impetus to science and art and
to other movements generally beneficial.
Louis Kossuth, Franz Pulszky, and
Franz Deak espoused the cause of con-
stitutional reform.
A flood of political pamphlets pub-
lished abroad, chiefly in Germany, ex-
posed in full detail the misgovernment
prevailing in Austria and the Crown
territories. European attention was
attracted to the instability 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 Powei's 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 Con-
gresses of Vienna, Carlsbad, Troppau,
Laibach, and Verona.
The July Revolution and the triumph of
liberalism in England under William IV.
caused the downfall of Dom Miguel, " king"
Stir i °^ Portugal, who had been
'■""g induced by conservative diplo-
Portugal inacy to abolish the constitu-
tional measures introduced by
his brother, Dom Pedro of Brazil. To
this policy he devoted himself, to his own
complete satisfaction. The revolts which
broke out against him were ruthlessly
suppressed, and thousands of Liberals
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 Britain and
France to use force and to support the
cause of Pedro, who had abdicated the
throne of Brazil 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 British
admiral, Charles Napier, who annihilated
the Portuguese fleet at Cape San Vincent
on July 5th, 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 his aid. His military and political
confederate, Don Carlos of Spain, was
equally powerless to help him.
In Spain, also, the struggle broke out
between liberalism and the despotism
which was supported by an uneducated
and degenerate priesthood, and enjoyed
. , the favour of the Great Powers
pain s ^ ^^ Eastern Europe. The con-
cgcnera c fj^^j-g^^^Qj^ began upon the death
Priesthood , t^- t^ t j a^tt
of Kmg rerdmand VIL, on
September 29th, 1833, the material cause
being a dispute about the hereditary right
to the throne resulting from the introduc-
tion of a new order of succession. The
decree of 1713 had limited the succession
to heirs in the male line ; but the Prag-
matic Sanction of March 29th, 1830, trans-
ferred the right to the king's daughters,
4899
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
Isabella and Louise, by his marriage wiLli
Maria Christina of Naples. Don Carlos
declined to recognise this arrangement,
and on his brother's death attempted to
secure his own 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
Movement .in r~ i'.- f .1
. c • the Basques fightmg tor their
in Spam • i • 1 x .< r " j
special rights, lueros, and
the populations of Catalonia and Old
Castile, who were under clerical influence.
The Liberals gathered rovmd the queen
regent, Maria Christina, whose cause was
adroitly and successfully upheld by the
Minister, Martinez de la Rosa. The forces
at the disposal of the government were
utterly inadequate, and their fleet and
army were 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 Radicals
had seceded from the Liberals upon the
question of the reintroduction of the
constitution of 18x2. 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 8th,
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 on August 29th, 1839. The party
of Don Carlos had lost greatly botli in
numbers and strength, owing to the care-
Queen Regent ^^^.^''''^^ ^"^^ pettifogging
„ . ^ spirit of the pretender and the
Forced f- ^ , . .
i. Akj- t dissensions and domineering
to Abdicate ... r , ■ ,• , i°
spirit of his immediate ad-
herents, who seemed the very incarnation
of all the legitimist foolishness in Europe.
When Carlos abandoned the country on
September 15th, 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
4900
her body-guard, and was forced to abdicate
on October 12th. Espartero, who had
been made Duke of 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 moderate
party, with the object of bringing about
his fall. Queen Isabella was then de-
clared of age, and ascended the throne.
Under the Ministry of Don Ramon ^laria
Narvaez, Duke of Valencia, the constitu-
tion was changed in 1837 to meet the
wishes of the Moderados, and constitutional
government in Spain was thus abolished.
Though his tenure of office was repeatedly
interrupted, Narvaez succeeded in main-
taining peace and order in Spain, even
during the years of revolution, 1848-1849.
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 ; the Italian
people had now risen to full
».T^ J ^ . consciousness of the disgrace
National i- j ■ .1 1 j <•
jj. implied m 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
Eugene had been careful to preserve at least
a show of national feeling ; their military
power was drawn from the country itself,
and consisted of Italian regiments officered
v/ith 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, with the Czechs, Magyars, and Croa-
tians, v/ho form.ed the sole support of
the Austrian supremacy in the Lombard-
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 accommo-
dation was impossible.
A small number of better-educated
Austrian officers and of better-class in-
dividuals 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 ;
THE COLLAPSE OF METTERNICH'S SYSTEM
r?^|^3^
but the domineering and occasionally
brutal behaviour of the troops as a whole
was not calculated to conciliate the
Italians. The very difference of their
uniforms from all styles previously known
served to emphasise the foreign origin
of these armed strangers. Ineradicable
was the impression made by their language,
which incessantly outraged 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 intellectual rela-
tions 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 con-
temporary of Napoleon, was
roused against the French
yoke by the movement for
liberation. His successors,
Ugo Foscolo, Silvio Pellico,
Giacomo Leopardi, created
a purely nationalist enthusi- ink year he abdicated the throne
asm. Their works gave passionate expres-
sion 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 con-
c^^A w k spirators who were languishing
f °it 1 *" ^^ ^^^ Austrian fortresses.
ay Highly valuable to the import-
ance 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 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 Gregory XVI.,
who died June ist, 1846, was in full
sympathy with these views. To the
Italians he was already known as a zealous
. , . patriot, and his intentions
Austria ^ , i n ■. ^
n- • . J • were yet more definitely
Disappointed in 11,11 r
^. p^ announced by the decree of
apacy amnesty issued July 17th,
1846, recalling 4,000 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 support
in their suppression of all movement
towards freedom. What more mortifying
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
into existence in his towns,
aid therefore in Ferrara,
which was in the occupation
of Austrian troops.
• When Christ's vicegerent
upon earth took part in the
revolt against the "legitimist"
power, no surprise need be
at the action of that
repentant sinner, Charles
Albert of Sardinia. Formerly
involved with the Carbonari, he had grown
sceptical upon the advantages of liberalism
after the sad experiences of 1821. He
now renounced that goodwill for Austria
which he had hypocritically simulated
since the beginning of his reign in 1831.
Turin had also become a centre of revo-
lutionary intrigue. Opinion in that town
pointed to Sardinia and its military
strength as a better nucleus than the
incapable papal government for a nation
resolved to enter upon a war of liberation.
Count Camillo Benso di Cavour, born
August loth, i8io, the editor of the
journal " II Risorgimento," strongly re-
commended the investment of Charles
Albert and his army with the military
guidance of the revolt. The Milan no-
bility were influenced by the court of
Turin, as were the more youthful nation-
alists and the numerous secret societies
,4901
CHARLES ALBERT
Succeeding- his father as King of ,
Sardinia, he pursued a policy of lelt
moderation ; but declaring war
against Austria in lS48,in the follow-
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
which the July Revohition had broucjht
into existence throughout Italy, by
Giuseppe jMazzini, one of the most highly
gifted and 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 ad-
ministration as conducted by
Aus na ^^^q amiable Archduke Rainer
reparing ^^^^^ without power or influence.
On the other hand, Count
Radetzky had been at the head of the
Austrian forces in the Lombard- Venetian
kingdom since 1831. He was one of the
first strategists of Europe, and no less
distinguished for his powers of organisa-
tion ; in 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 4th, 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.
A very appreciable danger menacing
the progress of nations toward self-govern-
ment had arisen within the Swiss Con-
federation, where the Jesuit Order had
obtained much influence upon the govern-
ment in several cantons. By the con-
stitution of 1815 the federal members had
acquired a considerable measure of inde-
pendence, sufficient to permiit the adoption
of wholly discordant policies by the
different governments. The Jesuits aimed
at the revival of denominational institu-
tions to be employed for far-reaching
political objects, a movement which
increased the difficulty of maintaining
peace between the Catholic and the
reformed congregations. Toleration in
this matter was provided by the consti-
_^^ , .^ tution, but its continuance
The Jesuits J- 11 J 11 .1
• ^1. c • naturally depended upon the
in the Swiss , , ,■•' ^^ ,, ^
„ - . .. abstention of either party
Confederation . ^1^ , , ^ ,
from attempts at encroach-
ment upon the territory of the other. In
1833 ^^ 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
4902
radical revolutionaries, were struggling for
majorities and predominance. In Aargau
a peasant revolt led by the monks against
the liberal government was defeated, and
tiie Church i)roperty was sold in 1841, while
in Ziirich the Conservatives were upper-
most, 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 established
themselves in Freiburg, Schw3'z, and
Wallis, and placing the educational system
in their care, October 24th, 1844. Two
democratic assaults upon the government
were unsuccessful, December 8th, 1844, and
March 30th, 1845, but served to increase the
excitement in the neighbouring cantons,
where thousands of fugitives were nursing
their hatred against ithe 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
Switzerland s j t j. j. 1 t-v •
under Jesuit control. Ihis
Catholic federation raised
great hopes among conserva-
tive diplomatists. Could it be strengthened,
it would probably become a permanent
counterpoise 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 the Great
Powers. At the Federal Assembly the
liberal cantons were in the majority, and
voted on July 20th, 1847, for the dissolu-
tion of the separate federation, and on Sep-
tember 3rd for the expulsion of the Jesuits
from the area of the new federation.
At Metternich's p^-oposal, the Great
Powers demanded the appointment of a
congress to deal with the situation.
However, the diet, distrusting foreign
interference, and with good reason, de-
clined to accede to these demands, and
proceeded to put the federal decision into
execution against the disobedient can-
tons. Thanks to the careful forethought
of the commander-in-chief, William Henry
Dufour, the famous cartographer, 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, 30,000
men, were mobilised, the " Sonderbund
Cantons
of Refuge
THE COLLAPSE OF METTERNICH'S SYSTEM
war '' was speedily brought to a close
without bloodshed. Austrian help proved
unavailing, and the cantons were eventu-
ally reduced to a state of impotence.
The new federal constitution of Septem-
ber I2th, 1848, then met with unanimous
acceptance. The central power, which was
considerably strengthened, now decided
the foreign policy of the country, peace
and war, and the conclusion of treaties,
controlling also the coinage, and the postal
and customs organisation , and maintaining
the cantonal constitutions. The theories
upon the nature of the Federal State pro-
pounded 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 espoused 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
Munich and Heidelberg. The develop-
ments of his political philosophy were not
,^ without tlaeir influence upon
those fundamental principles
Metternich's
Lack
of Courage
wluch have given its special
political character to the con-
stitution 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 govern-
mental rights, and of a legislature limited
in respect of its sphere of action, in
conjunction with a uniform 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.
Metternich and the King of Prussia were
neither of them courageous enough to
support the exponents of their own prm-
ciples 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 aris-
tocracy and upper classes of the population
Frederic William IV. had many faithful
and devoted adherents, but he failed to
seize so favourable an opportunity of
defending his indisputable rights by occu-
pying his principality with a sufficient
force of Prussian troops. His vacillation
in the Neuenburg 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
estates for the institution of some form of
. constitution more honourable
aci a ing ^^^ -^ consonance with the
,"if . rights of the people. But rarely
of Prussia , ° , , ^ , ■ r ■ "^
have the preparations for im-
perial 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 cessa-
tion upon this question. The expert
opinion of every adviser worth trusting
was called in, and from 1844 commission
meetings and negotiations continued un-
interruptedly. The proposals submitted to
the king emanated, in full accordance with
conservative spirit, from the estates as
constituted ; they provided for the reten-
tion of such estates as were competent,
and for the extension of their representa-
tion and sphere of action in conjunction
with the citizen class ; but this would not
satisfy Frederic William.
The constitution drafted in 1842 by
the Minister of the Interior, Count
Arnim, was rejected by the king in con-
sequence of the clauses providing for
the legal and regular convocation of the
constitutional estates. The king abso-
lutely 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 such rights a
leading principle of the constitution. By
the favour of the ruler, exerted by him in
virtue of his divine right, the representa-
tives of the original constitutional estates
might from time to time receive a sum-
mons to tender their advice upon questions
of public interest. As the people had
every confidence in the wisdom and con-
scientiousness of their ruler,
agreements providing for their
Frederic
William &
His People
co-operation were wholly super-
fluous. " No power on earth,"
he announced in his speech from the
throne on April nth. 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
4903
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
paper, a kind of second providence,
governing by paragraplis and ousting the
old sacred faith, to intervene between
God and his country."
Such was the residuum of all the dis-
cussion upon the Christian state and the
" hierarchical feudal monarchy of the
IMiddle Ages," which had been the work of
the Swiss Lewis von Haller
and his successors, the Berlin
The Prussian
King a Victim
of Delusion
author Adam Miiller, the Halle
professor Hienrich Leo, and
Frederic Julius Stahl, a Jew converted to
Protestantism, whom Frederic William IV.
had summoned from Erlangen to Berlin in
1840. By a wilful abuse of history the
wild conceptions of these theorists were
explained to be the proven facts of the
feudal period and of feudal society. Con-
stitutional systems were propounded as
actual historical precedents which had
never existed anywhere at any time.
The object of these efforts as declared
by Stahl was the subjection of reason to
revelation, the reintroduction of the Jewish
theocracy into modern political life.
Frederic William had allowed himself to be
convinced that such was the Germanic
theory of existence, and that he was for-
warding the national movement by making
his object the application of this theory to
the government and administration of his
state. He was a victim of the delusion
that the source of national strength is
to be found in the admiration of the
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. Notwithstanding the
emphatic protest of the heir presumptive
to the throne. Prince William of Prussia,
to the Ministry, at the head of which was
Ernest 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
^. ^\l^f, ° iith,i847. Even before the ouen-
the United • r lu 1 1 -j. i
, . nig of the assembly it became
manifest that this constitutional
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 administration. The
speech from the throne, a long-winded
piece of conventional oratory, was marked
4901
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.
The wording of the address 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 negotia-
tions made it plain that both the represen-
tatives of the nobility and tlic city deputies,
especially those from the industrial Rhine
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 Vincke of Westphalia,
Beckerath of Krefeld, Camphausen of
Cologne, and Hansemann of Aix-la-
Chapelle. These were capitalists and em-
ployers 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
Dissension j-gf^g^^ ^^^ ^^i^^ ^-^eir assent
in the '^
Landtag
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 pro-
ceed with the election of a committee to deal
with the national debt. Such a committee
would have been supeiHuous 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-Becke-
rath voted under protest against this en-
croachment upon the rights of the Landtag,
while the remainder, 284 timorous Liberals
and Conservatives, voted unconditionally.
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 Ger-
man Constitution to take the place of the
incompetent and discredited Federation.
Hans von Zwiedineck-Sudenhorst
EUROPEiNREyOLUTION 1
THE FALL OF LOUIS PHILIPPE
AND ITS EFFECTS THROUGHOUT EUROPE
nPHE monarchy of Louis Philippe of
■'• Orleans had become intolerable by
reason of its dishonesty. The French can-
not be blamed for considering the Orleans
rulers as Bourbons in disguise. This scion
of the old royal family was not a flourishing
offshoot ; rather was it an excrescence,
with all the family failings and with none
of its nobler qualities. Enthusiasm for
such prudential, calculating, and unim-
passioned rulers was impossible, whatever
their education or their claims. . Their bad
taste and parsimony destroyed their credit
as princes in France, and elsewhere their
pos.ition 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
thi'one ; he sent troops unsparingly to
save the honour of France in Algiers.
After seven years' warfare a completion
was made of the conquest, which the
French regarded as an extension of their
power. The bold Bedouin sheikh, Abd el
Kader, whose career has been described
elsewhere, was forced to surrender to La-
moriciere on December 22nd, 1847. Louis
^^ „ , . Philippe imprisoned this
The Bedouin 11 r -i j j. •
_ . , noble son of the desert m
Fnsoncr of t^ t,, 1 1 ■
, . _. ... France, although his son
Louis Philippe T^j T^ , r ^ - 1 1 J
Henry, Duke 01 Aumale, had
promised, as Governor-general of Algiers,
that he should have his choice of residence
on Mohammedan territory. The king also
despatched his son, the 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 maintain the
" entente cordiale " among the Western
Powers. He calmly accepted the defeat of
his diplomacy in the Turco-Egyptian
quarrel, and surrendered such
°'' /"^ influence as he had acquired
,./ * with Mehemet Ali in return
Napoleon , j. • -i t\t
lor paramountcy m the Mar-
quesas Islands and Tahiti. He married
his son Anton, Duke of Montpensier,
to the Infanta Louise of Spain, with
some idea of reviving the dynastic con-
nection between France and Spain.
While thus resuming the policy of Louis
XIV., he was also at some pains to con-
ciliate 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
Britain and interred with gi'eat solemnity
in the Church of the Invalides on
December 15th, X840. Louis Bonaparte,
the nephew, had contrived to avoid cap-
ture by the Austrians at Ancona, and had
proposed to seize his inheritance ; twice
he appeared within the French frontiers,
at Strassburg on October 30th, 1836, and
at Boulogne on August 6th, 1840, in
readiness to ascend the throne of France.
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,
G 4905
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
smuggled him into
England under the name
of' Maurer Badinguet.
Thus far the reign of
Louis Phihppe had been
fairly successful ; but the
French were growing
weary of it. They were
not entirely without sym-
pathy 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, Duke of Orleans,
who was killed by a fall
from a carriage on July
QUEEN OF THE FRENCH
13th, 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. Majorities in
the Chambers were se-
cured by artificial means,
and by bribery in its
most reprehensible forms.
Conspiracies were dis-
covered and suppressed,
and plots for murder were
made the occasion of the
harshest measures against
the Radicals ;• but no one
of the gi'eat social groups
could be induced to link
The daughter of Ferdinand I., King- of Naples ^^^ fortUUeS permanently
and later of the Two Sicilies, Marie Amelie . , -i ^^ ^Y -i ^ -U^-,-,JL
was married to Louis Philippe in the year 1809. With thOSe of the HoUSe
THE ROYAL HOUSE OF ORLEANS : LOUIS PHILIPPE AND HIS FIVE SONS
in this picture, from the painting by Horace Vernet, Louis Philippe i; shown with his sons, the Duke of Orleans, the Duke
of Nemours, the Duke of Joinville, the Duke of Aumale, and the Duke of Montpensier, leaving the Palace of VersaUles.
4906
THE FALL OF LOUIS PHILIPPE
of Orleans. Unfortunately for himself, the
king had reposed special confidence in the
historian Guizot, the author of histories of
the English revolution and of the French
civilisation, 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 ; afterwards, he had several times
held the post of Minister of Education,
and had been in London during the quarrel
with the British ambassador. After this
affair, which brought him no credit, he
returned to
France, and on
the fall of Thiers
in October, 1840,
became Minister
of Foreign Affairs,
with practical
control of the
foreign and dom-
estic policy of
France, subject
to the king's
personal inter
vention. Hib
doctrinaire ten-
dencies had grad-
u a 1 1 y brought
him over from
the liberal to the
conservative side
and thrown him
into violent op-
position to his
former col-
leagues, Thiers in
particular. The
acerbity of his
character was
not redeemed by
his learning and
his personal up-
rightness ; his
intellectual arro-
gance alienated
the literary and political leaders of Parisian
society. The Republican party had under-
gone 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
necessary to subdue Lyons, in November,
LOUIS PHILIPPE
1831, and July, 1834, and the barricades
erected in Paris in 1834 repelled the
National Guards, and only fell before the
regiments of the line under General Bu-
geaud. The Communist revolts in Paris
under Armand Barbes and Louis Auguste
Blanqui, in May, 1839, were more easily
suppressed, tliough the Hotel de Ville and
the Palais de Justice had already fallen
into the hands of the rebels.
These events confirmed Louis PhiUppe
in his intention to erect a circle of fortifi-
cations round Paris, for protection against
enemies from
within rather
than from with-
out. Homicidal
attempts were
no longer perpe-
trated by indivi-
dual desperadoes
or bloodthirsty
monomaniacs,
such as the Corsi-
can Joseph
Fieschi, on July
28th, 1835, whose
infernal machine
killed eighteen
people, including
Marshal Mortier.
They were under-
taken in the
service of repub-
lican propa-
gandism, and
were repeated
with the object
of terrorising the
ruling c la s s e s ,
and so providing
an occasion for
the abohtion oi
the monarchy.
The doctrines
of communism
were then being
disseminated throughout France and
attracted the more interest as stock-
exchange speculation increased ; fortunes
were made with incredible rapidity, and
expenditure rose to the point of prodi-
gality. Louis Blanc, nephew of the Cor-
sican statesman Pozzo di Borgo, went a
step further towards the transformation
of social and economic life in his treatise
" L'Organisation du Travail," which urged
that coUectivist manufactures in national
factories should be substituted for the
4907
ING OF THE
FRENCH
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
efforts of the individual employer. The
rise of communistic societies among the
Republicans obliged the old-fashioned
Democrats to organise in their turn ; they
attempted and easily secured an under-
standing with the advanced Liberals.
The " dynastic opposition," led by
Odilon Barrot, 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
was led by Alex-
andre ,R o 1 1 i n
after the death of
Etienne Garnier-
Pages and of
Armand Carrel,
the leaders dur-
ing the first
decade of the
Orleans m o n -
archy. A dis-
tinguished law-
yer and brilliant
orator, Roll in
soon over-
shadowed all
other politicians
who had aroused
any enthusiasm
in the Parisians.
His comparative
wealth enabled
him to embark
in journalistic
ventures; .his
paper " La Re-
forme " pointed
consistently and
unhesitatingly to
•republicanism as
the only possible
form of govern-
ment after the
now imminent
downfall of the
July monarchy. 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 companies,
the object being to put a stop to the un-
disguised corruption then rife. Constitu-
tional members united with Republicans
in demanding a fundamentalreform of the
4908
THE DUKES OF ORLEANS AND AUMALE
The sons of Louis Philippe, they held commands in the army, and,
like their brothers, "were usually to be found wherever any small
success might be achieved." There was much public sorrow when
the Duke of Orleans was killed by a fall from a carriage in 1S42.
cries were taken up
Guard, and the king.
electoral system. Louis Blanc and Rollin
raised the cry for universal suffrage. Ban-
quets, where vigorous speeches were made
in favour of electoral reform, were ar-
ranged in the autumn of 1847, and con-
tinued until the Ciovernment prohibited
the banquet organised for February 22nd,
1848, in the Champs Elysees. However,
Ch. M. Tannegui, Count Duchatel, was
induced to refrain from ordering the
forcible dispersion of the meeting, the
liberal opposition on their side giving up
the projected
banquet. Agi-eat
crowd collected
on the appointed
day in the Place
Madeleine,
whence it had
been arranged
that a procession
should march to
the Champs
Elysees. The re-
publican leaders
invited the crowd
to mai'ch to the
Houses of Par-
liament, and it
became neces-
sary to call out
a ; regiment of
cavalry for the
dispersion of the
rioters. This task
was. successfully
accomplished,
but on the 23rd
the disturbances
were renewed.
Students and
workmen pa-
raded the streets
arm in arm,
shouting not only
' ' Reform ! ' ' but
also " Down with
Guizot ! " These
by the National
who had hitherto
disregarded the movement, began to con-
sider the outlook as serious ; he dismissed
Guizot and began to confer with Count
Louis Matthieu Mole, a leader of the mod-
erate 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
4909
HARMS WORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
liave been entirely deceived, for upright-
ness was not one ol the king's attributes.
But on tliis point he was not to be tested.
On the evening of February 23rd the
crowds which thronged the boulevards
gave loud expression to their delight at
the dismissal of Guizot. Meanwhile, the
republican agents were busily collecting
the inhabitants of the suburbs, who had
been long prepared for a rising, and
sending them forward to the more excited
quart I M^ ni 1I;: Hiey would not, in
of those incidents which are always possible
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 artns ! "
About midnight the alarm bells of Notre
Dame began to ring, and thousands flocked
to raise the barricades. The morning of
February 24th found Paris in revolution,
ready to begin the struggle against the
people's king. " Louis Philippe orders his
THE kHlEPTION of napoleons BODY AT THE CHURCH OF THE INVALIDES
At the Church of the Invalides the body of Napoleon was received by Louis PhiUppe, the royal family, the archbishop
?nd all the clergy of Paris. The sword and the hat of the emperor were laid on the coffin, which was then placed
on a magnificent altar in the centre of the church, and after an impressive funeral service was lowered into the tomb.
all probability, have been able to trans-
form the good-tempered and characteristic
cheerfulness which now filled the streets of
Paris to a more serious temper had not an
unexpected occurrence fiUed the mob with
horror and rage. A crowd of people had
come in contact with the soldiers stationed
before Guizot's house. Certain insolent
youths proceeded to taunt the officer in
command ; a shot rang out, a volley
iollov/ed, and numbers of the mockers lay
weltering in their blood. It was but one
4c,io
troops to fire on the people, like Charles X.
Send him after his predecessor ! " This
proposal of the " Reforme " became the
republican solution of the question.
The monarchy was now irrevocably
lost ; the man who should have saved it
was asking help from the Liberals, who
\^«re 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
THE TOMB OF NAPOLEON AT THE h6tEL DES INVALIDES IN PARIS
The magnificent tomb erected to Napoleon atths Hotel des Invalides is a fitting memorial of the man who made Europe
tremble and whose genius raised him to the pinnacle of power. A circular crypt, surrounded by twelve colossal figures
symbolising his victories, contains the sarcophagus, which was hewn out of a single block of Siberian porphyry.
49II
THE FLIGHT OF LOUIS PHILIPPE FROM PARIS IN l>i3
Events in Paris had again been leading up to a revolution, and on February 24th, 1848, the capital of France was once
more the scene of a people's rising against the monarchy. Alarmed at the course of affairs, the king abdicated in
favour of his grandson, the Count of Paris, and went off to St. Cloud with the queen, afterwards escaping to England.
.•-eginients 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 grandson, 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 on behalf of the king's
rights and of constitutional-
ism. But the victors in the ^ . , u- . • r- ■ .
. ./-ij- 1 1 I,,- Emment as an historian, Guizot
Street fighting had made their became chief adviser to Louis Phi-
wav into the ball thpir rnm- >'Ppe on the dismissal'of Thiers, and
way into inc nail, Xneir com- ^is reactionary policy did much to
radeS were at that moment bring about the revolution of 1848.
invading the Tuileries, and Legitimists and
Democrats joined in deposing the House
of Orleans and demanding the appoint-
ment of a provisional government. The
question was dealt with by the "Chris-
tian rnoralist," poet, and . diplomatist,
4912
GUIZOT THE HISTORIAN
Alphonse de Lamartine, whose " His-
tory of the Girondists " in eight volumes
with its glorification of political murder
had largely contributed to advance the
revolutionary 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 Garnier-Pages, half-
brother of the deceased
Etienne, Ledru-Rollin, the
astronomer Dominique Fran-
9ois Arago, the Jewish lawyer
Isak Cremieux, 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 consulta-
tive members. They then took
possession of the Hotel de Ville, filled up
the official posts, and with the concurrence
of the people declared France a republic on
February 25th. The dethroned king and
the members of his house were able, if not
unmenaced, at any rate without danger,
49^:
HARMS WORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
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 la-
bour," 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
Demands ^j^^^^ . ^j^^^^ formed hundreds
g . ^j. 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 redis-
tribution of property. Ledru-Rollin was
not inclined to accept the offer of the presi-
dency of such an extraordinary body ; he
and Lamartine, with the help of General
Changarnier and the National Guards,
entirely outmanoeuvred the hordes which
had made a premature attempt to storm the
town hall, and forced them to surrender.
Peace was thus assured to Paris for
the moment. The emissaries of the revolu-
tionaries could not gain a hearing, and it
was possible to go on with the elections,
which were conducted on the principle of
universal suffrage. Every 40,000 inhabi-
tants elected a deputy ; every department
formed a uniform electorate. Lamartine,
one of the goo chosen, obtained 2,300,000
votes in ten departments. The Assembly
was opened on May 4th.
To the organised enemies of monarchy
the February Revolution 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 several events ori-
ginated 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
Enemies of • ^i . .1 n j- ^ a
y. . mffuence others of radical ten-
dencies but outside their own
organisations. These organisations were
most important to France, Italy, Germany,
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 " Lci
4914
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
willing to share in the task of liberating
peoples from the tyranny of monarchs.
From 1834 3- special " union of exiles "
had existed at 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
Germany or Russia, in the hope of assisting
France in the attack upon the German
rulers. Its organisation was as extra-
ordinary as it was secret ; there were
" mountains," " national huts," " focal
points," " circles," wherein preparation
was to be made for the transformation of
Germany in the interests of humanity.
The " righteous " had diverged from the
" outlaws," and from X840 were reunited
with the " German union," which aimed at
" the formation of a free state embracing
the whole of Germany." The persecutions
and continual "investigations" which
the German Federation had carried on
_ since the riots at Frankfort
c secu ions j^^^ impeded, though not
of the German <• 1 1 1 rP
„ . ^. entu'ely broken off, corn-
Federation ■ ■'.. , . ' ,
munications between the cen-
tral officials in Paris and their associates
residing in Germany. From Switzerland
came a continual stream of craftsmen,
teachers, and authors, who were sworn in
by the united Republicans. Karl Mathy,
afterwards 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."
The deliberations of the united Landtag
at Berlin 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 towards this end was
mooted at a gathering of politicians at
Heppenheim on October i6th, 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 12th.
Proceedings were conducted by a certain
THE FALL OF LOUIS PHILIPPE
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 incapacity
for political action in the Baden Landtag.
To justifiable demands for the repeal of
the decrees of Carlsbad, for national
representation within the German Federa-
tion, for freedom of the Press, religious
toleration, and full liberty to teachers,
they added immature 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
members of the state. The king and
poet, Lewis I., had conceived a blind in-
fatuation for the dancer Lola Montez,
an Irish adventuress — .Rosanna Gilbert —
who masqueraded under a Spanish name.
This fact led to the downfall of the
Ministry, which was clerical without
exception ; further consequences 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 dis-
played entire indifference to the tyrannical
orders which had been issued that the
king yielded to the entreaties of the
EPISODE IN THE PARIS REVOLUTION : BURNING THE THRONE AT THE JULY COLUMN
fair taxation, but also for " the removal
of the inequalities existing between capital
and labour and the abolition of" all privi-
leges." Radicalism thus 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 Feb-
ruary in Paris were made known, the
kingdom of Bavaria, and its capital in
particular, were in a state of revolt and
open war between the authorities and the
citizens, on February nth, 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 Revolu-
tion was the session of the Federal Assembly
on March ist, 1848. Earlier occurrences
in the immediate neighbourhood of Frank-
fort, no doubt materially influenced the
course of events. In Baden,' before his
fate had fallen upon the July king, Karl
Mathy had addressed the nation from the
Chamber on February 23rd : "For thirty
4915
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
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 meet-
ing of citizens at Mannheim on the 27th,
an address was carried by Struve which
thus formulated the most pressing ques-
tions : Universal mihtary ser-
J" vice with power to elect the
o erman ^^^^^.^ unrestrained freedom
°* ^ of the Press, trial by jury after
the English model, and the immediate
constitution of a German Parliament.
In Hesse-Darmstadt, a popular deputy
in the Landtag, one 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 re-
quest 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 ist they
issued " a federal decree to the German
people," W'hose 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 ist Herr von Struve led a gang
of low-class followers in the pay of the
Republicans, together with the deputies
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 Ger-
,1, f-u I < many would meec with its
(he Check to /, i i • -r-, t
^ .. ,. most d? Tiger ous check m Radi-
calism. 1 elegrams from Pans
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 IMarch 6th, King Lewis, in his usual
poetical style, declared his readiness to
satisfy the popular demands. However,
4916
fresh disturbance was excited by the
rumour that Lola Montez was anxious to
return. Lewis, who declined to 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 Lewis retired into
private life, Metternich had already fallen.
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 wuth
which accounts were withdrawn from
the public savings banks. It was not,
however, the Austrians who pointed the
moral to the authorities. On March 3rd,
in the Hungarian Reichstag, Kossuth
proposed that the emperor should be
requested to introduce constitutional gov-
ernment 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. It
was hoped that a bold attitude would
be taken by the provincial Landtag,
which met on March X3th. 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 chamber and forced the meeting
to consent to the despatch of a deputation
to lay the national desire for a free con-
stitution before the emperor.
While the deputation was proceeding to
the Hofburg the soldiers posted before the
council chamber, including- the Archduke
Albert, eldest son of the Archduke Charles,
who died in 1847, w^ere 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
behaviour was explained to Count
Metternich in the Hofburg, not as an
Riots in
the Streets of
Vienna
FIGHTING IN THE STREETS OF PARIS DURING THE REVOLUTION OF FEBRUARY. 1848
From the drauing by Wegiier
4917
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
ordinary riot capable of suppression by
a handful of police, but as a revolution
with which he had now to deal. Nowhere
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
government system. There
was, however, no nucleus
round which a new govern-
ment could be formed, Prince
Metternich being wholly im-
practicable 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.
to draw up any programme for the
introduction of constitutional principles.
Even on March 14th they demurred to
the word " constitution," and thought it
possible to effect some compromise with
the provincial deputations. Finally, . on
March 15th, 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 the purpose of con-
sidering 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 Kolo-
LEWis I. OF BAVARIA wrat-Ficquclmout, formed on
Ascending the throne in 1825, he IMarch iStll, included among
This empty figiu-e-head stood il^^'^^J t^iZic' 6il!onll^^^^^ Metternich's worn-out tools
isolated amid the surrounding and m the year i848 abdicated in ouc man only possessed of
turmoil, unable to help him- /^"°"^°''''^^°'""'^^'''™'""" "• the knowledge requisite for
self or his perplexed advisers ;* he emitted the drafting of a constitution in detail ;
a few sentences upon the last sacrifice
that he could make for the monarchy
and disappeared. He left no one to take
up his power ; no one able to represent
him, able calmly and confidently to ex-
amine and decide upon the demands
transmitted from the street
to the council chamber. The
Emperor Ferdinand was
himself wholly incapable of
grasping the real meaning
of the events which had
taken place in his immediate
neighbourhood. The Arch-
duke Lewis, one of Metter-
nich's now useless tools, was
utterly perplexed by the con-
flict of voices and opinions.
In his fear of the excesses
that the "Reds" might be
this was the Minister of the Interior,
Pillersdorf, who was as weak and feeble
in character as in bodily health.
In Hungary the destructive process was
far more comprehensive and imposing.
On March 14th Louis Kossuth in the
Reichstag at Pressburg se-
cured 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. Mean-
while, his adherents, con-
sisting of students, authors,
and "jurats" — idle lawyers —
seized the reins of govern-
ment in Ofenpest, and
replaced the town council by
a committee of public safety.
expected to perpetrate, he t^J^^jng^sfavourTi^ composed of radical members
lost sight of the means which with this Irish adventuress, who by preference. On the 15th
might have been used to S^Montel" Lewis ^1 "be"lm°J the State Assembly of the
pacify the moderate party infatuated, but ' ^ • - . ,- ,
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 Kolowrat Liebsteinsky ventured
4918
was compelled Reichstag was transformed
from Munich. -^^^ ^ National Assembly.
Henceforward its conclusions were to be
communicated to the magnates, whose
consent was to be unnecessary. •
On the same day a deputation of the
Hungarian Reichstag, accompanied by
jurats, arrived at Vienna, where Magyars
THE FALL OF LOUIS PHILIPPE
and Germans swore to the fellowship with
all pomp and enthusiasm.' The deputation
secured the concession of an independent
and responsible Ministry for Hungary.
This was installed on March 23rd by the
Archduke Palatine Stephen, and united
the popular representatives among Hun-
garian politicians, such as Batthyany and
Szechenyi, with Prince Paul Eszterhazy,
Josef von Eotvos, Franz von Deak, and
Louis Kossuth. After a few days' delibera-
tion the Reichstag practically abolished the
old constitution. The rights of the lords
were abrogated, and equality of politicall
rights given to citizens of towns ; the right
of electing to the Reichstag was con-
ceded to " the adherents of legally
recognised religions " ; laws were passed
regulating the Press and the National
Guards. The country was almost in a state
of anarchy, as the old pro-
vincial administrations and
local authorities had been
abolished and replaced by
committees of public safety,
according to the precedent
set at Pest. The example of
Austria influenced the course
of events throughout Ger-
many ; there the desire for a
free constitution grew hotter,
and especially so in Berlin.
The taxation committees
were assembled in that
town when the results of
the February
became known. The king
'dismissed them on March 7th,
the excitement prevailing among the
population of the Rhine province would
only be increased by the appearance of
the prince. Despatches from Vienna
further announced the fall of Metternich.
The king now resolved to summon the
united Landtag to Berlin on April 17th ;
M k * it he considered, no doubt,
Mobs at the -1 . i-, . , ,,
_ , jj , that Prussia could very well
in Berlin exercise lier patience for a
month. On March 15th 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 constitutional
definition of their rights. The king went
a step further and altered the date of the
meeting of the Landtag to April 2nd ;
but in the patent of March
i8th 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 repre-
sentation of all German
countries." He even recog-
nised that " such federal
representation implies a form
of- constitution applicable to
all German countries," but
made no definite promise as
MAXIMILIAN ii.-BAVARiA ^o any form of constitution
Revolution He ascended the throne on his for Prussia. Nevertheless, in
father's abdication in 1S4S. Anoble- ai „ Qft<^rnnnn h^ wqc rh*>pi-Arl
minded man, he made an excellent ^^^^ altCrnOOn UC WaS CneeiCQ
king, ruling his people on the ideal by the CrOwd . bcforC the
declaring himself inclined to S^rounds of christian philosophy." ^^g^^^ g^^ ^j^g jg^^g^.^ ^^.
summon the united Landtag at regular
intervals. The declaration failed to give
satisfaction. On the same day a popular
meeting had resolved to request the king
forthwith to convoke the Assembly. In the
quiet town public life became more tlian
usually lively. The working classes were
excited by the agitators sent down to
them ; in inns and cafes newspapers
were read aloud and speeches
made. The king was expecting
an outbreak of war with France.
He sent his confidential mili-
tary adviser, Radowitz, at full speed
to Vienna to arrange measures of defence
with Metternich. He proposed tempo-
rarily to entrust the command of the
Prussian troops upon the Rhine to the
somewhat unpopular Prince William of
Prussia. However, he was warned that
Germany
Preparing
for War
the mob, who desired a rising to secure
their own criminal objects, turned grati-
tude into uproar and bloodshed. The
troops concentrated in the castle under
General von Prittwitz were busy until
midnight clearing the streets.
The authorities had 12,000 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
next day. after receiving a deputation of
citizens, commanded the troops to concen-
trate upon the castle, and finally to retire,
to barracks. The arguments of such
Liberals as Vincke, and of the Berlin town
491Q
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
The German
States' Distrust
of the King
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 March
19th, the leadership being taken by
Arnim. On the 29th his place was taken
by Ludolf Camphausen, president of the
Cologne Chamber of Commerce, who was
joined by Hanseman and the leaders of
the liberal nobility, Alfred von Auerswald,
Count Maximilian of Schwerin, and Hein-
rich Alexander of Arnim.
The Ministry 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 21st
to escort the banner of black,
red, and gold on horseback
through the streets of Berlin,
far from winning the popular
favour for him, was scorned
FRIEDRICH DAHLMANN
overshadowed by the struggle for
supremacy waged by the masses under
the guidance of ambitious agitators.
On March 5th, 1848, fifty-one of the
better known German politicians met at
Heidelberg upon their own initiative by
invitation ; their object was to discuss
what common action they should take to
guide a' general national movement in
Germany. Most of them belonged to the
Rhine states ; but Prussia, Wiirtemberg,
and Bavaria were represented, and an
Austrian writer who happened to be on the
spot joined the meeting in order to place
it in relation with Austria. The twenty
representatives from Baden included the
radical democrat Hecker, who even then
spoke of the introduction of a republican
constitution as a wish of the German
people. He, however, was obliged to
support the resolution of the
majority, to the effect that
the German nation must
first have the opportunity
of making its voice heard, for
which purpose preparation
must be made for the con-
vocation of a German National
Assembly. All were agreed
upon the futility of waiting
for the Federal Council to take
action ; they must bring their
influence to bear upon the
council and the German gov-
ernment by their own energy,
1 n J T ^ ,1 T-. 1 This distinguished German his- , , , r i ■ i j
and flouted by the Repub- torian was appointed Professor of by the use of accomplished
licans. The energy displayed History at Bonn in 1842, and was facts, and by specific demands,
in summoning the Pai-liament ^^ ^^^ ^ead of the constitutional a committee of seven mem-
was too rapid a change, made liberals in the movement of 184S. |^g^.g ^^^g appointed to invite
the German states distrustful, and exposed
him to degrading refusals, which em-
bittered his mind and lowered his dignity
in the eyes of his own people.
The united Landtag met on April 2nd,
1848, and determined upon the convoca-
tion of a National Assembly, for the pur-
pose 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
themselves and the Assembly. During the
elections, which took place simultaneously
with those to the German Parliament, the
democrats uttered their war-cr}^ to the
effect that the resolutions of the Prussian
National Assembly required no ratification.
Thus the }X)pular claim to a share in the
administration disappeared, and was
4920
a conference on March 30th, at Frank fort-
on-Main, " of all past or present members
of provincial councils and members of
legislative assemblies in all German
countries." together with other public men
of special influence. This "preliminary
coffference " was then to arrive at some
resolutions for the election of the German
National Assembly. Both the Federal
Assembly and the majority
of the German governments
■\dewed these proceedings with
favourable eyes ; they saw
that the nation was at the highest pitch
of excitement, and would be prevented
from rushing into violence by occupation
in political matters. The results of
the Parisian revolution led them to
think the overthrow of every existing
form of government perfectly possible.
The Saving
Force
of Politics
FIGHTING AT THE BARRICADES IN BERLIN ON MARCH ISTH, Ibis
From the drawing by C. Becker
K
4921
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
Liberal
Movements in
Saxony
The only remaining course was to treat
with the Liberals and enlist their support
for the existing states and dynasties by the
concession of constitutional rights. Only
in Hanover and in the electorate of Hesse
were there difficulties at the outset.
However, the fall of Metternich shattered
even the pride of Ernest Augustus and of
the Elector Frederic William.
Baden sent the Freiburg pro-
fessor Karl Welcker to Frank-
fort. On March 7th he pro-
posed on behalf of his Government the
convocation of a German Parliament to
discuss and carry out the reform of the
federal constitution in conjunction with
the representatives of the Government. In
Hesse-Darmstadt, Gagern made a similar
proposal in the Chamber. The King of
Wurtemberg called one of the members
of the Heidelberg conference, Friedrich
Romer, to the head of a new Ministry,
to which Paul Pfizer also belonged.
In Saxony, Frederic x\ugustus, after
unnecessarily alarming the inhabitants of
Leipzig by the concentration of troops,
was obliged to give way, to dissolve
the Ministry of Konneritz, and to entrust
the conduct of government business
to the leader of the Progressive Party
in the Second Chamber, Alexander Braun.
Of the Liberals in Saxony, the largest
following was that of Robert Blum,
formerly theatre secretary, bookseller, and
town councillor of Leipzig. He was one of
those trusted public characters who were
summoned to the preliminarj^ conference,
and directed the attention of his associates
to the national tasks immediatelj^ con-
fronting the German people. In the patent
convoking the united Landtag for March
i8th, 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 Heidel-
^ , berg meeting was to be ex-
Conference f j t-- i- j j
, pected. Five hundred repre-
^ c* * sentatives from all parts of
uerman States ^ i ^ t^ 1 j- j
Germany met at i<ranklort-
on-Main for the conference in the last da}'s
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 Mittermayer, a
Bavarian by birth ; the conference was
then invited to come to a decision upon one
4022
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 principles for adoption in the
forthcoming federal constitution. These
demanded a federal chief with responsible
Ministers, a senate of the individual states,
a popular representative house with one
deputy to every 70,000 inhabitants of a
German federal state, a united army, and
representation abroad ; a uniformity in the
customs systems, in the means of communi-
cation, in civil and criminal legislation.
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, Darm-
stadt, Frankfort, 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
abolition of officials, taxation, and the here-
ditary monarchy, and the
institution of a Parliament
elected without restriction
under a president similarly
elected, all to be united by a federal consti-
tution on the model of the Free States of
North America. Until the German demo-
cracy had secured legislation upon these and
many other points, the Frankfort 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
pueriUties with the proper amount of
amusement, or satirising them as they
deserved, the moderate Democrats and
Liberals were inveigled into serious dis-
cussion with the Radicals. Reports of an
insignificant street fight aroused their fears
and forebodings, and both sides conde-
scended to abuse and personal violence.
Finally, the clearer-sighted members of
the conference succeeded in confining
the debate to the subjects preliminary
to the convocation of the parliament.
The programme of the committee of seven
and the " principles " of the Radicals were
alike excluded from discussion. Hecker' s
proposition for the permanent constitution
of the conference was rejected by 368 votes
to 143, and it was decided to elect a
Deliberations
of the Frankfort
Conference
THE FALL OF LOUIS PHILIPPE
committee of fifty members to continue the
business of the prehminary parhament.
On the question of this business great
divergence of opinion prevailed. The
majority of the members were convinced
that the people should now be left to decide
its own fate, and to determine the legisla-
ture which was to secure the recognition of
its rights. A small minority were agreed
with Gagern upon the necessity of keeping
in touch with the Government and the
Federal Council, 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 reso-
lutions of an unconstitutional nature ; "
they should 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 than their disgust
at radical imbecility, a fact as obvious in
the preliminary conference as in the National
«,. ^, . , Assembly which it called into
. °^ °*^'* probably the sole cause of the
erm&ny f^^jjj^y Qf ^j^g 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 excep-
tion, the constitutional ideal was aban-
doned 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
president of the committee of fifty.
The mode of election to the National Con-
stituent Assembly realised the most extreme
demands of the Democrats. Every 50,000
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 constitutional corporation. The
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 of including the
Poles of the Prussian Baltic provinces was
left to the decision of the parliament itself.
The Federal Council, in which Karl Welcker
had already become influential, prudently
accepted the resolutions of the preliminary
conference and communicated them to the
individual states, whose business it was to
carry them out. Feeling in the different
governments had undergone a rapid
transformation, and in Prussia
even more than elsewhere.
Prussia
Merged in
Germany
On March 21st, after parad-
ing Berlin with the German
colours, Frederic William IV. had made
a public declaration, expressing his readi-
ness to undertake the direction of German
affairs. His exuberance led him to the
following pronouncement : "I have to-day
asumed the ancient German colours and
placed myself and my people under the hon-
ourable banner of the German Empire. Prus-
sia is henceforward merged in Germany."
These 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 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 for maintaining
his dignity in a difficult situation.
Moreover, the German governments
had lost confidence in the power of the
Prussian state. Hesse-Darmstadt, Baden,
Nassau, and Wiirtemberg had shown them-
selves ready to confer full powers upon the
King of Prussia for the formation, in their
name, of a new federal constitution with
provision for the popular rights. They
were also wilhng 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 was not the man for the dictator-
ship 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
4923
Frederic
William not a
Favourite
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
Ferdinand need never yield to Frederic
William IV. 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. Relying
upon nationalist sentiment and appealing
to national sovereignty, they might play
, oH the German parliament
^.^ "^^^ against the King of Prussia.
Claims A . • xi 1- •
J . . Austria was, upon the showmg
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
constitution 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.
The case of the King of Prussia was suffi-
ciently disheartening ; but no less serious
for the development of the German move-
ment was the attitude of the Liberals
towards 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 dis-
turbances had been set on foot by the
Baden Radicals, and it became obvious
that Radicalism could result only in civil
war and would imperil the national welfare.
The Struve-Hecker party was deeply
disappointed with the results of the pre-
Hminary 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
The Mad cleared the way by assenting
Schemed of ^° ^^^ proposal of " national
Agitators armament." Under the pretext
of initiating a scheme of public
defence, arms for the destruction of con-
stitutional order were placed in the hands
of the ruffians who had been wandering
about the Rhineland 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, dis-
covered too late that it was now necessary
4924
to stake their whole personal influence in
the struggle against radical insanity and
the madness of popular agitators. In
person he arrested the agitator Joseph
Fickler, when starting from Karlsruhe to
Constance to stir up insurrection ; but his
bold example found few imitators. The
evil was not thoroughly extirpated, as the
" people's men " could not refrain from
repeating meaningless promises of popular
supremacy and the downfall of tyrants at
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-Rollin. After
Fickler's imprisonment on April 8th he
became alarmed for his own safety, and
fled to Constance. There, in conjunction
with Struve and his subordinates, Doll,
Willich, formerly a Prussian lieutenant,
Mogling of Wiirtemberg, and Bruhe of
Holstein, he issued an appeal to all who
were capable of bearing arms to concen-
trate at Donaueschingen on
April 12th, for the purpose of
_ ... founding the German republic.
Republicans ttt-,, ° , i- r nr^
With a republican army of fifty
men he marched on the 13th from Con-
stance, where the republic had maintained
its existence for a whole day. In the plains
of the Rhine a junction was to be effected
with the " legion of the noble Franks,"
led by the poet George Herwegh and his
Jewish wife. In vain did two deputies
from the committee of fifty* in Frankfort
advise the Republicans to lay down their
arms. Their overtures were rejected with
contumely. The eighth federal army corps
had been rapidly mobilised, and the troops
of Hesse and Wiirtemberg brought this
insane enterprise to an end in the almost
bloodless conflicts of Kandern on April 20th,
and Giintersthal at Freiburg on April 23rd,
The Republicans were given neither time
nor opportunity^ for any display of their
Teutonic heroism. Their sole exploit was
the shooting of thfe general Friedrich von
Gagern from an ambush as he was return-
ing to his troops from an unsuccessful
conference with Hecker. Herwegh 's French
legion was dispersed at Dossenbach on
April 26th by a company of Wiirtemberg
troops. These warriors took refuge for the
time being in Switzerland with the "gen-
erals" Hecker, Struve, and Franz Siegl.
THE
RE-MAKING
OF
EUROPE
EUROPE.
IN
REVOLUTION
II
ITALY'S FRUITLESS REVOLT
AND AUSTRIA'S SUCCESS UNDER RADETZKY
AS early as Jarraary, 1848, the popula-
tion of the Lombard States had begun
openly to display their animosity to the
Austrians. The secret revolutionary com-
mittees, who took their instructions from
Rome and Turin, organised demonstra-
tions, and forbade the purchase of Aus-
trian 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 Radetzky 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 Piedmont and of the secret prepara-
tions which were in progress there. This
view was well founded. Any dispassionate
judgment of the political situation in the
. , peninsula showed that the
a ton s governments of the individual
earning r g^g^^^g ^yg^ g j^ a dilemma ; either
they must 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 victor-
ious advance of republicanism. The Savoy
family of Carignan, 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
important position, and at least become
the leaders of a Federal Italy ; while they
were forced to endanger their kingdom,
whatever side they took.
Radetzky was indefatigable in his
efforts to keep the Vienna government
informed of the approaching danger, but
his demands for reinforcements to the
troops serving in the Lombard- Venetian
provinces were disregarded. The old War
Minister, Count H. Hardegg, who sup-
ported Radetzky, 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 ist, 1847, he
began his sixty-fourth year of service in
the imperial army — from his conviction
that the Austrian house meant to defend
its Italian possessions. He was well aware
that the very existence of the monarch}
. , was involved in this question
C ^'T ^ d °^ predominance in Italy. A
omp ica e j^Q^ient when every nationality
Pontics united under the Hapsburg
rule was making the most extravagant
demands upon the state was not the
moment voluntarih' to abandon a position
of the greatest moral value.
After the outbreak of the revolt many
voices recommended an Austrian retreat
from Lombardy to 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 ministers,
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 demo-
cratic aspirations and programmes the
idea of the Austrian state was for-
gotten ; its strength and dignity depended
upon the inflexibility and upon
National ^^^ ultimate victory of Rad-
. jj etzky and his army. The war in
m Italy j^^^^. ^^^^ ^ 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 influences upon the
Austrians were the military assessment,
their delight in proved military supe-
riority, and their military traditions.
4925
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
Nationalism was indisputably an animat-
ing •force among the Germans of the
Alpine districts. Never did Franz Grill-
parzer 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."
The Vanished j, ■ , j-cc i- . •
It IS not difficult to imagine
that a statesman of unusual
Power of
the Hapsburgs
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 Roman Empire. We may
conceive that, granted^ such recognition
of the facts, a jvist division of influence and
power in Central Europe might have been
brought about by the 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 mis-
take 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 integrit}' 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 guerrilla troops
would never have gained another victory,
even in Hungary.
In an army order of January 15th, 1848,
Radetzky announced in plain and un-
ambiguous terms that the Emperor of
Austria was resolved to defend the Lom-
bard-Venetian kingdom against internal
and external enemies, and that he himself
proposed to act in accordance with the
imperial will. He was, however, unable
Outbreak ^"^ "^^^^ ^^ strategical pre-
of the parations for the approaching
Revolution struggle ; he had barely troops
enough to occupy the most im-
portant 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
forestalling a surprise, and was obliged to
modify his measures in proportion to the
forces at his disposal. The crowds began
4926
to gather on March 17th, when the news
of the Vienna revolution reached Milan ;
street fighting began on the i8th 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 21st it became certain that
Charles Albert of Sardinia would cross
the Ticino with his army. Radetzky 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 in the following campaign. Most
of the garrisons in the Lombard towns
were able to cut their way through,
comparatively few surrendering. However,
the 61,000 infantry of the imperial army
were diminished by the desertion of the
twenty Italian battalions which belonged
to it, amounting to 10,000 men. It was
necessary to abandon 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
The New -^
Republic of
Venice
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 \T'as military
commander in conjunction with the civil
governor. Count Palffy of Erdod. Zichy
surrendered on March 22nd; on condi-
tion that the non-Italian garrison should
be allowed to depart unmolested. Manin
became president of the new democratic
Republic of Venice, which was joined
by most of the towns of the former
Venetian terra firma ; Great Biitain and
France, however, declined to recognise the
republic, which was soon forced to make
common cause with Sardinia. iMantua
was preserved to the Austrians by the
bold and imperturbable behaviour of the
commandant -general. Von Gorczkowski.
The Italian nationalist movement had
also spread to the South T\to1. On
March 19th the inhabitants of Trent
demanded the incorporation into Lom-
bardy of the Trentino — that is, the district
ITALY'S FRUITLESS REVOLT
of the former prince-bishopric of Trent.
The appearance of an Austrian brigade
under General von Zobel to reheve 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
Radetzky's headquarters and the Austrian
government, the hue 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,
oi to maintain regular com-
munication with the revolu-
tionists 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 29th, 1848. the
King of Sardinia crossed the
Ticino, without any formal
declaration of war, ostensibly
to protect his own territories.
He had at his disposal three He
Deciding
Point in the
Revolution
After the despatch of the troops required
to cover the Etsch valley and to garrison
the fortresses, Radetzky was left with
only 35,000 men ; he was able, how-
ever, with nineteen Austrian battalions,
sixteen squadrons, and eighty-one guns,
to attack and decisively defeat the king
at Santa Lucia on May 6th, as he was
advancing with 41,000 men
and eighty guns. The Zehner
light infantry under Colonel
Karl von Kopal behaved admir-
ably ; the Archduke Francis 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.
Radetzky's victory at Santa Lucia is the
_ turning-point in the history of
the Italian revolution.
The Austrian troops
definitely established the fact
of their superiority to the
l^iedmontese, by far the best
nf the Italian contingents.
Conscious of this, the little
army was inspired with con-
fidence 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
DANIEL MANIN
became President of the
divisions, amounting to about ^f^e"r"he cfp^'ulation of'^enTce studcnts wcre glad to escape
4'^, 000 men, and after Raining in the following year escaped from the aula of the Uni-
^-" , , . °i, ° to Paris, where he died in 1857.
several successes m small con-
flicts at Goito, Valeggio, and elsewhere,
against weak Austrian divisions, he ad-
vanced to the Mincio on April loth. Mazzini
had appeared in Milan after the retreat
of the Austrians ; but the advance of the
Piedmontese prevented the installation
of a republican administi;3.tion. 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 40,000 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.
The Forces
Opposed
to Austria
versify 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 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.
Radetzky was not to be tempted into a
reckless advance by the brilliant success
he had attained ; after thus vigorously
repulsing Charles Albert's main force, he
remained within his quadrilateral of for-
tresses, awaiting the arrival of the reserves
which were being concentrated in Austria ;
16,000 infantry, eight squadrons of cavalry,
and fifty-four guns marched from Isonzo
under Laval, Count Nugent, master of the
4927
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
ordnance, an old comrade of Radetzky.
He was an Irishman by birth, and had
entered the Austrian army in 1703 ; in
1812 he had seen service
in Spain during the War
of Liberation,, andin.1813
had led the revolt on the
coast districts. On April
22nd Nugent captured
Udine, and advanced b}-
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 Rad-
etzky. Nugent fell sick,
and after continual fight-
ing, Count Thurn led the
reserves to San Boniface
at Verona, where he
came into touch ^vith the
main arni}^ on May 22nd.
Meanwhile, the monarchical government
in Naples had succeeded in defsating
the Repubhcans, and the king accordingly
recalled the Neapolitan army, which had
already advanced to the Po. The summons
was obeyed except by 2,000 men, with
whom General Pepe re-
inforced the ■ Venetian
contingent. This change
materially diminished the
danger which had threat-
ened Radetzky's deft
flank ; he was now able
to take the offensive
against the Sardinian
army, and advanced
against Curtatone and
Goito from Mantua,
whither he had amved
on May 28th with two
, corps and part of the
. reserves. He proposed
#; to relieve Peschiera,
^ which was invested by
Grand Duke of Tuscany, Leopold II. granted ^hc Dukc of GcUOa ; but
a liberal constitution to his people, and the garrisou had received
thought he had satisfied all their demands, but j-q ngws of the advanCe
a revolt broke out, and he fled Lo Gaeta
LEOPOLD
of the main army, and were
forced from lack of provisions to suiTender
on May 30th. However, after a fierce
struggle at Monte Berico on June loth, in
iHE BOMBARDMENT OF MESSINA IN SEPTEMBER, 1S48
j ne town of Messina which lately was the scene of a destructive earthquake, suffered severely in September, 184,-^,
during the rising of Italy against Austria. Under the bombardment of General Filangieri, the town was exposed
to a heavy fire ; many houses were destroyed and burned and thousands of dead bodies lay in the streets.
4928
ARRANGING TERMS OF PEACE: THE MEETING OF VICTOR EMMANCTEL AND RADETZKY
In this picture there is represented the meeting- of the two principals in the war between Sardinia and Austria, Victor
Emmanuel II. and Count Radetzky, which took place on March 24th, 1849, at the farmstead of Vignale. Anarmistice
vas agreed to on conditions which were to serve as the basis of a peace, finally concluded in the following August.
j^oiii the painting by Aldi. in the PlKice of the Signory. Siena
which Colonel von Kopal, the Roland of the
Aastrian army, was killed, Radetzky
captured Vicenza, General Durando being
allowed- to retreat with the Roman and
Tuscan troops. They were joined by the
" crociati," crusaders, who had occupied
Treviso. Padua was also evacuated by
the revolutionaries, and almost the whole
of the Venetian province was thus re-
covered by the Austrians. Fresh re-
inforcements 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 govern-
ment in Milan offered the Lombard-
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
ill Italy. Britain and France, however,
had declared the surrender by Austria of
the Italian provinces to be an indispens-
able preliminary to peace negotiations.
Radetzky 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
4929
In the hope of re-establishing- her ancient form of g-overnment under the presidency of Manin, Venice rose in
revolt ag-ainst Austria in 1848, hut after a fifteen months' siege of the city the Austrians compelled it to capitulate.
The enthusiasm of the citizens of Venice in their revolt against Austria was shared by all classes, even the
women and children desiring to have some part in the struggle for liberty, and bringing their jewels, as shown
in the above picture, to raise money for the defence of the city against the attack of their bated enemy.
SCENES IN THE SIEGE OF VENICE BY THE AUSTRIANS IN 1848-49
4930
ITALY'S FRUITLESS REVOLT
attack the king in his entrenchments at
Sona and Sommacampagna. Operations
began here on July 23rd, and ended on the
25th with the Battle of Custozza. The
king was defeated, and Radetzky secured
command of the whole line of the Mincio.
Charles Albert now made proposals for
an armistice. Radetzky's demands, how-
ever, were such as the king found impos-
sible to entertain. He was forced to
give up the line of the Adda, which the
field-marshal crossed with three army
corps on August ist without a struggle.
The Battle of Milan on.the 4th-So clearly
demonstrated the incapacity of the Pied-
montese 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.
Radetzky . entered Milan on
August 6th and . was well
received by some. part of the
population. Peschiera was
evacuated on the xoth. 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 9th
for six weeks ; it was pro-
longed by both sides, though
without formal stipulation,
through the autumn of 1848
and the winter of 1848-1849.
Radetzky
Ready for
Emergencies
■■"^A
t>^ ^fl
k
jflP^ ^ (^^^1
^L,
ijH»;i&- ^;» ,^^H
■1
MARSHAL RADETZKY
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 100,000 men. He rightly. saw that a
victory would bring all the patriots over
to his side ; but he had no faith in this
possibihty, and announced the termina-
tion .of the armistice on March 12th,
1849, ^^ 3, tone of despair.
Radetzky 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 58,000
men and 186 guns, and made
a turn to the right upon Pavia.
On March 20th he crossed the
Ticino and moved upon
Mortara, while Charles Albert
made a. corresponding man-
oeuvre at Buffalora and
In Tuscany the Grand Duke Ri^^t^caiied'- the saviour of the entered Lombard territory
Leopold II thought he Monarchy." this great marshal led at Magenta. He had CU-
had completely satisfied the i'ft^e^r^ott^"Sn^° Xuaifan trusted the command of his
national and political desires "^'"^ =^"'' i"^"*^^ ^^^ Revolution, ^i-^^y to the Polish revolu-
of his people by the grant of a liberal con- tionary general, _ Adalbert Chrzanowski,
stitution 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
17.1-1. c t. 'tlie government of Florence
Grfnd Dukl ^^ .I'ebruary, 1849, uuder the
. ''*" .J It* leadership pfMazzini's follower,
Leopold II. T^ TA • /"
r rancesco Dpmemco 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
Republicans, 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
whose comrade, Ramorino, led a division
formed of Lombard fugitives. Radetzky's
bold flank movement had broken the con-
nection of the Sardinian forces ; Chrzan-
owski 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 captured
on March 2ist by the corps d'Aspre, the
first division of which was led by the
Archduke Albert. The Sardinian leaders
were then forced to occupy Novara with
54,000 men and 122 guns, their troops
available at the moment. Tactically the
position was admirable, and here they
awaited the decisive battle. Retreat to
Vercelli was impossible, in view of the
advancing Austrian columns.
4931
HARMS WORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
On IMarch 23rd Radetzky despatched
his four corps to converge upon Novara.
About II a.m. the Archduke Albert began
the attack u]K-)n the heights of Bicocca,
which formed the key to the Itahan
position. For "four hours 15,000 men held
out against 50,000, until the corps ad-
vancing on the road from Vercelli were
able to come into action at
King and 3 p_ni_ This movement decided
General in ^he struggle. In the evening the
Conference r^ ,. . "C> • / j ?
Sardmians 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 con-
verging columns, and many soldiers were
able to take to flight. Further resistance
was impossible, and the king demanded
an armistice of Radetzky, which was
refused. Charles Albert now abdicated,
resigning his crown to Victor Emmanuel,
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 24th, King
Victor Emmanuel had a conversation with
Radetzky 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 re-
tained the Lomellina, the country be-
tween the Ticino and the Sesia, which he
occupied with 21,000 men until the con-
clusion of the 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 Hungarian, Polish,
and Lombard volunteer corps serving with
the army. Brescia, which the Republicans
had occupied after the retreat of the
G 'b Id" Austrians from Milan, was
w'thd'raws ^^°™^d °^ April ist by General
from Rome ^'^^ 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 pro-
ceeded. With the defeat of Sardinia the
4932
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 15th, the latter on the 19th. Under
Garibaldi's leadership Rome offered a
vigorous resistance to the French and Nea-
politans, 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 ist to
July 3rd with 20,000 men, until the
population perceived the hopelessness of
defence and forced Garibaldi to withdraw
with 3,000 Republicans. From the date
of her entry into Rome until the year 1866,
and again 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 in-
Italy's
Power
Crushed
formation of the overthrow and
abdication of Charles Albert.
The Austrians were compelled to
drive parallels against the fortifications
in the lagoons, of which Fort Malghera
was the most important, and to bombard
them continuously. 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 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 officers,
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.
THE
RE-MAKING
OF
EUROPE
EUROPE
IN
REVOLUTION
III
THE HUNGARIAN REBELLION
DEFEAT AND FLIGHT OF LOUIS KOSSUTH
'X'HE 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 proposition 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
revolutions never succeed in establish-
ing 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 improve-
ments perfectly attainable in themselves.
Both in Vienna and in Hungary the month
of March had been a time of great con-
fusion. 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 con-
stitutional matter, no question of national
or administrative policy, m which they had
not interfered and advanced their demands
in the name of the people. Movements in the
capital, the seat of government, were there-
fore characterised by a spirit of immaturity,
or, rather, of childishness. Quiet and
deliberate discussion on business methods
was unknown, every conclusion was re-
jected as soon as made, and far-sighted men
of experience and knowledge of admini-
Confusionin
Vicnaa
and Hungary
strative 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
„ " t". circles. Any systematic and
Politicians r , ■' ■ X J.U • i,i„
. y,. purposeful exercise of the rights
that had been gained was, under
these circumstances, impossible, for no one
could appreciate the value of these con-
cessions. 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 considera-
tion 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
Democrats ^^ ^ ^^^^, ^^^^ bringing freedom,
"m*'"f licence, and material enjoy-
a New tra ^^^^ -^ 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 Count Franz Stadion,
governor of Galicia, and of the town
4933
HARMSWORTH HISTORY' OF THE WORLD
commandant of Cracow. The agitators who
were there thrown out of employment
received a most brilhant reception at
Vienna, and their organisation of " hght-
ning petitions " and street parades soon
made them indispensable. On April 25th,
1848, was published the Constitution of
Pillersdorf, a hastily constructed scheme,
but not without merit ; on May 9th,
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. Cen -
tralisation was a fun-
damental principle of
these schemes ; they
presupposed the ex-
istence of a united
territorial empire
under uniform ad-
ministration, from
which only Hungary
and the Lombard-
Venetian kingdom
were tacitly excluded.
The Reichstag was to
consist of a Senate
and a Chamber of
Deputies. The Senate
was to include male
members of the im-
perial house over
twenty-four years of
age, an undetermined
number of life-mem-
bers nominated by
the emperor, and 150
representatives from
among the great land-
owners ; in the Cham-
LOUIS KOSSUTH
Leader of the Hungarian Revolution, Louis Kossuth was
gifted with wonderful eloquence, and was able to impart
his own enthusiasm to the people whom he led. He was
ber thirty-one towns appointed provisional Governor of Hungary after the were
and electoral districts National Assembly had declared the throne vacant
of 50,000 inhabitants each v.'ere to appoint
383 deputies through their delegates.
From the outset the Radicals were
opp>osed to a senate and the system of
indirect election ; the true spirit of free-
dom 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
Democrats. All the moderate men, all
who wished to fit the people for their re-
sponsibilities by some political education,
were aristocrats, and aristocrats were
4934
enemies of the people, to be crushed,
muzzled, and stripped of their rights.
Popular dissatisfaction at the constitu-
tion was increased by the dismissal of the
Minister of War, Lieutenant Field-Marshal
Peter Zanini, and the appointment of
Count Theodor Baillet de Latour on April
28th. The former was a narrow-minded
scion of the middle class, and incapable of
performing his duties, for which reason he
enjoyed the confidence of the Democrats.
The latter was a general of distinguished
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 dis-
satisfaction with the
ministerial president.
Count Karl Ficquel-
mont, by the howls
and whistling of the
students. On May
14th the students
fortified themselves
with inflammatory
speeches m the aula
and allied themselves
with the working
classes ; on the 15 th
they burst into the
imperial castle and
surprised Pillersdorf,
who gave way with-
out a show of resist-
ance, acting on the
false theory that the
chief task of the
Government was to
avoid any immediate
conflict. Concessions
granted pro-
viding for the for-
mation of a central committee of the de-
mocratic unions, the occupation of half the
outposts by National Guards, and the
convocation of a "Constituent Reichstag "
with one Chamber.
The imperial family, which could no
longer expect protection in its own house
from the Ministry, left Vienna on May 17th
and went to Innsbruck, where it was
out of reach of the Democrats and
their outbursts of temper, and could more
easily join hands with the Italian army.
It was supported, from June 3rd, by
Johann von Wessenberg, Minister of
THE HUNGARIAN REBELLION
Foreign Affairs, a diplomatist of the old
federal period, 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 Britain for the cession of the Lom-
bard-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 Western
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
re uc disposal by entrusting the Arch-
P duke 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 Frankforton-
Main, and his action in Vienna was in con-
sequence irregular and undertaken without
full knowledge of the circumstances.
On July i8th the Archduke Johann",
as representing the emperor, formed a
Ministry, the president being the pro-
gressive 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 Reichstag were begun after
Prince Alfred of Windisch-Graetz, the
commander of the imperial troops in Bo-
hemia, had successfrflly and rapidly sup-
pressed a revolt at Prague which was
inspired by the first Slav Congress. This
achievement pacified Bohemia. On July
loth the deputies of the Austrian provinces
met for preliminary discussion.
The claims of the different nationalities
to full equality caused a difficulty with
respect to the language in which business
should be discussed ; objections were ad-
vanced against any show of preference for
German, the only language suitable to the
purpose. However, the necessity of a rapid
interchange 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 Constitu-
„ tion, was entrusted to a com-
* ^ mittee on July 31st ; the yet
more urgent necessity of furthering 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 Schonbrunn, on August 12th, its posi-
tion was as unstable as it was unimportant.
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, two reasons may
be adduced : in the first place, misconcep-
tions 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 jesults. The Magyars were them-
selves 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 appli-
cation of the principle of personal freedom
to their existing political institutions
would necessarily bring to light national
claims of a nature to imperil their para-
mountcy in their own land, or that, in
the inevitable struggle for this paramount
position, the support of Austria and of the
reigning house would be of great value.
With their characteristic tendency to over-
estimate their powers, they deemed them-
selves capable of founding a
The Magyars European power at One Stroke.
Demand ^^^^.^ impetuosity further in-
Indcpendence ^^^^^^^ ^^^ difficulties of their
position. They were concerned only with
the remodelling of domestic organisation,
but they strove to loose, or rather to burst
asunder, the political and economic ties
which for centuries had united them to the
German hereditary possessions of their
ruling house. They demanded an inde-
pendence* which they had lost on the day
4935
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
of the Battle of Mohacs. 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 coinage and
currency, which was a part of the royal
prerogative, and had been personally and
therefore uniformly employed by the
representatives of the different sovereign-
ties composing the Hapsburg power.
The legal code confirmed by the emperor
and King Ferdinand at the dissolution of
the old Reichstag, on April loth, 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
personal union with Austria. Of these the
chief was the grant of an independent
Ministry, and the union of Hungary and
Transylvania . without any. . obligation of
service to the Crown, without the recog-
nition of any community; of interests,
without any stipulation for such co-opera-
tion as might be needed to secure the
existence of the joint
monarchy.
In Croatia, Slavonia, '
in the Banat, and in the
district of Bacska in-
habited by the Servians,
the Slavonic nationalist
movement broke into
open revolt against Mag-
yar self-aggrandisement ;
the Hungarian Ministry
then demanded, the recall
of., all . Hungarian troops
from ..the. Italian army,
from Moravia and Galicia,
in order to quell the
."anarchy" pi^evailing at
home. . The Imperial
Government , now dis-
. FRANCIS JOSEPH I.
covered that m COncedmg Born in 1830, he became Emperor of Austria
an "independent
ministry to Hungary they ^ad been compelled to abdcate. The above
, 1 -^ , o . -^ , , •' portrait was taken about the year 18 jO
had surrendered the - -
attitude of Hungary on the financial
question, wherein she showed no inclina-
tion to consider the needs of the whole
community. She owed her political exist-
ence to German victories over the
Turks, but in her selfishness would not save
-. , Austria from bankruptcy by
Hungary s ,- , ^ r .1
r» 1./^ r- accepting a quarter of the
Debt to German .-^ ,", , .^ 1 -, ■
,,. . . national debt and making a
Victories .
yearly paymentof one million
])ounds to meet the interest. The
majority,. of the Ministry of Batthyany,
to , which . the loyaUst Franz von Deak
belonged, were by no means anxious to
bring about a final separation between
Hungary and Austria ; they were even
ready to grant troops to the court for ser-
vice in the Italian war, if the Imperial
Government would support Hungarian
action against the malcontent Croatians.
In May, Count Batthyany hastened to the
Imperial Court at Innsbruck and suc-
ceeded in allaying the prevailing apprehen-
sions. 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 Batthj^any
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 Batthyany's
i\Iinistry.
Louis Kossuth was a
man of extravagant en-
thusiasm, endowed with
great histrionic powers, a
rhetorician who was apt
to be carried away by
the torrent of his own
eloquence, a type of the
revolutionary apostle and
martyr. He was un-
doubtedly lacking in
war inl848, succeeding his uncle Ferdinand I., who sobriety of political judg-
' -T-. - -.--— ^^gj.^^^ ^^^ j.jjg powers
were never exerted with
full effect except under- the stress of high
excitement ; he seems, indeed, to have
been one of those who realise themselves
only at the moment when they feel that
the will of great masses of men has
fallen completely under the sway of their
own passion of eloquence. The ambitions
of such men can never be. satisfied in any
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 vohmtary renunciation
on " the part of Hungary of a right she
had extorted but a moment before.
No less intolerable was the independent
4936
THE HUNGARIAN REBELLION
arena less than that in which national paper for the same amount ; he tnen
destinies are staked. Kossuth did not demanded further credit to the extent ot
enter on his political career from motives 4,200,000 pounds, to equip a national
of personal aggrandisement, with a de- army of 200,000 men. He even attempted
liberate intention of overthrowing the to determine the foreign policy of the
Hapsburg rule in order that he might emperor-king. Austria was to cede all
become the presiding genius and authori- Italian territory as far as the Etsch, and,
tative chief of a Hungarian Republic ; as regarded her German provinces, to
but it can hardly be bow to the decisions of
questioned that this the central power in
would have been the out- Frankfort. In case of
come of the movement ^ dispute with this power
which he originated, had 1 she was not to look to
it been carried to a sue- I'Jf tl|M • ' Hungary for support,
cessful issue with Kossuth \i Such a point of view
at its head. . '■^'^ \ was wholly incompatible
For such national rights ^^s^*****. with the traditions and
as the Magyars could ^ ^^ , the European prestige of
claim for themselves full .^t L... ...^lIB^^ '^^^ House of Hapsburg;
provision was made by ^^^HHpii^M||^^^Hfe||^: lo yield would have been
the Constitution, which g^^^^^W^ ^^K^^^^^k to resign the position of
they had devised on ^^^^^Bh ^^^^^^^^^V permanency and to begin
liberal principles, abolish- '^^^^^H^B m^^^^^^KKm ^^^^ disruption of the
ing the existing privileges ^^^^^HH m^B^^^^^Km ^^^onarchy.
of the nobility and cor- ^^^^^^^1^^^^^^^^^^ It was to be feared that
porat ions ; every freedom ^Bi^^^Hl^^^^HII^^' Hungarian aggression
was thus provided for_ ^^^^^^S^^^^^^W ' could be met only by
the development ofitheir . ^x^ ^^^^^H^^ force. The federal allies,
strength ' and individu- ""^SBIP^^^ who had already prepared
ality. On July'2nd,.x848, kossuth in later life for what they saw would
the Reichstag' elected For some years Kossuth resided in England, be a hard Struggle, WCre
under the new Constitu- ^^^ ^}'''Z p°'*?'* "!?T5 •''l'u*^"""f.a'.' now appreciated at their
,, r^, " stay m this country. He died in the year 1894. ^- ^^, _,,
tion met together. The . , . • true value. Ihey in-
great task before it was the satisfaction eluded the Servians and Croatians, who
of the other nationalities, the Slavs, Rou-
manians; and Saxons, living on Hungarian
soil ; ,their . acquiescence in .the Magyar
predominance was to be secured without
endangering the unity of the kingdom, by
means of laws for national defence, and of
other innovations making for prosperity.
Some clear definition ofvthe 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 devo-
tion of the Magyars. Kossuth, however,
V .1. . ■ brought before the Reichstag
Kossuth s 9 c I 11
D A f th ^ series of proposals calcula-
P . , ted to shatter the confidence
which Batthyanj^ had exerted
himself to restore during his repeated visits
to Innsbruck. The Austrian national bank
had offered to advance one and a quarter
million pounds in notes for the purposes of
the Hungarian Government. This proposal
Kossuth declined, and issued Hungarian
L a6 G
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
upon the military frontier — 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.- He supported
the majority of the Agram Landtag in
their efforts to secure a separation from
Hungary, thereby exposing himself to
the violent denunciations of Batthyany's
Ministry, which demanded his deposition.
These outcries he disregarded, and
pacified the court by exhorting the
frontier regiments serving under Radetzky
to remain true to their colours and
to give their lives for the glory of
Austria. The approbation of his comrades
4937
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
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 40,000 men,
which was of no great military value,
though its numbers, its impetuosity, and
its extraordinary armament made it for-
midable. The victories of the Italian
_. _ , army and the reconquest of
nswer Imperial Court. On August
toKossuth S j.\ A j^
12th the emperor returned to
the summer palace of Schonbrunn, near
Vienna, 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
31st, 1848, an Imperial decree was issued to
the palatine Archduke Stephen, who had
hitherto enjoyed full powers as the royal
representative in Hungary and Transyl-
vania ; the contents of the decree referred
to the necessity of enforcing the Prag-
matic Sanction. Such was the answer
to the preparations 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 nth the Minister
of Finance in a fiery speech, which roused
his auditors to a frenzied excitement, de-
clared himself ready to assume the
dictatorship on the retirement of Bat-
thyany's Ministry. On the same day the
Croatian army crossed the Drave and
advanced upon Lake Flatten.
The Vienna Democrats, who might con-
sider themselves masters of the capital,
had been won over to federal alliance with
Hungary. The most pressing necessity
was the restoration of a strong govern-
ment which would secure respect for estab-
lished authority, freedom of deliberation
Illiterate ^° ^^^ Reichstag, and power
Deputielin' J?, "^^""7 °^* ^^f Conclusions.
the Reichstag P^ Reichstag, however, pre-
ferred 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 over-
lords. The work of this Reichstag, which
contained a large number of illiterate
de])uties from Galicia, may be estimated
from the fact that it showed a strong in-
493«
clination to put the question of compensa-
tion 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 principle, 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 concentrated upon the
noisy outcries of the Democrats, who were
in connection not only with the radical
element of the Frankfort Parliament, but
also with Hecker and his associates.
As early as the middle of September a
beginning was made with the task
of fomenting disturbances among the
working classes, and the retirement of the
Ministry was demanded. Great excite-
ment 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
on September i6th. The Hungarians were
able to count upon the friendship of the
Austrian revolutionaries after their mani-
festations of open hostility to the court.
The Hungarian difficulty weakened the
P impression made by Radetzky's
„ ' * , victories, and radical minds
Hopes of a j 1 r
P . J. agam conceived hopes of over-
throwing the Imperial house
and forming a Federal Danube Republic.
At the request of the archduke palatine,
Count Louis Batthyany made another
attempt to form a constitutional Ministry
on September 17th, with the object of
abohshing Kossuth's dictatorship ; how-
ever, no practical result was achieved.
The die had been already cast, and the
military party had established the necessity
of restoring the imperial authoritj' in Hun-
gary by force of arms. The Archduke
Stephen attempted to bring about a
meeting with Jellacic, to induce him to
evacuate Hungarian territory, but the
banus excused himself ; at the same time
the palatine was informed that Field-
Marshal 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 Con-
stitution. The archduke recognised that
he would be forced to violate his constitu-
tional obligations as a member of the
Imperial house ; he therefore secretly
abandoned the country and betook him-
self to his possessions in Schaumberg
without making any stay in Vienna.
^
THE HUNGARIAN REBELLION
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 28th, 1848, at the new suspen-
sion 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 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 wi th the revolted Viennese , who were
also fighting against the public authorities.
It was on October 6th, 1848, that the
Viennese mob burst into open revolt, the
occasion being the march of a grenadier
battalion of the northern railway station
for service against the Hungarians. The
democratic conspirators had been stirred
up in behalf of republicanism by Johannes
Ronge, 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
The Minister •, ■ •, i ^, ^
™ order impossible. Ihe uproar
. • t d 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 aban-
doned 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 Wessenberg, and was also vigorously
supported by Prince Felix Schwarzenberg,
who had hastened to the court from
Radetzky's camp. He had been employed
not only on military service, but also in
diplomatic duties in Turin and Naples.
He declared for the maintenance of the
constitutional monarchy, and supported
the decree drafted by Wessenberg, to
the effect that full support and un-
limited power of action should be
accorded to the Reichstag summoned to
Kremsier for discussion with the Imperial
advisers upon some mutually 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
-, reahsed. Windisch-Graetz was
tu^n "*^, appointed field-marshal and
the Revolt ^ ^ , . , . , r ,, ,,
. ... commander-in-chief of all the
in Vienna ■ ^ r , ■ ■, t ,
imperial forces outside Italy,
and undertook the task of crushing the revolt
in Vienna and Hungary. The subjugation
of Vienna was an easy task.
The garrison, consisting of troops of
the line under Auersperg, had withdrawn
into a secure position outside the city
on October 7th, where they joined hands
with the troops of the banus Jellacic on
the Leitha. These forces gradually pene-
trated the suburbs of Vienna. On October
2 1st 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 Reichstag remaining in
the city, showed the courage of bigotry.
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 demo-
cratic unions ; they determined to defend
Vienna until Hungary came to their help.
Robert Blum, who, with Julius Frobel, had,
brought an address from the Frankfort
Democrats to Vienna, was a leading figure
in the movement for resistance. W^enzel
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 28th.
Only in the Praterstern and in
the Jagerzeile was any serious
Vienna on
the Point of
Surrender
resistance encountered. By
evening almost all the barri-
cades in the suburbs had been carried, and
the troops were in possession of the
streets leading over the glacis to the bas-
tions of the inner city.
On the next day there was a general
feeling in favour of surrender. Messen-
hauser himself declared the hopelessness of
continuing the struggle, and advised a
4939
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
general surrender. However, on the morn-
ing of October 30th 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 Hungarian advance with an
army of relief, thereby reviving the martial
ardour of the desperadoes,, who had already
, begun a reign of terror in
Vienna s Vienna. He certainly opposed
eign o ^^^^ fanatics who clamoured for
a resumption of the conflict ; but
he quailed before the intimidation of the
democratic ruffians, and resigned his com-
mand without 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 proletariat ; but it was not until
the afternoon that the imperial troops
were able to make their way into the town.
They amved just in time to save the
Imperial library and the museum of natural
history from destruction by fire.
Vienna was conquered on November 1st,
1848 ; those honourable and distinguished
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 1,000 men killed
and wounded. The number of the inhabi-
tants, combatants and non-combatants,
who were killed in the last days of October
can only be stated approximately. Dr.
Anton Schiitte, an eye-witness, estimated
-the number at 5,000.
The next problem was the conduct of
the war with Hungary, which had already
raised an army of 100,000 men, and was
in possession of every fortress of importance
in the country, with the exception of Arad
and Temesvar. The Battle of Schwechat,
on October 30th, 1848, had ended with the
retreat of the 30,000 men brought up by
Abdication of ,^^"?J^^ ^^g^" T^'!, '^Tl^ °^
the Emperor ^^'^ Hungarians had not been
Ferdinand ^^^^' ^° *^"^® importance of the
occasion. A Hungarian victory
at that time would have implied the relief
of Vienna, and the question of the separa-
tion of the Crown of Stephen from the
House of Hapsburg would certainly have
become of European importance.
Upon the abdication of the Emperor
Ferdinand and the renunciation of liis
brother, the Archduke Francis Charles,
4940
the Archduke Francis Joseph ascended the
throne on December 2nd, 1848. On the
same day Prince Windisch-Graetz ad-
vanced upon the Danube with 43,000
men and 216 guns, while General Count
Franz Schlick started from Galicia with
8,000 men, and General Balthasar von
Simunich moved upon Neutra from the
Waag with 4,000 men. After a series of
conflicts — at Pressburgonthe 17th, atRaab
on the 27th, at Moor on the 30th December,
1848, and after the victory of Schlick at
Kaschau on December iith, the pro-
visional 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 Jellacic, who now commanded an army
corps under Windisch-Graetz, was able
to act with the armed Servians.
However, the freld-marshal under-esti-
mated the resisting power of the nation,
which, as Kossuth represented, was threat-
ened with the loss of its political existence,
and displayed extraordinary capacities of
self-sacrifice and devotion in those danger-
bus days. He was induced to Mvance into
Th TA ^^^^ district of the Upper Theiss
^ y^ with too weak a force, and
„"-^ divided his troops, instead of
ungary halting in strong positions at
Ofen and Waitzen on the Danube and
waiting for the necessary reinforcemeiits.
The Battle of Kapolna, on February 26th
and 27th, 1849, enabled Schlick to effect
the desired junction, and could be regarded
as a tactical victory. Strategically, how-
ever, it implied a turn of the scale in
favour of the Hungarians ; they gradually
concentrated under the Polish general
Henryk Dembinski and the Hungarian
Arthur Gdrgey, and were able to take the
offensive at the end of March, 1849, under
the general command of Gorgey, who won
a victory at Isaszegh, G6d511o, on April 6th.
Ludwig von Melden, the representa-
tive of Windisch-Graetz, who had been
recalled to Olmiitz, was forced to retire to
the Raab on April 27th to avoid being
surrounded. The town of Komorn 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 Bem fought with varying
success against the weak Austrian
divisions in Transylvania under Puchner.
THE HUNGARIAN REBELLION
The remnants of these were driven into
Wallachia on February 20th. By April,
1849, the fortresses of Ofen, Arad, and
Temesvar alone remained in the occupa-
tion of the Austrians.
The promulgation of a new constitution
for the whole of Austria, dated March
4th, 1849, was answered by Kpssuth in a
proclamation from Debreczin on April
14th, dethroning the House of Hapsburg.
In spite of the armistice with Victor
Emmanuel, Italy was as yet too disturbed
to permit the transference of Radetzky's
army to Hungary. Accordingly, on May
ist the Emperor Francis Joseph concluded
a convention with Russia, who placed her
forces at his disposal for the subjugation of
Hungary, as the existence of a Hungarian
with three corps to Arad without coming
into collision with the Russian contingents.
On August 5th Dembinski 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 iith, Kossuth
fled from Arad to Turkey. On
the 13th, Gorgey, who had been
appointed dictator two days
previously, surrendered with
31,000 men, 18,000 horse, 144 guns, and
sixty standards, at Vilagos, to the Russian
general Count Riidiger. Further surrenders
were made at Lugos, Boros-Jeno, Mehadia,
and elsewhere. On October 5th, Klapka
marched out of Komorn under the honour-
able capitulation of September 27th.
Kossuth's
Flight
io Turkey
THE HISTORIC ARCHBISHOP'S CASTLE, NEAR OLMUTZ, IN MORAVIA
Republic threatened a rebellion in Poland.
It was now possible to raise an over-
whelming force for the subjection of the
brave Hungarian army. General Haynau
was recalled from the Italian campaign
to lead the Imperial army in Hungary.
He advanced from Pressburg with 60,000
Austrians, 12,000 Russians, and 250 guns.
rni. I -1 Jellacic led 44,000 men and
The^Imperial ^^g ^^^^^ -^^^^ g^^^^j^ Hungary,
• ""h^ while the Russian field-marshal
ungary p^.^^^^g Paskevitch marched on
North Hungary by the Dukla Pass with
130,000 men and 460 guns. Gorgey
repulsed an attack delivered by Haynau
at Komorn on July 2nd ; on the iith
he was removed from the command
in favour of Dembinski, and defeated on
the same battlefield, then making a
masterly retreat through Upper Hungary
Hungary was thus conquered by Austria
with Russian help. For an exaggeration
of her national claims, which was both
historically and politically unjustifiable,
she paid with the loss of all her consti-
tutional rights, and brought down grievous
misfortune upon herself. The Magyar
nationalists had expected the Western
Powers to approve their struggles for
independence and to support the new
Magyar state against Austria and Russia, ;
they calculated particularly upon help
from England. They were now to learn
that the Hungarian question is not one
of European miportance, and that no
one saw the necessity of an indepen-
dent Hungarian army and Ministry of
Foreign Affairs except those Hungarian
politicians whose motive was not patriot-
ism but self-seeking in its worst form.
4941
4942
THE
RE- MAKING
OF
EUROPE
EUROPE
IN
REVOLUTION
IV
STRUGGLES OF GERMAN DUCHIES
AND THE RISINGS OF THE SLAVS AND POLES
A N 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 they had but rarely been able
to assert their vested right to separate
administration. They, however, had re-
mained German, whereas the royal branch
of the House of Holstein-Oldcnburg, 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 l^i furcations,
largely contributed to maintain 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 consciousness of their inde-
R pendence was so strong among
.i^^xr-^ ° the estates of the two duchies
the Vienna ,, x .1 << 1 i >» .- rr
^ that the royal law of 1600,
estates and establishing 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 tiie Danes, while in-
cluding Holstein in the German Federation.
Unity was, however, the thought that
inspired the population of either country.
This feeling increased in strength and
became immediately operative when Den-
mark was so impolitic as to defraud the Ger-
mans by regulations which bore unjustly
upon the imperial bank, founded in 1813,
The disadvantages of Danish supre-
macy then became manifest to the lowest
peasant. Danish paper and copper were
forced upon the duchies, while their
good silver streamed away to Copenhagen.
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 publica-
tion of the " open letter " of King Christian
Vni. On July 8th, 1848, he
announced the intention of
Disadvantages
of Danish
Su premacy
the Danish Government, in
the event of a failure of male
heirs, to secure the succession to the un-
divided " general monarchy " to the
female line, in accordance with the Danish
royal law. Christian's only son, Frederic,
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 suc-
cession 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 suc-
cessor would be Prince Christian of Hol-
stein-Sonderburg-Gliicksburg, who had
married Louise of Hesse-Cassel, a niece of
Christian VHL Schleswig had the pro-
spect 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 these
estates. Schleswig objected to separation
from Holstein, and to any successor other
than one in the male line of descent.
Christian VHL died on Januaiy 20th,
1848, and was succeeded by his son, Fred-
eric VH. This change and the
The Duch.es jj^prgssion created by the
Demand revolutions in Paris, Vienna,
Independence ^^^ g^^^-^ confirmed the
duchies in their resolve to grasp their
rights and assert their national inde-
pendence. Had the king met these desires
wdth 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
4943
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
A New
Government
at Kiel
possession of the two countries under some
form of personal .federation without ap-
peaHng 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 incor-
poration of Schleswig with Denmark,
regarding the Eider as the
historical frontier of the Danish
power. 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 22nd, 1848.
Meanwhile, the Assembly of the estates
at Rendsburg had determined to declare
war upon the Eider Danes. On March
24th a provisional government for the two
duchies was formed at Kiel, which was
to be carried on in the name of Duke
Christian of Augustenburg, at that time
apparently 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, immediately 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 weakness became dail}' more
obvious ; he was incapable of fulfilling
any single one of the many national duties
of which he talked so glibly.
His first steps in the Schleswig-Holstein
complication displayed extraordinary
vigour. On April 3rd, 1848, two Prussian
regiments of the Guard marched into Rends-
p ^ . burg, and their commander,
_ . , . General Eduard von Bonin,
Kegiments in , ,,- , ^, ,, '
Rendsburg ^^'^ ^^ ultimatum on the i6th
to the Danish troops, ordering
them to evacuate the duchy and the town
of Schleswig, which they had seized after
a victory at Bau on April 9th over the
untrained Schleswig-Holstein troops. On
April I2th the Federal Council at Frank-
fort recognised the provisional govern-
ment at Kiel, and mobilised the tenth
federal army corps, Hanover, Meck-
4944
lenburg, and Brunswick, for the protec-
tion of the federal frontier. The Prussian
general Von Wrangel united this corps
with his own troops, and fought the Battle
of Schleswig on the 23rd, obliging the
Danes to retreat to Alsen and Jiitland.
Througliout Germany the struggle of the
duchies for liberation met with enthusi-
astic 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, how-
ever, it became plain that British and Rus-
sian 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 supporting some re-
volutionary movement. He doubted the
morality of his action, and was induced by
the threats of Nicholas I., his Russian
brother-in-law, to begin negotiations with
Denmark. These ended in the conclusion
of a seven months' armistice at Malmo on
p . , August 26th, 1848, Prussia
russia ^agreeing to evacuate the
Evacuation of j*^ , r o t_i • t-u
c . , . duchy of Schleswig. The
Schleswig -^ , r ,u A 1-
government of the duchies
was to be undertaken by a commission of
five members, nominated jointly by Den-
mark and Prussia. The Frankfort Parlia-
ment attempted to secure the rejection of
ihe conditions, to which Prussia had as-
sented without consulting the imperial
commissioner, Max von Gagern, who had
been despatched to the seat of war, these
conditions being 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 event-
ually 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 constitu-
tional law on September 15th. TlTe con-
nection 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 govern-
ment commission declined to recognise the
new constitution, and also demurred to the
STRUGGLES OF GERMAN DUCHIES
election of deputies from Schleswig to the
Frankfort Parliament. Shortly afterwards
Denmark further withdrew her recognition
of the government commission. The armis-
tice 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 were many
Prussian officers on furlough from the king
at Eckernforde on April 5th, and Kold-
ing on April 23rd, 1849. C)n the other hand,
the Schleswig-Holstein corps was defeated
while besieging the Danish fortress of
Fridericia, and forced to retreat beyond
the Eider. On July loth, 1849, Prussia con-
cluded a further armistice with Denmark.
The administration of the duchies was
entrusted to a commission composed 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 Wilhelm
Hart wig Beseler, a solicitor. They tried
to conclude some arrange-
iscon en ^ j^gnt with the king-duke on
Under Danish , , 1 j j ii - 1
-. . the one hand, and on the other
Oppression , , - x i ■ £ j.u
to stir up a fresh rismg of the
people against Danish oppression, which
was continually increasing 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 30,000 men and even made it pos-
sible to equip a Schleswig-Holstein
fleet. In the summer of 1850, Prussia
gave way to the representations of
the Powers, and concluded the " Simple
Peace " with Denmark on July 2nd.
Schleswig-Holstein then began the struggle
for independence on their own resources.
They would have had some hope of suc-
cess with a bett • *" general than Wilhelm von
Willisen, and if 1 iissia had not recalled her
officers on furlougn. Willisen retired from
the battle of Idstedt, July 24th, before
the issue had been decided, and began a
premature retreat. He failed to pro-
secute the advantage gained at Missunde
on September 12th, and retired from
Friedrichstadt without making any im-
pression, after sacrificing 400 men in
a useless attempt to storm the place.
The . German Federation, which had been
agai)i convoked at Frankfort, revoked its
previous decisions, in which it had recog-
nised 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
The Ignoble °^ 38,000 men fully equipped, it
Methods ^^^ ^°^^^^ o^ January nth,
of Denmark 1851, to Submit to the demands
of Austria and Prussia to dis-
band 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 faith-
lessness of the Prussian Government nor
the arbitrary oppression of the Danes
could break the national spirit of the North
German marches. On the death of Frederic
VII., on November 15th, 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.
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 2nd.
Here the catchword of Slav solidarity was
proclaimed and the idea of " Panslavism "
discovered, which even now can raise fore-
bodings in anxious hearts, although half
a century has in nd way contributed 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 part of
the southern Slavs, who had never en-
. joyed the exercise of their
f^'h^ rights. For these a period of
°j 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 sub-
ordination which is indispensable to the
uniform development of culture. The
first attempts in this direction were
4945
HARMS WORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
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 ex-
travagance 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 uni-
formity in the economic con-
ditions under which they
lived, the want of political
training and experience —
these were facts which they
overlooked. They forgot the
need of prestige and import-
ance acquired by and within
their own body, and con-
sidered of chief importance
preparations on a large scale,
a congress of European nations to found
Pan-Slavonic states. These states were to
include Czechia — Bohemia and Moravia —
a Galician - Silesian state, Posen under
Prussian supremacy, until the fragments
of Poland could be united into an
independent Polish kingdom, and a
kingdom of Slovenia which
was to unite the Slav popu-
lation of Styria, Carinthia,
Carniola, and the seaboard.
The Slav states hitherto
under Hapsburg supremacy
were to form a federal state ;
the German hereditary dom-
ains were to be graciously
accorded the option of enter-
ing the federation, or of
joining the state which the
Frankfort Parliament was to
create. The attitude of the
Slovaks, Croatians, and Ser-
vians would be determined
THE HISTORIAN PALACKY
which could never lead to The Czech historian and politician, by the rcadiucss of the Mag-
, ,. ,-.- , Franz Palacky, became influential -' , , ,i r 11
any lasting political success, at the imperial court in oimutz. He yars to grant them lull
Had their action been ^^^ ''°''" '" i^'-'^^"'*'*''^'^'" i*'''- independence. Should the
limited to forwarding the common interests grant be refused, it would be necessary to
of the Austrian Slavs it might have form a Slovak and a Croatian state. All
been possible to produce a political pro- these achievements the members of the
gramme dealing with this question, to congress considered practicable, though
demand a central Parliament, and, they were forced to admit that the Slavs,
through opposition to the Hungarian whom they assumed to be inspired by the
supremacy, to assert the rights of the strongest aspirations for freedom and
Slav majority as against the Germans.- justice, were continually attempting to
Magyars, and Italians. But fw^" ' "' i aggrandise themselves at one
the participation of the Poles .^^'K^^k, another's expense ; the Poles,
in the movement, the appear- ^f "^1^ the Ruthenians, and' the
ance of the Russian radical ■■ ^=^K Croatians respectively, con-
democrat Michael Bakunin, ^, '^^ ^^& sidered their most dangerous
and of Turkish subjects, in- ilk.i^^^B enemies to be the Russians,
finitely extended the range S^HB ^^^^ Poles, and the Servians,
of the questions in dispute, _^9^^9^L The Czech students in
and led to propositions of the ^^^dJHiPH^^^^ Prague had armed and or-
most arbitrary nature, the ffipUBM^^QlH^^B ganised a guard of honour
accomplishment of which was I^^^^^^^^^hHh for the congress. They made
entirely beyond the sphere of ^H^BHH^^^H '^^^ ^^^^ smallest attempt to
practical politics. Panslav- R|M^w|^^^^Hl conceal their hatred of the
ism, as a movement, was from \^^^^^^^j^^^ Germans ; Germanism to them
the outset deprived of all a learned visionary who believed was anathema, and they
importance by the inveterate L"e^^rhil""e'vVutionaT 'S in yearned for the chance of dis-
failing of the Slav politicians, Posen in is4s, and fought at the plavius; their heroism in an
..i.,-M.,...._„.„.,.^;....u. head of the rebels at Xions. ^^nti-Gcrman struggle, as the
which was to set no limit to the
measure of their claims, and to represent
themselves as stronger than they were.
Greatly to the disgust of its organisers,
among whom were several Austrian con-
servative nobles, the Slav Congress be-
came an arena for the promulgation of
democratic theories, while it waited for
4946
Poles had done against Russia. They were
supported by the middle-class citizens, and
the working classes were easily induced to
join in a noisy demonstration on June 12th,
1848, against Prince Alfred Windisch-
Graetz, the general commanding in Prague,
as he had refused the students a grant of
STRUGGLES OF GERMAN DUCHIES
sixty thousand cartridges and a battery
of horse artillery. The demonstration de-
veloped 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 them-
selves 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 attempt
at intervention. Prince Windisch-Graetz,
however, remained master of the situa-
tion, overpowered the rebels by force
of arms, and secured the unconditional
submission of Prague. 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 them-
selves at the disposal of the Austrian
Government. Czech democratism was
an exploded idea ; the conservative Czechs
'w.i ». . . , who survived its downfall
The Exploded ■,-, j. j it
»j r^ .readily co-operated m the
Idea of Czech -'• ^- , , , ^
„ .. campaign against the German
Democratism , . j ., . j .
democrats, and attempted to
bring their national ideas into harmony
with the continuance of Austria as domi-
nant power. Palacky became influential
at the imperial court in Olmiitz and pro-
posed the transference of the Reichstag
to Kremsier, where his subordinate,
Ladislaus Rieger, took an important
share in the disruption of popular repre-
sentation 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 achieve-
ment 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. 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.
The year 1848 might perhaps have
afforded an opportunity for the restora-
tion 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
J . the territory occupied by Russia ;
p^j ^ any force that might have been
raised for the cause of patriotism
could have been best employed upon
Russian soil. Russia 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 unable to prevent Galicia
from participation in a Polish revolt.
Prussia had been won over as far as
possible to the Polish side, for her posses-
sions in Posen had been secured from any
amalgamation with an independent Polish
state. The approval of the German Par-
liament was as firmly guaranteed to the
Polish nationalists as was the support
of the French Republic, provided that
German interests were not endangered.
Exactly the opposite course was pur-
sued : the movement began with a rising
in Posen, with threats against Prussia,
with fire and slaughter in German com-
munities, with the rejection of German
culture, which could not have been more
disastrous to Polish civilisation than the
arbitrary and cruel domination of Russian,
officials and police. Louis of Mieroslaws-
ki, a learned visionary but no politician,
calculated upon a victory of European
democracy, and thought it advisable to
forward 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 29th, 1848, he fought an
unsuccessful battle at the head of
f p^K 16,000 rebels against Colonel
Ririn Heinrich von Brandt at Xions ;
'^'"^ on the 30th he drove back a
Prussian corps at Miloslaw. However, he
gained no support from the Russian 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.
4947
4948
THE
.^HjiJ^
RE-MAKING
ivk
OF
EUROPE
l|f^-
m^t^ml^
tWr iStumBBii»i^j^i„tM^
EUROPE
IN
REVOLUTION
V
THE SECOND REPUBLIC IN FRANCE
LOUIS NAPOLEON, PRESIDENT AND DICTATOR
T~'HE European spirit of democracy which
■*• was desirous of overthrowing existing
states, planting its banner upon the ruins,
and founding in its shadow new bodies
poUtic of the nature of which no Demo-
crat 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 supre-
macy 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,
r, , . The simultaneous fulfilment of
„ ... the hopes which are 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 accumu-
lation of privileges on one side with a
corresponding limitation on the other.
When the goo representatives of the
French nation declared France a republic
on May 4th, 1848, the majority of the
electors considered the revolution con-
cluded, and demanded a public admini-
stration capable of maintaining peace and
order and removing the burdens which
oppressed the taxpayer. The executive
committee chosen on May loth, the i)resi-
dent's chair being occupied by the great-
physicist Dominique Frangois Arago, fully
recognised the importance of the duty
with which the, country had entiusted
it, and was resolved honourably 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 Govern-
ment, 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
J . the leaders of the idle or
Radi 1 unemployed, who for two
months had been in receipt
of pay for worthless labour in the
" national factories " of France.
On May 15th 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 sym-
pathy for Poland. The leaders were
Louis Blanc, L. A. Blanqui, P. J. Proud-
hon, Etienne Cabet, and Frangois Vincent
Raspail. Ledru-Rollin declined to join the
party. They had no sooner gained pos-
session of the Hotel de Ville than a few
battalions of the National Guard arrived
opportunely and dispersed the masses.
The leaders of the conspiracy were
arraigned before the court of Bourges,
which proceeded against them with great
severity, while the national factories
were closed. They had cost France
;£io,ooo 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,
The Struggle ^^^^^ gathered round the red
.. "o . r>. flag, carried on a life and death
the Red Flag g^j-^gg^^ with the republican
Democrats, whose watchword was the " Re-
publique 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
4949
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
Cavaignac, who had won distinction in
Algiers, supported by the generals Lamori-
ciere and Damesne, on June 23rd success-
fully conducted the resistance to the bands
advancing from the /
suburbs to the centre of
Paris. The "Reds," how-
ever, declined to yield,
and on June 24th the
National Assembly gave
Cavaignac the dictator-
ship. He declared Paris
in a state of siege, and
pursued the rebels to the
suburb of Sainte- Antoine,
where a fearful massacre
on June 27th made an
end of the revolt. The
victory had been gained
at heavy cost ; thousands
of wounded lay in the
hospitals of Paris and its
environs. The number
of lives
been determined, but it
DOMINIQUE FRANCOIS ARAGO
After France had been declared a republic,
lost has never on May 4th, ISls, a capable public adminis-
tration was demanded, and an executive
committee was formed with Arago, the great
influencing the masses and prepared the
path to supremacy for 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 since September
26th, 1848. From the
date of his flight from
Ham Louis Napoleon had
lived in England in close
retirement. Theoutbreak
of the February revolu-
tion inspired him with
great hopes for his future ;
he had. however, learned
too much from Strassburg
and Boulogne to act as
precipitately as his sup-
porters in France desired.
He remained strong in
the conviction that his
time would come, a
thought which relieved
the tedium of waiting:
equalled the carnage of astronomer and physicist, who had taken for the momcut when he
^ , -I , .I 1 part in the Revolution of 1830, as a member. • , , + . + j.
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
W8,s based on the co-
operation of the former
"constitutionalists."
Thiers, Montalembert,
and Odilon Barrot again
became prominent figures.
Cavaignac was certainly
installed at the head of
the executive committee ;
his popularity paled
apace, however, as he did
not possess the art of
conciliating the bourgeois
by brilliant speeches or
promises of relief from
taxation. The constitu-
tion, which was ratified
after two months' dis-
might venture to act.
He tendered his thanks to the republic
for permission to return to his native
land after so many ■ years of pro-
scription and banishment ; he assured
the deputies 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 by his
personal friends and by
the adherents of the
Bonapartist empire, but
also by numerous
members of conservative
tendencies, who saw in
imcompromising Republi-
cans like Cavaignac no
hope of salvation from
the terrors of anarchv.
LOUIS BLANC
, , -vT , • 1 Socialist and historian, he was appointed a ,-,, , ,, j i
CllSSlOn by the National member of the Provisional Government in They WCrC lollowed by
Aci^pmblv nrpt;prvpr1 thp '*^^' escaping: to London on being unjustly ii1f,-nmnntnnp<; Orlennists
y^SSeniOiy, prPSerVCU tne accused of compUcity in the disturbances of UlTiamomaneS, WIieaillbLb,
fundamental principle of that year, he there completed his " Histoire legitimists, and socialists
j.u„ ,,„„^l„'„ „„ „ ;„ i de la Revolution," returning later to France. ? i • „.,j j.„ 4,V,^
the people's sovereignty.
The choice 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
4950
who objected to the
republican doctrinaires, and used their
influence in the election which took place
on December loth, 1848. Against the
one and a half millions who supported
THE SECOND REPUBLIC IN FRANCE
•Cavaignac, an unexpectedly large majority of Europe. The president of the citizen
of five and a half millions voted for the . republic was thus a member of the
son of Louis Bonaparte and Hortense family of that great conqueror and sub-
Beauharnais. As a politician no one duer of the world whose remembrance
considered him of an 3^
account, but every party
hoped to be able to use
him for their own pur-
poses 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 20th. " Some,
who w^ere near Louis
Bonaparte's seat," says
Victor Hugo, " expressed
approval ; the rest of the
Assembly preserved a cold
silence. Marrast, the
president, invited the
aroused feelings of pride
in every Frenchman, ii
his patriotism were not
choked by legitimism ; it
was a problem difficult
of explanation. No one
knew whether the presi-
dent was to be addressed
as Prince, Highness, Sir,
Monseigneur, or Citizen.
To something greater he
was bound to grow, or a
revolution would forth-
with hurl him back into
the obscurity whence he
had so suddenly emerged.
But of revolution France
had had more than
enough. " Gain and the
PIERRE JOSEPH PROUDHON . . r -j. >.
An advanced Socialist, Proudhon published CnjOymcnt Ot it WaS
chosen candidate to take works asserting that "Property is theft." ir. the watchword, and Louis
<^ixwovii v,tiii»^ V u,i. .. jg^g j^g ^^g sentenced to three years im- t.t , j. j -j.
the oath. Louis Bona- prisonment for the violence of his utter- JNapoleon accepted It.
parte, buttoned up in a ances, and in 1S5S received a similar sentence, yjctor HugO claimS tO
black coat, the cross of the Legion of have shown him the fundamental principles
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
unpleasant 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
hve the republic !' but
with none of the cheers
which had accompanied
Cavaignac." Thus " the
new man " was received
with much discontent and
indifference, with scanty
respect, and with ni>
single spark of enthusi-
asm. He was, indeed,
LOUIS EUGENE CAVAIGNAC
of the art of government at the first
dinner in the Elysee. Ignorance of the
people's desires, disregard of the national
pride, had led to the downfall of Louis
- Philippe ; the most im-
portant 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
without p-enius or fire '" l*^'^ ^^'^ distmgrmshed general became exprCSSlOn, but With the
wmiUUL ^eaiub Ul inc Minister of War, and earned his success on t^ ' , , ,
and of very moderate the field into his office of military dictator, iclca ne naa long ueei
capacity; but he under- ^.T f LTdS \o? {^ pS^n*^^^^^^^ familiar. He now m
stood the effect of republic when Louis Napoleon was elected. crCaSCd hlS grasp 01 it
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
He knew that men get tired of great
movements, political convulsion, hypo-
critical posing. Most people are out of
breath after they have puffed themselves
4951
HARMS WORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
like Uie frog in the fable,
to rccc-ver their wind,
cksire for quietude pre-
vailed, 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
created the July kingdom.
This tendency was shown
in his appointment of
Odilon Barrot as head of
his Ministry, and of
Edouard Drouyn de
I'Huys, one of his personal
adherents, as First
Minister of Foreign Affairs.
Desire to secure the
and need a rest
As long as this
constituted authority against furthei;
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 con-
stitution, these were held
in May, 1849. The
majority were former
Royalists and Constitu-
tionalists, who began of
express purpose a re-
actionary policj^ after the
revolt of the Communists
in June, 1848. Fearful
of the Italian democracy,
into the arms of which
Piedmont had rushed,
VICTOR HUGO France let slip the favour-
Greatest among the poets of France, Victor able opportunity of
Hugo claimed to have shown Louis Napoleon foStcring the Italian
the fundamental, principles of the art of j^QVement for UUity and
government, advismg him at the first dmner r , i • i . • ' i
m the Elys6e to raise the standard of peace, ''i i^'t^iii^
OVERTHROWING THE CONSTITUTION : THE COUP D'ETAT OF LOUIS NAPOLEON
Returning to France in 1S48, after a few years of quiet seclusion in England, Louis Napoleon was elected deputy for
Paris in the Constituent Assembly of June, and in December was elected president. But it was not long before he
quarrelled with the Chambers, carrying out a coup d'6tat on December 1st, 1851, by overthrowing the constitution.
4952
The son of Louis Bonaparte, brother of the great Napoleon, Louis Napoleon had engaged in various schemes to recover
the throne of France before his coup d'iStat in 1851 prepared the way for his election to the throne of his illustrious uncle.
On December 2nd, 1852, the Empire was proclaimed with Louis Napoleon as Napoleon III. On January 2(tth, 1853, he
married Eugenie de Montijo, a Spanish countess, and twenty years later, on January 9th, 1873, died in England.
in the peninsula. Had she listened to
Charles Albert's appeal for help, the defeat
of Novara 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 revo-
lutionary desires of the Radicals and the
more modest demands of the moderate-
minded friends of freedom.
Louis Bonaparte fully appreciated the
fact that the sentiments of the population
at large were favourable to a revival of
The Pope's governmental energy through-
c out almost the whole of Europe.
Supremacy tt ii a ^u r
J, . . He saw that the excesses of
Restored . , i , • i
tlie mob, which were as passion-
ately excited as they were morally de-
graded, had restored confidence, 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.
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 con-
siderably damped public enthusiasm in his
behalf. Roman feeling also declared
against 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, on November 15th, 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 on
November 27th, and the establishment
of a provisional government.
The Pope was now inclined to avail
himself of the services offered by Pied-
mont for the recovery of his power.
However, the constituent National As-
sembly at Rome, which was opened
on February 5th, 1849, voted for the
restoration of the Roman republic by
120 votes against 23, 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
4953
HARMSWORTH . HISTORY OF THE WORLD
■joined, by Venice, Tuscany, and Sicily.
Mazzini was the head of tlie triumvirate
which held the executive power ; Giuseppe
Garibaldi directed the forces for national
defence, of which
Rome was now
made the head-
quarters. The
"democratic
republic " which
was being organ-
ised in France
would have no
dealings with the
descendants of
the Carbonari, or
with the cliiefs
of the revo-
lutionary party
in Europe. It
considered alli-
ance with the
clericals abso-
lutely indispens-
able to its own
preservation.
Hence came the
agreement to co-
THE
monuments of artistic skill were destroyed.
The city was forced to surrender on July
3rd, 1849, after Garibaldi had marched
away with 3,000 volunteers. By its
attitude upon the
Roman question,
and by its re-
fusal 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 in-
ternal disruption
was expedited
by the clumsi-
ness of its con-
■lUS IX
n-ne^ra + c^ ixr i + Vl Succeeding Gregory XVI. in 1846, Pope Pius IX. introduced a series , • , , • \
upeid.Le WILU of reforms and won the affections of the populace. During- the ^ "^ ^ "^ ^ '^ ^ *^ ^ • /^
Austria, Spain, revolutionary fever of ISlS, however, he opposed the public desire Chamber prO-
and Naples for ^"'^ ^ ^^^ ^'th Austri.i, and the mob became so menacing- that he -vicied with fuil
the purpose of ^"""'^ '* expedient to make his escape from the Quirinal in disguise, legislative pOWer
restoring the Pope to his temporal power, 'and indissoluble for three years con-
Twenty thousand men were at once
despatched under Marshal Oudinot, and
occupied the harbour town of Civita
Vecchia on April 25th, 1849.
The president, however, had no intention
of reimposing upon the Romans papal
absolutism, 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. Oudinot, however, made a
premature appeal to force of arms. He
suffered a reverse before the walls of
Rome on April 30th, and the military
honour of France, which a descendant
of Napoleon could not afford to dis-
regard, demanded the conquest of the
Eternal City. Republican soldiers thus
found themselves co-operating with the
reactionary Austrians, who entered
Boulogne on May 19th, and reduced half
of Ancona to ashes. On June 20th, the
bombardment of Rome began, in the
course of which many of the most splendid
49.=)4
fronted a president elected by the votes
of a 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 " inspired with hatred of the republic.
-J . , They were anxious to have an
apo con s ij^fjgpgi^^jgji^^ power side by side
. *jt**ff ^^ with the Assembly, perhaps
with the object of afterwards
restoring the monarchy." This object
Louis Bonaparte was busily prosecuting.
On October 31st, 1849, he issued a message
fb the country, in which he gave himself
out to be the representative of the Napo-
leonic system, and explained the main-
tenance 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 I\Iay 31st,
1850, which abolished about three millions
out of ten million votes, chiefly those of
THE SECOND REPUBLIC IN FRANCE
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 Conserva-
tives by no means satisfied. The president
attempted to impress his personality on
the people by making numerous tours
through tlie country, and to conciliate
the original electorate, to whose decision
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,
The Waiting
Policy
of Napoleon
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 presidential
election of May, 1852, would have forced
on the revision, for the reason that Louis
Napoleon would have been elected by an
enormous majority, though the constitu-
tion 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 constitu-
tionally established rights ; the excite-
ment 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 their vain acrimony, their bombastic
self -laudation, and their desire for im-
mediate advantage. The childlike belief
in the capacity and zeal o'f 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 pro-
posal to secure its command of the army
by legislation, although the growing
popularity of the new Caesar with the
THE FLIGHT OF A POPE : PIUS IX. LEAVING THE QUIRINAL IN DISGUISE
4955
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
army was perfectly obvious, and though
General Saint-Arnaud had engaged to
leave North Africa, and conduct the armed
interference 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
""^fif ""^ made by Napoleon's half-
c A"t t brother, his mother's son. Count
°"'* * de Morny, and by Count
Flahault. He was supported by the faithful
Persigny, while the management of the
army was in the hands of Saint-Arnaud.
On December 2nd, i85i,the day of Ausffer-
litz 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
prominent stock - exchange speculator,
bought up as much state paper as he could
get, in the conviction that the coup d'-^cat
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 Cavaig-
nac, Changarnier, and I.amoriciere ; at the
same time the points of strategic import-
ance round tlie meeting hall 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 depart-
Paris m ,■ .-<•• t
_ ments m a state of siege. In
, c- the week, December 14th to
of Siege , ' ^
2ist, 10,000,000 Frenchmen
were summoned to the ballot-box to vote
for or against the constitution proposed by
the president. This constitution provided
a responsible 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 under the
4956
control of the sovereign people. On his.
a})pearance the president was warmly
greeted by both people and troops, and no
opposition was offered to the expulsion
of the deputies who attempted to protest
against the breach of the constitution.
It was not until December 3rd 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 establish-
ment of the " democratic republic," though
unnecessary acts of cruelty made it appear
an occasion of revenge upon the Democrats.
The exponents of barricade warfare were
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 Revolution were fought out.
The impression- caused by this success,
by the great promises which Louis Napo-
leon made to his adherents, and by the
rewards which he had begun to pay them,
decided the result of the national
Napoleon
Becomes
Dictator
vote upon the change in the
constitution, or, more correctly,
upon • the elevation of Louis
Napoleon to the dictatorship. By Decem-
ber 2oth, 1851, 7,439,246 votes were
given in his favour, against 640,737.
Bonapartism in its new form became the
governmental system of France.
"The severest absolutism that the nine-
teenth century has seen was founded by
the general demonstrations of a democracy.
The new ruler, in the early years of his
government, 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 the best
that life could give. For a few years,
liowever, the masses were undeniably
prosperous and contented ; so small is
the significance of mental power in an
age of democracy and popular administra-
tion." 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.
THE
RE-MAKING
OF
EUROPE
fl ! U I i ^
■^»JH£l
EUROPE
IN
REVOLUTION
VI
THE PROBLEM of the GERMAN STATES
AND THE VAIN SEARCH AFTER FEDERATION
/^N May i8th, 1848, 586 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 distinguished 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, the power
of conviction, the blessing that would be
produced by immovable principles were
believed as gospel. It was thought that
the power of the Government was broken,
. ...1 ^ that the Government, willing
In the Dawn n- xi
or unwiUmg, was m the
-. „ . ,, people's hands, and could
New Freedom ^ ^ '. ir j. i-i
accommodate itself to the
conclusions of the German constituents.
Only a few were found to doubt the relia-
bility of parliamentary institutions, and the
possibility of discovering what the people
wanted and of carrying out their wishes.
No one suspected that the expei'i-
ence 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 princes, 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 consequence ; hence
the first demand of the Liberal politician
is the destruction of all existing organisa-
tion, in order that no obstacle may impede
the erection of the theoretical structure.
Liberals, like socialists and
. . * anarchists, argue that states are
P . . . formed by establishing a ready-
made system, for which the
ground must be cleared as it is required.
They are invariably the pioneers to open
the way for the Radicals, 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 a'Ve
impelled only by a strong desire of
" change," when they are not inspired by
the greed which most usually appears as
the leading motive of human action.
Thus it was that the calculations ot the
German Liberals neglected the existence of
the Federal Assembly, of the federation of
the states, and of their respective govern-
ments. 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 constitu-
tional 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, with-
out clearly and intelligibly
defining its relations to
the ruling governments who were in
actual possession of every road to power.
Discussion upon the "central power"
speedily brought to light the insurmount-
able obstacles to the formation of a consti-
tution acceptable to every party, and this
4957
Obstacles to
the Formation of
a Constitution
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
without any interference on the part of
the governments. The Democrats decUned
to recognise anything but an executive
committee of the sovereign National
Assembly ; the Liberals made various
proposals for a triple committee in con-
nection with the governments. The bold
mind of the president, Heinrich von
^. „ . Gagern, eventually soothed
The Popular. ^i^e^ He invited the
Archduke John p^^y^^^^^^ to appomt, in
of Austria • , r ■ , i
vn-tue of its plenary powers,
an Imperial Administrator who should un-
dertake the business of the Federal Council,
then on the point of dissolution, and act
in concert with an imperial Ministry. - ■
The Archduke John of Austria^ was
elected on June 24th, 1848, by 436 out of
548 votes, and the law regarding the
central power was passed on the 28th.
Had the ofhce of Imperial Administrator
been regarded merely as a temporary
expedient until the permanent forms
were settled, the choice of the archduke
would have been entirely 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 grievous
mistake to expect him to create substance
out of shadow, to direct the development
of the German state by a further use of
the " bold grasp," and to contribute
materially to the realisation of its being.
The Archduke John 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 intangible ; he used words with
no ideas behind them, and though his
own experience had not always been of the
pleasantest, it had not taught him the feel-
_ , ing then prevalent in Aus-
uermany s , " f ■ i t- . 1
J . . trian court cnxles. For the
A . ■ ■ t t moment his election pro-
Administrator . , r ^ ,,
mised an escape from all
manner of embarrassments. The govern-
ments could recognise his position without
committing themselves to the approval of
any revolutionary measure ; they might
even allow that his election was the
beginning of an understanding with the
reigning German houses. This, however,
was not the opinion of the leading party in
4958
the National Assembly. The Conserva-
tives, the Right, or tlie 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
constitutional 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 invest
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 Revolution and its sad
Hereditary i ■ , i , ,i
^ . history were lost upon the
.. ^ Germans. Those who held the
tne uerman , , ,. „ . , . , ,
fate of Germany m their hands,
many of them professional politicians,
were unable to conceive that their
constituents were justified in expecting
avoidance 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; posi-
tively devastated Monarchists and Re-
publicans alike. The inns were scarcely
adequate in number to provide head-
quarters for a score of societies which
considered the promulgation of political
programmes as their bounden duty.
On July 14th, 1848, the Archduke
John made his entry into Frankfort, and
the Federal Council was dissolved the same
day. The Imperial Administrator esta-
blished 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 the beginning of August, 1848,
THE SEARCH AFTER GERMAN FEDERATION
he established himself in Frankfort, and
appointed Prince Friedrich Karl von
Leiningen as the head of the Ministry,
which also included the Austrian, Anton
von Schmerling; the
Hamburg lawyer, Moritz
Hecksctj^r ; the Prussians,
Hermann von Beckerath and
General Eduard von Peucker ;
the Bremen senator, Arnold
Duckwitz ; and the Wiirtem-
berger, Robert von Mohl, pro-
fessor of political science at
Heidelberg.
To ensure the prestige of
the central power, the Minister
of War, Von Peucker, had
given orders on August 6th
for a general review' of con-
tingents furnished by the
HEINRICH VON GAGERN
Austrian House, and continued confi-
dential relations with him for a consider-
able time. The German governments
further appointed plenipotentiaries to re-
present their interests with the
central power ; these would
have been ready to form a kind
of Monarchical Council side by
side with the National As-
sembly, and would thus have
been highly ^rviceable 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 towards a " system of
mutual accommodation." On
German states, who were to This German statesman was piesu August jOth the central
give three cheers to the Arch- f„^?L°Jear^s];t"a'nd?t wts^mS P^^^^^r was obliged to declare
duke John as imperial ad- on his suggestion that an imperial that the plenipotentiaries
. . , , T^i 1 • Administrator was appointed. r .i • j • • i ^ j. i.
mmistrator. The mode m ot the individual states
which this order was carried out plainly possessed no competence to influence
showed that the governments did not the decisions of the central power, or
regard it as obligatory, and respected it to conduct any systematic business,
only so far as they thought good. It was The new European power had notified its
obeyed only in Saxony,
Wiirtemberg, and the
smaller states. Prussia
allowed only her gar-
risons in the federal
fortresses to participate
in the parade ; Bavaria
ordered her troops to
cheer the king belore the
imperial administrator. In
Austria no notice w^as
taken of the order, except
in Vienna, as it affected
the ai'chduke ; the Italian
army did not trouble itself
about the imperial Min-
ister of War in the least.
At the same time, the
relations of the govern
existence by special em-
bassies to various foreign
states, and received fe-
cognition in full from the
Netherlands, Belgium,
Sweden, Switzerland, and
the United States of
North America ; Russia
ignored it, while the
attitude of France and
I Britain was marked by
I distrust and doubt.
Austria was in the throes
of internal convulsion
(luring the summer of
1848 and unable seriously
to consider the German
question ; possessing a
confidential agent of pre-
ments and the central archduke john of Austria eminent position in the
power were bv no means a "good-hearted man and a fine speaker," he persoii of the Axchduke
nnfripnrlhr TVip TCinrr nf waselected Imperial Administrator ; he entered ] ^Uy. ohe waS able tO
UninenCUy. ineivmgOI prankfort on July nth, l,s4s, and on the same J "^"'' ^^it- vvdb d-'-'it- lu
Prussia did not hide his day the Federal council was dissolved, where- rcservc her dccision.
high personal esteem of upon he established a provisional Ministry. With PrUSsia, hoW-
the Imperial Administrator, and showed ever, serious complications speedily arose
from the v 0: in Schleswig - Holstein.
Parliament \.as aroused to great excite-
ment by the armistice of Malmo, which
Prussia concluded on August 26th, with-
out consulting Max von Gagern, the
impenal state secretary commissioned to
4959
him special tokens of regard at the
festivities held at Cologne on August
14th, 1848, in celebration of the six
hundredth anniversary of the foundation
ol the cathedral. Most of the federal
princes honoured him as a member of the
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
Revolution
in
the duchies by the central power. The
central power had declared 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 5th,
Dahlmann proposed to set on foot the
necessary measures for carrying
out the armistice ; the proposal,
_ ,, ^ when* sent up by the Ministry
Frankfort . n I- • ^ j
for confirmation, was rejected
by 244 to 230 votes. Dahlmann, who was
now entrusted by the Imperial Adminis-
trator 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 democratic 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 258 votes to 237.
This result led to a revolt in Frankfort,
begun by the members of the Extreme
Left under the leadership of Zitz of Mainz
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 Mainz for military
protection and to guard the meeting of
the National Assembly on September i8th,
1848, with an Austrian and a Prussian
battalion of the line. The revolutionaries,
here as in Paris, terrified 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, Prince Felix Lichnowsky and
Erdmann of Auerswald. were cruelly miu"-
dered. Even, the long-suffering archducal
^ ,. „ administrator of the empire was
Frankfort s r -, , -i \, j-
_ forced to renounce the hope of
g .a pacific termination of the
quarrel. The troops were ordered
to attack the barricades, and the disturb-
ance was put down in a few hours with no
great loss of life. The citizens of Frankfort
had not fallen into the trap of the " Reds,"
or given any support to the des]:)eradoes
with whose help the German republic was
to be founded. A few days later the pro-
fessional revolutionary, Gustav Struve, met
4960
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 September
25th, 1848, and thrown into prison.
The German National Assehibly was now
able to resume its meetings, but the public
confidence in its lofty position and powers
had been greatly shaken. Had the radical
attempt at intimidation 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 to a
share in the executive power by the sub-
jects of the state, and their interference
in government affairs, were to be uncon-
ditionally rejected. Any attempt to
coerce the executive authorities was to be
crushed by the sternest measures, by force
of arms, ii need be ; otherwise the main-
tenance of order was im-
cverc possible, and without this
Measures of the ^
Government
there could be no peaceful
enjoyment of constitu-
tional 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 exist-
ing order of things by renouncing in favour
of a strong government some part of those
rights which Liberal theorists had aligned
to them. In view of the abnormal ex-
citement then prevailing, such a pro-
gramme necessitated severity 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 on July 31st, 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 highl}^ beneficial in-
fluence in those troublous times. The re-
sult was the retirement on September 7th
of the Auerswald-Hansemann Ministry,
which had been in ofiice since June 25th ;
it was followed on September 21st by a
THE SEARCH AFTER GERMAN FEDERATION
bureaucratic Ministry under the presi-
dency of General Pfuel, which was with-
out influence either with the king or the
National Assembly. The Left now obtained
the upper hand. As president they chose
a moderate, the railway engineer, Hans
Victor von Unruh, and as vice-president
the leader of the Extreme Left, the doc-
trinaire lawyer, Leo Waldeck. During the
deliberations on the constitution they
erased the phrase " By the grace of God "
from the king's titles, and resolved on
October 31st, 1848, to request the Imperial
Government in Frankfort to send help to
the revolted Viennese. This step led to
long continued communications between
the Assembly and the unemployed classes,
who were collected by the democratic
agitators, and surrounded the royal theatre
where the deputies held their sessions.
On November ist. 1848, news arrived
of the fall of Vienna, and Frederic William
IV. determined to intervene in support of
his kingdom. He dismissed Pfuel and
placed Count William of Brandenburg,
son of his grandfather Frederic William II.
and of the Countess Sophia Juliana
Friederika of Donhoff, at the
. . head of a new ]\Iinistr3^ He
_ ^ . then despatched 15.000 troops,
under General Friedrich von
Wrangel, to Berlin, the city being shortly
afterwards punished by the declaration of
martial law. The National Assembly was
transfen'ed 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 even-
tually gave way and followed the Con-
servatives 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 the " Reds," and
were delighted with the timely opposi-
tion. They also manifested their satis-
faction at the dissolution of the National
Assembly, which had given few appre-
ciable signs of legislative activity in
Brandenburg, at the publication on
December 5th, 1848, of a constitutional
scheme drafted by the Government, and
the issue of writs for the election of a
Prussian Landtag which was to revase the
law of suffrage. Some opposition was
noticeable in the provinces, but was for the
moment of a moderate nature. The
interference of the Frankfort 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. Public
opinion in Germany had thus changed ;
_ , there was a feeling in favour
rmany « |- jij^j^ij^gr the demands that
Kejection of • , , ? , . , ,
Radicalism ""^^Sht arise during the con-
stitutional (fefinition 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 Assembl}^ ;
the provisional central power was even
able to pride itself upon a reserve of force,
for the Prussian Government had placed
its united forces, 326,000 men, at its dis-
posal, as was announced by Schmerling,
the imperial Minister, on October 23rd, 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 insight 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 unattainable.
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 upon a clearh^ recognisable
and attainable object^namely, the trans-
formation of the old dvnastic
Suppressing g^. ^j ^^^ Hapsbufgs into
R^ o3n"'"' ^ "'°^^™ ^^''^^- ^^^^' ^
cvo u ion change would of itself Imve
determined the form of the federation with
the new German state, which could well
have been left to develop in its own way.
Russian help for the suppression of the
Hungarian revolt would have been un-
necessary ; it would have been enthu-
siastically given by the allied Prussian
otate under Frederic William IV. The
4961
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
only tasks oi Austria-Hungary for the
immediate future would have been the
fostering of her civilisation, the improve-
ment of domestic prosperity, and the
extension of her influence in the Balkan
peninsula. Even her Italian par^mountcy,
had it been worth retaining,
The Catholic could hardly have been wrested
Dynasty fromher. No thinking member
m Germany ^^ ^^^ ^^^^^ ^^ Hapsburg
could deny these facts at the pre.sent day.
Possibly even certain representatives of
that ecclesiastical power which has en-
deavour^ 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 1 848-1 849. The
onlv man who had almost
reached that standpoint,
the old Wessenberg, 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 pre-
vious training, and whose
task was nothing less than
the direction of a newly
developed state and the
invention of some modus
Vivendi between the out-
raged 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 Olmiitz. On November 21st,
1S48, Prince Felix Schwarzenberg became
head of the Austrian Government. His
political views were those of Windisch-
Graetz, whose intellectual superior he
was, though his decisions were in conse-
quence the more hasty and ill-considered.
4062
FREDERIC WILLIAM IV.
King of Prussia, he declined the imperial crown
offered him by the Frankfort Diet in 1849. His
reign was, on the whole, a disappointing one.
His policy upon German questions was
modelled on that of Metternich. The
only mode of action which commended
itself to the Emperor Francis Joseph I.,
now eighteen years of age, 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
Radetzky, 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 honour-
able position, and the
family traditions of cen-
turies, even if the defence
of these had not been
represented by his ad-
visers as a ruler's inevit-
able task and as absolutely
incumbent upon him.
The Frankfort Parlia-
ment had already dis-
cussed the " fundamental
rights." It had deter-
mined by a large majority
that personal union 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
Reichstag; and had se-
cured representation in
the "Chamber of the
States" to the govern-
ments even of the smallest
states ; it had made
provision tor the customs
union until May i8th,
Among the leaders of the
Centre the opinion then gained ground that
union with Austria would be mipossible 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 introduction of Prussia as
1849, 3-t latest.
Secessions
Among the
Liberals
THE SEARCH AFTER GERMAN FEDERATION
an empire into the imperial constitution.
Schmerling resigned the presidency of
the imperial Ministry. The Imperial Ad-
ministrator was forced to replace him by
Heinrich von Gagern, the first president
of the Parliament. His programme was
announced on December i6th, and proposed
the foundation of a close federal alliance
of the German states under Prussian
leadership, while a looser federal connection
was to exist with Austria, as arranged by
the settlement of the Vienna Congress.
After three days' discussion, on January
iith-i4th, 1849, this programme was
accepted by 261 members of the Ger-
man National Assembly as against 224.
Sixty Austrian deputies entered a protest
against this resolution, denying the right
of the Parliament to exchide 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 Frankfort
Assembly in general terms on February 7th,
declaring her readiness to co-operate in a
union of the German states, and protest-
^ . . -.Mr.... ing against the " remodel-
Fredcric William ■,■ >? r ■ ,■ -,-
_ Img of existmg condi-
mperor tions. Thus, she adopted
01 the Germans .,. ^t
a position correspondmg
to that of the federation of 1815. The
decision now remained with the king,
Frederic William IV. ; he accepted the
imperial constitution of March 28th, 1849,
and was forthwith elected Emperor of the
Germans by 290 of the 538 deputies present.
The constitution in document form
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
impel ial Crown, and the}' made their offer
conditional upon his recognition of the
imperial constitution which had been
resolved upon in Frankfort. It was
therein provided that in all questions of
legislation the decision should rest with
the popular House in the Reichstag.
The imperial veto was no longer uncon-
ditional, but could only defer discussion
over three sittings. 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
Wiirtemberg upon the form of a German
federal constitution which was to be laid
before the Parliament by the princes.
The despatch of a parliamentary depu-
ta^on 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
Where the ^^ Konigsberg, Martin Eduard
j^.^ Simson, at that time president
Blundered 2? the National Assembly.
i he only answer that Frederic
William could give on April 3rd, 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 Fxankfort constitution in its
entirety. The king erred in believing that
an arrangement with Austria still lay
within the bounds of possibility ; he failed
to see that Schwarzenberg only 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
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 intended
to be not German but a Central European
federation under Austrian leadership.
On the return of the parliamentary
deputation to Frankfort with the refusal
of the King of Prussia, the work of con-
stitution-building was brought to a stand-
still. The most important resolutions,
those touching the head of the empire, had
proved impracticable. The more far-
sighted members of the Parliament recog-
nised this fact, and also saw that to re-
model the constitution would be to play
into the hands of the Republicans. How-
ever, their eyes were blinded to the fact
that twenty-four petty states of different
sizes had accepted the constitution, and
. they ventured to hope for an
The National i^iprovement in the situation.
Assembly Led ^^^^ Liberals were uncertain
by Democrats ^^ ^^^^^^ ^^^^^^ ^^ the power
which could be assigned to the nation, in
contradistinction to the governments, with-
out 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
4963
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
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 oron-
stitution which they had devised and
drafted — a constitution, too, which meant
a breach with the continuity of German
historical development. They
fomented popular excitement
Royal Family
Expelled
From Dresden
and brought about armed
risings of the illiterate mobs of
Saxony, the Palatinate, and Baden. The
royal fafhily were expelled from Dresden
by a revolt on May 3rd, and Prussian
troops were obliged to reconquer the
capital at the cost of severe fighting on
May 7th and 8th. It was necessary to
send two Prussian corps to reinforce the
imperial army drawn from Hesse, Mecklen-
burg, Nassau, and Wiirtemberg, for the
overthrow of the republican troops which
had concentrated at Rastadt.
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
John 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 office, lest the King of
Prussia should step into liis place. He
formed a conservative Ministry under the
presidency of the Prussian councillor of
justice, Gravell, which was received with
scorn and derision by the Radicals, who
were now the dominant j^arty in the
Parliament. More than a hundred deputies
of the centres then withdrew with Gagern,
Dahlmann, Welcker, Simson, and Mathy
from May 12th to 26th, 184c).
The Austrian Government had recalled
the Austrian deputies on Aijril 4th from the
National Assembly, an example followed
by Prussia on the 14th. On May 30th, 71
of 135 voters who took part
in the discussion supported
Karl Vogt's proposal to
transfer the Parliament from
Frankfort to Stuttgart, where a victory for
Suabian republicanism was expected. In the
end 105 representatives of German stupidity
and political ignorance, including, unfortu-
nately, Lewis Uhland, gave the world the
ridiculous spectacle of the opening of the
so-called Rump Parliament at Stuttgart on
June 6th, 1849, which reached the crown-
4964
German
" Stupidity and
Ignorance "
ing folly in the election of five " imperial
regents." The arrogance of this company,
which even presumed to direct the move-
ments of the Wiirtemberg troops, proved
inconvenient to the government, which ac-
cordingly closed the meeting hall. The first
German Parliament then expired after a
few gatherings in the Hotel Marquardt.
The Imperial Government, the Admini-
strator and his Ministry, retained their
offices until December, 1849, notwith-
standing repeated demands for their
resignation. 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 Frankfort Parliament,
mention may be made of the gathering of
160 former deputies of the first German
Reichstag, which had belonged to the
" imperial party," The meeting was held
in Gotha on June 26th. 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 of a narrower, " little Ger-
„ . . man," federation under the
Proclamation , , , • r t> t
,,^ _ . headship of Prussia, or of
of the Prussian j^i ^ i
-, ^ another central power m
Oovernment ■ . ■ .li t.
association with Prussia.
Upon the recall of the Prussian deputies
from the Frankfort Parliament the Prus-
sian Government issued a proclamation to
the German people on May 5th, 1849,
declaring itself henceforward responsible
for the work of securing the unity which
was justly demanded for the vigorous
representation of German interests abroad,
and for common legislation in constitu-
tional form ; that is, with tl^e 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 17th, the Prussian pro-
gramme 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 ministerial 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
THE SEARCH AFTER GERMAN FEDERATION
to perceive that this form was the only
kind of unity practically attainable, and
that to it must be sacrificed those
" guarantees of freedom " which liberal
doctrinaires declared indispensable.
It now became a question of deciding
between a radical democrac}^ and a
moderate constitutional monarchy, and
German Liberalism vyas ]:)recluded from
coming to any honourable conclusion.
Regardless of consequences, it exchanged
amorous glances with the opposition in
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 aggres-
sive Republicanism, fearing lest the people,
when in arms, should 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 upon the
authorities, to whom alone it owed the
maintenance of the existing social order.
_. _, . The Baden revolt had been
I he Prussians j i, j.i. -r>
J. .. . suppressed by the Prussian
_. ,. troops under the command of
as Deliverers y^ . '■ tttit r. i
Prmce William, afterwards
emperor, who invaded the land which the
Radicals had thrown into confusion, dis-
persed the Republican army led by Miero-
slawski and Hecker in a series of engage-
ments, and reduced, on July 23rd. 1849,
the fortress of Rastadt, which had fallen
into the hands of the Republicans. The
Liberals at first hailed the Prussians as
deliverers ; the latter, however, proceeded
b\/ court-martial against the leaders, whose
crimes had brought misery upon thousands
and had reduced a flourishing province to
desolation. Seventeen death sentences
were passed, and prosecutions were in-
stituted 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 public 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-
crats in South Germany laid aside their
fear of Prussian " predominance," and
considered their secret struggle against
an energetic administration as less im-
portant than the establishment of a
federal state, commanding the respect of
other nations. But the success of the
Prussian j^rogramme could have been
secured only by the joint action of the
„ , whole nation. Unanimity of
. . r IT • this kind was a very remote
Idea of Union ., .,., -r^ , -^ ^ ,,
Abandoned Possibility. Fearful of the
Prussian reaction. the
nation abandoned the idea of German unity,
to be driven into closer relation*^ 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 Prokesch-Osten, from the
Berlin Conference, declining all negotiation
for the reconstitution 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
300.000 troops which Prussia alone could
place in the field at that time ; in Hun-
gary, she had been obliged to call in the
help of Russia. United action by Ger-
many 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
proposals 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 Saxon}' on May 26th,
1849. Bavaria and Wiirtemberg declined
to join the alliance on account of the claims
lO leadership advanced by Prussia ; but
the majority of the other German states
gave in their adherence in the
Results of
the Berlin
Conferences
course of the summer,
federal council of administra-
tion met on June i8th, and
made arrangements for the convocation of
a Reichstag, to which was to be submitted
the federal constitution when the agree-
ment of the Cabinets thereon had been
secured. Hanover and Saxony then raised
objections and recalled their representa-
tives on the administrative council on
October 20th. However, Prussia was able
4965
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORI.P
to fix the meeting of the Reichstag for
March 20th, 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 supported
by Bavaria, which advocated the forma-
tion of a federation of the smaller states,
which was to prepare another
Proposed
Federation ,,
of States
constitution as a rival to the
union" for which Prussia was
working. The Saxon Minister,
Beust, afterwards of mournful fame in
German}^ 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, Pfordten,
who had been appointed Bavarian Minister
of Foreign Affairs in April, 1849.
Hanover was speedily won over, as Aus-
tria proposed to increase her territory with
Oldenburg, in order to create a second North
German power as a counterpoise to Prussia,
while Wiirtemberg declared her adherence
to the " alliance of the four kings " with
startling precipitancy. The chief attrac-
tion was the possibility of sharing on
equal terms in a directory of seven mem-
bers 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 "superintend-
ence," even in questions of taxation and
commerce. The claims of the Chambers were
to be met by the creation of a " Reichstag,"
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
electorate of Hesse, where the elector
had again found a Minister to his liking
in the person of Daniel von Hassen-
pflvig. It would, however, have been quite
• possible to make Prussia the
®. "*^ ^ centre of a considerable power
, „ by the coniunction of all the re-
for Peace - . . r i i i i
mammg federal provmces 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 Liidwig
of Gerlach and Professor Stahl, had aban-
doned his design of forming a restricted
federation, and was inspired with the
4966
invincible conviction that it was his duty
as a Christian king 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 politics and the
paroxysms of German patriotism ' not-
withstanding. He therefore rejected the
valuable help now readily offered to him
in Erfurt by the old imperial party of
Frankfort, and clung to the utterly vain
and unsupported hope that he could carry
out the wider form of federation with
Austria in some manner compatible with
German interests. His hopes were forth-
with shattered by Schwarzenberg's convo-
cation of a congress of the German fe#eral
states at Frankfort, and Prussia's position
became daily more u.nfavourable, although
a meeting of the princes desirous of union
was held in Berlin in May, 1850, and
accepted the temporary continuance until
July 15th, 1850, of the restricted federa-
^ tion under Prussian leadership.
,°r *J°*'^ The Tsar Nicholas I. was
of the 1 sar s j.i j tj.ii
j^ .. urgently demandmg the conclu-
' ^ sion 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
towards the end of May, 1850, the Tsar
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.
Henceforward Russia 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 con-
stitution, the Danish supremacy over
Schleswig-Holstein, and the Elector of
Hesse, Frederic William I., who had at
that moment decided on a scandalous
breach of faith with his people. This un-
happy prince had already inflicted serious
damage upon his country and its admir-
able population ; he now proceeded to
commit a crime against Germany by
stirring up a fratricidal war, which was
THE SEARCH AFTER GERMAN FEDERATION
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 achieve-
ment of his desires. He dismissed the
constitutional Ministry, restored Has-
senpfiug to favour on February 22nd, 1850,
and permitted him to raise taxes un-
authorised by the Chamber for the space
of six months. The Chamber raised objec-
tions to this proceeding, and thereby gave
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 Frankfort on October
15th, 1850.
With the utmost readiness Count
Schwarzenberg accepted the unexpected
support of Hassenpfiug, whose theories
STRIVING FOR GERMAN UNITY: THE DRESDEN CONFEREKlIi- ' : ]<>0
In the search after federation, which occupied the attention of the German states, the differences between Austria
and Prussia created a serious difficulty. The question of federal reform was discussed in free conferences at Dresden,
one of these assemblies, with the delegates from the various states concerned.being represented in the above picture.
Hassenpfiug a handle which enabled him
to derange the whole constitution of the
electorate of Hesse. On September 7th 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 declara-
tion, and their refusal was construed
as rebellion. On October 9th the
officers of the Hessian army resigned,
almos*: to a man, to avoid the necessity
coincided with his own. The rump of the
Federal Parliament, which was entirely
under his influence, was summoned not
only wTthout the consent of Prussia but
without any intimation to the Prusians
Cabinet. This body at once determined to
employ the federal power for the restora-
tion of the elector to Hesse, though he had
left Cassel of his own will and under no
compulsion, fleeing to Wilhelmsbad with
his Alinisters at the beginning of Septem-
ber. Schwarzenberg was well aware that
his action would place the King of Prussia
4967
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
in a most embarrassing situation. Federa-
tion and union were now in mutual
opposition. On the one side was Austria,
with the kingdoms and the two Hesses ;
on the other was Piiissia, with the united
petty states, which were little better
than worthless for military purposes.
Austria had no need to seek occasion
. , to revenge herself for the re-
us ria g^i^ ^1 ^j^^ imperial election,
Cireat Power - ■
in Germany
which was ascribed to Prussian
machinations ; her oppor-
tunity 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 demo-
cratic 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 Tsar 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
Austria, 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 punishment
meted out to the overweening self-confi-
dence of this ruler, the fearful disillusion-
ment 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 constitutional
^^ _ , principles of the constitution
The Swora <• , i xr i i
„, , ot the union. He had sur-
Th ^ T^^ rendered 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 ex-
clusion of Austria from the wider federation
of the German states. He had always
been prepared to act in conjunction with
Austria in the solution of questions
49^,8
affecting Germany at large, while claiming
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 executive, which had
removed an imperial administrator, though
he was an Austrian duke, which could only
be reconstituted with the assent of every
German government, 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
readiness " to settle all points of diffefcnce
with the Emperor of Austria from the
standpoint of an old friend." He quietly
swallowed the arrogant threats of Bavaria,
and was not to be provoked by the warlike
speeches delivered at Bregenz on the
occasion of the meeting of the Emperor
Francis Joseph with the kings of South
Germany, on October nth. He
continued to rely upon the insight
„ . of the Tsar, with whose ideas
he was m lull agreement, and
sent Count Brandenburg to Warsaw to
assure him of his pacific intentions, and to
gain a promise that he would not allov/
the action of the federation in Hesse and
Holstein to pass unnoticed. 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 i8iq ; he did not, however, explain
whether these conferences were to be
summoned for the purpose 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 b}' 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 Rhine province, and
had already sent forward several thousand
THE SEARCH AFTER GERMAN FEDERATION
men under Count Charles from the Groben
to the neighbourhood of Fulda for this
puri)ose. The advance of the Bavarians
in this direction would inevitably result
in a collision with the Prussian troops,
unless these latter were first withdrawn.
Count Brandenburg returned to Berlin
resolved to prevent a war which offered no
prospect of success in view of the Tsar's
attitude. Radowitz, who had been Min-
ister of Foreign Affairs since September
27th, 1850, called for the mobihsation of
the army, and was inclined to accept the
challenge to combat ; he considered the
Austrian preparations comparatively in-
nocuous, and was convinced that Russia
would be unable to concentrate any con-
siderable body of troops on the Prussian
frontier before the summer.
O^ November 2nd, 1850, the king
also declared for the mobilisation, though
with the intention of continuing nego-
tiations with Austria, if possible ; he
was ready, however, to adopt Branden-
burg's view of the situation, if a majoiity
in the ministerial council could be found
to support this policy. Brandenburg
. , succumbed to a sudden attack
of bram fever on November
. ^ 5th, not, as was long supposed,
m Germany , ' ,. , ,,° ^.^ ,.
to vexation at the rejection
of his policy of resistance ; his work was
taken gp and completed by Manteuffel,
after Radowitz had left the Ministr3^
After the first shots had been exchanged
between the Prussian and Bavarian troops
at Bronzell, to the south of Fulda, on
November 8th. 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
tetter from the king and Queen Elizabeth
to meet the Emperor Francis Joseph and
his mother, the Archduchess Sophie,
sister of the Queen of Prussia, in order
to discuss conditions of peace with
the Austrian Prime ^Minister. Prince
Schwarzenberg was anxious to proceed
to extremities ; but the young emperor
had no intention of beginning a war
with his relatives, and obliged Schwarz-
enberg to yield. At the emperor's
command he '. signed the stipulation of
Olmiitz on November 2qth, 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 con-
ferences at Dresden. Thus Prussia's
German policy had ended in total failure.
She was forced to abandon all hope of
realising the Gagern ])rogramme by
forming a narrower federation under her
own leadership, exclusive of popular re-
presentation, direct or indirect. Prussia
T,. « . lost greatly in prestige ; the
The Reproach ,, " • - 1,1,
, „ . . enthusiasm aroused through-
01 b rederic - .1 , ,
William provinces by the
prospect of war gave place
to bitter condemnation of the vacillation
imputed to the king after the " capitula-
tion of Olmiitz." Even his brother. Prince
WilUam, burst into righteous indignation
during the Cabinet Council of December
2nd, 1850, at the stain on the white shield
of Prussian honour.
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 w^hich
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, 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 Swabia 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. Renunciation for the moment
was a guarantee of success hereafter.
In his " Reflections and Recollections "
Prince Bismarck asserts that Stockhausen,
the Minister of War. considered the Prus-
sian forces in November, 1850. inadequate
to check the advance upon Berlin of the
Austrian army concentrated in Bohemia.
He had leceived this informa-
Problem ^ ^^^^ ^^_^^ Stockhausen, and
of Germany s ^^^ defended the king's atti-
*" tude in the Chamber. He also
thinks he has established the fact that
Prince William, afterwards 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 con-
viction that such a blow must one day
be delivered ; but this assurance seems
to have grown upon him from that date.
4969
THE
RE-MAKINU
OF
EUROPE
EUROPE
IN
REVOLUTION
VII
REACTION IN CENTRAL EUROPE
AN ERA OF GENERAL STAGNATION
HTHE \ictory of Schwarzenberg in Olmiitz
•*• gave a predominating influence -^n
Central Europe to the spirit of the Tsar
Nicholas I., the narrowness and bigotry of
which is not to be paralleled in anj? of those
periods of stagnation which have inter-
rupted the social development of Europe.
Rarely has a greater want of common sense
„. , been shown in the government
Hindrances r .wj. ■ -r i j.-
_ , oi any \\ estern civilised nation
urope than was displayed during the
Development , •', , o
years subsequent to 1050 — 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 unprepared.
The miserable delusion that construc-
tion is a process as easy and rapid as
destruction ; that a few months can accom-
plish what centuries have failed to perfect ;
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 iniin 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 squan-
dered in the harangues of rival orators,
in the formation of parties and chibs, in
over-ambitious programmes and compla-
Ti. XM- • c'^nt self -laudation thereon, in
Ihe Mission j- 1 c ^
- displays of arrogance and
, .. „ ,. malevolent onslaughts.
L>iberalism t i i- r i , •
Li beralism was forced to resign
its claims ; it was unable to effect a com-
plete and unwavering severance from
radicalism ; 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
bad no clear ideas upon the extent of
4970
those rights, and had not been taught that
self-restraint which was the only road to
success. Thus far all is sufficiently intelli-
gible, and, upon a retrospect, one is almost
inclined to think of stagnation as the result
of a conflict of counterbalancing forces.
But one phenomenon there is, which
becomes the more astonishing in ])ro-
portion as it is elucidated by that ^re
light of impartial criticism which the
non-contemporar}^ historian can throw
upon it — it is the fact that mental confu-
sion 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-determina-
tion were expiated by yet more brutal ex-
hibitions 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. I14 truth
a very moderate degree of wis-
dom in a few leading states-
men would have drawn the
proper conclusions from the
facts of the case, and have discovered the
formulae 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 consolida-
tion and reconstitution, that the revolution
had been caused simply by the fact that
the corrupt and degenerate state was
unable to perform what its subjects had
the right to demand.
The nations were so utterly depressed by
the sad experiences which they had brought
upon themselves as to show themselves
immediately sensible to the smallest ad-
vances of kindness and confidence. Irritated
by a surfeit of democratic theory, the
The Nations
Suffering from
Depression
STAGNATION AND REACTION IN CENTRAL EUROPE
PROGRESSIVE AUSTRIAN MINISTERS
Count Leo Thun and A. von Bach, whose portraits are given above,
were among the men of note who, after the storms of the revolutionary
years, supported the enlightened policy of Joseph II. As Minister
of Education, the former introduced compulsory education, put the
national schools under state control, and assisted the universities.
political organism had lost its tone. A
moderate allowance of riglits 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 punishment, were now
the mission of
the governments
which had re-
covered their
unlimited power ;
but they were
themselves both
uninformed 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
compelled to en-
dure in the course
of the revolution
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 effecting a fundamental
change in the constitution ;
all opposition had been broken
down, and the stiong vitality
of the state had been brilhantly
demonstrated in one of the
hardest struggles for existence
in which the country had been
engaged for three centuries.
There was a new ruler, 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 george v. of hanover ^^ate should have
would have been the strongest fhron^''o?^Halover'i„'^8Tl, the strength and protection
conceivable guarantee of sue- blind King George v. engaged m against future periods of storm.
,,P . ^ . , a long struggle with his people " , ,i i i iU„
cess to a Mmistry of wisdom in defence of absolutism, and Evcu at the present da\ tne
and experience capal^le of died an exile in Paris in 1878. veil has not been wholly parted
leading him in the path of steady progress which then shrouded the change of poUtical
Government had reserved to itself full scope
for exercising an independent influence
upon the development of the state. In
this arrangement the kingdom of Hungary
had been included after its subordinate
provinces had severed their connection
with the Crown
of Stephen,
obtaining special
provincial rights
of their own.
The best ad-
ministrative
officials in the
empire, Von
Schmerling,
Bach, Count
Thun. and Bruck,
were at the dis-
position of the
Prime Minister
for the work of
revivifying the
economic and in-
tellectual life of
the monarchy.
No objection
would have been raised to a plan for divid-
ing the non-Hungarian districts into bodies
analogous to the English count\^, and thus
lajang the impregnable foundations of a cen-
tralised government which would develop
as the education of the smaller national
entities advanced. The fate
of Austria was delivered into
the hands of the emperor's
advisers ; but no personality of
Radetzky's stamp was to be
found among them. The
leading figure was a haughty
nobleman, whose object and
pleasure were to sow discord
between Austria and the
Prussian king and people,
Austria's most faithful allies
since 1815. It was in Frank-
fort, and not in Vienna or
Budapest, that the Hapsburg
sought
and of respect for the national rights.
The clumsy and disjointed Reichstag of
Kremsier was dissolved on March 7th, and
on March 4th, 1849, a cons1 itution had been
voluntarily promulgated, in which the
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 was due to the machina-
tions of political parasites who plunged one
4971
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
of the best-intentioned of rulers into a
series of entanglements which a life of
sorrow and ciuel disappointments was
unable to unravel. The precious months
of 1850. when the nation would thankfully
have welcomed any cessation of the pre-
valent disturbance and terrorism, or any
sign of confidence in its capacities, were
allowed to pass by without an
TA f^* effort. In the following year
„ ,. the national enemies gained
Reaction ,, 1 i •.
the upper hand ; it was re-
solved to break with constitutionalism,
and to reject the claims of the citizens to
a share in the legislature and the admini-
stration. In September, 1851; the Govern-
ments of Prussia and, Sardinia were
ordered to annul the existing constitutions.
This was a step which surpassed even
Metternich's zeal for absolutism. Schmer-
ling and Bruck resigned their posts in the
Ministry on January 5th and May 23rd,
185 1, feeling their inability to make head
against the reactionary movement. On
August 20th, 1851, the imperial council
for which provision had been made in the
constitution of March 4th, 1849, was
deprived of its faculty of national repre-
sentation. As the council had not yet
been called into existence, the only inter-
pretation to be laid upon this step was
that the Ministry desired to re-examine the
desirability of ratifying the constitution.
On December 31st, 1851, the consti-
tution was annulled, and the personal
security of the citizens thereby endan-
gered, known as they were to be in favour
of constitutional measures. The police
and a body of gendarmes, who were ac-
corded an unprecedented degree of licence,
undertook the struggle, not against exag-
gerated and impracticable demands, but
against Liberalism as such, while the
authorities plumed themselves in the fond
delusion that this senseless struggle was
a successful stroke of statesmanship. En-
lightened centralisation would have found
^. _ . thousands of devoted coadiu-
1 he Dresden , ■, , 1 j
-, , tors and have awakened many
Conferences , . r 1 ^ ^1
t 01 t dormant forces ; but the cen-
tralisation of the reactionary
foes of freedom was bound to remain fruit-
less and to destroy the pure impulse which
urged the people to national activity.
The successes in foreign policy, by
which presumption had been fostered,
now ceased. During the Dresden con-
ferences, which had been held in Olmiitz,
Schwarzenberg found that he had been
4972
bitterly deceived in his federal allies among
the smaller states, and 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 inviol-
ability of the whole Hapsburg power.
Britain 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 t)nly benefit Austria.
Prussia was able calmly to await the col-
lapse of Schwarzenberg 's schemes.
After wearisome negotiations, lasting
from December, 1850, to May, 1851, it be-
came 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 dis-
„ creditable avowal that the
_ ''.'"f ^ - collective governments were
Funishment of , '^ ^^i j- • • . i
... . 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 organised a short time
before, the opinion again prevailed, from
1851, that there could be no more dan-
gerous enemy to the state and to society
than the popular representative. The
unfortunate Liberals, humiliated and de-
pressed 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.
The majority of the liberal constitutions
which the revolution of 1848 had brought
into existence were annulled ; this step was
quickly carried out in Saxony, Mecklen-
burg-Schwerin, and Wiirtemberg, in June,
September, and November, 1850, though
the Chamber continued an obstinate re
sistance until August, 1855, in Hanover,
where the blind King George V. had
ascended the throne on November i8th,
185 1. The favour of the federation re-
stored her detested ruler to the electorate
of Hesse. He positively revelled in the
STAGNATION AND REACTION IN CENTRAL EUROPE
cruelty and op])ression practised upon his
subjects by the troops of occupation. 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 consti-
tutionalism once and for all ; but though
the king entertained a deep-rooted objec-
tion to the modern theories of popular parti-
cipation in the government, he declined to
be a party to any breach of the oath which
he had taken. Bunsen and Prince William
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 on February 6th, 1850.
The system of three classes of direct
representation was introduced at the
end of April, 1849, taxation thus becoming
the measure of the political rights
exercised by the second Chamber. The
. , possibility of a labour majority
russia s -^ ^^^-^ Chamber was thus
f°L^% obviated. The Upper Chamber
was entirely remodelled. Mem-
bers were no longer elected, but were
nominated by the Crown ; seats were made
hereditary in the different noble families,
and the preponderance of the nobility was
thus secured. The institution of a full
house of lords on October 12th, 1854, ^^.s
not so severe a blow to the state as
the dissolution of the parish councils
and the reinstitution of the provincial
Landtags in 1851.
Schleswig-Holstein was handed over to
the Danes ; the constitution of Septem-
ber 15th, 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 8th, 1852, the
Great Powers recognised the. succession of
Prince Christian of Holstein-Gliicksburg,
who had married Princess Louise, a
daughter of the Countess of Hesse, Louise
Charlotte, sister of Christian VI IL How-
ever, the German Federation did not favour
this solution ; the estates of the duchies,
who had the best right to decide the ques-
tion, were never even asked their opinion.
On December 30th, 1852, Duke Christian
of Holstein-Augustenburg sold his Schles-
wig estates to the reigning house of Den-
mark for £337,500, renouncing his here-
ditary rights at the same time, though the
other members of the family dechned to
accept the renunciation as binding upon
themselves. Thus the Danes gained but
a temporary victory. It was even then
clear that after the death of King Frederic
^. ..^ VII. the struggle would be
The Cjcrman , r ,,'^ ,•
_, ^ „ _ . renewed for the separation
Fleet Exposed ,- xu /- j .l i.
. . of the German districts
from the " Danish United
States." A legacy of the national move-
ment, the "German fleet," was put up to
auction at this date. The German Federa-
tion had no maritime interests to represent.
It declined the trouble of extorting a
recognition of the German flag from the
maritime Powers. Of the four frigates,
five corvettes, and six gunboats, which
had been fitted out at a cost of £540,000,
Prussia bought the larger part, after
Hanoverian machinations had induced
the Federal Council to determine the dis-
solution of the fleet on April 2nd, 1852.
Prussia acquired from Oldenburg a strip of
territory on the Jade Bay, and in course of
time constructed a naval arsenal and har-
bour, 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 " Zollverein." The convention expired
on December 31st, 1853. From 1849,
Austria had been working to secure the
position, and at the tariff conference held
in Wiesbaden in June, 185 1, had secured
the support of every state of importance
within the Zollverein 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 7th, 1851,
to join the free trade " Steuerverein,"
which Hanover had formed with Olden-
. , burg and Lippe in 1834 and
Austria s_ ^g^^ ^j^^ danger of a separa-
Treaty with ^-^^ between the eastern and
russia western territorial groups was
thus obviated ; the Zollverein of Austria
and the smaller German states were cut off
from the sea and deprived of all the
advantages which the original Prussian
Zollverein had offered. Austria now
thought it advisable to conclude a com-
mercial treaty with Prussia on favourable
terms on February 19th, 1853, and to
4973
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
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 4th,
1853, the Zollverein was renewed, to last
until December 31st, 1865. It was an
association embracing an area containing
T-.. i^i u. 35.000,000 inhabitants. As
The Church s ^^.^^^ ^j^g ^^j ^f Napoleon I.,
orPllnde/^ 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 well able to turn this
freedom to the best account. They de-
manded for the German bishops unlimited
powers of communication with Rome and
with the parochial clergy, together with
fun disciplinary powers over all priests
without the necessity of an appeal to
the state. Nothing was simpler than
to construe ecclesiastical freedom as im-
plying that right of supremacy for which
the Church had yearned during the past
eight centuries.
The Archbishop of Freiburg pushed the
theory with such brazen effrontery that
even the reactionary government was
lorced to imprison him. However, in
Darmstadt and Stuttgart the governments
submitted to the demands of Rome. Parties
in the Prussian Chamber were increased by
the addition of a new Catholic pai'ty, led
by the brothers Reichensperger, to which
high favour was shown by the " Catholic
Contingent " in the ministry of ecclesi-
astical affairs — a party created by the
ecclesiastical minister, Eichhorn, in 1841.
There was no actual collision in Prussia
between ultramontanism and the temporal
power. The Government favoured the
reaction in the Protestant Church, which
took the form of an unmistakable rap-
_ ,. prochement to Catholicism.
Keaction t^i t« -i, t
Ihe rowers were committed
to a policy of mutual counsel
and support. Stahl, Hengs-
tenberg, and Gerlach, who had gained com-
plete ascendancy over Frederic William IV.
since the revolution, were undermining
the foundations of the Protestant creed,
especially the respect accorded to inward
conviction, on which the whole of
Protestantism was based. In the
"regulations" of October, 1854, the
4974
in Protestant
Church
schools were placed under Church super-
vision, and in the "Church Councils"
hypocrisy was made supreme. WhenBunsen
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
completely than in Russia by the conclu-
sion of the notorious concordat of August
i8th, 1855. This agieement was the
expression of an alliance between ultra-
montanism 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. Ln return the
absolutist state placed the whole of its
administration at the disposal of the
Church, and gave the bishops uncondi-
tional 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. The
example of Austria was imi-
u-tj ^°^^ tated in the Italian states,
which owed their existence to
her. Piedmont alone gathered
the opponents of the Roman 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, and helped them to carry on
a hopeless campaign, marked by a series
of defeats. In Belgium, on the other hand,
they secured an almost impregnable posi-
tion in 1855, and fought the Liberals with
their own weapons. Only Portugal, whence
they had first been expelled in the eigh-
teenth century, 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.
Rome had set great hopes upon France,
since Louis Napoleon's " plebiscites " had
been successfully carried out with the help
of the clergy. But the Curia found France
a prudent friend, not to be caught of£ 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.
Hans von Zwiedineck-Sudenhorst
Hand
of Rome
SAVING THE COLOURS: THE GUARDS AT THE BATTLE OF INKERMAN IN IS54
From the painting by Robert Gibb. R.S.A.. by penuission of Mr. E. Erucc-Low
TO FACE PAGE 4 97 5
SCONSQUDMlCNfPOttCRS
THE UNITED KINGDOM IN
THE MID-VICTORIAN ERA
By Arthur D.
•yHE fall of Sir Robert Peel, in 1846, had
■*■ been effected almost at the moment
when the Duke of Wellington was persuad-
ing the House of Lords to swallow the
repeal of the Corn Laws, the crowning
accomplishment of Peel's career. It
was achieved by a combination of angry
Protectionists and angry Irishmen, who
united to throw out a government
measure for coercion in Ireland. The
potato famine had definitely completed
the conversion of both Peel and the
Whigs to the doctrines of the Anti-
Corn Law League, and was followed by
earnest efforts for the relief of distress.
But distress itself had, as usual, in-
tensified discontent, generating agrarian
outrages, and relief and coercion were
proffered simultaneously. The uncon-
verted chiefs of what had been Peel's party
saw their opportunity ; and the adverse vote
brought about Peel's resignation. Lord
John Russell formed a Whig Ministry, with
Palmerston as Foreign Secretary — which
position he had occupied in Melbourne's
time — and the Peelites, regarding the
question of Free Trade as of primary im-
r^ . » •. • portance, gave the Govern-
Oreat Britain ^ , ° , , ,
. . Y ment a support which
, „ ... secured its continuity. The
of Revolutions . , r
improvement m the con-
dition of the working classes, coupled with
the British inclination to distrust the
political efficacy of syllogisms expressed in
terms of physical force, made Great Britain
almost the only European country where
nothing revolutionary took place in the year
of revolutions, 1848. The monster petition
of the Chartists was its most alarming event.
Innes, M.A.
The death of O'Connell, however, in the
previous year had deprived the Irish of a
leader who had always set his face against
the methods of violence, and Ireland did
not escape without an abortive insi\rrection
headed by Smith O'Brien. The leaders were
taken, condemned to death for high treason,
liad their sentences commuted to trans-
, . _ , , portation, and were subse-
Lord Palmerston ^ , , j 1
. quentiy pardoned — more
V • f\tf than one of those *asso-
Foreign Office ' ■ , 1 •,, ^.i
ciated with the movement
achieved distinction in later years in the
political service of the British Empire.
Palmerston's activities at the Foreign
Office, however, were a source of con-
siderable disquietude at this period. Forty
years of parliamentary life, many of them
passed in office, first as a Tory, later as a
Canningite, and finally as a Whig, had not
produced in that persistently youthful
statesman any inclination in favour of the
further democratisation of the British
Constitution, or of what in his younger
days would have been called Jacobinism
abroad ; but he was a convinced advocate
of freedom as he understood it and as
Canning had understood it. He saw in
revolutionary movements a disease engen-
dered by despotic systems of government ;
and being alive to the European ferment,
he took upon himself to warn the despotic
governments that they would do well to
apply the remedy of constitutionalism
before the disease became dangerous.
The despotic governments, recognising
no difference between the disease itself and
the remedy, held him guilty not only of
officiousness in tendering advice which
4975
QUEEN VICTORIA AND THE PRINCE CONSORT
From the paintiiit; by Sir Edwin Landscur. R.A.
^
THE ROYAL VISIT TO IRELAND IN 1^4;!: THE' FLEET IN CORK HARBOUR
4976
THE UNITED KINGDOM IN THE MID-VICTORIAN ERA
was unasked, but of fomenting revolution in
their dominions, and were not unnaturally
resentful, although, as a matter of fact,
they would have profited
greatly by paying heed to
his well-meant warnings.
The attacks in Parlia-
ment on his " meddling "
policy were successfully
met in 1849, <^^^ public
opinion endorsed his view
that Britain ought to
make her opinions felt in
foreign countries — that,
in fact, she would not be
adequately discharging
the responsibilities of her
great position in the world
unless she did so. Never-
theless, his methods were
irritating not only to
foreign potentates, but to
his own sovereign, who
frequently found that
her Foreign Minister was
committing the
Government without
her knowledge to de-
clarations which she
cordd only endorse
because it would have
been impossible to
retract them with
dignity, his colleagues
being consulted as
little as herself.
In 1850 the queen
sent a memorandum
to Russell, requiring
that she should be
kept adequately in-
formed before, not
after, the event, of
any steps which the
Foreign Minister in-
tended to take. The
immediate cause of
the memorandum
was connected with
Palmerston's attitude
on the Schleswig-
Holstein question, re-
garding which she and
her husband, Prince
Albert, favoured the
German view, to
which Palmerston
LORD JOHN RUSSELL
He was twice Prime Minister, first in 1846 on
the formation of a Whig Ministry following
the defeat of Peel, and again in ISiiS, on the
death of Lord Palmerston. He was created
Earl Russell in 1861, and he died in 1878.
of the Foreign Minister's high-handed
methods was the " Don Pacifico " affair.
Don Pacifico was a Jew from Gibraltar, a
British subject, residing
in Greece, whose house
and property were
damaged in a riot. Pal-
merston took up his
claim for compensation
as an international in-
stead of a personal affair,
sent the fleet to the
Pirc-elis, the harbour of
Athens, and seized Greek
merchant vessels. Russia
adopted a threatening
attitude, to which Pal-
merston had no disposi-
tion to yield. The French
Republic, under the presi-
dency of Louis Napoleon,
was indignant at the
action of Great Britain,
but still more indignant at
being ignored by Russia.
Palmerston ac-
cepted French media-
tion — not arbitra-
tion ; there were
further complica-
tions, in whicR the
French thought that
Albion was showing
her historic perfidy ;
but the whole affait
was too trivial to
involve two great
nations in a war over
mere diplomatic pro-
prieties, and the
quarrel was patched
up. This incident
was the inciting cause
.of a formal attack on
Palmerston's foreign
policy, which resulted
in a vote ot censure
in the Upper Cham-
ber, in consequence
of which a resolution
of confidence was
introduced in the
Commons. Peel him-
self was ( n the s'de of
the Opposition, but
Palmerston vindi-
cated his principles in
THE EARL OF BEACONSFIELD
Eminent as statesman and novelist, Benjamin Disraeli,
afterwards Lord Beaconsfield, made a great reputation j ,• i l
was opposed. Another in the political world, though his maiden speech in the aWOUdertul SpCCCh
„■ J . -11 J. i.- House of Commons was greeted with derisive laughter. .i << „• ,:„ T>r^r^^„,,^
incident illustrative He twice held the hi|h office of Prime Minister, the CIVIS RomanUb
4977
497S
THE UNITED KINGDOM IN THE MID-VICTORIAN ERA
sum " speech — which carried the House
and the country triumphantly with him.
The year also witnessed one of those
" No Popery" waves of excitement which
periodically break upon England. The
Tractarian movement had produced in the
mind of the Pope the recurrent delusion
that the heretical island was on the verge
of conversion. He issued a Bull establishing
a Roman hierarchy in England, with
territorial titles, an assumption of authority
contravening the constitutional principle
of the royal supremacy. In response to the
popular excitement created, the Govern-
ment introduced the " Ecclesiastical
letter till its repeal twenty years later.
The queen's memorandum in the pre-
vious November, somewhat to the public
surprise, had not been followed by Palmers-
ton's resignation ; apparently he had
accepted the rebuke in good pai't, and
promised to consult the queen's wishes.
But his practice remained unaltered. The
arrival in England of the Hungarian
leader, Kossuth, was the occasion of a dis-
play of sympathy wliich was at best a
breach of international etiquette, Kossuth
being technically a rebel. At the moment
when Palmerston was being taken to task
for neglect of his promise to pay proper
LORD ABERDEEN b lAi.IOUS COALITION MINISTRY
On the defeat of the Derby government in December, l!;.rJ, Lord Aberdeen formed a coalition Ministry of Wliig-s and
Peelites with Gladstone as Chancellor of the Exchequer, Russell at the Foreign and Palmerston at the Home Officei
From the paintint; by Sir John Gilbert, R.A. Photo by Walker
Titles " Bill, which was naturally opposed
by the Roman Catholics and also by all
who saw in it an interference with the
principle of religious liberty. The Govern-
ment, feeling its position to be somewhat
precarious, took advantage of its own
defeat on a snap vote — .a symptom of the
now growing demand for further electoral
reform — -to resign, and thereby to demon-
strate the impossibility of any other
working administration being constructed.
It resumed office in February, 185 1, and
carried the Bill in a modified form, but
the Act remained practically a dead
atteffition to the queen's wishes in this
affair, Louis Napoleon in France carried
out the coup d'etat which he had been
preparing, and established himself as a
dictator. Palmerston persuaded himself
that the British Foreign Minister could
express his personal approval in a conver-
sation with the French ambassador with-
out committing the Cabinet, the Crown,
or the country. The other parties concerned
did not accept that view, and Palmerston's
resignation was demanded. But he had
hardly been dismissed when he got his
" tit-for-tat with John Russell," as he
4979
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
expressed it. Napoleon's coup d'etat
had its alarming side for Great Britain,
a.s a probable prelude to an aggressive
French policy, of which the Napoleonic
tradition would make England the primary
object of hos-
tility, A Bill was
accordingly in-
troduced for the
reorganisation of
the militia. The
scheme proposed
was not felt to
be satisfactory ;
Palmerston
headed the at-
tack, the Ministry
were defeated,
and the Govern-
ment was under-
taken by the
Conservative
chief, Lord
Derby, with Dis-
raeli as his Chan-
cellor of the
Exchequer and
Leader of the
House of Com-
mons, in Feb-
ruary, 1852. The
most notable
of the actual
achievements of
the Russell ad-
ministration had
been the applica-
tion in Australia,
by an Act of 1850,
of those prin-
ciples of colonial
converted in 1852 was an exploded
antediluvian fallacy. In the interval, the
scanty handful of its opponents were but
feeble voices crying in the wilderness
The theory of Protection being so effec-
tively scotched as
to be apparently
killed, the ex-
ProtectionistJ-
— who had main-
tained the old
doctrine not from
the manufactur-
ing, but from the
agrarian point of
view — fell back
on the principle
that the landed
interest, which
the old system
had protected,
required relief
now that the
protection was
withdrawn ; and
to this end Dis-
raeli constructed
his Budget. But
his extremely in-
genious redistri-
bution of the
burden of taxa-
tion failed to
attract the
approval of
economists of
other schools, or
THE DEATH OF THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON
Th2 long and illustrious life of the Duke of Wellington came to an end r ,1 • .
in 1S52, the hero of Waterloo passing peacefully away on September ^^ xnOSe iniereSLS
14th, in his arm-chair at Walmer. In the above picture the body of wllicll did UOt
the distinguished general, who was laid to rest with great pomp flgcxj-g the land
in St. Paul's Cathedral, is seen lying in state at Chelsea Hospital, j. l v A +
government which had been inaugurated
by the Canadian Act of Reunion. The
new Ministry carried a new Militia
Bill and then dissolved, apparently with
a view to taking the sense of the country
on the Free Trade policy which had
brought the Liberals into office.
The Ministerialists, however, did not
definitely commit themselves to a Pro-
tectionist programme, and the question
was brought to a direct issue in the
Commons by a resolution affirming the
principle of Free Trade, which, in amended
form, was accepted and carried by an over-
whelming majority. Fifty years were to
pass before the discovery that the revolu-
tionary economic doctrine of 1846 to which
the country declared itself definitely
4980
their expense. The Budget debate marked
conspicuously the opening of the long
personal rivalry between its proposer,
Disraeli, and its strongest critic, William
Ewart Gladstone. The Government was
defeated, and resigned in December, 1852.
The Ecclesiastical Titles Bill, which had
been a barrier between Whigs and Peelites,
had already vanished into hmbo, and the
Ministry which now took office was formed
by a coalition of those two parties. The
Peelite, Lord Aberdeen, was its head,
Gladstone its Chancellor of the Exchequer,
Russell was at the Foreign Office, and
Palm«rston Home Secretary.
Before the fall of the Conservatives, a
great figure had passed from the stage.
A little more than two years after his
THE UNITED KINGDOM IN THE MID-VICTORIAN ERA
closest political associate, Sir Robert Peel,
the " Iron Duke " died in September, at
the age of eighty-three. Forty years before,
he had proved himself the greatest
captain in Europe save
one ; and his, in the eyes
of Europe, had been the
triumph of vanquishing
that one. To him more
than to anyone else
France owed it that she
had been generously
treated when the war
was ended ; his was prob-
ably the most decisively
moderating influence
among the statesmen
whose task it was to
restore order in Europe.
But while he possessed
high qualities of states-
manship, they were not
those adapted to parlia-
sincerity,' his transparent honesty, and
his conspicuous moral courage, made him
a unique figure, and fully justified the
universal popularity which came to him
-tardily enough, and the
genuine passion of mourn-
ing with which the whole
nation received the tid-
ings of his death. Wel-
Imgton had overthrown
the first Napoleon.
Eleven weeks after he had
breathed his last, " the
nephew of his uncle "
was proclaimed Emperor
of the French with the
title of Napoleon III. The
famous coalition Ministry
opened its career with
the first of the brilliant
series of Gladstone Bud-
gets, introduced in a
speech which revealed
mentary government. As the defender of sebastopol the hitherto unsuspected
a VriniQfpr hp was; a General Todleben, a distinguished Russian x ^ thnf ficrnrpc; ran ho
a xUiniSter ne was a soldier and mUitary engineer, held Sebastopol I^" lUat ngUlCS Can tX
failure ; as a counsellor against the British, displaying great resource made fascinating. But
and energy until he was severely wounded.
his judgment always
carried very great weight. His unqualified
patriotism, his complete subordination of
personal interests to what he conceived
to be the welfare of the state, his perfect
even the charm of the
Budget was soon to be overshadowed by
the war clouds in the East. So far a* the
preliminaries of the Crimean war are con-
cerned with French and Russian rivalries
BURIAL OF THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON : THE FUNERAL CAR ARRIVING AT ST. PAUL'S
4981
QUEEN VICTORIA AS SHE
and with matters outside British interests,
they will be dealt with in the chapter
following. Here we observe that in the
beginning of 1853 the Tsar was assuming
a threatening attitude towards the Porte
On the hypothesis that Russia was the
protector of the Greek Church Christians
in the Turkish dominions; and that France,
^982
APPEARED IN THE YEAR 1852
in the character of protector of the Latin
Christians, regarded the Russian attitude
as merely a pretext for absorbing the
Danube states. A similar view was en-
tertained in England, where the Tsar had
already made suggestions regarding the
ultimate partition of the Turkish Empire,
which he regarded as practically inevitable
THE UNITED KINGDOM IN THE MID- VICTORIAN ERA
England, however, and Palmerston in
particular, looked upon the maintenance
of the independence of Turkey as a
necessity, if for no other reason because
Russian expansion in the direction either
of India or of the Mediterranean appeared
exceedingly dangerous to the interests of
Great Britain. It may be remembered that
the Afghan war of 1839 ^^^.d been the out-
come of Persian aggressions which were uni-
versally regarded as prompted \\y Russia.
Russia maintained her claim to protect
the Christians in the Danube provinces ;
Turkey declined her demand for
Napoleon would not venture on that
appeal single-handed. The temper of the
country, however, was clearly in favour
of Palmerston's views, and in July the
French and l^ritish fleets were despatched
to Besika Bay. The " Vienna Note," a
proposal formulated by the Powers in
conference at Vienna, was amended by
Turkey and rejected by Russia in August.
Everywhere popular feeling was rising ;
an anti-Christian emeute was feared in
Constantinople, and the French and
British fleets were ordered to the Dar-
danelles in October, ostensibly to protect
THE QUEEN REVIEWING THE SCOTS GUARDS ON THEIR DEPARTURE FOR THE CRIMEA IN 1851
The aggression of Russia, involved by her claim of 1853 to be protector of the Orthodox Greek Christians in the
fiirkish dominions, %as naturally resented by Turkey. Both Britain and France took the side of the latter, and on
March 27th, 1854, declared war on Russia, whence followed all the miseries and suffering of the Crimean war.
guarantees ; the rest of the Powers
upheld Turkey. Negotiations faiUng,
Russia occupied the provinces in July
as a proceeding wairanted by her treaty
rights. The Powers might, by the exer-
cise of joint pressure, have compelled
Russia to retire, but a mere evacuation
would not have satisfied either Napoleon
or Palmerston. Aberdeen, on the other
hand, allowed llis aversion to war to be
so obvious that the Tsar probably felt
quite satisfied that Britain would not
join France in an appeal to arms, and that
the Christians. Before the close of the
month Turkey declared war on Russia,
to which the Tsar replied by declaring
that he would not take the offensive.
The Turks crossed the Danube, and fight-
ing began. But when a Russian squadron
feil upon some Turkish ships in the harbour
of Sinope and destroyed them on September
30th, the action was regarded as proving
the insincerity of the Tsar's declarations.
Aberdeen found himself obliged to consent
to the occupation of the Black Sea by the
allied fleets on December 27th. The
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4985
NAVAL BRIGADE AT SEBASTOPOL: LORD RAGLAN VIEWING THE STORMING OF THE REDAN
Fron) the picture by K. Caton Woodville, by permisbion of iMessrs. Graves &: Cc.
498(^
THE UNITED KINGDOM IN THE MID-VICTORIAN ERA
precipitate action of France and Britain in
presenting a joint note demanding the
evacuation of the Danube provinces gave
Austria an excuse for leaving them to
act independently ; and on March 27th,
1854, the two Western Powers declared
war on Russia and proceeded to a formal
alliance with the Turks, who in the mean-
time had more than held their own on land.
Troops were despatched to co-operate
with the Turks, and it soon became
evident that the Russians would have no
chance of effecting a successful invasion ;
before the end of July it was clear that
they would be obliged to evacuate the
Provinces. But before that time instruc-
tions had already been sent for the invasion
of the Crim.ea and the seizure of Sebastopol.
But the invasion could
not be . carried out till
September ; and by that
time, Sebastopol had
been placed in a com-
paratively thorough state
of defence by the en-
gineering skill of Todle-
ben. Its capture by a
coup de main was now
extremely improbable.
The British and French
forces disembarked at
Eupatoria, and found a
Russian army under Men-
schikoff lying between
them and Sebastopol.
The battle of the Alma,
in which the brunt of the
fighting was borne by the
British, left the allies
masters of the field.
Menschikoff withdrew his
main foi^ce not to Sebas-
topol but to the interior,
of the dying French general, St. Arnaud,
prevented an immediate assault from
being attempted — it was ascertained later
that the attempt at that moment would
probably have been successful — and the
allies settled down to _,a siege. Their
numbers were not sufficient
The Charge ^^^, ^ complete investment,
and the communications be-
tween Menschikoff and the
garrison remained open. The British
drew their supplies from the port of
Balaclava, and Menschikoff now en-
deavoured to effect its capture. The
movement, however, was repulsed, mainly
by the magnificent charge of the Heavy
In the
"Valley of
Death"
^^^^K^l^l
■ . ' \C^'Sk
:
n
Lk^^
1 1
- :'^^'^^^^
m
'^mskm^'l: ]
rT^"
LORD RAGLAN
Commander-in-chief of tiie British forces in
the Crimea, his conduct of the war was severely
condemned both by the public and the Press.
He died from dysentery on June -Sth, 1853.
The opposition
of the Heavy
Brigade
Brigade against a column of five times their
own numbers ; but that splendid action
was eclipsed in the popular mind by one
of the most desperate, and, from a military
point of view, most futile, deeds of valour
on record, the charge of the Six Hundred.
Through the misinterpretation
of an order, the Light Brigade
hurled itself through a terrific
storm of shot and she'l upon a
Russian battery, captured it, and xhen,
because there was nothing else to be done,
relinquished it, leaving more than two-
thirds of their number in the " Valley of
Death." Nothing whatever was gamed
of a calculable kind. Yet it was one
of those deeds which have a moral value
past all calculation, like the equally futile
defence of Thermopykc.
Ten days later an
attempt was made upon
the British position before
Sebastopol at Inkerman.
The attack was made by
a large Russian force in
the midst of a fog so
thick that none knew
what was going on except
close at hand. Concerted
action was impossible,
and men battled desper-
ately as best they could
m small groups. The fight
was fought by the men
virtually without com-
mandeis, and, in spite of
immensely superior num-
bers, the Russians were
triumphantly repulsed.
But after Inkerman, the
design, then in contem-
plation, of an immediate
assault on Sebastopol was abandoned.
And then the Crimean winter began. A
winter siege had not been in the pro-
gramme when the expedition was planned ;
the arrangements were disastrously inade-
quate, and their inadequacy was increased
by the destruction in a gale of the stores
which had reached Balaclava but had not
been disembarked ; while the iniquities of
army contractors broke all previous records.
The four winter months killed far more
of the troops than the Russians were
responsible for. The blame lay not at all
with the officers on the spot, and only in a
limited degree with the Government, but
popular indignation' compelled the retire-
ment of Aberdeen ; and Palmerston, the
4987
Hi
4988
4989
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
man in whom the confidence of the country
had not been shaken, became Prime
Minister in February, 1855. The lesson of
the early administrative blunders had been
learnt, and a great improvement was soon
apparent. The immense and unprece-
dented services of the staff of nurses
organised under Florence Nightingale, who
had been at work since Novem-
-. . ber, mark an epoch in the history
poc in ^^ civilised warfare. Negotia-
tions were renewed at Vienna;
but while agreement might have been
reached on two of the four proposals put
forward by Austria, Russia was obdurate
on a third, and the belligerent allies were
dissatisfied with the fourth.
The negotiations broke down, and Austria
again found excuse in the attitude of the
French and British for declining to join
them in an offensive alliance — in their eyes
a breach of faith on her part. In May,
however, Sardinia joined' the allies, and
the British share in the operations at
Sebastopol became comparatively re-
stricted, while the British fleets found
little of consequence to do. It was
not till September 8th that Sebastopol
fell, an event secured by the French
capture of the Malakoff.
Napoleon was now satisfied with the
personal security his imperial position
had acquired from the war ; the friend-
ship of the new Tsar, Alexander II. —
Nicholas had died in March — was of
more importance to him, if not to France,
than the repression of Russia. Austria
cared only to have her own Balkan in-
terests safeguarded, and it was with no
little difficulty that the British were able
to secure adequate checks on Russian
aggression. The occasion was used for a
fresh settlement of those maritime regula-
tions which had been the cause of the
" Armed Neutrality " at the close of the
last century. Privateering, the one weapon
which hostile Powers had been able to
wield effectively against Great
Britain, was abolished ; and,
p . . on the other hand, it was con-
cr ng ^g^ig^ ^j^g^^ ^j^^ neutral flag
should cover all goods but contraband of
war, and that even on belligerent vessels
neutral goods should not be liable to
capture, in March, 1856.
The war in the Crimea had necessitated
the withdrawal of British regiments from
India, where, on the other hand, Dal-
housie's annexations had involved an in-
4990
crease in the Sepoy army. A quarrel with
Persia demanded an expedition to that
country from India at the end of 1856,
owing to the seizure of Herat by Persia —
a movement attributed, as a matter of
course, to Russian instigation. No diffi-
culty was found in the military operations,
which soon resulted in a treaty by which
Persia resigned Herat and all claims on
Afghan territory ; but the war must be
included among the minor circumstances
which encouraged the outbreak of the
great Sepoy revolt of 1857.
About the same time a war with China
was brought about by what is known as
the "Arrow" incident. The Arrow was
a Chinese vessel which had been sailing
under the British flag, and was continuing
to do so though the year during which she
was authorised to do so had just elapsed.
The Chinese authorities, having no know-
ledge of this lapse, nevertheless seized the
crew in Canton harbour on the hypothesis
that there were persons " wanted " for
piracy among its number. Reparation was
demanded and refused, the British fleet was
called into play, and the incident developed
„ . . , definitely into a war. The
™ "* * British Government acted on
. . ^. . the principle that the punctilios
of Western diplomacy are m-
variably looked upon by Orientals as signs
of weakness which invite defiance ; high-
handed methods, however, equally in-
variably offend the moral ideals of a large
section of the British people, and the
Government was vigorously attacked by
the Liberals and Peelites who had parted
from the Ministry. But an appeal to the
country gave Palmerston a decisive ma-
jority in April, 1857. The war was brought
to a conclusion in the course of 1858.
Almost the first news, which came on
the new Parliament as a bolt from the
blue, was that of the great outbreak in
India, the story of which has been dealt
with in the earlier section of this work
devoted to Indian history. The Mutiny
was inaugurated by the rising of the-
Sepoys at Mirat on May loth, 1857. Delhi
was seized in the name of a restored Mogul
Empire ; a British force concentrated on
the famous Ridge, which it occupied for the,
siege of the great city, held by forces-
enormously superior in point of numbers.
Above Allahabad, the whole Ganges
basin was in the hands of the mutineers,
and the British were soon shut up in Cawn-
pore or the Lucknow Residency, with the
4991
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
exception of the force on the ridge before
Delhi and of a considerable number who
took refuge at Agra. The loyalty and dip-
lomacy of Sindhia and his minister Dinkar
Rao restrained the Gwalior army from
marching to Delhi. In September, Delhi
was stormed and Lucknow was reinforced
by the operations of Havelock and Out ram.
From that time, though Sindhia was
no longer able to hold back the Gwalior
regiments, the tide turned. Troops
were arriving from England ; a contin-
gent on its w^ay to the Chinese war
was detained for the more serious affair.
In November, Sir Colin Campbell relieved
the defenders of the Lucknow Residency ;
ni the spring, the British armies were
amend the conspiracy laws; but the.
French had assumed an attitude of such
amazing and bombastic truculence that
the Conspiracy to Murder Bill was regarded
as a pusillanimous submission to foreign
insolence — a curious charge against the Min-
ister who was accustomed to being himself
accused of arrogance rather than submis-
siveness in foreign affairs, mainly to be
explained by the tenacious pride with which
the nation clung to its claim of oftering
an asylum to refugees from oppression.
The Bill was defeated, the Government
resigned, and again Lord Derby took
office, though his party was in a minority
in the House of Commons. Under such
circumstances, the Ministry had no choice
QUEEN VICTORIA RECEIVING HEROES OF
From tlic paintinj^ by Si
everywhere triumphant, and in the summer
the last efforts of the revolt were crushed.
The Mutiny brought home to the British
mind the necessity for terminating the
unique and anomalous dual control, by the
East India Company and Parliament, of
the government of India. It was time that
the Crown should assume the exclusive
responsibility, and in February, 1858,
Palmerston brought in a Bill for that
purpose. By a curious accident, he was
turned out of office before the Bill could be
passed. An Italian named Orsini flung
bombs under the carriage of Napoleon in
January ; it turned out that the plot had
been hatched and the bombs manufactured
in England. The Government proposed to
4992
THE CRIMEA AT BUCKINGHAM PALACE
r John Gilbert, R.A.
but to seek for compromises with the
Opposition. Lord Derby's India Bill,
when introduced, was obviously not
destined to pass, and the Act which finall}'
ended the career of the East India Com-
pany, and transferred the Indian govern-
ment to the Crown, was virtually the work
of all parties combining to arrive at a
settlement irrespective of party. Lord
Canning, the Governor-General, who had
remained at the helm throughout the
Mutiny, inaugurated the new regime as the
first Viceroy. In the same summer, the
Lords were persuaded to pass a Bill
removing the political disabilities under
which the Jews still laboured, a principle
repeatedly approved by the Commons
THE OPERA
LONDON
THE RULERS OF BRITAIN AND OF FRANCE
Arising: out of their common interests in the war against Russia, a kindly feeling sprang up between Britain and
France, the rulers of the two countries exchanging visits of friendship. On April 16th, 1S.?5, the Emperor
Napoleon III. and the Empress Eugc'nie arrived in England, visiting Queen Victoria at Windsor Castle, and in
the above picture they are shown with the Queen and the Prince Consort at the Royal Italian Opera on April 1 )th.
QUEEN VICTORIA AND THE PRINCE CONSORT VISITING THE TUILERIES
In the August following the visit of the French Emperor and Empress to England, Queen Victoria and the Prince
Consort visited France. In this picture the British queen and her husband are seen at the Tuilenes, the tormer
in the foreground on the arm of Napoleon with Prince Albert and the Empress Eugenie immediately behind.
THE ENTENTE CORDIALE IN THE MIDDLE OF LAST CENTURY
4993
QUEEN VICTORIA DISTRIBUTING THE CRIMEAN MEDALS AT THE HORSE GUARDS
The first distribution of V.C. medals is represented in the above picture, this event taking place on May ISth, ls56 ;
the queen is shown in the act of presenting a medal to Sir Thomas Troubridge, who had lost both his feet in action.
and rejected by the Peers during the
preceding twenty-five years. Electoral
Reform — that is, extension of the fran-
chise— was a subject in which the
electorate and the unenfranchised masses
were more interested than Ministers.
Russell and a considerable section of
the Liberals were becoming more strongly
disposed in that 'direction, but the
Palmerstonians preferred to keep the
question shelved as long as possible.
Disraeli, however, now saw a possibility of
securing success to the conservative policy
by a measure professedly democratic, but
safeguarded by devices which, in the eyes
of the Liberals, were intended to secure
political preponderance for conservative
influences. Defeated on a resolution intro-
duced by Russell, Lord Derby appealed to
the country ; the party returned some-
what strengthened in numbers, but still in
a minority, and the minority gave way
to a new Palmerston administration, with
Russell at the Foreign Office, the two
; 1 -' r.
THE QUEEN AND PRINCE ALBERT VISITING BROMPTON HOSPITAL AT CHATHAM. IN l^r>rt
4994
THE UNITED KINGDOM IN THE MID-VICTORIAN ERA
liberal leaders having recognised the need
of co-operation. Gladstone returned to
the Exchequer.
Palmerston remained at the head of the
government till his death in 1865. It was
inevitable that a Franchise BiU should be
introduced, but it aroused no enthusiasm
in Parliament or in the country, and
•'EASTWARD HO!" THE DEPARTURE OF BRITISH TROOPS FOR INDIA
When the Indian Mutiny broke out in 1S57, the British army in India was not sufficiently
strong adequately to cope with the rising, and reinforcements were speedily despatched
from England. Farewell scenes are graphically represented in the above picture.
From the painting by Hcnrj- O'Neill, A.R.A.
Russell, who introduced it, found an
excuse for its withdrawal, after which, by
common consent, reform was shelved for
the lifetime of the Prime Minister. There
was little legislation during Palmerston's
supremacy, and domestic interest centred
mainly in the systematic extension of
Free Trade principles, in the Budgets, and
in the commercial treaty with France,
negotiated by Richard Cobden, which
was ratified in i860.
The Budget of that year reduced the
number of articles subject to customs
duties from 419 to 48, the primary object
being the removal of preferential and pro-
tective duties. Financial questions, how-
ever, narrowly
missed producing
a serious constitu-
tional crisis. It
was proposed in
1859 to remove
the tax upon
paper. Being in-
troduced in a Bill
separate from the
Budget, the Lords
claimed the right
of rejecting the
proposal. The
Commons claimed
that . the Lords
could not reject
separately any
part of the
general financial
scheme. The
action of the
Lords in rejecting
the Bill was in
accordance with
the law, but not
with the custom
of the Constitu-
tion. The crisis
was averted,
partly by a series
of resolutions in,
the Commons,
which pointed to
the inclusion of
such proposals in
the Budget as
security against
the repetition of
such action by the
Lords, and partly
by the inclusion of
the particular pro-
posal in the Budget of the following year.
These years, however, were marked by
comphcations in the affairs of other
nations which made the task of steering
Great Britain successfully a difficult and
delicate one. The sympathies of the country
and of the Government were with the
Italians in their struggle for hberty from
4f)95
499^.
490/
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
the Austrian yoke, with Poland in her
resistance to Russia, with Denmark in her
hopeless contest with Prussia and Austria
over Schleswig-Holstein. In the first case,
the moral support of Great Britain was of
considerable value to Victor Emmanuel ;
in the other two, the action of the Govern-
ment had the unfortunate appearance of
exciting an expectation of material sup-
port which they lacked the courage to
carry into action.
But it was the civil war in America which
most seriously threatened to involve this
country. There were two grave causes of
system the more easily because it had no
use for slave-labour itself, and became
determined to abolish slavery. Hence the
Southern States asserted the right to
secede from a confederation which they
had entered voluntarily ; the North held
that the union was federal, indissoluble,
and that secession was rebellion.
In 1861, a group of the Southern States
formed themselves into a confederation
claiming independence, under their own
president, and the great struggle began.
The sympathies of the British were
sharply divided. Toryism had a fellow
QUEEN VICTORIA WITH PRINCE ALBERT AND THEIR CHILDREN
disagreement between the Northern and
the Southern States of the Union, which
issued in a third, the gravest of all. The
Northern States were manufacturing com-
munities, and determined to protect their
manufactures by the exclusion of foreign
competition. The Southern States, whose
products were not exposed to competition,
objected to the protectionist policy which
raised prices for the consumer. The
Southern States hved by the production
of crops cultivated by slave labour ; the
North was able to realise the iniquity of the
4998
feeling for the gentry of the South.
Liberalism held slavery in horror, yet the
general principles of political freedom
were on the side of the right of secession.
The Government was firm in its resolution
not to intervene, not to declare itself on
either side ; but it was obliged to com-
mit itself on the question whether the
Southerners were to be treated as lawful
belligerents or as rebels. The position
adopted was that the effective strength
of the Southern States made them de facto
belligerents, and that their recognition
m^ Jiiiiii -■'->"- ■ f
^"*t
w
c
X
H
J^»
g i
3 ^
<J 5
a
W 2
U (1.
2
5
><
CQ
Q
Q
U
H
H
<
4999
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
having been negligent of set purpose.
At the same time, greatly as the South
benefited by the resolute impartiality of
Great Britain, it felt itself hardly less
bitterly aggrieved thereby than the North,
since it appeared almost certain that British
as such implied no judgment on the merits
of the dispute ; on the other hand, the
time had not yet come when their claim
lor recognition as a separate nation could
be officially acknowledged. The justice
:ind impartiahty of this attitude proved
acceptable neither
to North nor to
South. In 1862
Great Britain was
iiU but compelled
to commence hos-
tilities by ,- the
action of the'
North in seizing
the persons of two
commissioners
from the South on
board a British
vessel, the Trent,
on which they had
embarked in the
neutral port of
Havanna. The
tardy recognition
of this violation of
international law
and the liberation
of the commis-
sioners averted
hostilities. Rela-
tions were, more-
over, perpetually
strained to a high
pitch of intensity
by, the action of
the Alabama and
other cruisers of
the same type in
the Confederate
service. These
were vessels con-
structed in British
dockyards, which
sailed from British
ports, professedly
on harmless voy-
ages, but with the
actual intent of political riots in hyde park
being handed over "^^e defeat of the Reform Bill in 1866 gave rise to a considerable amount of feeling in the
')t «;omp annnintpH country. A mass meeting in favour of reform was shut out of Hyde Park, and as a protest,
^^ „ the mob broke down the railings, "thereby convincing most of those who had hitherto
JpOl to l^yOn- been incredulous that the demand for the franchise was not a mere demagogic figment."
federate ofhcers.
who proceeded to employ them for the
destruction of the Federal mercantile
marine. Since the British Government
had failed to display sufficient vigilance in
detaining such craft, notably the Alabama,
they were regarded by the North as
5000
intervention would have decisively ter-
minated the war in favour of the Con-
federates. Nothing could have been more
creditable to the labouring population of
the United Kingdom than the dogged
determination with which they supported
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
the Government, from the conviction that
the anti-slavery cause was the cause of
righteousness, in spite of
the terrible sufferings
entailed by the cotton
famine, resulting from
the Northern blockade of
the Southern ports. No
nobler example of self-
"restraint has been re-
corded than that of the
Lancashire operatives in
those cruel times ; nor
has the general public
ever displayed its free-
handed generosity more
wisely and more gener-
ously than in the efforts
then made for the relief
of the distress prevail-
ing. The war was
brought to an end with
the complete success of
the North, in the spring
of 1865. In the summer,
Parliament was dis-
solved, having sat for six years, but no
immediate effect was produced on the
That came with the death
octogenarian Premier in October.
LORD TENNYSON
Successor to Wordsworth as Poet-Laureate,
Tennyson remained until his death, in 1S92,
the supreme English poet, challenged only by
Browning, beside whom he sleeps in West-
minster Abbey. In 1SS4 he received a peerage.
Government.
of the
The democratic move-
ment, which had been
held in check 1 y
general consent until h s
demise, at once became
active. At the same lime,
Irish disconient assumed
a somewhat more
threatening shape, owin^
to the formation of the
" Fenian Brotherhood '
by the physical - force
party, whose strength lay
amongst the crowds of
emigrants who had been
driven to America, ar.d
had there been learning
practical lessons of war-
fare in the ranks of
Federal and Confederate
armies alike. The Fenians
set themselves to the
secret organisation of
armed rebellion ; and the
detection of the conspiracy and arrest of
its leaders revealed a state of affairs
IHE FENIAN OUTKAGHS ; AriACK ON THE PRISON VAN Al MANCHESTER
Discontent in Ir^and assumed a serious aspect towards the end of 1865, the formation of the " Fenian Brotherhood "
by the physical-force party indicating the length to which the agitators were prepared to go. The Fenians set
themselves to the secret organisation of armed rebe.lion, as well as opposing the authorities in England, the
above picture showing an armed attack on the Manchester prison van for the liberation of Fenian prisoners.
5002
THE GREAT EASTERN RECOVERING THE LOST ATLANTIC CABLE
The largest vessel in existence when built in London in 1S54-7. the Great Eastern, proved of great service in layings
the Atlantic cables in 1865, and recovered them, after being lost, in 1866; but the vessel was otherwise a failure.
the picture by R. Dudley
which induced the Government to go so
far as to suspend the Habeas Corpus Act
in Ireland. The Reform Act of 1832 had
aboUshed the old system of rotten boroughs,
which placed the control of half the
constituencies in the country in the
hands of a few families ; it
had given representation
to the great towns, which
had grown up mainly in the
course of the industrial
revolution ; it had applied
uniformity to the methods
of election ; it had trans-
ferred the preponderance
of political power from
the landed to the com-
mercial interests ; inci-
dentally it had trans-
formed the House of
Lords into a conserva-
tive organisation. But its
high franchise had still
completely excluded the
labouring classes from the
electorate. For a time,
those classes had shown
signs of a tendency to
'oelieve that the vote
would be a panacea for
all ills, but the wave of industrial pro-
sperity which attended the repeal of the
Corn Laws, and the development of Free
Trade, removed the more pressing incite-
ments to the demand for political power ;
•'^'.
and Gladstone, now a convinced advocate
of franchise extension, regarded it mainly
as a measure of justice to which it would
be wise to give effect while it was still not
the subject of political passion. At the
general election Disraeli had made it
■ plain that the question
would be forced to the
front ; and accordingly
Lord Russell, Palmerston's
successor in office, intro-
duced a Reform Bill. Its
:,i^-. moderation, however — it
'^ would have added less
than half a million voters
to the electorate — pre-
vented it from exciting
enthusiasm, and did not
prevent it from exciting
the determined opposition
of the anti - democratic
section
party
historic
lam."
ROBERT BROWNING
One of the two great poets of the Victorian
era. Browning enriched our literature with
poetic thought of enduring value, his crown-
ing achievement, the " Ring and the Book,"
appearing in 1869. In ls46 ^- --■■-■■■"'
of the Liberal
who formed the
" Cave of Adul-
The Adullamites,
in conjunction with the
Conservatives, all but
defeated the Bill on Ihe
second reading ; when
„r^ » ... -- he married
Elizabeth Barrett, also a poet of genms. they Carried an amend
ment against the Government in Com-
mittee, the Ministry resigned. For the
third time the Conservatives took office,
with Lord Derby as their chief and Disraeli
as their leader, while the party itself formed
5003
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
a minority in the House of Commons.
The defeat of the Liberal Bill roused a
fervour in the country which had not
attended its introduction. A mass meet-
ing in favour of reform was shut out of
Hyde Park, whereupon the mob broke
down the raihngs, thereby convincing
most of those who had hitherto been
incredulous that the demand
for the franchise was not a
The Reform
Bill
„ . . mere demagogic figment. The
impression thus produced was
confirmed by a series of demonstrations
during the? latter part of 1866, and a Re-
form Bill was announced as a part of
Disraeli's programme for 1867.
His first intention of proceeding by
resolution — that is, by obtaining the
assent of the House to a series of principles
on which the actual Bill was then to be
constructed — was abandoned ; the Cabinet
was split on the moderate Bill which
Disraeli then proposed to introduce, and
the secession of Lord Cranborne (after-
wards Lord Salisbury) and others decided
Disraeli to adopt a much more audacious
scheme which would capture support from
the Opposition. He had hoped to be
able to introduce sundry " fancy fran-
chises," and other securities to prevent a
complete subversion of the balance of
])olitical power, but it soon became clear
that if the Bill was to pass the Govern-
ment would have to accede with very little
reservation to the amendments demanded
by the Liberals. The result was that in
the boroughs the franchise was granted
to all householders and to ten-pound
lodgers, with a twelve-pound occupation
franchise in the counties ; the " fancy
franchises " disappeared. The Act, in-
deed, went very much further than the
Liberal leaders had proposed to go in their
own Bill ; it definitely transformed the
House of Commons into a democratic
body, though the change had still to be
completed by the assimilation of the
_. ,. county franchise to that of the
Uisraeli at , ■ 1 t-i
„ . boroughs. 1 he same year was
f h' P rendered notable in the colonial
history of the Empire by the
British North America Act, which even-
tually united the British Colonies in
North America, with the exception of
Newfoundland, in the federation which
bears the name of the Dominion of
Canada. The condikct of King Theodore
of Abyssinia, who thought himself justified
in seizing a number of British subjects,
5004
confining them at Magdala, and refusing
to pay any attention to representations
demanding their liberation, necessitated
the completely successful Abyssinian ex-
pedition, under the command of Lord
Napier, in the spring of the following
year, 1868. By this time Lord Derby had
withdrawn, leaving Disraeli, long the actual
chief of the party, as its avowed head.
Renewed Fenian disturbances empha-
sised the unsatisfactory condition of Ire--
land, which was destined to occupy an
exceedingly prominent position in the
domestic politics of the succeeding period.
In June it was clear that the Ministry was
practically powerless in the face of the
Opposition, and in the autumn Disraeli
appealed to the new electorate. The result
was that the first democratic Parliament
of the United Kingdom returned the
Liberals to power under Gladstone's
leadership, with a decisive majority. In
English history the inauguration of de-
mocracy forms an epoch, which we must
respect for clearness sake as a dividing
line ; but as the dividing line in Conti-
nental history is drawn by the German
- overthrow of France and the
I ^. .i^*"! . establishment of the German
Intellectual t- • j j.\ r> ■
„ ^ Empire under the Prussian
Movements , ^ i .
hegemony, we may here note
that Great Britain abstained from taking
any active part in those important events,
industrial movements are dealt with in
a separate section. But in the intellec-
tual movement of the period now under
review we have to note the succession to
Wordsworth as Poet Laureate of Alfred
Tennyson, who held his supreme position
unchallenged for the rest of his life, save
in the eyes of those who recognised a
still mightier genius in Robert Browning,
whose crowning achievement, the " Ring
and the Book," appeared in 1869. But
the world at large was more deeply affected
by another inffuence which had its birth
in England. Simultaneously, Charles
Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace de-
veloped their conception, which will al-
ways be associated with the name of the
former, of the evolution of species. That
conception filled the minds of the orthodox
with alarm, and called for an almost
fundamental readjustment of ideas on the
relations between " Nature, Man, and
God," which a later generation has found
to be in nowise subversive of the essential
doctrines of Christianity.
Arthur D. Innes
THE
RE-MAKING
OF
EUROPE
THE
CONSOLIDA-
TION OF
ITHE POWERS II
TURKEY AFTER THE CRIMEAN WAR
ADJUSTMENT OF THE EASTERN QUESTION
'T'HE year of revolutions, 1848, which
^ shook Western Europe with its con-
ceptions of freedom, had left Turkey almost
untouched. Shekib Effendi held a formal
conference with Pope Pius IX., in
Rome in 1848, under commission from the
Sultan, who would have been glad to
hand over to the Pope the protectorate
of the CathoUcs in the East ; the Holy
Father had sent out the Archbishop
Ferrieri with an appeal to the Oriental
communities, which, however, did not end
in that union which the Porte and the
Pope had hoped for.
The revolt of the Boyars and of the
Polish fugitives in Moldavia and Wallachia
speedily resulted in the strengthening
of the hospodar Michael Sturdza, and
in the appointment of Kantakuzen in
place of Bibeskos. The Hungarian rising,
on which the Porte had staked its hopes
for the infliction of a blow on Austria,
came to nothing, on the capitu-
ofthc lation of Vilagos. On the other
^ ^. ,. hand, the Sultan, encouraged
Catholics ^ .u t -o ?■ \
by the presence of a British
fleet in the Dardanelles, declined to
hand over the Hungarian fugitives.
Austria and Hungary thereupon
avenged themselves by taking advantage
of a claim for damages which France had
now set up. Two parties, the Cathohcs
and the Greeks, were quarrelling about the
Holy Places in Palestine. The powers
protecting the Catholics were invariably
France or the Pope, while the Greeks had
been under a Russian protectorate since
1720. It was to deliver these Holy
Places from the hands of the Moslems
that the Crusades had been undertaken.
Saladin had permitted the Latin clergy
to perform service in the Church of the
Holy Sepulchre in 1187, while Robert of
Anjou had purchased the Holy Places
from the caliph in 1342.
After the conquest of the Holy City by
Sultan Selim, 1517, the Georgians secured
part of Golgotha, all the other remaining
places being reserved expressly to the Sultan
in 1558. The title was further confiimed by
the capitulations of France with the Sul-
tans in 1535, 1621, 1629, and 1740. Violent
outbreaks of jealousy took place between
the Armenians, Greeks, and Catholics
concerning these marks of
The Ho y favour and especially concern-
. ^'*".*^ ""^ ing the possession of the Holy
m Dispute ggp^j^^j^^-g In 1808 the Greeks,
after the Church of the Holy Sepulchre
had been destroyed by fire, actually
reduced the tombs of Godfrey of Bouillon
and Baldwin to ruins. The Greeks,
aided by Russian money, restored the
Church of the Holy Sepulchre ; mean-
while the Latins, whose zeal was sup-
ported by France, gained possession of
two chapels in 1820.
In the year 1850 the Pope and the
Catholic Patriarch of Jerusalem applied
first to France, and joined France in a
further application to the Porte, to secure
protection against the Greeks. Fear of
Russia induced the Porte to decide almost
entirely in favour of the Greeks, and the
only concession made to the Catholics was
the joint use of a church door in Bethlehem.
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 of
France by the Revolution. The presiden-
tial chair, which had gained security and
permanence from the coup d'etat of
December 2nd, 1851, was made a new
imperial throne within the space of a year
by the adroit and not wholly untalented
heir to the great name of Bona-
parte. On January 14th, 1852,
he had brought out a constitu ■
tion to give France a breathing
space, exhausted as she was by the pas-
sionate 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 im-
perial government was there in detail : a
5005
A New
Throne in
France
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
Napoleon IIL
Emperor
of France
legislativ^e body elected by national suff-
rage ; a senate to guarantee the constitu-
tional legality of legislation ; an " appeal
to the people " on every proposal which
could be construed as an alteration of the
constitution ; a strong and wise executive
to conduct state business,
whose " resolutions "were
examined in camera, under-
taking the preparation and
execution of everything which could con-
duce to the Vv'elfare 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
7,840,000 votes in the
affirmative, while 254,000
dissentients appeared
merely as a protest on be-
half of the right of indepen-
dent judgment. On Decem-
ber 2nd, 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
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.
Nothing but a brilliant foreign policy
was now lacking to secure the permanence
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 sohcit.
For this end it would have been the most
natural pnlicv to interest himself in the
. I flairs of Italy, considering
that he had old connections
with the Carbonari, with
]\Iazzini, and with Gari-
l>aldi. But it so happened
that the Tsar 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
primarily responsible for
the differences which arose
in 1853 between Britain
and Russia. But there can
be no doubt that he seized
PRINCE MENSCHiKOFF the opportunity afforded
also of the respect he had He was in charge of the Russian forces ^^y ^]^g quarrel of these
1 r J i- t at the battles of the Alma and Inkerman, . -n j i • j
shown for considerations of ,„d also took part in the defence of Sebas: two Powcrs and hurried
religion and armed force, topoi, but. in consequence of iiiness, he the British Government into
Unfortunately the new was recalled in isso and died in 1S69. an aggressive line of policy
monarch could not gain time to con- which, however welcome to the electorates
vince other Powers of his equality with of British constituencies was viewed 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 20th, 1808,
he was nearly forty-five years of age, and
dared not risk the failure of a courtship
which might expose him to the general
sympathy or ridicule. Without delay he
therefore married, on.January ^gth, 1853,
the beautiful. Countess Eugenie of Teba,
of the noble Spanish House of Guzman,
who was then twenty-six years of age.
She was eminently capable, not only of
5006
misgiving by many British statesmen, and
was destined to be of little advantage to
any power but the Second Empire.
The Tsar Nicholas had for a long time
past regarded the partition of the Turkish
Empire in favour of Russia as a step for
^. _ , which the European situation
The Tsar s n ■. j
was now ripe. Britain and
_ , Austria were the Powers whose
on Turkey . , ^ ^ u • 1
interests were most obviously
threatened by such a scheme. But he
thought that Austria could be disre-
garded if the assent .of Britain was
secured ; and as early as 1844 he had
sounded the British Government, suggest-
ing that, in the event of partition, an
TURKEY AFTER THE CRIMEAN WAR
understanding between that Power and
Russia might be formulated with equal
advantage to both. His overtures had
met with no definite reply ; but he appears
to have assumed that Britain would not
stand in his way. It was not till 1854.
was increased by the annoyance which
Napoleon felt at the arrogant demeanour
of the Russian court towards himself.
But Napoleon, busied as he was at
the moment with preparing for the
re-establishment of the empire, could not
afford to push his
resistance to ex-
tremes, and it
would have been
the wisest course
^ for Nicholas to
make sure of .the
prey which he had
m view by occupy-
ing the Danube
principalities in
force, before
Austria and Prus-
sia 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
vmexpected sub-
missiveness of the
Sublime Porte,
when it agreed to
guarantee the
Greek Christians
of the Holy Land
in the possession of
the coveted privi-
leges. New pre-
texts for aggres-
sion were, how-
ever, very easily
discovered ; and
on May nth, 1853,
Prince Menschikoff
despatched an ulti-
matum, demand-
ing for Russia a
protectorate over
the fourteen
millions of Greek
Christians who in-
THE SHRINE OF THE HOLY SEPULCHRE AT JERUSALEM habited the VariouS
In 1S08 the Church of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem, one of the shrines which the ponntrics Under
Crusaders had endeavoured to wrest from the hands of the Mohammedans, was destroyed r^ . c u
by fire, and the Greeks, with the aid of Russian money, had the sanctuary restored. TurklSll rulC. bUO-
mission to such a demand was equivalent
to accepting a partition of the Turkish
however, that, feeling secure from further
insurrections in Poland, he unmasked his
batteries against the Porte. The tempta-
tion to reassert the French protectorate
over the Latin Christians of the East
dominions between Russia and the Sultan.
Even without allies the Sultan might be
expected to make a stand ; and allies were
5007
5008
TURKEY AFTER THE CRIMEAN WAR
forthcoming. Though Napoleon had been
first in the field against Russia, it was
h-om Great Britain that Abd ul-Mejid
now received the strongest encourage-
ment. Some months before the ultima-
tum Nicholas had con-
fessed his cherished object
to the British ambassa-
dor ; and though the
shock of this disclosure
had been tempered by a
proposal that Britain
should take Egypt and
Crete as her share of the
spoil, the British Govern-
ment was clear that, in
one way or another, the
integrity of the Turkish
Empire must be secured.
Lord Stratford de
Redcliffe, the British
representative at Con-
stantinople, advised that
no concession whatever
should be made to Russia.
The advice was taken.
Although the Tsar had
probably not counted
upon war as a serious
probabilitv, nothing now
remained but to face the ^, Alexander ii. of Russia Hungarian rebelhon. No
- , . The son of Tsar Nicholas I., he succeeded to ■, .„„j„ ^„ V,;^
consequences of his pre- the throne of Russia on March ind, 1S55. advaucc was made on his
cipitation, to recall his The emancipation of 23,000,000 serfs in 1S61, part towards an under-
ambassador and to send chiefly due to the Tsar's own efiforts, was the standing with Austria
his troops into the Danube Srreatest achievement of Alexanders reign, ^^^^-j ^^^ ^^^ WeStem
the restoration of the rights of Russia.''
Unprejiarcd 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' ven-
tured to take the field
against the combined
forces of the two Eastern
emperors. But the Tsar
overrated his own powers
and underrated the
capacity of the Sultan for
resistance. All that
Nicho'^as desired from
Austria was neutraUty ;
and this he thought that
he might confidently
expect after the signal
service which Russian
armies had rendered in
the suppression of the
principalities. They were invaded on July
2nd, 1853, the Tsar protesting " that it
was not his intention to commence war,
but to have "such security as would ensure
Powers had appeared on the scene. This
happened immediately after the Black
Sea squadron af the Turkish fleet had.
been destroyed in the harbour of Sinope by
VIEW OF KARS FROM THE EAST, SHOWING THE FORTRESS, ABOUT THE YEAR ISIO
5009
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
Admiral Nakimoff on November 30th, 1853.
The allied French and British fleets had
been in the Bosphoms for a month past
with the object of protecting Constanti-
nople ; now, at the suggestion of Napoleon,
they entered the Black Sea in January,
1854. At this juncture Prince Orloff was
despatched to Vienna, without authority
. , to offer any concessions, but
R^h'n ^ iTi<^i't^ly to appeal to Austrian
. ^J* . gratitude. It would have needed
to Russia "^ , . J- 1 ,
a statesman 01 unusual penetra-
tion to grasp the fact that Austrian in-
terests would really be served by a friendly
response to this dilatory and unskilfully
managed application ; and such a states-
man was not to be found at the Hofburg.
Schwarzenberg had died very suddenly on
April 5th, 1852, and his mantle had fallen
upon the shoulders of Count Buol, who
had no qualifications for his responsible
position beyond rigid orthodoxy and
some small experience acquired in a
subordinate capacity during the brief
ministry of Schwarzenberg. Buol con-
firmed his master, Francis Joseph, in the
erroneous idea that the interests of
Austria and Russia in the East were dia-
metrically opposed. Accordingly, Prince
Orloff was rebuffed, and Austria sup-
ported a demand for the evacuation of
the Danubian principalities issued by the
Western Powers on February 27th, 1854.
France and Britain were encouraged
by this measure of Austrian support
to conclude a defensive treaty with
the Sultan on March 12th and to
declare war on Russia on March 27th. In
the first stages of hostilities they had the
support of the Austrian forces. Austria
accepted from Turkey a formal commis-
sion to hold the Danube principalities
during the course of the war, and co-
operated with a Turkish army in compelling
the Russian troops to withdraw. And on
August 8th, Austria joined with France
and Britain in demanding that Russia
„ . T» • should abandon her protec-
Kussia Rejects , , o • j ^i
,, _ . torate over Servia and the
the Demands i-. , • t, •
, .. „ Danubian prmcipalities,
of the rowers , 1,11 r • , •
should allow tree navigation
of the Danube, sliould submit to a re-
vision 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
< ireek Christians of the Turkish dominions.
When these demands were rejected by
Russia, and the war passed into its second
5010
stage, with France and Britain acting on
the offensive in order to provide for the
})eace of the future by crippling Russian
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 Silesian frontier, and threaten-
ing to attack whichever of the two neigh-
bouring empires should refuse a peaceful
settlement. But the King of Prussia was
by no means inclined to make capital out
of Russian necessities, and turned a deaf
ear to the suggestions of Austria for an
armed coalition against the Tsar. The
result was that Austria, though she con-
cluded, in December, 1854, ^^ offensive
alliance with France and Britain, did not
take part in the Crimean War, the opera-
tions of which have already been described.
The Tsar Nicholas died, worn out with
chagrin and anxiety, on March 2nd, 1855.
His policy had cost Russia a loss which
^ . , was officially calculated at
Death of „ -^ j << /- ^
,. ^ 240,000 men ; and Generals
j^. . . January and February ' had
treated him even more severely
than the allied force which he had expected
them to annihilate. Negotiations were
opened by his son Alexander II., who
declined, however, to limit the Russian
fleet in the Black Sea. The allies, there-
fore, proceeded with the attack upon
Sebastopol ; and after a third unsuccessful
attack upon their position in the battle of
the Tchernaya, August i6th, 1855, the
Russians were compelled, by a fearful
cannonade and the loss of the Malakoff,
September 8th, which was stormed by ,
the French in the face of an appalling fire,
to evacuate the cit5^ The capture of the
Armenian fortress of Kars by General
Muravieff in November enabled the Rus-
sians to claim more moderate terms of
peace than would otherwise have been
possible. On February 6th, 1856, a
congress opened at Paris to settle the
Eastern question, and peace was signed
on March 30th 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 warships of
all nations, except that Russia and Turkey
were permitted to equij) not more than
TURKEY AFTER THE CRIMEAN WAR
ten light vessels apiece for coastguard
servnce, and that any state interested 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 Pow'ers, all of whom
renounced the right of inter-
fering in the internal affairs
of that state, nothing beyond
certain promises of reforms
being demanded from the
Sultan in return for these
favours. For the regulation
of the navigation of the
Danube a standing commis-
sion of the interested Powers
was appointed. Moldavia and
Wallachia were left in depend-
ence on the Sultan, but with
complete autonomy so far as
their internal administration
was concerned. They were
Suez, by way of Cairo ; shortly afterwards
the Suez Canal was begim. In Turkey
itself new roads were built, harbours
constructed, the postal service improved,
and telegraph lines erected, especially
after the events in Jidda and Lebanon
in 1858-1860. The dark
side of this onward move-
ment was the shattered
condition of the finances.
The financial embarrass-
ments of the Porte had
been steadily inci-easing since
1848. At that date there was
no foreign national debt :
there were about 200 millions
of small coin in circulation,
with an intrinsic value of 23^
per cent, of their face value.
There was a large amount of
uncontrolled and uncon-
trollable paper money, covered
MILOS OBRENOVITCH - .
to pay a tribute, and their Prince of Servia, he was driven out by uo reservc in bullion, and
foreign relations were to be ^ybs%qu\^nSre"caUedTnda"4rTis there were heavy arrears in
controlled by the Porte, death, m j^seo, his son Michael the way of salaries and army
Moldavia recovered that part "" acknowledged by the Porte,
of Bessarabia which had been taken Crimean
from her by Russia, 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 tlie status
quo ante. Turkey, henceforward received
into the concert of Europe, promised further
reforms in th
Hatti - humayun
of February
i8th, 1856, and
reaffirmed the
civic equality of
all her subjects.
The " hat " was
received witli
equal reluctance
by both Otto-
mans and Chris-
tians. Only since
1867 have
foreigners been
able to secure
a footing in
Turkey. If any
advance has
been made since these paper promises, it
is due not to the imperial firman but to
the increase of international communica-
tion, which brought the light of civilisation
to the very interior of Asia. In 1851 the
first railway was built from Alexandria to
ABD UL-AZIZ
Becoming sultan on the death of his brother, Abd ul-Mejid, in H(il,
Abdul-Aziz found himself confronted by difficult tasks, and for ten
years was guided by two very distinguished men, Fuad and Ali Pasha.
payments. During the
War, apart from an enormous
debt at home, a loan of £7,000,000
had been secured in England. Three
further loans . were effected in 1858,
i860, and 1861. Expenditure rose, in
consequence of the high rate of inte-
rest, to ;£i4. 000,000 annually, while the
revenue amounted to /q, 000,000 only.
In 1 86 1 the
tinancial strain
brought about a
c o m m e r c i a I
crisis; an attempt
was made to
meet the danger
by the issue of
1.250 millions of
piastres in paper
m o n e y, w i t h
forced circula-
tion, W h i 1 e
the upper
officials, bank
managers, and
contractors, such
as L a n g 1 a n d-
Dumonceau,
Eugene Bontoux, and Moritz Hirsch were
growing rich, the provinces were im-
poverished by the weight of taxation
and the unnecessary severity with which
the taxes were collected. The concert of
Europe had iguaranteed the first state loan.
5011
ALI PASHA
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE -WORLD
Rise to
Prosperity
Hence in 1882 originated the international
administration of the Turkish public
debt ; and this became the basis of the
claim for a general supervision of Turkish
affairs by Western Europe, which was
afterwards advanced in the case of
Armenia and Crete.
The Porte was thus unable to prevent
the appointment of Colonel Alexander
. , Johann Cusa, at the instance of
RoumaDia s y^^^^^^ ^^ pi-i^ce of Moldavia
on January 29th and of Walla-
chia on February 17th ; the
personal bond of union thus established
between these vassal states resulted in
their actual union as Roumania in 1861.
Cusa's despotic rule was overthrown on
February 22nd, 1866, and under the new
prince, Charles of Hohenzollern. the
country enjoyed a rapid rise to prosperity.
although the political in-
capacity of the people,
the licence granted by
the constitution, and the
immorality of the upper
classes did not conduce
to general ordei . In Ser-
via the Sultan's creature.
Alexander Karageorgc-
vitch, was forced to abdi-
cate on December 21st-
22nd, 1858, the family of
Obrenovitch was recalled.
and after the death of Milos
at the age of eighty, on
September 26th, i860,
Michael Obrenovitch II.
was elected and acknow-
and French consuls at Jidda, in Arabia,
and in i860 the atrocities of the Druses
against the Christians in Lebanon and
Damascus. To anticipate the interference
of the Powers, the Grand Vizir, Fuad
Pasha, one of the greatest statesmen that
Turkey has produced in the nineteenth
century, was sent to the spot with un-
limited powers ; but it was not until a
French army of occupation appeared that
the leaders in high places were brought
to punishment, and the province of
Lebanon was placed under a Christian
governor. The chief service performed by
Fuad was that of introducing the vilayet
constitution, the division of the Ottoman
Empire into sanjaks and kasas, by which
means he had already produced great
effects on the Danube provinces. Had it
not l^een tor
the opposition of the whole
company of the Old Turks,
the imams, mollas, miite-
velis, hojas, the dervishes,
and softas, in the mosques,
the schools, the monasteries,
and also the ccffee-houses.
he would possibly have
succeeded in cleansing the
great Augean stable of
Arabic slothlulness.
Upon the death of Abd
ul-Meiid. on June 26th,
1861, his brother, the new
ruler, Abd ul-Aziz, 1861-
1876, was confronted by
difficult tasks, and the ques-
tion arose as to his capacity
for dealing with them. The
GEORGE I. OF GKEECE
The despotic rule cf King Otto led, to
his deposition, and in lsG3 a new king
ledged by the Porte. Undei r^'sorof^he^K^^rof °DenmaA' good-natured Abd ul-Mejid
the revolutionary and From an eariy pi.otograph had generally allowed his
literary government of the " Omladina," Grand Vizirs to govern on his behalf, but
" youth," Servia became the scene of
Panslavonic movements, hostile to Hun-
gary, which spread to the soil of Bosnia
and Herzegovina, and even endangered
the absolute monarchy of Michael.
On March 6th, 1867, the last Turkish
troops were withdrawn from Servian soil,
in accordance w'th the agreements of Sep-
tember 4th, 1862, and March 3rd, 1867.
After the murder of the prince, on June
loth, 1868, the Skupshtina appointed the
last surviving Obrenovitch, Prince Milan,
then fourteen years of age, and passed the
new constitution on June 29th, 1869.
An additional consequence was that
Turkey became again involved in disputes
with the Western Powers ; in 1858 the
occasion was the murder o^ the British
5012
Programme
of the
New Sultac
after 1858, when the royal privy exchequer
had been declarjed bankrupt, he relapsed
into indolence and weak sensuality. Not-
withstanding the shattered state of the
empire, his brother and successor, Abd ul-
Aziz, promised a government of
peace, of retrenchment, and
reform. To the remote observer
he appeared a character of
proved strength, in the prime of life, and
inspired with a high enthusiasm for his lofty
calling. All these advantages, however,
were paralysed by the criminal manner in
which his education had been neglected.
The ruler of almost forty millions of subjects
was, at that time, scarcely able to write a
couple of lines in his own language. The
result was the failure of his first attempts
TURKEY AFTER THE CRIMEAN WAR
to bring some order into the administra-
tion and the finances, a failure which
greatly discouraged him. Until 1871 he
allowed himself to be guided by these two
distinguished men, Fuad and Ali Pasha ;
at the same time his want of firmness and
insight, his nerv'ous excitabilit}', which
often made him unaccountable for his
actions, and his senseless and continually
increasing extravagance led him, not only
to the arms of Ignatieff, " the father of
lies," but also to his own destruction.
In the commercial treaties of 1861-1862
gunpowder, salt, and tobacco had been
excepted from the general, remission of
duties. The salt tax, which was shortly
afterwards revived, was a lamentable
mistake. Sheep farmers suffered terribly
under it, for the lack of salt produced
fresh epidemics every year among the
flocks and destroyed the woollen trade and
the manufacture of carpets. The culture of
the olive and tobacco also suffered under
the new imposts, while internal trade was
hindered by octroi duties of every kind.
To these difhculties military
'!!'' t^k"^ and political comphcations
on the Throne jj j t- • h j
,_ were added. Especially dan-
of Greece , , 1 , ■ "^ .
gerous was the revolt m Crete,
in the spring of 1866 ; in 1863 Greece had
expelled the Bavarian prince and chosen
a new king, George I., formerly Prince
Wilhelm of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonder-
burg-Gliicksburg, and had received the
sev' en Ionian Islands from England in 1864 ;
she now supported her Cretan brothers
and co-religionists with money, armies,
troops, and ships, notwithstanding the
deplorable condition of her own finances.
Only when an ultimatum had been sent
to Greece did the Porte succeed in crushing
this costly revolt under pressure from
a conference of the Powers in i86g.
Meanwhile, Ismail Pasha of Egypt had
received, in 1866 and 1867, the title of
" Khedive" and the right to the direct
succession. Undisturbed by English
jealousy, the " viceroy " continued the
projects of his predecessor, especially the
construction of the Suez Canal, which had
been begun by Lesseps ; he increased his
army, built warships, appointed his own
Minister of Foreign Affairs in the person
of the Armenian Nubar Pasha, travelled in
Europe, and invited the courts of several
states to a brilliant opening of the panal
in 1869 ; by means of a personal visit to
Constantinople, by large presents and an
increase of tribute, he further secured in
1873 the sovereignty which he had assumed.
In the summer of 1867 the Sultan
appeared in Western Europe accompanied
TL r- J by Fuad ; it was the first occa-
Tour of ^^^^ ^^ Ottoman history that
.. e ,, a sultan had passed the fron-
thc Sultan. ,. , , . - . ^ r ^,
tiers ot his empire, not for the
purpose of making conquests, but to secure
the favour of his allies. He had already
visited the Khedive in Egypt in 1863.
Now he saw the World's Exhibition at
Paris, and that of London in June, 1863.
On July 24th he paid his respects to the
King and Queen of Prussia at Coblentz
and returned to Constantinople by way of
Vienna on August 7th. The success of Fuad
Pasha in inducing his master to take this
step was a masterpiece of diplomacy
and patriotism ; unfortunately, the
journey, which had cost enormous sums,
did not produce the hoped-for results.
On February nth, 1869, Fuad died, as
also did his noble friend and rival, Ali-, on
September 6th, 1871 ; thereupon, simul-
taneously with the fall of the Second Em-
pire, Ottoman politics entered upon that
path which for Napoleon III. began before
the walls of Sebastopol and ended at
Sedan. In place of the influence of the
Western Powers the eagles of Russia and
Prussia were heuceforward victorious on
the Bosphorus. Upon his death-bed Fuad
had written from Nizza on January 3rd,
1869, to Sultan Abd ul-Aziz : " The rapid
advance of our neighbours and the
incredible mistakes of our forefathers
have brought us into a dangerous position ;
if the threatening collision is to
Death-bed ^^ avoided, your Majesty must
Warning of ^^.^,^j^ ^^^^j^ ^^^^ ^^ ^^^^ j^.^^j
Fuad Pasha ^,^^^. ^^^^^j^ ^^^ j^^^j^ ^^^j^^ „
The committee of officials which travelled
through the provinces of the empire lu
1864 expressed this thought even more
bluntly : " The officials grow rich upon
the taxes, while the people suffer, working
like slaves under the whip. The income
of the taxes is divided among the officials
instead of flowing into the state exchequer."
5013
50T4
THE
RE-MAKING
OF
EUROPE
THE
CONSOLIDA-
TION OF THE
POWERS 111
THE SECOND EMPIRE OF FRANCE
THE ASCENDANCY OF NAPOLEON III.
AND THE WANING OF HIS STAR
CpOR a short time, the diplomatic results
^ of the Crimean war made Napoleon
III. appear to be the most powerful ruler
in Europe ; and he took upon himself
the part of a second Metternich. He con-
cealed his actual position and succeeded
in inspiring Europe with a wholly un-
founded belief in the strength of his
country and himself. The World's Exhibi-
.tion of 1855, and the congress which im-
mediately followed, restored Paris to her
former prestige as the centre of Europe.
Pilgrims flocked to the city of pleasure
and good taste, vipon the adornment of
which the Prefect of the Seine, Georges
Eugene Haussmann, was permitted to
expend ^^^4, 000, 000 per annum.
The sound governmental principle laid
down by the first Napoleon, of keeping
the fourth estate contented by high wages,
and thus securing its good behaviour and
, silent approval of an absolute
Napoleon s t r n 1 ii,
^ . , monarchy, was followed with
w . . , entire success lor the "moment
Mist ak c . ,, ,, , ,,
m the restored empire.
However, Napoleon IIT, like Metternich,
was penetrated with the conviction that the
ruler must of necessity be absolute. 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.
The "legislative body" should have
been made representative, and should have
been given control of the finances and
the right of initiating legislative proposals.
Such a change would have been far more
profitable to the heir who was born to
the emperor on March i6th, 1856, than the
illusory refinements which gained the
Second Empire the exaggerated approba-
tion of all the useless epicures in existence.
Russia seemed to have been reduced to
Russia
After
the War
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. Alex-
ander IL 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 Russian politicians
were correct in their opinion that Napoleon
was relieved to have come so w:ell out
of his enterprises in the East, and that
they need fear no immediate disturbance
from that quarter.
Napoleon HL showed himself worthy
of this confidence. With real diplomacy
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 Russian troops, she proved far less
accommodating than France, whose troo])s
had triumphantly entered Sebastopoi.
Austria had declined to repay the help
given her in Hungary ; 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 a])prehension of any
such difficulty. In a fit of mental weak-
ness which foreshadowed his ultimate
collapse, Frederic William IV. had con-
centrated his thoughts upon the possi-
bility of recovering his principality of
5015
Prussia
the Dust
5010
5017
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
Neuenberg. Success was denied him.
After the ill-timed attempt at revolution,
set on foot by the Prussian party in that
province on September 3rd, 1856, he was
forced to renounce definitely all claim to
the province on May 26th, 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
chd the majority of his con-
temporaries ; in a conversation
with Bismarck in March, 1857,
he had already secured
Prussia's neutrality in the
event of a war in Italy, and
had brought forward proposals
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 command-
ing position among the Great Powers, and
by acquiring military fame
when possible. Polignac had
already made a similar at-
tempt. 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, a%i
for once, at least, his at-
tempt proved successful.
Naturally the methods by
which Ministers had begun
war under the " old regime"
were impossible for a popular
emperor. Moreover, Napoleon
III. was no soldier ; he could
of more importance than the ^^^^^ cavour
programme of the union. ^ Uberal statesman, he laboured
With the incorporation of strenuously for the restoration of uot merely wave his sword,
Hanover and Holstein a Italian nationality, and at last, like his great uncle, and
northern sea-power was to '" isei he witnessed the sum- announce to Europe that
injiLiicin :5<.<x pw>vv-i vvu... momngof an Italian Parliament. . . ,, , - ^
be founded strong enough, m this or that dynasty must
alliance with France, to oppose England.
All that he asked in return was a " small
delimitation " 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 projects in this
direction, and sought to ex-
tract an undertaking from the
emperor that Prussia should
not be involved in any great
political combination. Great
Britain's resources were
strained to the utmost by
conflicts with Persia and
China, and by the outbreak of
the Indian Mutiny, and she
needed not only the goodwill
but the friendly offices of
France. • For these reasons
URBANO RATTAZZI
be deposed. Principles must be follovv^ed
out, modern ideas must be made trium-
phant ; at the least, the subject nation
must be made to believe that the individual
was merely the imj^lement of the great
forces of activity latent in peoples. He
had turned constitutionalism to excellent
account ; the struggles of the
Liberal paity to obtain a
share in the government had
tnded by raising him to the
throne. Another idea with
^\'hich modern Europe was
lully penetrated, that of
nationahty, might now be
exploited by an adroit states-
man. Napoleon neither ex-
aggerated nor underestimated
its potency ; only he had not
realised how deeply it was
rooted in the hearts of the
people. He knew that it was
the Tory Ministrv, which He was twice Prime Minister of constautlv founded upon folly
came into office in i858 upon akVe'^^^nt^'^^HeVV^^^^^ ^nd presumption, and that
the fall of Palmerston, could each occasion, resigning: through the participation of the pcoplc
not venture to disturb the ^^ °PP,"sition to Garibaldi.
good understanding with Napoleon, how-
ever strongl}^ inclined to this course.
Napoleon was thus free to confront the
apparently feasible task of increasing his
influence in Europe and conciliating the
goodwill of his subjects to the empire. It
5018
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
maintenance of the state ; hence he
inferred the value of the national idea as a
means of opening the struggle against
5019
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
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 downfall — 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 towards
Italy ; the dreams of
his youth returned upon
him in new guise and
lured him to make that
country the scene of his
exploits. It was, how-
ever, in the East, which
had already proved so
favourable
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 attempt of
the Italian. Orsini, and
his three associates, who
threw bombs at the
imperial couple in Paris
on January 14th, 1858,
wounding both of them
and 141 others, is said
to have materially con-
tributed 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
GARIBALDI
to NapO- The central figure in the battle for Italian independ
eon's enterprises, that ^^lit^l'^^^^^e'Z^riL'l^l!^^^^ that this outrage was
he was to make his first struggle tiii itaiy became a nation, with Victor merely the cxprcssion
,, , , ■ , -, Emmanuel as her king, and then retiring to Caprera. ,• x- i -i. j.
attempt to introduce ^ '^ of national excitement,
the principle of nationality into the concert A similar state of tension existed in the
Sardinian state, its dynasty and its
leader. Count Camillo Cavour, who had
been the Prime Minister of King Victor
Emmanuel since November 4th, 1852. At
first of moderate views,
he had joined the
Liberals under Urbano
Rattazzi and Giovanni
Lanza, and had entered
into relations with the
revolutionary party
throughout the penin-
sula. He had succeeded
111 inspiring their leaders
,/ with the conviction
that the movement for
Italian unity must pro-
ceed from Piedmont.
Vincenzo Gioberti,
Daniel Manin, and
Giuseppe Garibaldi
adopted Cavour's pro-
of Europe. Turkey was forced to recognise
■;he rights of the Roumanian nation, of
which she had hardly so much as heard
when the question arose of the regulation
of the government in
the Danube principali-
ties. She could offer no
opposition when
Moldavia and Wal-
lachia, each of which
could elect a hospodar
tributary to the Sultan,
united in their choice
of one and the same
personality. Colonel
Alexander Johann Cusa,
and appointed him their
prince at the beginning
of 1859 on January 29th
and February 17th.
By this date a new
rising .of the kingdom
of Sardinia against He ascended the throne of Sardinia in 1849, in gramme, and promised
\ , • 11 1 1 succession to his father, and in J8()l he was ° ^ -r i i i
Austria had ah'eady proclaimed King of Italy at Turin, reigning until SUpport if he WOUld
been arranged for the ^is death, which occurred in January, i,s78. organise a new rising
t'S^-^fi
VICTOR EMMANUEL II.
purpose of overthrowing the foreign
government in Italy. The victorious
progress of the national idea in the
Danube principalities, which not only
5020
against Austria. Cavour, with the king's
entire approval, now made this rising his
primary object ; he was confident that
Napoleon would not permit Austria to
"ioai
5022
50-JJ
THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON III. AT THE BATTLE OF SOLFERINO
From the painting by Mcissoiiier in lli'- \ -uvre
SOLFERINO: "ONE OF THE BLOODIEST CONFLICTS OF THE CENTURY'
On June 24th, 1859, was fought the battle of Solferino, " one of the bloodiest conflicts of the century. " Three hundred
thousand men, with nearly 8()(( guns, were opposed in the terrible fight, and while the French had no definite plan of
action, the Austrian leaders were unable to avoid a series of blunders. Rarely, indeed, have troops been handled
with so little generalship. In the battle, which ended in the defeat of the Austrians, no fewer than 12.000 Austrians
and nearly 17.000 allies were killed or wounded, and 9,000 Austrian prisoners were taken, as against 1,200 Italians.
From the painting by Jules Rigo in the Versailles Museum
5024
THE SECOND EMPIRE OF FRANCE
aggrandise herself by reducing Italy a
second time. The Austrian Government
played into his hands by declining to con-
tinue the arrangements for introducing an
entirely autonomous and
national form of admini-
stration into Lombardy
and Venice, and by the
severity with which the
aristocratic participants
in the Milan revolt of
February 6th, 1853, were
punished. Sardinia
sheltered the fugitives,
raised them to honour-
able 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
THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON
Sardinia at once began the task of mobili-
sation, for which preparation had been
already made by the construction of 250
miles of railway lines. On January ist,
1859, ^t the reception on
New Year's Day, Napoleon
plainly announced to the
Austrian ambassador,
Hiibner, his intention of
helping the Italian cause.
On January 17th, 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 Emmanuel. Even
then the war might have
been avoided had Austria
accepted British inter-
^"- vention and the condition
late in recognising that J"^ i^Mi-^KUK iN^^ui^nuiN im
•J - °,. . Many improvements in internal administrativju , x i j-
Lombardy and Venice- were carried out under Napoleon in., but the of mutual disarmament,
must be reconciled to the emperor's policy was one of vacillation, and Napolcon dared not pro-
Austrian supremacy by the story is told that Bismarck on one occasion y^j^e England, and in
, . ,, ^ ■ i r n described him as "an undetected incapable." r ■, r- a
relaxing the seventy of the
military occupation. Too late, again, was
the Archduke Maximilian, the enlightened
and popular brother of the emperor, des-
patched as viceroy to Milan,
to concentrate and strengthen
the Austrian party. Cavour
gave the Lombards no rest ;
by means of the national union
he spread the fire throughout
[taly, and continually incited
the Press against Austria.
The Austrian Government was
^^oon forced to recall its am-
bassador from Turin, and
Piedmont at once made the
counter move.
In July, 1858, Napoleon
cam.e to an agreement with
Cavour at Plombieres ; France
was to receive Savoy if
Sardinia acquired Lombardy
and Venice, while the county
of Nizza was to be the price Joseph napoleon
of the annexation of Parma 7^^ =°" °!Jr°!^^ "i^."*!'!!','!
formed Cavour on April
2oth that it was advisable to fall in with
the British proposals. But the Cabinet of
Vienna had in the meantime been so ill-ad-
vised 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 accept-
ing British intervention Cavour
evaded the necessity of reply-
ing to the ultimatum. France
declared that the crossing of
the Ticino by the Austrians
would be regarded as a casus
belli. The crossing was none
the less effected on April 30th,
1850. The war which then
began brought no special
honour to any of the com-
batants, though it materially
. -. . he married Clotilde, the daughter of
and Modena. Ihe House of victor Emmanuel, thus strength-
Savoy thus sacrificed its ening the community of interests altered the balance of power lu
ancestral territories to gain "between France and Sardinia. Europe. In the first place,
the paramountcy in Italy. The term
'Italy" then implied a federal state
which might include the Pope, the Grand
Duke of Tuscany, and the King of Naples.
the Austrian ai^my 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
5025
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
capacity had disappeared since the cam-
paigns of 1848 and 1849 ; leadership
and administrative energy were alike
sadly to seek. Half-trained and often
wholly uneducated officers were placed in
highly responsible positions. High birth,
irrespective of capacity, was a passport to
promotion ; a line presence and a kind
^^ ■ ^ . of dandified indifference to
The Austrian 1 i j j
. ^ , knowledge and experience
Army Corrupt ^ , j j.i
. ; . , were more esteemed than
and Incapable -.-, ■ . ^,
any military virtues. Ihere
was loud clashing of weapons, but general
ignorance as to their proper use. The
general staff was in an unusually benighted
condition ; there were few competent men
available, and these had no chance of
employment unless they belonged to one
of the groups and coteries which made the
distribution of offices their special business.
At the end of April, 1859, ^^^^ army in
Italy amounted to little more than 100,000
men, although Austria was said to have
at command 520,000 infantry, 60,000
cavalry, and 1,500 guns. The commander-
in-chief. Count Franz Gyulay, was an
honourable and fairly competent officer,
but no general. His chief of the staff,
Kuhnenfeld, had been sent to the seat 01
war from his professorial chair in the
military academy, and while he displayed
the highest ingenuity in the invention of
combinations, was unable to formulate or
execute any definite plan of campaign.
With his 100,000 troops Gyulay might
easily have overpowered the 70,000 Pied-
montese 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 Turin on April 26th,
1859 '' however, the Austrian leaders were
apprehensive of being outflanked 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 Ticino
and Sesia ; it was not until
May 23rd that he ventured
upon a reconnaissance to
Montebello, which produced no practical
result. The conflict at Palestro on May 30tli
deceived him as to Napoleon's real object ;
the latter was following the suggestions
of General Niel, and had resolved to
march round the Austrian right wing.
Garibaldi, with three or four thousand ill-
armed guerrilla troops, had crossed the
5026
Napoleon
and Garibaldi
in Battle
Ticino at the south of Lake Maggiore.
This route was followed by a division
under General 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 ist. He had learned
nothing of MacMahon's movement on
his left, and thought his right wing
sufficiently covered by the division of
Clam-Gallas, who was advancing from the
Tyrol. The battle on the Naviglio followed
on June 3rd, and Gyulay maintained
his position with 50,000 men against
the 58,000 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 flank at Magenta on June 4th, 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
Francis Joseph assumed the command
in person ; reinforcements to the number
^i . .1. of 140,000 troops had arrived.
The terrible , !, ■,■, ^ ■,
_ together with reserve and oc-
r c ir • cupation troops amounting to
of Solferino ^ , , ^ w-.i, .?
another 100,000. With these
the emperor determined to advance again
to the Chiese on the advice of General
Riedkirchen, who presided over the council
of war in association with the old quarter-
master-general Hess.
On June 24th 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 Benedek over the Piedmontese
on the right wing. Three hundred thou-
sand men with nearly 800 guns were
opposed on that day, and rarely have such
large masses of troops been handled in
an important battle with so little intelli-
gence 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
17,000 alhes were killed or wounded ; on
the other hand, 9,000 Austrian prisoners
were taken as against 1,200 Italians.
VICTOR EMMANUEL AND HIS STAFF AT THE BATTLE OF SAN MARTINO
From the painting hy Cassioli in the Palace of the Signory at Siena
THE HEIGHT OF THE CONFLICT AT SAN MARTINO ON JUNE 24th, 1859
While the main battle was in progress at Solferino, other sections of the combatants were engag-ed in a pro-
longed and deadly conflict near San Martino, and, ignorant of the fate which had overtaken the Austrian army,
Benedek, who had twice repulsed the Sardinians, continued the struggle for several hours after the issue had been
decided, retiring at last when a severe storm had broken out. This engagement was noteworthy for the conspicuous
part taken in it by Marshal Niel, "who distingruished himself above all the other leaders on the French side."
From the painting by Professor AdcmoUo in the Gallery of Modern P;untings at Florence
5027
r^-TS^-y
5028
THE SECOND EMPIRE OF FRANCE
The Emperor Napoleon had not yet
brought the campaign to a successful
<:onclusion ; his weakened army was now
confronted by the " Quadrilateral " formed
by the fortresses of Peschiera, Mantua.
Verona, and Legnago, which
was covered by 200,000 Aus-
trians. Moreover, Austria
could despatch reinforcements
more rapidly and in greater
numbers than France. Aus-
trian 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 general
neighbour's misfortunes ; he had even
transferred Bismarck from Frankfort to St.
Petersburg, to remove the influence upon
the Federation of one who was an avowed
opponent of Austrian paramountcy. But
he awaited some definite
i:)ro])osal from the Vienna
government. Six army corps
were in readiness to advance
upon the Rhine on receipt of
the order for mobilisation.
The Emperor Francis 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 agree-
ment did not apply to the
Lombard-Venetian kingdom ;
but he could not persuade
HESS himself to grant Prussia the"
since October, 1857, in con- Chief of the staff in the Austrian leadership of the narrower
•^ ' army under Field-Marshal Radet- . ^ , •. ,i
zky. General Hess shared with that UnlOn, Or CVCn tO permit the
great leader many of his victories, foundation of a North Gcr-
sequence of an affection of
the brain ; since October 7th,
1S58, his brother William had governed
Pi"ussia 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
citti'iTii*! to m;)1:r ca]iital out of his
man Union. A politician of the school
of Felix Schwarzenberg was not likely
to formulate a practicable compromise.
Austria thus threw away her chance of
defeating France and Bonapartism witlr
the help of her German brethren, and of
THE MEETING OF VICIOK EMMANUEL AND GARIBALDI AT SESSIA IN Vmi
5029
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
remaining a permanent and honoured
member of the Federation which had
endured a thousand years, merely because
she dechned 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
Em IroT's Emperor Napoleon was well
mperor s ^ware that the temper of the
Peace Terms t- i , • i • i 1 1
l^ederation was highly dan-
gerous to himself, and that Great Britain
and Prussia would approach him with offers
of intervention. He therefore seized the
opportunity of extricating himself by
proffering an armistice and a provisional
peace to the Emperor Francis 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 per-
mitted 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 foundation of an ItaHan
Federation ; the desire of the Emperor
Francis Joseph to retain Peschiera and
Mantua was granted. On these terms
the armistice was concluded on July 8th,
and the provisional Peace of \'illafranca
on July nth ; and Napoleon withdrew.
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 difficult}^ of continuing hostilities and
the impossibility of placing an army on
the Upper Rhine, 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 150,000
f th^'c* ^^^^ within a month from
° E^ ™'*^'"°'" ^^^ Rhine 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 Prus-
sians had been marching on Paris by
routes perfectly well known to him.
Although the Italian policy of Napoleon
III. seemed vague and contradictory, even
to his contemporaries, yet he was still in
5030
their eyes entitled to the credit of being
the creator of the kingdom of Italy ; so
that in the year i860 he stood at the zenith
of his influence in Europe. He successfully
concealed from public opinion how much
had really been done contrary to his wishes.
It was discovered that his character was
sphinx-like, and what was really weakness
seemed to be Machiavellian calculation.
Cavour, indeed, saw through him and
made full use of his vacillation ; and
years later the story was told how Bis-
marck, even in those days, called the French
emperor " une incapacite meconnue,"
an undetected incapable. But as against
this unauthenticated verdict we must re-
member that the emperor possessed a wide
range of intellectual interests and a keen
comprehension of the needs of his age. On
the other hand, he was lacking in firmness ;
natures like Cavour and Bismarck easily
thwarted his plans, and could lead him
tmvards the goal which they had in view.
Outside France, Napoleon's advocacy
of the national wishes of the smaller
nations of Europe made him popular.
When Moldavia and Wallachia, contrary
„ ,^ to the tenor of the treaties,
France as the 1 ■
-J, . - chose a common sovereign,
c II Ki .• Alexander Cusa, Napoleon
Small Nations t^t -^i j^i 1 1 x ti
III., With the help of Kussia,
induced the Great Powers to recognise him,
and protected the Roumanians when theii
principalities were united into a national
state. Cusa, it is true, was deposed by a
revolution on February 23rd, 1866. Prince
Charles of Hohenzollern, who was chosen
on April 20th, obtained for the youthful
state, by the force of his personality, com-
plete independence on May 21st, 1877, and
the title of a kingdom on March 26th, 1881.
It was Napoleon's purpose to perform
equal services for the Poles. The Tsar
Alexander II., in order to conciliate them,
placed, in June, 1862, their countryman,
the Marquess of Wielopolski, at the side
of his brother Constantine, the viceroy of
Poland. Wielopolski endeavoured to re-
concile his people to Russia, in order to
help his countrymen to win some share,
however modest, of self-government. But
the passionate fury of the Poles frustrated
his jiurpose, and he was unable to prevent
the outbreak of the insurrection in J anuary,
1863. He thereupon gave up his post,
and the Russian Government adopted the
sternest measures. - In February, Prussia
put the Russian emperor under an obliga-
tion by granting permission to Russian
503I
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
troops to follow Polish insurgents into
Prussian territory. This compact, it is
true, did not come into force, since it
aroused the indignation of Europe ; but
it showed the goodwill of Prussia, and
Bismarck, by this and other services in
the Polish question, won the Tsar over so
completely that Russia's neutrality was
„ ^ assured in the event of a
How Fii.iice 1 • /- x-'
„ quarrel m Germany. JSapo-
. ^ "p 1 ^^'^^ ^^^^' induced England,
and, after long hesitation,
Austria also, to tender to Russia a request
that the Poles should be granted a com-
plete amnesty ; but this was refused. The
support of Prussia was peculiai'ly valu-
able to Russia, because France, England,
and Austria resolved to intercede further
for the Poles. In a note of June 27th,
1863, the three Powers recommended
to Russia the grant of six demands, of
which the most important were a Polish
Parliament and a complete amnesty.
Palmerston supported these first steps of
Napoleon, in the interests of British rule
in India. In Poland he saw a wound to
Russian power, which he determined to
keep open. But he refused his assent to
more serious measures which Napoleon
]iressed on his consideration, because the
Polish question was not so important for
the British that they would embark on a
war for this sole reason ; still less could
Austria, since it was one of the participa-
tory Powers, follow Napoleon on his path.
The Tsar, however, was so enraged at
Austria's vacillating attitude that he
thereupon immediateh' proposed to King
William an alliance against France and
Austria. Bismarck advised his sovereign
not to accept the Tsar's proposal, because
in a war against France and Austria the
brunt of the burden would have devolved
on Prussia. Napoleon then proposed to
the Austrian emperor, through the Due
de Gramont, that he should cede Galicia
to Poland, which was to be emancipated,
_. „ '^ but in return take possession
The French r,, r-k u- ■ r^
_ . of the Danubian prmcipahties.
th L h Count Rechberg answered that
it was strange to suggest to
Austria to wage a war with Russia for
the purpose of losing a province, when it
was customary to draw the sword only to
win a fresh one. Napoleon thus saw him-
self completely left in the lurch, and
Russia suppressed the rebellion with
bloodshed and severity ; the Governor-
general of Wilna, Michael Muravjev, was
5032
conspicuous for the remorseless rigour
with which he exercised his power. It
would be a mistake to consider Napo-
leon as a sympathetic politician who, if
free to make his choice, would have
devoted the resources of his country to
the liberation of oppressed nations. His
selfishness was revealed in the expedition
against Mexico ; and there, too, he tried
to veil his intention by specious phrases.
He announced to the world that he
wished to strengthen the Latin races in
America as opposed to the Anglo-Saxons,
who were striving for the dominion over
the New World. He had originally started
on the expedition in concert with Great
Britain and Spain, in order to urge upon
the Mexican Government the pecuniary
claims of European creditors. The two
allies withdrew when !\Iexico conceded
their request ; the French general. Count
Lorencez, thereupon, in violation of the
treaty, seized the healthy tableland above
the fever-stricken coast of Vera Cruz, where
the French had landed. General Forey
then conquered the greatest part of the
land, and an assembly of notables, on July
. nth, 1863, elected as emperor
^ e amng ^j^^ Archduke ^Maximilian,
brother of Francis Joseph.
He long hesitated to accept
the crown, because Francis Joseph gave his
assent only on the terms that Maximilian
should first unconditionally renounce all
claim to the succession in Austria. After
Napoleon had promised, in the treaty of
March 12th, 1864, to leave at least 20. -^oo
French soldiers in the country until 1667,
the archduke finally consented to be em-
peror ; he did not shut his eyes to the fact
that monarchy would be slow to strike root
in the land. Napoleon, by placing the Em-
peror !\Iaximilian on the throne, pursued
his object of gradually withdrawing from
the Mexican affair, since the United States
protested against the continuance of the
French in Mexico. The reader is referred
to a later volume for the history of the way
in which Napoleon deserted the unhappy
emperor, and incurred a partial respon-
sibility for his execution at Queretaro.
The restless ambition of Napoleon's
policy aroused universal distrust in
Europe. When the war of 1866 broke out,
after his failures in the Polish and Mexican
affair, his star was already setting ; and
a growing republican opposition, sup-
ported by the 3'ounger generation, was
raising its head menacingly in France.
Power
of Napoleon
THE
RE-MAKING
OF
EUROPE
THE
CONSOLIDA-
TION OF THE
POWERS IV
THE UNIFICATION OF ITALY
AND GARIBALDI'S BRAVE FIGHT FOR LIBERTY
'"THE greatest political event 'of, the
*■ nineteenth century on' the" European
Continent is the simultaneous establish-
ment 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 them-
selves, and the histor}'^ of the two nations
with their divisions and subdivisions
records in almost every generation proud
exhortations or plaintive appeals to assert
their unity by force of arms. From Dante
and Petrarch, from Machiavelli and Julius
II. — "Out with the barbarians 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
German Renaissance, from Hutten to
Puffendorf and Klopstock, never had such
. a passionate ring, since the
wa enmg j^^^jqj^ even when most divided,
of Uerman , , i j
Nationality ^^^^ always Strong enough to
ward off the foreign yoke. At
last the intellectual activity of the. eigh-
teenth century raised the spirit of nation-
ality, and the German people becajne
conscious that its branches were closely
connected. The intellectual culture of the
Germans would, as David Strauss says in
a letter to Ernest Renan, have remained
an empty shell if it had not finahy pro-
duced the national State.
We must carefully notice that the sup-
porters of the movement for unification
both in Germany and Italy were drawn
exclusively^ from the educated classes ;
but Iheir efforts were powerfully sup-
ported 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,
R 26 G
who was cramped by custom-house restric-
tions. Civil servants and military men
'did not respond to that appeal until much
later. The majority of the prominent
officials and officers in Germany long
remained particularists, until Prussia
_ -, declared for the unity of the
_ . nation. In Italy the course of
. J . 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 was greatly
due to them. Similarly, the officers of the
smaller Italian armies between 1859 and
1 86 1 joined in large 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 occa-
sionally even on the Rhine, 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 officers. It is an un-
doubted fact that the Neapolitan Bour-
bons had no inconsiderable following
among the lower classes. The Catholic
clergy of Italy were divided ; the leaders
supported the old regime, while the in-
ferior clergy favoured the movement. The
mendicant friars of Sicily were enthusiastic
for Garibaldi, and the Neapohtan general,
. Bosco, when he marched
Garibaldi ^^g^^j^g^ ^^q j)atriot leader, was
the Patriot ^^^^^^ ^^ ^^^^^^ ^^^ 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 seeing 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.
5033
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
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
poUtical unity, took its start. But the
impulse was not given by the current of in-
ternal development ; it came from outside,
through the tyranny of Napoleon. The
nation recognised that it could only attain
mdependence by union, and keep it by unity.
The conception of emperor and empire
found its most powerful advocate in
Stein. But he and his friends, as was
natural, considered the overthrow of the
foreign tyranny more important at first
than formal unity. In his memorial
addressed to the Tsar in 1812 he pointed
out how desirable it was that Germany,
since the old monarchy
of the Ottos and thu
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 solu-
tion only as an expedient
required by existing cir-
cumstances. " I have only
one fatherland," he wrote
to Count Miinster at Lon-
don, on December 1st,
1812 — " that is called
Germany ; and since I,
according to the old con-
tion, and the
JOSEPH MAZZINI
the first summons to unity was uttered by
Murat, who, when he marched against the
Austrians in 1815, wished to win the nation
for himself, and employed Professor Rossi
of Bologna, who was murdered in 1848,
when a Liberal Minister of the Pope, 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 Ger-
many and Italy — in the former the Holy
Roman Empire had served to keep alive
the tradition of unity, while in Italy
no political unity had existed since
Roman times. In Italy the movement
towards unity had no historical founda-
" municipal spirit " was
everywhere predominant
until the middle of the
nineteenth century.
When, in 1848, a number
of officers, who were not
natives, were enrolled in
the Piedmontese army,
the soldiers long made a
sharp distinction between
their " Piedmontese " and
their " Italian " superiors.
So again in the Crimean
War, when 15,000 Pied-
montese were sent to fight
on the side of the French
and English, most of them
heard for the first time
that the foreign nations
termed them Italians.
In Germany, again, it
Stitution, belong to it and The Italian patriot who suffered in the cause WaS a qUCStion of Uniting
to no particular part of ^^^'^^^^^^f^^'^';:^ prosperous states, but m
it, I am devoted, heart -
and soul to it alone, and p"""^"^
not to one particular part of it. At this
moment of great developments the
dynasties are a matter of absolute indiffer-
ence 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 generation. The
thought of nationality radiated from Ger-
many, where Arndt, Uhland, Korner, and
Riickert 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 holding out to them the bait of
a restored constitution. It is significant that
5034
his watchword "God and the People,'
his purpose with passionate zeal
Italy of overthrowing un-
stable ones — for example,
the States of the Church and Naples. In
Germany it was necessary to reckon with
superabundant forces and the jealousy of
two Great Powers; and by the side of
them stood a number of prosperous petty
states where culture flourished. Italy, on
the other hand, was dependent on the
Austrians, who were termed
Tedeschi, or Germans; in this
connection, however, the
Italians were forced to admit
that an organised government and a legis-
lature, which in comparison with Piedmont
itself showed considerable advance, existed
only in the Austrian districts. And in
addition the Italians had to struggle against
the great difficulty that the papacy, as a
Italy's
Dependence
on Austria
THE UNIFICATION OF ITALY
spiritual empire, opposed their unification.
The risings of 1821 in Naples and
Piedmont, as well as that of 1831 in the
Romagna, aimed far more at the intro-
duction of parliamentary forms than 'at
the attainment of national unity. The
thought of liberty was stronger then than
. ., that of nationality. Only in
Mazzini s ^^^^ background did the secret
Great Work • , ? ^i /- u j.
„ . society of the Carbonari enter-
*** ^ tain the vague idea of the
union of Italy. The followers of the
Genoese, Joseph Mazzini, 1805-1872, claim
for him the honour of being the first to
follow out the idea of unity to its logical
conclusion. Certain it is that Mazzini,
undeterred by failures, devoted his whole
life to the realisation
of this idea. " I have
just taught the Italians,"
he said, on one occasion
after the war of 1859, " to
lisp the word ' unity.' "
It was after his arrest in
1830 by the Piedmontese
Government as a member
of the Carbonari, when he
spent several. months as a
prisoner in the fortress of
Savona, that he formed
the plan of founding a
league under the name of
" Young Italy," with the
object of creating an
Italian republic. Ani-
mated by a faith which
amounted to fanaticism,
he took as his watchword
" God and the People ! "
He described later his
feelings as a prisoner :
" I saw how Rome, in
the name of God and of
a republican Italy, offered the nations a
common goal and the foundation of a new
religion. And I saw how Europe, wearied
of scepticism, egoism, and anarchy, re-
ceived the new faith with enthusiastic
acclamations. These were my thoughts
in my cell at Savona." He did not shrink
from employing all the weapons of con-
spiracy, including even assassination.
All the rebellions and conspiracies which
he plotted proved failures ; but even under
the stress of conscientious scruples as to
the right he had to drive so many highly
gifted colleagues to death and long years of
captivity, he was supported by the thought
that only thus could the ideal of nationality
GARIBALDI
The great champion of Italian liberty, Giuseppe
Garibaldi, became associated with Mazzini in
the early days oi the movement, and was con-
demned to death, but escaping:, he returned
later to Italy to lead his people to victory.
From a photograph
be kept before the eyes of the people. In
the oath which he administered to the
members of his secret league tb.ey vowed :
"By the blush which reddens my face
when I stand before the citizens of other
countries and convince myself that I
possess no civic rights, no country, no
national flag ... by the tears of ItaU;in
mothers for their sons who have perished
on the scaffold, in the dungeon, or in
exile . . . I swear to devote myself entirely
and always to the common object of creat-
ing one free, independent, and republican
Italy by every means within my power."
The league spread over Italy and every
country where Italians lived. Giuseppe
Garibaldi heard for the first time^ of
Mazzini in 1833, when
as captain of a small
trading-vessel he was
sitting in an inn at
Taganrog on the Black
Sea, and listened to the
conversation at the next
table of some Italian
captains and merchants
with whom he was unac-
quainted. ' ' Columbus, ' '
he wrote in 1871, " cer-
tainly never felt such
satisfaction at the dis-
covery of America as I
telt when I found a man
\v]ao was endeavouring to
lil;erate his country." He
L-ageriy joined the fiery
(orator of that dinner-
|)arty, whose name was
Cuneo, and, armed with
an introduction from him,
hastened to Mazzini, who
was then plotting his
conspiracies at Marseilles.
Garibaldi took part in one of the futile
risings of February, 1834, was condemned
to death, and escaped to Argentina,
where he gathered his first experiences
of war. He long followed the leadership
of Mazzini, although the natures of the
two men were too different to permit
of any very intimate relations between
them. Garibaldi called Ma.zzini the
" second of the Infallibles " ; but he
esteemed him so highly, that at a banquet
given in his honour at London in 1864 he
toasted him as his master.
Mazzini was the central figure of the
Italian movement only up to the middle
of the fifties. After that an amelioration
5035
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
was traceable in the life of his nation.
When the middle classes took up the
cause of freedom as one man, the import-
ance of the conspiracies disappeared and
the entire system of secret societies — for
the Carbonari and the Young Italy were
opposed by the Sanfedists, the league of
the reaction — became discredited. Public
. . life was now more instinct with
Mazzim vitality. A blind and biassed
Condemned i i • • i ii
D th republicanism was no longer the
only cry ; the leaders of the
movement began to take the actual condi-
tions into account, and the Piedmontese,
in particular, worked in the cause of con-
stitutional monarchy. Mazzini, on the other
hand, hated the house of Savoy equally
with every other dynasty. Two of his
conspiracies were aimed against Piedmont,
so that sentence of death was pronounced
on him by the courts of that kingdom.
The new ideas started from Piedmont.
The noble priest Vincenzo Gioberti pro-
posed the plan that all Italy should rally
round the Pope, and follow him as leader
in the war of independence. A number of
Piedmontese nobles, Count Cesare Balbo,
Marquis Massimo d'Azeglio, and the
greatest of them, Count Camillo Cavour,
were filled with the conviction that the
government of Italy belonged by right to
the constitutional monarchy of Piedmont.
They had all grown up in an atmosphere of
conservative ideas, respectful towards the
monarchy, and filled with admiration for
the army and the civil service of Piedmont.
The revolutionists of 1848 were united only
in their hatred of the foreign yoke ; their
views for the future were of the most con-
flicting character, and must have led to dis-
sension if they had been clearly formulated.
The hope that Pope Pius would be
permanently won for the great thought
soon faded away. In the whole agitation
the idea of federalism was still widely
predominant. Venice and Rome under
Daniel Manin and Mazzini declared for
independent republics ; even
Lombardv felt some reluctance
Cavour
in Public
Disfavour
to unite with Sardinia. Rossi,
the papal Minister, wished
merely for a league of the sovereign
princes of Italy, not a united Parliament.
In Piedmont the middle-class citizens
opposed with suspicion the representatives
of the monarchical military state, and
Cavour, who defended the royal authority,
was in 1849 one of the most unpopular of
politicians. Even then he was opposed to
5036
Urbano Rattazzi, who was soon destined
to become the leader of the bourgeois
circles. Italy thus succumbed to the
sword of Radetzky. Napoleon, as Presi-
dent of the French Republic, put an end
to the Roman Republic, since he did not
wish to allow all Italy to be subjugated
by the Austrians. The heroic and, for
some time, successful defence of Rome by
Garibaldi — on the scene of this memorable
fight, at the summit of the Janiculum, a
colossal monument has been erected in his
honour — raised him to be the popular
hero of the nation, while Mazzini's re-
publican phrases began to seem vapid to
the intelligent Italians.
The wars of 1848 and 1849 ^^ft the
Italians with the definite impression that
only Piedmont could have ventured to
face the Austrian arms in the open field.
King Charles Albert was clearly a martyr
to the cause of Italian unity ; he died
soon after his abdication, a broken-hearted
man, in a Portuguese monastery. Since
his son, Victor Emmanuel, alone among the
Italian princes maintained the constitu-
tion granted in 1848, the hopes of Italy
p were centred in him. In the
avour a ^,^^^ 18^2, Cavour reached the
the Ooa! of -■ t , i / 1 ■ u
. . . . .^. immediate goal of his burning
his Ambition , ,. ,-r\^-t i-.- r
but justifiable ambition ; for
after he had allied himself with Rattazzi
and the liberal middle class, he was
entrusted with the direction of the govern-
ment. He soon ventured openly io
indicate Piedmont, which had been over-
thrown so recently, as the champion in the
next war of liberation. He drew his
weapons from the arsenal of the clever
Minister's who, in the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries, had helped the
Dukes of Savoy to hold their own between
France and Austria. He was the heir of the
old dynastic policy of Savoy, but in a
greater age, dominated by the thought of
nationality. He formed an alliance with
the man whom the republicans of Italy
hated intensely, and against whose life
they plotted more than one conspiracy.
The question maj' well be asked whether
the Italian blood was stirred in the veins
of the Bonapartes when, in 1805, the first
Napoleon created the kingdom of Italy,
and when, in 1830, his nephew entered
into a secret Italian alliance, and, finally, as
Napoleon III., allied himself with Cavour
for the liberation of Italy. It is not
an unlikely supposition, although diplo-
matic reasons and the lust of power were
THE UNIFICATION OF ITALY
Cavour is
Deceived by
Napoleon III.
the primary motives which actuated the
nephew of the great conqueror in forming
this alHance ; for he considered that his
uncle had bequeathed to him the duty
of destroying the work of the Congress of
Vienna, especially in Italy, where Austria
had entered on the inheritance of France.
Napoleon won friends for France on all
sides when he came forward as the advo-
cate for the idea of nationality. While
he did so, there lay in the bottom of his
heart the intention of increasing the
territory of France on the basis of this
idea, by the annexation of Belgium and
Savoy, and of thus uniting all French-
speaking peoples under the Empire. On
the other side, he thought it dangerous
to stretch out his hand to the Rhine,
where the Germans, whom he called the
coming race, might oppose
him. He wished to free Italy
from the Austrian rule, but
only in order to govern it as
suzerain. For this reason he
declined from the outset to
entertain the idea of giving
political unity to the penin-
sula. He only agreed with
Cavour at Plombieres that
Sardinia should be enlarged
into a North Italian kingdom
with from 10,000,000 to
12,000,000 inhabitants.
There was to be a Central
Italian kingdom, consisting of baron ricacqli
Tuscany and the greater part onthe flight of the Grand Duke in
of the States of the Church. ISoO, he was made dictator of Tus-
Naples was to be left un- '^^^y- ^"^ ^^^ ^^ "^"^ ^^^^ °f "-e
, touched. The Pope was to be '^'"'^'^ '" '''' ""'' "^"'" '" ''*''•
restricted to the territory of the city of
Rome and its vicinit}^ and in com-
pensation was to be raised to the headship
of the Italian Confederacy. Napoleon
reserved to himself the nomination of his
cousin, Joseph, called Jerome, to the
throne of Central Italy, but concealed his
intention from Cavour, while he hinted to
him that he wished to place the son of King
Murat on the throne at Naples. In return
P for his armed assistance the
r , emperor stipulated for the
Emperors '^ . re i -kt- t-l
p . cession of Savoy and Nice. The
Promises ^ . -^ . r o
Story of the campaign of 1859
and of its termination by the Treaty of
Villafranca has been told in the last
chapter. By the treaty. Napoleon's
promises, therefore, were only partially
fulfilled. By allowing Venetia to remain
Austrian he belied the proclamation
announcing that " Italy shall be free from
the Alps to the Adriatic," with which
he had opened the war on May 3rd.
Cavour felt himself deceived and exposed.
His old opponent, Mazzini, had derided
his policy before the war, and had warned
the Italians not to exchange
the rule of Austria for that of
France. However unwise this
attitude of the old conspirator
might be, he now seemed to be correct
in the prediction that Napoleon would
deceive the Italians. The passionate
nature of Cavour, which slumbered behind
his half good-natured, half mockingly-
diplomatic exterior, burst out in him with
overwhelming force. He hurried to the
headquarters of Victor Emmanuel and
required him to lay down his crown, as
his father, Charles Albert,
had done, in order to show
clearly to the world the
injustice perpetrated by
Napoleon. Cavour displayed
such violence that the two
men parted in downright
anger. But Cavour, without
further demur, resigned his
ofiice. That was the wisest
step he could take to turn
aside the reproach of
treachery, which the re-
publican party was already
bringing against him. In
the course of a conversation
with the senator Joachim
Fietri, an intimate friend
of Napoleon, he gave vent
to his displeasure in the most
forcible terms, and threw in the teeth of
the emperor the charge of deceit. " Your
emperor has insulted me," he cried ; " yes,
sir, insulted me. He gave me his word, and
promised me to relax no efforts until the
Austrians were completely driven out of
Italy. As his reward for so doing he
stipulated for Nice and Savoy. I induced
m.y sovereign to consent to make this
sacrifice for Italy. My king, my good and
honourable king, trusted me and consented.
Your emperor now pockets his reward and
lets us shift for ourselves. ... I am dis-
honoured before my king. But," added
Cavour, " this peace will lead to nothing ;
this treaty will not be carried out."
One of the causes which led Napoleon
to conclude peace so rapidly was the fear
that the Italians would go far beyond
his original intention and win complete
5037
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
The Demand
for
political independence for themselves.
Cavour, in spite of his proud words about
the integrity of the Piedmontese poHcy,
had really wished on his side to outwit
the emperor. For, at his instigation and
in consequence of the agitations of the
National Union, which he had secretly
organised, not merely had Parma, Modena,
I and the Romagna risen against
the Pope, but even in Central
.J Italy, in Tuscany, in the
ay Marches and in Umbria, the
authorities had been driven out, and every-
where there was an outcry for United Italy.
Victor Emmanuel had certainly, at the
wish of Napoleon, refused this request,
and had only accepted the supreme
command of the volunteer corps which
were forming everywhere.
Napoleon wished to preclude any further
extension of this movement. Hence the
hasty conclusion of the armistice, and the
provisions of the Peace of Ziirich; November
loth, 1859, that Sardinia might retain Lom-
bardy, but not extend her territory further.
In Tuscan}^ Parma, and Modena the old
order of things was to be restored, if the
people agreed to accept it ; and the States
of the Church, and this condition was
taken as obvious, must once more be
subject to the Pope.
All Itahan States were to form a Con-
federation, which Austria, as representing
Venice, wished to join. Cavour. incensed at
these fetters imposed on the Italians, said as
he left the Ministry : " So be it ! they will
force me to spend the rest of my life in
conspiracies." And in the last letters before
his retirement he secretly urged the leaders
of the movement in Central Italy to collect
money and arms, to wait their time loyally,
and to resist the wishes of Napoleon.
Rattazzi, Cavour's successor, was an
eloquent and practised advocate, of a
tractable disposition, and therefore more
acceptable to the king than Cavour ; he
possessed a mind more capable of words
, and schemes than of action.
avour s Cavour, speaking of him, said
oquen ^^^^^ -^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^ among the
Successor ^■,■ • r .i ^ 1
politicians of the second class.
In accordance with the popular feeling
Giuseppe Dabormida, the new Minister of
Foreign Affairs, declared on July 23rd that
Sardinia would never enter into an Italian
Confederation in which Austria took any
part. This policy was absolutely essential
for self-preservation, since Piedmont, in a
league with Austria, the Pope, and Naples,
5038
would always have been in the minority.
The new Cabinet was wavering and in-
secure, and so dependent on the will of
Napoleon that it did not venture to take
any forward step without his consent.
But at this point the fact became evident
that the work of unification was not
dependent on the ability of individuals,
but on the attitude of the whole nation.
It is astonishing with what political tact
the several Italian countries struggled for
union with Sardinia. The Sardinian
Government was compelled to recall,
immediately after the preliminary peace,
the men it had sent to Bologna, Florence,
Modena, and Parma to lead the agitation.
These districts were consequently thrown
upon their own resources ; but Tuscany
found, on August ist, 1859, ^^ Baron
Bettino Ricasoli, and the Romagna and the
duchies in Luigi Carlo, a retired physician,
leaders who governed the provisional
commonwealths with sagacity, and guided
the public voting which declared for sub-
mission to Victor Emmanuel.
Only in quite exceptional cases was any
violence used against the hated tools
^^ _ . of the former governments ;
The Swiss .t, • j i j
otherwise order prevailed
Mercenaries ,1 , iini
f th p generally, and a childlike,
^ almost touching, enthusiasm
for the unity of Italy. The Pope
attempted a counter-blow, and succeeded
in conquering Perugia on July 20th, 1859,
by means of his Swiss mercenaries, who
did not shrink from outrage and plunder.
Thereupon the Romagna, Tuscany, and
Modena concluded a defensive alliance.
General Manfredo Fanti organised in
October, 1859, ^ force of 40,000 men ;
so that the Pope desisted from further
attacks. Since the Treaty of Villafranca
left the return of the former governments
open, so long as foreign interference was
excluded, the Pope and the dukes calcu-
lated upon an outbreak of anarchy, which
would provoke a counter-blow. They
centred their hopes on the Mazzinists ;
and Walewski, the Minister of Napoleon,
who was unfavourable to the Italians,
said that he preferred them to a party
which styled itself a government. But
this hope faded away before the wise
attitude of the Central Italians.
The Emperor Napoleon now saw him-
self confronted by the unpleasant alterna-
tive of allowing the Italians full liberty,
or of restoring the old regime b}^ force.
But ought the liberator of Italy to declare
THE UNIFICATION OF ITALY
war on the country ? And it was still
more out of the question to allow the
interference of the defeated Austrians.
He repeatedly assured the Italians that
he persisted in his intention to carry out
his programme of federation.
Doubt has been felt whether the letter to
this effect which he addressed on October
20th, 1859, to Victor Emmanuel really ex-
pressed his true intention. In that letter
he repeated his demand for the restoration
of the old regime in Central Italy and for
the formation of an Italian Confederation
with the Pope at its head. But it is
clear that this was really his own and his
final scheme ; for he was too wise not to
foresee that a united and powerful Italy
might one day turn against France.
With this idea, therefore, he said to
Marquis Napoleone di Pepoh : "If the
movement of incorporation crosses the
Apennines, the union of Italy is finished,
and I do not wish for any union — I wish
simply and solely for independence." His
programme would have proved the most
favourable solution for France, since it
would then always have had a hand in the
affairs of Italy, from the simple
1 he Italian ^^^^^^ ^^^^ ^j^^ ^^^.^^^ Italian
Dtslike of 1 • 1 i_- 1 1 i. • 1.
th F K kmgdom, which owed its exist-
ence to him, would have had no
other support against Austria and the
remaining sovereigns of Italy. That was
the precise contingency which Cavour most
feared ; and for that reason he secretly urged
the leaders of Central Italy not to comply
with the intentions of Napoleon. In fact,
deputations from the Romagna, Tuscany,
and the duchies offered the sovereignty to
King Victor Emmanuel. He did not dare
to accept the offer against the wish of
Napoleon, and merely promised in his
reply that he would represent to Europe
the wishes of the Central Italians.
It is a remarkable fact that Victor
Emmanuel, in these complications, enter-
tained for a moment the idea of joining
hands with Mazzini andraising the standard
of revolt against Napoleon. By the agency
of Angelo Brofferio, the leader of the
democratic opposition in the Piedmontese
Parliament, and the opponent of Cavour's
diplomacy, the king negotiated witli the
old republican conspirator on whom first
his father, and later, he himself, in 1857,
had caused sentence of death to be passed
on account of his organisation of a revolt
in Piedmont. Mazzini showed at this crisis
how greatly the welfare of his country out-
weighed with him all other considerations.
He sent a message to that effect to the king,
and only asked him to break off entirely
with Napoleon, whom the Republicans
regarded as Antichrist. In return Mazzini
offered to raise the whole of Italy, including
Rome and Naples, after which would follow
the promotion of Victor Emmanuel to be
Th K" • king of the peninsula. But then
e mg s — ^^^. Mazzini expressly made
Advice to , , . 1 • . "^1 1 .
Brofferio proviso — he intended to
fight, as previously, for the re-
public and for the expulsion of the House of
Savoy. The king is reported to have said
to Brofferio : "Try to come to an under-
standing ; but take care that the Public
Prosecutor hears nothing of it."
The negotiations, however, did not lead
to the desired goal, for the game seemed
to the king to be too dangerous. Mazzini
certainly promised on that occasion
more than he could perform ; his schemes
could not have been carried into execu-
tion against the express wishes of
Napoleon, who would not have abandoned
the Pope and Rome. Italy had only
obtained the support of the emperor
against Austria because the monarchical
policy of Cavour offered a guarantee that
in Italy at least the revolutionaries, who
threatened his rule in France, were kept in
restraint. The emperor, as his action in
the year 1867 clearly proves, would have
certainly employed force against Italy, even
though Rome had been raised in rebellion ;
for since the French Democrats were im-
placably hostile to him, he was bound at
least to have the clerical party on his side.
Garibaldi, who then was entrusted by
the provisional government with the com-
mand of the Tuscan troops, overlooked all
these considerations, and was already
determined to advance on Rome. But
Farini, the dictator of Romagna and of the
duchies, thought his enterprise dangerous,
and, going to meet him, induced him to
withdraw from Central Italy. Having
returned to Turin, Garibaldi
was received with consideration
by Victor Emmanuel, who was
privy to this plot ; he then
addressed a manifesto to Italy, in which he
condemned the miserable, fox-Hke politi-
cians, and called upon the Italians to place
their hopes exclusively on Victor
Emmanuel. That monarch, under his out-
ward simplicity, possessed natural shrewd-
ness enough to remain on good terms with
all who wished to further the unity of Italy.
5039
Garibaldi's
Call
to Italy
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
In this consists his inestimable services
in the cause of the unification of Italy.
Towards the end of the year 1859,
Napoleon was forced to admit that he
could not carry out his programme in
Central Italy by peaceful methods. He
thus ran the risk of losing-
Savoy and Nice, which had
been promised him as a reward
before the war. His own
interests and his predilection
for the Itahan cause com-
bined to induce him to leave
a part, at any rate, of Central
Italy to Victor Emmanuel.
In order to carry out this
change of policy, Walewski
was dismissed and Edouard
Antoine Thouvenel, a liberal
who shared Napoleon's pre-
ference for Italy, was nomi
to give up my place to him. ■ But he was
still more impatient than I was. I am
sorry that he expended so much trouble in
bursting the doors that stood open to him.
But he has the right to be ambitious."
Napoleon, , although not disposed to a
grand and sweeping policy,
had the astuteness requisite
to disguise his frequent
changes of front, and to veil
his machinations with a sem-
blance of magnanimity. Since
he knew that the British dis-
tnisted him, and foresaw that
the annexation of Savoy and
Nice would appear to them
the prelude to an extensive
policy of aggrandisement, he
lulled their suspicions by
concluding a commercial
treaty on free-trade principles,
nated Foreign Minister on admiral persano January 23rd, i860. At the
lanuarv "Sth, i860. But the Admiral of the Italian fleet Per- g^j^g ^[^q }^e informed the
J J 'J ' ^^^ . sano, on the occasion of Garibaldi s _-, , -r^ i
new policy was not possible bold expedition to Sicily, was Popc that l' ranee no longer
with the Cabinet of Rattazzi, °^fp^r^et'4en'GaHbai°di^'""trani! wishcd to iusist On the
since that Minister did not po^ts and the Neapolitan fleet, restoration of the legations
possess the courage to assume the of the Romagna, Bologna, and Ferrara
to the States of the Church.
This change in the policy of Napoleon
could not have been more unwelcome to
anyone than to the Pope. After all, Pius IX.
had himself to blame for it, since he opposed
the sensible counsels of
Napoleon. The emperor
had requested him in a
letter of July 14th, 1859,
to grant to the already
rebellious legations a sepa-
rate administration and a
lay government nominated
by the Pope. " I humbly
conjure your Holiness," so
the letter ran, " to listen to
the voice of a devoted son
of the Church, who in this
matter grasps the needs of
his time, and knows that
force is not sufficient to
prospect of new and grand ^ ^^,^,F^^t^, lamoriciere ^^^^^ ^^^^ difficult prob-
x XT o (JnG 01 tnG lG3,QGrS 01 tllG L^CSritlllllSL
exploits, he induced his party in France, he was appointed Icms. In the decision of
friends to work vigorously commander-in-chief ofthe papal forces in your Holiucss I scc either
on his behalf, so that the ^^^^' '^^^'^ ^^^ ^°p^ surrounded himself tl-^g perms of a peaceful and
y-. 1 • . r T-> ij_ • with an army of 20,000 enlisted soldiers. , -i j: ^ xi
Cabinet 01 Rattazzi was tranquil future, or the
compelled to make way for him on continuation of a period of violence and
responsibility for the cession of Savoy
ond Nice. A bold and broad policy
could only be carried out with the assist-
ance of Cavour. The latter was already
thirsting for power, while Rattazzi was
vainly trying to block his
road. It is true that the
king was not pleased with
the exchange of Ministers ;
he still cherished some
rancour against Cavour for
the " scene " which the
latter had made with him
after the Peace of Villa-
franca. Public opinion, on
the other hand, more
especially in Central Italy,
looked to Cavour alone
for the realisation of its
wishes. Since his ambi-
tion was fired by the
January i6th, i860. Rattazzi and his
colleagues were not all so candid in their
views as Dabormida, the Foreign Minister,
who felt he could not compare with Cavour,
and wrote at the time : "I was impatient
5040
distress." But the Curia continued ob-
stinate, and declai"ed that it could not break
with the principles on which the States of
the Church had been governed hitherto.
The Pope, in fact, protested against
THE UNIFICATION OF ITALY
the concession of religious liberty which
had been granted by the provisional
government at Bologna. Napoleon now
adopted a severer tone. He published in
December, 1859, ^ pamphlet, " The Pope
and the Congress," in which it was stated
that a restoration of papal rule in Central
Italy had become impossible. Granted
that a secular kingdom was necessary for
the Pope in order to maintain his inde-
pendence, a smaller territory would be
sufficient for that purpose. Shortly after-
wards, Napoleon addressed a second letter
to Pius IX., in wliicli he called upon the
throne. Cavour, however, met the refusal
of Napoleon by a bold move, on which
Rattazzi would never have ventured.
Without asking the emperor, and against
his will, a plebiscite was taken in March,
i860, in all the provinces of Central Italy,
including Tuscany, on the question
whether they wished for incorporation in
the kingdom of Italy. The elections for
the Parliament of Upper Italy proceeded
at the same time with equal enthusiasm.
All the capitals entrusted Cavour with full
powers in order to express their confidence.
It was no rhetorical fi'2;ure when Napoleon,
THE REVOLUTION IN SICILY RELEASED PRISONERS IN THE STREETS OF PALERMO
Rebelling- against their Neapolitan rulers, the Sicilians looked eagerly for the assistance of Garibaldi, who at last
decided to join the movement, sailing on May 5th, 1860, with about a thousand volunteers. In the above picture
released prisoners are seen leading their gaoler through the streets of Palermo before putting him to death.
Pope on his side also to make some sacri-
fice for the union of Italy, which was slowly
and surely progressing.
Cavour, meantime, had not reached his
goal. On February 17th, i860, Italy
learnt the latest of the constantly changing
programmes of Napoleon. According to
this, only Parma and Modena were to be
incorporated with Sardinia. Victor Em-
manuel would rule the legations as Vicar
of the Pope ; but Tuscany must remain
independent ; at most a prince of the
House of Savoy might be placed on the
in a speech delivered on March ist, ex-
pressed his dissatisfaction at the arbitrary
action of Italy. Cavour, however, had
cleverly secured the goodwill of Britain,
which had quite agreed to the proposal that
Italy should withdraw from the influence
of Napoleon. Palmerston was malicious
enough to praise Cavour in the British
Parliament for the boldness of his action.
Now, at length Cavour opened regular
negotiations about the cession of Savoy
and Nice, which had been promised by
the treaty of January, 1858. What was
5041
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
the emperor to do ? Was he, on his side,
to risk the loss of the two provinces by
his obstinacy ? Perhaps even at the
eleventh hour he might have prevented the
incorporation of Tuscany if he had de-
clared that under these conditions he
would be contented with Savoy ; but now
the expectations and the covetousness of
, the French had been whetted,
avour s ^^^ ^^ could not draw back.
agica There is no question that
Napoleon then abandoned the
real interests of France, and was van-
quished by Cavour. It had often been
said, and subsequent events have proved
the truth of the statement, that Cavour
exercised a positively magical influence
on Napoleon's vacillating mind. The
Italian had probed the soul of the French
emperor, and knew how far he might go.
Having correctly gauged on the one hand
the selfish interests of Napoleon, and on
the other his sympathetic attitude towards
the Italian question, Cavour could venture
to play wath him up to a certain point.
But there were limits to this policy.
Cavour in vain tried ail the arts of his
diplomacy, and every expedient which his
subtle mind suggested, to save Nice at
least for the Italians. But here he was
confronted by the definite resolution of
the emperor, w'ho would have exposed
himself in the face of France, had he given
in. Cavour and Benedetti signed the
treaty on March 24th, i860. When this
was done, the Italian Minister, with a flash
of humour, turned round suddenly and
whispered in the ear of Benedetti: "We
are partners in guilt now, are we not ? "
But an anxious time was in store for
Cavour — the debate in the Italian Parlia-
ment. The great majority of the people,
certainly, understood that King Victor
Emmanuel and Cavour could not have
acted otherwise. Rattazzi, however, the
old rival of Cavour, placed himself at the
head of the opposition ; and he had a
G h Id" strong supporter in Garibaldi,
an a i ^^-^^^ ^^^j^ j^-^ ^^^^ -^ Parliament
Deceived ii j.u 1 • ^ r
. ^ With the express obiect of
by Cavour ,, ^ . j. J. , .
opposmg the cession of Nice, his
native town, to France. Henceforth he
hated Cavour, who, as he said, had made
him an alien in his own country. Garibaldi
was not so indignant at the fact itself as
he was that Cavour had deceived him ;
since a year previously, in answer to a
direct question, the Minister had denied
the cession of Nice. In no other way
5042
could the 'crafty statesman have secured
Garibaldi's sword for the war of liberation.
On the other hand, Garibaldi esteemed
the king highly, because some months
later to the question, " Yes or no," he
had returned the true answer. Victor
Emmanuel then added that, if he as king
submitted to cede Savoy, the country of
his ancestors, to France, Garibaldi must
be prepared to make equal sacrifices for
the sake of the union of Italy.
We are told that Cavour, at this critical
time, in order to soothe Garibaldi's
feelings, sent him a note with the brief
question, " Nice or Sicily ? " He is thus
said to have incited the enthusiastic
patriot to conquer the island. The story is
quite improbable ; for Cavour would cer-
tainly have preferred to mark time for the
present, and consolidate the internal and
economic conditions of the kingdom of
North Italy, which consisted of 4,000,000
Piedmontese, 2,500,000 Lombards, and
4,000,000 Central Italians. This state,
without the States of the Church, which
were in an impoverished condition through
bad administration, and without the
. , pauper population of Naples,
_^*^* ^ ^ would certainly have risen to
oming considerable prosperity. It
would have been well for North
Italy not to have been burdened with the
task of drawing the semi-civilised districts
of the south into the sphere of its higher
culture and its greater prosperity. " We
must first organise ourselves," Cavour
said at the time, " and form a powerful
army ; then we can turn our eyes to
Venetia and further to the south, and to
Rome." It was certainly, therefore, no
hj'pocrisy when, up to March, i860, he
repeatedly sent envoys to Naples, in order
to induce the Bourbons to follow a national
policy and enter into an alliance with
the kingdom of North Italy.
But here the genius of the Italian people
took other paths. The wary statesman
soon saw himself carried onward by the
party of action farther than he himself had
wished ; for ]\Iazzini and his partisans were
incessantly scheming the revolt of Sicily.
Under their instructions Francesco Crispi,
who had long before been condemned to
death by the Neapolitan cojirts, travelled
through the island at great personal risk,
collecting on all sides sympathisers with
the cause, and preparing for the day of
rebellion. The Sicilians did indeed rise
in various places, but their attempts
THE UNIFICATION OF ITALY
were hopeless if Garibaldi could not
be induced to invade Sicily. He de-
clared to the Mazzinists from the very first
that he would only join the struggle under
the standard of " Italy and Victor Em-
manuel " ; in spite of his republican
leanings he saw with unerring perception
that Italy could only be united by means
of the Piedmontese monarchy. Mazzini
also declared, as in the previous year, that
he wished first and foremost to conform
to the expressed will of the people.
But the conscientious Garibaldi still
hesitated ; he was weighed down by the
enormous responsibility of leading the fiery
youth of Italy to danger and to death,
since all former plots against the Bourbons
had miscarried , and been drowned in
the blood of their promoters. King Fer-
dinand II. of Naples, called " Bomba "
since the savage bombardment of Messina
in September, 1848, understood how to
attach the soldiers of his army to his
person ; he was hard-hearted but cunning,
and by his affectation of native customs
won himself some popularity with the
lower classes on the mainland. The
G h M" Sicilians, indeed, hated their
ri a IS ]v;fgg^pQ}i^a.n rulers from of old ;
J. ... and the people gladly recalled
the memory of the Sicilian
Vespers, by which they had wrested their
freedom from Naples in 1282. King
Ferdinand died on May 22nd, 1859, and
was succeeded by his weak son, Francis
II., a feeble nature, with no mind of
his own. Since the outbreak in Sicily
was suppressed, and seemed to die away,
Cavour urgently dissuaded Garibaldi from
his enterprise, even though he later secretly
aided it by the supply of arms and am-
munition. It was Cavour's business then
to decline any responsibility in the eyes of
the diplomatists of Europe for the uncon-
stitutional proposal of the general.
Garibaldi finally took the bold resolu-
tion of sailing for Sicily on May 5th, i860,
with a thousand or so of volunteers.
This marks the beginning of his heroic
expedition, and also of the incomparable
game of intrigue played by Cavour ; for
the whole body of European diplomatists
raised their voices in protest against the
conduct of the Italian Government which
had allowed a warlike expedition against
a neighbouring state in time of peace.
Cavour, assailed by all the ambassadors,
declared, with some reason, that Garibaldi
had acted against the wishes of the
Government, and informed the French
emperor that the Government was too
weak to hinder the expedition by force,
since otherwise there was the fear of a
republican rising against the king. At
the same time Cavour adopted measures to
avert all danger from Garibaldi. Admiral
Persano received commands from him to
, ^. place his ships between Gari-
Insurrection f ,,-, , ^ , i ,,
Amon baldi s transports and the
thTskilians ^'eapohtan fleet which was
watching for them. To this
intentionally cryptic order Persano replied
that he believed he understood ; if need
arose Cavour might send him to the fortress
at Fenestrelles. He must have made up his
mind to be repudiated, like Garibaldi, in
the event of the failure of the expedition.
Garibaldi landed at Marsala, the Lily-
baum of the ancients, on May nth, i860.
He obtained but little help from the
Sicilians ; when he attacked on May 15th,
near Calatafimi, the royal troops, the
2,400 Sicilians who had joined him, ran
away at the first shot, while he won a
splendid victory with his volunteers.
At Palermo, however, all was ready for
the insurrection. In concert with his
friends there Garibaldi, notwithstanding
the great numerical superiority of the
Bourbon troops, ventured on a bold attack
during the night of the 27th-28th May.
The people sided with him ; the troops
of the king were fired upon from the
houses and withdrew to the citadel,
whence they bombarded Palermo. Rebel-
lion blazed up through the whole island, and
the scattered garrisons retired to the strong
places on the coast, especially to Messina.
Alarmed at the revolt of the island,
King Francis of Naples changed his tone ;
in his dire necessity he summoned liberal
Ministers to his counsels, and promised
the Neapolitans a free constitution. He
sent an embassy to Napoleon III. with a
petition for help. The attitude of the
latter was significant. He explained to
the envoys that he desired the continuance
. of the Kingdom of Naples, but
King Francis ^^^^^ -^ ^-^ ^^^ ^-^ -^ ^^^^ ^^^^.^^
to check the popular move-
Appeals to
apo con . j^pj^^_ ^YYie Italians, he said,
were keen-witted, and knew that, after
having once shed the blood of the French
for their liberation, he could not proceed
against them with armed force. He added :
" The power stands on the national side,
and is irresistible. We stand defenceless
before it." He advised the King of
5043
HARM3WORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
Naples, however, to abandon Sicily, and
to offer an alliance to King Victor Em-
manuel. Napoleon promised to support
his proposal. This was done, and all
the Great Powers assented to the wishes
of France — even Great Britain, which,
with all its inclination to Italy, still
wished that the peninsula should be
divided into two kingdoms. Cavour was
in the most difficult position ; it was
impossible, in defiance of Europe, to
refuse negotiations with Naples, yet he
could not but fear to risk his whole work
if he offered his hand to the hated
Bourbons. He therefore consented to
negotiations, for form's sake, and even
induced King Victor Emmanuel to write a
letter to Garibaldi, calling upon the latter
to discontinue landing troops on the
mainland of Naples.
Garibaldi thereupon replied to the king
on June 27th : " Your Majesty knows
the high respect and affection which I
entertain for your person ; but the state
of affairs in Italy does not allow me to
obey you as I should wish. Allow me,
then, this time to be disobedient to you.
So soon as I have accomplished my duty
and the peoples are freed from the detested
yoke, I will lay down my sword at your
feet, and obey 3'ou for the rest of my life."
But Cavour was harassed by a still
further anxiety. Garibaldi, on his march
through Sicih', surrounded himself almost
exclusively with partisans of Mazzini, and
was resolved, so soon as Naples was
liberated, to march on Rome. If then the
republican party of action in this way did
their best for the liberation of Italy, the
fate of the monarchy was sealed. Cavour,
therefore, staked everything to provoke a
revolution on the mainland, by which not
Garibaldi, but Persano or the king him-
self, should be proclaimed dictator. He
. . entered into a compact with
uspicions o ^^^ of the Ministers of the King
of Naples, Liborio Romano,
who equally with Alessandro
Duke of Majano, adjutant-
Ferdinand II., was ready for
Cavour hoped by aid of the
latter to rouse a part of the Neapolitan
army to revolt. He wrote to Persano :
" Do not lose sight of the fact. Admiral,
that the moment is critical. It is a question
of carrying out the greatest enterprise of
modern times, by protecting Italy from
foreigners, pernicious principles, and fools."
But Nunziante, awakening the suspicion
of the Bourbon Government, was obliged
to take refuge on board the Piedmontese
fleet. The king's uncle, Prince Louis,
the Bourbon
Government
Nunziante,
general of
treachery.
THE LIBERATORS OF SICILY. GARIBALDI WITH A GROUP OF PATRIOT HEROES
.5044
THE MISERABLE HIDING-PLACE OF THE KING AND QUEEN OF NAPLES
During the bombardment ofGaetaby the Piedmontesein 1861, the King and Queen of Naples sought refuge in the damp,
unwholesome vaults illustrated in the above picture. " Their fear," says a contemporary accountjof the siege, " must
have been very great indeed to have induced them to live in such a wretched hole. The stench, on entering, is great ; and
in some chambers through the doorway four generals died during the siege from the bad atmosphere and confinement."
Count Aquila was ordered by his nephew
to quit the kingdom. It was thus
evident that Garibaldi's services must
once more be utihsed in order to over-
throw the Bourbons. He landed on
August 19th, i860, on the coast of the
peninsula near Melito, and marched di-
rectly on Naples. The generals who were
sent against him were unreliable, since
their hearts were in the Italian cause. The
r "K M" soldiers who supported the
an a 1 s gQ^-i^Qj-jg thought themselves
■ t N I betrayed, and murdered Gen-
eral Fileno Briganti at Mileto,
August 25th, after he had concluded
terms of capitulation with Garibaldi. The
latter was received everywhere with
enthusiasm ; the common people regarded
him as an invulnerable hero. When he
entered Naples on September 7th, i860,
with his 18,000 volunteers, he was greeted
by Liborio Romano as liberator ; the king
withdrew with his army of 60,000 men
into a strong fortress on the Volturno.
A momentous crisis had arrived. For the
adherents of Mazzini in the train of Gari-
baldi it was of vital importance to prevent
the people of Naples from being called upon
to vote whether they wished Victor
Emmanuel to be king. They confirmed
Garibaldi in the idea of marching imme-
diately on Rome, of driving out the
French troops, and of putting an end to
the hierarchy. Garibaldi's breast swelled
with his previous successes ; he was
susceptible to flattery, and firmly per-
suaded himself that it was merely Cavour's
jealousy if Victor Emmanuel did not follow
the noble impulses of his heart and throw
open to him the road to Rome and Venice.
When Cavour sent his trusted envoy,
the Sicihan Giuseppe La Farina, in order
to put himself in communication with
Garibaldi, the latter insulted him by
ordering his expulsion from Sicily. At
first Garibaldi acquiesced in the dictator-
ship of Agostino Depretis, who was sent
by the king ; but on September i8th he
replaced him, from suspicion of his con-
nection with Cavour, by Antonio Mordini,
5045
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
an intimate friend of Mazzini. In this way
Garibaldi succeeded in involving Italy
simultaneously in a war with France and
Austria. The Emperor Napoleon looked
sullenly at Naples, where a revolutionary
focus was forming that threatened his
throne with destiiiction.
Once more Cavour faced the situation
with the boldest determination. He was
firmly convinced that the monarchy and
the constitutional government of North
Italy must contribute as much to the
union of the peninsula as Garibaldi ; he
therefore counselled the king to advance
with his army into the papal territory and
itself and its immediate vicinity, had
surrounded himself with an army of
20,000 enlisted soldiers, at whose head
he placed General Lamoriciere, one of
the leaders of the legitimist party in
France. The mercenaries consisted of
French, Austrians, Belgians, and Swiss ;
their officers were partly the flower of
the legitimist nobility of France — a fact
which could not be very pleasant to
Napoleon. But King Victor Emmanuel
sent 40,000 men, under the command of
General Manfredo Fanti, against the
States of the Church ; and Lamoriciere,
who was obliged to leave half his troops
FAREi/s/ELL VISIT OF GARIBALDI TO ADMIRAL MUNDY ON THE HANNIBAL AT NAPLES
to occupy it — with the exception of Rome,
which was protected by Napoleon— to
march on Naples and to defeat the army
of the Bourbon king, which was encamped
on the Volturno. Matters had come to
such a crisis that, when Victor Emmanuel
sent his Minister Luigi Farini, from 1859-
1860 dictator of the Emilia, and General
Cialdini to Napoleon III., to expound his
plan, the emperor gave a reply which showed
that he was not blind to the necessity of
the action taken by Victor Emmanuel.
The Pope, in order not to be entirely
dependent on the help of France, which
was intaided merely to protect Rome
5046
to suppress the inhabitants o( the States
of the Church, was attacked by a greatly
superior force. He was so completely
defeated at Castelfidardo on September
1 8th, i860, that he was only able to escape
to Ancona with 130 men, while almost the
entire papal army was taken prisoners.
Persano received orders to bombard An-
cona ; it surrendered on September 29th.
The troops of Garibaldi had in the
meantime attacked the Bourbon army on
the Volturno, but without any success.
The Bourbon troops crossed the Volturno
in order, in their turn, to attack. Garibaldi
boldly held his ground with his men, and
GENERAL VIEW OF CAPRERA, GARIBALDI'S ISLAND HOME
THE RETREAT OF GARIBALDI, NEAR RAVENNA, ONE OF ITALY'S HISTORIC TREASURES
THE HOME AND REFUGE OF ITALY'S GREATEST PATRIOT
5047
ITALY'S TRIBUTE TO GARIBALDI : THE PATRIOT'S MONUMENT ON THE JANICULUM AT ROME
5048
THE UNIFICATION OF ITALY
the Neapolitans, although three to one,
could not gain a victory ; but Garibaldi
was far from being able to calculate upon
a rapid success. Under these circumstances
public opinion was strongly impressed when
the army of Victor Emmanuel appeared on
the bank of the Volturno ; the Neapolitans
withdrew behind the Garigliano.
It was high time that King Victor
Emmanuel appeared in Naples ; for
Garibaldi was now so completely under
the influence of the opponents of Cavour
that he flatly refused to
allow the incorporation
of Naples and Sicily in
the kingdom of Italy to
be carried out. Mordini,
his representative in
Sicily, worked at his
side, with the object
that independent Parlia-
ments should be sum-
moned irs Naples and
Palermo, w^hich should
settle the matter. Gari-
baldi actually informed
the king that he would
not agree to the union
unless Cavour and his
intimate friends were
first dismissed from the
Ministry. By this de-
mand, however, he ran
counter to almost the
entire public opinion of
Italy. In Naples especi-
ally and in Sicily all
prudent men wished for
a rapid union with Italy,
since the break-up of the
old regime, in Sicily
especially, had brought
in its train confusion,
horrors, and political
murders. Garibaldi long
debated with himself
whether he should yield ;
but when the Marquis Pallavicino — who
had fretted away the years of his manhood
as a prisoner in the Spielberg at Briinn and
was now the leader of the party of action — ■
and with him virtually the whole popu-
lation of Naples, went over to the other
side, the patriot general mastered himself
and ordered the voting on the union with
Italy to be arranged, October 21st.
The king would have been prepared to
grant his wish and to nominate him
lieutenant-general of the districts con-
GARIBALDI'S STATUE AT FLORENCE
quered by him, had not Garibaldi attached
the condition to it that he should be
allowed to march on Rome in the coming
spring. As this could not be granted, he
withdrew in dignified pride, although
deeply mortified and implacably hostile to
Cavour, to his rocky island of Caprera.
In his farewell proclamation he called
upon the Italians to rally round "II Re
galantuomo " ; but he foretold his hope
that in March, 1861, he would find a
million Italians under arms, hinting in
this way that he wished
by their means to liberate
Rome and Venice. But a
fact, which many years
later was disclosed in the
memoirs of Thouvenel
and Beust, shows how
correct the judgment of
Cavour was when he
kept the Italians at this
time away from Rome.
When Garibaldi wished
to march against Rome,
Napoleon told the Vienna
Cabinet that he had no
objection if it wished to
draw the sword against
Italy to uphold the Treaty
of Zurich — that is to say,
for the papacy ; only, it
could not be allowed to
disturb Lombardy again.
It is conceivable that
Rechberg, the Foreign
Minister, dissuaded the
Emperor Francis Joseph
from a war which could
bring no gain to Austria
even in case of victory.
The Bourbon army could
not hold its ground
against the troops of
Victor Emmanuel, and
King Francis threw him-
self into the fortress of
Gaeta. When he surrendered there with
8,000 men on February 13th, 1861, the
Union of Italy was almost won. Cavour
himself was not fated to see the further
accomplishment of his wishes. He was
attacked by a deadly illness not long after
an exciting session of Parliament, in
which GaribalcU heaped bitter reproaches
on his head. In his delirium he dreamed
of the future of his country. He spoke of
Garibaldi with great respect ; he said that
he longed, as much as the general, to go
5049
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
to Rome and Venice. He spoke with
animation of the desirabihty of reconcihng
the Pope with Italy. When his confessor
Giacopo handed him the sacrament on
June 6th, 1861, he said to him : " Brother,
brother, a free Church in a free state "
(" Frate, frate, Ubera chiesa in hbero
stato "). These were his last words.
, No problem had engrossed
_ . the maker of Italy in the last
^ . months of his life so much as
the Roman question. There
was a section of his friends who considered
it necessary to yield Rome to the Pope,
in order that the secular power of the
papacy might remain undisturbed. Such
was the idea of D'Azegho. Stefano J acini
thought that Rome, on the model of the
Hanse towns, might be turned into a
Free State, where the Pope might main-
tain his residence in the character of
a protector and suzerain.
Cavour, on the contrary, was convinced
that Italy without its natural capital was
an incomplete structure. He would have
granted the Pope the most favourable con-
ditions if the latter would have met the
wishes of the Italians. The Throne of Peter,
which so many able statesmen had filled
in the past, was now held by Pius IX., a
child-like, religious nature, who allowed
himself to be enmeshed by the irreconcil-
able ideas of Giacomo Antonelli and the
Jesuits, and by his obstinacy proved the
greatest obstacle to the union of Italy.
In spite of repeated pressure from the
Emperor Napoleon, he refused to admit
the introduction of reforms in the adminis-
tration of the Papal States, or to conciliate
The P ^^^® national feelings of the
an Obstacl Italians. Victor Emmanuel,
to Union even before his march into the
States of the Church, professed
his readiness to recognise the papal sove-
reignty within the old territorial limits,
provided that the Curia transferred to
him the vicariate over the provinces taken
from it. It was an equally beneficial
circumstance for the infant state that
the Pope, by rei)udiating liberty of con-
science and free political institutions in his
Encyclical of December 8th, 1864, and in
the Syllabus, Syllabus coniplectens praci-
puos noslrcB cBtatis errores, outraged the
sensibilities even of those Catholics who
wished for the maintenance of the tem-
poral power, but did not wish to plunge
back into mediaevalism. Liberal ideas
would not have been able to continue their
victorious progress between i860 and 1870
in the Catholic countries of Austria, Italy,
and France if the Papal Chair had not
involuntarily proved their best ally.
Baron Bettino Ricasoli, the successor
of Cavour, thought that he acted in his
predecessor's spirit when he made dazzling
proposals to the Pope, on condition that
the latter should recognise the status quo.
Ricasoli proposed a treaty, which not
merely assured all the rights of the papal
primacy, but offered Pius, as a reward
for his conciliatoriness, the renunciation
by the king of all his rights as patron,
especially that of the appointment of the
G h \d' bishops. By this the Pope
w ^ 'a A would have completely ruled the
in B ttl Church of Italy ; and that State
would have been deprived of
a sovereign right, which not merely
Louis XIV., but Philip II. of Spain and
Ferdinand II. of Austria, would never
have allowed themselves to lose. In place
of any answer the cardinal secretary,
Antonelli, declared, in the official " Gior-
nale di Roma," that the proposal of
Ricasoli was an unparalleled effrontery.
This unfortunate attempt overthrew the
Ministry of Ricasoli, and under his
successor, Rattazzi, Garibaldi hoped to
be able to carry out his design against
Rome. He mustered his volunteers in
Sicily, and landed with 2,000 men on
the coast of Calabria ; but the Govern-
ment was in earnest when it announced
that it would oppose his enterprise by
arms. Garibaldi, wounded by a bullet
in the right foot, was forced to lay
down his arms after a short battle at
Aspromonte on August 2gth, 1862. The
road to Rome was not opened to the
Italians until the power of France was
overthrown by the victories of Germany.
5050
THE
RE-MAKING
OF
EUROPE
-T-^
k
THE
CONSOLIDA-
TION OF THE
POWERS V
PRUSSIA UNDER KING WILLIAM I.
AND COUNT BISMARCK'S RISE TO POWER
CAVOUR, on his death-bed, spoke un-
ceasingly of the future of his country,
and thus expressed himself about Ger-
many : " This German Federation is an
absurdity ; it will break up, and the union
of Germany will be established. But the
House of Hapsburg cannot alter itself.
What will the Prussians do, who are so
slow in coming to any conclusions ?
They will need fifty years to effect what
we have created in three years." This
was the idea of the future which the
dying statesman, to whom the name of
Bismarck was still probably unknown,
pictured to himself. It is quite possible
that German}^ notwithstanding its effi-
ciency and its culture, would have re-
quired, without Bismarck, another half-
century for its union. King Frederic
William I. had possessed an efficient army,
without being able to turn it to account,
as his great son did. Twice the tools
were procured and ready before
the master workman appeared
of King
William I.
on the scene who knew how
to use them. We know pre-
cisely the goal which King William I.
put before himself in the German
question before Bismarck became his
Minister. The plans which, as Prince
Regent, he unfolded to the Emperor Francis
Joseph at the conference at Toplitz,
towards the end of July, i860, were modest.
He was prepared to form an alliance
with Austria which would have guaranteed
to that country its existing dominions,
thus including Venice. In return he
required a change in the presidency of the
GeiTnan Federation as well as the com-
mand in the field over the troops of North
Germany in future federal wars ; the
supreme command in South Germany
was to fall to Austria. Thus, for the
future there would be no possibility of
the Fedeiation choosing a general for
itself, as Austria had desired on June 6th,
1859, when Germany armed against
Napoleon III. Prussia was bound to
prevent a majority in the Federation
deciding the question of the supreme
command of its army. Neither William
I. nor his Ministers then aimed at the
subjugation of Germany. But even those
claims wsre rejected by Austria. Francis
, Joseph declared that the presi-
w * k f^^ ^ dency in the Federation was
. ^ an old prerogative of his house,
^^^ and therefore unassailable. On
the other matter no negative answer
was returned, and negotiations were
opened with the Federal Diet ; but
Austria was certain that the Assembly
would reject the proposition.
If we leave out of sight the army
reforms, the inestimable work of William
I., we shall observe, until the appearance
of Bismarck on the scene, serious vaciha-
tion in the home policy no less than in
the foreign policy of Prussia. When the
Prince Regent became the representative
of King Frederic WiUiam IV., he issued
on October gth, 1858, a programme which
announced in cautious language the breach
with the reactionary method of govern-
ment. The avoidance of- all canting
piety produced a beneficial impression ;
but there were only platitudes on the
German question, among others the phrase :
" Prussia must make moral conquests
in Germany." When the Prince Regent
soon afterwards summoned a Ministry of
moderate Liberals, with Prince Anton von
Hohenzollern at its head, public opmion
breathed more freely, and the dawn of
a " new era " was expected. The name of
Count Maximilian Schwerin, Minister of the
. . Interior, seemed to guarantee
Prussia m ^ broad-minded policy of
,, reform. Count Alexander
the Dawn of
a " New Era
von Schleinitz, the Minister
of Foreign Affairs, was, on the contrary,
still firmly attached to the old system.
The Prussian people meantime under-
stood the good intention, and the new elec-
tions to the Chamber brought a majority
of moderate Liberals which was prepared
5051
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
to support the Government. A number
of Liberal leaders intentionallj^ refrained
from standing, in order not to arouse
in the Prince Regent misgivings lest a
repetition of the state of things in 1848
was intended. The leading figure in the
Chamber, which met in January, 1859,
was Vincke, whose loyalty was beyond
suspicion. Commendable political wisdom
was shown in this moderation on the part
of the constituencies. As a matter of
fact, the new Government introduced
schemes of reform touching the abolition
of the land-tax privileges of the nobihty
and the abolition of the police powers
of the owners of knight-estates. Great
efforts were expended to
induce the Upper House,
where the Conservatives
possessed a majority, to
accept the reforms. In
a matter of German
politics, where the con-
science of the people
chimed in, the new era
fulfilled the expectations
formed of it. Prussia
spoke boldly in the
Federal Diet on behalf of
the restoration of the
constitution of Electoral
Hesse, which had been
meanly curtailed. The
Government could not
rise superior to these
attacks. The Prince
Regent was unable to
bring himself to make a
clean sweep of a set of
unpopular high officials,
who had been much to
KING WILLIAM I. OF PRUSSIA
He was born in 1797, and on the death of
his brother, Frederic William IV., succeeded
... . to the throne of Prussia, being the seventh
blame m the reactionary king of that country, and on January 18th,
period for open violations '^''' ^^' P'-o^^'aimed first German Emperor.
of the laws. The revolt of Italy had a
great and immediate effect on the German
people. The founding of the National
Society, with Rudolf von Bennigsen at
its head, in July, 1859, was a direct con-
sequence of the Italian war. The society
aimed at the union of all German-speaking
races outside the Austrian Empire under
the leadership of a Liberal Prussia. The
Regent, far from being encouraged, felt
alarmed by the events in Italy ; the re-
volutionary rising in Naples and Garibaldi's
march repelled him. He could not con-
vince himself that the national will was
entitled to override legitimist rights.
His whole policy, both at home and
5052
abroad, was thus stamped by conservatism
and uncertainty. The Austrian Minister,
Rechberg, at the conferences of the
Emperor Francis Joseph with the Prince
Regent and with the Tsar at Toplitz and
Warsaw, succeeded in confirming these
two monarchs in the conviction that they,
too, were threatened by the national and
Liberal tendencies. Austria was no longer
isolated in that respect as in 1859.
All these circumstances co-operated to
close the ears of the Prussian people when
the king, who succeeded his brother on the
throne on January 2nd, 1861, came before
the Chamber with the plan of army reform.
William I. was superior to the majority of
his German contempor-
aries in recognising that
a comprehensive Prussian
policy could only be
carried out with a strong
army. Leopold von
Ranke says of a con-
versation which he had
with the king on June
13th, i860: "The sum
of his resolution was . . .
to leave the German
princes undisturbed in
their sovereignty, but to
effect a union in military
matters which would con-
duce to a great and general
efficiency. He fully
grasped the idea that the
military power comprised
in itself the sovereignty."
As long before as the
preparations which might
have led to a war with
Austria in 1850, the
prince was convinced that
the Prussian army, which
nominally, on a war footing, numbered
200,000 men with the colours and 400,000
in the Landwehr, was not sufficient for
protracted campaigns. The existing organ-
isation had been formed in the critical
times when the distrust of Napoleon I.
and vexatious treaty obligations compelled
Prussia to keep up a small peace army.
Under the financial stress of the period
subsequent to 1815, she was forced to
continue with this defensive army, which
in comparison with that of other military
states was much weaker than the army
which Frederic II. had raised in his far
smaller kingdom. The mobilisation of 1859
had shown serious deficiencies in every
CORONATION CEREMONY OF KING WILLIAM I. AT KONIGSBERG, OCTOBER 18TH, 1861
5053
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
direction. Besides this the Prince Regent
even then, in order to remedy the most
crying evils, had instituted an important
reform on his own authority. Hitherto
there had been few or no permanent staffs
for the Landwehr regiments ; so that on a
fresh mobihsation the troops could not
be placed in the ranks as soon as they were
called out, but had first to be formed into
regiments. Such a state of things seems
incredible at the present day.
At the demobilisation of 1859, the Prince
Regent directed that the recently formed
staffs of the Landwehr regiments should be
kept up. This change could not, however,
go far enough ; for since the members of
the Landwehr were bound to be dismissed,
those staffs consisted mostly of officers
only, and were not sufficient to form the
basis of a powerful new organisation. The
attention of William L was now directed
to this point. But the War Minister of the
day, Bonin, was too timid to undertake
the responsibility of the necessary mea-
sures, and on December 5th, 1859, Roon
had to be summoned in his place.
The new proposal came -before the
Prussian Diet on February loth, i860.
One of the great drawbacks of the existing
constitution of the army
lay in the fact that,
while annually, on the
average, 155,650 men
reached their twentieth
year, only 20,000 men
were enrolled in the army.
Thus twenty-six per cent,
of the young men capable
of bearing arms bore the
whole burden of military
service, which was
especially heavy, since
the obligation to serve
in the Landwehr lasted
to the thirty-ninth year.
The consequence of this
was that in the first levy
of the Landwehr one-half
of the total numbers, and
in the second levy five-
sixths, were married men.
The number of men liable to serve had
remained the same for more than forty
years, although the- population of the
country had increased from ten to eigjiteen
millions. The obligatory period of service
in the standing army, three years with the
colours, two years in the reserve, was too
short for the body of the army. The
5054
Reforming
the Army
of Prussia
COUNT MAXIMILIAN SCHWERIN
Among the Ministry of moderate Liberals
summoned by the Prince Regent in 1858 was
Count Schwerin, Minister of the Interior; a
"new era" was confidently anticipated, and
the public looked to Schwerin for reforms.
government therefore proposed to levy
annually, instead of 40,000 men, 60,000
men — forty per cent., that is, of all those
liable to serve ; while in return the obliga-
tion to serve in the Landwehr was to last
only to the age of thirty-five years. Besides
this, the three years' service in the reserve
was to be raised to five years.
This change signified a considerable
strengthening of the standing army and
a reduction of the Landwehr. This is
shown by the figures of the full war
footing which it was hoped to
reach. The army was intended
henceforth to consist of 371,000
men with the colours, 126,000
men in the reserve, and 163,000 in the
Landwehr. The scheme demanded the
attention of the Diet in two respects.
On the one side a money grant was
necessary, since it was impossible to
enrol the numerous new corps in the old
regiments, and thirty-nine new line regi-
ments had to be raised. An annual sum,
£1,350,000 sterling, was required for the
purpose. Besides this, the existing law as
to military service required to be consider-
ably modified. This applied not merely
to the division of the period of service
between the standing
army and the Landwehr,
but also concerned the
length of compulsory
active service. At that
time, in order to spare
the finances, the soldiers
were often dismissed after
serving two or two and a
half years. King William
did not consider this
period sufficient, and de-
manded the extension of
the period of service to
three, and in the case of
the cavalry to four, years.
Measures of no less im-
portance had then been
taken with regard to the
tactics of the infantry.
After the war of 1859,
there arose the question
of the conclusions to be drawn from the
experiences of the Italian campaign. The
defensive methods of the Austrians had
proved inferior to the offensive tactics of
the more dashing French. The French
had often succeeded, in infantry combats,
in rushing with an impetuous charge under
the Austrian bullets, which had a very
PRUSSIA UNDER KING WILLIAM I.
curved trajectory, and in thus winning the
day. For this reason it was the ordinary
belief in the Austrian army that defensive
tactics must once for all be given up.
The successes ot the French were over-
estimated, and there was a return in
the years 1859-66 to " shock tactics " ;
these attached little importance to the
preliminary musketry —
engagement, and con-
sisted in firing a few '
volleys and then charging
with the bayonet. Many
voices even in the
Prussian army advocated
a similar plan. Colonel
Ollech was sent by the
Prussian General Staff to
France in August, 1859,
in order to investigate
the condition of the
French army. He re-
turned strongly preju-
diced in favour of the
system of shock tactics,
and advised the king to
issue an order, in con-
nection with a similar
order issued by Frederic
the Great for the cavalry, that " every
infantry commander would be brought
before a court-martial who lost a position
without having met the attack of the
enemy by a counter attack."
King William was at all times clever in
discovering prominent men for leading
positions. The chief of the General Staff,
Lieutenant-General Helmuth von Moltke,
clearly saw the risk of this advice. In his
remarks on Ollech's report he laid great
weight on the attacking spirit in an army ;
but he recognised correctly that the needle-
, gun, introduced in 1847, secured
p . ... the Prussians the advantage
rincip e m -^ ^^^^ musketry fighting, and
that in ■ the reorganisation of
the army stress should be laid on that
point. Moltke's principle was that the
infantry should make the fullest use of
their superior firing power at the beginning
of the battle, and should for that purpose
select open country, where the effect of
fire is the greatest. An advance should not
be made before the enemy's infantry were
shattered, and in this movement attacks
on the enemy's flank were preferable.
The Prussians fought in 1866 with these
superior tactics, and they owed to them
a great part of the successes which they
THE HISTORIAN RANKE
Professor of History at Berlin from 1825 till
1872, Leopold von Ranke was the author of
many works dealing with European history.
achieved. The Prussian Landtag did not
mistake the value of the proposals made
by the Government, but raised weighty
objections. The majority agreed to the
extension of the annual recruiting, to the
increase of the officers and under-officers,
and to the discharge of the older members
of the Landwehr. On the other hand, the
• great diminution in the
number of the Landwehr
on a war footing, and the
I resulting reduction of
their importance, but
especially the three-years'
compulsory service,
aroused vigorous oppo-
sition. General Staven-
hagen, who gave evidence
for the proposal, char-
acterised the two-years'
service as sufficient. The
Government recognised
that it could not carry
the Bill relating to com-
pulsory service, and
therefore withdrew it. It
was content to demand
an increase of 9,000,000
thalers — £1,350,000
sterling — in the war Budget, in order to
carry out the increase of the regiments.
The Finance Minister, Baron von Patow,
explained in the name of the Government
that the organisation thus created was
provisional, and would not assume a
definite character until the Government
and the popular representatives had agreed
about the law itself. The Old Liberal
maj ority of the Chamber of Representatives
adopted this middle course, and sanctioned
the required increase. Thus the yearly
budget for the army was raised to
32,800,000 thalers — £4,920,000 sterling, or,
roughly, a quarter of the entire revenue of
130,000,000 thalers — £19,500,000 sterling.
This expedient was manifestly illusory.
The king at once ordered the disbanding
of thirty-six regiments of Landwehr,
whose place was taken by an equal
number of line regiments. Altogether
117 new battalions and twelve new
squadrons were formed. Obviously the
king, who presented colours and badges
to the new regiments on January i8th,
1861, in front of the monument of Frederic
the Great, could not disband these newly
formed units or dismiss their officers.
The Chamber of Representatives became,
in fact, suspicious, but agreed to the
5055
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
irxreased army budget once more for the
next year. Since the elections to the
Landtag were imminent, the final decision
stood over for the new House.
It would be a mistake to treat the events
which followed in the ordinary manner,
relating how the king
was prudent but the
Chamber petty in the
army question, and how
in this struggle the
wisdom of the Regent
fortunately prevailed
over the meddlesomeness
of the professional poli-
ticians. The state of
affairs was quite other-
wise. The dispute in the
matter itself was not
indeed beyond settle-
ment. In case of necessity
it would have been
possible to arrive at a
compromise as to the
amount of compulsory
service, and the Prussian
army would hardly have
been less effective if
the two-years' military
service had been intro-
duced then and not post-
poned until after the
death of Emperor
Wihiam I. This consideration does not in
any way lessen the credit due to the king.
But, as the new elections showed, there
was another and greater issue at stake.
The influence of Liberal ideas in Europe
was precisely then at its height, and public
opinion tended towards the view that the
royal power in Prussia must be checked,
exactly as it had been in that model
parliamentary state, England. The citizen
class had then, it was thought, come to
years of maturity, and it possessed a right
to take the place of the monarchy and
nobility in the power hitherto enjoyed by
them. At the new elections, on December
6th, 1861, the Progressive party, in which
the members of the movement of 1848
assumed the lead, was formed in opposition
to the Old Liberals, who had left their
stamp on the former Chamber. This
political group had not yet the whole
electorate on its side ; it carried a hundi'ed
seats, barely a third of the whole Assembly.
The Old Liberals felt themselves mean-
while outstripped, especially since the
king no longer extended his confidence to
5056
FIELD - MARSHAL ROON
Entering the Prussian array n 1^21, he re-
vealed a thorough grasp of military matters,
and his reorganisation of the army found
brilliant justification in the success of the
national arms in the wars of 1866 and 1870-1.
I'roin a pliotOi^caph
the Liberal Ministers, who were defeated
on the army question. While this
change was being effected among the
citizen class, the nobility and the
Conservative party on the other hand,
who had been greatly chagrined at being
dismissed from the helm
of state after the assump-
tion of the regency by
the prince, put forward
their claim not less reso-
lutely. The great services
of the Prussian nobility
to the army and the ci\nl
service, to which, both
ii before and after, it sup-
plied first - class men,
could not, of course, be
disputed. But to justifi-
able pride at this fact
was joined such intense
class prejudice that even
a man like Roon could
not for a long time bring
himself to recognise the
justification of an elected
representation of the
people. General Man-
teuffel, as chief of the
royal military cabinet,
worked with him in the
same spirit. Ernst von
Gerlach and Hermann
Wagener represented in the " Kreuz-
zeitung " similar views. Karl Twesten,
one of the most prominent members of
the Liberal party, called General Man-
teuffel a mischievous man in a mis-
chievous position — ^^a taunt which Man-
teuffel answered by a challenge to a duel,
in which Twesten was wounded.
The Liberal ^Ministers saw with concern
how the king inclined more and more
towards the paths of the Conservative
party. They counselled him, in
view of the impending struggle
over the military question, to
conciliate public opinion by
undertaking reforms in various depart-
ments of the legislature. Roon vigorously
opposed this advice, which he saw to
be derogatory to the Crown. He induced
the king on March ist, 1861, to adjourn
these Bills, which had already been settled
upon. He unceasingly urged the king
to dismiss his Liberal colleagues and to
adopt strong measures. In a memorial
laid before the king, dated April, 1861,
he wrote of the Hohenzollern-Schwerin
Rood's
Advice to
the King
PRUSSIA UNDER KING WILLIAM I.
Prussian
Conservatives
in Power
Cabinet, in which, nevertheless, he himself
had accepted a seat, that "it is only
compatible with the pseudo-monarchy of
Belgium, England, or of Louis Philippe,
not with a genuinely Prussian monarchy
by the grace of God, with a monarchy
according to your ideas. People have
tried to intimidate your Majesty by the
loud outcry of the day. All the unfortunate
monarchs of whom history tells have so
fared ; the phantom ruined them, simply
because they believed in it."
The opposition was apparent
as soon as the new Chamber
assembled on January 14th,
1862. Opponents of the proposal were
elected on the commission for. discussing
the Army Bill in a large majority. When
the Budget was discussed, a resolution
was adopted which called for more precise
details of the state finances. This was a
reasonable demand, and was soon after-
wards conceded by Bismarck. But the
Conservative advisers of the king then
stigmatised the wish as an encroachment
on the rights of the Crown, and the
Chamber of Representa-
tives was dissolved on
March i8th, 1862, after
a short term of life. At
the same time the Liberal
Ministry was dismissed.
Its place was taken by
a Cabinet in which
officials preponderated,
but which, on the whole,
bore a Conservative
character. It is certainly
to the credit of Roon and
Manteuffel that their in-
fluence on the king paved
the way for Bismarck.
But they made the be-
ginning of his term of
office more difficult for
the great Minister, since
he was at once drawn
into the most violent
antagonism to popular
representation. The
question must be raised
whether Prussia, with
her great military and
intellectual superiority,
would not have obtained the same results
if there had been no such rupture with
public opinion. The Crown Prince Frederic
WiUiam held this view, and it was shared
not only by Albert, the English Prince
CROWN PRINCE FREDERIC
The only son of William I., he married Vic-
toria, Princess Royal of England, in 1858. A
man of courage, he opposed the reactionary
policy of Bismarck, and fought with distinc-
tion in the various wars waged by Prussia.
From a photoj^raph
Consort, but also by the king's son-in-law,
the Grand Duke Frederic of Baden, who
just then was reforming his country with
the help of the Liberal Ministers, Baron
Franz von Roggenbach and Karl Mathy.
Men of a similar type would have gladly
co-operated to help King William to gain
the imperial crown. King William him-
self felt that, in consequence of his quarrel
with the Chamber, many sincere friends of
Prussia were mistaken as to his country's
German mission. This point was em-
phasised even in the National Assembly.
In order to counteract this tendency,
the king had appointed Bernstorff, who
advocated the union of Germany under
the leadership of Prussia, to be Minister
of Foreign Affairs in the place of Schleinitz,
who held legitimist views. Bernstorff
adopted, in fact, most vigorous measures,
M'hen several states of the German Zoll-
verein, on the conclusion of the Free-Trade
commercial treaty with France, threatened
that they would in consequence withdraw
from the Zollverein. They found a sup-
porter in Austria, who would gladly have
broken up the Zollverein ;
but they were forced to
yield to Prussia, since
their own economic
interests dictated their
continuance in the Zoll-
verein. Bernstorff
furthermore, in a note
addressed to the German
courts on December 20th,
1861, announced as a
programme the claim of
Prussij^ to the leadership
of Lesser Germany. By
this step the Berlin
Cabinet reverted to the
policy of union which
had been given up in
1850. The party of
Greater Germany col-
lected its forces in oppo-
sition. Austria resolved
to anticipate Prussia by
a tangible proposition to
the Diet, and proposed
federal reforms : that a
directory with corre-
sponding central autho-
rity should be established, and by its side
an assembly of delegates from the popular
representatives of the several states. But,
before this proposal should be agreed to,
steps were to be taken to elaborate a
5057
HARIvISWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
of Radical
Libaralism
common system of civil procedure and con-
tract law for the whole of Germany. Both
the Prussian note and the Austrian pro-
posal met with opposition and a dissentient
majority in the Federal Diet at Frank-
fort, for the secondary states did not
wish to relinquish any part of their
sovereignty in favour of either the Prus-
sian or the Austrian Govern-
^/ol'l.l^rr iTient. The necessary con-
dition for the success of the
Prussian policy would have
been a majority in a German Parliament
on the side of Prussia, as in 1849. But Bern-
storff, although in his heart he favoured
the plan, could not advise the king to
summon a National Assembly, because, as
things then stood, its majority would
have approved of the opposition of the
Prussian progressive party.
In the new elections to the Chamber of
Representatives Radical Liberalism gained
the greatest number of seats. The two
sections of this party numbered together
235 members — two-thirds, that is, of the
352 representatives of the Landtag ; the
Old Liberals under the leadership of
Vincke had dwindled to 23 votes. The new
majority gladly accepted the challenge
fiung to them ; for the idea, which Roon
had erroneously termed the ultimate goal
even of the moderate Liberals, was actively
dominant among them. They wished for
no compromise, biit aimed at the subordi-
nation of the king to the Parliament. The
examples of England and Belgium domi-
nated their plans in every detail.
The army question became the out-
ward pretext on which the two consti-
tutional theories came into conflict with
each other. Since the king did not con-
cede the two years' compulsory service,
which the .Chamber demanded as a con-
dition of the army reform, the House
resolved, on September 23rd, 1862, to
strike out entirely -the costs oS the
reform, which was tantamount to dis-
banding the new regiments.
^ ° Li this way a humiliation was
th^'ic'" ^^^^ *^^ ^^^® l-^ii^g. which was
"^^ intended to bend or break him.
King William was resolved rather to
lay down the Crown than to submit to a
compulsion by which, according to his
view, he would have been degraded to
the position of a puppet ruler. He
seriously contemplated this step, when the
Ministry of Hohenlohe, seeing no way out
of the difficulty, asked to be dismissed.
5058
The king doubted whether men would be
found bold enough to confront the Cham-
ber of Representatives. Whenever Roon
and Manteuffel had formerly spoken of
Bismarck, the king had hesitated to en-
trust the government to a man whom he
considered to be a hot-head. Now, he told
Roon, Bismarck would no longer enter-
tain any wish to be at the head of affairs ;
besides that, he happened to be on leave,
travelling in Southern France.
Roon, however, could assure the king
that Bismarck, who had been already
recalled, was prepared to enter the service
of the king. vSoon afterwards the latter
learned that Bismarck had, immediately on
his return, paid a visit, by invitation, to
the Crown Prince. King William's sus-
picions were aroused by this, and he
thought, " There is nothing to be done
with him ; he has already been to my son."
All doubts, however, were dissipated
when Bismarck appeared before him and
unfolded his scheme of government. The
king showed him the deed of abdication,
which he had already drafted, because, so
he said, he could not find another Ministry.
Bismarck encouraged him by
the assurance that he intended
Bismarck's
Rise
p to stand by him in the struggle
between the supremacy of the
Crown and of Parliament. On the day when
the Chamber of Representatives passed the
resolution by which the monarch felt him-
self most deeply wounded, on September
23rd, 1862, the nomination of Bismarck as
President of the Ministry was published.
Bismarck's work is the establishment of
the unity of Germany no less than the
revival of the power of the monarchy
and of all conservative forces in that
country. His contemporaries have passed
judgment upon him according to their
political attitudes. Those who regarded
the advancing democratisation of Great
Britain and France as equally desirable
for Germany, and as the ultimate goal of
its development, were bound to see an
opponent in the powerful statesman. A
difficult legal question was put before
Bismarck at the very outset of his
activity. He counselled the king to
disregard the Budget rights of the
Chamber of Representatives.
For the historical estimate of Bismarck
it is not of primary importance whether
the constitutional arguments which he
employed on this occasion are tenable
or not; this legal question must certainly
PRUSSIA UNDER KING WILLIAM I.
be decided against him. He took his
stand on the ground that the Budget
was, according to the constitution, a
law on which the Crown, the Upper
Chamber, and the Chamber of Representa-
tives must agree ; and that tlie authors of
the Prussian constitution had on this point
reversed the practice of England, where
money grants are exclusively the province
of the Lower House. They had not pro-
vided for the event that the three might
not be able to agree and the law could thus
not be passed ; there was therefore an
omission. But since the state could not
stand still, a constitutional deadlock had
resulted, which would be fatal unless
the Budget for the year were provided
by the arbitrary action of the Crown.
The consequence of this theory was
that the Crown could enforce all the
larger Budget demands, even though
the two Chambers had pronounced in
favour of the smaller sum. From this
point of view every theory turned on the
exercise of the powers of the constitu-
tional authorities. In the great speech in
which the Prussian Minister-President
_. , explained his views, he con-
DaTtrour fronted the Chamber with his
angcrous pQ^i^ica^l principles : " The
Declaration £v • ^ f , , ,
Prussian monarchy has not yet
fulfilled its mission ; it is not yet ripe to
form a purely ornamental decoration of the
fabric of your constitution, nor to be in-
corporated into the mechanism of parlia-
mentary rule as an inanimate piece of the
machinery." Even the king wavered for
a moment when Bismarck in the Budget
commission of the Chamber of Representa-
tives, September 30th, 1862, made his
famous assertion that " the union of
Germany could not be effected by speeches,
societies, and the resolutions of majorities ;
a grave struggle was necessary, a struggle
that could only be carried through by
blood and iron." Even Roon considered
this phrase as dangerous.
The state was administered for four
years without a constitutionally settled
Budget. The Chamber of Representatives
declared this procedure illegal, and great
excitement prevailed throughout the
country. In order to suppress the oppo-
sition, strict enactments were published
on June ist, 1863, which were directed
against the freedom of the Press and of the
societies. At this period the Crown Prince
Frederic William joined the opponents
of Bismarck, because he thought the
The Crown
Prince Criticises
Bismarck
procedure of the Ministers might provoke
a new revolution in Prussia. He made a
speech on June 5th, in the town hall at
Danzig when receiving the municipal
authorities, which was directed against the
Government : "I, too, regret that I have
come here at a time when a quarrel, of
which I have been in the highest
degree surprised to hear,
has broken out between
the Government and the
people. I know nothing
of the enactments which have brought
about this result." The Crown Prince at
the same time sent a memorandum to the
king to the same effect ; but on June 30th
he wrote to the Minister-President a letter
full of indignation and contempt, which
would have shaken the resolution of any
other man than Bismarck : " Do you believe
that you can calm men's minds by con-
tinual outrages on the feeling of legality ?
I regard the men who lead his Majesty
the king, my most gracious father, into
such paths as the most dangerous
counsellors for Crown and country."
The king was deeply hurt at the public
appearances of his son ; he contemplated
harsh measures against him, and Bismarck
was compelled to dissuade him from his
purpose. The Minister reminded the king
that in the quarrel between Frederic
William I. and his son the sympathy of
the times, as well as of posterity, had been
with the son ; and he showed the inad vis-
ability of making the Crown Prince a
martyr. Thus the situation in Prussia
seemed to be strained to the breaking
point. The Representative Chamber
adopted in 1863, by a large majority, the
resolution that Ministers should be liable
out of their private fortune for any
expenditure beyond the Budget.
It is marvellous with what independence
and intellectual vigour Bismarck guided
foreign policy in the midst of these com-
motions. We need only examine the pages
. , of history from 1850 to 1862
Prussia s ^^ ^^^ ^j^^^.^y j^^^^, ^^^^i^
. u.*^.^ Prussia counted as a European
,n History p^^^^. j^ ^^^^^^^ -^ ^^^_
sequence of the vacillation of Frederic
William IV., a feeble role, especially at
the time of the Crimean War. Even later,
when William I. was governing the country
as prince regent and as king, Cavour,
who was continually forced to rack his
brains with the possibilities which might
effect a change in the policy of France and
5059
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
Austria, Great Britain and Russia, hardly
took Prussia into consideration. That
state, during the Itahan crisis of i860, had
httle more weight than a Power of the
second rank — only about as much as
Spain, of which it was occasionally said
that it would strengthen or relieve the
French garrison in Rome with its troops.
Great as are the services of
King William to the army and
Bismarck
an Object of
Ridicule
the State of Prussia, he could
not have attained such great
successes without a man like Bismarck.
Considering the feebleness of Prussia,
which had been the object of ridicule
for years, every one was, at first, surprised
by the vigorous language of Bismarck.
When, in one of the earliest Cabinet
councils, he broached the idea that Prussia
must watch for an opportunity of acquir-
ing Schleswig-Holstein, the Crown Prince
raised his hands to heaven, as if the orator
had uttered some perfectly foolish thing,
and the clerk who recorded the proceed-
ings thought he would be doing a favour
to Bismarck if he omitted the words ; the
latter was obliged to make the additional
entry in his own writing.
The newspapers and political tracts of
that time almost entirely ridicule the atti-
tude of the new Minister, whom no one
credited with either the serious intention or
the strength to carry out his programme.
His contemporaries were therefore only
confirmed in their contempt for him when,
on November 26th, 1862, he suddenly ended
the constitutional struggle in Electoral
Hesse, which had lasted several decades,
by sending an orderly to the Elector
Frederic William, with the peremptory
command that he should give back to the
country the constitution of 1831.
And now came his amazing conversation
with the Austrian Ambassador, Count Aloys
Karolyi. Austria, shortly before, without
coming to terms with Prussia, had brought
before the Assembly in Frankfort the pro-
. I .. r posal already mentioned for
Bombshell of ^ -^
the "Terrible
Bismarck
,, federal I'eform. Bismarck, in
that conversation, taunted
Austria with having deviated
from the method of Prince Metternich,
who came *.o a previous arrangement with
Prussia as to all measures concerning
German affairs ; and he declared to the
count that Austria would soon have to
choose between the alternatives of vacating
Germany and shifting its political centre
to the east, or of finding Prussia in the
5060
next war on the side of its opponents.
This assertion fell like a bombshell on
Vienna. Count Rechberg was not so
wrong when he talked of the " terrible "
Bismarck, who was capable of doing any-
thing for the greatness of Prussia.
The two great parties in Germany were
organised at the precise moment when
Bismarck entered upon office. A Diet of
representatives from the different German
Parliaments, which was attended by some
200 members, met at Weimar on Sep-
tember 28th, 1862. This assembly de-
manded the svimmons of a German
Parliament by free popular election, and
the preliminary concentration of non-
Austrian Germany ; to begin v/ith, at
any rate, Austria would have to remain
outside the more restricted confederation.
This assembly and the activity of the
National Society led on the other side to
the formation of the Greater Germany
Reform Society, which came into existence
at Frankfort. It demanded a stricter
consolidation of the German states under
the leadership of Austria. The narrow
particularism of the princes and their
-, immediate followers, who were
e rea cr ^j^^jjjjj^g ^q sacrifice for the
ermany welfare of the whole body any
Movement „ ,, . , r .-, ■ -,-
of the sovereignty of the indi-
vidual states, kept aloof from these efforts.
Their underlying thought was expressed by
the Hanoverian Minister, Otto, Count
Borries, who, when opposing the efforts of
the National Society on May ist, i860,
went so far as to threaten that the
secondary states would be forced into
non-German alliances in order to safe-
guard their independence.
The Greater Germany movement gained
adherents not merely by the constitutional
struggle in Prussia but also by the move-
ment towards liberalism in Austria. The
absolute monarchy, which had ruled in
Austria since 1849, ended with a defeat
on the battlefield and the most complete
financial disorder. The pressure of the
harsh police regulations weighed all the
more heavily, as the state organs, since the
conclusion of the concordat with Rome,
were put equally at the service of eccle-
siastical purposes. The discontent of
every nationality in the empire impelled
the emperor, after Solferino, June 24th,
1859, ^'^ make a complete change. It
would have been the natural course of
proceedings if the emperor had at once
resolved to consolidate the unity of the
PRUSSIA UNDER KING WILLIAM I.
Empire, which had been regained in 1849,
by summoning a General Parhament. But
the Crown, and still more the aristocracy,
were afraid that in this imperial repre-
sentation the German bourgeoisie would
come forward with excessive claims. For
this reason an aristocratic interlude
followed. Count Goluchowski, a Pole,
hitherto Governor of Galicia, became
Minister of the Interior on August 2ist, 1859,
while Count Rechberg, who had already
succeeded Count Buol as Minister of the
Interior and of the Imperial House on May
17th, was given the post of President.
The administrative business of the
entire monarchy was, by the imperial
manifesto of October 20th, i860, concen-
trated in a new body, the National
Ministry, at whose head Goluchowski was
placed, while the conduct of Hungarian
affairs was entrusted to Baron Nikolaus
Bay and Count Nikolaus Szecsen ; at the
same time orders were issued that the
provincial councils — Landtage — and a
council of the empire elected from them —
Reichsrat — should be summoned. These
bodies were, however, only to have a
deliberative voice ; and besides
Hungary on
the Verge
of Rebellion
that, a preponderant influence
in the provincial bodies was
assigned to the nobility and the
clergy. It was a still more decisive step
that the members of the conservative
Hungarian haute noblesse, in their aver-
sion to German officialism, induced the
emperor once more to entrust the adminis-
tration of Hungary and the choice of
officials to the assemblies of nobles, known
as " county courts," as had been the case
before the year 1848. These measures
produced a totally different result from
that anticipated by Bay and Szecsen.
The meetings of the county courts, which
had not been convened since 1849, were
filled with a revolutionary spirit, and,
while offering at once the most intense
opposition, refused to carry out the
enactments of the Ministers, because, so
they alleged, the constitutionally elected
Reichstag was alone entitled to sanction
taxation ; and they chose officials who
refused to collect taxes, or only did so in
a dilatory fashion. The country in a few
months bordered on a state of rebellion.
As the Hungarian Ministers of the em-
peror had plunged the Empire into this
confusion, they were compelled to advise
him to entrust a powerful personality
from the ranks of the high German officials
with the conduct of affairs, Anton
von Schmerling was nominated Minister
of Finance on December 17th, i860,
in the place of Goluchowski. He won over
the emperor to his view, which was
unfavourable to the Hungarians, and
carried his point as to maintaining one
united constitution and the summoning
TV w , of a central parliament. He
The Magyars 1 i .1 ^^ i- ■, ^
p ... , proposed also that a limited
iLxpectations of ^ ^ , , , , , ,
Independence ^^°P^ ^^^°"^^ ^^ conceded
to the diets of the individual
provinces. These were the fundamental
principles of the constitution granted on
February 26th, 1861. Schmerling deserves
credit for having restored the prestige of
the constitution in Hungary without blood-
shed, even if severe measures were used.
The county assemblies were dissolved,
and trustworthy native officials sub-
stituted for them. The vacillation of the
emperor in i860 strengthened, however,
the conviction of the Magyars that in the
end the Crown would yield to their oppo-
sition, and once more concede the inde-
pendence of Hungary in the form in
which it was won by the constitution of
April, 1848. The leadership of this
opposition in the Landtag summoned in
1861 was taken by Franz Deak ; the
Landtag, in the address which was agreed
upon, refused to send representatives
to the central Parliament, and complete
independence was demanded for Hungary.
Schmerling advanced unhesitatingly on
the road which he had taken. At the
same time he won great influence over the
management of German affairs, and for
some period was more powerful in that
sphere than the Minister of the Exterior,
Count Rechberg. The Matter considered it
prudent to remain on good terms with
Prussia, and not to stir up the German
question. Schmerling, on the other hand,
put higher aims before himself, and wished
to give Germany the desired federal
reform, and to strengthen Austria's influ-
ence in Germany by the estab-
hshment of a strong central
Austria's
Influence in
_ power in Frankfort. He hoped
ermany ^^ overcome the resistance of
Prussia by help of the popular feeling in
non-Prussian Germany. He enlisted
confidence in Germany also by the intro-
duction of constitutional forms in Austria.
Austria tried to sweep the German
princes along with her in one bold rush.
The emperor, in deference to a suggestion
of his brother-in-law, Maximilian, the
5061
HARMS WORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
hereditary prince of Thurn and Taxis,
resolved to summon all German princes
to a conference at Frankfort-on-Main, and
to lay before them . his plan of reform.
The King of Prassia
in this matter was
not treated differently
from the pettiest and
weakest of the Federal
princes. The emperor
communicated his in-
tention to King William,
at their meeting in
Gastein on August 2nd,
1863, and, without
waiting for the stipu-
lated written decision
of the king, handed
him by an adjutant on
August 3rd the formal
invitation to the Diet
of Princes summoned
for August i6th.
The blow aimed by
Austria led to a tem-
porary success. Public
opinion in South Ger
■l
P^^M
^K
^ -^^
^1
^^^m^mPf^
"^^^Sj^^^H
1^ ^n-^
r X ^^B^H
■■^^^gl^^Kg
^m^^f
KING JOHN OF SAXONY
Under this king, who reigned from 1854 till 1873, and
but made two additional proposals, which
were not quite friendly to Prussia. He first
induced the meeting to declare that it
considered the Austrian proposals suitable
as a basis for reform;
and it was also, soon
settled that the refusal
of the King of Prussia
was no obstacle to
further deliberation.
After these resolutions,
which were taken on
August iSth, King
John went to Baden-
Baden, in order to
take the invitation to
the King of Prussia.
King William did
not seem disinclined
to accept the invi-
tation, and said to
Bismarck : " Thirty
princes sending the
invitation, and a king
as Cabinet messenger,
how can there be any
uiiuer Liiis King, wiiu xcigiicu iiuiii loo-t till ±0. o, diiu . 1 -\ JJ o 4. TD '
who was distinguished for learning and culture, many rCIUSai . XjUL IjIS-
many was aroused, and schemes for the betterment of the people of Saxony mai'ck saw that this
in some places became ^"« introduced, while the army was reformed, gurprisc, planned by
enthusiastic ; the sovereigns and princes
gave their services to the Austrian reform.
All this made a deep impression on King
William ; the Bavarian queen, Marie, and
her sister-in-law, the widow of King
Frederic William IV., urged him on his
journey from Gastein to Baden-Baden
to show a conciliatory attitude towards
the Austrian proposal. Never-
theless he followed Bis-
marck's advice, and kept
away from the gieeting at
Frankfort. The Emperor
Francis Joseph made his
entry into the Free Town
amid the pealing of the bells
and the acclamations of the
inhabitants, who favoured
the Austrian cause. He skil-
fully presided over the debate
of the princes, and King John
of Saxony, 1854-1873, an
experienced man of business
and an eloquent speaker, anton von schmerling
Austria, was a blow aimed at Prussia,
and he would have felt deeply humiliated
by the appearance of his monarch at
Frankfort. Germany was to see that
any alteration of the German constitu-
tion must prove abortive from the mere
opposition of Prussia. Bismarck required
all his strength of will to induce William
-J to refuse ; he declared that
if the king commanded him,
he would go with him to
Frankfort, but that when
the business was ended he
would never return with him
to Berlin as Minister. The
king, therefore, took his
advice. What Bismarck had
foreseen now occurred. It
is t ue that the Austrian
proposal was in the end
discussed and accepted,
against the votes of Baden,
Schwerin, Weimar, Luxem-
burg, Waldeck, and the
confuted the protests which thi" prestige ^rthl' consutudon younger line of Reuss. But
were preferred by a small in Hungary without bloodshed, since the meeting only
minority. The Grand Duke Frederic
Francis II. of Mecklenburg-Schwerin pro-
posed to invite King William to make the
journey to Frankfort. King John assented,
5062
pledged itself in the event of an
agreement with Prussia as the basis
of these resolutions, Austria had failed
in the achievement of her main result.
THE
RE- MAKING
OF
E J ROPE
THE
CONSOLIDA-
TION OF THE
POWERS VI
PRUSSIA & AUSTRIA Te EVE OF WAR
THE FATE OF SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN
Denmark's
ALL these debates and intrigues between
Prussia and Austria sank into the
background when the fate of ^chleswig-
Holstein was destined to be decided
by arms. The occasion for this was
given by the death of the Danish king,
Frederic VIL, on November 15th; 1863,
with whom the main Une of the royal
house became extinct. The collateral
line of Holstein-Gliicksburg possessed the
hereditary right to Denmark, while the
House of Augustenburg raised claims to
Schleswig-Holstein. All Germany thought
that the moment had come to free Schles-
wig-Holstein from the Danish rule by
supporting the Duke of Augustenburg.
The two great German Powers were, how-
ever, pledged in another direction by the
Treaty of London.
Denmark had expressly engaged by that
arrangement to grant Schleswig-Holstein
an independent government ; on this
basis the Great Powers on their
side guaranteed the possession
71"^ i- of the duchies to the King of
the Duchies TA 1 J 11 1 •
Denmark and all his suc-
cessors. The two great German Powers
were to blame for having compelled the
inhabitants of Schleswig-Holstein in 1850
to submit to Denmark. From hatred of
Liberalism and all the mistakes it was sup-
posed to have made in 1848, tliey destroyed
any hopes which the inhabitants of
Schleswig-Holstein might have formed for
the future, after the royal house should
have become extinct. Duke Christian of
Augustenburg sold his hereditary rights to
Denmark for 2,250,000 thalers — £500,000 —
although his son Frederic protested. But
Denmark did not think of fulfilling her
promise. The German Federation was con-
tent for years to remonstrate and propose
a court of arbitration. Finally, the Federal
Council resolved on armed intervention
against Denmark. Hanoverian and Saxon
troops occupied Holstein, but they were
forced to halt on the Eider, as Schleswig
did not belong to the Federation.
In Copenhagen the Eider-Danish party
drew peculiar conclusions from these
circumstances ; since, they said, Schles-
wig did not belong to the Federation, the
Treaty of • London might be disregarded,
the bond between Schleswig and Holstein
_,_,,. dissolved, and Schleswig, at
Duke Frederic , ^ 4. j ■ j.
„. any rate, amalgamated mto
^"^ *^ . the unified State of Denmark.
Supporters^, , , . ,
1 hreatenmg crowds forced
the new monarch. Christian IX., in spite
of his superior insight, to consent to the
united constitution. The Treaty of London
was to all intents and purposes broken.
The claim of Duke Frederic of Augusten-
burg to Schleswig-Holstein was thus unani-
mously applauded by the popular voice of
Germany. He declared himself ready to
follow loyally the democratic constitution
which the duchies had given themselves in
1848, and surrounded his person with
liberal counsellors. A large proportion of
the governments of the petty German
states recognised the duke as the heir,
and the majority of the Federal Council
decided in his favour.
Prussia and Austria, indeed, as signa-
tories of the Treaty of London, felt them-
selves bound by it towards Europe. They
possessed, according to it, the right to
compel Denmark to grant to the duchies
independence and union under one sove-
reign ; but they could exempt themselves
from recognising the hereditary right of
King Christian IX. Austria in particular,
whose stability rested on European treaties,
did not venture to admit that the right of
nationality could undo those treaties.
Was Prussia able to confront
the other Great Powers with her
unaided resources ? Bismarck,
with all his determination,
thought such a move too dangerous. The
stake in such a struggle would have been
too trivial ; for, as Bismarck showed the
Prussian House of Representatives, Prus-
sia would have lent its arms to establish the
claims of a duke who, like the ot.ber petty
'=;o6h
Prussia
Against the
Powers
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
states, would have mostly voted with
Austria at Frankfort. " The signing of the
Treaty of London," so Bismarck said on
December ist, 1863, in the Prussian House
of Representatives, " may be deplored ;
but it has been done, and honour as well
as prudence commands that our loyal
observance of the treaty be
beyond all doubt." These
reasons did not, however, con-
vince the House. It pro-
nounced in favour of the
hereditary right of the Duke
of Augustenburg. Bismarck
vainly put before the Opposi-
tion that, as soon as Prussia
abandoned the basis of the
Treaty of London, no pretext
whatever could be found
for interfering in Schleswig,
which stood entirely outside
would have been justified if Bismarck
had still been, as he was m 1848, a man
of exclusively Conservative party politics.
The German people could not know that
he had become a far greater man. He
had now fixed his eye on the acquisition
of the duchies by Prussia, and steered
steadily towards that goal
which King William still con-
sidered unattainable. Just
now he won a great diplo-
matic triumph. Austria, on
the question of the duchies,
was divided from the German
minor states, her allies, and
Bismarck widened the breach.
He explained to the Vienna
Cabinet that Prussia was
resolved to compel Denmark
to respect the Treaty of
London by force of arms, and,
if necessary, single-handed.
Austria now could not and
the German Confederation ^^^^ frederic vii.
The violent opposition of King of Denmark from 1S48, his
the House of Representatives tyrannous rule in Schieswig-Hoi- dared not leave the hberation
_-. , , -^ J , T stein was bitterly resented, and by r r^ i i • j. -i • i
to Bismarck s methods was his death, in 1863, the main line of ot bchlcswig to her rival
due to the fact that the Con- *^^ '°y^^ ^°"^^ ^^""^""^ ^^""^*' alone, otherwise she would
servative party, to which Bismarck had have voluntarily abdicated her position
belonged, had in 1849 and 1850 condemned in Germany. Rechberg, who in any case
the rebehion of Schleswig-Holstein against was favourably disposed to the alliance
Denmark ; and there was the fear that with Prussia, induced his master, under
the supporters of legitimacy would once the circumstances, to conclude the armed
more in the end make the duchies subject alliance with Prussia ; Francis Joseph
to Denmark. As a matter of fact, the two was, however, disappointed that the Diet
great German Powers had at Frankfort and the anti-
tolerated the infringements of j^^^ • \ Prussian policy had borne no
the Treaty of London by Mt^'^- \^^^ fruits. The two Great Powers
Denmark since 1852, and had ^K .. . -^ pledged themselves in the
not contributed at all to pre- ^ff ^^ *^ treaty of January i6th, 1864,
serve the rights of the duchies. "^3^ Jfikl ^° attack Denmark, and
This explains the blame laid t/k^^W settled that after the libera-
upon the two Great Powers by . ^^ffta tion of the duchies no
the committee ol an assembly , ^^^kl^^l^ decision should be taken
of representatives at Frank- \,,^^^^^B^^^ about them except by the
fort on December 21st, 1863, ^^^^^^^^B^^^^ agreement of the two Powers,
in an address to the German ^^^^^^^^^^^^' Austria thus felt protected
people. For twelve years, it ^^[^^^^^^^^ against surprises on the part
said, the Danes had been ^^^^l^^^ of Prussia. The treaty met
allowed to trample under foot king christian ix. with the most violent opposi-
the Treaty of London. Now, He succeeded to the throne of tion both in the Prussian and
• , 1 ,1 , • , • c ,\ Denmark in 1S63, on the death of , , . , • , . •
With the extinction of the Frederic vii. His eldest daughter, the Austriau representative
royal house, and the revival ^ll''^?!''^' To ''•'5'^ ^'"f ?^7'"'f assemblies. The money for
■^ , ' ,. . vii. of Great Britam and Ireland. J
of the hereditary right of i-rom a photoi^r.,,,!, the conduct ol the war was
Augustenburg, the possibility had come actually refused in Berlin. The Austrian
of getting rid of the shameful treaty.
" Now, when the execution of that treaty
would be fatal to the cause of the duchies,
armies were being put into the field in
order to enforce its execution." This
reproach against the Prussian policy
5064
Chamber did not proceed to such extreme
measures, but the majority held it to be a
mistake that Austria adopted a hostile
position against the minor states, and
neglected the opportunity to make a friend
of the future Duke of Schleswig-Holstein.
THE FATE OF SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN
The army to conquer Sclileswig con-
sisted of 37,000 Pmssians and 23,000
Austrians, who were opposed by 40,000
Danes. The supreme command of the
invading force was held by Count Wrangel.
The Danes hoped to the last for foreign
help, but the threats of England to the
German Powers were smoke without a fire.
The Danes first attempted resistance along
the Danewerk. But the Austrians in the
battles of Jagel and Okerselk, on February
3rd, stormed the outposts in front of the
redoubts and pur-
sued the Danes
right under the
cannons of the
Danewerk. Since
there was the
fear that the
strong position
would be turned
by the Prussians
below Missunde.
the Danish
general, De Meza,
ev^acuated the
Danewerk on
February 5th,
and withdi'ew
northwards. The
Austrians fol-
lowed quickly
and came up
with the Danes
the next day at
Oeversee, and
compelled them
to fight for their
retreat. Scliles-
wig was thus
conquered with
the exception of
a small peninsula
on the east ,
where the lines
of Diippel were
raised, which
were in touch with the island of
and the powerful Danish fleet. Prussia
proposed then to force the Danes to
conclude peace by an investment of Jilt-
land. The Austrian Cabinet could not at
first entertain this plan. General Man-
teuffel, who was sent to Vienna, only
carried his point when Prussia gave a
promise that Schleswig-Holstein should
not be wrested from the suzerainty of the
Danish crown ; on the contrary, the inde-
pendent duchies were to be united with
FREDERIC VII. OF
Denmark by a personal union. The allies
thereupon conquered Jiitland as far as the
Liim Fiord, and by storming the lines of
Diippel, on April i8th, the Prussian arms
won a brilliant success, and the blockade of
the mouths of the Elbe was relieved by the
sea-fight of Heligoland on May 9th, 1864.
The future of the duchies was now the
question. Popular opinion in Germany
protested loudly against their restoration
to the Danish king, and Bismarck now fed
the flame of indignation, since he wished
to release Prussia
from the promise
she had made.
But he would not
have attained
this object had
not the Danes,
fortunately for
Germany, re-
mained obsti-
nate. A con-
ference of the
Powers con-
cerned met in
London on April
25th, 1864. The
Danish pleni-
potentiaries, still
hoping for British
support, rejected
on May 17th the
proposal of Prus-
sia and Austria
for the constitu-
tional indepen-
dence of the
duchies, even
should their pos-
session be i n -
tended for their
King Christian.
The matter was
thus definitely
decided. Austria
was now com-
pelled to retire from the agreement last
made with Prussia. The Vienna Cabinet,
making a virtue of necessity, resolved to
prevent Schleswig-Holstein from falling to
Prussia by nominating the Duke of August-
enburg. King William had long been in-
clined to this course, if only Duke Frederic
was willing to make some arrangement
with Prussia about his army, as Coburg had
already done ; if he would grant Prussia a
naval station and allow the North Sea
Canal to be constructed ; and if the duchies
5065
DENMARK AND
From a photograph
Alsen
HIS CONSORT
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
entered the ZoUverein. The duke would
certainly have agreed to these terms in order
to obtain the sovereignty had not Austria
on its side made more favourable promises.
There was a strong wish at Vienna to
prevent Schleswig-Holstein becoming a
vassal state of Prussia. The duke, en-
couraged by this, promised the king indeed
to observe those conditions, but he added
the qualification that he could not know
whether the Estates of Schleswig-Holstein
would assent to the treaty. If not, he was
ready to withdraw in favour of his son.
This additional proviso filled Bismarck
with misgivings; for the farce might be
repeated which had been played before,
when Duke Christian of
Augustenburg sold his
claims to Denmark, and
his son Frederic then came
forward with his heredi-
tary right to Schleswig-
Holstein. The determina-
tion of the Prussian Prime
Minister not to give in
until the countries were
incorporated into Prussia
grew stronger day by day.
The first step in that
direction was the con-
clusion of peace with
Denmark on October 30th,
1864 ; the two duchies
were unconditionally re-
signed to Austria and
Prussia, without any con-
sideration being paid to
the hereditary claims of
the Houses of Augusten-
burg and Oldenburg.
Bismarck did not want
our a IK'.
friction. In February, 1865, Prussia came
forward with the conditions under which
she was willing to nominate the Duke of
Augustenburg to Schleswig-Holstein. They
contained in substance what had already
been communicated to the duke. But
Austria did not agree to them. Weight was
laid in Vienna on the argument that the
German Confederation was a union of sove-
reign princes, and no vassal state of Prussia
could be allowed to take its place in it.
Prussia thereupon adopted stricter
measures and shifted her naval base from
Danzig to Kiel. Bismarck then openly
declared, " If Austria wishes to remain
must make room for us."
The war cloud even
then loomed ominously.
The Berlin Cabinet in-
quired at Florence
whether Italy was pre-
pared to join the alliance.
The two German Powers
still, however, shrank
from a passage at arms
immediately after a
jointly conducted cam-
paign. The result of
prolonged negotiations
was the Treaty of
Gastein on August 14th,
1865. The administration
of the duchies, hitherto
carried on in common,
was divided, so that
Nearer Holstein was left
to Austria, and Further
Schleswig to Prussia.
Lauenburg was ceded
absolutely to Prussia for
n ..""h^'^h Zu ""n ''''h'I^''^".''?. .h 2 , 2 5 0 , O 0 0 t h a 1 e r s -
On the death of the Danish King in ls63, the ' -• ' _^
to break With Austria yet. Duke of Augustenburg raised claims to the £500,000. PrUSSia WaS
TT „ „ , 4-u^, f^..^ duchies of Schleswig-Holstein, but by the war „i„^,.i,, ^A-,yr^r,,^'^r^rr r\r, ^
He was sorry, theietoie, of isei these went to Prussia and Austria, clcaily advancing on a
to see that Count Rech- '■™'" '' photograph victorious career, and the
berg retired on October 27th, 1864, from acquisition of the duchies was in near
his office as Minister of the Exterior ;
the charge was brought against him in
Austria that the policy of alliance with
Prussia which he followed was to the
advantage of the latter state only. His
successor. Count Alexander Mensdorff,
had, it is true, the same aims as Rechberg ;
but since he was less experienced in affairs,
the opponents of Prussia gained more and
more influence among his higher officials.
This circumstance was the more mischiev-
ous since the two Great Powers were
administering the duchies jointly — an
arrangement which in any case led to
5066
prospect. The Prussian Representative
Chamber, which eighteen months pre-
viously had spoken distinctly for the
hereditary right of the Duke of Augusten-
burg, once more in the summer of 1865
debated the affair. But now the friends
of the scheme of incorporation were
already so numerous that it could no
longer agree to a resolution by a majority.
It was seen that the foreign policy of the
Progressives in Prussia had been wrecked.
The king, as a recognition of his services,
raised Bismarck to the rank of count,
September 15th, and thus proclaimed
THE FATE OF SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN
to the outside world that he had absolute
confidence in his conduct of affairs.
Bismarck called the Treaty of Gastein
a patching of the crack in the building.
In reality t lie Premier had long determined
on a war with Austria. Since Austria
favoured the partisans of the Duke of
Augustenburg as much as ever, and
afforded opportunity for their agitations
against Prussia, the Prussian note of
January 26th, 1866, complained of the
" means of rebellion " which Austria
employed. It was announced in this
document that Prussia claimed hence-
forward complete liberty for her policy.
Bismarck still kept the door of peace open
to himself, in case Austria was .willing to
withdraw from Schleswig-Holstein. But
the course of proceedings at the Prussian
Cabinet Council of February 28th, 1866,
shows that the king was familiar with the
idea of war. The Minister-President
^. A , . developed at this council the
I he Austrian ,, , , ,, , „ .
J, thought that no war was to
mpcror ^^ kindled for the sake of
Dissatisfied 011 • tt 1 i • 1
Schleswig-Holstem only ; a
greater goal, the union of Germany, must
be contemplated. It was resolved, first of
all, to open negotiations with Italy for a
defensive and offensive alliance. In this
council of war, Moltke gave his unqualified
vote for the war, while the Crown Prince
uttered an emphatic warning against such
a policy, for the reason that it rendered
probable the interference of foreigners.
An important change had occurred in
Austria in July, 1865. Schmerling had
failed to win the emperor over per-
manently to his political views. Francis
Joseph was dissatisfied because the
Parliament raised excessive claims to a
share in the government, and went too
far in reducing the war
. ^ Budget. The Austrian and
in Favour tt • • ^ • ■ ^
, yr Hungarian aristocracy joined
the opponents of the united
constitution, and Count Moritz Esterhazy,
Minister without portfolio since July 19th,
1861, used the dissatisfaction of the em-
peror to undermine the German Cabinet.
On July 30th, 1865, the " Counts'
Ministry," under the presidency of Count
Richard Belcredi, was nominated in the
place of. Schmerling ; an imperial mani-
festo on September 20th, 1865, proclaimed
the suspension of the constitution and
adjournment of the Imperial Council.
The high nobility was favoured in every
branch of the government, Slavism pitted
against Germanism, and the way pre-
pared for the settlement with Hungary.
Prince Esterhazy in this Cabinet was
the dominant figure in foreign policy,
and he was influenced in an anti-
Prussian direction by Biegeleben of the
Foreign Office, while the weak Minister
of the Exterior, Count Mensdorff, vainly
spoke for the maintenance of peace.
THE CAMPAIGN AGAINST JUTLAND: AUSTRIANS CROSSING THE LIIM FIORD
5067
THE
RE-MAKING
OF
EUROPE
THE
CONSOLIDA-
TION OF THE
POWERS VII
THE ADVANCE OF PRUSSIA
VICTORIOUS CAMPAIGN AGAINST AUSTRIA
ALARMED by the warlike intentions
of the Prussian Government, the
Austrians thought it advisable in March,
1866, to take measures for arming. Some
ten battalions were transferred to Bohemia,
in order to strengthen the corps stationed
there, and several cavalry regiments from
Hungary and Transylvania were ordered
to move into the province which was first
menaced. Count Karolyi, the Austrian
ambassador in Berlin, was at the same
time commissioned to ask if Prussia really
intended to attack Austria. This precipi-
tate procedure of Austria rendered it
easier for Bismarck and the generals, who
were advising war, to induce King William
also to make preparations. The measures
taken by the Cabinet Council of March
28th comprised the supply of horses for
the artillery, the repair of the fortresses,
and the strengthening of the divisions
quartered in the south of the country.
Bismarck answered the really
objectless inquiry of Count
Karolyi in the negative, but
sent a circular to the German
courts, in which he accused Austria of
wishing to intimidate Prussia by her pre-
parations, as she had done in 1850. He
further announced that Prussia would soon
come forward with a plan for the reform
of the German Federal Constitution.
But more important than these measures
and notes, which caused so much public
uneasiness, were the secret negotiations
for the conclusion of the alliance with
Italy. These did not proceed smoothly
at first, since Italy was afraid of being
made a tool, since Prussia might use
the threat of an Italian alliance to induce
Austria to give way. The Italian Govern-
ment, in order to avoid this, declared it
could only consent to a formal and offen-
sive alliance for the purpose of attacking
Austria-Hungary. King William could not
agree to this, since he did not contemplate
an invasion of Austria, for which indeed
there was no pretext. The Prussian
Bismarck
Promises
Reform
Government was only prepared for a
friendly alliance, which should prevent
either party forming a separate conven-
tion with Austria and leaving the other in
the lurch. The result was the compromise
of a defensive and offensive alliance, to be
. valid for three months only, in
F^'*^^ case war was not declared by
o renc pj-^gsia before that date. Italy
mperor hesitated to agree to it, and
applied to Napoleon III. for advice. The
French emperor desired nothing more
ardently than a war in Germany, in order,
during its continuance, to pursue his
schemes on Belgium and the Rhine districts.
He knew that William I. would not
be persuaded by Bismarck to fight un-
less he were previously assured of the
alliance of Italy ; otherwise the king
thought the Campaign would be dangerous,
since nearly the whole remaining part of
Germany stood on the side of Austria. It
may be ascribed to the advice of Napoleon
that the 'hesitating Italian Premier, La
Marmora, concluded a treaty, to hold for
three months, on April 8th, 1866.
Bismarck wished to employ this period
in pushing on the German question. He
intended to show the nation that it must
look to Prussia alone for the fulfilment of
its wishes for union. Prussia proposed on
April loth, in the Diet of Frankfort, to
summon a German Parliament on the
basis of universal suffrage. In order to
separate Bavaria from Austria, a proposal
was made to the former state that the
supreme command of the German federal
troops should be divided ; Prussia should
command in the north, Bavaria
in the south. But Bismarck's
intention, sincere as it was,
did not meet with the approval
of the majority of the German people.
The Liberals asserted that the conversion
of Bismarck to the idea of a German
Parliament with universal suffrage was not
genuine, and derided the idea that a
government which did not respect the
5069
Liberal
Mistrust of
Bismarck
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
right of popular representation in its own
country would unite Germany under a
Parliamentary constitution. So rooted
was the distrust of Prussia that Bavaria
refused this favourable proposal. Pfordten,
the ^Minister, was in his heart not averse
to the plan ; but the court, especially
Prince Charles, the uncle of the young King
. , LewisII.jUrged an alliance with
us ria s Austria. When Austria saw
mprove ^^_^^^ j^^^ prospects of winning
rospcc s ^^^^ ^^ ^^^^ g-^^ ^-^^ minor
German states had improved, the war
party in Vienna gained the ascendancy,
and the cautious counsels of Mensdorff
were disregarded. During the course of
April, however, negotiations w-ere begun
between Vienna and Berlin for a simulta-
neous disarrUament on both sides ; and,
as the result of a conciliatory note of
Austria, prospects of peace were tem-
porarily disclosed. King William thought
that Prussia ought not to be obstinate in
resisting all attempts at an understanding.
This more peaceful tendency was nulli-
fied by the preparations of Italy, which
watched with uneasiness the inauguration
of better relations between Prussia and
Austria. By command of King Victor
Emmanuel some 100,000 men were enrolled
in the army during the month of April.
As a result of this, the Emperor Francis
Joseph, disregarding the warnings of
Count ^lensdorff , ordered the mobilisation
of the southern army on April 21st, and
that of the northern army on the 27th.
The counsellors of King William, who
were urging war, thus were given weighty
reasons why Prussia could not remain
behind in her preparations. The king
was in any case already convinced of the
necessity of crossing swords with Austria,
since he contemplated even in April a
sudden attack on the still unprepared
imperial capital. But since he was un-
willing to appear in the eyes of Europe
as the breaker of the peace, he had
O th waited for the mobilisation
y^ of Austria. Now the same
^^ steps were taken by him
between ]\Iay 5th and 12th.
War was thus almost inevitable. The
Vienna Cabinet, which did not under-
rate the dangers of an attack from two
sides simultaneously, resolved at the
eleventh hour on a complete change of
policy towards Italy. Of late years the
sale of the province of Venetia had been
refused, as detrimental to the honour of
5070
Austria ; she was now willing to relinquish
the province, in order to have a free hand
for a war of conquest against Prussia.
Prince Metternich, the Austrian ambas-
sador at Paris, was commissioned to call
in the mediation of Napoleon III.
The Vienna Cabinet was willing to pledge
itself to cede Venetia, on condition that
Italy remained neutral in the coming war
and that Austria was then able to conquer
Silesia. Napoleon thought it a stroke of
good fortune to have received simultaneous
proposals from Prussia and Austria. By
a skilful employment of the situation the
aggrandisement of France in the north or
east was virtually assured.
When he communicated the offer of
Austria to the Italian Government, the
latter justly retorted that the con-
ditional promise of a cession of Venetia
did not present the slightest certainty ;
the conquest of Silesia by Austria
was doubtful, and if it did succeed,
Austria's position would be so much
improved that she would certainly not
feel disposed to redeem her pledge.
Thereupon Austria professed readiness to
J sign a treaty which should
^* ^ secure Venetia unconditionally
mp e y ^^ ^^^ Italians. This offer
presented a great temptation
to Italy, but could only be accepted at
the expense of a flagrant breach of faith
towards Prussia. The Italian Cabinet,
after a debate of several hours, re-
solved on May 14th to refuse the offer,
since the wish for war was already kindled
in Italy, and the acceptance of the gift
would certainly have been attributed by
the republican portion of the population
to the craven and dishonourable policy
of the House of Savoy.
The negotiations, nevertheless, were so
far profitable to Austria that Italy was no
longer arming for a war to the knife, since
she was almost certain to gain Venetia
even if the result of the war was less,
favourable. Austrian diplomacy further
succeeded in establishing closer relations
with France. Napoleon once more at-
tempted to induce Prussia to give a dis-
tinct undertaking with reference to cessions
of territory on the Rhine. Bismarck,
however, put him off with general promises ;
his " dilatory " diplomacy, as he after-
wards expressed himself, aimed at rousing
in Napoleon the belief that he was quite
ready to be somewhat of a traitor to his
country, but that the king would not hear
THE ADVANCE OF PRUSSIA
a word of any cession of German territory
to France. His policy was both bold and
astute ; he secured the neutrality of the
emperor, without giving him the slightest
pledge which compromised Prussia.
Napoleon, like almost all Frenchmen
of that time, was convinced that Austria
in the struggle with Prussia had the
military superiority. For that reason the
emperor had induced Italy to form an
alhance with Prussia, in order to restore
the balance of power ; and similarly,
he wished to secure his position for the
probable event of an Austrian victory.
Napoleon, therefore, concluded a secret
treaty with the Vienna
Cabinet on June 12th, in
which Austria undertook
to cede Venice, even in
the event of a victory, to
Italy, which the emperor
always favoured. The
scheme which he had
now made the goal of
his policy was as follows :
Venetia was to be ceded
to Italy, Silesia to Austria,
Schleswig - Holstein and
other North German dis-
tricts to Prussia, which,
in turn, would have to
give up considerable
territory on the Rhine
to France. But instead
of arming in order to
carry out this desirable so-
lution, Napoleon thought
he would pose as arbitra-
Germany was averse to Prussia. Any hope
that Bavaria and Hanover would remain
neutral disappeared ; Saxony was closely
united with Austria. It was peculiarly
painful to King William that he was be-
sieged with i)etitions from Prussian towns
and communities praying for the mainten-
ance of peace. Intense aversion to the
war prevailed, especially in the Catholic
districts on the Rhine ; when the members
of the Landwehr were called up, there
was actual insubordination shown in some
places. The king, therefore, considered it
advisable to entertain the proposals for
mediation which were being mooted.
When Anton von Gab-
lenz, a Saxon landowner
and brother of the Aus-
trian general, came to
Berlin, to recommend a
partition of Germany
lietween the two Powers,
he received full authority
to place this proposal
before the Vienna Cabinet .
But the Austrian Min-
istry rejected that media-
tion, obviously because
the Government had
already decided for a
war, and because Austria
could no longer desert
the minor German states,
with which she practically
had come to terms, and let
them be partitioned at
the last moment. It was
Austria now who urged on
the war and rendered Bis-
f. .. LEWIS II., KING OF BAVARIA
tor of Europe alter the ^^^ history of this monarch, who succeeded to , , , ■ -ru
exhaustion of his rivals, the throne of Bavaria in 1864, is a particularly marck S StCpS CaSlcr. i nc
That was his mistake. The |,lrs"tlrs andl^m^y.^l^nls^^rin"^^^^^^ Vienna Cabinet thus re-
Italy of i860 unprepared sanity, drowned himself near his castle of Berg, fused the propOSal, Cmau-
and poorly armed, had ^"'" ^ ^'""""■'' ating from Napoleon, to
been easily forced to give up Nice and send representatives to a congress, on the
Savoy ; but Napoleon never suspected that
Pnissia after the war would be strong
enough to refuse the claims of France. His
mistake lay in adopting one and the same
line of policy with Cavour and Bismarck,
with Italians and Germans.
The nearer the war came the more
unfavourable became the diplomatic situa-
tion of Prussia. The ambassador at Paris,
Count Goltz, warned his countrymen
not to depend on the neutrality of Napo-
leon. The governments of the German
secondary states felt themselves menaced
by the propositions for federal reform,
and public opinion in South and West
ground that the fate of Venetia would
form the object of the negotiations ;
one Great Power could not allow other
states to decide on its rights of ownership.
King Wihiam still hesitated to give the
signal for war. By June 5th all Prussian
army divisions on the southern frontier
had taken up their posts. Moltke thought
that the Prussian corps should advance
concentrically into Saxony and Bohemia
and attack the Austrians, who could
hardly be ready to fight for another
three weeks. But the king preferred to
await the progress of the hostile measures
which the Vienna Cabinet was already
5071
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
taking in Schleswig-Holstein and Frank-
fort. Indeed, great impetuosity was
shown at Vienna. The Austrian Govern-
ment summoned the Estates of Holstein to
discuss the fate of the country, although by
the terms of the treaty the duty was in-
cumbent on them of exercising no control
over Holstein without the assent of Prussia.
p . When Prussia retorted by
_, . marching troops into Holstein,
r ps m ^j^^ Vienna Cabinet called upon
the German Confederation to
order the mobilisation of the Federal
Army against the violation of the Federal
Treaty by Prussia. The decisive sitting of
the Federal Diet was held on June 14th.
Prussia had explained to the minor
states that she would regard the resolu-
tion to mobilise as a declaration of
war. Nevertheless a motion of Bavaria
was voted on, which, even if not expressly
aimed against Prussia, still had for its
object the formation of a federal army.
When the motion was carried by nine
to six votes, the Prussian plenipotentiary,
Savigny, announced the withdrawal of
Prussia from the Confederation. King
William immediately afterwards gave the
order for the invasion of Saxony, Hanover,
and Electoral Hesse.
At the outbreak of the war some
290,000 Prussians were ready to march
into Austria and Saxony ; only 48,000
were intended to fight the minor states.
The latter, indeed, could put about
120,000 soldiers in the field ; but Moltke
went on the principle that the decisive
blow must be struck on the chief scene of
war with superior forces. The first blow
was. aimed at Hanover, Electoral Hesse,
and Nassau, whose sovereigns had refused
to promise neutrality. The blind King
George V. of Hanover declared to the
Prussian ambassador that compliance
with the demand of Prussia was equivalent
to his being mediatised ; but that he would
never allow himself to be mediatised —
. he would rather die an hon-
D !^ ^ o^V^^ ourable death. Manteuffel
Retire Before ,, , t ■.^ , ■
..... thereupon advanced with his
the Austrians ,. . . ^ . ^ _,. .
division into Hanover from
Holstein, while Goeben and Beyer advanced
from the west. General Vogel von Falcken-
stein held the supreme command of these
troops. The Hanoverians, 18,000 strong,
retreated before this superior force towards
the south, and were successful in escaping
the first plan, which calculated that they
would still be at Gottingen ; so that
5072
Falckenstein actually believed they had
slipped from him. He abandoned the pur-
suit for a time ; the troops of King George
might have thus reached the forest of
Thliringia by way of Gotha and Eisenach,
and escaped to Bavaria in safety.
It was only on Moltke's urgent warnings
that Falckenstein finally sent Goeben's
division to Eisenach ; the road b}^ way of
Gotha was barred to them by General von
Flies. King George thus saw himself sur-
rounded. Flies, who was nearest to him,
attacked him on June 27th, with g,ooo
men at Langensalza. The outnumbered
Hanoverians bravely held the field ; but
immediately afterwards the net was drawn
closer round them, and King George was
forced to surrender on June 29th.
The Prussian main army was faced by
248,000 Austrians, who were joined by
23,000 Saxons. The Austrian commander
was Lewis von Benedek, who had reaped
a rich harvest of honours in the campaigns
of 1848, 1849, 3-^<i 1S59 ; in the battle of
Solferino he held the field on the right
wing, and did not retire until the rest of
the army had left the scene of action. He
had been commander-in-
Limitations 1 x r ^i a i.
- ,. . , . chief of the Austrian army
of the Austrian -
Commander
in Italy, which he expected
to command in the next war.
He was imperturbable, experienced, and
high-minded, but he recognised the limita-
tions of his abilities. He knew that he was
only adapted to be a general under less im-
portant conditions, such as on the scene of
war in Upper Italy ; he was lacking in the
intellect and thorough military education
requisite for the leader of a large army.
When finally against his will he ac-
cepted the supreme command against
Prussia, he had to receive lectures from
one of his officers on the military geo-
graphy of Germany. Since popular opinion,
not merely in Austria but also in South
Germany, expected his nomination to the
command of the northern army, the
Emperor Francis Joseph begged him to
overcome his scruples. He refused, and
only gave way after the emperor had repre-
sented to him that he could not be allowed
to desert the dynasty at a crisis. The army
was stationed in Moravia, resting on
Olmiitz, and Bohemia was occupied only
by a small number of troops. In this latter
country barely one army corps was sta-
tioned, under Count Eduard von Clam-
Gallas ; the Saxons thereupon retreated.
Moltke's original plan to open the war
THE ADVANCE OF PRUSSIA
by an attack, and by June 6th to invade
Bohemia from all sides, had not been put
into practice. The divisions of the
Prussian army were at this time posted
in a long line of 250 miles from Halle to
Neisse. According to Moltke's plan, they
were to unite their forces in the enemy's
country. But when the attack had to be
postponed, and it was reported at the
Prussian headquarters that the Austrians
were in Moravia, it was thought that
Benedek was aiming a blow at Silesia.
The divisions of the Prussian army,
therefore, which were stationed to the
east, pushed towards the left and took up
a very strong position on the Neisse.
This delay in taking the offensive was
turned to account as soon
as war was determined
upon. On June 15th the
advance guard of the army
of the Elbe, 49,000 men,
under Bitterfeld, marched
into Saxony. The first army
of 97,000 men assembled in
Lusatia under Prince Fre-
deric Charles ; the second
army, finally 121,000 strong,
was stationed in Silesia
under the Crown Prince
Frederic William. The corps
of Von der Miilbe, 25,000
men, mostly militia, fol-
lowed as a reserve. All the
divisions were ordered to
enter Bohemia on June
ct of
Jitschin was fixed as the
by his intelligence department of the de-
tached position of the Prussians, wished to
lead his army opportunely between the
advancing divisions and to defeat one after
the other before they combined. The first
army reached Reichenberg on June 23rd
and pressed on towards the Iser ; the army
rj,. „, of the Elbe marched parallel
The Plans - •, i-i i
. . , to It. ihe second army was
01 Austria s ,,, ^.. ., •>
Commander °^ Silesian SOU, advanc-
ing towards the passes of the
Riesengebirge — ^the Giant Mountains. As
Benedek established his headquarters at
Josefstadt in Bohemia on June 26th, and
Prince Frederic Charles had already tra-
versed Northern Bohemia, the Austrian
leader selected him for his first opponent.
He ordered the two corps
which he had stationed in
Bohemia — the Austrian
under Clam-Gallas, and the
Saxon, 60,000 men in all —
to face Prince Frederic
Charles on the Iser in order
to detain him. He himself
put the main body of his
army in movement towards
the Iser. The troops of
the Crown Prince crossed
the Bohemian frontier in
the passes of the Riesenge-
birge on June 26th ;
Benedek, therefore, while
wishing to attack Prince
Frederic Charles with six
LEWIS VON BENEDEK ^rmy corps in all, sent back
2ist, and the district of in the campaigms of is48, 1849, and 1859 two corps Under Gablentz
Jitschin was fixed as the ^Kufsi;fd"hrmseirb"uUn?{;ei'!?Sa,^1t and Ramming to guard the
rendezvous, where they were Prussia, when in chief command of Aus- mountain passes against the
to meet on June 28th. in ^--'-^-y-'^-ff-^d humiliating defeat. ^^^^^^^ ^^^y 1^^^^ ^j^^
consequence of the shifting of the movements of the Prussians were admirably
/
Silesian corps towards the south-east on
the Neisse, the distance which the army
of the Crown Prince had to traverse to
Jitschin was longer than the lines of march
of Prince Frederic Charles and of the army
of the Elbe. The separate advance of the
Prussian divisions into Bohemia was
thus attended with consider-
able danger. Moltke, whose
hands had been hitherto tied
by diplomatic considerations,
knew this ; and, remaining behind at
first with the king in Berlin, he directed
the movements of the three armies with
marvellous foresight.
The Austrians received the order on
June 20th to march out of their quarters
in Moravia. Benedek, accurately informed
Moltke's
Marvellous
Foresight
combined, and one army was eager to
relieve the other, these two Austrian corps
were vigorously attacked on June 27th.
Thus the Prussian I. corps under General
Adolf von Bonin was pitted against the
Austrian corps of Gablentz at Trautenau,
while General Steinmetz met Ramming's
force at Nachod. These sanguinary encoun-
ters resulted in a defeat of the Austrians at
the latter place, and a victory at the former.
Nevertheless, it was already clear that
the Prussian tactics were far superior
to those of Austria. The Prussian needle-
gun fired three times as fast as the Austrian
muzzle-loader ; and, apart from this, the
" shock tactics " of the Austrians, who
tried to storm heights and belts of forest
with the bayonet, were to a high degree
5073
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
disastrous. The Prussians brought the
enemy's attack to a standstill by rapid
firing ; they then threw themselves in
smaller divisions on the flanks of their
adversary, and completed his overthrow.
Hence the terrible losses of the Austrians
even after a successful charge. At Trau-
tenau, although victors, they lost 183
officers and 4,231 men killed and wounded,
the Prussians only 56 officers and 1,282
men ; at Nachod 5,700 Austrians fell and
only 1,122 Prussians. The superiority
of the Prussians was manifest in the pre-
parations for the war, in tactics, and in the
better education of the oiftcers and men.
On the evening of June 27th the gravity
of these facts was not yet realised in the
Austrian headquarters. Benedek therefore
adhered to his plan of continuing his
advance against Frederic Charles. This
was, however, dangerous, because the
nearer enemy, the Crown Prince, would
certainly put himself more in evidence on
the next day. The Austrian's alternative
was to abandon the attack on the first
army and to hurl himself with all available
troops against the second army. If this
had been done, the Crown Prince would
have had to contend against an attack by
superior numbers. This was known at the
Prussian headquarters, and Frederic
William and his chief of the general staff,
Leonhard von Blumenthal, made up their
minds that they would have hard fighting
on their further advance through the
mountain passes. Bonin, after his re-
verse of June 27th, had returned to
Prussian territory, whereas the Grtiards
advanced on the road to Eipel, and Stein-
metz from Nachod towards Skalitz.
The Crown Prince waited with his staff
in the middle between these two columns,
ready to hasten to the post of danger. The
_ coolness and caution of the
c rown ggj-iei-alship, considering the
* "^B tM difficult position, could not be
surpassed. Benedek, however,
obstinately held to his original plan. He
actually inspected, on the morning of
June 28th, the three corps concentrated
against Steinmetz, without striking a blow
at him with these superior numbers. On
the contrary, he ordered the greater part
of these troops to march against Frederic
Charles, and commissioned the Archduke
Leopold in particular to take up a strong
position behind the Elbe. By so doing he
abandoned a favourable chance and made a
miscalculation, for that very day the troops
of the Crown Prince came up with the
HAN'OVERIAN VICTORY OVER THE PRUSSIANS AT LANGENSALZA
Attacked by the Prussians at Langensalza, on June 27th, 1866, while on their way to join the Bavarian forces, the
Hanoverians held the field and gained a notable victory, the Prussians having a thousand men killed and wounded.
5074
THE BATTLE OF SKALITZ : PRUSSIAN CAVALRY CAPTURING THE AUSTRIAN CANNON
This battle, fougrht on June 28th, 18G6, between the Prussians and the Austrians, ended in a severe defeat of the
latter, who left behind on the field no fewer than 5,000 men out of a total of 20,000 taking part in the fight.
combined Austrian forces both at Skalitz
and Trautenau. Archduke Leopold, con-
trary to Benedek's orders, offered battle at
Skalitz, and brought a complete defeat on
himself; out of the 20,000 Austrians, 5,000
were left on the field of battle. At the
same time Gablenz, who had been vic-
torious on the previous day at Trautenau,
was defeated by the Guards under Prince
Augustus of Wiirtemberg near Trautenau.
The Crown Prince had thus forced his way
through the passes on June 28th, and as a
result of this the way to the Elbe was free.
Meanwhile, the advance guard of Prince
Frederic Charles reached the
ene c j^^^ ^^ June 26th. The army
eprcssc ^^ ^-^^ Austrians and Saxons
^ ^ ^* tried unsuccessfully to dispute
the passage in a sanguinary night encounter
at Podol ; but the prince followed up
his victory somewhat slowly, and allowed
his advance to be checked by the rear-
guard action, unfavourable indeed to the
Austrians, at Miinchengratz on June 28th.
A message from Moltke, however, made
him press forward more rapidly.
Benedek had meantime learnt with deep
inward perturbation that his three corps,
which had been moved against the Crown
Prince, were defeated. This news pro-
duced such an effect on him that he gave
up the offensive which he had intended to
assume against Prince Frederic Charles.
He resolved, on the advice of Krismanic,
the " strategist of positions," to take up
a naturally strong defensive position on
the hills above the Elbe, and to await
there subsequent attacks. He also sent
to the combined Austrian- Saxon army an
order to retire on to the main army. But
unfortunately the intelligence department
at his headquarters was so dilatory that
this order had not arrived when the troops
of Prince Frederic Charles attacked the
Saxons and the corps of Clam-Gallas on
the afternoon of June 29th, at Jitschin.
The commanders of the allies must have
thought that the main army was near at
hand, and that they ought therefore to
defend Jitschin, the junction of the roads.
They accepted the battle, and at first
successfully resisted. Then about seven
o'clock the Austrian officer arrived and
handed in the order to retreat. The
Austrians now wished to discontinue the
battle, but were involved in disastrous
engagements by the keen advance of the
Prussians and were completely beaten.
The Saxons of the Crown Prince Albert
withdrew in good order ; but the corps
of Clam-Gallas broke up on the retreat,
which lasted the whole night and the
following day, and they reached the
main army in a deplorable condition.
5075
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
The strong position occupied in the
meantime by the Austrian main army was
thus rendered untenable, for the two army
corps which were supposed to form the
left wing were defeated, and Prince
Frederic Charles could attack the Aus-
trians in flank and rear. Benedek was
therefore forced to give the order for
. . retreat in the night of June
• "^ c*j 30th to July ist. Since the
in a Sad - j _ j
Plight
Prussians did not follow him
at once, they did not know
how far he had led his army back. King
William and Moltke had meanwhile
reached the army of Prince Frederic
Charles on July ist.
Moltke believed that the Austrians had
occupied a strong position behind the Elbe,
and were waiting behind the fortresses of
Josefstadt and Koniggratz for the attack.
They were, however, already halting behind
the Bistritz, a tributary of the Elbe, where
they had arrived exhausted by a dis-
orderly night march. Benedek, through
these events, had lost all hope of victory,
and decided on a further retreat behind the
Elbe, and, if necessary, even to Olmiitz or
towards Vienna.
This gloomy state of affairs was ex-
pressed in a telegram which was sent
immediately afterwards by the Austrian
commander to the emperor, urgently
advising him to conclude peace at any
price. A disaster for the army was inevit-
able. Francis Joseph believed, however,
that he could not own himself con-
quered without a pitched battle. He
therefore answered : " Peace is impossible.
We must retreat if necessary. Has any
battle taken place ? " This expression of
the emperor's will seems to have deter-
mined Benedek to accept a pitched battle,
and as the Prussians were rapidly advanc-
ing he made instant preparations for it.
Late in the evening of July 2nd the news
was brought to the Prussian headquarters
that the Austrians were still in front of
_ . the Elbe, ready to accept
Prussians ,, u n tj. j x
g^ . the challenge. It was deter-
forAttack "^^"^^ ^y ^^^& William and
Moltke, after deliberation, to
attack the enemy at once in full force, and
orders were sent that night to the Crown
Prince to summon him to start at once.
Blumenthal had lately advised the two
Prussian armies, who were no longer pre-
vented from joining forces, to concentrate
tactically to the west of the Elbe, in order
thus to obviate the danger of being
5076
separated in a pitched battle. Moltke,
however, ordered that the plan of separa-
ting the armies should still be observed,
but in such a way that the armies on the
day of battle might join forces by a rapid
march. He wanted to be able to attack
the Austrians in the front with one army,
and on the flank with another. The great-
ness of Moltke lies in this bold strategy,
which aims at the complete annihilation
of the enemy by enclosing him between
broad advancing masses ; the application
of this method enabled him in 1870 to
capture entire armies.
The Austrians and Saxons on the morn-
ing of the battle of Koniggratz, July 3rd,
were 215,000 men strong, drawn up in
close formation. The great disadvantage
of their position was that they had the
Elbe in their rear ; but, of course, several
bridges had been thrown across it. The
centre and the left wing pointed west,
and awaited the attack of Prince Frederic
Charles ; the right wing, consisting of
the fourth and second corps, was ordered to
face north, since the advance of the second
army might be expected from that quarter.
The Crown Prince, following the
e grea orders given him, started im-
Battle m j- j. 1 ^ 1
„ mediately at early mornmg,
but he did not reach the battle-
field before noon. In the meantime the
first army attacked the centre ; the
Elbe army, the right wing of the Austrian
army. The Elbe army made good pro-
gress ; on the other hand. Prince Frederic
Charles vainly exhausted his efforts
against the strong centre of the Austrians.
The Austrian artillery was planted in
tiers on the hills of Chlum, Lipa, and
Langenhof, and at once precluded any
attempt at an infantry attack. Since
Prince Frederic Charles was compelled to
wait until the Crown Prince joined his
left wing, the weak spot in his line was
there, for the Austrians, temporarily
superior in numbers, might outflank him.
It was fortunate for the Prussians that
the seventh division was stationed there
under Fransecky, who cov^ered the weak-
ness of his position by a determined and
splendid offensive. He advanced into the
Swiepwald, drove out the Austrians, and
from that position harassed their right
wing, which was ordered to hold its ground
against the expected attack of the Crown
Prince. The Austrians thereupon, in the
hope of overwhelming Fransecky, made a
counter attack, which was at first
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
repelled with loss, and the wood could not
be captured by the Austrians until a
part of the second corps turned against
Fransecky. Hitherto eleven Prussian
battalions had held their ground against
fifty-nine Austrian battalions.
The battle, however, at noon was ex-
tremely favourable to the Austrians.
. , King William looked anxiously
Anx.ous ^ towards the north, where the
Moments in /^ -r* • i_ i i u
Crown Pnnce had long been
'^ vainly expected. Benedek de-
liberated whether he ought not now to bring
up his strong reserves and win a victory
by a vigorous assault on the Prussian
centre. But he felt crippled by the news,
which reached him three hours earlier than
King William and Moltke, that the Crown
Prince was approaching. Benedek saw-
also, with uneasiness, how his right wing,
intent upon the struggle in the Swiepwald,
left great gaps towards the north.
It thus happened that the second
army, when it came on the scene at noon,
was able at the first onset to overlap
the Austrian right wing. The Prussian
Guards and the sixth corps were in the
first line ; the corps of Bonin and Stein-
metz followed after. The Guai'ds, after
a short f^ght, captured the key of the
Austrian position, the village of Chlum,
and soon afterwards Lipa also. Startling
as was this onslaught of the Prussians, and
great as was its success, Benedek still
thought it possible to retrieve the day.
He brought up his reserves in order to
retake Chlum. The Austrians, charging
bravely, actually drove back the Guards
by their superior force. They were on the
point of entering Chlum when, rather late,
the Prussian corps under Bonin appeared,
repulsed the Austrians, and soon after-
wards assured their defeat.
The army of Prince Frederic Charles,
hitherto kept in check, now advanced,
and the Prussian cavalry was called upon
to complete the victory. Although the
TK V Austrian cavalry stopped this
"tK th*^ °'^ pursuitinthe battle of Stresche-
„ . witz, the masses of infantry,
Prussians , ' . ,, i -',
abandonmg all order, poured
down on the Elbe, looking for the bridges
over the river. It was fortunate for them
that they were not pursued by the Prussian
infantry. The Austrians, although terrible
disorder prevailed in places among them
while crossing the Elbe, were able to
reach the left bank of the river in the night
of July 4th. Their losses were terrible ;
5078
they amounted in all to more than
44,000 men, some half of whom, wounded
or unwounded, were taken prisoners.
The Prussians had 1,335 killed and 9,200
wounded. Most of the Austrians had
fallen during their fruitless attacks in
dense masses on the Prussian needle-guns.
This crushing disaster was only slightly
compensated by the victory which the
Austrians won over the Italians at Custoza,
ten days earlier.
Francis Joseph thought it necessary
after the battle of Koniggratz to call in
the mediation of France. The official
Paris journal announced on July 5th, 1866,
that Venetia had been ceded by Austria
to the Emperor Napoleon. Austria
counted confidently that the French Em-
peror would urge Italy to neutrality, and
WQuld check the victorious career of
Prussia by stationing an army on the
Rhine. Advice to this effect was given to
the emperor by his Minister of the Ex-
terior, Drouyn de I'Huys. But France was
not prepared for war ; the emperor was
at that time incapacitated by a torturing
disease, and he therefore allowed himself-
P to be persuaded by Prince
F "ir V ^ Jerome, as well as by his Minis-
„ ters, the Marquis de Lavalette
and Eugene Rouher, to abandon
the idea of hostilities against Prussia, in
order to win territorial concessions from
King William by negotiations. The Prus-
sian ambassador, Count Goltz, adroitly
represented to him how much more favour-
able an amicable arrangement with
Prussia would be for him. From this
moment France had played for the last
time her role as leading power in Europe.
Prussia was energetic in reaping the
fruits of her victory. Goltz kept Napoleon
in suspense by courteous hints, without
pledging the Prussian Government in any
matter. When the French diplomatist,
Benedetti, appeared at the Prussian head-
quarters in Moravia, with a commission
from Napoleon, the circumstance aroused
fear in Bismarck that Napoleon would
now come forward with his claims ; but it
appeared that Benedetti had none but
vague orders, and was only intended to
hinder the entry of the Prussians into the
Austrian capital. Meantime Benedek in
his rapid retreat had reached Olmiitz
with his army. The second army was
ordered to watch and follow him, while
the first marched southward on Vienna.
Since Austria thought its southern
THE ADVANCE OF PRUSSIA
frontier was secured by the cession of
Venetia, tlie larger part of tlie field army
stationed in Italy, 57,000 men, was ordered
to the northern theatre of war. Archduke
Albert assumed the supreme command.
Benedek was instructed to withdraw from
Olmiitz to the Danube, in order that the
newly collected army might be on the
defensive behind the river. But the
defeated general loitered so long in Olmiitz
that detachments of the army of the
Crown Prince were able to get in front of
his army. Benedek's marching columns
were attacked on July 15th, near Tobit-
schau, south of Olmiitz, and suffered a
serious reverse ; eighteen cannon fell into
the hands of the Prussians. Benedek was
thus forced to abandon his march south-
ward, and withdrew towards Hungary, in
order to reach the Danube by a detour
along the Waag. In consequence of this,
the Prussians were able to appear on the
Danube earlier than he could.
Meantime the Prussians were fighting
successfully against the minor states. The
Bavarians were attacked and defeated by
Goeben's division at Kissingen on July loth,
. 1866. Although Moltke now
onqucring ^j-^gj-g^ General Falckenstein
/^^ . to pursue at once the main body
of Prussia , \. 4.1 r> •
of the enemy, the Bavarians,
and crush them, Falckenstein thought it
better to capture Frankfort first. He
defeated the Federal Corps in the engage-
ments of Laufach and Aschaffenburg, and
entered the Free City victoriously. But
since by so doing he had disobeyed the
orders from the king's headquarters, he
was deprived of the supreme command,
and on July 19th General Manteuffel took
his place. Once more the Prussians were
enabled to attack individually their dis-
united opponents, and to defeat, first the
Federal Corps at Bischofsheim and Wert-
heim, and then the Bavarians at Neu-
brunn and Rossbrunn.
fi Goltz, yielding to the pressure of Napo-
leon, had concluded with him, on July
14th, preliminary agreements as a basis for
peace. The withdrawal of Austria from
the German Confederation was fixed as
the first condition ; but the dominions of
the Austrian monarchy were not to suffer
any loss except that of Venetia. Prussia,
in addition, stipulated for the right to
form a North-German Confederation under
her own military supremacy, and to annex
Schleswig-Holstein. A South-German
Confederation was to be organised, with an
independent position on every side. Napo-
leon intervened with these proposals
between the two belligerent states. Bis-
marck would have been glad if he could
have concluded peace with Austria without
Napoleon, since there was always the fear
that France would come forward during
the negotiations with demands of territory
Austria' for herself. Bismarck explained
Seriou* ^ ^^^^ ^° ^^^® Vienna Cabinet, and
^. , . added that Prussia in this case
Mistake . . 1 ■ ^
would renounce any claim for
indemnification of the costs of the war.
But Austria made the mistake of
regarding France as a friend, and declined
the offer. This was a serious error, since
Napoleon was solely animated by the wish
to win, through good offices to Prussia, the
consent of the latter to his designs on
Belgium and the Rhenish provinces.
Napoleon therefore, when King William
declared that the terms agreed upon by his
ambassador in Paris on July 14th were
insufficient, and demanded the annexation
of extensive districts of North Germany,
lost no time in giving his assent to the
demand ; he would have sacrificed even
Saxony on these grounds without com-
punction. Prussia had now secured the
prize of victory, and concluded an armistice
with Austria. Immediately before that,
Moltke wished to make another successful
coup. General Fransecky was ordered to
occupy Pressburg, in order that on any
outbreak of war the Prussian army might
secure the passage of the Danube. An
engagement was fought at Blumenau on
July 22nd ; but it was left undecided,
since at noon both sides received the news
that an armistice had been concluded.
The preliminary peace was signed in
Nicholsburg. The parties were soon agreed,
since Austria, after her severe defeat, was
forced to consent that Prussia should have
a free hand in Germany. King William
would indeed gladly have acquired
for Prussia some Austrian territory,
especially Austrian Silesia and
ff * *^ * parts of Northern Bohemia. He
th W ^^^^ gave way at the representa-
tions of Bismarck that if he
pressed his claims too much he would risk
what he had already won. The last difficulty
disappeared when Prussia consented to a
condition laid down by Austria and re-
cognised the inviolability of the kingdom
of Saxony. The preliminary peace was
concluded on this basis on July 26th. The
Treaty of Prague followed on August 23rd.
5079
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
The convention between Austria and
Italy presented more difficulties. The
ItaUan admiral, Persano, at the outset of
the war received orders to secure a pledge
for Italy by occupying the Dalmatian
island of Lissa. During the bombardment
of the capital of the island the Austrian
admiral Tegetthoff appeared on the scene,
attacked the Italian fleet on
Bismarck s
Superior
Diplomacy
July 2oth 1866, and the "Re
d'ltalia" with his own flagship.
and forced the Italian fleet to
retire. Since Garibaldi also, on invading
the Italian Tyrol, was defeated by the
Austrian general Kuhn in several engage-
ments, Italy was compelled to be satisfied
with the treaty concluded on October 3rd,
by which Venetia was ceded.
The superior diplomacy of Bismarck
was now able, under the impression caused
by the Prussian victories, to unite non-
Austrian Germany, hitherto torn by fac-
tions, at any rate against the contingency
of a war. Above all, he induced the king
to terminate the conflict with the Prussian
House of Representatives by offering the
hand of friendship to it in his speech from
the throne on August 5th, 1866. There were
irreconcilable Conservatives who urged
the king to use the foreign victory for the
complete overthrow of the Liberal party ;
but the royal speech expressly recognised
that the expenditure incurred for military
purposes would have subsequently to be
sanctioned by the Landtag, and therefore
asked an indemnity for such expenses.
In this point the kuig followed, not with-
out hesitation, the advice of Bismarck.
In the conversation with the President of
the House of Representatives he declared
that in a similar case he would not be able
to act otherwise than he had done before ;
but this statement, for which Bismarck
declined responsibility, was, fortunately,
not made public until later. Not less
. clever was his treatment of the
n arging^ conquered secondary states.
the Prussian t^ ^ , , -1 • • i
Territ Bismarck set up the prmciple
ern ory ^^^^^ ^^^^ Incorporation or a
complete amnesty to the individual
states was the just course ; the entry of
those who were chosen members of the new
federation ought not to be burdened with
hard conditions. Hanover, Hesse-Cassel,
Nassau, and Frankfort-on-Main were fully
incorporated, by which means the Prussian
territory was enlarged by 27,638 square
miles. On the other hand, the demands
for a war indemnity imposed by
Prussia on the remaining states w^ere
moderate. The greatest triumph of his
negotiations w^as that Wiirtemberg, Baden,
and Bavaria concluded, between the 13th
and 2ist August, 1866, a defensive and
offensive alliance, on the basis of which
their military forces were, in case of war,
to be under the command of Prussia.
These provisions, which were kept secret
for the moment, constitute the foundation
of the union of Germany.
This favourable event had been chiefly
effected by the action of Napoleon, who
had unwisely let the right time slip past,
and only now stretched out his hands to
German territory. Bismarck, with the
most subtle diplomatic skill, had fed the
king with false hopes until the war was
decided. The emperor now demanded
the price of his neutrality. His ambas-
sador, Benedetti, in an interview with
Bismarck on August 5th, demanded the
Rhenish Palatinate with Mainz, as well
as the district on the Saar. Bismarck
then haughtily opposed him.
ranee ^^ threatened that, if France
pproac ing jj^gjg|-g^ upon these claims, he
Disaster 1 i ^ ^ ^
would at once, and at any
cost, make peace with the South Germans
and advance in alliance with them to con-
quer Alsace and Lorraine. Napoleon
was alarmed, since his forces were no
match for the gigantic war equipment of
Germany. Prussia alone had 660,000
men with the colours.
But Bismarck took care that the
demands of France were published in a
Paris journal, so that the national feel-
ing of the Germans was intensely
aroused. On the strength of these im-
pressions, the above-mentioned alliances
with the South German states were
brought about. Germany was thus put
in a sufficiently strong position to defend
every inch of national soil against East
and West. Napoleon III. was diplo-
matically defeated before he was con-
quered on the field of battle. Drouyn
de THuys, since the emperor would not
listen to his proposals for forcing on a war,
took farewell, and said : " I have seen three
dynasties come and go. I know the
signs of approaching disaster, and I with-
draw." ^
Heinrich Friedjung
5080
THE
RE-MAKING
OF
EUROPE
THE
CONSOLIDA-
TION OF THE
POWERS VIII
THE PRUSSIAN ASCENDANCY
AND THE AUSTRO » HUNGARIAN EMPIRE
(~\^ October 3rd, 1866, King William
^^ formally took possession by letters-
patent of Hanover, Hesse-Cassel, Nassau,
and Frankfort-on-Main, which the Peace
of Prague had assigned to him by the
law of nations, and whose incorporation
into Prussia had been sanctioned by the
Landtag of the monarchy in September.
The king declared in his speech to the
Hanoverians on the same day that he
honoured the grief which they experienced
m tearing themselves from earlier and
endeared connections, but that the in-
terests of the nation dictated the firm
and last mg union of Hanover with Prussia,
and that Germany should be the gainer
by the acquisitions of Prussia.
However correct these principles were, a
large part of the Hanoverians were little
inclined to recognise them and to submit
to the inevitable. Devotion to the Guelfic
house, above all to the king, George V.,
'.'t. »«• J whose blindness made him an
„. object of universal pity, and his
-j"*^ y spouse, the universally beloved
Queen Mary ; the consideration
that the gentry of the country would be
ousted from the exclusive possession of
the high offices of state ; that the capital
would be severely injured by the loss of
the court ; that antiquated but familiar
methods of business would be broken
down on all sides by the Prussian freedom
of trade and freedom of movement ; the
traditional dislike of the Hanoverians for
the Prussians, especially for the Berliners,
who were decried as supercilious and
empty-headed ; in short, personal feeling
and practical interests combined in pro-
ducing the result that the Prussian rule
was only endured by the nobility, the
clergy, and a large part of the citizens and
peasants, with a silent indignation.
The king, who had fled to the Castle of
Hietzing, near Vienna, added fuel to the
discontent by a manifesto to his people on
October 5th, in which he declared, in
opposition to the warrant of William L,
that the incorporation of his land into
Prussia was null and void, and expressed
his confidence in the Almighty that He
would restore Hanover to the Guelfic
house " as He had done sixty years ago,
when the same injustice from the same
quarter was not allowed to continue."
„ . Societies were secretly formed
„ ^ . throughout the country whose
Hatred ■ j-i,- i. i- J
- E, • aim was this restoration, and
of Prussia ., t , ^ \ ■,
it was proposed to hold a
" Hanoverian Legion " in readiness, which,
should a crisis arise, might be on the spot
sword in hand. The hatred of the people
towards Prussia was shown in the abuse
showered on individuals, especially on
Prussian soldiers. '
It is interesting to hear that Bismarck
entertained the idea, which had once
been successfully realised by Cleisthenes
at Athens, of breaking up the existing
combinations, and creating out of then
new forms of political life, which should
facilitate the fusion of the old and new
parts of the country. According to his
speech in the House of Representatives
on February 5th, 1867, he wished to re-
divide all the country west of the Elbe
into four large provinces, which should
correspond to the mediaeval tribes, and
be called Old Franconia, Westphalia.
Lower Saxony, and Thuringia. Old and
New Prussia were to be merged in these
provinces as a means of softening the
contrast between them and the rest of the
Prussian state. Bismarck did not succeed
in carrying out this idea ; the states, gradu-
„ ally created by political
Hanover -', , j -^,v 1
^ . .,. events, showed themselves
Governed with , ., ., • • i
r- « J stronger than the original
a Firm Hand . ■■, ° ^t 1 fZi *
tribes. N o course was lett but
to govern the province of Hanover, which
remained unaltered in itself, with a bene-
volent but firm hand, and to trust in the
all-effacing power of time. Dictatorial
powers in the new territorial divisions had
been granted to the Government until
September 30th, 1867, and the Prussian
5081
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
constitution was to come into force in
those parts on October ist, 1867. Ad-
vantage was taken of this circumstance
to send an order to the governor-general,
Von Voigt-Rhetz, that all officials on whose
implicit co-operation no reliance could be
placed should without further delay be
removed from their posts; a number of
Guelf agitators also were con-
fined in the fortress of Minden.
Punishment
of Guelf
Agitators
This measure was so far effec-
tive that outward tranquillity
was restored ; but there were indications
that among the people loyalty to the
Guelf s was by no means predominant.
On October ist, thirty-nine representa-
tives to the Second Chamber, and
seventy delegates from the communes,
declared that they accepted the annexa-
tion as an unalterable fact brought on
by the obstinacy of the former Govern-
ment itself ; and when, on October nth,
a special Hanoverian corps, the tenth,
was raised, 425 out of 660 Hanoverian
officers — that is to say, almost two-thirds—
at once went into the Prussian service, a
circumstance which, it may be well
understood, caused a bitter disappoint-
ment to the banished king.
Things went far more smoothly in
Electoral Hesse and Nassau than in
Hanover ; in the former the despotic rule
of Elector Frederic William I., and in the
latter the inconsiderate exercise of forest
rights and the refusal to grant the Liberal
constitution of 1849, whose restoration the
Landtag vainly demanded, had caused the
subjects to dislike their sovereigns so that
the end of the system of petty states
was universally felt to be a release from
unendurable conditions. The feeling in
Frankfort was very bitter, since the town
where the ancient emperors were elected,
one of the most important commercial
capitals of South Germany, was reduced
from a Free City to a provincial Prussian
town ; even the enormous development of
Th B"tt ^^^^ ^^^^' '^^^c^^' ^^ soon as it
P ^.. * f^ was freed from its isolation,
ee mg in Q^i^s^^ipped all the other South
r ranktort ^ '■ '■ ^ t. r • ,
German towns except Munich,
could not banish the mortification felt at
the loss of independence.
Bismarck and the king were inde-
fatigably busy in meeting, so far as was
feasible, the wishes of the annexed dis-
tricts in order to win them over to the
new order of things. Electoral Hesse owed
to the personal intervention of the monarch
5082
the fact that half of its state treasure was
left in 1867 as a provincial fund to provide
for workhouses, the maintenance of the
poor, and for the national library ; and
the province of Hanover received in
February, 1868, the yearly grant of a
sum of ;^75,ooo for purposes of local
administration. Ample pecuniary com-
pensation was also made to the deposed
sovereigns. The Elector of Hesse received
in September, 1867, the other moiety of
the state treasure, which had accumulated
from the subsidies paid by England in
1776 for the troops sent to America.
The Duke of Nassau was assigned, in Sep-
tember, 1867, some castles and £1,500,000
sterling, and King George received in the
same month a capital sum of ;^2.40o,ooo,
the income of which was to be paid him
in half-yearly instalments, though the sum
itself remained in the hands of trustees
until ^n agreement had been made with
his relations as to its administration.
It was naturally supposed, in view of
these friendly concessions, which were only
sanctioned by the Prussian Landtag after
a hard contest, that the three princes would
tacitly, if not expressly, waive
'^"th'"*^ all claims to their former terri-
""r fl " t°^"^^s- ^^^ since King George,
^P * ^^ in February, 1868, and Elector
Frederic William, in September, 1868,
publicly made violent attacks upon Prus-
sia, the sums due to the two sovereigns in
March and September, 1868, were seques-
trated. Since George brought his Guelf
legion to 750 men, and kept them in
France unarmed, as " fugitives," a law
of spring, 1869, provided that the interest
of the sequestrated £2,400,000 should
be applied to warding off the schemes
devised by the king and his emissaries
to disturb the peace of Prussia. From
Bismarck's saying : " We will pursue
these obnoxious reptiles into their holes,"
the sum of money in question was soon
universally called the Reptile fund ; it
was mostly employed on newspaper articles
in support of the new order of things.
It was not until 1892 that the sequestra-
tion was ended in favour of Duke Ernest
Augustus of Cumberland, son of George V.
In Schleswig-Holstein the feeling in
favour of Duke Frederic still continued ; but
the certainty that the Prussian eagle would
once for all protect the duchies against the
detested Danish yoke, and the propaganda
of a Danish nationality, which was now
awakening in the Danish border districts
THE PRUSSIAN ASCENDANCY
of Schleswig, contributed slowly but surely
to the end that the largely predominant
German population learnt to adapt itself
to the new conditions. The brave spirit
of the duke, who saw his fondest hopes
blighted, and scorned to foment a useless
resistance to the detriment of the duchies,
helped much to tranquillise men's minds
and prepared them for the day when his
daughter Augusta Victoria should wear
the imperial Crown.
Prussia, at the moment when it with-
drew from the German Confederation and
began the war against Austria, had invited
all the North German
states to conclude a
new league. In August,
1866, nineteen govern-
ments which had
fought on Prussia's side
in the war professed
their readiness to take
that step. Meiningen
and the elder line of
Reuss, which had stood
on the side of Austria,
did the same after some
hesitation, and the old
anti-Prussian Duke
Bernhard of Meiningen fi
abdicated in favour of
his son George. Minis-
terial conferences were
opened in Berlin on
December 15th, under
the presidency of Bis-
marck, to which repre-
sentatives were sent by
all the North German
governments, and by
Saxony and Hesse- george v. of hanover
Darmstadt for their On the annexation of Hanover by Prussia in 1866,
territory right of the George v. fled to the Castle of Hietzing-, near
Main Tlip fnnrla Vienna, and issued a manifesto to his people de-
iViain. I lie lUnaa- ^1^^;^^ ^^^ incorporation of his land into Prussia to
mental principles of the be null and void. The king died at Paris in 1878.
new federal constitution ^'°"' ^ photograph
were settled in these conferences. Accord-
ing to it the presidency of the Confedera-
tion should belong to the King of Prussia
in so far that he should represent the
Confederation in foreign politics, declare
peace and war in its name, superintend
the execution of the Federal resolutions,
nominate all officials of the Confederation,
and command its army and fleet.
The Federal Council was to represent
the governments, and in it, on the basis
of the voting conditions in the former
German Confederation, seventeen votes
should be given by Prussia, four
by Saxony, two each by Mecklenburg-
Schwerin and Brunswick, one by each of
the remaining eighteen states, making
forty-three votes in all. The Federal
Council shared in the whole work of
legislation, and represented the sovereigns
of the Confederation.
The people were to share in the legis-
lation by means of a Reichstag springing
from the direct universal suffrage. This
Reichstag possessed also initiative rights ;
it was not proposed to pay the deputies.
Tlic following were declared to be
Federal matters : The
army and navy, in
which connection the
peace strength of the
army was fixed at i per
cent, of the population
of 1867, and the right
of increasing it every
ten years was reserved ;
then foreign policy,
posts and telegraphs,
tolls and trade. The
finances were to be
based on the tolls, the
compulsory taxes, and
the psofits of the posts
and telegraphs. To
supply any deficit in
the revenue the indi-
vidual states were
pledged to " register
contributions " in pro-
portion to the numbers
of their population.
The Federal Budget was
to be sanctioned for
periods of three years ;
the expenses of the
army were estimated
at the rate of £^3 15s.
a head in perpetuity.
After d fferent objec-
tions had been successfully raised against
certain of these provisions, they were
approved on February 2nd, 1867, and in
that form submitted to the Constituent
Reichstag elected on February 12th.
It was a matter of the greatest import-
ance for the party conditions in this
Reichstag that in the autumn of 1866,
when an effort was being made to get rid
of the Prussian dispute, two new parties
appeared on the scene. The National
Liberal party, which, breaking away from
the Progressive oarty— now sinking more
5083
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
and more into a policy of barren negations
— aimed at a confidential and vigorous asso-
ciation with the great statesman who had
shown by his actions that he was not the
bigoted country squire — ^Junker— which,
according to the outcry of the Progressives,
he always had been and still was. Similarly
the moderate Conservatives founded the
.._ Free Conservative party —
_ . n . ., smce 1871 called also the
Empire Party <( ^ / .
Founded German Empire party —
which proposed to unite the
observance of sound conservative prin-
ciples, respect for authority, and support
of the monarchy with wise progress and
the maintenance of civil liberty.
In the Constituent Reichstag the Con-
servatives numbered 59 deputies ; the
Free Conservatives, 36 ; the Old Liberals,
who stood near them, 27 ; the National
Liberals, 79 ; Progressives, only 19. In
addition there were 18 Particularists,
12 Poles, 2 Danes, i Social Demo-
crat, Aug. Bebel, and a number of
" wild " politicians. The decision lay
with the two parties whose principles
brought them into touch, and who, in the
phrase of the day, were termed the Right
and Left Centre, the Free Conservatives,
and the National Liberals.
The Reichstag chose for president
Eduard Simson, who had presided at the
National Assembly in Frankfort, 1848-
1849, 3-i^d thus was outwardly connected
with the traditions of the Hereditary
Imperial party. The feeling prevailed in
the debates that, whatever might be the
private views of the representatives, it was
impossible to disregard the wishes of the
state governments, and that, under all
the circumstances, something must be
effected by mutual concessions.
Bismarck gave vigorous expression to
his feeling in his speech of March nth,
1867, one of the most powerful which
he ever made, when he appealed to
those who would not sanction any
Bismarck's ^i^^^i^^^ion of the Prussian
Powerful Budget rights in the case of
Appeal army estimates. "The mighty
movements which last year
induced the nations from the Belt to the
Adriatic, from the Rhine to the Carpa-
thians, to play that iron game of dice
where royal and imperial crowns are the
stake, the thousands and thousands of
victims of the sword and of disease, who
by their death sealed the national decision,
cannot be reconciled with a resolution
5084
ad acta. Gentlemen, if you believe that,
you are not masters of the situation ! . . .
How would you answer a veteran of
Koniggratz if he asked after the results of
these mighty efforts ? You would say to
him, perhaps, ' Yes, indeed, nothing has
been done about German union ; that
will come in time. But we have saved the
Budget right of the Prussian Chamber of
Deputies, the right of endangering every
year the existence of the Prussian army ;
for this we have fought with the emperor
under the walls of Pressburg. Console
yourself with that, brave soldier, and let
the widow, too, who has buried her
husband, find consolation there.' Gentle-
men, this position is an impossibility ! Let
us work quickly, let us put Germany in
the saddle, and she will soon learn to ride."
In the course of the conferences some
forty amendments to the Bill were dis-
cussed by the Reichstag. Thus the Con-
federation acquired the right of levying
not only indirect but direct taxes ; every
alteration in the army and the fleet was
made dependent on the express sanction
of the president. Criminal jurisdiction,
„. _, ,, legal procedure, and in pri-
The Functions ^ i , j. • i x a
- vate law contract rights at
rs c J .. least, were transferred to
Confederation , , \^ , , , . t, ,
the Confederation. I he
Federal Chancellor was to accept by his
signature the moral, not legal, responsi-
bility for the enactments of the President.
The voting for the Reichstag was to be
secret ; the eligibility of officials as candi-
dates was to be recognised. Accurate re-
ports of the public sittings of the Reichstag
were to be secure against prosecution.
The deputies were to be paid. The Federal
Budget was to be passed for one year
only, instead of three. In military matters
the proviso that one-hundredth of the
population of 1867 should serve with
the colours in peace time, and that
the rate should be /33 15s. per head
was only to be in force until Decem-
ber 31st, 1871. The Confederation was
given the right to raise loans in urgent
cases ; in the case of denial of justice in
any state the Confederation was bound —
if a remedy could not be obtained by
legal methods — to interfere and afford
lawful help. As regarded the entry of one
or more of the South German states into
the Confederation, it was settled that this
should be effected on the motion of the
President, by means of a legislative act.
Finally, alterations of the constitution
THE PRUSSIAN ASCENDANCY
were treated in the same way, but a two-
thirds majority in the Federal Council was
requisite. The federal governments ac-
cepted nearly all of these resolutions;
Bismarck, in their name, lodged protests
against two of them in the Reichstag on
April 15th. First, against the grant of daily
pay to the representatives in the Reichstag.
In the eyes of the governments, the limita-
tion of eligibility imposed by the non-
granting of allowances was an indispensable
counterpoise to universal suffrage. The
Reichstag accordingly abandoned the daily
allowances. Secondly, the governments
regarded it as thoroughly inadmissible that
the existence of the army after December
31st, 1871, should be dependent on the
annual votes of fluctuating majorities,
while the expenditure on the civil adminis-
tration was legally fixed. Rudolf Gneist, a
deputy, called attention to the fact that
the Lower House might well refuse the
expenses of a professional army, such as
existed in England, but that a national
army, like the German, must be regarded
as a permanent institution. The govern-
ments would have preferred that, accord-
ing to the original scheme, the minimum
strength of the army should
have been settled once for
Closing of
the Constituent n j , ■
o . , . all, and a permanent provi-
Reichstag . , i r ■ 1 ■ ■
sion voted lor mamtammg
it. They finally, on April 17th, declared
their agreement to the proposal of the Free
Conservatives and of the National Liberals,
which provided that the present peace
strength of the army, fixed until December
31st, 1871, at one-hundredth of the popu-
lation, and the lump sum of £33 155. per
head of the army, should be kept in force
beyond that date, but only so long as they
should not be altered by federal laws ;
but the disbursement of sums for the
entire national army was to be annually
fixed by state law. On April 17th, 1867,
the king closed the Constituent Reichstag
with a speech from the throne which
expressed his satisfaction that the federal
power had obtained its necessary autho-
rit}^ and that the members of the Con-
federation had retained freedom of move-
ment in every department where it might
be advantageous for them.
After the Landtags of the individual
states had declared their assent, the con-
stitution became a reality on July ist,
1867. Only about four-fifths of the German
people were now united in the " North
German Confederation " ; but this union
was closer, and hence more powerful, than
any previous one in Germany ; and for the
first time in their history the German
people possessed the assured right of co-
operating in the framing of their fortunes
by the mouths of freely elected representa-
tives. The South Germans, indeed, still
held aloof ; but the universal feeling was
_,. _ . expressed by a Hanoverian :
The French <, 4^, ,■ -', ,, ^, .
_ , 1 he hne of the Mam is no
Emperor s , .1,1
-, ,. longer a spectre, but only a
Compensations , ,?■ , - . ■ , •'
haltmg-place for us, where
we can take water and coal on board,
and can recover our breath in order
soon to proceed further on our route."
During the deliberations of the Reichs-
tag a heavy storm-cloud had gathered,
but had happily been dispersed. The
French Emperor, Napoleon HL, had at-
tempted on August 5th, 1866, to obtain
" compensations " for the aggrandisement
of Prussia and the union of Northern
Germany by demanding Rhenish Hesse
with Mainz and the Bavarian Rhenish
Palatinate. Having met with a fiat re-
fusal, he had claimed, as his reward for
leaving Germany to Prussia, both Belgium
and Luxemburg.
Bismarck prolonged the negotiations in
this matter, since he did not wish to
irritate France beyond endurance, and
so drive her into the arms of the enemies
of Prussia. He did not return any definite
answer to the offer which he simultaneously
received of an offensive and defensive alli-
ance with the French Empire ; but, so far
as Luxemburg was concerned, left no
doubt in the mind of Count Benedetti, the
French ambassador, that King William
would decline to give France any active
assistance in acquiring it, and at most
would passively tolerate the proceeding.
But to give timely intimation to friend
and foe that war would find Germany
united, Bismarck published on March 19th,
1867, the offensive and defensive alliances
which Prussia had concluded in August,
1866, with Bavaria, Wiirtemberg, and
Baden, and which were joined
Germany ^^^^ ^ Hesse-D armstadt
Ready for ^^ ^ -^ ^^^j ^g^ j^^^^
Emergencies . ,^ i. i_v 1 j v.
points were established by
these treaties, (i) North and South Ger-
many supported each other in case of war
with their entire military force ; (2) this
force stood under the single and supreme
command of the King of Prussia ; (3) all
the states guaranteed to each other the
integrity of their respective territories.
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
Napoleon, indeed, persuaded King
William III. of the Netherlands to con-
clude a treaty, in virtue of which the
latter ceded to the emperor his right
to Luxemburg, in return for a compen-
sation of ;^20o,ooo ; but the king, who
very reluctantly surrendered Luxem-
burg, insisted on Prussia's formal assent
,,- to the treaty, and, as already
Napoleon III. ,• j .1 • .
p. ^ mentioned, this assent was
ives ay ^^^ forthcoming ; the whole
to Germany. ,. c? ' .
nation was unanimously
resolved to prevent at all hazards
the smallest encroachment on German
territory, even on territory which was
only connected with the body of the nation
by the bond of the Zollverein, as had
been the case with Luxemburg after the
dissolution of the German Confederation.
Napoleon, whose military resources were
not ready for a collision with Germany,
finally recoiled before this determined
opposition, and all the more so because
Austria, where, since October 30th, 1866,
the Saxon Baron von Beust presided at
the Foreign Office, was not induced, even
by the offer of Silesia, to form an armed
alliance against Prussia. Austria had
felt, too recently and too acutely, the
military superiority of Prussia to venture
on a new war, especially one against the
entire German nation.
On the proposal of the Tsar Alexander
IL a conference of all the Great Powers
was summoned at London, and this decided
that Luxemburg should be left to the
house of Nassau-Orange, but be declared
neutral. Prussia accordingly had to
withdraw her garrison from the former
federal fortress, Luxemburg, and to
allow the destruction of its fortifications.
But Luxemburg remained in the Zoll-
verein as before. The inglorious termina-
tion of a matter far from glorious in itself
was very detrimental to Napoleon's repu-
tation ; the victories of Prussia and the
formation of the North German Confedera-
, tion, just as the creation of
Severe ^ *^^ Kingdom of Italy some -few
Defeats Y^^rs before, were reckoned
by all supporters of the
doctrine of France's natural and "legiti-
mate " hegemony in Europe as severe
defeats to France. " Now," exclaimed
Thiers, half in menace, half in warning,
before the Chamber in March, 1867, " no
further blunders may be committed."
The emperor felt himself deeply in-
jured that Prussia had refused the enlarge-
5086
ment of France, which he so ardently
desired. " Bismarck has attempted to
deceive me," he afterwards said to
Heinrich von Sybel, " but an emperor of
France may not let himself be deceived."
Even the Catholic party was indignant
with him, because he had allowed the
revolution a free hand and had left the
Pope to be despoiled. The Republican
opposition completely outdid itself in
most venomous attacks on the emperor,
of which Victor Hugo and A. Rogeard
made themselves the mouthpieces.
And now, to crown all, there came the
crash of the Mexican expedition. The
emperor gave way before the threat of the
United States that they would treat the
continued presence of a French army on
American soil as a casus belli. The des-
perate entreaties of the empress, Charlotte,
who came to Europe in July, 1866, to
plead her husband's cause, were useless ;
when she realised her position, her reason
gave way. Between the end of January
and the middle of March, 1867, the French
troops withdrew from Mexico, and Maxi-
milian, who was too proud to desert his
_ followers in the hour of danger,
w^th/^^*^ and still hoped to strengthen
„ \. . the fading influence of his
From Mexjco , ■, ^■^ ^
party by liberal concessions,
was taken prisoner at Queretaro, together
with Generals Miguel Miramon and Tomas
Mejia, brought before a court-martial,
and shot as a rebel, on June 19th, 1867.
In order to conciliate French public
opinion. Napoleon determined upon liberal
measures which ran counter to the despotic
traditions of the Second Empire. He
granted to the senate and the legislative
body in J anuary , 1867, the right to interpel-
late the Government, and gave permission
that not merely the " Minister of State " —
that is, the hitherto all powerful Premier —
but every Minister might present the case
for his policy before the Chamber, but only
under " instructions from the emperor."
This concession was regarded, how-
ever, as a fundamentally important
step, by which the emperor wished to
introduce, in the place of his own exclusive
irresponsibility, ministerial responsibility ;
that is to say, he wished to pass
from a despotic to a constitutional, or
even parliamentary, method of govern-
ment. That was not, indeed. Napoleon's
intention ; but one step leads to another,
and the emperor's failing health made it
more and more incumbent on him to
THE PRUSSIAN ASCENDANCY
relieve himself of the business of govern-
ment. The politicians, who thought they
must contest a change of system on
political or personal grounds, now com-
l3ined into a reactionary club under the
name of the " Cercle de la rue de 1' Arcade."
The intellectual leader of these " Arcad-
ians " was the " Vice-Emperor," the
Minister of State, Rouher, while the
liberalising party, le Tiers parti, which
grew up in 1866 between the "Arcadians"
and the Republicans, was led by the
former Repubhcan, but now " freethinking
Imperialist," Emil OUivier, a talented
but ambitious and weak character.
The Paris International Exhibtion
of the summer of 1867 shed a transitory
brilliance over France and the emperor ;
but the murderous attempt of a Pole,
Anton Bereszowski, on the life of the
Tsar Alexander II. on June 6th, struck
a discordant note in the midst of the
festivities, and comments were made on
the absence of the Emperor Francis Joseph,
who was in mourning for his brother
Maximilian, the victim of Napoleon's bad
faith, and kept away from the French
^ . „ capital. Napoleon and his
Friendly i. j.i x • j
„ . ' consort therefore journeyed,
ze. mg o ^^ August, 1867, to Salzburg
Emperors , ° -u • .1 ^
to express their sympathy to
Francis Joseph ; they stayed there from
August i8th to the 23rd, and although
Napoleon had only come accompanied
by General Fleury, yet through him and
Beust a better understanding was brought
about between the two empires — o. step
which was universally regarded in Ger-
many as aimed at Prussia. But although
the two parties had merely agreed that
Prussia should be prevented from crossing
the Main, and Russia from crossing the
Pruth, yet now two camps were formed
in Europe : Prussia and Russia stood in
the one, Austria and France in the other.
Francis Joseph paid his return visit to
Paris on October 23rd. On his way he had
exchanged a "flying and formal" greeting
with the King of Prussia, at the latter's
wish, in Oos ; but he said to General
Ducrot in Strassburg : "I hope that we
shall some day march side by side."
The Treaty of Prague, according to the
French conception of it, implied that
Prussia by its terms was restricted to
North Germany, and might not venture
to form any union with the South German
states, unless the assent of every Power
participating in the treaty was obtained.
France reckoned herself one of these
Powers, because she had intervened in
July, 1866 ; but she had not signed the
treaty — indeed, she could not have been
allowed to do so, since she had taken no
share in the war — and therefore possessed
properly no right to superintend the
execution of the treaty. Bismarck adhered
„. .. ^. strictly to the principle that
The Abortive a ^ ■ 1 ^■^^ ^ j.
„ . Austria alone was entitled to
^ , . .. take any action in this matter.
Confederation , , , , -1 . j. ■ ■ ■, 1
but that even Austria might
not raise any objections if all the states
of the South, combined into a union,
wished to form a national bond with the
North. The only doubtful point was
whether any single state was competent
to join the North German Confederation.
But it very soon became clear that
the " Southern Confederation," planned
at Prague in 1866, would not come to
pass. Bavaria, as by far the largest
state, would naturally have obtained the
predominant position ; but King Charles
of Wiirtemberg was still less willing to
acknowledge the superiority of King
Lewis II. than that of the King of Prussia.
The Grand Duke Frederic of Baden, son-
in-law of the King of Prussia, a liberal and
patriotic prince, was resolved to enter the
North German Confederation at the next
opportunity, and his views were shared
by the majority of his subjects. His
Ministers, Karl Mathy and Rudolph von
Freydorf, were staunch German patriots
like himself. Mathy had written to Bis-
marck on November i8th, 1867, asking
for Baden's entrance into the Federation,
but was put off with hopes for the future,
and died before attaining his object,
on February 4th, 1868.
In spite of all democratic and ultra-
montane opposition, the South and North
were drawing closer to each other.
Agreeably to the spirit of the treaties, all
the states south of the Main introduced in
1868 universal conscription and armed their
^ . ^. infantry with the Prussian
Conscription n •
. needle-gun; inconsequence
iT ^^ c. ^ of this they obtained Prus-
Southern States ■ , -' , j. ,, •
sian instructors for then-
troops, and Hesse-Darmstadt concluded, in
April, 1867, a military treaty with Prussia,
by the terms of which its troops were com-
pletely incorporated into the army of the
North German Confederation. The royal
Saxon army, however, by virtue of the
convention of February 7th, 1867, con-
stituted from July ist onwards the
5087
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
Organising
& United
German Army
Twelfth North German Army Corps,
under its own administration. In Wiir-
temberg the new War Minister, Rudolf
von Wagner, proceeded to reform the
army on the Prussian model ; and the
example was followed in Bavaria, despite
the particularism of that kingdom by the
War Minister, Sigmund von Prankh. The
preparation for a united Ger-
man army proceeded without
interruption. The treaty of
federation with Prussia was
accepted by the Chambers in the autumn
of 1867, in Baden without any struggle,
but in Wiirtemberg after violent parlia-
mentary disputes, although the democratic
party of Wiirtemberg foretold that the
new policy of " militarism " would impose
an intolerable burden on the people with-
out securing them against Fra;nce. The
treaty, according to the
Bavarian constitution, did
not require the approval of
the estates. Owing to this
union of all German races in
a common system of defence
with such safeguards, the
Zollverein, which had been
renounced by Prussia, was
once more established on a
new basis. First of all, the
so-called liberum veto of each
particular state — 'the right to
repudiate any resolution of
the majority as not legally
binding on the non-as§ent
loss from the free-trade principles pre-
vailing in Prussia, but also disliked the
customs union with the North as a pre-
liminary step to political amalgamation.
Yet the interests of trades and industries,
which obviously could not exist without
the Zollverein, were so important that in
the Bavarian Representative Chamber, on
October 22nd, 1867, 117 votes against 17,
and on the 31st, in the Wiirtemberg
Chamber, y^ against 16, were given for
the customs union.
The First Chamber in Bavaria, that of
the Imperial Councillors, made a futile
attempt to preserve the Bavarian " liberum
veto " ; but as Bismarck declared that
he would sooner renounce the customs
treaty itself than allow this limitation on
it, the Chamber gave way. Hungary, after
the suppression of the Hungarian rebellion
of the year 1849, was de-
prived of independence, and
was, as far as possible, reduced
to the constitutional status of
a crown demesne, which in
the last resort was governed
from Vienna. The proud
Magyar people had not re-
signed itself in silence to this
lot, but continuously de-
manded the restoration of its
independence. It absolutely
refused to send representatives
to the Reichsrat in Vienna,
the central Parliament of the
FRANCIS DEAK
A Hungarian politician prominent , ^ i i j i
in his country's struggles for mouarchy Created by the con-
ing state — was abolished ; in liberty, he led the movement stitutiou of February 26th,
its place was introduced the against the sending of represen- jg(^j^ jj^g leader of the
principle that resolutions tatives to the Reichsrat in Vienna. Qpposition was Francis Deak,
passed by the majority were binding on 1803-1876, originally a lawyer and judicial
the minority. The work of legislating for
the Zollverein was to be carried out
by the Federal Council and Reichstag
according to this principle.
Besides matters connected with customs,
the taxation of the salt obtained within
the Zollverein, and of the tobacco
produced or imported into the Zollverein,
fell within the competence of the Reichs-
tag, sitting as the Customs Parliament.
•The duration of the customs treaty was
once more fixed for twelve years, with the
proviso that, if notice was not given, it
would continue as a matter of course for
another twelve years.
These treaties also met with opposi-
tion in Wiirtemberg and Bavaria from
the protectionists and the particularists,
who not only feared heavy economic
5088
assessor in his own county of Szala. He
had been Minister of Justice in 1848, and
became later a parliamentary politician
by profession ; he was a man of shrewd-
ness, determination, and integrity, of
temperate views, resolute in advocating
the rights of his people and yet unwilling to
interfere with the undoubted
rights of the Crown. He was
opposed to the feudal abuse
of serf labour no less than
to the communist views rife among the
Hungarian peasantry, whose supporters
would have most gladly divided the
property of the nobles among themselves.
Some rei:)utation was also enjoyed by
Count Juhus Andrassy, whose inclinations
led him into the region of foreign policy.
The defeat of Austria in the year 1859
Leaders
in Hungarian
Movements
THE PRUSSIAN ASCENDANCY
broke the ice both in the western and
eastern half of the Empire. Schmerhng,
the creator of the February constitution,
consented in April, 1861, to summon once
more the Hungarian Landtag, which had
been dissolved in 1849. But since Deak
demanded a return to the state of things
which had existed before
1848, no understanding was
reached, and in the year 1866
General Klapka, with Bis-
marck's support, organised a
" Hungarian legion " to fight
on the side of Prussia against
the House of Hapsburg-
Lorraine. The defeat of 1866
convinced the Emperor
Francis Joseph that a recon-
ciliation with Hungary was
absolutely essential if Austria
was not to be completely
crippled by internal feuds and
prevented from maintaining
prejudice and distrust against him. When
he had already declared to the reassembled
Hungarian Reichstag on November 19th,
1866, his willingness to conform with the
wishes of the nation, having been nomi-
nated on February 7th, 1867, Prime
Minister of Austria in place of Count
Belcredi, he succeeded in
obtaining the imperial decrees
of February, 1867. According
to these, Hungary recovered
its independence, receiving a
responsible Ministry of its
own under Andrassy. Croatia,
the military frontier, and
Transylvania were united
with it ; the " Court Chan-
cery," which existed for
Hungary and Transylvania in
Vienna, as well as the office of
Hungarian Viceroy, were
abolished from the moment
the new Ministry began its
its already tottering position ^^Ts^ "^l^he feXtfoL' y official activity, The western
as a Great Power. In the movement of ]S4s he was exUed halt 01 the empire, tor which,
East," said Andrassy, " no '^Z "ul^fry^^ [iS^hrbecaml unofficially, the name Cis-
power is less important than Prime Minister ten years later. Leithauia, or the country
Austria, and yet it ought, in the interests
of civilisation, to have great influence
there." The Germans in Austria came to
the help of the Magyars when they declared
at a meeting in Aussee on September loth,
1866 : " Dualism, but not Federalism! no
joint monarchy, still less a
mere Federation, but two
halves of the empire, compact
in themselves and closely
united together against the
outside world."
The new Foreign Minister,
Friedrich Ferdinand, Baroc
Beust, 1809-1866, an ex-
cessively energetic statesman,
whose pride did not blind
him to the needs of the time,
worked towards the same end.
He wished to restore Austria
to its old position by settling
the dissensions and by modern
legislation, and to leave its
forces free for a strong foreign
policy, which might limit the
encroachments of Prussia and Russia.
The circumstance that Beust was a
foreigner and a Protestant enabled him
to act with greater impartiality towards
the affairs of Austria than a native
statesman engaged in party struggles
could usually manifest, but it roused much
west of the border-river Leitha, was soon
adopted, naturally also received its
special government.
It was proposed that foreign policy, the
army — the German language to be used
for words of command — the excise, and
the national debt should be
regarded as joint concerns of
the " Austrian - Hungarian
monarchy," as the official
title ran. According to this
agreement three imperial
Ministers were created for
foreign affairs, the army, and
the finances. The imperial
Minister for Foreign Affairs
was to preside in the imperial
Ministry and bear the title
of Imperial Chancellor, this
office being conferred on
BARON BEUST Barou Beust, as the promoter
To this Austrian statesman be- of the COIliprOmlSe With
longs the credit of reconciling Hungary. The imperial
Hungary to Austria. Born at Ministers wcre responsible
Dresden in 1S09, he died in ISSti. j. jv, „ ii„j Tv^l
to the so-called Delega-
tions for their measures ; these Delega-
tions were bodies of thirty-six deputies
each, which were elected by the Parlia-
ments of the two halves of the kingdom,
on a fixed proportion to the First and
Second Chambers, and met alternately at
Vienna and Pesth. They discussed the
5089
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
Coronation
of Francis
Joseph
governmental proposals separately and in-
dependently ; valid resolutions could there-
fore only come into force by the agreement
of the Delegations. The share of Hungary
in the joint expenditure was fixed in 1867
at thirty per cent., that of Austria at
seventy per cent. The Compromise, and
also the Customs and Commerce
Treaty of the two halves of the
empire were to be valid for
ten years. On June 8th, 1867,
the solemn coronation of Francis Joseph
and his consort Elizabeth took place.
The Magyars felt themselves victors and
masters in their own country. The
Roumanians and the Saxons in Transyl-
vania were destined soon to feel the heavy
hand of the ruling people,
which wished by concilia-
tion or by force to make
Magyars of the whole
population of Hungary.
The Croats, on the other
hand, who formed a
compact nation of two
millions, and were in-
veterate enemies of the
Hungarians, received
from the Hungarians on
June 2ist, 1868, the con-
cession that a special
Croat Minister should sit
in the Ministry at Pesth,
and that forty-five per
cent, of the revenues of
the country should re-
main reserved for the
country itself. Accord-
ingly, on December 29th,
1868, the twenty-nine
Croat deputies appeared
in the Hungarian Reichs-
tag, from which they
had been absent for fully twenty j^ears.
The disputes between parties and
nationalities in Austria were strained to
the utmost. The Germans defended the
centralised constitution of February 25th,
1861, and with it the predominance of
their race, for which they claimed superi-
ority to other nationalities in intellectual
gifts and achievements : politically, the
majority of them were Liberals. The
Slavs, on the other hand, but. above all,
the Czechs, were for a form of Federalism,
which would guarantee more liberty of
action to the several crown lands ; and
the Feudals and Clericals supported the
same view. But Beust induced the Poles
by concessions at the cost of the Galician
Ruthenians. who compose 43 per cent, of
the 7,000,000 of Galician population, and
of the other crown lands, to take their
seats in the Reichsrat ; and he also suc-
ceeded in procuring a German majority in
the Landtags of Bohemia and Moravia.
Thus, on May 22nd, 1867, the regular
" inner " Reichsrat, composed of deputies
of the several Landtags, could be opened ;
but the Czechs refused to sit in it.
The Ministry of Beust, in conformity with
the universal change in opinion, piloted
through the two Houses of the Reichsrat a
series of laws during the course of the
year 1867 which received the force of
statutes by the imperial sanction given on
December 21st, 1867. By
this means, Austria, once
the promised land of des-
potism, was changed into
a modern constitutional
state. Thus ministerial
responsibility was intro-
duced, and a state court
of twenty-five members
was created for the trial
of impeached Ministers ;
equality of all citizens in
the eyes of the law, equal
eligibihty to all offices,
freedom of migration,
liberty of the Press and
of association, liberty of
conscience and religion,
the inviolabihty of private
houses, and the secrecy of
letters, freedom of re-
ligion, freedom of educa-
tion, the separation of the
FRANCIS JOSEPH OF AUSTRIA
Born in 1830, he became Emperor of Austria
in IS-IS, on the death of his uncle, Ferdinand I., ... . r ■ j.-
and on June Sth, 1807, on the formation of admUUStratlOn Ot JUStlCC
an Austro-Hungarian State, he was crowned from the government, in
at Pest with the crown of St. Stephen. sllOlt, all the blessings of a
modern state, were bestowed at one blow
on a people which a few months before
had been governed like a herd of cattle.
The House of Representatives received
the right of electing a president, the right
. of voting taxes and recniits,
angcs m ^^^ right of legislation in all
the Government • ^ . r^ .l j.
important matters ; it was to
be summoned annually, and
its debates were to be public. The powers of
the Landtags were proportionately limited.
These achievements were accompanied
by a law, based on the eleventh article
of the law as to the representation of the
empire, dealing with the supervision of
the primary schools, Volksschule, by
of Austria
5090
THE PRUSSIAN ASCENDANCY
which local, district, and national school-
boards were constituted, and to all three
of them not merely representatives of the
Church, but also of the state and of (Educa-
tion, were nominated. The Concordat
of the year 1855 had enslaved educa-
tion and given the Church full power
over the schools, but, by one of the few
invariable laws of history, the reaction
was only the more violent.
The emperor, in a letter to the Arch-
bishop of Vienna, blamed the bishops
because, instead of being
mperor conciHatory, they had roused
Blames the ■ , • •/ j xu
_. . mtense animosity, and thus
ops rendered the task of the
Government more arduous. A new
Ministry, with the especial support of
Beust, who in this connection assured the
papal nuncio that according to his con-
viction the Austrian monarchy and the
Catholic Church were sisters, carried in the
Upper House in March, 1868, the laws
which had been determined upon by the
Lower House in 1867. By these laws (i)
civil marriage was granted in the case
where a priest, for reasons not recognised
by the state, refused to put up the banns
of an engaged couple ; (2) the supreme
management of a school, with exception
of the religious instruction, was reserved
to the state, and the post of teacher
was open to every citizen of the state
without distinction of denomination ;
(3) in mixed marriages the sons were
to accept the religion of the father,
the daughters that of the mother, and
every citizen should have the right to
change his religion on completing his
fourteenth year. The emperor signed the
laws on May 25th, 1868. But when Pius
IX., on June 22nd, denounced them in the
most bitter terms as abominable, abso-
lutely null, and once for all invalid, the
feud between Church and State became
most acute.. The Pope, in view of the
legislation directed against the omnipo-
tence of the Church, felt himself only
strengthened in his long-cherished in-
tention of claiming doctrinal infahibility
for the papal chair. When, however, on
July i8th, 1870, this attribute was awarded
him by the Vatican Council, Austria re-
plied by a revocation of the Concordat on
July 30th, and the restoration of the
" placitum regium " — royal consent — as
an essential condition for the validity of
any papal enactment in Austria.
During these struggles the finances of
Austria were reorganised by a somewhat
violent measure. The proposal of Ignaz
Edlen von Plener, Minister of Commerce,
was accepted by a large majority in the
Lower House in June, 1868 ; by this the
entire public debt was to be transformed
into one unified 5 per cent, stock, but as
the interest was to pay a tax of 20 per
cent., the rate of interest payable by the
. , state was in fact reduced to 4
Austria s , t-i
. per cent, ihe army was re-
n*^™^ , .organised in December, 1868,
Re-organise'l ° ,i , • r 1
on the basis of universal con-
scription, and the war strength fixed for
ten years at 800,000 men. The Landwehr
was to comprise not merely the older
members of the line troops, but also those
persons who, though available, had been
rejected as superfluous, and had thus
not enjoyed any thorough training in
the ranks.
" GERMANIA '
THE NATIONAL P/IONUMENT OF THE FRANCO-GERMAN WAR
5091
^O.ji
THE
RE-MAKING
OF
EUROPE
THE
CONSOLIDA-
TION OF THE
POWERS
IX
THE DECLINE OF NAPOLEON IIL
APPROACH OF THE FRANCO-GERMAN WAR
nrHE Roman question was one of the
*■ most difficult with which Napoleon IIL
had to deal. The emperor had withdrawn
his troops from Rome in September, 1864,
after the Italian Government had pledged
itself to remove the seat of the monarchy
from Turin to Florence, which promise
implied a certain abandonment of claim
to the capital, Rome, and neither to
attack Rome itself nor to allow it to be
attacked by any other Power. The Ultra-
montanes in France were beside them-
selves at this agreement ; they saw in it
the withdrawal of French protection from
the still existing fragment of the temporal
power of the Pope, the beginning, there-
fore, of its end ; and if they regarded this
end as a heavy blow to the Church, the
Chauvinist party, headed by Adolphe
Thiers, which held the French leadership
in Europe to be part of the order of the
universe, regarded a complete victory of
„. _ . the Italian national state as
The French 1,1 i,- j .
Ch b d '^^ irrevocable hmdrance to
. p that leadership on the south
side of the Alps, just as the
establishment of the German national state
seemed to be the end of that predominance
on the east bank of the Rhine.
In February, 1866, the French Chamber
under these two influences adopted the re-
solution that the secular sovereignty of the
Pope was essential for his spiritual reputa-
tion ; and after thereversion of Venice to
Italy Ultramontane attacks were showered
upon Liberal conceptions in general and
Italy in particular. The Radical Minister
of Public Instruction, Victor Duruy, who
brought the Orders which concerned them-
selves with education under the common
law, claimed for the state the education of
girls, and founded national libraries of a
Liberal character ; but he had to guard
against the pronounced hostility of the
Clericals, and could not prevent, in July,
1867, the temporary closure of the '' Ecole
Normale," the teachers' training institu-
tion, in which Liberal views were active.
The effect of these occurrences was, on
the Italian side, that the democratic
Minister Rattazzi, a friend to the French,
hoped for a revolution in Rome itself, in
the course of which Victor Emmanuel
might come forward, as in 1859, to restore
order. If his troops occupied Rome in
this way, the Roman question might be
y. . solved very simply, without
ic ory o direct violation of the Septem-
p , . ber Treaty. But Garibaldi,
overflowing with fiery zeal,
tore in pieces this delicate web of statecraft
by entering the states of the Church in
September, 1867, at the hsad of a band of
volunteers, in order to overthrow the Pope.
When Rattazzi, on being required by
Napoleon III. to take counter measures
in virtue of the treaty, preferred to tender
his resignation, the emperor sent an army
from Toulon to Rome under Failly.
This, together with the papal soldiers
under General Hermann Kanzler, overtook
the Garibaldians, who had immediately
begun to retreat on Monte Rotondo, near
Mentana, north-east of Rome, and dealt
them a crushing blow, November 3rd. "The
chassepots have done wonders," Failly
wrote to the king. The French army was
now compelled to remain in Rome, since
otherwise the rule of the Pope would have
immediately collapsed. A part of Napo-
leon's power was again firmly planted in
Italy, the indignation of all opponents of
the papacy against the guardian of the
Pope was once again unloosed, and the
dislike of the Italians for the
^ apo con . ^^^ ^^-^^ prevented the com-
the Ouardian 1 ,• r ,1 • •.
r .t n pletion of their unity was
of the Pope ^ . . ^ 1^1
accentuated. The emperor
vainly tried to submit the Roman question
to the decision of a European congress,
which he proposed to call for this purpose.
No other Great Power wished to burn its
fingers in this difficult afifair.
Napoleon, meantime, conscious that
France, from the military point of view,
was far behind Prussia, had devised all
5093
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
sorts of plans to equalise this dispropor-
tion. The first scheme, which really
effected some result and went to the root
of the evil, simply aimed at the introduc-
tion of a universal conscription after the
Prussian model ; but the emperor encoun-
tered in this the opposition, both of his
generals — who for the most part were
^, „ ,. , sufficiently prejudiced to con-
The Radicals • , -^ ^ J. ,
. sider a professional army as
w-i-f*"^" more efficient than a national
Militarism , r ,i i-,- ■
army — and of the politicians,
who, partly out of regard for the popular
dislike of universal military service, partly
on political grounds, would hear nothing
of such a measure. All Radicals shrank
from " militarism " and every measure
which might strengthen the monarchy.
Thus the keen-sighted and energetic War
Minister, Marshal Niel, was forced in the
end, against his better judgment, to be
content with a law which proclaimed, in
principle, universal military service, and
fixed its duration at nine years, but, as a
matter of fact, at once neutralised this
reform, since each individual had the
admitted right to buy himself off from
service in the line. Only the duty of
forming part of the militia, or " garde
mobile," was incumbent on everyone.
But, from considerations of economy, this
" garde mobile " was allowed to exist on
paper only, without any attempt to call
it into existence beyond the form of
nominating the officers ; the men were
not organised or even called out for
training. It thus happened that the North
German Confederation, with 30,000,000
souls and an annual levy of 90,000, could
put an army of 540,000 into the field, but
France, with 36,000,000 inhabitants,
I'aised only 330,000 men.
In armament, however, the French infan-
try enjoyed a considerable advantage, since
it was equipped with the Chassepot rifle,
which had a range of i ,200 paces, compared
with which the needle-gun, with a range of
400 paces only, became at long
-,t* .^ , distances as useless as a stick ;
* ^l in addition to this, the French
Warfare . . x,
weapon was superior to the
German by reason of a smaller bore, a
better breech, and its handiness. On the
other hand, the North German artillery,
whose shells only burst on striking, was
superior to the French, whose missiles
burst after a certain time, often difficult
to calculate exactly, and sometimes ex-
ploded in the air before reaching their
5094
mark. The mitrailleuse, on which the
French founded great hopes, proved itself
in 1870 to be by no means a serviceable
weapon, and it was not considered neces-
sary on the German side to adopt it.
The necessity of again finding stronger
support in the nation suggested to the
emperor in January, 1869, the plan of
securing the purchase and management
by the French Eastern Railway of the
Belgian private railways to Brussels and
Rotterdam. In this way Belgium would
become, first economically, and subse-
quently politically, dependent on France.
But the Belgian Liberal government of
Frere-Orban refused assent to the treaty
for sale ; and since in this question they
were backed by their otherwise deadly
enemies, the Ultramontane party, this
attempt also of the emperor to restore
his prestige proved a failure.
Although Prussia had entirely kept
away from any share in the whole matter,
she was accused by several French papers
of having instigated the Belgian Govern-
ment to opposition. Even the treaty with
Baden, by which Badeners were allowed
to pass their terms of military
service in Prussia, and Prus-
sians in Baden, could not suc-
cessfully be represented as an
infringement of the Treaty of Prague.
Nevertheless, France, Austria, and Italy,
since the summer of 1868, had vigorously
prosecuted the negotiations for a triple
alliance directed against Prussia. But
Beust was restrained by several considera-
tions — the embarrassed condition of
Austrian finances, the incompleteness of
the army reform, the many difficulties of
the domestic situation, the reluctance of
10,000,000 Germans in Austria to make
war on their compatriots, the aversion of
Hungary to every project for restoring the
Austrian predominance in Germany.
He saw himself quite unable to undertake
a war immediately, however much a war
might have suited his inveterate hatred of
Prussia. Such a war, according to his
view, ought to arise from a non-German
cause, some collision of Austria and
Russia in the East, when Prussia Would go
over to the Russian side, and thus any
appearance • of the war being waged
against German union would be avoided ;
otherwise, war was the best method of
effecting an immediate reconciliation be-
tween North and South. A war against
German unity was unacceptable to the
Austria's
Embarrassed
Finances
THE DECLINE OF NAPOLEON IIL
Italians also, since in all probability it
would have been followed by a war against
their own unity, and this they did not wish
to see destroyed, but completed ; and
probably a portion of the Conservative
party would only have been induced to
fight against Prussia by the surrender of
Rome. But the emperor, who did not
venture to inflict a further wound upon
the susceptibilities of his Catholic subjects,
could not in any case fulfil this condition ;
and the majority of the Italians stood on
the side of the Ministers, who declared to
King Victor Emmanuel in July, 1869, that
they could not be parties to obliterating
the events of the year 1866.
Light is thrown on the situation by the
anxiety of Beust lest Napoleon should not
be playing an honourable game, but in the
last instance, if Prussia, intimidated by the
Triple Alliance, was inclined to concessions,
should make an agreement
with Prussia at the cost of
Austria. Since the negotia-
tions thus met insuperable
difficulties everywhere, their
continuance was, in Septem-
ber, 1869, indefinitely post-
poned, to use Napoleon's
words to Francis Joseph. No
terms, according to Beust's
statements, had yet been
signed, but a verbal agree-
ment had been made on three
points : (i) That the aim of
the alliance, if
concluded, should be protec
he
VICTOR DURUY
ever it was Historian and educationist,
became Ministerof Public Instruc-
tion in France, and did much for
tion and peace; (2) that the ^Ij^ ^o'u'nXroTn^ti^ninfe^^^^ personal rule on one side, and
From a photograph
majority against the followers of Rouher.
Napoleon III. need not have regarded the
result of the elections as a sign of popular
hostility to himself ; even the Third
party was imperialist. But the result
was bound to endanger his position if he
declared his agreement with Rouher and
the "Arcadians." He therefore veered
"Tsif round, dissolved the " National
MinUry" Ministry" on July 17th—
r». , . Rouher was compensated by
the presidency m the Senate,
which, on August 2nd, in a solemn session,
accepted the scheme of reform settled by
the Cabinet — and submitted on September
6th, 1869, comprehensive constitutional
reforms to the approval of the Senate.
By these, the legislative body acquired
the rights of electing all its officials, of
initiating legislation, of demanding in-
quiries, and of appropriating the supplies
which it voted to specific
branches of the public service.
Although the constitutional
responsibility of the emperor
himself was not given up, yet
the principle of ministerial
responsibility was introduced,
and provision made for the
impeachment of Ministers
before the Senate. The em-
peror himself, when speaking
to the Italian ambassador,
Constantin Nigra, character-
ised the scope of these
reforms as follows : "I had
the choice between war and
parties should support each
other in all negotiations between the
Great Powers ; and (3) that Austria, in a
war between France and Prussia should
remain at least neutral.
At the moment when these negotiations
had come to a standstill a great change
had taken place in the internal affairs of
France. At the new elections to the legis-
lative body on May 23rd,
1869, a great shrinkage of the
Royalist votes was apparent ;
while the opposition in 1857
had received only 810,000, and in 1863
had reached 1,800,000, it now swelled
to 3,300,000, and the figures of the Govern-
ment party receded from 5,300,000 in the
year 1863 to 4,600,000. Ollivier's " Third
Party " obtained 130 seats in the Chamber
of Deputies, and, combined with the forty
votes of the Republican Left, formed a
Election
Changes
in France
peace with liberal reforms on
the other side. I decided for the latter."
The circumstance that his experienced
War Minister, Niel, died on August 14th,
1869, had at first the effect of making
every warlike expedition seem doubly
hazardous ; it was destined to be seen
that his successor. Marshal Leboeuf,
possessed neither the experience nor the
foresight of Niel.
The emperor summoned on January 2nd,
1870, the Ministry, which, in virtue of
the decree of the Senate, was to undertake
the responsible conduct of business. Its
head was Emile Ollivier, who became
Minister of Justice and Public Worship ;
Count Daru, a clever and cautious man of
marked personality, received the Foreign
Office ; the Home Office went to Chevan-
dier de Valdrome, the Finances to Buffet.
But since the Left demanded that the
5095
General view of the buildings of the Louvre as sesn from the Tuileries Palace.
Outside the Church of the Madeleine.
Facad'' of the Arc de Tnomphe towards the city.
General view of the Tuileries Palace as seen from the Gardens.
PARIS IN HER SPLENDOUR : IN THE DAYS OF THE SECOND EMPIRE
5096
r "•"■""■"%
^■v*
',4,
tW fi
IMfflTllllillf^^
General view of the Place de la Concorde, showing- the Rue Royale and the Madeleine in the distai
In the heart of the business quarter : The Bourse and tlie Plat
SCENES IN THE CAPITAL CITY DURING THE REIGN OF NAPOLEON 111.
23 G 5097
HARMSWOKTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
Chamber should receive the right of co-
operating in any future altoratidii of the
constitution, as otherwise
a resolution of the Senate
might recall one day what
it had granted the
previous day, the emperor
without demur submitted
the constitutional changes
to a plebiscite on the
ground that the nation
had in his time, in 1852,
approved the constitu-
tion of the empire, and
had therefore a claim to
say if this constitution
was to be altered. The
question put to the
people was whether it
approved of the decree of
the Senate on September
6th, 1869, and whether it
wished by this means to
facilitate the future
transmission of the crown
EMILE OLLIVIER
At the head of the Ministry summoned by
Napoleon III. at the beginning of 1870 was
r ,, , , ■ Emile OUivier, against whom the accusation , ,•
from the emperor to his has been made that " with a light heart" he proclamation
'rushed his country into war with Germany.'
~ photogi,
an important change by the substitution
the Due de Gramont for Daru. The
latter had two motive;^
for resignation. In the
first place he had not been
able to carry his point
that the emperor alone
was not entitled to order
any future plebiscites, but
that the legislative body
must also te first heard
in the matter. Secondly,
Daru was much con-
cerned about the Vatican
Council, which Pius IX.
had opened in Rome on
December 8th, 1869, in
order that, at the very
moment when the tem-
poral power of the papacy
was diminished and even
threatened with complete
destruction, the spiritual
power might be made
unlimited through the
of the
Pope's infallibility in
matters of faith and
morals. The Bavarian
Prime Minister faced, as
far back as April 9th, 1869,
the serious danger which
threatened the indepen-
dence of states if this
doctrine of the papal in-
fallibility were received,
and called upon all states
which had Catholic sub-
jects to adopt a common
policy towards the papal
claim ; but for various
reasons he only found
support in Russia, which
forbade its Catholic
bishops to attend the
Council, and he was
defeated by the ultra-
montane and particu
larist majority of the
Bavarian Landtag on
February 15th, 1870.
Daru fared no , better'
with his warnings ; his'
own colleague, Ollivier,
that the in-
Ducde Gramont, whose policy as Fo'reign fahibilitv affectcd Only
Minister precipitated the war with Germany. ^"^ J ' . . J
son. The answer of
7,350,142 electors was in
the afftrmative, that of
1.538,825 in the negative ;
in the army, which was
also allowed to vote.
285,000 answered " Yes,"
48,000 " No." Although
opposition was consider-
able, yet it was split up
into an Absolutist part,
for which the decree of
the Senate went much
too far, and a Republican,
for which the decree did
not go far enough, since
it not only allowed the
Empire to stand, but even
assisted Napoleon to con-
solidate his power.
Against this divided
opposition the majority,
which in any case was five
times as large, showed to
jM'odigious , . advantage,
and the emperor was
justified in seeing in the
plebiscite of May 8th, ,„ ^ ^ ....
■* o i r r 11 18(11, Count Daru resigned his seat at the , , ,
1070, a strong proof of the Foreign office, and was succeeded _by the declared
confidence of quite five
sixths of the French in "^ " Ironr, p-iuuMgrr,,!-,""" "' ''' the internal administra
his person, in his dynasty and his rule, tion of the Church and did not concern
Soon afterwards the Ministry underwent the State — as if the Church on her side
5098
THE DUG DE GRAMONT
Soon afier the formation of the Ministry in
THE DECLINE OF NAPOLEON ilL
would recognise any sphere of human
action as entirely belonging to the State ! —
and put him oft with the dubious assur-
ances of the papal Secretary of State,
Count Giacomo Antonelli : "In theory
we soar as high as Gregory VII., and
Innocent III. ; in practice we are yielding
and patient." No effect was produced by
the warnings of the noble Montalembert,
once so extolled by the Ultramontanes.
He blamed the oppression of the State by
the Church no less than that of the Church
by the State. "We ought," he said, "to
stem in time the stream of flattery, deceit,
and servility which threatens to flood the
Church." He died before his warning
cry was justified by events, and Daru's
successor, Gramont, was a thorough-
going Ultramontane who, as such, hated
heretical Prussia. The peace of Europe
seemed, on June 30th, 1870, ^-
to be absolutely assured ;
Ollivier could declare in the
Chamber that no disturbance
threatened it from any
quarter, and Leboeuf, the War
Minister, proposed to enlist
in the army for 1871 only
()0,ooo instead of 100,000
recruits. The deputies of the
Left committed themselves
to the statement that the
40,000,000 Germans who had
united under the leadership
of Prussia were no menace to
France, and Ollivier himself
can almost be described as a
friend of German unity.
Archduke Albert of Austria,
however, had visited Paris in
April, 1870, on the pretext of an educational
journey to the south of France, and, in
view of the possible admission of Baden
to the North German Confederation, had
spoken of the necessity of common
measures for the observance of the Treaty
of Prague. He unfolded, in this connec-
tion, the plan that if war
became necessary, a French
army should push on past
Stuttgart to Niiremberg, in
order to unite there with the Italians, who
would advance by way of Munich, and
with the Austrians, who would come from
Uohemia ; they would then fight the
Prussians in the region of Leipzig. The
archduke was therefore playing with
fire ; but he declared that the transforma-
tion of the Austrian army would not be
The French
Emperor's
War Council
ARCHDUKE ALBERT
As field-marshal he commanded in
Italy, and afterwards reorganised
the Austrian army. Foreseeing the
Franco-German war, he advised
France to strike the first blow.
War Plans
of Archduke
Albert
completed for one or two years, and
emphasised the necessity that, since
Austria required six weeks to mobilise,
France should strike the first blow alone,
at any rate in the spring, in order that the
Prussians might be settled with before
autumn came with cold, long nights and
before Russia could interfere. A council
of wai" which Napoleon held
on May 17th declared that
the demand that France
should first make the effort
single-handed could not be entertained.
General Lebrun, who was then sent to
Vienna, did not find Francis J oseph inclined
to waive the demand which Prince Albert
had made. The Austrian emperor held it
to be essential, not merely from the
military but also from the political
standpoint, since if he declared war simul-
taneously with France, the
Prussians would make full use
of the " new German idea "
and sweep the South with
it. He would have to wait
for the course of the war, and
then, when the French had
advanced into South Germany
and were welcomed as libe-
rators from the Prussian
yoke, he would take the oppor-
tunity and join in the war.
The course of events in
South Germany gave France
room to hope for a change in
popular opinion. In Bavaria,
Hohenlohe had been turned
out in February, and had
been replaced by Count Otto
Bray-Steinburg, a staunch
Particularist. In Wiirtemberg the most
inveterate Democrats gave out the watch-
word : " French rather than Prussian," and
a mass petition, which received 150,000-
signatures, demanded the introduction of
a- militia army on the Swiss model.
King Charles replied in March, 1870, by
the dismissal of Gessler, Minister of the
Interior, who was accused of weakness,
and by summoning Suckow to the War
Ministry. The latter declared his readi-
ness to make a reduction in the war
Budget — a step to which his predecessor,
Wagner, had not consented— but in
other respects to maintain the army
organisation on the Prussian system,
which had only been introduced in 1868.
A keen-sighted French observer, the
military plenipotentiary, Colonel Stoffel,
5099
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
himself warned the Emperor Napoleon
against overestimating the Particularist
forces. In any case, it was very
dubious whether the French could and
would fulfil the conditions on which
Austria made its co-operation depend —
in the event, that is, of its being forced
mto war by the breach of the Treaty of
Prague, which it
postulated as the
prehminary condition
for any military
action. The impres-
sion thus won ground
even there, that, in
spite of the tension in
the European situa-
tion, in spite of the
passions and personal
influences which were
making towards a
war, the maintenance
of peace, for the year
1870 at least, still
seemed probable at
the beginning of July.
The government ol
Queen Isabella II. of
Spain liad long fallen
into complete dis-
repute owing to the
unworthy character
of the queen, who
had openly broken
her marriage vows.
ISABELLA II., QUEEN OF SPAIN
either Duke Thomas of Genoa, the
nephew of the King of Italy, who was
still a minor, or the clever Ferdinand of
Coburg-Gotha, the titular King of Por-
tugal, a widower since 1853, were abortive,
they offered the throne to the latter's
son-in-law, the hereditary Prince Leopold
of HohenzoUern-Sigmaringen, born in 1835,
who was a Catholic,
happily married, the
father of sons, an
upright and energetic
man in the prime of
life. During 1869,
the proposal was laid
privately before the
hereditary prince
himself and his father,
the reigning prince,
Charles Anthony ; but
it received a refusal,
since the undertaking
appeared far too rash.
The state of affairs
was not altered until
a new attempt was
made, in February,
1870. Salazar, the
previous emissary,
was now sent with
letters of Prim's to
the prince, the
hereditary prince,
King William, and
Bismarck. He went
Since Isabella aban- Under the rule of this queen the government of Spain first tO Berlin. King
doned herself entirely fell into disrepute owing to her unworthy character, and wi^jam thoueht the
+ /^ +u^ ^^ ^4.; ^t ^^^^< '" 1^^^, she was expelled to France, abdicating „ , , j , ,
reactionary ;„ f^^^^r of her son, Alfonso XII. She died in 1904. offcr should not bc
1 photograph accepted; but he
to the
party, the Liberals
rose, under the leadership of Francisco
Serrano and Juan Prim, on September
20th, 1868. After the defeat of the royal
army at the bridge of Alcolea on the
Guadalquivir, in which the commander-
in-chief. General Pavia, was severely
wounded on September 28th, the queen,
who was just then staying at the seaside
watering-place, San Sebastian, was obliged
to fly, with her family and her "inten-
dant," Carlos Marfori, to France.
• The idea which the bigoted queen had
still been entertaining of sending Spanish
troops to Rome in place of the French
was thus destroyed. The victorious
Liberals did not contemplate relieving
the Emperor of France from the burden
of protecting the Pope. They held
fast to the monarchy, nevertheless ; and
as all attempts to obtain as king
5100
recognised that, according to the family
laws applying to the whole House of
Hohenzollern, he had, as head of the
house, no right of prohibition in this case.
Bismarck behaved differently. He did
not, indeed, promise himself any direct
military assistance from Spain if a Hohen-
zollern wore the Spanish Crown, but closer
friendly relations between the
acan ^^^^^ countries, and, as a result,
. c -3. strengthening of the position
of £pa:n r r- u " r ^
of Germany by- one if not
two army corps." and more especially
by improved commercial intercourse. He
therefore advised the hereditary prince
" to abandon all scruples and to accept the
candidature in the interest of Germany."
But the prince could not even
yet make up his mind. It was only
natural to consider the effect of such a
THE DECLINE OF NAPOLEON lU.
Bismarck's
Agents
In Spain
candidature on France. Robert von
KeudcU, one of Bismarck's trusted
followers, expressly states that Bismarck
did not foresee any danger of an out-
break of war on this ground, since Napo-
leon would sooner see the Hohenzollern
in Madrid than either Isabella's brother-in-
law, the Duke of Montpensier of the
House of Orleans, or a republic.
Napoleon also, who had been
informed of the matter by
Charles Anthony in the autumn
of 1869, had said neither " yes " nor *' no,"
and therefore seemed to raise no objection.
A renewed inquiry in Paris itself was
impossible, since Prim had urgently begged
for secrecy in the matter, in order that it
might not be at once frustrated by the
efforts of the Opposition. And, again,
the House of Sigmaringen was so closely
connected with the Bonapartes by Charles
Anthony's mother, a Murat, and his wife,
a Beauharnais, that the possibility was
not excluded that Napoleon III. would
actually consent. Bismarck now secretly
sent to Spain two trusty agents, Bucher
and Versen, who brought back satisfactory
news ; but all this was done in a personal
and private way, and the Prussian Govern-
ment was not implicated. Finally, in
order to escape from the candidature of
the Duke of
Montpensier,
which was
naturally un-
palatable to the
Spanish authori-
ties, Salazar was
once more sent
to Sigmaringen
at the beginning
of June, 1870,
and this time
received the con-
sent of Charles
Anthony and of
Leopold. A
great moment
LEADERS OF THE SPANISH LIBERALS
officially proclaimed in Madrid on July
4th, and the Cortes was summoned for
July 2oth to elect a king.
Throughout the whole affair the point
at issue was a matter which in the first
instance was a completely private concern
of the Spanish nation. The Spaniards
could clearly elect any person they wished
to be king, and if they looked for such a
person among the scions of sovereign or
formerly sovereign houses, all that could
be demanded was that the elected king
should renounce all hereditary right to
another throne, in order that a union of
the Spanish with another monarchy, and
the consequent danger to the balance of
power in Europe, might be avoided for
all time to come. In the case in point no
such renunciation was necessary, since
the Swabian line of the HohenzoUerns
possessed no hereditary rights, and the
hereditary prince, Leopold, accordingly
could not be called a Prussian prince.
The Prussian Government, therefore, as
such took absolutely no share in the question
since it could claim no right to influence
the decision ; the king, the crown prince,
and Bismarck had given their opinion
merely as private individuals. Neverthe-
less the official news of the proposed can-
didature of Leopold fell like a thunderbolt
on Paris, and
Gramont was at
once convinced
that he had once
more to do with
a diabolical
stratagem of Bis-
marck's against
the interests and
honour of France.
Although the
French repre-
sentative in
Madrid tele-
graphed that
Prim declared
every charge
against Bismarck
Francisco Serrano and Juan Prim, whose portraits are given above,
seemed to have '^'^ the rising of the Spanish Liberals against the reactionary party
J J. and the queen, this movement, in 1868, resulting in the dethronement
arrived for the and flight of Isabella and her family. Serrano twice acted as regent to be grOUIldlcSS,
House of Hohen- ^^^°'^ ^^^ government was given into the hands of Alfonso XII. ^^^ aSSCVCratcd
zollern-Sigmaringen, and Leopold felt it that the candidature was the exclusive work
a heavy responsibility to withdraw from of the Spanish nation, Gramont allowed a
a people " which, after a long period of
weakness, was making manly efforts to
raise its national civihsation to a higher
plane " ; that is to say, to free itself from
the dominion of the Ultramontanes. The
candidature of Leopold was thereupon
question to be asked him on the point,
in the legislative body, on July 6th.
In answer, he explained defiantly that
France, with all respect for the wishes of
the Spanish nation, would not allow a
foreign Power to place one of its princes
5101
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
on the throne of Charles V., and thus
disturb the equiUbrium of Europe. Gra-
mont's language inspired a general fear
of approaching war, which his further
procedure confirmed. He ordered Count
Benedetti, who was taking the cure in
Wildbad, to put the request before King
William in Ems that, since" he had
allowed Leopold's candidature
c a ions ^^^^ ^j^^^ mortified France, he
of Oerm&ny i j ■ .1
. c • would now impress upon the
and Spam , ^ . r ■., ■,
prmce the duty of withdrawmg
his assent. But the king obviously
could not be persuaded to do that ;
what, according to the family laws, he
could not have sanctioned, he was also
unable to forbid, especially after Gramont's
1 ehaviour on July 6th. He sent, however,
an intimation to Sigmaringen that he
would personally have no objection to any
renunciation which the prince might
choose to make. Faced by the danger
of plunging Germany and Spain into war
if he persevered in his candidature,
Leopold actually withdrew from his can-
didature on July I2th.
King William sent the telegram of the
" Kolnishe Zeitung," which contained this
news, by the hand of his adjutant Prince
Anton Radziwill, to the French ambassador
on the promenade at Ems on the morning
of July 13th. The king considered the
incident closed, and that was the view of
the whole world, as it was the wish of
Napoleon and Ollivier. Gramont thought
differently ; he insisted that the king
must be brought into the affair, and
therefore pledge himself never to grant
his approval should the candidature be
renewed. Benedetti received telegraphic
orders from his superior to tell the king
this on that very morning of July 13th.
He did so, and met with a refusal, but
repeated it and " at last very pressingly,"
as the king telegraphed to Bismarck at
Berlin ; so that the king finally, in order
to get rid of him, sent him a message by
. . . his aide-de-camp to the effect
Audacious .111 1 J r .u
„ . . , that he had no further com-
oehaviour of ■ ,• , 1 j. 1 •
the F h munications to make to him.
The king left it to Bismarck's
discretion whether he would or would not
communicate at once this new demand of
Benedetti's and its rejection to the North
German ambassadors among foreign
Powers and to the Press. But he distinctly
did not command this communication to be
made. Bismarck, who had returned from
Varzin in deep distress at the king's long-
5102
suffering patience towards the Frencn,
conferred with Roon and Moltke in Berlin
and was resolved to remain Minister no
longer unless some satisfaction was
obtained for the audacious behaviour of
the French ; and he deserves all credit for
having never flinched for a moment. To
force a war, which he regarded as a
terrible calamity, if Keudell may be
believed, and as likely to be the first in a
long series of racial conflicts, was a policy
which Bismarck would never have adopted
merely for the sake of hastening that union
between North and South which was
certain to come sooner or later.
But now, when the war was forced upon
him, when it could not be avoided without
the "cankering sore" of a deep humiliation
to a people just struggling into national
life, he knew no scruples, and no hesita-
tion. At eleven o'clock at night, on
July 13th, the celebrated telegram from
Ems was sent to the editor of the semi-
official " Norddeutsche Allgemeine Zei-
tung " and to the embassies. The message
reproduced verbatim the telegram, com-
posed by Abeken, which the king had sent
, to Bismarck from Ems, with
ntlTtt^^ ^ ^^^ omission of any irrelevant
matter, and ran as follows:
"After the news of the resigna-
tion of Prince Hohenzollern had been offici-
ally communicated to the imperial French
Government by the royal Spanish Govern-
ment, the French ambassador in Ems
further requested His Majesty the king to
authorise him to telegraph to Paris that
His Majesty pledged himself for the future
never to give his assent if the Hohen-
zollerns should renew their candida-
ture. His Majesty thereupon declined to
grant another audience to the French
ambassador, and informed the latter
through his aide-de-camp that His Majesty
had no further communication to make
to the ambassador."
This telegram, which was known
throughout Germany on July 14th,
evoked on all sides the deepest satisfaction
that a clear and well-merited rebuff had
been given to French presumption : and
this satisfaction was increased when it was
learnt that Gramont had made a further
demand of the ambassador. Baron Karl von
Werther, in Paris, namely, that the King
of Prussia should write a letter to the
Emperor Napoleon, in which he should
declare that he had no intention of
insulting France when he agreed to the
Rebuff
to France
THE DECLINE OF NAPOLEON IIL
candidature of Leopold. The telegram
from Ems in no way compelled the war ;
that was rather done by the French
arrogance towards Germany; it was as
Strauss wrote to Renan : " We are fighting
again with Louis XIV."
The acerbity of King William's refusal
to pledge himself permanently was fully
felt in Paris ; but the fact could not be
disguised that, in view of the withdrawal
of a candidature described by France as
unendurable, no one in Europe would
approve of the conduct of the Imperial
Government if it declared itself dissatisfied.
The majority, therefore, of the Ministers
rejected Gramont's demand that the
reserves should be called out ; it was left
to Gramont to put up with this reprimand
for his officious procedure, or to resign.
This was in the morning of July 14th.
The emperor himself also was for peace,
since he knew the military strength of the
Germans, and considered the pretext for
the war inappropriate. Even the Empress
Eugenie seems to have been unjustly
accused of having urged on the war from
hatred of heretical Germany, and from
anxiety as to her son's prospects.
Yet the feeling in the Cabinet
Council veered round in the
course of July 14th, and late
at night the resolution to mobilise was
taken ; the British ambassador, Lord
Lyons, aptly suggested the reason in the
following words : " The agitation in the
army and in the nation was so strong that
no government which advocated peace
could remain in office."
The emperor, his heart full of evil fore-
bodings, yielded to this tide of public
opinion ; Ollivier and the entire Ministry
could not resist it. On the plea of a freshly
arrived telegram, which in spite of the
wishes of the Opposition was not produced
— it cannot have been the telegram from
Ems, which was already known — a. motion
was brought forward on July 15th in the
legislative body for the calling out of the
Garde Mobile and for the grant of sixty-
six millions for the army and the fleet ;
after a stormy discussion it was carried by
245 votes against 10 votes of the Extreme
Left. The French nation had forced its
government into war ; its representatives
almost unanimously approved.
The official declaration of war against
Prussia by Napoleon was announced in
Berlin by the charge d'affaires, Georges
Le Sourd, on July 19th. The situation had
Eager
for War
developed with such rapidity, through
Gramont's impetuosity and Benedetti's
mission to Ems, that this declaration of
war is the only official document which
came to the Prussian Government from
Paris. To judge by the official records,
the war seems to have commenced like a
pistol-shot, whereas, in reality, it was due
„ _ to causes stretching back
now Germany , . ~,
„ . . over past centuries. The re-
th Ch 11 lations of the German and
the French nations, which
had been steadily changing since 1552, to
the disadvantage of the former, were
destined to be definitely readjusted by the
war, and the absolute independence of
Germany from the " preponderance " of
France was to be once for all established.
The whole of Germany felt at once that
this was so. The declaration of war was
like the stroke of a magician's wand in its
effect upon the internal feuds and racial
animosities by which the German nation
had been hitherto divided. They vanished,
and, with them, the mistaken hope of
France that now, as on so many former
occasions, Germany might be defeated with
the help of Germans. The spokesmen of
the anti-Prussian . party in the South
remained as perverse and obstinate as
ever ; but they no longer had behind them
the masses, who, at the moment when the
national honour and security seemed
menaced, obeyed the call of patriotism with
a gratifying determination, and felt that,
not merely by virtue of the treaties to
which they had sworn, but also by virtue
of unwritten right, the cause of Germany
was to be found in the camp of Prussia.
When the king travelled, on July 15th,
from Ems via Coblenz to Berlin, his
journey became a triumphal progress
through Germany. Being informed at the
Berlin railway station of the resolutions of
the French Chambers, he decided to
mobilise the whole Northern army, and
not merely some army corps, as he had
^ .... . originally intended. He fixed
Mobilising j^, ^^^j^ ^g ^^g ^j.g^ ^ f^j. ^jj
the Armies -'-' . , lij
- -, preparations to be completed.
of Germany £,, ^, j t^- t • tt
That same day King Lewis 11.
of Bavaria, since the casus foederis had
occurred and Bavaria, by the treaty, had
to furnish help, ordered the Bavarian army
to be put on a war footing. On July 17th,
the same order was given by King Charles I.
of Wiirtemberg, who had hastened back
from St. Moritz to Stuttgart. The North
German Reichstag assembled on July 19th.
5103
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
It was greeted with a speech from the
throne, which in its dignified strength and
simphcity is a model of patriotic eloquence
such as could only flow from the classic
pen of Bismarck. " If Germany silently
endured in past centuries the violation of
her rights and her honour, she only endured
it because in her distraction she did not
know her strength. . . .
ismarc s -pQ.fjg.y, when her armour shows
IS one ^^ ^^^ ^^ ^j^g enemy, she
Declaration . , ii j j.t,
possesses the will and the power
to resist the renewed violence of the
French. . . . God will be with us as
with our fathers." The Reichstag unani-
mously, except for the two Social
Democrats, granted ;^i8, 000,000 for the
conduct of the war ; the South German
Landtags did the same. The enthusiastic
self-devotion with which the German
nation, excepting naturally the Guelf legion
and the great financial houses, which even
at this epoch-making moment thought only
of themselves, rose up in every district to
fight for honour, freedom, and unity, was,
in one respect, more remarkable than that
which the great days of 1813 had brought
to light ; for the first time in German
history Germany arose as a united whole.
While the armies were collecting, Bis-
marck published in " The Times " the offer
which France had made him through
Benedetti in August, 1866, proposing an
offensive and defensive alliance between
Prussia and France ; by it Luxemburg and
Belgium were to be assigned to France,
which in return would allow Prussia a free
hand in Germany. The British ex-Minister,
Lord Malmesbury, called this scheme
a " detestable document," because it
furnished, in spite of Benedetti's em-
barrassed attempts at denial, a proof that
the French Government had been pre-
pared to annihilate its neighbours, who
were only protected by the law of nations,
without any just claim. It was solely due
to Prussia's sense of justice and astuteness
j^ that Napoleon's purpose was
eu ra i y ^^^ successfully accomplished.
of European c u i a- ^ i x j
p Such revelations contributed
their share to the result that
no arm was raised in Europe for France.
Great Britain at once declared her neu-
trality, and British merchants derived
large profits from the war by supplying
coal and munitions of war to the French.
Russia was favourably disposed to
Prussia ; it feared that an insurrection of
the Poles might break out on any advance
5104
of the French to Berlin, and hoped to
obtain during the war an opportunity to
cancel the Treaty of Paris of 1856. In
Italy King Victor Emmianuel was indeed
personally inclined to support the French,
on whose side he had fought in 1855
and 1859 ; but his Ministers were opposed
to a war which was waged against the
growing unity of Germany. Any hin-
drance to this growth must signify a defeat
of the principle of nationality, and thus
become dangerous to the unity of Italy.
The lowest price at which Italy could be
won was in any case the surrender of Rome ;
but Napoleon III. stood in awe of the
clerical party, and could not make up his
mind to a step which would incense them.
The policy of Austria was at least trans-
parent. She intended to complete her
preparations lor war under the cloak of
neutrality, without exposing herself to a
premature attack from the side of Russia.
The rapidity with which the French army
was crushed, however, by the Germans
soon stifled any wish to take part in the
war which had been felt at Vienna.
On the eve of the declaration of war, on
July i8th, an event involving grave issues
p occurred at Rome. The Vati-
* **** can Council, assembled since
I f^n*hM"t December 8th, 1869, was op-
* * * ^ pressed from the outset by the
sense of an inevitable destiny. The
Opposition reckoned some 150 bishops
and abbots. But it was out-voted in
the ratio of three to one by the supporters
of infallibility, and was itself divided,
since one part alone was opposed to the
dogma itself, the other part only did
not wish to see it proclaimed just then.
Besides this the papal plenipotentiaries
conducted the proceedings in such a way
as to preclude any notion of freedom in
the expression of opinions or in voting.
After a trial vote of July 13th had shown
the result that 451 ayes and 88 noes were
recorded, and a deputation of the Opposi-
tion to the Pope had produced no effect,
most of the Opposition left Rome.
Thus, on July i8th, 1870, amid the
crashes of a terrible storm which
shrouded the council hall in darkness,
the dogma was accepted, by 533 votes
against two, that the Pope of Rome,
when he speaks ex cathedra to settle
some point of faith and morals, is in-
fallible, and that such decisions are in
themselves unalterable even by the
common consent of the Church.
THE
RE-MAKING
OF
EUROPE
THE
CONSOLIDA-
TION OF THE
POWERS X
THE DOWNFALL OF THE SECOND
FRENCH EMPIRE
AND THE FOUNDING OF THE THIRD REPUBLIC
IT was to be expected, from the rapidity
^ with which France had brought on the
outbreak of the war, that she would have
-the start of the Germans in its preparations,
and would bring the war as soon as possible
into Germany. Leboeuf, the Minister of
War, certainly used the phrase, "We are
absolutely ready to the last gaiter-button,"
and possibly the emperor hoped to break
the spirit of Prussia by rapid blows, and
then to incorporate Belgium. But it was
soon shown that France was not ready.
" There was a deficiency," so the French
historian, Arthur Chuquet says, " in money,
in food, in camp-kettles, cooking utensils,
tents, harness, medicine, stretchers, every-
thing, in short " ; the existing railways
were inadequate to convey to the frontiers
the 300,000 men whom France had at her
disposal for the war, so that half of them
were obliged to march on foot. The
regiments were not constructed according
to definite and compact geo-
rance graphical districts : Alsatians
npreparc j_^^^ ^^ travel to Bayonne in
order to join the ranks of their
regiments, and southerners to Brittany.
The result, under the stress of circum-
stances, was an irremediable confusion
and an unusual delay in the advance. On
the other hand, the mobilisation proceeded
quickly and easily among the Germans,
where everything had been prepared as far
as could be beforehand, and every day was
assigned its proper task. Moltke made
the suggestive remark that the fourteen
days of the mobilisation, during which
there was nothing to carry out that had
not been long foreseen, were some of the
most tranquil days of his life.
The French, according to the original
md proper intention, formed one single
army, the army of the Rhine, whose
commander-in-chief was to be the emperor,
with Leboeuf as chief of the General Staff ;
but when it came to the point, this army
was divided into two forces, one of 200,000
men under Marshal Bazaine in Metz, and
one of 100,000 men under Marshal
MacMahon in Strassburg. The German
troops were divided into three armies.
The first was posted, under General
Steinmetz, north-east of Treves, round
Wittlich, and was made up of the 7th and
the 8th corps, from the Rhine
districts and Westphalia ; it
The Three
Armies
jp numbered some 60,000 men.
ermany jyTg^t to it came the second
army, under Prince Frederic Charles,
which consisted of the 3rd, 4th, and loth
corps ; that is to say, of Brandenburgers,
Saxons from the province, and Hano-
verians, and of the Guards ; it took up
its position round Neunkirchen and Hom-
burg, and was 134,000 strong. Finally,
the third army, 130,000 men, was placed
under the command of the Crown Prince
Frederic William ; to it belonged the 5th
and nth corps, from Posen, Hesse, and
Thuringia, as well as the Bavarians,
Wiirtembergers, and Badeners ; they
were stationed at Rastatt and Landau.
The Crown Prince, before going to the
front, visited the South German courts
and quickly won the hearts of his soldiers
by his chivalrous and kindly nature.
Strong reserves stood behind the three
armies — namely, the 9th and 12th corps,
the Schleswig-Holsteiners and the Saxons
from the kingdom, at Mainz, and the ist,
2nd, and 6th corps, the East
Prussians, Pomeranians, and
Guarding
Germany's
Sea-coast
Silesians, who on account of
the railway conditions could
not be sent to the front until the twentieth
day, and were also intended to be kept in
readiness for all emergencies against
Austria. The sea-coast was to be guarded
against the expected attacks of the French
fleet by the 17th division, Magdeburg and
the Hanse towns, and by the Landwehr.
Moltke, as chief of the Prussian General
5105
5io6
DOWNFALL OF THE SECOND FRENCH EMPIRE
Staff, disclaimed all idea of a minutely
elaborated plan, since the execution of
such a plan cannot be ,q:uaranteed, for
every battle creates a i
new situation, whicli
must be treated and
regarded by itself.
Moltke therefore laid
down three points only
as of paramount import-
ance. First, when the
enemy is met, he must
be attacked with full
strength ; secondly, the
goal of all efforts is the
enemy's capital, the
possession of which,
owing to strict central-
isation of the French
Government, is of para-
mount importance in a
war against France :
thirdly, the enemy's
forces are, if possible, to
be driven, not towards
the rich south of France, but towards
the north, which is poorer in resources
and bounded by the sea. Since no
blow was intended to be struck before
EMPRESS
EUGENIE OF
From a photograph
the advance of the entire army was
completed and the full weight of a
comliined attack was assured, the French
■' had for a few days
apparently a free hand,
and with three army
(drps drove back out
of Saarbriicken on
August 2nd the three
battalions of those op-
posed to them. During
the operations the em-
peror took his son, a
l)()y of fourteen, under
fire ; according to the
official telegram "some
soldiers shed tears of
joy when they saw the
prince so calm." But
the satisfaction was soon
turned into chagrin
when the third army, in
order to cover the left
flank of the second
army, which was ad-
vancing towards the Saar, marched closer
to it, and on August 4th attacked the
French division of General Abel Douay,
which occupied the town of Weissenburg,
FRANCE
NAPOLEON III.
AND" THE EMPEROR AND EMPRESS WITH THEIR SON
From photogmphs
5107
"A BERLIN!" THE PARISIAN CROWDS DECLARING FOR WAR WITH GERMANY
The prospect o.' a war with Germany roused the inhabitants of Paris to a state of the highest enthusiasm, and for
weeks they deluded tliemselves with hopes of victory, shouting themselves hoarse wi h the cry, "a Berlin! ' The
defeats that followed brought with them terrible disillusionment, and the whole blame was laid on the Government
5IOS
DOWNFALL OF THE SECOND FRENCH EMPIRE
and the Gaisberg lying
south of it, and utterly
.defeated it. Among the
prisoners was a number
of Turcos or Arab soldiers
from Algiers, whom
Napoleon, though they
could not be reckoned as
civilised soldiers, had no
scruples in employing in
the war against the
Germans ; but they could
not resist the impetuous
valour of the Bavarians
and Poseners. On August
6th the third army on
its advance into Alsace
encountered the army
of Marshal MacMahon,
which occupied a strong
position near the small
town of Worth, on the
right bank of the Sauer-
bach, a tributary of
the Rhine. The Bavarians
attacked on the right,
the Prussians on the left,
and in the last period of the protracted
and bloody battle the Wiirtembergers
had also the chance of intervening
with success. The end was that the
French, whose numerical
inferiority was counter-
balanced by their formid-
able positions on heights
and vineyards, were com-
pletely defeated, and with
a loss of 16,000 men and
33 cannons they poured
into the passes of the
Vosges in headlong flight.
" After they had fought
like lions," says Arthur
Chuquet, " they fled like
hares." The Germans paid
for the brilliant victory,
which gave to them Lower
Alsace with the exception
of Strassburg, by a loss of
10,000 men, among whom
were nearly 500 officers.
On the same day the
disgrace of Saarbrucken
was wiped out by the
German capture of the
apparently impregnable
heights of Spicheren, near
Saarbrucken, although
only twenty-seven German
MARSHAL MACMAHON
A distinguished soldier who had served France
in earlier wars, he commanded the first army
corps in che Franco-German War, and, de-
feated at Worth, was captured at Sedan. He
was elected President of the Republic in 187:?.
GENERAL STEINMETZ
A Prussian general of experience and
distinction, he commanded one of the
three German armies in the Franco-
German War, and after failing in his
task at Gravelotte. was appointed
Governor-General of Posen and Silesia.
battalions were on th.e
spot against thirty-nine
of the French, whose
commander, since he did
not wish to be cut off
from Metz, saw him-
self compelled to make a
hasty retreat, which
abandoned Eastern Lor-
raine to the Germans.
The news from the
scene of war producetL
in Paris, where for weeks
the inhabitants had
deluded themselves with
infatuated hopes of
victory, and had shouted
themselves hoarse with
the cry " a Berlin ! " o
terrible disillusionment
and then a fierce bitter-
ness against the Govern-
ment, on whose shoulders
all the blame for the
defeats was laid, since
that was the most con-
venient thing to do. The
Ollivier Ministry was overthrown by a
vote of want of confidence in the Chambers,
which declared it incapable to organise
the defence of the country ; but the
Republicans did not succeed
in their intention of placing
an executive committee of
the Chambers at the head
of the country, and so
superseding the Empire
offhand. On the contrary,
the empress transferred the
premiership to General
Palikao, who took the
Ministry of War from
Leboeuf and gave him the
command of a corps. The
emperor wished at first
to retire with his whole
army to the camp of
Chalons-sur-Marne, where
MacMahon was collecting
the fragments of his army
and gathering fresh troops
round him. But since the
abandonment of the whole
of Eastern France to its
fate would have been a
political mistake, Napoleon
remained for the moment
stationary in Metz, against
which the first and second
5109
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
armies now were put into movement, five miles in a wliole day, since the baggage
while the third advanced through the train blocked all the roads. Meantime,
Vosges toward Chalons. Since this latter the Third Army Corps, that of the Branden-
had the longer way to march, the king burgers, had reached the road which leads
issued orders that the two ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ from Metz past Vionville
other armies should hhi^^^^^^^^^^^^^^hhh ^^^ Mars - la - Tour to
advance more slowly, in ^^^^^^^HPRH^^^|^^H| Verdun and the valley of
order that the combined ^^^^^^I^^^^^^H^^^H the Meuse, and their
German forces might ^^^^^|K jii>a»w^^^^^^^B general, Alvensleben, de-
compo'^e an unbroken ^^^^^^^^ '^^^^^^^^^1 termined at all hazards
and continuous mass with ^^^^^^^^ Jflf^^^^^^^^H ^^ block the further
a front of equal depth, B||^^^^Bk^|^^^|B^^^^^B march of the enemy in
and that the enemy BB|PP^^^^mB^S^^^^H that direction, although
might not find any oppor- Kr^ji^ ^w^HH^^^^^I ^^ ^^^ ^^^^ aware that
tunity to throw himself ^j^^^ ^^^^Btimml^^ ^"'^ would have four
in overwhelming numbers WKUj^K^ ^^t^HBH^H French corps opposed to
on any one part. On ^^9^^^^. ^C^^^^^^^^l him, and for a consider-
August 14th the advance ^^B^^^^ ^^^^^^^H ^^^^ ^™^ could count on
guard of the first army, ^^HHH^bk ^,^^|^^^^| ^^° support being brought
under Goltz. had almost ^^^^^^^|^^^^^^^^^^|b up. A desperate struggle
reached the gates of Metz, ^^^^^^^HUl^H^H^^^I began on August i6th.
when they found the ^^^^{^^^^^^|[^^^H^^^H At two o'clock in the after-
French main army pre- ^|^hb||[^^^H^^^^^|^H noon Alvensleben had not
paring to retreat. In marshal bazaine a single infantry battalion
order to check them on Resig^ning the supreme command of the French Or any artillery in re-
thp ricrht hanV nf fhp army and yielding to public opinion. Napoleon „„,.„„. ^r, +lTof ^.^-ht^n
ine rignt OanK 01 ine appointed Marshal Bazaine to that office, SClVe , SO tnat wnCU
Moselle and to bring on a but the anticipated success did not follow. Marshal Canrobert, with
•j. 1 J T- j.ii i. ^T i Bazame capitulating to the enemy at Metz. i • i , ,
pitched battle at Metz, sound judgment, pressed
Goltz, in spite of his inferior numbers, on in order to break up the exhausted
attacked the enemy. The French, eager
at last to chastise the i)old assailant,
immediately wheeled round ; but, just as
at Spicheren, the nearest
German regiments, so soon
as they heard the thunder
of the cannons, hurried to
the assistance of Goltz,
freed hnn from great dan-
ger, and drove the French
back under the fort of
St. Julien, which, with its
heavy guns, took part at
nightfall in the fierce en-
gagement. Thus the retreat
of the French was delayed
by one day, and in the
meantime the main body
of the Germans had reached
the Moselle. Napoleon,
yielding to public opinion,
German line, the Twelfth Cavalry Brigade
was compelled to attack the enemy, not-
withstanding all the difficulties of a cavalry
attack on infantry armed
with chassepots. This
" Charge of the 800 "
recalls that of Balaclava ;
only half of them came
back. But here it saved the
day. "Canrobert did not
move again that whole day ;
he might have broken
through, but from the
furious onslaught of
Bredow's six squadrons he
feared to fall into a trap
and kept quiet." But since
gradually the Tenth Corps
from the left and the Eighth
Corps from the right came
CROWN PRINCE OF SAXONY ^^ Alvenslebcn's support,
now resigned the supreme i„tHe Franco-German War the 9th and the danger passed; the
command to Marshal iph Corps, as well as the Guards, were Germans, who on this day
Bazaine, in whom the army Crown'Prince Albert oTsaxoi^^'who"had faced a great army of
^n- the reputation of being a splendid leader. J 20,000 FrCUCh at "^ firSt
and navy reposed
founded confidence, left Metz with pre-
cipitate haste on August 14th, and entered
Chalons with MacMahon on the 17th.
The main army itself did not leave Metz
until August 15th, and then only advanced
5110
with 29,000 and later with 65,000 men,
were in possession of the field of battle.
Of the roads by which Bazaine could
reach Verdun from Metz, the southern was
blocked against him ; he could only effect
5III
iII2
DOWNFALL OF THE SECOND FRENCH EMPIRE
his retreat now on the
northern road, by Saint-
Privat. And that pos-
sibiUty was then taken
from ■ him, since on
August i8th the two
German armies, both of
whicli meantime had
crossed the Moselle
above Metz, advanced
to the attack on the
entire front fromSainte-
Marie-aux-Chenes and
Saint- Privat to Grave-
lotte. In the course of
the operations the
Saxons, under the
Crown Prince Albert,
and the Guards, under
Prince Augustus of
Wiirtemberg, stormed
the fortress-Hke position
of Saint - Privat with
terrific carnage ; on the
right wing at Gravelotte
no success was attained.
But the main point
had been achieved. The
great Fi-ench army had
COUNT VON MOLTKE
To his military g'euius Germany owed much of her
success over France in the war of 1870. A great
strategist and organiser, he prepared the army
with wonderful skill, and thus laid the foundation
of the many brilliant victories which followed.
From a |5h-,tngrr,]-.li
been hurled back on
Metz, and was imme-
diately surrounded there
by the Germans in a
wide circle. The inde-
cision of the French
commander-in-chief was
much to blame for this
momentous issue to this
proonged struggle, in
which some 180,000 men
on either side ultimately
took part. From fear
of being finally cut off
from Metz itself and
surrounded in the open
field, Bazaine kept a
third of his forces in
reserve ; if he had
staked these, he might.
l)^rhaps, have won the
game. The casualties
on either side were
enormous. The Germans
lost on the 14th, i6th,
and 1 8th of August
5,000, 16,000, and
20,000 men, making a
total of 41,000 killed,
NAPOLEON III.
Y
PRESIDING OVER A COUNCIL OF MINISTERS AT THE TUILERIES
2S G 5II3
j=. >.
io rt
— T3
J
V
<U J3
X -w
> ^
~ w- "O
1- O I*
^ >
4-
- 0/ rt
t/i w
. u
z: n! -a
- J= c
- cj rt
5II4
5II5
5110
5iiS
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
wounded, and prisoners ; the French, 3,600,
16,000, and 13,000, some 33,000 men in all.
The comparative smallness of the French
losses is explained by the fact that they
were mostly on the defensive, although
they ought properly
to have attacked,
and fought behind
entrenchments. The
French army in
Metz was lost if a
li a n d were not
stretched out to it
by its comrades-in-
arms outside the
town; it was
rumoured that
Bazaine would make
a renewed attempt
to meet the expected
relieving force at
Montmedy or Sedan.
All the journals in
Paris declared with
one voice that
Bazaine must be
rescued at any cost.
Under the pressure
of this situation Mac-
Mahon, who had been
reinforced at Chalons
by a division recalled
from the Spanish
frontier and by four
regiments of marines,
and had been nomi-
nated com.mander-
in-chief of all the forces outside Metz,
decided not to retreat to Paris — the course
which seemed to him most correct in itself
— but to leave the camp of Chalons to its
fate and march on Montmedy by way of
Vouziers and Buzancy, and there effect a
junction, if possible, with Bazaine.
King William had meantime com-
manded Prince Frederic Charles to invest
Metz. General Steinmetz, since he was
not on good terms with Prince Frederic
Charles, now his superior, and especially
since he had failed in his task at
Gravelotte, was appointed Governor-
general of Posen and Silesia. The Ninth
and Twelfth Corps, as well as the Guards,
were placed, as " the Meuse Army," under
Crown Prince Albert of Saxony, a splendid
leader, and instructions were given to
him to push on towards Chalons with the
third army ; his task was to frustrate all
attempts of the French to take up a
5120
LEON GAMBETTA
An advanced Liberal, he took oflBce in the Government of
National Defence after the proclamation of the Republic,
becoming: Minister of the Interior. He later became
Dictator of France, and wished to continue the war ag:ainst
Germany, even after the surrenders of Metz and Paris.
Froiii a photojfraph
position there and advance on Metz.
But when the Meuse army had passed
Verdun, and the third army had reached
Ste. Menehould, Headquarters, which
followed these movements, learnt of
MacMahon's march
from Chalons and
Rheims ; Moltke im-
mediately issued
orders, on August
25th, that the two
armies would wheel
to the right, in order,
if possible, to take
MacMahon in the
rear. This dangerous
manoeuvre, which
extended, of course,
to the baggage trains
of the armies, was
completely success-
ful, without causing
any confusion to the
columns. ^lacMahon
failed to see the
favourable chance,
w h i c h presented
itself for several
days, of hurling his
120,000 men against
the 99,000 under the
Crown Prince of
Saxony and annihi-
lating them before
the third army came
up. When MacMahon
found no trace of
BcLzaine on August 27th at Montmedy, he
wished to commence the retreat on Paris ;
but on the direct orders of PaJikao, the
IMinister of War, and postponing military
to political considerations, he continued
his march in the direction of Metz, and
hastened to his ruin. On August 30th the
corps of General de Failly was attacked
by the Bavarians and the Fourth Prussian
Corps under Gustav von Alvensleben at
Beaumont, and thrown back
on Mouzon. The whole French
army retired from that place to
the fortress of Sedan, in the
hope of being able to rest there and then
to retire along the Belgian frontier north-
wards. But that was not allowed to
happen. The Meuse army pressed on from
the east, the tliird army from the west ;
the Eleventh Coi'ps seized the bridge which
crossed the Meuse at Donchery, and thus
cut off the road to the north-west. The
The French
Retire
to Sedan
DOWNFALL OF THE SECOND FRENCH EMPIRE
neighbourhood of Sedan was certainly easy
to defend, since the Meuse, with other
s+reams and gorges, presented considerable
difticulties to an attack ; but on September
ist the Germans, who outnumbered the
French by almost two to one, advanced
victoriously onwards, in spite of the most
gallant resistance. The Bavarians cap-
„. . tured Bazeilles on the south-
M h' ^^ west, where the inhabitants
.. _ took part in the fight, and thus
brought upon themselves the
destruction of their village. The Eleventh
Corps took the cavalry of Illy in the
north. A great cavalry attack, under the
Marquis de Gallifct, at Floing could not
change the fortune of the day ; the
French army, thrown back from every
side on to Sedan, had' only the choice
between surrendering or being destroyed
with the fortress itself, which could
be bombarded from all sides.
Marshal MacMahon was spared the neces-
sity of making his decision in this painful
position ; a splinter of a shell had severely
wounded him in the thigh that very
morning at half-past six. The general next
to him in seniority, Baron Wimpf^en, who
had just arrived from Algiers, was forced,
in consideration of the 6go pieces of
artillery trained on the town, to conclude
an unconditional surrender on September
2nd. In this way, besides 21,000 French
who had been taken during the battle,
83,000 became prisoners of war; and
with them 558 guns were captured. The
French had lost 17,000 in killed and
wounded, the Germans, g,ooo ; an army
of 120,000 men was annihilated at a
single blow. Two German corps were
required to guard the prisoners and
deport them gradually to Germany.
The Emperor Napoleon himself fell into
the hands of the Germans, together with
his army. It is attested, as indeed he wrote
to King William, that he wished to die
in the midst of his troops before con-
senting to such a step ; but the bullets,
which mowed thousands down, passed him
by, in order that the man on whom, in the
eyes of history, the responsibility for the
war and the defeat rests, although the
whole French nation was really to blame,
might go before the monarch whom he
had challenged to the fight, and that the
latter might prove his magnanimity to
GAMBETTA PROCLAIMING THE REPUBLIC AT THE PALACE OF THE CORPS LEGISLATIF
512I
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
be not inferior to his strength. The
meeting of the two monarchs took place
at two o'clock in the Chateau of Belle-
vue near Frenois, during which Napoleon
asserted that he had only begun the
war under compulsion from the popular
opinion of his country. The castle of
Wilhelmshohe near Cassel was assigned
him as his abode, and the emperor was
detained theie in honourable confine-
ment until the end of the war.
That evening the king, who in a tele-
gram to his wife had given God the
honour, proposed a toast to Roon, the
Minister of War, who had
whetted the sword, to
Moltke, who had wielded
it, and to Bismarck, who
by his direction of Prus-
sian policy for years had
raised Prussia to her
present pre-eminence. He
modestly said nothing
about himself, who had
placed all these men in
the responsible posts and
rendered their efforts
possible ; but the voice
of history will testify of
him only the more loudly
that he confirmed the
truth of the saying of
Louis XIV., " gouverner,
c'est choisir " — the choice
of the men and the
means both require the
decision of the monarch.
The victory of Sedan
led to a series of moment-
ous results. Not merely
did it evoke in Germany
general rejoicings, such
as the capture of the
monarch of a hostile
state and of a great arm}'
necessarily call forth, lout it powerfully
stimulated the national pride and definitely
shaped the will of the nation. Thousands
of orators at festivities in honour of the
victory and countless newspaper articles
voiced the determination that such suc-
cesses were partially wasted if they did
not lead to the recovery of that western
province which had been lost in less pros-
perous times, of Alsace and German Lor-
raine with Strassburg and ^letz, and also to
the establishment of that complete German
unity which was first planned in iSb6.
Bismarck gave a competent expression
5122
HENRI ROCHEFORT
A Radical journalist, who had found it neces-
sary to escape from France, he was elected a
member of the National Assembly in 1870;
but the honour carried with it no sobering
influence, and once more he escaped for his life.
to the former feeling when he declared
in two notes to the ambassadors of the
North German Confederation, on Sep-
tember 13th and 16th, that Germany must
hold a better guarantee for her security
than that of the goodwill of France.
So long as Strassburg and Metz remained
in the possession of the French, France
would be stronger to attack than
Germany to defend ; but once in ■< '--e
possession of Germany, both towns gained
a defensive character, and the interests
of peace were the interests of Europe.
In the second place, the victory of
Sedan affected the atti-
tude of the neutral
Powers. We know from
the evidence of King
William's letter of Sep-
tember 7th, 1870, to
Queen Augusta that all
kinds of cross-issues had
cropped up before Sedan ;
that neutrals had con-
templated pacific inter-
vention with the natural
object of taking from
Germany the fruit of its
victories. The ultimate
source of these ' plans
was Vienna, where much
consternation at the
German victories was
bound to be felt. But
they had found an echo
in St. Petersburg also.
The Tsar Alexander, it is
true, loyally maintained
friendly relations with
Prussia, and his aunt,
Helene, nee Princess of
Wiirtemberg, wife of the
Grand Duke Michael
Pavlovitch, brother of
the Tsar Nicholas I., was
a trustworthy support to the German
party at court ; but the Imperial
Chancellor, Alexander Gortchakoff, ex-
pressed disapproval of every demand
for a cession of French territory, since
that would prove a new apple of discord
between Germany and France, and thus a
standing menace to the peace of Europe.
King William made the just remark
that according to this view Germany must
give back the whole left bank of the
Rhine, since in that case only was tran-
quilUty to be looked for from France. The
battle of Sedan put an end to all wish on
1
DOWNFALL OF THE SECOND FRENCH EMPIRE
the part of neutrals to interfere in a war
which they had not hindered. The extra-
ordinary efficiency of the German army
and the German miHtary organisation had
been manifested after a.
fashion which made the
idea of intervention dis-
tinctly unattractive, if
Germany did not court
it. And Germany was
very far from courting
it. The Germans had
faced the war by them-
selves ; they had fought
it by themselves ; in
effect they had won it
by themselves. German
piet}^ and German poetry
attributed the victory to
the fact that the God of
Battles was on the side
of Germany ; and Ger-
many had no sort of
intention of permitting
the Powers which had
looked on to arrange
matters for the con-
which, in any case, the majority of the
Chamber wouid elect trustworthy Bona-
partists, would keep the place warm for
the Empire, which might be reinstated
at a fitting hour. The
fear of this incited the
mob to act not with the
Chamber, but against it.
Crowds thronged into the
galleries, and finally into
the chamber itself, so
that Eugene Schneider,
the president, declared it
an impossibility to con-
tinue the debate under
such conditions, and the
sitting was closed. The
attempt to iiold an even-
ing sitting, and exclude
all disturbance, could not
now be carried out ; at
three o'clock the Senate
also had to be closed.
The Republic was then
proclaimed at the Hotel
de Ville ; and in its name
GENERAL TROCHU
After the proclamation of the Republic,
General Trochu became head of the govern-
ment; but he did not long hold office, resigning .,1 .• r t\ ■ ^
the governorship of Paris in 1871 and retiring the deputlCS 01 PariS, With
venience of anyone but '"*° p"^^^^ "^^ ^''°"* *^° y«^" afterwards, ^^le exception of Thiers,
the Germans. The third result of the who refused, met as a provisional govern-
day of Sedan was that the French Empire ment. The Radical journalist, Rochefort,
fell with a crash. The Empress Eugenie whom it was thus hoped to win over, anti
received the official news of the surrender General Trochu, a Governor of Paris,
on the evening of Septem-
ber 2nd. She hesitated
the whole of the 3rd as
to what was to be done
m this position. But
on the 4th the Chamber
had to be allowed to
speak, and Jules Favre,
the leader of the Left,
immediately moved that
Napoleon Bonaparte and
his house should be de-
clared deposed, and that
the Corps Legislatif
should nominate a com-
mittee, which might ex-
ercise all the powers of
the government, and
whose task it should be
to drive the enemy from
were nominated members
of it. Trochu became head
of this government, and
Jules Favre was his
deputy. A Ministry was
formed by this government
on September 5th, in which
Favre assumed the
Ministry of Foreign
Affairs, the energetic
lawyer, Leon Gambetta,
that of the Interior, and
General Leflo the War
Office. The legislative
body was at once dis-
solved, the Senate abol-
ished; all officials were
released from their oath
to the emperor, and thirty
new prefects, of strict
JULES FAVRE
the country. ThePalikao ii\U!ii'i'siirbiy°^f"[8ll? h^^^^^^^^^^ republican views were
Mmistrv also proposed a terms for the capitulation of Paris in January, appointed. The German
similar committee of five '^^'' ^"'^ '^''^"^"^ ''^'^ ^ ^^^ '"°"'^" ^^^^'- merchants who had
members to be nominated by the legisla-
tive body, but its lieutenant-general
was to be Palikoa. The latter furnished
a guarantee that the committee, on
hitherto remained in France were, so far as
no special permission was granted to them,
ordered to leave Paris and its vicinity
within the space of twenty-four hours.
5123
WILLIAM I.: KING OF PRUSSIA AND FIRST GERMAN EMPEROR
I'rum the p:i:ntinij by Lciibach, photo by Bruckinann
5124
THE
RE-MAKING
OF
EUROPE
ifliFt?"^'''''
jjd
THE
CONSOLIDA-
TION OF THE
POWERS XI
THE BIRTH OF THE GERMAN EMPIRE
AND FRANCE IN HER HOUR OF DEFEAT
(~\^ the burning question of the moment,
^^ whether France after these severe
defeats should not seek peace, Favre de-
clared in a circular of September 6th that
if the King of Prussia wished to continue
this deplorable war a.gainst France, even
after the overthrow of the guilty dynasty,
the Government would accept the challenge
and would not cede an inch of national
territory nor a stone of the fortresses.
Thiers, who had volunteered for the task,
was sent on September 12th to the neutral
Powers, to induce them to intervene ; but
in view of the above-mentioned procla-
mations of Bismarck of September 13th
and i6th, no Power thought it prudent to
meddle, since Germany desired a cession
of territory as emphatically as France
refused one. Any agreement between the
belligerents was thus for the time totally
excluded. Thiers received in London,
Vienna, St. Petersburg, and Florence,
courteous words, but no sup-
port. Beust, deeply concerned,
then wrote: "Je ne vols plus
d'Europe " ; even Gortchakoff
drily advised the envoy to purchase peace
without delay by some sacrifices, since later
it might have to be bought more dearly.
The Germans meanwhile were marching
straight on Paris. Metz remained at
the same time invested by the seven corps
under Frederic Charles ; the effort of
Bazaine to play into MacMahon's hand en
August 31st and September ist, by a great
attempt to break through at Noisseville,
proved completely futile ; 36,000 Germans
had held a line of five and a half miles
against 134,000 French.
Even the French fleet of ironclads, which
appeared in August off Heligoland and
Kolberg, could do nothing from its want of
troops to land. Shattered by a terrible
storm on September 9th, it returned
ingloriously to its native harbours.
When the Germans, after the capture of
Rheims and Laon appeared in the vicinity
of Paris, Favre asked for an interview with
Germans
March
on Paris
Bismarck. Conversations between the two
statesmen took place on September 19th
and 20th in the chateaux of Haute Maison
3.nd Ferrieres. Favre declared that
cessions of territory could in any case only
be granted by a National Assembly, and
asked for fourteen days' armistice, in
_ order that such an Assembly
„. , . might be elected. Bismarck was
Bismarck in '^i , ■< . J^^
^ , ready to accede to the request.
Conference , , , , , •
but asked, as compensation
for the fact that France in these fourteen
days of armistice could to some degree
recover her breath, that the fortresses of
Pfalzburg, Toul, and Strassburg should be
surrendered. Since Favre would not hear
of such conditions, the negotiations were
thus broken off.
The Germans completed the investment
of Paris on September 19th, and forced
Toul to capitulate on the 23rd. Strassburg
had been besieged since August nth by
the Baden troops under General Werder,
and since the 23rd had been exposed to a
bombardment through which the picture
gallery, the library, with its wealth of
priceless manuscripts, the law courts, and
government buildings, and the theatre
were burnt ; of the cathedral, only the
roof caught fire. Four hundred and fifty
private houses were ruined, and 2,000
persons killed or wounded. This misfortune
was due to the fact that Strassburg was a
thoroughly antiquated fortress, the bom-
bardment of which involved the destruction
not merely of the works, but also of the
houses of the inhabitants. The French
_ . . ^ commander, General Uhrich,
Bombardment ^^^^ ^^ ^^^^^^ ^j^^ ^■^._
and ourrender ° , . n j
, c. L cumsiances, to have allowed
of Strassburg , . ^ r 1
matters to go so tar as a bom-
bardment ; but in the knowledge that
" Strassburg was x\lsace," he offered resist-
ance until a storm, the success of which
admitted no doubt, was imminent. The
capitulation was signed on September 28th
at two o'clock in the morning ; it was the
very day on which, 180 years before,
5i^D
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
Louvois had accepted the surrender of
Strassburg to the army of Louis XIV.
There were endless rejoicings in Germany
when the good news was proclaimed that
a city had been won back which had
remained dear to every German heart,
even in the long years when it stood under
a foreign yoke. September 28th was felt
, to be a day of national satisfac-
Gcrmany s ^.^^ ^ tangible guarantee that
National ,, ' • r /- i v
... the time of German humilia-
ejoicmg ^.^^^ ^^^^ weakness was now
past for ever. Since Strassburg had fallen,
the great railroad to Paris lay at the
disposal of the Germans ; the captures
of Schlettstadt on October 24th, Verdun,
November 8th, Neubreisach, November
loth, Diedenhofen, November 24th, Mont-
medy and Pfalzburg, December 14th,
completed the reduction of the smaller
fortresses of the east, with which great
stores of artillery and powder fell into •
the hands of the victors. The communi-
cations in the rear of the Germans
gained greatly in security and quiet.
This fact was the more important
because, since the Battle of Sedan, the war,
which hitherto had been a duel between
armies, assumed another phase. Under
the title of " Franc-tireurs," armed bands
from among the people took part in the
struggle, and caused considerable losses by
unexpected attacks on isolated German out-
posts and rear-guards. On the German
side these bands were declared to stand
outside the law of nations, and vihages
whose inhabitants took part in the war as
Franc-tireurs were, under certain condi-
tions, burnt down as a deterrent. Even
Frenchmen admit that the licentious Franc-
tireurs were frequently more dangerous to
the natives than to the enemy.
The chief aim of the French, now that
negotiations for peace had fallen through,
was necessarily the liberation of the
capital, for, although among the 1,700,000
persons who were in Paris some 540,000
^, ^ , were men capable of bearing
The oermans j. x A, xl
, (-• ji arms, yet of these the 340,000
D ** J D • Parisian National Guards
Round Pans ^, , j. ,,
were worthless from the
military point of view, and of the 120,000
Gardes Mobiles, only a part of the pro-
vincials was of any value. Thus only the
80,000 soldiers of the line were thoroughly
useful, and with these alone General Trochu
could not break through the 150,000, and
later 200,000, picked German troops, wjio
were drawing an iron girdle round the city,
5126
under the supreme direction of the king,
who resided at Versailles, and force them
to raise the siege. Under these conditions
the duty of obtaining support from out-
side was incumbent on the members of the
Government, who had left Paris in good
time, in order to conduct the arming of the
country, and had taken up their seat at
Tours on the Loire.
But life was not instilled into this " Dele-
gation," consisting of three old men,
until Gambetta left Paris on October 6th
in a balloon, and arrived in Tours on the
9th. He immediately took on himself
the Ministry of War in addition to that of
the Interior, and with the passionate
energy of his southern temperament
and his thirty-two years, he girded himself
for the task of " raising legions from the soil
with the stamp of his foot," and of crush-
ing the bold hordes who dared to harass
holy Paris, " the navel of the earth."
Gambetta's right hand in the organisation
of new forces was Charles de Freycinet,
a man of forty-two, a Protestant, originally
an engineer, clever and experienced, clear
and cool in all his actions, but, in con-
^ .... sequence of the complete wreck
Gambetta s c ,-< c ^ u-
_ of the professional soldiers,
c -, full of haughty contempt
tor military protessional know-
ledge, and inspired by the persuasion that
now men of more independent views must
assume the lead, and that a burning
patriotism must replace military drill.
The thought recurred vaguely to the
minds of both that 1870 must go to school
with 1793, and that just as then the
soldiers trained in the traditions of Frederic
the Great and Laudon were repulsed by the
levy en masse, so now the laurels might
be torn from the soldiers of William I.
by the same means. That was really a grave
error. In 1793 the powers allied against
France were defeated chiefly from their
want of combination, not by the armed
masses of the French people, which to some
extent existed only on paper ; and the
army which was now fighting on French
soil far surpassed the troops of the first
coalition in number and moral quality.
Gambetta's exertions did not there-
fore rescue France, but only prolonged her
death agony, multiplied the sacrifices,
and enhanced the victory of the Germans.
Besides this, it was not possible, with
all his resolute determination, to turn armed
men into soldiers in a moment. Since it
was necessary in a country which only
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5127
51^
5129
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
Grave
Danger
of Paris
possessed six t3atteries and 2,000,000
cartridges to procure arms and ammuni-
tion from every source, especially from
England, a varied selection of weapons
was the result ; there were in the new
army alone fifteen different kinds of guns
in use. Nevertheless, Gambetta deserves
admiration for having raised 600,000
men within four months ; and
even if all attempts were
shattered against the superior
strategy and the incomparable
efficiency of the German troops, still
Gambetta saved the honour of France,
and with it the future of the republic.
The Germans, shortly after Gambetta's
arrival at Tours, had occupied Orleans
on October nth, and on October i8th,
stormed Chateaudun, which was burnt,
because the inhabitants had
joined in the fight. But
now troops in such superior
numbers were being massed
against them that at the
headquarters in Versailles
serious misgivings were felt
as to the possibility of
checking all the threaten-
ing advances upon Paris.
Under these circum-
stances all eyes were eagerly
fixed on Bazaine, who still
kept half the German army
stationary under the walls
of Metz. During this period
PRINCE GORTCHAKOFF
all sorts of political negOtia- The Russian Imperial Chancellor, he
condition. Among the French, the
miseries of the weather were aggravated
by the daily increasing want of provisions ;
in the end the soldiers received only one-
third of their original allowance of bread,
and the supply of salt was exhausted.
Bazaine therefore, after he had vainly
tried to obtain the neutralisation of his
army, and then its surrender, without the
concurrent capitulation of Metz, was com-
pelled to surrender himself with 1^3,000
men and i,570 pieces of artillery to
Prince Frederic Charles on October 27th.
This was a success which surpassed the
day of Sedan in grandeur, if not m
glory. Germany now had in her hands
the territory which she thought essential
to secure her tranquillity, and the whole
army of Frederic Charles was available
for other theatres of war.
About this time the world
was surprised by a cir-
cular from the Russian
Imperial Chancellor, Prince
Gortchakoff, which, bear-
ing date October 31st,
contained the declaration
that the Treaty of Paris of
March 30th, 1856, had been
repeatedly infringed ; for
example, in 1859 ^.nd 1862,
by the union of the two
Danubian principalities of
Moldavia and Wallachia
into the single principality
of Roumania — and that it
tions had been conducted was one ofthe most powerful Ministers in ^^s uot Russia's bouudeu
. . , turope, and in 1871 was responsible for
between Bazaine, the the secession of Russia from the Treaty duty
German headquarters, and °^ ^^'''' ^"angred in the year isoG.
the Empress Eugenie, now an exile in Eng-
land. The gist of these negotiations was
th atBazaine, supported by his army, which
still remained loyal to its captive monarch,
should conclude a peace and restore the
empire ; but the attempt failed from the
numeTous and great difficulties which
stood in the way, and the portion of the
encircled army, which was -unable to
burst the ring of besieger-s, became daily
worse. From October 8th to 31st con-
tinuous rain fell in such torrents that
the besiegers and the besieged, who were
both encamped on the open field in miser-
able huts, suffered incredible hardships.
Hardly any one had dry clothes ; the
wind whistled through the crevices ; and
German divisions which had only a fifth
of their numbers in hospital were con-
sidered to be in an exceptionally good
513Q
to observe merely
those clauses in the treaty
which were detrimental to her. She did
not, therefore, consider herself bound by
that provision which declared the Black
Sea neutral, but would, on the contrary,
make full use of her right to construct a
naval harbour there. The circular showed
that the authorities at St. Petersburg
wished to turn to account the position of
Europe, and during the weak-
ness of France to cancel that
treaty which France and Eng-
land in their time had forced
upon the dominions of the Tsar, since it
was detrimental to the honour and power
of Russia. Britain and Austria issued
on November loth and i6th a protest
against this selfish policy of Russia ; but
the conference at London, which met at
Bismarck's suggestion on January 17th,
1871, approved the action of Russia in the
Russia's
Selfish
Policy
5I3I
5^02
5133
THE BARRIER IN THE PLACE DU TRONE, NOW THE PLACE DE LA NATION
A SORTIE FROM PARIS, SHOWING THE PROTECTED ARC DE TRIOMPHE
Against the heavy fire of the attacking Prussians the Parisians erected defence works in the streets of the city, and
from time to time sorties were made in the hope of driving the invaders from the strong positions which they held.
5134
PLACE DE LHOSPICE AT ST. CLOUD AFTER THE DEPARTURE OF THE PRUSSIANS
Some idea of the destruction of property resulting from the siege of Paris is given in the above pictures, showing
scenes of ruin at St. Cloud after the invading army had taken its departure from the French capitaL
5135
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
Black Sea, and only stipulated that the ineffectual against the bravery of five
Straits of the Dardanelles and the Bospho- German regiments and some batteries,
rus should be closed to the warshij)s of commanded by Major Korber, a hero of
all the Great Powers with the obvious Mars-la-Tour. The great sortie which
exception of Turkey. The German Em- General Ducrot attempted in the south-
pire stood in this question on the side of east of Paris on November 30th, against
Russia, whose emperor had m||||-_||--||_mill^^_|. the positions of the Wiirtem-
indisputably facilitated the ^^^^^^ttf^^^t^M l^ergers and Saxons near the
victory over France by his ^^^^|^^^^^^^H villages of Champigny and
attitude, even if his Chan- f^^^Hp .^^l^^l •^'•^^' ^^^ ^^^ attain its object
cellor, Gortchakoff, tried to J^^^Bl -^P'^t^^^^H i^ spite of the great superiority
depreciate as far as possible ^^^^^^'v ^^^^^^^Km ^^ ^^^ French. The fire of
the results of this victory. ^^^^B^^^^^^^^^M the Wiirtembergers, bursting
After the fall of Metz, ^^HH^HiJi^Bi^H ^^"^^^ behind the park walls
Prince Frederic Charles re- P^^^^^HBI^ttSS of Villiers and Coeuilly,
ceived orders to detach a ^j2H^^^^^^^^BE mowed down the attacking
force under General Man- ^^^|B^^^H^^^^S columns of the French in
teuffel, in order to capture ■^^^H^^^^^^HH heaps. On December 2nd the
the still untaken fortresses ^^^H^H^^^^^^H village of Champigny, which
in the rear of the Germans ; ^^^^^U^^^^^^^^M had been lost on November
he himself, with his four re- H|^^Hffi^^^^^B S^^h, was to a great extent
maining corps, was to advance ^^^^^^lv^^^^^^^ ^^°^^ back by the help of the
rapidly on the Loire by way After the capture of Aisace, this Pomeranians, and on Decem-
of Fontainebleau and Sens. German commander forced his ber 3rd the army of the
r 1 • -1 "^y "ito Franche Comte and . ^ i j. -n •
The state of thmgs m that Burgundy, where he occupied sortie returned back to Pans.
direction was critical. The oiJon. the capital, on October 31 st j^ ^^^ ^^^^ ^2,000 men,
French army of the Loire, with a strength Germans 6,000, and the besiegers
of 60,000 men, had thrown itself on the had to abandon all hope of breaking
15,000 Bavarians of Von der Tann, their way through by their unassisted
defeated them at Coulmiers on November strength. General Ducrot, who had
Qth, and compelled them to evacuate vowed to conquer or to die, and ex-
Orleans. The king immediately sent to the posed himself recklessly to the bullets.
support of the Bavarians
the 17th and 22nd divi-
sions, with four cavalry
divisions, which were no
longer required before
Paris, and entrusted the
command of this " arm 37
section," including the
Bavarians, to the Grand
Duke Frederic Francis IL
of Mecklenburg. Every-
thing pointed to a great
and decisive action. The
Paris army was preparing
for a sortie on a large
scale, to which Gam bet ta
was compelled to re-enter
Paris ahve and defeated.
Prince Frederic Charles
defeated the army of the
Loire, now commanded
by the gallant General
Chanzy, in the four da\^'
battle "of the ist to the 4th
of December at Loigny and
Orleans, and on December
4th the Grand Duke of
Mecklenburg again entered
this town. German out-
posts bivouacked beneath
the statue of the Maid
of Orleans. The French
GENERAL MANTEUFFEL
wished to respond by a in the German war agrainst France he army was in a most lament-
boid attack from Orleans; ^nrs^ttuentiy" wis t 'comm^ able phght ; the soldiers,
the Germans, encamped in of that of the south, gaming some clothed only in hnen trousers
front of the metropolis, °°'"''" ''^"""^ '"^ ^" ^"^"^"° ^""^ and blouses, shivered with
were to be caught, if possible, between cold and refused to fight any more. The
two fires and compelled to raise the army was finally broken into two parts, of
stage. But the onslaught of 58,000
French, on November 28th at Beaune-la-
Rolande, under the impetuous General
Jean Constant Crouzat, whom Freycinet
which one, under Bourbaki, turned east-
ward on December 4th ; the other part,
under Chanzy, retired in a north-westerly
direction on the right bank of the Loire,
made the mistake of restraining, proved leaving Tours to its fate ; while Gambetta
5136
FRENCH SORTIE AT CHAMPION Y, NOVEMBER ."H, 1-
THE FIRST CANNON ^HOTS
III , ri,-.,irnt ,V ;o.
THE GERMANS SUCCESSFULLY REPELLING THE FRENCH ATTACK AT CHAMPIGNY
Following- up their unsuccessful attack at Beaune-la-Rolande, the French, two days later, on November 30th, made a
Rreat sortie, under General Ducrot, agrainst the positions of the Wurtembergrers and Saxons near the villages of
Champigny and Brie ; but, though the French were greatly superior in numbers, the attack was repelled, the fire of the
Wurtembergers, bursting from behind the park walls of VilUers and Coeuilly, mowing down the French columns m heaps.
5137
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
with the "Delegation" fled to Bordeaux
on December 8th. Chanzy, pursued by
the prince and the grand duke, was again
defeated at Beaugency, December 7th-
loth. and driven back on Le Mans. But
the Germans followed him thither, along
roads deep in snow and covered with ice,
where the cavalry had to dismount and
. lead their horses, and on January
.*" .^ * iithandi2th,i87i,wonanother
!• *^ »:<' ^ erreat victory before Le Mans, in
tor f rskficc •
consequence of which Chanzy
was compelled to retire still further west to-
wards Brittany, to Laval. The army of the
Loire was thus to all intents annihilated.
Meantime there was fighting in two other
districts. General Werder, after the capture
of Alsace, had forced his way into Franche
Comte and Burgundy, where he occupied
Dijon, the capital, on October 31st. The
chief command against him
was held by the hero of the
Italian revolution, Garibaldi,
who was so much moved by
the change of France into a
republic that he placed his
sword at the services of that
very nation which in i860 had
taken his native town of Nice
from the National State of
Italy. But he was only a
shadow of his former self,
and could no longer sit a
horse ; he would have done
best to have remained on his
rocky island of Caprera.
The Garibaldian volunteers
from Italy and other coun-
tries who mustered round
the leader were a rabble, clothed in a pic
turesque uniform, who eventually proved
more troublesome to the French than to
the Germans. The Badeners, under General
Adolf von Gliimer, without allowing them-
selves to be stopped by these troops, took
Nuits by storm on December i8th.
The other theatre of war was the north-
east of France, especially Picardy and
Normandy. The resistance here, as else-
where, was organised by emissaries from
the " Delegation," and the northern army
was created, so that the German head-
quarters sent General Manteuffel there in
November. Manteuffel defeated the
French, under Farre, on November 27th,
at Amiens, where the " Moblots " — Gardes
Mobiles — by a disgraceful flight carried
the troops of the line away with them.
Amiens and Rouen were occupied, and
5138
General von Goeben knew how to treat
the Normans so well that they ran after
him trustingly on the roads, and the
peasants brought provisions to the markets
— quite otherwise than in the east, where
all the shutters were closed and the doors
locked when the Germans approached.
The prudent and energetic General
Faidherbe succeeded, it is true, in rallying
and strengthening the French troops ; but
on his advance from Lille he was beaten
back by Manteuffel on the river La Hallue,
at Port Noyelles, on December 23rd.
Since his soldiers were forced to spend the
night fasting, with a temperature far
below freezing point, he felt himself, on
December 24th, unable to fight any further ;
he therefore abandoned his dangerous
positions and withdrew to Arras. A
second advance, on January 3rd, 1871,
at Bapaume, was equally un-
successful. General Goeben,
who, after Manteuffel was
sent to the south-east, re-
ceived the supreme command
over the two German corps,
ended the war in the north
by the capture of the fortress
of Peronne on January 8th,
and by the brilliant victory
cit St. Quentin on January
19th, where Faidherbe lost
13,000 men. The fortress of
St. Quentin itself fell into
RUDOLPH DELBRUCK the hluds of the victors, and
A Prussian statesman, and for the French uorthem army was
many years the right-hand man of reduCcd tO SUCh a Condition
Bismarck, he opened at Munich ,t . •. ■,
the official negotiations which had that it UO lOUger COUntcd
as their object a united Germany, f^j. anything. The Capital Ot
France held out all this time against
the Germans who were investing it.
But provisions were getting scarcer and
scarcer, and occasional attempts at
insurrection among the populace indicated
that the reputation of the Government
was waning. The resistance, neverthe-
less, lasted far longer than was ever con-
sidered probable on the German
side, and public opinion in Ger-
many demanded with increasing
emphasis that Paris should be
effectively bombarded to accelerate the
capitulation. Bismarck, from the very be-
ginning of the siege, maintained that too
much energy could not be shown in attack-
ing the enemy, since, in the first place,
the investing army s-uffered mentally
and physically from the long inaction,
and, secondly, the apparently successful
Paris
Under the
Siege
5139
5140
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
resistance of Paris revived the hopes of
the French for an eventual victory, and
once more brought up the danger of
foreign intervention
which ■ was thought to
have been surmounted
after the day of Sedan.
But the Crown Prince,
Blumenthal, Moltke him-
self, and General von
Gothberg were of opinion
that a bombardment
would not reach the work-
men's quarter of Paris,
and would thus be in-
effective, and that the
only means of reducing
the city lay in starving
it out ; according to
Blumenthal six weeks
would be sufficient.
During this time of ex-
pectancy the most im-
portant event of all, the
question of the unity of
Germany, was destined to
be decided under the walls of Paris. There
was a general feeling directly after the
first victories that the Germans, who had
marched united to
the war, ought not
at its close to break 'Jt
up again into the old
disunion, but that
political union ought
to result from the
military union as a
necessary conse-
quence and as the
chief fruit of the war.
From the moment
when Bismarck, in
the name of the
Germans, demanded
the cession of Strass-
burg and Metz as
tangible guarantees
for peace, the fact
was established that
these border fortresses
of the German people
could not be held
EMPEROR WILLIAM I
From a photograph
entailed, could not lightly resolve upon the
decisive negotiations. These negotiations
were stimulated by a large meeting held
in Berlin on August 30th,
which proposed as its
motto that the fruits oi
the war must be : "A
' \ united nation and pro-
tected frontiers." The
Grand Duke Frederic 0I
Baden, whose lirst coun-
sellor since the death ol
Mathy was the keen advo-
cate of national unity,
Julius Jolly, declared on
September 2nd that he
would support the con-
stitutional union of the
South German states with
the North German Con-
federation. King Lewis II.
of Bavaria and King
Charles I. of Wiirtemberg
also gave an assurance
on September 5th and
7th that they were anxious
to secure to Germany the fruits of victory
in the fullest measure and to establish a
just mean between the national coherency
of the German races
and their individual
independence. The
official negotia-
tions were opened at
Munich towai'ds the
end of September by
Rudolf Delbriick, the
President of the
Federal Chancery of
the North German
Confederation, and
were afterwards con-
tinued by Bismarck
in Versailles. They
encountered, indeed,
considerable difficul-
ties, since the Par-
ticularists were only
willing to concede the
most modest measure
of centralisation. The
Bavarians argued the
LOUIS ADOLPHE THIERS
■+1, 4- iU '" ^^^ days of French humiliation that attended the -
Wltnout tne perma- occupation of Paris by the victorious enemy, the great SupcrfluOUSneSS Of a
nent nolitinl iinifi/ nf '"^" °^ *^^ '^"^'^ proved to be Adolphe Thiers, who „i-^-„i ,,^;^,, f,-r.T-n ihc^
Iieui political Uniiy 01 succeeded in inducing the National Assembly to agree to Strict UUlOn IlOm tUC
the German nation. peace on terms which Germany had practically dictated, very loyalty wllicll all
The current of opinion setting towards races had shown to the thought of nation
unity was strong enough to carry with it
the princes, who, on account of the prob-
able sacrifices of their sovereignty thereby
5142
ality ; in case of necessity Germany would
always find all her children rallying round
her. The King of Bavaria claimed as
THE BIRTH OF THE GERMAN EMPIRE
compensation for his consent to the estab-
lishment of a German federal state a sort
of viceroyaltyforthe House of Wittelsbach,
so that the Bavarian ambassadors, in the
event of any impediment to the imperial
ambassadors, should represent them ex;
officio. Prince Leopold, the uncle of the
king, had suggested on January loth, 1871,
the alternation of the imperial Crown
between the Houses of Hohenzollern and
Wittelsbach, but had received no answer
at all. In addition to Bavaria, Hesse, the
Minister of which, Baron von Dalwigk, was
a sworn enemy to
Prussia, made as
many difficulties as
possible. The King
of Wiirtemberg on
November 12th, when
everything seemed al-
ready settled, allowed
himself to be per-
suaded by influenc'j
from Munich once
more to delay the
termina t io n. But
when Baden on No-
vember 15th signed
the treaty as to the
admission into the
North German Con-
federation, and Hesse
followed on the same
day, the ice was
broken. The Crown
Prince became so im-
patient at the delays
in the settlement of
the matter that he
thought that the busi-
ness should be hurried
on, that emperor and t
Empire should be william i. v/hen
proclaimed by the
princes of Baden, Oldenburg, Weimar,
and Coburg, and a constitution corre-
sponding to the reasonable wishes of
the people should be sanctioned by the
Reichstag and the Landtags ; in that case
the two South German kings would have to
acquiesce with the best grace they could.
The Crown Prince and Bismarck were
thoroughly agreed upon the point that
the King of Prussia, as President of the
German Federal State, must bear the
old and honourable title of emperor.
The aged monarch himself had grave
doubts as to relegating to the second
place the comprehensive title of King
of Prussia, which his ancestor Frederic
L had created of his own set purpose,
and of assuming an empty title, which
his brother had declined in 1849, and
which he himself had jestingly stjded
" brevet-major."
Bismarck maintained his own wise inde-
pendence towards the father and the son.
To the first he emphasised the fact that
the title of emperor contained an outward
recognition of the de facto predominant
position of the Prussian king, on which
much depended : and he asked the latter
whether he could con-
sider it wise and
honourable to exer-
I ise compulsion on
two allies who had
shed their blood
shoulder to shoulder
with the North Ger-
mans. He was con-
vinced that the new
Empire would not rest
nn firm foundations
unless all the German
races joined it of
their own free v^ll,
without the feeling
that any compulsion
was being applied to
them. He therefore
granted to the Ba-
varians and the
Wiirtembergers by
the "Reserved
Rights " a privileged
position in the Em-
pire, which, although
only accepted with
reluctance by all de-
termined supporters
of German unity, has
justified the foresight
of the great statesman by affording these
kingdoms the opportunity of joining the
national cause without humiliation to
their sense of importance.
The treaties signed on November 23rd
at Versailles for Bavaria, and on
November 25th, 1870, at Berlin for
Wiirtemberg, reserved for both states
the independent administration of the
post office and telegraphs, and the
private right of taxing native beer and
brandy ; this second privilege was
gi-anted to Baden also. It was further
settled that the Bavarian army should
be a distinct component part oi the
5143
KING OF PRUSSIA
photograph
5144
THE BIRTH OF THE GERMAN EMPIRE
Progress
of German
German Federal army with its own military
administration under the command of
the King of Bavaria, and that also the
Wiirtemberg army should form a distinct
corps, whose commander, however, could
only be nominated by the King of
Wiirtemberg with the previous assent of
the King of Prussia. The organisation,
training, and system of mobili-
sation of the Bavarian and
jj . Wiirtemberg troops were to
^ ^ be remodelled according to
the principles in force for the Federal
army. The Federal commander possessed
the right to inspect the Bavarian and
Wiirtemberg armies, and from the first
day of mobilisation onwards all the troops
of North and South Germany alike had to
obey his commands.
The consideration which Bismarck
showed to the kings procured him not
merely their sincere confidence during the
whole term of his life, a fact which was
politically of much value, but also facili-
tated the settlement of the question of
the title. Recognising that it is more
palatable to the ambition of secondary
states to have a German. Emperor over
them than a King of Prussia, King Lewis
consented on December 3rd to propose to
the German princes, in a letter drafted
by Bismarck himself, that a joint invita-
tion sliould be given His Majesty the King
of Prussia to combine the exercise of the
rights of President of the Federation with
the style of a " German Emperor."
King William consented, waiving his
scruples in deference to the universal wish
of the princes and peoples of Germany. The
Reichstag and the Landtags sanctioned the
constitution of the " German Empire " in
December and January, and on December
i8th a deputation of the Reichstag
appeared in Versailles, in order to transmit
to the king, through the president, the
good wishes of the representatives of the
people for the imperial Crown. There was
u- M • * still friction to be smoothed
His Majesty , i_ . t n^i
_ away ; but on 1 anuary i8th,
Emperor o i.i j , • , •
William I. 1871- the day on which, in
1701, the Prussian monarchy
had been proclaimed — in the Hall of Mirrors
of the splendid Chateau of Versailles,
erected by Louis XIV., the adoption of the
imperial title was solemnly inaugurated in
the presence of numerous German princes.
The Grand Duke Frederic of Baden led
the first cheer for His Majesty Emperor
William. In a proclamation to the Ger-
I A
man people, composed by Bismarck, the
emperor announced his resolve " to aid
at all times the growth of the Empire, not
by the conquests of the sword, but by the
goods and gifts of peace, in the sphere
of national prosperity, freedom, and cul-
ture." In the thirty years and more that
have elapsed since that day the world has
had opportunity to recognise that this
has been no empty phrase, but the guiding
star of three German emperors.
At the moment when the Empire was
revived, or, to speak more correctly, was
called into existence, the French powers of
resistance were everywhere becoming ex-
hausted ; even those of the capital were
failing. At Christmas-time 235 heavy
pieces of siege artillery were collected in
Villacoublay, east of Versailles, and the
bombardment of the east front of Paris
was commenced on December 27th with
such violence that the French evacuated
Mont Avron " almost at a gallop." The
bombardment of the city itself began from
the south side on January 5th,
e renc Port Issy ceased its fire. Since
**** * the shots, owing to an eleva-
tion of thirty degrees, which had been
obtained by special contrivances, carried
beyond the centre of the city, the inhabi-
tants fled from the south to the north of
Paris — a movement by which the difficul-
ties of feeding them were much increased.
A great, and final, sortie towards the
west, which was attempted on January
igth by Trochu with 90,000 men, was
defeated at Buzenval and Saint Cloud,
before the French had even approached
the main positions of the Germans.
The bombardment of the north front
began on January 21st.
Here, too, the forts were completely
demolished ; parts of the bastions were
soon breached ; the garrisons had no
protection against the German shells.
It was known in the city that Chanzy
had been completely routed at Le Mans
on January nth and 12th, and the last
prospect of relief was destroyed by the
ill-tidings from the east.
General Bourbaki had marched in that
direction with half of the army of the
Loire ; with the strength of his forces
raised to 130,000 men, he hoped to compel
the Germans under Werder, who only
numbered 42,000, to relinquish the siege
of the fortress of Belfort, and to force
the Germans before Paris to retire, by
5145
5i4t>
5147
DURING THE FRANCO-PRUSSIAN WAR
PRINCE BISMARCK AT SEVENTY
GERMANY'S "IRON CHANCELLOR " AT FOUR STAGES OF HIS CAREER
5148
THE BIRTH OF THE GERMAN EMPIRE
threatening their communications in the
rear. But Werder attacked the enemy,
three times his superior in numbers, at
Montbehard on the Lisaine, and repulsed,
in the three days' fighting, from January
15th to 17th, all the attacks of Bourbaki.
Not one French battalion was able to
reach Belfort, where salvos had been
vainly fired in honour of victory when
the cannon-shots were heard.
Bourbaki commenced his retreat, dis-
pirited and weakened ; but when he
learnt that Moltke had sent General
Manteuffel with the Pomeranians and
Rhinelanders to block his road by
Gray and Dole, and when Garibaldi,
although he retook Dijon and on January
23rd captured the flag of the 6ist regiment
from under a heap of dead bodies, was
unable to help him, he went back to
Pontarlier.
But before he surrendered his army
to be disarmed by the neutral Swiss, he
made an ineffectual attempt to blow out
his brains. His successor, Justin Clin-
chant finally crossed the Franco-Swiss
frontier on February ist with 80,000 men.
. The last army of France was
amine thus annihilated and the fate
. "^"'^^^ of Belfort sealed. Colonel
Denfert-Rochereau surrendered
the bravely-defended but now untenable
town to General Udo von Tresckow on
February i8th.
In Paris the dearth of provisions grew
greater and greater during January. On
the 2ist a pound of ham cost i6s., a pound
of butter 20s., a goose ii2s. Horses,
cats = 9s., dogs, and rats had long been
eaten. In view of the threatened famine,
Favre, the Foreign Minister, eventually
appeared at the German headquarters on
January 23rd, the 127th day of the siege,
to negotiate the terms of a capitulation.
An agreement was at last reached on
January 28th, by which an armistice of
twenty-one days was granted for the
election of a National Assembly, which
should decide on war and peace ; but, in
return for the concession a high penalty
was exacted, all the forts round Paris
were delivered up to the Germans, and
the whole garrison of the town declared
prisoners of war.
The town had to hand over all its cannons
and rifles within fourteen days ; the only
exception was made in favour of the
National Guard, the disarmament of which
Favre declared to be impracticable owingto
Thiers the
Great Man of
the Crisis
the insurrectionary spirit prevailing in that
corps. Paris was thus in the hands of the
Germans, although the emperor refrained
from a regular occupation of it, which might
easily lead to bloody encounters and hence
to new difficulties, in the hope of peace
being soon concluded. Permission was, of
course, given for provisioning the city.
Gambetta would not consent
to the armistice, but was
compelled by Jules Simon,
who was sent by the Govern-
ment to Bordeaux, to retire on February
6th. The great man of the crisis was
henceforward Adolphe Thiers, who at the
beginning of the war had counselled a
cautious policy, and then, after Sedan, had
vainly endeavoured to induce the Great
Powers to intervene. He had proved him-
self a far-sighted patriot, to whom the
country might look for its rescue.
On February 8th, twenty-six departments
elected him to the National Assembly,
which numbered among them 768 deputies,
400 to 500 supporters of the monarchy,
Orleanists and Legitimists, but included
a large majority for peace. Fully a third
of France was occupied by the Germans,
andFaidherbe declared that if the Govern-
ment wished to continue the war in
Flanders, the people would intervene and
surrender to the Germans. On February
17th, Thiers was elected to the highest
post in the state under the title of
" Chief of the Executive," and was sent
on the 2ist to Versailles for the purpose
of negotiating a peace.
Bismarck demanded the whole of Alsace
with Belfort, and a fifth of Lorraine with
Metz and Diedenhofen, in addition
^^240, 000,000 and the entry of the German
troops into Paris. After prolonged nego-
tiations he assented to remit ;^4o,ooo,ooo
and waive all claim to Belfort, but insisted
the more emphatically on the entry into
Paris, which in some degree would impress
the seal on the German victories and place
clearly before the eyes of the
French their complete defeat, as
a deterrent from future wars.
Thiers hurried with the conditions
mentioned to Bordeaux. On March ist, the
same day on which 30,000 German soldiers,
selected from all the German races, marched
into Paris and occupied the quarter
of the town near the Champs Elysees,
together with the Chateau of the Tuileries,
the preliminary treaty for peace, which
the National Assembly had adopted, after
5149
The
Dawn of
Peace
5150
THE BIRTH OF THE GERMAN EMPIRE
a stormy debate, by 546 votes to 107, was
completed in Bordeaux. The official
ratification of it reached Versailles on the
evening of March 2nd. The Germans
evacuated Paris on the 3rd, and retired
behind the right bank of the Seine, which
was to be the boundary of the two armies
until the final peace was concluded.
According to this agreement the forts to
the east and north of Paris were still
occupied by the Germans.
The subsequent peace negotiations were
conducted in Brussels by plenipotentiaries,
but proceeded so slowly that Bismarck,
at the beginning of May, 1871, finally
invited Favre to Frankfort-on-the-Main,
in order to arrive at a clear understand-
ing with him through a personal con-
ference. After a short discussion the
final peace was signed there on May loth.
It contained, contrary to the preliminary
treaty, a small exchange of territory at
Belfort and Diedenhofen, and the proviso
that the evacuation of French territory
by the Germans should take place by
degrees, in proportion as instalments of
the war indemnity were paid.
The results of the German struggle
for unity were immense. In comparison
with them the sacrifices of the war
were not so excessive. They amounted
on the German side to 28,600 killed in
battle, 12,000 deaths from disease, and
4,000 missing, a grand total, there-
fore, of about 45,000 men; the number
of wounded was calculated at 101,000.
The French lost 150,000 killed and
150,000 wounded ; the number of
prisoners was eventually raised to
more than 600,000.
Emperor William I. held a grand review
of the victorious troops in the east of
Paris on March 7th, and entered Berlin on
March 17th. On March 21st he opened in
person the first German Reichstag ; on
June i6th, a triumphal entry of the
German army, selected out of all the
German races, was made into Berlin,
between two lines of 7,400 captured
cannons. The age of the Holy Roman
Empire of Louis XIV. and of the Napo-
leons was over. The new Empire of the
German nation had come into being.
G. Egelhaaf
THE INTERROGATOR : AN EPISODE IN THE FRANCO-PRUSSIAN WAR
.5151
The horrors°of war are vividly suggested by these pictures of Gustave Dort^-. In the first, the battle is over, leaving
its carnage behind. But among the wounded are two who have fought on opposite sides, and realising each other's
presence there springs up anew their hatied as they prepare to resume the struggle single-handed. But the com-
batants who are thus " irreconcilable " have come together in the second picture, and in their nearness to the Cross
and in the presence of death have put aside their differences that they may be of service to each or.ber.
5152
THE
RE-MAKING
OF
EUROPE
THE
CONSOLIDA-
TION OF THE
POWERS XII
SCANDINAVIA IN THE 19th CENTURY
THE PROGRESS OF THE NORTHERN KINGDOMS
""THE unfortunate policy of Frederic VI.
^ had caused Denmark great reverses.
She had lost her fleet, on which she had
always prided herself, and had been
separated from Norway, thus losing half
her Scandinavian population ; her pros-
perity had been destroyed in the wars ;
the national debt had assumed enormous
proportions, and the financial position had
been so bad that in 1813 the Government
had been compelled to declare the state
insolvent. Industry, too, had been
paralysed, and was unable to recover for
some years after the declaration of peace ;
commerce ^vas almost at a standstill and
to a great extent dependent on Hamburg ;
. and agriculture, which had been very
profitable during the war by reason of the
. high price of corn, now suffered from falling
prices. But the cloud was, after all, not
without its silver lining. The national
extremity, and the hard struggle that
_ , was m.ade at the opening of the
Denmark , 1 j j.- 1 .• j
„ .^ century, had a stimulatmg and
Sf ih fertihsmg mfluence on the intel-
"^^"^ lectual life of the community.
While political interests were unimportant
and material prosperity was declining,
art and literature flourished ; it seemed
as if the nation sought in these things
consolation for its unhappy circum-
stances. Gradually the economic situation
improved. The finances were set in order
by the establishment of a national bank
independent of the Government ; industry
prospered, and at Frederic's death, in 1839,
the country had renewed its strength.
While Crown Prince, Frederic VL had
been a great friend of reform ; but as
king he was strongly conservative, and
opposed to any changes in the constitu-
tion. But in proportion as their condition
improved the people awoke to an interest
in public affairs, and the desire for freedom
and self-government became stronger and
stronger. After the "July Revolution,"
the effects of which were felt in Denmark
as well as in other lands, Frederic at last
decided to meet the popular wish, at least
in part. He therefore instituted four
advisory diets — for the islands, Jiitland,
Schleswig, and Holstein — the .first step
towards a free constitution. Frederic's
successor, his half-cousin Christian VIII.,
1839-1848, was just as little disposed to
renounce absolutism. But now
""^ ° • ^^^® ^^ y ^°^ ^ ^^^® constitution
... * ' ^^ grew louder, and the National
Liberals worked for the aboli-
tion of absolutism. They wished also to
terminate the union of Schleswig and
Holstein, and to attach more closely tu
Denmark that province in which the large
proportion of German inhabitants en-
dangered Danish nationality.
In the eighteenth century the two united
duchies had once more come into the
possession of the Danish Crown. Schleswig
was, however, not incorporated with the
remainder of Denmark ; it remained in
close . connection with Holstein, and
German was the official language. Frederic
VI. did, indeed, give Schleswig a diet of
its own, but bound the two duchies
together by placing them under a Ministry
and a supreme court common to both.
As the result of its long connection with
Holstein, Schleswig had become more and
more German, and by the nineteenth
century almost half the population spoke
German. When the Danes at last took
measures to preserve the Danish nation-
ality of the province, this course em-
bittered the Germans. Thus it came abour
that a Schleswig-Holstein party grew up in
the two duchies and demanded
that Schleswig-Holstein should
be made independent of Den-
mark, and be constituted one
of the states of the German Confedera-
tion. The leaders of this party, the princes
of Augustenburg, who, as descendants of
a younger son, Hans the younger, of King
Christian III., hoped to obtain the duchies
for themselves it the royal line became
extinct — which seemed likely to happen
Denmark's
German
Duchies
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
shortly — sought support in Germany,
where an enthusiastic national movement
in their favour was started.
The other Scandinavian countries, on
the contrary, with whom the idea of
Scandinavian unity at that time had great
weight, were in favour of the aims of
the National Liberal party in Denmark.
The king hesitated for a long
c eswig s ^ij^g. ^^^ ^^ jg^g^ Y\e declared,
csirc or ^^ ^, g^j_^ 1846, that Schles-
Wig was mdissolubly bound to
Denmark. In other respects, too, he met
the wishes of the National Liberals ; and
he had just completed the framing of a
constitution when death cut short his
labours on January 20th, 1848.
Immediately after his death the Schles-
wig-Holstein party demanded the recogni-
tion of Schleswig-Holstein as a separate
state. But Christian's son and successor,
Frederic VII., 1848-1863, refused to
separate Schleswig from Holstein, though
he promised Holstein, like the other
provinces, a free constitution. The
Schleswig-Holstein party were, however,-
not willing to accept this proposal, and
before long civil war broke out. Prussia
supported the party of secession, and a
German army entered the duchies. The
Danes had to retire to Alsen, but the
armistice arranged at Malmo, August
26th, through the mediation of Oscar I.
of Norway and Sweden, did not lead to the
conclusion of peace. In 1849 the war was
renewed. Meanwhile the reactionary party
had gained the upper hand in Germany ;
Prussia made peace on July 2nd, 1850,
and by the next year the resistance of
Schleswig-Holstein was overcome.
During the war Denmark had received a
free constitution. The draft prepared
■by Christian VIII. had not met with
general approval, and a Constituent As-
sembly summoned by Frederic VII. there-
fore published a constitution, dated
June 5th, 1849, in which the kingdom was
p made a limited monarchy.
p ^ This constitution was intended
J for Schleswig as well as Den-
mark, but to this the German
Powers would not consent. In 1852 it
was agreed that Schleswig should not
remain united to Holstein, but must not
be incorporated with Denmark. On the
death of Frederic VII. the whole monarchy
was to fall to Prince Christian of Gliicks-
burg and his consort Louise of Hesse-
Cassel, whose mother was a sister of
5154
Christian VIII. The general constitu-
tion of July 26th, 1854, met with opposi-
tion, however, especially from the popula-
tions of Holstein and Lauenburg, whose
part was taken by Prussia and Austria.
But in Denmark, where hopes were enter-
tained, on account of the disputes existing
between the chief German states, of
solving the question of the constitution
without German interference, the national
— Eider-Danish — party, which proposed to
incorporate Schleswig in the kingdom,
gained the upper hand. Two days after
giving his approval to a new constitution
for Denmark and Schleswig, Frederic VII.
died in November, 1863.
Christian IX., 1863-1906, gave way to
the wishes of the Danes and signed
the " November Constitution." But now
Frederic — VIII. — 'Of Augustenburg came
forward with his claims to the duchies, and
was supported by Prussia and Austria.
These Powers refused to recognise the new
king's right of succession except on con-
dition that the November Constitution
should be annulled. As the Danes did
not accede to this demand, the second
Schleswig war broke out in
Schleswig January, 1864. Denmark had
Causes a , j •', ■ 1 1 jr
c J »ir hoped to receive help from
Second War -.r ^ j c- j n
Norway and Sweden, as well as
from the Western Powers, but these hopes
proved to be ill founded. The Danish army,
which had occupied the " Danework,"
retired to Diippel as early as February 5th.
Here the Danes defended themselves
bravely, but were at last forced to cross
to Alsen. The Prussians occupied Jut-
land, expelled the Danes from Alsen, and
threatened to land on Zealand. The
Danes could now resist no longer. At the
Treaty of Vienna, October 30th, 1864.
Denmark ceded the Duchies of Schleswig-
Holstein and Lauenburg to Prussia and
Austria ; and her hope of recovering,
by virtue of Article 5 of the Treaty of
Prague, concluded on August 23rd, 1866,
at least the northern part of Schleswig
has not been fulfilled. The loss of Schles-
wig resulted in a change of the constitution,
and on July 28th, 1866, Denmark received
the fundamental law still in force.
Soon after the declaration of peace the
country became involved in internal
dissensions. A dispute arose in 1870 be-
tween the Government and the " Folke-
tinget "--one of the Chambers of the
Rigsdag — as to the correct interpretation
of the constitution, and the struggle only
SCANDINAVIA IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY
ended in 1894 when the " negotiating "
portion of the Left Party, which had been
divided since 1878, went over to the
Right. In spite of this Denmark has been
on the path of progress ever since the
middle of the last century. The great
agricultural reforms begun in 1788 have
been continued and a fixed payment sub-
stituted for forced service. The number
of tenant-farmers has fallen, and the
peasantry have the same political rights as
the other classes of the community. Like
agriculture, manufactures, commerce, and
shipping are progressing satisfactorily. The
obligation on artisans to join a guild
has been removed, and means of commu-
nication have been improved. The mer-
chants have become in-
dependent of Hamburg.
Copenhagen, which was
provided with extensive
fortifications in 1886, has
been a free port since 1 844.
Good provision is made
for national education,
the general level of which
is, on the whole, a high
one ; the people's univer-
sities, in particular, which
have been imitated in
Norway and Sweden,
have promoted the
education of the pea-
santry and exercised
considerable influence
on their intellectual life.
On the accession to the
Swedish throne of Charles
XIIL, who
CHARLES XIV. OF SWEDEN
was
(-,] J The son of a lawyer, Bernadotte, one of Napc-
^ leon's marshals, was elected heir to the throne
the emperor. Charles John, however, had
never been Napoleon's friend and did
not wish to be his vassal ; he therefore
abandoned the idea of reconquering Fin-
land, which, in his opinion, Sweden could
never defend. He would have liked to
obtain possession of Norway, which, by
Union of reason of its situation, seemed
Sweden and ^° belong rather to Sweden
Norway ^^3.11 to Denmark. Accordingly
he approached Alexander L of
Russia, and on April 5th, 1812, concluded
a treaty with the Tsar and joined the
league against Napoleon. In return for
this Russia and Britain promised their
assistance in the conquest of Norway.
In May, 1813, he crossed over into Ger-
many with an army,
received in July chief
command over the
" united army of North
Germany," was victori-
ous at Grossbeeren and
Dennewitz, and took
part in the Battle of
Leipzig. After this great
battle he advanced
against Denmark with
part of the northern
army, and by the Peace
of Kiel, January 14th,
1814, compelled King
Frederic VI. to relinquish
the kingdom of Norway.
Charles John then at-
tached himself again to
the allies, who had
marched to France, and
did not return to the
and childless. Christian of Sweden in isio, and became king without north uutil the summer
A, i-> • £ opposition on the death of Charles XI II. in 1S18. r a i xi-
UgUStUS, Prmce of ^^ of 1814. In the mean-
Augustenburg, was chosen as successor in
i8og, but died suddenly on May 28th,
1810. It was then that a young Swedish
officer, who met the Prince of Pontecorvo,
Marshal Bernadotte, in Paris, offered him
the Crown on his own responsibility, and
contrived to use his influence in Sweden
_ , so that the marshal was de-
we en s ^ signated heir to the Crown
Novel Choice °. , ,, tsij
J J.. on August 2ist at a Kiksdag
"*^ at Orebro. Bernadotte, who
called himself Crown Prince Charles John,
went with his son Oscar to Sweden in
October, and at once became actual ruler.
The Swedes had chosen him on the
supposition that he was on friendly terms
with Napoleon, and hoped that he would
regain Finland for them with the help of
time the Norwegians, who did not wish lo
submit to Sweden, had drawn up a free
constitution and chosen the Danish prince,
Christian Frederic, as their king. Charles
John, who was shrewd enough to
acknowledge the Norwegian constitution,
succeeded in removing Christian Frederic
and in bringing about the union between
Sweden and Norway in a peaceful way.
By his ability as a soldier and a politician
Charles John raised his new country
from the lethargy into which it had been
plunged by the foolish policy of Gustavus
IV. to its former rank as a kingdom ;
he ruled with energy and discretion and
furthered the welfare of the land. He
was therefore admired and beloved by
the people, and, foreigner though he was,
5155
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
he ascended the throne of Sweden as
Charles XIV. at the death of Charles XIII.,
on February 5th, 1818, without opposition.
In time the enthusiasm for the new king
declined ; he had, it is true, an attractive
and lovable nature, but he was also violent
in temper, intolerant of criticism, and
became more and more conservative,
A> I vixT especially after the "Revolu-
Charles XIV ^-^^ ^^ j^^^,, j^^ greatest
isp cases dissatisfaction was aroused
cop c ^y j^-^ resistance to every
proposal for altering the constitution,
which on several points, particularly with
respect to the organisation of the Riks-
dag, did not meet the requirements of
the times. He, the son of the Revolution,
was charged with holding narrow views.
After 1830, a Liberal opposition was
formed, which steadily increased in power,
and numbered distinguished personalities
among its leaders. As the Government
was strongly opposed to all innovations,
the indignation at last grew so great that
thei'e were serious thoughts of compelUng
the king to resign in 1840. However, the
storm was averted, and the last years of
Charles XIV. were passed in quiet. He died
on March 8th, 1844, aged eighty-one years.
Under his son, Oscar I., 1844-1859, who
was just as popular in Sweden as in Nor-
way, the opposition became weaker. The
king attached himself to the Liberals, sur-
rounded himself with Ministers of broad
views, and sanctioned an extension of the
freedom of the Press, and triennial assem-
blies of the Riksdag. However, his popular
proposition regarding the reconstruction
of the Riksdag was rejected in 1850, and
after the Revolution of February, when a
reaction was sweeping over Europe, Oscar
also grew more conservative and let the
question of the Riksdag drop. During
his reign the management of the state was
successfully carried on. Oscar altered the
foreign policy of Sweden by withdrawing
from the Russian alliance. It was sus-
. . pected that the Russians were
n icipa ing ^gg^j^-Q^g q^ taking possession of
Ad ^ * * certain portions of the Finnish
frontier lands. During the
Crimean War, Sweden and Norway con-
cluded a treaty with France and Britain,
November, 1855, by which the aid of the
Western Powers was assured to the united
kingdoms in the event of Russia seizing
any of the northern harbours. Oscar, who
considered himself a thorough Scandi-
navian, stood on the best of terms with
5156
Denmark ; he acted as a mediator in the
first Schleswig war, August, 1848, and
later offered King Frederic VII. a defen-
sive alliance in order to protect the Eider
boundary. This offer was, however, not
accepted by the Danes. Oscar's son,
Charles XV., 1859-1872, was also a per-
sonal friend of Frederic VII. But the
negotiations which had been opened with
Denmark on account of the political situa-
tion of Europe after Frederic's death,
November 15th, 1863, were discontinued,
so that the king was compelled to give up
the cause of Denmark in 1864.
The question of the Riksdag was finally
solved in the reign of Charles XV., as at
the Riksdag of 1865 all the four Estates
assented to a reorganisation. The Riks-
dag now meets every year, and consists of
two Chambers ; the king has the right of
dismissing the Riksdag and issuing the
writs for a new election. This reorganisa-
tion, by which the nobles were deprived
of their last prerogatives, also effected a
change of parties. The " Intellectuals "
were supported by the cultured classes,
while the " Landt-manna party" aimed
chiefly at economy in the
administration, particularly in
Sweden's
Splendid
Progress
the army, and a more equal
division of the burden of taxa-
tion. In the reign of Oscar II., Charles'
brother and successor, a violent dispute
was caused by the customs policy ; several
of the Landt-manna party joined the re-
presentatives of the wholesale industry
and carried a law for protection. In
recent years the Chambers, in which Con-
servatives and Liberals are now the con-
tending parties, have introduced a new
army law, by which the term of service for
the " Bevaring " — those who are liable to
serve in the army — has been considerably
lengthened. On the other hand, no agree-
ment has yet been reached about the
extension of the very limited franchise.
Sweden, no less than Norway, has made
great material progress in the nineteenth
century. The legislature departed from
the economic principles of an earlier age
and abolished the restrictions which fet-
tered commerce and manufacture. At the
same time necessary improvements have
been made in the means of communication.
Trade and manufacture have opened up
new paths for themselves. Agriculture,
which was so neglected in the eighteenth
century, has developed to such an extent
that Sweden, which in the eighteenth
SCANDINAVIA IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY
century could not provide the corn
necessary for home consumption, can
now export grain. Cattle-breeding and
mining, especially for iron ore, have also
made great progress in recent years. As
wealth has increased by the develop-
ment of natural resources, provision has
also been made for intellectual growth by
improvement in the schools, so that in
Sweden, as in the other two Scandinavian
countries, popular education has now
reached a high standard, and the Swedes
have attained European fame in all
branches of natural science. When the
Treaty of Kiel, which transferred Norway
from Denmark to ,
Sweden in 1814, was
proclaimed in . Nor-
way, it aroused uni-
versal indignation.
The Norwegians dul
not wish, under any
circumstances, to be
subjected , to the
Swedes, whom they
hated as enemies :
the few who con-
sidered a union with
Sweden advan-
tageous were looked
upon almost as
traitors. Prince
Christian Frederic,
afterwards Christian
Vm. of Denmark,
who was viceroy at
that time, and who
was popular with the
Norwegians, con
the idea
the union with Sweden and desired to
postpone the election of a king, while the
majority were eager to appoint Prince
Christian Frederic immediately as king.
On May 17th Christian Frederic was
actually elected king. When the Swedish
Government heard of the proceedings in
Norway they at once complained to the
allies, who despatched plenipotentiaries to
Christiania to put into force the decision
of the Peace of Kiel, but in vain. The
Norwegians armed themselves, but their
army was badly equipped and without
capable leaders. Christian Frederic was
no general and had no inclination for war ;
• he always hoped, like
the majority of Nor-
wegians, that the
Great Powers would
respect the indigna-
tion of the Nor-
wegians against the
union. Accordingly,
the war only lasted
a few weeks. The
Crown Prince, Charles
John Bernadotte,
marched into Nor-
way .The Norwegians,
following the com-
mand of their king,
steadily retreated,
although they were
consumed with the
desire for battle,
and in some places
fought successfully.
Christian Frederic
did not dare to risk
a decisive engage-
ment, but agreed to
an armistice
On~ August 14th,
ceived the idea of
taking advantage of U'
the discontent against r**^ ""~-'^s«i«
Sweden to make king oscar i. of norway and Sweden ^^^ ..^^^^. --t— >
I ;.^^ If u; ,„ TJ„ „„ The son of Charles XIV., he succeeded to the dual throne j.i rnnvpntinn of
himself king. He ac- ^r Norway and Sweden, and, surrounding himself with l^^e UOnVCnilOn Ol
COrdingly summoned Ministers of broad views, proved a good and popular ruler. MoSS, tO the SOUth OI
an assembly of the Estates of the kingdom Christiania, was concluded.
at Eidsvold, north of Christiania, which
should draw up a constitution for the
country. This assembly met in April, 1814,
and had completed its work by May 17th.
As a result of this constitution, which
was modelled on the French constitution
of 1791, Norway became a limited
monarchy with one Chamber of Repre-
sentatives. On this point the members
of the Estates were all agreed; they
all clung to the independence of Norway.
But on other matters they were divided
into two factions ; the minority wished for
The Crown
Prince, who felt that he was not strong
enough to subjugate Norway completely,
and who wished for peace in the north, pro-
mised in the name of King Charles XIII.,
before the Congress of Vienna assembled,
that he would recognise the constitution
of Norway ; Christian Frederic, for his
part, pledged himself to renounce the
Crown, to convene a Storting— National
Assembly — which should come to terms
with the Swedish king, and to leave the
country. These arrangements were carried
out ; the Storting made a few alterations
5157
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD-
in the constitution, which necessitated
the union with Sweden, and elected King
Charles of Sweden as King of Norway,
November 4th, 1814. The conditions of
the union were more definitely stated by
a N'ntional Act, the Rigsakt f.f 1815.
CHARLES XV.
Ascending the throne of Norway and Sweden in 1S59 on the
death of his father, he endeavoured to bring about closer
relations between the two countries, and died in 1S72.
In this way Norway came to be united with
Sweden as an independent kingdom. Its
constitution was one of the freest in
Europe. Since that time the country has
m.ade great progress in every direction.
The people successfully upheld their free
constitution against the attacks of the
Crown and maintained their equality with
Sweden in the union. They were also able
to turn the natural resources of their
country to better advantage, and thus the
general prosperity increased. The Norwe-
gians have paid great attention to national
education, and have taken a prominent
position in art and science.
In the earlier years of the union there
was often friction between the king and
the people. Charles XIV., Bernadotte,
who succeeded to the throne in 1818,
5158
thought that the Norwegian constitu-
tion was too democratic, and wished
to extend his power. However, his
attempts to alter the constitution were
frustrated by the decided attitude of the
Storting, which always offered a unanimous
opposition to his propositions. The Nor-
wegians, on their part, thought that the
king did too little to obtain for them the
equal footing in the union which had been
decreed by the constitution, and, in
addition, they feared his attacks on the
constitution.
Little by little, however, the relations
of king and people improved ; Charles
John experienced in his last years many
proofs of the loyalty of the Norwe-
gians. His son, Oscar I., a liberal and
kindly disposed prince, did his utmost to
meet the wishes (j1 the Xdwt L;ians. King
OSCAR II.
Charles XV. was succeeded by his brother, Oscar II., a
poet and historian, who, in lOO.i, regretfully agreed to
the demand of Norway for separation from Sweden.
and Storting worked in harmony for the
welfare of the country, which was making
great progress in every direction ; indus-
try, in particular, received a fresh impetus.
After his death, however, there was an end
SCANDINAVIA IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY
of concord ; the opposition in the Storting
increased, and serious pohtical struggles
began which have continued almost with-
out interruption up to the present day.
At first the official element had taken
tbe lead in the Storting ; but after the July
Revolution, which had roused in Norway a
more general interest in politics, and a
strong national spirit, the peasants, who
considered themselves the true represen-
•tatives of the Norwegian people, and
regarded the government officials with sus-
picion, founded a party in opposition to
them. This party soon gained in strength
by the coalition of the Liberals, who wished
to extend the influence of the Storting at
the expense of the executive power. It
impeached the Ministry ; the Ministers
were actually condemned, and the king
was forced to appoint a Sverdrup Ministry,
June 26th, 1884. However, no sooner did
the Left come into power than they began
to disagree ; they split up into Moderates
and Radicals, and Sverdrup was obliged
to give way to a Conservative Ministry in
July, 1889. But the Conservatives did
not remain in power; in 1891 the Liberals
came into office, which they retained till
after the spring of the new century.
Almost all literary activity had ceased
with the decline of the national life in the
fourteenth century. The people, how-
ever, still cherished the old sagas and
poems, A wealth of national poetry was
THE GREAT FIGURES IN SCANDINAVIAN LITERATURE OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY
With the awakened enthusiasm for nationalism in the early part of the nineteenth century there dawned a new
literary era in Scandinavia, the poets Bjorn Bjornson, Jonas Lie, and others delighting: in describing the charac-
teristic traits in the life and customs of the people, while Bjornson and Ibsen also achieved fame as dramatists.
now formed an opposition and established
itself on the left side of the House, while
what had been the official became the
Conservative party, and supported the
Government. The Left had a capable
leader in John Sverdrup, 1876-1892 ;
under him they became more important,
and finally constituted the majority in the
Storting. Consequently the relations be-
tween the Government and the Left were
not over-friendly during the reign of
Charles XV., 1859-1872. '
Ill-feeling increased under his brother
and successor, Oscar II. There were
several points of dispute ; the Govern-
ment opposed various propositions of the
Left, and could not agree with them con-
cerning the exact meaning of a few points
in the constitution. At last the Storting
springing up — songs, sagas, and fairy
stories. These have been collected in
recent times and furnish an interesting
picture of the intellectual life of the people
in earlier times. The olc" Norwegian
language, which had remained compara-
tively unaltered only in Iceland, became
obsolete as a literary language with the
decline of literatvire, and survived only
in dialects. The Danish language was
introduced, and in the sixteenth century,
when a fresh impulse was given to literary
activity, the Norwegians wrote in Danish.
Thus the literature of the two countries
became merged. The share which the
Norwegians contributed, " Foelles lit-
teraturen," was at first insignificant, but
it increased and became more important
as they gradually recovered from their
5159
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
inertia. But, in spite of the growing
national spirit, there was as yet no effort
to create a Norwegian national literature.
Immediately after 1814 also, when the
literary output was small, the poets
showed little originality. They remained
in the grooves of the eighteenth century,
raved about their fatherland, and wrote
_^ -. songs on liberty, national
The Dawn i ■, ■, tj.
f N f novels, and dramas. it was
, . °° not until the year 1830 that a
national literature of any im-
portance began, with the poets Wergeland,
who died in 1845, and Welhaven, who died
in 1873. Both were filled with a fervent
love for their country, and only differed in
one point — namely, as to what would
prove of most advantage to Norway.
The educated classes are still strongly in-
fluenced by Danish culture, and Welhaven
desired to maintain the intellectual
union with Denmark ; Wergeland, on the
other hand, hated the Danish culture
and language, and was enthusiastic about
his own nationality.
Thus in 1832 there began a violent
literary feud. It had some good results.
On the one hand it helped to check
the exaggerated enthusiasm for every-
thing Norwegian ; on the other hand it
strengthened genuine self-reliance and
true patriotism. With the extravagant
enthusiasm for nationalism there was
awakened an interest in the life of the
people, in national poetry, and nature.
The poets Bjorn Bjornson, Jonas Lie, and
others delighted in describing the charac-
teristic traits in the life and customs of
the people and their thoughts and feelings.
At the same time the saga period was
dramatised,, and Bjornson and Henrik
Ibsen, who died in 1906, produced a series
of historical plays. Efforts were made to
preserve Norwegian as the national lan-
guage. From 1870 literature gradually
assumed a realistic tone; the poets did not
describe chiefly the life of the peasants
as formerly, but all classes of
man society. Poets such as Biornson,
Under the - -^ -' '
Swedes
Ibsen, Lie, Alex Kielland, who
died in igo6, and Arne Garborg,
born in 185 1, undertook to solve social pro-
blems. Science was studied with gratifying
results at the University of Christiania.
Finland, which the Swedes had conquered
and converted to Christianity in the
thirteenth century, was not intimately
connected with the kingdom of Sweden
until the sixteenth century ; in the
5160
fifteenth century it was generally given to
some Swedish magnate as a fief. It was
not until the time of the V^asa that the
royal power made itself felt in the land.
Gustavus Vasa reformed the government
and system of taxation, destroyed the
Catholic hierarchy, and introduced the
Reformation, for which M. Agricola, who
died in 1557, in particular interested him-
self keenly; but the king's efforts to release
the Finns from the oppression of their
own nobles were fruitless. The situation
became still worse under the sons of
Gustavus, Erik XIV. and John.
At last, in 1596-1597, the Finnish
peasants rose against their oppressors,
and, armed with clubs, plundered the
estates of the nobles ; but the rising,
which spread over the whole country,
was suppressed, and for the second time
Finland was conquered. This " Club
War" cost the lives of 3,000 peasants.
The conditions improved after Charles IX.
became king. Assistance was given to the
country, and it was united more firmly
to Sweden ; the power of the nobility was
crushed, and Finland, which had become a
grand duchy in 1581, was
m an s governed from Stockholm, al-
p*"* ° .. though it had its own court of
rospen y j^g^j^g ^^ ^^^ There in 1640 the
governor-general. Per Brahe the younger,
who rendered valuable services to Finland,
founded a university, w^hich soon became
the intellectual centre of Finland. The
Peace of Stolbowa, in 1617, fixed the fron-
tier on the side of Russia. From that
time Finland enjoyed a time of prosperit}'
until towards the end of the seventeenth
century, when the -land was terribly de-
vastated by famine and pestilence. The
great Northern War came as a crowning
misfortune. The country did not recover
until the eighteenth century, when Swedish
rule predominated. Even the war with
Russia, 1741-1743, did not permanently
affect the prosperity to which the
country had again attained.
In the meantime desires for independ-
ence were awakening in the hearts of many
Finns, who hoped, with the aid of Russia, to
form an independent Finnish state under
Russian protection. This wish was partly
realised at the beginning of the nineteenth
century owing to the indiscreet policy of
Gustavus IV. ; for after the unsuccessful
war of 1808-1809 Sweden was obliged to
cede Finland, together with the Aland
Islands, to Russia by the Peace of
THE TOWN AS SEEN FROM THE HARZIUUK, WHICH IS PROTECTED BY BATTERIES
THE SENATE HOUSE, WHERE LADY MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT SIT
HELSINGFORS, THE FORTIFIED SEAPORT CAPITAL OF FINLAND
ii6i
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
Fredrikshamn, September 17th, 1809. The
Emperor Alexander I. promised at the
Diet of Borga, which he opened in person,
that he would maintain the constitution of
the country. Finland was united to Russia
as an independent grand duchy, with
Helsingfors for its capital. The provinces
which had been ceded by the Peace of
Nystad, 1721, and the Peace of Abo, 1743,
were also incorporated with the grand
duchy after several years. At first
Alexander I. was true to his promise and
respected the constitution, but later he
became a reactionary, and in this respect
he was followed by Nicholas I . Better times
returned with Alexander II., who decreed
that from i86g the Diet — ^Landtag — to
which Nicholas had allowed no authority,
should again be regularly convened, and
should have the power of legislation with
certain restrictions. In this period reforms
were introduced which furthered the
material and social development of the
country. In the nineteenth century the
Finns also distinguished themselves by
their literary activity. E. Lonnrot, who died
in 1884, collected the old Finnish national
sagas, " Kalcvala." whicli attracted great
attention when they were publisned in 1835.
J oh. Runeberg, who died in 1877, Finland's
greatest poet, extolled in " Fanrik Stals
Sagner " the exploits of the Finns in the
last war against Russia. Z. Topelius, who
died in 1898, has earned well-deserved re-
nown even beyond the boundaries of Fin-
land by his "Narratives" — Erzahlungen.
In recent times a movement has been set
on foot in Finland which aims at making
the national language equal in importance
to the Swedish. The supporters of this
movement, the " Fennomanen," have been
so successful in their efforts that both
languages are on an equal footing in
everything which immediately concerns
the population of Finland. Although the
people have divided into two parties on
this question, they are all agreed that they
must unite against the encroachments of
Russia, for there are many Russians who
are not pleased with the independence of
Finland, and who would gladly see the
country entirely incorporated with Russia.
The Russian Government also made it
evident that Russia would like to incor-
porate Finland and destroy the Finnish
nationality. Hans Schjoth
A SCENE IN DENMARK S CAPITAL:
THE ROYAL THEATRl COPENHAGEN
5162
THE CLOSE OF THE VICTORIAN ERA
THE TRIUMPH OF DEMOCRACY
IN THE UNITED KINGDOM
By Arthur D. Innes, M.A.
TTHE Reform Bill, passed in 1867, was
•■• avowedly a leap in the dark. The
vote for parliamentary representatfves
had been bestowed on classes which had
hitherto had no voice in the government
of the country. Practically the whole of
the m"ban labouring population was now
entitled to vote, though the agricultural
labourers, the peasantry of the three
kingdoms, were still excluded. The work-
ing man had got his vote on the hypothesis
that he would use it intelligently and
responsibly. There was ground, on the one
side, for expecting that a class numerically
outweighing the rest would demand legis-
lation in its own interests ; and, on the
other, for trusting to the conservative
instincts of the race to prevent such de-
mands from being excessive.
It was evident to both the political parties
that to meet the requirements of this new
and preponderant element in the elector-
ate must be a primary object with every
government. It was likely that any change
in the character of the representatives
themselves, in the social rank to which
they would belong, would be only gradual ;
the actual business of government would
be ir the hands of the same type of legis-
lators and administrators as before ; but
they would have to satisfy the wants of
new masters, and the new masters would
have to be educated to a wise exercise of
their newly- acquired powers.
Broadly speaking, then, at the moment
when the new electorate placed Gladstone
in power instead of Disraeli the attitudes
of the two parties w^ere as follows : The
Liberals believed that their hands were
strengthened for drastic legislation directed
against what they regarded as the unjusti-
fiable privileges of the orders of society
which had hitherto held the preponderance,
some of which appeared to the Conserva-
tives in the light of necessary m.ainstays
for the support of any orderly social fabric.
On the other hand, their foreign policy
was based on the conviction that peace
should be secured, and the horrors of war
avoided, by carrying concession to the
utmost limits compatible with national
honour, and by a confidence in the equal
readiness of foreign Powers to be guided
by abstract conceptions of disinterested
justice. The Conservatives, on the other
hand, looked to the provision of methods
for the ameliofation of the condition of the
working classes without disturbing vested
interests ; and in foreign politics, having a
complete distrust of our neighbours' readi-
ness to subordinate their own interests to
principles of abstract justice, they dwelt
on the maxim that the best security against
war is to be found in readiness for battle.
Ireland presented to Gladstone the most
immediate and pressing problem. Catholic
emancipation had not healed the distresses
of that country, and the Fenian movement
was only a more violent demonstration
than usual of the intense discontent from
which she was suffering. Gladstone
believed the political disaffection to be the
product of genuine grievances, which were
attributed to the British supremacy, and
5163
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
KING EDWARD IN EARLY MANHOOD
if those grievances were removed,
the disaffection would die out.
These sources of trouble were
to be found in the agrarian and
the religious systems existing.
Roman Catholicism was no longer
attended by serious disabilities ;
but in a country where more than
three-fourths of the population
were Roman Catholics the religious
endowments were appropriated to
the established Anglican Church,
while the Church to which the
masses adhered was entirely de-
pendent on voluntary support.
The disestablishment of the An-
glican Church in Ireland was the
first important measure presented
to the new Parliament in 1869.
To deprive the Church of her
property, to sever the connection
of Church and State, to attack the
supremacy of Protestantism — such,
in the eyes of opponents, were the
objects of the Bill, which was
passed, however, part of the pro-
posal being an arrangement under
which the equivalent of some two-
thirds of the Church property was
returned to the new ecclesiastical
5164
corporation into which the dis-
established Church was formed.
Irish land presented a no less
thorny problem. In Ireland, the
peasant lived on, and by, his
holding ; there was no demand for
his labour. The alternative to
living on his holding at whatever
rental the landlord or his agent
might demand, was emigration.
Most of the peasantry were tenants
at will, who could be simply evicted
at six months' notice, and eviction
meant the complete loss of any
expenditure the tenant had in-
curred in improving his holding,
although this state of things was
locally modified by prevalent
customs. The demand of the
peasantry was formulated in the
" Three Fs," fair rent, fixity of
tenure, free sale.
The object of the Land Bill now
introduced by the Government was
to provide compensation for im-
provements in cases of arbitrary
eviction, to give sundry local
customs the force of law, and to
assist tenants, by monev loans, to
PUEEN
ALEXANDRA AT THE TIME OF HER MARRIAGE
Trom the paiulinij by R. Lauchcrt
THE CLOSE OF THE VICTORIAN ERA
become freeholders by purchase when the
landlord was willing to sell. This Bill also
was passed ; but it shared with the Act of
Disestablishment the fate of being regarded
as a concession, not to justice, but to
violence. The activity of the secret
societies was not curtailed, and even while
it was under consideration it was con-
sidered necessary to pass a " Peace
Preservation Act," giving considerable
powers of summary jurisdiction to magis-
trates and otherwise restricting normal
liberties in " proclaimed " districts. As an
attempt at conciliation, the measures were
a complete failure, and the Home Rule
movement came
into being — a
movement dis-
tinct from Feni-
anism, which
demanded sepa-
ration, and not
identical with
O'Connell's old
demand for the
repeal of the
Union, but
having as its
avowed object
the creation oi
an Irish Parlia-
ment for the
conduct of Irish
government. In
1870 was passed
the Education
Act, empower-
i n g local a u -
thorities to es-
tablish schools
for primary
education main-
tained chiefly out
a lar^;e extent, unreasonable, but .none the
less violent, than -this Education Act,
associated with the name of W.-E! Fqrster ;
but these did not arise in an acute form
till some years later, when the Voluntary
schools began to find their own mainten-
ance, unsupplemented by, public funds,
increasingly impossible. "
The Nonconformist bodies protested
against paying rates for the support of such
schools as were allowed to maintain a
" Church Atmosphere," which Anglicans
and Romanists made a cardinal point
of maintaining. "T^Tidenominational" in-
struction being regarded as anti-Anglican,
while- payment
for denomina-
tional instruc-
tion out of public
moneys is no
less objection-
able from the
other point of
view, all efforts
at a compromise
between the two
sides have hither-
to failed; and the
advocates of ex-
clusively secular
instruction as
the only road
t o educational
peace seem likely
to multiply.
Apart, however,
from the religious
question, there is
a general con-
sensus of opinion
that, although
elementary edu-
cation by the
^f +V.O f^+oo \.r; + U A ROYAL FAMILY GROUP c ^ 1 " .^ ^
of the rates, Wllh ^in^ Edward and Queen Alexandra in 18.U, then the Prince and State haS UOt yet
the proviso that Princess of Wales, with their first-born child, Prince Albert Victor. bCCn tumcd tO
the religious instruction given in such
schools should be the simple Bible teaching
supposed to be common to all Christian
churches and sects. Hitherto, elementary
schools had been supported almost entirely
by the contributions of members of different
religious denominations, the bulk of them,
of course, Anglican, which merely received
slight assistance from government grants,
In such schools it was required that parents
might, under a " conscience clause," with-
draw their children from religious instruc-
tion. It would be hard to name any
more fruitful source of controversies, to
the best account, much good has already
been done, and the machinery has been
prepared for future developments. But
the parents in the class for whose special
benefit the system w'as devised have
never displayed any warm apprecia-
tion of its merits, since the children
are unable effectively to earn wages
until their school-time is ovei .
Another attack on class-privilege is to
be noted in the abolition of promotion by
purchase in the army— a measure which
was enforced by Royal prerogative in
view of the probability that the House of
5165
3 c> >;
5166
THE CLOSE OF THE VICTORIAN ERA
Lords would prevent its enactment by
process of Parliament. That a Liberal
Government should appeal to prerogative
to override Parliament was sufficiently
paradoxical to look like a constitutional
innovation. In electoral law one change
of importance was made by the introduc-
tion of the ballot, which has only in part
had. the desired and desirable effect of
sheltering those electors who do not wish it
to be known how their vote has been cast.
None of the legislation recorded was of
a character to excite the enthusiasm of
the new electors ; and the Ministers'
Conference'. The result - was - t4iat the
Powers acquiesced in the modifications
of the treaty required by Russia. Great
Britain, being alone strongly interested in
the maintenance of the clauses, was unable
to impress her view on the other signatories ;
and the country felt that its prestige had
been lowered in the eyes of Europe.
Somewhat similar was the effect of. the
Alabama claim. The Alabama, as pre-
viously related, was a vessel built in the
Mersey which escaped the vigilance of
the authorities, "put to sea, vvas handed
;over to the Confederates, and did immense
KING EDWARD VII. AND QUEEN ALEXANDRA RIDING IN WINDSOR PARK
From the picture by Barraud, painted in the early years of their married hfe
conduct of foreign affairs was still less
pleasing. In two separate affairs, British
diplomacy had disastrous results. The
Russian Government took the oppor-
tunity of the outbreak of war between
France and Germany to issue a declara-
tion repudiating certain clauses in the
Treaty of Paris, which had followed the
Crimean War, on the ground that altered
circumstances had made them no longer
binding. The claim necessitated the
assembling of a conference of the Powers
which had signed the treaty, held in
London and known as the Black Sea
damage to the Federal shipping in the
American Civil War. Very heavy claims
for compensation were put in by the
United States Government, while the
British refused to admit that any breach
of neutrality had been committed. At
last, in 1871, a treaty was made by which
the dispute was submitted to an inter-
national court of arbitration. In the
treaty, the British Government conceded
practically every one of the American
demands as to the conditions of the
inquiry, though denying that several of
the conditions were properly applicable ;
5^^7
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
and the court's decision was regarded as
extravagantly favourable to the Americans.
This first great attempt to intro-
duce the principle of arbitration in the
settlement of international difficulties
gave an unfortunate impression that
such tribunals would be guided, not
by the principles of justice, but by
interest, and where Britain was con-
cerned, by prejudice against her. The
impression was intensified when a
dispute as to delimitation of frontiers
in the north-west of America was re-
ferred to the arbitration of the German
Emperor, and was promptly decided in
favour of the Americans. Thus, by
the Acts ; the war raged round the
doctrine . of freedom of contract, which
must, in, the eyes of one party, be held
sacred and inviolable, whereas in the eyes
of the other party the " Freedom" was
a fiction, the tenant or employee having
practically no power to resist pressure on
the part of the landlord or employer.
It was not, however, in the field of
domestic legislation that the 1874 Ministry
was notable. The brilliant chief of the
ruling party found room for a more
dazzling display of his abilities in the
conduct of foreign affairs. The world was
suddenly startled by the exceedingly
ingenious stroke which brought the
QUEEN VICTORIA RECEIVING THE SHAH OF PERSIA AT WINDSOR, ON JUNE 20TH, 1873
the end of 1872 the Ministry had
lost favour with the nation, and a dis-
solution at the beginning of 1874 gave
Disraeli a decisive majority.
The conservative legislation proceeded
on the lines of providing the working
classes with opportunities for improving
their condition. The fundamental differ-
ence between the attitude of Conservatism
and that of advanced Liberalism became
apparent in the questions of contract
between landlord and tenant, or between
employers and employees. The legisla-
tion systematically recognised the right
of the two parties to contract them-
selves out of the obligations imposed b}'
5168
recently constructed Suez Canal practically
under British control. The canal had
been constructed by Lesseps, and the
natural presumption was that French
influence would predominate, while the
great actual preponderance lay with tlie
Khedive of Egypt. But the Khedive was
in want of cash ; and on the strength of
information received, Disraeli purchased
his shares in the Canal Company on
behalf of the British Government, which
thus became very much the largest
shareholder in the concern. The secrecy
and the unexpectedness of the transaction
gave it a peculiarly startling character,
and at once aroused the excited suspicions
CABINET COUNCIL IN DOWNING STREET DISCUSSING THE EASTERN QUESTION
In 1876 a crisis of an alarming character occupied the attention of the British Government. Misrule in Turkey
had brought the European provinces of the Porte into insurrection, ind while one party in Britiin was desirous of
maintaining- the rule of the Turk there was another party equally reso \. 1 to terminate th( oppr -.ion at all costs
THE CONFERENCE OF THE GREAT POWERS AT CONSTANTINOPLE IN 1S7G
The Eastern crisis increased in intensity when, in June, 1870, Servia and Montenegro declared war against
Turkey. An armistice having been agreed upon, through the insistence of Russia, Lord Beaconsfield organised a
conference of the Great Powers at Constantinople, Lord Salisbury attending it as the representative of the British
Government. The conference proved abortive, the threatened Russo-Turkish war being only temporarily averted.
COUNCIL AND CONFERENCE IN LONDON AND CONSTANTINOPLE
I C 23 G 5169
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
of tlie political school
which \'iews with alarm
any abnormal extra-
parliamentary exercise of
administrative power.
About the same time,
the Eastern question was
again assuming pro-
minence. If Russia, on
the one part,, succeeded,
as we have seen, in
securing in her own favour
modifications of the post-
Crimean Treaty of Paris,
Turkey had succeeded in
effectually evading the
fulfilment of her own
pledges under that instru-
ment. The government
of the Christian pro-
vinces continued to be
eminently unsatisfactory,
amounting practically to a
military' rule over a ]:)eople
in a state perpetually
CHARLES STEWART PARNELL
The "uncrowned King of Ireland," Parnell
exercised wonderful influence both in Parlia-
ment and throughout the country, but his
appearance as co-respondent in a divorce case
was the death-blow to his political career.
bordering on insurrection.
Insurrection broke out
in Bosnia and Herzego-
\'ina, and was repressed
with circumstances of
savage brutality, even
when full allowance is
made for inevitable ex-
aggerations and highly
coloured pictures of the
cruelties practised. The
European governments
remonstrated, and the
European populations be-
came excited. Turkey
continued to promise,
and continued not to
perform. The stories of
the " Bulgarian atro-
cities " aroused a passion
of indignant resentment,
especially in Britain and
in Russia. The govern-
ments still confined
themselves to diplomatic
THE "MOONLIGHTING" OUTRAGES IN IRELAND: A VISIT FROM "CAPTAIN MOONLIGHT"
Abo t 1 S.HI I secret societies carried out in Ireland a series of outrages, chiefly at night. Thenoticessent to those who were to
be visited w-jre signed "Captain Moonlight," and thus the members of these societies came to be known as " Moonlighters.'
5170
THE EVICTION OF AN IRISH HOUSEHOLDER FOR REFUSING TO PAY HIS KENT
During the disturbed period in Ireland scenes such as that depicted above were of frequent occurrence. Rents could
not be collected, and in consequence the tenants who refused to pay were forcibly evicted by officers of the police.
stubborn fight against heavy odds. Lord
Beaconsfield — DisraeH had taken the title
at the end of 1876 — felt that the nation
would be behind him in opposing Russia.
The fleet was sent to the Dardanelles ; it
seemed as if a war with Russia could
hardly be avoided. Blatant bellicosity
got its now familiar title of Jingoism
from a popular song of the day.
In the midst of the clamour the public
was startled by suddenly finding the
Russians and Turks embracing. The two
powers had concluded the Treaty of San
Stefano. But the treaty was by no means
to the liking of the British, as unduly
strengthening the Russian position, though
not so much so as was at first feared. Lord
Beaconsfield claimed that the treaty must
be submitted to a conference of the Powers,
who were pledged to maintain the Treaty of
Paris as modified by the Black Sea
Treaty. It was still far from certain that
the war-clouds would disperse, and native
])ressure, and Turkey still relied on
their distrust of each other to secure
her from anything more serious. But
Russia took upon herself the obligations
of Europe, and in 1877 declared war
upon Turkey in the character of defender
of the Christian populations.
It was precisely in this character that
Russia had always intervened ; British
Ministers as invariably believed. the philan-
thropic profession to be nothing but a
cloak, an excuse which was to be used to
advance Russian interests to the detriment
of the British Empire. Suspicions of
Russia prevailed over indignation against
Turkey ; the conviction was not unusual
that Russia had deliberately fostered the
disturbances, that an excuse might be
provided for her own aggression. Russia
flung herself against Turkey, and the
magnificent defence of Plevna by Osman
Pasha excited the keen admiration of a
people always ready to sympathise with a
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
troops were summoned from India to Malta
for contingencies — a proceeding which, in
the eyes of many, was a violation of consti-
tutional principles. How far this practical
demonstration of British readiness for
war influenced Russia may be a matter
for question ; but she assented to the
British demand, and a congress of the
Powers was summoned at Berlin.
Whether the objects and the methods
of Beaconsfield's diplomacy were wise or
unwise, the methods were successful and
the objects were attained. Secret pre-
liminary agreements were made separately
with Russia and with Turkey ; and the
outcome of the congress was that the
Balkan States were declared independent
principalities, the concessions to Russia
under the Treaty of San Stefano were
curtailed, and the new treaty was supple-
mented by an Anglo-Turk'sh treaty, under
which Great Britain guaranteed the in-
tegrity of the Turkish
dominion in Asia, in con-
sideration of which she was
to occupy the Island of
Cyprus. Lord Beaconsfield
returned to England, the
bearer, in his own famous
phrase, of " Peace with
Honour," in July, 1878.
In other parts of the
empire, however, Lord
Beaconsfield's policy
brought the Ministry more
doubtful credit. The pro-
clamation of a new title
for the Queen as Empress
of India at the opening of
1877 was not uncommonly
regarded in Britain as a
piece of cheap display ;
though, on the other hand,
the British mind does not
find it easy to appreciate
the value of even cheap dis-
play in influencing Oriental
populations. But the new
policy adopted toward-^
Afghanistan by Loin
Beaconsfield and " his
Vicei'oy, Lord Lytton, was
fraught with danger. Ever
since the restoration of
Dost Mohammed in 1843, the principle of
non-intervention had been maintained.
But in Asia, as in Europe, Russian aggres-
sion was looked upon with increasing alarm ;
Russian efforts to obtain influence at the
5172
Court of Kabul were regarded with v/ell-
founded jealousy, and there was a strong
feeling in military circles that strategical
requirements demanded the substitut'on of
a " scientific frontier " for the existing
one. The proposals of the British Govern-
ment appeared to the Amir.^ere Ali, to be
merely a cloak for annexation. A Russian
^. « . • t mission was received at Kabul,
The British J r:> -J.- u
__ . and a British mission was
Af'^h *"\ stopped. Three British coiumns
g anis an gj^^gj-^^j Afghanistan in Nov-
ember, 1878. Shere Ali fled, and died ;
the British established his son Yakub Khan
as Amir. Sir Louis Cavagnari went to
Kabul as British Resident, and was very
soon murdered, in September, 1879. The
account of the war which followed, in
which Sir Donald Stewart and Sir Frederic
Roberts achieved their laurels, has been
given in the history of India. A change
of government in Britain in 1880 brought
THE POLICE
SEARCHING AN IRISH HOUSE FOR ARMS
a reversal of policy, and Abdurrhaman
was established as an independent ruler.
In South Africa the Zulu War could at
best bring little prestige ; it brought dis-
aster in the affair of Isandlhwana, though
THE ASSASSINATION OF LORD FREDERIC CAVENDISH AND MR. BURKE IN PHCENIX PARK
The outrages which marked the disaffection of the Irish against the government in the early eighties cuhninated in a
dastardly outrage in Phoenix Park, Dublin, on the morning of May 6th, 18s2, when Lord Frederic Cavendish, Chief
Secretary for Ireland, and Mr. Thomas Burke, permanent Irish Under Secretary, were as<:assinated by a small band
of " Irish Invincibles." Twenty men were brought to trial in connection with the crime, and five of them were hanged.
the credit of British courage was indis-
putably confirmed by the heroic defence
of Rorke's^D'rift. And the annexation of
the Transvaal Republic was immediately
afterwards to bear bitter fruit.
The social legislation had done little to
satisfy the labour-class electors. The
diplomatic triumph of the Berlin Congress
was dimmed by the troubles in Afghani-
stan and South Africa. There was an un-
easy sense in the country that Lord
Beaconsfield was too fond of surprises and
-, sensations, of keeping the nation
. _^ "^^ in the dark, of playing with fire.
. p The Parliament had run six
years of its life when it dissolved
in 1880, and the Liberals returned to power.
Gladstone had retired from the leadership,
but there was now no possible question
that Gladstone was the leader whom the
electorate demanded, and he entered upon
his second administration.
The legislative efforts of the last Liberal
Government had been concentrated mainly
on the Irish Church Disestablishment and
the Irish Land Act. Ireland was again to
absorb Gladstone's attention, ultimately
to the practical exclusion of other matters ;
while the conduct of foreign affairs was
still destined to be a source of popular
dissatisfaction. During the Conservative
term of office the Irish Home-Rulers,
though as yet the limitations of the county
franchise kept their nurAbers low, had
come to be distinctively known as the Irish
members. Under the leadership of Charles
Stewart Parnell, they were already con-
solidating into a compact and discipHned
force with a large capacity for the syste-
matic obstruction of public business.
Under the new administration they rapidly
became one of the most effectively
organised forces on record.
The state of affairs in Ireland had
not improved ; agitation and organised
resistance to authority had increased.
The first announcement that the Govern-
ment did not intend to renew the Peace
Preservation Act on its lapse was re-
garded with grave apprehension ; while
the Irish members complained that there
was no promise of immediately proceeding
to a new Land Bill. Certain proposals
brought forward by one of the Irish mem-
bers were, however, embcdied at an early
date in the Bill for Compensation for Dis-
turbance ; but the destruction of the Bill
by the Lords, coupled with the lapse of the
5173
iiiu 1 ini III! iiii i
THE IRISH LAND LEAGUE: RECREATION TIME IN KILMAINHAM PRISON
A new Land Act passed by the Government in face of strenuous opposition did nothing to settle the disturbed condition
of the country, and the agitation and outrages continuing, Parnell and other leaders were lodged in Kilmainhara Gaol.
Peace Preservation Act, was the signal for
the outbreak of a series of agrarian out-
rages ; and the practice of " boj-cotting "
— a name taken from that of one of its
victims — was established and carried out
on an extensive scale. Rents could not be
collected, and there was an immense
number of evictions in consequence. The
organisation known as the Land League,
with which most of the Irish members
were associated, was held responsible ;
and, in spite of some doubt whether any-
thing that could be brought home to them
was in actual violation of the law, some of
its leaders were arrested. Since there was
no sort of chance that an Irish jury would
convict them, the effect for the Govern-
ment was somewhat ignominious.
These troubles decided the Government
that coercive measures must precede the
remedial. The Irish members demanded
precedence for land reform, and gave
warning that a measure of coercion would
be met by refusal to pay rent. Neverthe-
less, the Coercion Bills were introduced to
the accompaniment of a prolonged debate,
an all-night sitting being followed b}' one
of forty-one hours, which the Speaker
brought to a close only by a summary use
of his powers on his own responsibility.
5174
This was the cause of drastic measures of
procedure, intended to prevent the effective
tactical use of obstruction ; but no method
has yet been devised which can prevent a
deUberate waste of the time of the House.
The Coercion Bills were passed after
most stormy scenes, and then the new
Land Act was introduced, of which the
essential feature was the estabUshment
of Land Courts to fi.x fair rents instead of
leaving the amount as one of bargaining
between landlord and tenant. The Act
was passed, in spite of strenuous opposition
in the House of Lords and the
open withdi'awal of some sup-
The Terrible
Tragedy
. p"* porters of the Government.
The Parnellites refused to aid
the Government ; the agitation and the out-
rages continued ; Parnell himself and other
leaders were lodged in Kilmainham ; and
a manifesto was issued against any pay-
ment of rents till they should be set free.
This had hardly been done when the
tragedy of the Phoenix Park murders
occurred, a crime emanating from extre-
mist sources in America, and for the time ex-
tremely injurious to the Irish parliamentary
partv, whom a large section of the public
persistently believed to be responsible.
By a strange irony it fell to the Gladstone
THE CLOSE OF THE VICTORIAN ERA
Ministry to initiate the British occu-
pation of Egy):)t. The great financial
interests there of British and French had
given those two countries a large control.
The virtual rebellion of Arabi Pasha the
bombardment of Alexandria bj, the Biitish
fleet, while the French fleet refused co-
operation, the overthrow of Arabi by Sir
Garnet Wolseley at Tel-el-kebir, and the
establishment of a British control intended
to be only temporary, have been narrated
elsewhere. From these events the Govern-
ment did not suffer ; but the same cannot
be said of the later developments. The
, rise of Mahdism, the mission
or on s ^£ General Gordon, the noble but
Death in , • , , ■
„ embarrassmg course of action
which he adopted, and the disas-
trous delays, owing to which the Govern-
ment expedition, despatched to his rescue,
arrived at Khartoum to find that the place
had been captured and the hero slain two
days before, January 26th, 1885 — these
things dealt a disastrous blow which griev-
ously weakened the Government's prestige.
At an earlier stage, too, it had suffered
severely by the events connected with
the revolt of the Transvaal Boers, the
rout of British troops by a handful of
farmers at Majuba Hill, and the reinstate-
ment, in i88t, of the Boer Republic as an
act of justice which, by most Boers and
probably by a majority of British, was
attributed to pusillanimity. That this was
a misjudgment of motive, however unwise
the experiment in magnanimity may have
been, is sufficiently attested by the posi-
tion of trusted leadership subsequently
held in the Unionist party by chiefs,
who at this time shared the responsibili-
ties of the Gladstone Cabinet. The details
appear in the African Division. The
Penjdeh incident on the Afghan frontier,
and its close by another reference to arbi-
tration, by no means satisfactory to the
British, belongs to the Indian record, but
has to be noted here as the last of the
series of events abroad which helped to
fix on the Government the stigma of a
peace-at-any-price Ministry.
Nevertheless, in spite of the dissatisfac-
tion over foreign affairs, the Cabinet
retained the support of the country by its
domestic policy. Ireland having taken up
its share of legislative time, the completion
of the democratic reform initiated by the
Conservative " leap in the dark " of 1867
was taken in hand, and a Bill was intro-
duced in 1884 for the enfranchisement of
the agricultural as well as the urban
labouring classes. The Government's
majority in the House of Commons was
THE NILE CAMPAIGN IN iss", : LORD CHARLES BERESFORD'S DASH TO KHARTOUM
The above picture illustrates an incident in the Nile campaig^n of 1885, when General Gordon was shut up in Khartoum,
bravely defending it against the savage hordes of the Mahdi. Making a dash for the Nile, Sir Charles Wilson there
found steamers and reinforcements from Gordon, but he was too late to save the gallant soldier. Wilson and his
ii||n being in grave danger from the enemy, an expedition under the command of Lord Charles Beresford was des-
patched to their assistance, and sailing up the Nile on the steamer Safia accomplished its object by rescuing the party.
iny l.y Uickc
5175
5176
THE CLOSE OF THE VICTORIAN ERA
decisive. But franchise extension necessi-
tated also redistribution of constituencies ;
and the House of Lords demanded that the
Government's Redistribuiion Bill should
take precedence of the Bill extending the
franchise, the Conservatives claiming that
their opposition was not directed against
the principle of the Bill before them.
A serious crisis seemed imminent,
and there were many angry demands
for the abolition of the hereditary
Chamber, or, at least, for its recon-
struction on lines which would make it
Cabinet so uneasy that the opportunity
was taken to resign when they were
defeated on a snap vote on the Budget.
Lord Salisbury, who had succeeded Lord
Beaconsfield in the leadership of the
Conservatives, accepted office in June.
Before the dissolution of Parliament hi
August, a measure was passed, known
as the Ashbourne Act, under which
£5,000,000 were advanced by the State
to facilitate the purchase of their holdings
by Irish tenants ; and various circum-
stances produced a strong impression
THE JUBILEE SERVICE IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY ON JUNE 21ST, 1887
From the painting by T. S. C. Crowtlier
no longer a recognised stronghold of one
political party. Nevertheless, the leaders
on both sides were not anxious to force
a great constitutional struggle, and a
practical compromise was arrived at. The
Franchise Bill was again introduced and
passed in the Commons, but before it was
dealt with by the Lords the chiefs of the
two parties agreed upon the Redistribution
Bill. Honour was satisfied on both sides,
and both Bills became law.
The death of General Gordon and the
Penjdeh affair made the position of the
of some sort of rapprochement between
the Conservatives and the Irish leader.
The result of the General Election at the
close of the year was embarrassing. The
extended franchise had doubled Parnell's
following in the House. Added to the Con-
servative ranks, they exactly cancelled the
total Liberal majority. In effect, they
could make government by either party
impossible. But the effect on the Liberal
leader's mind was what caused most sur-
prise ; it brought home to him that the
great majority of Irishmen supported
5177
MR. GLADSTONE INTRODUCING THE HOME RULE BILL ON FEBRUARY 13TH, 1893
Mr. Gladstone's solution for the ills which afflicted Ireland was a measure of self-government for that country, and in
the above picture he is seen introducing his Home Rule Bill to the House of Commons after the constituencies had sent
him back to power. The Bill passed the Lower House, after long discussion, but was thrown out by the House of Lords.
From tlic painting by K. Ponsonby Staples, by permission of Messrs. Henrj- Graves & Co.
5I7S
THE CLOSE OF THE VICTORIAN ERA
Parnell's demands —a conclusion which had
uot followed in the days when less than
half the members trom Ireland were Home
Rulers. Tlie claim of a minority had
suddenly assumed the character of a
national demand supported by four-fifths
of the national representatives. How could
England, the champion of oppressed
nationalities, refuse a hearing to such a
demand ? From this time to the end of
his life the establishment of Irish Home
Rule became Gladstone's absorbing passion.
There were many
members of the
Liberal party
who had already
all but yielded
to the conviction
that the only
solution of the
Irish problem lay
in Home Rule ;
there were some
who had been
actively urging
at least a large
delegation of
powers of local
self -government.
But of these the
most energetic
had drawn the
line short of the
concession of a
separate Irish
legislature, and
the Irish repre-
sentatives would
be content with
nothing short of
that. The Liberal
ranks were split
into these two
m.ain divisions ;
and those who
would concede
a legislature were again divided. Given an
Irish Parliament, should Ireland be repre-
sented at Westminster too ? If so, she
would be able still to hold the balance, to
control legislation in the sister kingdoms
while herself free from their control. If not,
she would cease to have a voice in Imperial
affairs, and to realise her partnership in Im-
perial interests. In any case, too, a legis-
lature elected practically by the peasantry
could not be trusted to deal fairly wi+h the
question of land, any more than would a
legislature elected practically by landlords.
QUEEN VICTORIA IN 1893
From a photog^raph by Messrs, Hughes & Mullins, Ryde
A number of " dissentient Liberals " broke
wholly with their leader, though before his
intentions were realised he had been able
to defeat the Salisbury Ministry, and to
assume the responsibilities of office. When
he introduced two Bills — one of which was
to settle the land question by the State
buying out the landlords and selling back
the land to the peasants ; while the other
was to establish a Parliament in Dublin,
and abolish the representation at West-
minster— .the combined forces of the Oppo-
sition proved too
strong, and the
Home Rule Bill
was defeated in
the House of
Commons on the
second reading.
Parliament was
dissolved. The
Conservatives
did not, under
the circum-
stances, contest
seats held by dis-
sentient Liberals,
and the elections
returned Lord
Salisbury to
power with a
majority' virtu-
ally dependent on
the consistent
support of the
body now known
as Liberal Uni-
onists. That
combination did
not cease to rule
until twenty
years had passed ;
for, although
there was an in-
terval from 1892
to 1895, during
which there was again a Liberal Ministry,
the Liberals, apart from Irish Home
Rule members, were even then in a
minority, and the House of Lords held itself
warranted in refusing to recognise the
composite majority which Ministers could
command as representing the national will.
Whatever constitutional objections
might be urged to this doctrine— virtually
based on the theory that the Irish
party did not count— the Lords found
their practical justification when a dissolu-
tion decisively ejected the Liberals. From
5179
5i8o
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li-y.a^''»x,i:--'; i'.!<^-, ;■'*>
^
p^^'
THE COLONIAL PREr/IIERS AND TROOPS PASSING OVER LONDON BRIDGE
SCENES IN QUEEN VICTORIA'S DIAMOND JUBILEE PROCESSION ^'^"^"'•"'=
5181
QUEEN VICTORIA IN THE YEAR OF HER DIAMOND JUBILEE, 1897
I'hoto : W. & D. Downey
5182
EDWARD VII., KING OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND
Photo: VV. S. Stuc.rt
5183
5i84
THE CLOSE OF THE VICTORIAN ERA
1886 to 1892 the Conservatives held office,
supported and very materially influenced
by the Liberal Unionists. From 1895 to the
end of 1904 Conservatives and Liberal
Unionists, combined as the Unionist party,
held office.
Lord Salisbury's first administration
was marked by three measures in which
the influence of his Liberal Unionist sup-
porters was prominent. An Irish Coercion
Act was accom-
panied by a Land
Act authorising
a revision of the
rents fixed by the
land court, and
the provision of
relief for tenants
whose payments
were in arrears.
In 1888 a great
measure was in-
troduced giving
extensive powers
of local govern-
ment to locally-
elected bodies —
county councils,
district councils,
and borough
councils, but this
was not exten-
ded to Ireland.
And in 1891 it
was decided that
the cost o^ educa-
tion, which was
made compul-
sory, ought to be
borne by the
State. Thence-
forth all parents
could obtain ele-
mentary educa-
tion for their
children without
making any
direct contribu-
tion to the cost.
The period is also noteworthy in other
parts of the globe for the delimitation of
the spheres of influence of the various
European Powers in Africa, and for the
final annexation of Burma. At home,
the Irish question was placed on an altered
footing by the " Parnell Commission," a
state inquiry which acquitted the Irish
leaders of the complicity in crime with which
thev had been charged. The dissolution
KING EDWARD VII. WHEN PRINCE OF WALES
From the painting by A. Stuart Wortley, by permission of
Messrs. Henry Graves & Co.
I D
in 1892 so reduced the Unionist forces
that Gladstone, with the support of the
Irish, was able to eject them from office.
The new Government introduced a new
Home Rule Bill, this time retaining the
Irish representatives at Westminster ;
and on its rejection by the Lords continued
to " fill up the cup," but could carry no
effective legislation except in the field of
finance, where constitutional practice for-
bade the inter-
vention of the
hereditary
Chamber. Con-
sequently the one
legacy to the
nation of this
Ministry — led
first by Glad-
stone, and later
on, after the
aged statesman's
retirement, by
Loid Rosebery —
was the system
known as the
"Death Duties,"
which provided
a substantial
source of revenue
from graduated
charges on the
value of property
changing hands
owing to the
death of the
owner. The base
principles of the
measure are, that
all property ac-
quired without
effort on the part
of the owner
owes something
extra to the com-
munity, and that
great wealth
owes not only
more, but a
larger percentage than moderate wealth,
and moderate wealth than poverty.
The Government majority was small at
the best. A chance defeat brought about
its resignation ; Lord Sahsbury took
office, and immediately dissolved. The
Unionists were returned to power with a
majority of 150 over the combined
Opposition ; and the Liberal wing of the
party now definitely amalgamated with
5185
-= c - > i; , a
W (D^CQr: J, „ 0)
o a*
1) ..£ as rt -^
Q
^ S =3 dj o g -s-s
EJJ
(-1 3 V) ' rt>->4)'-'
■^..^"S-i S ;
^*fOJ I, ..J c
Ss^-s ill's
■^ « . . o u CQ c
u 4, ijj=c/) j; . o
en V
<
.CQ
■" ■" J<l " u u "*>
>■= (ui/l^a «; o
"" "-.H MCQ~ -
£_u 3 jj sag
5186
EMINENT BRITISH STATESMEN OF RECENT AND PRESENT TIMES
Piiotos by Louduii Stertuai-uijic Cu.. Valeiitii-.c, JcrrarJ, Ilalltunes. MiUa and Ilaiiiea
5IS7
5i88
5189
KING EDWARD VII. AND QUEEN ALEXANDRA
J'hoto by W. S. Stuart
5190
THE CLOSE OF THE VICTORIAN ERA
the Conservatives. The latter title almost
disappeared from popular parlance, in
which the official name of Unionist was
gradually displaced for the old name of
Tory, while the official name of Liberal
yielded to that of Radical.
From the popular point of view, the suc-
cession of Irish Land Acts, whether just or
unjust to the landlords, had considerably
mitigated the agrarian grievances, and the
consciousness that there was at any rate a
large body of English and Scottish opinion
favourable to
Home Rule
tended to dis-
courage such vio-
lence as would be
likely to alienate
such sympathy.
Unionist govern-
ments, however,
have continued
in the direction
of concession to
the tenant class ;
and an experi-
ment was made
in the Irish Local
Government Act
of 1898, in the
hope that the de-
legation of large
powers of local
government to
locally elected
bodies would
weaken the de-
mand for a
separate legisla-
ture. The effects
of the Free Edu-
cation Act were
felt in the great
difficulties now
encountered by
the voluntary
schools in maintaining efficiency. Sub-
scriptions dwindled; when the subscribers
found themselves in any case required
to provide money for the education
of other people's children, they were
not disposed to keep up their voluntary
contributions as well ; and the process
was commenced, which has already been
adverted to, of applying public funds for
the relief of denominational schools.
Lord Salisbury's enei'gies, liowever, wei"e
attracted to foreign affairs rather than to
domestic legislation. His position and
HIS MAJESTY KING EDWARD
From a photograph by W. S. Stuart
reputation enabled him to adopt a more
conciliatory and less aggressive attitude
than would have been easy for a party
which did not represent the Bcaconsfield
tradition ; and, on the other hand, he had
the strong support of that section of
Liberals who looked on Lord Rosebery as
their chief when he refused to intervene
forcibly — as many of the Opposition de-
sired— -in the Armenian troubles of Turkey.
The principle that the independent
action of separate Powers should be
checked and re-
placed by the
concerted pres-
sure of Europe
became the guid-
ing rule ; while
it suffered from
the undoubted
drawback that
the concerted
action of Europe
is exceedingly
difficult to set
in motion. The
jx^ssibilities of
such a concert
cannot be ignor-
ed, and serve as
a check on indi-
vidualist aggres-
siveness. These
principles found
expression also
in connection
with the Turco-
Greek War, and
at a later stage,
wh^en the Boxer
insurrection
brought about
concerted Euro-
pean interven-
tion in China,
and considerable
diplomatic skill was required to limit the
general scramble for Chinese territory.
Lovers of the principle of arbitration
found considerable satisfaction in the
adoption ot that method for settling a
boundary dispute with Venezuela in 1896,
since the result demonstrated that anti-
British decisions in such courts need no
longer be regarded as a foregone conclusion .
British relations with European Powers
were seriously endangered for a moment
when, on the conclusion of the reconquest
of the Egyptian Sudan by Lord Kitchener,
5iQ^
VII.
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
a company of Frenchmen was found to
have made its way to Fashoda. It was
not without difficulty that the French
were persuaded to recognise the decisive
character of British claims in that region.
In colonial affairs, the Salisbury regime
was signalised by the movement towards
Federation, which took shape
The^ Death ^^ ^^^^ estabUshment of the
Commonwealth of Australia ;
of Queen
Victoria
and still more memorably by
the war with the Boer Republics in South
Africa, which, beginning in 1899, was
only terminated in 1902 with their de-
finite incorporation in the British Empire.
Before that time, at the beginning of
T901, the great queen, whose reign was the
longest m our annals — it had extended
almost to sixty-four years — ^had passed
away, 'and Edward VII. ascended the
throne. She had become by degrees the
ideal type of the constitutional monarch,
save for a somewhat excessive withdrawal,
not from political activity, but from
publicity since the death of the Prince
Consort. Her successor has displayed a
singularly acute perception of the very
important part such a ruler may play
internationally ; at least, whilst the
politics of European states ai'e largely con-
trolled by crowned heads. The title which
has been applied to him of Edward
the Peacemaker is perhaps the proudest
that any monarch could earn. The disso-
lution of Parliament had brought only a
formal break in the Salisbury adminis-
.... tration. the Ministerial
Chamberlain s j^^^j^j.^^ ^^- unimpaired.
Tariff Reform y^ ^ i u
p . It was not very long, how-
ever, before its chief retired,
his place being taken b}- Arthur Balfour.
His primacy in the part\^ was shared by
Joseph Chamberlain, who very shortly
startled England by declaring in favour
of Tariff Reform — a theory of preferential
or protective tariffs which was popularly
supposed to be dead and buried, but now
became the object of the enthusiastic
advocacy of a large number of persons
who had hitherto not shown any signs ol
questioning the economic creed of Cobden
While the Liberals were unanimous in
upholding the doctrines of Free Trade, the
Unionists were divided almost as markedly
as the Liberals had been over Home Rule.
Mr. Balfour achieved the feat of persuading
each section of the party that his views
coincided precisely with theirs. It became
obvious, however, that the majority of the
party were becoming converted definitely
to the most extreme view that Mr. Cham-
berlain had advocated ; and the General
Election in 1905 gave an overwhelming
Free Trade majority. Led by Sir Henry
Campbell-Bannerman till his death, and
since then by Mr. Asquith, the Liberal
Government has endeavoured to deal with
a series of exceedingly thorny questions,
notably the education problem and the
problem of licensed houses,
/?t ^^ both of which had been dealt
of the nouse •,, 1 ,, tt • ■ j. r^
. , . With by the Unionist Govern-
or Lords , .-' 111!
ment m a manner which had
failed to satisfy the Nonconformists and
the organisations which make temper-
ance their primary object.
On the other hand, the Liberal measures
-have been stigmatised as confiscation
and robbery, and the House of Lords
has again presented itself as an insuper-
able obstacle to Liberal legislation, its
action being supported by inferences,
drawn from a series of bye-elections, that
an appeal to the country would provide
the same kind of justification as in 1895.
But at this point the work of the historian
ends, and that of the political prophet
begins, and it does not appear that the
Government, which retains an overwhelm-
ing majority in the House of Commons,
has any intention of bringing the various
vaticinations, favourable or unfavourable,
to the immediate test of a dissolution.
Arthur D. Innes
5192
•PEACE WITH HONOUR": THE REPRESENTATIVES OF ALL THE EUROPEAN POWERS ATTENDING THE BERLIN CONGRESS OF 1878
THE
RE-MAKING
OF
EUROPE
EUROPE
SINCE
1871
II
REACTION TRIUMPHANT IN RUSSIA
TURKEY'S EMERGENCE FROM DESPOTISM
'"PHE expansion of Russia in Asia has
■*■ already been dealt with, and before
entering — as we shall do in the following
pages — on the account of the Eastern
Question, which is the chief concern of
Russia in Europe, we must give a brief
sketch of her recent domestic history.
The Tsar Alexander II., who succeeded
Nicholas while the Crimean War was still
in progress, was a man with liberal inclina-
tions, but he was to a great extent the
victim of a system from which a very much
stronger man with the same desires would
have found it next to impossible to free
himself. In spite of the great measure of
emancipation for the serfs, Russia re-
mained under the iron heel of an oligarchy
in spite of the theoretical semi-divine
authority of the Tsar himself. The merci-
less repression of all freedom begot the
deadliest of all foes of order — Nihilism ;
and Nihilism, and the terror thereof, in-
, „ tensified the repression of
Alexander II. f ,
y.. . every movement, however
, ^.. ... orderly, towards liberty. In
spite of the fact triat
Alexander was contemplating something
at least in the direction of summoning a
popular Assembly, he fell a victim to
NihiHst plots in 1881.
The murdered Tsar was the first ruler
of Russia since 1598 who had been able
to mount the throne of his fathers in
peace. His father, who had felt in his own
case the want of a good education, procured
the best teachers for his son, and it was
fortunate for Russia that the celebrated
poet Shukovsky directed the training
of Alexander. Alexander saw clearly
the defects of his predecessor, but also
understood that a thorough reform was
only possible after the abolition of serfdom,
and he therefore resolutely set himself to
carry this out. He was spurred on by the
example of the neighbouring empire of
Austria, where the emancipation of the
serfs had been carried out in 1781 : the
better class of Russians had lone; felt it
The Tsar's
Great Work
for the Serfs
to be a disgrace to their country that
slavery still flourished there. It was neces-
sary to go cautiously to work, and above
all to win the nobility for the cause. The
Tsar therefore acted in a wise and noble
manner when he expressed the wish that
the nobles should take the work of emanci-
pating the serfs into their own hands.
There were, however, only a
few who pledged them_selves
to the Tsar's idea. Among
them were the conscientious
Rostovzof Levschin, who prepared an
historical account of serfdom in Russia,
and the indefatigable Serge j St. Lanskoy
and Tshevskin. The Grand Duke Con-
stantine entered on the plan with great
enthusiasm ; the Grand Duchess Helene
Pavlovna emancipated in 1859 ^he serfs
of the estates comprised in her appanage.
All were unanimous on the question of
emancipation, only there was a division of
opinion, as previously under Catherine II.,
on the point whether the land should be
given to the peasants as freehold. A secret
committee was appointed by the emperor.
Since this did not make any progress with
its labours, a higher board, known as the
Chief Commission, met, composed of more
trustworthy members.
But even yet the opposition was too
strong. Its leader. Prince Alexej Orlov,
asserted that he would rather cut off his
hand than sign the charter of emancipation.
Finally, a Supreme Commission was ap-
pointed ; this, being vigorously supported
M-u- r by the whole Press, finally com-
Milhofts of pj^^g^ ^^^ ^^^^ j^^ imperial
rescript of March 3rd, 180 1,
proclaimed the emancipation
of the serfs on private estates and of the
domestic slaves. By this edict more than
twenty-three millions received their liberty.
The peasants were required merely to pay
a reasonable sum for their holdings, which
now became their property. The rejoicings
of the people were boundless. Wherever
the Tsar appeared, he was greeted and
5193
Serfs
Emancipated
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
cheered as the hberator. In the year 1864
he emancipated also the peasants in Poland
and Transcaucasia, and in
1866 the peasants on the
imperial demesnes, and
restricted the infliction of
corporal punishment.
Now for the first time
further reforms could be
carried out. The judicial
system was separated
from the executive and
reorganised ; trial by
jury was introduced, and
the taxation regulated.
The economic condition
and the productive power
of the empire increased
rapidly. The Tsar, as has
recently been discovered,
even thought seriously of
granting a constitutional
government ; his untimely
assassination prevented Nihilists were determined upon his destruction,
1 • r • J. 1. • and he was assassinated on March 13th, 1881.
him from carrying out his
scheme. He gave the governments a sort
of autonom}^ and estabhshed in every
ALEXANDER
A man of liberal inclinations, he resolutely
set himself to carry out reforms, but the
diet, and a provincial diet — Zemstvo —
above that in every government. Uni-
versal conscription was
now introduced. It was
now possible to take
serious steps towards
spreading culture among
the people. It is true that
out of a Budget of
/47, 139,9 =4 in 1867, only
£770, 87ghad been appHed
to educational purposes.
But the figures gradually
rose, and thousands of
schools were founded. On
the whole, even in the
department of public
education, a more liberal
spirit prevailed. In the
year 1863, a hberal
statute was passed for
OF RUSSIA the universities. Russia
had seldom had a more
philanthropic monarch.
And yet the life of this
Tsar, whose motto was " Justice, light,
and freedom," was frequently attempted.
district an independently elected district Just as the rustic population of the
NIHILIST CONSPIRACIES IN RUSSIA: CONDEMNED MEN AND WOMEN ON THE SCAFFOLD
5194
REACTION IN RUSSIA AND TURKEY'S PROGRESS
Russian provinces furnishes the best im-
aginable material foi new rehgious sects,
so the half -educated world of Russia is a
fertile soil for every sort of " great ideas."
The students especially, who were scru-
pulously prevented from receiving a sound,
intellectual discipHne, were often led astray
by senseless oppression and still more
senseless reforms. The Tsar, while in the
imperial summer garden, was shot at by
a student, Demetrius, on April i6th, 1866.
Alexander did not allow this to divert him
POLICE SURPRISING A MEETING OF RUSSIAN NIHILISTS
from the path of reform. On June 6th,
1867, a Pole, Anton Beresovsky, aimed at
him, although he had bestowed benefits
on the Poles. The folly of such inexperi-
enced youths was outdone by the brutality
of the police, which provoked the greatest
indignation. Nihihst societies with wide-
spread branches were founded at home and
abroad. Secret newspapers were published,
terrorism was preached, new assassina-
tions were attempted, until finally the Tsar
was blown to pieces by a bomb thrown
under his carriage on March 13th, 1881.
The murder was a great blow for the
free-thinking party, for the supporters of
despotism and brute force were right when
they asserted that the people did not yet
know the proper use of liberty. The
representatives of this reactionary move-
ment, Ivan Aksakov the Slavophil and
Michail Katkof, acquired more influence,
especially since they had been able to
impress on the educated sections of the
people the idea that ab-
solutism, orthodoxy, and
many barbarous custom^
of the people, which it wa:^
proposed to eradicate, be-
longed to the essence 0I
Russian, and, in fact, ot
Slavonic, life. When,
therefore, Alexander's son,
Alexander III., had
mounted the throne, they
became all-powerful, more
especially their associate
Constantine Pobiedono-
stev, who was made
Procurator-General of the
Holy Synod in 1880. The
ship of state was once
more steered into the
vortex of reaction.
Alexander III. was
known, like his father, to
have had a leaning towards
Liberal ideas ; but the
manner of his father's
death destroyed all
prospect of his acting upon
them, and severity towards
everything which was
suspected of association
with a revolutionary pro-
paganda was increased
instead of being relaxed.
The maintenance of order
by an extraordinarily ela-
borate system of espionage
and by police methods, which have had no
parallel in Western Europe except during
periods of religious persecution, inev^itably
has exceedingly ugly concomitants, and
among these was cruel popular persecution
of the Jews, which was encouraged instead
of being checked by the Government.
Alexander III. died in 1894, and was
succeeded by the present Tsar, Nicholas II.
His reign has been marked by the terrible
disasters of the Japanese war, which went
5195
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
far towards destroying the bogey of an
immense and irresistible Russian power
from which Western imaginations had
long been suffering. On the other hand,
there has been a moment when the
friends of freedom were beginning to
believe that by at last summoning the
Duma the Tsar was intending to open
the gates for a serious reform of the govern-
ment. The next steps, however, pointed to
a triumph of reaction ; nevertheless, a
hope may be admitted that in spite of
the clang of bolts and bars the opening of
Syria, from the Persian frontier, from
Servia, and from Bulgaria ; it was obliged
in consequence to agree with the other
Powers to Russia's demands on March 13th,
1871, and also to lay down certain points
for the regulation of the Danube traffic.
In 1873 the Russian War Minister,
Miljutin, reorganised the army on the
model of the German military system,
introducing general conscription and con-
siderably increasing both the number
of regiments and of soldiers available
in time of war. Thereupon the Eastern
THE ASSASSINATION OF ALEXANDER II., TSAR OF RUSSIA, IN 1-->1
In consequence of the Russian Government's severe repression of the revolutionary movements, the Nihilists determined
to have revenge upon the Tsar and his officers, and on March loth, 1881, a bomb was thrown at the emperor's carriage
near his palace in St. Petersburg, Alexander II. being so severely injured that he died a few hours afterwards.
the gates is appreciably nearer at hand.
Reference has already been made to the
conference in London which, taking place
during the Franco-Prussian War, reopened
the Black Sea question, and thereby led up
to a revival of the Eastern Question in
general. At that conference Russia secured
the abolition of the clauses of the Peace
of Paris of 1856 prohibiting her from
keeping warships in the Black Sea. The
Porte had been forced to send a consider-
able body of troops to Yemen in Arabia,
and was in receipt of disturbing news from
510
Question was again brought upon the
stage by the Pan-Slavonic party. Thanks
to their agitation, a revolt broke out in
Herzegovina in 1875, which the Porte
did not immediately suppress. When
a consular commission of the Powers
and Austrian intervention led to no result,
the Porte took decided action, and would
have restored order in Montenegro, in
Herzegovina, and in Servia by superior
force, had not Ignatieff opposed the use
of menaces. Unfortunately for the Porte,
the French and German consuls were
THE TSAR IN OLD RUSSIAN COSTUME THE TSARINA IN OLD NATIVE DRESS
ALF.XANDER lU., TSAR OF ALL THE RUSSIAS. AND HIS CONSORT
5197
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
murdered on May 6th, 1876, in the course
of a riot at Salonika, and the incident cost
Turkey a heavy price. Hardly had a
memorandum of Gortchakoff secured a
two months' armistice among the re-
volted parties, when the Bulgarians re-
volted in Drenova, Panagiurishte, Kop-
rivshzitza, Gabrovo, and Srednagora, and
were crushed by the fanatical population
with dreadful cruelty— the " Bulgarian
atrocities " execrated by Gladstone and
the English Press.
On May loth, 1876, the Sottas, the
theological students, took up arms in the
capital and haughtily requested the Sultan,
who was regarded as
blindly devoted to Russia,
to dismiss the Grand Vizir
Mahmud Nedim Pasha,
to send away Ignatieff,
and to begin war against
Montenegro. In vain did
Abd ul-Aziz attempt to
calm the storm by sum-
moning Mehemet Riishdi ;
the measure of his wrong-
doing was full. On May
2Qth the new Grand Vizir
and the Minister of War,
Hussein Avni and Midhat
Pasha, declared the Sultan
deposed, and placed
Murad V., the eldest son
of Abd ul-Mejid, on the
throne. Abd ul-Aziz was
conveyed to his palace at
Chiragan and there
murdered, as transpired
from an inquiry held in
1882 ; a few days after
Hussein Pasha with other
Ministers were assassi-
nated in the house of
Midhat. Even before the
tour of the Sultan Abd ul-Aziz to Europe
in the spring of 1867, a conspiracy had
been discovered, directed principally
against the then Grand Vizir, Ali Pasha.
The chiefs of the movement called them-
selves Young Turks, in an opposite sense
to that which is conveyed by the terms
"Young Germany," or " la Giovine Italia."
The objects of this conspiracy were the
restoration of the old Turkish regime and
of the Turkish Empire, with the complete
suppression of all non-^Iohammedans ; the
surest means to this end was proclaimed
to be the arming of the Mohammedan
people and the murder of the liberal-
5198
NICHOLAS II., TSAR OF RUSSIA
Born on May 18th, 1868, he succeeded his
father, Alexander III., in 1894, and has since
that time witnessed the overthrow of his mili-
tary forces by Japan and the constitutional
revolutionary movement within his own land.
minded Ali, while the final object was war
against Western Europe. After the de-
monstration of the Sottas in 1876, the fall
of Mahmud Nedim Pasha, the deposition
of the Sultan, and the miserable failure of
the diplomacy of the Great Powers, Chau-
vinism again raised its head. As early as
October, 1S75, the Turkish imperial news-
paper, "Bassiret," had issued an inspiring
and revolutionary appeal for a crusade of
the Mohammedans against the infidels.
Special mention was made of Algiers, East
India, Java, Sumatra, and the Caucasus. In
1876 the "Sabah" — morning — threatened a
general levy of 300,000,000 Mohammedans,
who were to occupy
England and Russia,
France and Austria, and
to devastate these coun-
tries, while Germany was
to be spared so long as
she remained neutral.
The chief persons who
shared in the deposition
of the Sultan Abd ul-Aziz
and the enthronement of
the Sultan Murad V.
were Midhat, Hussein
Avni jMiiterjim, Mehemet
Riishdi, and Zia Bey ; of
these the first and the
last were Young Turks,
while the other two were
Old Turks, assuming this
distinction to be possible
of maintenance. Apart
from these, the members
of the Young Turkish
party set their hopes
particularly on Prince
Murad, as they expected
him to issue some form of
constitution. As a matter
of fact, when Murad had
become sultan, he proclaimed his intention
of granting a constitution on July 15th,
1876 ; but even then his mind was begin- >
ning to be overclouded, and fate willed
otherwise. Midhat Pasha was the life and
soul of the constitutional movement. In
the winter of 1876 he drew up a memorial
which he submitted to the Powers. He
explained that the main cause of the
decline of the Turkish Empire was to be
found not in religious or racial disputes,
but in a despotic government and the ex-
travagant whims of the Sultan Abd ul-Aziz.
Midhat Pasha availed himself by pre-
ference of the services of two famous
J'A^:-
a: S-5 °^
<; f-> u ui s
H ;::;'a <u u,
(jj rt-S idj:
t^ = 5.0
o 0 „2
Hoj;>-=
5199
THE TSAR NICHOLAS II. OF RUSSIA AND THE TSARINA ALEXANDRA FEODOROVNA
Plioto': Russell i; Sons
authors, Kemal and Zia Bey. These men
were also leaders of the " Young Turkish
party." Their aims, however, were not
only pohtical, but primarily literary. It
is in this department that their most
distinguished services were performed.
They abandoned the conventionality of
classical poetry and the courtly style of
prose writing, and found their model
either in the inexhaustible treasures of
the Ottoman ballad poetry and popular
language, or, as regards the " moderns,"
in French literature. The wealth of
poetry and of moral force, and especially
of the pure undeiiled Ottoman language
existing in the stories, satires, humorous
tales, narratives, chap-books, chivalrous
and political romances, ballads, puppet
plays, riddles, and proverbs of the Turkish
nation was only waiting the discoverer.
In this respect the efforts of the Young
Turks exercised a healthy influence upon
Ottoman civilisation, even though their
first efforts for reformation or revolution
far exceeded the limits of what was per-
missible or possible.
Ali Suavi Effendi was a compound of
Peter of Amiens and Mazzini ; but he was
entirely faithful to the Koran. Zia Bey
had, in the year 1859, under the title of
5200
Andalus Tarikhi, published a history 01
the Arab dominion in the Iberian peninsula,
which was based on the somewhat super-
ficial work of Louis Viardot, and amounted
to a glorification of Moslem civilisation,
characterised by a hostile attitude to
Europe and Christianity. Kemal Bey, a
faithful scholar of his great master and
model, Shinassi Effendi, the creator of
modern Ottoman literature and language,
was the most important of all the Turkish
poets of the modern period. He published
a newspaper under the title of " Ibret "
— pattern — in which he actually defended
the Commune of Paris. His most im-
portant dramatic work was " Silistria " or
" Vatan," the Fatherland. Though the
details of the heroic defence of the Danube
forts in 1854 may not be
historically true, yet he
secured a striking success
through the exalted tone of
his love for the " fatherland," a conception
formerly unknown to Mohammedanism,
and by the popular style of the work. Its
success led totheauthor'sbanishment, after
the production of this piece in Constanti-
nople in 1873. In conjunction with Mehe-
met Bey, the nephew of the Grand Vizir,
Mahmud Xedim Pasha, he founded the
Banishment
of the Scholarly
Kemal Bey
REACTION IN RUSSIA AND TURKEY'S PROGRESS
Persecution
of the
Turkish newspaper, " Mukhbir," that is, the
" Reporter." The paper was suppressed
when the persecution against the Young
Turks was begun ; the conspirators made
their escape safely to Paris. There they
came in contact with Fazil Mustafa, the
brother of the Khedive Ismail, who had
been banished on account of his claims
to the Egyptian succession.
The •' Mukhbir " continued to
"* '"*' „ , appear in Paris and London,
Young lurks ^5 ,, i r
and thousands of copies were
smuggled into Turkey ; some numbers also
appeared in French. To the European
public at large, however, this party assumed
a mask of toleration, and concealed their
fanatical zeal for Mohammedanism under
an appearance of free thought. Under
Mahmud Pasha they were amnestied and
recalled. Zia and Riza Bey, who had
formerly been ambassadors in Teheran
and St. Petersburg, were then the foremost
in enlightening the Grand Vizir upon the
complicated Bulgarian question and the
problem of the Catholic Armenians.
At this period there was also a Turkish
theatre at Stamboul, with a repertoire
of forty to fifty pieces, partly original
and partly translations of Moliere by
Ahmed Vesik, or of Schiller by Ahmed
Midhat Effendi, the editor of the official
Turkish newspaper ; Vesik also published
some maps in Turkish for the use of
schools, and took part in the composition
of a great dictionary. Miinif Effendi
translated part of Voltaire's " Entretiens
et Dialogues Philosophiques," and followed
the example of Fuad in proposing the
extension and regulation of the narrow,
crooked streets of Stamboul. Public
libraries were founded ; Abd ul-Aziz began
a zoological garden, and in the medical
school of the Seraglio of Galata a museum
of natural objects was opened to the public.
The foundation of the " University " of
Constantinople can only be described as a
failure. Strangely enough, some decades
later, in the movement for the emancipa-
tion of women, which found expression in
1895 in the newspaper of Tahir Effendi,
"KhanimlaraMakhsusGazeta," female col-
laborators like Fatima Alij a, Nigiar Chamin ,
EXPELLING THE JEWS FROM RUSSIA: A SCENE AT THE BALTIC RAILWAY STATION
Wanderers on the face of the earth, the Jews have found their way into all parts of the world, but in few lands has their
presence been welcomed, while in many countries they have been the victims of cruel treatment. Russia has been
particularly unkind to the ancient people, as indicated in the above picture, persecuting them with much harshness.
I ■■ « ,; 5201
THE LAST VISIT OF THE SULTAN ABD UL-AZIZ TO THE MOSQUE AT BAGDSCHA
Turkey's 'summary methods of high politics are well illustrated in the case of Abd ul-Aziz, who, after being deposed,
was taken to his palace at Chiragan and there put to death by the new Grand Vizir and the Minister of War.
adherents, who called themselves Fedayiji,
conspirators or martyrs. Even at that
time. i860, this free
federation of Ottomans
was aiming at the follow-
ing points : a reform of
Turkey by the Turks
without distinction of faith
and not by Europe, the
abolition of despotic
government, a responsible
^linistry composed of
honourable statesmen,
and a Chamber composed
of membeis of all the
races and religions within
the Ottoman Empire.
Khair ed-din Pasha and
Khalil Sherif Pasha pur-
sued the same objects
under Abd ul-Aziz, and
were supported by Zia
Bey and Kemal Bey in
Hamijeti Zehra, Fahr-en-Nisa, Makbula
Lemian, Emine Wahide, and Renesie,
notwithstanding their
thorough knowledge of
Oriental and European
languages and morals,
spoke out strongly on the
side of the Young Turks
on behalf of the strength-
ening and retention of
Mohammedan customs
and of the avoidance of
European civilisation in
methods of education. At
the same time Vambery
forecasts from this
woman's movement an
approximation to Western
manners and the begin-
ning of a beneficial reform
of the state and of society
MURAD v., SULTAN OF TURKEY
-, , , , . . , When on May i'Jth, 1876, the Sultan Abd ul-
Lpon the whole, it is by Aziz was deposed, Mnrad v., the eldest son ot
Abd ul-Mejid. was placed on the throne. His
reign, however, was brief, as he was deposed
no means easy to gam a
clear idea of the theories owTng'to insanity, in August cfthe same year! writing and speech, and
and ideals of the modern Photo : w. a„d d. Downey ^^ ^j- ^^^ ^^^^ -^ ^^^^
Young TurTcish party. Their first official government. They developed great plans,
leader was the Cherkess general, Hussein and actually succeeded in obtaining ap-
Pasha. He was joined by numerous provalfor some of them from the tyrannical
5202
NOTABLE LEADERS IN THE TURKISH AND RUSSIAN MOVEMENTS
When the Grand Vizir, Mehemet Riishdi Pasha, was deposed in 1878, the office was given to Safvet Pasha ;
General Ignatieff was prominent in the Russo-Turltish war of 1878, and was principally responsible for the treaty of
peace between Russia and Turkey signed at San Stefano ; while Abd ul-Kerim Pasha was an able Turkish general.
Sultan, who went so far as to summon an
Armenian Christian, Agathon Effendi, to
the Ministry. The programme of Midhat
in 1876 was, generally speaking, based
upon principles borrowed from the West ;
the supremacy of law, universal equality,
the strengthening of the Divan against the
Seraglio, ireedom of the Press, indepen-
dence of the judicature, reorganisation of
the administrative power with respect for
the Mohammedan legal code, but also in
accord with Western experience, order in
the palace, a change in the Eastern prin-
ciple of succession, European education
for the princes, marriage of the princes
with European princesses, and the conse-
quent abolition of slavery, of polygamy,
of concubines, and eunuch government.
In conjunction with Fazil and Server
Pasha, Midhat defended his creations, the
Constitution, the Parliament, and the
Senate, in his " Iftihad." He demanded a
complete severance of the caliphate from
the sultanate, and an abolition of theo-
cratic government. This proposal deeply
offended the strong ecclesiastical party of
the Ulemas. Under the following sultan,
Midhat was overthrown ; and the inheritors
of his ideas, the Reform Turks, or Liberals,
as they preferred to be called, continued
until recently the struggle to secure the
liberation of the Sultan Abd ul-Hamid II.
and his people from the hands of the Court
Camarilla. It may be noted that in May,
1904, public attention was occupied with
the rumour of the imprisonment of certain
i£^^^
THE FIRST STATE PASSAGE OF THE SULTAN MURAD V. TO DOLMA-BAKCHEH
5203
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
Young Turks of high position. This party
included Ahmed Riza, the editor of the
" Meschweret," Murad Bey, a kind of
pohtical chameleon, editor of the " Misan,"
Theodor Kassope, the brilliant journalist
of the " Haial," Ismail Kemal Bey, Vas-
silaki Bey, Mehemet Ubeidullah, Said
Bey, Zia Bey, and Ferdi Bey, and even the
Sultan's brother-in-law, Mahmud Damad,
who died on January i8th, 1903, at
Brussels. In sad tones does the Turkish
ballad recount the deposition of the
" beloved ruler
Abd ul-Aziz." A
gloomy fate,
however, still
bore heavily upon
the Ottoman
throne; on
August 31st,
1876, Murad V.,
the hope of the
Young Turkish
party, was de-
posed owing to
insanity, and
placed in confine-
ment until his
death, on August
29th, 1904.
He was suc-
ceeded by his
brother, Abd ul-
Hamid II., born
September 21st,
1842, the thirty-
fourth sovereign
of the Ottoman
House and the
twenty - eighth
since the con-
quest of Con-
stantinople. A
reform of educa-
tion and of the
constitution, the
improvement of
trade and economic life by a vast ex-
tension of the railway system, were the
objects which this highly gifted monarch
set before himself of his own free and
vigorous will, for the purpose of raising
" this nation of gentlemen," as Bismarck
called the Ottomans, to the height of civi-
lisation. In vain did the Sirdar Abd ul-
Kerim drive back the Serbs at Alexinatz
on September ist, 1876, into the valley of
the Morava. On November ist the Bashi-
bazouks had made their way beyond Junis
5204
Halil Sherif Pasha
MINISTERS OF THE
While holding a Cabinet Council with their colleagues at Con-
stantinople in 1876, the four pashas whose portraits are given
above were attacked by Hassan Bey, a military man who had been
imprisoned for his laxity in obeying orders, and two of them, Hussein
Avni Pasha and Mehemet Riishdi, died from the wounds inflicted.
and Stolatz as far as the neighbourhood of
Belgrade ; the telegram of the Tsar
Alexander II., despatched from Livadia on
October 31st, commanded a cessation of
hostilities. In vain did the diplomatic
and peaceful Sultan resolve upon the
extremity of compliance in the peace con-
cluded on February 28th, 1877.
When the Powers demanded an inde-
pendent administration for Bulgaria, Mid-
hat Pasha, who had been Grand Vizir
since December 22nd, 1876, answered this
move by produc-
ing a constitu-
tion which the
Sultan imposed
upon his empire
on December
23rd. This Re-
presentative As-
sembly of 200
Moslems and 60
Christians de-
clined the pro-
posals of the
conference of the
Powers. Ignatieff
then went round
the courts of
Europe and
secured their
agreement to the
" London Pro-
tocol," which re-
commended the
Sublime Porte to
recognise the
autonomy of the
two provinces of
Bulgaria and
Eastern Roume-
lia under Chris-
tian governors.
However, Midhat
was overthrown
on February 5th,
1877, by a palace
revolution, and Edhem Pasha, his suc-
cessor, induced the Sultan curtly to decline
the Russian proposals on April 9th.
On April 23rd the Tsar Alexander II.
informed his troops at Kishineff that war
had been declared. On the night of the
24th the Cossacks crossed the Pruth, and
the whole army advanced into Roumania,
not, as before, to secure the " liberation
of the Christians," but that of their
" Slavonic brothers." On April i6th
Roumania had concluded with Russia a
Mehemet Riishdi Pasha
SULTAN OF TURKEY
REACTION IN RUSSIA AND TURKEY'S PROGRESS
convention admitting the passage of
troops, which was regarded by the Porte
as a casus belU in the case of that state
also. Thereupon the Chamber at Bucharest
proclaimed their independence. The Turks
were in position with 180,000 men along
the Danube, while 80,000 troops were
ready in Asia. Russia was certain of
the benevolent neutrality of Germany,
and in January, 1877, she had concluded
the agreement of Reichstadt with Austria,
which secured Bosnia and Herzegovina
to Austro- Hun-
gary in the event
of her non-inter-
ference. On
May 3rd the
Turks declared
the shores of the
Black Sea to be
in a state of
blockade. On
May 6th the
Sultan assumed
the title "De-
fender of the
Faith," and pro-
claimed the
Holy War.
At the outset
the Turkish war-
ship Seifi was
attacked by
Russian torpedo
boats below
Matchin, on the
Danube, and
sunk ; on May
iith a Russian
battery at Braila
shelled the Turk-
ish monitor
L u t fi J alii ,
and blew up the
ship with its
crew. On May
17th the Russo-
Caucasian army stormed Ardakhan and
invested Kars. However, the victory of
Mukhtar Pasha over Loris Melikoff forced
the Russians to retire to their own country
in the middle of July. A Turkish fleet,
supported by the revolt of the Cherkesses
in the Caucasus, bombarded the Russian
forts on the Abkhasian coast and captured
Sukhum Kaleh ; but this position was un-
avoidably evacuated in August, for the
Russians had then recaptured Kars and
made a victorious advance to Erzeroum.
Mukhtar Pasha undertook the defence. of
Constantinople. The Russians, indeed,
had not been able to cross the Danube at
Sistova and Zimnitza until June 29th,
owing to the floods ; but on July 7th they
reached Tirnovo, and General Gurko
crossed the Balkans on July 13th at
the Shipka Pass.
General Schilder-Schuldner was beaten
back at Plevna by Osman Nuri Pasha,
and the Russian line _ of retreat was
threatened. Had the Turkish commanders
been united and
able to make a
decisive attack
upon the Rus-
sians, the latter
would scarcely
have reached the
left bank of the
Danube. Mean-
while the Rus-
sians brought up
their reinforce-
ments and the
Roumanian
army, in order to
capture t-he
"Lion of Plevna,"
who is still cele-
brated in the
Turkish ballad ;
he died Apnl 5th,
1900. On Sep-
tember nth, the
birthday of the
Russian Tsar,
after vast pre-
parations the
great attack was
begun upon the
de fences of
Osman Pasha,
Abd ul-Zia Bey Prince Mustafa Pasha n , , T?,mcjans
LEADERS OF THE "YOUNG TURKISH PARTY" aUQ tue KUSSiaUS
The Young Turkish Party of 1867 had little in common with the S U tt C 1 C a tUeir
movement of recent years. Aiming- at restoring the ancient regime, greatest defeat
it originated in literary idealism rather than political aspirations. ^ .■ , , i -i
cam.paign; 16,000 dead and wounded
Russians covered the battlefield, the sole
result being the capture of the redoubt of
Grivitza. Finally, on December loth, the
wounded Osman, whose supply of am-
munition had failed, was obliged to
surrender to a force three times as large
as his own, with 40,000 men, 2,000
officers, and 77 guns.
The fall of Plevna encouraged the Serbs
at Nisch on January nth, 1878, and the
Montenegrins made conquests on the coast
5205
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
of the Adriatic on January 19th, 1878;
the Greeks crossed the frontier of Thessaly
on February 2nd. In Bulgaria, after
endless marching, Gurko had subdued the
Etropol district at the end of December,
1877, and had effected a
junction with the army
of Lorn in Philippopolis.
On January 2gth, 1878,
the Russians reached the
Sea of Marmora at
Rodosto, after the capture
of the Shipka army, the
destruction of the division
of Suleiman, and the
occupation of Adrianople.
On January 31st an
armistice was concluded,
and then the British fleet
entered the Sea of Mar-
mora. The Russians now
advanced to the neigh-
bourhood of Constanti-
nople, and on March 3rd
dictated the Peace of San
Stefano, in which they
demanded complete in-
dependence for R oumania
Servia, Montenegro, and
Bulgaria, the cession of Armenia to Russia
and of the Dobrudsha to Roumania, and
would also have cut European Turkey in
half by the establishment of the states of
Roumelia and ,
Turkey in Asia, and occupying Cyprus
by way of return. The Grand Vizir,
however, was replaced by Safvet Pasha
on June 4th. The demands proposed in
the Peace of San Stefano were consider-
ably reduced in the Berlin
Congress, June 13th to
July 13th, 1878 ; in parti-
cular, Eastern Roumelia
was left under Turkish
supremacy. Austria,
however, was entrusted
with the occupation of
Bosnia and Herzegovina,
and was given the right
to maintain a body of
supervisory troops in the
Sanjak of Novibazar,
under the supremacy of
the Sultan. Roumania's
only reward for the
valuah)le service which
she had rendered to
Russia was the acquisition
of the barren Dobrudsha
in return for Bessarabia,
THE SULTAN ABDUL HAMID IL
Brother of Murad V., he succeeded to the i n t-> •
throne of Turkey in 1S76, and in the following wllicll WaSCedcd toRuSSia.
year gave the country a Parliament, which was /^ i -, • i j.
soon after withdrawn, to be restored in 1908. vjreece bCCUreU inc Hglll
Pilot.. : w. & D. Downey to a better delimitation
of her northern frontier, but itwas not until
1880 that she secured possession of Thessaly
and of the district of Arta in Epirus.
The war indemnity paid by the Porte to
,._.^ ,, „,_„,:„. „,,.., -,L-,.;^ - Russia amounted
Macedonia.
Thereupon Dis-
raeli threatened
war, concen-
trated Indian
troops at Malta,
and joined Aus-
tria in a demand
for a congress.
Abd ul-Hamid
had dissolved the
Chambers on
February 14th,
and had never
recalled them ;
on May 20th he
had suppressed
with bloodshed
the conspiracy
begun by Ali
Suaviin favour of Murad, and on May
25th had appointed Mehemet Riishdi
Pasha as Grand Vizir. He concluded a
secret treaty with Britain on June 4th,
the British undertaking the protection of
5206
to £16,080,000.
In 1882, Bosnia,
which . had first
to be conquered
step by step by
the Austrian
troops, received a
measure of civil
government,
under which the
prosperity of this
fertile district
considerably in-
creased. The
Berlin Treaty
was signed by re-
the presentatives of
Russo-Turkish war of 1877, capturing the fortresses of Sophia, g^|| t\lQ PowerS
Philippopolis and Adrianople, when the armistice of 1878 followed; ^, in .'
while Michael Dmitrievitch Skobelev was a leader in the expeditions inOUgll all WCl'e
"" ' ' <•'-"-" fully aware that
it contained merely the germs of fresh
entanglements. Prince Bismarck stig-
matised the treaty as a '" dishonourable
fiction," while the Pan-Slavonic Party
blamed the " infidelity of their German
Gurko Skobelev
TWO DISTINGUISHED RUSSIAN GENERALS
Count Gurko, a Russian general, distinguished himself
to Khiva and Khokand and also in the Russo-Turkish war of 1877-78.
ft<^'??f?^-~;r^'iiiv:Vi,ll^f^,;.; ^:'X <^.. IxV^^P ■^Msfif-'^
t *:• .V "J/Vfi:^ ■s*e^*»i
THE HOUSE IN SESSION AT CONSTANTINOPLE
Turkey's first Parliament, in! 877, as shown in the first of these two pictures, was opened by the Sultan, Abdul
Hamid 11., in the Grand Throne Room of the Imperial Palace of Dolma-Bakcheh. A sitting of the Parliament is
illustrated in the second picture. In the side galleries were special boxes for the Sultan and other illustrious visitors.
TURKEY'S FIRST AND SHORT-LIVED PARLIAMENT OF 1877
5207
5208
REACTION IN RUSSIA AND TURKEY'S PROGRESS
friend" for the unfavourable results- of
the Berlin Congress. Russia did not feel
her military power Sufficiently great to.
begin a war with Austria and England,
after she had once lost her opportunity
of occupying Constantinople. For the
blunders of Russian policy, Prince:
Gortchakoff undoubtedly divided the
responsibility with some of his younger .
adherents, but his freedom from blame
is by no njeans proved.
When the German Chancellor concluded
the alliance with Austria on October 7th,
1879, and shortly afterwards the Triple
of ■ his empire by a series of innovations.
In 1880 he forced the Albanian League
to give in its submissicm and to cede
Duleignoto Montenegro. The statesmen,
iMidhat, Mahmud Damad, and Nuri Pasha,
who had hitherto gone unpunished, were
condemned to death on jvine 9th, 1881,
and banished to Arabia. With the help
of German officials, the Sultan secured in
1881 a union with the orthodox and a
financial reform of high benefit to the
empire. , The revenue was increased by
the introduction of the tobacco regie in
1883. The state was, however, chiefly
SIGNING THE TREATY OF PEACE BETWEEN RUSSIA AND TURKEY AT SAN STEFANO
Alliance in 1883, the far-sighted Sultan
at once recognised that the welfare of his
state was conditional solely upon the
support of these most powerful influences
for European peace. In 1879 the de-
position of Ismail had indeed failed to
restore the old supremacy of the Porte ;
the Nile Valley fell into the hands of Great
Britain in 1882, and the conquest of the
Sudan immediately followed ; on May
i2th, 1881, and June 8th, 1883, France
also declared her protectorate of Tunis.
However, the Sultan loyally observed
the conditions of the Berlin Congress,
and attempted to increase the prosperity
strengthened by the Sultan's invitation to
German officers to remodel the organisa-
tion of the army in 1880, and to elaborate
a military law, which came into force in
1887. From that date, all men capable
of bearing arms were forthwith assigned
to a certain arm of the service, and on
attaining their majority were placed under
control and incorporated in troops of
the line for training. In the officers'
schools, which were conducted in Constan-
tinople by the Freiherr von der Goltz from
1883 to 1895, the number of pupils rose
from 4,000 to 14,000. In 1880 the old
rnuseum of antiquities was built in the
5209
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
Serai gardens — Chinili Kiosk — while the
new museum was constructed in iSoi.
In i8gi the School of Art was founded
close at hand by Hamid Bey, where, not-
withstanding the prohibition of the Koran
against the representation of the human
countenance, more than 130 young Turks
were regularly instructed in painting,
. sculpture, and architectural
Roumania ^g^j The Sultan displayed
Proclaimed ° . ^ -. .
a Kingdam
even greater wisdom in hold-
ing aloof from the disturb-
ances between the Balkan States,
though Russian dissatisfaction with her
Slavonic protectorates gave him every
excuse for armed interference, and though
his action on this occasion was stigma-
tised as " weakness " by the Young
Turkish party. Roumania was proclaimed
a kingdom on March 26th, 1881, as also
was Servia on March 6th, 1882.
On April 29th, 1879, the Bulgarian
Sobranje had chosen Prince Alexander of
Battenberg as ruler of the country. On
May 9th, 1 88 1, he overthrew the radical
government and the influence of the
agitators for a larger Bulgaria in Eastern
Roumelia and Macedonia by means of a
coup d'etat. However, on September 19th,
1883, he restored the constitution of
Trnovo and undertook the government of
Eastern Roumelia, much against the will
of Russia, on September 20th, 1885.
Thereupon the jealous Servians declared
war upon the Bulgarians on November
13th. After one temporary success at the
Dragoman Pass, King Milan was defeated
by Prince Alexander on November i8th
and 19th, at Slivnitza and Pirot, driven
back upon Tzaribrod, and was spared in
the Peace of Bucharest, March 3rd, 1886,
only at the request of Austria.
The reckless financial polic}' of a rapid
succession of • Ministers, the agitation
fomented by the Radicals, the domestic
quarrels in the royal family, the divorce
in 1888, and the abdication of King Milan
in favour of his son Alexander
I. in 1889, the latter's coup
Abdication
of
King Milan
d'etat in 1893, and his marriage
with Draga Maschin in 1900,
were events which gave the unhappy
country neither peace nor justice. The
rise of Bulgaria and its union with
Eastern Roumelia on October 5th, 1886,
aroused the jealousy and the anger of the
Tsar and of the Panslavists. On the night
of August 2ist Prince Alexander was sur-
})rised in his bed and forced to abdicate ;
5210
upon his return he was unable to make his
peace with the Tsar, and was definitely ban-
ished from the country on December 7th,
1886 ; he died on November 17th, 1893.
After the short regency of Stam-
buloff and the disturbance caused by the
appearance of the Russian general, Baron
Kaulbars, the Sobranje chose Prince
Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg as their ruler.
Notwithstanding the aloofness of the
Sultan, the anger of the Tsar, and the
outrages of the Panslavists in the country,
this prince maintained his position, married
Princess Louise of Parma in 1893, and
from 1896 brought up his son Boris in the
faith of the orthodox Church. Aftei the
murder of Stambuloff, the prince secured
a reconciliation with the Tsar, his recogni-
tion by the Sultan, and was able even in
Macedonia to bring about the investiture
of Bulgarian bishops. Bulgaria responded
by remaining neutral until 1897.
However, this fruitful country was
continuall}' disturbed by its superfluity
of ambitious parliamentarians and pro-
fessional poHticians ; only in the Mace-
donian question was the Bulgarian pre-
ponderance decided, and this
erman ^ through the dissension between
Influence in ,, c i j j.i- r^ 1
_ . the Serbs and the Greeks.
^^ But Servia and Greece dis-
played an attitude of greater hostility,
and consequently obliged the Porte to
make counter preparations and burden-
some loans from the Ottoman bank. In
1889 3- decision of the courts transferred
the Turkish railways from the hands of
Baron Hirsch to the possession of the
Porte. German influence also secured the
construction of the Anatolian railway,
which had been pushed as far as Angora
and Konia in 1896, and which, when con-
tinued to the Persian Gulf, will greatly
strengthen the strategical and economic
power of Turkey and increase her influence
upon international trade. After the failure
of the unceasing efforts of the German
Commercial Company for Eastern Trade,
founded 1881. the company, founded at
Hamburg in 1889. of the Deutsche Levante
Linie was able to issue combined tariffs for
maritime and railway traffic, and thus suc-
cessfull}' to resume commerce with the East.
Before, however, this decaying empire
had been sin-rounded by the iron girdle of
the railroad beyond Bagdad it was shaken
to its depths by two disastrous events —
the Armenian revolt and the war in
Thessal}'. Paragraph 61 of the Treaty of
REACTION IN RUSSIA AND TURKEY'S PROGRESS
Berlin had demanded protection from the
rapacious officials, the Kurds, and Cher-
kesses, and reforms in the administration
io help the oppressed people of the
Armenians, who had shown excellent
capacity for trade and manual labour.
Thanks to the indolence and corruption of
the authorities, these reforms were in-
troduced with extreme slowness. In 1894
disturbances broke out in Sassun, and the
cruelty with which they were suppressed
immediately gave the signal for revolt in
Trebizond, Giimishhane, Samsun, Agja
Gune, and the Armenian vilayets ;
put pressure on the Porte. On Septem-
ber 30th, 1895, certain Armenians gathered
before the Sublime Porte, demanding
reforms ; on August 26th, 1896, these
Armenian conspirators surprised the Otto-
man Bank, and after their liberation a
massacre, apparently led by the soldiers
and police, was begun upon the Armenians
in the capital. When the Powers pro-
tested against this bloodshed, the mas-
sacres were stopped and reforms were
promised ; but the Armenian question
remained one of the pieces upon the
political chessboard, while attention was
PRINCE ALEXANDER OF BULGARIA SIGNING HIS ABDICATION
Turkish soldiers and Kurds were massacred
with the connivance of the authorities.
The Armenians, entrenched in the moun-
tains of Cilicia at Zeitun, sustained a
formal siege for a long period, and from
London, Athens, Paris, Geneva, and Tiflis
Armenian agents carried the seeds of
revolt into the distressed highlands of
Upper Armenia and of the Taurus. These
very towns in Western Europe served as
refuges not only for the Armenian agents
who were favoured by England, but also
for their deadly enemies, the Young Turks,
of whom France made occasional use to
soon diverted to North America, Eastern
Asia, and South Africa. The Greek cam-
paign proved more disastrous to the Chris-
tians than to the once forbearing Sultan.
Two visits from the German Emperor
increased and strengthened the reputation
of Abd ul-Hamid II., and made German
influence supreme with the Porte.
In Crete it had proved impossible to
appease the animosity between the Chris-
tians and Mohammedans, notwithstanding
their common descent; and the breach of
the convention of Halepa of 1S78, and the
imposition of a constitution which limited
5211
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
Turkey
and Greece
at War
their freedom in 1889, led to a bloody revolt ;
this niovement was increased from 1886 by
the hopes of the incorporation of the island
with the mother country, notwithstanding
the blockade of the Greek harbours by the
Powers. On a fresh outburst of hostilities
in 1896-1897, the Greek Colonel Vassos,
with 2,000 men, occupied Platania in
Crete on February 15th, 1897,
and took possessixDn of the
island in the name of King
George. The Governor, George
Berovitch Pasha, left Crete. The Powers
protested against this violation of inter-
national law, bombarded the rebels from
their ships, and blockaded the island.
When Greece declined to withdraw her
troops upon an ultimatum from the
Powers, the Porte declared war on April
17th, 1897. The Turkish army advanced
into Thessaly under Edhem Pasha,
and defeated the Greek army, which
was badly disciplined and organised,
under the Crown Prince of Greece,
Constantine, at Turnavos. Larissa, Pher-
sala, Domokos, and in Epirus. On May
19th an armistice was arranged by the
intervention of the Powers, and a peace
was concluded at Constantinople on Sep-
tember 17th, 1897, under the terms of
which Greece lost certain frontier districts
on the north of Thessaly, and undertook
to pay a war indemnity of four million
pounds Turkish, or £3, 750, 000.
The heaviest punishment inflicted upon
Greece was the control of the finances
imposed at the proposal of Germany, as
the Germans had been the chief sufferers
from the financial crisis. Greece withdrew
her troops from Crete, and the island
received complete independence under the
suzerainty of the Sultan ; Prince George
of Greece was appointed as Governor. In
1893 Greece at length completed the canal
through the Isthmus of Corinth. She has
not yet pushed forward her railway
system to a junction with the
more developed system of the
Greece on
the Road to
Prosperity
Balkan States, but is now
advancing towards a more
prosperous development. This short cam-
paign had proved that the efforts of
German instructors to improve the organi-
sation, the training, mobilisation, leader-
ship, and discipline of the Turkish troops
had borne good fruit. Thus Turkey
reached the close of the century. Vambery,
Adolf Wahrmund, and Von der Goltz have
prophesied a new life and power for the
Ottoman State under certain conditions.
From the intellectual renaissance in the
best men of the nation, they anticipate a
revival of the powers dormant in the
country and a gradual replacing of Asiatic
by European ideas, a reconciliation
between Mohammedanism and Christian-
ity, and the development of a modus
vivendi for these two great religions.
In view of the inexhaustible, and in many
cases highly gifted, population of Asia, the
protection of the empire, now hmited to
its own frontiers, is guaranteed by the
organisation of the empire and the con-
struction of railways and telegraphs. The
weak spot in Turkey is the Bosphorus,
which is unfortified on the land side,
though the Dardanelles are strongly
fortified. The source of all Turkish evils
is to be found in the incapacity of the
executive ; the extensive spy system,
which destroys all confidence ; the lack
of check upon the state expenditure ; the
permanent condition of insolvency, which
is only concealed by forced loans and
reductions of the salaries of officials ; the
, miserable condition of the
Ri'^-^^?1!= population ; the dishonest taxa-
tion which is the natural con-
Bloodless
Revolution
sequence ; and especially the
autocracy of the Sultan, who has, with
great short-sightedness, reduced the posi-
tion of Grand Vizir to a shadow. The
Arab Caliphate must come to some
compromise with the Ottoman Sultanate.
The centre of gravity in the Turkish Empire
need not necessarily be looked for in the
military force at Constantinople ; much
rather should it be found in a body of
reliable Crown advisers and capable offi-
cials. Prophecy, however, would seem to
be more thoroughly impossible with regard
to the Ottoman dominions than elsewhere.
The last thing which anyone expected is
precisely the thing that has happened.
The astonishing revolution of 1908, in-
augurated apparently with the full ap-
proval of the Sultan, may be destined to
give the Ottoman Empire a new lease of
life by placing new ideals within the reach
of the Turkish people. But Europe is still
in the throes of anxiety as to the develop-
ments which may arise out of the no less
sudden action of Bulgaria in proclaiming
her own complete independence, and of
Austria in annexing Herzegovina.
Vladimir Milkowicz
5212
THE
RE-MAKING
OF
EUROPE
i
t I •%mif%%i\
EUROPE
SINCE 1871
III
THE GERMAN & AUSTRIAN EMPIRES
THEIR SOCIAL & LEGISLATIVE DEVELOPMENT
IN the years 1871-1902 three emperors
* have ruled at the head of the German
Empire. First, the veteran founder of the
empire, Wilham I., from 1871 to 1888 ;
then his son, Frederic III., best known
as Crown Prince Frederic Wilham, a
victim of incurable cancer, who reigned
only ninety-nine days, from March gth
to June 15th, 1888 ; and, lastly, his eldest
son, William II., born January 27th, 1859.
The differences between the characters
of these three rulers are strongly marked.
William I. was a man of simple character,
a thorough soldier, taking no great interest
in the arts and sciences, but keenly devoted
to the practical business of life, full of
manly amiability and loyal conscientious-
ness. The words he uttered on his death-
bed, " I have no time to be tired," charac-
terise his whole nature. He had the highest
conception of his royal rights and duties ;
he read everything which he had to sign,
TK R • f ^^^ emphatically asserted his
_ . "^'^ own views; but he was ac-
eign o cessible to the counsel of
Frederic III. ■ j ^ . tt
experienced statesmen. He
adhered with the greatest tenacity to the
old Prussian traditions. Frederic III. was
by nature and through the influence of
his English consort, Victoria, the eldest
daughter of Queen Victoria and Prince
Albert, devoted to the liberal ideas of the
time, a warm friend of all artistic and
scientific effort, and a soldier so far as
and no farther than his political position
required.
In his brief reign he allowed himself to
. be directed by Bismarck, from whom his
father had repeatedly declared that he
never wished to be separated. Differences
of opinion which had earlier, especially in
1863- 1866, existed between the monarch
and the statesman sank so much into the
background in the ninety-nine days that
Bismarck asserted he had never, in his
long ministerial career, known less friction
between Crown and Ministry than had
existed under the Emperor Frederic.
Affairs assumed quite a different shape
under William II., who, coming to the
throne as a young man of twenty-nine
years, brought with him a thoroughly
independent, indeed, despotic, nature, and
in the consciousness of ample abilities and
honest purpose felt competent to be his
^. . . . own chancellor. Thus, after
Dismissal , j 1, ir u
p . only a year and a hall a sharp
„. , ouarrel broke out between the
Bismarck - 1 i ^i
young monarch and the grey-
haired statesman, who had so long con-
ducted affairs with prudence and courage.
From differences of opinion as to the
legitimate position of the Prime Minister
towards the Crown and his colleagues, and
as to the social and political questions
which William II. thought he was able to
solve at one stroke, the feud blazed up so
fiercely that the emperor on March 20th,
1890, abruptly dismissed Bismarck. Since
then. Count Caprivi, Prince Kohenlohe, and,
finally. Prince Biilow, have successively
filled thecffice of Imperial Chancellor;
but the importance of the office has been
much diminished by the personal activity
of the emperor.
Although just criticism has often been
brought to bear on particular measures
taken by the Government, and on its
frequently slack and unsteady attitude
since 1890, and although serious discon-
tent was produced, especiallj' under
Caprivi, by its Anglophile tendencies, its
indulgence towards the Poles, and its
brusque treatment of Bismarck, whom
the emperor took back into favour in
Tk D J January, 1894, yet it cannot be
The Proud disguised that during this whole
wmI^ ° II period the development of the
William II. Qgj.j^3j^ nation, in spite of
disagreeable episodes of every sort, has
been materially advanced. The phrase
of William II., " I am leading you towards
splendid prospects." was a proud but
not by a-iy means an untrue utterance.
The institutions of the empire in the
very first years of its existence were
5213
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
completed by unceasing and generally
successful legislative work. Wide local
diversities could not but act as a check on
the conception of real unity ; and a just and
very important step towards the unification
was the adoption in 1872 of a universal
.gold standard and a universal
ermany s gg(,jj^^| system of Coinage,
Military . , , -', t-?-
St th weights, and measures. Ihis
^^^^ was followed up by the unifica-
tion of civil procedure in the field of law,
in 1876 — a change ah eady. anticipated in
criminal law by the North German Con-
federation— and the adoption of a uniform
civil code for the empire, which came into
force in the year igoo. The fixed deter-
mination of the whole nation to maintain
such a military force as
should secure it from
attack — prompted by the
knowledge, for many
years after the great war,
that if ever France had an
opportunity of attempting
to recover her lost pro-
vinces she would certainly
seize it — has hitherto
triumphed, though some-
times with extreme diffi-
culty, over all attempts
at reduction. Beyond
this, however, WiUiam II.
has declined to recognise
the limitation of Germany
to its European territory ;
alive to the immense
amount of wealth _ and
power which Great Britain
has acquired by hermari- the emperor frederic hi.
+irv-iQ c-nT-ii-Qvi-.^,^-. 1/^ V,oo His occupancy of the German Imperial throne
tune supremacy, ne nas lasted for only three mojiths. Succeeding:
resolved to give Germany ^'s father, WilUam I in March, 1 8S8, his
n j^ T J 1 death occurred at Potsdam, from an affection
a Iirst-ClaSS navy, the of the throat, on June 1 5th of the same year.
growth of which is
watched with some suspicion . by the
Power to which naval supremacy is even
more vital than military supremacy to
Germany. Doubts, however, may be felt
as to how long the accompanying strain of
taxation will be endured.
The first decade of the new empire
was largely occupied by a struggle between
Church and State-^the Roman Chmxh
and the Prussian State — ^which"has been
responsible for a new political term,
" Kulturkampf," signifying the war be-
tween the State as representing civilisation,
and the Church as representing its oppo-
site. The struggle, however, was not con-
fined to Prussia ; the whole nation was
conceined in it, and its sympathies
were enlisted on one side or the other.
In the first German Reichstag an almost
exclusively Catholic part}^ was formed,
the Centre, which stood under the ex-
tremely clever leadership of the Hano-
verian ex-Minister of State Ludwig Windt-
horst, 1812-1891, and immediately proved
itself the refuge of Ultramontane, Guelf,
and Particularist efforts.
It aimed, but unsuccessfully, at a
German interference- in Italy, in order to
win back for the Pope his temporal power,
and demanded that the articles of the
Prussian constitution, which secured to
the Churches complete freedom from
State control, should be introduced into
the Imperial constitution ;
but it was unable to carry
its wishes either with Bis-
marck or in the Reichstag.
It adopted, in conse-
quence, an unfriendly
attitude towards the Gov-
ernment. The Prussian
Government further com-
plained that the Catholic
clergy in Posen and West
Prussia, by an abuse of
their influential position,
especially in the matter of
elementary schools which
were under their direction,
supported the national
Polish movements and
prejudiced the German
Catholics in favour of
Poland. As a result of all
this agitation, Falk, the
Minister of Public Worship
and Instruction, carried a
Bill in 1872, which strictly
defined the inspection of
schools as a state concern, and threw open
to laymen the office of inspector, particu-
larly in country districts. Falk then, in
1873, brought before the Landtag of the
monarchy the four Bills, which, in spite of
violent opposition on the part of the Centre
and the Extreme Right, ob-
tained a large majority and
were called the " May Laws,"
since they received the
sanction of the Crown in May, 1837.
The first of these laws confined within
closer limits the right of the Churches to
inflict penalties on laymen in the case of
contumacy ; the second restricted their
disciplinary power over their clergy, and
chard & Lindner
Passing
the " May
Laws "
5214
IN UNIFORM OF IMPERIAL CUIRASSIERS A RECENT PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN IN BERLIN
HIS MAJESTY WILLIAM II., GERMAN EMPEROR
Photos by Voigt, Russell & Sons, and Neue riioto-Gesellschaft
5215
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
abolished all foreign — and therefore all
papal — jurisdiction over Prussian clergy.
The third enacted that the clergy should
no longer be educated for their profession
in ecclesiastical but in State institutions,
and prohibited their attendance at foreign
seminaries, especially those in Rome ; it
also provided that the bishops, before mak-
ing any appointment to a benefice, should
give notice to the State authorities, and, if
a well-founded pro-
test was made by
the State, should
make another nomi-
nation. The fourth
law regulated with-
drawals from the
Churches. Finally,
in 1875 a fifth law
abolished all ex-
isting religious
orders in Prussia
which did not de-
vote themselves to
the care of the sick,
and thus in par-
ticular put an end
to their activity in
school matters.
Since the Pope,
and the bishops
following the ex-
ample set them by
the Pope, pro-
nounced these laws
incompatible with
the principles of the
Catholic Church,
and in accordance
with the saying :
"We must obey
God rather than
men," refused sub-
mission to these
laws, a struggle of
was one of the rights of the empire, it
was inevitable that the latter should
find itself entangled in the quarrel.
At the instance of Johann Lutz, the
Bavarian Minister, who was engaged in a
keen contest with the Bavarian Ultramon-
tanes, the so-called "pulpit paragraph,"
which attached penalties to the misuse of
the pulpit for inciting opposition against
the Government, was inserted in the Crimi-
nal Code in Novem-
ber, 1871. The
empire on two other
occasions lent the
Prussian Govern-
ment its aid, first
on July 4th, 1872,
when it prohibited
the J esuit order and
its branches from
owning establish-
ments in the domi-
nions of the empire
and from develop-
ing any activity as
an order, and again
on February 6th,
1875, when it intro-
duced civil marriage
in a universally
binding form, not
merely the so-called
civil marriage of
necessity. By these
imperial laws it was
rendered imposs-
ible for the Catholic
clergy and that
wai'like militia of
the infallible Pope,
t he Order of J esuits,
to agitate against
the May laws ; and
the influence of the
Church on civil life
"DROPPING THE PILOT"
many years' dura- The great debt which Germany owes to Bismarck has been told waS chcckcd, SlUCC
i- v, 1 i in a precedine- chapter; the above, reproduced by permission ,-r, „,-,-; ^ rra •i>-.irrK +
tlOn broke out from the famous " Punch " cartoon by sir John Tenniel, iUus- a mailiagC might
between the State trates the dismissal of the "iron Chancellor" by the youthful bC COlltraCtcd and a
ucLwccii Liic OLciLC ^^^ impetuous emperor, William II., on March 20th, 1890
and the Church ;
the vast majority of the Catholic popula-
tion showed unbroken loyalty and
obedience to their spiritual leaders. The
struggle was waged on both sides with much
bitterness, and since Catholic priests fre-
quently used the pulpit in order to fire the
believers to resist the State laws, the
Prussian Government held itself bound to
proceed against such agitation by penal
mea.sures. But since criminal jurisdiction
5216
household founded
without the benediction of the Church.
Bismarck during the heat of the dispute
had already declared that the Government
built their hopes of peace mainly on the
prospect that a peace-loving Pope would
once again, as had happened in past
history, succeed the belligerent Pope
Pius IX. This event occurred on Feb-
ruary 20th, 1878, when, after the death of
Pius, on February 7th. Cardinal Joachim
GERMAN AND AUSTRIAN SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT
Pecci was elected Pope, and took the title
of Leo Xin. He prided himself on calm-
ing by peaceful concessions the distm'b-
ances under which the reputation alike
of State and Church had suffered greatly
— Bismarck was, on July 13th, 1874, the
object of a murderous attack by Kullmann,
a fanatical Catholic.
The Nuncio at Munich, Masella, visited
Bismarck at Kissingen, in July, 1878.
After nine years of excessively difficult
negotiations a truce was concluded in 1887,
to which the most trenchant May laws were
sacrificed ; for instance, the law concern-
ing the ecclesiastical court
and the preliminary training
of the clergy in State insti-
tutions. But the State had
by no means made an un-
conditional surrender to the
Church; on the contrary,
all the three imperial laws
remained in force, and in
Prussia the law as to State
control of the schools, the
exclusion of the orders from
the schools, and the obliga-
tion of the bishops to signify
beforehand to the Ober-
prasident — lord-lieutenant
— of the respective pro-
vinces the names of the
clergy whom they proposed
to appoint to vacant bene-
fices. Bismarck had not
"gone to Canossa."
The Socialist movement
was rapidly swollen by the
stimulus which was given to
trade and industries imme-
diately after the war of 1870, A
since hundreds of new fac
Reichstag of 1877 more than twenty seats.
Two attempts on the life of the aged
emperor in 1878, one by a professed
Nihilist, the other by Dr. Nobeling, who
escaped inquiry by committing suicide,
were, as a matter of course, associated
with " Social Democracy," which at once
became the object of penal legislation ;
with the normal result of making the
organisation a secret one, but also with
the effect of checking breaches of the law.
The emperor and his great chancellor,
however, were both aware that restrictive
legislation must fail of its object unless
it is accompanied by mea-
sures for curing the disease
of which disorder is the
symptom. Since 1883 a
series of laws have pro-
tected labour and provided
safeguards ; notably the
insurance law of 1889 and
the bank law of 1884, steps
which have been opposed
by the school of economists
which regards them as in-
compatible with the pure
doctrines of Individualism
as supposed to have been
developed at Manchester.
These measures, however,
have not gone far enough
to satisfy the Social Demo-
crats, who since the expiry
of the restrictive law in
i8go, have multiplied enor-
mously, and in so doing
have shed a good many of
their early extravagances.
THE GERMAN EMPRESS Colonial development, in
princess of Schieswig-Hoistein, she turn, has attracted some
was married to the Emperor, William II., (Jgp-r-pg of German eiltllU-
. • , , , in 1881, and of the marriage there has . ^ i i i
tones sprang up, and thou- been a family of six sons and one daughter, siasm, nevcF shared by
sands upon thousands of
men abandoned agriculture and streamed
into the factories. The reaction which
srt in after the second half of the
year 1873 left a mass of these workmen
without bread, planted bitterness and
revolutionary thoughts in their hearts,
and thus increased the number of those
who were discontented with the existing
order of things. In the year 1875 the
two parties hitherto existing within the
Social Democracy, the followers of Bebel
ami Liebknecht, and those of Lassalle,
amalgamated at Gotha into the " Socialist
Labour Party," and, thanks to universal
suffrage, won in the elections to the
IF 27 o
Bismarck, who saw in the
acquisition of colonies mainly sources of
friction with other Powers, which offered
in themselves little prospect of adequate
economic development. Nevertheless, he
somewhat reluctantly recognised the
necessity for the Imperial Government to
give the colonising spirit fair play under its
aegis ; with the result that considerable
portions of Africa are now appended to the
German Empire— as related elsewhere
The Prussian State received through the
mighty events of 1866 and 1870, which
altered its whole framework and put new
and important duties before it, a
definite stimulus towards internal reforms.
5217
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
The absolutism and the bureaucratic prin-
ciples of the age of Frederic the Great had
obtained recognition in the constitution cf
1850 ; the landed nobihty were still a
privileged body. It was necessary that
these anomalies should be removed and
that self-government should be introduced.
For example, in rural districts the lord of
the manor had still the right to
New Scheme j^Qn^ij^ate the Schultheiss—
of Local village mayor ; the Landrat of
Government ^^^ ^^^^^.j^^ ^^^^ appointed by
the king on the nomination of the chief
landowner, the other inhabitants of the
district being neglected ; and the nobility
predominated in the provincial Landtags.
The king, in his speech from the throne
on the opening of the Landtag on Novem-
ber 27th, 1871, had pledged his word that
his Government would introduce a new
scheme of local government. Count
Eulenburg, the Minister of the Interior,
set to work to elaborate it, and although
the House of Peers, under the influence of
the private interests of the aristocracy,
rejected the Bill at first and Bismarck had
grave doubts on the point, he carried it in
December, 1872, with the help of the king,
who created twenty-five new peers. The
king signed the Bill on December 13th.
It apphed at first only to the five eastern
provinces^Prussia, Pomerania, Branden-
burg, Saxony, and Silesia.
Anxiety as to the sentiment of the Poles
forbade the grant of full self-government to
the districts in Posen. According to the
new law, the country communities elected
their own head for the future ; and only
in some special cases was the landowner or
his nominee still allowed to fill up this post.
Country and town communities which con-
tained under 25,000 inhabitants were for
the time being constituted as a district,
whose affairs were administered by a
Kreistag — district council — of at least
twenty-five members chosen by delegates,
and therefore indirectly, from all the resi-
dents in the district. In the
p • iT'^^s of Kreistags half the votes at most
"^'^^^^ ° were to belong to the towns, the
rest to the rural population.
At the head stands a Landrat whom the
king appoints at the nomination of the en-
tire Kreistag ; a committee of six members
is assigned to the Landrat to assist him.
Towns with more than 25,000 inhabitants
form special "urban districts." Since the
new scheme of local government worked
very satisfactorily, it was extended in 1885-
5218
1889 to the remaining six provinces; in
Posen, for the reasons mentioned, narrowei
limits were imposed on self-government.
In the year 1875 the provincial Landtags
were reformed. In future they were to
consist of representatives of the Kreistags
and of the municipal colleges — the magi-
strates and municipal officers — which met
for the purpose of election in a common
session ; they were to assemble at least
once in every two years at the royal
summons and pass resolutions affecting all
provincial matters, especially the construc-
tion of roads, land improvements, public
institutions, pubUc libraries, the care of
monuments, and the application of the
sums of money assigned to the provinces
by the State in virtue of the law of dotation.
A provincial committee of seven to
thirteen persons, with a provincial director
as the head of all the provincial officials,
was to be elected for the administration of
the affairs of the pro vance. The feature of all
this legislation was that it preserved to the
greatest possible degree the principle of
communal self-government ; there is now
no country in the world which,
^ . so far as laws enable it, can
, * ^ ° ,, show so many guarantees as
Lewis II. T^ • r ,1 J. £
Prussia for the sovereignty 01
the law and for the effectiveness of self-
government ; the duty of the people now
is to cultivate those characteristics which
give to such laws force and vitality.
In Bavaria, under King Lewis II., born in
1845, Lutz was at the head of affairs. He
was a keen antagonist of the Ultramon-
tanes, who also met with the pronounced
disfavour of the king. The latter withdrew
more and more from public life, and
relapsed into a dreamy existence, devoted
to music and architecture, while his
enormous expenditure on royal castles
totally disordered the civil list. He was
obhged in the end to be placed under
supervision ; in order to escape from it
he drowned himself and his attendant
physician, Bernhard von Gudden. in the
lake of Starnberg on June 13th, 1886.
Since his brother Otto, born in 1848, had
also long been mentally afflicted, his uncle.
Prince Leopold, assumed the sovereignty
as Prince Regent. He left the Liberal
Ministry in office ; but the Ultramontanes
acquired more and more influence, and
after 1899 they had even a small majority
in the Second Chamber. At the urgent
pressure of the Roman Catholic bishops,
the State refused to recognise the Old
GERMAN AND AUSTRIAN SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT
Catholics as belonging to the Catholic
Church, and only granted them the rights
of a private religious body in March, 1891.
The Moderate-Liberal Minister-President,
Count von Crailsheim, was compelled to
resign on May 31st, 1890.
In Saxony, King John died on October
29th, 1873 ; he was succeeded by his son
Albert, who had won fame in the wars of
1866 and 1870-1871, and was a capable
I'uler with German sympathies. In order
to anticipate the imperial railway scheme,
the Saxon Government bought up gradually
all the private lines in Saxony by the middle
of the 'seventies ; in 1894 and 1901 the
class-tax and income-tax law of the year
1873 were reformed in accordance with the
spirit of the times. Owing to an increase
in the number of the Social Democrats,
who carried in 1891-1892 eleven, and in
followed in his turn, in October, 1904, by
Frederic Augustus III, In Wiirtemberg,
under the rule of King Charles I., 1864-
1891, the " German party," which com-
bined in itself the National Liberals
and the Free Conservatives, was pre-
ponderant in the Landtag, and Baron
von Mittnacht, the Minister-President in
agreement with this party, conducted
the affairs of state in a spirit of loyalty
to the empire. In the year 1891 Charles I.
was succeeded by his cousin, William II.,
who had served in the French war and
gave proof of conscientiousness, good
intentions, and sound sympathy with the
national cause.
In Baden Grand Duke Frederic I.,
born in 1826, the son-in-law of Emperor
William I., e thoroughly loyal prince of
national and lilieral s^•^lpathies, reigned
Count Caprivi
Prince Hohenlohe
Prince von Bulow
BISMARCK'S SUCCESSORS : THREE IIViPERIAL CHANCELLORS OF GERMANY
Since the dismissal in 1S90 of the great Imperial Chancellor, Prince Bismarck, the office has been successively filled by
the three statesmen ^whose portraits are given above— Count Caprivi, Prince Hohenlohe, and Prince von Biilow.
1895 actually fourteen, out of the eighty-
one electoral districts for the Landtag
election, the Government and the Estates,
which since 1880 were under the control of
the Conservatives, resolved in 1896, not-
withstanding the well-grounded protests
of educated sympathisers with the social
cause, to replace the universal suffrage
introduced in 1868 by a suffrage graduated
in three classes, which would render the
third class of owners and voters quite
helpless against the two upper classes. In
the year 1897 the Social Democrats lost
six seats at once in consequence ; and from
1901 on, no Social Democrat has sat in the
Landtag. On the death of King Albert at
Sibyilenort on June 19th, 1902, his brother
George, born in 1832, succeeded, and was
from 1852 to I907„when he was succeeded
by Frederic II. The intense antagon-
ism between the State and the Catholic
Church led in 1876, under the Ministry of
Julius Jolly, Fet»ruary, 1868-October,
1876, to the introduction of elementary
schools of mixed denominations. Since
1881 the tension has gradually been re-
laxed ; but the Centre pursued unremit-
tingly their object of reducing the ruling
National Liberal party in the Landtag to
a minority, by the help of the Democrats ;
they lowered the majority of their rivals
in 1891 to one vote, and completely
attained their object in 1893.
On June 27th, 1901, there occurred a
change in the Ministry in favour of Con-
servatism, since Arthur Brauer became
5219
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
Disaffection
in Alsace
and Lorraine
Premiei in place of the veteran Liberal,
Wilhelm Nokk, and Alexander Dusch,
Minister of Public Worship ; the latter
showed an inclination to fulfil the wish, of
the Episcopal Curia in Freiburg and of
the Centre, for the toleration of monasteries,
since he hoped in this way
to get the upper hand of the
more conciliatory party in the
Centre. In Alsace-Lorraine, by
the imperial law of June 9th, 1871, the
executive power was conferred upon the
emperor. The country thus became an
imperial province — Reichsland — in so far
that the executive power in the State, which
in the other German countries is held
quite apart from the executive power iri
the empu"e, coincides here
with it. The Imperial
Chancellor was Minister
for the Reichsland ; the
administration of the
country was conducted
from 1871 to 1879, by the
able and wise Eduard von
MoUer, who was nomi-
nated High President. In
virtue of Paragraph 10 of
the law of December 30th,
1871, he possessed the
right of taking every
measure which seemed
necessary to him in case
of danger to the public
safety, and in the most
extreme cases even to
raise troops for the defence
of the country. The dis-
affection of the inhabitants
of Alsace-Lorraine, among
whom in particular the exceflent reputation won" on th
w-.-r,-i-, ,, 1 ,1 Photo: London Stereoscopic
Notables — namely, the
manufacturers, large landowners, doctors,
and notaries — were quite un-German,
rendered this " Dictatorship paragraph "
essential for a long time. On January ist,
1874, the Imperial constitution came into
force for Alsace-Lorraine ; the fifteen repre-
sentatives elected to the Reichstag be-
longed almost all to the " Protesters," who
condemned the severance of the provinces
from France as an act of violence.
But gradually the so-called Autonomists
gained ground ; these accepted the in-
corporation into Germany as an irre-
vocable fact, but wished to win the
greatest amount of self-government and
provincial independence for the country.
Bismarck thought it wise to support the
5220
KING ALBERT OF SAXONY
The son of King John, he succeeded to the
throne of Saxony on the death of his father
in the year 1873, assuming the crown with an
■" the battlefield.
movement and by this indiiect method to
make the inhabitants of Alsace-Lorraine
good Germans. He granted to the coun-
try in October, 1874, a popular representa-
tion— at first deliberative only, but since
1877 with powers to legislate ; this was
the Landesausschuss, which contains fifty-
eight members— thirty-four elected by the
three district councils of Upper and Lower
Alsace and Lorraine, twenty by the coun-
try districts, four by the towns of Colniar,
Metz, Mulhausen, and Strassburg. Uni-
versal and equal suffrage was not employed
for the Landesausschuss, since that would
have served to make the anti-German
clerical party supreme ; but the restricted
suffrage gave the Notables the authority.
On July 4th, 1879, the
Empire granted to the
imperial province the
self-government which it
desired. An imperial
Governor-General— Statt-
halter — was to admini-
ster the country for the
future in place of the High
President ; under him
were placed for the con-
duct of affairs a Secretary
of State and four Under-
Secretaries of State, all to
be nominated by the em-
peror. The Imperial Chan-
cellor thus ceased to be
Minister for the imperial
province ; Alsace-Lon"aine
was allowed to send three
deliberative representa-
tives into the Bundesrat,
which thus was increased
to sixty-one members.
The post of governor was
filled from 1879 to 1885 by the ex-Field-
Marshal Manteuffel, who displayed a
deplorable weakness towards the Not-
ables. He was succeeded by Prince Hohen-
lohe, hitherto ambassador at Paris, whose
refined and dignified manner somewhat
improved the situation. When he became
Imperial Chancellor in 1894. the
governorship was conferred on
A New
mpcria ^j^^ uncle of the empress, Prince
Chancellor tt tt 1 11
Hermann von Hohenlohe-
Langenburg. The results of the first thirty
years of the incorporation of the Reichs-
land into the empire are not unsatisfactory,
if fairly estimated. The inhabitants of
Alsace-Lorraine have gradually adapted
themselves more or less to the new position
GERMAN AND AUSTRIAN SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT
of affairs. The protesting party, as such,
has disappeared, and if the country has not
yet become German in the fullest sense, it
is, at any rate, no longer French. The
reasons for the slow development are clear.
Threads which have been snapped for
nearly two centuries can only slowly be
joined together again, and the year 1870,
which for Germans is a great and glorious
remembrance, signifies for Alsace-Lorraine
a year of defeat and oppression, and the
blessings it brought with it are only slowly
being realised by the people. In June, 1902,
such progress, however, had been made
that, from confidence in the increasing good
will of the population towards the empire,
the " Dictatorship paragraph " was re-
pealed, and the inhabitants of Alsace-
Lorraine now from being Germans of the
" second class " became Germans of the
" first class." In the Grand
Duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt
the Grand Duke Lewis III.
died in June, 1877. Under his
nephew, Lewis IV., 1877-
1892, who was married to
Alice, daughter of Queen Vic-
toria of Great Britain, the
long-standing dispute with
the Catholic Church was
settled in 1887-1888. His son,
Ernest Lewis, born 1868, con-
cluded in 1896, the railwax
convention with Prussia.
In Brunswick the reigning
Austria's
Liberal
Cabinet
against this, and by the decision of a
court of arbitration, in which King
Albert of Saxony presided over six
members of the Imperial Court, Count
Ernest was appointed to the regency in
July, 1897. In Oldenburg, Grand Duke
Peter, one of the warmest supporters of
national unity, died on June 13th, 1900 ;
and in Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach,
Grand Duke Charles Alexander,
one of the last eye-witnesses
of the great age of Weimar,
who had seen Goethe and breathed of his
inspiration, died on January 5th, igoi.
Although in Austria the German Liberal
bourgeois Ministry of Herbst-Giskra re-
signed at the beginning of 1870, partly on
account of internal dissensions, yet the
Constitutional party there, resting on the
German Liberals, remained at the helm
until 1879. Prince Adolph
Auersperg was at the head of
the Liberal Cabinet from 1871
to 1879. The Czechs, who did
not recognise the Constitution
of 1861, absented themselves
from the Reichsrat and made
no concealment of their
leanings towards Russia as the
chief Slav power. By this
means the position of the
Constitutional party was
gradually shaken ; and when,
at the beginning of October,
1878, it opposed the occupa-
tion of Bosnia and Herze-
ber i8th, 1884, by the death Joseph to form a Ministry in 1879, govina by Austria, it com-
of Duke William, and since and offended the Germans by pigtely lost ground with the
_ Mi-icnin o- t-r» crt-anf ^/-inal t-iochfc i-rt fill ± -^ *- . _
COUNT TAAFFh,
. ^-, An Austrian statesman, he was
Ime becajne extmct on OctO- summoned by the Emperor Francis
the next heir, Duke Ernest
Augustus of Cumberland, son of the exiled
King George V. of Hanover, who died in
1878, had not made any treaty with Prussia,
Prince Albert of Prussia, born in 1837, 3-
nephew of Emperor William I., was
appointed regent by the Bundesrat. The
interest, however, on the Guelf fund was
paid over in 1892 to the Duke of Cumber-
land. In Mecklenburg-Schwerin the Grand
Duke Frederic Francis II. died
p'^iZe ''^ ^P"^ ^5^^' ^^^•^- ^'' ^^'''''
rince CoburgandGotha, Duke Ernest
Alexander tt i- 1 a ^ j o
II. died on August 22nd, 1893.
In Lippe-Detmold, Prince Waldemar, at his
death on March 20th, 1895, left a will, ac-
cording to which Prince Adolf of Schaum-
burg, brother-in-law of the emperor, was
to govern as regent for his feeble-minded
brother, Prince Alexander. But Count
Ernest of Lippe-Biesterfeld protested
wishing to grant equal rights to all.
Emperor Francis Joseph, who
recognised that this occupation was of
vital interest to the monarchy, which
had to secure a more advantageous
position for itself on the Balkan Peninsula
against the intrusion of Russian influence.
The emperor summoned, on August 12th,
1879, the Ministry of Count Taaffe, which
aimed at the so-called reconciliation of the
nationaUties by the grant of equal rights
to all. The Czechs, amongst whom the
Conservative Old Czechs were gradually
crowded out by the more radical Young
Czechs, now entered the Reichsrat and
usurped the power in the Landtag
Chamber at Prague, in consequence of
which, among other things, they carried
the proposed division of the ancient
German university at Prague into German
and Czech sections. The Germans, on
their side, did not appear for some time
5221
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
in the Landtag. The more radical views
of the " German Popular party " and of
the " Pan-German " party, which only
pursued German national interests, under
the clever leaders Von Schonerer, Iro,
and Wolf, gained more and more the
ascendancy with them, and overshadowed
the Liberal Constitutional party, which
placed the interests of Austria
, ^ * ^ above the cause of nationality.
of Count T^v, J. x i.- J.
rj, J, The two former parties were at
the same time strongly anti-
Semitic, while the Liberal Conservative
party had a large Jewish element. Taaffe
fell on November nth, 1893, since he wished
to introduce universal and equal suffrage,
an innovation which would have greatly
weakened the parliamentary representation
of the Poles, Conservatives and Liberals.
After an attempt to govern with the
Coalition Ministry of Count Alfred
Windisch-Graetz until June i6th, 1895,
Count Badeni, a Pole, seized the reins of
government on September 29th, 1895. He
conceded in 1896 the election of seventy-
two representatives by universal suffrage,
in addition to the 353 representatives
elected under a restricted franchise, but in
general conducted an administration on
principles partly Slav, partly clerical, and
partly feudal, and by his language ordi-
nances of April 5th, 1897, in consequence of
which all officials in Bohemia and Moravia,
from 1901 onwards, were to possess a
mastery of the Czech as well as of the
German language, precipitated the whole
Austrian monarchy into wild confusion.
In order to prevent the Czechising
of the official classes, and finally
of the Germans generally, which was
threatened by the language ordinance,
the Germans in the Reichsrat set about
the most reckless obstruction of all
parliamentary business, and secured on
November 28th, 1897, the dismissal of
Badeni and the repeal of the ordinances.
But the storm was not calmed by this. The
^1 . .• Czechs demanded the restora-
Obstructions ,• r -i. j- i ■ ,
. tion of the ordmances, which
Rci hs would have only meant the
establishment of equal rights
for all ; but the Germans demanded legal
recognition of the dignity of the German
language as the language of the State.
The Reichsrat was completely crippled
for four full years by this impassable
breach between the parties, since at one
time the Germans, at another the Czechs,
" obstructed," while by their interminable
5222
speeches and motions they hindered the
progress of legislation. The German
Constitutional party sank more and more
into the background ; Vienna was wrested
from it by the Cathohc " Social Christian "
party under its leader Karl Lueger, whom
the emperor actually confirmed in office
as burgomaster, in April, 1897, and the
Pan-German section was enlarged in the
Reichsrat elections of 1900 from five to
twenty-one representatives. While the
Catholic clergy made overtures to the
Slavs, a movement, advancing with the
watchword, " Freedom from Rome ! "
began among the Cathohc German popula-
tion of Bohemia and the Alpine districts ;
this movement has led to the founding of
numerous Protestant or Old Catholic com-
munities in hitherto purely Catholic
districts, and it is still increasing.
Since the barrenness of the Reichsrat was
felt to be irksome by the electorates, whose
economic interests remained unsatisfied,
the Minister Ernst von Koerber, after
January 19th, 1900, succeeded in 1901, by
an appeal to material interests, in breaking
down the spell of obstruction and making
, the newly elected Reichs-
ungary s ^^^ once more capable of
^ , . ^. work. More than /2q.i66,666
Celebrations ^^ i xi r -i i
were granted then for railroads
and canals, and in May, 1902, a Budget Bill
was carried for the first time for five years.
The relations of Hungary to Cisleithania
depended after 1867 on the terms of a
treaty concluded for ten years, which was
renewed in 1877 and 1887. But the third
renewal met with great difficulties, since
Cisleithania demanded an increase in the
share of thirty per cent, which Hungary
has to pay of the common expenditure.
The celebration of the millennium of the
Hungarian nation took a most brilliant
form. The Germans, Roumanians, and
Serbs in Hungary had indeed cause to
complain of the forcible suppression of
their nationality. Thus, in 1898, in virtue
of a State law Magyar names were sub-
stituted for all the non-Magyar place names,
and at the elections the Ministry of Desi-
derius Banffy, which was formed on
January 14th, 1895, employed every
means of intimidating and deceiving public
opinion. The inevitable change of Cabinet
on February 26th, 1899, which brought
into power the Ministry of Koloman von
Szell, led to some improvement in this re-
spect ; the elections of 1901 were carried out
for the first time without acts of violence.
THE
RE-MAKING
OF
EUROPE
EUROPE
SINCE 1871
IV
FRANCE UNDER THE THIRD REPUBLIC
SPAIN'S LOST COLONIES AND
ITALY'S ECONOMIC PROGRESS
""THE great majority of the French Na-
•■■ tional Assembly, elected on February
8th, 1871, were in favour of monarchy, and,
since Paris was republican, the Assembly
fixed on Versailles as the seat of govern-
ment. The threatened restoration of the
monarchy, as well as the conscious pride
with which Paris as the " heart of France "
was opposed to the provinces, produced that
terrible revolution which is called, from
the municipal committee elected by the
proletarian masses, the rising of the
Commune. On March 28th, the "Com-
munistic Republic" was proclaimed, which
at once procured the required supplies of
money by compulsory loans from the
wealthy and by the confiscation of the
property of the religious orders.
The Parisians had been allowed to keep
their arms on the conclusion of the truce in
January, 187 1, at the express request of
the infatuated Faure ; with these arms
they resisted for nearly two
j.^° " months the attacks of the
. *^ ". '""^ army led by Marshal MacMahon
against the rebellious city.
The troops eventually forced their way
into the city after a series of murderous
engagements ; but in the moment of
defeat the Communards sought to revenge
themselves on their conquerors by levelling
the Vendome column, burning the Tuileries,
the Hotel de Ville, and other public build-
ings, and shooting the clergy fallen into
their hands, and foremost among them
Georges Darboy, Archbishop of Paris.
As a punishment for this, twenty-six
ringleaders were executed by order of
court-martial on the Plain of Satory,
and some 10,000 who had been taken with
arms in their hands were sentenced to
transportation or imprisonment.
These terrible events at first only
strengthened the inclination towards mon-
archy. Thiers, however, being convinced
that in the end a Conservative republic
was the form of constitution most advan-
tageous to his country, opposed any
restoration of the monarchy ; but although
by a prompt payment of the /200,ooo,ooo
he contrived that France should be
_, . ^ evacuated by the Germans in
Claimants o u ii j *
. .1. r^L 1873, he was compelled to
to the Throne /• r ,1 j. r -n ■
. p retire from the post of Presi-
dent of the Executive in May,
1873, before the evacuation was complete.
Marshal MacMahon became his successor.
Since there were three parties in the ranks
of the Royalists it was very difficult to
set up the monarchy, which, after all, only
one of these dynasties could hold.
The Orleanists, it is true, gave way to
their childless cousin Henry V. of Bour-
bon, who, as Count of Chambord, lived at
Frohsdorf, near Vienna, and MacMahon
was prepared to restore the Bourbon
Monarchy ; but when, in 1873, the count
demanded the disuse of the national tri-
colour and the reintroduction of the white
standard with the lilies of his house, in
order that there might be a clear sign of
the return of the nation to the pre-
revolutionary standpoint, the courage
even of the moderate Royalists failed at
such a step. The republic received in
1875 its legal basis by the grant of a seven
years' tenure of office to its president.
When MacMahon in 1877 made a renewed
attempt to pave the way for a restoration
of the monarchy, he failed, through the
energy of Gambetta and the resistant
power of republicanism. The elections
produced a strong Republican majority,
and on January 30th, 1879,
Presidents MacMahon, despairing of the
victory of his cause, gave
way to the Republican Jviles
Grevy. He was followed by Francois Sadi
Carnot, J. P. P. Casimir-Perier, Felix
Faure, Emile Lcubet, and finally Armand
Fallieres, elected in January, 1906, on
the retirement of Loubet. Grevy wai
5223
of the French
Republic
A GROUP OF REVOLUTIONARIES BEING ESCORTED TO PRISON
THE RUE
The troubles of France iliu iioi end with the long series of defeats niflicted upon its arnucs uy ine Prussian troops.
Following upon the national humiliation and the downfall of the Emperor, Napoleon III., there was established
in Paris on March 2Sth, 1S71, the " Communistic Republic." To suppress the revolution thus inaug-urated, Marshal
MacMahon attacked the rebellious city, but for two months the Parisians, armed with the weapons which they
had been allowed to keep on the conclusion of the truce in the January preceding, contrived to resist the army.
THE END OF THE COMMUNE : SCENES IN THE STREETS OF PARIS
5224
FRANCE, SPAIN, AND ITALY
forced, through the defalcations of his
stepson, Daniel Wilson, to resign on
December ist, 1887 ; Carnot fell on June
24th, 1894, at Lyons, under the dagger of
the Italian anarchist, Santo Caserio ;
Casimir-Perier retired as soon as January
15th, 1895, from disgust at his office, which
conferred more external glitter than real
power ; and Faure died on February i6th,
1 899,' soon after an attack of apoplexy.
The Monarchists were no longer able
to obtain a commanding position, especi-
ally since Pope Leo XIIL in 1892 had
ordered the Catholics to support the
existing constitution. The party which
but, after the resumption of his trial, was
condemned, on September 9th, 1899, to
ten years' imprisonment in a fortress, only,
on September 19th, to be pardoned ,by
President Loubet. But again the Republic
weathered the storm. One consequence of
the Dreyfus agitation has been to increase
the anti-clerical tendencies of the executive.
In June, 1899, the Social Democrat,
Alexandre Millerand, actually entered
the Cabinet as Minister of Commerce. In
March, 1901, a law against associations
fwas passed by the Ministry of Waldeck-
, Rousseau, which placed under State con-
trol the religious orders, especially those
lit BURNING OF THE TUILERIES BY THE COMMUNARDS OF PA
Alter a series of murderous engagements, the army under Marshal MacMahon forced its way into Pans and deleatea
the Communards. The latter, however, were determined to revenge themselves upon their conquerors, and this they
did by levelling the Vendome column, burning theTuileries, the Hotel de Ville, and other public buildings, and shooting
the clergy who fell into their hands. In the punishments which followed twenty-six ringleaders were executed, and
about 10,000 who had been taken with arms in their hands were sentenced to transportation or imprisonment.
was obedient to the Pope styled itself
" les rallies." Even the venality of
Republican statesmen who allowed them-
selves to be paid for their support in Parlia-
ment by the company for the construction
of the Panama Canal, which went bank-
rupt in December, 1888, was unable to
overthrow the Republican government.
A crisis even more alarming was pro-
duced by the lajkvsuit of the Jewish captain,
Alfred Dreyfus, who, on December 22nd,
1894, was found guilty of betraying military
secrets, ignominiously degraded and trans-
ported to Devil's Island, near Cayenne,
inveighing against, the "atheistic". Re-
public, punished the disobedient ones
with dissolution, and deprived the orders
-of the instruction of the young.
A drama which is interesting from a
different point of view developed round
the figure of General Boulanger. He
was Minister of War from January,
1886, to June, 18S7, and obtained an
immense popularity. He almost pro-
voked a war with Germany in the
spring of 1887, and after April.. 1888,
undertook to remodel the constitution
with a view to the restoration of the
5223
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
Empire. Wherever he appeared on his
black charger the crowds greeted him with
loud cheers. But at last M. Constans,
the Minister, boldly laid hands on him,
and arraigned him before the High Court
as a conspirator against the constitution.
Boulanger, from fear of condemnation,
and not being bold enough to stir up
a revolution, fled, on April 8th, to
Brussels, where he died by his own hand
on September 30th, 1891.
In the sphere of foreign policy the
Third Republic was very successful in
so far that on May 12th,' 1881, by use of
the temporarily good understanding with
Germany established by the Ministry of
Jules Ferry, Sidi Ali, the Bey of Tunis,
who died on June nth, 1902, was
forced to accept the French protectorate,
and thus the position of France on the
Mediterranean was much strenethened.
Tonkin, in Further India,
was acquired after a ^ ..-- - ^«e
checkered campaign
against China, between
1883 and 1885 ; on Octo-
ber 2nd, 1893, Siam was
driven back behind . the
Mekong ; and on August
6th, 1896, Madagascar was
incorporated into the
French colonial possessions.
France also won consider-
able territory on the con-
tinent of Africa. In 1892
she occupied the negro
kingdom of Dahomeh,
while concurrently the
whole Western Sudan from
Timbuctoo to the Congo
became French. On Lake
Chad France is the pre-
dominant Power, and
treaties with Germany and
Britain secured its pos-
sessions. Recent troubles
in Morocco have given an
opportunity for French
interference, which the
Republic shows every in-
tention of utilising to the
utmost. Her only severe
check in Africa has been
that experienced from
Britain in connection with
the Fashoda episode.
Germany and to win back Alsace-Lorraine,
has not been gratified. The efficiency of
the German army and the increasing numer-
ical superiority of the German population
— in 1901 there were 56,000,000 Germans
to 38,000,000 French — excluded all possi-
bility of a French victory in a duel between
the two nations. Even the Dual Alliance
with Russia, which was projected in 1891
under Alexander III. and concluded under
Nicholas II., has freed, indeed, France
from her isolation, but — according to the
noteworthy confession of " Le Siecle" of
September 19th, I90i-^has made a re-
conquest of the lost provinces impossible,
for the reason that Russia also must wish
to stand on good terms with her neighbour
Germany. A dispute with the Sultan,
Abdul Hamid II., who did not satisfy
the demands of some French officials, led
to the despatch of a French fleet under
THE DEGRADATION OF CAPTAIN DREYFUS
Another crisis of an alarming character overtook France in 189+, when the
T-?iit tVip nriaimlKr mncf Jewish captain, Alfred Dreyfus, was found guiltv of betraying military secrets
JJUL Liic uiJf^uiaiiy iuusl and sentenced to confinement on Devils Island. Five years later, in September,
ardent wish of the rrenCh, l-^O;*, the trial was reopened. Dreyfus was then sentenced to ten years' imprison-
ir, rp\Tar>af^ 1-ViAfncpl-i7<ac r\r, '"6"*^ '" a^ fortress, but the punishment was not carried out, the prisoner, whoso
lu iLVtiiigt, uiieiiibeiveb Uii innocence had been established, receiving a pardon from President Loube"-
5 "-26
SIX PRESIDENTS OF THE FRENCH REPUBLIC
Since 1879 the Presidential chair of the French Republic has been occupied by the statesmen whose portraits are
given above. In that year Jules Grevy was elected to the office, resigning in 1887, when he was succeeded
by Francois Sadi Carnot, who was assassinated in 1894 at Lyons. Disgusted with the office, Casimir-Perier retired
in January, 1895; Faure died in 1899; while Loubet retired in 1906, and was succeeded by Armand Fallieres.
Pliotos by Pierre-Petit and Nadar
Admiral Caillard in November, 190T, to
Mytilene. The Sultan gave in, granted
to French schools and .
hospitals in Turkey, the
immunity from taxation
which was demanded, for
them, and thus saved the
island from the fate of
the island of Cyprus, which
has remained in British
occupation since 1878.
The failure of the Hohen-
zollern candidature for the
Spanish Crown had placed
Ferdinand Amadeus of
Savoy on the throne in
December, 1870 ; but on
February nth, 1873, the
new monarch resigned his
unbearable post. The only
remaining alternative was
to proclaim a republic.
Spanish republicanism has
characteristics peculiarly its own. Its
special feature, federalism, is one that is
due to the Iberian soil,
which brought it forth.
Even to the present time
the idea of a republic has
drawn its strength from the
hope of transforming into
a republic those separate
provinces of Spain which
only the loosest of bonds
could unite into one king-
dom. A federal republic
was now to be founded;
though, for the moment,
the founders had to content
themselves, whether they
would or no, with giving a
republican form to the ad-
BOULANGER miuistrativc and executive
GENERAL
Ministerof War, General Boulanger was -powerS ahead V iu CXisteilCe.
for some time a great public favourite; r, - ,uK^ ,.,^^ :^
but, charged with conspiring against the Ihe IieW rCpUDllC WaS in
constitution, he feared condemnation, />ri+iral no<;itinn The
and died by his own hand in 1891. ^ CritlCai posiUUll. i lie
5227
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
forces of reaction had been aroused by
the triumph of the Radicals, and
were gathering round the man who
had inherited the Carlist claims, Don
Carlos the Younger, who summoned the
Basque provinces to his sui)i)ort. Once
again battalions
of these moun-
taineers, d i s -
tinguished by
that classic
headgear, the
round cap of the
Basques, flocked
to the standard
of the reaction-
ary party. But
once again it
became manifest
that their
strength was in
defensive tac-
were wrong. The early death of Alfonso
XII., on November 25th, 1885, did not
shake in any way the position of the
monarchy. The Queen-widow, Maria
Christina, acted as regent, at first for her
daughter Mercedes, and then for her son
. Alfonso XIII.,
who was born on
May 17th, 1886,
and met with
no opposition
worthy of men-
tion.
The period of
peace, which
could not be
broken even by
the irrepressible
revolt of the
remnants of the
Spanish colonial
empire, is a
FERDINAND AMADEUS AND ALFONSO XII.
tics. An attack The throne of Spain in the troublous days that followed the abdication standing tCSti
m-ion +V10 /^Qi->ifol of Isabella II. did not offer a very tempting prize, but Ferdinand ,-,-,n,r,-tT +<-> +I-ir>
upon Llie eapudl Amadeus.thesecondsonof King Victor Emmanuel of Italy, accepted it Hl^ny 1-U LllL
was even more in 1870, abdicating in February, 187:?. When the Carlist movement fact that the
, r ,1 collapsed in the closing days of 1874, Alfonso XII. was elected king. ■ j-
out 01 the ques- & j . & economic condi-
tion than during the First Carlist War
The Socialist agitators in the south,
excited by the example of the Parisian
Commune, thought that their time had also
come, and seized several towns, in par-
ticular the arsenal of Cartagena, from
which they were not easily dislodged.
The army at the disposal of
the republic had been utterly
demoralised by the continual
pronunciamentos, and had
to be reorganised in part.
Fortunately, neither Carl-
ism nor communism, thanks
to incompetent leadership,
was able to attract many
recruits ; and the feeling that,
at any rate, the highest posi-
tions in the state must be
placed beyond the reach of
ambitious intriguers grew
stronger every day. ' Isabella
had been driven out, and no
DON CARLOS
tions of the country are slowly but
undeniably improving, and that it is
beginning more and more to develop and
to make use of its natural wealth. It
may be that foreigners have given the
impulse and are appropriating a portion
of the profit ; but, none the less, the
advantage to the country
itself is unmistakable. At
this time, it is true, the social
problem is a menacing danger,
and its most deadly fruit,
anarchism, is brought to
fullest maturity in Spain ; but
this is partly due to the
general lack of education, and
is, moreover, a heritage from
the sad course of Spain's earlier
development. That there is
an improvement isundeniabl■^
The events of the year 1898
— the war with the United
States of America and the
one was inchned to give her Thebrother of Ferdmand viL.he loss of all her more impor
another chance; but great was anxious to succeed to the ^ ^ colonies — have demon
, 1111-1 o"-'"'- throne ofSpam, and under pressure ^'J-''"- '-'-'ivjiin^o iiavv. vj.v.iii<_'xi
hopes were held 01 the queen s from the Reactionary party he stratcd how small is the power
son, the young Alfonso. The '^'^^'^ ^^^ standard of a revolt
republic was set aside without difficulty
on December 2g-30th, 1874 ; and on
January 14th, 1875, Alfonso was pro-
claimed king. Many might have con-
sidered this to be merely another act in
the political farce ; but such pessimists
5228
of resistance that Spain can
offer to a determined opponent, in spite
of all her recent progress ; and how
inferior she is to those wealthy Powers
which have acquired a great reserve of
strength by establishing themselves upon
a sound economic basis, and by taking a
FRANCE, SPAIN, AND ITALY
due share in the progressive movements of
modern times. Calamity had long been in
the air. When the American colonies were
lost at the beginning of the nineteenth
century, the islands of Cuba and Porto
Rico were retained, partly perhaps on
account of a revolt of the negro
"'*^°'. °^ which was vigorously opposed
by all the white inhabitants
of the island. Until the middle of the
century it was only the negro population
which showed any tendency to revolt.
However, later on, the creole element in
Cuba found that its natural course of
development was impeded by the Spanish
Government, and became unruly. It was
supported, sometimes secretly, sometimes
openly, by the United States. Every con-
spiracy and filibustering expedition — the
first began in 1849 — found ready support
in North America. The American Govern-
ment had even declared with praiseworthy
frankness that it proposed to seize Cuba
at the first favourable opportunity, but
Spain was saved by the outbreak of the
Civil War in the United States.
The victory of the North in this war
brought about a temporary coolness be-
tween Americans and Cubans. The great
revolt of 1868-78, when Creoles and
negroes fought together against Spain, was
not supported by any attack from America.
But the rich island gradually became an
object of interest to American speculators,
and Spain could not make up its mind
to the generous concessions which would
have satisfied the self-assertive Creoles.
The aboUtion of slavery in 1880 led to an
economic crisis, but did not inspire the
liberated slaves with any friendly feelings
for Spain. So at last, in the year 1895-96,
a revolt began, systematically supported
by the United States ; Spain gradually
spent her strength in the remarkable
efforts she made to meet the danger.
At the same time, ;i896, a revolt broke
out in the PhiHppines, where Spanish
mismanagement, .without the stimulus of
any foreign influence, had driven the most
• nv A enlightened and preponderant
pain tn (,jg^gg among the natives, the
J Tagals, to open resistance. Not-
ncompe a withstanding the many tokens
that foreboded ruin, the characteristic
Spanish indifference to consequences was
as apparent as ever. The fleet, which was
the only means of salvation, continued in
such utter neglect that a large number of
the best ships could not be used at all
LOBBY OF THE CORTRS IN MADRID DURING THE BRIEF DAYS OF THE SPANISH REPUBLIC
5229
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
A chance Qccurrence, or, according to the
American theory, an act of treachery, the
blowing up of the United States battleship
Maine in Havana Harbour, led to the out-
break of hostihties on April 2ist, i8g8.
With curiously clear foresight the United
States had sent a considerable fleet, under
Commodore Dewey, towards the Philip-
pines. He destroyed the little Spanish
squadron of Montojo at Cavite on May ist,
and, with the help of the revolted natives,
obliged Manila to surrender. In Cuba
the Spaniards, under Martinez Campos,
Weyler, and finally. Marshal Blanco, had
tried to avert calamity by the employment
Doth of mildness and of severity. Their
power in the island collapsed no' less
ingloriously when their ,
little fleet, under Cervera,
which had been equipped
with great difficulty, had
been destroyed off Sant-
iago on Jul}/ 3rd. Of
Spain's immense empire,
only two little colonies
on the west coast of
Africa now remain. The
remainder of her pos-
sessions in the Pacific
Ocean, the Caroline,
Pellew, and Marianne
islands, were sold to
Germany for £850,000
on June 19th, 1899.
The loss of her colonies,
which was formally de-
clared in the Peace of
Paris, December loth,
1898, is, in truth, a for-
tunate event for Spain.
It never understood how
to make proper use of its
possessions. What it has lost is the happy
hunting-ground of office-seekers and
political parasites, passing their time dis-
cussing public affairs in the cafes of
Madrid, and waiting for a revolution to
jarther their designs. Possibly the number
of these political parasites will decrease.
Possibly there will be a general return to
honest endeavour. The fact that the
government of a woman and of a child,
who has now grown to a promising man-
hood, was never seriously threatened,
in spite of all disasters abroad, is the
best testimony to the excellent spirit
now prevailing in Spain. With her ej^es
fixed upon her own resources, Spain
may now — and all signs seem to indicate
that she will — give an attention, too long
deferred, to the training of the national
mind and the development of national
industry commensurate with the great
natural wealth of the country and the high
qualities and potency of the people.
In the Kingdom of Italy the predominant
party was from 1861 to 1876 the Consor-
teria, or Moderate Conservative, which
had been founded by Cavour. Its failures,
however, and all kinds of personal
jealousies enabled the Left to gain the
supremacy, which was only temporarily
taken from it by the renewed strength of
the Right under the Marquis di Rudini.
The Left abolished the duty on flour,
which made the working-man's bread dear,
and conferred the suffrage
on all who could read and
write and paid a small
tax. But it could not
check satisfactorily the
miserable destitution of
the poorer classes, especi-
ally of the labourers in
the north, in the Basili-
cata, and in Sicily, and of
the miners in the Sicilian
sulphur-mines. ' Sicily
also suffered under the
reign of terror which the
secret society of the Mcfia
established in many parts.
Owing to the dearth of
food, the social revolution
in Milan, Ancona, the
Romagna, and Southern
Italy repeatedly produced
open insurrection against
The son of Victor Emmanuel II., he succeeded ^j^g authority of the State.
HUMBERT
OF ITALY
an anarchist who had been sent from America.
to the throne of Italy in 1878, and on ^ __^
29th, 190(1, was assassinated at Monza by From May 6th tO I2th,
1898, Milan was com-
pletely in the hands of the revolution,
and order was only restored after
sanguinary conflicts in which fifty-
three persons were killed and hundreds
wounded. The efforts of Italia irredenta,
which wished to unite with the monarchy
the v/hole " unredeemed" Italian popala-
tion outside Italy, in Trieste, Dalmatia,
Tirol, Ticino, and Nice, had been, especi-
ally since 1878, detrimental to a good
u,nderstandiiig with neighbouring states ;
they hindered the alliance of Italy with
Austria, and so also with Germany, and
gave France an opportunity to carry
off, on the pretext of the depredations
of the Tunisian border tribes of the
Krumir, the province of Tunis, under the
5230
FRANCE, SPAIN, AND ITALY
very eyes of the Italians, who had been
trying to acquire it themselves. King
Humbert I., the worthy son of Victor
Emmanuel II., 1878 to 1900, being thus
taught the dangers of the policy of the
" free hand," concluded in March, 1887, at
the advice of his Minister, Count Robilant,
the Triple Alliance with Austria and
Germany, which, being subsequently con-
solidated by the policy of Francesco Crispi,
has proved hitherto a main support of
the peace of Europe. It secured Italy's
position in the Mediterranean, and thus
effectively checked French designs on
Tripoli. The attempt to place Abyssinia
under Italian suzerainty gained for Italy
the possession of Assab in 1881, and that
of Massowah in 1885. But on March ist,
1896, the great King Menelik with 90,000
men defeated and nearly annihilated the
Italian army, 15,000 men strong, under
Baratieri at Abba Garima, east of Adowah,
carried 3,000 Italian soldiers as prisoners
into the heart of his country, and extorted,
on October 26th, 1896, a peace which
secured the independence of Abyssinia and
confined the Italian colony on the Red
QUEEN HELENA
Sea within narrower limits ; it now only
extends from Massowah to the rivers
Marab and Belesa. Bank scandals, from
which even Ministers did not emerge with-
out damage to their reputations, caused
repeatedly, as in 1894, for example, con-
siderable excitement. King Humbert was
assassinated on July 29th, 1900, at Monza.
KING' VICTOR EMMANUEL III. Bmsi
Born in 1869, he came to the throne as successor to his
father, Humbert I., in the year 1900. On October 24th,
1806, lie was married to Princess Helena of Montenegro.
by Gaetano Bresci, an anarchist sent
from America ; he was succeeded by his
son Victor Emmanuel III., born in 1869,
who by his marriage to Princess Helena
of Montenegro on October 24th, 1896, has
formed an alliance on the other side of
the Adriatic. The economic position of
Italy has made considerable progress,
and a commercial treaty has been made
with France. The Triple Alliance was
renewed in 1902.
The papacy is bitterly hostile to the
national state of Italy, which has deprived
it of all secular possessions. It forbade
all true sons of the Church to show any
sort of recognition of the " usurping "
Kingdom of Italy by taking part in the
political elections to the Second Chamber.
Even the Guarantee Act of May, 1871,
which secures to the Pope his independence,
the possession of the \'atican, and a yearly
income of ;f 118,750, has not so far been
acknowledged by the Curia, since it
emanates from the legislature of the
monarchy, and the right of the monarchy
to exist is contested by the Pope.
5231
THE
RE-MAKING
OF
EUROPE
EUROPE
SINCE 1871
V
MINOR STATES OF WESTERN EUROPE
THE CLEAVAGE OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN
TTHE Swiss Confederation has gone
■'■ through a progressive development,
so far as material interests are concerned,
since about i860. It obtained a rich market
for its industries by commercial treaties
with its neighbours, and the great lines of
mountain railways, into the
Engadine, over the St.
Switzerland
and the
„ , J Gothard, through the heart
Referendum <• , • , . ° 1 • 1
of which a tunnel nme and
one-third miles long was driven in 1882,
and into the Bernese Oberland, promoted
the influx of strangers, from which
Switzerland derives great profits.
The constitution of the Confederation,
like those of many cantons, has gradually
become more democratic in the course of
years. After the cantons of Ziirich, Basle,
Berne, and others had introduced since
1869 the Referendum, or the voting
of the entire people on legislative pro-
posals, the Federal constitution was
modified on May 29th, 1874, according to
the views of the Liberals and the Centre.
Legislation on the subjects of contracts,
bills, and trade, as well as the jurisdiction
over the army and the Church, were
assigned to the Confederation ; it also
received powers in economic matters. A
supreme Federal Court and a system of
registration of births, deaths, and
marriages by government officials was
introduced. The Referendum is allowed
in all cases when either 30,000 voters
or eight out of the twenty-two cantons
demand that the nation itself shall say
the last word on a measure approved
by the Federal and National Councils.
On July 5th, 1891, the popular rights
. . were increased by the grant
ncreasing ^^ ^j^^ people of the initiative
the Popular ,, f ^ ,• ,,.
D • •, m the legislation on condition
Privileges .1 . .. • -^
that 50,000 votes require it.
This concession to democratic principles
has, it must be confessed, produced
the result that many useful laws which
had been decided upon by the legis-
lative bodies have been lost at the
very last, especially when an increased
5232
expenditure might be expected from them.
The French cantons of Western Switzer-
land and the Catholic cantons of Old
Switzerland often came together in the
attempt to hinder all progressive centralisa-
tion. The Confederation received, however,
on October 25th, 1885, the monopoly of
manufacturing and selling alcohol, and in
1887 the supervision of the forests and the
right to legislate on the food supply ; in
1898 the nationalisation of the railways
and uniformity of procedure in civil and
criminal cases were granted by the people.
The Confederation quarrelled with tht
papal throne in 1873, because Bishop E.
Lachat of Basle had on his own responsi-
bility published the Vatican decrees. The
bishopric of Basle was, in consequence,
abolished by the Confederation on January
29th ; Kasper Mermillod, who put himself
forward as Bishop of Geneva, was banished
from the country on February 17th, and
^, ; . the papal charge d'affaires,
ChurcA and /^ td a • u •
g _ G. B. Agnozzi, was given his
^ J. passports towards the end of
November. The Old Catholic
movement found great support in Switzer-
land, and received on June 7th, 1876, a
bishop of its own, " Christian Catholic," in
the person of Edward Herzog, and a special
theological faculty in Berne, which was,
however, only thinly attended. But in the
course of time afresh agreement was effected
between Church and State ; the bishopric
of Basle was revived in 1884-1885, though
the nunciature remained in abeyance.
The social movement of the time led in
1887 to the legal restriction of the maxi-
mum working day to eleven hours, in 1881
to the adoption of a law of employers'
liability, and in 1890 to the establishment '
of workmen's insurances against accidents
and illness. On the other hand, the social
democratic proposal to introduce into the
constitution the " Right to Labour " was
rejected by the people by 300,000 to
73,000 votes. While the Radical Demo-
cratic party was prominent, the Social
Democracy generally, although it rested on
MINOR STATES OF WESTERN EUROPE
The Cost
of
Education
th€ Radical Griitli-Verein, which had
formally joined it in 1901, and constituted
a special group in the National Council,
has attained to no great influence. Since
also the Conservative Liberals were able to
exercise very Umited power, the minority
have lately directed their efforts to carry
the system of proportionate voting in the
Confederation as well as in the cantons,
and thus to secure themselves at least a
proportionate share in the popular repre-
sentation and in legislation.
The kingdom of Belgium had been re-
leased by the war of 1870-1871 from the
continual danger which had threatened it
from the side of France. The two great
parties of Liberals and Clericals were
alternately in office, as
had been the case for the
past decades. But both
parties saw themselves
compelled, on political
grounds, to abandon
gradually the exclusive
recognition of the French
language in official
matters and private inter-
course, and to make con-
cessions to the Flemings,
who composed more than
half the population of
the kingdom. Accord-
ingly, under the Clerical
Cabinet of Baron J. .J.
d'Anethan, the use of
the Flemish language
was permitted in the law
courts ; under the Liberal , _, ^ .
,T- • X f -C" - r\^U „ Leopold II., King of the Belgians, founded in
Ministry of Frere-Orban, ^Vest Africk, with the assistance of sir Henry
^F^
THE KING OF THE BELGIANS
d'Anethan, then Ambassador at the Vati-
can, was recalled, and the Nuncio Serafino
Vannutelli was given his passports. In
1881 the number of state gymnasia was
increased, and fifty undenominational girls'
schools were founded. But since the new
schools laid considerable
burdens on parishes, as much
as ;^88o,ooo yearly, discontent
gradually was felt with the
Liberal Ministry, which also opposed the
introduction of universal suffrage ; and
the Clericals by the elections of 1884 won
a majority of twenty votes.
The Clerical Cabinet of Jules Malou now
passed a law, in virtue of which parishes
were empowered to recognise the " free"
schools — that is to say,
the schools erected by
the Church — as national
schools in the meaning of
i the law of 1879 ; in this
way the latter was prac-
tically annulled, for the
parishes, from motives of
economy, made such
ample use of thi^ per-
mission, in 1,465 cases,
that out of 1,933 national
schools 877 were closed
within a year, and were
replaced by - Church
schools. Diplomatic
intercourse with the Curia
was resumed in 1885 by a
Belgian ambassador to
the Vatican, Baron E. de
Pitteurs - Hiegaerts, and
by the reappointment
in 1878 its emDlovment StanieV.Vhrc'ongo'State, which was formally of a nUUCio in BrUSScls,
m 1070, lib einpiU>mt;nL ^ ^3^^ by the Great Powers inl885. Many -p.^^^^ Fprrflta The
as the medium of instrUC- terrible abuses have marked his rule there. UOmcn - rerraia. i ne
tion in the national schools '^"'"'
was conceded ; while under the renewed
Clerical government of 1886 a royal Flemish
academy for language and literature was
founded. In 1892 officers were required
to learn the two national languages.
Frere-Orban, supported by a majority
of eighteen votes, carried, on July ist,
1879, the law which introduced
Religious undenominational national
Instruction ^^^^^^^ j^to Belgium. The
in BelEium i- • , ,•
religious instruction was now
given outside the school hours, but class-
rooms were placed at the disposal of the
clergy for the purpose. Owing to the
ambiguous attitude of the Curia, which
ostensibly exhorted the faithful to follow
the law, but in secret stirred up opposition,
I G a? G
Clerical party maintained
their majority at the next elections ; in
fact, they giew to be more than two-thirds
of the members of the Chamber.
The rise of the Social Democrats, whose
influence had begun to spread far and wide
through the industrial regions of Belgium,
combined, with a fall of wages, to produce
a disastrous revolution in Liege, Brussels,
and Charleroi in March, 1886, on the occa-
sion of a festival in honour of the Paris
Commune. A new and formidable anta-
gonist faced the Clericals in place of the
Liberals, who were divided into a Moderate
and a Radical section. The Government
attempted to pave the way for Social
Reform by the creation of courts of arbitra-
tion between workmen and manufacturers,
5233
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
by the introduction of state supervision
over workshops, and the prohibition of the
payment of wage.-, in kind ; but the Cleri-
cals could not
bring themselves
to adopt really
c o m p r e h ensi ve
measure?; of strict
social justice,
among which the
universal lia-
bility to military
service would be
reckoned.
At the elections
of 1892 they lost
the two - thirds
majority, and
conceded in 1893
universal suf-
frage, with the
proviso that elec-
tors who pos-
sessed means,
were married.
velopments have been dealt with in the
African portion of this work. In the
Netherlands also the institution of unde-
nominational
nat onal schools
in 1857 gave rise
to excited party
disputes. After
that date the
Catholics were
completely sepa-
rated from the
Liberals, and
among the Pro-
testants a Chris-
tian - Conserva-
tive party, the
" Ant i - revo-
lutionary," was
formed, . which
gradually . won
m a n.y sup-
porters; .its
leader was the
energetic and
WILLIAM III. OF HOLLAND AND QUEEN EMMA
Popular with his people, King William III. of Holland was twice
married, his second bride being- Princess Emma of Waldeck-
Pyrmont. In 1888 it was settled by constitutional law that their
daughter, Wilhelmina, born in 1880, should succeed to the throne
and aCridemicallv o" ''^"^ father's death, which event occurred in November, 189(1. talented ■ Abra
educated, should possess a plural vote. ham Kuyper, born in 1837, a pastor: of
The number of electors was increased by the reformed religion. In March, 1888,
this law from 130,000 to 1,200,000. Since and again in 1901, the united Catholics
the first clause m par-
ticular helped the Clerical
party in the country, it
maintained its majority;
the Liberals and Social
Democrats vainly en-
deavoured to strike the
clause conceding plurality
of votes out of the
constitution. A general
strike organised for this
purpose on April 14th,
1902, had to be abandoned
on the 20th ; and the new
elections on May 25th
resulted in a small gain
for the Clericals. King
Leopold IL did good
service in opening up
Africa, where he founded,
with the help of Sir Henry
Stanley, the Congo State.
This state was recognised
by the Great Powers at
the Berlin Congo Confer-
ence in 1885, and Leopold,
in virtue of a Belgian law
which allowed him to bear this double
title, assumed the style of Sovereign of
and Anti-revolutionaries
obtained the majority.
Kuyper, .: as Prime
Minister of the Conserva-
tive Cabinet constructed
on July:2.7th, 1901.^ was
now able to ; ■ announce
their decision. to procure
for : . Christianity once
more -its proper influence
onnational life, and thus
first and foremost ; ;. to
restore the ; denomina-
tional national seliools.
The social movement
in Holland .can point to
comparatively little re-
sults. In 1889 a measure
was passed to prohibit
the excessive labour of
women and children, and
in 1892 a graduated scale
of taxation on property
QUEEN WILHELMINA and incomcs was intro-
Attaining her majority on August :Ust, 1898, fl,,p„^1 T„ jfirifs nnivpr«;al
she came to the throne, and on February 7th, aUCeO. in IO9D Uni\ eiSdi
19(11, married Duke Henry of Mecklenburg, suffrage WaS aCCCptcd,
who received the title of Prince Consort. ■., R ,. •, ,- ^,, ,
With the limitations that
the electors must be twenty-five years of
age and must pay some amount, however
the Congo State. The subsequent de- small, of direct taxation. A strike of
5234
MINOR STATES OF WESTERN EUROPE
railway employees in February, 1903,
necessitated remedial legislation. In the
Diitch Indies the Colonial Government
in 1873-1879 and 1896 had to conduct
difficult campaigns against the Sultan of
Achin in Sumatra, and in 1894-1895 on
the island of Lombok, where the native
dynasty had been deposed.
The male line of the House of Orange
since June 21st, 1884, when the Crown
Prince Alexander died childless, was only
represented by the king, William III.
It was therefore settled in 1888 by a
throne. The anticipated event occurred
on November 23rd, 1890. While in Luxem-
burg, where females cannot reign, the
former Duke Adolf of Nassau, as head of
the Walram line, and in this respect heir
of the Ottoman line of the House ot
Nassau, became Grand Duke, the clever
and popular queen-mother, Emma, took
over the regency for Wilhelmina until
August 31st, 1898. On that day the young
queen, who then attained her majority,
entered herself on her high office, and
promised to rule with that same spirit of
devotion to duty
which endeared
her ancestors to
the Dutch nation.
On February 7th,
1901, she gave her
hand to Duke
Henry of Meck-
lenburg, who re-
ceived the title of
Prince of the
Netherlands, but
no heir to the
throne has yet been
born. Duruig the
political struggle
the relations of
Norway and
Sweden had be-
come worse. The
Norwegians had
quite a different
conception of the
union from the
Swedes, and they
demanded that the
two countries
should be placed on
an entirely equal
footing. A fruitless
attempt was made
to come to an
agreement con-
cerning the re-
vision of the
Rigsakt of 1815.
Finally, the Nor-
wegians demanded
THE ACCESSION OF KING HAAKON TO THE THRONE OF NORWAV their OWU COnSular
After the dissolution of the union between Norway and Sweden, the Storting elected to the corvirp Tlim Ipfl
throne of the former country Prince Charles, the second son of Frederic VII., King of ^eiViCt;. 1 lUb leu.
Denmark, and on November 27th, 190'), he took the oath in presence of the Storting, swearing tO long and WCari-
that he would govern the kingdom of Norway in accordance with its constitution and laws. ■• .•
some negotiations
constitutional law that, on the death of
William, his daughter Wilhelmina, born
i88o, by the king's second marriage with
Emma of Waldeck, should inherit the
between the Norwegian and the Swedish
Governments. These negotiations remained
ineffective because it was evident that the
Swedes, instead of admitting the equality
5235
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
of Norway, wished to maintain their own
predominance. This roused universal
indignation in Norway. On May 23rd,
1905, the Storting unanimously passed a
law establishing a national consular service.
Upon the king's refusal to. sanction the law,
the Ministry of Peter Michelsen tendered
their resignations. The king did not accept
these, because, according to his own declara-
tion, no Ministry could exist at that time in
Norway which represented his opinions. But
on June 7th, the
Ministry laid its
power in the hands
of the Storting,
which declared the
personal union
with Sweden dis-
solved, and autho-
rised the Ministry
to exercise until
further notice the
power appertain-
mg to the king.
Negotiations with
Sweden were then
entered upon. At
Karlstad, on Sep-
tember 23rd, a
treaty was con-
cluded which
settled the points
of controversy
raised by the dis-
solution of the
union. King Oscar
II. recognised Nor-
way as an entirely
separate state from
October 27th. He
renounced the
Norwegian crown,
and declined the
request of the
Storting that a
younger prince of
his house should
occupy the Norwegian throne. On Novem-
ber i8th the Storting elected as king
Prince Charles, the second son of Frederic
VIII., King of Denmark. Prince Charles
entered Christiania on November 25th,
1905, as Haakon VII., and was duly
crowned on June 22nd, 1906, as King of
Norway. In this way the separation of the
two countries which had been united for
ninety years was conclusively confirmed.
In spite of political struggles important
reforms had been introduced — the estab-
5236
hshment of the jury, new regulations in
the army, in the schools, and in the
elections; the material development of
the country likewise did not suffer. Means
of communication were greatly improved.
By the erection of various agricultural,
industrial, and technical schools opportu-
nity was afforded to_ the people, who were
actively interested in industrial pursuits,
to acquire greater knowledge. By an
improved utilisation of the country's
THE COROKriTIOr
KING HAAKO:: AT TRONDHJEM CATHEDRAL
natural resources the various branches of
industry received a great impetus, espe-
cially commerce and navigation. At the
present time Norway possesses the largest
mercantile fleet in the world in proportion
to the number of inhabitants. Next to
agriculture and cattle-breeding the people
depend mainly for their livelihood on
fishing and forestry. The population is
almost three times as large as in 1841, and
successful efforts are made to encourage
culture and progress. G. Egflhaaf
j(
C- u>
.THE SOCIAL QUESTION
BRITAIN'S INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
AND THE RISE OF THE FACTORY SYSTEM
jX/IODERN society is characterised, tech-
^ ' -^ nically, by the predominance of great
industries and the unsuspected advan-
tage derived from the forces of Nature ;
economically, by freedom of trade and
right of settlement ; politically, by liberty
of speech and _ of combination, and by
popular representation. On this basis, for
the first time the great mass of the
productive but dependent population was
enabled to take a part in the important
movements which make' the world's
histor}'. These classes previously, leaving
out of account isolated risings, had either
• formed only the passive foundation for all
contests for political or social power, or
had only been able to struggle for modest
improvements in "their material ■ welfare.
. It is clear that the immediate
imi s o ^ preliminary condition for an
Workmen s-i ,-\ " x. j jr.i_
„ . mdependent advance of the
bulk of the people into the field
of public and social life is only satisfied
when they are allowed to form suitable
and permanent organisations with the
object of attaining their ends.
The working classes, therefore, possessed
as a whole, to within the last century, no
effective influence, because this condition
was not fulfilled. So far as Ox-ganisations
generally were permitted in past ages,
as was the case with the members of the
guilds in the towns, their sphere of
influence was restricted to social and
religious requirements, relief funds, in-
formation as to work, and the improvement
of some conditions of labour contracts ;
and guilds and authorities ensured by
close superintendence and merciless
severity that these narrow limits were never
overstepped by the journeymen's unions.
Notwithstanding, therefore, that before
this time occasionally — we may remind
our readers of Rome under the Empire —
a collection of masses of working men had
been formed in large towns and centres
of production ; notwithstanding that, even
earlier, wide sections of the
people had been oppressed and
Power of
the Ruling
Classes
laid under contribution, while
at the same time luxury and
splendour were publicly paraded, power-
ful and lasting agitations by the working
classes were. at that time impossible.
There could be nothing more than isolated
violent outbreaks, which were fated in?
evitably to fail, owing to the political
immaturity of the rioters and the firmness
of the ruling powers ; for example, the
Greek and Roman slave risings, or the
rebelhons of the peasants in Western
Europe during the fourteenth to the
sixteenth centuries. The ruling classes
knew how to prevent any immediate
repetition of these attempts by the op-
pressed to shatter" their chains, since after
every victory they applied the principle
" v?e victis," and exacted, with all the
cruelty of the times, terrible penalties
as a deterrent warning. The people thus
felt their helplessness. - Overawed and
indifferent to all politics, the peasant
went back to his plough and
J, * ^^ the artisan to the workshop.
I T t ^^ state and society thus
"* ^^ seemed in early times safely
entrenched behind rampart and moat
against the demands of the lower class,
the modern state and its liberty offered
to the people the possibility of seeing
the fall of the hitherto impregnable
fortress. This hope and prospect could
5237
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
not fail to contribute towards rous-
ing the people from their indifference, so
that, sooner or later, in all civilised nations
the agitation of the lower classes was as
general as the former lethargy.
Nothing, however, has been of such
wide-reaching importance for the distinc-
tive features of this movement, for its
. demands and its aims, as
Begmn.ngs ^j^^ modern industrial de-
ProdTcIroIv velopment, of which the
marked characteristic is the
method of capitalistic production. This
takes place when a considerable number
of workmen is employed by the same
individual capital at the same time in the
production of the same goods.
Historically, capitalistic production
dates its beginning from the " domestic
system," which began to develop itself
at the beginning of the new era by the
side of the handicraft of the guilds. The
small exclusive economic spheres of the
city states were then transformed into
large uniformly administered territories,
and, owing to the new colonial districts,
international trade received a great stimu-
lus. Requirements thus arose which could
not be met within the old guild organi-
sation. Thus a new form of organisation
of industrial work was formed in the
" domestic system." Its distinctive
feature is that a contractor, called a
"factor/' provides a number of workmen
with commissions, which they then exe-
cute in their own houses. According
to this S3^stem, technically the handicraft
production still predominates.
But the " domestic system," if not in
the manner of production, at least in the
manner of sale, denotes an advance beyond
handicraft. The master handicraftsman
sells his goods directly to the person
who requires them ; but in the " domestic
system " there is always one intermediate
dealer between the producer and the
consumer — .that is, the merchant. And
while the individual handi-
craftsman only sells a small
quantity of goods, usually
in an adjacent market, the
merchant places large masses of goods on
one or more adjacent or distant markets.
With regard to selling, therefore, the
domestic system represents a wholesale
trade which appears excellently adapted
for the supply of distant markets.
And for the very reason that it com-
bined the traditional methods of produc-
5238
The Merchant's
Place
in Commerce
cion on a small scale with a more
complete method of sale in large
quantities, it must have been recognised
from the first as the form of industrial
enterprise which, while causing the least
alteration in long standing conditions, could
satisfy the necessity felt in the new era
for exchange of commodities between
different places or nations. Persons who
had some capital, and were far-sighted
enough to recognise the tendency of the
new want and the extent of the remunera-
tive demand, took the lead, engaged
handicraftsmen, day labourers in the towns
not belonging to any guild, or hitherto un-
employed members of the country popula-
tion, and started the new organisation.
The " domestic system " was common
in England even before the close of
the fifteenth century as the method em-
ployed in the cloth industry, supplying
the great markets and the export trade.
Afterwards it continually spread to other
trades, until it became, right up to the
eighteenth century, the ordinary form of
the most important industries intended
to put wholesale quantities of goods on
the markets. In no other
the Domestic country did it attain such im-
c omes ic pQj-^g^j^(,g ^^^ still it prevailed
System f xj j- ii
to a certam degree durmg the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in
France and in the German-speaking
countries. Since such large spheres were
formed where the domestic system pre-
vailed, the new industrial method was
felt to be a considerable improvement,
and its chief promoters were greeted as
national benefactors. A German econo-
mist of the period wrote : " There are
instances where, owing to them, splendid
towns have arisen, and thousands of
men have earned an honest living ; they
make the country populous and produc-
tive, and are profitable members of the
commonwealth, whose object is to increase
and to support the ' societas civilis.' "
Frederic the Great termed his Silesian
weaving districts the Prussian Peru.
It has been already noticed that the
method of working under the domestic
system remained the same as existed be-
fore in the handicrafts, but the change in
the method of the disposal of the products
is connected with widely reaching social
consequences. The master workman
vmder the domestic system often, it is true,
works with assistants, frequently is also
owner of the tools, and even of a part of
BRITAIN'S INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
the raw material, quite like the master
handicraftsman. But he no longer disposes
of the goods to different customers : he
delivers them, in return for payment of a
previously settled wage, either to the
capitalistic merchant, or to intermediate
agents, " middlemen," who distribute the
raw materials, superintend the work,
collect the products, and pay out the wages.
Thus he is still master in his house,
but he usually sells the products of his
labour in accordance with the commissions
received, and thus stands towards the
merchant in the same relation as the work-
man to the employer. The result follows
from this that the master workman in
the domestic system can no longer hold
the independent position towards the capi-
talistic merchant that the master handi-
craftsman has towards his customers. They
must, therefore, in the course of time
sink more and more into the position of
ordinary workmen, while the merchants
sweep in the substantial profits which
are possible in all industries intended
for a large and regular market. "On
the one side, persons who know the
Th s • I '^^o^^'^ ! who, through their
c OC1& knowledge of markets and their
Question s , i xi n
D k Si solvency, relieve the small pro-
ducers of the anxiety of selling ;
who, by their journeys, their giving credit,
and their connections, transact sales, and
can bear occasional losses better than the
producers ; who grasp technical improve-
ments more quickly, since they stand
higher in education and are of a quicker
intelligence. On the other side, small
master workmen, peasants, inhabitants of
small towns and of the mountains, women
and children who are glad to get work,
who, in addition to their industrial work
are busied with agriculture and cattle
breeding ; who are day labourers, with
limited ideas, possessing no great technical
qualifications, no large capital, no division
of labour, but slow to adopt anything
new, and clinging tenaciously to their old
customs. The master workman in the
domestic system thus is nearly always
placed at a disadvantage as compared with
the merchant, who knows his business and,
being a capitalist, can wait his time."
The result of this is a dark side to the
social question, which formerly, indeed,
when merely the extent of the sales and
the interests of the capitalistic producer
were considered, could not have been
sufficiently realised. Firstly, the lower
wages of these producers under the
domestic system ; secondly, the " sweat-
ing " of these isolated, and therefore
unprotected, workers by the merchant
employer through reduction of wages in
particular, through usurious payment foi
goods and deceitful calculations of the
raw materials furnished ; lastly — in the
Distr ss ^^^^ °^ more unfavourable
- ,. „ conditions, namely, loss of the
oi the Home ij , , -•''.., _.-,.
Workers markets and similar difh-
culties — the greatest distress
existing among these very ' ' home workers, ' '
because, wishing to turn to some account
not merely their powers of work, but
their tools, which usually represent theii
only possessions, they are compelled to
accept work at any wage, even though it
only affords the barest hvelihood. In this
way matters have gone so far that certain
districts where the domestic system pre-
vails have become the first scenes ot
modern pauperism on a large scale.
Attempts were made to meet the re-
quirements of the wholesale market by yet
another form of work besides the domestic
system — namely, the manufactory, which,
indeed, has developed more slowly than
the former. It consists in the employ-
ment by one contractor of a large numbei
of workmen for purposes of production
in one building. According to this defini-
tion, it does not depend, as the domestic
system, on wholesale selling, but on whole-
sale production. The consequences are
far-reaching. In the first place, where
many workmen are busied in the manufac-
ture of one product, an extensive division
of the work within the workshop itself
can often be effected. The article is no
longer the production of one independent
craftsman who does various things, but the
production of a number of craftsmen
working together, each one of whom is con-
tinuously discharging one and the same
part of the work. The watch which under
the guild system was the individual work
_ , of a Niiremberg craftsman
Labour ■, -.i r
,, , -, becomes in the age of manu-
Under New r , • , i ? a- r
-, ..^. factories the production of a
Conditions , t j-ci j. i
number of dirterent workmen.
There are now employed on it, makers of
the rough material, the watch-spring, dial,
main-spring, hands, case, screws, etc., a
gilder, and a " repasseur," who puts the
whole watch together and turns it out in
a going condition. The execution is still a
" handwork," and therefore dependent on
the strength, dexterity, expedition, and
5239
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
accuracy of the individual workman in
the handling of his tool. But since the
same workman is always closely employed
on the same separate part, the manufac-
tory creates great skill in the particular
workman. If already from this reason
more goods are turned out by manufacture
with a less expenditure of labour than
H f ^^ independent handwork, tlie
tu^v ^ ° specialisation of tools now
e ac ory (>ys^Qj^a.ry must tend in the
^^ ^°* same direction ; for since the
working tools are now suited to the ex-
clusively peculiar employments of the
individual workman, they thus attain a
greater perfection than before, and must
at the same time increase the productive
power of the work.
Since, again, the result of one man's
work is the starting point for the work
of another, the uninterrupted progress
of the collective work presupposes that
in a given working time a given result
will be obtained, and that everything
is .systematically organised. By this
inter-dependence every single man is
bound to devote only the necessary time
to his operation, by which means con-
tinuity, uniformity, regularity, order,
and intensity in the work are created
on a scale quite different from that in
independent handwork.
Again, the workmen, through the
division of the collective work into simple
and complex, lower and higher employ-
ments, can be assigned tasks according to
their natural or acquired capabilities.
Thus, a hierarchy of workers is formed,
to which a scale of wages corresponds.
Production is, however, naturally assisted
by the fact that the capitalist " can
procure for himself the exact degree of
strength and skill corresponding to every
operation." Further, all production re-
quires a number of simple occupations,
of which every man who walks is capable ;
these, again, at a time when all operations
A Field ^^"^ resolved into their simplest
f-> nu parts, develop themselves into
Labour exclusive occupations of special
workmen. The manufactory
thus creates a class of unskilled workmen
whom the handwork system rigidly
excluded. In this way the cheap labour
of women and children can be employed.
Manufactories weie started in con-
siderable numbers in England after the
last third of the sixteenth century, and
for 200 years continually gained in im-
5240
portance. Since the old town corporations
and the guild system hindered manu-
factories, they were b}^ preference founded
in ports with an export trade, or in places
in rural districts where they were not
under the control of the laws of the
corporate towns. Government favoured
them in pursuance of the mercantile
doctrine, where possible, by protective
tariffs and bounties on exports, and by
prohibiting the production of certain
industrial commodities in the colonies.
The same policy towards the manufactories
was adopted by the other states of Europe.
Still, we must not over-estimate the
importance of manufactories at that time.
Even in the eighteenth century they only
partially dominated the national produc-
tion among the leading civilised nations,
and still rested, if we may use the ex-
pression, as an economic work of art on
the broad basis of town handwork and
the smaller domestic and rural industries.
Even in England, where the manufactory
system gained most ground, it never
became so far master of the situation as
to succeed in abolishing the old apprentice
, laws with their seven years of
oming apprenticeship. But the manu-
° ^. factory system, having arrived
at a certain stage of technical
development, discovered methods by
which it was itself surpassed. It had
attained its completion in those industries
which were intended to produce the tools,
and especially the complicated mechanical
apparatus already adopted. The stage
had already been reached of setting up
machines and continually perfecting them;
from this moment dates the slowly and
surely developing change of the greater
part of manufactories into wholesale in-
dustries worked with machinery. This is
the change which has impressed a dis-
tinctive stamp on the industrial produc-
tion, and thus on the social life of the
nineteenth century.
The machine, with which a new era in
the economic-technical development of
the modern civilised world is commenced,
is in the first place technically distinguished
from the implement of production in
earlier times, the tool. It represents a
far more complete form of working im-
plement, permits the employment of
mechanical motive powers wind, water,
steam, and electricity, to a conspicuous
extent, and thus enormously increases the
power of production. While Adam Smith,
BRITAIN'S INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
in his day, relates with admiration that
in a manufactory ten men daily turn out
48,000 needles— ?.^., 4,800 apiece— Karl
Marx records without surprise that a
machine for needle-making daily turns out
145,000 needles, and that therefore one
woman, whose regular duty it is to
attend to four such machines, daily
produces bj^ machinery 600,000 needles,
as much as 125 of Adam Smith's men.
The difference, however, between a
machine and a tool, looked at from the
fact, of any human organ which moves
itself during the work in the same direc-
tion as that in which the tool is moved.
The workman can, therefore, regard the
tool as a supplementary organ of himself,
and himself as the master of the tool. In
this sense, therefore, a spinning-wheel and
a hand-loom are tools, for the workman
remains master of these working imple-
ments, which, besides, only serve to
strengthen the movement of the human
organs. But so soon as an implement
effects more than
such an addition
of strength, as
soon as the man's
powers move in a
direction which is
entirely divergent
from the move-
ment exclusively
produced by the
mechanism, it
becomes a ma-
chine. A locomo-
tive, therefore, is
a machine, for the
handles are moved
by the stoker and
engine-driver in a
different direction
entirely from the
locomotive which
draws the load
over the hues.
Hence the dif-
ferences between
tool and machine,
and, in connection
_ _ : with this, between
manufactory and
THE AGE OF MACHINERY: ARKWRIGHT'S SPINNING JENNY fof-torv Or mill
The introduction of machinery marked a great advance in the industrial development °^ . ^ ' j
the country, though the innovation was by no means welcomed by the workers. About haVC DeenSUmmecL
the year 1765, a spinning machine— the "Jenny"-was invented, which at first set six, fnllnws •
and soon afterwards twenty-five, spindles simultaneously in movement, and could be used in up ds luiiuwo .
the homes of the workmen. But later machines required to be housed in factory buildings, Jj^ g^ manufactory
and thus there sprang up a new system of labour that spread with remarkable rapidity. rlwnrk the
technical standpoint, is only quantitative,
while from the social point oi view it is
quahtative. From this aspect the position
of the workman who uses the implement is
the criterion ; and it is seen that the posi-
tion of the workman occupied with the
machine is distinguished, both by the
nature of the emplo3-ment as well as by
its place in wholesale business generally,
from the position of the workman using
tools. A hammer, a file, and such-like
are simple tools. They increase the
strength of the human arm or foot, in
workman avails himself of the tool ; in
the factory he attends to the machine. In
the former the movement of the working
implement is . due to him ; in the latter
he has to follow its movement. In a
word, out of the livelong habit of guiding
a special tool comes the livelong habit of
"tending" a special machine. "During
the manufacture period the exercise of
hand labour, though distributed, remams
the basis. The workmen thus form the
members of a living mechanism. In the
'factory' there exists a dead mechanism
5241
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
independent of them, and they are in-
corporated into it as hving appendages."
In this sense a factory is defined by Andrew
Ure, the first philosopher of the factory^
system, as a great automaton, composed
of various partly mechanical, partly self-
conscious organs, which work harmoni-
ously and uninterruptedly in order to
. produce one and the same
ac ors ift object. The peculiar form of
the Success of •' ^ . -
Machinery
combined production in this
form of industry leads to the
result that the factory fully develops many
tendencies which are only suggested in
the manufactory.
The separation of all the mental parts
of the process of production from the
handwork, the resolution of all processes
into their component parts — that is, into
the simplest movements — and the principle
of carrying out the separate operations by
distinct workmen suited for the purpose,
from the doctor of chemistry down to the
newly engaged rustic and the child are all
perfected for the first time under this
system. And this again combines to make
a barrack-like discipline, and, correspon-
ding to this, a univei'sal, uniform intensity
of work, necessary if the factory system,
with its various workers and all its complex
operations, is to perform its functions
properly. Men must now abandon their
irregular habits of work, and imitate the
uniform regularity of machinery.
Ure had good reason to speak of the
" myriads of vassals " who are collected
round the steam king in the great work-
shops. But it was this very peculiarity,
together with the enormous increase in pro-
duction, that contributed to the success of
machinery and factories ; for, while the
work was done with a hitherto unsuspected
uniformity, continuity, regularity, and
speed, all the expectations of an industrial
production of goods for the supply of
international markets were fulfilled. The
important inventions of machines, which
ushered in the new age of fac-
tories, had been made in the
second half of the eighteenth
century in the young cotton
industry. This industrial revolution had
been preceded by the " ribbon mill," which
served for the weaving of ribbons and
trimmings. This had been worked at
Danzig as early as the sixteenth century,
but had been suppressed by the council on
account of the damage done to competing
handicraftsmen. In the seventeenth
5242
Rise of
the Cotton
Industry
century it was set up at Leyden, and after
various prohibitions by the council, was
finally allowed by the Dutch Government.
In the German Empire its use was never-
theless still forbidden, at first by municipal
and then by imperial edicts, which were in
force until the middle of the eighteenth
century ; while in England the ribbon mill
had long been introduced, although it had
given rise to disturbances among injured
handworkers and discharged journeymen.
After the last third of the eighteenth
century the inventions of the spinning and
weaving machines, the forerunner of which
had been the ribbon mill, followed in
rapid succession. About the year 1765, a
spinning-machine, the so-called " jenny,"
was invented, which at first set six, and
soon afterwards twenty-five spindles simul-
taneously in movement, but could still be
used in the house of a master. On the
other hand, the " water frame," which was
constructed by Arkwright directly after-
wards, and was a machine driven by water
or steam, and distinctly more effective,
necessitated a special factory building.
The first factory was erected by Arkwright
. ^ , himself at Nottingham in
Arkwright s ^^^g ^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^j^^^ ^^
S**"^ • M"ii ^o^"^ ^^^ immediately
pinning 1 ^(jQp^g(j throughout the
United Kingdom. Within twenty years
England and Scotland saw not less than
142 great spinning mills founded, in which
92,000 workmen set into motion more than
2,000,000 spindles, and produced goods
of more than ;^7,ooo,ooo in value.
The details of the machinery were now
quickly perfected. After 1790, when Watt
invented his steam engine, the factories
were no longer dependent on water power,
and thus could be erected in anyplace, and
not merely on the banks of rivers. From
this period dates the concentration of fac-
tories in the towns. In 1803 , the " dressing-
frame " was invented, by which means a
child was enabled to attend to two looms
at once, and could weave about three times
as much as an industrious hand-weaver.
Other industries, the woollen industry,
the cotton industry, the iron industry,
the smelting and mining industries, equally
shared in the development of the details
of machinery, and completed the transition
to the factory industry.
The introduction of the factory system
had the most far-reaching results on
industrial and social life. In very impor
tant branches of industrial activity.
MULE SPINNING MACHINES AT WORK IN ONE OF THE EARLIEST MILLS
A VIEW OF STOCKPORT, SHOWING ITS NUMEROUS FACTORIES, IN ISU
WOMEN ATTENDING TO THE CARDING, DRAWING AND ROVING MACHINES
BRITAIN'S INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT: FACTORIES IN THE YEAR 1834
5243
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
especially in cotton spinning and weaving,
the factory showed itself far superior to the
former domestic and handwork systems.
Handwork was in these departments soon
put aside, or at least condemned to insig-
nificance ; but the " domestic " industry
showed distinctly more vitality, owing to
its peculiar organisation. If the employ-
ment of machinery in the
Ru.n of the factory reduced the cost of
« ^ . L production for the article, the
Hand-Weavers ^ ^ i i* ^ ^^^
same final result was pro-
duced by the merchant-employer in the do-
mestic industry through reduction of wages
and the " sweating " of the home worker.
In this way abuses became inherent
in the domestic industry, which after-
wards weighed like a curse on this system
of work. They became possible because
the home workers submitted to the
lowering of their conditions of life, for they
had no way of escape. Thus Karl Marx,
without any great exaggeration, could ex-
claim : "The history of the world shows no
more terrible spectacle than the gradual
ruin, which lingered on for decades, but was
finally sealed in 1838, of the English hand-
v\-eavers, many of whom, with their families,
eked out an existence on 2jd. a day. This
was the effect of the factory system on
the workers of competing trades."
It was equally disastrous originally to the
workers in the factory. "In so far as
machinery dispenses with the necessity of
muscular strength, it becomes a meansof em-
ploying workers without muscular strength
or of immature physical developinent but
greater suppleness of limb. Women's and
children's labour was therefore the first
word of the capitalistic employment of
machinery." It was therefore most re-
munerative to exact from these cheap
workers, who were the least capable of
resisting, quite distinctly longer hours of
labour. On this point an official report in
England establishes the fact that " before
the law was passed for the protection of
youthful workers, in 1833, chil-
Apprentices i j 1 i
dren and 5'oung persons had
W kh *^ work the whole night or the
whole day, or both ad libitum."
John Fielden, a Liberal philanthropist
from the middle class, wrote : "In Derby-
shire, Nottinghamshire, and especially
in Lancashire, the recently discovered
machinery was set up in factories close by
streams capable of turning the water-wheel.
Thousands of hands were suddenly re-
quired in these places, far from the towns.
5244
The custom crept in of obtaining
apprentices from the different parish
workhouses of London, Birmingham,
and elsewhere. The manufacturer had to
clothe his apprentices, feed them, and lodge
them in an ' apprentices' house ' near
the factory. Overseers were appointed
to superintend their work ; but since
their wages stood in proportion to the
amount of results that could be ex-
tracted from the children, self-interest
bade these slave-drivers make the chil-
dren drudge unmercifully.
The consequence was that the children
were hounded to death by overwork. The
gains of the manufacturers were gigantic,
but that only whetted their ghoulish
voracity. They began the practice of
night work — i.e., alter the one batch of
hands was utterly worn out by the daj^
work, they had another batch ready for
the night work ; the day batch went oft
to the beds which the night batch had just
left, and vice versa. It was a popular
tradition in Lancashire that the beds were
never cold." But even the hours of labour
for the men, who were unorganised, and
did not yet feel themselves,
Tke Difficult ^g j^^g^ ^^ ^g ^ ^j^- . ^gj.g
Problem of i i r^ 1
,, , ^ only too often enoimouslv
Unemploymeat , j 1 o u j. 'c
extended. Sober writers 01
this period have been able to describe
the English factory hand as crushed to
a lower level than that of West Indian
slaves. But not even this modest ex-
istence was permanently secured to the
worker. There have been, of course, at all
times in the history of every civUised
country cases of men, willing and
able to work, being out of employment ;
but only since the modern economico-
technical development, and since the
introduction of the corresponding legis-
lature, has this evil, temporarily at
least, assumed unsuspected dimensions.
It is connected with the frequenc}- of the
occurrence of unfavourable turns of the
market and of commercial crises.
These consist mainly in the impossi-
bility of either selling the goods produced
wholesale at any price approximate to the
old prices, or of profitably continuing the
business generally on the old extensive
scale. The vendors, manufacturers, and
merchants suffer heavy losses, and per-
haps become bankrupt. In any case
the production must be restricted, and
thousands of workmen, from no fault
of their own, lose their situations.
THE
RE-MAKING
OF
EUROPE
THE
SOCIAL
QUESTION
II
THE RISE AND FALL OF CHARTISM
AND THE FAILURE OF OWEN'S SOCIALISM
THE labour class revolted against the
evils of the factory system at first in
a quite barbarous fashion, by riotously
attacking the manufacturers and by de-
stroying the factories, and especially the
machines, which were frequently regarded
as the source of all disaster. It was
only gradually that this involuntary op-
position of the proletariat to the manu-
facturing capitalist took the form of a
strike. But before the workers arrived at
a full knowledge of the power of this
weapon, if properly used, and acted accord-
ingly, a movement arose which, starting
from a philanthropic point of view, under-
took to cure the social ills by radical
proposals of reform.
Robert Owen, 1771-1858, a self-made
man, who had risen while still young to
be co-proprietor of a great cotton mill in
New Lanark, Scotland, first made the
attempt there on a limited scale after 1801
, to remedy by a thoughtful
^^'^ * solicitude for the workers the
Famovs
Factory
evils which have been described.
He removed the children under
ten years of age from the factory, limited
the daily hours of labour for the adults
to ten hours, constructed healthy dwell-
ings as well as pleasure grounds for the
workmen, arranged for the co-operative
supply of provisions and other commo-
dities, provided gratuitous attendance for
the sick, and finally paid full wages to
the operatives of his factory when, .on
account of the failure of cotton, they were
obliged to remain idle.
But although Owen's factory, which, in
spite of the great outlay for the welfare of
the workers, had also material success,
was famed throughout all Europe, and
became the goal of philanthropists, states-
men, and kings on their tours, yet the
example set by it was only occasionally
followed by other factory owners. Owen
was led by this fact to the conclusion
that the deep-rooted evils could only be
ended by universally binding legislation.
Thus he was the first to raise the demand
for factory laws in 1813, ^-^d soon initiated
a vigorous agitation with that object.
After 1817 he devoted himself with peculiar
energy to the problem of remedying the
want of employment, which at that time,
_, _ , iust when the first commercial
The State s ' ■ ■ t:- i 1
^ crisis was appearing on English
u y o c g^.j occupied all thoughtful
Unemployed • , tt- 111
mmds. His proposal, which
was based on earlier ones of John Bellers,
required the State to provide quarters
for all persons capable of work but fallen
out of employment, in special rural
establishments, where they might be en-
gaged in systematic productive work,
either agricultural or industrial. By
following out these thoughts he came to
the conception of his socialistic system,
but from" that time his interest in the
direct amelioration of the lot of the
operative by " small means ' ' began to wane.
The fundamental principle of the system
of Owen, which was supported by copious
arguments in two books, " A New View
of Society," 1813, and " A Book of the
New Moral World," 1836-1844, assumes
that the character of every man is mainly
determined by appropriate education and
a corresponding form of environment ;
indeed, Owen thinks that " children can
be educated to adopt any habits and
ideas that may be wished, so long as they
are not absolutely contrary to human
nature." Nothing, unfortunately, he finds,
is done to restrain the people from the
inconsiderate pursuit of their desires ;
the consequence is the perverted condition
. of the world at present, shown
/rV" . . by the misery of the industrial
Workers ' proletariat. The reason why
no steps have been taken in
this matter is found in the defective-
insight of our rulers ; they did not
even know the appropriate means to
perfect men's characters. But now, so
Owen declares, the means are obvious to
everyone since the attempt has been
5245
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
successfully made in New Lanark to
raise the employees by moral education
to a much higher level of morality.
It is merely necessary to guide men
towards a correct comprehension of that
personal happiness at which they all aim ;
that is to say, everyone should adopt
that line of conduct which must promote
the happiness of the community. Formerly
men did not know this supreme law
which governs the world ; but now it is
revealed, and can easily be made clear
to all, that the personal happiness of the
individual can only be increased in pro-
portion as he exerts himself to promote
the happiness of his neighbours. As soon
as these fundamental propositions are part
and parcel of every man, the separate
means are not far to seek which can pro-
cure the greatest sum of happiness for the
individual as well as for all mankind.
This proposition shows quite clearly that
Owen must be regarded as a genuine
scion of the philosophy of the eighteenth
century, who shares its rationalistic and
utilitarian ideas as well as its incorrigible
and ambitious optimism He belie\ es
with all sincerity
that these bald
propositions ^ ^
might renew the ^ *! \ \%'^^
religion and t"
morality of the V^-
world. "Here," ^)>
he announces,
" we have a firm
foundation, on
which a pure, un- f
stained religion
instinct with life
may be con
Owen's
Appeal to
the Rich
,tx^n\v I f^^^'^^ ^'i^n^tih,;,;^^,^^^^^
^e^rt mT rVL^
ONE OF OWENS LABOUR BANK NOTES
general application of the scheme, which
we have already mentioned, for the aid
of the unemployed. The whole work of
production was to be carried out in com-
munities of two, three, or four thousand
souls, where the adults, by eight hours'
common work daily, were to obtain most
of the products, industrial and agricul-
tural, required for their own use, and were
to acquire the rest by exchanging their
surplus products for the surplus products
of the other communities.
The leading thought in this is distinctly'
" that each one of these communities shall
be self-supporting, and shall be held
responsible for its deficiencies." No special
fundamental propositions for the distri-
bution of goods — certainly the
most difficult question in an\'
communistic organisation of
society— were advanced by
Owen. How could any dispute arise when
all were filled with deep morality, and
where, in consequence of the immense
increase in production, there were goods
in abundance for everyone 1 It was
possible thcifioic to determine the indi-
vidual needs, and
then to allot to
each person his
share in the
goods of this life.
In order to start
his plans, Owen,
himself self-sacri-
ficing to the
highest degree,
turned to the
upper classes,
where heexpected
to find equally
great philan-
/ /
'jL^fj^-x^acLi^jj^
structed, and this
the only one Among tne many scnemes startea Dy Owen tor tne Detterment oi thropy. It WaS
^irVii/'Vi rcy-r, rrronf ^^ conditions of the workingr people was the Labour Exchange •nnt nnf il + Vi i c
Wnicn can grant Bank, which issued " labour notes;" paper money possessing pur- ^'^^ UUtU tniS
to mankind peace chasing value in the stores of the bank. The enterprise, however, appeal tO the
and happiness ^" ^ ""p^^*^ ^^""'■^- "-^^ undertaking going into liquidation, h^n^^nity of the
without any counteracting evil." Owen
was, however, far too well acquainted
with practical life and its needs, to
content himself, like the theorists of the
eighteenth century, \vith ethical and edu-
cational suggestions. On the contrary, he
completely realised that even the moral
man, if he has not the opportunity offered
him of earning his living by labour, must
succumb to temptation. He was there-
fore led to establish, by the side of his
educational system, a system of state-
organised labour. This culminated in the
5246
nobility and gentry met with no response
that he began to agitate among the
workers, but without fostering class
hatred or generally abandoning strictly
legal methods. At the same time he
did not cease to apply once more to
the ruling classes, and even to crowned
heads, for sanction and support to his
efforts, true to his principle that " rich
and poor, monarchs and subjects, had at
bottom but one interest." This agitation,
which at times had been conducted with
great spirit — Owen, between 1826 and 1837,
NEW LANARK AS IT WAS IN OWEN'S TIME, SHOWING HIS MODEL FACTORY
had issued 500 addresses, made 1,000
public speeches, and written 2,000 news-
paper articles — met with the most vigorous
opposition from the clergy, who, bitterly
incensed at Owen's attacks on the Church,
organised a counter movement. Even the
regular popular party of the time, the
Radicals, emphatically opposed Owen ;
for their goal was at first purely political —
namely, the extension of the franchise.
Owen had, however, declared the dispute
for this political privilege to be unim-
portant, since all true popular interests
could only be advanced by educational
and economic reforms.
The total failure of Owen's communistic
agitation was decided by the lamentable
collapse of his communistic settlements,
on the founding of which he was determined,
since the English worker could not be
convinced by doctrinaire arguments, but
only by practical trial. So little was
ever produced in these settle-
ments that the rations of
the colonists had to be re-
duced to the barest limits.
Thus discontent was developed, which
finally led to the abandonment of the
settlements, naturally not without con-
siderable financial loss to Owen.
He did not fare better "vith the Labour
Exchange Bank started in 1832. This
was intended to apply practically the ideal
Failure of
Communistic
Settlements
principle of all exchange, the equality
between the products and the profits of
labour ; a scheme which, if successful,
would have led to the establishment of a
socialistic community in the middle of
capitalistic political economy. Every mem-
ber of the bank could display goods in his
shop, for which he at once received " labour
notes," paper money issued by the bank.
The amount of the labour notes paid was
decided by the value of the raw material
and the extent of labour required for the
production of the goods in question on the
average, not by the depositor himself only.
Owen's plans were therefore exposed to
the ridicule whose shafts always inflict
deadly wounds. The downfall of the
communistic school in Britain was thus
sealed. The factory population now fell
under the influence of the politically revo-
lutionary '■ Chartism." Owen could not
support its illegal excesses and struggles
for political privileges ; and later, after
Chartism, came the reign of trades unions
and co-operative societies. While Owen's
propaganda, in spite of exertions for many
decades, only affected a small part of the
working class — precisely its most moral
and self-sacrificing members — towards the
end of the " thirties " a powerful Labour
party was suddenly formed in England.
It happened as follows. During the violent
popular movement which had carried the
524;
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
Labour
Unions
Founded
reform of the franchise in 1832, the work-
ing classes had been brought forward as
auxiUaries by the Liberal citizens. Al-
though the reform, in the nature of things,
could only enfranchise the middle class,
yet it was assumed that the interests of
the working classes were to be subse-
quently better considered by the legislature
than heretofore. Since a Bill
of the Radicals to extend the
circle of the franchise was re-
jected by a crushing majority
and the reform was declared by Lord John
Russell, the leader of the Liberals, to be
definitely concluded, the workmen formed
unions of their own. These were intended
to bring about, by a fresh popular agita-
tion, a renewed reform of the franchise,
which should this time really consider the
interests of the people.
At the head of these unions stood
the " London Workmen's Association,'^
founded in 1836, which proposed the
following programme, originally drawn
up by the Liberals : Universal suffrage,
vote by ballot, equal electoral districts,
annual elections of Parliament, abolition of
property qualifications for Parliamentary
candidates, and salaries for the members.
This programme was proclaimed as" the
" People's Charter," because it was to
serve the interests of the lower classes,
just as, centuries before, the Magna Charta
had served the interest of the aristocracy
and middle classes ; and, therefore, the
supporters of this programme were termed
" Chartists." Their intention was to alter
social legislation in favour of the masses
by help of their political demands, which
were intended to be realised at once. It
was therefore expressly stated in the
first appeal which the London Workmen's
Association in 1838 addressed to workmen
of the whole kingdom : " If we are fight-
ing for an equahty of pohtical rights, this
is not done in order to shake oft an unjust
tax or to effect a transference of wealth,
What the power, and influence
"People's Charter- "^ /avour of any one
Demanded P^'^Y' , We do SO m
order to be able to
cut off the source of our social misery,
and by successful methods of preven-
tion to avoid the infliction of penalties
under unrighteous laws."
In all manufacturing towns, which had
long been roused to violent excitement by
systematic agitations against the Poor Law
and the deplorable condition of the work-
5248
men, the Chartist programme was received
as a joyful message, and wherever factory
chimneys smoked Chartist unions were
sure to be found.
But this rapid success was only attained
because the agitators had held out false
hopes of immediate victory to themselves
and their followers from among the
working and middle classes. They calcu-
lated that, as in the reform movement of
1832, the ruling powers would once more
yield to a vigorous popular movement.
This was the fundamental error which
was to prove disastrous to the party.
When, indeed, in February, 1839, at a
meeting of the " National Convention,"
the question of their subsequent course
was raised, the inevitable result of that
delusive agitation was that the party of
" moral right," led by the Owenite, William
Lovett, 1800-1877, with its programme
of peaceful propaganda and a monster
petition to Parliament, only represented
the minority. The majority was composed
of the party of " physical force," who took
their' battle-cry from Feargus O'Connor,
' 1796-1855, and thought themselves power-
ful enough to break down the
ai "re o strong fabric of the old sys-
Revolutionary , "y, ■, j • /i
„ . ,. tem. It was resolved, m the
socialism j_ r I^ 1 ±_ 1 ■
- - ' event of the charter bemg re-
fused by Parliament, to proclaim a " holy
month," to strike work simultaneously in
every industry. A petition for the intro-
duction of the charter, supposed to con-
tain more than a million signatures, was
rejected, and riots immediately broke out.
For some time after that the doctrine
was quiescent. But in July, 1840, the
party was reorganised, on the basis of
the principle that the charter was to be
introduced by legal means. When, how-
ever, in the year 1842, a new monster
petition was absolutely rejected by the
Lower Plouse, the " party of physical
force " again came to the surface
Chartism lingered on, until finally in
1848, after the February Revolution in
Paris, it roused itself for a last trial of
strength, but its effort was again a failure.
Revolutionary Socialism in England had
had its day. Nevertheless, this move-
ment had not passed away without
leaving a trace, for " it had produced one
great result : it had roused the English
working classes to the most outlying
corners of the land from their traditional
ideas of subjection, and made them
realise their separate interests as a class."
THE
RE-MAKING
OF
EUROPE
THE
SOCIAL
QUESTION
III
THE TRIUMPH OF TRADES UNIONS
AND THE ESTABLISHMENT OF CO-OPERATION
Trades Unions
Regarded as
Conspiracies
HTHE movements which we have hitherto
•'■ considered had met with no practical
results. A better fate was reserved for
one which, originating with the working
classes themselves, endeavoured to attend
to their interests on the basis of self-help,
the movement of Labour Associations.
Trades unions are work-
men's self-defence associa-
tions for the purpose of
improving the conditions of
labour as well as for the protection of their
professional interests generally. They were
started in England, partly in connection
with older journe^^men's unions, in con-
siderable numbers as early as the eigh-
teenth century, when the first waves of
the victoriously advancing capitalistic
production burst on the working classes.
But they were immediately resisted by
legislature and heavy judicial sentences.
English law extended the idea of con-
spiracy, which properly ought to be
applied only to combinations for the
commission of crimes or for the produc-
tion of false evidence against third persons,
to all combinations of workmen who
wished to obtain higher wages.
A long list of special enactments
forbidding coalitions in various trades
had been issued throughout the whole
eighteenth century. Finally, at the
close of the century a strict general Act
was passed which made all agreements
between workmen, with the object of rais-
ing wages or lessening the hours or
quantity of labour, punishable with im-
, prisonment, and inflicted simi-
or m n s j^i- pg^alties on all who deterred
Coalitions ^ , . , • i
D k-k-t J 3- workman from acceptmg de-
Prohibited ^ -, , 1 , • ,
finite posts or caused him to
leave them. The complete one-sidedness
of these enactments is clearly seen in
the fact that combinations of the em-
ployers, in order to influence wages, were
only punishable by fanes. The con-
sequence of this was that at the
beginning of the nineteenth century
I H ,6 r.
secret trades unions had been formed
everywhere, which, since all their demon-
strations were treated with equal severity,
employed the most reckless and repre-
hensible means for the attainment of their
objects. Workmen who refused all
complicity with their comrades, especially
in strikes, the so-called " blacklegs,"
were actually attacked and sometimes
fell victims to murderous onslaughts.
The authorities naturally lost no time
in proceeding to the severest counter
measures. Labour coalitions could not,
however, be suppressed, a sure proof that
these represented in the age of capitalistic
production a purely instinctive movement.
The prohibition of coalitions of workmen
must have seemed to every impartial
observer the more unjust, since coalitions
of employers for the purpose of lowering
wages were, thanks to the class justice
of the English magistrates, always
^, _ ,. unpunished. A parliamen-
Class Justice , ^ i. r o ^ ^
f E r h y report of 1824 states :
Magistrates
" A number of cases have
been communicated to us, in
which employers of labour have been
charged with combining together in order
to lower the wages or to lengthen the
hours of labour ; but a case could never
be adduced in which any employer had
been punished for this misdemeanour."
Owing to the effect produced by a
parliamentary inquiry proving the in-
justice and futility of the laws in question,
a Bill of the Radical, Joseph Hume,
was carried, which expunged from the
statute book the prohibition on coalition,
and threatened with imprisonment only
cases of violence, menaces, or intimidation
used for the purpose of forcing workmen
to join a coalition, or of compelling
employers to grant concessions to the
workmen, in 1824. These privileges were
indeed considerably restricted in the very
next year, when the combinations sud-
denly spread over the whole country, and
seemed to threaten seriously all the
5249
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
proprietary interests of the citizen class ;
for it was now ordained that conspiracies
should include " all meetings about the
labour conditions of absent persons, as
well as those about the persons whom a
master is to employ or not to employ, and
about the machmes which he is to use ; and
further, all agreements not to work with
a definite person, or to induce other persons
to suspend or refuse to accept work."
Notwithstanding that these provisions
threatened with penalties many proceed-
ings which proved to be inseparable from
an effective employment of labour asso-
ciations, and actually gave cause to a
number of convictions, they have not been
able to check the victorious career of the
trades unions. It was after 1825 that
the labour associations assumed the form
typical of their policy and their import-
ance in the history of the world. Up to
about 1830 they were strictly local com-
binations of workers in similar trades.
But since in this way, owing to the weak-
ness of the union, they could not ade-
quately meet their duties — namely, to give
relief in the case of strikes, want of employ-
_ , „ . ment, sickness, or incapa-
Tradcs Unions^ city-they saw themselves
as Unlawful compelled Spontaneously to
Combinations , f , • ^ 1 „ • ,-i^
start national unions m the
separate branches. Since the trades unions,
safeguarding the interests of the labour class
with tenacious energy, frequently caused
prolonged strikes, public opinion, in-
fluenced by the daily Press, which served the
middle class, was long unfavourable to them.
The courts thus treated trades unions
as " unlawful " combinations, and there-
fore, according to the old English law,
refused them legal protection. Thus, for
example, thefts of the property of trades
unions were not liable to prosecution.
Thus, again, after excesses had been
committed by members of trades unions
during riots, various steps were taken
to suppress the organisations. The last
attempt of this kind occurred in 1866.
But a Royal Commission then appointed to
investigate the nature of trades unions
served to destroy many popular prejudices.
The official recognition of the trades
unions dates from that time. It was
announced by special laws of 1871 and
1876, the latter passed under the Con-
servative Cabinet of Disraeli, which sought
the support of the Labour party, that
trades unions could not be regarded as
unlawful unions. So far as no direct com-
5250
pulsion was used, liberty to strike was
permitted to the fullest extent, since,
for example, the posting of " pickets " in
the vicinity of factories or dwelling-houses
was expressly allowed. Besides this, the
privileges of a " legal entity " were granted
to those trades unions which had their
regulations enrolled. " They may sue and
. ^, ^ be sued, hold personal and
A New Era , , j - i
real property, and take sum-
Tradct Unions ^^^^ Proceedings against
their officials for dishonesty.
For this reason the Congress of the Trades
Unions at Glasgow expressed to the Con-
servative party their " fullest acknow-
ledgments of the greatest benefit that had
ever been granted to the sons of toil."
From that time the formerly persecuted
unions, which comprise at the present
day some 1,400,000 members, are con-
sidered in England " respectable," and
have a certain share in the government ;
secretaries of trades unions are promoted
to be factory inspectors, justices of the
peace, or even members of the Ministry.
But a more important point is that the
public opinion of the country sees in
trades unions a necessary institution, and
often in disputes with employers takes
the side of the workmen's combination.
The Government, when preparing labour
laws, always applies for the advice of the
trades unions. In the contracts of the
Government and of many communities
the observance of the terms of labour re-
quired by the trades unions is a preliminary
stipulation. And, in places, a sort of
constitutional management has been de-
veloped since the manager of the factory
usually consults with the union about any
circumstances which can at all affect
the interests of the workmen.
If we make it clear to ourselves what
trades unionism has done, we cannot
refuse to acknowledge it as a splendid
proof of the practical sense, and great
political capacity of the British working
classes. It is a special charac-
teristic of British common-sense
Labour's
Debt
Q that the Utopian ideas preva-
lent only largely contributed
to strengthen the power of the current of
reform. The leaders of the trades unions
movement were thorough-going followers
of Owen, but they derived from the teach-
ing of the great optimist merely the distant
ideal of the future, while they devoted
all their energies in the present to imme-
diate practical improvements of the lot
THE TRIUMPH OF TRADES UNIONS
of the workman. Trades unions, in
pursuing this pohcy, recognised ior
decades no alternative in the event
of the refusal of their demands except a
strike. When, however, the workmen
had become wiser and their unions had
collected large sums, the next step was
that they looked for means which led to
this goal without the employment of
this two-edged sword. The employers
also would naturally v/elcome, from the
standpoint of their interests, any possi-
bility of avoiding open war. " As soon as
both parties merely consult their interests,
established by A. J. Mundella, at Notting-
ham, the centre of the manufacturing
industries. This board consisted of tt-u
representatives of the workmen and em-
ployers respectively. But every proposal
as to the interpretation of the old, or the
introduction of new, labour conditions had
to be first brought before the so-called
committee of inquiry, composed of two
representatives of the workmen and the
employers respectively. If this com-
mittee failed to come to an agreement,
but not otherwise, the case was brought
before the general meeting. The decision
SICTTLING THE GREAT COAL STRIKE: THE CONFERENCE AT THE FOREIGN OFFICE
In 1893 the industries of the country were seriously interrupted by the prolonged dispute between the colliers and
the mine-owners, the struggle lasting for about four months, and involving much suffering and financial loss. Lord
Rosebery, at that time Secretary for Foreign Affairs in the Gladstone administration, was successful in arranging at
the P'oreign Office, on November 17th, a conference, over which he presided, between representatives of the Federai
Coal -Owners and the Miners' Federation of Great Britain, terms being then agreed upon which ended the labour war.
they will ask themselves whether the
object of the struggle — namely, to measure
their strength — .cannot be equally well
attained by human judgment, just as the
pressure of steam is ascertained by the
application of some mechanism, instead
of being learnt from the bursting of the
boiler." From these considerations the
system of "arbitration boards" grew
up in Britain ; these were intended
to settle the disputes between labour
and capital in a peaceful way. The
type of many boards of this kind is
the "board of arbitration" of i860
adopted there had an absolute binding
force on the disputing parties for a
definite time, since the contract for work
must contain the declaration of all parties
thereto, that in the points at issue they
will submit, without protest, to the
decisions of the arbitration boards. The
favourable experiences of this system,
and of the system of Rupert Kettle, as
county court judge, which was first tested
in the building industry at Wolver-
hampton, led to the imitation of these
systems in a number of industrial towns,
and they were soon sanctioned by the
5251
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
Legislature through the granting of appeals
to the courts against the decisions of the
chambers of arbitration by the Arbitration
Act of August 6th, 1872. These systems
have been finally perfected even in places
where strong trades unions oppose equally
close combinations of employers. Thus,
in the coal industry of the counties of
Durham and Northumberland,
? *?^ K ^ permanent committee of six
ispu es y j-gpj-gsgj^tatives of each party,
Arbitration f, i 1 -j 4.
With a neutral president,
settles all separate disputes resulting from
the application of the labour contract,
which holds uniformly good for the entire
district. On the other hand, disputes as
to the constitution of the labour contracts
themselves — that is to say, as to the
general principles of hours of labour and
pay — are, so far as possible, settled by
the full meeting of the employers in com-
bination with the delegates of the trades
unions. If no agreement results, the
matter is referred to arbitration.
Each party is here represented by two
arbitrators, who, for their part, choose the
umpire, who delivers the final decision.
A regular trial takes place before him, as
before a court ; evidence is tendered, wit-
nesses are cross-examined, and speeches
are made on both sides by the aforesaid
arbitrators, who in reality are counsel.
" The complete technical knowledge of the
parties engaged, as well as the strength of
the organisations backing them up, pro-
duces the result that these proceedings are
carried out with the same acuteness, and
are as smoothly transacted, as dealings
between the largest business houses."
The award is unconditionally carried
out by the two interested groups. The
existence of the trades unions presupposes
this, since otherwise no one would accept
the responsibility beforehand of ensuring
that many thousand workmen would
really submit to the award. This is, of
course, valid only for a definite number
P J of months ; after that there
.. must be a renewal of the old
Arbitrator agreements, or a fresh examina-
tion of them. If the arbitrator
gave his decision merely in accordance
with his sympathies, this would have
no lasting validity, but would only con-
ceal in itself the germ for later conflicts.
For this very reason " the arbitrator,
like any third person called in to settle
prices between two independent parties,
has merely to ascertain that which, if
5252
he did not intervene, would be established
as the natural limit of the price. Since he
is called in to avoid conflict, he has to
accomplish the same result as a conflict —
namely, the reasonable settlement of the
mutual conditions of power. Only when
he has done that is he sure that his verdict
will be lasting." A case in the year 1877
shows how little any awards which attempt
to settle matters by moral considerations
are able to arrange a dispute permanently.
Sir Farrer Herschell, as arbitrator, re-
jected the request of the colliery owners
of Northumberland for a reduction in the
wages of the miners. The owners sub-
mitted for the three months during which
the award was to have validity, but
immediately afterwards they renewed their
demand, with the declaration that this
time they must put the award out of the
question, and, when the miners afterwards
went on strike, they proved victorious.
Parliament and Government have exerted
themselves to support this development
as much as possible. Thus the Act
for Conciliation and Arbitration of the
year 1895 was passed, which gives to the
„ Board of Trade the right of
_, . ,° interfering in labour disputes.
Trade s new t-, , • , , ^ • •
p The most important proviso IS
that the Board of Trade may
itself order the parties to nominate dele-
gates in order to settle the dispute by
mutual negotiations ; on some occasions,
under the presidency of a competent per-
son designated by the Board. The Board
may also, on its own responsibility, send
persons to investigate the matters in
dispute, and to furnish a report on
the subject ; finally, it may urge the
establishment of a chamber of arbi-
tration in districts and industries which
are still without one.
The chambers of arbitration have since
then become more numerous, and have
frequently displayed a profitable activity ;
but their actual results must not be over-
estimated. There is hardly any institution
in the social-political field which all polit-
ical and social parties so combine to
recommend as these very chambers of
arbitration. Nevertheless, in forty years
they have not been universally adopted ;
in fact, very often they have been pro-
hibited even in the limited field where their
introduction was a success. This experi-
ence has clearly demonstrated that the
arbitration boards are, contrary to expec-
tation, unable to produce social peace.
THE TRIUMPH OF TRADES UNIONS
The transition from communism to
social reform, seen in the trades union
movement, is more conspicuously pro-
minent in the movement towards co-opera-
tion, which was the immediate result of
Owen's teaching and agitation, after the
clouds of illusion had lifted. Owen had
encouraged the workmen to found com-
munities in order to provide themselves
with the necessaries of life by co-operative
production. After many unsuccessful at-
tempts the fact was established that co-
operative stores represented the only form
of community of which the labourer was
at the time capable. And when this was
once known, such societies and their shops
sprang up like mushrooms from the soil.
Thus a movement originated in 1826
which, in the words of its historian, Mrs.
Sidney Webb, " represents the first real
attempt of the British labouring classes
to embody in a practical form the ideas
of Owen." The spirit which animated
these true pioneers of social reform is aptly
described by the motto with which the regu-
lations of the society at Warrington were
introduced, running as follows : " They
helped one another, each his
p?*^ * ^ f own brother, and each said
_ .. to his brother : ' Be of good
Co-operation , , , ,, t^ , ,1 *
cheer ! But the young
plant which blossomed so quickly and so
luxuriantly — in 1832 nearly 500 co-opera-
tive stores were already in existence — faded
again rapidly, and only a few years later
there was hardly a trace of the whole
movement, while the labour world was
intensely excited by the Chartist propa-
ganda. Its overthrow coincides with the
new impetus given to the co-operative
movement, which has since lasted almost
uninterruptedly to the present day.
The men who then took the lead were the
" Rochdale Equitable Pioneers," as twenty-
eight poor flannel weavers called them-
selves, who, on the day after Christmas,
1844, opened the " Old Weaver's Shop "
in a back street of Rochdale, with a capital
of £28 in all. The statutes announced as
their object " the erection of a shop for the
sale of provisions, articles of clothing, etc. ;
the building, purchase, and fitting up of a
number of houses in which the members
can live who wish to help each other in the
improvement of their domestic and social
position ; the production of such wares as
the society shall determine to make, in
order to provide work for unemployed, or,
especially, badly paid members ; the pur-
chase or renting of plots of ground for the
same purpose ; lastly, the establishment
by this society so soon as possible of a
self-supporting colony in the country, with
a co-operative system of production and
distribution, or the furtherance of other
attempts to found similar societies." . It is
clearly seen here how illusions can largely
., ^. , , contribute to success, for they
Methods of i . 1 ' .7
.. gave to those poor weavers,
^ , and the many thousands who
Co-operators . ,, j ,1 • 1.1
followed their example, the
proud consciousness that they were the
disciples of a lofty ideal and the pioneers
of mankind, and inspired them with that
feeling of exuberant strength which made
them capable of bold action and persistent
effort. This social prospect could not,
however, again dim the view of practical
life, as was shown from the typical con-
stitution, so often imitated, which the
Rochdale Pioneers drew up for themselves.
According to it their shop made
the ordinary retail prices the basis of
the sales, and then divided the profits
obtained from the business among the
members in proportion to the extent of the
purchases effected. The purchaser received
a receipt, usually a tin counter, for the
amount of his purchases. At the end of
every quarter the counters were given
back, in order that the profits might be
distributed accordingly. They usually
amounted in English co-operative stores
to between 5 per cent, and 15 per cent, in
the three months. Anyofie could be a
member on payment of one shilling en-
trance fee. Members, therefore, practically
were only customers. Of course, under
this arrangement every member had an
interest in the extension of the body of
members, because the turnover then in-
creased, and with it the business expenses
were lessened, and so the dividend became
larger. After 1872 the practice began of
supplying the requirements of the whole-
sale societies from their own factories.
., Co-operative societies, as op-
Israeli s posed to trades unions, were
Service to ^ ....
Co-operation
soon favoured by the legis-
lature. Here, too, it was
Disraeli who most prominently came
to their aid, and procured for them,
by a series of statutes, from 1852 to
1876, the rights of corporations, after
formal registration, together with all
other desirable privileges, and limited
the Uability of members to their sub-
scribed shares in the business.
5253
A FAMILIAR SCENE IN TIMES OF DEPRESSION: "WE'VE GOT NO WORK TO DO!'
From the drawing by Fred. Barnard
TWO PICTORIAL STUDIES IN THE INDUSTRIAL PROBLEM
In the first of these drawings the artist has depicted the eager competition for employment which is daily to be witnessed
in times of trade depression at the Docks, where casual labour finds its most likely market, while in the second the
unemployed vocalists, who complain that they have " got no work to do," have evidently abandoned the search for it.
5254
THE
' !
K
.|!f|g|
V"
THE
RE-MAKING
' ' }
U'l
fj^g
-
SOCIAL
OF
■Pt^^I
■l^IH
■f^
QUESTION
EUROPE
^^-41'
-r
IV
THE MARCH OF SOCIAL REFORM
AND LABOUR'S RECOGNITION BY THE STATE
HTHE factory system, with its various
■■■ branches, had brought with it an un-
precedented increase in the labour exacted
from the workers, especially from the
women and children. Owen, at the be-
ginning of his social reforms, had already
abolished those evils in New Lanark,
where he was master. But since he saw
that such an example was only excep-
tionally imitated by other owners of
factories, he came to the conclusion that
the deep-seated distress could only be
ended by legislation binding on all alike.
Tiius Owen was the first who raised the
cry for factory laws, and soon afterwards
commenced a violent agitation for this
object from 1813 to 1817. The programme
which he now developed contained, first,
the prohibition of the industrial labour of
children under ten yea.rs, as well as of all
children who could not show a certain
minimum of learning ; and, secondly, the
_ , maximum working day of six
J, ? ^ hours for children from ten to
opian t^yeiyg years, and of ten and a
half hours for all adult factory
workers. Owen in this way, although he
afterwards devoted his attention almost
exclusively to his Utopian schemes, intro-
duced the idea of the protection of workers
into the modern social movement.
If merely the interests of the ruling class
were of weight, as the materialistic theory
of history asserts, the protection of the
worker would never have been intioduced,
so long, at least, as the labouring classes
possessed no influence in Parliament.
As a matter of fact, this measure was
proposed and passed, thanks to moral,
religious, and philanthropic reasons, aided
by the far-sighted deliberations of wise
statesmen. The first comprehensive
factory law was enacted in 18 19 at the
instance of Robert Peel, the father of the
famous statesman, himself a manufac-
turer. This prohibited the employment
of children under nine years in cotton
mills, and limited the working day of
young persons up to sixteen years of age to
twelve hours. But the law had no effective
results, since the local police authorities
were far too subservient to the wholesale
manufacturers. A new Factory Act v/as
passed in 1833, which appointed special
. . officials to superintend the
Improving , , ■ r ,\ ,
it. r- J-*- protection of the workmen —
the Conditions ^ t c ,
, , . namely, factory mspectors —
of Labour /.; ,. -^i ■ ui i
an mstitution which has been
copied by all civilised states, and fixed for
all textile factories a working day of eight
hours for children from nine to thirteen
years, and of twelve hours for young
persons from thirteen to eighteen years.
Even before this, in the " twenties " of
the nineteenth century, a great popular
movement in favour of a ten-hour working
day had commenced, which was led by a
philanthropic politician, Richard Oastler,
a Tory, " the manufacturing king " ;
John Fielden, Thomas Sadler, and Lord
Anthony Ashley, afterwards Earl of
Shaftesbury, 1801-1885, were also con-
spicuous. This movement, which lasted
almost twenty years, roused great enthu-
siasm amongst the working classes, and,
in view of the want of employment whicli
prevailed towards the end of the " thirties "
and the high price of bread, assumed
locally forms which alarmed the govern-
ing and wealthy classes.
Thus Sir Robert Peel himself declared :
"The misery and the uncertainty in the
position of the labouring classes is too great.
It is a disgrace and a danger to our civilisa-
tion; it is absolutely necessary to make
their position less hard and less precarious.
ft i-t .• . If we cannot do everything,
The Chartist ./ o
Agitation
we can at least do something,
. r 1 J and it is our duty to do what
m iLngland 1 1 o t^i /-i j.- 4.
we are able. Ihe Chartist
agitation, which was exciting all England,
served finally to make people understand
the state of affairs. Chartism, indeed,
which had already , in 1839, failed in its main
point, had been able to effect very little
direct change in the social conditions ;
5255
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
but its indirect results were all the greater,
for its abrupt ending made the labour
classes understand that it is impossible
to break the strong framework of the old
constitution by the employment of force.
They tried, therefore, henceforth to serve
their aims by conformity to the existing
institutions. On the other hand. Chartism
made it clear to wide circles
of the ruling classes that
The Social
Gospel
of Carlyle
things could no longer go on
as hitherto, that the familiar
" laissez-aller " policy in social matters
must be abandoned. Thus there arose
in the wealthy and educated class intel-
lectual currents which were favourable to
the concession of the reasonable demands
of the labouring class.
Thomas Carlyle signalised himself as the
most mighty preacher of a healthy inner
life, and to him above all the credit is
due of having roused the social conscience
of his time. He is distinguished from the
Socialists and Radicals in the principle
that he considers that human society
necessarily involves some notion of rule,
otherwise the society could not last. But
he assumes two points — that the ruling
party protects and safeguards the weaker
class, and that this latter is loyal and
well behaved towards its leader and pro-
tector. Both, however, only thrive on the
soil of the faith and the work of all con-
cerned. Work is necessary in order to j ustif y
our existence on earth, and faith in the
ideal beyond the grave is needed in order
to make the severity of labour and the
miseries of our existence endurable by us.
The evils of the present day, according
to Carlyle's conception, have their root
in the fact that all these assumed condi-
tions of a really human existence are not
forthcoming. The old relations and ties
between the feudal lords and their vassals
have ceased, to give place to the unsym-
pathetic payment of ready money as the
only bond, " the cash nexus," between
_„ .. capitalist and workman. The
Worship ^ 1 /- J
poor man no longer finds any
j^ protection, but remains left to
himself ; the result is that he
has no loyal feelings for the ruling classes,
but thinks only of rebellion and revolution.
Faith is tottering everywhere, even if it be
not lost ; and finally, work has become
irksome to all, so that the proletarian does
it only with reluctance, while the aristo-
crat tries completely to avoid it. Thus
men think " this universe is a large,
5256
capacious cattle-stall and a workhouse
with an enormous kitchen and long
dining-tables, and that he alone is wise
who can find his place at it."
The actual circumstance that at the
present time, under the rule of selfishness,
the signs of the dissolution, the transitori-
ness, and the unendurable burden of the
existing conditions are noticeable, is for
Carlyle a reassuring symptom. For now
only two courses are left : either the
nations, eaten up by the worship of
Mammon, succumb, fall a prey to foreign
conquerors, and then receive, as is right,
a new faith and a new aristocracy forced
on them from without ; or they develop
for themselves new ideals and a new social
fabric, in which all sections will be knit
together by the bond of mutual loyalty.
It is comprehensible that in Britain
especially no contentment is found, since
the prevailing doctrines and institutions
are unsuitable. Carlyle heaps deadly
scorn on them, one after the other. Look
now at the utilitarian philosophy and
the corresponding national economy ; they
start with a world of knaves, and wish
A Q ,, that something honest should
. ° ^. result ! Look again at the Mal-
W ^ k°'^ ^ thusians ! They imagine that
the labouring class, by sexual
restraint, has it in its power to diminish
the number of " hands " and to improve
its position. They believe in a golden age,
when twenty million workers strike simul-
taneously in the same domain. They
needed, indeed, only to pass in an all-
embracing trades union the resolution not
to marry until the state of the la' our
market was again completely satisfactory !
Or look at the constitution of Parliament !
" There no British subject can become a
statesman, the leader in deeds, unless he
has first shown himself the leader in
words ! Surely this is the very worst
method of election that could be devised ! "
Or, lastly, consider the government of the
existing majority ! It provides neither
help nor guidance to the people, but is a
thing which bobs up and down on the
waves of popular favour like the body of
a drowned jackass. The end is that a
revolt of the people gathers, and some day
bursts with fury and dashes the dead body
down into the mud at the bottom.
All this must be changed. But how?
Carlyle promised himself but little from
Socialism. He did not wish for a Utopia,
even if its realisation were possible. He
THE MARCH OF SOCIAL REFORM
wished hard work for all, since that is the
destiny of mankind, and a system of
subordination under the most efficient,
since in no other way can the continuance
and advancement of human society be
ensured. The old principles of government
must be revived.
Formerly, the
lower classes
stood in count-
less different
relations to the
upper classes
beyond those of
buyer and seller
as now — in the
relation of soldier
and general,
tribesman and
chief, loyal sub-
ject and ruling
monarch. "With
the complete
triumph of hard
cash another age Maurice was recog-nised as the founder of modern " Christian
l->Qc rnmA a^r\ Socialism," while the Earl of Shaftesbury was ever in the forefront of
nas come, ana all causes that aimed at the uplifting and Christianising of the people.
Frederic D. Maurice Earl of Shaftesbury
PIONEER LEADERS OF SOCIAL PROGRESS
Leader of a movement which taught that "our interests are common,
and every man is full of duties towards his neighbour," the Rev. F. D.
thus a new aris-
tocracy must come." This is to be the
" nobility of industry," which organises
and conducts a noble government, and
must be responded to by the subjects with
loyalty and obedience. At the time there
will be a few leaders of industrial under-
takings who will realise this
ideal ; but soon there will be
more and more of them, until
we, at last, shall have a noble
and upright country of in-
dustry under the rule of the
wisest. The motto of the
nobleman of the future is,
"Honourable conduct in busi-
ness and warm-hearted inte-
rest in the welfare of all whom
he may employ." This is the
theme of Carlyle's positive
social policy, which he varies
from time to time with new
illustrations and historical
parallels, now pathetically,
now sadly, now with the bold
flights of idealist
now with the thundering
denunciations of an OldTestament prophet .
Carlyle is thus the first to announce an
order of things in which the philan-
thropic manufacturers, filled with S3'm-
pathy for the community, are to form the
ruling class, the social aristocracy. From
this point of view all else seems incidental,
if only the leading sections of the com-
munity rise, as is anticipated, of their own
impulse to the realisation of a " new code of
duties." If Carlyle is therefore no pohtical
Socialist, he is yet always sufficiently a
friend to the
working classes
to advocate the
State support
of the lower
orders ; on the
other hand, he
IS an outspoken
opponent of
th e democratic
development,
which appears
to him necessary
only so long as
the ruling classes
cannot remem-
ber their duty.
If we wish to
form a correct
estimate of Car-
lyle, we must
be a scientific
Photos by Mansell and Elliott t5L' Fry
not conceive him to
philosopher or a national economist ; he
would have been no more able to explain
the principles. of modern political economy
than he was capable of abstruse medita-
tions on the last problems of willing and
being. His greatness rather
consisted in the fact that he
was a powerful writer, who
knew how to awaken enthusi-
asm in the social policy of the
nation. All his individual
ideas, on account of this
defective knowledge of polit-
ical economy, were of no
practical use, and were far
too hastily sketched to be
capable of application to real
life ; but they were the most
powerful literary means for
spreading among the higher
classes of the nation the
feeling that the workers were
tion, Edward Vansittart Neale uniUStlv Suffering, and that
was a true friend of the workmg V -' . . ° , ,
prophecy classes, aiming at peaceful reform tluS COUdltlOll mUSt 06
^ ^- -^ andmakingsacrificesonits behalf. ^.g^g^-g^|^yj,gfQ^-jjjS_ Q^j-lyle
himself indeed believed in a future when
England would be ruled by a nobifity of
industry, and all England soon echoed
with this new rall3nng cry. This was an idea
which, as such, represented only an illusion
of the ruling classes ; bui an illusion
5257
E. V. NEALE
A wealthy advocate of co-opera-
HARMS WORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
whose influence led to the rejection of
the Manchester dogma in labour ques-
tions \\y the leading circles, and to the
adoption by them of a friendly attitude
towards the efforts of the workers in the
direction of co-operation and coalition.
Next to Carlyle must be mentioned
Benjamin Disraeli, afterwards Earl of
_. Beaconsfield, 1804-1881, the
*^^^^. **^ founder of the first " Social-
a Uisciple ^ ,• ,, . _^ ,.
f C 11 Conservative group m Parlia-
ar y c j^gj-^|.^ ^j^g^^ q^ ^|-,g so-called
"Young England." He adopts the essen-
tial points of Carlyle. But we find
also much that is original in his ideas ;
above all, the thought of the social
kingdom comes for the first time promi-
nently forward. In recent years, he
explains, definite classes have ruled in
England, and the result is that struggle
between those who possess property and
those who have none, which, under the
dominion of free competition, has pro-
duced the unhappy condition of the people.
This calamity must be ended by abolish-
ing the dominion of the classes, and there-
fore all class legislation. The power must
be given to the king, as the only constitu-
tional authority which represents no class
interests. Under monarchical government,
morality and religion will once more be
established in the land. And the most
powerful agent is the true nobility which
embraces all that has been conspicuous
in the state, whether from high birth or
from talent, virtues, office, or wealth.
Disraeli, in his novels "Coningsby, or
the New Generation," 1844, ^-^d "Sybil,
or the Two Nations," 1845, ^^^^ clearly
described the results of this doctrine in
practical life. In them he instances the
model factories, where nothing but love
and concord prevail between capitalist and
worker. The manufacturer also does his
best in this direction, since he takes the
most comprehensive measures for the
prosperity of his employees, shortens their
_. ,., hours of labour, prepares for
Uisraeli s ,, i i n • i
Model them good dwelhng - houses,
Employer gardens, baths, schools, reading-
rooms and churches, and pro-
vides for their pleasures by musical societies,
games, festivals, and dancing. Many work-
men, through their master's aid, actually
come to be the owners of their own houses,
gardens, and small farms.
This philanthropy finds its earthly
reward in the efftciency and willingness
of the workers, so that Disraeli's model
5258
manufacturer declares that from the
point of view of profits this investment
of capital has been one of the best he
has ever made. It is the duty of the
young aristocratic politicians, to whom
Disraeli also directly appealed, to make
such a state of affairs universal. His appeal
actually fired men's enthusiasm. A number
of young members of the nobility, who
were fresh from the university and filled
with the romantic spirit of the time, formed
themselves into the " Young England "
party, which honoured Disraeli as its head
and teacher, and was eager for social
reforms.
Another movement tried to revive the
old religious feeling and to lay the only
true fovmdation of economic reform by
filling all men with a genuinely Christian
spirit. The leader in it was Frederic
Denison Maurice, chaplain to Lincoln's Inn,
1805-1872, who taught : " our interests
are common, and every man is full of
duties towards his neighbour." For this
reason the opposite, and unchristian, idea
of the constitution of society was to be
refuted, and the coincidence of the interests
of all men to be expressed in
f°Ch ^V practical action. Maurice thus
o ^ ris lan fQ^^-j^^gf^^j^g j^Q(jgj-j^ 'Xhristian
Socialism. He was soon joined
by other men of equal sincerity of cha-
racter and of unwearying solicitude for
the welfare of the workers — above all by
Charles Kingsley, John Malcolm Ludlow,
and VansittartNeale — "a body of friends,"
as John Stuart Mill said, " chiefly clergymen
and barristers, to whose noble exertions
hardly enough praise can be awarded."
Since the masses of workmen in crowded
meetings joined enthusiastically this cru-
sade against the abuses of the new order
of things, the reform movement of the
" forties " was bound in the end to become
irresistible, especially since parliamentary
inquiries and official reports had proved the
enormous extent to which the " sweated"
labouring classes were over - worked.
In vain the supporters of the prevailing
doctrine of " laissez-faire," Cobden and
Bright, the acknowledged leaders of the
school, at their head, resisted with all their
might the agitation which struck such a
blow at the fundamental propositions of
Manchester and was consequently decried
as harmful ; in vain the great employers
of labour, under the leadership of the
powerful ironmaster. Lord Londonderry,
took the field against " the hypocritical
THE MARCH OF SOCIAL REFORM
philanthropy which now prevails " ; in
vain the employers of the textile industry
raised heartbreaking complaints over the
threatening ruin of their trade ; in vain
the learned Oxford professor, Senior,
" proved " minutely by the so-called
" analysis of the manufacturing process "
— in reality by incorrect calculations of the
costs of production and prices of manu-
factured wares — that the whole net profit
of the capital sunk in factories came from
the twelfth hour of labour, and that there-
fore that hour could not possibly be cur-
tailed. Dr. Andrew Ure, the panegyrist
of the factory system, tried in vain
to lay stress on the interests and the
morals of the protected young persons
themselves, who, if too early released from
the discipline of the factory, would be
driven into the arms of idleness and vice.
All these forms of opposition, besides the
opinion of the head of the government.
Sir Robert Peel, which, being unfavourable
to reform, weighed heavily in the scale,
were defeated by the force of the move-
ment supported by popular feeling. At the
decisive voting in Parliament a part of the
n ,. rws. Whigs, under the leadership of
Better Times tit i i • ^ i
Macaulay, who m spirited
th W k words recommended the pro-
tection of workmen as a means
of retaining in the nation all those high
qualities which had made the country
great, allied themselves with the majority
of the Tories and with the Radicals, in
order to decree the ten-hour working day
for persons from thirteen to eighteen years
and for all female workers, at first only in
the textile industry in 1847.
Although this law, in fact, reduced the
working day to ten hours not only for the
protected persons, but generally for all
employees, since the protected classes
composed 60 per cent, of all operatives,
yet none of the consequences feared by
interested or learned antagonists liave
ensued. The value of the British exports,
reckoned before the passing of the law in
1846 at 57"7 million pounds sterling, had a
few years later, in the year 1852, risen to
78 millions, an increase of 35 per cent.
" If the shrewd calculation of Professor
Senior had been correct," so a factory
inspector remarked in his report with
pointed irony, " every cotton mill in the
United Kingdom would have worked for
years at a loss." And with reference to
the supposed degeneration of the children
in consequence of too short a working day,
a report of the factory inspection of the
year 1848 noted that " such uncharitable
talk about idleness and vice must be
stigmatised as the purest cant and the
most shameless hypocrisy."
Thus, the marvellous development of
industry, hand in hand with the moral
and physical renascence of the factory
„ ,, worker, struck the dullest eve.
Marvellous t-i 1 in
jj . ihe laws were gradually ex-
f I d tended to the other great
^ industries, and in 1867, under
Disraeli's Ministry, partly also to the work-
shops ; and in 1868, at the instigation of this
same Minister, the whole of this legisla-
tion, which had already become somewhat
confused, was consolidated and completed
in the " Factory and Workshop Act."
The manufacturers, even before this,
had completely reconciled themselves to
the thought of the protection of workmen.
Henceforth they offered no more resist-
ance either on principle, by means of
political agitation, or, in practical life, by
infringement of the factory laws. On
this head a committee appointed by Par-
liament to examine the working of the
existing factory laws reported in 1876 :
"The numerous former inquiries into the
position of the children and women
engaged in the various industries of the
country have disclosed conditions which
produced a great outburst of public sym-
pathy, and imperatively called for the
intervention of the legislature."
A striking contrast to the circumstances
disclosed in these reports is afforded by the
present position of the persons in whose
favour the various factor^/ and workshop
Acts have been passed. Some employments
are still unhealthy in spite of the sanitary
provisions of these Acts, and in other
industries there is still occasionally a
pressure of work beyond the limits defined
by law, which is prejudicial to the health
of the operatives. But such cases
are exceptional. At the same time we
have no cause for assuming that the
legislation which has shown
Llbour° ^^^^^^ ^° beneficial to the
, ... workers engaged has caused
egis a ion ^^^^ considerable damage to
the industries to which it applied. On the
contrary, industrial progress was clearly
not checked by the factory laws ; and
there are only few, even among the em-
ployers, who now wish for a repeal of the
chief provisions of this Act or deny the
benefits produced by this legislation.
5259
THE
RE-MAKING
OF
EUROPE
THE
SOCIAL
QUESTION
V
SOCIAL PROBLEMS IN FRANCE
THE STRIVINGS AFTER EQUALITY AND LIBERTY
IN France the first social movement,
^ in the modern sense, was in connection
with the great Revolution. This had
tried to put into practice the ideas of
Rousseau as to the Law of Nature. Man
is by nature good, so Rousseau taught.
„ . . , , This good, uncorrupted man, so
Principle of ra u ; jj j
Robespierre added, was now
_, ,., .. personified by the lower orders
Constitution ^ , , , •'j ■ ,
only, who had remamed un-
touched by luxury and vice. The govern-
ment was, therefore, to be transferred to
the lower orders by the grant of equal
political privileges to all citizens, and thus
the reign of everlasting equality, virtue,
and happiness would dawn. The new
constitution of 1793 adopted as its
principle: " All men are equal by nature
and by law," and " The object of society
is the welfare of all." Thus, Robespierre
declared: " We wish that in our country
selfishness may be replaced by morality,
ambition by honesty, decency by the
sense of duty, contempt of misfortune
by contempt of vice."
But men had not yet arrived at clear
ideas of a new distribution of property.
On the contrary, this result was not
attained until the Directory, after the
Democratic constitution of 1793 had been
set aside. It was due to Francois Noel
Babeuf, 1764-1797, a former partisan of
Robespierre. Starting with the precepts
of the Law of Nature, Babeuf pictured to
himself the ideal society based on the
fohowing precepts : the duty of all to
work ; statutory settlement of the number
of working hours ; regulation of produc-
tion by a supreme board
J . J elected by the people ; division
g . of the necessary work among
the individual citizens ; the
right of all citizens to all enjoyments ;
and a coiTcsponding distribution of
property among individuals, according
to the standard of equality. Since
even the boldest imagination hesitated
to hope from one day to another
5260
for the realisation of this ideal, Babeuf
had planned a series of appropriately
devised measures as a connecting link
between the present and the social re-
generation of the future. In the first
place, a " great national community of
property " was to be established, to
which all State property, all property of
the " enemies of the popular cause," as
well as all estates which were left uncul-
tivated, were to be attached.
Every Frenchman could join the com-
munity if he gave up his property and
placed his working powers at its disposal.
Besides that, the community would in-
herit all private estates. The members
were to work in common, and would
receive all the food " which composed a
moderate and frugal cuisine," and other
necessaries of life. Anyone who entered
the community burdened with debt be-
came exempt from all liabilities. On
the basis of this programme.
An Army of
Theorists and
Discontents
Babeuf, favoured by the
circumstances described, suc-
ceeded in collecting round him
many thousand followers, chiefly old sup-
porters of the Jacobin doctrines, discon-
tented members of the middle class, and
political theorists of every rank, but only
a very small proportion of artisans.
The Government interfered, alarmed at
the threatening character of the move-
ment. A secret association, the Club of
the Pantheon, was therefore formed,
which took steps to prepare a decisive
blow. It was proposed to capture
the capital by a coup-de-main, in order
to plant side by side the banners of
economic and political equality ; although
the prepared manifesto to the people
cautiously spoke only of the restoration
of the overthrown constitution of 1793, in
order that all who held Jacobin views might
join the agitators. While the rebellion
was still being secretly discussed, Babeuf
and his colleagues, who had long been
betrayed and watched by the police, were
SOCIAL PROBLEMS IN FRANCE
arrested in May, 1796. Being brought
before the National Tribunal, Babeuf and
his friend, Darthe, although acquitted on
the charge of conspiracy, were condemned
to death for inciting men to divide private
property, and guillotined May 27th, 1797,
and seven fellow-conspirators, among them
the future historian of the movement,
Fihppo Buonarroti, 1761-1837, were sen-
tenced to banishment. The young com-
munistic movement thus become leader-
less was doomed to rapid extinction.
It was not until the third decade of the
nineteenth century that a large socialistic
movement was again started in France, at
a time when the industrial development
had not yet created an enormous pro-
letariat. This explains why it found its
followers mainly among the sections of
the middle and upper classes, which
were steeped in idealism. Here " the
young men had heard in their childhood
of the portentous events of the Revolu-
tion, had lived through the Empire, and
were sons of heroes or victims; their
mothers had conceived them between two
battles, and the thunder of cannon had
„ , ,^ ushered them into the world."
Bazard the t-, ,■, • i. j
„ . » c ihese youths, passionate and
Prophet of ,^ • • i. X 11 x
g : J. romantic m spirit, lull of an
instinctive dislike of the un-
scrupulous egotism and the prosaic dulness
of the bourgeois society around them, were
forced to offer strong opposition to the
prevailing utilitarianism, and to welcome
rapturously the first prophet who under-
took an attack on selfishness, narrow-
mindedness, and the aristocracy of wealth.
Such a man was Bazard in 1828, who
enlisted supporters for Socialism in con-
nection with the teaching of Saint-Simon.
Count Claude Henri de Saint-Simon,
1760-1825, who, while able to found a
school, could never produce a regular
movement, had stopped short of Socialism.
He had never clearly understood the war
between capital and proletariat. On
the contrary, he included both classes
under the category of " industrials " — ■
that is, as the body of those who work
at the production of material enjoyments
— vv^ho, as the most numerous and pro-
ductive class, ought properly to govern
the State, while, as a matter of fact, the
great landowners, the clergy, , and the
high officials possessed the power. The
political background of the time favoured
these ideas. At that period, 1815-1830,
the decisive war in France between the
adherents to the "ancien regime "and the
bourgeoisie supported by the people was
being waged, while the class dispute be-
tween the property-owning orders and
the proletariat, which was now first
developing, had not yet made itself felt.
The teaching of Saint-Simon was the
theoretical expression of the aspiring
_ . , _. , classes generally. Thesupre-
-J macy of the industrials,
Chr'sf 't ^^'liich he advocated, began to
assert itself in the actual eco-
nomic development as the supremacy of
capital. The spirit of the age, no less
than the essence of Saint-Simon's nature,
wliich was wrapped up in mysticism,
required that his system should be
first and foremost a religious and moial
one. He therefore expressly termed it
" a new Christianity." His object was
to accustom mankind to a new code
of ethics, in order to raise on this founda-
tion a new political and social fabric.
" In the new Christianity," he wrote,
" all morality will be directly derived
from the principle that men are to regard
each other as brothers. This principle,
which was held by primitive Christianity,
will be explained, and in its new form
will lay down the fundamental proposition
that religion must direct society towards
the one great end, the immediate ameliora-
tion of the lot of the poorest class." Thus
it was Saint-Simon's intention to perfect
the material side of Christianity, and so
to bring about complete earthly happiness.
Saint-Simon had not contemplated a
property reform. This was first planned
by Saint-Amand Bazard, 1791-1832, who
also, in connection with the historico-
social ideas of his master, had elaborated
a special doctrine of historical develop-
ment. According to this, there are two
fundamental social ideas, that of selfish-
ness, or of individualism, and that of
unity, or of association. According as the
latter or the former principle predomi-
. nates, organic or critical
Pur ost of Pei'iods in the history of
urposc o j-j^^^Qj^g may be distinguished.
Mankind „, - -^ i ■ u
The organic epoch is charac-
terised by the universally recognised
authority of definite ideas, by the pre-
valence of the same thoughts in the minds
of all, and by a united effort towards the
same ends. Mankind here felt itself con-
scious of some definite purpose, and there-
fore proceeded to raise permanent social
structures. The critical epoch was marked
5261
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
by criticism of the traditional principles,
which were deprived of their influence over
men's minds by the disappearance of public
spirit and by the reign of individualism.
Existing institutions were undermined,
until finally the edifice which earlier times
had reared crashed down. The followers
of the new doctrine announced " to the
astounded world an age so
f F ""^h"*^ full of fame and magnificence,
°. .'^^'^. such glorious times, such golden
Visionaries " j ■ v i i. „u
crops and rich harvests, such
happy people, so much wealth and plea-
sure, so much greatness, enjoyment, and
harmony, that the most indifferent opened
eyes and ears and were into.xicated with
these prophetic visions."
The elaboration of this doctrine in
detail was chiefly due to Barthelemy
Prosper Enfantin, 1796-1864, w^ho repre-
sented all profits, rents, and dividends as a
species of income which did not depend on
the labour of the possessor, but on the
" exploitation " of the workman. The
fundamental principles which were to put
an end to all this, had to be carried out
by a hierarchical organisation of society,
and so the contesting Saint-Simonian party
had already been organised on a strict
system of hierarchy, and its guidance
entrusted to two high priests — ph'es
supremes — ^Bazard and Enfantin in 1829.
But when Enfantin, becoming arro-
gant from the number of his followers,
who were reckoned by thousands, de-
manded the " emancipation of the flesh,"
since he preached that the marriage tie
should not be binding if affections grow
cool, because society ought to be just to
all natures, even to flirts and coquettes,
then Bazard seceded, in 1831, disgusted at
such a travesty of the true teaching. The
" Globe," the organ of the school, soon
preached without any further shame the
bold doctrine of free love. Such a foolish
and immoral deterioration could not fail
to alienate the people from a doctrine
stained with extravagance and
ragmcQ s indecency. Enfantin could only
^ ^ ^ find forty loyal followers when
Great Cause , xi, i j. u- 2. ^
he withdrew to his property at
Menilmontant, near Paris, with the frag-
ments of what had been shortly before so
flourishing a school. " Enfantin," the last
number of the "Globe" declared, "is the
messiah of God, the king of the nations.
The world sees its Christ, and recognises
him not ; therefore, he withdraws himself
from you with his apostles." The last
5262
survivors of the school, Olinde Rodrigues,
Michel Chevalier, Charles Duveyrier, were
finally dispersed by legal intervention,
since a charge of immorality was brought
against them in August, 1832. So rapidly
was the movenjent past, and so violent
was the disenchantment of the public, that
"nothing was left of the whole incident
except a feeling of astonishment that men
could ever have paid attention to it, and a
new ground for distrust of innovations. Be-
fore a year elapsed people spoke of Saint-
Simonism as of a long- forgotten matter."
Charles Fourier, 1772- 1837, elaborated
his social theory independently of Saint-
Simon. Its starting point was strictly in-
dividualistic. His aim was not the happi-
ness of the community nor the equality of
all, but the satisfaction of the impulses of
the individuals, the most enjoyable life for
each separate person. All individual im-
pulses, according to Fourier, come from
God, as necessarily follows from their ex-
istence, and are therefore good. It is only
necessary to give them free play on a
profitable field ; the result is then obtained
that men can always have wishes and
. , desires, and that the earth can
ourier s j-ga(iiiy satisfy all their wishes.
_, ** If at the present time men have
Theory , 11
longings which remain un-
satisfied, and impulses which must be
suppressed, this, in view of the har-
mony between wish and enjoyment which
God wills, is an evil which must ex-
clusively be attributed to the deficient
organisation of human society.
The system of Fourier only attained
considerable importance after the dis-
solution of the Saint-Simonian school.
Victor Considerant, 1808-1897, had great
influence on it, as he freed the master's
teaching from all kinds of fantastic
additions, and at the same time brought
prominently forward certain vigorous
ideas which could be turned to account
in the popular agitation, such as the right
to work and the insurance of the worker.
Both these movements, Saint-Simonism
as well as Fourierism, had, on the whole,
found supporters only among the " intel-
lectuals," and those members of the middle
class who were theorists. The real mass of
workers kept aloof from them as a rule.
The first interference of the French work-
men in politics followed rather in connec-
tion with the secret societies of the Repub-
licans. In the middle of the " twenties "
a new secret society, the " Societe des
SOCIAL PROBLEMS IN FRANCE
Amis du Peuple," had formed itself out of
the ruins of the overthrown Carbonari
conspiracy, with a Jacobin programme.
Its management was in the hands of a
number of young men, mostly students,
who succeeded in carrying their agitation
into the ranks of the workmen. Out of
this society, which made various attempts
to effect the establishment of the Republic
by concerted risings, was developed, after
various intermediate steps, the " Societe
des Families," the views of which advo-
cated communism.
Filippo Buonarroti, an Italian, one of
the banished members of Babeuf's party,
had received an amnesty, and on his return
had plunged once more headlong into the
whirlpool of conspiracy. Thus he had be-
come a Carbonaro, and he afterwards joined
that republican body of conspirators.
True to his old ideals, he had tried to
introduce communisni into these associa-
tions. But that which the speeches of the
feeble old man failed to effect was accom-
plished by his spirited narrative of Babeuf's
teaching, heroism, and martyrdom. The
members of the secret clubs — the " in-
tellectuals," the middle class,
*? ^ ° . and the workers — recognised
c ig c in ^YiQ^^ the only true result of
Conspiracy t, , •',,
equality for them was com-
munism. Louis Auguste Blanqui, 1805-
188 1, and Armand Barbes, 1809-1870, two
ex-students who had played a part in all
republican plots, and had been in the fore-
front of every disturbance, were the
leaders of these communists.
Disheartened by no failures, and crushed
by no penalties, these past-masters of con-
spiracy used every release from prison as an
opportunity to plan at once fresh murder-
ous schemes and assassinations. These men,
who wanted rather the fiendish delight of
conspiracy than any object to conspire for,
did not attempt to initiate any such tan-
gible schemes of reform as even Babeuf
had already started. The tactics of the
secret society guided by them were to make
the ruling power incapable of resistance by
a skilful and bold coup-de-main at the
appropriate moment, and to rouse the
people to revolt. An attempt on the life
of the king was advised as a preliminary
skirmish before the pitched battle. The
method of this political warfare is what the
Socialists have since usually called " Blan-
quist tactics." On May 12th, 1839, the
insurrection of the Blanquists, 850 in
number, took place ; but since at that
moment no political or economic crisis was
felt, the expected response was not forth-
coming, and the rising was soon quelled.
While the difficulties of association were
so great, the natural disinclination of the
French to form strong and permanent
party combinations could not fail to pro-
duce a large variety of sects, corresponding
_, , to the many Socialistic schemes
g • 1- f of the time. The exaggerated
g . . doctrine of Babeuf as to equality
was continued by the school
of Etienne Cabet, 1788-1856, which
wished to attain its object by strictly legal
methods, and in other points made an
advantageous departure from the crudities
of Babeuf's scheme. The Fourierists have
been already mentioned. Next came the
school of Philippe Buchez, 1796-1865,
who had given a more distinct character
to the shapeless propositions of the
Fourierists by the effective remedy of
union. Buchez insisted from 1831 onwards
that the workmen ought to economise until
they could form themselves into a produc-
tive association. A part of the profits of
the business ought then to be applied
either to the extension of the old associa-
tion or to the founding of a new one, until
finally all the workmen in France were
owners of the capital necessary for produc-
tion. This train of thought led, as Lexis
pointed out, to a series of actual attempts,
and certain sections of the Parisian work-
ing classes clung tenaciously to the idea.
The plan developed by Louis Blanc,
1811-1882, of founding such " produc-
tive " associations by state-given aid could
not fail to meet with more support from
the proletariat. For then the workman
did not require to save out of his small
wages ; and besides this, the labouring
class was liberated at a blow. The scheme
of Blanc culminated in the special point
that the State should organise the work-
men, so far as they wished, into workshops,
which, during the first year, were to be
directed by the State, but after-
* fh** wards by the workmen them-
^ .* selves. These "ateherssociaux"
were to be associated, to agree
as to the method and extent of the pro-
duction, to provide for the sick and
incapable, and to help those undertakings
which were depressed by crises. Since it
was expected that the industries conducted
by capitalists would soon be brought to a
standstill by this competition, this system
of associations only presented a transition
5263
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
stage towards pure communism, of which
the principles were to be : " Production
according to capabihties, consumption
according to requirements."
All these schools — .and this point must be
strongly emphasised, for it is often over-
looked— .must not be considered as merely
representative of the working classes; on
the contrary, they felt that they
Chn'st represented all classes suffer-
ris lan -^ from capitalistic methods
of production, the lower
middle class as much as the proletariat.
This is still more the case with the
Radical Christian Socialists of that time,
such as Pierre Leroux, 1797-1871, the
Abbes Hugues Felicite Robert de Lamen-
nais, 1782-1854, Henri Benjamin Con-
stant de Rebecque, 1767-1830, and Con-
stantin Pecqueur, 1801-1887. These,
consciously or unconsciously, renewed the
idea of Saint-Simon, that a purification of
mankind by religion and morality was
alone able to pave the way for future
social reform ; for then only would all men
regard each other as brothers, and be able
to establish anew organisation, in which
the possessors of wealth would consent to
equalise the differences in property.
Pierre Joseph Proudhon, 1809-1865, a
contemporary, appreciated more fully the
interests of the middle and the lower
classes, since in an ingenious but thoroughly
idealist scheme he aimed at a realisation of
the three main principles of the great
Revolution — justice, equality, and liberty
— in the economic world. He took up
a position, in the interests of individual
freedom, distinctly opposed to com-
munism, against which he brought the
charges that it obliterates the distinctions
between individuals, fosters the indolence
of all, and extinguishes personality. His
intention was to preserve the improve-
ments due to the economic system of
individualism, but, on the other hand, to
remove the distress and unhappiness intro-
_ ^ . , duced by it. For this reason
Lamentable ,■/■ ■ . i • . ■ ,
_ . competition IS to be maintained;
«j ... but opposition and isolation
Socialism .\(. . ■ ,. ., , ,
are, withm certain limits, to be
obviated by reciprocal support and com-
bination. For " competition and associa-
tion," so he said, " support each other. Far
from excluding each other, they do not
even diverge. Whoever speaks of competi-
tion assumes a common goal ; competition
is therefore not egotism, and it is the most
lamentable error of socialism to see in it
5264
the overthrow of society." He only
attacked the unrestrained competition,
where the possession of capital, as the privi-
lege of a favoured minority, "exploits"
the large, hard-working majority of the
people ; where the small man, from
want of credit, cannot keep his footing;
and where the social disorder leads to a
crisis, to the bankruptcy of employers,
and to want of employment among
many thousand workers.
The party of the democratic middle class
led by Alexandre Auguste Ledru-Rollin,
1807-1874, saw itself compelled to make
advances to Socialism. Its chief organ,
the " Reforme," willingly opened its
columns to Louis Blanc's social and
political articles, and even its official
programme clearly showed the influence
of the new socialistic doctrines. " The
workers," so it ran, "have been slaves and
serfs ; they are now labourers ; our aim
must be to elevate them to the position
of sharers. The State must take the
initiative in industrial successes in order
to introduce such organisation of labour
as will raise the workers to the position of
sharers. The State must provide
work for the stalwart and
The Golden
Age of the
Bourgeoisie
healthy citizen, and help and
protection for the old and weak. ' '
Notwithstanding this strong socialistic
current, there were at first only slight
waves visible on the surface of political
life ; the strict law of meetings and
associations, and the franchise, which
depended on a large income and was
granted only to the 200,000 richest citizens
in the whole of France, prevented the new
ideas from being asserted with irresistible
weight in ordinary times.
In the " thirties " and " forties," when
Socialism and the emancipation of the
lower orders were so prominent in the
world of thought, the governing powers
were quite unconcerned by them. At no
period of the nineteenth centurj' had the
large industries and " haute finance " so
ruled the governing powers as at this time,
which Treitschke called " the golden age
of the bourgeoisie." Indeed the labour
legislation in no way served to protect the
worker, but was purelj^ directed towards
the interests of the bourgeoisie. The
associations of workers in the same craft
for the promotion of their " presumed "
common interests, as it was very signifi-
cantly termed in the law, which dated from
the year 1791, were still prohibited ; and
SOCIAL PROBLEMS IN FRANCE
this law, under the government of Louis
Philippe, was still enforced merely against
coalitions of the workers, and never against
the employers. The prefects were in-
structed, in the event of strikes, to forbid
meetings and to put foreigners who took
part in them at once across the frontier.
The labour book was obligatory on the
workmen, and in the commercial courts
the employers had a secured majority.
Only a feeble protective law was passed in
favour of the workmen, which established
a twelve hours' maximum working day
for children ; and even then the official
instructions for carrying it OHt explained
that it could not be strictly observed.
The ruling class in France was not at all
disturbed, either by the misery of certain
sections of the proletarians in the large
towns, or by riots of starving workmen
or risings of communistic conspirators.
This misgovernment was crowned by
the insolent, ignorance with which the
official rei)resentatives of this rule of the
great bourgeoisie flatly denied the exist-
ence of abuses and declared their world
to be the best of all possible worlds.
, Although facing a condition of
U120 s things which concealed in it
At7't**a'' most bitter class disputes, that
section of society asserted
that neither disabilities nor "privileges
existed, since everyone could become rich,
and then acquire .the highest political
rights. " There are no more class disputes,"
announced Frangois Pierre Guillaume
•Guizot, 1787-1874, as President of the
Council, a short time before the February
Revolution, " for there are no longer any
conflicting interests." And when reference
was made to the agitation among the
people, he arrogantly thought that " we,
the three powers, the Crown and the
Chambers, are the only legal organs of. the
sovereignty of the people ; besides us
there is only usurpation and revolution."
And thus the demand for the extension
of the franchise, which in the whole
country was granted only to a bare quarter
of a million of the most highly taxed, was
flatly refused. No class which so obsti-
nately asserted its privileges could rule
for long ; and in fact the monarchy of
July, 1830, was overturned like a house
of cards by the revolutionary hurricane
of the year 1848.
Tlie upper bourgeoisie was, however,
still politically the most matured class at
that time. The real middle class, the
II =5 ■ G
poorer citizens of the towns, had, under
the July monarchy, abandoned the radical
opposition, which politically supported
the traditions of the great Revolution.
In other points it fluctuated vaguely be-
, tween the maintenance of all ownership
and a socialistic altruism, and had never
been able to effect a union with the
-. . ,. peasants, by far the most
Socialism i • . u .
. , numerous class m the country.
, „ . The political immaturity of the
of Promise • j d 1 i i 1
middle class was exceeded by
that of the working classes, who thought
they could come with one mighty leap into
that land of promise called Socialism.
Under such circumstances the pro-
visional government which, put ' at the
head of affairs by the Revolution of
February, 1848, embodied primarily the
middle class, and secondaiily the working
orders, was not able to produce any con-
siderable results. The maximum working
day, which had been fixed for ail industrial
undertakings, was not carried out, and
the prohibition to appoint "middlemen,"
who overworked the men, was not
observed. The gift of ,^120, 000 to the
labour associations was unable to effect
any increase in co-operative systems, and
the reluctant attempt to put into practice
the right to work finally, when the
" national workshops " established for the
purpose were discontinued, led to riots.
Thus the French ship of state drifted
aimlessly, without a compass, on the
ocean of politics, and was at the mercy of
the first man who knew how to take the
helm and steer her into a safe harbour.
The diiection of the official social policy
under Napoleon IIL was determined by
the fact that the sovereign himself, while
still a young prince, had developed his
own programme of social reform, which
culminated in the creation of a nobility of
manufacturers in Carlyle's sense, and in
an attempt by the State to solve the labour
problem by the cultivation of unfilled
lands. What was done, then.
Napoleon III. ^^^^^^^^ putting this project
as Social • , ,• i_ -.i. • ■
P mto practice, when its origi-
nator mounted the throne of
France ? If we wish to answer this
question correctly we niust not forget that
Napoleon had paved the way to his
position by perjury and crime, and that con-
sequently he had to be on his guard against
revenge. This system, therefore, began
with a campaign against all associations,
however constituted, of workmen, who
5265
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
were considered the most active dissemin-
ators of revolutionary ideas. Tlius, not
only all their political unions but also their
purely economic associations, including
many flourishing co-operative stores and
similar societies, fell victims to the
dictatorship which " saved society."
But after the first zeal to found the new
empire had abated, a careful
distinction was made between
Labour's
Rights under
the Empire
the political and the economic
organisations of the prole-
tariat, and while the former were ruth-
lessly nipped in the bud, no obstacles
were placed in the way of the latter.
Thus, there arose under the empire a
vigorous labour agitation, of which the
centre of gravity lay in the combinations
for obtaining higher wages and generally
improved conditions of labour. Now, it
is true that such coalitions were forbidden
according to the already mentioned law
of 1791 ; but they were still tacitly
allowed. "Striking" workmen were
pardoned and complete neutrality was
enjoined on the prefects in event of
suspension of work. Finally, in 1864, the
prohibition on coalition itself was removed.
But beyond this the empire undertook
to support the working classes by a long
series of tangible measures. At one time
it tried to guarantee to the metropolis
cheap prices for necessary provisions.
This was done especially by the establish-
ment of the " Caisse de la boulangerie "
endowed by the bakers, from which the
individual masters received advances in
times of high prices for corn in order to
be able to maintain the low price of bread.
Then an energetic attempt was made to
face the labour question, not indeed in the
vague form of the royal pamphlet, but
by a system of public building opera-
tions. Within fifteen years more than
;f6oo,ooo,ooo were spent in Paris alone on
public edifices. The same thing happened
in Lyons, Marseilles, and Bordeaux.
^ , _ This measure had various
Great Days , ,
, .1 » -.J- important consequences
of the Building c .^ n \ ^
J . from the magnificent scale
"* ""^ on which it was carried out.
Permanent and profitable employment
was given to a large number of
" hands," wages had an upward tend-
ency, and the spirit of enterprise was
everjnvhere aroused by the excitement
proceeding from the building industry.
All else that happened was of sub-
ordinate significance. The remaining
5266
point most worthy of mention is the legis-
lation on mutual help societies, wliich
supported their members in case of sickness
or, under certain circumstances, of in-
capacity to work. These possessed an
income of £400,000 and various privileges ;
and their number actually increased from
2,000 in 1852 to 4,000 in 1859.
The workmen in the State workshops
were compelled to insure their old age, and
at the same time their wages were increased
by the amount of the premiums. Besides
this, state funds were available for the con-
struction of workmen's dwellings and the
erection of benevolent institutions, creches
for the children of workmen, asylums for
crippled workmen. It is strange that the
empire never thought about real legislation
for the protection of workmen.
The most appropriate estimate of all
this social policy is given by Lexis in his
book on trades unions in France. " Louis
Napoleon as emperor did not really
need to fear that he would be reminded
by the working classes of his brochure
on pauperism. The social policy of the
empire is by no means opposed to the
p I- spirit of it. Discipline and
, t ° *^^ superintendence of the work-
01 Louis ^ ,1 -J T
„ men on the one side, ameliora-
apo eon ^.^^ ^^ their material position
on the other ; that is an idea which is
always upheld in the home policy of Louis
Napoleon." In fact, the working class
undoubtedly gained much from the new
order of things ; its position was incom-
parably improved during the years 1850-
1870. Even the development of capital
in the age of joint-stock companies was,
on account of the number of new under-
takings, not without profit to the lowest
classes. For " even if one part of the
shifted millions was concentrated in the
coffers of the capitalistic body, another
part was scattered over the mass of
the wage-earning class."
Notwithstanding this, the proletariat
was proof against all the allurements of
the Second Empire. It was dumb to all
gifts, deaf to all promises, cold to all
flatteries ; indeed, " the current of re-
publican feeling, like a mighty river,
swept away with it continually larger
masses of the people." The lower middle
class was at first furious, since, at the era
of wild speculation and company promo-
tion, when the bearers of the most re-
nowned Bonapartist names joined in the
worship of the golden calf, it had to bear
SOCIAL PROBLEMS IN FRArSTCE
the brunt of the costs. It knew nothing
of the black art of gambUng on the stock
exchange, and would gladly make money
without trouble, and therefore was caught
by enticing promises and invested its
hard-earned savings in rash or swind-
ling undertakings.
The middle class, therefore, and the
proletariat, to whom the illusions created
bj' Proudhon's theories had given common
ideals, and with them the possibility of
common action, united, especially in Paris,
for the overthrow of the Empire. When
this was accomplished under the influence
of the defeat to the imperial armies in
1870, those classes combined against the
republic of the bourgeoisie and actually
brought the Paris commune, in which the
National Guard, mostly recruited from
their order, held sway for some time, from
March to May, 1871, under their power.
Since neither Paris nor the Govern-
ment wished to yield, the result was
civil war, which naturally ended with
the suppression of the insurgent popula-
tion of the capital. In that short time,
however, the government of the besieged
city, whose programme of
^^ ^. ^^ ^^ social policy was indistinct in
„ * . other respects, had not been
Republic , , , 1 M •,
able to exhibit any compre-
hensive measures of reform. Under the
Third Republic, which for the first time
secured to the French working class per-
manent and full liberty in every direction,
important political labour agitations as
well as powerful economic organisations
of the labouring classes were instituted.
Politically, the most noteworthy event
was the complete separation of the
proletariat from the lower middle class.
The proletariat followed out its own
aims exclusively, in politics and economics,
and thus acted according to the programme
of class warfare.
Regard for the political influence of the
masses of workmen compelled the Govern-
ment to make social reforms which, in the
first instance, dealt with the continuation
of the protection to workmen — by the
introduction of the ten-hours maximum
working day for young persons under
eighteen years and for all female workers
in factories — and the concession of full
liberty of coalition, since 1884. Besides
this, the workmen have, in a number of
towns, particularly in Paris, enforced
various arrangements which are conducive
to their interests, such as the establishment
of labour exchanges at the cost of the
community, as also regulations for the
minimum wage and maximum working day
for a.11 men employed by the town on public
works. The movement in favour of trades
unions and co-operative societies has lately
received a great stimulus in France ; the
- . , number of workmen united
Advance of ■ , j • ,. , ,
^ .. m trade associations already
. _ reaches 500,000. We may
in France ji . .u ■ ^ "j
assume that the social and
economic organisations of the French
working classes, although they are still far
from reaching the English standard, will,
if given undisturbed development, attain
in a few decades some such importance
as the English.
It is, lastly, worthy of remark that the
Socialists have succeeded in influencing
the administration of the Board of Trade,
so valuable for social interests, in favour
of the workmen, since the Socialists have
united with the democratic sections for
the protection of the republic against the
attacks of the military and clerical parties.
The more the working class in this way
practically arrived at a comprehension of
its immediate economic interests, in con-
tradistinction to those of the richer class and
without regard to any collision with those
of the inferior. bourgeoisie, the less satisfied
could this latter class feel by the alliance
with the proletariat. Thus it resulted that
after the "seventies" the predominance
of Proudhon's views, which earlier had
effected the spiritual union between the
two orders, grew less and less, and that the
inferior bourgeoisie now worked for their sal-
vation outside the socialistic organisations.
But the lower middle class did not
succeed in making an organisation with a
special programme of its own ; and there-
fore hundreds of thousands of its members
cordially welcomed the demagogues, who
promised them that they would oppose
the great capitalists as well
ransi ory ^^ ^^^ socialistic tendencies.
success of T^i . • .1 1 -■ r
„ , . Ihis is the explanation of
Boulangism ,, , -, ^ r <( r>
the transitory success of Bou-
langism," in 1889, and more lately of
the great prospects of the " nationalistic
groups," who anticipated a revival of the
French middle class from the campaign
against the world of Jewish trade and
finance. But this movement was so
short-lived that no elucidation of its con-
fused economic scheme \vas forthcoming.
5267
THE
RE-MAKING
OF
EUROPE
THE
SOCIAL
QUESTION
VI
SOCIAL DEMOCRACY IN GERMANY
THE RISE & SPREAD OF LABOUR MOVEMENTS
""PHE first labour agitation in Germany
■■■ was noticeable in the "forties." It
then, owing to the strict police regulations
of the German Confederation, chiefly
affected the German journeymen who lived
by thousands in foreign countries. Its leader
, was a tailor, Wilhelm Weitling,
crmany s 1808-1871, who, as an emis-
r irst Labour c j.\. j. <i n j
. . . sary 01 the secret Bund
der Gerechten," League of the
Just, at Paris, transplanted the com-
munistic agitation to Switzerland. He
organised the movement in such a way
that public workmen's unions were founded
under harmless designations, in which
recruits were obtained for the " League
of the Just." The object was to establish
by revolutionary methods the communistic
society, for which Weitling, in connection
with the French Utopians, had drawn up
a special system.
At the same time interest in communism
had been roused even in the German
middle classes, where the half doctrinaire,
half ideaUst tendencies of the age had
found a receptive soil in the students of
philosophy and literature. In the mystic
circle of the "humanistic philosophy"
of Ludwig Andreas Feuerbach, 1804-
1872, efforts were made to produce
" humane " conditions even in social life,
and the heartless capitalistic methods of
business were condemned in accordance
with the criticism of the French Socialists.
The positive ideal of this party, headed
by the writers Moses Hess, 1812-1875, and
Karl Griin, 1813-1887, was the most
complete freedom of man, conceived by
_ e nature as noble, in actions and
.. J " conduct, in production and
fth*^j^t" consumption. This school must
therefore be termed anarchist,
since it preached the unqualified self-
glorification of the individual and the
exclusion of any compulsion. This philo-
sophic socialism found favour first with
the educated middle class, and then also
with the secret " League of the Just."
5268
But since the arguments of this kind
of Socialism were necessarily unfamiliar
to the workmen, Karl Marx, 1818-1883,
succeeded at last in preventing this
system from doing any harm in that
league. Through his efforts the league,
which henceforth was styled " Bund der
Communisten," adopted his principles,
a change which practically produced no
further results then, since his success
coincided with the outbreak of the revolu-
tion of February, 1848, which dispersed
the members of the league in all directions-.
The only independent labour movement
was made quite apart from the com-
munistic league, under the organisation
of Stephan Born, a compositor, 1825-
1897. By vigorous agitation he succeeded
in founding a labour party, which came
forward under the name of " Arbeiter-
verbriiderung," Labour Confraternity,
and had as its immediate aim universal
_ ^^ suffrage for all representative
Overthrow 1, j- j . ■< . 1 ■
bodies and a ten hours workmg
_ day. The activity of the
Democracy f< t , n t 4. -t. " j.
Labour Confraternity at
that time consisted chiefly in the support
of the war of the democracy against the
counter revolution ; and thus the league was
necessarily involved in the overthrow of the
democracy. It was dissolved in 1850, and
all attempts to call new workmen's unions
into existence were nipped in the bud.
Some attempts of Marx and others to
resume the agitation in foreign countries
by the revival of the old communistic
league miscarried, owing to the vigilance
of the police ; and thus this association
also soon disappeared for ever in 1853.
During the whole of this decade the re-
action allowed no organised labour move-
ment to take place. This period was used
by Marx for the further development of
his system, which he had already sketched
in the " Communistic Manifesto." His
original works, which secure him a
position among the first thinkers of all
time, reach their highest level in his
SOCIAL DEMOCRACY IN GERMANY
" Materialistische Geschichtsauffassung "
and also in his " Untersuchung der
kapitalistischen Produktionsweise."
From the study of Hegel, Marx had
formed the fundamental conception that
history depicts a ceaseless process of life,
decay, and progress, in which each
separate stage is absolutely necessary and
relatively justified, however much it con-
flicts with all the accepted notions of
politics or ethics. But while Hegel de-
duced the laws of historical movement
from the " self -development of the absolute
notion," Marx was converted by the philo-
sophy of Feuerbach to the view that the
man creates the ideas, and that the " idea "
does not determine the history of the man.
At the same time his whole mental atti-
tude rested on a materialistic basis, since
he adopted the results of Feuerbach's in-
vestigations, that the higher beings whom
our religious fancy has created are only the
fanciful reflections of our own being. If
man thus, unconsciously, created religion,
why not all political, legal, artistic, and
scientific existence ? And here Marx be-
lieves that he can discover the secret con-
nection of all historical de-
velopment, since he assumes
that, in the first instance,
politics, but more remotely
all other manifestations of the spiritual,
social, and intellectual life, are to be re-
ferred to the economic conditions and their
development as the one ultimate cause.
The economic formation of society since
the abandonment of the primitive common
ownership of the soil is determined in all
its previous history by the contrast
between the classes, especially that be-
tween the ruled and ruling classes. But
this is changed in the course of time. For
each economic constitution develops from
itself productive forces which are finally
incompatible with the old form of produc-
tion and the old form of class supremacy.
As a consequence of this the contrast
between the classes culminates in a class
warfare, in such a way that a crisis must
follow, the result of which must be one of
two alternatives : either the disruption of
the existing social constitution and its
change into a higher system, since the
suppressed classes have overthrown the
hitherto ruling classes, or the common ruin
of the warring classes.
This keen inquiry into the economic
system shows how conditions are at the
present moment. According to it, the
Marx's Theory
of Historic
Development
value of all commodities is determined by
the amount of combined necessary, that is,
normal, working time requisite for their
production. A commodity which has
cost twelve hours of combined necessary
labour is worth double as much as a
commodity which has cost six hours. But
now in the capitalistic social system only
the owners of means of
production and livelihood
The Workman
and
the Capitalist
produce commodities ; and
therefore the great majority
of the non-propertied class sell their
only commodity, their power of work,
to the propertied. "The worker," so it is
said in the account of Marx's teaching
by Friedrich Engels, 1820-1895, which
is to be regarded as an authentic repre-
sentation, " sells his power of work to
the capitalist for a certain daily sum.
After a few hours' labour he has produced
the value of that sum. But his contract
of work runs to the effect that he must
drudge for a further round of hours, in
order to complete his labour for the day.
The value which he produces in these
additional hours of excess labour is excess
value, which costs the capitahst nothing,
but nevertheless goes into his pockets."
The appropriation of unpaid labour is
the fundamental law of the capitalistic
method of production, the existence of
which is inseparable from the " sweating "
of the workmen. Since now, according to
Karl Marx, the excess value is the only
thing which interests the capitalist in the
process of production, his economic trans-
actions will always be directed towards the
increase of this excessive value.
The evident results of this desire for
extra profits are as follows : In the first
place, the daily hours of labour will be
immoderately prolonged. Then the cheap
labour of women and children will be em-
ployed on an immense scale. Finally, the
anarchy in co-operative production which
is so significant of the modern economic
methods will be more and
Anarchy in ^^^^ carried to extreme
Co-operative ^^^^^^^ - jj^g ^hief tool," SO
Production ^^^^^ explains Marx's views,
" with which the capitalistic method of
production increased this anarchy in co-
operative production was the precise
opposite of the anarchy ; that is, the in-
creasing organisation of production as
co-operative in every productive estab-
lishment. With this lever it destroyed
the old peaceful stability. When it was
5269
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
introduced into a branch of industry, it
allowed no other method of work besides.
When it took possession of hand work, it
destroyed the old hand work. The field
of labour became a battle-ground. Not
merely did war break out between the
individual local producers, but the local
wars in turn became national, the com-
Th B'tt mercial wars of the seventeenth
y^^ * *'' and eighteenth centuries.
I d Wholesale industries and the
'^ establishment of the world
market have made the war universal'; and at
the same time given it an unprecedented
bitterness. Among individual capitalists,
as among entire industries and whole
countries, the favourableness of the natural
or created conditions of production- decides
the question of existence. The defeated
is remorselessly disregarded. The opposi-
tion between co-operative production and
capitalistic appropriation now appears as
the contrast between the organisation of
production in the single factory and the
anarchy of production in the whole society. ' '
The consequences of this are suspen-
sions of business and work, partly local,
partly universal, which lead to the for-
mation of an army of unemployed, the
so-called " industrial reserve army." This
must grow larger as time elapses. For
the " bourgeoisie " surmounts the crises
by two measures only : on the one side by
the forced annihilation of a mass of pro-
ductive forces, factories which are not
working, etc., on the other side by- the con-
quest of new markets. The crises, then, are
surmounted only by preparing more widely
extended and more violent crises, and the
means of avoiding the crises are lessened.
The crises now afford a means of con-
centrating various amounts of capital in
one hand. Every capitalist ruins many
other capitalists. Hand in hand with this
destruction of many capitalists 'by a- iew,
the co-operative form of the process -of
labour is developed in a continually- grow-
_. . , ing scale. There is the change
api as ^£ ^Y^Q old instruments of labour
« suited to use by the individual
upr macy ^^^^ instruments adapted only
for combined use, the entanglement of all
nations in the net of the world market,
and with this the international character
of the supremacy of capital. The mass
of misery grows with the continually
diminishing number of great capitalists,
who secure exclusively for themselves all
the advantages of this change ; but at
5270
the same time sedition grows rife among
the working classes, who are always
swelling in numbers, and are organised by
the mechanism of the capitalistic system
of production. The monopoly of capital
becomes a clog on the method of production,
which has flourished with it and under it.
It is removed, and its place is taken by the
communistic social system, the principles
of which are only suggested by Marx.
While Marx was developing his system
in London, an attempt had been made
in Germany, after the end of the " fifties "
in the nineteenth century, to win over
the workrhen to the Liberal movement,
which was assumingnew importance. This
was done by first founding associations for
the. education' of workmen, and by the
self-help movement initiated by a former
judge of the patrimonial court, Hermann
Schulze-Delitzsch, 1808-1883. The edu-
cational societies could, from their nature,
only have a restricted sphere of influence.
The case would have been otherwise with
the self-help movement if it had been
connected with the real interests of the
working class, above all, with the organisa-
tion of trades unions. Instead
of this, Schulze contemplated.
Lassalle the
Friend of
the Workman
in the first instance, the estab-
lishment of money-lending
banks, of societies for supply of raw
materials, of co-operative shops and
similar associations which considered
especially the interests of the small master-
w^orkmen, while the proletarians were
attracted merely to the co-operative stores
which were then also founded.
■ The result could only be that the work-
men -themselves felt this representation
of their" class interests to be insufficient,
and looked round for men to help them.
The man who came forward now as their
leader was a friend of Marx, Ferdinand
Lassalle, 1825-1864, who had won the
confidence of the proletariat by his
socialistic and revolutionary antecedents.
The labour agitation of the present daj%
and with it " Social Democrac}'," were
the fruits of his political activity.
Lassalle began his agitation in March,
1863, with the " Open Answer " to a
deputation of workmen from Leipzig, who
wished to learn his views on the social
question and the means of reform. This
pamphlet contained also the fundamental
principles of Lassalle's social programme,
which are only explained, supported,
strengthened, and defended in all his later
SOCIAL DEMOCRACY IN GERMANY
writings. It was shown first of all that
the average wages in a national industry
depending on private capital and free
competition always remain limited to
the bare livelihood which is ordinarily
necessary among a people for the su]')port
and continuance
of life, the " iron
law of wages."
This was the in-
evitable destiny
of the workmen
so soon as they
were in any
man's pay. The
workers must,
therefore, Las-
salle concluded,
become their
own masters, the
house for which
they work must
be their own pro-
perty, a "pro-
ductive associa-
tion " ; then
that distinction
labour and the
Liebknecht Bebel
GERMAN LEADERS OF SOCIAL DEMOCRACY
A loyal disciple of Marx, Wilhelm Liebknecht took a leading- part in
the advancement of Socialism, adopting extreme measures to secure
the success of the cause and suffering two years' imprisonment,
while Ferdinand August Bebel, who also has been imprisoned, has
led the social democratic movement in the Reichstag and in the Press.
between the wages of
profit of owners would
disappear, and in its place the proceeds of
the labour would form remuneration for
the labour. Organisation in productive
associations could only be feasible uider
the existing conditions, if the State
advanced to the workers the
money for the purchase of the
firms and of everything else
which belonged to the manage-
ment of factories and business.
The means by which this State
credit was to be won was the
introduction of universal,
uniform, and direct franchise,
which would presumably se-
cure to the labouring class the
majority in Parliament. This
was the solution propounded
by the " Open Answer."
Lassalle, in order to pro-
pagate this doctrine, founded
the '"Universal German
Workmen's Union," of
which he became the presi-
dent, with absolute powers.
The older German communists, with
Marx at their head, naturally could not
approve of Lassalle's teaching or his
tactics. The proposition of the " iron law
of wages " could not but greatly oftend
Marx ; but still more was the proposal
of the productive association as a remedy
for all social misery bound to call forth
all the indignation of the communistic
thinker, who, in 1852, had declared that
the proletariat ought not to meddle with
doctrinaire attempts such as exchange
banks and asso-
ciations, but
"should try to
re v o 1 u t i o n i 5 e
the Old World
with their own
great combined
means." The
Com munist s
V i e w c d wit h
equal suspicion
the exaggerated
value attached
by the followers
of Lassalle to
universal suf-
rage ; for Marx
did not expect
to lead com-
munism to vic-
tory by parliamentary majorities, but
expected all success from the continuously
growing impoverishment of the masses
and of the thus inevitable self-annihilation
of the civil society. In accordance with
this view he. openly announced to the
German workmen by the mouth of his
most loyal disciple, Wilhelm
Liebknecht, 1826-1900, that
Socialism was merely a ques-
tion of power, which for that
reason could not be solved in
any Parliament of the world.
During the lifetime of
Lassalle these opponents
could accomplish nothing, but
soon after his early death, in
1864, they began to under-
mine his system. The Inter-
national Association of Work-
men, the Red International,
founded in the autumn of
1864, acted as their champion.
This never indeed counted
more than a thousand mem-
EDUARD BERNSTEIN
A writer remarkable for wide learn-
ing, grasp of facts, and graceful
style, he led the opposition against
Marxism, opposing the party view , ■ r^ l ^ i^r i j
that the disruption of the bourgeois bcrs m Germany, Dut anorded
society was soon to be anticipated. ^ ^^g^gg ^f operations from
which the attack against the followers of
Lassalle might be made. The regular
troops of Marx's following were, however,
first furnished by the " Federation of
German Workmen's Unions." This was- a
labour league which, founded in 1863 by
5271
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
the party of Progress, had gradually been
piloted to complete communism by the
influence of Liebknecht on its chairman,
Ferdinand August Bebel, born in 1840. In
1868, the Federation declared openly for the
principles of the Internationals, and in i86g
established itself, in combination with
seceded members of the Universal German
Workmen's Union and with
oMhrsrc!al °*^^^' Socialists, as the Social
o c ocia j)gj^Q(-i-atic Labour party.
cmoc jj^^ programme of this Social
Democratic party, drawn up at Eisenach
towards the end of i86g, was conceived in
the spirit of Marx, and only slightly corre-
sponded with the ideas circulated by
Lassalle's vigorous agitation, in order not
to preclude the possibility of a future
reconciliation with the powerful party of
Lassalle's followers.
The programme declared expressl}' that
the Social Democratic party regarded itself
as a branch of the International Workmen's
Association. Their ideal was the free
Republic, which alone was able to replace
the wage system of the existing industrial
regime by co-operative labour, which
should guarantee to each worker the full
proceeds of his labour. The Eisenach
programme laid down, as the immediate
objects of the efforts of the party, a series
of social and poHtical requirements, which
were borrowed partly from the principles
of the political Radicals, partly from the
doctrines of Marx and Lassalle.
The Social Democracy had begun, shortly
before, to take active steps. The imme-
diate impulse to practical action was given
by an attempt, made by the Party of
Progress in 1868, to found trades unions.
Jean Baptista von Schweitzer, 1833-1875,
and Friedrich Wilhelm Fritzsche, the
leaders at the time of the " Universal
German Labour Union," which was always
influenced by the glorification of Lassalle,
took immediate steps to estabhsh industiial
unions in order to forestall the detested
bourgeois party. Finallv, as
Amalgamatmg ^j^g third member of 'the
league, the "Social Demo-
the Forces
of Labour
cratic Labour party " of
Marx appeared on the scene in order to
secure its share. After this organisation of
trades unions, the Social Democratic party
in Germany ceased to content itself with
bare criticism^ of the existing society, and
to aim only at the final goal of their efforts,
the State of the future. Henceforward it
endeavoured to interfere directly with life,
5272
since it put clearly before the workers the
great advantages they could at once
gain if they combined in masses according
to their respective trades.
The results of the elections for the
Reichstag in 1874 show how effective the
trade organisation was. Although the split
of the Social Democracy into the two camps
of the Lassalle party and the Eisenach
party still continued, socialism was already
able to show a splendid army ; not less than
340,000 votes were cast for it. Soon after-
wards the Social Democracy entered upon
the era of persecution by the courts and the
police, and this, among other causes, led both
parties to end the organisation of unions.
The instinct of self-preservation now
impelled both sections to unite and to apply
all their forces exclusively to the struggle
against the common foe. The amalgama-
tion was carried out at the congress at
Gotha in 1875, where, as usually happens,
the more radical party gained the ascend-
ancy over the more moderate. The new
programme showed in essential points the
communistic stamp of Marx's doctrines,
and only slight concessions were made to
J f t^^ followers of Lassalle. In
tK^^w V° i^ct, " Lassalleanism" ceased
e or ing jj-^j^ ^j^g^^. ^i^ig ^q play any
independent role in the his-
tory of the party. In other respects it is a
feature of the Gotha programme that it
pays far more attention to the protection
of the workers, than the earlier programmes.
Unrestricted right of coalition, ordinary
length of working day, prohibition of Sun-
day labour, of child labour, and of all
forms of female labour injurious to the
health, laws for the protection of the life
and health of the workers, legal liability
and independent administration for all
charitable funds belonging to the workers ;
this was the list of requirements which the
German working-classes continuously put
before the Government of the day. Men
began, therefore, to attach far more weight
than before to an immediate and practical
social reform. This change in tactics proved
to be a factor of enormous significance,
which was calculated to bring continuous
reinforcement to the party. In the elec-
tion of the Reichstag of the year 1877 the
Socialistic Labour part}', as the official
title now was, could unite 493,000 votes
in support of their candidates.
Shortly afterwards, on May nth and June
2nd, 1878, followed the two attempts on
the life of the German Emperor. Public
SOCIAL DEMOCRACY IN GERMANY
opinion falsely made the Social Democrats
responsible for this, and so the emergency
law " against the common danger threat-
ened by the Social Democracy " was passed
in October, 1878. After the party seemed
to be really quite broken, it recovered and
effected some secret and some harmless
public organisations. When, then, in 1881,
the " trade associations " of the workmen
were allowed by the police, the Social Demo-
cracy won back their complete freedom of
action ; for the trade associations afforded
excellent rallying points and recruiting
grounds for the active army of the Social
Democracy, although in their meetings
hardly any party politics were discussed.
It is not astonishing, therefore, that
the law as to the Socialists did not fulfil
its primary object, the annihilation of
the party. When the Social Democracy
had recovered from the first shock, it
advanced in an uninterrupted victorious
career, until in the elections of the
Reichstag of 1890 it received more than
1,400,000 votes. So it became clearer from
day to day that the emergency law lacked
any permanently effective result, and
offered no compensation for the
m re s -j-g^jj^^jj^g Qf political morality,
p J . which the police espionage
required by the law greatly
promoted. The German Emperor, William
II., recognising this, determined to
renounce the use of this two-edged sword
on September 30th, 1890.
Prince Bismarck, simultaneously with
the suppression of the social democratic
labour agitation, had inaugurated a system
of social policy that was intended to put
into practice all the best points of the
modern Labour movement.
German legislation had hitherto occupied
itself but little with the working-men. In
1869 it had granted to them the right of
coalition, and for the rest had been satis-
fied with the prohibition of the labour of
children under twelve years, and with the
limitation of the labour of young persons
under sixteen years in factories. It was a
consequence of the fundamental notions
of the Imperial Chancellor that no further
steps were taken in this direction, although
the school of socialist professors, of whom
the most important intellects were Albert
Schaffle, Gustav Schmoller, Adolph Wag-
ner, Wilhelm Lexis, and Lujo Brentano,
advocated this particular reform before all
others. The Chancellor wished at one time
that the manufacturer should be master
in his own house, and be able to conduct
the business entirely at his own discretion.
But then Bismarck did not abandon the
view that the factory law as to the maxi-
mum working day, Sunday rest, &c,,
lowered the profits of the owner too greatly,
and also diminished the wage-earning of
the workman, even if it did not altogether
Th St t • ^^^*-^^'" ^^s employment pre-
_ carious. Besides this, he
tk w 1 believed that there were only
the Worker , , , . , , . ■^
local complamts of excessive
duration of labour, so that any interfer-
ence was the less imperative. Bismarck
considered uncertainty of existence to be the
real misfortune of the modern proletariat.
His programme, therefore, announced that
the worker, when sick, ill, or disabled,
should be cared for, and that work should
be found him when out of place.
He imagined that the first require-
ment could be realised by the plan
that millions of workers should be in-
sured in state-organised offices against the
economic results of sickness, accidents,
infirmity, and old age ; the necessary costs
were to be paid partly by the workmen
themselves, partly by the owners of the
business, partly by the empire, which was
to be enabled to make ampler advances
by the introduction of the tobacco mono-
poly and profitable taxes on spirits. The
second requirement he wished to fulfil by
recognition of the " right of labour," which
could be put into practice by the carrying
out of appropriate works, such as construc-
tion of canals and roads at the public cost
in times of great scarcity of employment.
With these views of the necessity of
State solicitude for working men, Bismarck
combined the conviction, which had been
strengthened in him by the development
of the Social Democracy, that this party
was in the highest degree dangerous to
the State, and that, in the event of further
unchecked development, it would cer-
tainly produce, sooner or later, a bloody
social catastrophe. The result
of this view was his campaign
Fears of a
Social
Catastrophe
of extermination against the
Social Democracy, which, how-
ever, as has been described above, com-
pletely miscarried. His constructive social
policy has, however, been unusually success-
ful. The German working-men's insurance,
which was announced in an imperial
message in 1881, and was completed by
i88g, must be termed " a magnificent
organising structure, unique of its kind
5273
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
in the history of the world." We see from
the numbers of the working men affected
how immense a seiv'ice was rendered.
In the year 1900 nine mihions of workers
were insured against sickness, thirteen
milHons against old age and infirmity,
seventeen millions against accidents. The
sums which on the basis of the legal claim
_, _, , ^ thus established are paid to
The Unsolved ^^^ workers merely out of
Problem of the ,, r . 1 i
,, , . the means of the employers
Unemployed , ,, 1 .
and the empire amount at
the present day to more than £10,000,000
sterling annually, and are certain soon to
be increased. The only point of that
programme which Bismarck did not
assist in carrying out is the solution of
the problem of " unemployment." But,
notwithstanding this deficiency, the
achievements of the first Chancellor in
the field of social policy stand as a "monu-
ment more lasting than brass."
The new regime which commenced with
the retirement of Bismarck started very
favourably with the working men. The
socialist laws were not renewed ; and
William II. unfolded his programme of
social policy in two public statements.
According to them, " the time, duration,
and nature of labour were to be so regu-
lated by the authority of the State that the
preservation of health, the laws of decency,
the economic requirements of the workers,
and their claim to legal privileges should be
permanently upheld." Legal enactments
for the adequate representation of workers
were to be passed in order to preserve peace
between employers and employed.
The protection of workmen was soon
considerably extended, since, by the law of
the year 1891, Sunday labour, as well as the
labour of children under thirteen 3'ears,
was prohibited, and a maximum working
day of eleven hours for adult female workers
in factories was introduced. In other
respects also, in spite of a strong current
of opposition which set in among the
wealthy citizen class, social
Grow h of j.^^^^^ has been distinctly
Soci&l - - - - •'
Democracy
advanced by the introduction
of a maximum working day of
twelve houis for all journeymen bakers, the
closing of shops at nine o'clock in the even-
ing, commercial courts for labour disputes
between masters and employees, and,
finally, continual improvements to the
system of statutory insurance of workmen.
During these years the Social Democracy
has slowly but surely increased in extent ;
5274
at the same time, however, a distinct
disintegration is perceptible in the party.
The congress at Erfurt in i8gi, which drew
up a programme, showed the party still
united round the banner of Marx ; but since
then the main principles of Marx have been
the centre of a heated controversy.
The leader of the opposition against
Marxism, which is temporarily still found
in the minority, is Eduard Bernstein,
born January 6th, 1850, who, on account
of earlier offences under the Press laws, is
forced to live out of Germany ; a writer
equally remarkable for his wide learning,
his grasp of facts, and his graceful style.
Bernstein first opposed the party view that
the disruption of the bourgeois society was
soon to be anticipated, and that the
tactics of the party must be determined
by this prospect. Social conditions, he
thought, had not come to a crisis in the
way assumed by Marx. " The number of
property owners has not become less, but
greater. The enormous increase of social
wealth is not accompanied by a dwindling
number of capitalistic magnates, but by a
growing number of capitalists of all grades.
The middle classes change
^* 'f . , their character, but do not dis-
Tendencies of x j.l • 1 i >i
^ . . appear from the social scale.
***' ^ Even in the industrial world
the concentration of production, according
to Bernstein, confirms in some branches
only the prophecies of socialistic criticism ;
in others it falls far short of them ; and in
agriculture concentration proceeds still
more slowly. Politically the privilege of
the capitalistic class gives way to demo-
cratic institutions, and the purely selfish
tendencies of capital are more and more
limited by society itself.
And in this way there will be less neces-
sity and opportunity for the great political
crashes, which the working class moreover
would not be able, at present or for a long
time, to surmount. The Social Democracy,
therefore, may not reckon any more on the
great catastrophe, but it ought politically
to organise the working class, develop it
into democracy, and fight for all reforms
in the State which are calculated to elevate
the working class and develop the constitu-
tion in the spirit of democracy.
The most important question of tactics
in this sense is, which is the best way'
to extend the political and industrial
rights of the German working men ?
The fact that Bernstein, in spite of the
intense hostility which he encountered,
'Social DEMOCRACY in Germany
remained in the ranks of the party,
and the further fact that many " men
of intellect " in it had already made
themselves more or less known to him,
opened a reassuring prospect for the future
of the German working men's movement.
If, in the course of time, the great mass of
the social democracy should really abandon
the sterile doctrines of Marx, and aim
at an honourable social reform on national
soil, nothing would remain of the old
Social Democracy beyond the name, and
the cult of the " constitution of the future "
would sink into a harmless amusement.
It had been the custom for many years
in Germany to regard the economic
needs and requirements of the working
class simply as the " social question,"
which was the outcome of the develop-
ment of the capitalistic conditions relating
to production, exchange, and competition.
When this development had brought to
light unfavourable results and new needs in
other professional classes also, there could
no longer be any doubt that the social
question covered a much wider field. The
most distinct expression of this is the fact
». that these professional classes
t ^L r- begin to organise themselves
of the German • ■•? ^ j-i
T, . ma similar way to the
tradesmen , . , -'j • -i
working class, and noisily
demand — as little disinterestedly as the
proletariat — that the State should inter-
vene with its authority on their behalf in
the existing economic conditions. The
master tradesmen did this first , and recently
the small dealers. These two classes are
generally kept in view when mention is
made of the movement of the middle class
in Germany; a movement which, more-
over, has been of incalculably less import-
ance than that of the working men.
The movement of the tradesmen is
mainly represented by two associations :
the United Trading Associations and the
Universal German " Handwerkerbund."
The political representation of their de-
mands is effected by the Conservative
and the Clerical party, and in an especially
partial way by the " German Social
Reformers," the section of the regular
anti-Semites. There are two prominent
postulates, from which, if granted, the
tradesmen class, oppressed by the modern
development of factories, trade, and de-
mand, hope to gain renewed power ;
first, that a proof of qualification be de-
manded from every man who in the future
intends to s6t tip as a master, and, secondly,
that it be obligatory on every master to
join the guild of his calling. The proof
of qualification is intended primarily
to guarantee the quality of the work done
by the tradesman ; secondarily, to limit
the competition in favour of those who
are already in the business. The obliga-
tion to join a guild is intended to combine
jj , . all masters in the common
^ .... , defence of their interests,
Combination of ■, , , . ^ . . , '
^^ j^ ^ and to make every individual
master share the burden of
the suggested methods of promoting trade,
credit departments, courses of lectures,
etc., since experience has shown that when
entrance is voluntary only a minority
are enrolled in the guilds. At the same
time the following measures are proposed :
the institution of chambers of tradesmen,
in order to serve as a special board of
control over the guilds and to represent
duly the interests of the trade in all
legislative matters ; also, restriction of
military workshops, prison labour, and
hawking ; further, prohibition of co-
operative stores, travelling booths, public
auction of tradesmen's goods, and of branch
establishments ; finally, regulation of the
system of tender in the interest of the trades-
man class, and preferential rights for the
claims of tradesmen in cases of bankruptcy.
The proposal as to the proof of qualifica-
tion has already found a majority in the
German Reichstag. On January 20th, 1890,
a motion in its favour was passed by 130
votes against 92. But the Government em-
phatically declined to accede to this wish.
The Prussian Government showed itself
far more friendly to the second chief
demand of the tradesmen, that of com-
pulsory membership of a guild, since it
proposed in the Bundesrat the introduc-
tion of this regulation for most smaller
industries within a legally determined
limit in 1896. The Bundesrat altered the
proposal in a liberal sense. The principle
of universal compulsory membership was
allowed to drop; on the contrary.
Aims of ^i^g formation of a compulsory
SuUds ""g^^^^ was made dependent
on the resolution formed by
the majority of the tradesmen concerned.
In this form the proposal has been law
since July, 1897. Stress must be laid on
the point that the compulsory guilds
may not establish common branches of
business in order to promote the industrial
undertakings of the members of the guild,
and are therefore restricted in their field
52Z5
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
of activity ; also that the law realises
another demand of the tradesman party,
since it institutes chambers of trades-
men with a number of legal privileges.
Besides this, the German Governments
have endeavoured, by the enactment of a
special law, to protect those engaged in the
building trade more efficiently than before.
The Government for the pre-
sent is very cool towards the
Government
Protection for
the Workers
increasing demands of the
tradesmen, who aim at a sort
of guild privilege. They had the following
propositions announced as their own pro-
gramme by representatives of the Prussian
Board of Trade. First, the assistants who
wish to become masters are to have an
opportunity of educating themselves both
in the technicalities of their business and
also in arithmetic and bookkeeping ; next
tjiere are to be permanent exhibitions of
all the power machines, apparatus, and
tools employed in the smaller industries ;
finally, the formation of societies of the
masters for common economic objects,
societies for raw materials, for shops, etc.,
was to be supported when possible. How
much of this will be passed depends to a
considerable extent on the good will of
the tradesmen themselves, whose corporate
action is far from becoming as prominent
as the political middle-class movement,
which demands State coercion for the
exclusion of harassing competition.
After the trades agitation came the
movement of the middle-class shopkeepers,
which has hitherto been less important.
The agitation started here with the
" Zentralverband deutscher Kaufleute,"
in addition to which, in the year i8g8, a
" Bund der Handel- und Gewerbetreiben-
den " was formed. So far as this movement
is directed against sordid competition,
it has chosen a thoroughly justifiable
object, which the German Governments
have supported by providing special
legislation to check this evil, which mani-
. tested itself under the most
Progressive ^^j-ious forms. On the other
hand, their agitation against the
large warehouses has overshot
the mark, and their intemperate opposition
to such useful institutions as co-operative
stores is emphatically to be condemned.
Since 1899 a regular campaign has been
organised against the warehouses, which
met with considerable success. In Saxony,
a number of towns has introduced a
progressive tax on the profits of the large
5276
Taxes
in Saxony
business houses. In Bavaria, the tax on
trades has been modified in the same sense,
and in Prussia, since igoo, a Bill with a
similar object has been introduced by the
Government and accepted by the Landtag.
In Austria, the prospects of the Social
Democracy were more favourable than in
Germany, since the heated struggle among
the nationalities for years repressed any in-
terest in other questions, and the Govern-
ment, by unscrupulous exercise of their
powers against the Press and the rights of
association and assembly took away all air
and light from the budding plant of Social
Democracy. The agitation of Lassalle had
found but faint echo in Austria.
On the other hand, after the con-
cession of the right of assembly in 1867,
the new Social Democratic Labour party
received for the moment a great stimulus ;
this, however, soon died away when, after
its assent to the German " Eisenach
programme," that privilege was again
withdrawn from it by the Minister Giskra.
A revival of the party was the consequence
of the milder interpretation of the laws as
to associations under the Hohenwart
. .. Ministry in 1871. The stricter
Anarchism ^^^^^^ ^^ ^^^^ Mmistry of
"^ , Adolf Auersperg, 1871-1879,
produced, however, a second
decline. Under the succeeding Ministry
of Taaffe, which introduced milder
measures, the Social Democracy was
once more in the ascendant, and for
the first time gathered followers from
among the Czechist workmen.
At this epoch Anarchism found its way
into Austria through the " Freiheit " of
Most, and in a few years the whole working-
men contingent of the Social Democracy
had wheeled into the Anarchist camp.
When, however, the Anarchist party had
dug their own grave in 1885, by plots of
assassination which led to a stupendous
reaction, the Social Democracy slowly
revived. Since then, being led by Victor
Adler in a strict Marxist spirit, it was able
to gain an increasing body of followers,
and, under the Ministry of Badeni, it won
the reform of the franchise, by which a
fifth group, composed of electors qualified
on the basis of universal and uniform suf-
frage, and electing seventy-two members,
was added to the existing four electoral
groups in 1895. Out of these the Social
Democrats, in the election of the Reichs-
rat of 1897, secured fourteen members.
The trades movement has also received
SOCIAL DEMOCRACY IN GERMANY
a stimulus since 1893, although up to the
present little more than 100,000 workmen
share in it. Much progress was made in
legislation as to the protection of workmen,
especially under Taaffe, when trenchant
factory laws, among them the maximum
twelve hours' working day for men as
well as compulsory insurance against sick-
ness and accidents were introduced.
In Austria especially the movement of
the middle class has attained great
importance, which — under the protection
of clerical members of the high nobility
and many Catholic priests — represented
there at the same time the anti-Semite
party. But before a strong party showed
itself, as early as 1883, the two chief
demands of the tradesmen class, the
enforcement of which is their foremost
object, namely, the proof of qualification
and compulsory association, were realised
in Austria. The proof of qualification was,
in the words of Count Richard Belcredi,
who helped this agitation to a successful
issue, designed to be "a most necessary
protection of honest work and of existing
industries against competition and pro-
, duction at ruinous under-
ungary s pj.j(,gg . g^ protection against
Backward r ' . ^ . rr ■ . P
_ ..^. mexpenence, msurhcient know-
ledge and means, as well as
indiscretion on entering into business ;
a protection of consumers and purchasers
against inferior commodities."
The compulsory association was to
organise trade, and to promote " esprit
de corps," thoroughness, and honesty in
all its branches. The result of these
experiments in Austria, however, has
shown that the proof of qualification has
nowhere helped the tradesman, but in
places has rather hindered him by the
separation of trades ; and the com-
pulsory associations have certainly not
become practically efficient on any con-
siderable scale. The direction of the
middle class movement towards political
goals has not only failed in attaining the
expected result, but has momentarily
hindered the co-operative self-aid move-
ment which was benefiting the more
efficient among the small shopkeepers.
In Hungary the backward condition of
industrial development, and the strength
of the purely national movements, have for
many years presented insuperable obstacles
to an extension of the Social Democratic
party. In 1868 a Labour party was founded
there with'- the programme of Lassalle.
After the beginning of the "seventies," this
party also adopted a more Marxist creed,
but did not long strictly maintain it.
At the beginning of the " eighties,"
anarchism brought confusion into the
smah group, and, on the other hand, sub-
sequently a part of the Social Democrats
often made extensive compromises with
_ ;, the middle-class parties. On
Q . . the whole, the party remamed
, . limited to the few industrial
districts, especially the capi-
tal Buda-Pesth, until, at the beginning
of the " nineties," the agitation was
suddenly carried with great success into
the ranks of the labourers on the estates
of the Magyar nobility. Since then the
authorities, who had already been obliged
to crush some risings with armed force,
have prosecuted it with the utmost
severity of the law. This party can
hardly take part in the parliamentary
elections, since the franchise is dependent
on a payment of sixteen shillings in taxes.
The organisation of trades unions is
still in an early stage, and has to contend
with the authorities. Altogether there are
some fifty thousand working men united
in the trade associations. The legislation
as to the protection of workmen is still
quite undeveloped. The only real pro-
gress which can be recorded in recent
times is the introduction of compulsory
insurance against sickness.
In Switzerland the Social Democracy,
notwithstanding the most complete liberty
of movement at all times, and notwith-
standing the shelter afforded to so many
persecuted foreign* socialists, has never
been able to attain real importance. The
reasons for this are to be found in the
difficulties of agitation, owing to the
defective concentration of industry, in
the steady political and social development
of the country, and, finally, in the sober,
practical character of the people. The Social
Democracy, founded in 1865 by partisans
of the International Labour
Democratic Association, has very slowly
increased, so that its party
organisation now numbers
only 6,000 members. The " Griitliverein,"
which is composed exclusively of Swiss
citizens, and goes hand in hand with the
Social Democracy, is more important ; it
has at the present day 15,000 members.
The Social Democracy carried four candi-
dates in the election to the Federal National
Council in 1S99. Its representation in
5277
Movements in
Switzerland
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
the cantonal Parliaments and in the town
councils is equally weak. The trade-
association movement is, apart from call-
ings such as those of printers and railway
employees, not very strongl}^ develo])ed ;
but locally, for example, in Basle, co-
operative stores have become important.
In Denmark the social movement stood
from the first in close sym-
J^ ..J. . pathv with the German Social
Conditions in t>. -^ i . i r ; i
jj . Democracy, and therefore the
Social Democratic party there
adopted a programme which in its main
features corresponded to the German.
The trade union organisation of the
Danish workmen is of still greater signifi-
cance ; up to the present some 80,000
industrial workers have joined it, and
have greatly improved the conditions of
their labour by energetic combination.
The statutor}' protection of workmen
has not been much developed in Denmark ;
it is mainly restricted to the ten hours'
working day for young persons.
In Holland the large industries have
been little developed ; the economic con-
ditions of the country are determined by
the flourishing agriculture and extensive
wholesale trade.
The trades union movement is of greater
importance, and some 30,000 organised
workmen now take part in it. The
legislation on social politics has culminated
in the institution of an eleven hours'
maximum working day for 3'oung persons
and female workers.
In Belgium, where the already existing
germs of large industries had attained
an enormous development in the second
half of the nineteenth century, a Social
Democratic Labour party of some im-
portance was eventually founded, after
various useless attempts, towards the
middle of the " seventies." Its pro-
, gramme was modelled in all
e gium s essential points on the German
L&rge
Industries
one. After the second half
of the " eighties " the party
received considerable additions of strength,
since it used its utmost endeavours at
the same time to form and to promote
trades unions and industrial associations.
Several of these Belgian industrial societies
are well known for their excellent manage-
ment and their wide sphere of influence,
as, for example, the "Vooruit" at Ghent
and the " Volkshaus " at Brussels. In
the year 1893 the workmen, in com-
bination with the Radicals, extorted, by
monster demonstrations and a general
strike, universal suffrage, which was
not indeed granted in a direct form, but
under that of the so-called franchise by
" majority of votes." At the first elections
which took place on that system in 1894,
350,000 votes were polled for socialist
candidates, of whom 32 were able to enter
the Belgian Chamber. Since that date
Socialism has continually won new ad-
herents, so that it was in a position at the
later elections to unite 530,000 votes in
support of its candidates, and to effect
the election of 41 deputies.
Legislation for the protection of work-
men is restricted in Belgium chiefly to the
twelve hours' maximum working day for
young persons.
In Italy, where until recently there have
not yet been any noteworthy industries,
the relations of the employers to their
workmen in town and country were by no
means patriarchal ; on the con-
.'^'"^*,.° trary, the workmen, since they
Anarchism
in Italy
rary,
were not sufficiently organised,
were " sweated " to the greatest
extent. It was only since the beginning
of the "eighties" of the nineteenth cen-
tury, when the Anarchists, after various
riots, had finally been defeated by the
stringent measures of the Government,
that the Social Democracy began to come
into prominence.
The trades unions have become com-
prehensive organisations, and the Social
Democracy has also numerous followers,
especially in North Italy, the real centre
of industry, although associations of
country workers have declared their
adhesion to the party. Spain, in her
industrial development, stands appreciably
behind Italy. In other respects the
politico-social life of Spain presents in
important points practically the same
peculiarities as that of Italy — ■namely,
distress among the lower orders, a lament-
able want of education among the people,
and the intrusion into politics of numerous
disreputable scions of the " higher "
classes. Anarchism has, therefore, rapidly
spread here since the end of the "eighties,"
while the Social Democrats could not
make any way. Georg Abler
527.8
GREAT DATES FROM THE FRENCH REVOLU-
TION TO OUR OWN TIME
A.D.
1789
1790
1791
1793
1793
1794
1795
1796
1797
1798
1799
1800
1801
1802
May : Meeting of Statps-fieneral. June : Tennis
Court Oath. The States-CJeneral becomes the
National or Constituent Assembly. July 14th :
Fall of Bastille. Aug. : Abolition of Feudal
privileges. Oct. : Insurrection of Women.
Feb. : Leopold II. Emperor. July : Treaty of
Reichenbach. August : Mutinies, and massacre
of Nanci.
March : Death of Mirabeau. May : Canada Act.
June : Flight of Louis to Varennes. Aug. :
Conference of Pilnitz. Sept. : Louis accepts
the Constitution. Oct. : " Legislative " As-
sembly meets.
Jan. : Treaty of Jassy. Feb. : Treaty between
Austria and Prussia. March : 1st, Francis II.
Emperor ; 29th, Gustavus III. of Sweden
assassinated. April: France declares war on
Austria. June : Mob breaks into Tuileries.
Juiy: 24th, Prussia declares war; 27th,
Brunswick's proclamation. Aug. : Mob attack
on Tuileries ; Louis a prisoner. Supremacy of
Paris Commune. Fall of Longwy. Sept. :
September massacres. Cannonade of Valmy.
" National Convention " meets ; Republic pro-
claimed. Oct. and Nov. : Success of Repub-
lican armies. Dec. : Trial of Louis XVI. opens.
Jan. : Second partition of Poland. Louis be-
headed. Feb. : Declaration of war with Eng-
land and Holland. Revolt of La Vendee.
Mar. : Revolutionary Tribunal. April : Flight
of Dumouriez. June : Fall of Gironde. July :
Revolt of Girondist departments. Death of
Marat. Sept : Law of the Suspect. Carnot.
Oct. : Republican Calendar. Marie Antoinette
and Girondins guillotined. Nov. : Reign of
Terror. Dec. : Toulon captured.
March : Fall of Hebertists. April : Fall of
Danton : Robespierre supreme. Pichegru in
Netherlands. June : 1st, Howe's victory ;
26th, Jourdan's victory at Fleurus ; 28th,
Thermidorian reaction. Fall of Robespierre ;
end of Reign of Terror. Oct.: Pichegru over-
runs Holland.
Jan. : Third partition of Poland. April : Peace
of Basle with Prussia. July: Peace of Basle
with Spain. Emigres crushed at Quiberon.
Oct. : Insurrection of Vend6miaire suppressed.
Directory established.
May : Bonaparte in Italy. Lodi. Sept. : Archduke
Charles repulses invasion of Jourdan and Moreau.
Oct.: Spain allies with France. Nov.: Areola;
Paul I. Tsar of Russia. Gustavus IV. assumes
government of Sweden.
Jan. : Rivoli. Feb. : Cape St. Vincent. April-
June : Mutinies in British Fleet. Treaty of
Leoben. Repression of Venice. Cisalpine and
Ligurian Republics constituted. Sept. : Coup
d'etat of Fructidor. Death of Hoche. October :
Camperdown. Treaty of Campo Formic. Nov. :
Frederic William III. King of Prussia.
April : Helvetic Republic constituted. May :
Egyptian expedition sails from Toulon. Rebel-
lion in Ireland. June : Vinegar Hill. July :
Battle of the Pyramids. Aug. : Battle of the
Nile. Second coalition formed.
Jan. : Parthenopean Republic of Naples. March ;
Stockach. April : Magnano. May : Bona-
parte repulsed at Acre. June : Trebbia. Aug.
Novi. Capture of Dutch Fleet in the Texel.
Sept. : Restoration of Naples monarchy.
Withdrawal of Suwarrow. Oct. : Return of
Bonaparte. Nov. : Coup d'6tat of Brumaire.
Bonaparte First Consul.
June : Marengo. Aug. : Union between Great
Britain and Ireland. Dec. : Hohenlinden.
February : Resignation of Pitt. Treaty of Lune-
ville. March : Abercrombie at Aboukir.
April : Nelson at Copenhagen. Alexander I.
Tsar. October : Peace preliminaries. The
Batavian Republic organised.
March : Peace of Amiens. April : French
Concordat with Papacy. Aug. : Bonaparte
First Consul for life. Sept. : Piedmont annexed
to France.
A.D.
1803
1804
1805
1806
1807
1808
1809
1810
1811
1812
1813
181-1
1815
1818
1819
1820
March : Secularisation of ecclesiastical states in
Germany. May : War declared between France
and Great Britain ; French occupy Hanover.
Feb. : Royalist Plot of Pichegru and Cadoudal ;
Moreau exiled. March : Murder of Due
d'Enghien. Issue of the Code Napoleon. May :
Napoleon I. Emperor of the French. Pitt re-
turns to office. Russia forms alliance with
Prussia. Nov. : Alliance joined by Austria.
March : Villeneuve sails from Toulon. May :
Italian Republic becomes a monarchy, with
Napoleon king. Eugene Beauharnais viceroy.
July : Calder defeats Villeneuve. Sept :
Third Coalition formed. Oct. : Capitulation of
Ulm. Trafalgar. Dec. : Austerlltz. Treaties
of Schonbrunn and Presburg. Bourbon Dynasty
of Naples deposed.
Jan. : Death of Pitt. End of Holy Roman Em-
pire. April : Joseph Bonaparte King of Naples.
June: Louis Bonaparte King of Holland. July:
Confederation of the Rhine. Oct. : Prussia
crushed at Jena and Auerstadt. Nov. : The
Berlin Decree.
Jan. : The Orders in Council. Act abolishing
Slave Trade. Feb. : Eylau. March : Port-
land Ministry. Canning Foreign Secretary.
April : Treaty of Bartenstein. June : Fried-
land. July : Treaty of Tilsit. Jerome Bona-
parte King of Westphalia. Sept. : Copenhagen
bombarded. Oct. : Treaty of Fontainebleau.
French troops enter Spain. Stein begins his
reforms in Prussia. Dec. : Junot at Lisbon.
March: Abdicationof Charles IV. of Spain. May:
Meeting at Bayonne. Rising of Spain. June :
Joseph Bonaparte King of Spain. Murat King
of Naples. July : Capitulation of Baylen.
Aug. : Vimeiro. Convention of Cintra. Oct. :
Meeting of Erfurt. Nov. : Fall of Stein.
Napoleon goes to Spain. DEO. : Advance and
retreat of Sir John Moore. Napoleon leaves
Spain.
Jan. : Moore at Corunna. Feb. : Fall of Sara-
gossa. April : WeUesley at Lisbon. Austria
declares war. May : Tyrolese revolt. Aspern.
Annexation of Papal States. June : Soult
forced to evacuate Portugal. JULY : Wagram ;
Talavera. Walcheren Expedition. OCT. : Peace
of Vienna. Bernadotte becomes Crown Prince
of Sweden.
March : Napoleon marries Marie Louise. July :
Annexation of North Sea Coast Districts.
Sept. : Busaco ; Cortes meets at Cadiz. Nov. :
Torres Vedras. Dec. : Tsar withdraws from
Continental System.
May : Fuentes d'Oiioro and Albuera.
Jan. : Ciudad Rodrigo. April : Badajoz. June :
Moscow Expedition starts. Liverpool Ministry.
July : Salamanca. Sept. : Borodino. Burning
of Moscow. OCT. : Retreat from Moscow.
Nov. : Bridge of Beresina. Dec. : Agreement
of Tauroggen.
Feb. : Treaty of Kalisch. May : Liitzen and
Bautzen. June : Vittoria. Treaty of Reichen-
bach. Aug. : Katzbach and Dresden. Sept. :
Treaty of Toplitz. Oct. : Leipzig.
Jan. : Treaty of Kiel. Norway joined to Sweden.
Feb. : La Rothifere. March : Capitulation of
Paris. April : Battle of Toulouse. Napoleon
goes to Elba ; Bourbon restoration. May :
Treaty of Paris. Nov. . Congress of Vienna
meets.
March : Napoleon lands and returns to Paris.
May : Murat overthrown at Tolentino. June :
Ligny, Quatre-Bras, and Waterloo. July :
Second Bourbon restoration. Napoleon sent to
St. Helena. Holy Alliance. Nov. : Peace of
Paris.
Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle. Evacuation of France
by forces of the Allies. Pindari war in India.
The Six Acts.
Accession of George IV. Queen Caroline scandals.
Royalist reaction in France. Revolution of
Riego in Spain. Revolution in Portugal and
separation from Brazil. Insurrections in the
two Sicilies. Congress of Troppau, afterwards
Laibach.
5279
GREAT DATES FROM THE FRENCH REVOLU-
TION TO OUR OWN TIME
A.D.
1821
1822
1823
1824
1825
1826
1827
1828
1829
1830
1831
1832
1833
1834
1835
1837
1838
1839
1840
1841
1842
1843
1845
1846
1847
1848
1849
1850
1852
Death of Napoleon. Suppression of Italian revolts.
Greek ins\irrection against Turkey.
Canning, Foreign Secretary. Independence of
South American colonies recognised. Congress
of Vienna, (ireek successes.
Ferdinand VII. of Spain re-csta'olishes absolutism
by French lielp. Eeaction in Portugal. Huskis
son's commercial policy in England.
Accession of Charles X. in France.
Ibrahim Pasha in Greece. Nicholas I. Tsar of
Russia.
Cannina: prevents Spanish intervention in Portugal.
Fall of Missolonghi.
Canning, Prime Minister. Anglo-Itussian Treaty of
• London. Death of Canning. Battle of Navarino.
Wellington, Prime .Minister. Test and Corporation
Acts repealed. Clare election. Usurpation of
Dom Miguel in Portugal. War between llussia
and Turkey.
Catholic emancipation. Treaty of Adrianople.
Greek independence recognised.
Accession of William IV. in Eiialand. Grey Prime
Minister. The July Revolution. Louis Philippe
King of the French. Risings in Belgium, Polind,
and Sicily. Accession of Ferdinand II. in Naples.
Belgium recognised as an independent kingdom.
Polish revolt suppressed. English Reform Bill
rejected.
Reform Act passed.
Otto of Bavaria King of the Hellenes. Isabella
succeeds in Spain. Miguel expelled from
Portugal. Slavery abolished in the British
Empire.
Melbourne Ministry. Poor Law Reform. On
Melbourne's dismissal by the king, Peel attempts
to form Ministry.
Melbourne Ministry retutns. Palmerston in control
of Foreign Affairs. Ferdinand I. Austrian
Emperor.
Accession of Victoria. Hanover separated from
Great Britain. Papineau's revolt in Canada.
Lord Durham in Canada. Development of
Chartism.
Mehemet Ali in Syria. Abd ul-Mejid siilt,an.
Peel and the Bedchamber ciuestion. Anti-Corn.
Law League.
Mehemet Ali checked. Marriage of Queen
Victoria. Canadian Act of Reunion. Chinese
" Opium " War.
Kabul disaster. Peel, Prime Minister.
Dost Mohammed restored. Peel's sliding scale.
The Disruption in Scotland.
Annexation of Sindh. Gwalior Campaign.
First Sikh War ; ended next year.
Repeal of the Corn Laws. Pius IX. Pope. Russell
administration.
Fielden's Factory Act.
February Revolution ; Second French Republic.
Risings in Sicily and Naples. March Revolu-
tion in Germany. Revolt of Schleswig-Holstcin
from Denmark. Revolts of Lombardy and
Venice against Austria. Frankfort Parliament.
Radetzky defeats Charles Albert of Sardinia
at Custozza. Accession of Frederic VII. in
Denmark, Francis Joseph in Austria; Louis
Napoleon President of French Republic. Dal-
housie in India. Collapse of Chartist move-
ment in England. Reaction victorious in
Germany and Austria. Second Sikh War.
Hungarian revolt suppressed. Victor Em-
manuel King of Sardinia. Dissolution of
F'rankfort Parliament. Reaction in Central
Italy. Annexation ol Punjab.
North Gcnnan Confederation. Convention of
Olmiitz. Australian Constitution Bill. The
Queen's memorandum to Palmerston.
Coup d'etat in France. Palmerston dismissed.
Great Exhibition.
Schle.swig-Holstein question. Cavo\ir Minister.
Deith of Duke of Wellington. Napoleon III.
Emperor.
A.I).
1853 Turkey declares war against Russia.
1854 Crimean war. Battles of Alma, Balaclava, and
Inkennan.
1855 Palmerston Ministry. Fall of Sebastopol. Alex-
ander II. Tsar.
1856 End of War. Persian and Chinese wars. Lord
Canning in India.
1857 Indian Mutiny ; revolt broken.
1858 Orsini's bomb. Derby Administration. Mutiny
suppressed ; India transferred to the Crown.
1859 Napoleon supports Sardinia against Austria;
Magenta and Solferino. Peace of Villafranca.
Palmerston's return.
1860 Union of Savoy and Nice to France. Garibaldi in
Sicily. The Commons, the Peers, and the
Paper Duty.
1861 Victor Emmaimel King of Italy. Death of Cavour.
Abd ul-Aziz Sultan. William I. in Prussia.
Emancipation of Russian serfs. North American
Civil War.
1862 Battle of Aspromonte. King Otto expelled from
(ireece. IJisniarck Prussian Minister. Cotton
famine.
1863 Schleswig-Holstein war. Suppression of Poland.
The Alabama.
1864 Death of Palmerston.
1865 1 Russell Ministry. Gastein Convention.
1866 ' Seven Weeks' War of Prussia and Au.stria.
' Sadowa. Venetia ceded to Victor Emmanuel.
French in Rome. Dual Government of Austria-
Hungary.
1867 Disraeli's Reform Bill. B.N. A. Consolidation Act.
Abyssinian \Var.
1863 Isabella expelled from Spain. Fenian outrages.
Abolition of Church rates.
1869 Gladstone Administration. Irish Land Bill and
Disestablishment.
1870 Franco-German War; Sedan; Third Republic.
Italy unified. English Education Act.
1871 Surrender of Paris. German Empire proclaimed.
Black Sea Conference.
1872 Alabama award.
1873 MacMahon President in France.
1874 Alfonso XII. in Spain. Disraeli Administration.
1875 Purchase of Suez Canal shares.
1876 Bulgarian atrocities. Abd ul-Hamid. Sultan,
-1877 Russo-Turkish War. Annexation of Transvaal.
1878 Treaty of San Stefano. Berlin Congress. Afghan
wars ; ended in 1880.
1879 Zulu War : Isandlhwana.
1880 Gladstone Administration.
1881 Majuba. Retroces.'ion of Transvaal.
1882 Bombardment of Alexandria. Tel-el-Kebir.
1884 Franchise and Redistribution Acts.
1885 j Death of C. G. Gordon. Penjdeh incident.
1886 First Home Rule Bill. Salisbury Ministry.
1888 Parnell Commission.
1889 ' Annexation of Burmah.
1893 i Second Home Rule Bill.
1894 ; Death Duties. Armenian atrocities.
1895 } Salisbury's Unionist Administration. Jameson
raid.
1896 Venezuela boundary dispute. Cretan rising.
1898 Conquest of Sudan.
1899 Boxer rising in China. South African War begins.
1900 Australian Commonwealth.
1901 \ccession of Edward VII.
1902 End of Boer War.
1903 Russo-Japanese war.
1904 Separation of Norway and Sweden.
1905 Morocco and Egyptian agreements.
1906 Grant of responsible government in S. Africa.
1908 Constitutional Revolution in Turkey.
5280
GLIMPSES^EUROPES
CAPITAL CITIES
1
|fe IN THE HEART OF LONDON
^
I K
VIEW FROM THE MONUMENT, SHOWING THE RIVER THAMES, THE TOWER & TOWER BRIDGE
ANOTHER VIEW FROM THE MONUMENT, SHOWING ST. PAUL'S IN THE DISTANCE
LONDON, THE CAPITAL OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
■-,282
L'ANORAMIC VIEW, SHOWING EIGHT OF THE BRIDGES ACROSS THE RIVER SEINE
THE AVENUE DE L'OPERA, WITH THE OPERA HOUSE IN THE DISTANCE
LA VILLE LUMIERE": SCENES IN THE BEAUTIFUL CAPITAL OF FRANCE
5283
A GENERAL VIEW, SHOWING THE IMPERIAL PALACE AND THE CATHEDRAL
UNTER DEN LINDEN, ONE OF THE MOST FAMOUS STREETS IN EUROPE
IN BERLIN, THE PROSPEROUS CAPITAL OF THE GERMAN EMPIRE
5284
NEVSKII-PROSPEKT, ONE OF THE FINEST THOROUGHFARES IN THE WORLD
THE OLD ADMIRALTY BUILDING FROM ONK
BRIDGES SPANNINCt THK NEVA
ST. PETERSBURG. THE MODERN CAPITAL OF THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE
5285
I^UJIllWllWi 114*1
PART OK THE FRAN2ENSRING. THE PRINCIPAL BOULEVARD OF VIENNA
i'li.itncliroine
BUDAPEST, SHOWING THE SUSPENSION BRIDGE ACROSS THE RIVER DANUBE
THE CAPITAL CITIES OF AUSTRIA AND HUNGARY
1286
A BIRD'S-EYE VIEW, SHOWING THE PICTURESQUE MOSQUES AND MINARETS
ANOTHER VIEW OF THE CITY. INCLUDING THE GALATA BRIDGE
CONSTANTINOPLE, THE CAPITAL OF THE TURKISH EMPIRE
5287
LOOKING TOWARDS THE RUINS OF THE ACROPOLIS
Photochrome-
GENERAL VIEW OF THE MODERN TOW
ATHENS, THE CAPITAL OF ANCIENT AND MODERN GREECE
5288
if-
ROME, SEEN FROM ST. PETER'S, SHOWING THE TIBER AND THE CASTLE OF ST. ANGELO
GENERAL VIEW OF BERNE, WITH THE BERNESE OBERLAND IN THE DISTANCE
ROME AND BERNE: THE CAPITALS OF ITALY AND SWITZERLAND
I L C -, =1289
PANORAMA OF MADRID, GIVING A GLIMPSE OF THE PRADO IN THE FOREGROUND
1
^
•
^^m
jns:*W-.»«,.,_^
w^i
:^mm
^^Hpipr'}^^"^ -^
V-
^^RKf ^;>^^H^^^^H
GENERAL .'!t.V IF LISDON, LOOKING FROM ST. PEDRO DE ALCANTARA
MADRID AND LISBON; THE SPANISH AND PORTUGJESE CAPITALS
5290
THE BRUSSELS PALAIS DE JUSTICE: ONE OF THE WORLD'S LARGEST BUILDINGS
THE BRONZE STATUE OF WILLIAM II. AT THE HAGUE
SCENES IN THE CAPITAL CITIES OF BELGIUM AND HOLLAND
5291
rbntii.hrou.e
A PICTURESQUE GLIMPSE OF BUCHAREST, THE CAPITAL OF ROUMANIA
GENERAL VIEW OF SOFIA, WITH MONUMENT TO ALEXANDER II. OF RUSSIA
PANORAMIC VIEW OF BELGRADE AS SEEN FROM THE RIVER DANUBE
THE CAPITALS OF ROUMANIA, BULGARIA, AND SERVIA
5292
EUROPE: SEVENTH DIVISION
THE EUROPEAN
POWERS TO-DAY
AND A SURVEY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
As concerns our present great geographical division —
Europe — we have now reached the last liistorical phase. It
remains for us to take the states into which that division is
now split up, to give an account of tlieir present-day
characteristics, and to relate the present with the past and the
immediate future. For it is not the historian's part to
prophesy, though he has provided the data for prophetic
inductions, within very circumscribed limits.
At this stage, therefore, we give a picture of the political
and social conditions prevailing, first of all, in every Continental
state, large or small, from Russia to Andorra, dwelling on
those features which appear to be of the strongest interest in
each individual case.
Finally, we turn to our own islands, and thence digress to an
account of our world-empire, which needs to be treated as a
unity, although such treatment of it has been impossible to
fit into our continuous narrative of world-history built up on a
geographical basis. For it is the history of an expansion into
every quarter of the globe, the picture of an empire whose flag
is planted on every continent, whose dominion in every
continent but Europe itself extends from sea to sea, and claims
to include, metaphorically at least, in that dominion tlie
boundless ocean itself.
RUSSIA
By Dr. £. J. Dillon
TURKEY. GREECE AND THE BALKANS
By F. A. McKenzie
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY
By Henry W. Nevinson
GERMANY
By Charles Lowe, M.A.
BELGIUM. HOLLAND. LUXEMBURG. SWITZERLAND
By Robert Machray, B.A.
ITALY AND SAN MARINO
By William Durban, B.A., and Robert Machray, B.A.
FRANCE. MONACO. AND ANDORRA
By Richard Whiteing and Robert Machray,
SPAIN AND PORTUGAL
By Martin Hume, M.A.
SCANDINAVIA
By William Durban. B.A.
THE UNITED KINGDOM
By Arthur D. Innes, M.A.
THE BRITISH EMPIRE
By Sir Harry H. Johnston, K.C.B.
B.A.
'
529:
THE FIRST DUMA, WHICH SAT FROM MAY lOTH TILL JULY 22.\D, iyo<J
From the drminir Ijv L. Sabbatic-r
THE SECOND DUMA, WHICH LASTED FROM MARCH 5th TILL JUNE 16th, 1907
„
THE THIRD DUMA, WHICH ASSEMBLED ON NOVEMBER Isr, I'jii:
RUSSIA'S PARLIAMENT : PICTURES OF THE THREE DUMAS
5294
EUROPMN POWERS TODAY
RUSSIA IN OUR OWN TIME
ITS POVERTY, CORRUPTION, AND OPPRESSION
WITH A GLOOMY AND UNCERTAIN OUTLOOK
By Dr. E. J. Dillon
npHE Russia of the twentieth century is
•*■ the product of manifold social forces,
religious influences, and political currents,
of which the most salient and obvious
began to be keenly felt and generally
noticed in the reign of Peter the Great.
Down to that historic epoch the nation had
kept studiously aloof from the progressive
peoples of Europe, leading a life apart.
Unlike the Poles and Czechs, whom
communion with papal Rome had brought
into continuous contact with all that was
stimulating in Western civilisation, Russia
isolated herself by embracing Byzantine
Christianity and accepting Byzantine cul-
ture. Peter the Great was the first ruler
to break with this paralysing
„ '"."^f past and to endeavour to
_, ^ brmg his people mto Ime with
their European neighbours.
The task was superlatively arduous, and
the efforts constantly made since then to
accomplish it divided thinking Russia into
two camps, which towards the middle of
the nineteenth century received the names
of the Slavophile and the Western.
The men of the latter party yearned for
the regime of France or England. Those of
the former thanked God for having vouch-
safed to His chosen people the best of all
possible institutions : Greek orthodoxy as
the most perfect Christian creed ; Russian
autocracy, conceived as a paternal relation
between tsar and people, and therefore the
most satisfactory of all forms of govern-
ment ; and the village commune as the
highest type of social organism. Perfect in
idea, those institutions had been abused by
men, and were consequently now capable
of great improvement. But to put them
wholly away for Western innovations
would be suicidal. Indeed, the circum-
stance that they constituted the exclusive
heritage of the Russian race might, it was
argued, be taken as a proof that Provi-
dence has destined the Slav Messiah of the
nations to take the place of effete Europe
in the vanguard of the cultured world.
The note of Slav thought being the uni-
versal and the absolute, it too often
happens that inadequate attention is paid
by Russian reformers to the concrete, the
real, the relative. In this way
it came to pass that the friends
of Western culture in the tsar-
dom longed not so much for the
grafting of European ideas on the Russian
stock as for a quick and complete break
with the past and the complete regeneration
of the nation onthe lines of extreme Social-
ist theories. Orthodoxy, autocracy, and
the village commune, everything Russian,
was to be thrown into the melting-pot,
whence a rejuvenated nation was to emerge.
When far-resonant events like the
Crimean War allied themselves with these
nihilistic notions, from the union of the two
sprang that powerful current of anarchistic
thought and feeling which openly and
secretly has been undermining the bases
of the Russian Empire ever since. With
this tendency, which has made itself felt
. 5295
The Dream
of the
Idealists
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
Russia's
War with
Japan
in all classes of society — being indus-
triously spread by village schools and
popular literature, as well as by the
teachings of professional revolutionists —
the names of Alexander Herzen, Nicholas
Dobroliuboff, and Leo Tolstoy have been
closely associated. Most of the active
leaders of the reform movement, saturated
to the heart's core with those
subversive ideas, were unwill-
ing to make allowances for
Russian ways of thought,
modes of living, rehgious feeling, and
secular customs. Midway' between these
two camps stood the ruling oligarchs —
planless, listless, resourceless.
The war with Japan revealed and inten-
sified the astounding weakness of the
established political and social fabric,
hastened the downfall of the regime, and
offered the reform party a golden oppor-
tunity to put their fanciful projects to the
test of realisation. When the tsar, giving
way to what seemed the wishes of his
people, had laid down his prerogative
of absolutism and promised far-reaching
political and social reforms, the ground,
cleared of ancient encumbrances, pre-
sented a unique site for the erection of a
stable democratic fabric.
Guided by ordinary common-sense and
commanded by an unflinching will, the re-
form party might have successfully infused
into the nation all the democratic current
it was capable of absorbing. The leverage
it had acquired was enormous. Some few
discerned then what the many can plainly
see to-day — that that party by first accept-
ing the power, without responsibility, which
was well within its reach, might have soon
afterwards obtained the reins of govern-
ment, and begun its grandiose and perilous
experiment upon the nation.
But, confident of an easy victory, dis-
dainful of help, impatient of advice, and
chafed by delay, the Democrats violently
opposed, in lieu of steadily supporting,
_ Count Witte's administration.
Democrats j j. / n- ^i. j
. _ in quest of allies, they made a
o^ All" ^^'^ ^^^^ ^^^ ^^^ support of the
Jews, the peasants, the working
man, the lower clergy, and the troops by
promising reforms which it would have
taken a century of continuous effort and
untold sums of money to realise. At the
best of times Russian reformers lack the
saving sense of measure, but now they
broke loose from all restraints and ended
by alienating the sympathies of many
.5296
true Democrats who could gauge the
tendency of the time and estimate the speed
and the trend of the main social and polit-
ical currents of semi-articulate Russia.
Since the partial revolution of 1905-6,
which rendered many weighty problems
acute without starting practical solutions
for any of them, Russia has been passing
through a transitional phase, the duration
of which it is impossible to predict. That
extraordinary upheaval, which may be
aptly characterised as the result of a
struggle not so much between two forces
as between two weaknesses, between an
epileptic and a paralytic organism, began
in truly characteristic fashion. Whole
sections of the Statute Book and State Law
were abrogated by implication. Customs
and traditions, hallowed by ages, were
informally but effectively abolished, and
nothing whatever was put in their places.
In short, a sponge was passed over the
slate, on which the mob was allowed to
write its conflicting demands, and almost
everybody was surprised to see that
anarchy ensued. Some of the worst
effects of the confusion which was thus
„ . . produced still continue to make
rui s o themselves lelt in the principal
the Recent , , , r 1 i i-r
P J . departments of public life.
Many of the political and social
questions then formulated are still pressing
for answers. Between the theory and
practice of the present administration
many a chasm is still unbridged.
Thus it would tax the ingenuity of a
Montesquieu to determine the type of
monarchy which in Russia has succeeded
absolutism, and the courtly Almanach de
Gotha has illustrated the difficulty by
offering a definition of the regime in terms
which contradict each other. One may
take it that the government is still an
autocracy, tempered, as the rule of the first
Romanoffs was, by the wishes of the people ;
but with this difference, that in the seven-
teenth centm'y public opinion was focussed
fitfully in the Zemsky Councils, whereas
to-day it is permanently embodied in the
Duma and the Council of the Empire.
One of the most momentous changes
brought about by the revolution of 1905
affects the legislative machinery of the
tsardom. Formerly the monarch was
the sole fountain head of law, and although
he invariably availed himself of the ser-
vices of the Council of the Empire and the
Senate, which drafted Bills and inter-
preted statutes, his influence upon law-
RUSSIA IN OUR OWN TIME
making was paramount and unchallenged.
But the charter which he bestowed upon
liis people in 1905 contains a promise that
lienceforth no measure shall be inscribed
upon the Statute Book without the assent
of the two representative Chambers.
That is now become one of the funda-
mental maxims of the Russian Constitu-
tion. But, like all such principles, it is
applicable and absolute only in normal
times. During periods of public trouble
exceptions are provided for. For ex-
ample, if in the intervals between two
Dumas, the Crown believes that the needs
of the empire call for special legislation,
the tsar may on his own authority pro-
mulgate it, on condition that on the re-
assembling of the nation's spokesmen the
measure be laid before them for confirma-
tion or repeal. The one instance in which
the emperor, going further, altered the
fundamental laws themselves and accom-
plished what was technically a coup
d'etat, occurred in June, 1907. when he
authorised M. Stolypin to change mxateri-
allv the electoral law. Among the argu-
ments brought forward in defence of this
bold line of action two seem
wo umas egpecj^iiy cggent. The franchise
P *. . . as established in 1905 had no
claims whatever to be included
among the fundamental laws, which alone
are "immutable." Indeed, it had been
printed among them solely in consequence
of a mere chancellery blunder. Moreover,
by their nature the conditions which a
citizen of almost any country must fulfil in
order to qualify as a voter, especially when
the franchise is very restricted, are not stable.
They change with the times, and no serious
legislator would seek to canonise them.
Another consideration that weighed with
the Crown and the Premier was the danger
that threatened representative institutions
in Russia at that critical period of their
existence. Two successive Dumas had
come together, bitterly disappointed the
hopes of their friends, and realised those
of their enemies. And if the third ex-
periment should fail, the grant of an
elective Chamber would most probably
have been suspended sine die. In order to
avert this calamity it seemed necessary
to get together an assembly that would
consent to discharge its own functions
within the narrow limits outlined by
the constitution. A set of arbitrary
voting qualifications was therefore drawn
up by the Prime Minister, which,
however illogical, unfair, and indefens-
ible they may be on theoretic grounds,
attained the end in view. The third
Duma accordingly met, passed laws,
discussed Bills, increased the pay of its
own members to an extent that was
deemed exorbitant, and accustomed the
nation to the working of a legislative
Tk ^ f * assembly. The responsibility
The Cabinet 4^4. 1 • . ^i ^ 1
. attachmg to that course and
.. w . the credit for these results
its Members , , .... .,.
belong prmcipally, it not
exclusively, to M. Stolypin. The Duma
in its present shape, and indeed the entire
machinery of government, continue to
exhibit in a superlative degree signs of the
haste with which they were elaborated and
proofs of the faultiness of their working.
In form they are stamped with the
mark of transition, in character they ex-
hibit the defects of the qualities which
render the Slavs socially popular and
politically inferior. The " Cabinet," pre-
sided over by the Premier, includes only a
certain number of the tsar's official advisers,
and eliminates nearly all the more important
ones. The Ministers of War, Marine, and
Foreign Affairs, as well as the Minister of
the Imperial Court are outside the Cabinet.
At bottom this may be an advantage, for it
makes them quite independent of the Prime
Minister. If they take part in any parlia-
mentary discussion, the act is understood
to be quite spontaneous on their part, and
in each case they must first obtain the
express authorisation of the emperor. The
Prime Minister's authority does not touch
them, nor does the Crown, when appoint-
ing or dismissing them, consult him.
The autocracy as it prevailed down to
IQ05 has thus disappeared, but it seems
impossible to define with anything ap-
proaching to precision the type of govern-
ment that has taken its place. Nor would
it be easier to trace the limits that divide
the legislative, judicial, and executive
powers from each other. The tsar, indeed,
still retains his old title of
The Tsar .^^^Qj^j-^t^ despite the needlessly
still an i3ittgj. opposition offered to it
utocra ^y democratic politicians who
spend most of their energy in barren
tilting against windmills. But he has
preserved more than the title. No
measure can acquire the force of law
without his assent. All authority emanates
from him. He is the source of justice
and mercy, and his dispensing power —
of which, however, he but seldom makes
52^17
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
use — is extensive enough to enable him
indirectly' to temper or annul a penal law.
The tsar is the one connecting link between
the Russian nation and all the foreign
members of the international community.
He is also the war-lord of Russia, to whom
the land and sea forces owe obedience,
and he is the sole judge of the acts of
_ . . his Ministers, who are respon-
Liberar""' ^'^'^^ ^'^ ^"^ °^^'^'" institution
in the empire. What dis-
e ormcrs appointed Liberal reformers
most bitterly complain of is the Duma's
impotence even in financial matters. And
in truth its influence is chiefly negative.
The Lower Chamber may criticise,
but cannot reform. If its members pass a
Bill obnoxious to the Government, the
Upper House is virtually certain to throw
it out. A Chamber of Reconciliation is
then convoked, composed of a number of
members of both legislatures. If these fail
to agree, everything remains as it was
before, and if a money vote is in question,
the Minister continues to receive the sum
allotted to him by the estimates of the
preceding year. That the Duma should be
thus restricted to the role of censor is
deemed to be one of the worst defects of
the present system of government.
On the other hand, it cannot be gainsaid
that the soft, plastic character of the
Slavs, the feebleness of their social
interests, and the ease with which they
turn away from deeds to words, are also
to some extent answerable for the barren-
ness of the legislative sessions. The present
Speaker, M. Khomyakoff, who is himself
endowed with the admirable character-
istics of the Slav in an eminent degree,
has frequently pointed out the evil and
explained it. Speaking in November, igo8,
to a publicist about the glut of Bills and
the slowness with which they are dealt
with, he is reported to have said : " Look-
ing at it all round, I must say that, to my
thinking, the legislative machinery should
be changed in some way. I
. ^"* ^* cannot indicate how this is to be
It r. done . . . but it is easy to see
the Duma ,i . r t i ^ j.i,-
that if on July ist this year
there remained 222 Bills untouched, and by
November ist of the same year 290 more
were laid before the House, well, there is
something to think about. . . But all
that would be nothing if the members of
the Duma hit it off together, more or less.
But they are eternally squabbling, etern-
ally fighting. With regret I am obliged
5298
to say that of late these quarrels have
increased. On the whole, however, that
is in our character. Let four men come
together, and the very first thing they do is
to rummage each other's souls in quest
of each other's defects. About the good
points nobody cares, but they infallibly
rake up the delinquencies."
It is almost impossible to watch the
working of the administrative mechanism
of to-day without seeing that the Duma
has lost the fascination for Russia which
it possessed in the year 1906. It was then
looked up to as a sort of brazen serpent
in the Desert of Bureaucracy, created in
order to heal. To-day it is but one of the
many state departments of which there
were then too many, whose privileged
members are paid high salaries by the
starving people for doing little or nothing.
It has ceased to be a fountain of good, and is
looked upon as a source of malignant evils.
It has no hold whatever on the country,
and therefore cannot act as a breakwater
against the heavy rollers of the revolu-
tionary sea which threatens to sweep away
the dynasty and the monarchical regime.
And as the Duma is the only
rampart which the monarchy
r .1. rk now possesses against a general
of the Duma , ^ ,. ° .^ ■ .
democratic movement — just
as the police is the only protection on which
the monarch relies against terrorist plots —
it follows that, parallel with the creeping
paralysis of the Duma goes the perilous
weakening of the monarchic regime.
Thus the Russian Autocracy might be
likened to a mighty rock which after
centuries of repose has just rolled from
the summit of a high mountain, but has
been stopped midway down. In its present
precarious position it may remain for
years, or it may suddenly resume its down-
ward course to-morrow, crushing every-
thing in its way. This latter contingency
is deemed by many to be all the more
likely as many forces are working de-
liberately, methodically, and perseveringly,
to set it rolling ; while most of the officials
who have undertaken the task of thwarting
these, are either listless, negligent, or else
secretly in the service of the enemy.
Evidently, then, change is a necessity.
The sole question is, who shall have the
shaping of it ? At present the dynasty
has the opportunity, and, to a limited
extent, the ways and means, but apparently
lacks the right men or else the will to
appoint them. Even of the Bureaucrats,
The Creeping
Paralysis
RUSSIA IN OUR OWN TIME
who at present wear the livery and receive
the pay of the Crown, a large percentage
are desirous of ulterior and far-reaching
changes. A new political and social
revolution is what they ardently hope for.
And they would not only welcome its-
advent but would work actively to hasten
it if they could take this step with im-
punity. Some of them indeed do, but
stern necessity compels the majority to
bide their time in relative quiescence.
This attitude is but one of many
symptoms of a dangerous disorder which
the ruling classes cannot, or will not,
diagnose. Since the October 17th to 30th,
1905, there has been a bewildering dis-
location of the political forces of the
country, but it came to pass so gradually
that even its occurrence — to say nothing
of its significance — has not been realised
or even noticed by the professional watch-
men of the nation. But its effects are felt,
although they are not being traced to the
true cause. The Cabinet, the dynast3^ the
ruling classes — administrative and legisla-
tive— are now on one side, and the people
are on the other. There is no organic nexus
^, ^. , between the governing bodies
The Shadow 1 xi +■ j -u ^-
and the nation. Liberty is
o a econ banished to the parliamentary
Revolution ■ , , r . i t- ■ ^ r, 1
island of the iavnda Palace,
law to the hall of the Senate and the pages
of the civil and criminal codes, justice to the
world to come, and the few measures of
reform with which the Duma or the Cabinet
periodically toy are as indifferent to the
nation as the caress of a soft and tender
hand squandered on a tortoise's shell
would be to the slumbering tortoise inside.
The nation is marching steadily along its
own grooves of thought, and striving
towards its own ideals, and the governing
classes are moving over theirs. The link
between them is purely mechanical, not
organic, and that, too, seems destined
shortly to snap. Even now the subter-
ranean forces of upheaval are so active, so
C(mstant, so successful, and the resistance
offered them is so feeble, that even strangers
with open eyes and eai"s, and nimble minds,
can predict with perfect confidence the
coming of the second revolution.
The principal mainstay of the dynasty,
and, indeed, of order in the empire, is
at present the army, whose loyalty has
withstood temptations that appeared irre-
sistible. Suspected in 1905 of being
honeycombed with sedition, it still con-
stitutes not only the most efficient pro-
tection to the regime, but to all elements
of peaceful progress in the nation. In
1905 vigilant observers confidently pre-
dicted the saturation of the army with
anarchistic or sociahstic views within three
years, that being the period necessary
for a complete renovation of the troops.
But although the efforts of the revolutionary
. , party are concentrated on the
land and sea forces, without
_, ^ whose help or connivance they
will find it difficult to carry out
their subversive designs, the temper of
the troops is still on the whole satisfactory.
But even the army is not immune from
the individual efforts of such apostles
of the revolution as the late Gershuni,
whose almost irresistible influence might
aptly be likened to that of the pied piper of
Hamelin. Socialism and Anarchism are now
reaching the private soldier and common
man by means of the Press, which the
revolutionary forces of the country can
handle with surprising effects. The bulk
of daily papers, as well as weekly and
monthly journals, are arrayed against the
government, and their present moderation
of tone is solely a result of the powerful
deterrents which martial law puts in the
hands of governors and general-governors.
A change of regime to-morrow, or even the
repeal of exceptional legislation, would
effect a sudden and complete transforma-
tion in their methods of warfare.
That the army still needs complete
reorganisation in almost every respect is
evident, and not merely to experts, but
also to careful outside observers. In the
course of the years igo6 and 1907, the
Government removed nearly all the highest
commanders from active service, the chiefs
of corps and divisions, and likewise about
two-thirds of the other commanding
officers. But independently of this weed-
ing-out process numbers of excellent
officers have voluntarily quitted the
army because of the miserh' pa}' there,
the slowness of advancement,
•''''tT T^ the lack of stimulus to enter-
"* p7 prise, and of the crushing out of
of Reform i-^^ji^.i^yality by rigorous cen-
trahsation. Hundreds of them found it
utterly impossible to live on the pit-
tance they received.
Of these many resigned their commis-
sions, while others plunged into debt. The
hfe of the average officer, from the grade
of major downwards, was a never-ending
sequence of disillusions and hardships.
5299
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
The War Ministry, when it shortened
the term of service from four years to
three, failed to allow for the fact that
the training would have to be inten-
sified correspondingly. Twenty-five per
cent, more work was accordingly ex-
pected of the staff officers, who received
neither better pay nor more help than
, before. Yet the staff of officers
The rmy s ^^^ nearly always been inade-
L^"°"f M quate. As the number who are
continually lacking amounts to
about 4,000, the work that falls to those
who are in the service is doubled and
sometimes trebled. Every year the
military schools send out about 2,500
young officers to the army, which is
annually losing about 4,000. The deficit
is therefore growing instead of diminishing,
and most of those who leave the service
are said to be the best educated and the
most highly qualified.
From January, 1909, the pay of the
Russian officers was increased, but only
slightly. Lack of funds keeps them from
receiving their due, for gold is one of the
chief forces that move the steel of armies,
and Russia is poor. Still, much larger sums
might have been made available for the
troops by intelligent thrift. The hundreds
of millions assigned in 1908 to the building
of the Amoor railway line would, in the
opinion of experts and patriots, have been
much better invested in raising the
material and moral level of the soldiers and
officers. Men of talent whom a military
career was wont to attract under the first
Nicholas and the second Alexander now
seek at the Bar, in trade, commerce and
industry, or in various departments of the
civil service, a suitable field for their
activity and adequate remuneration for
their time and labour.
In Russia, garrison service is marked
by sameness, and the efforts put forth
to vary its monotony too often demoralise
those who make them. Hence the
morale of the officers' corps
ro em stand in quite as much need
of Garrison r u • ■ i j.-u •
c . 01 bemg improved as their
material condition. And unless
this problem is worked out to a desir-
able solution, the common men, who
constitute the finest fighting material in
the world, will lack efficient instructors,
without whom the raw stuff cannot be
fashioned into a living organism. In a
country like Russia, the barracks could,
and should, be turned into a kind of
5300
national school for the upbringing of the
primitive beings that enter them every
year. Little has been done by the tsar's
military advisers in the way of profiting
by the lessons of the late war. And yet
most other countries have utilised Russia's
painful experience. The hand grenade, for
instance, proved a most useful weapon
during the Japanese campaign, and the
War Ministry accordingly resolved to
introduce it. Two departments, therefore,
undertook to supply hand grenades to the
army — the artillery and the engineers'
corps — but as they have been unable to
agree how to set about it, the step has not
yet been taken. The utility and necessity
of siege artillery is another of the practical
conclusions which were drawn from the
experience obtained during the Manchu-
rian campaign. But the Russian army,
which was not supplied with siege guns in
1904, is not supplied with them yet.
Again, about half of the divisions are still
without quick-firing guns, because there is
no money to buy them, the sum needed
being computed at £20,000. Yet for the
new and uncouth headgear which has
recently been introduced, a
Essential sum of /i, 400,000 was assigned
Quahtjesof unhesitatingly. The police,
the Politician , 1 ■ 1 • x au 1 4.
too, which IS one 01 the least
efficient in the world, is manifestly under-
going a process of slow reorganisation.
Here, however, the work of improvement
is more difficult owing to the exiguity
of qualified men, for in Russia no one can
become a good policeman who is not a man
of nerve and a citizen of' more than average
moral worth. And individuals endowed
with such ethical and physical equipments
have no motives for becoming social
pariahs by donning a livery which renders
them in the eyes of Russian society what
the publicans were in the eyes of the Jews.
In order to be and to remain an honest
and incorruptible member of the police
force in Russia, a man must be heroically
virtuous, wholly temptation proof. Doubt-
less, every department of the administra-
tion in the tsardom has its own peculiar
temptations, but that of the police teems
with them. The pay is absurdly small ;
the work is hard ; the risks are great ; the
antipathy of the public is intense and
ruthless, and if a member is dismissed by
his superiors, he is virtually an outcast.
During the discharge of his duties money
is thrust upon him at every hand's turn,
sometimes for what he does, at other times
THE TSAR, WITH AN IKON IN HIS HAND, BLESSING RUSSIAN INFANTRY
ANOTHER PICTURE SHOWING THi: TSAR REVIEWING THE SEMINOVSKY REGIMENT
THE TSAK OF RUSSIA AMONG HIS SOLDIERS
5301
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
for what he leaves undone, and very often
on the principle on which the Chinese pay
their doctors, so long as they have no need
of their professional services. Under these
circumstances to fall is easy, even to an
immaculate citizen. And the bulk of
the police are the reverse of immaculate.
The secret political police organisation,
which at a time like the present
Workings .g ^. ^g ^^ ^j^g mainstavs of the
PoHcr'"*'* regime, has been shown by
recent events to be at once
imphcitly trusted and absolutely untrust-
worthy. Its workings tend to undermine
the throne, which it is paid to support, and
its agents — some consciously, others un-
wittingly— defeat the very object which
the organisation exists to promote. Nor is
it to be supposed that any partial reform
will infuse new life into the service so long
as the Government lacks men of common
honesty to work as agents, money to pay
them well, and an organising intellect to
give direction to their efforts.
Russia's police organisation is divided
into two branches, of which one deals with
ordinary crime and criminals, and the
other with individuals and associations
whose aim is to overthrow the Government
or to assassinate its members. And the
influence of both divisions upon the
community is now seen to be positively
mischievous. In some cases the chiefs, and
in most instances the agents, undisguisedly
adopt measures which run counter to the
principles f)n which society rests.
They violate the law, scoff at morality,
tamper with Imperial behests, paralyse
the arm of the most powerful Minister,
change a judicial or administrative
thunderbolt into a simple petard, open
prison doors to dangerous malefactors,
reveal state secrets to bloodthirsty
terrorists, and finally reach a point at
which public opinion, clamouring to have
them punished, is uncertain whether to
classify them as cunning conspirators or
Corruption
Among
as stupid officials. The ordi
nary police system, which is
p .. more amenable to supervision
than the political, is undoubt-
edly corrupt to the core. Badly-paid
underhngs or impecunious chiefs conspire
with thieves, highwaymen, and other
criminals, whom they not only screen
from punishment, but aid and abet in
the commission of crime. In the 3'ear
iqoS some extensive conspiracies, in
which members of the police took part,
5302
were brought to light. The Govern-
ment instituted strict investigations,
which led to further discoveries of a
nauseous kind. The accused were sent
for trial, the scandal was intense and
widespread, and the public mistrust of the
police became more deep-rooted than
before. But the sj'stem remains what it
was. It may well be doubted whether the
moral calibre of the Russian constable
can be greatly improved before his material
well-being has been adequately provided
for by his emplo3'ers. But if the ordinary
police in Russia resembles salt that has
lost its savour, the political section may
be likened to a disinfectant with which a
potent poison has been mixed.
True, in no country is scrupulous respect
for austere morality a characteristic of the
body of men whose duty it is to discover
in order to frustrate political crimes. So
long as they keep within certain broad
limits, and refrain from committing a
breach of certain rudimentary' ethical prin-
ciples, they are sure to be judged by an
easy standard. But in the practice of the
Russian secret police all restraints appear
to have been ignored, all
^'^°' breaches of human and divine
S A ff ^^^^ ^° ^^ permitted. The
Lopoukhine - Azeff scandal,
W'hich stirred the Russian nation to its
inmost depths in 1909 revealed a code of
maxims and a sequence of acts for which
even men of lax morality find no excuse,
and people of average intelligence can
suggest no reasonable explanation.
The head of the police, Lopoukhine,
set great store by a spy named Azeff, who
was the soul and brain of the revolutionary
committee which conceived and arranged
some of the political outrages that pre-
ceded and accompanied the revolution.
For the seven years ending in 1909, Azeff
enjoyed the confidence alike of the
terrorists and the police, and, so far as
one can judge, achieved feats of sufficient
importance to justify it in each case. He
is said to have planned, among other
crimes, the assassination of General
Bogdanovitch, Governor of Ufa, of the
Minister Plehve, from whom he was
receiving large sums of monev every
year, and of the Grand Duke Sergius.
On the other hand, he betraj'ed the most
successful Russian revolutionist that ever
lived, Gershuni, who was proud of being
his intimate friend. And while Azeff, the
redoubted and redoubtable revolutionist.
RUSSIA IN OUR OWN TIME
was thus playing false to his party on the
one hand, and was procuring the murder
of prominent members of the Imperial
Government on the other hand, one of the
most influential chiefs of the provincial
police — Bakai, the assistant-director of
the secret police of Warsaw — was betraying
Azeff to the revolutionists. But as the
revolutionary committee could not on
such questionable evidence convict its
trusted leader of foul play, it appealed to
Lopoukhine, the police director who had
been the zealous co-operator and intimate
friend of the despotic Minister Plehve,
and this gentleman gave evidence against
the secret agent whose services he had
utilised and appreciated.
Among the causes that hav^e led to this
anarchy are the lack of unity of system
and moral laxity. Under Plehve, for
instance, there were five different bodies
of secret police, each one working by itself
and directing its efforts principally against
the others. These were, the force under
the police department, the police of the
Department of Public Safety, the police
of the Minister of the Interior, the palace
u n. . police, and the police of the
How Plots 17 • T~\ i i- Ti •
foreign Department. It is
„ J . easy to see how these bodies
might unintentionally baulk
each other's schemes ; but that, moved by
spite, hatred, or other base motives, they
should deliberately play into the hands of
the revolutionists is more diflicult for
foreigners to understand. To Russians,
however, it seems not only probable, but
true. And among the instances they bring
forward in support of this grave accusation
the following is the most striking.
While the cleverest Russian revolutionist,
Gershuni, was living in a tailor's family in
Kieff, planning the assassination of the
Governor of Ufa, his every deed and word
were revealed to the chief of the Kieff secret
police. The traitors were two zealous
revolutionists, the tailor and his daughter
in whose house Gershuni was living. Now
the chief of the Kieff police, General
Novitsky, forwarded urgent telegrams to
the Home Secretary, Plehve, asking for
instructions and expecting to be authorised
to arrest the conspirators. But Plehve,
who is alleged to have had a grudge
against the destined victim of the assas-
sins, ordered the police director to stay
his hand. " Observe, report, keep every-
thing absolutely secret, but do nothing
rash." Such was the gist of the Minister's
Forces
that Prevent
Anarchy
mysterious behest. And during a whole
month the chief of the Kieff })olice con-
tinued to report, and the Home Secretary
went on repeating his instructions. At
last the day set ai)art for the crime was
drawing near, and the police director
informed Plehve that the four conspi-
rators whose names he had communicated
long before had started for Ufa
to commit the deed. But still
Plehve made no sign. And in
May, 1903, General Bogdano-
vitch, Governor of Ufa, was duly shot
dead by the four assassins, who went
away unmolested.
As things now stand in Russia, the
throne alone would seem to separate the
nation from anarchy, while the police
shield the throne from destruction. On
the efficiency of the police, therefore, the
duration of the present regime will con-
tinue to depend, unless it be laid upon
some more solid groundwork.
A thorough reorganisation of the police
will entail heavy expenditure. Money,
therefore, is a requisite. And what is true
of the army and the police is equally true
of every state department in the empire :
without funds, no root-reaching reform is
feasible. On the other hand, without
purifying reform the diseased organism
cannot be healed nor the enfeebled financial
forces reinvigorated. We are apparently
face to face with a vicious circle.
On the finances in the first instance, and
on the economic condition of the country
in last analysis, the future of the nation
very largely depends. For the longer
needful reforms are delayed, the more
intense and widespread will disaffec-
tion become, and the slighter will be
the influence of the conservative ele-
ments in the country. These elements
are at present almost entirely confined to
the higher classes. Formerly, indeed, the
peasantry, too, were included among them,
but erroneously ; because the Russian
, mooshik — this is one of the
Russian terms for peasant
— bore stoically what he
could not alter, and dared not
criticise, he was set down as a worshipper
of the autocracy. And, in order to obtain
a Conservative majority in the Duma, tlie
peasant was enfranchised by the first
electoral law. In the interests of the
nation, that mistake had to be righted as
soon as the unwelcome fact became clear
that he was quite indifferent to politics, as
5303
The Peasants
Idea
of Politics
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
politics, but was ready to join any party,
legal or illegal, that would give or promise
him gratuitously the land belonging to the
squires, the Crown, or the Church.
Intellectually little better than the
French or British peasant of the eleventh
century, the mooshik lazily tills the land
which he occupies but does not own. He
is but a member of the village community
in which the ownership is vested. Hence
he lacks the sharp-cut notion of personal
property, which to European peoples is
almpst an innate idea. He sees no moral
wrong, in sequestrating by force the land
that belongs to another, especially if that
other is of a different class ; nor can
he discern any danger to himself in that
course, although underlying it is a prin-
ciple which, if logically applied, would re-
duce him to utter poverty. On the be-
nighted condition of the vast agricultural
class which thus constitutes a formidable
and proximate danger to the well-being
of the, nation, the third Prime Minister,
M. Stolypin, concentrated his attention.
Among a set of urgent problems all
pressing for instant solution, he singled
out the agrarian question as the most
momentous. Soon after he had accepted
office he acquired the conviction that unless
he could win over the peasantry to such
conservatism as enlightened selfishness
engenders, the country would be ruined.
But his way was blocked with many
obstacles. Seemingly, the peasantry had
already thrown in their lot with the enemies
of the empire. Revolutionary groups had
bribed them with the promise of free land,
rightly feeling that to be successful the
anti-monarchical movement must have
the active support of the masses. And
it was because having won they failed to
keep that support, and the movement
consequently remained a mere urban
revolution, that Russia is still an autocracy.
Of the 150,000,000 who now inhabit the
. , tsardom, only I2'8 per cent.
pTsLt *^^^^^^ '-^ ^^^^^^' ^^^ ^^^^^ ^7'^
casan cent, live in the countrv,
and of these 74-2 per cent, are
tillers of the soil. The entire peasant
class of the empire amounts to 67*2 per
cent., or two-thirds of the population.
These figures enable one to understand
the importance of the peasantry to the
revolutionist leaders and the recklessness
with which they made their bid for its
support. Brutal anarchism was the form
which the subversive movement assumed
among the tillers of the soil.
M. Stolypin 's mode of warring against
this violent outburst was to smash the
last of the three idols of the Slavophiles —
the village commune — to divide among
A RUSSIAN CROWD BEING HELD IN CHECK BY COSSACK SOLDIERS
5304
liiilMtliii
COSSACK REGIMENT RIDING THROUGH THE STREETS OF ST.
PETERSBURG
individual husbandmen the land thereto-
fore possessed in common, and thus graft-
ing the idea of personal property on the
sluggish, untutored minds of the rustics to
wait until that should bring forth political
and social fruit. This vast and fateful
experim-ent is now in process of realisation.
In the haste with which it had to be under-
taken and the political colour that was
necessarily imparted to it in consequence
of the stress and strain of the moment lie
the sources of its two sets of defects.
But the efforts made by the Government
were praiseworthy. The domain lands of
the Imperial family and extensive estates
_ . . bought from wealthy noblemen
Emigration ^ n i • i. i i i xt
. c7, . were parcelled mto lots by the
to oiberia t^ . > n i
Peasants Bank,
Encouraged
and
now divided among the farmers
who undertake to refund the cost price
to ,the State. The continuous migration
of landless husbandmen to Siberia is also
being directed and fostered by the Govern-
ment, which further proposes to invite the
same land-seeking class to colonise certain
districts of Central Asia. The number of
families that have migrated to Siberia
during the year igoS is computed by the
central authorities at 74,500, or, say
between 370,000 and 450,000 individuals of
both sexes. The extent of land parcelled out
among these is estimated at 3,000,000 des-
siatines, a dessiatine being equal to 13,067
square yatds, or approximately 25 acres;
I M
this amounts to nearly 17,000 square mdes.
This salutary agrarian reform, sunplc
though it may seem, will require the
expenditure of sums of money so vast that
the special agrarian fund will not suffice
to furnish them. One may be pardoned
for doubting whether even yet the Ministry
itself fully realises the amounts that will
ultimately be absorbed by this grandiose
experiment, or the political changes it
will bring forth. That the peasants will
fail to redeem the bonds issued by the
government to the noblemen who are
selling their land, and that the deficit
must one day be covered by the State,
seems to many a foregone conclusion.
But the total cost of the transfer
will probably not be limited to this loss.
For the peasant, who already lives from
hand to mouth, will be unable, from
lack of ready money, to till the land as
the noblemen tilled it. He must there-
fore obtain credit or sell out. Yet, in lieu
of receiving the wherewithal to keep his
new farm on its old level of productivity
he has to saddle himself from the outset
with debts which will cripple him and
damage the community. The system of
cultivation that still obtains m Russia
may be tersely described as plunder of the
soil. Much is taken, and little or nothing
is given back. The three-tield system,
which involves enormous work, the lack
of variety of crops, and the absence of
=3 SZ'^S
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
artificial manures, contribute to exhaust
the fertiUty of the land. But it is difficult
to see how any Minister, situated as
M. Stolypin was, could have provided
funds enough for the agrarian revolution
which he courageously inaugurated. It
is worth noting that, contrary to expec-
tation, the peasants do not readily
])urchase the land which the
an or Agrarian Bank acquired at its
p* own risk from the landlords
and divided into lots suited for
farms. And yet the terms on which the
bank offers them are very advantageous
to the purchaser. Between November,
1905, and November, 1908, the bank
thus bought 3,682,000 dessiatines from
noblemen who had either actually suffered
or were afraid of suffering from the vio-
lence of the peasantry.
Yet, of all this land, only 656,000 dessia-
tines have been bought by the would-be
tenant farmers, or, say, 18 per cent, of the
whole. The remainder, amounting to more
than 3,000,000 dessiatines, remains on the
hands of the bank, which has been author-
ised to make further purchases amounting
to 2,000,000 dessiatines. In this way
5,000,000 dessiatines are in a transitional
state — a result which must have a mis-
chievous effect on the material well-being
of the community.
In the Budget this dead loss figures as a
minus, for the former owners of these
estates have already been remunerated in
government bonds, bearing interest at 5
and 6 per cent. And the interest on this
debt has to be paid with regularity. The
result is that the Government, in order to
make good the loss of the bank, draws
upon the taxpayer, and having assigned
7,000,000 roubles to the peasants' bonds in
1908, gave a subsidy of 17,500,000 in 1909.
But a more scathing criticism than
could be based upon the probable financial
consequence of the measure lies in the
grounded fear that b}^ its limitations it
•-.V ^^^^^ demoralise the village c(mi-
niunity, which it cannot wholh^
M. Stolypin's
Doubtful
Experiment
abolish, will ruin the bulk of
the peasant farmers, whom it
cannot furnish with adequate means of
tilling the newly acquired soil, will cut
millions adrift from the land, deprive
them of permanent work, rob them of the
material and moral help which they here-
tofore received from the village com-
munity, and expose them unequipped
for resistance to the powerful temptations
of professional revolutionists. In other
words, M. Stolypin's experiment, if there
were funds to ensure to it the highest
degree of success, could not bring forth
good fruits before a couple of generations.
But realised only in part — and plainly in
its subversive part — owing to the dearth
of funds to carry out the whole, and relied
upon as an immediate remedy for the
pressing political evils of to-day, it strikes
most Russian observers as a superlatively
mischievous scheme, which, however, does
credit to the heart of M. Stolypin.
That the peasantry is as sorely in need
of culture as the land will be taken as a self-
evident proposition by all who have lived
among them. Crass ignorance, mediaeval
superstition, ])aralysing fatalism, and a
propensity to thriftlessness and laziness,
are among their negative characteristics,
and also among the active causes of the
poverty from which they constantly
suffer. Indeed, such is the character
of the Russian agricultural class that,
according to a competent, but one
hopes a mistaken, judge, M. Obraztsoff,
the introduction of personal property
among them will in three yeais
cause about 20,000,000 of them
to be landless. " The owners
will exchange their farms for
alcohol, just as they now exchange their
carts and their garments for drink. There
are families who have drunk their unsold
land for twenty years in advance."
It is interesting in this connection to
note the views of another authority,
A. J. Savenko, who affirms that the
fundamental impressions which rural
Russia makes on the observer are the
laziness, listlessness, and ignorance of its
inhabitants. " The indolence of the
majority of the peasants transcends all
bounds. For dwellers in cities, who
live in an atmosphere of steady toil, it is
positively bewildering. The peasants are
averse to doing anything. Work of any
sort is distasteful to them, and they shirk
it by every means in their power. Old and
young are characterised by sloth, but
youth takes the foremost place. In a
large village you cannot find a single good
worker, male or female. They will not
consent to exert themselves even for most
substantial remuneration, preferring to sit
with folded arms at home. They live in
want ; some of them beg ; but none wish
to labour. ... All in all, I think
that in the course of a whole year the
Idleness
in Rural
Russia
RUSSIA IN OUR OWN TIME
peasants work no more than from one to
two months. The remainder of the time
they spend in utter idleness, which has a
stupefying effect on them.
" Cynicism is a natural consequence of
this sloth and listlessness. The peasants
live in incredible squalor. Their aesthetic
requirements are lowered to a microscopic
minimum. The need of the most elemen-
tary comforts are wholly unfelt. They
lead hterally the life of hogs. Brutish
cynicism shows itself through the whole
course of rustic existence. I do not
know wherein the spiritual side of it
consists. The bulk of them are not
conscious of any bond between themselves
and the nation or the State. Religion
no longer plays the part that it once did
in the life of the people. In a fairly large
village there is no church, and none of
the villagers are in the least put out by
the lack of one. Only one necessity is
everywhere felt in the gloomy existence of
the peasantry — the necessity of vodka —
and that thirst is stilled abundantly."
A correlate to the laziness of the
peasant is the large number of days of
Tk D * I'sst he enjoys even during the
The Peasants i • , i, r . , ° ,
„ . busiest months of the year when
roor and , r ■, ■,■■,
Thriftless ^^^^y ^^°^'' ^^ daylight ought
to be utilised to the fullest.
For example, August ist is a holiday, the
sixth is a holiday, the fifteenth is a holiday,
the twenty-ninth and the thirtieth are
holidays. Add to these the four Sundays,
and you have nine days in one month
during which no work is done.
But it is not only in the country that
this disregard of time is noticeable. In
trade and commerce, at the Bar, in the
banks, on the railways— in short, every-
where it is the same. The Board of the
Siberian Railway has lately published statis-
tics of the number of hours the trains were
late on that line during two consecutive
years. In igo6 they lost 2,514 hours, and in
iqo7, 2,335 hours, i.e., in 1906, 104I days ;
and in 1907, 97 days and 7 hours. In the
course of three years the Siberian trains
lost exactly one year. And these sta-
tistics deal only with passenger trains.
Poverty is the correlate of sloth and
thriftlessness, and it may well be doubted
whether in any other country in Europe
the material existence of the peasants
leaves so much to be desired as in Russia.
" The peasant's dwelling is a wooden
or mud hut, more suited for cattle than
for human beings. The peasants, with-
out distinction of sex, and oftentimes the
cattle, take their rest in one narrow,
mephitic room. Such a rudimentary
convenience as a bed is a very great
rarity in a farmer's house. The
villages and hamlets in which the rural
population of Russia are sheltered burn
to ashes once in twenty years, completing
Russia in ^^^ ™"^' ^^^''^'^ hygienists hold.
Contrast however, that if Russia were
with An^erica ^""^ Periodically thus consumed
by nre she would rot away in
her infected huts and cabins. ...
Nor is the food of the peasant any better.
Compared with what it was, there is a
certain change for the worse. ... It
consists mainly of bread and potatoes.
Even such vegetables as cabbage, onions,
and cucumber are disappearing from the
table of the bulk of the peasants."
The wealth-creating power of the
Russian husbandman is what the personal
characteristics and the social conditions
enumerated above would lead one to
expect. Take the five principal cereals
of the country -rye, wheat, oats, barley,
Indian corn — and we find that in the year
1900 the total produce was but 3,269
million poods — a pood is 36 pounds ; there
are 62 poods in a ton — valued at I904"7
milhons of roubles. That is in Russia,
where agriculture constitutes the main
occupation, giving work to 74 per cent, of
the entire population. Now, in the United
States, where only 36 per cent, of the
population till the land, the harvest of
cereals in that same year amounted to
5,340 milhon poods, valued at 2,800
million roubles. Thus the American
farmers gathered in 63 per cent, more —
in weight — than the Russians. And 3^et
the population of the tsardom is, roughly
speaking, double that of the North
American Republic.
If we now inquire how much of the corn
is eaten by the people who raise it, we
shall find the Russian husbandman
r,.! r. . lagging far behind his rivals.
The Food T X ^ i I 1
In fact, one may truly say ol
_ . him what was said of the
Peasants
French tiller before the revo-
lution : " He always has too little to eat,
and occasionally dies of hunger." During
the year 1904 the American citizen
consumed 54*3 poods of corn; the Ger-
man, 28-0; Austro - Hungarian, 23*3 ;
French, 23-3 ; British, 23*0; Russian, 18-3.
The melancholy significance of these
figures will become more clear when we
53C-7
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
bear in mind that together with corn foods
the other peoples eat meat, fish, eggs,
vegetables, butter, and fruits in much
larger quantities than Russians. Nor
should it be forgotten that Russia exports
about t5 })er cent, of the entire harvest of
cereals, which amounts to about 3 to 4
Tk c poods a head of the popula-
Thc Scanty ^^^^ ^^^^ following SUggCS-
Fare of the ,. . ■, -, ■ " ^ i^u
„ . tive table gives m poods the
Russians , , . i , 1
production and the consump-
tion of the five cereals enumerated above
by six nations in 1894 and 1904 :
Countries
Protluction
per head
Consumption
per head
1894
1904
1894
1904
Britain
IO-8
8-2
23*9
2^'0
Germany . .
France
21 • I
27'2
26' I
28-4
23"7
27 "S
28-0
23'3
Austria-Hungary . .
United States
Russia
24-9
5i'3
26-6
23-1
72-8
26-3
23'I
42-8
22-8
23"3
54*3
i8-3
The sameness and scantiness of the
Russian peasant's repasts are all the more
surprising that game is abundant in the
interior and fish plentiful in Russian
seas, rivers and lakes. The amount
of fish caught in Russian waters every year
is computed by the well-known expert,
Borodin, at 1,120 million kilogrammes, of
which about 19.000,000 kilogrammes are
caught in the Caspian Sea ; 35,000,000 in
the Baltic and White Seas ; 17,000,000 in
the Black Sea and Sea of Azov ; over
6,000,000 in the Arctic and Pacific Oceans ;
and 5,000,000 in the Ural Sea.
Carp and perch contribute about
754,000,000 kilogrammes ; herring about
152,000,000 ; salmon, about 45,000,000;
sturgeon, approximately, 34,000,000 ;
different other kinds, about 40,000,000 ;
not counting 64,000,000 kilos of fresh-
water fish. And it should be borne in
mind that this wealth of fish food is
obtained with a minimum of expenditure
in money and labour, for fisheries and
})isciculture in Russia are still in a very
. , primitive state. The sea, like
G^^^tV' h ^^^^ land, is being ruthlessly
Supply
plundered ; poaching is almost
universal, and down to a short
time ago close seasons were openly dis-
regarded. Yet Russia supplies three times
as much fish as the United States, five
times as much as Great Britain, and six
times as much as France. The amount
of cattle possessed by the peasantry,
according to the latest statistics, was
5308
in 1908 : in European Russia, exclu-
sive of Poland, 25,000,000 head ; in
Poland, 3,000,000 ; in Asiatic Russia,
6,000,000 ; in the Caucasus, 5,000,000 ;
in Finland, 2,000,000. But although the 1
absolute total in that year was undoubt- |
edly greater than in any of the foregoing
years, the percentage per i.ooo souls of
the population had fallen perceptibly. In
the sixties of the last century it was
about 340 ; in the seventies, 327 ; in the
eighties, 319 ; in the nineties, 311.
Fires caused by gross neglect or malice
constitute one of the scourges of the
tsardom. It is computed that every
year fire destroys property valued at
400,000,000 roubles, about £42,000,000.
Of every thousand roubles' worth insured
bj'' the various companies almost 80 per
cent, of the premium is thus consumed.
Assuming that the value of insured
property in the tsardom amounts to
sixty milliards of roubles, the yearly
loss suffered by the insurance companies
alone through fire is estimated by
experts at 336,000,000 roubles. And this
forms but a portion of the total loss,
because a large amount of pro-
perty is never insured. Now,
a considerable percentage of
these fires might be easily hin-
dered by the application of ordinary
prudence on the part of the peasants
and by watchfulness on the part of
the authorities, who have done little
to suppress incendiarism.
Among the Sphinx questions of the
year of the revolution, 1905, the economic
condition of the Russian working man was
thrust in the foreground as the most
pressing of all. And, considering that
the changes brought about in the social
and political framework of Russia were
due in large part to the strikes organised
by factory hands, the mistake was par-
donable. And crying evils'were redressed.
The Russian workman, having beaten the
world's record for strikes, had most
of his genuine grievances speedily
remedied ; the hours of work have
been shortened, the pay has been
raised, the risks have been lessened,
the methods of terminating his engagement
have been made eas}' and satisfactory to
him, and over and above he has dealt a
stunning blow to the employers of labour,
whose profits he has cut down, and whose
business he has in many cases wholly
ruined. But jjarallel with the rise in
Improved
State of the
Workers
RUSSIA IN OUR OWN TIME
wages went the increase in prices for the
necessaries of hfe, and some articles are
further out of the workmen's reach to-
day than before the revolution. In the
Moscow district in January, 1897, there
were 248,500 workmen receiving in wages
42,500,000 roubles, or, say, 170 roubles
^a year per man. In 1903 there were
293,000 men in receipt of 56,509,000,
or 192 roubles a head, making a rise
of 12 per cent. But during the same
period the prices of food rose by
25 per cent (bread), 36 per cent, (meal),
and even 50 per cent. (peas).
In consequence of the strikes of 1905-
1906 a further great rise has taken place in
the prices of bread, foodstuffs generally,
and the necessaries of life. One of the
results of the revolution was a further aug-
mentation of the wages of workmen without
any corresponding increase in their produc-
tivity. The absorbing power of the home
markets was unfavourably affected by this
perturbation. This was noticed at the
fair of Nijni Novgorod in 1908, when the
turnover fell short of the average of former
years by no less than 15-20 per cent. In
1905, women's wages were
Industry's
still very low, the average
srr'ik'ir^'' not exceeding 6-8 roubles a
month— about 12s. 6d. to
17s. 6d. Since then the lot of the working
man and woman has been very sub-
stantially bettered. In 1907 a series of
far-reaching measures, calculated to im-
prove it still further, and including in-
surance against accidents, was drafted by
the late Minister of Trade and Industry,
M. Philosofoff, and would have been laid
before the Duma in the form of a Bill had
ii not been for his sudden death at the
close of that year.
The marvellous vitality of Russian
finances and the solidity of their economic
basis were brought into sharp relief by
the revolutionary movement of 1905,
which dealt a severe blow to industry,
commerce and finances. In 1905 the num-
ber of strikes totalled 13,110, while the
number of workmen taking part in them
amounted to no less than 2,709,695. The
damage done was incalculable. ' This
phenomenon is unprecedented in the
economic history of Europe. It may well
be doubted whether in any other country
the financial and industrial fabrics would
have successfully borne such a formidable
strain. In Russia the gold standard is
still intact ; trade, commerce, and in-
dustry, although ])assiiig chrough a ])io-
tracted crisis, are seemingly regaining
their buoyancy, and altogether the out-
look, without being precisely inspiriting,
is described by observant Russians as less
depressing than might reasonably have
been expected. Russia's credit in 1909
may be gauged by the terms on which she
„ . concluded her 4?, per cent.
Russia 1 y £ r, .
, . . „ . loan in anuarv of that year.
Living Beyond t^, -'. , -^ 1^,1
„ j^ Ihe conjuncture was highly
unfavourable. War clouds
hung over the Balkan Peninsula. It was
feared that Austria, Turkey, Bulgaria,
Servia, and possibly Russia herself, might be
drawn into the coming sanguinar}^ struggle.
The Russian rente stood at 77:}, and it
was known that the Finance Minister must
at almost all costs raise funds abroad in
order to pa\' off the war loan of 300,000,000 .
roubles contracted in France in 1904. Yet,
despite these adverse conditions, a loan of
450,000,000 roubles was raised in January,
1909, of which the usual price was 89I, the
bankers' commission 3f , and the net pro-
ceeds received by the Treasury, 85A. And
considering all the circumstances, these re-
sults are considered to be fairly satisfactory.
At the same time it cannot be gainsaid
that Russia has now reached a point at
which she must either live by the exertions
of her own wealth-creating class, without
the continuous help of foreign capitalists,
or else be content, after a series of financial
crushes, to find her normal level. To
many who are quite unbiassed observers
she appears to be now living beyond her
means. The vast sums which are about
to be spent on the strategic Amoor rail-
way at a time when the army and the
police have yet to be reorganised, the
navy to be rebuilt, the peasants to
be financed in their new character
of tenant farmers, education to be
cheapened and diffused, the whole
system of internal administration to be
remodelled, fill one with misgivings, not,
indeed, as to Russia's re-
Thc Nation g^m-ces, which are enormous,
in Danger of ^^^^ respecting the ability of
Bankruptcy ^^^^ ^J^^^ ^^ ^^^.^j^^ ^^^
Utilise them sufficiently to make the revenue
cover the expenditure. With reluctance I
venture to utter my strong conviction that
unless some genial administrator — a states-
man as well as a specialist — successfully
encounters the hero's task of reconstruct-
ing the financial and economic fabric of the
Russian Empire, applying freely the drastic
5309
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
remedies by which alone the present dis-
orders are curable, the nation, having first
lost its old standard, will inevitably sink
into the slough of bankruptcy and
financial anarchy before the Russian
constitution is twenty-four years old.
That the peasant is too heavily taxed
considering his present income is as
evident as it is that his present
income is much too slender
Defects
in Financial
System
considering the extent to whicli
sobriety, thrift, and industry
might increase it. Another defect in the
present financial system is that the tax-
gathering is done in September, when the
farmer is obliged to sell what he has just
threshed in order to satisfy the collector.
For there is no postponing the season ; it
is as the laws of the Medes and Persians.
Even in districts where tobacco is grown,
which cannot be brought to market before
November, the taxes are, for the sake of
aniformity, gathered in September. The
resalt is that in many places where ready
money is not available the belongings of
the farmer are distrained.
The pivot of the financial machinery is
the sale to foreign countries of cereals,
which contribute more than any other
kind of export to pay the interest on the
foreign debt. For the balance of trade in
Russia must necessarily be active ; that
is to say, the total value of the exports
must largely exceed that of the imports.
That is one of the consequences of
the nation's indebtedness. Russia
is forced to sell part of the harvest
to her neighbours, however urgent
may be her own need of it. In 1908 the
exportation of corn and other foodstuffs
fell off to a disquieting extent affecting
the trade balance correspondingly. The
following comparison of the value of the
exports and imports in millions of roubles
tor the last four years needs no further
commentary :
Value of
I Value of
exports in ' imports in ,
I million roubles I million roubles .™P°'''s '"
EN-'cess of
exports over
1905
1906
1907
1908
IOI7
1043 "5
1016-8
932
million roubles
583
650-5
759-8
752-8
434
393
257
179-2
Manufactures in Russia, which were,
so to say, built up by the Finance Minister,
Witte, with the money of foreign capit-
alists, are still suffering from the strikes,
the spoliation, and the incendiarism that
5310
accompanied the revolution. The West
Russian Manchester, Lodz, until 1905
one of the most prosperous manufacturing
cities in Europe, was well-nigh ruined and
swept out of existence by the anarchistic <
wave. And the recent sudden increase in I
the activity of the Moscow manufactures
and the briskness of their trade is attribut-
able solely to the ruin of those at Lodz.
At present, however, there are signs that
Russian industry is slowly recuperating —
the staple industries, metallurgy, the
collieries, the Baka oil-wells, are no
longer stagnant. Russian firms have
competed successfully for orders from
Italy and other foreign countries for
railway waggons and metal rails. In
short, the lowest depths of depression
appear to have been reached, and the
present rise, if very gradual, is at least
continuous. At the same time, it should
not be forgotten that a large percentage
of the capital sums invested in Russian
industry melted away wholly during the
heat of the revolution. And yet the
Russian money market still offers un-
commonly favourable terms for capital.
During a great part of the year
ai way ^ jgoS the official rate of discount
Building in ^ .11.1
„ . was 7f per cent., while the
private rate was still higher.
Even on excellent security advances bore
interest at the rate of 10 per cent.
In the tsardom there is hardly any
capital available for industrial enterprises.
It is mostly locked up in Government securi-
ties. About 25 per cent, of the foreign
loans is held in Russia by Russians, or,
say, 344,000,000 roubles ; while over a
milliard and a half has been invested in
internal loans during the past five years.
The building of new railways and the
working of old ones generally offer a fair
test of the level of a country's material
prosperity. In Russia, since the war.
little has been attempted in the way of
constructing new lines. Some that had
been begun before have been completed,
such as the Moscow girdle line, the
Orenburg-Tashkent, the Perm-Ekaterin-
burg lines, and a few others. In 1908
the gfandiose Amoor railway, which is
expected to cost much and bring in
little, was begun. The second track
of the Trans-Siberian was commenced, and
a most useful line connecting Northern
Russia with the Donetz coal district was
undertaken by a private company. But
railways, which create wealth in other
RUSSIA IN OUR OWN TIME
countries, are not profitable in Russia.
They are often ruinous, owing to the
frauds in countless shapes which turn the
immense profits into the pockets of dis-
honest schemers. Millions of passengers
travel without tickets every year, and
many of them lord it over those who pay
their way. The railways are forced to
pay enormous damages for the loss of
fictitious consignments. In short, the
losses needlessly incurred in exploiting
the principal lines are enormous, and it is
the peasant, the workman, and the
maniafacturer who f - -
have at last to make
good this deficit. It
is computed that
100,000,000 roubles
are swallowed up
every year by these
colossal frauds. And
in lieu of plucking up
this abuse by the
roots, the authori-
ties, finding it less
troublesome to lessen
the deficit by raising
the passenger tariff,
have had recourse to
this expedient, with
undesirable results.
First-class passengers
are either disappear-
ing altogether from
several lines, or they
are repress nted by the
privileged people who
still travel gratis.
Experts affirm that
as the peasants might
easily increase their
slender yearly pit-
tance by thrift,
sobriety, and sheer
hard work, so the
Government might convert the sempiternal
deficit into a handsome surplus by exploit-
ing on businesslike principles the railways,
woods and forests, the state lands, the
minerals, and the fisheries of the empire,
all of which are now being managed with
a degree of perfunctoriness which differs
little from culpable negligence. Clever
railway managers like those whose names
are so well known in Great Britain and the
United States would soon change the
annual loss of 100,000,000 roubles into a
large net profit. The colossal wealth of
forests which now bring in but ^{6, 000, 000
TWO CELEBRAThD KUbblAN AUTHORS
Count Leo Tolstoy and Maxim Gorky, whose portraits are
given above, are Both novelists who take the side of the
poor and endeavour to bring about better social con-
ditions, though the latter has not the religious enthusiasm
which characterises Tolstoy's writings. Tolstoy, having
resigned all privileges of rank, now lives as a poor man.
sterling might easily be made to yield
twice that sum. The naphtha wells in
Baku and numerous other districts could
and should be made the sources of a
splendid annual revenue, whereas, at
present, they enrich only a few individuate.
The fisheries, which are far and away the
most abundant in the world, are at present
worth no more than £215,000 a year.
The State mining industries are carried on
at a dead loss. The financial operations
of the Imperial Russian Bank do not
bring in much more than £10,000,000
sterhng to the state.
In a word, the
sources are abun-
dant, but no one
tries to tap them
})roperly. Russia
has it in her power
to pay her way and
prosper. But she
seemingly lacks the
will. The results are
all the more deplor-
able that they could
so easily be avoided.
One of these re-
sults is the enormous
indebtedness of the
nation. And it is
increasing, not
diminishing. If we
compare the Russian
estimates for 1909
with those of pre-
vious years, we shall
find it hard to shake
of^ the conviction
that the ordinary
expenditure is gi-ow-
ing out of all propor-
tion to the growth of
the ordinary revenue.
The yearly excess of
ordinary revenue over ordinary outlay has
been in millions of roubles in :
1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909
148-8 111-5 99-3 145 '9 146" 5 74'4 4"^'
Between the years 1903 and 1909 the
annual income of the state went up from
2,031,080,000 roubles to 2,447,000,000,
while the expenditure • rose from
1,883,000,000 to 2,472,020,000. The
total Budget of 1907 showed a deficit ol
52,770,000 roubles ; in the following
year an internal loan of 200,000,000 was
required to cover the deficit ; and in 1909 a
foreign loan of 450,000,000 was floated.
5311
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
Russia Blind
to her
Possibilities
Russia's indebtedness is, therefore, ajipal-
iing. As compared with her potentiahties,
it is not perhaps alarming ; but con-
trasted with her annual revenue, and the
slight wealth-creating power of the state,
it is becoming disquieting. If the business
nianagement of the empire — abstraction
made from politics — were in competent
hands, guided by resourceful
heads, there would be nothing
to fear, lor Russia's potential
wealth is reasonably believed to
be immense. But as things now are, and
bid fair to continue, the symptoms are
not suggestive of impending prosperity.
Almost one-fourth of the yearly outlay is
spent on the service of the debt, which has
increased since 1903 by over 40 per cent.
In the year igo2 it amounted to
6,664,000,000 roubles. In 1909 it had
grown to 9,175,000,000.
And this enormous total would have
been utterly inadequate to the needs of
the empire were it not for the unpalat-
able fact that about 28 per cent, of
the ordinary income derives from the
alcohol state monopoly. This is the sale of
vodka by the Government, which was con-
ceived with the best intentions by Alex-
ander III., but has proved, according to
the testimony of the most competent
authorities, a curse to the Russian nation.
The number of million vedros — a vedro
is 2704 gallons — of vodka consumed
yearly from 1901 to 1906 is as follows :
In 1901 49-5 In 1904 7 1 '2
,, 1902 66"0 „ 1905 75-9
,, 1903 7 1 "5 ,. 1906 85-0
One of the most gifted and best in-
formed Russian publicists, M. Menshikoff,
writes : "It must not be supposed that
the alcoholic poison has infected the
lower classes only. It has tainted in a
like degree the petty tradesfolk, the mer-
chants, the clergy, the bureaucrats of
cities, and it numbers many victims
among the higher intelligent classes."
The injury inflicted by drunken-
ness on the physical and moral
constitution of the Russian
race is incalculable, and it is
clear to many that degeneration is the
ultimate form it usually assumes. Disease
and crime are its ordinary accompaniments.
Characteristic is the fact that in many
places children are among its victims.
In a Zemsky Council of the province of
Perm the drunkenness of school children
was one of the themes discussed, and the
5312
Widespread
Curse of
Drunkenness
council, having heard the report of the
school inspector of the district, called for
further details with a view to the adop-
tion of repressive measures. (Cf. " No-
voye Vremya," November loth, 1908.)
It is, perhaps, hardly to be wondered at
that the peasantry, whose monotonous
lives consist mainly of an alternation of
hardship and oblivion, should seek to
vary it by the artificial mirth and tempo-
rary forgetfulness bestowed by inebriety.
Against such vices as this, and the crimes
to which it leads, legislation is powerless.
Unless the youth of the country can be
made amenable to moral influences such
as will enable it to face and withstand
temptation, the hope of lasting betterment
is slender indeed. Religion in Orthodox
Russia is doubtlessly still a beneficent
force, but it seldom moulds the youthful
mind or steels the tender wifl. And nothing
has taken its place. Since the revolutionary
wave passed over the land the latent symp-
toms of general anarchism, which long lay
dormant, have been brought into the light
of day. Now, therefore, there is at least
hope that the hideous disease may
be cared, which would other-
Schools ^-gg induce general paralysis.
But by whom ? The clergy
of the Orthodox Church are
badly educated, badly housed, underfed,
and exposed to all kinds of temptations.
The ecclesiastical schools where the religious
shepherds are trained have forfeited the
character of educational establishments
in the good sense of the term. A professor
of the Ecclesiastical Academy of St. Peters-
burg, Professor Glubokoftsky, gives a
description of their working in terms that
make Russian patriots shudder. There is
no teaching there, no docihty, no obedi-
ence, and tlie morals are disgusting. Even
the celebrated Ober Procuror of the Most
Holy Synod, K. Pobedonostseff, deliber-
ately stated shortly before his death that
" the ecclesiastical school has become a
low tavern." If the salt thus loses its
savour wherewith shall it be salted ?
The condition of ordinary secular schools
is often as bad or even worse. It would,
of course, be a gross exaggeration to assert
that the influence of all educational estab-
lishments in Russia is the reverse oi bene-
ficial. But it is fair to say that the good
schools are the exception, and one may
truly add that ever since the revolution
of 1905 the youth of Russia has been
animated by a spirit ol lawlessness and
that do not
Educate
RUSSIA IN OUR OWN TIME
gross self-indulgence with which those
teachers who strove to discharge their
duties were generally powerless to cope.
Scholars of both sexes in many parts
of Russia formed secret societies for the
])urpose of meeting together and indulging
in veritable orgies. The majority, while
eschewing such uncleanness, refused
obedience to their teachers, came to school
or absented themselves as they liked,
openly criticised their masters, and some-
times turned the school into a tavern or a
gambling den. In a Moscow boarding
school for children of the nobility, forty
scholars struck work in 1908 because they
were dissatisfied with the conduct of the
director. The head-master, it appears,
had demurred to those boarders who failed
to come home before one o'clock a.m.
The indignant young gentlemen first
complained of the head-master to the
marshal of the nobility, and, having
received no redress, quitted the school.
In one of the educational establishments
at Kharkoff the boys were allowed to
have their own smoking-room ; but they
turned it into a gambling hell, and drove
. away the inspector who came to
s onis mg ggg what they were doing. In
School n^n- 111 t- •
_ , ,. liflis a schoolboy, havmg re-
Kevelations i 1 j 1.11
ceived bad marks lor his lesson,
protested. His comrades supported him
energetically but vainly. At last they
ordered the school council to expimge the
bad marks and put good ones in their place,
threatening unless this were done to throw
bombs. And the school council complied.
In the city of Kutais the governor-general
received an anonymous letter condemning
him to death. Very shortly after this it
came to his knowledge that the missive
had emanated from the state grammar
school, and that one of the fifth form
boys had been deputed to kill him. His
excellency, repairing to the educational
establishment, . entered the fifth class
during a lesson, and exclaimed abruptly :
" Master G., you were chosen by lot to
kill me. Eh ? " The boy curled up with
fear and muttered : " Pardon, your
excellency, pardon, I — I — can — you know
— ^decline — ^refuse — ^to do it." " Oh, well, it
doesn't matter. I'll forgive you this time,"
was the astonishing reply, and, so saying,
his excellency walked away majestically.
And the lad was not even rebuked !
None of the very distressing phenomena
that characterised the Russian revolution
have challenged such widespread attention
or occasioned such serious misgivings as
the vicious jirecosity of Russian youth.
Not content with aping the vices of their
elders, they strove to outdo them. Even
virtue and innocence, which were happily
well represented during that period of
unbridled licence, generally paid the toll
of self-disguise to vice. The revolution,
_ y. . however, merely brought out
Prrcosity°of ^ disease that had long been
Young Russia ^^^^^V fu' ?''''^ ^''''^■"' ^^^^
viously the fermentation of
ideas produced bj/ the germs of revolu-
tionary literature had been proceeding
unchecked. Maxims and principles were
instilled into the minds of children which
were strong dissolvents of traditional
morality, and, if pushed far enough, of
the basis of social life.
In elementary schools the old ideals were
methodically dethroned. Vice and virtue
were made to derive their changeful cha-
racter from the social and political views
of the individual. Thus, to rob or
steal was a good action if undertaken
for the purpose, say, of despoiling
the rich and succouring the poor man.
Killing was not murder if the assassin's
motives were politically or socially revolu-
tionary. Religion and traditional ethics,
which taught doctrines the reverse of
these, were envisaged as a set of social
shackles from which mankind could not
be too soon emancipated. In a word, the
baleful influence of these " educational "
currents, felt for nearly forty years, cannot
easily be over-estimated.
When the Press censorship was removed
the sluice gates of this reservoir of turbid
nihilism were suddenly burst open. For
months the sphere of journalism and
literature was flooded with the waters of
anti-religious, anti-ethical, anti-social doc-
trines and sentiments. Everything that
had been held sacred by former generations
was anathematised as degrading or held
up to derision by this. Parental affection,
. conjugal fidelity, and respect for
^t'^u-^I the convictions of others when
.,...". * those others happened to be
Nihilism ^. . ^^ ,., .
conservatives in politics or
religion, were scoffed at as irrational and
antiquated. To revealed creeds, to
patriotism, ethics, clean living, no quarter
was given by the leading iconoclasts,
who hypnotised the young generation.
Free love was preached and practised
by the youth of the intermediate
schools, who founded " free -love leagues,"
5313
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
The Mirror
of
Literature
drew up by-laws which membei's were
bound to observe, and utterty ruined
many j-ouths of both sexes. At last the
Press drew attention to the evil, and the
Minister of Public Instruction endeavoured
to uproot it. But the mere surgery of
administrative measures was unavailing.
"The roots of the disease must be treated,"
wrote one of the most widely-
spread journals. " And these,"
it added, " are to be found in
ourselves, in the whole social
organism, in the decay of the family, in
the depravity of fathers and mothers."
Whether the cure will be successfully
accomplished, it is unhappily certain that
the young generation will come to the front
morally and intellectually enfeebled by
the ravages of one of the most malignant
tliseases that can befall the social organism.
The morbid feelings and subversive
notions which are among the symptoms
of this fell malady are necessarily mirrored
in the popular literature, which therefore
throws a strong light on latter-day Russia.
But the Russian literature of to-day is
much more than a mirror. Some sections
of it might, perhaps, be aptly likened to a
laboratory where noxious germs are care-
fully cultivated which warp the mind,
disfigure the soul, and produce the
monstrous shapes that excite our disgust.
Characters which Wycherly and Congreve
would have shuddered even to contem-
plate are not only described in latter-day
novels and stories with artistic talent and
undisguised sympathy, but they are
associated with the highest of the new
ideals held up to the Russian nation. To
say that many of the literary productions
which characterise the revolutionary epoch
are public outrages on morals and religion
is to put the case with studied moderation.
The British public knows something of
Maxim Gorky and Leonid Andre \^eff, but
one may doubt whether it has ever
read the works of Artsybasheff, whose
. " Sanyin " would have been
Russian confiscated by the police of
Writers, ucod ^ ,t-)-,- a , • r-
._ ' GreatBntam, Austria, or Ger-
and Bad r tt- -on i.
many; of Kuzmm, bollogub,
Kamenski, and a host of others. It
is only fair to add that many of
the works of these writers are quite free
from the taint of immorality. Sollogub's
" Little Devals " is a powerful story, and
Kuzmin's verses are technically perfect.
But such tales, for instance, as " Four,"
or " Leda," by A. Kamenski, or " Sanin,"
5314
by Artsybasheff, cannot be too severely
condemned, whether we view them
from the ethical angle of vision or
the sesthetical.
Wrought upon for decades by disinte-
grating forces such as those enumerated
above, Russia's vital powers could not but
be seriously impaired. And the present
plight of the nation movies one to pity.
An ardent friend of Russia, himself a Slav
patriot, has put his impressions frankly
upon record as follows : " What I am going
to say has a paradoxical ring about it, but
it is none the less true. There is no Russian
nation. With an Orthodox Russian people
we are indeed acquainted, a people
numbering 88,000,000, whose religious con-
victions offer them a substitute for every-
thing in the nature of national ideas
possessed by other peoples. But we look
in vain for a compact Russian nation
permeated with identical interests. And
the most amazing trait of this phenomenon
is the circumstance that this gigantic mass
of people speaks one tongue, cherishes one
faith, and yet in spite of it all shows so
little understanding for the common ties
that bind it to the State.
° J*"* .^ It is no satisfactory explana
of Russian _ j . r
Society
tion to say that lack of culture
and geographical conditions
are answerable for this. The fundamental
causes lie deeper : it is that egotism
peculiar to all Slav peoples which finds
it so hard to make sacrifices for the
common weal, either in the narrow or
the broader sense of the term."
These are some of the solvents of Russian
society with the effects of which on con-
crete men and women, and doubtless on
the whole Russian organism, the rising
generation will soon be confronted.
Happily there are also several powerful
factors on the other side — religious sec-
tarianism, partial revivals in the Orthodox
Church, strenuous efforts by Russian
Lutherans, and even the reforming zeal of
ordinary citizens who, having cultivated
the moral sense, would gladly rescue their
youthful compatriots from the abyss that
now threatens to engulf them.
From the Orthodo.x Church, with its
atrophied organs, its demoralised schools,
and its good-natured, half-starving clergy,
no miracles in the social sphere can ye I be
expected. The essence of Russia's religious
creed — one of the facets of the trinity of
which Panslavism was once composed —
lies in the life to come, the world beyond
RUSSIA IN OUR OWN TIME
the grave. Death is the starting-point
of everything worth knowing, worth
possessing, and therefore worth striving
lor. Hence, strange though it may
seem, death is the central point of the
orthodox faith ; hfe is dull, grey, repel-
lent ; it is only the sunset of existence
that tinges everything, not, indeed, with
its own splendour, but with the ineffable
glory of the world to come. It is
no exaggeration to assert that of all
Christian creeds and churches, there is
not one that contributes less to the
equipment of its adherents for the stern
life struggle here below than the contem-
porary Orthodox Russian Church.
Panslavism, of which orthodoxy was one
of the three bases, has thus been thrust
from the foreground of the scene on which
Russia is now playing her part. Belief in
her heaven-sent mission among the effete
nations of two continents may still perhaps
linger on in the breasts of the veteran
contemporaries of Khomyakoff and Aksa-
koff, but it is no longer a stimulating or an
active force in the community. Had it
been otherwise, it would have aroused the
nation in 1908. The anti-Slav policy then
struck out by the Austro-Hun-
garian Secretary for Foreign
Affairs, Baron von Aehrenthal,
when he annexed Bosnia and
Herzegovina, thwarted the scheme of a
Balkan Confederation, and buried the last
hopes of the Southern Slavs, would have
unchained an irresistible popular outburst.
The Government, however firm its reso-
lution to keep the peace, would have been
driven to resist, and, if needs were, to
tight, as in 1877. For the issues were
Thwarting the
Balkan
Confederation
vital ; the moment was critical ; the choice
of alternatives would be final. But nearly
everything turned out as the Austrian
statesman had expected. Russia's defence
of her kith and kin was verbal. Bound by
secret treaties to remain an inactive spec-
tator of the incorporation of the Slav
provinces, she accepted the inevitable.
_ . . She could not well begin a diplo-
Russia s , • • , ^
Do btf i rn3.tic campaign agamst a mea-
Future ^ure, however far-reaching, to
which she had already deliber-
ately given her assent. And the con-
dition of her army, as well as the state
of her finances, agriculture, and industry,
forced her to eschew a disastrous mili-
tary conflict, which would have been the
sole alternative to any attempt at evading
her treaty obligations.
From whatever angle of vision we con-
template the Russia of to-day, we are
struck with the contrast between her
boundless potentialities and the sordid
reality, and with the vast distance between
promise and achievement, which are
divided by a seemingly infinite abyss.
One might aptly liken the Russian nation
to a very complex mechanism, forged
by some latter day Vulcan, and then
taken to pieces.
Properly put together, set in motion,
and guided by a genial engineer, it
might prove one of the main factors in
the latter-day history of Europe and the
human race. But of this there is no sign.
The pieces still lie scattered about, half
corroded with rust, and the most opti-
mistic feeling they arouse in the minds of
Russia's friends who contemplate them
is a vague hope. E. J. Dillon
TYPICAL RUSSIAN PRIESTS AND MILITARY OFFICERS
5315
ESSENTIAL INFORMATION ABOUT RUSSIA
Area anij Population. The Russian Empire
contains one-seventh of the dry land of the surface
of the earth, and its total area, reckoning the
reduction arranged by the Treaty of Portsmouth
after the Russo-Japanese War, and including tiie
area of inland waters, is now 8,(547, <357 square miles.
This is made up as follows :
—
Area English
sg. miles.
Population.
European Russia (divided into 50
provinces)
Poland (divided into 10 provinces)
European Caucasus (3 provinces)
Trans-Caucasia (11 provinces) . .
Siberia (9 provinces)
Steppes (4 provinces)
Turlcestan (4 provinces)
Trans-Caspia
Finland . .
Internal Waters (Caspian Sea, *c.)
1,862,524
49,018
85,201
95,402
4,786,730
710,905
400,770
213,855
125.784
317,468
109,354 600
10,947,300
4,343,900
6,114,600
6.740,600
2,797,400
5,746,600
397.100
2,857,200
Total
», 647, 657
149,299,300
The towTis with a population of more than
100,000 are as follow :
EuBOPEAN Russia : St. Petersburg, 1,429,000; Moscow,
1.359,254 ; Warsaw, 756,426 ; Odessa, 449,673 ; Lodz,
351,570; Kiev, 319,000 ; Riga, 282.230 ; Kharl<ov, 173,989 ;
Vilna, 162,633 ; Kazan, 143,707 ; Saratov, 137,147 ;
Yekaterinoslav, 135,552; Kisliinev, 125,787; Astrakhan,
121,580; Rostov on Don, 119,476; TuJa, 114,733; Helsing-
fors," 106,067.
Asiatic RrssiA : Baku, 179,133; Tiflis, 159,590 ; Tash-
kent, 155,673.
Government. In 1905 the creation of the
Russian Parliament, or Gosudarstvennaya Duma,
laid the foimdation of political liberty. The Duma
is the Lower Chamber, and election to it is made
by electoral bodies in the chief towns and govern-
ments. The Council of the Empire is the Upper
Legislative Chamber. Half of the members are
elected for nine years, and the other half are
appointed by the tsar, who also appoints the
President and vice-President. Members of the
Upper House must be not less than forty years of age,
and possess an academical degree. Members of both
houses are paid. Both Houses have equal legislative
powers, and both must pass any measiu"e before it is
laid before the tsar for ratification. There are also
several boards or councils which are entrusted with
both deliberative and executive powers — the Ruling
Senate, which is also the supreme judicial authority;
the Holy Synod, which is composed of bishops and
supervises the religious matters of the empire ; and,
the most important of all, the Council of Mmisters,
consisting of the 14 Ministers of State and the general
directors of the most important administrations.
Emperor: The tsar is Nicholas II., Emperor of
all the Russias, and eighth ruler of the House of
Romanof-Holstein. He was born on May 18th,
1868, and succeeded his father in 1894.
Dependencies. Russia has no colonies, properly
so called, but in Central Asia she has two vassal
states, Bokhara and Khiva [see page 1533].
Finance. The revenue for the year 1906 was
£354,733,080, and the expenditure was £339,610,000.
The chief sources of revenue were state loans, state
monopolies (sale of spirits, telegraphs and posts),
state domains (railways, forests, mines), indirect
taxes (customs, sugar, naphtha, matches, etc.),
trade licences, and stamp and other duties. The
Russian National Debt at the beginning of 19i>7
was about £915,000,000.
Industry and Commerce. The Russian Empire
has about 333,000,000 acres under crops, two-thirds
of the acreage being under cereals. The chief I'rops
of European Russia and Poland are hay, potatoco,
5316
rye, wheat, oats, and barley. In South Russia and
Siberia wheat takes the place of rye as the chief
cereal. P^lax, hemp, tobacco, cotton, and silk are
also important industries. In Russian Central Asia
the growth of the cotton industry is especially
remarkable, having trebled in output in fotir years.
About half of Rassia is forest land, and the state is
the largest owner of forests, holding as much as
64 per cent, of the entire forest land of Em-opean
Russia. The chief minerals of RvLssia are coal,
naphtha, iron, salt, copper and zinc, but the mineral
wealth of Rassia and of Siberia is supposed to be as
yet barely tapped. The oil-field of the Baku
district is the most important known. In European
Russia and Caucasia, manufactories find employ-
ment for 1,711, 755 people. The chief manufactories
are, in the order of their importance, in the following
classes — textile, food, metal, ceramics, wood, paper,
chemicals, and leather. But manufacturing indus-
tries are still in a backward state. The value of
Russia's exports for the year 1907 was £110,431,572
and the value of her imports was £78,609,164.
The chief articles of export were corn, timber, and
wooden goods, flax, eggs, dairy produce, furs, and
leather, oil-cake, naphtha, and naphtha oils, cotton.
sugar, hemp, fowl and game, and horses. The chiet
imports were raw cotton, machinery, textiles, metal
goods, wool and wool j'arn, tea, coal, raw metals,
leather and hides, fish, silk, and chemicals.
Currencv. The legal unit is the rouble, which
contains 100 kopeks, and is worth 2s. l^d. The
usual calculation is that 946 roubles = £1.
1 kopek = Jd.
100 kopeks = 1 rouble = 2s. IJd.
15 roubles = 1 imperial = 31s. 5Ad.
The rouble is a silver coin. There are new gold
coins for 5 and 10 roubles. There are also issued
notes for 1, 3, 5, 10, 25, 50, 100, and 500 roubles.
In Finland the coinage has the same basis as the
French currency [see page 5398], except that the
centime value is called a penni, of which 100 make a
markha, which equals a franc. The standard is
gold, though the markha is not coined in gold. The
coins are (copper) 1, 5, and 10 penni ; (silver) \, \,
1 and 2 markha ; (gold) 10 and 20 markha.
Weights and Measures. The Finnish weights
and measures follow the metric system [see page
5399]. but the Russian weights and measures are
as follows :
Lineal
1 vershok = 1"75 inches.
1 stopa = 350 inches.
1 archine = 28 inches.
1 sagfene = 7 feet.
500sag6nes =• 1 verst = ],166i yards or "662878 mile.
Surface
1 square archine = 67'1 sq. ins.
9 sq. archines= 1 square sagfcne = 784 sq. ins.
2400 sq. sag^nes = 1 dessiatine = 13,067 sq. yds.
Weights of Commerce
1 dola = '69 grain.
1 zolotnick — 65"83 grains.
1 lotti = 197-49 grains,
liana = 1 l/5thoz.(abou<)
Ifnnt or pound = -902818 lb.
1 pood = 36 1/1 0th lb.
1 berkovitz = 361 1/lOthlb.
1 packen = 1083 Jib.
Britain to Russia : Letters.
8 vershoks =
2 stopas =
3 archine
96 dola
3 zolotnicks
8 zolotnicks
12 lanas or 32 lotti
40 fnnts
•10 poods
3 berkovitz
Postage. Great
papers, and samples, as for France [see page 5398].
Parcels for RiLssia in Europe : via Hamburg, 2s..
2s. 6d., and 3s. for 3, 7- and 11 lb. respectively ; via
Ostend, Flushing, or Sweden, 2s. 3d., 2s. 9d., and
3s. 3d. To Asiatic Russia, Is. per parcel extra.
Telegr.ams. Great Britain to Russia in Euroi>c,
4kl. per word ; to Russia in Asia, Is. per word ;
private telegrams in cypher not accepted.
EUROPEAN
POWERS
TO-DAY
II
TURKEY.
GREECE AND
THE BALKANS
J
TURKEY, GREECE AND THE
BALKANS IN OUR OWN TIME
DAWN OF LIBERTY IN THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE
By F. A. McKenzie
^^F all the great changes that have
^^ swept over the world during our
time, two stand out as of overwhelming
importance — the awakening of Asia,
following on the triumphs of Japan, and
tlie reconstruction of Eastern Europe.
The Balkan Peninsula is in the midst
of a period of far-reaching transformation.
Here all the races of the world seem mixed.
We have the Turk, long over-lord of all,
but now driven, back in Europe on a terri-
tory not much more than half the size of
Great Britain. In Bulgaria we find a com-
bination of white, Mongol, and gipsy, giving
us the energetic and progressive Bulgar
as we now know him. Elsewhere we have
Slav and Latin, the Slav ever forcing him-
self to greater place by his growing
numbers. Greek, Roumanian, Czech,
Bulgar, Serb and Albanian all dwell around
these mountains. To the struggle of race
is added the even more bitter struggles
of conflicting creeds. The Jew has long
been an element of discord. Mohammedan
and Christian learned here through many
ages to look at one another through a
curtain of hate ; and the Christians have
fought together like tiger-cats to maintain
their different branches of the
Turkey's
Wonderful
Revolution
Eastern Church. For Christian-
ity in the Near East has too
often meant, not the religion
of the individual, making for charity and
good deeds, but the evolution of merciless
and cruel racial prejudices.
Politically, the changes that have come,
within even a year, sound more like
romance than reality. In the early sum-
mer of 1908 the most optimistic prophets
of the progress of humanity did not dare
to whisper of hope for Turkey. Here was
a land reckoned by all — so far as her
European dominions were concerned — as
absolutely beyond redemption. " The
Sick Man of Europe " was about to die,
and expectant neighbours had completed
their plans for sharing his territories
among themselves. Now the " Sick Man "
is well on his way to recovery. Turkey,
yesterday the tomb of freedom, has
to-day become the cradle of liberty,
and her former arch-tyrant has placed
himself at the head of the party of
progress. Bulgaria, once ground down by
the Turk, reveals in her prosperous,
sturdy, and ambitious people the emer-
gence of the Bulgar to world place. Servia,
_ . despite the volatile life of her
P J capital, shows us perhaps the
p only kingdom on earth where
practically every man has
enough and to spare, and where the pro-
blems of poverty are unknown. The
gallantry of Montenegro, ready to risk
national existence for an ideal of racial
unity, commands our admiration if not
our approval. Bosnia is entering on a
period of definite subjection to Austria.
The most interesting figure in Eastern
Europe to-day, and the one around whom
much of the movement has revolved, is
Abdul Hamid, Sultan of Turkey. It is but
a year since he shared with King Leopold
the place of the most despised European
monarchs. Then they called him Abdul
the Damned. To-day he is named Abdul
the Blessed. Extravagant eulogy has
succeeded what was possibly extravagant
denunciation. But after praise and blame
have been meted out, there remains an
amazingly interesting character to study.
Abdul ascended the throne thirty-three
years ago, at a time when it seemed as
though the Turkish Empire would not
endure for another decade. During his
rule Turkey has lost many of its fairest
provinces. Bosnia and Herzegovina have
been taken by Austria. Bulgaria has
5317
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
become an independent kingdom ; Crete
has now a government of its own, and
important Asiatic sections have been
snipped ofi. Abdul long made the name
of his nation reek in the nostrils of the
world. His own people rose against him.
Yet he is Abdul — sultan. " Shadow of
God on Earth," still. Abdul was thirty-
„, _ . four when he became sultan,
„ . , . and had already matured into
Hard-working , ■'., , , .
JO,.. an earnest, hard-workmg,
and Religious , , ,. • tt i- i
deeply religious man. He did
not want the crown. His uncle had
been deposed and had died in mysterious
fashion. His brother had been made
mad and kept mad while on the throne.
Abdul knew that he was stepping into
a place where he would be the subject
of endless intrigues and plots. He pos-
sessed, unfortunately, that vivid imagina-
tion which conjures up the vision of danger
everywhere. He was essentially of a shy
and retiring disposition, and he had found
his happiest life communing with prophets
and teachers of Mohammed in the wilder-
ness. He feared as he took his place at
the head of the nation, but he took his
place though fearing.
At first the world hesitated about his
character. He started by encouraging a
movement in favour of giving Turkey
constitutional government ; but he soon
tired of that. When Russia brought down
her great armies on Turkey it was Abdul
who led his people in the war of defence,
and who, after defeat, refused to accede
to humiliating Russian demands, declar-
ing, for instance, that rather than sur-
render his navy, he would take his ships
into the Bosphorus and blow them all up,
and himself with them.
But soon worse sides of his character
came more prominently to the surface.
In administrative affairs he proved to be
a muddler, with a passion for centralising
control around himself, and often unable
to make up his mind on vital issues. In
Auj 1 i^rivate life he showed himself
Abdul a ' ] 1 TT
more and more a coward. He
became obsessed wi-th fears for
Prisoner in
His Palace
his own safety, and those
fears dominated his conduct. He shut
himself up in his Palace of Yildiz Kiosk,
refusing to go out except to the most
necessary religious services. He brooded
over the deaths of other sultans — how
some had been hurried into sacks and
thrown into the current beyond the Yildiz
walls; how some had been bled to death,
531S
some i)oisoned, some stabbed. A deadly fear
of oil men fell upon him. He would trust
none. In affairs of state, his passion for cen-
tralisation did great harm. This passion
was, in part, also due to his overpowering
distrust of others. He tried to supervise
everything himself. Business that he
could not attend to must wait, and so the
really important developments of the
country came to a standstill.
While he was deciding whether or not
bicycles should be permitted in Constan-
tinople, his ironclads were rusting in
the Bosphorus. While he was considering
the regulations for a cafe chantant in
Pera, the Powers were arranging to re-
move his authority from Macedonia. He
could not heed the complaints from
Armenia of wholesale murder because
he was busy trying to make up his mind
whether or not one particular telegram
by a British Press coriespondent should
be allowed to be sent. He would hesitate,
consider, reconsider, and give hours to
some paltry affair that should have been
settled by the sub-chief of a department
in five minutes. Under this rale of the
^ , . infinitely little, Turkev was
Turkey under ■^,^ x n- ^
th Old apparently falling to pieces.
..... .. All liberty had gone. A spy
Administration ^ 1,1 ^ • , , ,
system had been introduced,
the most ingenious ever known. When-
ever three men met in Constantinople,
one of them was probably a spy. Free
speech, a free Press, and even freedom of
thought were things forgotten. Taxes were
largely farmed, with the abuses the farm-
ing of taxes always brings. The peasant
had to cut down his date-tree to pay his
tribute. Trade suffered heavily. Towns
and cities, yesterday centres of prosperity,
were now sinking to decay and death.
Securi'ty of the person was undreamed of.
Still worse was the Turkish treatment of
subject races. The many Christian peoples
in the empire were exposed to the most
merciless oppression. The great massacres
of the Armenians horrified the world. The
endless fighting and slaughtering in Mace-
donia at last led the Powers to intervene.
A word of caution needs to be added
here. Men in other lands have been led
at times to assume that in these disputes
one saw the real Turkish character. This
is not so. All who know the Turk as
he is bear testimony to his great
courtesy and kindliness in the ordinary
dealings of life. His sobriety, honesty
and sinceritv are the admiration of
TURKEY, GREECE, AND THE BALKANS IN OUR OWN TIME
all who live with him. One can no more
judge the average Turk by Armenian
massacres than one could measure English-
men by the Whitechaj^el murders.
Macedonia affords a good example of
the peculiar difficulties of Turkish rule,
under the old administration. Here we
have a people of mixed blood and of
varied races, loving strife as other men
love wealth. Three opposing forces con-
centrated themselves on a struggle for
control : Mohammedanism, with all the
strength of Turkey behind ; Greek Chris-
tianity, owning allegiance to the Greek
Patriarch ; and Bulgar Christianity, ac-
knowledging the Bulgarian Exarch. The
strife between Mussulman and Christian has
not been a bit more merciless than that
l)etween Greek and Bulgar. The Greeks
sent their armed bands across their borders,
and the Bulgars carried on their propa-
ganda from Sofia, the Bulgarian capital.
After the great war of 1878, Macedonia
ho])ed to become part of a great Bulgaria.
The Powers, in making the Treaty of
Berlin, would not permit this, but handed
Macedonia back to Turkey. The people
. brooded, prepared, and finally
isings an appealed to arms. Thev com-
. ^ J . plamed of unspeakable oppres-
sion. In igo2 there came one
great uprising in part of Macedonia. Turkey
stamped it down with an iron heel. In
1903 there came another. Whole country-
sides were destroyed ; each party fought
the other with the utmost bitterness.
Outrages on women, the murder of
children, the spitting of babes in arms,
the burning to death of people shut up in
their homes — all these became common.
Hundreds of thousands of all ages died
under the sword or from hunger.
The fights between Greek and Bulgar
bands added a further ghastly horror.
Revolutionary "committees " were formed
throughout the province, and these
committees were even more tyrannical
than the Turks. Murder in its every
form became commonplace. Men re-
sorted to the most incredible methods of
terror, private spites were wreaked under
the name of patriotism, and a thinly
\eiled brigandage was carried on.
When Greek bands met Bulgars, fierce
lighting followed. Take one instance of a
thousand, one that happened early in 190S.
The Bulgarian inhabitants of Dragarsh
had a festival, and were celebrating it in
the usual fashion, with dance and song.
A Greek band suddenly surrounded the
place and ordered the peasants to go to
their homes. The doors of the houses
were then fastened up and the windows
closed, the dwellings were set on fire, and
men, women, and children were burnt to
death. The Powers of Europe attempted
to mend such matters by appointing a
. . foreign-controlled gendarmerie
^r^R!!i!!111»', '^ Macedonia, but racial hatred >
were so fierce that little could
of Bulgaria's
Freedom
be done. Let us turn to the
other states at this time. Perhaps the
most striking contrast to Turkey was to
be found in her neighbour and former
dependant, Bulgaria. Up to the time of
the Russo-Turkish War, Bulgaria was
governed by Turkey, and was a land of
massacres, oppression, poverty, and
wretchedness. The " Bulgarian atro-
cities," the outrages committed by Achmet
Agha and the Circassian irregular troops
in suppressing a minor rebellion in 1876,
aroused the conscience of Europe. Mr.
Gladstone, in particular, championed the
cause of the miserable people, and his
great campaign on their behalf was the
beginning of freedom for their country.
It was on Bulgarian soil that the chief
struggle of the Russo-Turkish War took
place. At the end of that war the
Powers made Bulgaria free in her internal
affairs, a nominal suzerainty being left
to Turkey. The change that has come
since then has been amazing. Bulgaria,
before many years, despite furious political
agitation, became transformed into an
exceedingLy prosperous state. On the
internal political struggles there is no
need to dwell long. Russia sought to
dominate the princedom.
The first ruler, Prince Alexander of
Battenberg, was elected when, twenty-two
years old, he was living as a poor German
officer in Potsdam. He quickly captured
the imagination and the affections of his
people. He united Eastern Roumelia to
Bulgaria, dared the wrath of Russia, and
Prince
Alexander
Abdicates
fought and defeated Servia.
He was the hero of the nation,
but the anger of Russia caused
much trouble. Time after
time his life was attempted. In the
end Alexander, amid circumstances whose
mystery has never yet been finally cleared
up, voluntarily stepped off the throne, and
retired to private life. He was succeeded
by Prince Ferdinand, great-grandson on
his mother's side of King Louis Philippe,
5319
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WOPJ-D
and son of an Austrian nobleman. Ferdi-
nand was the very opposite of the dashing
Alexander. A man of studious tempera-
ment, a naturahst rather than a warrior,
he did not succeed in kindhng among the
people the same devotion. Happily for
him, during the first years of his reign there
was one strong statesman administering
affairs, the " Bismarck of the Balkans,"
Stambuloff. That great man died under
the hand of an assassin, but not before he
had firmly established Bulgaria's position.
If political life has been chequered, the
social advance of ■,-»;- -<-^; t,-. ^-s r
the nation has ■
been beyond ex-
pectation. Before
1878 there were
not more than
three score schools
in the entire state ;
by the beginning
of the tv/entieth
centur}' there was
an elementary
school in every
village and a
secondary school
in every town of
10,000 inhabi-
tants. Education
became free and
compulsory. Pub-
lic hospitals arose.
The people, for-
merly poor,
showed every sign
of prosperity.
Railways, com-
mercial under-
takings, universi-
ties sprang up as
thougii by magic.
" In the days of
the Turkish op-
pression a man
was accounted
rich who had
£500," said M.
Ghenadieff, the
Bulgarian Minister
of Commerce, in
1907. "Now there
are plentj^ of rich
people. Nearly
£3,000,000 sterling
of the public debt
is in the hands of
the people them-
5320
selves, and the state savings-bank a^one
receives about £80,000 in deposits each
month. That sum, of course, represents
merely the savings of the poorer classes.
In 1878 there was in the whole country
but one printing press, and that was a
hand press, which is preserved as a
curiosity in the Museum of Sofia. To-day
we have more than 200 printing presses
of the most modern description."
The streets of Sofia, the Bulgarian
capital, bright, busy, and filled with con-
tented people, are sufficient proof of
.ngjiijxB^
THE SULTAN OPENING THE TURKISH PARLIAMENT
The early years of the sultan's reign were full of promise. In 1877, as shown in an earlier
chapter, he granted a constitution, and, in person, opened the new Parliament. But the
Assembly was short-lived, reaction setting in and overcoming the liberty from which so much
was expected. In 1908, yielding to the pressure of the reformers, the sultan granted another
constitution to Turkey, and in December opened the Parliament elected by the people.
TURKEY, GREECE, AND THE BALKANS IN OUR OWN TIME
the state of the land. No greater con-
trast could have been imagined than that
between Bulgaria, free, and her neighbour,
Macedonia, inhabited by her kinsmen, but
under the rule of Turkey. One drop of
bitterness there was in the Bulgarian
cup — the suzerainty of the sultan. The
Bulgarians prepared to release them-
selves from this. They gradually built up
a strong modern army, with an available
lighting force of 380,000 men out of a
population of 4,500,000. This force is, in
the judgment of all military critics, one of
unusual efficiency, splendidly drilled, well
armed, and well provided in every way.
Like Bulgaria, its neighbour Servia has
had a troubled political life. Up to the
beginning of the nineteenth century it
was under Turkish rule, and until the
Treaty of Berlin, in 1878, it was tributary
to the sultan. Then it became free. It
owed the beginning of its freedom to a
breeder of swine, Black (Kara) George,
who became the chief of its people, after-
wards the prince, and who was the
founder of the present royal house. In
recent years Servia has been much in
disfavour with the world on
„ ^ account of the scandals that
g. . have hung around its ruling
family. The quarrels between
King Milan and Queen Natalie were the
talk of the seven seas. When Milan retired
to Paris to seek a life of pleasure there, he
handed over the throne to regents for his
young son, Alexander. Alexander, at the
first opportunity, seized the reins of power
from the regents, and governed with all
the impetuosity of the hot-blooded lad he
was. His private life was such that it
created misgiving even in the Balkans. He
caused great offence by marrying a former
lady-in-waiting to his mother, with whom
he had for some time before openly
maintained the closest relations. Alex-
ander and his wife were murdered one
night in their palace by a band of
officers amid circumstances of almost
incredible brutality, and the regicides
called the present ruler, King Peter, one
of the Servian royal house, to the throne.
Peter accepted the call, and the regicides
went unpunished. The king in conse-
quence was boycotted by the royal and
imperial houses of Europe, and for a time
foreign representatives were withdrawn
from his court. Servia still lies under the
shadow of the royal murder. Its capital,
Belgrade, is a gay city with something of
IN „, D
the manner of Paris. It is no injustice to
say of the public life of Servia that there
is a certain looseness, an absence of
moral, about it, that does anything but
help to make a strong nation. The very
army is affected, and when one thinks
of the tone of public life in the peasant
state to-day, one is a-pt to recall the condi-
tion of France before the
German War. The rural life
Ambition
of the
Servians
of the nation is much healthier.
In Belgrade one observes the
acme of extravagant expenditure and
blazing indiscretion. In the country there
is to be found a peasantry prosperous as
few other peoples are, each man with
his own land, each household free from
fear of famine and want.
The one overpowering ambition of the
Servian people had ever been to make
Servia a great kingdom, by uniting with
the neighbouring tribesmen of a little
mountain state, Montenegro, and by
absorbing the Serb provinces of Bosnia
and Herzegovina, owned by Turkey. This
ambition was checked for the time by the
action of the Powers of Europe when they
made the Treaty of Berlin. By one of
those political contradictions, over which
statesmen delight and plain men puzzle,
they left Bosnia and Herzegovina nominally
Turkish, but handed them over to Austria
to administer. One small strip of land
between Servia and Montenegro, the
Sanjak of Novi-Bazar, was the subject
of a still more contradictory compromise.
There the military occupation was to be
Austrian and the civil administration
Turkish. Practically, however, this did
what was wanted. It prevented the
junction of Servia and Montenegro.
Servia never abandoned her hope of
some day obtaining Bosnia and Herze-
govina for herself, and a large number of
the Serb people in those two provinces
sympathised with her. Meanwhile,
Austria went on with her work of admin-
istration. About the success or
csu s o otherwise of the Austrian
Austrian j. j.i ■ i
„ government there is much
dispute. The abuses of the old
time Turkish regime have been ended.
Peace has been maintained, commerce
has been encouraged, schools of all kinds
have been built, and much has been done
to open up the provinces as tourist resorts.
Great hotels have sprung up and sports-
men from all countries have been en-
couraged to come. Cattle-breeding and
5321
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
horse-breeding — particularly the latter —
have been carefully fostered. But it is
doubtful if the Austrians have to any
extent gained the good-will of the people,
or have allayed political ferment.
The little state of Montenegro shares
the racial ambitions of Servia. The entire
population of Montenegro is considerably
less than that of Nottingham,
and its size is about equal to
The Small
State of
Montenegro
Devon and Cornwall combined.
Its capital boasts a popula-
tion of 5,000, excluding the small garrison,
and its public debt is £70,000. It is the
land of the Black Mountains, declared
independent by a prince bishop 240
years ago, and maintaining its freedom
in face of all ever since. Its people held
their land since 1389, when a remnant of
the old Servian nobility established itself
there to escape the Turkish yoke. It is so
precipitous that it would be practically
impossible for regular armies to invade it.
It is, from end to end, one succession of
mountains and valleys ; its men are all
warriors ; and its principal export, as its
brave ruler. Prince Nicholas, once declared,
are its princesses. The daughters of
Nicholas are allied to some of the greatest
royal families of Europe. The picturesque
and charming dress of the people and their
delightful old-world ways make their land
a centre of pleasure to the explorer of
unbeaten tracks. The Montenegrins, bold,
daring and fearless, and sturdily indepen-
dent, command the good-will of the world.
While its neighbours bickered, Rou-
mania, the great kingdom of the north,
was content to foster trade and increase
population. Its king, Charles, and its
queen, well known in literature as
"Carmen Sylva,".are held in universal
esteem and honour. Its population in
a quarter of a century has increased
between forty and fifty per cent., and
is now 6,500,000. The Danube runs to
the sea through its territory, its soil is ex-
^ r 11 ceedingly fertile, and its crops
Greece Fallen ^^^ ^^-^ ^^ ^^ ^^^ heaviest in
Europe. It has in recent
years become a field of tre-
mendous commercial enterprise, and prides
itself to-day on being a strong industrial
rather than a military nation. Yet it could
put 650,000 men on the field if war came.
Greece has fallen from her high place in
the world. Up to the time of her war
with Turkey, in 1897, men still looked on
the ancient kingdom as the possible
5322
from Her
High Place
pioneer of freedom and progress in the
Eastern Mediterranean. Old traditions,
old affections, and old beliefs led to the
hope. The war shattered all that. It
was not alone that Greece was defeated ;
nations have found new birth and fresh
strength in defeat before to-day. But
the war revealed a cowardice, a political
corruption, and a lack of preparation
which disillusioned the world.
Greece, until then, had sought to pose
as the pr-otector of weaker Christian
peoples against Turkey. It was the in-
terference of Greece in the control of
Crete that had brought about hostilities.
She had further been fired, in common
with other Eastern races, with the
ambition for the political union of her
race. Her ambition was greater than her
capacity, her financial resources, or her
self-sacrifice. She has had, as a result of
the monetary cost of her war, to hand
various of her revenues over to a Financial
Commission, to secui-e the payment of
interest on her external debt. Her
regular army is now down to a few thou-
sand men, and those are notoriously
™. -J inefficient. Her political admini-
. j^ "i^ stration- is still torn by fierce
B h" d jealousies. Industrious as the
Greek may be in other lands, he
is all too given to taking life easily in his
own. The workshops of Athens are too
empty and the coffee-houses are too full.
In short, Greece has been left behind, and
unless some new spirit enters into the
hearts of her people, she is likely to play
a lesser rather than a greater part in the
making of the New East.
Thus we arrive at the summer of 190S.
In the palace of Yildiz Kiosk sat
Abdul Hamid, ever busying himself
with his affairs of state, and ever
becoming more the victim of his own
fears. His attitude at that time was
well described by one of his own court.
" He trembled at his best troops,
shrunk from trusting his elder sons, his
sons-in-law, brothers-in-law — ■ who are
mostly generals — and the officers who had
inclination to serve him strengthened by
strong personal and family interests. For
some months before the revolution the
troops had only blank cartridges for their
rifles. This step was taken from a fear
that cartridges fully charged might be
used against the sultan himself. Like-
wise all the guns in the forts that could be
turned against the Yildiz had been spiked.
TURKEY, GREECE, AND THE BALKANS IN OUR OWN TIME
Electricity is laid on in the palace. But
the sultan, fearing that it might be turned
against him for regicidal purposes, had
the wires cut and candles exclusively used.
These lights are stuck on circular pieces of
cork that float on wooden buckets of water.
The water will be available to cope with
fire should the crime of burning down the
palace or any of the sultan's numerous
sleeping kiosks be malignantly attempted."
It was at the moment when the dark-
ness was anparcntl\- ilr(>])csf tliat li^lit
officers in the Turkish army opened u^p
negotiations with the Young Turk leaders.
Their pay was in arrears, they saw their
army being ruined and their country
piecemeal destroyed under the rule of
Abdul, and they resolved to make common
cause with the reformers. At once a
secret movement began in the Turkish
army without parallel in modern times.
The sultan's spies were everywhere, yet
the sultan got scarce an inkling of it.
Till icfoimers made their headquarters in
KING FERDINAND ANNOUNCING THE INDEPENDENCE OF BULGARIA
In 1S78, at the Treaty of Berlin, the Powers of Europe created Bulgaria an autonomous principality, under the
suzerainty of the Sultan of Turkey ; and in 1908, when Turkey underwent such a marvellous change, Bulgaria feared
that the nominal suzerainty might be made a real one. To this she was unwilling to consent, and in October, at
Tirnovo, Prince Ferdinand solemnly proclaimed Bulgaria an independent kingdom, taking for himself the title of king.
came. A number of progressive Turks,
driven from their country by the sultan's
rule, had formed in Paris an association
for bi-inging liberty to Turkey. " The
Turk in his own land is the most oppressed
of all men," they said. " He has none to
help him. The Christians have the
European Powers on their side, but no
one stands for us."
For some time the Young Turk move-
ment was not taken very seriously by
the world. Early in igo8 certain high
the vilayet of Monastir, in Macedonia.
Army corps after army corps was won
over, and in the summer the reformers were
ready to strike. Early in July a body of
troops marched out of their barracks at
Monastir, officers at their head, and
formally declared a constitution for
Turkey. News of this was quickly brought
to Constantinople, and soldiers were de-
spatched against them. The pasha in charge
of the troops was shot, and his men made
common cause with the Constitutional
5^23
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
party. The Turkish governor — Hilmi
Pasha — was given the choice between
joining the reformers or being shot. He
went over to reform, departed for Con-
stantinople, and used all his influence to
induce the sultan to meet the revolution in
the only possible way, by yielding to it.
The immediate transformation of the
^ life of the people in Salonica
angc ^^^ Monastir seemed more like
T, ^, 'a. romance than realitv. The
Bulgar and Greek bands were
curtly bidden to cease their strife ;
Christian and Turk fraternised. The
racial disputes of many generations seemed
swept away in a moment. Order was
strictly maintained. One European present
at Salonica at the time graphically
described the scene in a letter home :
" Until two days ago very few people
here realised the seriousness and the
rapidity with which the movement was
developing, although about ten days
earlier they began to say with satisfaction,
' Le bonheur des espions est passe.'
People spoke freely in the streets and
cafes and trams — a thing unknown before.
During the night of the 22nd the whole
town was placarded with manifestoes by
officers in uniform, the text of which has
probably been published in England. It
is said that they were drawn up in admir-
able Turkish, and it was an extraordinary
sight to see the crowds leading them.
" One police official who attempted to
interfere was shot by an officer. In another
case a policeman protested against an
officer who was putting up a manifesto.
' Very well, wait till I give you a bak-
sheesh,' said the officer, putting a cart-
ridge into his hand. The policeman took
the hint, and departed at once. This was
done in the most frequented place in
Salonica yesterday at noon, to the amuse-
ment of all in the cafes. Everyone looked
radiant yesterday, especially the officers,
who, as a rule, go about in silence and
Tu c w suspicion. In the afternoon
The Sultan j .li 1
Yields to the ^"^ evening the people were
Reformers harangued by Turks, Greeks,
Bulgars, Jews and Armenians,
the whole situation — ^bands, internal poli-
tics, etc. — ^being discussed with the utmost
freedom and good temper. This would be
of little importance elsewhere, but here
in Turkey it is almost a miracle. About
midnight one of Hilmi's A.D.C.'s arrived
with the news that the sultan had
accorded the constitution — ' according to
5324
the will of the people ' — and there was the
greatest enthusiasm."
In a moment Abdul found that all his
elaborate preparations to secure his own
safety had become of no avail. His army
had failed him, and without his army his
power had gone. He promptly showed
unexpected political wisdom. He gave
in to the reformers, and in an hour changed
the whole policy of his nation. He granted
a constitution to Turkey. From that day
Abdul came under the control of the body
which had arranged the revolt, the
Committee of Union and Progress.
Probably no such vital change in the
affairs of a great nation has ever taken
place before accompanied by so little
bloodshed and violence. The leaders of
the new movement — themselves, be it
remembered, men of a conquering nation
— declared that henceforth there was not
to be in Turkey one triumphant race
and others subject to it, but that men of
all races were to be as brothers. Moslem
and Christian forgot their old blood feud.
Enemies of yesterday embraced together
in the streets. Turk and Greek, Albanian
_ . . . and Jew fraternised, and even
. ®|°'*^"*s^ the Armenian was permitted to
j^ ^ . join in the rejoicing as friend
and comrade, and proved him-
self one of the greatest forces for reform.
The armj. of spies and petty tyrants
disappeared as though by magic, and the
head spy of all fled to London and told
there a pitiful tale of his remorse for his
past life. Men who for years had not dared
to whisper their hcpes now spoke out
freely. A free Press began to appear as
though conjured from the earth. Even
the women caught the fever progress, and
emerged from their hidden existences.
" We must each dig a grave," said one
Turkish officer in addressing a crowd
composed of men of many nations. " We
must dig it deep and wide, and bury in it
all our hatreds and all our resentments,
private and public. Place over it a marble
slab, bearing this inscription, ' There
shall be no resurrection.' "
The political developments were ^equally
remarkable. The constitution, made and
destroyed in the early days of Abdul's
reign, was restored. This was followed by
a general amnesty and by a rescript
declaring the equahty of all Ottomans,
of whatever race and religion, granting
freedom from arbitrary arrest, and giving
the people permission to travel freely
TURKEY, GREECE, AND THE BALKANS IN OUR OWN TIME
abroad and to establish commercial asso-
ciations. In December the first Parhament,
duly elected by the people, met, and the
sultan crowned the proofs of his resolve
to be in the new movement by opening
the parliament in person.
As his state coach drove through the
packed crowds stretching the whole way
along the four miles of narrow streets
between his palace and the new Parha-
ment House, the hated oppressor of yes-
terday was received everywhere with
frantic enthusiasm. He spoke to the
elected law-givers in the warmest manner.
" I am hopeful," he declared, " that
your labours will be fruitful of good for
the empire and the people. With this hope,
I proclaim the opening of this parliament."
The renaissance of Turkey was regarded
with anything but delight in various
quarters. Austria, in particular, had
hoped to profit much by the dis-
memberment of the European Ottoman
Empire; now all her expectations were
shattered. Bulgaria saw a possibility that
the nominal suzerainty of the sultan might
under reformed conditions be made a real
, , one. This she would not
Bulgaria s ^j^^^_ ^^ official banquet
Independence i u . n j. j.- i
n , . was held at Constantmople
Declared x i.i- ^ j.- r
lor the representatives of
foreign Powers, and the Bulgarian Minister
was not invited. He demanded to know
the reason, and was told that his status
was not the same as that of others, as his
country was not independent, but under
Turkish suzerainty. The Bulgarian Govern-
ment replied to this by promptly re-
calling its Minister, and by seizing part
of a neutral railway between the two states.
Prince Ferdinand of Bulgaria visited
Vienna and was received there like a king,
and shortly afterwards, in the early days of
October, 1908, he proceeded to Tirnovo, the
ancient capital of his people, and solemnly
proclaimed Bulgaria an independent king-
dom, and took for himself the title of king.
At the same time Austria announced
that she would annex Bosnia and Herze-
govina, and make them part of her
empire, while retiring from Novi- Bazar.
The news came like a thunder-clap to
Europe. Turkey found her prestige
assailed from two quarters at once. Servia
and Montenegro saw all their ambition
for a great Serb nation thwarted. The
arrangements made by the Powers in
1878 for the permanent settlement of the
Eastern Question were broken up. Had
Turkey been stronger, a declaration of war
against one or both the Powers would
probably have followed. The Turkish
Government dared not do this, but the
Turkish people showed their feehngs by
instituting a strict boycott of Austrian
Q . goods. The Servian and Mon-
p"^ "*fth tenegrin peoples clamoured for
... . war. Happily for the world,
it was winter- time, when cam-
paigning was practically impossible owing
to the deep snows. The weeks of waiting
gave time for second thoughts.
Servia was bidden by Russia and Great
Britain to keep the peace. Austria in
the end agreed to pay Turkey a substantial
sum for the surrender of her sovereign
rights over the two provinces. Russia,
under the administration of M. Isvolsky,
revealed a spirit of disinterestedness and
of moderation so different from her old-
time Balkan campaigns that men asked in
wonderment if this could be the same
empire of the tsars. She threw all her
influence on the side of peace.
One other factor will have to be reckoned
with more and more in the Balkans — the
Albanians. Direct descendants of the
conquering soldiers of Alexander the
Great, they retain unbroken the courage
of their ancestors. The Albanians have
never been . really conquered ; they
are men of great intellectual capacity ;
their sons have made leaders for other
nations in the past, and are likely to
do so in the future. The island depiendency
of Crete was withdrawn from the direct rule
of the sultan in 1898, and placed under
Prince George of Greece, as High Com-
missioner. It had long dreamed of political
union with Greece, and when the Turkish
upheaval came, it begged the Powers to
permit this. The Powers promised friendly
consideration, but the plan has aroused the
bitterest opposition in Turkey itself.
I write this in the early months of the
New Year. In Turkey itself the growing
power of the army, as shown in the
summary defeat and censure of the
premier, Kiamil Pasha, by Parlia-
Whatof j^gj^t, has cast some shadow
1!?® over the scenes. Austria menaces
Future . gg^.^-^ ^^^^^ ^^r unless she
definitely abandons her racial ambitions.
The future is uncertain. Only one thing
can be said with surety. The year 1909
will find the Balkans a centre of world
attention and world interest.
F. A. McKenzie
5325
ESSENTIAL INFORMATION ABOUT TURKEY
Areas asd Population. The area of Turkey, advanced, but there is some metal working (chiefly
including all the tributary states, is estimated at utensils), and Damascus textile industries — silks,
1,663,000 square miles, and the population at cottons and woollens — employ about 10,000 hands.
41,000.000. This includes Crete, Cyprus, Egypt, FLsheries include spongas, mother of pearl, and
Bulgaria, Bosnia, and Herzegovina ; but as Cyprus pearls. In 1906 the total imports were of the value
and Egypt, while tributary to Turkey, are adminis- of £28,229,419, and the exports of the value of
tered by Great Britain, and as the other states £17,705,133. The chief exports were raw silk, grapes,
mentioned have thrown off the yoke of Turkish grain, flour, mohair, figs, coffee, opium and hides,
rule, the actual area and population of Turkey is Currexcv. The money system of Turkey is as
properly as follows : follows :
Sq. miles. Population 1 para = l/18d.
Turkey in Europe 65,350 . . 6,130,200 40 paras = 1 piastre = 2-16d.
„ Asia 693,610 .. 17,683,500 100 piastres = 1 lira turca or medgidi^ = 18s.
„ Africa 398,900 . . 1,000,000 5 lira = 1 purse = 90s.
Total 1,157,860 .. 24,813,700 The coins are : (copper) 1, 5, 10, and 20 paras ;
(silver) ^, 1, 2, 5, 10, and 20 piastres ; (gold) J, ^, 1,
The towTis of over 100,000 population are — 2A, and 5 lira.
Constantinople, 1,106.000; Damascus, 250,000; Weights axd Measures. For about twenty
Smyrna, 201,000; Aleppo, 200,000; Salomca, years metric weights [see page 5399] have been
150,000; Bagdad, 145,000; and Beu-ut, 118,800. compulsory for cereals; although metric weights
Government. On July 24th, 1908, an Imperial ^.gre also decreed compulsory for other purposes in
Irade gave to Turkey a Constitution and an Elective 1892, the decree has never been enforced. The old
Assembly. Up till that time the sole governing power Turkish names were applied to the metric names, thus:
was the will of the reigning sovereign, based upon
the precepts of the Koran, the :\Iulteka and the ,. , , ^^^^:^^;. „ ,, "^^ eights
nu^ i,i.i T I 4.\ \ ■ ij Aokta = Milimetre Habbe = Centigramme
Cahon nameh, the second of the.se being reputed g-jj^t _ Centimetre Boughdais = Decigramme
sayings of Mohammed, and the third a legal code Parmak = Decimetre Denk = Gramme
drawii up bv Soleiman the Masinilicent (1520-1566). Archine = Metre Drachma = Decagramme
Under the new order the hberty of the individual is ^^^^^ = ^U--^- Oek^^„ Z .^Samme
inviolable, and there is a free Press and a free system or } = MjTiametre Kantar = Quintal
of education. Parliament consists of two Chambers Pharoagh/ Tcheki = Millieror Tonne
— a Senate and a Chamber of Deputies — and sits Surface. Capacity.
from November 1st to March 1st, unless the Deuninii=Are Zarf =Centilitre Sultchek = Litre
session is prolonged by the sultan. The sultan has ^J'^"'' =Hec- Kouton = Decalitre Kile = Decalitre
., ^^ ^-^oi ^ ^1-ij- tare Kileh = Hectolitre
the jiower to nominate Senators up to one-tmrd 01 . ,. ,
the entire body. Senators must be not less than The old Turkish standards are complicated and
forty j^ears of' age, and must have rendered dis- confusing, there bemg standards for cottons and
tinguished service to the state. Representation in carpets different from those for silks and woollens,
the Lower House, or Chamber of Deputies, is on the ^^^ny of them, such as measures of capacity and
basis of one deputy to every 50,000 male citizens. 'and measure, differed m different localities.
Deputies, who are elected for four years, must be Postage. Great Bntain to Turkey, letters,
not less than thirty years of age. and must be able papers, and samples as for France [.see page 5398].
to read and write. Jlembers of both Houses are Parcels may be sent to British Post-office agencies
paid. The President and the Vice-Presidents of ^ Turkey, which are at Beirut, Constantinople,
the Chamber of Deputies are appointed by the Smyrna, and Salomca, the charge varying according
sultan, but their names must be on hsts submitted to destination and route. The only route to
by the Chamber. Measures must be passed by Beirut is via Egypt, and the charge is Is., 2s.,
both houses, and be ratified by the sultan before and 3s. for 3, 7, and 11 pounds respectively. But
they become law. In the event of dissolution, a t^ere are three routes to Constantinople and to
new election must take place within six months. Smyrna, and the charge may be as high as 2s. 6d.,
Monarch. The present sultan is Abdul Hamid 3s., and 3s. 6d. for 3, 7, and 11 pounds, the rates
II.— born 1842. succeeded to the throne 1876— in force by the overland route via Belgium, Germany,
the thirty-fourth of the House of Othman. the Austria, and Roumania. Parcels may also be
founder of the Ottoman Empire. sent through Austrian agencies, which are main-
Finance. The revenue, which has not hitherto tained at about twenty-five different places, or by
been published officially, was estimated at about Ottoman post, which has about fifty agencies.
£18,680,000 for the year 1906-1907. The chief Telegrams. Great Britain to Turkey, 6id. per
sources of revenue are tithes, land and property word, but private telegrams in code or cypher are
taxes, customs and monopolies. The external i^^t accepted,
debt of Turkey is about £80,000,000, and interest SAMOS
about £3,500,000. Samos is a principality of the Ottoman Empire,
Industry and Commerce. The soil of Turkej' possessing a considerable degree of independence,
is fertile, but agriculture is pursued by primitive guaranteed by Great Britain, France, and Russia,
apphances. The chief products are tobacco. Its status is the status of Bulgaria and of Greece
cereals, cotton, figs and fruits, coffee, madder, before these principalities declared themselves
opium and gums. The chief cereals are wheat, rye, independent from Turkey. Samos is one of the
barley, oats, and maize. Wine-growing and distillmg Anatolian Islands, has an area of 180 sciuare mUes,
are important indastries. Silk is cultivated, rose and a population of about 50.000. The capital and
culture — for otto of roses — and cotton growing are port is Vathy, with 25,000 inhabitants. The Prince
encouraged. Mmerals are little worked, although Governor is A. Kopassy Bey. The resources are
Asiatic Turkey especially is rich in mineral chiefly agricultural — wine, raisins, olive-oil, and
resources, including chrome, silver-lead, zinc, tobacco. Imports and exports are each of about
manganese, antimony, copper and emery, coal and £200,000 value annually, and the revenue and
petroleum, ilanufacturing industries are not far expenditure are each about £25,000 annually.
5326
INFORMATION ABOUT GREECE AND ROUMANIA
GREECE
Area and Population. The area of Greece,
including the islands and Thessaly, is 25,014
square miles, and the population is 2,631,952.
To this may now be added the island of Crete,
with an area of 3,400 square miles, and a popula-
tion of 310,200, making for the entire kingdom of
Greece an area of 28,414 square miles, and a
population of 2,942,152. The principal towns and
their populations are Athens, 170,000 ; Piraeus,
70,000 ; Patras, 37,958 ; Canea, the capital of
Crete, 24,537 ; and Candia, also in Crete. 22,774.
Government. Greece is a constitutional
monarchy, the present ruler being George I. —
born December 24th, 1845 — who is younger brother
of the present King of Denmark, and who was
elected King of the Hellenes by the National
Assembly at Athens in March, 1863, when he was
eighteen years of age. Legislative power is vested
in a single Chamber — the Bule — of 235 paid mem-
bers, who are elected by adult manhood suffrage for
four years. Representatives must be not less than
thirty years of age. As representation is based on
one deputy for every 12,000 of the population, the
Chamber expands automatically with the increase
of the population. Bills become law only by the
votes of an absolute majority, and the Chamber can
sit only if half of the members are present.
Finance and Commerce. The estimated revenue
for 1908 was £5,465,711, and the estimated expendi-
ture was £5,361,762. The chief sources of revenue
are customs and excise, stamps, direct taxes, mono-
polies— salt, petroleum, matches, and playing cards
— and revenue from state property. The national
debt of Greece was, at the end of 1907, £28,703,300,
with an annual charge of £888,708. Agriculture is
the mainstay of Greece, and manufactories are of no
importance. The chief cereals are wheat, barley,
rye, and maize. The best crop, however, is currants.
Other products are valonia — a tanning acorn —
tobacco, silk, wine, olives, and fruits. The value of
Greek imports for the year 1906 was £5,738,060,
and the exports, £4,722,300. The chief imports are
corn, yarn and tissues, coal, timber, MTought metals,
and chemicals. The chief exports are agricultural
products — currants, figs, tobacco ; raw minerals —
lead, magnesium, emery, marble ; wines and spirits,
olive and other oils, and hides.
Weights and Measures. The weights and
measures are metric [see page 5399] although the
old Greek standards, which were by no means
uniform, have not yet been quite done away with.
The standards of weight, however, though decimal,
do not quite conform to metric standards. In the
others, Greek names have been given to metric
quantities.
Lineal. Capacity.
Gramma = Millimetre Kybos = Millilitre
Daktylos = Centimetre Mystron = Centilitre
Palame = Decimetre Kotyle = Decilitre
Pecheus = Metre Litra = Litre
Stadion = Kilometre Koilon = Hectolitre
Skoinis = Myriametre
SfRFACE.
Square Pechiis = Square metre Stremma = Are
Weights.
1 Drachma = 1 Gramme = 15 Grains
1,500 Drachmai = 1 Mna = li Kilogramme = 3-306931 lb.
100 Mnfii = 1 Talanton = li Quintal = 3306931 lb.
10 Talanta = 1 Tonos = Ij Tonneaux = 29-52615 cwts.
Currency. The money currency of Greece is
based upon the convention between France, Italy,
Belgium, and Switzerland [see page 5398]. Thus the
drachma is the equivalent of the French franc and
the Italian lira, and the leptd (100 lepta = 1 drachma)
has the same value as the centime of France and
the centesimo of Italy. The gold coins of Great
Britam, Germany, Austria, Denmark, Russia,
Spain, Turkey, Egypt, and the United States are
legal tender in Greece, subject to a deduction of
5s. per cent, from their nominal value.
Postage. Great Britain to Greece : Letters,
papers and samples, as for France |see page 5398].
Parcel post, 2s. 3d., 2s. 9d., and 3s. 3cl. for 3, 7,
and U lb. respectively. Limit of length, breadth, or
depth, 2 feet ; of length' and girth combined, 4 feet.
Telegrams. Great Britain to Greece and the
Greek Islands, 6d. per word.
ROUMANIA
Area and Population. Roumania — the name
given to the old provinces of Wailachia and Mol-
davia—has an area of 50,700 square miles and a
population estimated at 6,585,534 for 1907. The chief
towns are Bucharest (the capital), 276,178 ; Jassy,
77,759 ; Galatz, 62,545 ; Braila, 56,300 ; Ploesti,
45,107 ; and Craiova, 45,579.
Government. The kingdom of Roumania dates
from 1861, and its independence from Turkey from
1877. The present king, Carol I. (born 1839, son of
Prince Karl of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen), was
elected in 1866. His queen, Princess Elizabeth von
Wied, is "Carmen Sylva" of poem and prose. The
government is a dual-chamber legislature. The
Senate, or Upper Chamber, has 120 members, elected
for eight years ; and the Chamber of Deputies has
183 members elected for four years. Election for
both Houses is by a system of direct vote and delega-
tion depending upon the voter's education and
property qualification. Senators must be forty years
of age, and deputies twenty-five years of age. The
king has the power of veto. The Executive con-
sists of a council of eight Ministers, presided over
by a Prime Minister.
Finance and Industries. The estimated revenue
for 1908-1909 was £16,440,441, and the estimated
expenditiu-e was £16,349,651. On March 31st, 1907,
the public debt of Roumania was £55,415,792, more
than half of which is represented by public service
works, chiefly railways. The climate of Roumania
is extreme — excessively hot in summer, and exces-
sively cold in winter. The chief industries are agri-
cultural, stock raising, and mineral. The chief crops
are maize, wheat, barley, oats, rye, vines, plums,
and tobacco. Other crops are colza, flax, hemp,
and sugar beets. Stock raising — horses, cattle,
sheep, goats, and swine — is the most important
single industry. The forests yield valuable timber,
chiefly oak, beech, fir, and pine. Coal and petro-
leum industries are important, and the latter is
exported in large quantities. The only manufac-
tures of even moderate importance are those of
clothing, woodwork, and metal-work. In 1906 the
total imports were of the value of £16,531,900, and
the exports £19,269,020. The chief exports are
wheat, barley, maize, petroleum, salt, spirits, hides,
wood, and cattle.
Currency. The currency is on the system of the
Latin Monetary Union [see page 5398], the bano
(plural, bani) being equal to a centime, and the leo
(plural, lei) being equal to a franc (100 bani = 1 leo).
Weights and Measures. These are metric
[see page 5399].
Postage. Great Britain to Roumania : Letters,
papers and samples, as for France [see page 5398].
Parcel post, 2s., 2s. 6d., and 3s. for 3, 7, and 11 lb.
respectively if by Hamburg, and 3d. per parcel
more if by Ostend or Flushing.
Telegrams. Great Britain to Roumania, 3id.
per word.
5327
INFORMATION ABOUT THE BALKAN STATES
The Balkans, in their widest sense, are the states of
the Balkan Peninsula, but Greece at the southern
extremity of the peninsula is not usually reckoned
one of the Balkan states, and Roumania is excluded,
as it is on the north side of the Danube. Thus, the
Balkan states are Turkey in Europe, Bosnia and
Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Servia and Montenegro.
Turkey is considered separately [see page 5326].
Bosnia and Herzegovina are now attached to
Austria [see page 5337], so there remain for separate
treatment Bulgaria, Servia, and Montenegro.
BULGARIA
Area and Population. The area of Bulgaria is
38,080 square miles, and the population is 4,035,620.
The chief cities and towns, with their populations,
are Sofia (the capital), 82,621 ; Philippopolis (the
capital of Southern Bulgaria, formerly known as
Eastern Roumelia), 45,707 ; Varna, 37,417 ; Rust-
chuk, 33,632 ; Slivno, 25,027 : Shumla, 22,275 ; and
Plevna, 21,145. Chief port is Varna,onthe Black Sea.
Government. Bulgaria was created by the
Powers of Europe at the Treaty of Berlin in 1878,
an autonomous principality, imder the suzerainty of
the Sultan of Turkey. The prince was to be the
elected choice of the peoj^le, which fell upon Ferdi-
nand, the youngest son of Prince Augustus of Saxe-
Coburg-Gotha. The mother of the prince was a
daughter of King Louis Philippe of France. On
October 5th, 1908, Prince Ferdinand, at Tirnovo, the
ancient capital of Bulgaria, assumed the title of
Tsar, and renounced all allegiance to Turkey.
The Legislative House is a single Chamber, the
Sobranje, or National Assembly, the members of
which are elected for five years on a universal man-
hood suffrage in the proportion of one member to
20,000 population. Executive power is vested in a
Council of eight Ministers appointed by the prince.
Finance and Industry. The estimated revenue
and expenditure for 1908 were £5.099.000. The Bul-
garian public debt is about £15,000,000. Over one-
third of the area of Bulgaria is under cultivation,
and almost one-third imder timber. Agriculture
provides occupation for 70 per cent, of the popula-
tion. Wheat is the principal cereal, and is the
chief article of export. Other prominent industries
are wine-growing, tobacco and silk cultm-e, otto of
roses, cotton and rice cultivation, dairy farming, and
stock-raising. All minerals are state property, but
coal and salt are the only ones worked to any extent.
The manufactories include the making of woollens
and cottons, cords and cigarettes, flour-mills, and
saw-mills. In 1906 the imports valued £4,338,975
and the exports £4,482,934. The chief exports are
grain, textiles, raw silk, and live-stock.
Currency. The currency is upon the same basis
as that of France [see page 5398], but the Bulgarian
equivalent of a franc is the Zew (plural leva), and of a
centime it is the stotinko (plural, stotinki).
Weights and ME.isUREs. These are metric [see
page 5399].'
Postage. Great Britain to Bulgaria, as for
France [see page 5393]. Parcel post, 2s. 3d.,
2s. 9d., and 3s. 3d. for 3, 7, and 11 lb. respectively
if by Hamburg, or 3d. per parcel more if by Ostend
or Flushing. Limit of length, breadth, or depth,
Z\ feet ; of length and girth, 6 feet.
Telegrams. Great Britain to Bulgaria, 4d. per
word.
SERVIA
Area and Population. Servia has an area of
18,650 square miles and a population of 2,688,025.
The chief towns, with their populations, arc
Belgrade (the capital), 77,816, and Nisch, 21,946.
5328
Government. The King of Servia is Peter I.
, (born 1844, and ascended the throne after the
assa-ssination of King Alexander in 1903). The
constitution vests the legislative authority in the
king and a National Assembly, or Narodna-
Skuiishtina, which has 160 paid deputies, elected
by manhood suffrage for four years. The executive
]jower vests in the king, assisted by a Council of
eight Ministers.
Finance and Industry. For the year 1907 the
revenue was £3,618,110, and the expenditure was
£3,615,500. The chief sources of revenue are
monopolies, direct taxes, customs, railways, and
excise. At the end of 1907 the public debt stood at
£18,043,720. The country is agricultural, under a
sj^stem of peasant freehold ownership. The principal
crops are maize, wheat, grass, plums, barley, oats,
vines, hemp and flax, and tobacco. Silk culture is
also followed, and there is important stock raising
for export. Mines in active oi^eration include coal,
lignite, gold, copper, lead, zinc, antimony, and
silver. The industries include flour milling, brewing
and distilling, sugar-works, weaving, and tanning.
In 1907 the total imports were of the value of
£2,823,333, and the total exports £3,259,650. The
chief exports were prunes, pigs, wool, wheat, wine,
hides, cattle, and horses.
Currency. The currency is based on the franc
and the other standards of the Latin Monetary
Union [see page 5398]. The para is the equivalent
of a centime, and the dinar (100 paras = 1 dinar)
is the equivalent of one franc.
Weights and Measures. The weights and
measures are metric [see page 5399].
Postage. Great Britain to Servia, as for
France [see page 5398]. Parcel post. 3d. per
parcel less than to Roumania [see page 5327].
Telegrams. Great Britain to Servia, 3|d. per
word ; code or cypher telegrams not accepted.
MONTENEGRO
Area and Population. Jlontenegro has an area
of 3,630 square miles and a population of 230,000.
The chief towns, with their populations, are Cettinje,
4,500 ; Podgoritza, 10,000 ; Dulcigno, 5,000 ; and
Niksic, 5,000.
Government. Montenegro, which was recog-
nised as independent by the Treaty of Berlin, is a
hereditary constitutional monarchy, with a National
Assembly, or Skupshtina, composed of seventy-four
members, elected by universal suffrage for a period
of four years. There are also twelve appointed
members. The reigning prince is Nicholas I. (born
1841 ; succeeded his uncle 1860).
Finance and Industry. The estimated revenue
for 1907 was £124,166, and the expenditure was
£120,370. The public debt is £70.000. Agriculture
is pm'sued in a primitive fashion. The chief crops are
maize, tobacco, oats, potatoes, barley, and buck-
wheat. Stock raising is important. There are
practically no mining or manufactiu-ing industries.
Currency. Montenegro has a small circulation
of local nickel and bronze coinage, minted in Austria,
but the chief medium of exchange is Austrian silver
coins and paper notes. Turkish silver and French
and English gold are also legal tender.
Weights and Measures. The metric system is
used [see page 5399].
Post.\ge. Gre^t Britain to Montenegro, as
for France [see page 5398]. Parcel post, 2s. 3d.,
2s. 9d.. and 3s. 3d. for 3, 7, and 11 lb. respectively
if via Hamburg, or 3d. per parcel more if via Ostend
or Flushing. Size hmit as for Bulgaria [see above].
Telegrams. Gt. Brit.to Montenegro, 3|d.per word.
EUROPEAN
POWERS
TO-DAY
III
AUSTRIA-
HUNGARY
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY IN OUR TIME
AN EMPIRE OF MANY NATIONAL-
ITIES AND CONTENDING RACES
By Henry W. Nevinson
rROM its history one can see that the
* monarchy of Austria-Hungary is not
so much a result as a residue. It embodies
no conscious purpose or intention, Hke
modern Germany. After its long and
varied annals we can hardly speak of its
growth, for it remains rather as a shape-
less and almost accidental collection of
pieces than an organic and vital whole. It
is still encumbered by the tradition of
former greatness in days when it stood
before Europe as the Holy Roman Empire,
whose monarch was equally the successor
of the Caesars and the representative of
God's temporal power here on earth. It
would be hard for any empire to live up
to such a part as that, and the memory of
an obsolete grandeur which could not be
maintained has prevented the country
hitherto from developing along fresh lines
of progress.
We can, indeed, hardly speak of Austria-
Hungary as a country at all. It lies
sprawling in the middle of Europe, with-
out natural limits or frontiers ; and it has
no natural character of its own, though
the parts of the empire are in touch ; and
it possesses no colonies or foreign settle-
ments. Almost every kind of scenery may
be found within its boundaries. In the
south-west are the Alpine peaks of the
Tyrol ; in the south-east the great ranges
and forests of the Carpathians. North,
in Bohemia, and south, in Bosnia, are
.:«'» regions of pleasant hills
and valleys, interspersed with
Austria s
Varied
Scenery
plains. The Alford, or central
flat through which the great
rivers of Hungary run, is one of the
largest plains of Europe, and the out-
lying province of Galicia, bej'ond the
northern Carpathians, is a vast plain of
Russian character. As a complete con-
trast to such scenes, you may pass down
one of the most beautiful and varied coast-
lines in the world, from the top of the
Adriatic to the Mouths of Cattaro, and
still you are in Austrian or Hungarian
territory, for Austria stretches out an
arm to reach the sea at Trieste, Hungary
does the same at Fiume, and
_ "'^ . the narrow length of rocky
Races in , , " , . 111
. . shore and mountam, called
Dalmatia, is Austria's again.
This diversity of scene makes Austria-
Hungary one of the most beautiful and
interesting parts of Europe for the tra-
veller, especially as it is also one of the
least known. But the diversity of scene
is even surpassed by the diversity of race ;
and though this also affords the traveller
a further interest and charm, it adds con-
siderably to the problem of government.
In fact, it is the problem of government,
and without realising the diversity of race,
it is impossible to understand what the
contemporary history of the empire
means. There are eight easily recognised
races within the frontiers, and the list
might be extended to eleven. Of the
eight at least five are not merely different
from each other ; they are strongly
nationalist, and from time to time display
violent hostility towards one or all of the
other races with whom they are supposed
to share the glory and government of the
same empire. That is the worst of an
empire which has not grown by natural
energy from the inside, but has been thrown
together bit by bit as occasion served, often
by the accident of dynasty or marriage. One
remembers the well-known ironic line :
Bella gerant alii ; tu, felix Austria, nube.
Or, in English :
By others let the wars be waged ;
Thou, happy Austria, get engaged.
Such marriages were successful in adding
teiTitory, not in adding power. To
5329
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORiD
form a picture of the result, you
might imagine small portions of the
British Empire all clustered together in
the same country, so that English and
Irish, French Canadians and Boers, New
Zealanders and Manxmen were living side
by side, without the sea to keep them
comfortably tolerant and apart. Such a
variety of peoples, all dwelling
within a small space — ^Austria-
Disunion
in the
_ . Hungary is onl}' about twice the
^^"^ size of the British Islands — adds
much to a traveller's interest. Indeed, to
the student of men, no part of Europe,
not even the Balkan Peninsula, is so full
of varied knowledge as Austria- Hungary.
Almost ' every stage of European
civilisation is found existing there in
full vitality — the scientific and highly
educated German of Vienna, the moun-
taineer of the Tyrol, the gipsy of the Hun-
garian plain, the ancestral Moslem of
Bosnia, the Roumanian descendant of old
Roman colonists in Transylvania, the pro-
gressive Czech of Bohemia, the unchanging
Jew of Galicia, the unhappy Pole, and,
finally, isolated almost in the centre of
them all, unrelated to any of them, and
only ver}^ dimly related to far-off Turks
and Finns, stands the Magyar, surrounded
by Slavs of various names, and almost
continually at strife with the Emperor of
Austria, who happens to be also his own
king. In the whole Austrian Empire,
almost the only European stock which you
will not find is the Austrian. It would be
hardly too much- to say that such a being
as an Austrian does not exist.
We may, however, use the word roughly
still for the large German population
which forms the centre of Austrian society
and boasts itself, with some justice, the
most civilised and advanced of the many
nationalities. These Germans are the
natural successors to the eastern province
of Charlemagne's old Teutonic Empire —
the East ^^lark, which warded off the Mag-
yars— and they number some
rtr.*^l. . 0,000,000, or about a third
and Civilised r \ . ■ ) i , • j
-, of Austria s population, and
Oermans ., . ^ ^
something over 2,000,000, or
about a ninth part of Hungary's. Till quite
lately no one would have hesitated to call
them the predominant race. German was
the language, not only of the Court, society,
and literature, but of all official and legal
business throughout the empire. It was
taught in all schools and used in every
department of the army. No one would
5330
have thought twice in describing Austria
as a German Power, and it is naturally the
desire of the German-speaking population
to keep things as they were or to extend
the German culture and influence.
But in recent years the Germans have
seen themselves checked, and even driven
back, not only by the Magyars of Hungary,
but by the various branches of Slavs in
Bohemia and the lesser states, such as
Styria and Carinthia. The surprise has
only intensified their Teutonism. Many
have embraced the so-called Pan-German
ideal, which tries to regard the cause of
all the Teutonic peoples of the world as
one, and would gather the Teutons, not
only of the German and Austrian Empires,
but of Russia, South America, South
Africa, including the Boers, and of Hol-
land and Belgium into a single fold. A
favourite scheme of Pan-Germanism for
some time past has been an extension of
German influence throughout the old
Turkish provinces to the port of Salonika,
or even by way of Constantinople itself,
where Germans already number some
40,000, to Asia Minor, and by a German
. railway to Bagdad and the
the Tutt'rLn Persian Gulf. By this route
^ ^ * they hoped to find an outlet
German j- n <"
for the German increase in
lands where they would not lose their
nationality, as they do in the United
States. At the moment events are
against the scheme, but it is a thing to
be remembered in estimating the prob-
abilities of Austrian politics. It is the
ultimate goal of the " Drang nach Osten,"
of which we have heard so much.
For the time, however, these more
ambitious designs have been checked, and
the Austrian German is fighting for exist-
ence in his own country rather than for
distant Pan-Germanism in the Balkans or
Asia Minor. For some ten years past he
has been brought into sharp and continual
conflict with Czechs, Magyars, and Ita-
lians, in turn or together. It is partly a
religious quarrel, and the cry of " Freedom
from Rome " — " Los von Rom ! " — is one
of the party's watchwords. But many
good Catholics belong to the movement,
too, and the conflict is, before all things,
a matter of race or nationality. For some
years past the section that looks to
Germany rather than Austria as its
national fatherland has been growing, and
allegiance to the Hohenzollern of Berlin
rather than to the Hapsburg is openly
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY IN OUR OWN TIME
expressed. To unite the German part of
Austria to the rest of Germany is an
obvious though futile device. But for the
position of Bohemia, perhaps Bismarck
might have tried to reahse it. But he knew
that Bohemia made the thing impossible.
Probably an equal obstacle lies also in
the very different nature of the South
German from the Prussian. For the South
German of Austria, if less painfully edu-
cated and disciplined to a certain kind of
capacity, has far more freedom and charm
of nature, and far more imaginative power.
Nor does his neighbour, the South German
of Bavaria, find life under Prussian leader-
ship exactly enjoyable.
So the Pan-German of Austria is now
standing in opposition to the chief forces
at work in his country. Perhaps the
strongest, as well as the most recent, of
these forces is Pan-Slavism. It is a similar
movement, but less conscious, less wealthy,
and devoid of organisation and practical
aim. It is a dream of distant unity, like
the Russian movement of the same name —
a feeling of common brotherhood rather
than a policy with a programme. Cer-
tainly it has the strength of
c *^^ numbers, for, taking the
Weakened by . , • tt ^ ■,
jj. . . Austria-Hungary monarchy as
a whole, the Slavs probably
outnumber all other races by at least two
millions. But, as usually happens among
Slavs, they are weakened by division. The
Czechs of Bohemia, the Croats, the Serbs,
the Ruthenians, the Slovenes, the Slovaks,
the Dalmatians, and the Poles, though all
of Slav origin, now in many cases form
separate nationalities, and even ii^ lan-
guage they are often unintelligible to each
other, though their languages are akin.
They are also divided by religion. The
great majority, such as the Czechs, the
Croats, and the Poles, are Catholic ; while
the Serbs and many of the Southern Slavs
remain Orthodox, following the same rites
and doctrines as the Greek and Russian
Church. The Pan-Slavist ideal in Austria-
Hungary is the formation of the empire into
a kind of confederacy of states in which the
Slav would predominate. At one time, like
all Pan-Slavists, they looked forward to a
Slav empire under the suzerainty of Russia.
But this ideal has been dimmed by
the overwhelming defeat of Russia in,
the East and by the cruel reaction
of her own government against liberty.
At the present time the Slav claims are
for separate nationalities. The Croats,
gathered round their old capital of Agram,
live in violent protest against the domin-
ance of the Magyars in the kingdom of
Hungary, to which they belong. They are
nearly all Catholic ; in fact, the name
Croat is used among the Southern Slavs
for Catholic just as the name of Servian
signifies Orthodox or Greek Church. They
boast a fine history, claiming to
^ . ^ be the only Southern Slavs,
Uzechs and • j.-u -a/t .
Q except the Montenegrins, never
subdued by the Turks. Indeed,
they are the only Slavs in Austria-Hungary
who have established some right to
nationality, except the Czechs of Bohemia,
and, in quite recent years, perhaps the Rou-
manians of Transylvania, who have become
an even more painful thorn in the side of the
Magyars, because there is always a danger
that Roumania may adopt their cause.
But of all the Slavs in the empire, the
Czechs are by far the strongest and most
advanced. Their civilisation is historic,
and their nations long held a high place
in Europe. But the Germans have been
their foes from the beginning, and the feud
continues with violence to the present day.
Till some thirty years ago there seemed
every chance that their nationality would
become absorbed under German language
and manners. The national movement
began with the revival of the national
language, as also happened in Hungary,
and is happening in Ireland now. It is
strange that a literary and academic
beginning should have taken so deep a
hold on the populace that German is now
a language under a ban and the contest
between the peoples is perpetual.
As long ago as 1886 Bohemia won the
privilege of special law courts and uni-
versities, together with the recognition of
her language as official, though this right
was again withdrawn in 1899, when the
Czechs were endeavouring to introduce
Czech words of command into the army.
This feud against the Pan-Germans has,
in fact, continued ever since,
Bohemia b^.g^j^^^ng out with especial fury
Demands a -^ ^ ^^^-^^ -^ ^^^^^ ^^^^^
Kingship ^^^ Vienna University was
closed on account of it and the Germans
retaliated by smashing up Kubelik's
concert-hall at Linz ; and again towards
the end of 1908, when martial law was
proclaimed in Prague at the very time of
the emperor's Diamond Jubilee. The
Czechs now demand a restoration of
the old separate kingship for Bohemia
5331
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
on the same terms as Hungary's kingship,
and it is very probable the concession will
be granted by the coronation at Prague
either of the present old emperor or of
his successor, the Crown Prince Franz
Ferdinand, who is an enthusiastic Catholic,
, and has also a Czech wife in
J;""^*'*^ ^.,^ morganatic marriage. The
Disputes with .• . J 1 X r' i
. . . estmiated number oi Czechs
Austria • ,, • ■ i. •
in the empu'e is about six
million, or nearly a quarter of the popu-
lation of Austria proper. But more
serious for Austria even than Bohemia's
nationalism has been the prolonged
disagreement wdth Hungary.
We need not go back to the cruel
repression of Hungary under Heynau after
the revolutionary chaos of 1848, when the
present emperor came to
the throne ; nor to the
restoration of the con-
stitution in 1861 ; nor
even to' the " Ausgleich,"
or Compromise of 1867,
by which Beust hoped he
had arranged a workable
system of unity in separa-
tion. In 1897 the struggle
was renewed, chiefly on
the Hungarian demand
for a separate tariff and
separation in commercial
affairs. It resulted in a
complete block in the con-
stitution existing between
the two countries.
By that constitution
there is an Austrian Par-
liament of two Houses
serious question, and on the questions
of the tariff and the army the deadlock
lasted year after year. In 1900 the
emperor threatened to suspend the
constitution. In 1902 Kossuth, son
of the famous Hungarian liberator of
1848, and leader with Count Apponyi of
the Magyar Nationalists, demanded abso-
lute separation, except for the bond of the
crown. In the next year a complete
disintegration of the empire seemed prob-
able, and the Kossuthites insisted on the
use of Hungarian words of command and
the employment of Hungaiian ofiicers in
the Hungarian regiments of the regular
army, not merely in the Honved, or local
Hungarian militia, corresponding to the
Austrian militia, or Landwehr. The
^ — emperor conceded the
appointment of Hun-
garian officers and the
use of national emblems,
but steadily refused the
use of the Hungarian
word of command as
destroying the unity of
the army. So the dead-
lock on the tariff and
army continued, the
Hungarian Parliament
going so far in 1905 as
to refuse taxes and
recruits. The emperor
summoned the so-called
Coalition to Vienna,
but no terms could be
arranged. In the follow-
THE CROWN PRINCE OF AUSTRIA iug year, 1906, the
.^.^iii^iii. xji. >.,,v^ ^^^^^^^ The Archduke Franz Ferdinand, successor to Coalition WaS alloWCd
ii^'Vr '^ "'^ xV ^ *iv^v^^^^ thethroneofthe Austrian Empire, was recently , , 1 rv-
the Upper House, largely invested with power entitling him to partici- to take ofnce on con-
hereditary, and a Reichs- pate in the government of the dual monarchy, ^iition that it did UOt
rath of elected representatives ; and there oppose a measure for manhood suffrage,
is a distinct Hungarian Parliament of a
House of Magnates, chiefly hereditary,
and a House of elected representatives, in
which the Magyars have hitherto secured a
majority, though they are not a majority
of the population. Both Parliaments send
" Delegations " of sixty members each
to sit alternately at Vienna or Buda-
pest, for the arrangement of the common
financial burdens. The Delegations may
vote together ; but they sit separately,
and do not debate together. The emperor-
king can personally veto all Bills passed
by either Parliament ; and he appoints
the Ministers himself, apart from the will
of the majority. Such a system may
obviously lead to a deadlock on any
5332
all males over twenty-four. This was
carried largely by the emperor's personal
influence, acting through the premier,
Baron von Beck, an honourable statesman,
who also succeeded in ending the ten years'
quarrel over the tariff by a commercial
treaty with Hungary, in 1907. Under this
treaty, each state was granted a
xi'*x-° *i separate tariff; but Hungary
National ^ , ^ , . .-, "'
^ , was to pay 30 per cent, of the
Quarrel ^ / ^ ^ . ^ ,
expenses for war, defence, a-nd
foreign affairs. A court of arbitration
for future disputes was also instituted.
The question of the word of command
in the army was held over, and is not
definitely settled at the time of writing.
The Magyars are, in part, very much
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY IN OUR OWN TIME
they were not intended to work. Nothing
was further from the thoughts of the two
most interested Powers than a reformed
and resuscitated Turkey. They were
only waiting for Turkey to rot till she
dropped, and in the meantime they
opposed any genuine reform on the
ground that the integrity of the Turkish
Empire must never be infringed.
occupied by the Slav movements directed
against them in Croatia and Transylvania,
and by their own endeavours to retain a
majority in their Parliament by one device
or another under manhood suffrage. With
this object they framed a Bill in 1908 by
which a fairly rich Magyar's vote will
count as about thirty to one against the
Slav peasant's. It is significant that in
the Austrian Reichsrath
the first appeal to the
people under manhood
suffrage produced a Par-
liament of twenty-six
groups, the two largest
being the Social Demo-
crats— 90, largely Jewish
in tendency, and the
Christian Socialists — 65,
largely anti-Semites.
The year 1908 was for
many reasons one of the
most remarkable in Aus-
tria's history, and much
future history is likely to
spring from it. For some
years past Austria had
" VIENNA
The real value of this
phrase was shown in the
early summer of 1908 when
Count von Aehrenthal, who
had lately succeeded Count
Goluchowski as Foreign
Minister in Austria, sud-
denly proposed to extend
the Austrian, or rather
Hungarian, railway from
the frontier of Herzegovina
through the Sanjak of
Novi Bazar to the Turkish
frontier town of Mitrovitsa.
By this line Austria would
at once open for herself a
A SCENE IN THE AUSTRIAN CAPITAL route to Salonika without
The Schottengasse and Wahringerstrasse, two of the chief thoroughfares quitting territory UUdcr
in Vienna, the leading city of Austria, are shown in the above illustration, j^^^. ^^^ COUtrol till she
entered Turkey herself. It was a daring
ccssss:
.%.'L vv v\g
^ .V '^V\'<ldl.
been watching the decline of Turkey into
apparent ruin with peculiar attention. As
one of the " two most interested Powers,"
she had combined with Russia to impose
various schemes of reform upon the sultan,
especially in regard to Macedonia, where the
wretchedness and persecution of the popu-
lations had become a scandal to Europe.
But the schemes of reform did not work ;
proposal, but Russia countered it by sug-
gesting another railway, from the Danube,
through Servia, the Sanj ak and Montenegro,
to Scutari and the Adriatic, thus bindmg
together the Serb states and giving them
egress to the sea independent of Austria.
To such a scheme, after her own pro-
posal, Austria, could only assent with a
5333
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
sardonic smile, and so the matter rested.
But suddenly all deep-laid plans and
dark designs of Austria, as of other Powers
regarding the Near East, were overturned
by the Young Turk Revolution of July.
Up to 1908 — the time of writing — no
revolution had ever equalled it for skill,
moderation, and success. Unhappily,
, success was jast the last
Th^ "'t d "thirig that the two most
jj ^.^ interested Powers desired in
csigns -pm-j^gy^ They had long looked
forward with apprehension to a terrible
combat in sharing out the Turkish Empire,
but it would be a still more terrible thing
if no one was to get a share.
The details of the arrangement are,
naturally, obscure. We only know that
there were meetings between Baron von
Aehrenthal, M. Isvolsky, the Russian
Foreign Minister, and Signor Tittoni, the
Foreign Minister of Italy, and that in
September, Prince Ferdinand of Bulgaria,
an Austrian by birth and education, visited
Budapest and was received with royal
honours. On October 5th, Prince Fer-
dinand, almost certainly at Austria's
suggestion, proclaimed himself tsar of an
independent kingdom, owing no fealty to
Turkey and no tribute for Eastern Rou-
melia. On the following day, Austria
formally annexed the Turkish provinces
of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which she had
been allowed to occupy and administer by
the Treaty of Berlin since 1878.
" The rights of our sovereignty," ran
the proclamation, " are extended to Bosnia
and Herzegovina. Among the many cares
that surround our throne, care for your
material and spiritual welfare shall not be
the least." At the same time, a share
in the legislation was promised, together
with equal rights before the law, and equal
protection for religion, language, and
race. The Austrian troops which had
been allowed to police the Sanjak of
Novi Bazar, a long, Turkish strip of land
lying between Servia and
nncxa ion ]\j;Qn^enegro, were also with-
01 Turkish J • n
_ . drawn, nommally as compen-
'^ sation to Turkey. The conces-
sion was valueless, for if those Serb states
on either side of the Sanjak were hostile,
Austria could not hold it ; and if they
were friendly, she could re-occupy it
without effort. But by the annexation
of the two provinces, Austria tore up the
Treaty of Berlin, insulted Turkey, and
exposed the Young Turk government to
5334
extreme danger from the probability of
war, besides irritating Servia and Monte-
negro almost beyond endurance.
There are nearly 2,000,000 Servian
Slavs in the annexed provinces. Less
than half the population is Orthodox —
the rest being Catholics or Mohammedan
descendants of Serbs early converted by
the Turks ; but all of them are Servian by
race, descendants from subjects of the
old Servian Empire that was destroyed by
the Turks at the end of the fourteenth
century. The annexation cut the Serb
race in half, and absorbed about a third
of it. Servia saw herself also cut of^
hopelessly from the sea and from her
heroic kinsmen in Montenegro. The Ser-
vian fighting strength is very small,
probably not more than 200,000 of all
arms, though Servia had lately been
purchasing new batteries from France.
Austria, in the three previous years,
had also spent very large sums in re-
armament, and she could probably put
over a million men in the field, including
the Hvungarian Honved. But her troops
are admittedly ill-assorted and split up
e . , by nationalist feeling, and at
Servia s , / , ■ , ., ■ . °
_ . . ^. the time of writmg it seems as
Fate in the , , ,0 j ^
„ . though Servia may declare war
any day. At the worst she
could only be absorbed into Austria, and
form the nucleus of a great Servian
province, gradually becoming as inde-
pendent as Hungary. At the best she
might bring Russia into the contest as
protector of the Southern Slavs.
In its ulterior aims of embarrassing the
Reform Party in Turkey by war and of
restoring the sultan's corrupt govern-
ment, Aehrenthal'scoup has hitherto failed.
If there was a secret bargain between him
and Isvolsky, it has so far come to nothing,
because Sir Edward Grey took strong
steps to demonstrate Britain's friendship
to the Young Turks, and the Pan-Slavists
in Russia raised an outcry against any
possible bargain which would secure some
advantage like the opening of the Dar-
danelles to the Russian fleet at the price
of betraying the Southern Slavs to " the
German." Isvolsky, it is true, addressing
the Duma on Christmas Day, igo8, de-
finitely refused to support Servia against
the Power which had broken the Berlin
Treaty, but any future designs that
may have been plotted against Turkey
are for the present in abeyance. At the
time of writing, nothing is finally arranged,
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY IN OUR OWN TIME
not even the conference that would give
the only sanction to the arrangement, and
Austria has only lost very heavily in her
large Turkish trade owing to the indignant
boycott of Austrian goods by the Turkish
people. Probably, however, she will pay
Turkey a fixed sum — about £2,250,000 —
as compensation for the wrong.
It is possible that the annexation was in
reality a further step towards the conver-
sion of Austria into a Slavonic rather
than German Power. At all events, that
will probably be its result, and it is be-
lieved to have been favoured by the
Crown Prince Franz Ferdinand, who has
strong Slavonic sympathies. On the other
hand, we must remember that, whatever
Moslems, began to leave the country in
large numbers as soon as the Turkish
Revolution gave them hope of security
on Turkish soil. There has always been
great dissatisfaction because the recruits
from the provinces are taken to serve
their time in far-distant parts of Austria,
while troops of other nationalities are
quartered among the Bosnian villages.
Perhaps even stronger discontent has
been aroused by the large numbers of
Catholic churches erected by Government
throughout the country, though not
much more than 20 per cent, of the popu-
lation are Catholic. Jesuits and Fran-
ciscans are continually spreading their
propaganda, and it is an open secret that
SJLSi-UJ-lJUL
■Uii
SSa^^^^E
JJBgJitt^li'liil.Hilil ~^\
!-~-~ < .%w«>ji£^>aS«!^
THE HUNGARIAN HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT AT BUDAPEST
the fPan-Slavists may say, it is all of a
piece with the familiar German " Drang
nach Osten," and that the annexed
provinces are already largely Germanised.
They are filled with German officials ;
all newspapers, except the German, are
so rigorously censored that they often
appear with blank columns ; the forests,
which are a chief source of wealth, are sold
to German contractors ; many Slav schools
have been suppressed ; the Archbishop is
an Austrian nominee, and even the Ortho-
dox Servians refuse to accept the rites of
their Church from anti-national hands.
The Bosnian Mohammedans, who num-
ber about 35 per cent, of the population
and are Slav by race, though very strict
they are encouraged by the Crown Prince
Franz Ferdinand, who, perhaps, aims at
converting Austria-Hungary into a
Catholic Slav Power as a counterbalance
to the Orthodox Slavs of Russia.
Thus, Germanism and Catholicism have
been thrust upon Bosnia and Herzegovina
with almost equal persistence, and the
inhabitants naturally look for protection
to their kindred in the neighbouring
states of Servia and Montenegro, or even
to reorganised Turkey, which they still
claim as their suzerain. It must be
remembered that when Austria was per-
mitted to occupy and administer by the
Treaty of Berlin, she had to mobihse
200,000 men, so strong was the opposition
5335
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
of the inhabitants to a purpose which she
called her mission, though the provinces
had but recently freed themselves from
Turkish misgovernment. English trav-
ellers have often pointed to the advantages
of Austrian rule — the police, the growing
commerce, the excellent roads, and other
signs of advancement under Baron von
Kallav, v/ho administered the
I he Aged „ • r . ,
provmces lor twenty years
Emperor ^ ,, . r
„ , . With great appearance ol suc-
r ranz Joseph r> - -f- t i ^ n
cess. But English travellers
generally take their information from the
German-speaking officials, and it is also
a common mistake of our race to suppose
that man lives by bread alone. The
hostility to Austrian rule is at the present
time probably as strong as in face of the
occupation thirty years ago.
With Prague in open riot, the Italian
provinces deeply disturbed, the Poles
violently indignant at the treatment of
their countr^^men by Austria's German
ally, Croatia and Transylvania restless
under Magyar injustice, the Magyars
themselves insisting on further demands
for independence, and with Bosnia-Herze-
govina in a state of siege, the celebra-
tion of the aged emperor's Diamond
Jubilee, in 1908, could hardly be called an
auspicious occasion. Yet, in all Europe
there was probably no man more widely
respected than Franz Joseph. It was
not merely that he had reigned for sixty
years without open scandal. A man of
no great intellectual power or gift of
foresight, he had, within the rigid limits
of Austrian Court life, devoted himself
to the tasks that lay before him with an
obstinate tenacity that failures and dis-
asters made tragic, but could not shake.
The mysterious death of his son and the
^. ^ , assassination of his wife cast
The Emperor s , ^ u- • ,
Q • t a deep gloom over his private
. p.. . life, while the loss of nearly
and Disasters ,. ' . t^ t .li
all Ins Italian possessions, the
annihilation of his forces by Prussia, and
the collapse of Austria's old leadership
among the German States, were public
disasters that few dynasties could survive.
Yet neither grief nor disaster turned him
from the fulfilment of duties which
destiny laid upon him, and long ex-
perience had endowed him with a kind of
instinct for discerning the right moment
to yield or to remain firm. How far he
was aware of his Foreign Minister, Baron
von Aehrenthal's, sudden action that
convulsed Europe with apprehension in
the autumn of 1908, we cannot yet
say. The stroke was so unlike the
emperor's habitual restraint and modera-
tion that it encouraged the belief in his
temporary retirement from affairs and
his delegation of authority to his successor.
That report has been contradicted, and
one can only hope that the end of a long
and worthy career will not be marked by
dangerous European complications which
Austria's action will have chiefly contri-
buted to bring about.
What will happen at the aged em-
peror's death has long been a central
problem of international politics. M.
Milovanovitch, the Servian Foreign Min-
ister, while protesting against Austria's
attempt to shatter the Serb nationality
by annexing the provinces, said in J anuary,
1909 . " Austria-Hungary is not a Father-
p land, but rather a prison of
. , numerous nationalities all panting
P to escape." The description is
singularly apt. As I have tried
to show, the empire is hardly even a geo-
graphical expression. Never was a great
Power less homogeneous or more savagely
torn by contending races. It is natural
to suppose that with the departure of
the man who has so long held the
component parts together, however
loosely, a general disruption will ensue
and the whole fabric of the empire
collapse. But it would be unwise to
prophesy any such fate. Austria-Hun-
gary has survived so long that in all
likelihood it will go on surviving, if only
by habit. Besides, a disruption would
imply the isolation of many enfeebled
nationalities.
Patriotic as Czechs and Magyars and
Serbs and Germans may be, when it
came to the point they might very
likely prefer to hang together rather
than enjoy a short-lived separation at the
cost of ultimate and perpetual absorption
under the grinding imperialism of one 01
other of their powerful neighbours.
Henry W. Nevinsox
ESSENTIAL INFORMATION ABOUT AUSTRIA-HUNGARY
Finance. The estimates of revenue and ex-
penditure for 1907, the latest year having published
figures, were about £18,000,000, the three sources
of revenue to the common exchequer being the
customs, and the contiibutions of Austria and of
Hungary in the respective proportions of 65'6
and 34'4 per cent. AiLstria and Hungary have no
joint national debt, and by law no joint loan may
be issued. The only common obligation resembling a
public debt is the guarantee of the State notes, the
value of which in circulation is about £110,000.
The special debt of Austria is about £175,000,000,
and of Hungary about £150,000,000.
Industries and Commerce. Agriculture stands
at the head of the industries in both Aastria and
Hungary. In the former it provides about half of
the population with employment, and in the latter
almost three-quarters. In Austria the chief crops,
judged by acreage under cultivation, are rye,
potatoes, oats, barley, wheat, maize, pulse, vines,
sugar beets, beets, and buckwheat ; in Hungary the
chief crops are wheat, maize, rye, oats, barley,
pulse, potatoes, vines, beets, and sugar beets.
Mining is important in both countries, the chief
minerals and mineral products of Austria beuig
coal, brown coal, salt, iron, lead, silver, zinc, quick-
silver, graphite, gold and copper; and of Hungary
being lignite, coal, iron, gold and silver. About
17,000 Austrians find employment in sea-fishing.
The chief factory industries are the production of
beer, sugar, and tobacco.
The chief exports of Austria-Hungary are timber,
coal, eggs, sugar, woollens, glassware, iron and
steel goods, leather goods, paper and barley ; the
chief imports are raw cotton and raw wool. For the
year 1908, the value of the exports was £96,874,000,
and of the imports £105,518,000.
Currency. The currency h on a gold standard,
but the standard coin — the krone, korona, or crown —
ii coined only in silver. The 20-crow7i piece contains
60'9756 grammes of fine gold, and is worth 16s. 8d.
R,„„,.. .„;,.. I 1 heller, or J kreuzer = Old.
Bronze couls ^ ^ hellers, or i kreuzer = O'Sd.
.( 10 hellers, or .5 krellzer = Id.
I 20 hellers, or 10 kreuzer = 2d.
Area and Population. Austria, which com-
prises the provinces of Upper and Lower Austria,
Salzburg, St3n-ia, Carinthia, Carniola, Coastland,
Tyrol and Vorarlberg, Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia,
Galicia, Bukowina, and Dalmatia, has an area of
115,903 scjuare miles, and — at the census of 1900 —
a population of 2(), 150,708. The Kingdom of Hun-
gary, which consists of Hungary proper, with
Croatia and Slavonia, has an area of 125,430
square miles, and — at the census of 1900 — a popu-
lation of 19,254,559. The recent annexation of
Bosnia and Herzegovina by the Austro-Hungarian
Government adds to the territory directly subject
to the dual monarchy an area of 19,702 square
miles, and a population of 1,568.092 (census of 1895).
The total area of Austria-Hungary with the recently
annexed provinces is 261,035 square miles, and the
total population is 46,973,359.
Austria has seven towns with a population of
over 100,000 : Vienna, 1,999.912 ; Prague, 228.645 ;
Trieste, 205,136; Lemberg, 159,877; Gratz,
138,080 ; Briinn, 109.346 ; and Krakau, 104,836.
Hungary has two : Budapest, 732,322 ; and Szeged,
102.991. The chief town and capital of Bosnia and
Herzegovina is Sarajevo, with a population of 38,083.
Government. The Austro-Hungarian monarchy,
as the dual monarchy is officially called in inter-
national affairs, consists of two distinct states —
the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary.
Each state is independent of the other ; each has
its own constitution, and each legislates for itself ;
but in certain departments the interests are en-
trusted to a common executive. The interests that
are considered common are : foreign affairs, the
army and navy, and certain matters of finance.
Two delegations — each consisting of sixty members
chosen from the Upper and Lower Houses of the
two respective states — deliberate on common
interests, and communicate their desires and
decisions one to the other. They never deliberate
as a whole, but vote together as a whole only in the
event of disagreement after three interchanges of
views. There are three executive departments for
common allairs — Foreign Affairs, War, and Finance
— each under the supervision of a Minister of State.
The Aastrian Parliament, or Reichsrath, has an
Upper House (Herrenhaus) and a Lower House
(Abgeordnetenhaus). The former is a privileged
House, consisting of princes, nobles, bishops, and
distinguished citizens nominated by the emperor
for special services to State or Church, and has
170 members. The Lower Hou.se has 516 members,
and is elected, every Austrian male citizen over
twenty-four years of age and with twelve
months' residence qualification having a vote.
The duration of the Lower Hoase is six years, and
members are paid.
The Hungarian Parliament, or Or.szaggyiites,
has also two Chambers — an Upper House, or Foren-
dihaz, and a Lower Hoase, or Kepviselohiiz. The
former is composed of princes, nobles, and Churcli
dignitaries ; and the latter, with 453 members, is
elected on a low franchise. Members of the Lower
House are paid.
Monarch. The reigning sovereign is Franz
Josef I., or, in Hungarian, Ferencz Jtizsef (born
August 18th, 1830), who became Emperor of Aastria
on the abdication of his uncle, Ferdinand I., and the
renunciation of the crown by his father on Decem-
ber 2nd, 1848, and who became King of Hungary
on June 8th, 1867. The heir presumptive is the
Archduke Franz Ferdinand (born December ISth,
1863), nephew of the Emperor Franz Josef I.
lO
Nickel coins
Silver coins P"? ^«"«"' <"■ J»^" a gulden =
(, 1 krone, or korone (crown) = lOd.
10-crown piece = 8s. 4d.
Single ducat ( = 11 crowns 29 heller) . . = Ss. 4jd.
20-crown jiiece = 16s. 8d.
Weights and Measures. The metric system is
used [see page 5399].
Postage. Letters and papers as for France
[see page 5398]. Parcels, 6d. per pound higher than
rates to Germany [see page 5356] ; routes and limits
of size as for Germany.
Telegrams. Great Britain to Austria-Hungary,
3d. per word, with Is. minimum. Private telegrams in
code or cypher are not accepted for certain provinces.
LIECHTENSTEIN
This prmcipality is a small sovereign state
sandwiched between Austria and Switzerland. It
has an area of 65 square miles, and a jjopulation of
9,477. The reigning prince is John II. (born, 1840 ;
succeeded to the throne in 1858). There is a diet of
fifteen members, appointed for four years. The
capital of the state is Vaduz, with a population of
1,206. Liechtenstein is closely allied to Austria
by treaty, and belongs to the Austrian Customs
Union. The property of the sovereign is managed by
the Chancellery at Vienna, and the postal, telegraphic
and telephonic systems are managed by Austria.
The revenue and expenditure amount to about
£2o.000 a year, and there is no public debt. Agri-
culture, stock-raising, and textile manufactiu-ing
are the chief industries of the small state.
5337
THE KAISER AND KAISERIN REVIEWING PRUSSIAN STAhF OFFICERS AT POr^^-AM
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GERMAN ARTILLERY IN THE MANCEUVRES ON THE FRENCH FRO vlTIER, OCTOBER, 190
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GERMANY'S GREAT CONSCRIPT ARMY : SOMt SCENES OF MILITARY LIFE
5J38
EUROPEAN
POWERS
TO-DAY
IV
GERMANY
GERMANY IN OUR OWN TIME
THE EMPIRE'S PLACE AMONG THE WORLD
POWERS & ITS MILITARY & NAVAL STRENGTH
By Charles Lowe, M.A.
D Y far the most conspicuous and momen-
■*-' tous event of the nineteenth century
was the rise of the new German Reich on
the ashes of the Second French Empire.
The victories of the great Napoleon will
shine for ever in the pages of history,
though the results of those victories have
all gone to dust. The Corsican was a man
of tremendous, but of negative, power. He
shook all Europe to its foundations, but
out of its ruins evolved no new political
structure to survive his own fall. He was
essentially a destroying demon, while
Bismarck, on the contrary — who was to
succeed him as the principal wi elder of
one-man power in Europe — proved the
genius incarnate of creation.
Napoleon had only escaped from Elba
and reached the Tuileries with intent to
make one more gigantic effort to crush
united Europe when Bismarck was born—
seven weeks exactly before Waterloo — All
Fools' Day happening to be the birthday
of the wisest man of his time. Little,
certainly, did the Titanic Corsican then
think that, far away, in an obscure hamlet
of the sandy Mark of Brandenburg, a man-
child had on that First of April been born,
endowed with the power of building up
again what he had cast down, and of
shivering his upstart dynasty to atoms.
All the seas of blood which flowed at the
^ , call of Napoleon had been shed
, . , m vain : whereas the German
Imperial r- ^ i ^
c ... .. Empire stands, and promises
to stand, a solid result of the
three wars of 1864, 1866, and 1870, which
Bismarck found necessary to wage in
order to unify the German people. Hence
he has come to be known as the statesman
of " blood and iron," as if, forsooth,
omelettes could be made without eggs, or
states cemented without the sacrifice of
human life. If any empire more than
another, after that of Rome, has been built
up by a policy of blood and iron, surely it
is our own, for the long reign of Queen
Victoria was one of almost continuous w'ar
in one part or another of her world-
embracing dominions. It might easily be
shown that without this policy of " blood
and iron "" '
Germany the
United States
of Europe
it would never have been
possible to point to the new
German Empire as the most
momentous creation of the
nineteenth century. It is
now well-nigh fo'-fy years since this
mighty empire took the place of van-
quished France as the leading, because the
most powerful; nation on the Continent of
Europe ; for, after Sedan, the centre of
political gravity passed automatically from
Paris to Berlin. Yet even now there arc
but few Englishmen ^vho have a clear and
just notion as to what sort of a thing
this new German Empire really is.
It may, therefore, be said at once
that it is unique of its kind ; and that
it is not an empire in the Caesarian or
Tamerlanian, or Turkish, or Russian,
or Napoleonic sense of the term. It
would be much nearer the mark to
describe the German Empire as the
" United States " of Europe, with the
King of Prussia as their perpetual presi-
dent, under the title of " Deutscher
Kaiser," or " German Emperor," for
" Emperor of Germany " he is not. That
would imply sovereignty over the German
people, but William II. 's sovereignty is
confined to Prussia. It is for this reason
that neither he nor his grandfather, the
first kaiser — in, not of, a united Father-
land— was ever crowned, as coronation
would carry with it the idea of imperial
sovereignty, which is not an attribute of
the German Emperor. Nor are all Ger-
mans the "subjects" of the kaiser, as
5339
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
they are so often called. Every German
is the subject of his own Landesvater, or
native sovereign. Thus the only immedi-
ate " subjects " of William 11. are his
own honest Prussians, while the Saxons,
the Wiirtembergers, and the Badeners, etc.,
own similar allegiance to their own respec-
tive rulers, but all enjoy the superin-
, cumbent status and privilege
, . ot imperial German citizen-
D . ship. Another point to be
Prussians r^ j ..i ^ xu i • j
noted is that the kaiser does
not receive from the empire a single
penny of his Civil List — about £800,000
— which is exclusively Prussian, and all
the ceremonial expenses entailed upon
him as emperor are drawn from his
copious stipend as King of Prussia. The
imperial dignity is an honorary title in the
strict sense of the term, but the cost of
maintaining it is cheerfully borne by the
kaiser-king's special Prussian subjects for
the honour of the family, so to speak, "et
pour les beaux yeux du roi de Prusse."
It is ignorance of these and other facts
essential to a clear comprehension of the
subject that has caused the German
Emperor to be represented as a kind of
Frankenstein monster, bearing no resem-
blance to any man or monarch in the
universe. It cannot be too emphatically
declared that William II. is not an absolute
or irresponsible ruler, like, for example,
Nicholas II. of Russia. The best way of
realising his character as a sovereign is to
remember that the German Empire is but
the European analogue of the United
States of America, a confederation of
twenty-five sovereign states — of which
three, the Free Cities of Hamburg, Liibeck,
and Bremen, are republics — under the title
of " Deutsches Reich," with the King of
Prussia, ex-officio, as its perpetual execu-
tive chief or president. Just as each State
in the American Union enjoys its own
legislature for the transaction of purely
state affairs, so a similar system prevails
_ , in Germany, where each federal
St t A ^^^'•^ ^^^^ ^^^ o^xi bicameral
g . diet, or Landtag, for legislating
on affairs not reserved for
the Reichstag or Imperial Parliament.
The Kings of Saxony, Bavaria, and
Wiirtemberg, and the Grand Dukes and
Dukes of the other federal states are
just as much sovereigns in their own
territories — just as much " kings in their
own castles," so to speak — as the King of
Prussia, with the title German Emperor, is
534^
in his own special Hohenzollern monarchy.
The depth of popular ignorance on this
head in England was revealed when the
Duke of Edinburgh succeeded to the throne
of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, by the death of
his uncle, and when he was written of as
having now " taken an oath of allegiance "
to the German Emperor, as if he had
become his imperial nephew's vassal.
On the contrary, the duke became
just as much of an independent sovereign
in Germany as the King of Prussia
himself, who is only " primus inter pares "
among his fellow sovereigns in the Reich.
Outside of his own particular kingdom of
Prussia, William II., as German Kaiser,
has no more power of interference in the
civil affairs, say, of Saxony, Bavaria,
or Baden, than the Khan of Tartary.
Even in the Free Cities of Hamburg,
Liibeck, and Bremen, the emperor cannot
step in to exercise the prerogative of mercy,
one of the symbols of sovereignty.
To talk about the kaiser as a despot,
an autocrat, an absolute ruler, an irrespon-
sible monarch, is to talk nonsense. The
truth is that both as King of Prussia and
^^ , . ., , as German Emperor William II.
The Limited • . -. . • ,
p IS a constitutional sovereign —
■1I/-1I- 11 if of a peculiar kind. When
William II. T^ ,. , ^ , J. ..
Englishmen speak oi consti-
tutional " government they mean govern-
ment by party, whereas the German
conception of the same thing is govern-
ment according to a written constitution,
whether it includes party see-saw or not.
The trouble with our own " glorious consti-
tution " is that it is in the nature of a
" lex non scripta," so that we never really
know where we are ; whereas, the
Germans always enjoy the immense ad-
vantage of knowing, so that in cases of
dubiety or dispute they simply have to
turn to the " Reichsverfassung." And
the same remark applies to the Prussian
constitution, the outcome of the revolu-
tion of '48, when the respective powers
of crown and crowd were very carefully
defined ; though, on the whole, the balance
of power is in favour of the king in his
right of absolute veto.
But as kaiser he has no such right, so
that in this and some other respects, he is
not so powerful as the president of the
United States. The legislative body of
the empire may be said to consist of two
Chambers —the Reichstag, or National
Assembly, representing the Cierman people
and returnable by manhood suffrage ;
GERMANY IN OUR OWN TIME
and the Bundesrath, or Federal Council,
representing the Federal Sovereigns and
Free Cities of the Fatherland. Each of
these Chambers has co-ordinate and co-
equal powers. The assent of both is
essential to the i)assage of an imperial
law, and any Bill would be blocked by the
veto of either. Apart from these two
bodies the kaiser himself, as President of
the Union, has no power to veto an im-
perial law ; and as Prussian member of
the Federal Council he can only command
seventeen votes out of a total of fifty-two.
It will then appear that, even in the
Federal Council, the Prussian president
might easily be outvoted on any question :
as he was, for example, in the case of the
Supreme Court of the empire, which was
located at Leipzig instead of Berlin. A
Bill which is passed by the Reichstag and
approved by the Federal Council becomes
law whether the emperor, as King of
Prussia, has voted for it or not ; and then
the imperial president has no separate
veto power, no choice but to execute the
combined decision of the German people
and German princes. But now a word
as to the Reichstag, or
unc ions jsJa^tiQi^jQ Asembly, of which,
_ . . . by the way, the members
Reichstag ■^ ■ -i i , • ,
are now paid, and which
is often described as a mere " money
voting and law-assenting machine."
Nothing could be further from the truth.
The power of the Reichstag to reject
measures placed before it by the Imperial
Government is absolute, and this Govern-
ment has no means of coercing its will.
True, the kaiser, with the assent of his
fellow sovereigns in the Union, may
dissolve Parliament, but so can our own
king on the advice of his premier ; and to
dissolve a Parliament is not to dragoon it.
Dissolutions of the German Parlia-
ment have always taken the form of a
plebiscite, a referendum, a direct appeal
from the party-torn representatives of the
German people to the people themselves,
and in nearly all such cases the reply has
been decidedly in favour of the Govern-
ment. Power of purse is exercised as
absolutely by the German Reichstag as by
the House of Commons, and the kaiser
cannot put a new warship on the sea, or
add a single man to the German Army
without the sanction of the German people.
The list of measures which have been
rejected both by the Imj^erial and Prussian
Parliaments is a very long one, but the
Government remains in power whatever
happens, seeing that the principle of gov-
ernment by party does not form part of
the administrative machinery of any
German state. Nor among sensible people
is there any strong desire for it. National
security is of far more importance to
Germany, as a sort of " besieged fortress "
-„. ^ — tousethewordsof Moltke
Why uermany ,, . ,
Ki J c. — than government by see-
Needs & Strong *=",,, , , •'
Monarch Saw ; and the problem ever
before the German people
and their rulers is how to combine the
greatest degree of national safety with
the highest degree of individual liberty.
" Hemmed in," said Moltke, " between
might}^ neighbours, we are of opinion that
we require a strong monarchy." Moreover,
it cannot be doubted that Prince Biilow, on
the eve of the General Election of 1907,
spoke the popular mind of the nation when
he said that " no one in Germany desires a
personal regime, but, on the other hand,
the great majority of the German people is
most emphatically against a party regime."
But while it is quite true that though
the German people do not, as is so often
said of them, live under a personal regime,
or anything like it, it is equally true that
what may be called the personal power
of the emperor is very great. In the
purely civil and political field this power,
as we have seen, is circumscribed by the
written constitutions of Prussia and the
empire, and not once has the kaiser-king
ever sought to overstep or circumvent
the limits set against his arbitrary will.
He cannot veto a measure which has
received the double approval of the
Reichstag and the Bundesrath ; he can-
not, without the consent of his fellow
sovereigns in the Union, declare an
aggressive war, and most certainly those
sovereigns would never allow their
executive president to precipitate the
nation into a wanton struggle. Well,
then, but what is the nature of the power
that the kaiser so palpably
exercises ? The answer is
that he is the representa-
tive and spokesman of the
German people to other countries ;
above all, that he is commander-in-chief
of the army and navy ; and that this
" Kaiserliche Herr " also claims to be a
" Kriegsherr," war-lord, or master of
many mighty legions. It is the flashing of
the emperor's helmet more than of his
crown which sometimes tends to dazzle
5341
The Kaiser
Master of
Many Legions
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
the eyes and bewilder the German nation,
and other nations as well. It is in his
administrative capacity as " Kriegs-
herr " that the kaiser wields most personal
power within the empire ; while abroad
he is also comparatively untrammelled
in the domain of foreign policy. In both
fields the emperor is entitled by the
constitution to wield great personal
power, yet he has never abused it or
sought to throw his sword into the scale
either against the civil rights of his own
people or the general rights of man as
involved in the peace of the world.
And the sword of the German Emperor
is a mighty one — ^none more so. The
" German Michael," with his " mailed
fist," is perhaps the most formidable
fighting man the world has ever seen ; and
yet he is a pacific one, seeing that he has
not once bared his blade for well-nigh
forty years, or since his last great set-to
with the Gauls beyond the Rhine. What-
ever else may be said about Germany, it
must at least be conceded to her credit
that, with all her tremendous armed
strength, she has ever been a bulwark of
the European peace.
Since her war with France, Germany may
be said to have become an industrial state
as compared with the almost purely agri-
cultural country which she was before ;
yet her greatest industry is militarism —
the manufacture of soldiers, and in this
respect she easily surpasses all her rivals.
Of these soldiers she keeps a standing
army of about 600,000, which is just about
double the strength of what it was a year
or two after the great war ; and in time of
war this force could be raised to a first
fighting line of about a million and a half.
If need were, Germany could put into the
field, from her reserves of various kinds, .♦.
host of over four millions of highly
trained fighting men. Her standing army is
divided into twenty-three army corps, all
as like each other as two pins
in respect of composition and
The Germans
Under
Conscription
efficiency, so that after a
stranger has seen the march-
past of one of those superb bodies of men,
he may be said to have seen the whole
German army. It is, of course, a conscript
army, though its size is fixed by budget
law, and hence it follows that, though all
Germans capable of beanng arms are liable
to serve, it is only the fittest who are
taken to the colours, seeing that the
number of available recruits alwa\-s ex-
ceeds that of the time-expired men.
It would be outside the scope of a sketch
like this to detail the organisation of the
German army ; suffice to say that it is a
machine which represents more brain-
work than any other machine ever devised
by the wit of man, and that it is just as
GERMANY'S PARLIAMENTARY BUILDINGS IN BERLIN
5342
THE STATELY PALACE OF THE GERMAN EMPEROR AT POTSDAM
near perfection, as any human institution
can possibly be. But, then, as to its cost ?
Do we not often hear of the frightfully
oppressive burden of militarism under
which the German people groan as com-
pared with our own ? What are the
facts ? One is, that our own military
estimates for 1905-6 exceeded those of
Germany by nearly a million sterling for
the United Kingdom alone ; while our
Army Budget for the whole empire was
;^6i,5oo,ooo, as compared with the
£29,000,000 of Germany and the
^27,000,000 of France. " Ah, but then,"
_ exclaim the critics of militarism,
OS o << g^pg^^^ from the actual cost of
• . the German army in positive
cash, just consider the blood-
tax that has to be paid by its victims in
diverting two of the best years of their
life from their civil occupations, and thus
sterilising their productive labour ! "
The answer to this is that what these
victims lose in one way they gain, and more
than gain, in another. For they return to
civil life far better citizens than ever they
were before — imbued with discipline,
orderliness, respect for authority, energy,
improved physique, and other qualities
which soon enable them to make up, and
more, for the time, not lost, but devoted
to the service of their country — a citizen's
first and highest duty. It is a great mis-
take to suppose that military service is
unpopular in Germany. It may be with
some, but with the vast bulk of the nation
the army is its most popular institution,
and its officers are readil}' accorded the
leading position in society. In fact, the
average German officer is the highest type
of the German man.
But the worship of his uniform some-
times leads to strange results — witness the
case of an old gaol-bird, called Voigt, a
cobbler by trade, who dressed himself u])
as a captain in the Prussian Guards, way-
laid a party of William II.'s finest soldiers,
and commanded them to follow him to a
little town, Kopenick, near Berlin. The
soldiers obeyed like sheep or machines.
At Kopenick, the cobbler-captain, saying
he was the agent of the kaiser, arrested
the burgomaster, and sent him and his
lady under escort to Berlin, after which he
coolly walked away with all the cash in
the treasury, which he had previously
demanded in exchange for a receipt. The
feat would have been impossible in any
other country save Germany, where there
is a blind worship of every kind of uniform,
beneath which no one ever takes the
trouble to look.
This is one of the minor penalties of
being a " Volk in Waffen," a people in
arms, but that is a condition of things
from which the Germans by no possibility
can escape if they would continue to be
secure of their national existence. It is
just as essential for them to have the
finest army in Europe as it is for us to
5343
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
have the strongest fleet in the world.
Conscription is a sheer necessity for the
Germans ; and each country has its own
pecuhar needs and problems. As in the
case of individuals, what is food for one
may be positive poison for another, and it
would be just as preposterous for us to
seek to obtrude upon the Germans our
own special form of con-
Wci^^tTwar stitutionalism as it would
»»r^.? r° o be absurd for the Germans
With France? ^ . . ^ , ,•
to msist upon our adoptmg
their system of conscription. The question
is often asked : What would be the likely
issue of another war between France
and Germany ?
The answer to such a question must be
simplified by a comparison of figures. Sup-
posing the armies of the two countries to be
pretty equal in respect of strength, organisa-
tion, and efifiicerxy, let it nevertheless be
remembered that, whereas the populations
of France and Germany in 1870 were nearly
the . same, that of Germany is now
63,000,000, as compared with the 40,000,000
of France. Thus the answer to the question
referred to will probably take this form :
that the Malthusianism of decadent France
has relegated her to the position of a
second-rate Power vis-a-vis of virile, fruit-
ful, and multiplying Germany.
But there is another vital consideration
that bears upon the likely issue of a second
struggle between France and Germany,
and it is this : that in 1870 Germany had
no navy worth the name, while now —
leaving America out of account — her fleet
is considered to be inferior in battle power,
as distinguished from comparative paper
strength, only to that of England. The
war of 1870 was exclusively a land war,
and the swift, crushing victories of the
Germans had this peculiar, this unique
result — that they may be said to have put
the French navy entirely out of action,
seeing that it had to huiTy off all its best
guns and men to help in the defence of
Paris. But such • a thing —
such a victorious walk-over
on land — is never likely to
occur again : and that was
why, or at least one of the reasons why, the
Germans — knowing that if ever they had to
fight again they would have to do so on
sea as well as on land — provided them-
selves with a navy which M. Lockroy,
French Minister of Marine, who was given
special facilities for studying it, pronounced
to be the " best organised in the world."
5344
Why Germany
Built
Her Navy
As the rise of the German Empire was
the most momentous fact of modern times,
so the most momentous thing in the
history of this new empire was the creation
of the German fleet. In 1870 Germany
possessed but thirty-seven war-ships all
told, and a very miscellaneous job lot they
were ; while now she has no fewer than
about 260 various kinds of battle-craft,
built or building, including several of the
Dreadnought type. In 1888 the navy
was manned by only 15,000 officers and
seamen, and twenty years later the number
exceeded 50,000. In 1888 the ordinary
naval expenditure was onjy £2,500.000,
by 1908 it had risen to £18,000,000 ; while
the total sum to be devoted to the navy
between IQ06 and 1917 was voted at 166
millions sterling, though supplementary
Bills tend to increase these colossal figures.
To the 260 war-ships of various kinds
built and building in 1907, add 100 of
the finest Hners of the great German ship-
ping companies, which are retained by
the Government as auxiliary cruisers in
the event of war, and you will get some
idea of the new and formidable phenome-
w-11- II nonwhichmay besaid tohave
Wiiham II. ^^^j.g^ ^p^j^ ^ startled and
apprehensive Europe in the
Creator
of the Navy
form of the Imperial German
navj/. And here it may be pointed out
that while the army of the Fatherland is
only "German," its navy is " Imperial " ;
that is to say, that while the army is
composed of contingents from the various
states of the Union, each with its own
peculiarities and privileges, the navy —
recruited from the seafaring population
on the same conscript principle as the
army — is an imperial institution pure and
simple, and is much more of a rivet to the
unity of the Reich.
The difference may be further accen-
tuated by saying that while there is no
Imperial Minister of War, there is an
Imperial Chief of the Admiralty. In its
present form the Imperial navy may be
said to be the creation of William II., and,
if for nothing else, he will always be
remembered for this achievement. To
the eagle on the escutcheon of the Hohen-
zollerns he may be said to have added a
swan. William I. taught Germany how to
march, and it remained for his ambitious
grandson to show her how to swim.
"As my grandfather," the latter said,
" reorganised the army, so I shall reor-
ganise my navy, without flinching and in
GERMANY IN OUR OWN TIME
the same way, so that it will stand on the
same level with my army, and that', with
its help, the German Empire shall reach
the place which it has not yet attained."
Other utterances of the emperor show
that he was the first of his race to grasp
the meaning of sea-power — ^the struggle
for which promises to be a marked feature
of the present century — utterances such
as " Our future lies on the water " ;
" Germany, too, must have her place in the
sun " ; " without the consent of Ger-
many's ruler nothing must happen in any
part of the world " ; " may our Father-
land be as powerful, as closely united, and
as authoritative as was the Roman Empire
of old, in order that the phrase ' Civis
Romanus sum ' may be replaced by ' I am
a German citizen ' " ; " Neptune with the
trident is a symbol for us that we have new
tasks to fulfil since the empire has been
welded together. Everywhere we have to
protect German citizens, everywhere we
have to maintain German honour ; that
trident must be in our fist."
These and other utterances of his
clearly showed that William II. had been
_. „ . , bitten by the new-born passion
I he Kaiser s r ,, \ ■ u.\ ■
_ . , for sea power, though m this
Passion for , , i . <•
c „ respect he was but actmg as
Sea Power ,, ^ i f 4.u 4.
the spokesman ol the vast
majority of his people. The voice of that
people found vent in the creation of a
Flottenverein, or Navy League, which
now numbers almost a million subscribing
members, and which has an annual
income of about £50,000 for the purpose
of agitating in favour of an ever stronger
navy. But even previous to the form-
ation of that league the Reichstag, in
response to the same popular voice, had
willingly voted 8,000,000 sterling for the
construction of a sixty-mile long and
twenty-nine feet deep canal between
Kiel Harbour and the mouth of the Elbe —
a work which, begun in 1886 and inaugu-
rated in 1895, practically doubled the
value of the German fleet by enabling it
to concentrate either in the North Sea
or the Baltic without incurring the various
risks of going round by Denmark.
And now it has been decided to
deepen and broaden this Kaiser Wilhelm
Canal to admit of the passage of battle-
ships of the Dreadnought type. More-
over, the Reichstag voted £1,500,000
sterling for the fortification of Heligo-
land, which we surrendered to Ger-
many in 1890 in exchange for Zanzibar.
Otherwise the Flottenverein — under the
patronage of some of the highest person-
ages in Germany, including the emperor's
sailor-brother, Prince Henry — played a
prominent part in preparing the pubhc
mind for successive demands of money to
increase the navy. The large naval pro-
gramme of 1898, providing for seventeen
_ . . new battleships, coincided
ermany s ^[i\^ the Spanish- American
Great Building ,,* , / ,, ,,
p War ; while soon after the
gramme outbreak ofourBoer War the
Reichstag again voted, in 1900, something
like £100,000,000 for the carrying out of a
naval programme extending over sixteen
years ; though on two subsequent occa-
sions, 1906 and 1907, supplementary Bills
in the direction always of bigger battle-
ships were presented to Parliament.
There was the less opposition to the
immense Government demands in 1900,
as the German public had been highly
irritated by our seizure of several of their
mail steamers, and the unloading of them
at Durban in search of contraband — an
incident to which the emperor thus alluded
in a telegram to the King of Wiirtemberg :
" I hope the events of the last few days
will have convinced ever widening circles
that not only Germany's interest, but
also Germany's honour must be protected
in distant seas, and that to this end
Germany must be strong and powerful
on the sea also." At the same time it was
stated, noi in the preamble, but in the
memorandum of motives attached to the
Bill of 1900, that " Germany must have
a fleet so strong that even for the greatest
naval Power a war with it would have
such risks as to imperil its sea supremacy."
And then the fat was on the British
fire. For these words were regarded as a
clear warning, if not a threat, to England,
and there were many who professed to
believe that a war between the two
countries was only a question of time. For
the last quarter of a century — ^or from
1884-85, when Germany, in
^'■l*''!'''^ . , spite of much dog-in-the-
Relations with '^ ■ •
Germany
manger obstruction from us,
first started on her career as an
oversea Power — 'the relations between the
two peoples had been anything but cordial,
and during the Boer War their estrangement
reached a climax. But, truth to tell, there
were faults and jealousies on both sides.
The German Empire was a political fact
to which Englishmen were long in recon-
ciling themselves, and there were but
5345
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
few who could lay their hands vipon their
hearts and call themselves its well-
wishers. These feelings of coldness and
suspicion were only intensified when
Imperial Germany shot ahead and became
our most formidable rival in the world of
commerce. " That England," so Bismarck
once said, "looks on in some surprise when
„ , we, her landlubberly cousins,
p "^ ''^ suddenly take to the water too
o th S is not to be wondered at." But
the Germans had not merely
taken to the water. In the opinion of
our Teutophobe alarmists, it was also
their aim to wrest from us the trident
of Neptune and destroy our tyrannical
supremacy on the sea. As one writer
said : "A mighty longing for larger
sea power, a determination to brook
no longer the overwhelming and resist-
less supremacy of England on the main,
has seized upon the soul."
But while thus striving to make encroach-
ments on the sea, the Germans at the same
time had not been neglecting the air, and
in the latter respect their most successful,
inventor, Count Zeppelin, was hailed by
the emperor as " the foremost man of his
century." For his conquest of South
Africa, Lord Roberts received £100,000
from a grateful country, and that is pre-
cisely the sum which was also voted to
Count Zeppelin by the German people for
his conquest of the air. The degrees of
these two acts of victory were very differ-
ent, but still the Germans were entitled to
claim that they had advanced further on
the path of air-conquest than any other
nation. Heine had sneered at them as a
nation of dreamers, whose thoughts were
always in the air, but his words had now
acquired a wonderfully new significance :
The French and the Britons now lord it on and.
In the ocean the Britons are rooted ;
To the Germans remaineth the region of air,
Where they domineer undisputed.
With Count Zeppelin's achievements the
J., p .. time, however, had now come
^ . f when the most hot-headed and
L/onquest oi . . ,, ^
Great Britain Visionary among the Germans
began to regard their partial
conquest of the air as a long step in the
direction of the possible conquest of Great
Britain, which would thus no longer enjoy
the advantages of being an island if the
sky could be darkened with aerial navies.
But it is a far cry from Lake Con-
stance to the chffs of Kent ; and, on the
other hand, in a country like Germany,
5346
there is not always perfect identity
between popular as]:)irations and Govern-
ment aims. The emperor himself dis-
avowed all deliberate hostility to England ;
while his chancellor. Prince von Biilow,
was still more emphatic. Replying to the
charge of some Socialist speakers in the
Reichstag, that the increase in the German
navy was rightly regarded as directed
against Great Britain, the chancellor said,
December, 1905 : " That we are pursuing
no aggressive plans against Great Britain
I have said a hundred times. I have said
a hundred times that it is nonsense to
father such schemes on us."
To a Press interviewer some little time
after, the prince said: "I admit that we
have made great strides in shipbuilding ;
for, like other nations, we require a fleet in
proportion to the extent of our commercial
interests all over the water. But, as a
matter of fact, our navy is still very small
in proportion to our oversea commerce —
judging their relative dimensions by those
of other nations. To argue, however, that
Germany thinks of ever competing with
England for the mastery of the sea is
, tantamount to accusing us of
ermany s ^jgj^ij^g ^q build a railway to
g p the moon, including rolling-
stock, sleeping-cars, etc. It is
sheer nonsense, and I for one deplore that
anybody should deem me capable of
entertaining such a fantastic idea."
In the Reichstag also the chancellor
said : "In our construction of a fleet we
are not pursuing aggressive aims. We
only desire to defend our own German
coasts, and to uphold German interests
abroad. It is, moreover, the wish of by
far the greater portion of the German
people that we should not be defenceless
on the sea. . . . The saying, ' Our future
lies on the water,' is not in any way
pointed at other Powers. . . . We have
not the slightest intention of driving
another Power from the sea, but we have
just as good a right to sail the seas of the
world as other nations have. That right
the Hansa had centuries ago, and that right
the new German Empire also possesses."
Apart from all question of Englan,d and
her sea supremacy, it must be owned that
Germany had reasons enough for justifying
herself in the eyes of other nations in the
building of a navy commensurate with her
population (63,000,000), the extent of her
coast-line, the size and number of her
colonies, the volume of her marine trade —
GERMANY IN OUR OWN TIME
Atlantic, until this was recovered for us by
a couple of colossal Cunarders. The value
of German trade done with the British
Empire alone was over £109,000,000
annually. Besides, Germany was becoming
more and more dependent on foreign
supplies of food and raw material for the
industrial portion of her people, and in the
which is far superior to that of France—
and her dignity as the leading Power on
the Continent. Where was the logic of our
grudging to Germany, with marine interests
greater "than those of France, a navy at
least equal to the French one ? Surely
every country may enjoy the right of
determining the means and manner of its
self-defence ; but human
nature is a strange thing,
and often prompts to the
remark : " Cet animal est
tres mechant ; quand on
I'attaque, il se defend."
Since the year 1848 Ger-
many has seen her coast
blockaded on three separate
occasions, including the war
of 1870, when she was
practically powerless at sea.
Again, in 1907, the value of
her sea-borne trade was
£372,000,000 sterling. Of
this total, £294,000,000 was
carried by German merchant
vessels of over 3,000,000
THE WARSHIP FRAUENLOB
event oi those supplies
being interrupted, she would
be faced with a serious eco-
nomic crisis. It would be
difficult for her to with-
stand a Continental coali-
tion unless she could count
upon a free sea, and so
for these, if for no other
reasons, it was imperative
for her to have a navy com-
mensurate with her interests
— a navy which nevertheless
began to fill the minds of
Englishmen with apprehen-
sion and alarm.
But the popular passion
for sea power was still more
One of the greatest of Germany's ambitions is to possess a navy that shall be JppvjlT, rOO+cd The dcsifC
unrivalled by any other Continental Power, and under the present kaiser, ^ ^ - , . , ' -. i,„ j l^^^
,.,.„._.. ,, j:-.:__. -J u-_ u j„ :„ ^u:„ a:^„^^:„„ The two war- for national unity naa oeen
GERMAN WARSHIPS : THE KAISER KARL DER GROSSE
One of the greatest of Germany's ambitions is to possess a navy that shall be
William II., distinct advance has been made in this direction. . ..^ „..« *--
ships illustrated above, which are shown sailing through the great water- followed by an equally
way, the Kiel Canal, are typical examples of Germany's naval strength. g|-j-Qj^g Craviug for national
tons register, valued at over £40,000,000,
and manned by 60,000 seamen . Ten per cent .
of the world's commerce and 79 per cent.
o[ German sea-borne trade was carried in
German bottoms, while the Hners of the
Hamburg and Bremen companies were the
finest that crossed the sea. and had even
wrested from us the blue ribbon of the
expansion. For several years after the
establishment of the empire, Bismarck
and others worked hard at its internal
consolidation — witness, among other
things, the codification of all the con-
flicting laws of Germany, a gigantic work
lasting nearly thirty years, to which
only German heads were equal. And no
5347
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
Colonies
of the German
Empire
sooner had the imposing edifice of the
Reich been fairly riveted within and
without than the national energy began
to seek an outlet in the creation of a
Germany beyond the sea. For years Bis-
marck had been indifferent, and, indeed,
positively averse, to colonial adventure ; but
at last he could no longer resist a popular
impulse which was rapidly
growing in strength. The re-
sult was that, within a year or
two of this new departure, in
1884, Germany found herself included in
the ranks of the colonial Powers, with
territories in Africa, New Guinea, and the
Pacific Archipelago aggregating an area
five times the size of her empire in Europe,
though nine-tenths of this area is in Africa.
To this, some years later, in 1897, Ger-
many added a ninety-nine years' " lease "
of a 200-square mile foothold at Kiaochau,
on the coast of China, whither the kaiser's
sailor brother, Prince Henry, was des-
patched as the menacing apostle of the
" mailed fist," with this sentence from his
Majesty ringing in his ears : " Imperial
power means maritime power, and mari-
time power and Imperial power are
mutually interdependent, so that one
cannot exist without the other."
Germany may thus be said to have
become an oversea Power without becom-
ing a colonial one in the British sense.
It was wittily and truly said that France
had colonies but no colonists ; Germany,
colonists but no colonies ; while England
had both colonies and colonists. It was
too late in the day, as indicated by the
world's clock, when Germany entered the
colonial field, for by this time all the
available waste spaces of the earth had
already been appropriated by other
Powers, especially England. What she
wanted was to found a new Germany, a
new Fatherland across the sea for the
accommodation of those vast numbers of
her surplus sons who had hitherto mi-
grated to America and other
in e&rc ^nglo-Saxon lands : but it
for a New '^ , ^ ,i ,
„ .. , . soon became apparent that
Fatherland , ,, , , . ^'^ , ...
none 01 the African territories
which had now fallen to her were at all
suitable for this purpose.
They were all sub-tropical, and fitted
only to be plantation, not agricultural,
colonies. Very small was the total number
of Geimans who went to seek their for-
tunes in Germany's " colonies," and even
of these a large proportion were govern-
5348
ment officials employed to administer the
protectorates without having first learned
from us the very necessary art of ruling
native races. The brusque manners of
PiTissian policemen and the brutal methods
of some German drill - sergeants were
unsuited to the black tribes of the
Kamerun and Damaraland. Rebellion
was frequent, and even the German
army, which boasted itself to be the best
in Europe, was for several years powerless
to put down a native rising in South-West
Africa involving the loss of thousands of
German lives and millions of money.
After this experience, shame and remorse
overtook those Germans who had sneered
at our own protracted struggle with the
Boers. Attracting few or no colonists in
the ordinary sense of the term, those
German protectorates on the whole have
never ceased to be a financial burden to
the Imperial Government, and yet their
existence and the necessity of defending
them continued to be one of the chief
arguments in the logic-armoury of the
Chauvinists and the Pan-Germanists for
the strengthening of the Imperial fleet.
_ , These Pan-Germanists deserve
crmany s j^^j-g tha.n a passing notice, see-
Bid for 1.-I J. ■ iu 1
First Place ^"^^ *^^^' ^" ^ ^^"^^' ^^^^ ^^^^
that part in German political
thought which the advocates of a united
Germany did during the period between
1815 and 1870. Their organisation, the
" All-Deutscher Verband," or Pan-German
League, corresponds to, and is the comple-
ment of, the " Flottenverein." According to
its statutes, it " has for object the re\'ival
of German nationalistic sentiment all over
the earth, preservation of German thought,
ideals, and customs in Europe, and across
the ocean, and the welding into a compact
whole of the Germans everywhere." The
official anthem of these Pan-Germans is ;
" Deutschland, Deutschland iiber AUes,
, Ueber Alles in der Welt."
In charging down on the French at
Waterloo, the Scots cried : " Scotland for
ever ! " In charging down on the whole
world after Sedan, the Germans shouted :
" Deutschland everywhere I ' Prince Biilow
once gave the toast : " The King first in
Prussia ; Prussia first in Germany ; Ger-
many first in the world ! " And, saying
so, he pretty well expressed the creed of
the Pan-Germanists. The emperor, too,
on the twenty-fifth anniversary of the
Reich, delighted their hearts by declaring :
" Out of the German Empire a world-
GERMANY IN OUR OWN TIME
empire has arisen. Everywhere, in all
parts of the earth, thousands of our
countrymen reside. German riches, Ger-
man knowledge, German activity, make
their way across the ocean. The value of
German possessions on the sea is some
milliards of marks. Gentlemen, the serious
duty devolves on you to help me to link
this greater German Empire close to the
home-country, by helping me, in complete
unity, to fulfil my duty also towards
the Germans in foreign parts."
But while thus voicing the splendid aims
of the Pan-Germanists, the emperor
and his Government have never recog-
nised their activity to the same extent
as in the case of the " Flottenverein,"
and for the reason that the propaganda
of the " All-Deutscher Verband " is still
beyond the pale of practical politics.
There are now about 92,000,000 of
German-speaking men in the world, and
of these only 63,000,000 live in Germany
itself. The rest are divided between
Austria-Hungary, 12,000,000 ; Switzer-
land, 2,320,000 ; Russia, Baltic Provinces,
etc., 2,000,000 ; various other European
countries, 1,130,000 ; United
States and Canada, 11,500,000 ;
Proposals
of Teutonic
y . South America, 600,000 ; Asia,
pians Africa, Australia, 400,000.
But how, then, do the Pan-Germanists
propose to bring all these widely-scattered
Teutons into a common fold ? In what
respect does Pan-Germanism differ from
Zionism, which aims at the repatriation
of the Jews, or, at least, at their collection
from all the countries of Europe and
agglomeration into a new Semitic nation
with a Rothschild or a Hirsch for their
ruler ? Broadly speaking, the Teutonic
Utopians propose :
First, an economic alliance with all
countries in Europe inhabited by Germanic
peoples, such as Austria, Switzerland,
Holland, Belgium, Luxemburg. This
economical alliance will lead to political
union for defensive and offensive purposes.
Secondly, the formation of a Central
European Customs Union, aimed primarily
against England and the United States,
and secondarily against Russia.
Thirdly, the union of all the Germanic
peoples — Low and High Germans — in
one central Germanic Confederation. As
part of this policy, Deutschthum across
the seas is to be reclaimed. Out of trans-
marine Deutschthum a greater Germany
IS to arise. The only way in which the
Government has hitherto shown its
practical sympathy wi-th the aims of the
Pan-Germanists has been to pursue a
root and branch policy of Germanisation
within the empire itself— with the French
of Alsace-Lorraine, the Danes of Schles-
wig, and, above all, with the Poles of
Prussian Poland, where, by a merciless
Dangerous P'°^«^^, ^^ , expropriation
and Unpractical ^nd other forms of corn-
Dreamers pulsion, the Slavs have been
placed under the Teutonic
steam-roller. Otherwise, the Government
has held aloof from the agitation of the
Pan-Germanists as from the propaganda
of unpractical and dangerous dreamers,
though it has been said that what the
professors think to-day will be espoused
by the practical politicians of to-morrow.
At the same time, it is well to remember
that both the " All-Deutscher Verband "
and the "Flottenverein" are rooted in
the undeniable fact that the limits of the
present German Empire are too narrowly
drawn for the size of its population as
well as for its importance and its aspira-
tions. In fact, both these propagandist
leagues may be said to incorporate that
restless spirit, that ever-growing passion
for national expansion, that hungering
after " fresh woods and pastures new,"
which can scarcely fail to bring the Ger-
man people into fierce struggle-for-life
competition, if not, perhaps, into actual
conflict, with other nations.
Those nations have to reckon with the
fact that Germany, which, up to 1884,
merely was a Continental Power, has now
become a Colonial one, and aims at also
being a " Weltmacht," or World-Power,
in the sense that Great Britain is such.
"Without the consent of Germany's
ruler," said the kaiser proudly, "nothing
must happen in any part of the world "
— and thus he explained what is meant
by saying that Germany has become a
"Weltmacht" — a Power that must be
consulted before the other
crmany as £m-Qpga,n Powers can come
Britain s . ^ , ■.■,
o- IXC to any agreement with re-
Kival at Sea , -' ^ ^r r-i •
gard, say, to Morocco, China,
or other oversea " spheres of interest."
It was to lend emphasis to her voice
in such consultations, and protect her
dealings with the markets of the world,
that Germany thought it necessary to
create a navy commensurate with her
interests as a "Weltmacht" — a navy
which, though at first merely intended for
5349
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
coast defence, gradually assumed a
battleship build for offensive warfare if
need be, and at last grew to such formidable
proportions that the British Government
of Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, at
the second Hague Conference in 1907,
felt compelled to propose to Germany
a mutual arrest of naval armaments and
_ , their restriction to the ratio of
Germany s ^^^ ^^ ^^^ j^ -^ ^^^^^^^^ ^^
Kise from ^1^x1- ^
p say that this proposal was
°^" ^ negatived by Germany on the
ground of the inexorable " logic of facts."
The truth is that Germany has become
our most formidable naval rival because
she had in the meantime also become our
most dangerous commercial rival. Our
supremacy on the sea, which we had
won at Trafalgar, was still undisputed ;
Imt, on the other hand, our monopoly of
the markets of the world had begun to
crumble soon after Sedan.
Having vanquished the French in the
field of war, the victors of Sedan set
themselves to outstrip the British at the
arts of peace, and it was not long before
the cry arose in this country that they
were beginning to do so. Ten years after
Sedan, Germany adopted a moderate
protective tariff, and, whether as a con-
sequence or not, in a few years the
country became transformed. From being
one of the poorest of Continental states,
Germany became the richest, and, in
some respects, richer even than England.
Let us take a few facts and figures.
In 1882, two years after the adoption of
protectionism, British shipping through the
Suez Canal was over 4,000,000 tons ; in
igo6 it had risen to 8,500,000, or a trifle over
100 per cent, increase. In 1882 German
shipping was 127,000 tons; in igo6,
2,250,000, an increase of about 1,700
per cent. In 1882 England owned 81 per
cent, of all shipping passing through the
Canal; in 1906 the percentage had sunk
to 63. In 1882 Germany owned only 2|
_ . per cent., but in 1906 this
»pp>ng j^j^^ risen to over 16 per cent.
. ^ Again, the Germans proudly
in Germany • , , . , x ^ j.i j.
point to the fact that one
of their shipping lines — the " Hamburg-
America " — has now become the greatest
in the world, far surpassing the nearest
of its British rivals in the extent of its
operations and the number and tonnage
of its ships. The capital of the com-
pany exceeds ;f 5, 000, 000, its employees
exceed 18,000, and its ocean-going iieet
5350
numbers 149 vessels, with a tonnage
of over 725,000. In addition, there is
a swarm of river vessels and tugs, with
a tonnage of nearly 150,000. The entire
fleet is valued at £7,000,000. There
are fifty regular passenger and cargo
liners, calling at over 300 harbours.
In the United States alone the company
employs 2,000 agents. Furthermore, shi])s
of the Hamburg Line are trading now
in waters which until quite recently were
regarded as British preserves — ^f or example,
in Indian, Chinese, and Australian seas, and
even in the Persian Gulf.
According to one of our own consular
reports for 1906, the general economic
improvement in Germany had continued
steadily, and " attained a hitherto un-
precedented height." In " most trades
the only subject of complaint was the
scarcity of workmen."
The excess of Germany's exports over
her imports has been growing rapidly.
Dividing the last twenty-five years into
five-yearly periods, the average excess
of exports over imports of manufactures,
as shown in this return, is given for each
period in the following table :
NET EXPORTS OF MANUFACTURES FROM
UNITED KINGDOM AND GERMANY.
United
Germany
Million £
Excess of U.K
—
Kingdom
Million £
over G. surplus
Million £
1882-86
136-5
51-2
85-3
1887-91
138-4
57'3
81 -I
1892-96
II0-5
57-5
53-0
1897-01
110-5
yyb
33-9
1902-06
138-1
113-1
25-0
Thus, it will be seen that the lead of
£85,300,000 previously enjoyed by the
United Kingdom has steadily dropped
till it amounted to no more than
£25,000,000. But corrected estimates tend
to show that, as an exporter of manu-
factured goods, Germany is now within
/15, 000, 000 of the United Kingdom.
It is on the strength of these officic'.l
figures that the Hohenzollern Empire has
been pronounced by an expert writer —
Mr. Ellis Barker, author of " Modern
Germany " — to be "at present by far the
wealthiest state in Europe. Germany
and the individual states composing it
have a very large national debt, but against
that debt they possess very considerable
assets. Of these the Prussian state railways
alone, which earn a profit of from seven to
GERMANY IN OUR OWN TIME
eight per cent., would suffice to pay off the
whole of the indebtedness of the empire and
of all the individual states." Another in-
dication of national wealth and prosperity
is the fact that between 1885 and 1905
the German state insurance societies paid
to about 10,000,000 workers, male and
female, about £256,000,000 on account of
illness, accident, infirmity, and old age.
In this connection be it remarked that
no other country has essayed and accom-
plished so much for the welfare of her
working classes as Germany. Under the
old emperor she took the lead in the
attempt to solve modern social problems
by means of state legislation, thus in-
augurating a sort of state Socialism in
some beneficiary fields ; while William II.
also hastened to make his mark as a
saviour of society by summoning an inter-
national labour conference, and in Ger-
many itself full effect was given to its
recommendations by a measure for the
amendment of the Industrial Code.
All this is true. Under Protection —
inconsequence of it, as some maintain; in
spite of it, as others aver — Germany has
c. 1. .J grown to be the wealthiest
Stronghold cQ^,,try in Europe. In the
of Social •• r 1 • 1
_ opmion oi many she is also
Democracy , , i , -^ . •
the best governec country in
Europe, in the sense that she enjoys a
government best adapted to her special
needs and circumstances ; yet we are con-
fronted by the puzzling facts that for every
Socialist in England there are four in
Germany, and that social democracy, the
party of extreme discontent, is stronger in
Germany than anywhere else in the world.
At the election to the first Reichstag
in 1871 only three per cent, of the total
votes had been given to the Socialists,
and by 1881 this percentage had risen
to 6-12 with a poll of 312,000. By 1890
the percentage had further bounded up
to 1974 with a poll of 1,427,300 ; while
at the election of 1903 the percentage was
3171, or well on to a third of the whole
— the Socialists having secured 3,010,771
out of a total poll of 9,495,586 — a per-
centage of 3771. Numerically, they were
thus by far the strongest of the eight or
ten parties among which the 397 seats in
the Reichstag are divided. Of these seats
they only secured 82, but according to the
law of strict proportional representation
they ought to have had about 130.
The development of social democracy
belongs to the history of the empire
proper, but here at least it may be said
that its members — formerly, in 1903,
nearly a third of the whole electorate —
are the men whom the emperor has re-
peatedly denounced as "a band of fellows
not worthy to bear the name of Ger-
mans," and " enemies to the divine order
of things; men without a Fatherland."
_ . It was with the help of these
o . . . " Vaterlandslose Gesellen " that
Kouted at .1 ^, ■ 1 . ,,
. p I] '■'^^ Clericals, in 1907, threw
out a demand for ;f4oo,ooo
for the perfection and development ot
South-West Africa, and on this issue the
Government appealed to the German
people, who were told that the new
General Election was to decide whether
Germany was to remain merely a Great
Power in Europe, or whether she was also
to become a World-Power. The reply of
the people was decisive, and the Govern-
ment got a working majority. The
Socialists suffered a sort of debacle. They
returned to the Reichstag shorn of about
half their strength — with 43 seats instead
of 82, although, out of a total, of 11,262,800
votes — the highest number ever yet given
in the empire — they had polled 3,259,000,
or only about 29 per cent., instead of
their previous 32 per cent.
Nevertheless, the election was held to
furnish clear evidence that the ambition
to make Germany a " Weltmachf " and
an oversea Power was no longer confined
to the emperor, the " Flottenverein."
and the Pan-German League, but that it
had also permeated the great mass of the
German people. It was held to show that
the working population of Germany had
deliberately and emphatically endorsed the
economic policy which benefits the producer.
It was further held to prove that,
however bad the general state of agri-
culture in Germany, it was at least
decidedly better than in Free-Trade Eng-
land. The German people had begun
to grow tired of a party which was in the
main one of mere opposition
and negation — a party as in-
nocuous as it was noisy. The
Socialists now appeared in the
light of those wlio, the more they get, the
more they want. " What do they want ? "
inquired ' the Birmingham brassworkers,
when they went over to inquire into the
condition of the German workman. " They
seem to have everything cheap, and we
don't know what they are agitating for."
It was seen that the poor in Germany
5351
The Greed
of the
Socialists
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
were not becoming poorer but richer.
Socialism was being overcome by social
prosperity. Its decrepitude was held to be
due to the fact that Germans are guaran-
teed high wages by their tariff, that
Germany is advancing with giant strides
in wealth, comfort, and prosperity, while
surrendering none of the noble ideas of
duty, faith, and obedience upon
A Period of
Intellectual
which the old emperor and Bis-
j^ marck built up the empire. In
agna ion ^^^^^ ^^^ material prosperity of
Germany — side by side with, and partly
as a result of, her militarism, which supplied
her trade, industry, commerce, and agri-
culture with labour at once disciplined
and intelligent — had begun to assume
such proportions as to throw all the other
])hases of the national life into the
shade. Militarism and money-making
and materialism have absorbed all the
best energies of the nation, and left it thus
comparatively poor and unproductive in
the various intellectual walks of life.
An American writer of German origin,
Wolf von Schierbrand, is pretty near the
mark when he says : " There is an
astonishing uniformity of mediocre ideas
in modern Germany, with httle of that
daring flight of thought, that love of
speculative philosophy, little of that
poetical sentiment, which the world was
wont to consider a special province of the
German mind. There has been at work
a process of mental levelling down. This
prevailing sameness, this dearth of genius
— although it cannot be denied that it is
coupled with a great increase in hard
common-sense and a practical turn of
mind — can be traced all through German
literature, art, and science of to-day.
Since the close of the Franco-German War
no really great poet, author, artist or
scientist has arisen in Germany. Nearly
all her great names antedate that war.
This, I believe, is in part owing to the
influence of miUtarj' training on the
mind of the nation at the
formative period of life." But,
apart from this, the mind of
the nation is absorbed in its
material development, its expansion, and
is far more concerned with the problems
of politics than with those of intellect and
art. It was the same with ourselves during
our Civil W'ar and Commonwealth period,
when our literature was only saved from
being one exclusively of political pamph-
lets by a " Paradise Lost." But the
5352
Politics
Before
Intellect
German of the empire has not yet pro-
duced even a Klopstock, not to speak of a
Milton, and as for Goethes and Schillers
they are sadly to seek.
In an up-to-date " History of German
Literature," by Edward Engel, he pro-
nounces this to be " the first literature in
the world," a judgment which can only be
described as springing from the madness of
national self-conceit wilfully blind to the
fact that a literature with a Shakespeare
at its head can never be relegated to a
second rank. And then, as regards France,
Germany has supplanted her as the
leading, because the most powerful, nation
on the Continent. The centre of political
gravity has now been shifted from the
Seine to the Spree. But Berlin is stiU far
behind Paris as a " villelumiere," a centre
of intellectualism, literature, art, and all
the social graces ; and one capital can still
securely smile at the clumsy efforts of the
other to add to the oak-leaves of a frowning
^lars the laurels of an effulgent Apollo.
Imperial Germany has now become a
" Weltmacht," but it has not yet produced
a " Weltliteratur," or anything like it.
. During the last thirty years the
.1^*"^.*^^ "t number of new books published
the Field of • ^ , ^ J
, .^ . m Germany has, m round num-
Literature 1 • i r
bers, increased irom 10,000 to
about 30,000 per annum, but very few of
these were ever heard of outside the
Fatherland. It is useless for the Germans
themselves to contend that this is more
owing to the ignorance and indifference of
outsiders than to the comparative worth-
lessness of their books, because literature
is a ware, like any other commodity, which
will readily find its level and its market
wherever there is a desire — and it is a
universal one among civilised nations —
to enjoy the newest masterpieces of the
human mind. In the field of literature,
Germany's imports far exceed her exports,
and, indeed, the latter are almost nil.
As between England and Germany, the
balance of literary trade is immensely in
favour of the former, and the same may
be said of France. Shakespeare alone is
far more frequently staged in Germany
than any other dramatist, native or
foreign. Imperial Germany has certainly
produced some talented playwriters, and
men like Sudermann, Hauptmann, Blumen-
thal, \'on Schonthan, Heyse, Hirschfeld,
Lubbliner, Halbe, and others ; but most of
them have sought their inspiration from
the mysticism of Tolstoi, the pessimism of
GERMANY IN OUR OWN TIME
Ibsen, the pruriency of Paris, or the rowdy-
dowdy romanticism of which Herr von
Wildenbruch, who may be described as the
Bard of the House of Brandenburg, is the
most stilted exponent. For tlie rest, the
German drama of to-day tends to be heavy
in ethical, political, and other aims, at
the expense of pure art. At the same time
it must be conceded that the theatre,
which is a subsidised institution in all
German states, has an educational value
hitherto denied to the British people.
What has been said of the drama must
also be applied to fiction in general, and
also to poetry, of which the quality is
almost in inverse ratio to the volume of its
output. History has always been a con-
genial subject in Germany, but few of her
historical writers have a style ; and of them
in general — though there are some excep-
tions— it may be remarked what Macaulay
said of Niebuhr, that he was " a man who
would have been the finest writer of his
time if his talent for communicating truths
had borne any proportion to his talent
for investigating them." In the field of
theology, Germany is far ahead of England
, with its criticism and its de-
e igion s velopment of dogma in the light
. Q of science, while the religious
rmany ^.^^ ^^ ^^^^ nation might be
summed up by saying that in no country
of Europe is there so much natural piety
and belief in God, combined with so little
church-going, as in Germany, especially
among the educated classes. It is true
that the kaiser himself sets an example
of the straitest Lutheran faith ; but then
his Majesty has, on countless occasions,'
committed himself to the doctrine of
divine right, of his being the German
vice-regent of the Almighty, " our Ally at
Rossbach," and he has had to live up to it.
Asserting himself to be intimate with
the counsels of the Almighty, the emperor
claims to be no less acquainted with the
canons of art, and hence it is interesting
to learn from him, in his capacity as
" Kunstherr," as distinguished from
" Kriegsherr," that German sculpture is
ahead of the rest of Europe. Perhaps the
greatest museum of plastic art in Berlin
is the open-air Siegesallee, in the Thier-
garten, which is now lined on both sides
with two and thirty marble statues of his
Majesty's heroic Hohenzollern ancestors,
as chiselled by the leading German
sculptors under the general direction of
their chief, Reinhold Begas. This imposing
I P =5 n
display of historical statuary is known
to the caustic Berliners as the " Sea of
Marmora," but is well worth seeing for
all that. " This I can already tell you,"
the kaiser said when feasting all these
creative artists after the inauguration of
their work, " the impression which the
Avenue of Victory makes upon foreigners
Th K • ^^ quite overpowering; on all
sides a vast respect is mani-
A t C "f fssted for German sculpture. . . .
It shows that the Berlin school
of sculptors can hardly have been excelled
in the time of the Renaissance." But
if we take the emperor as our critical
guide through the present realms of
German pictorial art, the judgment is
much less favourable.
The newest tendency is towards realism,
as represented by the "Secessionists" —
from routine and the old regime, from the
old and accepted schools of painting in
Germany. Drawing their inspiration from
Arnold Boecklin, a Swiss by birth, these
"Secessionists" — who point to Lenbach as
an exponent of their principles in the domain
of portraiture — have aimed at creating a
new and distinctive school of German art,
freed from the mannerism of the past —
serious, sincere, truthful.
This they aim at, and yet to the kaiser
they are an odious, degenerate race, whose
productions merit only proscription at
the hands of the Government. "If
civilisation," said the emperor, " is
going to fulfil its entire mission, it must
penetrate down to the lowest classes
of the people. This it can only do when
art bears a hand, when art elevates,
instead of herself descending into the
gutter." As gutter-artists, the kaiser, in
his capacity of " Kunstherr," denounces
the " Secessionists." What his Majesty
wants is not realism, but idealism — as well
in art as in literature, and even the present
tendency of the latter is in a direction fatal
to reverence for traditional ideals, divine
right claims, and all the rest of
crmany -^ German literature is at
„*" ^^ present in a very troubled,
transitional state, and there-
fore it bulks not largely before the eyes of
Europe. But it is otherwise in the field
of science, where Germany easily holds
foremost rank. From their very nature
and mental composition the Germans are
far more fitted to shine as scientists than
as litterateurs — their very language being
against them in the latter respect — and
5353
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
Not a Nation
of Thinkers
even their soldiering draws its strength
and brilhancy from the fact that it is of
the scientific kind. Scientific students
from all countries, who used to crowd for
illumination to France, now flock to
Germany, where a world-wide reputation
was won for her by sons like Helmholz,
Haeckel, Virchow, Buelow, Koch, Lan-
genbeck, Tirkel, Czermat,
The Germans Bergmann, Bunsen, anda host
of others. In fact, it maybe
said that science and soldier-
ing are the onh^ two things that a Briton
may study better in German}^ than in his
own country— those two subjects, and also
music, in respect of which the Germans
retain their proud pre-eminence both as
creators and performers, though Imperial
Germany has not yet produced another
Wagner, whose genius was rooted in the
period preceding the rise of the Reich.
As for the Press it may truly be de-
scribed as poor and paltry by comparison
with that of other nations — lacking in inde-
pendence, influence, enlightenment, and
political power. A daily newspaper is
by no means so necessary to a German as
it is to a Briton, a Frenchman, or an
American. Mr. Ellis Barker is pretty
near the mark when he writes : " The
general intelligence and culture of a nation
may be measured by the Press, which
appeals to all, and which reflects the
national mind as in a mirror ; and I think
that no educated German will contradict
me when I state that the whole Press of
Germany — dailies, weeklies, monthlies —
is not only vastly inferior to the British
Press, but is quite unworthy of the
intelligence of a cultured nation. The
German Press is a century behind the
English Press, and the low standard of
the whole German Press shows that the
German nation is not a nation of thinkers."
This may sound paradoxical of a nation
which has produced so many thinkers ;
but, to a great extent, it is true, on the
, principle that the exceptions
ermany s ^y^^y^ ^j-^g j.^]g J^ j^q country
Educational r t- j.i_ r
St d d Europe are there so few
illiterates or so much book-
learning as in Germany, and yet the average
Englishman or American may be said to
be a better educated man than the average
German. On a peace footing Germany's
standing army is about . 600,000 men ;
while the standing army of German
educationalists of all kinds numbers no less
than 300,000. Germany has now twenty-
5354
two universities, which teach about 40,000
students, or more than three times the
number of thirty years ago, so that she
is now suffering from academic over-
production— what the emperor deplored
as an ever-increasing and useless "pro-
letariat of passmen." And all their pro-
fessors are so omniscient.
Gott weiss viel,
Doch mehr der Herr Professor ;
Gott weiss Alles,
Doch er — Alles besser !
While it may be owned that Germany
is the most educated nation in the world,
it is, nevertheless, a long way from
being the same as besi educated. To
cram the head does not carry with it that
development of character which is perhaps
the primary, and certainly the higher, aim
of English education. It all lies in the
difference between wissen and wollen,
between kennen and konnen. The general
tendency of education, military training,
etc., in Germany is to make machines of
men, and the thinking power of machines
is not high.
Germany is far ahead of this country
in technical education ; and \-et, says an
expert : " It is not without cause that the
best engineers in the world are
n .. '-^ w ""^^ the practicallv trained English
Britain Leads f , , r , , , • ,V
_ engmeers, although their theo-
crmany retical knowledge is small as
compared with their inferior German
competitor." According to the same
authority " the chief practical value of
the German schools consists, not in the
knowledge disseminated, but in the
discipline instilled. ... It cannot be
too often and too loudly asserted that
Germany has become great and powerful —
not through her education as synonymous
with knowledge, but through her disci-
pline. National co-operation, the co-
ordination of all the national forces, which
is developed to a greater extent in
Germany than in any other country, has
proved stronger than inchvidualism, which
squanders the national forces in constant
internecine warfare. . . . Indeed, I
venture emphatically to affirm that
Germany, with all her schools and uni-
versities, and with her army of 300,000
teachers, is a far less intelligent and far less
cultured nation than is the British nation."
That is perfectl}^ true ; and it is equally
true that, in spite of all her " Bildung" and
book-learning, and splendid achievements
in the field of science and literature.
GERMANY IN OUR OWN TIME
How War
Has Retarded
Civilisation
Germany is still a very long way behind
England in respect of that general some-
thing which we call civihsation. No
Englishman can live long in Germany
without feeling that he has come to a
country where material and social refine-
ment, manners, customs, and
all the other graces of civilised
life are at a decidedly lower
level than in his own ; and that
in fact the Germans of to-day are only at
about the same stage of development as
were the English of Queen Elizab£th.
That, howevei, is due to no inherent in-
capacity in the Germans to take on as good
a coat of civilisation as ourselves, but
simply to the fact that circumstances have
been far less favourable to them than to us.
War is anything but a civilising agency,
and the Germans hitherto may be said to
have always been at war. So have we,
for the matter of that ; but while we have
always contrived to wage our wars outside
our own country, the poor Germans have
generally had to submit to the devastation
and depopulation of their own. It was a
frequent remark of Bismarck that Ger-
many had not yet recovered from the
effects of the Thirty Years War, which
is said to have reduced her population
from 16,000,000 to less than 5,000,000.
And then her other principal war waged
within her own borders — the Seven Years
War — the wars with the French kings and
Napoleon, and the campaigns with Den-
mark and Austria, only SLfiord us matter
for astonishment that the civilisation of
Germany should be so high as it really is.
But her forty years' period of peace and
material prosperity since her last great
struggle with France has already done
wonders for her. The German race is
still almost original in its vigour ; it is a
rough diamond in the mine of European
nations ; and its good qualities — its
bravery, piety, sincerity, intelligence, per-
severance, energy, and idealism, only
require the setting of a higher civilisation,
resulting from circumstances of a kindlier
and more emolUent sort than ever
blessed it before, to make it the leading
nation on the Continent of Europe, and
the one most devoted to the arts of peace.
So far, the highest expression of the
German character, since the disappearance
of Bismarck, is to be found in the man
who had the tremendous courage to sign
the warrant for his dismissal — William II.,
at once his country's greatest ornament and
asset. Of him. the American Ambassador at
Berlin, Mr. Andrew D.White, who had every
opportunity for studying his character,
spoke truly when he said : " The young
monarch who is now at the head of Ger-
many— original, yet studious of
dea s o ^j^g great men and deeds of the
t e erman pg^g^ . brave, yet conciliatory;
mpcror j^ever allowing the mail-clad fist
to become unnerved, but none the less
devoted to the conquests of peace ; standing
firmly on reahties, but with a steady vision
of ideals — seems likely to add a new name
to those who, as leaders of Germany, have
advanced the world." Charles Lowe
KLEBER SQUARE, STRASSBURG, WITH THE CATHEDRAL RISING IN THE BACKGROUND
5355
ESSENTIAL INFORMATION ABOUT GERMANY
Area and Population. The German Empire
consists of the following kingdoms, grand duchies,
duchies, principalities and free towns.
KlNOUOMS —
Prussia
Bavaria . .
Saxony
Witrteinberg . .
Grand Duchies —
Baden
Hesse
Meckleiiburg-Schwerin
Saxe- Weimar
Mecklenburg-Strelitz
Oldenburg
Duchies—
Brunswick . . . .
Saxe-Meiningen
Saxe-Altenburg
Saxe-Coburg-Gotha . .
Anhalt
Principalities —
Schwarzburg-Sondershauseu
Scbwarzburg-Rudolstadt . .
Waldei^k
Reuss Aelterer Linie
Reuss Jiingerer Linie
Schaumburg-Lippe . .
Lippe
Free Towns—
LUbeck
Bremen
Hamburg
Eeichslaiid of Alsace-Lorraine
l.-i4.616
37,293.324
2».292
6,524.372
5.789
4.508,601
7.534
2.302,179
5,823
2,010.728
2,966
1,209.175
5.06S
625,045
1.397
388.095
1.131
103.451
2,482
43S.856
1,418
485.9.18
953
268.916
511
206,508
764
242, «2
888
328,029
333
85.162
363
96,835
433
59,127
122
70.603
319
144..584
131
44.992
469
145..577
115
105.857
99
263,440
160
.'5.604
874.878
1.814. .564
208.780 60,641.278
Deputies in
Reichstag.
The cities and towns with over 100,000 population
are as follow :
Prfssia. Berlin, 2,040,148 ; Breslau, 470,904 ; Colosriie,
428,722 ; Frankfort-on-Main, 334,978 ; Diisseldort,
253,274; Hanover, 2.50,02t; Magdeburg, 240,633;
Charlottenbiirg, 239,559 ; Essen, 231,300 ; Stettin, 224,119;
Kcinigsbera, 223,770 ; Diiisburg, 192,346 ; Dortmund,
175,577 ; Halle-on-Saale, 169,916 ; Altona, 168,320; Kiel,
163,772 ; Elberfeld, 162,853 ; Danzig, 159,648 ; Barmen,
156.080; Rixdon", 153,513; Uelsenkirchen, 147,005;
Aachen, 144,095; Schoneberg, 141,040 ; Posen, 136,808 ;
Kassel, 120,467; Bochuni, 118,464; Crefeld, 110,344;
Wiesbaden, 100,953.
Bavaria. Munich, 538,983 ; Nlirnberg, 294,426.
Saxony. Dresden, 516,996 ; Leipzig, 503,672 ; Chem
nit?, 244,927 ; Plauen, 105,381.
WURTEMBERG. Stuttgart, 249,286.
Alsace-Lorraine, stras-burg, 167.678.
Baden. Mannheim, 163,693 ; Karlsruhe, 111,249.
Brunswick. Brunswick, 136,397.
Free Cities. Fambura, 802,793 : Bremen, 214.861.
Government. The supreme direction of political
and military affairs is, by the Constitution of 1871,
vested in the King of Prussia, who in nis capacity as
chief of the German states is German Emperor.
There are two Chambers in the German Parliament —
the Bundesrat, or Federal Council, the members of
which are appointed by the Governments of the
separate states for each session ; and the Reichstag,
the members of which are elected by universal
suffrage for five-year terms. The Bundesrat has 58
members, and the Reichstag has 397 members, the
representation being distributed as shown in the table
appearing above. Alsace-Lorraine has in the Bundes-
rat four commissioners, who are appointed by the
Statthalter, but who have no votes. Members of the
Reichstag are paid. At the head of Imperial affairs
is the Chancellor of the Empire, assisted by seven
Secretaries of State and seven Presidents of Imperial
bureaus. But there is no collective Cabinet or
Ministry ; each Minister acts independently under
the control of the Chancellor. The prerogatives of
the emperor are restricted by the Constitution. He
has no power of veto in respect to laws passed by the
two Chambers, and can declare war only if defensive.
Emperor. The reigning emperor is Wilhelm II.,
King of Prussia, who was born on January 27th,
1859, and became emperor on June 15th, 1888. He
i^ the third of the Hohenzollerns, and succeeded his
father, Frederic III., who reigned for only three
months.
5356
Ct)LONiE.s. Germany is the youngest of the
Colonial Powers, her first colonies having been the
African po.ssessions acquired in 1884. None of her
colonies are self-governing, all being administered by
Imperial governors. They are aa follow :
~ '■•
Square
mUes.
Estiui;it 1
populaliin.
APRK A—
Tog..,lai.d
Kiiiuenin
South-west Africa
East Africa
Asia—
Kiauchau Bay
Pahfio—
Samoau Islands
Other Pacific Possessions, Including Kaiser Wil-
helm's Laud, or German New Guinea, Bis-
luaick or Low Archipelago, Caroline Islands,
Pelew Islands, Mananiie Islands, Solomon
Islands, and Marshall Islands
:«,700
191.130
322,4.50
384,180
200
1,000
95.160
l.OOfJ.ili".
3,500.111111
200.000
7,000,000
30,000
33,000
3.56,000
Tutal
1,027.820
12,119,000
Finance. The revenue for the year 1906 was
£119,756,500, and the expenditure was £119,363,550.
The funded debt of the German Empire amounts to
£177,175,000, in addition to about £30,000,000
Treasury bonds and other less permanent obligatioas.
Industry and Commerce. Germany ranks high
as an agricultural country, but as her own great
population absorbs her agricultural produce, she
does not appear as an important exporter of foods.
Of the whole area of the country, 91 per cent, is
productive, and only 9 per cent, unproductive. The
principal crops grown, in the order of their acreage,
are rye, hay, oats, potatoes, wheat, barley, vines,
hops and tobacco. Yet the exports of agricultural
and animal produce are less than one-fourth the
value of the imports of the same class. Germany has
rich mineral districts, the chief being Westphalia,
Rhenish Prussia and Silesia for coal and iron, the
Harz for silver and copper, and Silesia for zinc. The
principal minerals raised, in the order of their
importance, are coal, lignite, iron ore, potassic salt,
rock salt, copper ore, zinc ore, and lead ore. The
fishing industry is not important, and only 618
German boats are engaged in deep-sea fishing in the
North Sea. The total number of people engaged in
the fishing industry, including inland, shore, and sea
fishing, is about 32,000. As a manufacturing country
Germany takes a high place. Over a million people
find employment in the metal and machinery trades,
almost a million in textile trades, and over half a
million in the manufacture of wooden ware. There
are almost 400 sugar factories. In 1908 German
imports aggregated £409,048,000, and her exports
£332,030.000.
Currency. The mark is worth llfd. of
English money, and the pound sterling is equivalent
to 20'43 marks. For approximate calculation, the
mark is usually considered as being worth a shilling,
and 20 marks as being worth an English sovereign.
The thaler is a coin of 3 marks, the Icrone is worth 10
marks, and the doppel-krone is worth 20 marks.
There are also silver coias of ^, 1, 2, and 5 mark
pieces, and in nickel there are 5 and 10 pfennig
pieces. The standard is gold, and the 20- mark piece
contains 7" 16846 grammes of fine gold.
Weights and Measures. The metric system be-
came the legal standard on January 1st, 1872. For
British equivalents of metric values, see page 5399.
Postage. From Great Britain to Germany :
Letters, papers, and samples as for France, see
page 5398. Parcels — by sea to Hamburg — Is.,
Is. 6d., and 2s. for 3, 7, and 11 lb. respectively,
or 3d. per parcel above these rates if by Ostend
or Flushing.
Telegrams. Gt. Britain to Germany, 2d. per word.
EUROPEAN
POWERS
TO-DAY
V
HOLLAND
AND
BELGIUM
HOLLAND AND BELGIUM IN OUR
OWN TIME
LIBERTY & PROSPERITY IN THE SMALL STATES
By Robert Machray, B.A.
A REVOLUTION in Brussels, not at first
^*- sight of a very formidable character,
but symptomatic of a deep, widespread,
pervasive feeling of dissatisfaction with
existing conditions, brought about in 1830
a movement which, assuming a national
aspect, resulted in the forcible dissolution
of the union between Belgium and Holland.
The Flemish people, who inhabited the
North of Belgium, belonged to much the
same branch of the great German family
as the Dutch, and might be supposed to
have greater sympathy with them than
with the Walloons, who occupied the
south of the country, and were of closer
kin to the French than to the Teutons.
But they were Roman Catholics, and the
Dutch, for the most part, belonged to the
Reformed Church — in itself a pronounced
line of cleavage. Besides, the Dutch had not
been politic ; they had treated the Flemings
with as little consideration as the Walloons.
In fact, they had regarded all Belgium as
inferior to Holland, and looked upon it
as if it had been theirs by conquest.
If they had acted in a different spirit,
Belgium and Holland might have been
one country to-day. But the separation
took place soon after the rising in Brussels,
although the independence of Belgium
was not acknowledged by Holland till nine
years afterwards. Sometimes the union
p . of countries has proved a great
J^^ft" J benefit, as in the case of Eng-
and Belgium
land and Scotland ; at other
times their divorce has been
followed by real good to both, and this is
what has happened with respect to Holland
and Belgium. They are small states, yet
they can show, area and population con-
sidered, a prosperity, a condition of general
well-being, which can hardly be matched
in the history of the world. It is ex-
tremely doubtful if this could have been
said if they had remained united. The
religious antagonism would alone, in all
probability, have prevented it. Holland
is a country with a history of which any
„ ,, ., _ nation might well be proud.
Holland s Brave t, ■ ,-^,,i , ^ .
g . , It IS a little country, yet
I j"^^ J *" a great one. As is often
Independence '? , , , c .^ ^
pomted out lor the example
of mankind, the Dutch have fought through
several centuries a finer struggle for civil
liberty and national independence than
has been made by any other people.
The story of their long struggle against
the might of Spain is so full of a stormy
grandeur, an invincible heroism, a prodi-
gal heaping-up of the elements which
are best and noblest in human character,
that the mere memory of them moves
the heart and fills the soul with passionate
emotion. The expression, the " soul of
a people," is often used, though, perhaps,
not always quite accurately ; but if
there is a people of whom it may be
said truly, it is of this people of Holland.
And as the soul of Holland was in days
bygone, so it is to-day — hard and proud,
money-loving and money-getting, no doubt
at all, but above and bey-ond everything
instinct with the spirit of patriotism, for
which no sacrifice can be too great.
The supreme desire of the Dutch is to
preserve their independence, to have their
Holland their very own. It is this ideal
which dominates their national life, and
equally inspires the two parties, Liberals
and Anti-Liberals or Anti-Revolutionists,
which divide its political life. They have
good reason for cherishing this ideal, and
never more so than at the present time.
For, from the international point of view,
5357
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
the position of. Holland is not exactly
a happy one. There is the interesting
question of the succession to the throne —
inte:resting rather than difficult, for even
if Queen Wilhclmina should have no heir
a successor to the throne can be found in a
prince, with the blood of the glorious
House of Orange in his veins, who will
_ be in sympathy with Dutch
H*?f^d'° aspirations. The danger to
Independence ^^'^ independence of Holland
goes much deeper than this.
The most marked feature of the history
of these first years of the century is the
growing antagonism between Britain and
Germany. However much or little the
fact may be realised, the fact remains,
deplorable, menacing, incalculable as to
result upon the world. The hope of all
men of good will is that a stiiiggle may be
averted. No one can regard the question
without the deepest anxiety ; but the Dutch
have special reason for thinking of it with
foreboding ; for Holland stands between
England and Germany. But it is not
Britain that Holland has any need to fear.
The irritation produced in Great Britain
by the expression of the pro-Boer sym-
pathies of the Dutch during the South
African War has passed away, most fair-
minded Britons feeling that the Dutch
could hardly have acted otherwise than
they did in supporting to some extent their
kin. Britain has no wish that Holland
should be other than independent for ever.
But the same cannot be said with equal
truth of Germany. Holland holds the
mouth of the Rhine, the greatest German
river — " the Rhine, the Rhine, the German
Rhine," as the song puts it. There has long
been a school of German political thought
which maintains that the possession of the
whole river, particularly of its outlets,
is necessary to Germany, and never ceases
to urge that, seeing also that the Dutch
are of Germanic stock, Holland should be
occupied by Germany. Holland, too,
„ holds the gi-eat ports of Am-
. p , sterdam and Rotterdam, argu-
Q ments that further reinforce
^ the German claim. With this
extended sea front, what might not
Germany become ! Does not " manifest
destiny " point this way ? The bulk of
Germans, it should be said, listen to these
flattering voices as if they heard them not,
but the Dutch are hearing them alwaj/s,
and are haunted by them. If they have no
serious fears, for the time being, of an
5358
unprovoked armed annexation of their
country by Germany, they dread the
employment of subtler methods, commer-
cial and diplomatic, which would bring
about its gradual Germanisation. And
again, at a crisis in European history,
when the sacredness of treaties has been
shown to be a fiction, should a war break
out between Britain and Germany, what
guarantee has Holland that her territory
might not suddenly be seized by Germany
as a base for operations against Britain ?
It is questions like this, arising out of the
present international situation, that disturb
Holland and cause great searchings of heart.
The Dutch were never more determined
than at the present tinie to preserve their
identity as a people, and' apart from the
menace which hangs over them they go
about their business at home and abroad
in their quiet, easy, immemorial way.
They remain, as they have been for many
generations, great men of business ; their
wealth and commerce now grow from
year to year ; they have got their vast
colonial empire well in hand, but their
money flows into many lands — it was the
. capital they supplied that in
. ° *° large measure built the railways
p^ J. of the United States. Amster-
dam is one of the banking
centres of the world, besides being its
diamond mart. The country, with its 2,000
miles of canals and 1,800 miles of railway's,
presents a pleasing spectacle of well-ordered
life, with features of its own which differen-
tiate it from that of every other land.
There is a spirit of peace, of rest, of
quiet about it, especially in the interior,
that is looked for in vain elsewhere. The
old order changes in Holland as in other
countries, but with a measured tran-
quillity all its own. Its windmills, its
level, highly cultivated fields, its dreamy-
homesteads, the picturesque dress of its
slow-moving, much-smoking peasants still
endure — the delight of the contemplative
and such as love not the fret and fuss and
hurry of these times of ours, and the joy
of the artist. In its great cities, such as
The Hague, Amsterdam, and Rotterdam,
the old-world atmosphere is scarce to be
found save in some old houses and in the
churches; in them the modern spirit pre-
vails, as might be expected. Yet, speaking
generally, the peace of the land is so great
that nothing could have been more appro-
priate than the building of the world's
Palace of Peace, where arbitration takes
THE TOWN OF UTRECHT SHOWING THE OLD CANAL
VIEW IN LEYDEN, WHICH STANDS ON BOTH SIDES OF THE OLD RHINE
-'iifiiMii/'ir ih-^'-
f^^
ROTTERDAM, THE CHIEF SEAPORT OF THE NETHERLANDS
SCENES IN THE TOWNS OF THE NETHERLANDS
5359
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
the place of war, in the midst ol this people.
Holland is a land of liberty. Though
predominantly a Protestant country, any
Dutchman is free to worship God
according to his conscience. Commercially,
Holland believes in Free Trade, and has
fattened upon it. Nothing, perhaps, gives
better evidence of its prosperity than the
„ p fact that it has doubled its
o oor population since the middle of
„ ,, "\ last century. Its population is
Holland . X i_ i. r • IT
now not far short of six millions,
in 1849 it was about three. Another
notable fact which witnesses to the same
thing is that there is no poor rate in
Holland. Of course there are poor people,
but they are cared for, as a rule, by
religious societies and private charities.
Its political system is simple. At the
headof the State is the sovereign; then there
are two Chambers for legislation. The mon-
archy is constitutional and hereditary ; the
Parliament, known as the States-General,
consists of a First Chamber of fifty members
elected for nine years — one-third retire
every three years — ^by the provinces ; and
of a Second Chamber of 100 members,
elected for four years by all male citizens
of twenty-five and upwards who pay a
direct tax to the State, or are householders,
or own boats of twenty-four tons, or have
a salary of about £23 yearly, or show
evidence that they can support their
families. This means that about one-third
of the male citizens have votes.
For many years Dutch politics were
largely influenced by questions arising out
of their colonial empire, but this phase has
passed away. Recently the most important
measure passed into law is the Electoral
Reform Law of 1896, which regulates the
franchise as mentioned above. The Dutch
attach great importance to education,
which is compulsory for children from six
to thirteen years of age. Their schools and
universities are well organised ; their
primary schools are practically free. The
Dutch are fine hnguists, per-
u^t^lit haps because their own lan-
p- o- a e pjuage can take them but a httle
Education ^ ° . y^ , ,
way m Europe or elsewhere.
It is quite a common thing for Dutchmen
of any position at all to speak fluently and
correctly French, German, and English.
Belgium enjoys one great advantage
over its northern neighbour, for its
neutrality is guaranteed by the Treaty of
London, November 15th, 1831, by Aus-
tria, Russia, Great Britain, and Prussia.
5360
No country has made greater strides during
recent years than Belgium in wealth and
industrial development, thanks to its
natural resources, but thanks also to the
fact of its neutrality being guaranteed —
a fact of which the Belgians sometimes are
inclined to lose sight. During the Franco-
German War, Britain prevailed upon both
combatants to affirm afresh the neutrality
of this little country, which otherwise
might have been affected very adversely.
Under the segis of the protecting
Powers, Belgium has had full oppor-
tunity for self-development, and it must
be admitted that it has taken every
advantage of it. No one can visit Belgium
without being struck by its prosperity,
whether as regards the purely agricultural
section, with its vast number of small
holdings all in the highest state of cultiva-
tion, or as regards the manufacturing part,
the centre of which lies about Liege, with
its huge ironworks and other highly
successful industries. And it must not be
forgotten that infected as Belgium is with
the modern spirit, it is a country with a
rich historic past still living and actual in
such cities as Ghent and Bruges,
and that, in the Ardennes, it
Franchise
Liberties
in Belgium
can show scenes of loveliness
and rare charm that appeal to
all. Its magnificent cathedrals, with their
splendid pictures, will alwaj's exercise some
influence on Belgian life and character,
though not, perhaps, in the exact direction
its " Clericals " would prefer.
Belgium came into existence, as has
already been stated, on its secession from
Holland. By its constitution, framed in
1831, it is a constitutional, representative,
and hereditary monarchy, legislative power
being vested in the sovereign and two
Houses of Parliament, the upper being
known as the Senate, the lower as the
Chamber of Deputies or Representatives.
Several changes have been made in the
constitution with respect to the franchise,
the last being introduced by the law of
December 29th, 1899. By this law the
principle of manhood suffrage has been
established, qualified, however, by the
suffrage universel plnriel, and the pro-
portional representation of minorities
founded upon a somewhat complex system.
All citizens over twenty-five who have
lived for one year in any given commune
have one vote. But this is not all. They
have an additional vote if, first, they are.
thirty-five years of age, married, with
HOLLAND AND BELGIUM IN OUR OWN TIME
legitimate offspring, and pay a tax of five
francs (4s.) to the State ; or, second, are
twenty-five years of age and own immov-
able property to the value of ;^8o, or have
a corresponding income, or for two years
have received £^ a year from Belgian State
funds or from the national savings bank.
But the Belgian can have yet another vote
if, being twenty-five years old, he possesses
a diploma of higher education, or has filled
some public or even private position
which implies this higher education.
No Belgian can have more than three
votes. Both Houses of Parliament are
chosen by this electorate. Senators are
elected for eight years, most of them being
elected by the general body of voters, and
the rest by the provincial councils. The
Deputies are elected for four years, in the
proportion of one member to every 40,000
of the population, and number 116, one-
half of whom retire every two years. The
members of Parliament are paid indemni-
ties, and get free passes over the railways.
Though Belgium has of recent years
become an intensely democratic country,
it is still, as will have been seen, a long
_ . way from the " one man, one
c gium a ^^q\q " principle. Its present
r ng o o f j-j^j^(^j^jgg jg ^j^g result of a long
a,nd sometimes embittered
struggle which, apart from the Congo,
practically includes the whole political
history of the country. For a lengthy
period after the foundation of the king-
dom under Leopold I., power was held
alternately by the Clericals, or Catholics,
and the Liberals, or Anti-Catholics ; it was
much the same during the first twenty
years of the present king, Leopold IL
But 1886 saw the rise of a new party, that
of the Socialists, and it is this party which
has made Belgium democratic ; though it
did not become formidable much before
1893, it has since become a great power in
the land. The state of parties may be
best shown by quoting the election returns
for 1908. Half the deputies had to be
elected — 81 seats in all. The Socialists
won five seats, three from the Liberals
and two from the Catholics, now in power.
The new Chamber consists of 8y Catholics,
43 Liberals, i Christian Democrat, and 35
Socialists. In the elections to the Upper
House the Liberals lost five seats, of
which the Socialists gained three, leaving
the Catholics with 63 votes against the
47 of the combined opposition, or " Left."
Twelve years ago the Catholics had
two-thirds of the votes in the Chamber. It
is thus apparent that the " Right," or
Catholics, are steadily losing ground ; they
draw their strength mainly from the
Flemish provinces, while the parties form-
ing the " Left " derive theirs from the
Walloon provinces. The Catholics sup-
port religious education in the schools and
Clerical universities, and the Church,
Con""! of P^^^ ^y *^^® ^^^^^' '^ y^^ outside
Education ^^^ control. The Liberals be-
long to the middle class and
the industrial portion of the community,
and are, as it were, between two stools.
The Socialists preach and uphold the
doctrine of collectivism, and are strongest
among the working classes. All parties
of the Left unite against the Clerical
control of education. But the battle
wages most fiercely, as for many years
past, round the franchise. In 1904 M.
Feron, the leader of the Left, moved the
abolition of " plural " voting in favour
of universal suffrage, but was defeated.
In 1906 all sections of the Left combined
on a common programme, the two chief
" planks " in it being reform of the fran-
chise and compulsory education free from
Church control. And the end is not yet.
Perhaps it should be said that almost
the entire population of Belgium belongs
to the Roman Catholic faith, but full
religious liberty prevails, all denomina-
tions receiving grants from the national
funds. The two racial divisions, Flemish
and Walloon, continue to be marked by a
difference of language. Nearly 3,000,000
in the north, the country of Flanders,
speak Flemish only ; while rather more
than 2,500,000 in the south, the Walloon
area, speak French only. About 1,000,000
Belgians speak both languages.
But it is the South chiefly that is indus-
trial, that has the greatest wealth, that has
made, and is making, Belgium what it is,
and in the end it can hardly fail to establish
its influence as supreme over the national
, life. In Southern Belgium the
Belgium s st^^ndard of education is, on
PriTstr*'"^ the whole, higher than in the
North, as might be expected
from the pressure of industrial competition.
The higher branches of education are well
provided for throughout the country ;
it is with respect to the primary schools
that the trouble comes. Primary school
education is compulsory in a way, but it is
too much in the hands of the priests, who,
naturally, are more or less reactionary.
5361
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
But the chief fact in the contemporary
history of Belgium is its wonderful
industrial development ; this has been
helped by technical education, which is in
an advanced state.
Belgium has now taken upon itself the
responsibilities of a great colonial empire.
In 1908 the Congo Free State ceased to be
independent, the sovereignty over it being
transferred from the King of the Belgians
to the country. The area of the Congo
is estimated at 802,000 square miles, and
its population at from 14,000,000 to
30,000,000. The Cong© State was consti-
tuted a sovereign country under Leopold
II. in 1885 by the Berlin Conference. It
was declared neutral, with free trade, and
the natives were protected under special
rules — rules which, there is only too much
reason to believe, were not observed in
actual practice.
As the Congo has been thrown open to
all the world, there is Uttle ground now to
suppose that there will be a continuance of
the atrocities perpetrated on the natives
which shocked the conscience of mankind.
THE GRAND DUCHY OF LUXEMBURG
~PHE great world nowadays knows very
■*• little about this small country, but
rather more than forty years ago its name
was on the lips of everyone ; for after the
war between Prussia and Austria in 1866 —
which resulted in the decisive defeat of the
- , latter and a fresh grouping to-
uxcm urg s „g^j^gj. ^^ ^^le German states —
Independence ?t 1 ttt i-x <<
r. ^ . Napoleon III. sought com-
Ouaranteed ^ ,. >, . t- r ^i
pensation to 1^ ranee tor the
increased power of the former by attempting
to buy the Grand Duchy from the King of
Holland, who also was Grand Duke of
Luxemburg. Prussia, however, stoutly
resisted this scheme, and for a time the
" Luxemburg Question," as it was called,
filled the mind of diplomatic Europe with
apprehensions of war. But the matter was
finally settled by a conference of the Powers
held in London in 1867, when it was agreed
that the garrison Prussia had for many
years maintained in the city of Luxemburg
should be permanently withdrawn from its
fortress, that the fortress itself should be
dismantled and destroyed, and that the
Grand Duchy should henceforth become in
every sense an independent and sovereign
State, with its neutrality guaranteed.
Another consequence, though not imme-
diate, of this war was that a prince of the
illustrious House of Orange-Nassau, from
whom Prussia had taken the Duchy of
Nassau, became Grand Duke of Luxem-
burg. His son, William, is the reigning
sovereign at the moment when this article
is written. A nice point has arisen as to
the succession to the throne, for the Grand
Duke's children are all daughters, and,
according to the Salic Law, the Grand
Duchy should pass away from his family
at his death. It was by this law that
Luxemburg had ceased to belong to the
5362
sovereigns of Holland, the older branch of
the House of Orange, when Queen Wilhel-
mina succeeded William III. Like the
Dutch, the " Luxemburgeois " have the
fear of Germany, their most powerful
neighbour, before their eyes ; they have
no desire to lose their national identity in
the existing German Empire, as might
very easily happen. Therefore, in July,
1907, their Parliament, or Chamber of
Deputies, became a law unto themselves
by solemnly declaring that the succession
shall devolve on the present Grand Duke's
daughters, and their descendants in order
of birth, the Salic Law notwithstanding.
And as no Power is likely to say them nay,
in the Europe of to-day, the people breathe
freely once more.
It is a very tiny state, this Grand Duchy,
its area being just a trifle under 1,000
square miles, and its population some-
where about 250,000. It is well governed
by its Chamber, which consists of forty-five
members, half of whom are elected every
three years ; it has no army to speak of,
and its debt, mostly incurred in railway
building, is a mere bagatelle. It is a pros-
perous little country, its mining and
smelting industries bringing in much grist
to the national mill ; it is a happy little
country, for its inhabitants, now that the
German spectre is laid, are well content
with their lot ; it is a beautiful
oun ry jj^^jg country, especially the
Happy and _ - . J^ . J . . .
Prosperous
northern half of it, which
forms the south-east portion of
that lovely land known as the Ardennes.
There is no more interesting or romantic
city than the capital, also called Luxem-
burg, whch is remarkable alike for its
natural beauty and strategic importance.
Robert Machray
ESSENTIAL INFORMATION ABOUT HOLLAND & BELGIUM
HOLLAND
AREA AND POPULATION. Tlie Kingdom of the
Netherlands has an aggregate area of 12,648 square
miles, and a population of 5,672,237. The principal
towns with their pojiulations, are : Amsterdam,
564,186; Rotterdam, 390,364 ; The Hague (the capi
tal), 248,995; Utrecht, 114,692 ; Groningen, 73,278 ;
Haarlem,69,701; Arnheim,62,279; and Leiden,57,095.
Government. Holland is a constitutional here-
ditary monarchy. Legislative power is vested in
the sovereign and Parliament, or the States-General,
which is a two-chambered house. The Upper
Chamber has 50 paid members, elected for nine years.
One-third of the members retire every three years.
The Lower Chamber has 100 paid deputies, elected
for four years, the vote being held by all citizens of
not less than 25 years of age who can show a small
franchise qualification. The Upper House may
approve or reject bills, but may not amend them.
Monarch. The ruling sovereign is Queen
Wilhehnina (Wilhelmina Helena Pauline Maria),
born 1880; succeeded her father in 1890.
Finance. The estimated revenue for the year
1909 was £15,394,060, and the estimated expendi-
ture was £16,714,680. The chief sources of revenue
are excise, dkect taxes, indirect taxes, and customs
duties. The direct taxes are the land, personal,
capital, and income taxes. The public debt of
Holland at the beginning of 1909 was £94,014,108.
Industry and Commerce. The land is low and
flat, intersected by numerous canals and rivers.
About 2,000,000 acres is arable land, and quite
double this area is pasture land. The principal
crops, reckoned from the acreage covered, are rye,
potatoes, oats, wheat, beans, peas, barley, beets,
and buckwheat. Holland has a fishing fleet of
over 5,000 vessels, with crews aggregating over 20,000
men. There are a few state-owned coal-mines in
the province of Limburg, but no other minerals.
The chief manufactures are distilling, sugar refining,
brewing, vinegar making, margarine, butter and
cheese, cocoa, textiles (linens, damasks, cottons and
woollens), tobacco; diamond-cutting is an important
industry in Amsterdam. Dutch imports during 1908
were of the value of £210,289,000, and the exports
were of the value of £173,662,141.
Colonies. The Dutch colonies are as follow :
Sq. Miles.
Population
East Indies [see page 909] : Java, Madura,
Sumatra, pai-t of Borneo, Celebes, Molucca
Islands, Timor Archipelago, part of New
Guinea, and sundiy small islands
"West Indies : Surinam, or Dutch Guiana, and
7S6,400
46,463
36,000,000
123,931
Total
780.863 ! 36,128,931
In the case of the East Indies, the figures of
population are only conjectural.
Currency. The monetary system of Holland
is based upon the gulden, or florin.
1 cent = l/5d.
100 cents = 1 gulden, guilder, or florin = Is. 8d.
The coins in circulation are :
Bronze : i, 1 and 2J cent.s.
Silver : 5, 10, 25 cents, i, 1 and 2^ gulden.
Gold : Ducat or 5J gulden, and 10 gulden.
The gold ducat is worth 16s. 8d.
Weights and Measures. The metric system of
weights is used [see page 5399].
Postage. Great Britain to Holland : Letters,
papers and samples, as for France [see page 5398] ;
parcel post. Is., Is. 6d., and 2s. for 3, 7, and 11 lb.
respectively. Length, breadth or depth limit,
3. J feet ; length and girth limit, 6 feet.
Telegrams. Great Britain to Holland, 2d. per
word, with a lOd. minimum.
BELGIUM
Area and Population. Belgium is divided into
nine provinces, and has an area of 1 1,373 square miles,
and a population of 7,238,622. The principal cities and
towns, with their populations, are: Brussels (the
capital), 623,041 ; Antwerp, 304,032 ; Liege, 172,039 •
Ghent, 163,079 ; Mechlin, 58,800 ; and Bruges, 53,486.'
Government. Belgium is a constitutional here-
ditary monarchy, whose neutrality is guaranteed
by Great Britain, Austria, Russia, and Prassia.
Legislative powers are vested in the king, the Senate,
and the Chamber of Representatives. The Senate,
or Upper House, consists of 110 members, elected
for eight years. Some members are elected by direct
popular vote, and the remainder are elected by the
provincial comicils. Senators must be not less than
40 years of age, and must have a certain property
qualification. The Chamber of Representatives,
or Lower House, has members proportionate to
the population, which may not exceed one member
for each 40,000 inhabitants. They are elected for
four years, one half retiring every two years, but a
dissolution entafls a general election. The vote is
possessed by all citizens who have attained the age
of 25, and certain property and educational quali-
fications entitle thjs citizen to supplementary votes.
Deputies are paid. Executive power is in the hands
of ten Ministers of State.
Monarch. The king is Leopold II. (born April
9th, 1835), who succeeded his father in 1865.
Finance. The estimated revenue of Belgium for
the year 1908 was £24,85(5,196, and the estimated
expenditure was £24,839,906. The chief soiu^ces of
revenue are the state railways, excise, customs,
registration fees, property and personal taxes, suc-
cession duties, post office and trade licences. The
Belgian National Debt at the beginning of 1907
was £131,418,680, mostly at 3 per cent.
Industry and Commerce. More than half of
the area of Belgium is under cultivation, and about
20 per cent, of the entire population is dej^endent
upon agriculture. According to acreage, the chief
crops are potatoes, rye, oats, wheat, beets, barley,
tobacco, and hops. Forestry and stock raising —
horses, cattle, and swine — are important mdustries.
The chief mineral wealth of Belgium is its coal, the
annual output of which is about 22,000,000 tons.
Iron ore is both mined and imported, and other
minerals include zinc, lead, and copper. The iron
and steel works are very important. The non-
metallic industries include glass manufacture, sugar
refining, textiles, lace, fioui', and starch mills. The
imports for 1908 were of the value of £134,904,000,
and the exports of the value of £103,413,000.
Colony. The African territory known as the
Congo, and formerly officially known as the Inde-
pendent State of the Congo, was annexed to
Belgium m September, 1908, thus becoming a
Belgian colony. Its area is estimated at 802,000
square miles, and its population at from 14 to 30
millions, mcluding under 3,000 Europeans. The
towns are Boma, the capital, with a population of
3,000 (300 Europeans), and Matadi, with a popula-
tion of 4,000 (250 Europeans). Three-fifths of the
export trade is rubber, and the remainder is palm-
kernels, palm-oil, and ivory.
Currency and Weights and Measures. As for
France [see page 5398].
Postage and Telegraph Rates. As for
Holland [see above].
Telephone. Communication between London and
over a dozen cities and towns in Belgium is possible
at a fee of 8s. for a three minutes' conversation.
5363
GENERAL VIEW FROM MONT BLANC BRIDGE, SHOWING ROUSSEAU'S ISLAND
THE HANDSOME PLACE NEUVE, WITH EQUESTRIAN STATUE OF GENERAL DUFOUR
ANOTHER VIEW, SHOWING THE MONT BLANC RANGE IN THE DISTANCE
SCENES IN THE FAMOUS SWISS TOWN OF GENEVA
5364
EUROPEAN
POWERS
TO-DAY
VI
SWITZERLAND
SWITZERLAND IN OUR OWN TIME
THE FREEST COMMUNITY IN THE WORLD
By Robert Machray, B.A.
'T^HE general impression of Switzerland
■■• is coloured far too much by the notion
that it is an ideal country in which to
spend a most delightful holiday, be it
for a long or short period, whether the
season be summer or winter. Switzerland
undoubtedly stands for all this, but there
is a tendency to forget or lose sight of the
fact that it stands for much more. This
outside point of view, largely based in
England on such beguiling announcements
as " A Week in Lovely Lucerne for Five
Guineas, or a Fortnight for Nine," is
scarcely, if at all, modified when the
tourist finds himself actually on the lake
and sees its beautiful mountains around
him or mirrored in its blue waters.
Satisfied with his excursion and his
experiences, he return,s home, nor stops
to think of, far less ponder, the story that
lies behind all this enchantment.
He has heard of Tell and the tyrant
Gessler, and the apple placed on the boy's
head and pierced by the shaft from the
father's bow; he has heard, probably, of one
or two incidents in Swiss history of a rom-
antic sort ; but he catches scarce a glimpse
of the truth that the smoothly gliding life
of this land, no matter what aspect of it be
considered — social, educational, political,
religious, racial or commercial — is the
result of some seven centuries of conflict
and change. Indeed, it is a life so well
ordered, so sweet in the working of all
parts of the machinery that goes to
complete it, so easy in its touch— the
expression " pressure" in this
-, . ^ case is quite inapplicable — on
, , the individual, whether citizen
not Learn r ., i r ,
of the republic or stranger
within its gates, that our tourist is as
serenely unconscious of it as he is of the
" gentle influence " of a star.
The fault is not to be charged altogether
to the tourist ; it must be laid, in large
measure, at the door of the Swiss
Switzerland
the Playground
of Europe
themselves, though from their point of view
it is no fault at all, but rather their way of
playing the game. They do everything
they can to encourage the belief that their
land is veritably the Playground of
Europe, and so great is their success in this
effort that vast numbers look
on Switzerland as the land of
the charming tour, of the de-
lightful holiday, rather than
as the country of the Swiss, one of the most
interesting peoples in the world, with a
civihsation more highly developed, from
the political standpoint, than that of any
other nation on the planet. With the
Swiss, business is business, and business
with them takes on the form of the
admirable exploitation of that marvellous
beauty with which Nature has so richly
and abundantly endowed their land. So
they give the casual observer the impres-
sion that they are a nation of innkeepers
and waiters who understand the art of
" running " hotels in the most perfect
manner possible, and that their sole aim
in life is to act as showmen to the wondrous
natural attractions of their country.
In one of the most amusing books
of pure humour ever written, " Tartarin
sur les Alpes," Alphonse Daudet makes
his hero, the inimitable Tartarin of
Tarascon, come to the conclusion that
the whole of Switzerland is the concession,
so to speak, of a gigantic and enormously
clever and capable catering company who,
commercially, take the utmost advantage
of everything at their disposal — the rosy
peaks of the great mountains, the white
calm of the glaciers, the green slopes of the
upland pastures, the deep blue of lakes,
the rolling masses of cloud, the grandeurs
of sunrise and sunset, the pretty chalets
and picturesque peasants — all " worked "
to perfection, apparently for the benefit
of the sightseer, but in reality in the
interests of the concessionaires, who
5365
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
The Great
Hotel
Industry
have skilfully brought to their aid the
services of railways, steamers, guides — and
the best hotels in existence, take them all
in all. This conceit is certainly a pardon-
able one, for the exploitation of Switzer-
land by the Swiss is very well done indeed.
Before passing from this phase of the
Switzerland of our own time, a few facts
respecting the hotel " industry "
may be quoted. In 1880
Switzerland possessed, in round
figures, 1,000 inns with some
58,000 beds ; in 1890, about 1,500 inns
with 70,000 beds ; in igoo, nearly 2,000
inns, with 105,000 beds, representing a
capital of about 600,000,000 francs, or
£24,000,000 sterling.
It must be remembered in this connection
that the total area of the country is less than
16,000 square miles, of which almost a third
is unproductive. The profits of successful
hotel-keeping are notoriously large, and
the stream of gold that pours into Switzer-
land annually, and all the year round — for
somewhere in Switzerland it is always the
" season " — cannot easily be measured,
but it must be very great ; though, of
course, it varies from year to year owing
to circumstances. For instance, the
attractions offered by the Franco-British
Exhibition held in London in igo8
sensibly reduced the volume of tourists
into the country, as they did every-
where outside of England.
The Swiss are highly intelligent, par-
ticularly as to getting the most
money out of anything ; they have
a keen eye to the main chance. This
is especially true of their hotel-keeping.
As an example of this, there may be
noticed what has taken place with regard
to their winter resorts, such as Davos, and
other places of the same kind. Originally
they were introduced to the world as
specially suitable spots for the residence
of consumptives, and great numbers of
those suffering from lung affections did
. live in them with beneficial
AKM-^^^^f results. But such places are
th *s^"° ^° longer the exclusive abodes
of such people. On the contrary,
many hotels now announce that they will
not admit consumptives. So soon as the
Swiss grasped the fact that Davos, and
resorts like it, could be made extraordi-
narily attractive as a field for winter
sports, such as skating, tobogganing,
skiing, and so on, to the strong and
the hale, they turned their attention
5366
forthwith to the strong and the hale. So
the consumptive client takes a lower place.
This is not altruism ; but it is business —
as an American might say. However,
this is not to say that there is no place
remaining for the consumptive, for there
are admirable sanatoria at his command.
Outside of them he is not " wanted "
as he used to be.
Having said so much on this aspect
of the Swiss, it is time to consider another,
which has already been suggested. This
little nation, which is composed of some
3,500,000 souls, drawn from three races
— German, French and Italian — with
different languages and religions, has
developed the most perfect example of
a pure democracy in being to be found
on the globe. This is what the ordinary
tourist does not know, for it does not
press itself upon him. Never was or is
there a land in which government was
and is so little obvious. There is hardly
even a policeman to be seen, nor are
there any decorations worn by the citizens
— a small point, but on the Continent
significant of much. In this typically
democratic state there are no classes, no
_ . caste, no nobility, no ex-
tK^*/^'^/'* elusive privileges. Even the
f th *F president of this republic is
not the head of the State in
the same sense as is the President of the
United States or of France ; he is hardly
more than primus inter pares, and bis head-
ship, such as it is, endures for a year only. ,
As has been well pointed out, the dread
of the supremacy of any single man is one
of the governing factors in the Swiss
character. This is a country in which
every man has as good a chance as another,
though, to be sure, natural ability tells
here as everywhere. All this has only
come about gradually, and after long
struggles, both external and internal.
But it remains nothing less than the most
extraordinary thing in the political history
of mankind that this small state, with
its mixture of rival races and religions,
perched upon the mountains of Central
Europe, hemmed in on all sides by great
nations, should have become both in
ideals and in fact the freest community
in the world. Something of this it owes
to the neutrality of the country, as in-
dispensable to the general interest of
Europe, having been guaranteed by the
Treaty of Vienna, 1815, something, also,
to the high state of education everywhere
SWITZERLAND IN OUR OWN TIME
prevalent, even elementary education
being excellent. But the explanation, in
the main, lies in the history and the
character of the Swiss people, history and
character acting and reacting on each
other, as always. Though the story of
Tell and the apple be a myth, like other
stories of a similar kind resolved into
fictions in the crucibles of scientific re-
search, it has a heart of truth which survives
all destructive scientific processes. It
stands for the Swiss character ; it ex-
presses the soul of this people better than
anything else. When the Forest Cantons
came together against the Hapsburgs and
the might of Austria, their struggle was
for freedom — the right to live out their lives
in their own way. Battle after battle did
they fight, and battle after battle did
they win, consolidating all the while their
national character, which was based on
patriotism, and fusing themselves inci-
dentally more and more into one people.
They were, and long were, great
soldiers, and not in Switzerland only ;
as has been finely said, they were
willing to sell their swords, but never their
freedom. The Helvetic Republic of 1798
t, ■. ... grew out of the old defensive
Switzerland s , x ,, ,
y, league of the cantons, as
J _ .. . oak from acorn. Present-
day Switzerland, however,
begins in that year of European unrest,
1848; but this beginning included all
that had gone before in Swiss history.
In that year the Swiss Confederation,
then consisting of nineteen entire and six
half cantons, was united for federal
purposes under a constitution. A re-
vised constitution came into force in
1874, and continues, with little change,
in force at the present time. In 1900,
when the principle in elections known as
" proportional representation " was before
the country, the nation decided against it.
Since the close of the Napoleonic epoch
the struggles of Switzerland have been
entirely internal. There was, at the close
of the first half of last century, what may
be called the War of Religion, in which
the Protestants triumphed over the Catho-
lics, and caused the dissolution of the
Catholic league known as the Sonderbund ;
and, forty years later, there was a fight
between the rival Churches in the Italian
canton of Ticino — Tessin. But these are
merely noted in this article to bring out
the point that to-day Protestant and
Catholic live at peace — there being
complete religious liberty — on the patriotic
basis that Switzerland is greater and
dearer than any Church. Apart from the
religious conflict, and more important as
determining the life to-day of the country,
is the political struggle. The chief parties
in the State are : the " Right," or Con-
servatives, whether Protestant or Catho-
Th G lie ; the " Centre," or Liberals ;
Proble f ^^^ "Left," or Radicals; the
.. c • " Extreme Left," or Socialists
— divisions of political belief
and opinion which now obtain more
or less in all modern communities. In one
aspect the great question before the Swiss
for the last sixty years has been whether
Switzerland is to be one federal state or a
confederation of states — cantons — each of
them a sovereign state ; the same question,
in fact, which the Civil War settled in the
United States of North America.
From 1848 to 1872, the main political
preoccupation of the Swiss was the
establishment of a federal state which yet
left a large amount of sell-government
to the cantons, a problem which was
satisfactorily solved. The Federal State
is supreme in matters of peace and war,
in the making of treaties, in army affairs,
posts and telegraphs, money issues, weights
and measures, revenue, public works,
patents, and other matters that affect the
country as a whole ; no canton can break
away from the rest, but still each canton
retains the power of making its own laws,
apart from such subjects as appertain to
the domain of the Federal government.
From 1872 to the present time, the
dominant note in Swiss politics is the
direct rule of the people as distinguished
from government by elected representa-
tives, and as expressed by what are styled
the " Referendum " and the " Initiative."
Under the Constitution of 1874, supreme
legislative authority in the confederation
is vested in two Chambers : a State Council
of 44 members elected by the cantons —
two for each canton and one for
How the ^^^^ Qf ^^^ j^^f cantons, irre-
Peop e are gpg^^^j^g qJ ^j-,gij- ^[2,6 or popula-
Governed ^.^^ . ^^^ ^ National Council of
167 deputies or delegates chosen by the
whole Swiss people by manhood suffrage,
one representative for every 20,000 of
the population ; these deputies are elected
for three years. The two Chambers united
form the Federal Assembly, which elects
a Federal Council of seven members, who
are not members of either Chamber, to
5367
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
whom is deputed the chief executive
authority. The President and Vice-
President are selected from the Federal
Council, which sits at Berne, the head-
quarters of the administration, and, by the
way, the financial centre of the country.
The Radicals have long controlled the
government. At the elections to the
National Council in October,
a cguar s -j-Q^g ^^lev were returned by a
to National ^ ^ ■ -. i_ i. jv • „
... large majority, but their power
* ^ *" ^ has been tempered by the voice
of the people as given through the media
of the Referendum and the Initiative.
One of the astonishing things about
Switzerland is that, though the Radicals
are always in the majority at the elections,
yet the people have often rejected Radical
measures, thus showing a certain innate
and invincible conservatism. As a matter
of fact, the Conservatives, though in a
minority, constitute a very large propor-
tion of the population. By the Referendum
any law passed by the legislature must be
referred to the direct vote of the nation
if a petition to that effect is presented by
30, coo citizens, or by eight of the cantons,
and the law must be altered, or even
abolished, according to the result of the
plebiscite. The liberty of the people is
still further safeguarded, and the power
of the legislature curtailed, by the Initia-
tive, which signifies the right of any
50,000 citizens to demand a direct popular
vote on any constitutional question.
Taken together, the Referendum and the
Initiative are the last and highest expres-
sion of the democratic spirit, and furnish
an example to the rest of the world.
It must be admitted that these two
political principles, or devices, if the
phrase is preferred, have acted very well ;
but it is manifest enough that they could
not be safely employed in a country where
the mass of the people were not so highly
educated and intelligent as are the Swiss.
For instance, they could hardly
vancc ]-)gexpectedtoact well in Russia.
Political ^
Privileges
When they were introduced into
the Swiss political system, many
of the Swiss themselves thought the result
would be bad, but this has not by any
means been the case.
A large part of the population follows
agriculture ; there are 300,000 peasant
proprietors in Switzerland, the land being
pretty equally divided amongst them, and
all work very hard. The Swiss peasant is
a very thrifty person, and manages to live
on wonderfully little. The French and
Italian Swiss are more lively than the
German Swiss, who is apt to be a some-
what phlegmatic individual, but they are
all as one man in patriotic feeling.
In the matter of education the Swiss,
as Sir Horace Rumbold has put it, exhibit
a " veritable passion." The Constitution
of 1872 made education free and com-
pulsory, though each canton makes laws
for itself with respect to the way in which
education is imparted. All schools make
gymnastics an integral part of their curri-
culum, having in view the fact that the
gymnasium is the nursery of the soldier ;
the schools teach manual labour and
industries ; girls are taught dressmaking.
A few words in conclusion should be
said about the Swiss military system. In
a sense, and a very true sense, every Swiss
is a soldier. The hotel-keeper and the
waiter can handle the rifle ; their soldierly
education begins with the gymnastic
training at the school, and continues in the
cadet corps. So excellent is this prepara-
tory work that Switzerland, protected, in
any case, by her guaranteed neutrality,
^ „ . has no regular standing army,
-J . *^^ but she has the finest militia
, c , .. in Europe. So good is it that
of Soldiers ,, t- a •, • i
the new British lerntorial
System is largely modelled upon it. When
the Swiss lad has left the cadet corps, he
joins the Auszug, or Elite, for some years,
next the Landwehr for a further period,
and finally is drafted into the Landsturm.
He has to put in so many days each year
with the colours. It is a real army, and
its total strength is about half a million.
So much importance do the Swiss attach
to it that one of the few changes in the
country brought about by the Referendum
in November, 1897, is the increase in the
number of days' service each recruit must
put in, in his first year. In the cavalry
the recruit now serves 92 days ; in the
artillery, yy days ; and in the infantry, 67
days, with repetition courses of 13 daj^s
each year, instead of every second year.
The recruit has been so well trained before
joining the army that he makes rapid
progress, and develops immediately into
a fine soldier. Not the least wonderful
thing about this wonderful little country
is that it maintains its wonderful army for
a good deal under £2,000,000 a year.
Robert Machray
5368
ESSENTIAL INFORMATION ABOUT SWITZERLAND
Area and Population. Switzerland is divided
into 22 cantons, of wlxich the total area is 15,970
square miles, and the total population is 3,463.609.
The principal towns, with their populations,
are Ziirich, 186,846 ; Basle, 131,687 ; Geneva,
116,387 ; Berne (the capital), 73,185 ; Lausanne,
54,460; St. Gallen, 52,934; Chaux-de-Fonds,
41,310 ; and Lucerne, 34,480.
Government. The government is a Federal
Republic, the legislative and executive authority
of which is vested in a Parliament of two Chambers —
the Upper Chamber, or Stiinderath, and the Lower
Chamber, or Nationalrath. The Upper House
consists of 44 members, representing the 22 cantons
— two for each canton. These members are paid,
but their remuneration, a.s well as their election or
their appointment, varies, and is decided by the
liberality or wisdom of the canton represented.
The canton of Basle, or Brde, is divided into urban
and rural districts, each of which appoints one
member. The two cantons of Appenzell and
Unterwald are also divided into two parts, and each
part of each of the two cantons returns one member.
The Nationalrath, or Lower House, has 167 members
apportioned among the cantons, and calculated at
one deputy for every 20,000 inhabitants. Members
are paid from the Federal exchequer 16s. per day
of session which they attend, and expenses depend-
ing upon the mileage which they must cover to
attend the sitting. Members are elected for three
years, upon a franchise embracing every citizen
who has reached the age of twenty-one. C'lergy-
men are ineligible for membership. The two
Chambers, collectively, are called the Bimdes-
Versammlung, or Federal AssemblJ^ Although
these two Houses may pass laws, the body of the
people may veto these laws, and prevent them from
becoming effective, the popular vote upon measures
being known as the Refcrendion, which may be
demanded by any petition bearing the signatures of
30,000 citizens, or any request by eight cantons.
The President of the Republic and the Vice-Presi-
dent of the Federal Council are elected by a joint
session of the two Chambers. These two men are
the first magistrates of the Confederation ; they
are elected for one year, and may not be re-elected
until the expiry of one year after they have held
office. The Vice-President is usually elected to
succeed the retiring President. The executive
authority is vested in a Federal Council, or Bun-
desrath, of seven members, elected by the Federal
Assembly for three years. These members, who
may not engage in any other business or profession
during their term of office, introduce legislative
measures into the two Chambers, and fill the offices
of Secretaries of State.
FiN.ANCE. The powers of the Federal Assemblies
in matters of taxation are limited. They may not
impose direct taxes. In certain extreme circum-
stances a demand may be made to the canton
authorities for contributions upon a definitely
arranged scale of proportion. Certain taxes are
paid over to the canton authorities. The profits
of the Federal monopoly in alcohol go to the
cantons, who must spend not less than 10 per cent,
of the amount received upon measures to combat
alcoholism. One-half of the amount collected on
the score of exemption from military service is
also paid to the cantons. The Federal revenue for
1906 was £5,335,820, and the Federal expenditure
was £5,142,276. The chief sources of revenue are
the customs and the postal and telegraph services.
The National Debt at the beginning of 1907 was
I Q 2i D
£4,031,038, and most of it carries an annual interest
charge of 3^ per cent.
Industry and Commerce. — Land tenure in
Switzerland is chiefly a peasant proprietorship.
About 72 per cent, of the land is productive, and
of this area over one-third is gra.ss and meadow
land, almost one-third is under forest, about one-
fifth grows fruit, and about one-sixth is devoted to
crops and gardens. The chief crops are rye, oats
and potatoes, but the output is large enough to meet
the domestic market, and cereal and leguminous
foods are imported largely. The principal agricul-
tural industry is dairy farming, and the principal
products are cheese and condensed milk. Stock-
raising — chiefly cattle and horse.s — is important.
The production of wine reaches the value of about
£2,000,000 per annum. The Federal government
exercises a paternal care over the forests. By law
the area devoted to forest must be maintained, and
nsw wood is planted where necessary, the outlay
bsing defrayed from public funds. Pisciculture is
an industry of some importance, and the establish-
ments for its practice number over 150. The only
minerals worked are salt-mines, which exist in five
districts. Switzerland has developed into an
important manufacturing country, and, notwith-
standing the disadvantage of long railway transport
for oversea merchandise, she still manages to do
well in extra-European markets. The principal
manufactures are silk, cotton, and linen fabrics,
thread, woollens, clocks, watches, leather, gloves,
pottery, tobacco, and snuff. Alcohol is a Federal
monopoly. The value of Swiss imports for the year
1908 was £63,497,000, and the value of the exports
was £41,537,000. The chief articles of export,
according to value, were embroidery and other
cotton manufactures, silk ribbons, and fabrics,
watches and clocks, machinery, cheese, condensed
milk, chocolate, coal tar dyes, and hides
and skins.
Currency. Switzerland is a member of the
Latin Monetary Union, and the currency ia, there-
fore, similar to that of France, Belgium, Italy, and
Greece [see page 5398]. The centime is known
also as a Rappen.
100 centimes, or rappen = 1 franc
A ten-centime piece is also known as a Batzen.
Both gold and silver are legal tender to any amount.
Although the coins of France, Belgium and Greece
circulate in Switzerland, there is a law prohibiting
the importation of 2, 1, and i-franc Italian pieces,
under a penalty of confiscation, the reason being
that under the terms of the Latin Monetary Union
Italy need not redeem her silver coins in gold
should the Union be dissolved.
Weights and Measures. The legal system is
the metric [see page 5399], but there are still
found in practice some of the old weights and
measures, such as the centner = 100 pfunds =
110-231 lb. avoirdupois. The pfund is equal to
500 grammes, and, according to the metric system,
is divisible into decimal parts, but practice follows
largely the old division into halves and quarters
called Halbpfund and Viertelpfund respectively.
Postage. Great Britain to Switzerland :
Letters, papers, and samples as for France [see
page 5398]. Parcel-post, via France, Is. 6d.,
2s., and 2s. 6d. for 3, 7, and 11 lb. respectively ;
via Belgium and Germany, Is. 9d., 2s. 3d., and
2s. 9d. for 3, 7, and 11 lb. respectively.
Telegrams. Great Britain to Switzerland :
3d. per word, with Is. minimum.
5369
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REFUGEES AMONG THE RUINS
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IMPROVISED HOSPITAL IN THE OPEN AIR RUINS iiM IHE FINE VIA GARIBALDI
MESSINA AFTER THE EARTHQUAKE ON DECEMBER 28lh, 1908
5370
EUROPEAN
POWERS
TO-DAY
VII
ITALY
ITALY IN OUR OWN TIME
THE NEW KINGDOM VIRILE AND PROSPEROUS
By William Durban. B.A.
A GAIN and again the question has been
■**• asked, what is the perennial charm of
Italy, that land which reckons itself the
special favourite of the sun ? The best
answer is that the secret of Italy's enchant-
ment lies not in its atmosphere, delightful
though the climate may be ; nor in its
antiquity, fascinating though its countless
historic relics truly are ; nor in its art,
even though the whole peninsula is one
incomparable picture gallery ; but in that
perpetual renaissance which gives irre-
sistible impression of constantly renewed
youth. The Italy of to-day has amazed
the world by its virility, its rejuvenation
since that memorable day, March 17th,
1861, when the new kingdom sprang into
being with the proclamation of Victor
Emmanuel, "II Re Galantuomo," as king
of that " Italia Unita " which had been the
dream of patriots — a dream at last
materialised by the policy of Cavour, the
fiery crusade of Garibaldi, and the enthu-
s'asm stirred by Mazzini and Gavazzi.
The young kingdom is one of the Great
Powers. Its people are the most prolific in
Europe, increasing even more rapidly than
the population of Russia, and pouring forth
such streams of emigrants that in Brooklyn
alone is a colony of 60,000 Italians, with a
great quarter to themselves, while Argen-
tina is rapidly becoming a South American
Italy. In every age Italy has renewed
its youth, but never with anything like
the splendid vigour displayed
R* ^ ^ a ^^^^^S ^^^ present generation.
Y J. No other land so thoroughly
captivates the imagination with
a multitude of monuments grey with
age, but surrounded by all the evidences
of youthful and irrepressible life in its
most eager and strenuous demonstrations.
Though this favoured peninsula has been
the subject of elaborate cultivation through
all historic ages, and has from time im-
memorial supported teeming populations.
Italy a Land
of Beauty
yet it is, as we see it, even more redun-
dantly fruitful than ever. Loveliness of
aspect here blends with superabundant
fertility, the land overflowing with oil and
wine, from Chiasso, on the northern fron-
tier, down to Girgenti, on Sicily's southern
coast . The whole vast coastline is a delight-
ful sea-front where oleanders, tamarisks,
stone-pines, and countless
evergreen shrubs form a ver-
"dF^'t'lt ^^"-^ frame for the variegated
^ and brilliant picture of the
interior landscape. Italian topography is a
study of Nature in every one of her artistic
moods. This unspeakable beauty of the
whole country renders Italy more than
ever a favourite playground of Europe.
Eaeh successive year, increasing numbers
of tourists visit the Italian Alps,
dominated by Monte Rosa, the wonderful
Dolomites, the Tyrolese valleys, the resorts
round Lakes Maggiore, Como, Garda,
Ticino, Orta, Lugano, and Iseo ; the
Etruscan hill-cities, described by delighted
visitors as occupying the most wonderful
region in the world ; the fairy villages
nestling in hundreds of nooks in the
Apennine chain of hundreds of miles ; the
Lombardian plains, sheeted with blue-
blossoming flax and intersected by lines of
mulberry trees on which silkworms thrive
by millions ; the Riviera, with its semi-
tropical vegetation ; the Venetian larch
forest of St. Mark, and the groves of
Vallombrosa ; the classic scenes of Baiae
and Capri, and the insular paradise of Sicily.
With her head crowned with a diadem ol
Alpine snow, Italy bathes her feet in the
central waters of the blue Mediterranean,
and her citizens draw an ever-growing
revenue from crowds of seekers after health
and pleasure from lands near and far.
When, in the middle of the nineteenth
century, Italy was welded into one nation-
ality, she was steeped in poverty. But, to
give a quaint little illustration of the
5371
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
financial revolution that has been accom-
plished, whereas the English Christmas
markets used to be stocked with immense
numbers of delicious little Italian maize-
fed turkeys, these are now missing, for
the simple reason that " the people are rich
enough to afford to consume their own
poultry." That simple fact speaks volumes
of the change that has come
_'* . ^*° about in material conditions.
„ "^ ^. There is still much poverty.
Regeneration ■,,•.• , i j
but it is no longer general and
deplorable. Italy has declared war on the
slum, and the change effected is marvellous.
The social regeneration that began in
Piedmont has spread over the whole land.
At Turin a beggar is rarely seen, and
in Naples, where, when Victor Emmanuel
was proclaimed king, he found 90,000
professed lazzaroni, including criminals
of every grade, with thieves, loafers, and
drunkards, both beggary and squalor
have been drastically dealt with. Fifty
years ago the common people were almost
wholly unable to read. The new regime
has reduced illiteracy, until now less than
one-third of the adult males, and one-half
of the adult females are illiterate.
Notwithstanding that Italy lacks two
indispensable elements, coal and iron, and is
compelled to spend every year £8,000,000
on coal, so sturdy is her modern enterprise
that her native industrial companies have
;^6o,ooo,ooo of paid-up capital, while
foreign companies have about half that
amount. The manufacturing expansion in
the north has been marvelloush' rapid.
The output of the paper-mills has more
than doubled in twenty years. One of the
phenomenal advances has been in applied
electricity. From \'olta down to Marconi,
Italy has had a leading part in great
discoveries in electricity. It was an
Italian patriot, Antonio Meucci, who really-
invented the telephone; Pacinotti con-
structed the first machine for the applica-
tion of electro-magnetism ; and Ferraris
^ . . achieved the magnificent dis-
V covery of electric dynamic
o a lan j-Qtation, generated by means
of alternate currents. Pro-
fessor Righi, by his wonderful experiments
on electric wa\-es, paved the way for Mar-
coni's introduction of wireless telegraphy,
the most marvellous victory over time and
space ever celebrated by science. And
gradually the Italians are utilising the
immense hydraulic forces of their country
for producing so much of the " white coal,"
5372
as they call electricity, as shall help them
to reduce the import of coal from England.
The electricity derived from the Alpine
and Apennine streams will, in time, yield
enormous wealth, for the number of useful
falls in Italy is 34,837. Electrical establish-
ments have turned many dull and idle
towns into busy hives of industry, with
rapidly increasing populations. This is the
case at Maniago, near the fall of the River
Cellina. whose waters are now being used
to carry torrents of life and light to Venice
and to other cities on the way to the beau-
tiful " Bride of the Sea." This colossal
work cost 10,000,000 francs, £400,000, and
occupied 3,000 labourers in its installation.
The first trial of the great discovery of
Ferraris was made in Rome by engineer
Mangarini, who conveyed the force of the
famous fall of the River Aniene at Tivoli,
a classic spot, over the Campagna to the
city. The magic light that at evening
illumines the streets and houses of Rome,
and the force that impels trams and
mechanism of all kinds, come from the
lovely cascade so admired by travellers,
near which Augustus held his tribunal,
Maecenas had the villa where
^ ^ !p he used to entertain Horace,
agni icen ^^^ ^^^ Emperor Hadrian built
ineyar j^.^ magnificent rural palace.
Italy is a land of agriculture, but this
industry has passed through a crucial
crisis at the close of the nineteenth and
beginning of the twentieth centuries.
Methods were miserably bad, and a train
of diseases struck one crop after another.
The magnificent vineyards were terribly
damaged by the peronospera and the
phylloxera, those parasites which passed
into Italy from France, which in twenty
years lost thus £400,000,000.
The silkworm disease, the orange-tree
blight, and the fly that fatally perforates
the olives have simultaneous!}' during the
present generation inflicted immense mis-
chief. Men like Signor Solan and Signor
Bizzozero have revolutionised Italian farm-
ing, as thoroughly as our own was revolu-
tionised in the eighteenth century. And as
Italian emigrants love to return home after
a long absence, man\ of these have come
back with the ]:)rogressive ideas they have
acquired in America, France, or Switzer-
land. In i8g8 over 30,000 agricultural
labourers returned and landed at Genoa
alone, and hundreds every year cross
the Atlantic for the great Argentine
harvest, where \hey are highly paid, and
ITALY IN OUR OWN TIME
then return to reap their own harv^ests.
Small peasant farmers and labom^ers have
all alike awakened to the new order of
things. Village banks have entirely revo-
lutionised the position of the peasants,
who formerly could make no progress for
want of capital with which to attempt
small farming successfully. Signor
Wollemborg, a Lombard village doctor
who has since been Minister of Finance,
founded the first Italian village bank on
the model of those which Herr Raiffeisen
had established broadcast in Germany.
There are now nearly 2,000, with a
membership of nearly 200,000. These
institutions have rescued thousands of
the diligent and persevering contadini,
or peasants, from the terrible grip of the
usurer. And likewise of late years the
artisans and small shopkeepers have
built up the huge organisation of the
People's Banks, with their capital of
;f5,ooo,ooo and their yearly business of
^50,000,000, while ^^70,000, 000 has been
accumulated in the Private Savings Banks,
institutions very similar to the People's
Banks. The various banks lend money
on very easy terms, and by their aid
immense new areas have been
nh"* r' ^ I P^^^ted as vineyards or culti-
, . vated in other ways, with profit
Labourers , ,1 i "^ 1^ r
to the worker never before
possible. The rural labourers have suc-
ceeded in working out their own salvation.
Out of the old sordid despair the contadini
have been lifted into fair prosperity.
The favourite system of land tenure and
cultivation which still prevails is the
famous mezzeria. On this plan the estate
is divided into a number of poderi, or
fields, half the produce of which is retained
by the peasant who cultivates the soil,
and the other half goes to the landlord
as rent. The poderi average about thirty-
nine acres each. The contadino's house
is on the podere, and is no mere hovel, for
it provides ample accommodation for a
large household. The agricultural system
adopted provides occupation for the
peasant-farmer for the whole year without
intermission, for on the same podere he
grows wheat, or maize, or rye, wine, oil, and
flax, according to the qualities of the soil.
These labourers are exceedingly in-
telligent, and they toil indefatigably,
but with the utmost cheerfulness. The
women of the family rear silkworms
and often make money by plaiting
the beautiful straw produced in the
sunny clime, and also by spinning from
the fine flax. The farmer not only
gives to the landlord as rent half the
produce of the podere, but also a stipu-
lated number of eggs, hams, poultry, etc.,
while his wife or daughter, called the
massaia, or housekeeper, may, by agree-
ment, have to wash for the landlord's
Secret of household. The new prosperity
Italy's °^ ^^^^ agricultural community.
Progress f^^ backbone of the nation,
is the real secret of Italy's
marvellous recent progress, as the land
is mainly an agricultural one. At the
beginning of the new century the atten-
tion of the whole world was drawn
to a series of crucial labour troubles
in Italy, which had been coming to a
head for several years. A vast change
came over the condition and also the spirit
of the working classes during the last
decade of the nineteenth century, for
during that period great numbers of
the peasantry became artisans, and thus
a very great new industrial community
arose. But very quickly discontent was
propagated amongst these by the spread
not only of socialism, but also of
anarchist ideas. Disastrous and riotous
strikes took place amongst masons,
miners, and railway workers.
The peasants caught the contagion and
organised a league, but this was im-
mediately met by the formation of a
landowners' league. In Rome the masons
employed on the monument to Victor
Emmanuel II. organised a labour league
and tried to compel every workman to
join it, but parliament vigorously inter-
vened for the protection of the men who
refused to be coerced, and the leaguers
were defeated. The only important
industry in Sicily besides agriculture
is sulphur-mining in the wonderful
" solfatara " district in the south of the
island. The miners, many of whom are
very quaiTelsome, given to the use of
the knife and revolver, and
rme ^^ gambling, revolted against
StrTkT" "^ ^""^^^ ^^^''^ ^'"^^y ^'^""^ ^°'^'^^'
tions in mines fearfully hot and
reeking with poisonous sulphur fumes.
But when the marble quarrymen at
Carrara, far away in the north of Italy,
got up a sympathetic strike, they quickly
resorted to violence, forming armed bands,
which scoured the mountains and
threatened to raid the town itself ; great
alarm was caused amongst the peaceful
5373
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
inhabitants. Martial law was proclaimed,
the province was placed under the rule of
General Huesch, and the wanton in-
surrection was speedily quelled. Great
improvements have of late effectually
ameliorated the lot of the toilers, and the
Employers' Liability Bill has had an
excellent effect. It should be noted that
, the Italian is a born engineer.
Gcnius^foT * ^^ inherits the Roman faculty
„ **. °. for construction of public
ngmeering ^Qj.j^g^ ^^^ many of the
great Continental railways, the marvellous
Alpine tunnels, and our own Forth
Bridge, were mainly made by operatives
from Italy. It is computed that there
are always about 500,000 of these frugal
Italian workers scattered about Europe.
There is an Italian quarter in every
great city in Europe whenever important
public works are being executed.
Amongst this fascinatingly interesting
people political problems are perpetually
challenging solution. The typical Italian
delights in litigation", and in these new days
of genuine constitutionalism he becomes
an ardent political partisan. The Italians
are a nation of orators, and their parUa-
mentarians revel in rhetorical declamation.
A payment of a rent of £6 entitles to a vote.
The king and queen have achieved great
popularity by their manifestations of
intense sympathy with the people in every
time of suffering, going freely amongst
cholera-stricken patients and toihng like
slaves during the terrors created by ap-
palling earthquakes. Parliamentary in-
stitutions are peculiar, for the Senate, or
Upper Chamber, is composed of members
nominated by the king for life on the
advice of the Premier. Thus the legislation
is exceedingly democratic, yet the people
feel that in emergency the Senate might
be relied on to prevent reckless enactments.
In the Lower House the proportion of
professional men amongst the deputies is
extraordinary, for these constitute two-
thirds of the deputies. Only
Middle-class r 1 • 1 •'
... , a very lew workmg-men have
Members of / j j.i •• . . i
p .. ever found their way mto the
Italian Parliament. Nor have
very many of the aristocracy been elected.
The members are mostly of the middle
class. Modern United Italy has produced
a succession of really great statesmen, of
whom the nation is proud. The names of
Cavour, Sella, Ricasoli, La Marmora,
Minghetti, Depretis, Cairoli, Crispi, Di
Rudini will live, and the doings of the
5374
Premiers who have succeeded each other
since this century began : Saracco, Pelloux,
Zanardelli, Sonnino, Fortis, and Giollotti,
are fresh in European recollection.
In Italy, as the seat of the venerable
Papacy, rehgion and politics have for ages
been inevitably entangled. But the separ-
ation of Church and State under Cavour's
administration, and the dissolution of the
vast number of convents, wrought a most
radical revolution. The quarrel with the
Vatican is still in process. The present
Pope, when he was Archbishop Sarto, of
Venice, was esteemed for his simplicity
of life and his pastoral assiduity. But as
Pius X. he is constrained by the Catholic
Curia to assume the same attitude of
intransigent Ultramontanism which was
maintained by his predecessor, Leo XIII. ,
and before him by Pius IX. But the
struggle of late years has been not so much
between the Vatican and the monarchy as
between the College of Cardinals and the
Modernists within the Catholic Church.
These ecclesiastical Liberals within Cathol-
icism have their head-centre in France ;
but in Italy the famous Abbate Murri is
engaged in a chronic dispute with the
Curia. He has immense in-
amous ^ fluence ovei young Italy, both
Church
lay and clerical. Protestantism
is comparatively feeble in Italy.
It is mainly represented in modern growth
by the young Chiesa Evvangelica, founded
by the eloquent Padre Gavazzi in the
middle of the last century, but in more
ancient phase by the denomination which
is the oldest Protestant communion in
the world, the famous Waldensian Church,
which was born in the romantic valleys
of the Cottian Alps, their home being
called by Michelet " that incomparable
flower hidden amid the sources of the Po."
The missions of the Waldenses are
dotted about all over Italy and Sicily, and
of late years they have steadily multiplied.
The most conspicuous ecclesiastical figure
in Italy is Monsignor Merry del Val, who
was born in London of Spanish parents in
1865, and educated in England. This
dignitary has been indefatigable in con-
ducting the conflict between the Vatican
and the French Government over the
Separation Law. He visited England
as Papal Envoy on the occasions of
Queen Victoria's Jubilee and King
Edward's coronation. He was created
a cardinal, and succeeded Cardinal
Rampolla as Papal Secretary of State
ITALY IN OUR OWN TIME
This exquisitely lovely land has in our
time suffered from the convulsions of
Nature more than any country has ever
done in the whole history of the world. The
closing week of 1908 will be marked in its
annals by the record of the earthquake
which visited Calabria and Sicily, destroying
Reggio and Messina, wiping out Scylla, and
wrecking many other towns and villages.
This appalling catastrophe created unspeak-
able consternation throughout the world, for
it was estimated that 300,000 lives were lost.
Through all the struggles, difficulties,
trovibles, and vicissitudes of the brief
history of the young kingdom of United
Italy the royal family have not failed to
win deepening esteem and affection. Thus
the republican ideal of Mazzini is a dead
theory. The nation was plunged into
impassioned grief by the tragedy enacted
at Monza on July 2gth, igoo, when the
beloved King Humbert I. was assassinated
by the anarchist Bresci. His son and
successor, Victor Emmanuel HI., had as
Crown Prince gained abundant ])opularity.
He and his wife, the beautiful Princess
Elena of Montenegro, are considered
" the handsomest royal pair in Europe,"
yet the king is the smallest of Continental
sovereigns, being only five feet three inches
in height, while the queen is very tall,
so that when seen together they present
a most striking contrast. Throughout
their marriage service the king stood,
while the queen knelt on a cushion, and
thus they were just of a height. " The
only time she was able to look up at me,"
says King Victor, quite good-humouredly.
So immense have been his services
already to his country that he has been
styled, and not without reason, " The
Saviour of Italy." William Durban
THE REPUBLIC OF SAN MARINO
/^NEof the minor events of the year 1907
^■^ was the conclusion of a fresh treaty
of friendship between the Kingdom of
Italy and the Republic of San Marino, and
in the arrangements and discussions which
preceded this settlement, as in the treaty
itself, the republic, which has only an
area of 33 square miles, and a population
well under 12,000, appeared as a sovereign
and independent state, although its
separate existence is maintained solely by
the benevolent protection of its big friend,
Italy. Of all the numerous independent
states into which the Italy of the Middle
Ages was divided, San Marino alone
survives to the present day ; and as long
as Italy, by a sort of good-humoured
forbearance, permits it to remain as it is,
so long, and no longer, will its name be
seen on the roll-call of the nations. It is
situated some ten miles or so from the
historic Italian town of Rimini, and is to
all intents and purposes as Italian as any
part of the country. But it claims to be the
oldest state of Europe, dating its preten-
sions as far back as 855, though its inde-
pendence is of a much later date. From the
point of view of age, it regards the modern
kingdom as something of an upstart.
It undoubtedly can boast of being the
smallest republic in the world. When the
devastating presence of Napoleon passed
over Italy in blood and flame, San Marino
was spared. " Let it remain," said the
great conqueror, "as a model of a
republic." In those days it was more
democratic, perhaps, than it is to-day.
The eight parishes of which the republic
consists return sixty members to its Parlia-
ment, called the Great Council ; twenty of
these representatives are drawn from its
nobles, twenty from its townsmen, and
twenty from its peasantry ; two of them
are appointed every six months as Regent-
Captains with executive power. There is,
besides, a smaller council, which regulates
all matters pertaining to finance, law,
education and war ; its duties must be
tolerably light, for San Marino has no
debt ; and, of course, it cannot go to war,
though it has an army of about a thousand
officers and men. Its capital, also called
San Marino, has a population of 1,500,
and is situated on the top of Mount
Titano, a termination in that direction of
the Apennines. The government Palace,
rebuilt here in 1894, is a fine edifice.
There is much that is interesting and
picturesque about the town, and, indeed,
about the whole of this small republic.
The meetings of the Council, with
the " Noble Guard" in their fanciful
uniforms in attendance, partake of some-
thing of the character of a pageant instinct
with the suggestion of old-world romance
and charm. But it need hardly be added
that nobody regards this little republic
very seriously ; there is, in fact, a good
deal about it which smacks of a Gilbertian
opera. Robert Machr.w
5375
ESSENTIAL INFORMATION ABOUT ITALY
Area and Population. Italy is divided into
sixty-nine provinces, and has an area of 110,550
square miles, with a population, according to
the census of 1901. of 32,475,253. It includes
the islands of Sicily and Sardinia. Statistics
of population do not distinguish the population
of cities from tie communes in which these
cities are, so that the figures relating to any
commune include both the urban and rural
population. There are eleven communes (all
capitals of provinces) of which the population is
over 100,000, as follows :
Naples, 563,540 ; Milan, 493,241 ; Rome,
462,743; Turin, 3.35,656; Palermo, 309,694;
Genoa, 234,710 ; Florence, 205,589 ; Bologna,
152,009 ; Venice, 151,840 ; Messina (before the
earthquake of December, 1908), 149,778 ; and
Catania, 149,295.
Government. The constitution of Italy pro-
vides for a limited monarchy. The executive
power is vested in the monarch, and is exercised
through responsible Ministers. The legislative
power is vested in the monarch and a two-
chambered Parliament, consisting of the Senato,
or Upper House, and the Camera de Deputanti,
or Lower House. The Senate, which is not
restricted in regard to numbers, and at present
consists of 346 members, including five members
of the royal house, consists of princes who are
of age, and members nominated by the king for
life. Senators must be not less than forty years
of age, must pay not less than £120 a year in
taxes, or must have held high office or rendered
distinguished service to the state. Electors for
members of the Lower House must be at least
twenty-one years of age, and must have an
educational or property qualification. There
are 508 deputies in the Lower House. Parlia-
ments sit for five years, but may be dissolved by
the king at any time. Business can be conducted
in either Chamber only if there is an absolute
majority of members present. Members receive
no remuneration, but travel free on some rail-
ways. The executive power is vested in the
king, assisted by eleven Ministers, each at the
head of a state department.
Monarch. The present King of Italy is
Vittorio Emanuel III. (born 1869 ; succeeded
his father in 1900).
Finance. The estimated revenue for 1908
was £80,017,780, and the estimated expenditure
was £77,836,956. The chief sources of revenue
are the government monopolies — tobacco, salt,
lotteries and quinine — customs, excise, and
octrois (or local customs), railways, and post-
office service. The National Debt of Italy is
£530,866,700, and the annual interest charge is
£22,607,500.
Industry and Commerce. Agriculture is the
chief industry of Italy, and over 70 per cent, of
the total area is in the productive state. The
chief crops, according to the acreage covered,
are wheat, vines, maize, olives, rice, and
tobacco. Silk culture is important, and is
expanding. Attention is paid to forestry, and
government aid is given in replanting. Mining
provides occupation for 66,000 people. The chit f
5376
mineral industry of Italy is the sulphur mines,
of which there are over 600. Other mines are
zinc and lead, salt, graphite, and petroleum,
mineral fuel, copper, iron, antimony, and
mercury. Italian quarries employ 66,000 people,
and two-thirds of the value of the total output is
marble. There are about 250,000 fishing- boats
and 100,000 fishermen, 6,000 of whom are en-
gaged in deep-sea fishing. The chief industries
are textile — silk, woollen, cotton, and linen —
and the sugar industry is making rapid strides.
Industrially, Italy is making great progress.
In 1908 the value of Italian exports was
£74,330,000 and of Italian imports, £121,238.
The chief exports are raw silk, cotton and
silk fabrics, olive oil, eggs, hemp, silk waste,
dried fruit, sulphur, and wine. Great Britain
sells more to Italy than does any other nation ;
and Switzerland is Italy's best customer.
Colonies and Dependencies. The only
Italian colonies or dependencies are those on the
east coast of Africa, and one port in China. .
They have little economic value. I
Area.
Population.
Eritrea (on the Red Sea) . .
Italian Somaliland
Tientsin
88,500
100,000
18
450,000
400.000
17,000
Total
188,518
867,000
Currency. The money of Italy is upon the
same basis as the French currency [see page
5398] a lira, or lire, being the exact equivalent
of a franc, and a centesimi the Italian equiva-
lent of a French centime. The coins in circula-
tion are : bronze, 1, 2, 5, and 10 centesimi ;
nickel, 20 and 25 centesimi ; silver, 1, 2, and
5 lire ; gold, 10 and 20 Ure ; state-notes, 5 10, and
25hre; bank-notes, 50, 100, 500, and 1,000 lu-e.
Weights and Measures. The metric system
is in force [see page 5399].
Postage. Great Britain to Italy, for letters,
printed papers, commercial papers, and samples,
the same as for France [see page 5398].
Parcel Post (via France). Is. 6d., 2s., and
2s. 6d. for 3, 7, and 11 lb. respectively. If
by slower route, via Belgium, Germany, and
Switzerland, 9d. per packet above these prices.
Telegrams. Great Britain to Italy, 3d. per
word, with a minimum charge of one shilling.
SAN MARINO
San Marino is an independent repubUc, which
claims to be the oldest state in Europe, and
which has placed itself under the protection of
Italy. It is entirely enclosed by Italy proper,
and is situated in the hills behind Rimini. Its
area is thirty-three square miles, and its popula-
tion 11,000. The seat of government is San
Marino, a village of 1,500 population. Legis-
lative power is vested in a council of sixty
members, two of whom act as regents for six
months and exercise executive power. There
is a smaller council of twelve, who divide into
four committees or congresses. The principal
exports are wine, cattle, and stone.
EUROPEAN
POWERS
TO-DAY
VIII
FRANCE
FRANCE IN OUR OWN TIME
A SURVEY OF THE NATION'S
SOCIAL AND POLITICAL LIFE
By Richard Whiteing
WE have followed the history of France
among the nations of Europe down
to our own day. Where does this great
country stand at the present time ?
In regard to politics the answer is simple
enough. France has established the
Repubhc after more than a century of
effort, and has put it on the footing of the
institutions that are taken as matters of
course. This means, not that the present
system is free from the liability to error
and to great economic and social change,
but simply that a reversion to either of
the earlier forms, of monarchy or empire,
is, unthinkable. For good or ill the old
parties have, and can have, no hope of a
governing majority. The monarchy is
associated with the tradition of misery ;
the empire with that of defeat and
humiliation. The disasters of 1 870-1 have
had precious results on the temperament
of the people ; it is unlikely that the war
drum will ever throb again in France in any
cause but the defence of the territory.
Even the lost provinces have become rather
an aspiration than a purpose and a hope.
The new political ideal is the welfare of
the nation as a whole, the making life
better worth living for every unit of the
mass of population. In his latest survey
of the whole situation, M. Jaures boasts
that the country is now in full political
democracy. In other words, the
French people are at last in sole
charge of their own destinies.
The constitution has been
fashioned into a perfect instrument for the
work in hand. Its provision of the second
ballot ensures the predominance of the
popular will ; the deputies are paid as
servants of the State, not as servants of
any section of the electorate. The suffrage
is universal, and no man has more than
one vote. The electoral machinery is of
The New
Political
Ideal
What the
Republic
Represents
ideal simpHcity. The Senate, composed
of 300 members, will wholly represent the
principle of popular choice in the second
degree when its few surviving life members
have passed away. The president is but
the most eminent servant of the nation.
This is not to say that none but Repub-
lican parties exist. There is a Monarchist
party which, as Nationalist or
Conservative in name, harps on
the string of military glory, and
still keeps a kind of sentimental
hold on a section of the peasantry, and
makes some figure in the social life of Paris.
But the peasant proprietors in the mass
are for the Republic, because they believe
that it is for order and stability, and that
they have nothing to fear from it, and a
good deal to hope.
The urban masses, again, are bound to
give it their support as the progressive
movement in being, though the workmen
as a whole are overwhelmingly Socialist and
anti-capitalistic. In the decisive election of
1906, of some 9,000,000 voters who went
to the poll, nearly 6,250,000 cast their
votes for Republican or Socialist candi-
dates, without counting another million
or so who represented Liberals well affected
to the existing system. The poor remainder
stood for all the forces of reaction. The
majority were all Republicans of one shade
or other, whatever else they were not, and
were ready to coalesce for the defence of
Republican institutions.
The Sociahst section of the Republican
party now includes much of the highest
intellect of France, and exemplifies nearly
all the varieties of that school of politics
throughout the world. The racial mind
has a wide range, from the utmost poise
and precision of scientific thought to the
most passionate enthusiasm for the idea.
The Commune is the classical example.
5377
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
A Great
French
Socialist
It was a system on the one hand, and, on
the other, a dehrium of utter self-sacrifice.
Its members died b}^ thousands for a social
millennium. The outbreak would have
ruined the democratic cause for ages in
any othei country ; in France it only gave
the cause a set-back that has already
become but an incident of its career.
The darkest hour found a man
capable of stemming the cur-
rent of disaster, and effecting
the salvage of the proletarian
idea. This was Jules Guesde. He had
laid the causes of failure to heart, and he
gradually taught his countrymen to aban-
don the old methods of sterile insurrec-
tionary agitation, and to rely on organised
propaganda to a definite end.
He opposed the desperate measure of the
general strike, and in due course achieved
the miracle of sending forty deputies to the
Chamber pledged to a Collectivast pro-
gramme, and to the saving idea of unity of
all sections of the advanced party in the
common cause. They were not, however,
to co-operate with the Government ; they
were to convert it to Socialism, and his
union of parties was still to be only a union
among the elect. The thought of common
action with men who were Republicans, and
nothing else, was repugnant to his soul.
Then came Jaures with the wider out-
look of a scheme for union among all the
supporters of the Republic. He was, and
is still, a professor of philosophy, and, as
such, a distinguished member of the aca-
demic bod\ and a servant of the State.
A man holding that position in France
must be deeply versed in the history of
nations and the history of thought, and
the studies of Jaures had taught him that
practical persons with a sense of give and
take always win in the long run. He urged
his brother Socialists to spread their doc-
trines among the people in the old way,
but meanwhile to work with the consti-
tuted authorities, and in Parliament for
all that Parliament was worth.
f tK ^ ^ ^' He entered warmly into the
^ Dreyfus agitation, on the side
that ultimately triumphed, and
he finally sent one of his lieutenants into
the government as member of a Ministry
that contained the hated De Gallifet,
" the butcher of the Commune."
This proceeding scandalised the Social-
ists of Europe, and it led to a Titanic
debate between Jaures and the German
Bebel, at the International Congress of
5378
Dresden. Bebel triumphed by carrying a
resolution to the effect that Socialism
should have a policy strictly independent
of all other political parties, and should
take no part in a " capitalist " govern-
ment. Jaures frankly accepted the vote,
and, by his submission to the idea of party
discipline, did much to maintain his
position, and to lead his very antagonists
to more practical courses. His followers
are not a solid phalanx ; it is his proud,
though perhaps rather premature, boast
that " outside of the united party" there
is none deserving of the Socialist name.
Jaures is still strictly a party man, and
he constantly uses his energies as a spur
to prick the sides of ministerial intent.
In the summer of igo6 he held another
Titanic debate with M. Clemenceau, as
the head of the Government, on the great
question of the rate of progress in demo-
cratic reform that still separates the
labouring class of France from the middle
class. There had been serious strike riots,
and the Government had been compelled
to intervene to preserve the peace. " Order
is the Republic's first law," M. Clemenceau
seemed to say. " Give us the
^ ^' f opportunity to be your friends.
epu ic s ^^^ ^^^^ you want will come, if
First Law , •', , , , • .
only you have the patiences-to
wait for it." He carried the point by a
vote that expressed the confidence of the
Chamber. " You are not the Almighty,"
cried the defeated champion in a moment
of petulance. "You are not even the
Devil," was the retort.
In the elections of 1906 over 26 per cent,
of those who went to the poll cast a
Socialist vote, yet this was regarded as a
Socialist defeat. Socialism is powerful
enough to influence legislation, though
not to control it. It now elects mayors by
the hundred, and municipal councillors by
the thousand. Its chief supporters are
found among the workmen, and the
" intellectuals " of the professorial group.
Trade Unionism in France, as such, is
rather " on the fence " in being not
frankly Socialist though in strong sym-
pathy with the movement. It has long
been political and speculative in its
tendencies, and for a simple reason. Many
of the benefits in higher wages and the
like, which with us were the exclusive
concern of such organisations, are, in
France, secured by the personal thrift of
the workman, and by the help of the
State. The French Unionists often prefer
FRANCE IN OUR OWN TIME
to save for themselves, and this leaves them
fancy free for the dream of a beneficial
revolution which is to settle everything.
Many of their comrades, however, are
still for the English method of trade funds
for purely trade purposes — the raising of
wages, and the benefits. The first would
make the unions a branch of a sort of
labour party, rejecting the co-operation of
all other classes but their own, and
working by means of a class war. The
others have the powerful support of the
miners, the printers, the textile workers
and the engineers.
According to Miss Scott, the latest
historian of the movement, the only
important unions that are distinctly revo-
lutionary are those of the building trades.
One of their spokesmen utters a warning
cry against " the development of a fourth
estate composed of trades economically
privileged, with the unskilled and unem-
ployed left on one side." It is no easy
matter to arouse French enthusiasm for
any idea of a purely utilitarian character.
The tendency is always to look before and
after to the complete regeneration of the
race. This tendency has hin-
tt'r^^t * . dered the progress of French
Workman s ^ ,- ^ °t, , x. ■ j
p . Co-operation, it has attamed
to nothing like the same rate of
development as the British movement —
even in the manufacturing branch, which
has always been peculiarly its own.
The net result is that the French
workman has, on the whole, a better lot
than the British. He has more of the joy
of life. His government, state and munici-
pal, does more for him, and takes care
that he shall be abundantly supplied
with simple pleasures — seats in the shady
thoroughfares for the summer evenings,
where he may smoke his pipe and see his
children at play ; well-kept woods, forests
and parks, where he may ramble on Sunday
with his wife and family ; cheapened
services of tram and train — all with
ludicrously cheap holidays as the general
result. If his hours of labour are longer,
the pace is nothing like so hard. His home
life abounds in the solid and substantial
comfort of the neat and cleanly dwelling,
the well-filled clothes-press and larder,
the well-cooked meal, and the well-
stocked market as its source of supply.
For most of these blessings, no doubt,
he has to thank his admirable wife, herself
a product of the most careful cultures,
domestic, educational, and religious. He
eats " like a prince," both in quality
and in the quantity for his need. On
this point the comparative statistics
as to the prices of provisions in the two
countries which are published in England
from time to time are wholly illusory.
With the French workman, two or even
three courses and dessert are not the
Happy exception, but the rule. His
and Contented children have the best of
Workers elementary, and often of
advanced education — the
former entirely free, with free meals at
need — and over and above this, free access
to magnificently appointed technical
schools, where they may learn their trades.
The spontaneous help of his comrades
rarely fails him in misfortune. He is less
frequently haunted by the spectre of a sub-
merged tenth than his British brother ;
indeed, that class is practically non-exist-
ent in France. " Wherever you go," says
a recent observer, " you will find less
evidence of poverty, of idleness, of misery
than will force itself on your attention
almost anywhere else in the world."
Thanks to all this, the French work-
man is generally content to remain in his
class. It is by no means, however, the
content of acquiescence. His class hatreds
are strong, and, with his sense of equality,
he is disposed to have " no use " for the
bourgeoisie or for the aristocrats. In so
far as he is a workman of the towns, he
is generally socialistic and anti-capitalistic
to the backbone. He belongs either to
the French Working Class party, which
is opposed to any sort of co-operation,
political or other, with society at large,
or to the Socialist Revolutionary party,
which is disposed to accept such co-
operation in politics, on conditions, but
in each case with a view to the final
triumph of equalitarian ideas. Finally,
he hates war, partly on general principles,
but mainly because he hates the blood
tax of the conscription. Then, for the
balance of power in public
Peasantry g^f^ a.irs, the workmen are effectu-
SocTaHsm ^^^^ ^^^^ ^" electoral check
by the peasantry, whose large
share of the ownership of the land
gives them little liking for Socialism, and
no taste for farming under the State.
These are the more potent as a check,
because they have all but completely
ralhed to the Republican idea. Successive
Governments have wooed and won them
by standing firmly for the security of
5379
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
property and for public order, and by
making them objects of peculiar care in
other ways. Their technical schools for
farming, for instance, are on the same
high level as the schools for arts and crafts.
Liberty, Equality and Fraternity are
still the watchwords of the Republic,
but the French are disposed to take them
,«, . 1 , not exactly in this order.
Watchwords t^ ^■, • .1 „ t
- Lquality is the passion of
„ ... the people, and the goal of
cpu ic ^y^ their strivings and of all
their hopes. Fraternity is a sentiment of
only less strength, but as yet it has got
no further than fraternity by classes.
Among the workmen, for instance, the
sense of brotherhood is a positive affection
of the soul, only to be realised by those
who have lived in close touch with them
and witnessed its countless manifestations
of courtesy, charity, and active help.
It is the same among the professional
and the other classes who are the brain
and nerve of France, and here fraternity
finds its strongest manifestation in the
strength of the family tie. The family
constitutes a vast insurance society for
the mutual guarantee of all its members
against the ills of life. Fe\v fail to respond
to the appeal, even when the claim extends
to cousinships of the remoter degrees.
The whole scheme of collective well-being
is that in emergencies no single member
of the " clan " shall have to stand quite
alone. The uncle who looks after his
graceless nephew as a matter of duty, and
almost without expectation of gratitude,
is a familiar figure of French comedy.
This, in itself, with the obligations it
entails, involves a certain sacrifice of
liberty, since \'ou can hardly have it both
ways^-dependence, and a perfectly free
course. Liberty, therefore, while it has
made huge progress under the Republic,
is still hampered by intolerance. The
Press is free to the point of licence ; but
personal freedom, especially that of public
^^ , meeting, still leaves much to
Weaknesses 1 j j ti /^
. . be desired. Ihe Government,
Government !" ^^/ fff^^" ^?' ^''^}'?. °''^^'''
IS iretiul and meddlesome,
especially as it works through the agency
of the police. It regulates strikes and
public meetings to the point of exaspera-
tion, and compromises the " order of the
streets " by a fussy anxiety to preserve it.
The ordinary prefect of police simply loses
his head at the sight of two or three gathered
together for public discussion. The very
5380
crowd is at fault in the same way ;
and in psychological moments every
man's hand seems to be against his neigh-
bour's coat-collar in the act of arrest.
For all that, the Repubhc is by far the
strongest French government of modern
times if only for the classic reason that it
divides Frenchmen the least. The vast
and powerful middle class no longer I
stands aloof. The people, in the con-
ventional sense of the term, are not and
never have been enough to make a
governing sj'stem. The power may come
to them when they have all the qualifi-
cations for it ; , but by that time they
and the nation will be one. At present
the middle class, with its backing of the
moderates of all shades, is as strong as
ever in affairs and in knowledge.
In all times the vast majority of the
governed, as distinct often enough from
their governors of the moment, have
constituted a sort of natural force of
conservation. They are at once eager
for change and fearful of its effects ;
and their very inconsistencies serve to
determine the pace for progress, and to
. compel a due regard to the
re om in an ^j^justj^gj^tg between old in-
. p ... terests and new claims. It may
be no more than the force of
habit, but a force it is, for their mass
makes them the predominant partner in
politics. No part\% however advanced,
can touch the actual experience of ad-
ministration without swaying to the side
of this moderate norm, which represents
the working mean between movement
and stagnation, and which exists by no
accident but by a law. When that central
and all-powerful body swerves in momen-
tary aberration to either extreme, pro-
gressive or reactionary, it begins to
diminish in numbers, and to lose control.
A government of abstract justice and of
revolutionary upheaval, if it could be
established to-morrow, would pass like
the dream of a night. The chronic in-
firmities of human nature would still
assert their rights.
The Republic is now in the safe keeping
of the whole nation. Like every other
government in the world, it will, of course,
undergo enormous changes, but these
must be gradual, and must still con-
form to the law of human affairs. The
moderate man will ever be master in the
long run. Much of the abuse of the
"middle class" is due to the sense of
THE INTERIOR OF THE SENATE IN THE LUXEMBURG PALACE
INTERIOR OF THE CHAMBER OF DEPUTIES
OUTSIDE AND INSIDE THE FRENCH HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT
5381
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
their irresistible might. They captured
the old revolution, they have already
captured the new. In many respects
France is fortunate in being rooted in
institutions that make for stability and
social peace. Her wise laws of inherit-
ance provide for a beneficent diffusion
of wealth throughout the whole of the
Th ff body politic. No man may
p " '" leave all his property exactly
..^°f„^ '?, as he likes. A considerable
the World 1 r -i ^ J. t--
share of it must go to his
wife and children, and not to any one of
them to the detriment of the rest. In this
way there is an automatic check on the
growth of large fortunes, and a constant
diffusion of wealth, which irrigates the
whole field of national well-being with a
fertilising stream.
There are few French citizens, men or
women, who are without " expectations "
of a kind. Consequently there is no huge
landless, moneyless class, filthy, feckless
and forlorn, answering to our abject poor.
The flower and product of this system is
the national habit of thrift, which is an
effect of wise legislation rather than a mere
peculiarity of the national temperament.
Opportunity has made the French the
thriftiest people in the world. Having the
means of saving, they naturally save.
This, and this alone, accounts for the
enormous recuperative power of the nation
as a whole. " Whereas Great Britain,"
says Mr. W. L. George, in his " France
in the Twentieth Century," " has but
just recovered from the depression follow-
ing on the South African War, a com-
paratively cheap contest which did not
entail the destruction of a single English
home, France, within four years of 1870,
had regained her position, after paying
an indemnity nearly equal to our total
Transvaal expenditure, and enduring six
months' devastation of her soil." French
literature is naturally best understood
by a study of the French character,
of which it is the necessary
outcome. The Frenchman
has two natures in marked
contrast. In one he is
the child of the joy of life — all impulse,
whim, and go-as-you-please ; in the other,
he is the most staid, orderly, respectable
being in the universe. In the first he
follows the wayward law of his moods and
his intuitions ; in the other he is almost
the victim of a rigorous logic which com-
pels him to keep his mind as tidy as his
5382
The Double
Nature of the
Frenchman
person, and to put every idea in its place. i
The latter is his normal state, and it has
produced his classic literature ; the former
has prompted him to all the revolts of
reaction towards Romanticism, Naturalism,
Idealism, and all the other schools that
are characterised so much by the final
syllable of their names. Ronsard. apart
from his services to the good govern-
ment of the language, came to bring life
and the joy of a free course in the beauty
of nature. The rather miscalled age of
Louis XIV. brought discipline, law and
order ; our good bourgeois of the muse
was now intent on a return to the pro-
prieties. This mood ran its course until he
made holiday again with the Romantics.
" Tempted of the Devil," wrote the wrath-
ful Nisard, of Hugo the leader of the band,
" he is begetting new schools every day."
It was not to last for ever. The rebels
in their turn came to repentance with
the Parnassian group. The poetic mind
is now once more in a state of lawlessness,
or, at any rate, of unrest, which bodes
another return to the righteousness of form.
Banville, who succeeded Hugo as the
master poet of his day, was
anvi e still the Romantic movement,
the Successor , . , , . - 1 . j
- „ but that movement chastened
"^° by its sense of the need of
flawless workmanship and of spiritual
restraint. His " Petit Traite de la
Poesie " was merciless in its insistence
on the clearness, precision, and minute
finish of detail so dear to the French
mind. Leconte de Lisle was classic in
spirit, call him what else you will, though
a classic with a wider outlook on life
than the men of the grand period.
Sully Prudhomme, the next great name,
has been called, and not unhappily, a
French Matthew Arnold in his sense of
the good breeding of an Augustan ideal,
and sometimes a Lucretius, or even a
Darwin, of poetry. Coppee was the same
sort of man working in a medium of scenes
of humble life, a French Crabbe, touching
the butcher, the baker, and the candlestick-
maker, not as one of themselves, but as
the Puritan of a rigorous law of art.
Sully Prudhomme died but the other
day. Where is he now — at any rate, in
regard to his status in this world ?
Before the breath went out of his body
an advanced school had come to regard
him as a fogey. It has yet to wreak its
vengeance on Heredia, the last of the
Parnassians, for the crime of popularity.
FRANCE IN OUR OWN TIME
but no doubt he, too, will have his hour of
the wrong sort. His goldsmith's art in
the fine chiselling of the phrase has carried
their system to perfection ; and perfection
palls, to say nothing of the fact that the
younger men are waiting, and that youth
will have its day.
We are still with the Decadents, though
in new manifestations. Beaudelaire rules
our spirits from his urn ; so does Verlaine,
and it is estimated that at least a hundred
of his pages may reach posterity. They
should do so, for he at least restored the
personal and the human note which had
no place in the baggage of the Parnassian
band. Mallarme, sometimes coupled with
him as a neo-Decadent, is far inferior.
It is now a riot of schools, if the word is
not inappropriate to systems that are
little more than exaggerations of the
personal note. Some sing the all-import-
ance of the ego, others the emptiness of
life. They pass across the illuminated
disc of popularity, from nothing into
nothingness again, like the figures in the
cinematograph. The Polychromists, who
hold that the word is not merely the symbol
of colour, but the thing itself, are still to
be found, though you have to
look for them. The Realists
yet honour Jean Richepin for
his "Chanson des Gueux,"
and another composition in which he has
written with much appreciation of the
Devil and all his works. Maupassant
shaped well in this school of verse at
the outset of his career.
Foreigners have largely influenced the
modern poetic movement. Maeterlinck
is perhaps the most distinguished case
in point. But there is now a promising cult,
which places Whitman at the head, of
Poe, Emerson and Thoreau as the four
men of universal genius that America
has given to the world.
The general result is that the old French
prosody, the result of centuries of critical
labour, has gone all to pieces, and that its
chief law — one word, one vote for signi-
fication— has been repealed. Even the
venerable figure of syntax has been plucked
by the beard. Impression has taken the
place of logic, assonance of rhyme. The
reaction will follow in due course, probably
in a new classical movement with larger
and more generous bounds.
The same tendencies are observable in
French fiction. It is a time of unrest, but
the outlook is most promising. The old
The Modern
Poetic
Movement
Naturalist school of Zola, as a school, is
gone, but it has left abiding traces, most
of them for good. The good ones are in the
direction of respect for the facts and of a
faithful rendering of detail ; the bad, in
sheer pornography, though this is not
the founder's fault. Bourget, though no
Naturalist, in regard to the observation of
French ^^^^ things of the flesh, follows
Fiction of .that "method in regard to the
To-Day thmgs of the spirit. There is
another trace of Zola in the fact
that the new school is overwhelmingly
purposeful. In no former time has French
fiction been so much occupied with the
study of social facts. This is the main hne
of the new departure. Even the revived
study of local manners and customs,
local types, is not free from the laudable
suspicion of a purpose of natural regenera-
tion. If some still write in the old way,
for the pure love of story as story, and of
character in and for itself, they form but
a minority, though a minority with a
right to their welcome.
The revival of religion has its apostles,
but every one of them takes care to let
you see that he is a patriot rather than a
saint. The wide, wide world is not for-
gotten, and it has a school to itself, with
Loti as its master. His work has the study
of foreign race types and exotic peculiari-
ties for its means, and a suggestion of the
greater glory of France for its end and
aim. That perfectly equipped writer has
ever been the best of patriots ; and when
he writes of " India without the English,"
we may easily divine his regret that Pro-
vidence did not vouchsafe the blessing of
its being " with the French."
The social studies embrace every variety
of the genre. Most of them have this
peculiarity, that they deal with groups
rather than with individuals, in the older
way. Where they are historic in their
setting, we have no longer the splendid
personalities of the past, the heroes of the
world movement through the
ages, but, instead, the masses of
humanitj^ dim, but by no means
dumb, who are struggling
towards the light. Paul Adam and Paul
and Victor Margueritte are the chiefs of
the school. Their books are of races and
nations, all in movement on the epic scale.
The fiction that has narrower limits of
place or time has made a new departure
under the leadership of M. Rod, who is not
a thinker only, but a man of letters, with
5383
Social
Studies in
Novels
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
all the restraints that belong to the French
ideal of the character. The miseries of the
people, the bankruptcy of faith, the inter-
necine struggle between capital and labour,
the self-seeking of the professional poU-
tician, are among his more striking themes.
M. De Vogiie has taken this last subject as
the motive of his powerful work " Les
. Morts qui Parlent." For him
jY"!**" the parliamentarians of to-day
o & lona ^^g 1^^^ ^^^ delegates of the
Romance ^ ... ° i. tj
Convention m a new part. He
is a polemist of great force, with a keen
sense of actuality, which, however, does
not prevent him from casting a longing,
lingering look towards the past. Rod,
too, is not without this tendency, but
he can see good in both sides, and
sympathy is his dominant note.
The note of sadness and of protest
against a too insistent present is found
again in much of the work that has pro-
vincial France for its subject, and par-
ticularly in that of M. Bazin, who stands
at the head of a school. M. Bazin has
written novels of great power — on the
work -girls, on the exodus of the peasantry
from country to town, on the religious
persecution involved in the present quarrel
between Church and State, on the problem
of the lost provinces. The last, a mixture
of history, patriotism, and philosophy,
aspires to the dignity of a national romance,
and as such it has been acclaimed by the
most educated readers in France. But
their suffrages are not enough for this
writer. He has studied provincial life in
all its aspects with a success that has
enabled him to realise the sane and sound
ambition of a wide popularity. Bordeaux is
another remarkable writer of the same class.
The writers who are most read in France
are Paul Bourget and Anatole France, of
the earlier school, and Maurice Barres of
the new. Paul Bourget is now, whatever
he was not in the past, the eloquent
apologist of marriage, of the authority of
the family as a social organism,
of monarchy and aristocracy,
France's
Popular
. .. and, above all, of religion.
He brings to their support a
delicacy and a suppleness of mind, and a
perfectly equipped literary talent, which
compel the attention of many who have
no sympathy with his views.
These, however, have their antidote
ready to hand in Anatole France, that
"august Nihilist pamphleteer," as some-
body has called him, who stands supreme
5384
in Uterary power, and especially in
eclecticism of style. He is the champion
of the new ideas that seem pressing for-
ward to victory. They could hardly do
without him, for in France, as elsewhere,
the cause is often of less importance
than the skill of the advocate. His
" sober elegance, his neat limpidity " — to
translate perhaps too literally — compel the
admiration of all. In a series of well-known
works of fiction he stemmed the torrent of
prejudice in the Dreyfus case far more
effectually than even Zola, to whom his
detractors have ever refused the title of a
man of letters.
At any rate, what Zola did for the country'
at large Anatole France did for educated
opinion, which still counts for much in
matters of taste. He takes a side in seeming
to take none, and to be wholly devoted to
a detached and caustic observation of con-
temporary ideas. " L'ile des Pingouins,"
one of the latest of his works, is also one
of the best examples of his method, and
with that, unfortunately, of a certain super-
fluity of coarseness that hardly deserves to
be called a defect of his qualities. He is
. ».T ... a precious asset of the cause of
A Novelist i. j: xl,
fth progress, smce most of the
VT e L . writers who are most read stand
New School J- , J- , • • ,
tor a sort of reaction against
the ideals of the popular party. It is
easier to get a hearing in that way, among
the select few- — still large enough to make
a considerable public of themselves.
Maurice Barres is perhaps the most
widely read of the three. He writes, often
with a strong conservative bias, in all the
genres, and he has identified them with
successive stages of his own development.
He is a patriot, an ardent " regionalist,"
in his love of the character and colour of
provincial life, an historical novelist of the
new school, in his keen sense of the nations
as makers of history, and his comparative
indifference to their masters of court or
camp. He is also a psychologist of the
first order, with a deep insight into the
souls of races, as distinct from the merely
individual growths. The newer tendencies
of cultivated thought are to be found in his
pages, and especially in his strong insist-
ence on the belief that no people can
afford to forget its past. " Our individual
conscience comes from the love of our
country and of its dead."
Is there no place, then, for the novelists
who write merely for the love of character
and of incident, and especially for the love
CHERBOURG, AS SEEN FROM THE FORT DJ ROULE
SCENES IN THE GREAT CITIES AND PORTS OF FRANCE
1 '' - 5383
3$
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
of telling a story without any other
prepossession ? Assuredly, or M. Henri
Regnier would not be read. He is a subtle
spirit born out of his proper time, which
was the eighteenth century, and prevailing
by the force of his irony and his wit, and
especially of that variety of the latter
which is known as the "esprit gaulois."
But the remorseless obligations
of the subject compel us to
French
Apostles of
Feminism
return to another class of
writers with a purpose — the
apostles of "feminism." The subject looms
largely in the literature of France, as
distinct from the propaganda by the
deed and by the platform to which it is
almost wholly confined in England. Marcel
Prevost led the way with " Les Demi-
Vierges " ; but, as a rule, the women have
now taken the matter into their own hands.
Their studies of passion leave little to
be desired, except sometimes a sense of
restraint ; and the freedom for which they
plead is less that of the representative
assembly than of the home and the heart.
Gerard d'Houville — ^Madame de Regnier
for her familiars — writes with remarkable
literary power. Madame de Xoailles fol-
lows on the same side, and is much in
vogue. With these are Madame de Coule-
vain, the author of " Eve victorieuse," and
especially of " Sur la branche," and
Madame Marcelle Tinayre, whose " Maison
du peche " was one of the most widely
read books of its year.
All of these have not only something to
say, but they have learnt how to say it
by the most serious reading in literature
and history. They differ from earlier
writers of their sex, and even from George
Sand, in having a distinctly feminine point
of view. They write as women, and not as
women who hope to be taken for men.
Such a method has its dangers ; and it
must be confessed that some of their
feminine followers have run into the
grossest licence, as though to proclaim
. ,. , their independence of the
Imagination s j. ^\ \ i. r j
p precept that want ot decency
... is want of sense. The late
Madame Bentzon, though
woman to the finger-tips and a cliampion
of women, had in perfection the qualities
that must always go to the making of
good literature, and especially reserve.
Imaginative work is not the all in all
of a literature. There are thinkers who
work for thinking's sake, as there are artists
who work only for the sake of art. But the
5386
peculiarity of modern France is that the
apostles of ideas tend more and more to
express themselves in poetry, fiction, and
drama. They naturally wish to have a
hearing, and they find that the average
reader prefers to take even his philosophy
in object-lessons. Some of them fare ill in
this attempt, and succeed only in showing
that they have missed their vocation. Most
of the vital thought of France is enshrined
in its fiction, and that fiction is so good
because it is expected to be so much more
than the amusement of an idle hour.
In history there has been a change
from the prophetic and picturesque
and the essentially literary method of
Michelet to that of the minute and ex-
haustive study of facts with the object of
leaving them to tell their own story, or,
at best, of grouping them with a little
malice aforethought. M. Sorel is the lead-
ing I'epresentative of this school, and he
may be described as the French Stubbs.
M. Lavisse, and, above all, M. Fustel de
Coulanges, stand for the older and the more
attractive method. But their work is still
governed by a rigorously methodic purpose
and treatment, which at least
seems to obtain its effects of
the picturesque by accident
rather than by design. The last-
named, however, though it may annoy
him to hear it, is very much of a great
writer. M. Gabriel Hanotaux may be said
to unite the two schools. His history of
contemporary France during the period of
reconstruction that followed her last great
war is at once one of the most brilliant
and solid works of the time. Apart from
these, we have any number of writers of the
memoirs in which the French have always
excelled. M. Bourget has entered the
domain of travels in a manner charac-
teristic at once of himself and of the new
school, with his quite descriptively named
" Sensations d'ltalie." In criticism —
philosophic and literary — M. Brunetiere,
though he has recently passed away, still
rules, with M. Lemaitre and M. Faguet.
In philosophy and science proper the
French are for the moment largely de-
pendent on the foreigner — exception made
of such names of the illustrious dead as
Pasteur and Claude Bernard. Darwin,
Spencer, Buckner, Haeckel, Schopenhauer,
Hartmann, and Nietzsche call the tune.
The French drama shows precisely the
same tendencies as French literature. It
is given over almost wholly to the problem
A Brilliant
History
of France
FRANCE IN OUR OWN TIME
and the social question. As M. Faguet
has observed, there is in every age the
formula in vogue ; and, in a certain
sense, all the theatres of France have
ever, at any given period, played the
same piece on the same night, the same
sort of piece being understood.
In the eighteenth century the inevitable
thing was a classic tragedy or a comedy of
so-calledcharacter derived, not from the life,
but from La Bruycre. In the nineteenth
there was another variety of choice —
Hugo, with the alternative of Augier,
Dumas, or Sardou. To-day, in the drama
as in the novel, writers are pushing out in
every direction in search of the spiritual
interests and preoccupations of their time.
In the new comedy of manners, the lawyers,
the doctors, the financiers sit to the artist,
and not merely as individuals, but as
members of a social group — the " world "
of Bench and Bar, the world of medicine,
and so on. What playgoer of us all can
have forgotten the "Businessis Business "
of Mirbeau in its English dress ? The
French stage, usually in advance, has
not been so closely in touch with the
realities of life for many a
ik^f' h y^^^- ^^ ^^ ^h^ spirit of Moliere,
jj . . who dared to plunge right into
the realities of his day, in bold
disregard of the conventions of the old
Italian comedy which then ruled the stage.
There is no more intrigue for intrigue's
sake. The modern French dramaList has
simply opened his eyes to what is going on
around him, and has reaped his reward in
no longer being reduced to " faire du
Scribe " or even " du Sardou " for a living.
We in England are still,, or were but yester-
day, in the old rut ; and, though we have
escaped from Scribe, we are still hardly
out of the toils of Sardou, with "The Scrap
of Paper " and "Diplomacy" as our most
successful pieces of the immediate past.
When that truly eminent hand in
stagecraft died, it was but as a writer who
in his own country had survived his own
school. But Mr. Shaw and Mr. Galsworthy,
with others of their band, have shown us the
way to better things, especially now that
our younger men have improved on one of
their leaders by leaving themselves and
their own personal idiosyncrasies of theory
out of the cast, and by working purely in a
medium of the actual concerns of their
day. Mr. Pinero, the only one of our
veterans who is always marching on, has
caught up with at least the rear-guard of the
French host in " His House in Order," and
has had his reward in the honour of
adaptation for the Paris stage. And Mr.
Barrie has made an attempt to extend his
empire in the same region. He would have
done better to begin with the " Admirable
Crichton." The play so named, however,
is rather German than British in its method ;
The New ^^^ something as much like it
Role of ^^ ^^^ P^^ ^^ ^^^^ another has
the Stage !png been played in Germany.
1 he h rench move faster. In the
art of acting, for instance, while we are yet
agitating for a school on the old lines of
the Conservatoire, M. le Bargy is well on
his way with a new method of rendering
the passions of the scene, which is founded
more directly on the study of nature.
The Theatre Libre and the Theatre
Antoine are striking examples of the
present methods of writing pieces, of
mounting, and of playing them, all im-
mediately from the life. The less ambi-
tious Grand Guignol, and even the ama-
teurish Theatre Social, must be mentioned
in this connection, if only as signs of the
times. The French stage is, in some
instances, gradually leaving the realism,
to which ours is yet but gradually working
its way, for a symbolism which is still
true to the spirit of the universal quest
in being a symbolism of the real. The
names of Curel, of Portoriche, of Brieux,
and of Donnay have yet to become house-
hold words on our side of the water ;
but we shall hear more of them, no doubt,
in the course of the next quarter of a
century. M. Lemaitre, M. Lavedan, and
M. Rostand, in the higher ranks, have
already been brought to our notice, and. no
doubt, all the rest will come in good time.
M. Rostand apart, no aspect of our
modern life is indifferent to the newer
writers. They seek their subjects on the
stock exchange and the racecouise, in
the religious conflict and the decay of
faith, in the home, in public life, and in
Socialism as in all the reactions
tt^V — i'^ f^ct, wherever men's hearts
ofModern ^^^^ ^^-^j^ ^^^ passions of
Writers ^j^^.^. ^^^ Criticism follows
them, as it always does a bold and success-
ful lead ; and, where it still ventures to
disagree, it has to find some less hack-
neyed term of derision than " problem "
and " tract." The big battalions of the
playgoer are now with the problem ; and
naturally all is changed. The passion
for experiment, for the eternally new,
5387
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
not as a mere bid lor notoriety, l)ut as
research forward, as exploration, is eciually
characteristic of France in other arts. It
is especially so in music. The new school,
led by Debussy and d'Indy, with Bruneau,
Charpentier, and Dukas^as composers or
as critics — for captains of the host, are men
for whom Wagner is already but a grey-
, beard. They are as different
^ rancc s fj-Q^-^ ^j^g great German master
New School • ,1 • ill J •
j^ . m their methods and aims as
he was from Gluck ; and they
have come to regard both as follies of the
past. "That animal Gluck!" cries De-
bussy. "I know only one other composer
as insupportable, and that is Wagner.
Yes ; this Wagnei , who has inflicted on us
the majestic, vacuous, insipid Wotan ! "
"And what do you think of our Berlioz ?
He is an exception, a monster. He is not
at all a musician ; he gives one but the
illusion of music, with his methods
borrowed from literature and painting."
The new school borrows from literature,
too, but only for the spirit, not for the
method. Its art is sensuous, not to say
sensual, and dreamy, and it aims at the
rendering of states of emotion rather than
of the emotions themselves. Debussj^, for
instance, after learning his accidence at the
Conservatoire, and winning the Prize of
Rome there by an orthodox academic
composition — just to show he could do
anything he liked — went straight into the
work of his choice as soon as he had shaken
himself free of academic control. He had
served in the army, like every other
Frenchman, and he found his first call to
something new in "the blend of sonorities "
produced by the barrack-yard call for
" lights out " and the long-continued
vibrations of a neighbouring convent bell.
He sought to do in music what Verlaine
and Stephane Mallarme were doing in
poetry — the latter especiall}' in his ' ' After-
noon of a Faun." The verse was imitative
of impressions of natural effects, and
. , Debussy tried to render these
usic s -j^ music in the same subjective
Exquisite ,i t ;i • i . c
_ . . manner. in the midst of a
dream, says Bitmeau, mur-
muring violins rustle, and tinkling harps ;
pastoral flutes and oboes sing ; and they
are answered by forest horns," all in "an
exquisite fairyism " of general effect.
Rossetti next took his turn of inspirer
in chief with " The Blessed Damozel,"
rendered by the musician so as to
give all the dreamy witchery of that
5388
masterpiece of fancy and imagination.
Maeterlinck's " Pelleas and Melisande "
was inevitable after that, with its " ideas
of fatality, of death, its atmosphere
of sorrowful legend, its poor kings, poor
people, poor inhabitants of unnamed
lands whom fate leads by the hand " —
fate and Maeterlinck. It is the music of
people who do nothing, but feel everything,
whose souls are instruments on which
Nature plays in all her moods.
No wonder such a composer should
ignore melody, with its beginning, middle,
and end ; its story, in a word. " I have
been reproached," he says, " because in
my score the melodic phrase is always
found in the orchestra, never in tl.e voice.
Melody is almost anti-lyric, and powerless
to express the constant change of emotion
or life. It is suitable only for the song
which confirms a fixed sentiment."
Debussy visited London in 1909, and
conducted sexeral performances of his
own music. Vincent d'Indy, a French-
man, but a pupil of the Belgian com-
poser Franck, visited New York, and
expounded similar views in a lecture at
Harvard University. He met
with an interested though not
an enthusiastic reception ; but
critics of note predicted that
the future was with the music of the school.
French art has undergone a thorough
revolution in the course of the last fifteen
or twenty years, with Claude Monet and
Rodin for its prophets, and ]\Iauclair for
its expositor. The last is the Boswell of
both of these great men, and he has taken
down their theories from their lips. The
common note of it all, in music as in paint-
ing and sculpture, is the discovery that
there are new effects of Nature to render,
effects not alwa3's dreamt of in the phil-
osophy of the modern classical schools.
So the art of the day imports a revolt
against the academical system in France,
though not necessarily against the ancients.
Its aim is the more faithful rendering of
light. The new painters paint light on
the presumption that there is really
nothing else to paint. For them colour is
but an effect of light, and the\' try to pro-
duce it by the very methods of Nature.
Their point of departure is the truism
that in Nature no colour exists of itself.
As a reality pertaining to objects, colour
is a pure illusion. It is simply an effect
of light in its impact on objects. The
light does not illumine the colour ; it
Revolution
French Art
A REGIMENT OF INFANTRY ON THE MARCH
A COMPANY OF SOLDIER CYCLISTS ON THE ROAD
SOLDIERS OF THE FRENCH REPUBLIC
53«q
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
brings the colour in its train. Objects
are of no colour ; or, rather, of all
colours, as they absorb or reflect these
from light. The academic system starts
from the heresy that colour is some-
thing that can be laid on in compact
masses, mixed for the purpose on the
palette. Nothing of the sort ; it is
„ . , but an effect of far more art-
rassion for x i j- j. j. t^i i-
_ . ful adjustments. The earlier
. p'-^j- masters had some instinctive
* ^ "*^ perception of this great truth,
though they had not reduced it to a
science. There are traces of it in Watteau,
in Ruisdael, in Poussin, and especially in
Turner, Constable, and Delacroix. The
school is called Impressionist ; but
Mauclair gives good reason for thinking
that the noun chromatism might suggest
an adjective more to the point. And since
colour is but light, so light is but form in
every mode of definition. Why, then,
take the trouble to paint anything else,
since in this you have the all in all ?
This is the principle of the revolt against
mere subject in the picture. Why paint
history, or symbol, or anything else that
is so purely human and secondary in
its source ? Why not paint what is alone
real ? This passion for reality leads logic-
ally to the search for truth in mere
human characterisation, for character is
but truth in one of its forms. If you
paint man, let it be man as he is, not as he
should be in some fantastic theory of the
ideal. Courbet must be mentioned here
as a precursor, though the principle has
been carried far beyond him by later men.
Claude Monet leads them all. His way
of painting a landscape is to take, say, a
dozen canvases, and to devote each to one
particular aspect of the scene as the light
marks the true hours of the painter's
day. So the. one landscape, after the
patient labour of many days, comes out
as twelve quite different scenes, accord-
ing to their degrees of illumination. To
.. ^, plant yourself with but one
Monet s * -u i j. j.i
. . . canvas before a constantly
Methods changing scene, and in pro-
tracted sittings jumble all its
effects together, is but the childishness of
art. Monet uses only the so-called prim-
aries, though he is not very strict in the
definition of them, and he never mixes the
pigments on his palette to get a special
combination. He simply lays them on
in such a way as to produce by optical
suggestion the effect of the combination
5390
he seeks. Hence, when we are near them,
his pictures are apt to look quite un-
intelligible, as an assortment of primitive
colour stains without aim or purpose.
But see them at the right distance, and
this confusion subsides into a perfectly
ordered work flooded with light, and
therefore with colour, and abounding in
true form and drawing everywhere —
not in the drawing of outline, of
which Nature knows nothing, but in
the drawing of colour, than which she
knows of nothing else. The revolution,
both in aims and methods, is extraordi-
nary, and is not to be made intelligible
by any description ; it has to be seen.
To be fair to a man almost forgotten, it
dates at least from Couture, who, as any
of his pupils still living might testify,
often painted in this way.
Degas, another great Impressionist,
shows the same solicitude for truth in
regard to figure and to movement. He,
too, has the horror of the crude outline,
and holds firmly to the belief that form
is but light and shade. He finds move-
ment, by preference, among the ballet
. . girls, and he has painted them
mpressionis |^y ^j^^ hundred in all the in-
,„ . . cidentsof the daily practice of
their art. Here, we have them
at their lessons ; there, waiting for their
turn ; and there again '' on " in their
fairyland of scenery, gauze, and coloured
rays. He is quite pitiless in his passion
for truth. Sometimes his nymphs look
hungry, sometimes even quite ugly — a
lower depth, no doubt, in the professional
inferno — as they squat for repose, or
writhe in the tortures of the gymnastics
of their trade. But by-and-by we shall
see them in their appropriate setting,
and then all defects of detail will be lost
in the illusion of the perfect scene, as their
tremulous contours play hide-and-seek
with the light from which they spring.
Renoir, another great painter of the
Impressionist school, finds his favourite
contrasts not so much in light and shade
as in light against light, which is, after all,
but the expression of the same truth ; for
shadow itself, as artists know it, is not
blackness, but only another degree of light.
The school is a large one now. It has
passed its apprenticeship of calumny,
poverty, neglect, and it influences all the
French painting of the day. It has pro-
duced great illustrators — 'RaffaelH, Forain,
Renouard, andCheret, who has done such
FRANCE IN OUR OWN TIME
wonders for the art of the poster. It is
now on its way to the nirvana of absorp-
tion into the hght of its origin, to make
room for the incarnation of neo-Impres-
sionism in the artists of the Pointilhst
group. With these, the effects of Ught,
instead of being rendered as in Claude
Monet's work by irregularly disposed
blobs of colour, if one may use the phrase,
are obtained by a sort of mosaic of it,
composed of small touches of equal size,
and of spherical form. This, in a way,
is an attempt to paint the very atoms
whose vibrations produce the light itself,
Rodin is Impressionism in sculpture ;
and he, too, like the painters, works
mainly for effects of light, and for cha-
racter, and so is in full revolt against the
academy. Yet he still proclaims his
allegiance to the Greeks, who, he declares,
managed their statuary on precisely the
same principles as his own. He is for new
truth in one word, and his new truth is
that we do wrong to treat sculpture as a
mere glorified study of still life. It is
emphatically, even in its most statuesque
pose, a thing vibrating with movement,
a movement that comes from
-, V^ the play of light on its differ-
Genius as & . t-i j.i
g J . ent masses. Ihese, as they
catch the ray, or lose it, form
a great harmony ; and the statue is to be
wrought entirely to the end of the
harmony so obtained.
For him there is no such thing as the
one view, sole and single, of a piece of
statuary. It has to be seen in all its parts,
and to be judged by the entire disposition
of its masses in regaid to the everlasting
play of light. His "' Age of Bronze " was
so much a conceivable thing of life, as
distinct from the merely inert thing of
the older school, that he was accused of
having cast it bodily from his model, and
he was compelled to take extraordinary
pains to show that he had done nothing
of the sort. After this came the " John
the Baptist Preaching" — marvellous again
in precisely the same way. It is a
real man speaking to his fellows, and so
wholly absorbed in his message that the
whole body of him is in utterance with
movements conformable to the working
of his soul. He is not thinking of how he
stands, or how he walks, for walking he
is, but simply of what he has to say ; and
the last thing of which he is to be suspected
is the consciousness of what he is doing.
It is almost ridiculous in some of its
sincerities, ridiculous in its suggestion
of the utter absence of the sense of effect.
The " Burghers of Calais " came later,
as another revolt. The revolt might have
counted for little with the general
beholder, but the note of sinceriTy was
manifest to all. The mythical child of
Nature might have judged the work and
. -^ found it good — the burghers
A Dreamer ■, r , ■ ?i • i • ,■ ° i
in Marble '^^^^-^^ m their dejection, de-
and Bronze J^^^*^'^^ ^^ their defiance, with
the hanging lips of scorn and of
despair. Think how such a subject might
have fared in a studio of the Beaux Arts,
and we shall realise the immense advance.
With the Balzac that came long alter,
Rodin reached his present manner, which
is but the old one perfected in the sense
of character and freedom of handling, in
the deeper learning of the relation of
masses, and withal in the profound sense
of the symbol, and of the majesty and the
greatness of life. He is now a sort of
mystic sketching with the chisel as others
sketch with the crayon, a Dante, a Blake,
a Maeterlinck, dreaming in marble or in
bronze. He loses himself now and then,
but such misadventure is inseparable
from the finding of any new thing. He
has enlarged the bounds of sculpture ;
that is the main point.
Is this to say that he has destroyed the
old idealism of the real classic schools or
even of the academies ? Nothing of the
sort. That was, and is, a real thing, too,
in its search after one kind of perfection
of proportion, and of the perfection of
line. He has only shown that it has not
exhausted all other possibilities of the
quest. The Laocoon, with its divinely
restrained anguish and its perfect beauty
in distortion, is no less true to one concep-
tion of great art than Rodin's famished
Ugolino, with the light almost shining
through his ribs, is true to another.
The point of interest in the new art of
France is that it is one with the literature
in being experimental, and
Results of something beyond it, in the
Experiments ^^^^^ ^^ ^^^^^^ ^^^ -^ ^^^
"* *" sense of life. Expression of
character now stands in the forefront, as
distinct from the expression of mere ideals.
All the reactions are still possible in all the
arts ; and the next one in painting and
in sculpture may be in the direction of
the old classic repose. The good of each
successful experiment is that it still leaves
some precious addition to the stock of
5391
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
ideas. There is no linalit}- in anything,
simply because there is none in the aspira-
tions of the human spirit. The legend of
Eden is still a valid one : we are ever
trying to walk as gods.
If France has been less active than of
old in science, as generally understood,
it is perhaps only because her present
„. _ , quest is for science in all the
The Quarrel ^^.^^_ Everything in France
Between Church , .■,•' f^ ■
. g turns or the rengious ques-
tion ; it goes straight to the
roots of the national life. In a sense there
are only two parties in the country-
believers and unbelievers. All others
are merged in these. You are a clerical,
an agnostic, or an atheist, in the first place ;
the political badge comes after, as it may.
The quarrel between Church and State
dates from the Revolution — to go no
further back. The Church estates were
confiscated after the great upheaval, and
parcelled out among various owners,
mainly the peasantry. There was no
undoing that; but when Napoleon I.
came to restore the fabric of institutions,
he found a way out of the difficulty. He
frankly recognised all the religions —
Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish — gave
them the right to acquire fresh property,
and paid the salaries of their priesthood
from public funds as a sort of compensa-
tion for the loss of their former income.
The State acquired certain privileges of
control in return, needless to mention here.
This concordat, as it was called, worked
fairly well until our time. Then it was
found that the Church was in a way to
become as rich as ever by the offerings of
the faithful, and to take itself seriously
once more as the censor of thought. She
was at the same time suspicious of popular
government, and was held to be a secret
agent of reaction. Hence came a revival
of the old and ominous cry of " the
Republic in danger," and with it a
determination to destroy the concordat,
to reduce Catholicism to the
status of a mere pious opinion,
and to deprive that and the
other faiths of all official
support. This policy was found to unite
all the discordant elements of the Re-
jmblican majority. The popular party —
as its strength was measured by votes —
was opposed to all religion, as such ;
the professorial and the middle class
generally were scandalised by the claims
of the Church to the censorship of ideas.
5392
The War
Against
Religion
So the war broke out, with the result of
disaster after disaster to the clerical power.
The teaching orders, which had a sort of
monopoly of the elementary schools, were
broken up. Much of the wealth of the
Catholic body began to go the old way of
confiscation, though a good deal of it was
saved by its confidential transfer as private
property to the hands of the faithful.
The Church was disestablished, the State
salaries to the priesthood were withdrawn,
while a pension scheme, offered as a sort of
compensation foi them, was rejected with
contumely at the bidding of Rome.
The Protestants and the Jews readily
accepted the new state of things, and
undertook to make the support of their
systems wholly a matter of private and
voluntary concern. The Catholics, against
whom these measures were really directed,
resisted from first to last. But the
measures were so acceptable to the
governing majority, rufing through the
ballot box, that all active resistance was
vain. Successive Ministries lived on the
policy of suppression. M. Waldeck Rous-
seau kept his Government together by
this means ; so did M. Combes,
** " . and M. Clemenceau after him.
„* .'*' No matter what the state of
cep ic ^-^^ game in party politics,
each held this trump card in reserve for
emergencies, and won with it. Right or
wrong, it is unquestionably the policy of
the masses that hold the mastery in France.
Meantime the Church was not idle ; and
the war was transferred from politics to
literature. M. Rod has given us an in-
teresting history of this new clerical
reaction in his " Idees Morales du Temps
Present." The movement found " the
classes " very much under the sway of that
genial sceptic, M. Renan ; it left them
largely in the hands of M. Brunetiere, the
Catholic devotee. Renan was scepticism
absolute and self-satisfied, scepticism as a
dogma, and sufficient to all the needs of
the intelligence, if not exactly of the soul.
When his disciples began to look for some-
thing more, they found it in the pessimism
of Schopenhauer. The reaction against
this doctrine, with its revolutionary im-
plications, led straight to the reverence of
tradition as the convenient depository of
the results of human experience and the
only sure guide. ^I. Brunetiere, a sort of
pontiff of criticism and literature, boldly
proclaimed Catholicism as at once a polity
and a system of faith. With this, the
FRANCE IN OUR OWN TIME
more cultivated thought of France reached
its positive current ; and at the present
time of writing it has irresistible attraction
for many minds. M. Bourget, as a thinker,
is of that school. M. Jules Lemaitre has
made a new departure ; and, while in-
sisting on the necessity of the religious
idea, has found its true source and its
authority in our " most distmguished
sentiments." It reads like the end of a
letter; it is meant for a confession of
belief. But the literary reaction is nothing
as compared with the solid force of custom
that makes for the old cult. The mother
of the family in France is, as a rule,
Catholic and pious, whatever the father
may be ; and this in all classes, and in
town and country alike. There are two to
reckon with in marriage, and when one of
them insists on the blessing of the Church,
the other has generally to give way.
The children thus get their Catholic
teaching, no' matter who gives it to them —
the mother or the priest — and they make
their first communion with all the modest
pomp and ceremony that attend the rite.
Many of the boys, no doubt, will grow up
_ . half-ashamed of it as they pass
.1. /^u 1. through the workshop: with
the Church ,, i -, rr , ^ ^
J „ the girls its effects are rarely
lost. And even among the
urban masses and the politicians, the very
ultras of infidelity often consent to have
their daughters brought up in the Catholic
faith. One other tribute to the force of
custom must not be forgotten : the
churches are open still and as thronged as
ever, just as though nothing had happened.
Probably, if Rome could be induced to
abate half her claims to the absolute
direction of the human spirit, her oppo-
nents would abate more than half their
hostility. The conflict in its acute stage
is the result of a natural intolerance and
of an incapacity for give and take, of
which neither side has the monopoly.
AU sorts of attempts were made, both
within the Church and without, to esta-
l)lish a basis of agreement between the
disputants. The French bishops, or
many of them, lent a favourable ear to
siiiemes of compromise, but were over-
ruled from Rome. The Liberal, or modern-
ising Catholic party, represented if not
exactly led by the Abbe Loisy, pleaded
eloquently for a reconciliation with modern
thought, and for an abatement of the
Papal claim to supremacy in this domain.
But this writer was peremptorily ordered
by the Church to lay down his pen, or to
write only in defence of ecclesiastical tra-
dition. The Abbe still protests against
the deliberate opposition of Rome to the
whole intellectual and scicntihc movement
of the age. " Suppress," he says, " this
policy of ideas, and cease to attempt the
impossible." In saying this, however, he
Th Ch h' claims to be a true son of the
M^fK-.^. .„:.k Church. So does Father
Methods with 'n 11 1
its Critics y^^^^^> whose name is men-
tioned in this connection only
to show that the movement of modernism
is by no means confined to priests of
French nationality. He demands not a
brand new Catholic theology, but simply
one under the progressive influence of that
" spirit " of Christianity which was the
original principle of life and growth.
Rome, however, has dealt as roundly with
these individuals as it dealt in the past
with the Gallicanand all the other Churches
claiming an organic life of their own.
The philosophers, of course, have not
been able to keep out of the melee. M.
Goutroux, a member of the Institute, has
made an attempt at reconciliation in his
" Science et Religion." He tries to show-
that the conflicting forces are not so much
concretes as tendencies, and that each is
a complement of the other. They do
wrong to strive for victory; they should
strive for harmony. He is entitled to be
heard, if only for the breadth and range of
his survey, which includes Comte, Spencer,
Haeckel, Ritschel, and William James.
But the greatest of all the apologists of
free thought is INI. Guyau, who, in a series
of brilliant works recently brought to a
close by his death, has tried to sketch a
" morality without obligation or sanc-
tion " — to translate the title of his most
famous book. This, like much else that
appears in France nowadays, is an im-
plicit abandonment of all attempts to find
a CQmmon understanding with revealed
religion in any of its forms, and an effort
to discover the basis of a new
. faith in the nature of man.
rf Hs "* '^^^^ known defect of agnosticism
is its want of the categorical
imperative for conduct and for life. It is
negative at the best ; and a positive con-
cept is the only one that can afford a
foundational base.
M. Guyau accordingly offers a formula
for morals which asks no support from
revelation, from tradition, or from
ecclesiastical authority, and which derives
5393
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE "WORLD
its ideal from the realities of existence and
its-ethic from the constitution of man. His
point is, to put it quite briefly, that the
altruism which is our higher principle of
being is in no wise dependent on theology,
commonly so called. It is just as much
an essential part of us as the egoism which
is supposed to be the lower principle. It
^ . . belongs to man's nature, on
£ducalion •■ j j
.1 » ... r- ,, its expansive and dynamic
the Battlefield •, ^ j- j.- i. i ^.\
,_ ,. . Side, as distinct from the
of Religioa , ,r
merely seli-preservmg in-
stinct of the other part of him, and is a
force which carries with it the authority of
a vital function. In this way he claims to
have solved the problem of egoism and
altruism, hitherto the philosopher's stone
of speculation, for the benefit of the
moralists. We could not, he argues, be
completely egoist, even if we tried. To
live is to spend ourselves for the good of
others, and is at least quite as much a law
of biology as to store and acquire for our
own good. Pleasure may be a consequence
of altruism, but it is not necessarily the
end. The end is the sheer necessity of
living according to the law— the law of
our being, not of any deliverance from any
messenger or any mount of God.
In France, as in England, education is
the battlefield of religion ; and one section
is eagerly in search of a system that may
replace the teaching of the old faith.
Some think that moral teaching should be
given in the schools, others that it should
be rigorously excluded from them. M.
Compere, a member of the Institute, and
a general inspector of public instruction,
offers a complete treatise on education,
intellectual and moral, in which all the
sanctions are derived from laws which are
not religious in the conventional sense of
the term. Another writer, M. De Monzie,
who has held high educational rank, urges
the banishment from the schools of ethical
teaching in every shape and form. " No
more scholastic idealism," he says, " no
c fi' t f "^^'"^ ^^y instruction, no more
CK^ 'h ° moral catechism ; let us apply
d St ^^^® school and the school-
- teacher to their essential and
unique function — education." So the
war goes on, and Rome is still un-
yielding as ever. It can hardly be other-
wise. It is bound by its traditional claim
for uniformity, as distinct from unity,
and is perhaps too deeply pledged for the
possibility of change. Policy might suggest
the wisdom of compromise, but consistency
5394
forbids. In the voting masses of France,
largely alienated from all faith, with
whom the issue rests, the Church has
encountered a power as implacable as
itself. The}', too, seem incapable of com-
promise, and their infidelity is an aggres-
sive force. The same stern necessity is
laid on both sides, and they advance to
the onset under the impulsion of fate.
The conflict now belongs, not so much
to the history of a nation as to the history
of religion itself. Here, for the first time
in the course of human affairs, is a trium-
phant majority determined to give form
and body to a new policy which is nothing
less than the complete emancipation of
the human spirit from the religious idea.
It is a difficult thing to take a bird's-
eye view of a nation, more especially as
the results must very much depend on
the eye pf the bird. France is described
as at the height of her greatness, or in full
decadence, according to the observer. Some
think that with her declining population,
heavy taxes, her disordered Budget, with
its immense allocations for all sorts of
fanciful schemes, and its annual estimates
of something like £160,000,000 sterling,
she cannot possibly long keep
Triumphant
Legions of
Free Thought
her place in the van of civilisa-
tion. Others rejoice in the
fact that the Republic has
won the goodwill of all the nations but
one, founded a huge colonial empire, and
enormously increased her trade with
Britain and with the world. The present
system is, at least, fully entitled to give
itself the benefit of the doubt, and to boast
of its contribution to the national pros-
perity. One thing is certain — the nation is
now quite self-governing for good or ill,
and in the full enjo3mient of the privilege
of suffering for her own mistakes.
The dynastic conflict is at an end ;
the religious conflict alone threatens
domestic peace. It is serious — that is not
to be denied. Both sides are to blame,
for both have yet to learn the lesson of
intellectual toleration.
But, as commonly happens in such
cases, the one that wins least sympathy
from the beholder is the one that has the
upper hand. The triumphant legions of
free thought have everything to fear from
a reaction. A powerful minority of the
peasantrj', with the women, who are nearly
a majority of the whole people, will not
patiently consent to be hindered in the
exercise of an old faith v>'hile a new one
FRANCE IN OUR OWN TIME
is still in the making. Religion is an
institution, as well as a matter of private
concern, and it must naturalh' have
immense claims on the veneration of
millions of struggling souls. The United
States form a stronger Republican govern-
ment than even France, and, with them,
religion is as free as the air. No doubt
they are happily exempt from some of the
jieculiar difficulties of the sister polity.
France has had to disestablish a Church ;
they never made the mistake of establish-
ing one. Confiscation would seem to be an
indispensable agency of government, since
it has gone on all through history ; but it
is still a two-edged sword whose cut is apt
to be quite as deadly in the swing as in the
stroke. There would be sound policy in
sending the Church on her way contented,
even at the cost of pecuniary sacrifice, and
thenceforth in leaving her severely alone.
In education the Republic has made
immense strides. The best teaching is now
accessible to every citizen, high or low,
according to the measure of his powers.
The communal school has become a sort
of starting-point of social equality ; there
, is no great distinction of classes
r /"* *•* 1 under its roof, and the humblest
Educational .,, i-,ii j-rc
cj . . pass with little pecuniary diffi-
culty to the higher grades.
The '• Lycee," corresponding roughly to our
middle-class school and public school,
is incomparably superior to these in regard
to its cost and to the technical quality
of the instruction. Here, too, all classes
study side by side. Beyond these are the
schools for the army, navy, engineering,
and other specialised callings. Beyond
them, again, is the university, equally
accessible to all, but in practice mainly
reserved for students of law and of the
teaching profession, since the other estab-
lishments provide for all ordinary needs.
The whole system has but one defect —
it still leaves a good deal to be desired in
regard to the culture of character. It is
far better than our own as a preparation
for careers ; not so good as a preparation
for life. But it is greatly improving in the
sense of the educational value of sports
and games, though, in that respect, its
faults have been exaggerated. The British
system still aims at training a select class
for the work of government and administra-
tion ; the French, with its strong equali-
tarian bias, insists on giving a chance to all.
Here, again, the religious difficulty has
been the lion in the path. France has been
driven by the force of circumstances to
resist the clerical claim to supremacy in
education. The starting-point of this
movement of revolt was the law on the
composition of the superior council of
education. The famous Article VII. of that
measure declared that no one belonging
to a " non-authorised " religious congrega-
c • 1 c* * tion should take part in the
aocial Status , ^ ' .. .
J .. management of public or free
Fre/ch Womaa education At that time, the
public schools were m the
hands of over 30,000 members of a teaching
brotherhood of the Church entirely free from
secular supervision. The new law brought
the lay teachers into the work, and estab-
lished training colleges in each department.
France has not escaped a " feminist "
question, though her difficulties have not
reached the same acute stage as our own.
One reason is that socially the French
woman holds a position with which she is
fairly satisfied. She keeps much more in
her class, and shares the class sentiment,
and the class ideals. She is fully occupied,
and with the substantial aid she gives her
husband in business — and is expected to
give — she escapes all risk of becoming
the inhabitant of a doll's house.
This state of things can hardly be said
to apply to the purely industrial classes.
Here we find that, while the women count
something more than as one to two of the
men in numbers, they are paid something
less than as two to one. It was a pro-
fessional humorist rather than a strict
logician who pleaded that, although he
came to business later, he invariably went
away earlier than his brother clerks.
The most satisfactory note of progress
for the foreign observer is that the country
is now wedded to the idea of peace. It
has not lost the old spirit of resistance to
aggression, but it has unquestionably
parted with the ojd love of fighting for
fighting's sake. The embarrassments of
the French Government in Morocco have
really been due far less to
German diplomacy than to the
extraordinary unwillingness of
the French people to enter
into a war of adventure. The yearning
for peace is shown by the very excesses
of the demand for it, for some fanatics
would abolish the army altogether.
M. Jaures, however, who best represents
the entire French democracy, has
declared that a war in defence of the
country would unite all Frenchmen able
5395
France
Wedded to
Peace
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
to bear arms. He draws the line at
aggicssion, and he would go so far as to
compel all governments to submit dis-
putes to arbitration, at the peril of being
regarded as enemies of the human race.
Enough has been said to show that
France is strong, prosperous, bold in
experiment in literature, science and the
arts, alive in every sense.
Richard Whiteing
THE PRINCIPALITY OF MONACO
GEOGRAPHICALLY, this tiny princi-
^-* pality, with its area of eight square
miles, and resident population of some
16,000, is at present an " enclave " of
France, as the French Department of the
Alpes Maritimes surrounds it on all sides,
except to the south, where it borders on the
Mediterranean. It may be said to owe its
present political existence and independence
to the good will of France, though its
language and traditions are Italian. In the
days of the French Revolution it actually
did belong to France, but its independence
was restored by the Allies in 1814, who, in
the following year, placed it under the
protection of the King of Sardinia. Up till
1801 the principality included Mentone
and Roquebrune, but in that year the
reigning prince, Charles III., ceded his rights
r ■ ■ ■ ■ "
over them to France for nearly £200,000.
The present ruler, Prince Albert, has
absolute power. There is no elective
Chamber, but there is a consultative
Council of five members appointed by the
Prince, who governs through a functionary
with the title of Governor-General. The
principality consists of three towns —
Monaco, Condamine, and Monte Carlo. It
is through the last named that Monaco is
known to all the world, for Monaco simply
means Monte Carlo, and Monte Carlo
simply means gambling.
Monte Carlo, which is a few miles from
Nice, the beautiful town on the Riviera
so much frequented by the English, sprang
into general notice with the building of its
famous — or infamous— Casino in 1858,
though gambling had begun there two years
MONTE CARLO, THE BEAUTIFUL PLEASURE RESORT
539^
MONACO AND ANDORRA
earlier. In 1861 Charles III. granted a
concession for fifty years to run the place
as a gambling concern in a highly elaborate
way, the concession eventually passing into
the hands of a joint -stock company, taking
care at the same time to do everything that
was possible to add to the great natural
attractivem ss of the site ; for there is no
doubt that Monte Carlo is one of the most
charming and delightful spots in Europe,
with an almost perfect winter climate. The
company, which is called the Societe
Anon^'me des Bains de Mer et du Cercle
des Etrangers de Monaco, was given an
extension of its privileges in 1898, and this
new contract does not expire until 1947.
Practically the whole cost of the govern-
ment of the principality is borne by this
organisation, which, in addition, pays
Prince'Albert an annual sum of ^^70,000 up
to 1917, when the sum will be increased to
£80,000 ; in 1927 it is to rise to £90,00v'),
and in 1937 to ^^100,000. Besides these
sums, the company paid a bonus to the
prince in 1899 of £400,000, and will pay to
him another bonus of the amount of
£600,000 in 1913. The company has a
capital of £1,200,000, and its shares are
valuable. These facts are eloquent testi-
mony that the " tables " pay their pro-
prietors, but nobody else, save the prince
and a few others ; yet there is little or no
diminution in the volume of gambling froni
year to year. The truth is that the princi-
pality is a vast gambling hell, and it is
this, and not its beauty, that mainly
attracts to it many thousands of visitors
every year. Robert Machray
THE REPUBLIC OF ANDORRA
DERCHED amongst the high mountains
'• of the Eastern Pyrenees, with one foot
in France and the other in Spain, this small
commonwealth — for that term really
describes it better than republic — has
existed for something like a thousand
years. Its area is no more than 175 square
miles, and its population about b,ooo ; it
has never been any larger or more popu-
lous ; yet for all this length of time it
has been an independent and autonomous
state, undergoing practically no change —
a fact which finds no parallel in history
save in the somewhat similar instance of
the Republic of San Marino, in Italy. It
i.) a patriarchal and even primitive little
country, with only one good road through
it, and that available only in fine weather,
the other means of communication being
mere hill tracks more suitable for goats
than human beings. The most exciting
event which has occurred in Andorra
since the days of Charlemagne, who is
said to have given it its first charter of
freedom, was its connection with France
by a line of telegraph in 1893, an innova-
tion to which not a few of its inhabitants
were bitterly opposed.
Though independent, Andorra is under
a sort of joint suzerainty of France, whose
influence is steadily increasing in the
country, and of the Bishop of Urgel, a
Spanish ecclesiastic, in whose diocese it
was once included ; the frontier of
Andorra is some sixteen miles from the
town of Urgel, in Spain, The republic
consists of six parishes, each of which sends
four members to a council ; the council
elect from themselves two syndics to preside
over the destinies of the land. There are two
criminal judges, called vigniers (vicars), one
of whom is appointed by France and the
other by the Bishop of Urgel. A civil judge
is also elected alternately by France and
the Bishop of Urgel. The Andorrans, how-
ever, remain indifferent to these symbols
of authority, and imperturbably preserve
their immemorial independence; but of late
years the children of the better classes are
being sent to France for their education.
The postal and telegraphic arrangements,
too, are under French control. On the
other hand, the money in circulation is
Spanish, and the language is Catalan.
The people themselves are a cheerful
and sturdy race of mountaineers, chiefly
concerned with their flocks and herds —
when they do not happen to be engaged
in smuggling, for which Andorra affords
unique opportunities. Taxation is, to
all intents, nil ; but a sum of £40 is
paid for " protection " each 5'ear to both
France and the Bishop of Urgel, and the
raising of this sum constitutes the main
feature of the Andorran Budget. Perhaps
nothing could more clearly show just what
the country is than to say that while the
first floor of its Palacio is occupied by the
Council Chamber, the centre of its govern-
ment, the ground floor is a stable for the
horses of its executive and members
of Parliament. Robert Machray
5397
ESSENTIAL INFORMATION ABOUT FRANCE
Area and Pdpclation. France has an area of
207,054 square miles, and had, at the census of 1906,
a population of 39.252,245. The natural increase
of the population is the lowest in Europe, the total
increase for the five-year period ending 1906 having
been only 29), 300, equalling '15 per cent, per
annum. The cities and towiis with a population of
over 100,000. are as follow :
Paris, 2,763,393; Marseilles, 517,498: Lyons,
472,114; Bordeaux, 251.917; Lille, 2051602;
Toulouse, 149,438 ; St. Etienne, 146.788 : Nice,
134,232 ; Nantes, 133,247 ; Le Havre. 132.4.30 ;
Roubaix, 121,017; Rouen, 118,4;-9; X;r-icy,
110,570; Reims, 109,859; Toulon, 103,549.
Government. The government of France is
republican, and the legislative power is vested in a
Chamber of Deputies (a Lower House) and a Senate
(an L'pper House). The Chamber of Deputies — 584
members — is elected for four years on an adult
suffrage, every citizen who has attamed his majority
and is not m military service having the vote. The
Senate has 300 members, consisting of 225 depart-
mental senators and 75 senators elected for life by
the two Chambers jointly ; but since 1884 vacancies
in the list of life senators are filled by departmental
.senators, the particular department electing the
senator for the vacancy being settled by lot. The
departmental senators are chosen by an electoral
body consisting of delegates chosen by the municipal
councils and of senators, deputies, and councillors
of the department. Members of both Houses are
paid. The two Chambers unite in a National
Assembly, or Congress, to elect a President, who
holds office for a term of seven years. The
duties and powers of the President as defined by
law are that he elects a ^Ministry from the two
Chambers, although he may appomt to the ^Ministry
men who are not members of either Chamber ; that
he can adjoiu^n the Chambers for a period not ex-
ceeding one month and not oftener than twice in
one Session ; that he concludes with foreign Powers
treaties which do not involve changes in the territory
of France or her colonies. The President cannot
declare war without the consent of both Houses,
and every official act must be countersigned by a
Minister. The ^Ministry consists of the Premier, or
president of the Council, and eleven Ministers of
departments.
Flnance. The Budget proposals for 1908 antici-
pated a revenue of £154,145,801 and an expenditure
of £155,145,668. The chief sovu-ces of revenue are
direct taxes (land, buildmgs, trade licences, mining
royalties, cycle tax, &c.), registration fees (changes
in owniership of property, &c.), , customs, tobacco
monopoly, and post office. At the beginning of 1907
the National Debt of France stood at £1,213^923,596,
and the interest absorbed £49,440,000 a year.
Industry and Commerce. Two-thirds of the
entire area of France is under grass or crops. Ac-
cording to acreage, the chief crops are wheat, oats,
grapes, potatoes, rye, clover, beets, barley, buck-
wheat, and maize. Orchards account for four
million acres, and silk culture give emploj^ment to
123,761 persons. Mines employ 199.000 workers,
the chief minerals being coal, iron ore, salt, zinc,
antimony, lead and silver, manganese, arsenic, and
copper. The total value of French imports for
1908 was £243,634,000, and of French exports
£210,878,000. The chief articles of import are wool,
coal and coke, raw cotton, raw silk, oil seeds, hides
and furs, and timber. The chief exports are silks,
cottons, raw wool, woollens, wine, raw silk, linen
and clothes, furs and skins.
Colonies. French colonies have an area of
5398
4,397,826 square miles
56,117.740, as follow :
Asia :
India
Aiinain
Cauilxxlia
Cochin-Chiiui ..
Toiikiug
Laos
Akeica*:
Ali;eria
Tunis
Sahara
Seuegal
Seiiegauibia and Niger
French Guinea
Ivory Coast
Dahomey
Con^o
Somali Coast and Dependencies
K(5uiiion . .
Comoro Islands . . . . '
Mayotte
Madagascar
America :
Guiana
Guadeloupe
Martinique
St. Pieireand Miquelon
OfEANIA :
New Caledonia . ,
Other Pacific Islands . .
anfi a po
pulation
Square juiles;.
Population.
196
27.5.000
.■a. 100
6.124,000
:f7,400
1,500.000
20,000
2,968,000
46.000
10.000,000
i«,400
6.yj,ooo
.■lis.ijflo
5,1.58,0.'50
64.600
1,900,000
1,944.(K)0
l>00,000
9.070
107,800
aTO.OOO
8,000.000
9.5,(100
2,200,000
120.000
2.000.000
65.000
1.000,000
8.50.000
10,000,000
12,000
.50,000
970
]7:(.200
630
47,000
140
11,640
22?.000
2,644,700
30,500
32,910
688
182.110
aso
203,780
92
6.250
7,6.50
5:!.:j.50
1,.520
29,000
of
Currency. France, Belgium, Italy, Switzer-
land, and Greece are members of a monetary con-
vention, whereby it is agreed that the gold and
silver couis of the respective countries shall have
the same fineness, weight, diameter, and current
value. The same monetary system has been
adopted, partly or entirely, by .Spain, Roumania,
Bulgaria, Servia, Russia, Finland, and many South
American States :
/ 1 centime = 1/lOd.
Broiize coin-s < 5 centimes = id.
I 10 centimes =: id.
^ centimes = 2d.
50 centimes = J franc = 5d. (almost)
100 centimes = 1 franc = 9 3/5d.
2 francs = Is. 7 l/5d.
5 francs = 4s.
n„tA ^-.^ / 1" francs = ^.
Gold coins I 20 francs = 16s,
There is no coin for 1 centime. A 5-centime piece
is popularly known as a sou, but it is illegal to mark
merchandise in sous. The 20-centinie coin and the
silver 5-franc piece are seldopi seen, the coinage of
the latter being temporarily saspended.
Weights and Measures. The weights and
measures are metric [see page 5399]. This applies
also to most of the French colonies.
Postages. Great Britain to France. Letters
2Jd. for first ounce and IW. for each additional
ounce or part thereof. Printed papers, commercial
papers, and samples, ^d. per 2 oz., with a mini-
mum of 2id. for commercial papers and Id. for
samples. Parcel post. Is. 4d., Is. 9J., and 2s. 2d.
for 3. 7, and 11 lb. respectively.
Telegrams. 2d. per word, with minimum charge
of lOd. Telephonic communication between
London and about 500 French cities and towns is
possible at a fee of 8s. for a three minutes' conversa-
tion, except to Bordeaux, Lyons, Marseilles, and St
Etienne, for which the charge is 10s.
MONACO
This small principality is surrounded by French
territory, except on its seaward side. Its area is
eight square miles, and its population is 16,000.
There are three towns — ^Monaco, 3.292 ; Condamine.
6,218 ; and ilonte Carlo. 3,794. The reigning prince
is Prmce Albert (born 1848 ; succeeded his father.
1889), who is an absolute monarch, and entrusts the
government to a council of three. All the territorj' is
urban, so there is no agriculture. The revenue i>
derived almost exclusively from the gaming-table-s,
which are o\nied by a company.
THE METRIC SYSTEM AND BRITISH EQUIVALENTS
The Metric, or (ieoimal, System of Weights and Measures
i-! the most scientifie in use as a standard by any country.
It is a legacy of the French Revohition. A committee of
scientific me"n, appointed by the Academy of Sciences at
till' instance of tlie French Government, agreed that the
((uadraut of the earth's surface — from the North Pole to
the Eijuator ^measured through Paris, should be taken
as the basis of the new system. The metre was supposed
to be one ten-millionth part of this cjuadrant, altliough it
has been ascertained that it is inaccurate to the e.xtent of
fue four-thousandth part. The exact length of the metre
i^ :i9-:5701i:i inches. The unit of surface measure is the
(ire, whidi is the square of 10 metres (! dekametre). The
cubic unit is the stere, wlii<'h is a cubic metre. Tlie
unit of capacity measure is the litre, which is the capacity
of the cube of one-tenth of a metre (a decimetre). The
unit of weight is the gramme, which is the weight of a cubic
centimetre of distilled water at a temperature of 32°
Fahr. From these units the metric system is built up
with the help of a scries of prefixes :
Milli = -^ 1,1)00 Deka = x H'
Centi = -f- 100 Hecio = x :oo
Deci = ~ 10 Kilo =
Myria =
Thus, a centigramme, means one-hundredth part of a
gramme, and a dekametre means ten metres.
I.OOII
10,000
LINEAL MEASURE
1 millimetre = m'H inch. 1 inch
10 millimetres = 1 centimetre = ■39t inch. 12 inches = 1 foot
10 centimetres = 1 decimetre = 3'937 inches. 3 feet = 1 yard
10 decimetres = 1 metre =39-3708 in., or about 3ft. 3iin. 5i yards = 1 pole
10 metres = 1 dekametre =32 5/6th feet. 4 poles = 1 ciiain
lOdekametres = 1 hectometre = -0621, or about l/16th mile 10 chains = I furlong
10 hectometres = 1 kilometre = •fi214, or about gth mile 8 furlongs -simile
10 kilometres = 1 myriametre= 6'214,or about 6 l/5th miles
^ 2.-> miUimetres.
■ -■ :'.or) millimetres.
= 911 millimetres.
= .")'029 metres.
= 20' 117 metres.
= 2 hectometres 1'168 netres
= 1-809343 kilometres, or
about 1 3/.'ith kilometres.
10 milliares
10 ceatiares
1 0 declares
10 ares
10 dekares
10 hectares
10 kiloares
1 milliare
1 centiare
1 declare
1 are
1 dekare
1 hectare
1 kiloare
1 mvriare
SQUARE, OR SUPERFICIAL, MEASURE
= 1 so. ft. 11 s(j. ins.
= 1 sq. yd. 1 sq. ft. llOsq.ins.
= 11 sq.yds. Ssq.ft. 92 sq.ins.
= 119-603321 sq. vds.
= 119603321 sq. yds.
= 2-471 acres.
= 2171 acres.
247-1 acres.
144 sij. ins.
9 sq.ft.
30i sq. yds.
1 6 perches
2i sq. chains
4 roods
640 acres
1 sq. inch
1 sq. foot
1 sq. yard
1 perch
1 sq. chain
1 rood
1 acre
1 sq. mile
■uni; milliares.
■9 milliares.
8 milliares.
25- 3 centiares.
4-047 ares.
10-117 ares.
-40468 hectares.
2.58-99848 liectares.
CUBIC MEASURE
1 millistere
10 miUisteres = 1 centistere
10 centisteres = 1 decistere
10 decisteres = 1 stere
10 sterrs = 1 dekastere
= 61 cub. ins.
= 610 cub. ins.
= 3 cub. ft. 918 cub. ins.
= 3.5-31658 cub. ft.
= 353-1658 cub. ft.
1728 cub. ms.
27 cub. feet
1 cubic inch = 0-164 millistere.
= 1 cub. foot = 2-8 centisteres.
=--- 1 cub. yard = 7- 65 decisteres.
MEASURE OF CAPACITY
1 millilitre = 007 gills.
10 millilitres = 1 centilitre = -07 gil'ls.
10 centilitres = 1 decilitre = '7 gills.
10 decilitres = 1 litre = 1-76 pints.
10 litres = 1 dekalitre = 1 peck IJ pints.
10 dekalitres = 1 hectolitre =■ 2-750 bushels.
10 hectolitres = 1 kilolitre = 3-4371 quarters
10 kilolitres = 1 myrialitre = 34-371 quarters.
gills
pints
quarts
gallons
pecks
bushels
quarters
1 gill
= 1 pint
= 1 quart
= 1 gallon
= 1 peck
= 1 bushel
= 1 quarter
= 1 chaldron
1-42 decilitres.
5-63 decilitres.
1-136 litres.
4- 5 46 litres.
9-092 litres.
36-368 litres.
2-90942 hectolitres.
13-09237 hectolitres.
10 jnilligrammes
10 centigrammes
10 decigrammes
10 grammes
10 dekagrammes
10 hectogrammes
10 kilogrammes
10 myriagrammes
10 quintals
1 milligramme
1 centigramme
1 decigramme
1 gramme
1 dekagramme
1 hectogramme =
1 kilogramme
1 myriagramme =
1 quintal
1 millier, or tonne :
COMMERCIAL WEIGHT
-015 grain.
= -154 grain.
= 1-5432 grains.
= 15-432 grains.
= 5 drs. iSgrs.
= 3oz.8dr.12gr.
= 2-2046 lbs.
1-575 stones.
= 1-96841 cwt.
= 19-68411 cwt.
16 drams
16 ounces
14 pounds
2 stones
4 quarters
20 hundredweights
1 dram = 1-772 grms.
1 ounce = 28-349 grms.
1 pound = -453592 kgrs.
or 9 -.iOth kgr. (about).
1 stone = 6-350291 kgrg.
1 quarter =12-700588 kgrs.
1 hundredweight = 50-8023521 grs.
1 ton = 1016047037 Ugrs.
APOTHECARIES' WEIGHT
In the metric system the apothecaries' weights are the same as the ordinary weights ; hence the French tables b^low
are given only that their equivalents in British apothecaries' weight may be given :
10 milligrammes
10 centigrammes
10 decigrammes
10 grammes
10 dekagrammes
10 hectogrammes
1 milligramme
1 centigramme
1 decigramme
1 gramme
1 dekagramme
1 hectogramme
1 kilogramme
015 grain
= -154 grain.
= 1-5432 grains.
= 15*432 grains.
= 2 drs. Isc. 14 grs.
= 3 ozs. 1 dr. 2 scs. 3 grs.
= 32 ozs. 1 dr. 12 grs.
20 grains =
3 scruples =
8 drachms =
1 grain
1 scruple
1 drachm
1 ounce
= 65 milligrammes.
= r296 grammes.
= 3-888 grammes.
= 31-1035 grammes.
APOTHECARIES' FLUID MEASURE
10 millilitres
10 centilitres
10 decilitres
1 millilitre
1 centilitres
1 decilitre
1 litre
163 minims.
2-8157 fl. drs.
3-5 fl. ozs.
3.5-196fl. 0Z8.
20 minim; =
3 fluid scruples =
8 fluid drachms =
20 fluid ounces =
1 minim
1 fluid scruple
1 fluid drachm
1 fluid ounce
1 pint
-059 millilitre.
1-184 millilitres.
3-552 millilitres.
28-4122591 nulls.
-568245 litres.
TROY WEIGHT
The metric system has no special table for troy weights, the weight of gold and other precious metals being computed by the
rdinary metric weight. The tables below are given only that the metric equivalent of British troy weights may be sliown :
10 milligrammes
10 centigrammes
10 decigrammes
10 grammes
10 dekagrammes
10 hectogrammes
! milligramme
1 centigramme
1 decigramme
1 gramme
1 dekagramme
1 hectogramme
1 kilogramme
■0154 grains.
-1543 grains.
1-5432 grains.
15-4323564 grs.
6 dwt. 10 grs.
3 oz. 4 dwt. 7 gr.
32 ozs. 3 dwts.
1 grain .= 65 milligrammes.
24 grains = 1 pennyweight = 1-555 grammes.
20 pennyweights = 1 ounce = 31-1035 grammes.
The pearl grain equals 51-83915 milligrammes ; the pearl
carat contains 3-16381 pearl grains, and is eiiiial to
164-24253 milligramm?s. I he diamond grain is equal to
5183916 milligrammes and the diamond carat (3- 1623
diamond grains) is equal to 205 milligrammes.
5399
ESSENTIAL INFORMATION ABOUT SPAIN & PORTUGAL
SPAIN
Aeea and Population. The total area of Spain is
194,783 square miles, including the Balearic and Canary
Islands, which are provinces of Spain. The total
population i,'' (census of 1900) 18,618,086. The towns
with a population of over 100.000 are Madrid, 539,885 ;
Barcelona, 533,000 ; Valencia, 213,530 : Sevilla, 148,315 ;
Malaga, 130,109; Murcia, 111,539. Two other towns,
Carthagena and Zaragoza (Saragossa), were over 99,000
at last census, and are now probably over 100,000.
Government. Spain is a constitutional monarchy,
legislative power being vested in the King and the Cortes,
which consists of two houses — a Senate and a Congress.
Half of the Senate, or Upper House, is elected by the
largest taxpayers, the universities, the churcli, and
provincial states ; the other half is composed of princes
who have attained their majority, grandees, high army
and naval officers, and presidents of several tribunals.
Half of the elected senators must retire every five years,
and all the elected senators must be elected upon a disso-
lulion of the Senate, by the king. The Lower House, or
Congress, is composed of 406 members, elected for five
years by male citizens 25 years of age. The executive
is vested in the monarch and nine Ministers of State.
MONAECH. The King is Alfonso XIII. (born on May 17,
1886 after the death of his father), who became king at birth.
Revenue. The estimates of revenue and expenditure for
1908 were £37,843,000 and £37,206,130 respectively.
The chief sources of revenue are direct taxes on land,
trade, mines, etc., customs, excise, tobacco monopoly and
lotteries. At the end of 1907 the Spanish national debt
was £332,057,595, involving an annual interest charge of
£14,732,819.
Industry and Commerce. About 80 per cent, of the
soil of Spain is reckoned as productive, one-third of it
being under cereal crops and gardens, 20 per cent, under
fruits, 20 per cent, under natural grass, and the remainder
being vineyards and olive trees. The chief cereal crops
are wheat, barley, rye, maize, oats, and rice. Hemp and
flax are also grown. The total production of wine —
sherry, malaga and alicante — is almost 400,000,000 gallons,
and the production of olive oil is about 40,000,000 gallons.
Silk culture is carried on principally in the South-eastern
provinces. Stock raising — horses, cattle, mules and asses,
sheep, goats and pigs — is important. Spain has great
mineral wealtli — iron, coal, copper, zinc, cobalt, lead,
quicksilver, sulphate of soda, salt, sulphur and phos-
phorus— the annual output being of about £8,000,000
value, but its exploitation is almost entirely in foreign
hands. There are a few manufactories, including cotton,
woollen and silk industries, paper and glass-making, cork
turning and sugar refining. The total imports in 1908
were of the value of £38,357,000 and the exports £35,616 000
The chief exports are wine, ores, olive oil, cattle, raisins,
oranges, cork, esparto, wool, salt and quicksilver.
Colonies. Spain has stiU a few colonial possessions,
although she was stripped of Cuba. Porto Bico, the Philip-
pines, receiving £4,000,000 for the litter by the United States
in 1898, and sold llic Caroline and Pelew Islands to liermany
in 1899. Tlie Canary Islands are provinces of Spain and
the sole Spanish colonies are now the few in West or
Equatf)rial Africa, as follow :
Riu de Oro and Adrar
Rio Muni and ('ape San Juan
Fernando Po, Aunabou, Corisco, Great
and Little Eiobey
Totiil . .
Sq. miles. Population.
S0.580
These colonies have little or no commercial or economic
value to Spain and they constitute an annual charge.
Currency. The currency of Spain was assimilated to
that of the Latin Monetary Union, in 1871 [s?e page 5398].
The exquivalent of a centime is a ce.ntesimo, and loo
centesimos make one peseta, which equals a franc.
Weights and Measures. The system is metric [wo
page 5399], but Spanish names are given to the various
denominations. These names, however, differ from the
French, usually only by one letter, m6tre becoming nutro
(plural metri), centimetre becoming centimetro, and so on,
aire becoming area, litre becoming litro (plural litri), and
gramme becoming gramo. Some of the old Spanish
measures are still found in occasional practice.
Postal Rates. Great Britain to Spain, letters, papers
and san)ples as for France [see page 5398]. Parcel post,
Is. 6d., 2s. and 2s. 6d. for 3 lb., 7 lb., and 11 lb. respectively.
No parcel insurance.
Telegrams. Great Britain to Spain, 3d. per word witli
Is. minimum.
PORTUGAL
Area and Population. The area of Portugal, includ-
ing the Azores and Madeira, which are parts of the kingdom,
is 35,490 square miles, and the jjopulafion is 5,423,132.
Theiiland area included in above is 1,236 square miles, and
tlie islaiiil population is 406,865. The chief towns are
Lisbon (the capital). 356,000; Oporto, 167,955; Braga.
24,202; Setuba!, 22,074; Funcial (Madeira, 20,844;
Coimbra, 18,144 ; Ponta Delgada (Azores; 17,620.
Government. Portugal is a constitutional hereditary
monarchy, with two Legislative Chambers, the Camera dos
Pares or House of Peers, and the Camera dos Deputados oi
House of Commons, whicli are known collectively as the
Cortes Geraes. Hereditary peers are being abolished by a
gradual process. The Upper House consists of peers wli!.
are nominated for life by the king, princes of the royal
house, and twelve bishops. The Lower House consists oi
148 deputies, with seven colonial deputies additional,
elected for three years on a manhood, educational, and lo\.'
tax-paying qualification. Deputies must have certain
academic qualifications or a certain income. If a Parlia-
ment is dissolved its successor must be called within three
montiLs.
JfONARCH. Tlie reigning king is Mauoel II. (Manuel ia
the English form*. He was born on November 15th, 1889,
and succeeded his father upon the assassination of his
brother and father on February 1st, 1908.
Revenue. The estimated revenue for 1908-1909 wa<
£14,106,000, and the estimated expenditure £14,540,000.
The funded debt of Portugal in June, 1908, was £154, 122,800.
Industry and Commerce. Portugal is a mountainous
country, and almost half of the total area is waste land.
Half of the remainder is in pasture or fallow, and of the
rest half is devoted to cereal culture. Then comes fruit-
trees, pulse, and other non-cereal crops and vineyards. The
chief highland crops are wheat, barley, oats, maize, fla\,
hemp, and grapes. In the lowlands the chief crops are
rice, olives, oranges, lemons, citrons, figs, and almonds.
There is a large forest area of oak, chestnut, pine, and cork.
The minerals worked are important, and consist of copper,
lead, tin, antimony, coal, manganese, and slate. There
are several manufactories, including gloves, fabrics of silk,
wool, linen and cotton, metal and earthenware, and tobacco.
In 1907 the value of the imports was £15,959,600, and the
value of the exports was £9,778,600. Half the value of
the exports was for wine, and the most important of the
remainder were cork, cattle, copper ore, fruits, oil, sardine^.
Colonies. The colonies of Portugal are as follow :
African Colonies:
Cape Verde Islands
Guinea . . . .
Prince.s and St. Thonia-s' Islands
Angola
East Africa
Asiatic Colonies :
Goa (Indial . .
Damao and Din (India)
Timor and adjacent island.s
Macao (China)
Total
1.480
1:!.<I40
:!(iO
4S4,S(I0
293.400
1,469
169
7,330
Population.
147.424
820.000
42,103
4,119,000
3,120,000
47.'),513
66.285
300,000
6:i,«91
CunRENCY. The unit of money value is the real or ree
(plural reis), but the coin has no existence in fact, its value
being only one-twentieth of one penny. It is the one-
thousandth part of a milreis, which is worth 4s. o\d. T!ie
currency may be tabulated thus :
1 real or ree = "God.
1000 reis -^ 1 milreis = 4s. 5"3d.
1000 milreis = 1 conto = £222 4s. 5d.
The coins in use are :
Bronze : 5, 10, and 20 reis (value about Jd., id., and Id.
respectively).
Nickel : 50 and 100 reis (value 2§d. and 5Jd. respectively!.
Silver- 200 reis = 2 festoon = lOJd.
- 500 reis = 5 festoon = 2s. 2Sd.
-1,000 reis = 10 festoon = 4s. 5jd.
Gold : 1, 2, 5, and 10 milreis.
There is a large circulation of Bank of Portugal paper,
and the British gold sovereign is legal tender for 4;500 reis.
In Portuguese India the currency is the same as in British
India. In other Portuguese colonies the currency is thar
of Portugal.
Weights and Mb.^sures. The metric system is followed
and the names are as in France. [See page 5399.]
Postal and Telegraph Rates. Great Britain to
Portugal as for Spain [see above], but parcel-post rates to
Portuguese Colonies are higher. Parcel-post to Portugal,
if overland through France and Spain, is 6d. per parcel
more than rates given above.
ANDORRA
Andorra is an interesting pocket republic in the Eastern
Pyrenees, and is under the joint suzerainty of France and
Spain. Its area is 175 square miles, and the estimates of
its population vary from 5,000 to 15,000. The chief
occupation is smuggling, with some agriculture, stock
raiding, and trade in wood and wool. Government is by
a council of 24 members, elected by the heads of families,
and they elect a President for four years.
5400
EUROPEAN
POWERS
TO-DAY
IX
SPAIN
SPAIN IN OUR OWN TIME
THE NATION'S NEW ERA OF PROGRESS
By Martin Hume, M.A.
HTHE revolution of 1868 in Spain, pro-
•■• found and disintegrating as it looked
for a time, was almost purely political in
its direct results. The already recognised
right of private judgment in religion was,
it is true, slightly extended, but in every
other respect the national life was barely
affected by the violent outburst which
expelled Isabella II. from her throne and
country. There was no radical change
effected in social relations, in the organisa-
tion and compensation of labour, in the
basis of taxation, or in the relations
between Church and State.
The entire rearrangement of political
parties, which was the principal outcome
of the revolution, prepared the way for
far-reaching changes which are now
operative or impending. The accession
to the revolutionary ranks of the " Union
Liberal," or Moderate Liberals, ensured
the success of the revolt, but it also
involved the disappearance of the party
itself as a separate entity ; and on the
restoration of Alfonso XII., in 1875, a new
division of .political parties was prac-
tically complete. The old purely Con-
servative party had disappeared as a
governing factor, and the new Conserva-
tives, who had brought about the restora-
tion, were evolved as a separate political
group from the moderate elements of the
revolution itself. Thus Spain turned her
back upon the past, and since then has
been governed by parlies, which, whether
they call themselves Liberals,
Conservatives, or Democrats,
are all essentially Liberal in
their dependence upon popular
sentiment and their acknowledgment of
the supremacy of the national will. For
many years of the long regency of
Queen Christina, 1885-igoi, politicians of
both parties chivalrously abstained from
action likely to disturb or excite the
public mind, the Liberal party especially
IS ar D
Queen
Christina as
Regent
postponing its convictions, both on reli-
gious and social problems, to the need
for consolidating the throne of the child-
king by the support of Spaniards of all
opinions. The attitude of the official
Liberal party led finally to the formation
of a strong new group of Democrats
pledged to far-reaching social reforms and
. to antagonism to the influence
^'k1r°^ of the clergy, but on each
Air viif occasion that this Democratic
Alfonso XIII. , 1 1 i,
party — now led with con-
spicuous ability by Sefior Canalejas — has
coalesced with the traditional Liberals
under Senor Moret for the purpose of form-
ing a government, the coalition has been
unable to withstand the strain imposed by
divergent opinions, mainly on the question
of the Church and the conventual orders.
The accession to effective kingship of
Alfonso XIII. , amidst the universal good-
will of his people, has not to any con-
siderable extent altered the situation
created and fixed by his wise and prudent
mother during her long regency. The
political parties alternate in power as
before, the real differences between their
respective policies in office being extremely
slight, however democratic may be the
professions of the Liberal party when in
opposition, since both groups of politicians
have agreed to rule constitutionally and
accept the principle of popular government .
Both parties, it is true, are equally
ready to manipulate the elections in the
most unblushing manner in order to
secure power and office for themselves ;
but to the people at large it matters little
which political combination rules them,
since the effect in either case is practically
the same. The main aspirations of the
country, indeed, are less towards political
than towards social change, as the people
have already lost faith, as a result of
experience, in the efficiency of political
convulsions to remedy the ills of which
5401
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
they complain. In the meanwhile the
Socialist party in the country has in-
creased enormously, especially in Cata-
lonia and Biscay, where the manufacturing
activity is most marked ; and, as a
conseqvience, projected legislation, under
the guidance of either of the two great
political parties, has mainly taken the
form of Factory Acts, the limi-
A Wcckl "^ tation of the hom-s of labour,
D T»^ ^^® restriction of the industrial
ay o «s gj-j^piQyjj^gj-^^ of children, and
other measures directed towards the social
amelioration of the working classes. A
remarkable instance of this is given by
the Act for the compulsory Sunday closing
of all business establishments, except
those devoted to the sale of prepared food,
and the legal enforcement of a weekly day
of rest in all trades.
In this both Socialists and Clericals have
co-operated, although it forms a revolution
in the traditional habits of the people, and
lias only been rendered operative at the cost
of considerable friction. Another demand
persistently made by working-class politi-
cians, but hitherto unattained, owing to
party dissensions, is the regulation of the
monastic establishments with the object
of suppressing the unfair industrial com-
petition with regular workmen arising
out of the extensive manufactories carried
on by some of the conventual houses.
The most striking change, however, in
the position of Spain in the last few years
is to be seen in the re-entry of the country
into active participation in the concert
of European nations. This had been tra-
ditionally difficult, as the mutual jealousies
of France and Britain had usually stood
in the way of a close co-operation between
Spain and both of those countries simul-
taneously. The exigencies of European
politics having drawn together Britain
and France, the principal obstacle to the
resumption by Spain of an important
part in international politics was removed,
„ . . and the situation, particularly
Spain and j„ at j a
.1 *< . . as regards Mediterranean pro-
thC Moorish , , ° , ^^ re , ^
_ . blems, was profoundly affected
™ '" thereby. It had been an article
of faith with Spaniards for centuries, and
especially since their successful war with
Morocco in i860, that when the inevitable
break up of the Moorish Empire in North-
West Africa should take place Spain must
inherit a considerable share of the country
opposite her own shores, in addition to the
places of arms she already held at Melilla
5402
and Ceuta. Unfortunately for her, when the
Anglo-French agreement was signed on April
8th, 1904, recognising on the part of Great
Britain the future preponderating influence
of France in Morocco, Spain was unready
and badly served diplomatically, and her
traditional interests were to a great extent
ignored, as indeed were those of England.
But the subsequent Act of Algeciras to
some slight extent recognised Spain's
right to take part in the civilisation of the
neighbouring Moslem country, by con-
ferring upon her jointly with France the
mandate of the Powers to police the ports
in the interests of the world generally.
Spain has therefore had to sacrifice many
of her hopes and dreams in this direction ;
but it is evident that however much
French dominion may in time extend over
Morocco, the proximity and long-standing
intercommunication between the latter
country and Spain will ensure that the
predominating ethnological and civilising
element will be Spanish. Nor has the
sacrifice been entirely without compensa-
tion. The cordial friendship both with
Britain and France, cemented in the former
case by the auspicious mar-
Spain's Large
Shipbuilding
Programme
riage of King Alfonso XIII. \
with an English princess, not
only ensures, as far as is
humanly possible, Spain's own immunity
from attack, but very greatly increases
the probability of continued European
peace., The reconstruction of the Spanish
navy, destroyed in the Spanish-American
War, has in the opinion of Spaniards
become a necessity of the new international
importance of their country, and several
proposals with that object have been made
to successive Parliaments. The financial
sacrifices necessary for the purpose, how-
ever, prevented the adoption of any large
naval scheme until late in 1908, when the
difficulties were overcome and a large
shipbuilding programme was definitely
adopted. On the fulfilment of this, in the
course of three or four years, Spain will
once more enter into the circle of im-
portant maritime Powers.
Although the agricultural and viti-
cultural districts of the country are still
suffering much poverty and hardship,
Spain has in several unexpected ways
greatly benefited by the loss of her great
colonies in the West Indies and the
Philippines, in addition to the relief
afforded by the cessation of the drain of
men and money which had continued for so
SPAIN IN OUR OWN TIME
many years in her effort to hold them.
The sudden disap]^earance of the protected
colonial markets for Spanish goods threw
the Catalan manufacturers into a panic
of fear for the very existence of their
working classes generally in Spain is
deplorable to the last degree. This is
seen in many ways, especially in the great
growth of mendicancy, and in the con-
stant increase of emigration to South
numerous industries, but matters in this America, which is fast draining whole
respect have righted themselves in an districts of their best peasantry. The
extraordinary manner. The adoption of a number of emigrants from Spanish ports
protective fiscal policy, in 1892, by Spain in igoo was 63,000, and in 1904, 87,300 ;
had caused a great increase of activity in whilst in 1905 no less than 126,000
Spanish manufactures for home and Spaniards abandoned their homes in
colonial consumption ; but it also resulted search of better conditions of life abroad,
in a restriction of foreign trade and heavy and in a recent voyage the present writer
liquidations, causing a depletion of cui- saw sixty Spanish stowaways on a single
rency with the issue of quantities of small
paper money, the international exchange
being thereby raised to the ruinous rate
of thirty-three pesetas {£1 (s. lid.) to the
pound sterling, instead of twenty-five,
which was the par value. ^ .«--
Although this entailed
great hardship upon
those, including the
Government, who had to
pay sums of money
abroad, or who consumed
foreign goods, and 11
made the cost of living
considerabl}^ higher than
it had been, it greatly
stimulated Spanish
manufactures, especially
for export, since the low
value of the Spanish
currency caused the pro-
ductions of Catalonia
and other manufacturing
centres to appear very
cheap when compared
with their foreign gold value. In 1899,
for the first time in fifty years, the
balance of trade turned slightly in favour
of Spain ; and in 1906 the exports
considerably exceeded the imports, the
former having been 1,018,387,000 pesetas,
^40,735, 480, in value, and the latter
884,800,000, £35,392,000. Though this is
producing an improved exchange, and a
nearer approach to the long projected
rehabilitation of the gold currency and
equalisation of international exchange, it
tends in the near future to bring its own anti-
dote in a restriction of exports when money
values in Spain and abroad are the same.
In the meanwhile, the purchasing
power of wages being much reduced,
and the demand for the commoner
wines being diminished by the French
protective duties, the condition of the
KING ALFONSO AND HIS HEIR
The posthumous son of Alfonso XII., he was
proclaimed King- on the day of his birth, May
17th, 1886; ascending- the throne in 1902, he
married Princess Ena of Battenberg in 1906,
and in the following year the heir was born.
steamer. This poverty amongst the
peasantry is contrasted sadly with the
enormous increase of luxury and expendi-
ture of the higher classes in the towns, and
especially in Madrid, owing in great
J, .r,-,. measure to the return to
Spain of rich colonials
when Spain lost her de-
pendencies, and also to
the large fortunes made
by the manufacturers and
capitalists since the pro-
tective tariffs were re-
imposed in 1892.
Throughout the history
of Spain the predominat-
ing desire of the people
has been for continued
separate provincial ex-
istence, and most of the
unrest of the country
has had this desire for
its origin. The demand
for continued or in-
creased local autonomy
was in times past the principal support
upon which the hopes of the clerical Don
Carlos depended; but in the last few
years the cause of provincial home rule
for Catalonia, Biscay, Galicia, etc., has
turned from Carlism, which is recognised
as a dying force, and has largely allied
itself to the advanced Socialist party. In
Catalonia, where the demand for complete
autonomy has always been strongest, the
cry for home rule, now almost unanimous,
is bound up with the powerful provincial
interest in maintaining, a protective
policy for the whole of Spain.
The Catalan party in the Cortes are
united, active, and able, but they have
naturally against them the whole ol the
representatives of the poorer agricultural
provinces— the greater part of Spain.
In the direction of literary activity
5403
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
Spain has shown a remarkable change of
tendency in the last few years. The
more serious writers are directing their
attention almost entirely to studies of
sociology in its various forms, with a view,
apparently, to discovering the causes and
remedies of Spain's continued ad\ersity.
This constant introspection on the part of
^ Spaniards at the present time
f S 'sh ^° some extent provides a solu-
Unrcst * ^^°^ ^° ^^^^ problem they set
themselves. Whilst they are
minutely discussing their national short-
comings and peculiarities, other nations are
working ; whilst they are doubting and
despairing, other peoples are pushing ahead
in hope ; whilst they are waiting upon
ProvidencCj others are forcing Providence
to wait upon them. The national charac-
ter is a strange mixture of exalted idealism
and utilitarian worldhness, and it has
become so much afraid of its own ideality,
which it calls Quixotism, as to shrink
from enterprises that demand 'a measure
of imagination and faith in the future.
A great deal of the listlessness wliich
characterises Spanish life springs from this
national lack of faith in action, unless the
result to be attained is visible and imme-
diate ; and although the sociological experts,
who for the last few years have written
of little else in Spain, formulate many
diagnoses of the maladies of their country,
there is a general consensus of opinion that
the main evil that afflicts the body politic
is Spain's want of that ardent belief in her
own destiny which in the days of her
greatness constituted the secret of her
success amongst nations. The introspec-
tive note is manifested as much in the
works of the modern writers of fiction in
Spain as in those of the professed sociolo-
gists. The school of romantic writing
which flourished in the mid-nineteenth
century and drew its inspiration from
France and England has now disappeared,
and the modern Spanish novel deals almost
„ . , invariably, in an analytical and
Litc'r* r psychological spirit, with the
Activit^^ contrast between the fervent
*^' ^ religious belief of old Spain and
the rationalistic tendencies of to-day,
between the proud Spanish traditions of
grave deliberation and the bustling
activity of the present age, between the
patriarchal conservatism of the soil and
the vociferous demands of labour for a due
share of the richness and sweetness of life.
The education of the people of Spain
5404
still lags behind that of other European
nations, although compulsory education
was decreed as far back as 1857.
The schoolmasters have always been
wretchedly underpaid, and too often not
paid at all, by the provincial and town
councils, upon whom they depended, and
the compulsory clauses have been almost
entirely disregarded. Recently, however,
a distinctly better spirit is being mani-
fested in this respect, a special Ministry of
Public Instruction having been formed,
and the State having assumed authority
over the schools. The present percentage
of total illiterates is about 65 per cent, of
the population, as against 75 per cent,
fifty years ago. The total cost of primary
education is not less than /i, 000, 000
sterling per annum, mostly falling upon
the local authorities, the whole country
being divided into ten educational dis-
tricts for purposes of inspection and con-
trol of the 25,340 primary schools, the
number of scholars upon the books being
1,620,000, whilst the whole population of
the country is approximately 19,000,000.
Spain still suffers from the lamentable
. lack of enterprise of its rural
„*." * and provincial populations out-
jV^^ side of the great industrial
centres of Catalonia and Biscay.
The land is still cultivated listlessly and
on methods long since obsolete elsewhere.
The area planted with vines is about
3,600,000 acres, the produce of which, in
1905, was 3,079,925 tons of grapes, yielding
389,482,116 gallons of wine. The area
under olive trees is about 3,250,000 acres,
producing on an average 39,500,000 gallons
of oil ; these two products, with mineral
ores and fruit, form the bulk of Spain's
exports to foreign countries, England
being now by far the largest consumer of
Spanish produce, and the largest supplier
of merchandise to Spain.
The change that within the last few j'ears
has brought Spain once more into the
family of European nations of the first class
has also profoundly affected the social life
of the capital. Madrid has grown enor-
mously both in size and population, the
inhabitants now numbering nearly 600,000,
and some of the thoroughfares and trading
establishments are as handsome as anj-
in Europe. The attachment of the present
king for everything English, and the
natural influence of an English-born
queen, have greatly increased the adoption
of English manners, fashions, sports and
SPAIN IN OUR OWN TIME
taste amongst the upper classes, by
whom the English language is being studied
very widely ; whilst the large number of
English visitors and the ever-growing
relations between the two countries, are
already to a great extent leading Spaniards
of the middle class to adopt new standards
of comfort, well-being and hygiene.
The last few years, moreover, especially
since the accession of Alfonso XIIL,
have seen a considerable diminution in the
social and political power of the clergy,
and Spain can at the present time in no
sense be called a priest-ridden country.
In the great industrial centres, and
particularly in Catalonia and Valencia,
free thought in religion to a great extent
accompanies the advance of political
Socialism, and a perfect freedom of expres-
sion on matters relating to religion is
indulged in.
The bulk of the population, nevertheless,
in Castile and the south, are faithful in their
observance of the dictates of the Church,
and an unsuccessful attempt of the Liberal
Government in 1907 to pass a measure for
regulating the monastic orders led to the
fall of the Ministry and the accession of
the Conservatives under Sefior Maura
. , to power. The number of re-
pain s ligious houses now existing in
Religious ,1 , _ X T_ ■ 1
_ * the country is 3,253, of which
597 are tor men, and the rest tor
women, there being still over 10,000
monks and 40,000 nuns in the cloisters.
The relations between Rome and the
Spanish Church are still those settled by
the concordat of 1851, and all attempts
to rearrange them in a more hberal spirit
have failed before the strong Catholic
feeling still prevalent in the country and
Parliament. Similarly, the scanty concession
granted to Protestants and other non-
Catholic religious bodies after the revolu-
tion of 1868 is still the largest measure of
liberty granted, non-orthodox worship
being licit, but no outward sign or an-
nouncement of it being allowed.
The constitution which rules the country
is still in substance that which was adopted
in 1876, after the restoration of Alfonso
XII., with some modifications of secondary
importance. The main principle of this
charter is contained in the formula :
" The power to make laws resides in the
Cortes and the king," the Cortes consisting
of two co-legislative bodies of equal power.
The popular Chamber, or Congress of De-
puties, consists at present of 406 unpaid
members, representing one for every
50,000 of the population of the country,
the election being by secondary vote of
boards elected on manhood suffrage in
one-member districts, with the exception
of 98 deputies, who are chosen by twenty-
eight large districts where minorities are
represented. The Upper Chamber, or Senate,
How the ^°^s^^t^ of ^80 elected members,
Countr ^^^*^ ^ lesser but indefinite number
is Ruled *^^ nominated and ex-offtcio
members. Of the elected sena-
tors, 130 are chosen by 49 provinces,
the electoral body being co-opted from
the provincial councillors, town councillors,
and largest taxpayers, whilst the remaining
thirty elected senators are chosen by
Archiepiscopal Chapters, universities and
chartered learned and philanthropic
societies.
The Senators nominated by the Crown
must fulfil certain stringent conditions
of position, age, and annual income, whilst
those who sit by right are grandees of
Spain, possessing an income of at least
60,000 pesetas, £2,400, per annum —
field-marshals, archbishops, sons of the
sovereign, and the presidents of the
Councils of State, Navy, and War, and
of the Supreme Court.
The machinery of government is, as will
be seen, democratic, as befits a nation
in which social distinction is less marked
than in any other in Europe ; but the
invariable corruption of the elections, and
the apathy of all those who are not
politicians, place in the hands of the
executive almost unrestrained power.
That, as a rule, they do not abuse it
greatly to the detriment of the governed
is due mainly to the tolerant democratic
spirit which pervades all classes of
Spaniards, and so long as the members of
each political party can in alternation
enjoy the privileges and profits of power
there is no danger of any attempt at
oppression of the people who pay. On the
other hand, the mass of the
The Hard population go their way with
Lot of the j.^^jg x^g^^di for poUticians of
paniar s gj^j^gj. persuasion, content if
the powers that be will improve the well-
being of those whose hard lot it is to live
for ever on the brink of want, forming the
great majority of the nation, ill-housed,
ill-paid, ill-fed, ill-taught, a patient, hope-
ful and long-suffering people, who deserve a
better fate than misgovern ment in the past
has brought to them. Martin Hume
5405
EUROPEAN
POWERS
TO-DAY
B^feOTHi
X
PORTUGAL
PORTUGAL IN OUR OWN TIME
THE FATEFUL RISING AGAINST THE MONARCHY
By Martin Hume, M.A.
PORTUGAL of to-day presents a typical
*■ example of a state wherein, the repre-
sentative institutions being in advance of
the general standard of enlightenment, a
comparatively small class of politicians
has been able, owing to the apathy and
ignorance of the mass of the people, to
corrupt and stultify a governing machinery
ostensibly democratic. As happened in
Spain, the dynastic rivalry led to the grant-
ing of a constitution on modern lines to
Portugal in 1836 by Dom Pedro IV.,
who immediately afterwards abdicated in
favour of his infant daughter, Maria da
Gloria, with his Conservative and Clerical,
brother, Dom Miguel, as regent.
Such a combination could offer no per-
manency, and the dynastic struggle that
ensued followed the same course as in
Spain, the young queen representing the
parliamentary party, and Dom Miguel the
reactionaries. As a consequence of the
final triumph of the former, the extremely
guarded constitution of Dom Pedro was
reformed on several occasions in a demo-
cratic sense ; and, although the royal
prerogative was maintained in legislation
and administration to an extent unex-
ampled in other modern parliamentary
states, the ostensible form of government
became in the end essentially democratic.
Up to the year 1884 the House of Peers,
whose legislative rights were equal to
those of the elected Assembly, consisted
entirely of nobles unlimited in
n imi c J^^]-llber, chosen for life by the
Power of • 1 j^i •• •
th P sovereign, and this in conjunc-
tion with the operative right of
veto by the king gave to the latter prac-
tically uncontrolled power over legislation,
no matter how democratic the Lower House
might be. The constitutional struggle
has therefore turned for many years past
upon the attempts of Democrats to reduce
the royal prerogative over legislation,
administration, and finance, the last
5406
subject being that which appealed most
strongly to an overburdened, poor, and
laborious agricultural people. In the
course of the struggle the sovereign has,
of necessity, been brought into opposition
with the more advanced section of his
subjects ; and, as a consequence, a very
powerful Republican party has been de-
veloped, and the relations be-
„ . ^ * * t ween the Crown and the nation
mg om ^^ large have often become
strained, notwithstanding the
personal popularity and earnest good
intentions of the late Dom Carlos himself.
The complete apathy of the mass of the
population has allowed the rival political
parties to alternate in office mainly for the
benefit of their partisans, and with little
regard for the public interest ; the late
king, Dom Carlos, being made, with lack
of magnanimity, the scapegoat for each
party in turn whilst it was in opposition.
His own patriotism and desire to serve
the best interests of his country were
unquestionable ; but his position became
intolerable in view of the coiTuption of
the administrative and electoral machinery
by politicians, and the ungenerous attitude
of each parliamentary opposition towards
him. He had abstained from exercising
to the full the powerful prerogatives he
possessed under the constitution, and
interfered as little as possible with the
acts of his administrators.
He had acquiesced in the considerable
extensions of the suffrage, and in the
strict limitation, and provisions for the
eventual extinction of, hereditary legisla-
tive peerages ; but, unlike other constitu-
tional sovereigns, he found the political
parties unwilling to present a bulwark
between him and the popular discontent
aroused by oppressive taxation and ad-
ministrative corruption, for which he was
not responsible. Upon the king, most un-
justly, was cast the onus of unpopularity
PORTUGAL IN OUR OWN TIME
caused by the inevitable submission, of
Portugal to the British ultimatum with
regard to the encroachments in East Africa
in 1890. The accusation, was levelled
against him that he had allowed his Anglo-
phil tendencies to override the interests of
his own country ; and when, as a sequel to
this agitation, a dangerous Republican
revolt was suppressed in Oporto early in
1891, the king was again held personally
responsible for the repressive measures
that followed, and for the delay in granting
an amnesty to the revolutionaries.
The main source of discontent has
always been financial. Portugal, being
in the main agricultural, is a poor country,
and past mal-administration and present-
day jobbery have burdened the people
with a taxation out of proportion to their
means. It was found that however great
were the promises made by politicians in
opposition, no relief to the taxpayer was
afforded by either party when in power.
In this respect, too, the king was made
the scapegoat. The whole administration
was wasteful and corrupt ; but upon the
expenditure for the royal estab-
lishment most of the criticism
The Royal
Family
Criticised
was directed. The Civil List
amounted to about £112,000
per annum, and although this was com-
paratively modest for a nation whose
annual revenue was some £13,000,000, it
formed the basis for constant attacks upon
the sovereign and his family, who found
it quite insufficient for their needs, and
the king had consequently incurred heavy
indebtedness to the State.
The position had thus become intolerable.
The elective Chamber of Parliament was
unblushingly manipulated by both parties
in succession, and was representative only
in name, notwithstanding the existence of
universal manhood suffrage limited only by
the ability to read and write. The public
offices were crowded by idle parasites of
politicians, and the pension list was full
of scandalous abuses. In these circum-
stances a coup d'etat was effected by the
Prime Minister, Senhor Joao Franco at
the end of 1906, with the co-operation of
the king. Representative institutions were
suspended, and the king and his dictator
declared that until an uncorrupted and in-
dependent parliament could be summoned
they would govern Portugal by royal decree.
The bold step naturally aroused the
violent opposition and protest of all classes
of politicians, thus deprived of their
unholy gains. Protest was met by prosecu-
tion and further measures of repression,
and the country was deprived of all pre-
tence of representative government, both
in national and local affairs. The avowed
policy of Senhor Franco and the king was
to purify the administration and establish
economy of the national resources, and
j^.^ . the new broom swept with de-
Debt t*o vastating effect into the dark
the State corners of the government ser-
vice. Unfortunately, the mam-
tenance of such an open violation of
national rights and traditions, however
salutary this might be, entailed the keeping
of the armed forces in a good humour, and
money that was saved in one direction was
squandered in another.
The Civil List, whilst ruthlessly reduced
in some of its items, was increased in the
aggregate to some £137,000, and the
indebtedness of the king to the State, a
sum of £154,000, was extinguished by a
piece of financial jugglery which reflected
little credit upon either the sovereign or
the Minister. The great mass of the people
had long since lost faith in the efficacy of
political action to redress the evils of
poverty and backwardness under which
they suffered ; the king personally was
genial, kindly,. and popular, and, although
politicians of all shades denounced the
dictatorship in unmeasured terms, the
country at large went on its laborious way
without audible or visible protest against
the deprivation of its liberties — ^liberties
which they recognised had not to any
extent remedied the hard conditions undei
which the majority of the people lived.
Attempts were made by the regular
dynastic parliamentary parties to use for
their ends the heir apparent, an amiable
young prince, called after his great grand-
father, the King of the French, Luis Philip,
and in his name to form a parliamentary
cabal against King Carlos. The queen,
also, a gifted and popular lady of singu-
larly noble character, was
Intrigues ^^derstood to be opposed to
^^*tj^* the dictatorship, which she con-
the King g^^gj.g(j endangered the stability
of the throne and the life of her husband.
The young Crown Prince Luis Philip was
removed for a time from the intrigues of
the constitutional parties by sending
him upon an extensive tour of the Portu-
guese African colonies, and after his
return to Portugal he stood aloof from all
attempts to estrange him from his father.
5^07
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
Thus mattere stood in January, 1908,
when the royal family passed a few weeks
at the ancient Braganza possession of
Villa Vi9osa, in the Alem-Tejo, east of
Lisbon. In their absence from the capital
the opposition to the dictatorship became
more pronounced and active, especially
amongst the Republican party, always
ready to profit by the dissensions amongst
the dynastic groups. The Press organs of
Senhor Franco, the dictator, announced
that a widespread- republican conspiracy
had been discovered, and a great number
of arrests of political opponents of the
dictatorship were effected as a precau-
tionary measure on the eve of the king's
return to Lisbon, whilst on the day pre-
vious to his expected arrival, January 31st,
1908, a decree was published suspending
the personal guarantees, and declaring
the right of the Government to imprison
or expel citizens without form of law.
The state of affairs was known to be
critical on the day fixed for the arrival of
the royal family in Lisbon, February ist,
1908, but Senhor Franco was confident
of being able to preserve order, as the army
and police were known to be faithful, and
the great mass of the population were
apathetic, knowing, as they did, that the
king meant well by the nation, and that the
evils that he and Senhor Franco were
endeavouring to remedy by unconstitu-
tional means were real and great.
It was in the waning light of early
evening when the king and queen, with
their two sons, Luis Philip and Manuel,
landed at the quay on the Pra^a de Com-
mercio at Lisbon from the railway station
on the other side of the Tagus ; and in an
open carriage they traversed the great
. . ,. square at a foot pace between
Assassination ^i i- i j.x ^ 1
- „. the fines of respectful and
mg an iQy^] people assembled to
Crown Prince " . .F ^ t-u r iu
greet them. Ihe way of the
cortegetowards the Necessidades Palace on
the face of the hills overlooking the river lay
by the Street of the Arsenal, a somewhat
narrow thoroughfare turning sharply out
of the end of the Pra9a de Commercio
towards the left. Just as the horses of the
king's carriage were about to take the turn,
a signal shot was discharged in the crowd,
and there leapt from behind the pillars of
the arcade that forms the footway several
assassins, who precipitated themselves
upon the royal family. One miscreant,
mounting the back of the carriage, shot
HH
M.
■' ■■'^■■■~ —-^ '
Vl
■
■H
1'
^9
1
HIP
''"'
a
1
!
^
- ^i
> .
&& #
i
L .'^ '^
THE ASSASSINATION OF PORTUGAL'S KING, DOM CARLOS, IN THE STREETS OF LISBON
The dastardly act pictured in this illustration occurred on February 1st, 1908, when the king was driving- through the
streets of his capital to the royal palace of the Necessidades. Seated in the carriage with the king were the queen, the
Crown Prince, and Prince Manuel, now king, and when the fatal attack was made Queen Amelie heroically threw herself
in front of her sons. But her brave act was too late, as both the king and the Crown Prince had received fatal wounds.
5408
The late Crown Prince
Dom Callus
The present King
DOM CARLOS, THE LATE KING OF PORTUGAL, AND HIS TWO SONS
the king in the neck, whilst another shot,
which was mortal, struck him in the spine,
and Dom Carlos sank bathed in blood upon
the floor of the vehicle. The queen, stand-
ing and striking at the murderers, sought
to protect her husband and elder son at
the risk of her own life, and, although the
target of many bullets, she miraculously
escaped. The heir-apparent, a youth of
twenty-one, was mortally wounded by two
shots, and died within a few minutes when
the carriage had been driven for shelter
into the gates of the arsenal near by. A
cry of horror and grief went
*^,° * up at this unparalleled crime,
. "*^ ^ . and the murderers, or such of
them as could be identified,
were cut to pieces by the police and the
onlookers. The dynastic opposition
paities, which had led the protest against
the dictatorship of Franco, were as much
dismayed as his friends at the turn of
affairs, since the agitation which they
had stirred up had thus gone far beyond
their calculations or desires, and the}^ at
once rallied unanimously to the throne,
now to be occupied by Prince Manuel, the
younger son of the murdered king.
The Republican party, the extreme
members of which were generally accused
of the regicide, found no public support
to the crime. The populace, struck with
detestation of so dastardly an act, were deaf
to all appeals to them to rise against the
new king, a young sailor lad of eighteen,
whose unaffected geniality had already
made him popular ; and the expression
common in Lisbon the day after the crime
voiced a general sentiment when it said
that the shots that had killed Dom Carlos
had killed the republic, too.
A coalition Cabinet, chosen from mode-
rate men of all parties, was formed.
Franco for a single day only endeavoured
to stand firm by the aid of the armed
forces he had conciliated ; but, finding
now everyone against him, he incontinently
fled into hiding, and eventually to foreign
lands ; whilst the Government that re-
placed him abrogated most of the decrees
of his dictatorship, and provided for a
prompt return to a constitutional govern-
ment. Time alone will show whether the
spirited but rash attempt of the lamented
Dom Carlos and his Minister to remedy
by unconstitutional means a great con-
stitutional evil will bear fruit, notwith-
standing the terrible crime that cut short
the experiment.
Portugal can hardly, after what has
passed, revert entirely to the bad old
system of party alternation of political
plunder ; but it is to be feared that,
as in the case of Spain, no great
5409
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
and permanent improvement can be
expected by legislative action alone. In
each case the statute books contain most of
the enactments needed for the prosperity
and happiness of a progressive state.
It is not the laws that are in fault
so much as the general lack of a sense
of responsible citizenship and the lament-
able prevalence of illiteracy
Portuga s ^|-,i(>]^ render possible a lax ad-
Ample
Resources
ministration and corrupt eva-
sion of laws of themselves good
and sufficient. Portugal, though naturally
a poor country, has nevertheless ample
resources to ensure the comfort and pros-
perity of its citizens, if the government
were economical and honest. The people,
especially in the north, where the land is
mostly held by peasant proprietors, live
hardly, it is true, but not miserably.
They are laborious, frugal, honest and
sober, and it is safe to say that when the
present proportion of complete illiterates
— 78 per cent, of the population, notwith-
standing so-called compulsory education
— is reduced, as it might be consider-
ably, no peasants in Europe will have
more of the elements of happiness at their
command than the Portuguese.
The revenue of the country has steadily
increased from ;f7,ooo,ooo per annum in
1889 to £14,000,000 in 1907 ; but the
wasteful finarice and political corruption
cause the expenditure to exceed the
revenue in each recurring year. The
funded debt has also grown with depressing
regularity from ;^i48,ooo,ooo sterling in
1896 to ^160,000,000 in 1905 ; and after
a declared suspension of the payment of
interest in 1892, an arrangement was
arrived at with the Council of Foreign
Bondholders in London by which the
service of the debt is now managed
by a council sitting in Lisbon, to whom
special funds are allocated to cover
the three per cent, at present paid. The
political constitution of the State consists
_ ,.,. . of the sovereign, whose veto
Political 1 • 1 J.- i J. ■
r. ^., ,. upon legislative enactments is
Constitution r ,. . • -r ^- \.
r*i. c» * lully operative if notice be
of the State . - ^ 1 . i 1 ,r -,1 •
given on his behalf within
thirty days of the submission of a Bill,
of a House of Peers consisting of a strictly
limited number of nominated peers alone,
with a few hereditary survivals, the
elective element having been eliminated,
and a Congress of Deputies elected on
practical!}^ universal manhood literate
suffrage. The deputies are unpaid, but
5410
are disqualified unless they possess a
small minimum private income. The
country, which covers an area on the
continent of 90,000 square kilometres
— 34,254 square miles — with a growing
population of nearly 5,500,000, is divided
for local government purposes into twenty-
one districts, of which seventeen are in
Portugal proper and three in the islands.
These are subdivided into 306 arrondisse-
ments, and again into 3,961 parishes. A
governor appointed by the Ministry presides
over each district ; the arrondissements
being also presided over by an administrator
appointed by the central government,
aided in each case by elected councils.
Both in national and local administra-
tion the principal evil is the multiplicity
of underpaid and often corrupt officials
appointed in turn by rival political
parties ; and the lower ranks of the
judiciary are similarly afflicted, there
being no less than 142 juizes de dereito,
civil magistrates, besides the judges of
the high courts and court of appeal, in
Tu VI • . additionto 809 elected justices
Wealth iT ^ °^ ^^^ P^'''^^' ^^""^ bringing
. ^t *" up the number of judicial
gncu ure authorities to nearly a thou-
sand for a population not much larger
than that of London.
Possessing a climate unsurpassed in
Europe for beauty and salubrity, and a
soil in many districts of great richness,
the future wealth of the country must
depend principally upon agriculture. The
methods of cultivation are still almost as
primitive as in the times of the Romans,
especially in the south, which is more
backward than the north in all respects ;
and the great need of the population is
that the national resources, instead of
being squandered, as at present, upon
unnecessary armaments and useless func-
tionaries, should be employed in promot-
ing national education, improving means
of communication, and lifting the burdens
from industries now sorely oppressed.
Of purely intellectual movement there
is little of native Portuguese origin since
the death of Herculano the historian and
Almeida Garrett the poet. The novels
of Ega de Queiros, which promised much,
have unfortunately ceased with his prema-
ture death, and beyond a few historical
and sociological studies there is now little
produced by the Portuguese presses but
translations of foreign works.
M.\RTiN Hume
EUROPEAN
POWERS
TO-DAY
XI
SCANDINA-
VIAN
STATES
THE SCANDINAVIAN STATES IN
OUR OWN TIME
LIFE IN NORWAY, SWEDEN AND DENMARK
By William Durban, B.A.
(~\P the three Scandinavian territories,
^^ it seems natural first to speak of Nor-
way. No country is regarded with greater
pride by its people than the glorious Norse
Land, on which, to describe its various
attractions, a great variety of epithets
has been bestowed. It is fondly styled by
its loving sons " Gamle Norge " (Old
Norway), for its civilisations claim a
mighty antiquity. It is the " Land of the
Midnight Sun," the " Land of the Vikings,"
the " Land of Fosses," or stupendous
cascades in immense number, and the
" Land of Eternal Snow." It presents with
its wonderful fjords the most magnificent
coast scenery in the world, and its moun-
tains in imposing splendour approach the
Swiss Alps themselves ; while its glaciers
know no rival, except in Alaska.
Its lakes are countless, and the sportsman
finds it a veritable paradise with its salmon
rivers, its elk, wild reindeer, lynxes, bears,
wolves, foxes, grouse, and ptarmigan.
" Beautiful everywhere ! " is the frequent
exclamation of enchanted visitors. Roman-
tic " dalen," or valleys, pine-clad moun-
tain slopes, and immense juniper-covered
plateaux, like the wild Dovre Fjeld, are
elements of indescribable beauty in the
whole landscape right up to the North
Cape. The grandeur of aspect of
the Lofoten Isles cannot be surpassed.
The gigantic falls — the Voringfoss, the
Rjukanfoss, the Skejgedalfoss, the Vettis-
foss, etc. — are tremendous
Natural , . i • r
„ , , torrents leapmg from immense
Features of r o ...
Norway
heights into the grand fjords,
and some of these sublime
gorges run up into the interior between
the mountain precipices to distances of
from 200 to 300 miles, carrying Atlantic
tides right into the far centre of the land.
The beautiful Hardanger, the grand and
gloomy Geiranger, the sublime Sor, and
the romantic Nord fjords are amongst the
most marvellous of these inlets on the coast.
It is impossible to become acquainted
with the Norwegian people without learn-
ing to admire and even to love them.
They are to-day, as they have ever been,
. _ simple and unsophisticated,
of Secured dinging with passionate fidelity
y.jj and attachment to the primi-
tive customs of Viking ages,
are given to delightful hospitahty, are
indefatigably diligent, and are charmingly
courteous, with a natural refinement.
They are not " degenerate Vikings of
to-day," as some have attempted to
characterise them. There are hardly half
as many people in all Norway, with its
vast area of 124,000 square miles, as in
London alone, and of its population of
2,240,000 only about 350,000 dwell in
towns ; so that the country is mainly one
of scattered villages, dotted along the feet
of the fjords, or on the lonely wilderness
jelds, or in the clearings of the immense
forests.
Norway has only 740 square miles of
ploughed land, so that the actual agricul-
ture is comparatively insignificant. But
immense quantities of valuable hay are
cropped during the brief, hot summer on
the great " saeters," or meadow farms
on the broad slopes. The Norwegian
landscape is of two varieties — slopes and
precipices, and most ingeniously the people
adapt their pursuits to natural conditions.
The greatest of all industries is, as might
be supposed, fishing ; for Norway has a
coast of 3,000 miles, and the fishermen are
perhaps the sturdiest on earth.
But the backbone of the population is
bucolic, consisting of the splendid rustics
known as the " Bonder," or peasant
farmers. Domesticity and social life in
this wildest north are delightful, and the
5411
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
people are as happy as any in the world.
The nights of the very protracted winter
are spent in study, in courtship by the
young folk, in wood carving, in tending the
sheltered cattle, in hunting game, in
visiting, in sledging, and in the glorious
sports of racing on snow-shoes and of ski-
jumping, in which recreation the athletic
V, , young Norsemen are the finest
Norway s -^ ° . , • ^.^ .
I » 11 I 1 experts existmg. Many a fear-
intellectual , ^ , »..-',. 1
ct , , less leap on skis is achieved
dtandard , i • i , r r , t-i
from a height of 150 feet. 1 he
social life of the people intimately mingles
with their fervent religious cult. As in
all Scandinavia, the national Church is
Lutheran, and the quaint and pretty
wooden churches are always filled, the
country sanctuaries on Sundays along the
Hardanger and other fjords presenting a
singular spectacle, for the costumes are
truly picturesque. There are compara-
tively few dissenters ; and though theo-
logical controversies are of course not
unknown, they are not acute.
The intellectualism of Norway stands
high. Indeed, the people proudly claim that
in proportion to the population they have
in our time produced more geniuses than
has any other nation. The names of Grieg,
Nansen, Ibsen, Bjornson certainly suggest
influences that have of late years potently
affected the thought of the world in poetry,
music, and geographical research. Ele-
mentary education is universal in Norway.
The political conditions in Norway are
altogether unique, and have, since the dawn
of the twentieth century, been cast by an
abrupt and startling revolution into a
shape which has marvellously materialised
the democratic aspirations of the people.
Since the union with Sweden never
really satisfied the patriotic sentiments
of the Norwegians, a constant agitation
was sustained for separation. The disso-
lution took place by decree of the Stor-
ting at Christiania on June 7th, 1905.
The overt cause of the rupture was a pro-
_ ,. tracted dispute between the
aeparation , .■ j. i.i • r
f N nations as to their foreign
d s'^d^ diplomatic representation. The
late King Oscar of Sweden
refused to entertain the offer of the Nor-
wegian crown to one of his own family,
but the details for the repeal of the Union
were amicably settled by the Karlsbad
Convention. A plebiscite was held, after
which the crown was offered to Prince
Charles of Denmark, who accepted it
under the title of Haakon VII., thus greatly
5412
gratifying the national sentiment of his
adopted subjects by honouring the vener-
able Norse traditions. On July 22nd, 1896,
he had married Princess Maud" Alexandra,
daughter of King Edward VII., so that
the British and Norwegian royal houses
are closely alUed. The heir to the throne
is Prince Alexander, born July 2nd, 1903,
whose name was, on his father's accession,
changed to Olaf.
It was a remarkable fact that though
Nansen and Bjornson are Republicans in
principle, as all the nation well understood,
they exerted a leading influence, through
their speeches and letters durin.g the
separation and plebiscite campaigns, in
favour of a King of Norway. Norway being
a land of peasants, the town life is not so
interesting as that of the country. Chris-
tiania is a quiet and even dull metropolis,
but it is beautifully built, stands at the
head of its own lovely fjord, and is the
centre of intellectual culture, being the
seat of a great university. By far the most
important town is Bergen, which is also
the prettiest, a rare thing foi a busy
commercial city. And Trondhjem, the
ancient historic capital, is attrac-
c rin tive with its curious quaintness.
Trade ^
in Norway
Deeply interesting is the opera-
tion of the famous Norwegian
company system for controlling the liquor
traffic, which is very similar to the Gothen-
burg system in Sweden. Licences for the
sale of ardent spirits are entrusted to a
company formed, not for profit, but for
the benefit of the citizens. The latest
legislation on the principle of local option
gives all men and women over twenty-
five years of age the right to vote for the
exclusion of retail bar traffic in spirits
from the community in which they reside.
The profits of the companies, after the
shareholders have received five per cent,
dividend, are distributed amongst objects
of public utility, such as planting parks,
sanitary improvement, industrial educa-
tion, waterworks, sewers, libraries, theatres
and other amusements, charities, and re-
ligious institutions. High duties are im-
posed on the high-grade liquors imported,
and it has become ver^^ diflicult for foreign
distillers to sell theii commodities. For-
merly, in Norway and Sweden, all owners
of the soil had liberty to brew and distil,
and the result was that these countries
had a per capita rate of consumption of
spirits higher than that of any other nation.
Sweden, with its 173,000 square miles,
THE SCANDINAVIAN STATES IN OUR OWN .TIME
and a population of nearly 5,500,000, is
absolutely unique in its scenery and in the
manners and customs of its inhabitants.
The beautiful Gota Canal, a marvel of
engineering ; the romantic lakes, of which
Wener and Wetter are fine inland seas
with noble spruce-clad islands ; the mag-
nificent forests ; the glorious Trollhattan
Falls ; the entrancing summer landscapes ;
the grand mountains of Norrland — the great
Arctic section — with its noble rivers ; the
sweet pasture-lands of Svealand, the
middle region ; and the romantic seaboard
of Gotaland, the old southern territory of
the Goths, form factors in the make-up of
one of Europe's most interesting lands.
No nation is prouder of its metropolis
than the Swedes have reason to be, for
Nature has given them an incomparable
site on which they have erected a superb
city. Stockholm reigns easily without a
rival as Queen of the Northland. Rising
gently from the many islands of the little
archipelago between Lake Maelar and the
sea, this city has been styled the Venice
of the North, but is, with its 303,000
inhabitants, palpitating with that modern
g . . life which fails to touch the
f\ r It city of the Doges. Gothen-
Queen of the , -^ . , ,11 1
Northland b^""g' intersected by huge
canals and domg a fine trade,
reminds the visitor of a Dutch port, except-
ing that its quays are boulevarded with
trees. With her immense forests Sweden
is the greatest timber exporting country in
the world. Having nearly fifty million acres
of forest area, covering close on half of the
land, she can and does contribute enor-
mously to the needs of other nations in
this respect. But the most valuable re-
cent development is the manufacture of
paper from wood pulp. A great factory,
worked by the lovely Trollhattan Falls,
makes paper from pulp. The other chief
export is the famous Swedish iron. Most
of the estates consist half of forest land,
and saw-mills are ever at work in every
section of the country. Through these
grand woodlands of oak, pine, beech, and
birch run fine rivers, which are one secret
of the activity of the lumber trade, for
they facilitate the floating in summer
of the timber felled in the winter.
The Swedes are fortunate in inhabiting
the healthiest country on earth, the death-
rate being only i6"4g per 1,000, the
lowest in the whole world, and longevity
is a national characteristic. Sanitation is
assiduously attended to by the municipali-
ties under central government super-
vision, and the salubrious climate and
absence of overcrowding contribute greatly
to the felicitous condition of the national
health. The habits of the people, especi-
ally during the last and present genera-
tions, are exceedingly conducive to the
conservation of their physique. The old
Sweden's ^"^ disgraceful inebriety has
Advanced ^^^" Successfully fought by the
Culture famous " Bolag " control of
the drink traffic, known as the
" Gothenburg System," already alluded
to in the reference to the modification
adopted in Norway. The people are
intensely attached to their Lutheran
National Church, in which nearly all the
clergy are university graduates, their
minimum collegiate course being five
years. The elective system regulates
the appointment of the prelates, for
the clergy choose the bishops. Under
the late King Oscar IL, who died
on December 8th, 1907, Swedish royalty
was identified with the most accomplished
culture, for that beloved monarch was one
of the most scholarly of kings.
King Gustavus V. married Princess
Victoria of Baden, a first cousin of the
German Kaiser. The union was very
popular, because she is a descendant of
the old and revered family of Vasa. In
June, 1905, the king's eldest son, Prince
Gustavus Adolphus, married Princess Mar-
garet of Connaught. There are two other
sons, one of whom. Prince William, married
the Tsar's cousin, the Grand Duchess
Marie, in May, 1908. Sweden and Denmark
took a very prominent part in arranging
with Russia and Germany the momentous
Baltic and North Sea agreements for the
preservation of the status quo in the
Baltic, Britain and the Netherlands also
sending delegates to the convention at
St. Petersburg. The Baltic Agreement
was signed at the Russian capital on
April 23rd, 1908, and a parallel North Sea
Agreement afterwards at Ber-
f th ^^"- '^^^ documents declared
° t^. that the nations concerned
aea Kings ^^^^^^ ^^^^^ resolved to pre-
serve intact the respective rights of those
countries over their continental and insular
possessions in the regions in question.
Denmark, so often called by foreigners
who have learned to love the country and
its people " dear little Denmark," has
special interest for England, because of the
close affinity of the people of the two
5413
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
countries and the intimate alliance of their
royal families. A celebrated letter written
by Lord Nelson is enshrined in the
archives of the Foreign Office at Copen-
hagen. This missive is addressed to " The
Brothers of Englishmen, the Danes."
Naturally, the " Land of the Sea Kings "
must appeal to Anglo-Saxon hearts. Pro-
verbially the little nations are
the happiest, and Denmark,
Denmark
Rich and
Contented
one of the smallest, is one of
the happiest of all. Though
she has been shorn of much of her out-
lying territory, she has never lost her
integrity, never having known subjuga-
tion, and so high a place does she hold in
the esteem of other nationahties, that the
representatives of mighty dynasties have
been proud to enter into matrimonial
union with the Danish royal family.
The late king, the octogenarian Christian
IX., who passed away on January 29th,
1906, was often alluded to as "father-
in-law of half Europe." Denmark is a
notable example of the way in which a
little kingdom, surrounded by powerful
rivals, can be equally prosperous in her
smaller way. Her progress in our own
time is a phenomenon which has astonished
the world. This cold and bleak peninsula
jutting into the North Sea, with its group
of insular satellites, is the home of a
people who have shown the world that a
little nation can become rich, contented,
happy, and progressive. Year by year the
sturdy Dane is taking greater advantage of
the opportunities afforded by a fertile soil.
Copenhagen, the " Athens of the North,"
is a metropolis of which any nation might
be justly proud. Its population of over
500,000 is year by year increasing, and the
city grows in importance. Much of the
old town has passed away, and the aspect
for the most part is modern. It is a city to
linger in, and its very atmosphere enchants
the visitor, while its people are amongst
the most courteous on earth. The famous
Vor Frue Kirke — Our Saviour's Church — is
.„ ^ , one of the sights of Europe,
The Country s ^^^ j^ contams Thorwald-
Pre-eminence ,„ ■ , • , , r , 1
. . . „ sen s maiestic statue of the
m Agriculture ,->. c • -j.^. j^i
Risen Saviour, with the
marble statues of the twelve Apostles by
the same consummate artist. Copenhagen,
being not on the mainland but on the
island of Sjaelland, on the Sound, pos-
sesses a unique charm from its wild and
romantic outlook on the northern sea. The
beautiful city is filled with treasures of art.
5414
Three modest animals have mainly
founded the modern prosperity of this
interesting kingdom — the cow, the pig, and
the hen. Denmark produces an immense
quantity of butter and cheese, bacon and
hams, and sells them with countless dozens
of eggs to Britain and other neighbours
Many of the Jutlanders, from starting as
swineherds, have become large dealers and
merchants. The nation has set the pace for
the modern world in agricultural co-opera-
tion. This applies specially to dairying.
There are over a thousand co-operative
dairies in Denmark, with nearly 150,000
members, receiving milk from nearly a
million cows. The State has done evei y thing
possible to promote the system. The aim has
been to secure a high degree of perfection in
the system of handling milk so as to ensure
cleanHness and a properly controlled supply.
This s^'stem is one of the romances of
modern industry. And now, as a result of
the encouragement given to the creation of
small holdings by the famous Act of 1899,
there are fully 100,000 of these farms. The
Danish " small holdings men " are singu-
larly well-trained, capable, and
„° * *" . enlightened, and are steadily
Situation m 1 ° ■ a j-u
_ , becoming more so. Another
Denmark 1 /i . j
beneficent measure, passed
shortly before the close of the last century,
was the Old Age Pension Act, received
now by 2^ per cent, of the population.
The present pohtical position in Den-
mark is that of a broad, genial, practical
democracy, of which the king is the
popular figurehead. King Fredeiic VTII.
has paid many visits to England, and has
an Oxford degree. He fulfils his promise
to reign in accordance with his father's
example. Political conflicts in Denmark
are restrained by the moderation and
sturdy common-sense of the people, reforms
being promoted in a democratic, progres-
sive spirit, in spite of the efforts of the
Social Democrats to expedite extreme
radical measures. The fine system of
national education is sustained undei
the joint influence of State, Chuich, and
municipality, under the special super-
vision of the Minister for Church and
Education, through local committees, in
which the clergy and magistrates play the
chief parts. Education is elaborately and
perfectly organised. The municipal schools,
the Latin schools, and the high schools
cover the whole land with a complete
network, and the opportunities are appre-
ciated by ail classes. William Durban
ESSENTIAL INFORMATION ABOUT DENMARK
Area and Population. The area of Denmark is
15,592 square miles, including tlie Faroe Islands
(540 square miles), with a population of 2,005, 2(18
(including Faroe islanders, 16,349). The chief
towns, with their populations, are : Copenhagen
(the capital), 514,134; Aarhus, 55,193; Odense,
40,547 ; Aalborg, 31,509 ; and Horsens, 22,327.
Government. Denmark is a hereditary con-
stitutional monarchy. Legislative power vests in
the Parliament or Rigsdag, which is a house of
two chambers — the Landsthmg. or Upper House ;
and the Folkething, or Lower House. The Lands-
thing has 66 members, 12 of whom are nominated
by the king for life, and the remainder are elected
for eight years by electoral bodies composed of
the largest taxj^ayers. The Folkething has 114
members elected for three years by universal
suffrage. The basis of membership is one member
for every 16,000 inhabitants. Members of both
houses must be not less than twenty-five years of
age, and both are paid. Parliament meets every
year on the first Monday in October. The executive
power rests in the Statsraadet, or State Council,
which consists of the king and the Ministers of
nine public departments — some of whom may
represent more than one department.
Monarch. The reigning king is Frederik VIII.
(born 1843), who succeeded his father in 1906. He
is the second ruler of the House of Schleswig-
Holstein-Sonderburg-Gliicksburg.
Finance. The revenue for the year 1906-1907 was
£5,210,989, and the expenditure was £4,739,001.
The chief sources of revenue are indirect taxes —
chieflv customs and excise — and interest on state
assets^ The public debt in 1907 was £14,329,544,
caiTying an annual interest charge of £443,385.
The capital value of the state railways and other
national investments is more than the debt.
Industry and Commerce. Agriculture is the chief
industry. About 80 per cent, of the entire soil is pro-
ductive. The chief crojis, according to acreage, are
oats, barley, rye, beets, wheat and potatoes. Stock
raising is important, and the stock includes cattle,
swine, sheep, horses and goats. Woods cover about
7 per cent, of the entire area of the country, and the
most common tree is the beech. Private owners are
restricted in timber cutting. There is a good deal
of peat bog land. There are no mineral industries
in the country, except some quarrying of freestone
and marble in the island of Bornholm. The fisheries
around the coast are of some importance, and last
census showed that there were 31,608 people
engaged in the industry. Dairy farming has de-
veloped in Denmark very much during the last
few decades. The Government has assisted
by providing money for experiments and by strict
inspection to maintain the quality of the products.
There are thirty-eight brandy distilleries and a good
number of breweries in the country. In the year
1906-1907 thetotal value of imports was £33,335,554,
and the total value of exports was £23,121,667.
The chief exports are wheat and barley, bacon and
ham, flour, butter, eggs, hides, skins, corn-meal,
oil-cake, horses and cattle.
Faroe Islands. The Faroe Islands are, politic-
ally, an integral part of the kingdom of Denmark,
and send two representatives to the Danish Rigsdag.
The area of the islands is 540 square miles, and the
population is 16,349. The largest islands are Stromo,
Ostero, Vaago, Sando and Sudero; the capital is
Thorshavn, in Stromo, and has a population of 1,650.
There is little agriculture, the islands being bleak
and treeless, and storms are frequent, although the
winters are not excessively severe. Sheep-farming,
wild-fowhng and fishing are the principal industries ;
the exports, chiefly to Denmark, consist of wool,
feathers, salted and dried fish, train oil and skins.
CoL(JNiES. The Danish colonies are all in the
Atlantic Ocean. They do not include the Faroe
Islands, which are ])oli'tically part of Denmark.
Iceland
Greenland (coast) .. .. ' .
West Indies :
St. Croix, St. Tliomas and St John
Sq. Miles.
39,756
46,740
138
86,634 120,:
Popula-
tion.
78,470
11,893
30,.527
Iceland has a Legislative Assembly — the Althing
— and a Minister appointed by the King of Denmark.
The capital and largest town is Reykjavik, with a
population of 8,000. The products are sheep,
cattle, ponies and fish, and all cereal foods are im-
ported. Minerals are not known in payable quantities.
Greenland has an area the estimates of which vary
from 320,000 to 850,000 square miles. The area
given in the table above refers only to the Danish
district round the coast. The total population is
under 12,000, and most of them are Eskimos, only
about 250 Europeans residing in the country.
The industries of Greenland are almost exclusively
connected with whales, seals and sharks. There is,
however, one cryolite mine, the output of which
is exported for the manufacture of soda and alum.
Trade in Greenland is a Danish royal monopoly,
and the exports are fish oil, seal skins, and a little
eiderdown and feathers.
The three Danish West India Islands — St. Croix,
St. Thomas and St. John — are of little importance.
In 1902 an agreement had been reached between
the Danish Ministers and the Government at Wash-
ington regarding the purchase of these islands by
the United States, but the Danish Landsthing
refused to ratify the agreement.
Currency. The Danish standard of value is
gold, but silver is legal tender up to 20 kroner.
1 ore = -jSjd.
100 ore = 1 krone = Is. l|d.
The bronze coins are 1, 2, and 5 ore ; the silver
coins are 10, 25, 40, and 50 ore, 1 and 2 kroner ; and
the gold coins are 10 and 20 kroner. L'sual reckoning
is — 18 kroner equals one English sovereign.
Weights and Measures. The old system of
weights and measures is being discarded for the
metric system [see page 5399] ; but the transition
is not yet complete. In tllte old sy.stem the standard
of weight was a pund (l-10231b.) ; of lineal measure,
an alen (-6864 yard); of land, a tondeland (1.36
acre); of solid measurement, a kithic fod (r09I8
cub. ft.). In capacitv measure the tUndc equalled
3-827 bushels of grain, 289189 gallons of oil,
246-9179 lb. of butter, and 46775 bushels of coal.
Postage. Great Britain to Denmark, or any
Danish colony, letters, papers and samples as for
France [see page 5398]. Parcel post : Is., Is. 6d.,
and 2s. for 3, 7, and 11 lb. respectively if via Har-
wich ; 9d. per parcel more if by Ostcnd or Flushing.
To Greenland, same as to Denniark ; to Iceland same
as Denmark rates via Harwich, and to Danish
West Indies double these rates. Limit of length,
3i feet; hmit of length and girth combined, 6 feet.
"TeleOxRAMS. Great Britain to Denmark, 3d.
per word ; to Iceland, %\d. per word ; to St. Thomas,
5s. per word, and to St. Cioix, 5s. 3d. per word;
There is no cable service to St. John or to Greenland.
5415
INFORMATION ABOUT NORWAY AND SWEDEN
NORWAY
Area and Population. Norway has a total
area of 124,130 square miles, and a population
of 2,330,3(54. The chief towns, with populations, are :
Christiania, 227,026 ; Bergen, 72,251 ; Trondhjem,
38,180 ; Stavanger, 30,013 ; all are seaports.
Government. Norway is a constitutional hered-
itary monarchy. The integrity of Norwegian
territory is guaranteed by Great Britain, France,
Germany and Russia, by a treaty of October, 1907.
The parliament is known as the Storting, which
consists of 123 paid members elected by popular
vote ; every Norwegian man or woman over 25
years of age who has paid a certain income
tax, which varies for rural and urban voters, is
entitled to vote. Elections are held every three
years. The Storting divides itself into two bodies,
one-fourth forming the Lagting, and the remain-
ing three-fourths forming the Odelsting. Certain
matters are considered only by the latter body.
Failing agreement the two chambers sit together
and a two-thirds majority of the joint voters
decides the point. The king can veto a measure
twice, but if it passes three stortings, elected by
separate elections, the king has no further power
of veto. The executive is vested in the king
with one Minister of State and not fewer than
seven Councillors of State.
Monarch. The reigning monarch is Haakon
VII. (born August, 3rd, 1872), second son of King
Frederic of Denmark ; he was elected King by
the Storting on November 18th, 1905, after Norway
had dissolved her political union with Sweden.
Finance. The revenue for the vear 1906-1907
was £6.344,957, and the expenditure was £6,100,023.
The chief sources of revenue are customs, railways,
excise, post ofhce, income tax and telegraphs. The
public debt in 1907 was £18,822,160.
Industry and Commerce. Three quarters of
the area of Norway is unproductive and only
3 per cent, is under cultivation. The remainder —
22 per cent. — is forest land. The chief crops are
potatoes, oats, barley, wheat, and rye; but the
produce is insufficient for domestic consumption.
Three-fourths of the forest land is under pine
trees and a large proportion of the area is state
land, managed by the Minister of Agriculture.
Industries depending upon the forests are wood
pulp, matches and paper. The fisheries are im-
portant and employ over 100,000 people. Mineral
industries are increasing in iraijortance after a
period of decline. The chief minerals are iron
pyrites, silver, copper, apatite and nickel. There
are a few factory industries, chiefly in the neigh-
bourhood of Christiania, and the most important
of them are textile factories, engineering shops,
chemical works, metal works, brick works, and
flour-mills. Water power is laigely used in manu-
facturing. The value of imports for the year
1906-1907 was £21,428,211, and the value of the
exports was £14,061,111. The chief exports are
timber and timber manufactures, including matches,
fish and fish products, chiefly cod liver oil, paper
and paper pulp, skins and furs, mineral ores and
stone, ice and carbide of calcium.
Currency. As for Denmark [see page 5415].
Weights and Measures. These are metric [see
page 5399].
Postage. Great Britain to Norway : I.,etters,
papers and samples as for France [see page 5398].
Parcels post as for Denmark via Harwich [see
page 5415].
Telegrams. Gt. Britain to Norway, 3d. per word.
54^ ^T
SWEDEN
Area and Population. The area of Sweden is
172,876 square miles and the estimate of popula-
tion at the end of 1906 was 5,337,055. The chief
towns with their populations, are : Stockholm (the
capital), 332,738 ; Goteborg, 156,927 ; Malmo,
75,091 ; Norrkoping, 45,528 ; Helsingborg, 31,404.
Government. Sweden is a constitutional mon-
archy. The Parliament, or Riksdag, has two elected
Chambers, possessing equal powers, but deliberating
and voting separately. The Upjier Chamber has
150 members, and election to it is made for nine
years by the Landstings, or rural assemblies, and
by the urban corporations not represented in the
Landstings. The Lower Chamber has 230 members,
elected by popular vote on a new franchise for
three years. The members of the Lower House are
paid. The king can initiate measures and can veto
measures passed by the Riksdag. Executive power
is vested in the king and a Council of State,
which consists of a Minister and ten Councillors.
Monarch. The King of Sweden is Gustaf V.
(born 1858), who succeeded his father, Oscar II.,
in December, 1907.
Finance. The estimated revenue and expen-
diture for the year 1907 was £11,945,600. The
chief sources of revenue are the customs, duties
on spirits and beet sugar, state lands, railways and
telegraphs, income tax, post office, stamps, and
the profits of the National Bank. The public
debt stood at £25,570,476 in January, 1908; it
represents solely expenditure on railways, from
which the profits more than pay the interest.
Industry and Commerce. Agriculture employs
quite half of the population, although less than nine
per cent, of the country is under cult i vat ion. The chief
crops, according to acreage, ai'C oats, rye, barley,
potatoes, wheat and pulse. There is also consider-
able stock I'aising — cattle, sheep, horses and pigs.
Dairy farming has made important progress in
recent years. Over half of the whole country is
forest land and Sweden exports more timber than
any other European coimtry. The fisheries are
much less impoitant than those of Norway and
have experienced some bad 5'ears recently. Sweden
is rich in minerals, and Swedish iron, refined by the
use of charcoal, is famous throughout the world.
Iron is the chief mineral worked and most of the
iron ore raised is exported. Other ores worked
include those of silver and lead, coj)per, zinc, and
manganese. Coal is also found and mined. The
chief industry is connected with the forests, and in
the kingdom there are about 1,300 saw- mills, about
500 joinery and cabinet-making works, about 150
wood pulp factories, and some 70 paper mills.
Iron, steel and machinery works claim about a
thousand separate establishments. Then come
textile factories — over 300 in number — devoted to
cotton and w ool. The exports for the year 1906 were
of the value of £27,768,988, and the imports were
of the value of £35,475,104. The chief exports are
timber, iron and steel, butter, wood pulp, iron
ore, paper, machinery (including cream separators),
carpentry work, stone, metal goods and matches.
Currency. As for Denmark [see page 5415].
Weights and Measures. These are metric
[see page 5399].
Postage. Great Britain to Sweden : Letters,
papers, and samples, as to France see [page 5398].
Parcel post, Is. 6d., 2s., and 2s. 6d. for 3, 7, and
11 lb., via direct steamer to Stockholm; Is. per
parcel higher if via Ostend or Flushing.
Telegrams. Gt. Britain to Sweden, 3id. per word.
EUROPEAN
POWERS
TO-DAY
XII
THE UNITED
KINGDOM
UNITED KINGDOM IN OUR OWN TIME
A CONTEMPORARY SURVEY OF ITS
POLITICAL AND SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS
By Arthur D. Innes, M.A.
TTHE British Empire to-day is a unique
■*■ phenomenon in the history of civihsed
mankind, differing in essential particulars
from every contemporary empire as from
all that have existed in the past. In the
course of 300 years the people of these
islands have taken possession of vast
tracts of the earth's surface. The ancient
empires held their conquests by force of
arms, but in her great dominions on two
continents our state has no garrison at all.
Wherever Rome ruled, her government was
of the military type ; practically it is only
in India that ours falls under that category.
Neither our colonial nor our Asiatic
dominion presents close resemblances to
the empires of other European states,
except so far as Russia in Central Asia
and France in North Africa hold positions
more or less analogous to our own in India.
The states of which the empire is
composed offer — subject to the ultimate
authority of the central state, to which
they stand in varying relations — examples
of almost every conceivable type of polity :
absolute monarchies in India, where the
British raj itself is that of a racial
aristocracy ; while all the greater colonies
are democracies. Or, if we follow the
territorial method of classification, the
empire will supply us at one end with
. federated countries in Canada
. „ .*? . and Australia, and at the
J, . other with something not far
removed from the Greek idea
of the city-state in the Isle of Man
and in the Channel Islands. In the
course of this work we have watched
England developing politically far in
advance of all Continental states, while
Ireland remained a subordinate, half-
controlled province, and Scotland held fast
to a somewhat lawless independence ;
IT 2, u
until, 300 years ago, the three king-
doms were united under one crown,
and then, at intervals 0.1 a century, under
one legislature — theoretically, at least, on
an equality. Three hundred years ago,
the only over-sea territory possessed by
the people of these islands was the embryo
colony of Virginia, which had existed pre-
cariously for years. The seven-
British
_ , . , teenth century saw a
Colonial 1 • 1 . •. ir
r . expansion which was not itself
Expansion ^ , , ,, , .
permanent, because the colonies
then established afterwards broke away
from the mother country. But it also saw,
on the one hand, the confirmation of British
supremacy on the high seas and of ])arlia-
mentary supremacy in the British polity.
In the eighteenth century Great Britain
completely distanced all rivals in the
competition for colonial expansion, in
spite of the loss of the group of communi-
ties which formed the United States, and
this supremacy was confirmed by the
Napoleonic wars. In those wars Napoleon
himself chose commerce as the field in
which he would come to death-grips with
the British, with the result that, after
Waterloo, there was no competitor within
measurable distance of them, and the lead
thus gained was increased progressively
during the nineteenth century. During
that century, also, the colonial expansion
continued ; the whole of one continent
was appropriated. In India the British
passed from being merely the dominant
power to being lords of the whole land
between the mountains and the sea ; and
finally the most valuable portions of the
Dark Continent fell also under their domi-
nion. The expansion was accompanied by
a change in the internal polity. The supre-
macy of parliament was unchallenged ;
but the gradual extension of the electoral
5417
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
body transferred the control of parliamen-
tary majorities first from the landowners
to the manufacturers and the middle
class, and then from the middle to
the labouring classes.
A further characteristic has to be re-
marked on in order to understand the
position of the British Empire in the world
. at the present day. Until the
f MnUar^ stadtholder of Holland became
p ' * ^'■y i^ing of England, these islands
never played a part much more
than insignificant in the struggles of Con-
tinental states. In mediaeval times England
had fought with France on her own account ;
later, still on her own account, she had
fought Spain, and later still Holland.
The new dynastic association with Hol-
land, coupled with her own dynastic
question, forced her into the European
arena ; but even then it was not the size
of her armies, but the genius of her great
general, Marlborough, and the wealth
which supplemented the exhausted trea-
suries of her allies, which made her alliance
valuable ; and, mutatis mutandis, the
same principles applied throughout the
whole series of wars which were finally
brought to an end in 1815. To divert the
energies of her enemies she did not fight
them on land, but helped her neighbours
to do so. For her own hand she fought
them on the sea.
It was only in the Peninsular War
that she took rank as a military power,
and there she was only enabled to do so
because Napoleon wanted the bulk of his
legions for Moscow. Moreover, in the
same connection it has to be observed
that, with the possible exception of 1793,
Continental interests have never been the
motive of her wars. In nearl}^ every case
she has fought because the interests of
France collided with her own in extra-
European regions. With hardly a variation,
her rulers have systematically declined to
intervene in foreign quarrels otherwise than
,. , .. through diplomatic channels.
Moulding
of Britain's
History
That rule has been broken, or is
in serious danger of being broken.
only in one corner of Europe
she would fight to prevent Constantinople
from falling into the hands of Russia.
We may say, then, that viewing the
United Kingdom of to-day as the product of
the forces which we have observed mould-
ing its history, it forms the central state of
an empire whose distinguishing character-
istics are an immense transmarine colonial
5418
system, such as no other European Power |
possesses ; an immense lead in commerce ;
an established maritime supremacy, both
mercantile and naval ; the smallest of
" regular " armies, outside of India, on
the historic ground that no state has ever
been able continuously to maintain both
army and navy in the front rank, while to
the British the navy has always proved
the more effective instrument both for
offence and defence. Further, this state
has evolved its own polity — the system of
parliamentary government — as an organic
growth, without revolution and without
copying the institutions of other states,
except in occasional matters of detail ;
whereas her own institutions have been
consciously adopted as models, though
with appropriate modifications, in the
constitution of most civilised countries.
Sociall3% as well as politically, her people
have been, and continue to be, distin-
guished by the combination of a marked
acknowledgment of class distinctions with
exceptional facility in passing class bar-
riers ; in other words, social ranks are
recognised, but are not permitted to stiffen
into castes, as they did stiffen
n c cc ua ^^ most European states.
Record of the tt <(i i, ^ >»
„.,..,, Hence labour movements,
British Isles „ ,, . 1 • i_
all the movements which are
apt to be labelled " Socialistic " by those
who disapprove of them, are accompanied
among the proletariat by a much less
virulent antagonism to the well-to-do than
is frequently the case in other lands.
In the intellectual field, the British Isles
claim great names in science, both in its
theoretic realms, such as Bacon, Newton,
and Darwin, and in its practical application.
In pure literature it is somewhat curious
to remark that the greatest achievements
of a people which prides itself on practical
common sense have been in the region of
imagination, of poetry, where it is not only
insular prejudice that claims a supreme
position for Shakespeare. Like the Shake-
spearian period, the hundred years which
opened with the period of the French
Revolution were rich in great literary
names ; but it cannot be said that either
in literature or in science the United
Kingdom in the twentieth century is
showing any marked superiority to Euro-
pean and American rivals.
Aspects of this empire external to the
United Kingdom, itself remain to be
treated at length hereafter ; in this chapter
we are concerned with our own islands.
THE UNITED KINGDOM IN OUR OWN TIME
The condition of affairs to-day is the
product of the past, the outcome of organic
development ; and development means both
continuity and change. Can we, then,
analyse the elements which tend to change
and to continuity respectively ?
In the nineteenth century the United
Kingdom became the great, almost the one,
manufactory and carrier of the world.
Among the various causes of this supre-
macy, the most decisive is probably to be
found in the Napoleonic wars — partly
because they devastated Europe and
drained off the best human material for
fighting, instead of manufacturing ; while
the people of these islands were, compara-
tively speaking, able to devote a much
trade that Free Trade was universally
acknowledged to be the cause of the ex-
pansion, and the advocacy of Protection
was regarded as at best a " pious opinion."
But it has not proved impossible either
for European states or for America to
develop manufactures on their own ac-
count which can compete with British
goods in the market. It is, perhaps,
difficult to realise from the figures pro-
duced that our commercial ascendancy is
vanishing ; but the monopoly is ours no
more ; and it is by no means clear that
the country will not attempt to recover it
by a reversion to pre-Cobdenite methods.
It is curious to observe that Germany's
commercial advance in the last forty years
MEN OF THE ROYAL ENGINEERS CONSTRUCTING A SUSPENSION BRIDGE
larger share of their energies to peaceful
pursuits ; partly because the Berlin Decree
practically involved that the British should
either monopolise the carrying trade or
lose it altogether.
Apart from the war, the British already
had a long lead in the carrying trade, and
were in front of other countries in the deve-
lopment of machinery and the application
of steam. But the practical monopoly was
the outcome of the artificial conditions
created by Napoleon, and made it
supremely difficult for any other nation
to enter into competition. The develop-
ment of the Free Trade programme by
Sir Robert Peel and by Mr. Gladstone was
attended by so marked an expansion of
is often attributed with equal confidence to
her adoption of Protection for her manu-
fa.ctures. It is not probable that Tariff
Reform, if it does come, will ruin either
our own commerce or, alternatively, that of
our competitors, who at present rely on a
Protectionist policy. Perhaps from the
point of view of the histoiian, whose busi-
ness is largely with the analysis of causation,
the most remarkable feature of the economic
problem now dividing the country is that
it was brought out of the regions of cloud-
cuckoo-land into practical politics by the
action of a single individual — that but for
Mr. Chamberlain the merits of Protection
would probably receive to-day as httle
public recognition as they did in that
5419
SOME TYPES OF BRITAIN'S FIGHTING FORCES
5420
SOME 6J?1TISH SOLDIERS ON THE MARCH
5421
HARMS WORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
statesman's " Radical " days. Whatever
school of economists prevails, it may be
safely prophesied that commercial as-
cendancy will remain with this country
so long as she holds the maritime
supremacy, and will pass as soon as she
loses it. That supremacy is as yet un-
challenged. The practical unanimity with
which the doctrine of a two-
nc a cngc p^^^gj- standard for the Royal
f it c Navy is accepted — at least, as
of the Seas •' ,i a , r t-
concerns the fleets oi European
states — ^would be a mere absurdity for a
country not already in possession of a
decisive preponderance over any other, or
lacking the means to: maintain such pre-
ponderance. There is no Power which
dreams of challenging the mistress of the
seas single-handed on her own element,
though tliere is one which is popularly
credited with having inherited Napoleon's
pre-Trafalgar programme.
Have the conditions, then, so changed
that what Napoleon found to be imprac-
ticable a century ago — ^what had been
almost unthinkable since the destruction of
the Spanish Armada — is practicable to-
day ? Fortresses reputed impregnable
have been captured through an unsus-
pected entry ; before Wolfe scaled the
Heights of Abraham, Quebec seemed
secure against any possible attack. The
chances that an attempt to invade these
islands would result only in the annihila-
tion of the invader appear to be no less
overwhelming than in the past ; but the
condition of security is vigilance, as the
condition of successful attack is secrecy.
It can only be said that there is no present
sign either that vigilance is lacking or
that the secret concentration of an invad-
ing force is possible. The historic position
is unaltered. Now, as always, it is the fleet
which makes invasion impossible. Now, as
always, a Continental army operating in this
country would not find our military forces
organised to offer resistance as it would on
invading a Continental state.
I K, r Parma in 1588, or Napoleon
Liable to ■ o - 111 f ■,
. . _ m 1805, would have found
Invasion? ,, • , , , ^,
their veterans opposed by the
same half-drilled and half-trained amateur
soldiery which would form the bulk of
our defence at the present day. But
there is no more likelihood of a Con-
tinental army getting the chance of
operating in England than there was in
the days of Parma or of Napoleon. Wisely
or unwisely, the nation is content with
5422
that position ; or, at any rate, shows no
greater inclination than in the past to
adopt the alternative policy of universal
military service. It is at least probable
that the recent reorganisation — with
modifications which experience of its
working will suggest — will produce the
maximum of efficiency attainable under
the purely voluntary system.
As regards the security of these islands,
then, the historic position appears to be
unchanged. But the United Kingdom is
responsible for the defence of the empire,
and here we must note that the conditions
to-day are not quite what they have been
in the past. Our frontiers are not, as they
were, exclusively oceanic. In the eigh-
teenth century, the possession of America
and India depended entirely upon sea-
power ; when our supremacy on the sea was
decisively established, our rivals' successes
in either continent could only be temporary.
But now the advance of Russia in
Central Asia has made possible a conflict
which would have to be fought out on
land ; and although the idea of a war
with the United States is scarcely less
. , unnatural than that of a civil
ri ain s ^ ^j^^ possibility, however
Place Among , -^ , ,/ ,•
. p remote, mvolves the question
of the defence of the Canadian
frontier. The conditions of our i"ule in
India demand the presence, under all
circumstances, of a large white garrison
within the peninsula. At the present time,
indeed, nothing is less likely than a war
with Russia, except a war with the United
States ; but either contingency would
seem to call for military operations, as
distinct from naval, on a much larger
scale than we have hitherto been involved
in by European complications. As concerns
Europe itself, as with the defence of these
islands, the historic position holds. Any
conceivable combination of Powers would
hesitate to challenge us by sea ; combined
fleets have always proved even more diffi-
cult to handle successfully than combined
armies. But no Power would be greatly per-
turbed by the prospect of a British invasion.
The British alliance to-day, as in the
past, would be coveted where British
subsidies would be desirable ; the aid of
British fleets would be useful, or the
hostility of British fleets would be feared ;
not for the sake of the battalions that
could take the field. It is to be re-
marked, however, that the mere fact of
pur naval aspgndancy is, and always has
THE UNITED KINGDOM IN OUR OWN TIME
been, a source of irritation ; it is probable
that all Europe would regard any exten-
sive development of our military organisa-
tion as indicating not a defensive, but an
aggressive intent, precisely as we are
disposed to interpret the expansion bi the
German Navy. We are so free from
aggressive desires that we can hardly
believe such charges to be made in good
faith ; nevertheless, foreign nations find
it exceedingly diihcult to believe that we
have annexed so large a proportion of the
globe merely in self-defence.
At the present time, however, thanks
largely to the consistency of a foreign
policy, which has been maintained without
regard to party for a quarter of a century,
the United Kingdom has been almost
cleared, in the eyes of its neighbours, of
the charge of fluctuating between peace-
at-any-price and blatant jingoism. The
Japanese War has deprived Russian
aggression of its immediate terrors, and
the political reformation of Turkey which
astonished the world in 1908 has minimised
the danger of an Anglo-Russian quarrel
over the Eastern Question. Hence our
relations with the great Slav
Germany
the Bogey of
Britain
Power have become almost
cordial. With France we have
reached a happy stage in which
the respective spheres of interest of the two
nations have become so definitely delimited
that no rational cause of quarrel arising is
imaginable, and a friendliness of feeling has
been developed which is the best possible
safeguard against a sentimental explosion.
The role of bogey has been transferred
to Germany. The situation emphasises
the fact that the historian may go a great
deal too far in insisting on a logical
statesmanship as the primary factor in
political action. Germany is our bogey,
chiefly because she has erected us into a
bogey ; and that she has done so is due
largely to her historians and professors,
many of whom suffer from a conviction
that England designs to crown a career of
cold-blooded spoliation by seeking the
ruin of Germany. That is to say that,
mutatis mutandis, the present German view
of England is very much like what has
been the normal English view of Russia.
German hostility to England is based on a
a wholly irrational fear of English designs,
but while it exists it forces upon England
an attitude which is easily interpreted as
one of hostility to Germany. In neither
country is the actual hostility shared either
by the controlling statesmen or by tlie mass
of the population, and the mutual suspicion
will probably wear itself out in course of
time. Commonsense, the absence of any
antagonistic interests, the futility of a
struggle between a military and a naval
Power, and the growing inclination to pay
deference to the public opinion of Europe,
V VA J should suffice to prevent
King Edward , ^- .
.. r- . any momentary panic from
the Consummate t ■ • , '^ '• ,
n:^i^™«f:of drivmg two great nations
Uiplomatist . ° , o .
into a struggle which would
injure both and could benefit neither. But
it would be vain to deny that such an
atmosphere of mutual suspicion as now
exists under the fostering care of a solid
portion of the Press of both countries is
eminently adapted for the cultivation of
the microbe of international rabies.
Here, however, we have a very notable
illustration of the invaluable services which
may be rendered to the state by the crown,
in the unique position which it holds to-day.
A visit to the German Emperor by the
consummate diplomatist who occupies the
British throne has had an immediately
pacificatory effect, which goes far to con-
firm the conviction that Anglo-German
antagonisms are in no sense fundamental,
but are the outcome of misunderstandings,
which may be eradicated by the persistent
application of commonsense.
Within its own borders, the United
Kingdom presents a singular complex
of nationalities. The Englishman,
the Irishman, the Scot, and the Welsh-
man, are each of them emphatic in
asserting their distinct nationality, though
the Englishman is somewhat apt to over-
look the claim on the part of the other
three when they are acting in conjunc-
tion with him, and credits their vices
to themselves, and their virtues to their
English connection. Except in the case of
Wales, the distinction is historical rather
than racial, for the Irish Kelt is not more
emphatically Irish than are the descen-
dants of Norman, English, or
Britain s Scottish settlers ; and the Scot
vT°?^'' .-.. of the Lowlands is as much a
Nationalities 5^53^^^^^ to the Highlander
as the Englishman. England, wealthier,
more fertile, more populous, if not larger
in actual area than the other three put
together, has been the " predominant
partner " ever since partnership of any
kind existed ; but a difference in her
historic relations with the three remains
apparent at the present day. Scotland,
5423
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
What Wales
Claims
an independent state for centuries,
wliich successfully defeated repeated
attempts to subdue her, voluntarily
joined England to form the single state of
Great Britain, in 1707, under guarantees
that her national institutions should not be
altered. She has so far, at least, remained
in the position of managing her own
concerns that it is recognised
as impracticable to introduce
material modifications with-
rom ng an ^^^ ^^^ assent of the majority
of her representatives in the Commons.
Wales, treated to some extent as a
subject province from the conquest by
Edward I. till the accession to the English
throne of a Welshman in the person of
Henry Tudor, in 1485, has formed an
integral part of England since her admis-
sion to full parliamentary representation
in the reign of Henry VIII., but of recent
years has been claiming distinctive treat-
ment on the ground that her people are
distinct from the English in race, customs,
predilections, and to some extent language,
the Welsh tongue being still in popular use.
The Irish position differs from that of the
Scots or Welsh. Nominally subject to the
English Crown since the reign of Henry II..
Ireland was treated for centuries as a
subject province in which English law was
more or less enforced spasmodically, and
English government could hardly be
described as definitely established till the
beginning of the seventeenth century.
Before that time, and still more afterwards,
large appropriations of the soil to Protestant
English and Scottish settlers, coupled with
the political disabilities attaching to Roman
Catholicism — the creed of four-fifths of the
population — kept the bulk of the people in
constant hostility to the Government ;
which was intensified by the tyrannical use
of their power by the Protestant oligarchy
through the greater part of the eighteenth
century. The Act of Union in 1800
theoretically placed Ireland on an equal
footing with England and Scot-
land in the United Kingdom,
Ireland's
Place in
the Union
but the maintenance of the
Catholic disabilities for another
quarter of a century intensified the hostility
between the Catholic peasantry and the
Protestant landlord class. Hence English
and Irish agree in recognising the necessity
of distinctive treatment for Ireland, but
from fundamentally different points of view.
For the securing of justice as between
landlord and tenant the economic conditions
5424
would make the establishment of the English
land-tenure a quite futile course. What is
justice from the tenant's point of view, is
robbery from the landlord's ; and the
solution England offers is to impose upon
both "what she considers justice, and Irish-
men do not. The solution offered by the
great majority of Irishmen is that they
should settle the matter for themselves with-
out English intervention — that the " dis-
tinctive treatment" should be controlled
by the Irish democracy, not by the English.
The abstract justice of this claim appeals
the more readily to the foreign spectator,
because under the existing conditions it
appears that, unlike the position of Scot-
land and Wales, the wishes of the Irish
democracy — that is, of the majority of
their parliamentary representatives — are
apt to influence the judgment of the
majority at Westminster in inverse pro-
portion to their intensity — unless the Irish
happen to hold the balance between the
two great parliamentary parties. The
process, however, of extending large
powers of self-government to local bodies
has recently been applied, in the hope that
it may remove the urgency of
_ ^ "] . demands for a separate legisla-
Demand for . t, i re j .i.u
„ _ . ture. It may be affirmed with
satisfaction that the virulence of
popular Irish hostility to the Government
has greatly abated, though the same can
probably not be said of the persistence of
the demand for Home Rule ; just as the per-
sonal hostility between English and Irish
Members of Parliament has disappeared.
In any case, it seems certain that the
increasing congestion of work in the
Imperial Parliament will make it more and
more necessary for parts of that work to
be delegated to local bodies, and it is not
improbable that a solution of this difficulty
will ultimately be found in the recognition
of Nationalist — not Separatist — aspirations
by the establishment of Nationalist legisla-
tures with limited powers, in subordination
to the Imperial Parliament. The practical
difficulties of evolving such a scheme are,
however, so great that there is no present
prospect of such a change being introduced.
The political party in the Imperial
Parliament, which, under the leadership
of Mr. Gladstone, committed itself to
approval of the abstract principle of
Home Rule for Ireland, is retarded from
taking active steps towards its realisation
by the consciousness that such plans as
have hitherto been formulated might create
TYPES OF BRITISH BATTLESHIPS
In this and the following pages we give a series of drawings illustrating
the leading types of vessels which constitute the strength of the British
Navy, including those of the much discussed " Dreadnought " class.
^<«siKkeSkte^:;r>^>M$i
<f
■^mmm
m
H.MS KING EDWARD Sn AT SPITHETAD
v-^
'^t/"^|N.
M.M.S CHLIRKHA" T B 0-^^
\
J^
^^.t^
^^^^^^^
5423
5426
5427
1
IMPROVED TYPE OF SUBMARINE, SHOWING FULL HEIGHT OUT OF THE WATER
No. - SUBMARINE OF THE HOLLAND TYPE
5428
THE SUBMARINE IN NAVAL WARFARE
Photos ; Cozens and Stephen Cribb
THE UNITED KINGDOM IN OUR OWN TIME
fresh causes of friction no less serious than
those they were designed to remove ;
while the demand for "Home Rule all
round " has not hitherto been expressed
by any portion of the electorate. The
conception of the empire as a congeries of
self-governing states, associated into feder-
ated groups according to their geographical
position, having as their apex
The United ^^ ^^^^^^ ^^^^ ^f ^^^^^ ^^^
the^Fuirre" ^^^"^''^ ^""^ ^^'® Imperial Parlia-
ment, in which all shall be
represented — this conception has not yet
passed from the theorists to the practical
politicians. If ever it does so, it may be
assumed that the United Kingdom will be
transformed into one of the federated
groups, like the Dominion of Canada or the
Commonwealth of Australia.
At the present day, however, the United
Kingdom has one Parliament only ; and
the Parliament of the United Kingdorn
is also the Imperial Parliament — that is to
sa}', that in conjunction with the Crown —
not independently of it — it is legally recog-
nised as the ultimate sovereign authority,
not only in the United Kingdom, but
throughout the empire. Whatsoever is done
or ordained by the authority of the king
in Parliament islawfully done, and is legally
binding in every portion of the empire
to which the ordinance apphes. By this
authority every colony or dependency of
the empire has received its present con-
stitution, and might lawfully be deprived
of it, just as by the same authority
murder might be legahsed and playing
bridge be elevated into a capital offence.
Its own commonsense and the moral
sense of the community set a practical limit
to its powers ; commonsense forbids it to
exercise those powers in a manner opposed
to the spiiit of the constitution — it will be
in no hurry to repeat the blunder which
gave birth to the United States of America ;
but the law sets no limit and recognises
none. Such authority has always in Eng-
. ^. .^ land been recognised as residing
Authority - o . _ _ o
of King and
Parliament
in the Crown and the National
Council, whether that Council
was the Saxon Witan, the
Magnum Concilium of the Noimans and
early Plantagenets, or the Parliament in
which the Commons appeared by their
representatives. The authority of king
and Council acting together has never been
in dispute except by doctrinaire maintainers
of the divine and inalienable right of
succession to the throne, who deny that
even the king in Parliament can alter the
course of the succession. The constitutional
struggles have been fought round the
question how far the Crown can act in-
dependently of Parliament, by prerogative,
and sometimes how far Parliament can act
independently of the Crown.
The king in Parliament — the Crown and
the two Houses of Parliament — are the ulti-
mate authority. For the sake of brevity we
shall use the term " Parliament " for this
complete body, speaking of the Crown and
the Houses when its component parts are
referred to distinctively. The Houses would
be fully described as the House of Peers
and the House of the Representatives of
the Commons, the latter being alterna-
tively spoken of as "the Representative
House," or " the Commons." While
Parliament is the ultimate authority, it
discharges directly only a part of the
sovereign functions. Moreovei. Parliament
itself is subjected to a certain degree of
external control, partly because the mem-
bers of the Representative Chamber are
dependent on the electorate for the con-
tinuity of their membership, partly from
the influence of a public
Predominance ^ j^^j^^ ^^-^^ ^^^ ^^ ^^_
of the House ^^^.^^j ^^^^ ^^ ^^^ electorate.
of Commons ^^^^^ members will hesitate to
take in the House a Une which will endanger
their seats at a general election-, and a steady
demand for the franchise by a solid body of
persons excluded from the electorate is toler-
ably certain to be met if its existence is really
indubitable. Of the three powers >vhich,
united, makeup Parliament, the Commons'
House is theoretically predominant.
The electorate has for half a century
been constructed on a democratic basis.
The House of Commons expresses the will
of the electorate. The Peers and the Crown
must yield to the emphatically expressed
will of the Commons, as also must the
Executive which is responsible to Parlia-
ment though not directly conducted by it.
That is the theory which locates the effec-
tive sovereignty of the United Kingdom
with the democracy ; a theory which does
not altogether correspond with the facts.
In theory, again, the British Constitu-
tion has these two leading characteristics :
it distributes political power between
the Crown, the aristocracy, and the
people ; and it separates the exercise of
the three functions of sovereignty, the
legislative, the administrative, and the
judicial; while the necessary unity is
5429
LORD CHARLES BERESFORD
SIR WILLIAM MAY
LEADING ADMIRALS OF THE BRITISH NAVY IN OUR OWN TIME
Photo-.: Khs-cII. Diuhain. Gale and Poliien. and Russell, Southsea
5430
THE UNITED KINGDOM IN OUR OWN TIME
secured by enabling the people in the long
run to dominate the Crown and the
aristocrac}^, and the legislature to dominate
the Executive and the Judiciary'. The
people, it must be observed, means in
any case only that portion, large or
small, of the whole community which
composes the electorate.
The relative political weight of the Crown,
the aristocracy, and the people, has varied
very greatly ; with a general tendency to
reduce first the preponderance of the Crown,
which the Normans established, then the
preponderance of the aristocracy, and then
to acquire a preponderance for the Com-
mons. It maybe said that for two hundred
years the Crown has exercised not control,
but only influence, greater or less according
to the monarch's personality. The actual
control vanished when a German king
of Great Britain found that his position
depended on the good will of a party over
whose discussions his linguistic deficiencies
made it impossible for him to preside. The
preponderance remained with the aris-
tocracy, because a large proportion of seats
in the representative chamber was virtually
in the gift of peers, although
c a ions o ^j^^ House of Commons
the two nouses • j ^ • i,j. j.i
, „ ,. ^ carried more Weight than
of P&rliament ,i tt r t j t-u-
the House of Lords, ihis
ascendancy of the aristocracy disappeared
with the Reform Act of 1832, which created
a new antagonism between the Houses
which has continually been intensified with
the democratising of the Commons.
The character, however, of both Houses
has been so materially modified since that
date that our conceptions of the character
of Parliament — ^largely derived from Burke
— require readjustment. Exponents of
the constitution, so recent even as Walter
Bagehot, wrote before the democratic
forces called into play by the second
Reform Act had had time to show how
they would operate. Until then the weight
of the electorate had still been controlled
by the propertied classes, and though the
peers had lost their pocket boroughs, a
large minority among them was still in
accord with the advanced party in the
House of Commons. But that Reform Act,
that " leap in the dark," has made that
advanced party much more advanced than
it was before, since the electorate is no
longer dominated by the propertied classes;
a fraction only of the peers is in sympathy
with it, since its principles involve con-
siderable modifications in the theory of
property ; and when the advanced party
has a majority in the Commons, it has to
reckon on the consistent antagonism of
the great majority of peers to its projects.
At the same time, the House of Com-
mons has lost its preponderance in Parlia-
ment. That preponderance was won
from the Crown in virtue of the power of
j^^ p the people ; it was assured as
of the tWe ^§^^^'^ ^^^. P^f rs ^° l0!)g as '^
of Lords ^^^^ practically possible to
bring pressure on the Crown for
the creation of a sufficient number of peers
to convert a party minority into a party
majority. The mere threat to do so was
effective when the peers were a sufficiently
patrician body to feel that their social,
even more than their political, character
would be lost by the creation of forty
new peers. The creation of forty peers
would hardly affect the character of the
House to-day — neither would it affect the
party majority. To swamp the majority
would involve swamping the House, and
would make the constitution of the Second
Chamber an absurdity. Hence, that
method of compulsion could only be
applied by a party determined either to
aboHsh the second chamber or to construct
it de novo on a basis already specified and
accepted. On the other hand, the still older
method by which the House of Commons
enforced its will — the refusal of supplies —
was efficacious only when the Commons
were in opposition to the administration.
The effect is that the House of Lords can
refuse to pass any measures distasteful to
it, however emphatically endorsed by the
Commons, until it feels that its refusal will
ensure the decisive support of the electorate
to a specific measure for its abolition or
reconstruction. Whereas it can always
count on the existence of a very strong
predisposition, in the electorate, in favour
of a Second Chamber of some sort, a con-
servative preference for the maintenance
therein at least of an aristrocratic or
hereditary element, and a dis-
tracting division of opinion
Problem
of the House
of Peers
among reconstructors as to a
practicable basis of reconstruc-
tion. Human ingenuity would never have
deliberately devised such a second chamber
as the House of Peers ; but it has the
enormous advantage of being a natural
growth, not deliberately devised at all ;
and to dispossess it would be an experi-
ment in constitution-making from which
the poHtical genius of the people of the
5431
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
United Kingdom has an intense aversion.
Thus, the constitutional position which
the United Kingdom has reached to-day
would seem to be this : The House of Com-
mons— 'as we shall presently see — has a
control over administration, and the peers,
as a House, have none. The peers cannot
carry legislation against the Commons ; but
_. „ they can set the legislative
The Peers a j^ xj.t/- i
_. , „ ^ desires oi the Commons at
Check on Hasty ■, n , -u j
, . , ^. denance, so long as they do
Legislation i. xi, i, i.i, i
not thereby rouse the elec-
torate to an overwhelming determination
to be rid of them at any price. They fulfil
the theoretical function of a Second
Chamber as a check on hasty legislation,
but only when the legislation is democratic,
not when it is reactionary. Whether, and
when, the democracy will discover a satis-
factory solution of the problem thus pre-
sented is becoming a somewhat acute
question ; but it can only be said that no
solution hitherto propounded has com-
manded anything more than the doubtful
acquiescence of any large body of reformers.
In the legislative capacity of Parliament
which we have had under consideration,
the third element, the Crown, has ceased
to have more than a formal importance.
The technical right of veto remains in the
background, but no one imagines that it
will ever be exercised, unless conceivably
in the case of some flagrant violation of
constitutional practice by the Houses — in
itself a sufficiently improbable event.
We come now to the relations between
Parliament, the Judiciary, and the Execu-
tive. The Judiciary need not detain us
long. The judges became independent two
hundred years ago. A general guarantee of
fitness is provided by the fact that they are
removable on an address to the Crown by
both Houses, but their independence is
secured by the corresponding fact that it
is only on such an address that they are
removable. Their appointment rests
nominally with the Crown, actually with
„ _ . the Crown's legal advisers, and
now Judges ^ •. • ? ,•
security against grossly partisan
A • t A a-ppointments is assured by
pp in e ^^^ presumption that such
appointments would provoke retaliation.
The real seat of the Government of the
country is to be found only by examining
the relations between the Parliament ancl
the Executive, in " party " and "cabinet"
government, affecting legislation as well
as administration. The whole administra-
tion is controlled by officers technically
5432
appointed by the Crown as the head, the
Crown acting through Ministers. But the
will of the people is expressed through
Parliament. Before the " glorious revolu-
tion " of 1688 the king might, and very often
did, choose Ministers who were antagonistic
to Parliament, and Parliament could get
rid of them only by the process of im-
peachments, or by refusing supplies — a
double-edged weapon at the best of times.
The problem was to secure harmony
between Parliament and the administra-
tion ; which, in effect, meant the majority
of the House of Commons and the admin-
istration. The solution was found in the
selection of Ministers exclusively from the
party which had a majority in the
Commons ; and the actual selection was
very soon transferred, on the accession
of the Hanoverians, from the Crown to
the chief of the dominant party. The
Crown, indeed, continued to exercise, on
occasion, the technical right of declining
the services of distasteful Ministers and
of placing the selection in the hands of
someone who was not the recognised
leader of the majority ; but in practice that
. technical right was gradually
R^s o^illibilit ehminated. The principle had
csponsi 1 1 y ^jj-gg^^jy been established that
of the Cabinet -mt- • .-^ ,-, ,
Mimsters themselves were
personally responsible for their acts,
and could not take shelter behind orders
from the Crown ; and the further prin-
ciple was gradually established that the
whole group of Ministers are responsible
for the acts of each individual Minister, a
system expressed by the phrase "collective
responsibility of the Cabinet."
It became the practice that Ministers
should be selected from members of one or
other of the Houses of Parliament, in which
connection it is curious to note that there
was for a long time a dislike to their ap-
pointment from among the Commons, on
the ground that, as the king's servants,
they would exercise a dangerous monarch-
ical influence in the House. It required
an extended experience to show that their
membership of the House increased the
power of the House itself instead of
curtailing its independence.
The group of the principal Ministers
selected by the chief formed the confi-
dential committee, which came to be
known as the Cabinet, meeting in secret
conclave to decide the course of the policy
which is to be adopted and the legislative
measures which are to be submitted to
THE UNITED KINGDOM IN OUR OWN TIME
Parliament. There is no technical bar, it
may be remarked, to the initiation of
legislation which does not emanate from
the Cabinet, but such legislation has very
little prospect of being carried unless the
Cabinet choose to adopt it as a (Govern-
ment measure ; so that practically and
normally the initiative lies with Ministers.
In a sense, however, the control of
Ministers lies with the House of Commons,
because if it is dissatisfied with their
conduct, it can demand their resignation —
such a demand formulated by the House of
Lords would either be ignored or met by
an appeal to the Commons for a vote of
confidence. It has not hitherto been
admitted that a Ministry supported by
the representative Chamber can be dis-
missed by the peers ; but it could not
venture to defy an adverse vote in the
Commons, since, inter alia, Ministers are
human enough not to be anxious to retain
office if they are deprived of salaries. On
the other hand, the Crown, though having
the technical authority to dismiss a
Minister or a whole Ministry, would not
venture to do so without being absolutely
sure that its action would be
„. .** endorsed by an early appeal to
inis ry ^^^ electorate. In practice,
therefore, it is to the Commons
that Ministers are responsible, and the
Commons have the power of dismissal. Up
to a certain point it is the Commons, also,
that have the power of appointment. An
adverse vote in the Commons on a funda-
mental question will compel Ministers
either to resign or to advise a dissolution.
In the former case the retiring chief
recommends the Crown to " send for "
the official leader of the Opposition,
who holds that position by the choice of
his party, which now is presumably —
on the hypothesis that the House is com-
posed of two parties — in a majority, or can
command at least the provisional support
of a majority. In the second case, the
Ministry remains in office till it meets
with an adverse vote in the new Parlia-
ment, when it will resign, and a new
Ministry will be formed by the leader
of the Opposition. In either case the
Minister who constructs the Cabinet is the
man whom the party which commands a
majority has chosen as its leader. If he
does not command a majority, he will
accept office only with a view to an early
dissolution. The Minister will construct
his Cabinet, and select his colleagues, in
I U 28
general accord with the wishes of his
party ; and so far it is true that the
Ministry or Cabinet, the executive body,
is appointed by the House of Commons-
meaning thereby the political party which
commands a majority in that House. Yet
the real control of the House over the
administration is limited. The system
The System ^^ workable only on the basis of
of Party " P^'^^^ government, the hypo-
Government ^^^^^^ t^.^^ there are two
mam parties, to one or other of
which all minor groups will attach them-
selves with some consistency. It is pos-
sible under the system for a Ministry to
carry a series of measures, no one of which
has the actual approval of an actual
majority of members. If one of those
measures is defeated, the Ministry will
resign, and the Opposition will assume
the government. A group of members
who dislike one measure but are bent on
a second, will give their support to the
first rather than have the second shelved
by the resignation of the Cabinet. Another
group will reverse the process ; and the
Government will successfully carry both
measures, though each would have been lost
if the reluctant supporters of the Govern-
ment had given their votes exclusively on
the merits of the particular measure.
What is true of the House of Commons
is still more true of the electorate. The
electorate chooses its party, not its specific
measures. The prospect of Tariff Reform
or of Local Option, of Land Reform or of
an Education Bill, may decide which party
shall predominate in Parliament ; but the
electorate does not endorse beforehand all
the measures which that party may see fit
to adopt before another General Election.
Different projects may be the decisive
factors in the choice of different constitu-
encies which unite to bring the same party
into power ; and it is possible that neither
project has the direct approval of a maj ority
of constituencies, or of a majority of mem-
bers, and may yet both be part of
the avowed programme of the
Decisive
Factors at
Elections
Ministers whom the victorious
party will support in passing
both. It may be noted in passing that the
resignation of the Cabinet does not
necessarily involve the formation of a
Ministry from the Opposition. If it is the
outcome of dissensions within the Cabinet,
the leader of the revolt, or someone in
sympathy with the revolt, may be given
the opportunity of reconstructing the
u 5433
INTERIOR OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS. AS SEEN FROM THE THRONE
INTERIOR OF THE CHAMBER, LOOKING TOWARDS THE THRONE
GREAT BRITAIN'S UPPER HOUSE OF PARLIAMENT
5434
INTERIOR OF THE HOUSE, LOOKING TOWARDS THE STRANGERS GALLERY
INTERIOR OF THE HOUSE, LOOKING TOWARDS THE SPEAKERS CHAIR
SCENES IN THE BRITISH HOUSE OF COMMONS
5435
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
How the
Party System
Works
Government. But the fundamental fact is
that the House of Commons will not
formally attack Government measures or
administration merely because it dis-
approves in particulars, so long as it sees
in the defeat of Ministers the prospect only
of an alternative Government, of which
it disapproves more strongly in general.
Hence we arrive, not at
the predominance of the
House of Commons as a
whole, nor exactly at a pre-
dominance of the Cabinet, but at a balance
between the Cabinet and the majority
of the party from which it is drawn.
Unless some such vital question arises
as Home Rule or Tariff Reform, the
minorities of the party will support the
majority, and the majority will support
the Cabinet. The Cabinet can go its own
way so long as the threat of resignation
will keep its majority solid ; but the
Cabinet cannot defy a majority which is
ready to demand its resignation if it does
so. But beyond the House of Commons
there is the House of Lords, which can
render the legislation — though not the
administration — nugatory so long as it
does not endanger its own existence by so
doing. The peers have been not infre-
quently threatened, but threatened men
live long. It cannot well be maintained in
the circumstances as expounded that a
supremacy can be definitely located.
The will of the majority of the House
of Commons is not necessarily, at least in
particulars, that of the electorate. The
vote of the majority does not necessarily
express the wish even of that majority.
The Cabinet is powerless unless it can
command that vote, and the vote itself
may be rendered nugatory by the peers.
It may be seen that the system is
decidedly remote from any logical ideal,
and this will be further emphasised by two
considerations. The first of these is the
structure of the Cabinet, which conducts
administration. The logician
• *fK sT t would set an expert at the head
i? ^ . * ! of each Department of state ;
Departments ,, . ^ • i • ■<
the system provides m each a
board of expert advisers, but sets at the
head someone who, as often as not, is
entirely without experience in the work
of that department. We may have a
bookseller at the Admiralty, a meta-
physician at the War Office, a war-
correspondent at the Board of Trade, a
country gentleman in charge of Finance,
5436
auii an untravelled attorney in charge of
India or the Colonies. Experience teaches
that the practice has very high merits,
but it is supremely paradoxical.
The second point is that the whole
system rests on the theory that one or
other of two parties can always com-
mand a majority in the Commons. Yet
there is nothing in the nature of things to
ensure that this shall always be the case ;
on the contrary, a third party has been in
existence for many years, and once at least
neither of the two great parties could have
conducted the Government while the third
party refused its support. A fourth party
has already come definitely into existence ;
it can no longer be regarded as in any way
certain that one party will be able to
command a majority of the House.
It will be necessary for two, or possibly
for three of the parties to come to
terms of alliance, and the programme,
or part of the programme, of a small
minority may be forced on Ministers as
the condition on which their own par-
ticular programme can be carried through.
Our point is that democratisation seems
. , to tend of itself to the multi-
Bntam s plication of parties, and the
th^^r'^t' "^ multiplication of parties tends
to produce legislative deadlock
and extreme instability of administration.
And it appears at the present moment by
no means improbable that the group of
questions here indicated may be rendered
additionally complicated at an early date
by the appearance of the women's franchise
in the sphere of practical politics.
Nevertheless, we may take heart of
grace. Our political constitution has
always and everywhere presented an
abundance of paradoxes and inconsisten-
cies, which ought by rule to have prevented
progress by locking the machinery ; yet
the machinery has never been brought to
a standstill, nor have the works been kept
going by destroying the old machinery to
replace it with a brand-new article. It
has always been found possible to adapt
the old machinery to the new work it had
to do ; and we may confidently expect
that the process of adaptation will con-
tinue, the machinery will still work with-
out revolutionary reconstruction, and the
population of these islands will not cease
yet awhile to hold a foremost place among
the free nations of the world, of which
nations not a few will be our brothers of
the British Empire. A. D. Innes
INFORMATION ABOUT THE UNITED KINGDOM
Area and Population. The area of the con-
stituent parts of the United Kingdom and the popu-
lation at last census (1901), including the Army,
Navy, and merchant seamen abroad, are as follow ;
j Sq.miles
Population
England
Wales .
50,9o;i
7.421
:i0.811,42n
1,716,42:!
Scotland
4.472,10X
:!a,:i60
4,458,775
Isle of Man
227
54.7.52
Channel Islai
Anny, Navy,
ids
and Meiciiai
t Seamen abr
Total
lad' ' '. '.
9.5.618
;i67,736
121.391
41.976,827
Parliament. The supreme legislative power of
the British Empire vests in Parliament, which
consists of the representatives of the three estates
of the realm — the Clergy, the Lords, and the
Commons. The Lords Spiritual, or the representa-
tives of the clergy, and the Lords Temporal, as the
lay lords are designated, make up the Upper
Chamber, or House of Lords. The names on the
" roll " of the House of Lords number (ila at
present. The number of Lords Spiritual in the
Upper House is 26, and must include the Arch-
bishops of Canterbury and York, and the Bishops
of London, Durham and Winchester. No Scottish
or Irish bishops sit in the House of Lords. The
Lords Temporal consist of hereditary peers, life
peers and law lords. Princes of the royal house
have seats in the House of Lords, and although
there are three of them on the roll of the
House — the Prince of Wales, the Duke of Connaught,
and the Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha — they never
debate, and seldom take part in a division. There
are 28 Irish representative peers, who are elected
for life ; 16 Scottish representative peers, who are
elected for each Parliament ; and 22 dukes, 23
marquises, 124 earls, 40 viscounts, and 333 barons —
sitting liy right of their peerage. The House of
Commons, or Lower Chamber, is an elective
assembly on a low property franchise established
by the Act of 1884, which made the Commons a
democratic Chamber. There are 670 members in
all, distributed as follows :
Counties
Boroughs
Universities
ToUl
England
Wales
Scotland
Iielanil
2:14
19
39
85
226
11
31
16
2
465
30
ITO
377
2S4
' 9
670
Of these London returns 60 members, including
one member from London University. Details of
electoral qualification differ in different parts of the
United Kingdom. The voting quaHfication upon the
basis of property ownership is :
§^
fa J Freehold estate worth 40.s. annually.
fdj Land held in any tenure for life and worth £5 annually.
fij Leasehold of £5 annual value, of which original term was for
not less than 00 years.
fi^J Leasehold of £60 annual value, of which original term was
not less than 20 years.
TS rfaj Lands and heritages of £5 annual value.
g I (bj Leasehold of £10 annual value, held for life or original term V)eing
^ V for not less than 57 yevrs.
g I fcj Leasehold of £50 annual value, original term of not less than
f- \ 19 years.
(a) Freehold of £5 net annual value.
(h) Rent charges on leases for life of £10 annual value.
fi) Leasehold of £10 aimual value, originally held for not le.ss than
60 years.
(tij Leasehold of £20 annual value, originally held for not le.ss than
14 years.
There is also throughout the ITnited Kingdom an occupation and a
residence qualirtcjition to vote, and lodgers renting accommodation worth
£10 a year anfuniished may claim a vote after 12 mouths' residence prior
to any July 15. Liverymen of the City of London, graduates on the
electoral roll of the Universities of Oxfoi'd, Camhridge, Dublin, and
L«ndon, and members of the University Court and General Council of
Edinburgh, Glasgow, St. Andrews and Aberdeen, vote for the City of
London, and for their respective viniversities.
Unless dissolved by the Crown, l^uliament lasts
for seven years. Tlie sovereign summons, prorogues
or dissolves Parliament, and gives the royal assent
to Bills that have passed both Chambers. The
Lord High Chancellor is Sj)eaker of the House of
Lords as well as principal legal adviser to the
Crown ; and the Speaker of the House of Commons
is elected to that office by the House, and holds
office until a dissolution.
Government. In practice, government is carried
on by the Cabinet, which is really a committee of the
Privy Council. The Cabinet always includes, in
addition to the Prime Minister, the First Lord of the
Treasury, Lord Chancellor, Lord President of the
Council, Lord Privy Seal, the five Secretaries of State
— Home, Foreign, Colonial, War and India — and the
First Lord of the Admiralty. But it usually includes
other seven or eight heads of dejiartments, such as
the Chief Secretary for Ireland, the Presidents of
the Local Government Board, of the Board of
Trade, and of the Board of Education and the
Postmaster-General, thus making about 18 members
in all. The Prime Minister is invariably the leader
of the great parliamentary party that has, at the
time of his assumption of power, the commanding
number of votes in the House of Commons. The
sovereign sends for this leader, exercising his
discretion in the event of several members of the
party having apparently equal claims to the ability
and position of leader, and entrusts him with the
formation of a Ministry, which consists of about
50 Ministers, of whom about eighteen usually form a
Cabinet, as indicated above.
Monarch. The reigning king is Edward VII.,
born November 9ih, 1841, son of Queen Victoria
and the Prince Consort — Prince Albert of Saxe-
Coburg-Gotha — succeeded his mother on January
22nd, 1901. He is the seventh ruler of the House
of Hanover. His official title is : Edward VII., by
the grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, and of the British Dominions
Beyond the Seas, King, Defender of the Faith,
Emperor of India.
Finance. The total National Debt of the
United Kingdom on March 31st, 1908, was
£759,820,051, made up as follows :
Funded— Permanent £625,608.890
Annuities 39,407,575
Unfunded 43,9.59,400
Other CapiUl Liabilities 50,8.50,186
£759,826,031
Suez Canal shares and other assets represent
value for £44,392,863, so that the net debt is
£715,433,188. The funded debt is nearly all in
2i- per cent. Consols. The interest and sinking fund
charee for the financial year 1907-8 was £29.500.000,
which included £8,365,294 to the sinldng fund.
The total national revenue and expenditure for
the year 1907-8 was as follows :
REVENUE
Customs .. .. ..
Excise
Property and Income
Tax
Estate Duties
Stamps . .
House Duty
Land Tax
Post Office
Telegraphs
Crown Lauds .
Interest— Suez Canal,
eU'
Miscellaneous ..
32.490.n00
35,720,000
32,.180,000
19,070,000
7,970,000
1,960,000
7:10,000
17,880.000
4,420,000
520,000
EXPENDITURE
Interest on National
Debt
18,591,000
Rcpavmeut — National
Debt
10,909.000
Other Consolidated Func
Services
l,9ra,000
Payments to Local Taxa-
tion Accounts
11,155.000
Army
27,115,000
Navy
31,141,000
Civil Services . .
:!0,180,000
Cust'ims and Inland
Revenue
Post Office
17,527,000
£1.51,812,000
5437
INFORMATION ABOUT THE UNITED KINGDOM
Customs and Excise. The Customs Duties of
the United Kingdom are as follow :
lieer S/- to :i7/ii pir Ij-irit-l.
Chicory, raw, l:»ij. :M. per cwt. ; roaste<l. 2<1. per lb.
Cocoa and cocoa Initter, Id. per lb.
Chocolate, "id. per lb.
Cotfee, raw, lis. per cwt. ; roasted or ground, 2d. per lb.
Currants, 23. per cwt.
Fiu's. raisins, French plums and prunes, 7s. per cwt.
Playing cjirds, 3H'i- Per p:u.k.
Spiiits. lis. 4d. and lis. 3d. per proof gallon, or Is. per gallon extra if
bottled.
Soap containing alcohol. 3d. per lb.
Su^Tir. 2s. to 4s. 2d. per cwt.
Tea. 5fl. per lb.
Tobacco, raw, 3/- to 3s. 41d. per lb.
Toljacco and snuff, manufactured, :ts. 7d. to 6s. per lb.
"Wine in cask. Is. 3d. to 3s. per gallon.
The Excise Duties are as follow :
Beer, 7s. Hd. per barrel.
Spirits, lis. per gallon.
Glucose, solid, 2s. Od. per cwt. ; liquid, 2/- per cwt.
Siwcharin, Is. 3d. per oz.
There are, in addition, many e-vise licences such as game and gun
licences, marriage licences, plate licences, pawnbrokers', auctioneers',
pedlal's', hawkei's", and dog licences.
Agriculture. The total land area of the
United Kingdom is about 77,000,000 acres, and of
this total quantity about 4 per cent, consists of
woods and plantations, about 20 per cent, is
mountain and heath land used for grazing, about
35 per cent, is permanent pasture, about 25 per
cent, is arable, and the remaining 16 per cent,
consists of water surface, waste land incapable of
cultivation, and Ian I containing buildings. Accord-
ing to the latest census (1901), the total number of
persons employed in agricultm-e, including also
those employed on stock and dairy farms, gardeners
and nurserymen, seedsmen and florists, was
2,2(52,454:. The acreage of the arable land under the
principal crops was in 1907 as follows : Oats,
4,218,541 ; barley, 1,885,359 ; turnips and swedes,
1,846.128; wheat, 1,665,017 ; potatoes, 1,151,632 ;
mangolds 518,019 ; beans and peas, 478,292.
Comparison of these figures with the averages of
the five quintennial periods before 1900 show that
in every crop except oats and peas and beans the
acreage of 1907 was the smallest. Other crops with
smaller acreage are rye, cabbage, vetches or tares,
lucerne, rape, flax, and hops. In 1907 the number
of livestock were: Sheep, 30.011,219; cattle,
11,628,483 ; pigs, 3,966,824 ; and horses, 2,088,932.
Fisheries. The official figures relating to the
sea fisheries of the United Kingdom in 1906 give
the following details, which do not include fish
curers, packers, sail and net makers, and others
dependent on the fishing industry :
Regular
fishermen
Occ;«ioually
employed
Total
35,007
8,080
10,072
16,575
220
183
43,087
38,829
24,454
823
Scotland
llcland
Isle of Man
Channel Islands
2S,767
7,879
603
544
Total
72.790
35,130
107.920
The number of fishing boats, including trawlers,
liners and drifters, in 1907, was 9,332 in England
and Wales, 10.365 in Scotland, and 6,097 in Ireland.
The total quantity of the iish landed in 1907 was
23,770,271 tons, not including shell-fish ; and the
total value, including shell-fish, was £11,738,426.
MiXER.\LS. The number of persons in the
United Kingdom who were employed in mines and
quarries in 1907 was 1,01)0,034 :
Coal
Metalliferous Quarries
Under ground
Above ground . .
Females
7.'->7,887
177.081
5,650
18.569
12,S19
214
87,814
Total
940.618
31.602
87.814
The mineral output for 1907 was as follows :
Tons
Value
Tons
Value
1
Alum shale
9.90.-,
1.69-2
Gypsum
235,517
88,629
Arsenic
1.499
35,829
I.neous
Arsenical
rocks
5.674 470
1,158,951
pyrites ..
1,772
2,!I90
Iron ore
15,731.604
4,4;!3,413
Barium
Iron pyrites
10,194
4,4,S9
conipoun<ls
41,974
38,440
Lead ore
32,533
419.-247
Bauscite(alu-
Lime phos-
ininium ore)
7,.'i37
1,884
phate
32
46
Bog ore ..
6.290
1.573
Manganese
Chalk
4,779,387
200,8t2
ore
16,098
16,516
Other lime-
Mica..
14,615
5,074
stone
12,509,142
1,323.624
Ochre and
Chert and
umber
14,692
14.409
flint
53,664
12,705
Petroleum
Clay and
shale
2,690.028
806,323
shale
14,827.895
1.8.50.387
Salt ..
1,984.6.56
648,1596
Coal
267,830,962
120,.')27.378
Sandstone . .
5,012,053
l,-397.-285
Copper ore . .
6,625
21,-253
Silver ore ..
-2
:I48
Copper preci-
Slate.
443,554
1,178.609
pitate
267
12,665
Sulphate o<
Diatomite . .
150
4.50
stroutia ..
10,745
8.0.59
Fluorspar .
49,462
23,311
Tin ore
7,080
706.700
Gold ore
1'2,978
5.623
Uranium ore
71
6,.500
Giavel and
Wolfram ore
:»2
41.044
sand
2,400.392
183.625
Zinc ore . .
20.082
100..533
General Industries. No official or other stat-
istics give precise or approximate information regard-
ing the output of the many manufacturing industries
of the United Kingdom. Exports and imports are
carefully tabulated, but not output. The census
of Production Act of 1906 wUl remedy this defect in
our industrial statistical system by collecting data
regarding the nature and volume of our home pro-
duction. Meantime, the only standards of compari-
son are the census returns which concern occupation.
Last census (1901) showed the. numbers of persons
employed in various occupations to be as follow:
General or local government of the country
Defence of the country (excluding army, navy, and marines
abroad)
Professional occupations and their subordinate services . .
Domestic offices or services (excluding domestic or outdoor service)
Commercial occupations
Conveyance of men, goods, and me.'ssages .
Agi'iculture
Fishing
In and about and dealing in the prod\ictof mines and quarries. .
Metal, machines, implements, and conveyances
Precious metals, jewels, watches, iustnuueiits and games
(including electricity supply)
Building and works of construction
Wood, furniture, fittings, and decorations
Brick, cement, pottery, and glass .. *
Chemicals, oil, grease, soap, etc
Skins, leather, hair and feathers
Paper, prints, books, and stationery
Textile fabrics .
Workers and dealers in dress . , . . . . . . .
Food, tobacco, drink, and lodging
Gas, water, and sanitary service . .
Other general and undefined workers and dealers
Total
2.53,863
203.993
733,582
2.199..517
712.465
1.4.97.6-29
2.->62,454
61,9-25
943,380
1,475,410
168,344
1,3:B,8-20
307.6:«
189.85J
149.67.5
117,866
.•f34.-2t>l
1.462,001
1,395,795
1,301.070
78.686
1,07.5,414
18.-261.146
Imports and Exports. The imports of mer-
chandise into the United Kingdom for the j^ear
1907 were of the value of £645,807,942, and the
exports were of the value of £426,035,083. Of the
imports British possessions supplied 24^ per cent.,
and of the exports British possessions took 32 per
cent. The exports are divided into three classes :
1. Food, drink, and tobacco £-2-.>, 729,648
2. Raw materials and articles, mainly manufactured .. .. 55.003,081
.3. Articles wholly or mainly manufactured ;J42.0-25.-273
Miscellaneous and unclassified 6,-277.081
Total
. £4-26.0:«,08:l
The third class is further divided into groups, as
follows :
Iron and steel and manufactures thereof . . i;46..563.386
Other metals .. 11,674.131
Cutlei-y. hardware, implements and instruments . . . . 6,4;{4,002
Electrical goods and apparatus (not machinery and wire) . . 2.469,9-27
Machinery .11,743.-253
Ships mew) 10.018.113
Manufactures of wowl and timber .. .. 1,407,9:12
Yarn and textile fabrics —
Cotton 110.4 57,092
Wool -. .. 34,158,8.57
Other materials 16.503,896
Apparel .. .. 7,177,764
Chemicals, drugs, dyes, and colours 17,052,7.55
Le.ither and manufactures thereof 6,599..591
Earthenware and glais 4.048.bfl.-t
Paper 2.344.-2:!0
Miscellaneous 33,.391.45l
5438
INFORMATION ABOUT THE BRITISH EMPIRE
Area and Porui.ATiON. The area of the entire
British Empire is about 11,400,000 square miles,
which is about 21 per cent, of the known Imd sur-
face of the globe ; and the po])ulation of the entire
British Empire is about 410,000.000. which is about
22 per cent, of the entire population of the globe.
The area and population (estimated for 1907) of the
constituent parts of the British Empire areas follow _
Sq. miles
Population
United Kingdom
121.391
44,100.2:1]
Gibraltar and Malt* .
119
22.5.3] 4
Cyprue
3. .MO
. 250.590
Aden
9,080
43,970
1,0S7.124
2:!], 855,533
Indian Feudatory States
67!),;i93
62,461.649
Ceylon
•2o.:«0
3,984,980
Straits Settlements, Malay States and Islands . .
101,110
2,1.52.770
SUtions in China
610
.568,070
Australia and British New Guinea (Papua)
3,065,120
4.479.840
New Zealand, with dependent islands
104,750
900,920
raeittu Islands— Fiji, Tonga, Solomon, and Gilbert
Islands
16,670
331,840
British West Africa, with St. Helena and Ascen-
sion
486,640
16,814,.360
British South Africa, with Rhodesia
1,241,7.50
8.288.600
Nyassaland and Uganda ..
ay>J,090
6.540,000
Zanzibar, Somaliland, Mauritius, and Seychelles. .
70.010
903,000
<'anada. Newfoundland, and Labrador
3,it08,;)00
6.216.340
Bennuda and West India islands
12.040
1,746.530
British Honduius
7..')60
41,010
British Guiana
90.280
307.000
Falkland Islands and South Georgia
7,.50O
2.070
The total revenue of the British Empire is more
than £400.000,000, and the National and State
Debts aggregate over £1,500,000,000. The trade of
the empire is more than £1,600,000,000 annually.
There is more than 90,000 mileage of railway, and
the total tonnage of shipping sailing under the
British flag is 12,160.000 tons.
All the great self-governing colonies — Canada,
South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand — have a
preferential scheme of Customs duties, whereby
articles of British manufacture are taxed upon a
lower tariff than similar goods from foreign countries.
Colonial Constitutions. Royal authority over
British oversea dominions (except India) is exer-
cised by the Secretary of State for the Colonies,
who has the power of veto over all laws passed by
colonial legislatures. This power of veto is,
however, seldom exercised. The Secretary of State
for the Colonies, or the Colonial Secretary as he is
more frequently termed, presides over the Colonial
Office, the state department through which he
exercises his executive authority. Actual executive
action is confined to the affairs of Crown Colonies
and Protectorates, but the department is the channel
through which the self-governing colonies arrange
matters involving imperial and foreign interests.
C!overnors of colonies are chosen by the king upon
the advice of the Colonial Secretary.
The colonies and dependencies fall into seven
classes, according to their constitutions :
(a) India has a constitution differing from all
other colonies and dependencies, and is under the
Secretary of State for India and the Indian Council,
who preside over the India Office, a department in-
dependent from the Colonial Office. [See page 1303.]
(b) Self-governing colonies, where the Colonial
Secretary has control over no public officer except
the governor, and where the Crown has reserved
only the power of disallowing legislation. These
colonies are the six states comprising the Australian
Commonwealth (of which Papua is a dependency),
Canada, Newfoundland, New J^ealand, Cape Colony,
Natal, Transvaal, and Orange River Colony.
(r) Colonies with an elected House of Assembly
and a nominated Legislative Council. These are
Bahamas, Barbados, and Bermuda.
{d) Colonies with a partly elected LegislatiA e
Council. These colonics and dependencies are
British Guiana, Fiji, Jamaica, Leeward Islands,
Malta, and Mauritius. In all except British
Guiana the constitution provides for an official
majority in the Legislative Council. Cyprus has a
constitution similar to that of British Guiana ;
but although administered by the British Colonial
Office, it is, technically, a Tuikish possession.
(e) Colonies and dejjendencies with Legislative
Councils nominated by the Biitish Crown. These
are British Honduras, Falkland Islands, St. Lucia, St.
Vincent,Trinidad, Grenada, East Africa Protectorate,
Gambia, Gold Coast, Sierra Leone, Southern Nigeria,
Nyassaland, Ceylon, Hong Kong, and Straits
Settlements. In all these, except British Honduras,
the constitution provides for an official majority.
(/) Colonies and ))rotectorates without a Legis-
lative Council. These are : Ashanti, Basutolaud,
Bechuanaland, Gibraltar, Northern Nigeria,
Northern Territories of the Gold Coast, St. Helena,
Somaliland, Uganda, \Vei-hai-wei, and the Western
Pacific Islands which are under a single high
commissioner, and include the Tonga, or Friendly
Islands, Union, Ellice, Gilbert. Southern Solomon,
Santa Cruz, and New Hebrides Islands, Pitcairn
and Ocean Island or Paanopa.
(g) Territory administered by a compan3% under
powers conferred by Royal Charter. The only such
territory is Rhodesia, which is administered by the
British South Africa Company, through an adminis-
trator and four members ajipointed by the company,
with the approval of the Colonial Secretary,
assisted by a Legislative Council partly elected.
The Colonial Office. For convenience of
administration the Colonial Office is divided into
three departments (a) the Dominions Department,
which is concerned with the self-governing colonies,
and with those Crown Colonies and Protectorates
in South Africa and the Pacific Ocean which are
intimately connected with self-governing colonies ;
{b) the Crown Colonies Department, which is
concerned with the administration of the Crown
Colonies ; and (c) the General Department, which
is i-esponsible for the general routine work of the
office and affairs common to all Crown Colonies — i.e.,
banking, currency, education, posts and telegraphs.
The British Colonial Office transacts business in
the United Kingdom for the following colonies and
protectorates, and acts in the capacity of their
commercial and financial agents : Bahamas,
Barbados, Basutoland, Bechuanaland, Bermuda,
British Guiana, British Honduras, Ceylon. Cyprus,
East Africa Protectorate, Falkland "islands, Fiji,
Gambia, Gibraltar, Gold Coast, Hong Kong,
Jamaica, Labuan, Leeward Islands, Malta, Mau-
ritius, Newfoundland, Nigeria, Nyassaland. St.
Helena, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somaliland Pro-
tectorate, Straits Settlements, Swaziland, Tobago,
Trinidad. Turks Island, Uganda, Wci-hai-wei, and
the Windward Islands. The Colonial Office receives
instructions direct from the colonial governments,
but takes the opinion and advice of the Secretary
of State for the Colonies upon important matters,
and upon any question of constitutional principle.
Imperial Conference. A conference, at which
the British Government and the self-governing
colonies are represented, is held every four years.
The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom i-5
president ex officio, and the Secretary of State for the
Colonies is a member of the Conference, and acts
as chairman in the absence of the president. The
last conference was held in 1907.
5439
5440
hi
i\^
THE BRITISH EMPIRh
FROM EARLIEST TIMES TO THE PRESENT DAY
ITS EFFECT ON WORLD HISTORY
By Sir Harry Johnston, G.CM.G.
THE EMPIRE IN THE MAKING AND THE
WONDERFUL PROGRESS OF TWO CENTURIES
DEFORE considering in detail the evolu-
•'-' tion of the British Empire, and the
effect of that empire on the British people
and on the world at large, it may be as well
to glance at the elements which have
formed the present tribes of English and
Keltic-speaking people of Great Britain
and Ireland, who from the point of view
of the extent, population, wealth, and
civilisation of their empire in Europe,
America, Asia and Africa have been up to
the present the first among ruling races.
The people now inhabiting the British
Islands are, so far as investigations go
in history, archaeology and palaeontology,
the result of many layers of humanity,
belonging in the main to the white,
or Caucasian, sub-species, which have
inhabited England, Wales, Scotland and
Ireland for the last hundred thousand
years or so. Man, of a Neanderthaloid
type, that is to say, a creature resembling
most, of all existing races, the black
Australians or the Veddahs of Ceylon,
probably entered England when Great
Britain, and even Ireland, were eccentric-
ally shaped peninsulas attached
by isthmuses one to the other
and to the north of France
and Belgium. A calvarium —
upper part of the skull — has been exhumed
in vSligo, North-west Ireland, and is now
in the British Museum of Natural History,
which offers some resemblance to the
Neanderthaloid crania found in Belgium,
the Rhine Valley, and the Carpathians.
The First
Inhabitants
of Britain
This early and generalised type of
humanity, which some anthropologists
think should be classified as a separate
species of humanity, was, at any rate, near
the basic stock of Horny sapiens before
this last became differentiated into the
M f th N^g'O' Mongol, or Caucasian
J, . sub-species. The Man of Nean-
St A derthal, I believe, bore a strong
resemblance to the lower types
of black Australians of to-day, and these
last offer considerable analogies in skull
form and in culture to the early
palaeolithic men of Britain. Whether
man continuously inhabited the British
peninsulas during the changes of climate
which marked the Pleistocene period, with
its glacial interludes of Polar conditions,
is not yet clearly established. The recur-
ring cycles of extreme cold which covered
Scotland, Northern England, and the.
greater part of Ireland with an ice sheet
may have killed out the Australoid
men of the Early Stone Age ; or these
latter may have gradually accustomed
themselves to the cold and have survived
to more genial conditions.
Or the PalaeoHthic people, with their
projecting brows, retreating foreheads,
long arms and shambling legs, were per
haps exterminated not bychmatic changes,
but by the inrush of the fiist definitely
" white " people of the Caucasian stock.
These, it is surmised, were more or
less akin to the Iberian people of Medi-
terranean Europe, Western (and far
544 1
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
North-eastern) Asia and North Africa —
white men with dark hair and brown eyes.
Then parts of Europe, and perhaps Great
Britain, were invaded by a round-headed
people, probably of Asiatic origin, who
seem to have brought with them a greater
number and variety of domestic animals and
improved arts. Mongoloid tribes of short
D^.. . heads, or long-headed
T,. rr. . types like the Eskimo, may
Three Thousand i^ , i i /- "l
v»,., A„^ also have reached Great
Britain from the north-east
across the ice sheet, and have penetrated to
Ireland. The Iberians of prehistoric days
probably spoke a language allied to modern
Basque or to the Berber tongues of North
Africa. Some three or four thousand years
ago our islands were conquered and over-
run from the East by the first Aryans —
long-headed Northern Europeans, with red
or blond hair and blue eyes; early Kelts,
in fact, who grafted their Aryan speech
on to the Iberian stock, and so brought into
existence the Keltic languages of the two
very distinct modern branches — Scoto-Irish
(Goidhelic), and Welsh (Brythonic).
This amalgam of people — the earlier
tribes of which resembled very much, no
doubt, the modern Ainos of Japan, the
Lapps of Northern Europe, the Auver-
gnats of Central France, the Finns, and
the modern Belgians — warred, inter-
married, compromised, and co-existed in
innumerable tribes under petty chieftains,
quite outside the history of the civihsed
Mediterranean world — though not out of
touch with its commerce — until some five
hundred years before Christ ; when the
coasts of Southern England may have
been reached by Phoenician trading ships,
who later brought back some news of
Britain and even Ireland to the Greek geo-
graphers of Alexander's day and kingdom.
Then came the extension of the
Roman Empire, the invasion of England
by Caesar — because the Brythonic Kelts
made common cause with their Gallo-
_ , Belgian kinsmen — and the
aesar s beginning of the historical
Invasion of ^. , ■ n ■, ■ c~^■^^
-. J . period in Britain. Still, our
countries continued to receive,
and not to export, humanity. In the
centuries that followed the Roman Con-
quest a few Irish missionaries, or British
refugees, found their way into Northern
France, where the Bretons constituted
the first of British colonies. But the
islands of Great Britain, Ireland and Man
still attracted colonists from the outer
5442
world. Hordes of Germanic people
occuj)ied England and Eastern Scotland,
coming from Scandinavia and the Western
and North-western parts of modern Ger-
many. Denmark and Norway between the
ninth and thirteenth centuries must have
contributed quite two millions of immi-
grants— tall, fair-haired, blue-eyed, but
also occasionally tall and dark-haired
(from Denmark, where an anterior Iberian
people had left its traces) — to the popula-
tion of Eastern England, Eastern and
Northern Scotland, the Isle of Man, and
all the coast regions of Ireland.
The Norman Conquest brought in its
train and as its results several thousands
of Frenchmen — tinged with Norse blood.
The French kings of England, the
Plantagenets, planted many colonies of
Flemings from Belgium, or Germans
from the lower Rhine ; also occasional
settlers from South-west France. A few
Spaniards came and remained with Philip
II. of Spain, or were stranded on these
shores as prisoners during the wars of the
sixteenth century. Gipsies had crossed
over to England at the close of the fifteenth
, century and had rapidly pene-
Age of
trated, several thousand in
Maturity
number, to the wilder parts of
East Anglia, the Welsh Border-
land, and Lowland Scotland, contributing
a picturesque attenuated element of the
Dravidian to a populace mostly pink
and white and blond-haired.
In the wonderful Tudor period, the
sixteenth century, the great race move-
ments which had colonised these islands
ceased for a time ; and Britain, having
reached maturity, was ready to send
its superfluous and, above all, its ad-
venturous sons to seek new homes and
found new nations, it is true that in
the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries
there came a few thousand French
refugees from religious persecution — in-
valuable as individuals ; and that in
the nineteenth century there has been
an immigration of Germans, of Jews
from Eastern and Northern Europe, and
of Italians. These aliens — most of them
desirable, a few undesirable — though not
reaching to the sum total of a million,
still have made and will make their mark
on the future type of the British popula-
tion, especially in the towns. But for
the purposes of our survey it may be
stated that the colonisation of Great
Britain and Ireland ceased at the end of
THE STORY OF BRITISH EXPANSION
the fifteenth century ; and that at this
period began the wonderful outpouring
ot energy which was to create not only
the largest empire that the world has ever
known, but probably the biggest con-
geries of states under the rule of one
monarch that the world will ever know
until the complete federation of mankind
under one earthly head is accomplished.
This resume of the race elements in the
British Islands has been necessary in
order that we may arrive at some appre-
ciation of the type of humanity which
has conquered and colonised the British
Empire. It is a breed retaining strains
of the Iberian, even of the earliest of the
prehistoric peoples of Northern Europe,
but is nevertheless an amalgam in which
the blond Aryan type predominates ; the
type which is chiefly associated at the
present day with the speaking of Low
German dialects. To this group English
belongs. The people who founded the
British Empire in the days of the Tudors
and Stuarts were mainly Teutonic and
Scandinavian in descent, though tinged
with the Iberian in the seamen of Devon
and Cornwall. The British
colonisers and adventurers
of the fifteenth, sixteenth,
seventeenth, and eighteenth
centuries were almost entirely drawn from
Southern Scotland, Eng'and and Wales.
Ireland during ih^se centuries was itself a
" champ d'exploitation " on the part of our
ruthless ancestors of the larger island,
though occasionally in the seventeenth
century some hundreds of rebellious Irish
were deported to the West Indies.
It was not until the nineteenth century
that the union of Ireland with England —
however unjustly it was brought about —
threw open to the sons of Ireland all the
advantages of the British Empire. Since
then, during the nineteenth and the
first few years of the twentieth centuries,
the Irish, proportionately, have done
more in colonising the daughter states of
the empire and in administering India
and the Crown colonies than the people
of Great Britain.
England was the first amongst the
arbitrary sub-national divisions of the
now United Kingdom to think of colonis-
ing. This movement began after the
European revival of learning, known as
the Renaissance. As already mentioned,
however, the English were not the first
colonisers to leave these islands ; for in
Founders
of tha British
Empire
the period that immediately followed the
extension of Roman civilisation in Britain,
the Irish — who, though they were never
actually under the sway of Rome, had
become, through the Church, one of the
most Romanised peoples of Western
Europe — had been stirred by a strange
spirit of adventure, which first took the
_ . ,, form of missionary travels in
Ireland s c ^i j t-> ^ /^
„ . bcotland, r ranee and Germany,
ca aring ^^^^ then linked on with
Pioneers -^ •■• i-
Norse maritime discovery ; so
that from Ireland came one of the first
mysterious hints of a New World beyond
the Atlantic. It is doubtful whether
the seafaring monks or fishermen of
Western Ireland ever reached the North
American continent, even by following
the Norse route to the Faroes, Iceland,
Greenland and Newfoundland ; but it
does- seem possible that the Irish may
have sailed south-westwards past the
coasts of Portugal to the Azores or Madeira,
or even as far to the north-west as the
once larger island of Rockall. Their
more than half legendary adventures
deserve mention, since they became the
germ that inspired the English and
Welsh raiders of the Plantagenet centuries
with the idea of oversea discovery.
The Danish and Norwegian invaders
of our islands were colonisers of the most
successful type. They were looking for
homes beyond the inclement lands of
Scandinavia — inclement under ancient
conditions — and they brought to the
Anglo-Saxon civilisation of Alfred much
knowledge of Northern geography.
Through these, and through the civilised
Franks of France, Alfred, the Saxon king
of Southern England, was linked up
(Rome helping) with the Byzantine Em-
pire ; and there is an actual tradition of
Alfred having despatched, in 883, Sighelm
of Sherborne as a pilgrim, via Rome, to
the shrine of St. Thomas, in " India."
Though Sighelm may have got no further
than the Nestorian churches
England s ^^ Mesopotamia, still even a
Commerce -q^^.^^^, ^q India was quite
with Venice '^^^^-y-^f^ ^^ ^he days before the
Seljuk and Ottoman Turks had raised
barriers of fanaticism between Christian
Europe and Mohammedan Asia.
Commerce brought the England of the
Plantagenets into touch with Venice —
Venice which had already revealed to
the world, through such travellers as
Marco Polo, the existence of Asiatic
5443
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
kingdoms, islands and peninsulas as far
as China, Sumatra and Java. Venetian
maritime explorers turned their attention
to the discovery of Ultima Thule, possibly
as the result of some news having reached
V^enice of the Norwegian settlements in
lands across the Northern Atlantic, also
because of the important fisheries in the
. . far North-west. In Plantagenet
o/Marit?^ times, however, the British lust
° *" "'*® for conquest and colonisation
was slaked by the attempts
to conquer and settle Scotland, Ireland,
Northern and Western France. The idea
of maritime adventure did not dawn on
the English people till after the Wars of
the Roses and the establishment of the
Tudor dynasty ; in fact, until the very end
of the fifteenth century. Even then the
mass of the people thought of no such
thing. The impulse was first given by
the far-sighted though stingy monarch,
Henry VII., the father-in-law of an
Aragonese princess, through whose rela-
tions he had heard of the conquest and
settlement of the Canary Islands and
Madeira, and of Spanish, Poituguese,
Majorcan and Genoese adventures along
the West Coast of Africa.
To the court of Henry VII. came an
adventurous but disappointed Venetian
mariner, John Cabot, whose famous
son, Sebastian, was probably born at
Bristol. In the minds of this and other
Venetian navigators may have lingered the
semi-legendary voyages of Nicola and
Antonio Zeno in the fourteenth century—
perhaps founded on Norse traditions^
which led them to habitable lands on the
other side of the North Atlantic to the
Vineland (Rhode Island), where grew wild
grapes in profusion. Henry Tudor com-
mitted himself as grudgingly to maritime
discovery as did the father-in-law of his son,
Ferdinand of Aragon. John and Sebastian
Cabot, however, led British crews to the
discovery of Newfoundland and other
_ „ points of North America, with
c ar y ^^ very immediate results. But
oyages o ^j^gj^ ^j^g Englishmen of Devon
iscovcry ^^^ Cornwall, of London,
Bristol, Pembroke, Cardiff, Swansea,
Poole, Southampton, Tilbury, Lowestoft,
and Yarmouth built better and bigger
ships in imitation of, or under the teach-
ing of, the Norman French — who, in all
probability, had sailed to West Africa as
early as the middle of the fourteenth cen-
tury— the Dutch, Venetians, Genoese, and
5444
Spaniards; and when, disdaining further
foreign pilotage, they started forth in their
own bottoms, guided by their own naviga-
tors and financed by their own capitalists,
they did not for the moment turn their
attention to America, but devoted them-
selves eagerly to the West African trade.
As I have related in other chapters,
it was the longing for pepper, the desire
to make money by carrying slaves, and
finally the thirst for gold, that drew the
British to West Africa during the reigns of
Edward, Mary, and Elizabeth. At first
the British adventurers hired themselves
as mariners to the Portuguese, and so
found out their way to the Guinea coast.
Later, they would engage a Portuguese
as captain or supercargo. But by the
year 1554 they were sufficiently sure of
themselves to undertake an all-British
venture to West Africa under the com-
mand of Captain John Lok, with whom
travelled Sir George Barn and Sir John
York. The two ships under Captain Lok's
command visited the coast of Liberia and
reached the Gold Coast in 1555. In 1585
and 1588, Queen Elizabeth issued two
patents, or monopolies, for
Royal Patron
of
English Trade
trade with the Atlantic coast
of Africa. The earlier dealt
with Morocco; the second
with the region between the Senegal and
the Gambia. A third charter, or patent,
issued in 1592, covered the Guinea coast
between the River Nunez and, approxi-
mately, the Sherbro district.
The transportation of negro slaves
from West Africa to the West Indies
and Spanish America — first undertaken
by Captain (afterwards Sir John)
Hawkins in 1562 — initiated the British
into the wonders, the wealth, and the
attractiveness of these lands of the Gulf
of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea.
Though they never lost their grip on, or
their interest in, the West African coast,
the national enterprise of England during
the last third of the sixteenth century and
the hundred years that followed was mainly
directed to the New World. Whilst Eliza-
beth was on the throne they snatched at
many an isolated city, here and there at a
promontory or an islet. But though they
possessed inconceivable daring and cour-
age, they had not the means oathe national
force with which to hold on to their con-
quests. Elizabeth, before the unsuccessful
attack of the Armada, feared to take any
direct government action for the founding
iHE ACQUISITION OF NEWFOUNDLAND BY SIR HUMPHREY GILBERT, 11^ i ..- .
In 1578, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, a soldier and navigator, received from Queen Elizabeth a charter for discovery, to plant
a colony, and be governor ; but, owing to the difficulties which beset him it was not till 1583 that he achieved his
purpose, taking possession, in the queen's name, of the harbour of St. John's, and two hundred leagues every way for
himself, his heirs and assigns for ever. The illustration shows Sir Humphrey among the rough fishermen and sailors.
From Ihe drawing by R. Caton Woodvillc
5445
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
of British colonies which might give
umbrage to Spain, but had no wisli unduly
to check British maritime adventure so
long as it cost her nothing but documents,
messages of good will, or gilded figure-heads.
Accordingly, Sir Humphrey Gilbert
— an elder stepbrother of Raleigh, who
had distinguished himself by his valour in
_. , one of the wars for the sub-
Ill F t d jugation of Ireland — received a
E At' vague charter for the discovery
and colonisation of lands beyond
the seas in North America " not already
in the possession of any other Christian
prince." This was granted in 1578, but
the expeditions, financed mainly by Gilbert
and Raleigh, proved to be ill-starred. Even
before the first of them started, a certain
Knollys, who should have served under
Sir Humphrey Gilbert, treated his com-
mander with insulting contumely, alleging
that he, Knollys, being of the blood royal
by descent, could not be invited to dinner
by Gilbert, a simple knight.
The defection of Knollys crippled the ex-
pedition, which, though it reached the coast
of Virginia, left behind a poorly equipped
little colony to be starved out or killed by
Indians in the course of twelve months. Sir
Humphrey Gilbert made a fresh attempt in
1583, on the return from which he was
drowned at sea, his vessel foundering during
a gale. In the interval between the two
expeditions Raleigh, with his characteristic
optimism, concluded that his brother would
found a great state which, in anticipation,
he named Virginia, a name which was
to be revived and permanently affixed
to the map twenty-four years later.
As a matter of fact, Sir Humphrey
Gilbert was an unsuccessful Columbus.
Like Columbus, he had great ideas,
but he was no coloniser or administrator.
Gilbert was really bent on discovering
a trans-American route to India. India,
a; I shall show later, was behind most
men's ventures at this period as the
ultimate goal in all oversea
ng IS adventure. The idea of a
IP . chartered company to deal
Expansion v.. xi, x 1 f x j-
With the trade of India arose
at the end of the sixteenth century, born
of Elizabeth's notion of monopolies. Com-
panies had been formed to trade with the
Levant and Turkey ; that Turkey which
had opened up friendly relations with the
Virgin Queen, to the great, and perhaps
legitimate, disgust of the Catholics of
Southern and Western Europe, who felt.
all too truly, through Pope, emperor,
knightly orders and the descendants of
crusading kings, that Turkey was blast-
ing civilisation and wrecking the fairest
portions of the Mediterranean world.
By 1579, Thomas Stephens, a Catholic
priest of New College, Oxford, afterwards
rector of the Jesuits' College at Salsette,
near Bombay, had visited India, and by
his letters home had excited a great
interest in England in the cqmmercial
possibilities of trade with the Far East.
Trading adventurers — thanks to Turkish
protection — in spite of Hispano-Portu-
guese opposition, had reached India over-
land in 1583. By 1600, the Enghsh East
India Company had been incorporated
by Elizabeth's Royal Charter as " the
governor and company of merchants of
London trading to the East Indies."
Early trade relations with India had
grown out of Elizabeth's alliance with the
Turk, and followed an overland route
through Egypt or Syria ; but it was obvi-
ous that they could only be continued on
a grand scale and at great profit by taking
the all-sea route of the Portuguese round
the West Coast of Africa, the
°"^ *^^I d' ^'^P^ °^ Good Hope, and
Company'' '* Madagascar The Dutch
mariners led the way m 1596,
and from 1601 onwards the great sea route
was followed in preference to that of the
Mediterranean and Red Sea. The Dutch,
after three years' undisturbed mono-
poly of the Indian trade, 1596-9, had
raised the price of pepper against us
from three shillings to six, or even eight,
shillings a pound. This was the immediate
cause of the foundation of the first (and
chartered) East India Company.
Although the Stuarts have been much
and justly censured by historians for the
defects of their home policy and the deceit
which characterised their foreign dealings,
they cannot be accused of indifference
to the creation of an empire abroad ;
indeed, in this respect they showed them-
selves much more imperial than the
vaunted Elizabeth, cautious and mean as
she was in her dealings and ventures. It
was really under James I., the beheader
of Raleigh, that the transmarine empire
of the British Crown was actually founded.
Our first and oldest colony, so far as con-
tinuous possession goes, is the West Indian
island of Barbados, taken by an expedi-
tion in the ship Olive Blossom, in 1605,
though not really occupied till 1625.
THE BRITISH IN BERMUDAS: SIR GEORGE SOMERS WRECKED ON THE ISLANDS IN 1609
One of the chief promoters of the South Virginian Company, Sir George Somers sailed in ltlii9, witii a body of
settlers, and was wrecked on the then little known islands in South America called after Juan Bermudez. i" tlje
name of King James I., he took possession of the islands, which he at once colonised, and died there in 1010.
From tl\e drawing by V Talnn Woodville
5447
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
The next oldest is the state of Virginia,
definitely founded in 1607 by the building
of Jamestown on May 13th of that year.
The Bermuda Islands were accidentally
rediscovered and occupied in 1609 ; the
Bahamas in 1629. In 1606 an important
charter was granted for the eastern coast-
lands of North America, between North
. , Carolina, Maine, and Nova
ri am s g^^^^g^^ jj^jg allotted to a
Earliest t j r j
^ , . London company of adven-
turers the regions between
34° and 38° N. Lat. ; to the Plymouth
Company of Devonshire, the area bounded
north and south by the 45° and 41° of
N. Lat. ; while the intervening space was
to be open to the operations of either
company. It was this hesitancy about the
fate of the North American coast between
38° and 41° which made it easier for the
Dutch to come in a little later — 1609-162 1
— and create a colony on the site of New
York. A portion of Newfoundland was
first settled in 1623; in that year, also, was
first occupied the little^ Leeward island of
St. Christopher, which was to be the point of
departure and the rallying place of so much
British colonising enterprise in the West
Indies during the seventeenth century.
In 1610, Henry Hudson, a navigator
who, two years previously in the Dutch
service, had sought vainly for a direct
sea- passage to China round Siberia or
across North America, was despatched
by a strong joint-stock company, in which
Prince Henry of Wales interested himself,
to search for the China passage and inci-
dentally to annex territories of value.
Hudson penetrated through the Hudson
Straits — really discovered twenty years
earlier by John Davis — into Hudson's Bay.
A mutiny on board his ship on his return
caused him to be cast adrift by his crew
in the Hudson Straits, and he was never
more heard of. But his work of explora-
tion was continued by William Baffin and
other English seamen- adventurers in the
rw.^ ^ . c three succeeding years. The
The Fate of „ a u- ■*.
-, -J marvellous energy and ubiquity
_. of Elizabethan and Jacobean
seamen are exemplified in the
fate of John Davis — the great Arctic
explorer and discoverer of the Falkland
Islands — and William Baffin, the discoverer
of Baffin's Bay and Western Greenland.
Davis was one of the officers serving under
the piratical Sir Edward Michelborne in
the Malay Archipelago (China Chartered
Company), and was himself killed by Malay
544^
pirates off the modern British colony of
Malacca ; and Baffin was killed at the
siege of Ormuz, when an allied Anglo-
Persian force took that island from the
Portuguese. Owing to the death of Prince
Henry, the work of the nascent Hudson
Bay Company was not vigorously prose-
cuted for some years, though the growing
whaling and fur-getting industries kept
British interests in these regions aUve.
So much for Jacobean America; the
Asiatic enterprise of the British people under
the same monarch was simply marvellous.
In 1603 a factory had been founded at
Bantam in Java, near the exit from the
Sunda Straits. By the following year, the
British had got possession of the Banda
and Amboina Islands on the very verge
of New Guinea, a foothold from which they
were dislodged by the Dutch in 1623
by that " Amboina massacre " which so
long rankled in the minds of the English,
and was only atoned for under the reign
of Cromwell. In 1606, James granted a
licence to a company of merchants to
trade with Cathay, China, Japan, Korea,
and Cambaya — probably the first time
that Japan and Korea were ever
or uguese j^-^gj^^^^j^g^ jj^ g^j^y British official
Defeated by j , r^,-^. ^, .
*!. n •*• ». document. I his China com-
the British ^ . ^ . „
pany came to grief very rapidly
through its leading commander. Sir Edward
Michelborne, turning pirate in the Chinese
seas. In 1612 the East India Company
founded by Elizabeth had established a
post and fort at Surat, near the coast of
Western India.
The Portuguese objected violently to
this infringement of their monopoly —
they had already fought with a British
fleet in 161 1 and been worsted — and at-
tacked the British trading fleet off Swally,
at the mouth of the Tapti River in 1615.
The result of a terrific naval battle was
an absolute victory for the British, whose
right to navigate the Eastern seas was never
afterwards seriously contested by the
Portuguese. This victory, coupled with
the diplomatic mission despatched by
James I. under Sir Thomas Roe, 1615-
1618, to the court of the Mogul em-
peror, Jehangir, obtained for the British
company a special and an officially
recognised position in (he dominions of the
principal ruler of the Indian peninsula.
In 1609 the right to trade at Aden had
been obtained from the Arab sultan of that
place, and thenceforth British ships entered
the Red Sea, and in 1618 established a
H?n^ J^'n ^^F- HUDSON STRAITS : THE FATE OF A FAMOUS NAVIGATOR
Henry Hudson a famous English navigator, who had in vain sought for a direct sea-passage
ron,^r"^ /"""'' u'^^lt °J:,?"°« North America, was despatched, in 1610. by a joint stofk
wi^h'^his^on'fn^ a smil ^^0^^"%^.^ '1!^^" = ^Kl"^"^. "^'"^ ^^^'"'' *'''" '" mutiny, he was {-ast adrift
witn ms son in a small boat in the Hudson Straits, named after him, and never heard of at '
%^
544'^
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
British factory at Mocha. A post was
founded at J ask, on the Baluchistan
coast of the Gulf of Oman, in 1619. This
once more roused the ire of the Portuguese,
who were already on bad terms with
Persia by their occupation of the islet of
Ormuz and their overbearing demeanour
in trying to close the Persian Gulf to all
-. _ ^ but Portuguese trade. The
Ormuz Lost xa -,• , u xi.
. .. Biitish — no better m com-
Portugucsc "lercial ethics in those days-
appeared to Persian ideas as
less grasping in their ambitions, and, at
any rate, as a rod with which to chastise
the overbearing Lusitanian. British and
Persian forces combined, and Ormuz was
taken from the Portuguese. The British
received as a reward the right to levy
customs and to trade at the port of
Gombrun, near Bandar Abbas, in 1622.
In 1611, the East India Company
founded a post at Masulipatam, near the
mouth of. the Kistna on the east coast of
India, and shortly afterwards a similar
post at Vizagapatam. Agencies, com-
mercial and political, were founded at
Agra and Patna in 1620. Relations with
Siam — there was an English post at the
Siamese-Malay state of Patani as early
as 1611 — Celebes, the Moluccas, and Java
ripened rapidly till after the Amboina
massacre. By 1623 the Dutch had expelled
the British from the Malay Archipelago
and the Far East, which they did not
re-enter till the late eighteenth century.
In 1618, James permitted or encouraged
the formation of a chartered company
to trade with the Gambia River on the
West African coast, the charter being
based on an old patent, 1588. of Queen
Ehzabeth. Although neither this company
nor its immediate successors were suc-
cessful— indeed, by 1664 they had lost
;r8oo,ooo — yet these enterprises commenced
under James I. laid the foundations of our
future West African dominion. James I.,
therefore, unworthy of regard as he may
be in some aspects, was the
ames . c ^^^^ founder of the British
Founder of the t- tt j i • i_
„ ... . p . Empire. Under his unhappv
British Empire ^ , . i "
successor, despite home
troubles — .parti}' because of them — empire
building still went on. The State of Massa-
chusetts, in North America, was founded
in 1620, and Maryland in 1632. The
charter of the London company had
been surrendered to the Crown in 1624,
that of the Plymouth company in 1635.
These surrenders made it easier for the
5450
Crown to deal with the organisation of
the new American territories. In the
West Indies, Antigua, Nevis, Anguilla,
and Montserrat were colonised — mainly
from St. Christopher, and farther back still
in time from Bermuda — and a charter was
issued to the Earl of Carlisle for certain
islands in the Caribbean Sea, among them
Dominica. In the East Indies a foothold
was obtained at Surat, which was displaced
later by Bombay, in 1014. Madras was
founded in 1639; Hugh, the forerunner of
Calcutta, in 1642 ; and an attempt, after-
wards abandoned, was made in 1647 ^o
establish a rival East India Company's
depot on the coast of Madagascar.
Jamaica had been eyed for half a century
by British adventurers as a prize which
might be one day snatched from Spain.
They had become familiar with some of its
conditions by carrying thither negro slaves
for sale ; they realised that the Spaniards
had practically exterminated the native
inhabitants, that not having found
minerals they had lost interest in the
island, and further that many of their
negro slaves had rebelled and taken to the
mountains. Accordingl}', two
_, . unauthorised raids were
as JLrmpire , .-, ■ ^ -, • r
B ild made on the island m 1596
and 1624. Both were repulsed
by Spanish valour. Cromwell, however,
took advantage of a breach of relations
with Spain to send to the Gulf of Mexico a
naval expedition under Admiral Penn and
General Venables to seize the large island
of Hispaniola. Failing in this object the
expedition occupied Jamaica instead.
Under Charles II. the empire attained
a notable expansion. In North America
the Dutch Colony of New Netherlands,
with its two towns of Manhadoes and New
Amsterdam, was acquired and turned into
the English territory of New York. By
the close of Charles H.'s reign, the nucleus
of the original thirteen states of New
England had been constituted : Caro-
lina (North and South), Virginia, Mary-
land, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, New
Jersey, Delaware, New York, Connec-
ticut, ^Massachusetts, Vermont, and New
Hampshire. In 1670, however, Charles II.
laid the foundations of a much vaster
expanse of emphe by granting a charter
to Prince Rupert and seventeen others,
incorporating them as the " governor and
company of adventurers of England
trading into Hudson's Bay." This was
the outcome of the voyages of Davis,
THE ORIGIN OF MADRAS: THE FOUNDING OF FORT ST. GEORGE
To Francis Day, an officer of the East India Company, belongs the honour of founding: Madras. In 16:?8he was sent to
India by that company to select a better site for their headquarters, and from the Rajah of Chandragiri he purchased a
tract of land five miles long near the settlement of St. Thom6, and thereon he built a factory and a fort, which he
called Fort St. George by which name Madras, which sprang from this small beginning, is still officially named.
I-rom the drawing by K Ctiton Woodville
5451
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
Hudson, and Baffin, already alluded to;
and the grant of this charter by Charles II.
resulted in the creation of four-fifths of
British North America. The company
thus founded still exists; its charter — in
one form or another — did not finally ex-
pire till 1859, and the bulk of its immense
private territorial possessions was not
-^ finally incorporated in the lands
" _ .. of the Canadian people till 1870.
"t w ^^ India, the island of Bombay
and the mainland settlement of
Salsette had been acquired in the dowry
of Charles II.'s queen. In West Africa
a new charter started afresh the British
settlement at the mouth of the Gambia.
In 1672, the broken company of
British merchants trading on the Gold
Coast received a charter which created a
new association, known by its short title
as the Royal African Company. The
outbreak of the Dutch War enabled the
British forces to oust the Dutch from a
number of strong places where they, in
their turn, had supplanted the Portuguese.
Thus were obtained the fortified posts of
Dixcove, Sekundi, and Accra, the begin-
nings of the modern colony of the Gold
Coast which is now nearly as large as the
joint area of England and Scotland.
All this time British trade with the
Mediterranean was steadily growing.
Cromwell had made Great Britain a naval
power in that inland sea, so that her
ships were actually able to threaten the
coast possessions of the grand duke of
Tuscany and the Pope, who had coun-
tenanced attacks on British shipping by
Prince Rupert, and to chastise most
t:ffectually the Turkish pirates of the
Barbary States. With Morocco there
were occasionally war-like episodes, but,
curiously enough, British intercourse with
that last independent fragment of the
Arabian caliph's dominions had been of a
more friendly and commercial character.
Nevertheless, the Moorish rovers not in-
. , frequently harried British
O** V* ships engaged in the West
^pposi ion o ^fj-j^g^j^ trade. Spain, through
her vassal Portugal, which
then held Tangiers and Ceuta, constantly
attempted to close the Straits of Gibraltar
to British ships, and thereby interfere with
British trade in the Levant. Therefore, as
early as the middle of the seventeenth
century, there were vague longings on the
part of our fellow-countrymen for some
loothold in or near the Straits of Gibraltar
5452 •
which might avail to secure a free passage
into and out of the Mediterranean. When
Charles II. was raised to the throne,
Louis XIV. of France, for mysterious
reasons of his own, decided to employ the
sea power of Britain to support the
Portuguese monarchy against Spain.
He arranged the match between Charles
and Catharine of Braganza. Taking
advantage of this overture, the British
Ministers of the day were shrewd enough
to satisfy the national longing for control
over the Straits of Gibraltar by exacting
as part of the princess's dowry the city
and territory of Tangier.
Having gained possession of this foot-
hold on the coast of Morocco, the govern-
ment of Charles II. showed itself too
frivolous, too w^anting in statecraft and
Imperial foresight to retain it. Had they
acted more wisely as regards the Moors,
it is possible that the history of North
Africa might have taken a very different
and a most surprising course. But, dis-
heartened by the difficulties, and weakened
by the frightful bureaucratic corruption
which then prevailed in the departments of
_ . . , public supplies, the Ministers of
„ . "* , Charles II. abandoned Tangier
Seizure of - ,0 o-u ^ xu ^ Fi
Gb It m 1004. i hen it was that otiier
British statesmen or sea-
captains fixed their eyes on Gibraltar as a
more tenable position. The idea remained
dormant until 1704, when advantage was
taken of the War of the Spanish Succession
to seize and garrison Gibraltar. This step
was one of the most remarkable ever taken
in the history of the world, and may rank
in lack of moral justification with the
Napoleonic descent on Egypt and the
British seizure of Aden in 1839. Beacons-
field's romantic acquisition of Cyprus
might have been classed with these
episodes as among the great strokes of
empire-building, had it not, by the subse-
quent trend of Bridsh public opinion,
been rendered a policy of noii sequitnr.
In the course of the eighteenth century
the increasing hostility of the Turks
towards even British travellers passing
through their Levantine dominions, made
overland communications with India so
precarious and profitless that increasing
attention was turned to the all-sea route
round the Cape of Good Hope. Just as the
Levantine and the West African trade led
us to seize Gibraltar, so the development
of commerce with India, China, the Malay
Archipelago, and the great and small
THE STORY OF BRITISH EXPANSION
islands of the Pacific just coming within
our ken, made a foothold at the southern
extremity of Africa a matter of the greatest
importance to the now unified kingdoms of
England and Scotland.
An attempt in 1781 — as unjustifiable in
actual morality as the seizure and retention
of Gibraltar — was made to snatch the Cape
of Good Hope from the Dutch. The islands
of Ascension and St. Helena — Ascensionwas
not definitely occupied till 1815 ; St. Helena
has been permanently in British possession
since 1673 — discovered by the Portuguese,
and held intermittently by the Dutch, had
been intermittently occupied by the
British Navy or the East India Company.
To the latter, in fact, St. Helena was of the
highest importance as the resting place of
its fleets during the eighteenth century,
and longing eyes were cast on the French
islands of Mauritius and Reunion, which
to some extent lay midway between the
Cape of Good Hope and India.
During the last half of the seventeenth
century, the greed of territorial acquisition
in West Africa, Eastern Asia, the South
Atlantic and the West Indies, had brought
Great Britain into violent con-
„ ^ ^^. flict with the equally rapacious
Possessions , . , ■
cut, J and, so far as enterpnse-com-
of Holland ' , , ^
pared - to - means goes, more
wonderful country of Holland. The
British secured a hard-won victory over
the Dutch in the long run, not because
they were braver or more skilled as fight-
ing seamen, but because they had a
larger and richer motherland from which
to draw their supplies. Holland, however,
had previously plundered the Portuguese
to a magnificent degree, and, even with
what she had to give up to the British in
the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries,
was still mistress of possessions in the
West Indiesi South America, the southern
extremity of Africa, Ceylon, Bengal,
Sumatra, the Malay Peninsula, Java, and
Borneo, with a kind of lien over the
scarcely known continent of Australia.
During the latter part of the eighteenth
century circumstances forced Holland into
a position of quasi-alliance with France,
some of the circumstances being the terri-
torial ambitions of Great Britain. Putting
forward the plea that the Dutch settle-
ment of the Cape of Good Hope served as
a refuge and a rallying-point for hostile
French ships, the British Government
attempted by two surprise attacks in 1781
to seize Cape Town. But they were beaten
off. The idea, however, like that of Gib-
raltar, never left us, and when the French
troops invaded Holland, in 1794, the
British Government, in 1795, with the
somewhat chary permission of the Prince of
Orange, established itself in Dutch South
Africa ; and although for a few years our
forces were withdrawn, just as the cat
Th B if h ^•llows the crippled mouse a
EsrabHshId in momentof illusory freedom, in
South Africa ^ ^^ made another descent
on these regions, and came
there to stay. The eighteenth century,
however, not only saw at its close the
establishment of the British at the south
end of Africa — an establishment which
inspired the great Portuguese traveller-
administrator of Mozambique, Dr. Lacerda,
in 1796, with the remarkable prophecy of
the ultimate Cape-to-Cairo ambitions of
the British people — but in its early years
witnessed the effectual foundation of
Anglo-Saxon North America, by the
extension of the British colonies from the
North Atlantic seaboard to the Missis-
sippi, by maritime explorations of Van-
couver Island and Oregon, which sufficed
to stop Russian descent from Alaska, and
Spanish ascent from California, and finally
by the conclusion of the great struggle
between France and Britain for predomi-
nance in North America.
Newfoundland, the first aim of British
aspirations across the Atlantic, became
definitely a British colony in 1728, though
by previous settlement it was more justly
French. The French colonies of Canada —
Ontario, Quebec, and New Brunswick,
which then bore the prettier name of New
France — were ceded in 1763 ; Nova Scotia
had been acquired in its entirety in 1758,
together with Prince Edward's Island ;
Vancouver Island was not settled till 1843.
Vancouver Island having been redis-
covered by Captain Cook, and ear-marked
as a future British foothold on the Amer-
ican Pacific, the close of the eighteenth
century saw the main out-
Outhncs of j.^g^ ^^ ^j^^ Canadian Domi-
the Canadian nionlaiddown. The Hudson's
Dominion g^^ Chartered Tradmg Com-
pany', with its four forts on the shores
of Hudson's Bay and its far-reaching
explorations, had established a prescrip-
tive claim to all Arctic and sub-Arctic
America except the coast of Alaska. Sir
Alexander Mackenzie, the Stanley of
North America and a servant of the
Hudson's Bay Company,travelled overland
5453
BRITISH SEIZURE OF JAMAICA IN 1655 AND THE SINKING OF THE SPANISH VESSELS
With sealed orders from Cromwell, in 1654, a fleet of sixty ships, commanded by Admiral Penn, and carrying: about
4,000 men under General Venables, left Portsmouth on an expedition, and, sailing for the West Indies, captured Jamaica.
But having failed to carry out their orders, Penn and Venables were committed to the Tower on their return.
From the drawing by R, Catou Woodvillc
5454
w-
THE BRITISH ACQUISITION OF GIBRALTAR: SPANISH TROOPS MARCHING OUT
Though regarded as impregnable, during the War of the Spanish Succession, Gibraltar was taken, on July 24th, 1704, by
a combined English and Dutch fleet, commanded by Sir George Rooke, who raised the British flag and claimed the town
in the name of Queen Anne. The above picture shows the Marquis de Salines marching out with the Spanish troops.
I'lOui tlio diaiviiig by K. i. aton WoodviUe
5455
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
to the Pacific coast in 1789-1793, first
sighting the Pacific Ocean at Cape Menzies,
opposite Queen Charlotte's Islands.
Vancouver Island is supposed to have
been sighted by Sir Francis Drake just
two hundred years before Cook, in
1578. It or the opposite coast of
Oregon was christened by Drake " New
Albion." The island was more
thTuniud definitely placed on the map
c ni e ^ Tuan de Fuca, a Greek sea-
captain in Spanish employ,
in 1592. Cook's exploration of its coasts
led to no immediate settlement. It was
Captain George Vancouver, R.N., in
1792-1794, who really laid the founda-
tion of British political rights to this
important island. The Hudson's Bay
Company did the rest, 1821-1843.
The revolt of the United States in 1777
did not perhaps make such a great impres-
sion at the time on the British mind, be-
cause it seemed the mere alienation of a
portion of the Atlantic coast lands ; it had
the immediate effect of making the British
still more rapacious and energetic as
regards Canada. Had this revolt not
occurred and been successful, it is quite
possible that British energy might have
languished and France have been allowed,
from her tiny footholds of St. Pierre and
Miquelon, and from her great possessions
of Louisiana and New Orleans, to build up
once again a French empire in North
America. What Britain lost in the New
England States she more than regained by
founding the Dominion of Canada, which,
in her intentions and aspirations, even
before the expiry of the eighteenth cen-
tury, extended from the Atlantic to the
Pacific, and dwarfed the contemporaneous
ambitions of the United States, baulked as
they were by a Spanish Florida, Texas and
California, and a French Mississippi.
With their thoughts bent on the dis-
covery of a north-west passage which
would establish an all-British route across
America to China, and the
intention to seize the analogous
America's
Strugglint;
Republic
southern maritime route from
Atlantic to Pacific — marked by
the British exploration of the Straits of
Magellan, the occupation of the Malouines,
or Falkland Islands, in 1705, already half-
occupied and settled by France in 1763,
when the celebrated Bougainville, the
great French navigator of the Pacific
whose name is for ever commemorated by
a lovely flower, settled on West Falkland
5456
some of the unfortunate dispossessed
Acadians of Nova Scotia — and, finally, the
attempt to seize Buenos Ayres during the
French alliance with Spain, the existence
of the struggling American Republic of the
sixteen united states must have seemed
to the Britain of the eighteenth century a
factor of merely local importance, not
more serious in a project of universal
American Empire than the intermittent
independence of the Transvaal was in the
scheme of South African dominion.
During the eighteenth century England,
in her colonial enterprise, had been power-
fully reinforced by the sister kingdom of
Scotland. Since the union of the two
crowns, Scotland of the Lowlands had
thrown herself energetically into oversea
adventure. It is true that the English
Government spitefully enough had baulked
the attempt of the Scots — in 1698-1699
— ^to establish themselves on the Isthmus
of Darien, there perhaps to found a
Central American State ; but the bitter-
ness resulting from this was soon for-
gotten, and Scots and English, without
much national distinction, flung them-
. selves energetically into the
/" '?^ building up of a great British
_, ^ . " dominion in the W'est Indies and
""^ ^ Northern South America. At
the close of the seventeenth century Britain
had only possessed in the West Indies
Jamaica, the Bahamas, Barbados, and
three small islands of the Leeward group.
But by the end of the eighteenth
century Dominica, St. Lucia, St. Vincent,
Grenada, Tobago, and Trinidad were
added by conquest from France or Spain,
while intermittently Cuba was held, at-
tempts were made to take the great island
of Hispaniola, the foundations of a British
interest in Honduras and on the Nicar-
aguan coast were laid, and a swoop was at
last made on Guiana, with perhaps a
notion of extending that dominion later
on over the adjoining Spanish province of
Venezuela. So, far from the eighteenth
century marking the defeat and retro-
gression of the British in the New World,
it might more fith^ be styled the American
century, the second of the four great
eras of the British Empire, three finished
and the fourth commencing. The nine-
teenth century has been par excellence the
age of Asian Dominion. It is quite
possible that our Asiatic Empire has
reached its apogee in extent, if not in
population or power. The twentieth
THE STORY OF BRITISH EXPANSION
century may possibly witness the African
culmination. But in the years between
the death of Queen Anne and the Peace of
Amiens our grandest struggles, our greatest
gains, and our keenest ambitions were
centred in the New World between the
Straits of Magellan and the Arctic Ocean.
The desire to know more about the
Pacific coast of North America, on which
Russians were beginning to encroach from
Eastern Siberia, while the power of Spain
was obviously waning, led the British
Government to send out Captain Cook to
the Pacific Ocean via the Cape of Good
Hope and the Malay Archipelago, and
thus led to the definite discovery of
Australia, New Zealand, and most of the
Pacific archipelagoes, and, finally, at the
end of the eighteenth century, in 1788, to
the establishment of a British settlement
on the coast of New South Wales — a settle-
ment which was to be the germ of a vast
Australian Commonwealth, destined to
grow some day into mighty nationalities
of Anglo-Saxon stock. Spanish, French,
and Dutch navigators of the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries had surmised the
existence to the south of New
Guinea and the Malay Archi-
pelago of an island-con-
tinent, variously named in
imagination Greater Java or even " Terra
Australis." The actual name " Australia "
was applied in the first instance to the
largest island of the New Hebrides group by
Ouiros in 1606, in the belief that it was the
promontory of a great southern continent.
Luiz V'aez de Torres, second in com-
mand of the Spanish exploring expedi-
tion led by De Ouiros, the discoverer
of the New Hebrides, as they were
afterwards named, had passed through
the "Torres Straits," discovered, and
aptly named. New Guinea, and had
" felt " the proximity of the real " Terra
Australis." His indications were followed
up ten, seventeen, and twenty-two years
later by the Dutch navigators Hertoge
and Carstenz, who actually located points
and named features of the North and
West Australian coasts.
In 1642, the Dutch navigator, Abel
Janszen Tasman, skirting the western
coast of Australia, penetrated so far south
that he actually discovered Tasmania,
which he called Van Diemen's Land, after
the then governor of Java; and New
Zealand — " Staaten Land." Tasman, on
his return to the eastward of Australia,
Discovery of
the Australian
Continent
derived enough information, no doubt
from Malay seamen on the coasts of New
Guinea, to forecast dimly the locality and
area of this southern continent, " Groote
Zuidland," which was soon afterwards
definitely named "New Holland," Staaten
Land being at the same time styled " New
Zealand." In 1689 and 1699 the pirate-
«ri . i-^ . • explorer William Dampier
What Captain ■ , , ■ ^ ^ ^i. x' xu
_ , .. , , paid two visits to the North-
Cook did for ^ , , r X' TT 11 1
E ■ west coast of New Holland,
°* ^ and brought back some ac-
count of its peculiar peoples and products.
But nothing like systematic exploration
or definite discovery was accomplished in
these directions until the three voyages
of Captain James Cook, 1769-1777, re-
vealed the actual coast of South-eastern
Australia, and the definite outline of New
Zealand. Cook also placed on the map
such archipelagoes of the Pacific as had
not been already made known to the
civilised world by the Spanish, Portuguese,
and Dutch navigators of the sixteenth
and seventeenth centuries.
British exploring enterprise in these
regions between the Western Pacific and
the Indian Ocean had been baffled during
the early eighteenth century by the
rivalry of the Dutch and French. We had
been obliged to fight France for pre-
dominance in India, and a fierce though
unofficial warfare had been waged with
Holland to keep the Dutch out of Bengal.
By the middle of the eighteenth century
the French had completely lost any
chance of building up a great Indian
empire, but the Dutch, defeated in Hindu-
stan, still clung to Ceylon, and successfully
competed with us in Java, Sumatra,
Borneo, and the Moluccas.
The eighteenth century decided the
fate of India, possibly for several
centuries to come ; but, compared to our
present Asiatic dominions, British rule in
Hindustan was by no means universal,
and we had but a slight foothold on
, the Malay Peninsula (Island of
Britatn s pj^ang, acquired 1786), and in
the Malay Archipelago, Natal,
Fort Marlborough, or Bencoolen,
in Sumatra, and a doubtful tenancy of one
or two islets oft the coast of Borneo. But
at the end of the eighteenth centujy,
which, for a logical sequence, one must
place at the Peace of Amiens, in 1802,
the British Empire, scattered and patchy
as it was, had almost the outline — the
skeleton — of the empire of to-day, and was
5457
Rule
in India
BRITISH TROOPS MARCHING THROUGH THE SWAMPS OF BRITISH GUIANA
This colony, on the north coast of South America, once a Dutch trading outpost, was held by the British from
1781 till 1783; they again held it from 1796 till 1802, and from 1803 till 1814, when the present colony was formed.
From the drawinjj by R Caton Woodvillc
5458
SIR GEORGE SIMPSON ESTABLISHING HIS FIRST COUNCIL OF SETTLERS IN 1835
Justly considered one of the architects of the present Canadian Dominion, Sir George Simpson had the entire managre-
ment of the Hudson's Bay Company in Canada, and the rise of British Columbia was contemporary with his adnuntstration.
From the drawing by R. Caton Woodville
5459
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
vastly different from the empire over which
WiUiam III. was ruHng in 1702. At that
date this monarch, if he had caUed for a
map of the British Empire beyond the seas,
which he probably never thought of doing,
would have noted a few English " planta-
tions," or settlements, on the Atlantic sea-
board of North America between Boston,
„ . . , _ New York, and the Savan-
Br.tam s Over- ^^^^ ^.^^^, q^^^^, ^^^^^^
ocas Dominions • , •, • ,1 „
200 Years Ago }? ^^}';^'y ^^"^^^^^ ^^J'^^f ^^'^
Caribbean seas would have
reminded him that James I. had given
a charter for the Bermudas, that Charles I.
had permitted the settlement of Barbados,
that Cromwell had annexed Jamaica,
and that under Charles II. most of the
British Leeward Islands had been acquired.
In Southern Asia he would have noted the
Island of Bombay — an undoubted British
possession. There should also have been
marked on the map factories and forts —
more or less identical with political foot-
holds— at some point on the coast of
Sind, at Surat, Broach, and Ahmedabad,
in Western India ; at Calcutta, Tegna-
patam, Vizagapatam, Madras, and Masuli-
patam, on the eastern side of the Indian
Peninsula ; while in the interior there were
agencies at Agra and Patna. Along the
shores of the Persian Gulf there were
factories at Basra, Bandar Abbas, and
Jask ; and, despite Dutch hostility,
the East India Company still held on
to trading posts at Bantam, in Java ;
Macassar, in Celebes ; and Achin, in
Sumatra. On the West African coast
the Royal African Company possessed
forts at the mouth of the Gambia, and
along the Gold Coast, from Dixcove to
Accra, and at Whyda, on the coast of
Dahomeh. The East India Company, more-
over, had seized the island of St. Helena.
That was the extent of the British
Empire in 1702, at which time Ireland still
lay a depopulated, desolate, half-conquered
country which was being settled on the
. east and on the north by Pro-
e omma ^gg^^^^j. English, Welsh, and
"" ^ , Scotch settlers. Scotland her-
Cape Colony ,. , , .
self was a separate kmgoom,
acknowledging only partially the direct
rule of William III. The Isle of Man
was a feudal kingdom under a British
noble ; the Channel Islands were semi-
independent piratical settlements. At
the Peace of Amiens, in 1802, Great
Britain, it is true, had nominally sur-
rendered Cape Colony to the Dutch, but
5460
had made every preparation for reoccu-
pation, and had made that reoccupation
a matter of certainty and legality by the
establishment of her sea power and an
understanding with the Prince of Orange.
In America she possessed the whole of
the vague and vast territories of Canada,
which were at any rate conceived of,
under the charter of the Hudson's Bay
Company, as stretching from the Atlantic
to the Pacific ; besides the West India
Islands already owned, she had seized and
has since retained Dominica, St. Lucia,
St. Vincent, Grenada, Tobago, and Trini-
dad, and had established a lien on the
coasts of Honduras and Nicaragua.
British Honduras began in the seven-
teenth century as the fortified establish-
ments of piratical British traders and
timber — mahogany — cutters. Though
frequently attacked by Spain, and fre-
quently ceded to Spain by England, the
British settlers held on steadfastly till,
in 1786, a definitely British administration
was established. She had occupied
British, French, and Dutch Guiana. Far
away towards the southern extremity of that
continent the British Govern-
O ^t 1^^^ ment had already earmarked
, " J, the Falkland Islands, but had
™ ^^ been repulsed in its attempt to
seize Buenos Ayres. In the Mediterranean
we held, legally or illegally, Gibraltar,
Malta, Sicily, and the Ionian Islands,
while British naval and military action
had just turned the French out of Egypt.
Here an almost unconscious intimation
had been given of an intention some
day to occupy that halfway station
towards our growing Indian Empire. In
East Africa, Britain had opened up rela-
tions with Abyssinia and Zanzibar, as
also with the tribes of South Arabia and
the Persian Gulf. In West Africa her
forces had occupied the French colony of
Senegal, and strengthened the hold over
the mouth of the Gambia. As the first
result of British anti-slavery enthusiasm,
the colony of Sierra Leone had been
founded. The forts along the Gold Coast,
already mentioned, continued to be
garrisoned by the Royal African { Chartered)
Company. Even at the close of the
eighteenth century Great Britain was
beginning to think about the Niger, the
upper course of which river had, in 1796,
been discovered by the Scottish explorer,
Mungo Park, in the direct service of the
British Crown. British trade with West
THE STORY OF BRITISH EXPANSION
Africa at that time had extended to the
rivers which form the delta of the Niger,
and even to the mouth of the Congo.
In 1796 as aheady mentioned, the great
Portuguese traveller, Dr. JoseLacerda, had
predicted that the British would attempt
to found an empire stretching from the
Cape of Good Hope to Egypt. If Mungo
Park discovered the main course of the
River Niger, another equally distinguished
Scot, an explorer of really advanced
scientific attainments, James Bruce, had,
in 1768-1773. rediscovered and definitely
mapped the course of the Blue Nile from
.\byssinia to Egypt. He was despatched
on this aim by a British Secretary of State,
Lord Halifax, and there is little doubt
thit this journey provoked a special
British interest in the affa rs of Egypt.
In Asia the British possessions in 1802
included a general sway over Hindustan
between the Himalayas on the north
and Cape Comorin on the south, between
the Bay of Bengal on the east and the Indus
River on the west. The actual posses-
sions in India of the Honourable East
India Company at this date over which
„ . it ruled directly were Bengal
xpansion ^^^ ^^^ Bombay and Madras
of one . -^ , . £ ,\
Centur provmces ; a portion of the
^ "'^ Central and North-west Pro-
vinces; parts of Rajputana. Indirectly the
company controlled the affairs of Oudh,
Haidarabad, and Mysore. We had even
during the eighteenth century taken our
first political step towards establishing
British influence over Tibet ; our political
explorers had penetrated through
Afghanistan to Bokhara, and we had
acquired some influence at the court
of Persia. In the Malay Archipelago we
replaced the Dutch in Java and Sumatra,
as also at various points on the Malay
Peninsula. In North Africa, though we
had no actual foothold, nevertheless, by
Nelson's victories and the British occupa-
tion of Malta, we were so predominant in
Tunis and Tripoli as to exercise a kind of
suzerainty over those Turkish feudalities.
In igo8 the British dominions have
attained an enormous area, even com-
pared to what they were in 1802. In
North America the small colonised areas
of Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, New
Brunswick, Upper and Lower Canada,
Ontario, and the few forts of the Hudson's
Bay Company, have grown into a belt of
continuous colonisation and cultivation
extending from the coast of Labrador to
the Pacific and right up to the Arctic
Circle and the eastern limits of Alaska ;
while the political dominion of Canada
(British North America) reaches to the
Polar regions, and comprises nearly half
the North American Continent. In the
warmer regions of the New World, vague
British rights on the coast of Central
-, . America at Belize have grown
U a th ^^^° ^^^ definite colony of
n •*• k n British Honduras, while the
British Flag „ , r t-w x 1
Colony of Demerara, taken
over from the Dutch, has become the large
State of British Guiana, 90,260 square
miles in extent. In the far south, the
Falkland Islands have been definitely
organised as a crown colony, and the
British negis has been thrown over the
large island of South Georgia, annexed by
Captain Cook in 1775. These possessions
were definitely occupied and administered
in 1833, because of their importance to
the whaling industry in the South Atlantic.
Within the limits of Europe, though we
have given up the islet of Heligoland off
the German coast, we have acquired, for
ah practical purposes, the large island of
Cyprus in the Eastern Mediterranean.
The Ionian Islands, which France snatched
from the dying Repubhc of Venice, en-
joyed a British protectorate in every
sense of the word for sixty odd years,
and were then made over to the King-
dom of Greece. Malta, already occupied
in 1802, had been definitely ceded to
the British Crown in 1815.
On the continent of Asia, the large red
patches of British dominion (through a
chartered company), which gave to Great
Britain the practical control of the
peninsula of Hindustan, have grown in a
hundred years to our existing Indian and
colonial empire in Southern Asia. This
begins almost in Africa, on the far west,
with the port of Aden, the islet of Perim
at the mouth of the Red Sea, and the
island of Socotra off the North-east
African coast. It extends
S"*'^.*" ^ eastwards through the British
Rule in the p^^otectorate over the Aden
"^^ hinterland and protectorate, or
sphere of influence— established by treaty
— over the whole south coast of Arabia to
the vicinity of the Persian Gulf. The
south-west coasts of that inlet and the
Bahrein Islands are a British protectorate,
and in common with the Arabian regions
already referred to are attached to the
vast Indian dominions, which begin on
5461
5462
fa* 4-
5f as. lis o ^1
5463
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
the west at Baluchistan, near the entrance
to the Persian Gulf. By the recent
agreement with Russia, the South-east
Persian coast commanding the entrance
into the Persian Gulf is a British sphere
of influence. From Baluchistan the
Indian Empire extends continuously
eastwards to the frontier of French Indo-
China, and northwards to
Tibet — a portion of which is'
World-Wide
Range of
British Power
actually British — and to
Afghanistan, a Central Asian
state in very close relations with the
British Empire. Ceylon has been acquired
from the Dutch, 1796-1815, and British
influence now reigns supreme, directly
or indirectly', over the whole ^lalay
Peninsula from Burma to Singapore.
The northern third of the island of
Borneo is also under British protection.
In Australasia, and in the archipelagoes
of the Pacific, the gains have also been
enormous — a third part of the vast island
of New Guinea with the adjacent archi-
pelagoes of the Louisiade and the Solomon
Islands, the whole inland continent of
Australia, the large islands of Xew
Zealand, the clusters of Fiji and of Tonga,
the Gilbert. Santa Cruz, EUice. Phoenix,
Union, Fanning, Maiden, and Hervey
group, and a lien over the New Hebrides.
The last quarter of the nineteenth
century has witnessed enormous accretions
to the British dominions in Africa. Prior
to 1875 .we had possessed and built up,
since 1806, the colony of the Cape of
Good Hope about as far north as Kim-
berley, and the then small colony of NataJ,
founded 1824-1842. There remained
unclaimed areas between Natal and Cape
Colony, and there was no hold over
Zululand, the Orange Free State, or the
Transvaal. On the West Coast of Africa
there was a patch at the mouth of the
Gambia, and a few patches on the coast of
Sierra Leone, a strip of coast country
between the Volta River and Assinie on the
_ Gold Coast, and the little island
f^B^'f h °^ Lagos, once a great head-
. . . quarters of the slave trade. In
the Atlantic Ocean we possessed
the islets of Ascension and St. Helena ;
in the Indian Ocean, Mauritius and the
Seychelles. That, in 1875, was the utmost
extent of British Africa.
By 1909 these patches and strips have
grown into colonies, protectorates and
spheres of influence which now in their
united bulk exceed the possessions of any
546"4
other European Power on the African
continent, and include the occupation of
Egypt, the administration of the vast
Egyptian Sudan, the protectorates or
colonies of Uganda, East Africa, Somali
land, and Zanzibar, the protectorate or
sphere of influence of British Central
Africa between the Great Lakes and the
Zambesi, and all British South Africa
from the Zambesi to the Cape of Good
Hope, and from the outskirts of Damara-
land to the Portuguese province . oi
^Mozambique. In West Africa there are
the territories of Nigeria, which extend
from the delta of that river to Lake Chad
and the borders of the Sahara Desert — a
much enlarged colony and protectorate of
the Gold Coast — some 82,000 square miles
in area — a protectorate over the hinter-
land of Sierra Leone, and both banks of
the lower course of the Gambia River.
The British Empire may not even yet, in
1909, have touched its apogee of extent,
and indeed if it be wisely governed and
directed so as to enlist with it, and not
against it, the sentiments of the backward
races, it may develop into a league of
. peace and mutual co-opera-
o ^1 °™*fs tion of still more surprising
South African , t, „ ,
^ - , . vastness. It mav come to
Confederation . . , 1 1- 1
mclude an educational pro-
tectorate over Southern Arabia and the
shores of the Persian Gulf, an alliance,
almost feudal, with Abyssinia, Afghanistan,
Tibet, and Siam ; it may assist Australia
to arrange with France and Holland on
equitable terms for extended sway over a
small portion of Dutch New Guinea and
of the New Hebrides archipelago. In
Africa, the coming South African con-
federation of Boer and Briton may eventu-
ally include the cognate German state
of South-west Africa ; and it may also,
by arrangement with Germany, link
up the Uganda protectorate with the
north end of Tanganyika, and thus
establish the last link in the Cape-to-
Cairo route.
Or, if it increases in such directions as
these, it may shrink in others, yielding
here and there a little to France in Western
Africa, to Germany an islet or two in the
West Indies, or an establishment on the
Persian Gulf. But ior the most part it is
more likely that these extensions or round-
ings off of the British Empire will be
balanced by our standing out of the wa^'
of other ambitions in Eastern Europe
and Nearer Asia, or in the Congo basirj.
THE
BRITISH
EMPIRE
II
BY SIR
HARRY
JOHNSTON,
G.C.M.G.
BRITISH TRADE AND THE FLAG
THE PIONEERS OF COMMERCE
AS MAKERS OF THE EMPIRE
nPHE causes and motives which have pro-
•*• voked the creation of this vast empire
have been numerous and sometimes con-
flicting. The first incentive and the last
have been the desire to find profitable
markets for trade wherein British products
or manufactures could he exchanged for
foreign wares sufficiently valuable to meet
the risks and expenses of sea-transport.
Coupled with this has been the desire
to grab at whatever good things might
be going in the way of animal, vegetable,
or mineral wealth not already in the pos-
session of a nationality strong enough to
defend it. Then the restless, dissatisfied
or persecuted, or even criminal among us
have hoped to find a happier and less
trammelled existence in regions beyond
the British Isles yet under the British
flag. Honest commerce, eager^ greed for
gain, naif love of adventure, and the search
for marvels — these were the provocative
impulses which drove daring seamen,
merchants, and soldiers of fortune beyond
the seas of Britain to new worlds, new
hemispheres, and strange climates during
the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
In the seventeenth century there was
superadded the desire to flee from religious
or political oppression ; in the seventeenth
century real colonisation took place.
But in that which followed — the eighteenth
— -the dominant impulse once again was
commerce and the rapid making of wealth
in exploitable lands. This was the century
of the slave trade's greatest development.
^ . ,. The first familiar instance of
Emigration ^ • ,• r ,• • r
, „ ,. . emigration for religious free-
for Religious , ^ . ., , r .^
P . dom is that of the 102
dissidents from the Church of
England who emigrated in the Mayflower, in
1620, and founded Plymouth, U.S.A. The
first Quakers arriving in North America,
i652-i(:66, were hanged, flogged, or
expelled ; but from 1671 to 1681 hundreds
came to America and colonised New
I Y 27 n
Jersey, Delaware, and Pennsylvania. In
the nineteenth century the causes of
empire extension were more complex.
Commerce, exploitation, the possibilities
of mineral discoveries were no doubt the
most powerful inducements to extend the
^ area of British occupation ; and
Factors • , ^ •
. . increasing social pressure m
B •id'*'"^* England and Scotland, and
"*^ misery in Ireland, brought about
such a rush of colonists for the vacant
healthy lands in America, South Africa, and
Oceania— some 16,000,000 persons in the
last hundred years (of this number about
5,000,000 left between 1815 and 1850) —
as our history had not yet known, the
movement being enormously aided by
the development of steam navigation.
But there was a third factor at work in
empire-building from the very beginning
of the nineteenth century to its very end :
sentiment — a sentimentality almost sar-
donic in some of its manifestations.
In the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries we built forts and founded
colonies on the West Coast of Africa for
the purpose of carrying on the slave trade
in an efficient manner ; in the nineteenth
century we seized important vantage points,
annexed or protected enormovis areas in
order to suppress the trade in slaves.
The eagerness of commerce to go in
front of the hampering restrictions of a
regular government led to the creation of
chartered companies — and chartered com-
panies have always ended in the foundation
of colonies, dominions or empires — in the
seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth
centuries. Greed of gain was coincident
with the glamour of Incha. India has been
the mainspring of our empire, the m.agnet
which has drawn vis by such strangely
devious routes that our pioneers have
halted by the way, have started off at a
tangent on other quests, or have become
involved in the solution of other problems
5465
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
widely separated from those of Hindustan.
The search for a quick sea route to
India through North America — analogous
to the Magellan Straits on the south —
led Sir Humphrey Gilbert across the Atlan-
tic, to found that Virginia which was occu-
pied twenty-five years afterwards and
which was the germ of the United States
, of America. The same stimulus
The Days of
Maritime
Enterprise
led to the journeys of Frobisher,
Davis. Baffin ; and the last-
named was actually killed in an
attempt on the part of the East India
Company's ships to found in the Persian
(iulf that British sphere of influence on the
approach to the Indian markets which has
only become an accomplished fact in the
twentieth century. Drake's attempt to
find the Pacific outlet of these northern
[Magellan Straits, this water route across
North America — which, after all, does
exist, only it is too much in the frozen
zone to be of any use — led to the discovery
of Oregon ; and, three centuries later,
the same motive of research on the part
of Captains Cook and Vancouver brought
about the rediscovery and annexation
of Vancouver Island.
Failing to find an easy way across the
North Atlantic to the marvels of Cathay
and the Middle East, the diplomacy of
Queen Elizabeth was directed to an over-
land route through the Turkish dominions.
As this proved insecure and uncertain,
attention was turned towards the sea
route round Africa. This led in time to
the acquisition of Tangiers as a calling-
place, to the settlement of St. Helena,
the seizure of Gibraltar as an alternative
to Tangiers, the occupation of the Cape of
Good Hope, and of Mauritius.
Bonaparte, thinking to strike at Britain
in India, where she was wealthiest and
weakest, landed in Egypt, and may be said
to have opened the overland route. From
the days when the French capitulated and
quitted Egypt, England could not take
-J her eyes-, or thoughts off that
_ . country. The splendid private
J," *"^ "* enterprise of Lieutenant Wag-
^^^ horn haying started the overland-
route in 1837-47, in connection with the
newly introduced steamer traffic, Great
Britain found herself compelled to occupy
Aden, in 1839, at the southern exit of the
Red Sea, and ultimately also Perim Island.
Bonaparte's action in Egypt, indeed, had
far-reaching results he could never have
foreseen : it brought Great Britain as a
5466
fighting power into the Red Sea. Even
Abyssinia and the vaguer Ethiopian and
Zanzibar regions were " leaked up " at the
beginning of the nineteenth century because
of the bearing their alliance might have on
a lifc-and-death war between France and
Britain for the lordship of Southern Asia.
If the overland route led to an increased
interest in Egypt and the turning of the
Red Sea into a British lake, what was not
the effect of t4ie Suez Canal ? It made a
British occupation of Egypt a matter of
national necessity, a foregone conclusion
to all but short-sighted British statesmen.
This last came about in an odd manner,
and at an unexpected juncture, and by
degrees dragged us into the Sudan as far
as the Congo water parting, and compelled
in time the annexation of Uganda. Indian
affairs were by this time much mixed up
in commerce with those of Zanzibar.
Consequently, with the flanks of Egypt to
be guarded, no other Power but ourselves
must occupy Mombasa — already, for
Indian reasons, declared a British strong-
hold in 1823 — or the main route to the
Nyanzas and the Upper Nile. Hence arose
„ . . . the vast British possessions in
Pj . Eastern Equatorial Africa. By 1898
Afrfca^ ^"^ -'-9^ ^^^ fortified harbour
of Aden had grown inf:o a protec-
torate or sphere of influence over the whole
of the south Arabian coastlands, including
the Kuriya-Muriyan Islands, from the
Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb on Ihe west and
the frontiers of Oman on the east. From
similar motives also has arisen the British
protectorate over the Bahrein -Islands in
the Persian Gulf. In South Africa we
could not occupy Cape Town and remain
indifferent to questions of European colo-
nisation and to the welfare of the natives
within three hundred miles of the Cape
Peninsula. So, in time the British flag crept
along the south-east coast till it conflicted
with Portuguese claims_at Delagoa Bay.
The Mediterranean route to Egypt,
moreover, required other calling stations
than Gibraltar. Minorca had once been
ours, but it lay rather off the direct route
to Egypt ; moreover, it belonged to Spain,
and Spain had become our ally. Sicily
would have been too large to retain and
control. Napoleon had indicated just
what we required then in seizing Malta.
It was easy to succeed him, for the Maltese,
who had little or no affection for the
corrupt rule of the Knights of St. John,
voluntarily offered the sovereignty of their
BRITISH OFFICIALS INSPECTING THE CISTERNS AT ADEN, BUILT IN 1 7 m B.C.
The story of how Aden carae into possession of the British is one of some interest. In L:'.7, a British ship was
wrecked near Aden, the crew and passengers being severely maltreated by the Arabs. On the Bombay Government
demanding an explanation, the sultan agreed to make compensation and to sell the town and port to Britain,
but the Turkish ruler's son, who administered the government, declined to implement the bargain, and in consequence
the place was reduced by a naval and military force on January ICth, 1839. Aden, which then became an outlying
portion of the Bombay Presidelicy, was fortified and garrisoned, and its ancient water tanks were partially restored.
From tlie drawing by R. Catnn WoodviUe
5467
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
little archipelago to the King of Great
Britain. Beaconsfield believed he was
completing the chain of naval stations and
military halting places on the Mediter-
ranean route to India by adding Cyprus,
with the intention that a British dominion
ov^er Syria and a railway thence to the
Euphrates valley and India should follow.
„ ., . , Whether his successors were
Britain s - r - ii
r .. Wiser m prelerrmg the sea
Expanding ^_ _.. ,l_^ c..„„ *'r^„„„i „„^
Empire
route, via the Suez Canal and
the Red Sea, time alone can
show. The affairs of India involved us,
commercially first, and then politically, in
those of China. This necessitated miUtary
and naval stations in Chinese waters.
Hence the acquisition of Hong Kong and
eventually of Wei-hai-wei. From the
desire to prevent a Russian descent into
Tibet and Mongolia, and thence a march
towards the Himalayas — in fact, a Russian
dominion over the Chinese government —
arose the Japanese alliance, with all that
it may yet entail. Singapore was required
to safeguard the sea route between China
and India ; the occupation of the Straits
Settlements has led to a sphere of exclusive
influence over all the Malay Peninsula and
a protectorate over the northern coastlands
of Borneo. Burma has been annexed to
o])viate any other intrigues or ambitions
in that quarter ; while, at the risk of war
with France some fifteen years ago, Siam
has been maintained as a buffer state.
India has been the chief pivot of our
foreign policy from the closing years of
Elizabeth's reign to the rapprochement with
Russia in 1907-1908: that Russia which
was discovered commercially in the reign
of Edward VI. by British maritime adven-
turers who were seeking for a north-east
passage to India. The principal attraction
which India and the Indian trade had for
British minds in the Tudor period lay in
its production of. spices and pepper. It is
true that many of these spices were actually
derived from distant parts of the Malay
^ Archipelago or from Ceylon,
Commerce i , j.i •
,. w .• f l^ut these regions were con-
the Motive of °
Expansion
sidered part of India in a
generalised statement, and as
some of the Southern Indian ports were
depots in the spice trade between Arabia,
Persia, and the Farthest East, the confusion
was very natural. It would be an interest-
ing stucly in human history to discuss the
diet of Western and Southern Europe in the
later Middle Ages and down to the sixteenth
century, and discover the reason of the
5468
desire which arose for spiced food, and
especially the strenuous demand for pepper.
It was the desire to obtain unrestricted
quantities of pepper which not only
founded the East India Company — and
thereby the British Indian Empire — but
which hrst drew Britishers to West Africa :
first pepper, then slaves, then gold.
Cinnamon, cloves, ginger, sandal-wood,
silks, musHns, indigo, ivory, pearls, gums,
carpets, and precious stones, were among
the other principal Indian products which
attracted the attention of European mer-
chants from the fifteenth to the eighteenth
century. The rock formations of India were
believed to be excessively rich in precious
stones down to quite recent times. But
this natural wealth was exaggerated by
Arab writers and credulous Europeans.
Golconda, little more than a suburb of the
modern Haidarabad, whose Mohammedan
ruler was one of the first Indian princes to
give the British company a trading con-
cession, was not so much a place that
produced diamonds as a centre for
diamond-cutting, such as Amsterdam has
since become. The sandstone region of
... the Northern Deccan certainly
\T ^ ct produced diamonds ; indeed, in
Vast Store ', ■ , .u 4. i-i.
r \xr wi. the Sixteenth century, the
01 Wealth T-, All • " 1 "
Emperor Akbar received an
annual royalty computed at ;^8o,ooo from
the diamond mines of Panna, in Bundel-
khand, on the northern edge of the ancient
island of Southern India.
These mines are still worked, but are now
of inconsiderable importance. Emeralds
to a limited degree, rubies, sapphires, cats'
eyes, and other precious stones, were to be
obtained from India or the adjacent
countries, besides which the accumulation
of the labour and wealth of forty centuries
had amassed in this wonderful peninsula-^
the matrix of the human race — a vast store
of wealth in gold, silver, and precious
stones ; and this possible plunder was one
of the most potent attractions to Portu-
guese, Dutchman, Englishman, and
Frenchman to found an empire over these
patient, placable, thrifty, toiling millions
of Aryanised Dravidians.
The pearl fishery was certainly one of
our inducements to occupy Cejdon, one of
the most notable additions to the British
Empire in the early nineteenth century.
Eighty years later, the ruby mines of
Burma accentuated the impatience felt
at the ineptitude of the native Burmese
government and its intrigues with France
THE
BRITISH IN CYPRUS: THE BASHI - BAZOUKS EVACUATING THE ISLAND
In terms of the Ang-lo-Turkish Convention, devised at the Berlin Conference, Cyprus was occupied by the forces of
Great Britain on July 10th, 1878. The island is now administered as a Crown colony by a high commissioner.
F'om the drawing by R. Catoii Woodville
5469
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
and Italy. Rubies and teak forests pre-
vailed to decide the immediate political
fate of Burma. The location of gold in
Australia and New Zealand came too late
to be a provocative cause in the annexa-
tion of those islands, a deed already
accomplished from other motives ; though
it is quite possible that the early discovery
r \A th ^^ copper in Australia may
^ ^ ^ . have rendered the Imperial
Creator of ^ , i . • i
^ J . Government more determmed
to secure for Great Britain the
exclusive political hegemony over Austral-
asia. Gold, however, was the creator of
British Columbia, which otherwise might
have slid from the feeble hold of the
Hudson's Bay Company into the possession
of the United States. Conversely, gold in
the Yukon valley and sealskins from
Alaska have been the principal reasons why
the American Government has shown itself
so curmudgeon in the settlement of the
North-western frontier of the Canadian
Dominion, so resolved not to allow
Canada to achieve her natural destiny
and extend to Bering Strait — an event
which I predict will some day come to pass
by friendly arrangement.
Diamonds in South Africa, discovered
amid the sterility of the Orange Free
State borderlands, suddenly changed our
attitude of tolerant indifference towards
the fate of the South African hinterland
into one of eager unscrupulousness. Ad-
vantage was taken of the uncertain nature
of the Orange State boundary and of
native claims, which were assigned to
Great Britain, to extend the British aegis
over all the known diamondiferous terri-
tory. This opened up the route to Bechu-
analand and thenceforth to the Zambesi.
We let the Transvaal go back to inde-
pendence in 1881, and even waived our
suzerainty in 1884. In 1886 the Johannes-
burg and Barberton districts were found
to be rich in gold. The attitude of the
British Government towards the Transvaal
South Africa's ™™^^'f^^ly ^^^"g^^' ^'-
. more strictly speaknig, was
^ ij r-^ij changed for it by the rise to
Gold-Fields ,°, J -^ r /- •,
wealth and power of Cecil
Rhodes, and his British, German, French
and Afrikander business associates, who,
between i88g and 1905, controlled and
dominated the British Government. Lord
Salisbury, in the sad autumn of 1899,
may have spoken for himself in disavowing
the attraction of the gold-fields as being
the reason why we then found ourselves
5470
at war with the Boers, but his colleagues
must have found it difficult to preserve
solemn faces as he uttered those memor-
able and rather pathetic words of a weary
statesman of lofty ideals, aloof from the
vulgar rush for wealth and a little ashamed
of his yoke-fellows' greedy jingoism.
Yet to Continental critics never must
British hypocrisy have seemed so need-
lessly patent. Of course we wanted the
gold-fields, and the territory too ; but
for the gold, would Jew and Gentile,
Briton and German, American and French-
man, Indian, Greek and Portuguese have
flocked into the prematurely named
South African Republic, or have decided
rapidly — and truly — ^that the unadul-
•terated government of uneducated and
greedy Boers and a few peevish reactionary
Hollanders was not good enough for very
modern, clever, hard-working settlers,
who wanted the best type and the least
obstructive of existing governments — that
of Great Britain ?
But for gold and diamonds — and mis-
sionaries, of whom more anon — the hinter-
land of South Africa might still be the
undisputed appanage of Boer
, " *^ . and Zulu ; there would be no
Influence m •, . .1 '7 1 •
S th Af ■ lailway to the Zambesi ; no
British Central Africa ; but
there might also be, by this time, the
outline of a great German colonial empire.
Possibly Afrikander children now born
and getting ready for school may, in their
old age, 'say it was lucky lor the fate of
the great South African nation that the
passing wealth in precious metals and
precious stones — perhaps by that time no
longer precious — induced Great Britain
as a government, but more through a few
British individuals, to lay her hands on
South Africa from the Vaal and the
Orange rivers to the Zambesi and Tan-
ganyika. Our intervention, though it may
have been influenced by temporary greed
of gain, has moulded a great nationality,
the future united states oi South Africa,
an analogue to the fusion of Frenchman,
Scot, and Englishman which will some
day form the great Canadian nation.
The desire to obtain an ample supply of
mahogany, logwood, and rosewood with-
out paying toll to Spain created the
British colony of Honduras. Gold and
diamonds, again, enlarged the boundaries
of British Guiana. Palm oil drew the
British Government into a protectorate
over the Nigei Delta and Old Calabar.
BRITISH TRADE AND THE FLAG
Cloves were not without their influence
on the fate of Zanzibar. Tin made it
possible to develop the resources of the
Malay Peninsula and impossible to brook
the ingress there of any other Power. The
cultivation of the sugar-cane attracted us
to the West India Islands.
Codfish and lobsters have imparted an
interest in the fate and prosperity of New-
foundland which might otherwise have
been lacking ; cotton possibilities in
Nigeria are making a chancellor of the
exchequer less grim on the subject of
subsidies for railway construction,
especially with the happy results of the
Uganda railway before his eyes ; the
chance of cotton-growing in the Zambesi
territories was the motive in the minds
of the Ministry which despatched Living-
stone and Kirk to what is now British
Central Africa. The charter of the Hud-
son's Bay Company was the eventual
outcome of Frobisher's voyages of nearly
a hundred years before, when Frobisher
and Queen Elizabeth, his patroness,
believed he had discovered ore containing
gold on the verge of the Arctic circle.
For more than three centuries
Founding of
commentators referred to this
Hudson's Bay ■, , j i • u a
^ ^ idea as a strange delusion, but
ompan> ^^^ discovery of gold in the
Yukon valley shows that Frobisher and
Elizabeth's Italian metallurgists may
not have been so very much in error.
Frobisher may have picked up gold-
bearing rocks on the shores of " Meta
Incognita," or Baffin's Land, and the
inhospitable regions of Eastern Arctic
Canada may yet become as valuable
as are those of the North-west.
The Hudson's Bay Company, how-
ever, was formed under Charles II.
more with the object of discovering
and dominating a water route to the
regions of China and India across North
America. But the company soon found
its raison 'd'etre and its claims for military
and diplomatic support in the vast
numbers of fur-bearing mammals which
swarmed over Arctic and temperate North
America. Canadians of to-day owe to
the bear, fox, wolverene, lynx, marten,
musquash, and mink, the political unity
of their vast dominion. Nor have
whales — toothed and toothless — been
without their influence on the develop-
ment of the empire. The Basque
people of Northern Spain and Soudi-
west France seem to have been the
first race in Europe or anywhere else
to pursue whales on the ojien sta and
attack them with harpoons. No doubt, at
first the exploit most desired was to
drive the whale on shore. The Basques
seem to have had the monopoly of this
pursuit from the ninth to the middle of
the sixteenth century, when the whalebone
whale of the North Atlantic
■ th "*^ ^^^ become almost extinct.
Arctic Seas Latterly, indeed, the Basque
fishermen had been wont to
pursue their search for whales as far as
Newfoundland, and with the growing
demand for oil and whalebone the British
seamen had taken up the same quest,
hiring frequently the Basque pilots and
harpooners to assist them. When Henry
Hudson returned in 1607 from his first
search for a North-west passage, he
spread the news of the enormous quan-
tities of whalebone whales and walruses
which were to be found in these Arctic
seas. The result was that the Arctio
Ocean between Greenland, Labrador,
Spitzbergen and Nova Zembla was
thronged for twenty or thirty years with
British whaling ships, a pursuit which not
only added to our stock of hardy, resolute
seamen, but increased British interest in
the regions of Arctic America.
In the middle of the seventeenth century,
however, whaling was almost abandoned
on the part of the British, owing to the zeal
with which it had been taken up by the
Dutch, who became as quarrelsome and
as jealous of any competition as they were
in the equatorial Spice Islands.
Repeated attempts M'ere made in the
early eighteenth century to revive the
whaling industry of Britain in the northern
seas, and in 1725 the South Sea Company
endeavoured to promote the search for
whales— whalebone, introduced into Eng-
lish industries a hundred years before,
having become an increasingly important
article — by offering a subsidy. The matter
■ was eventually taken up by
Government ^^^^ Government, whose boun-
Bounties to ^-^^ granted to whaling ships
Whaling Snips , , ° j. j u „ +? £ .;,j.
had created by 1749 the first
Scottish whaling fleet, sailing from Peter-
head. In the second half of the eighteenth
century the spread of learning and the
love of reading caused an increased
demand for lamp-oil and candles. Wax
was too expensive, tallow too evil-smelling ;
palm oil and other vegetable fats for
candle-making had not yet entered the
5471
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
Discovery
of Falkland
Islands
scope of commerce. The voyages of Anson
and Cook had drawn attention to the
abundance of sperm whales in the south
seas. In 1775 the first British whahng
ships entered the Pacific round Cape
Horn or through the Magellan Straits.'
The pursuit of the sperm whale
in the Southern seas, and the
growth also of world-com-
merce on the east and west
coasts of South America, drew the atten-
tion of navigators of several nationalities
to the Falkland Islands, situated off the
coast of Patagonia, so near to the
extremity of South America.
These islands had been discovered by
John Davis, the Arctic explorer who was
killed on the coast of Malacca in 1592,
and again by Sir Richard Hawkins two
years later. In 1598 the indefatigable
Dutchmen — led by Sebald de Wert —
paid them a visit and named them the
Sebald Islands. In 1690, or a little after,
they received the name of Falkland
Islands from Strong, a British captain.
In 1763 the French attempted to found a
colony on Berkeley Sound. But by this
time the Spaniards of South America
considered that these islands came within
their jurisdiction, and they expelled the
French by force. In 1761 they had been
annexed by Commodore Byron on behalf
of England on the ground of their having
been discovered by Davis, Hawkins and
Strong ; but the Spanish Government
contested the British claim as vehemently
as the French attempt, and prepared to
go to war on the subject. Nevertheless,
in 1771, the British claim to the islands
was recognised by Spain in a formal con-
vention. Either they proved to be of less
importance to the whaling industry than
was expected, or the distractions of the
Napoleonic Wars caused them to be
forgotten, for their formal cession by
Spain was not followed by any attempt
at British settlement other than the chance
visits of whaling ships. So much so, that
in 1820 the new republic of Buenos Ayres
laid claim to the Falkland Islands, and
established a colony on the site of the old
French settlement at Port Louis.
As no protest was made by Great Britain,
the islands might have lapsed into an appan-
age of a South American republic had it not
been that they had become a rendezvous
for American whaling ships from the United
States, and the masters of these ships
fell out with the newly established Argen-
tine authority. American war vessels seem
to have intervened in the quarrel, and
between them the Argentine settlement was
destroyed. Then the British Government
awoke to the importance of this forgotten
outpost, with the result that the British
flag was again hoisted in 1833.
The whaling industry flagged some twenty
years afterwards, and was succeeded by
the pursuit of the fur- bearing sea-lion. But
for many years subsequently the Falkland
Islands have been valued, not as a resort
for whaling or sealing-ships, but as a wool,
tallow, and mutton producing colony, in
which a very vigorous white race is
springing up which may some day play a
part in the politics of South America.
The whaling industry also
caused the annexation by Cap-
Whaling's
Service to
the Empire
tain Cook in 1775 of South
Georgia, a large island — the size
of Cheshire — in the South Atlantic, about
950 miles to the E.S.E. of the Falkland
group. Whalers have also caused the an-
nexation, or the retention, of numerous tiny
archipelagoes in the Pacific, and of Tristan
d'Acunha in the South-east Atlantic
5a»
THE TOTAL POPULATION, NUMBERING EIGHTY-ONE, OF TRISTAN DACUNHA
5472
THE
BRITISH
EMPIRE
• III
BY SIR
HARRY
JOHNSTON,
G.C.M.G.
THE SLAVE TRADE AS A FACTOR IN
COLONIAL EXPANSION
SLAVERY UNDER THE BRITISH FLAG
AND THE SUPPRESSION OF THE EVIL
THE earliest and strongest inducement
to acquire territorial possessions on the
West Coast of Africa was the facility for
carrying on a trade in slaves with America.
The search for pepper — cardamoms, grains
of paradise, the seeds of the Aframomum
plant — was a temporary allurement ; and
there was always the trade in gold-dust
between Assinie and the Volta River.
But although "Guinea gold" was ex-
ported to England steadily from the time
of Charles II. onwards, it was never in
such large quantities as to give a serious
bias to Imperial policy. The rivers and
estuaries between the Senegal, Gambia,
and Sierra Leone, together with a small
portion of Liberia, Hwida, Dahomeh, and
Benin : these were the principal resorts
of British slave-traders during the sixteenth
and seventeenth centuries. In the eigh-
teenth and nineteenth the trade spread
to Lagos, the Niger Delta, Calabar,
Kamerun and Congo. The rapid con-
quests of the Spaniards and Portuguese
in Central and South America had,
in the course of fifty odd years, revealed
one negative quality of the New World.
These lands, rich with obtrusive
mineral wealth, endowed witli magni-
ficent timber, a hundred useful vege-
tables, and many delectable birds
and beasts, were either very sparsely
populated with indigenous races of man,
or the Indians had not the requisite
toughness of fibre to withstand the
_ . . hellish slavery to which they
panis ^ ^yygi-g subjected by the con-
- . quistadores. So that, by the
middle of the sixteenth century,
the problem which is now exercising
many minds in the development of
tropical Africa worried the Spanish
rulers of America : where was the
labour force to come from that could
toil unremittingly in a tropical climate ?
Victims
of Moorish
Pirates
The Portuguese had anticipated the
question before the New World had been
discovered. Indeed, the theory of slave
labour had been in vigour in the Medi-
terranean world from a most remote
period, and had received a considerable
fillip during the Crusades
and the consequent wars be-
tween the Moslems of North
Africa and the Christians
of Portugal, Spain, France and Italy.
Moorish pirates captured Christians, fair
and dark, from off the coasts of the Medi-
terranean and Western Europe, from
Ireland to Greece, and the captives were
then set to work to row the galley, build
the mole, raise the fortress, decorate the
palace, and make themselves generally
iiseful in em.ployments not always palat-
able to the free IMoslem.
It was the great desire of the Christian
to do likewise, a desire which only began
to have its fulfilment when Spaniards and
Portuguese first conquered the Moors
within the limits of their own peninsula
and then victoriously carried their cru-
sading conflict into Morocco. Prince
Henry the Navigator did not discourage
his Genoese, Majorcan and Portuguese
adventurers from making slaves of the
i\loors on whom they could lay hands
in their exploring expeditions. But they
soon detected the difference in servitude
between Moors and Blackamoors, though
generically the two were lumped together.
The captives brought back from the
north of the Senegal River were found to
be of noble stuff, to whom slavery meant
heartbreak. The black people, trafficked
in by the very Moors themselves to the
south of the Senegal River, were ideal
servants, accepting readily both the
Christian faith and a mild form of domestic
service. In fact, historically, it was the
captured Moors who obtained their own
5473
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
freedom by offering to show the Portu-
guese where they might obtain slaves
of the material required by them
As soon as the British seamen of Bristol,
Devon, London, and East Anglia began to
venture far afield in sailing ventures under
the instigation of Venetian navigators,
they were very curious as to the regions
_^. . from which the Portuguese
Discoveries i , ■ j j i
r w 1. * obtamed spices and muscular
of Merchant , , , ^. j • .1
.. , black servants; and even m the
Adventurers ,. , r t- i j
discouragmg days 01 Edward
VI. and Mary I., when much of English
capital and enterprise were fettered by
religious troubles and the throttling hand
of Spanish diplomacy, merchant adven-
turers set forth to discover West Africa
for themselves.
At first seamen shipped with the
Portuguese and kept their own counsel till
they returned ; or, later, some Portugaese
commander, unfairly treated at home,
would come to England to find a market for
his knowledge. The excessive jealousy and
hostihty of the Portuguese towards any
other adventurers in the West African
field were somewhat tempered where the
English were concerned by Portuguese
rivalry with Spain, and the feeHng that in
the struggle that was coming, Portugal, to
avoid absorption by the power of Spain,
might find assistance in an alliance with
the English. Moreover, in spite of re-
ligious differences, which did not really
arise until the reign of Elizabeth, and of
a dog-in-the-manger policy as regards over-
sea adventure, there had been from the
twelfth century onwards the growing up
of an unwritten alliance, even of written
pacts, between Angevin England and
Burgundian Portugal.
It may even be said that prior to
the sixteenth century the rulers and the
aristocracy of Portugal and England
were much more nearly akin in blood,
ambitions, and even speech, than they
are to-day: ' The influence of Portugal
^ . on the historical development
xir . At ■ of the British Empire has been
Wesl African , , ,^ ,, .
c, SO important as to excuse this
disquisition. By the beginning
of Elizabeth's reign, though the Portuguese
did not like the entry of British seamen into
the West African trade, they did not treat
this intervention with such hostility
as might have nipped it in the bud.
Consequently, Sir John Hawkins, as he
subsequently became, was in a position
in 1562 to tender to the Spanish rulers of
5474
America, Imperial or Viceregal, for the
supply of cargoes of West African slaves,
or Moors, as they were still called.
The ventures proved profitable to the
English, and so satisfactory to the
Spaniards in the West Indies that the
supply continued to be carried on even
during periods when Spain and Britain
were officially at war. Hawkins, having
enriched himself over a business in which
he saw no more iniquity than has been
felt by many a nineteenth century pur-
veyor of Kanaka, or negro contract
labourers, was knighted by Queen
Elizabeth, and assumed as his crest a
" demi-Moor in bondage."
The British trade in slaves from the
West African coast might have progressed
much more rapidly and prosperously be-
tween 1560 and 1660 had it not been for
the rivalry and ambition of the Dutch.
The inhabitants of Holland and Friesland
are so near akin to us in blood and lan-
guage, have so many of our own virtues
and faults that we need not affect sur-
prise that a country, small indeed, but
nearly as large as the England that counted
^ in the days of Elizabeth, when
arve ous Wg^igg and much that lay to the
Achievements ^i r t ■ ^
f H II d i"iorth of Lincoln were savage
and sparsely populated, should
have achieved the marvellous things it
did in the seas of Africa, Asia, and America
during the time when its people were
fighting on their very thresholds against
all the power of Spain and Austria. Such
surprise at the achievements of big-
minded men out of a tiny country savours
of a complete ignorance of history. What
Holland did is as wonderful, but not more
so, than the staggering first successes of
Portugal or the civilisation of Greece.
The Dutch, finding that they were
twice as good at ship-building, ship-
sailing, and ship-fighting as the Portu-
guese, who had become the subjects of
Spain — ^the Spaniards, ' except the' small
Basque population in the ' north, were
indifferent navigators — grasped at trans-
marine empire everywhere with a greed
admirable in its stupendous character.
They intended to conquer the whole of
Brazil, and wished to supplant Spain in
Venezuela and the West Indies. At one
time they took nearly all Angola from
the Portuguese, and even made an attempt
at the subjugation of the Congo kingdom.
They usurped the place of the Portuguese
in Senegambia — 'the island of Goree in the
SLAVERY AND COLONIAL EXPANSION
harbour of Dakar to this day bears the
name of a small island off the Friesland
coast, and on the Gold Coast. They
occupied the island of St. Helena, dis-
covered and named by the Portuguese,
and probably by their- maritime attacks
checked any intentions on the part of
poor paralysed Lusitania to occupy the
Cape of Good Hope. They several times
took away the island of Mozambique
from the Portuguese, occupied and named
Mauritius, and exterminated the Dodo.
They conquered the coasts of Ceylon,
established themselves in Eastern India
and ousted the Portuguese flag from
almost every part of the Malay Pen-
insula and archipelago, where it had
been so proudly hoisted and so cruelly
maintained by the almost superhuman
valour of the great conquistadores.
Imitation has constantly been the
sincerest, if most unconscious, form of
flattery on the part of the British.
During the Saxon period they copied
the religion, arts, manners, customs, and
costume of the Prankish Roman Empire.
From before the Norman Conquest they
had begun to watch and
p"^'. - imitate the Flemings, Picards,
rHu^ M .• and Bretons. Every fashion
Other Nations ■ , ., . r tj i
m dress that came from Italy
ran with a rapidity, astonishing without
a coach or carriageable road, through
.England up to Edinburgh.
From the middle of the fifteenth to the
end of the sixteenth century our seamen
sedulously copied in shipbuilding, in the
art ot navigation, and in the use of nautical
terms the maritime enterprise of Italy,
Portugal, and Spain, while during the
seventeenth century they devoted the
same spirit of assimilation to all they
could learn from the Dutch. Indeed, it
was not until the second half of the
eighteenth century that England began
to teach other nations.
Therefore, where Venice, Genoa,
Portugal, and Holland' led in matters of
maritime discovery, and later in the slave
trade, Britain followed unquestioningly.
In the last-named pursuit she had
anticipated the Dutch, but towards the
close of the sixteenth century the Dutch
took the lead, and kept it for some
fifty years. It was a Dutch ship that
brought the first supply of negro slaves
to British North America, Virginia, in 1619.
As soon as we began to get the upper
hand of the Dutch in maritime warfare, or.
to put it more fairly, as soon as Dutch
enterprise slackened, the British turned
the temporary trading stations estab-
lished at the mouth of the Gambia, in
the estuary of Sierra Leone, and on the
Gold Coast, into permanent fortified posts.
In fact, under Charles II., James II., and
Wflliam III., the British Empire in West
Traffic Africa began mainly with the
in Slaves intention of supplying black
and Rum ?Jf^f ^^..^^e sugar-growing
West Indies, where, under
Cromwell, Britain had obtained a splendid
installation by the conquest of Jamaica.
By 1670, we not only desired to obtain
contracts for supplying Spanish America
with negro labourers, but we required
them in thousands for our own American
possessions. Sugar was being planted
everywhere in the more tropical of the
West India islands, and tobacco in Virginia.
There was a growing demand for rum
made from sugar. We were approaching
the two centuries, the eighteenth and
nineteenth, which, amongst a thousand
other remarkable characteristics, good and
bad, will probably be known in the
perspective of history as the centuries of
distilled alcoTiol: the two hundred odd
years in which civilised and uncivilised
man attempted to poison himself and his
progeny, body and mind, with rum, gin,
brandy, arrack, kirsch, absinthe, schnapps,
and whisky. Rum, the aguardiente of the
Spaniard, got a good start in the infamous
race, and vastly promoted the cultivation
of the sugar-cane, thus causing the British
to establish at least fourteen slave-trading
depots on the West Coast of Africa during
the eighteenth century, and Liverpool,
London, Bristol, and Lancaster to
maintain between them a fleet of nearly
two hundred slave-ships.
In 1713, the Treaty of Utrecht imposed
on Spain the transference from Dutch to
British merchants — in the syndicate or
combine, as it would now be called, Queen
. , Anne had a fourth share — of the
ritain s contract for the annual supply
. *" of 4,800 negro slaves to the
in avcry gpg^j^jgj^ Indies. This privilege
was to last for thirty years ; but for some
good reasons the Spaniards repudiated
it when it had only run for twenty-six.
For this and other "wrongs" the British
Government declared war on Spain. The
long War of the Austrian Succession that
followed — and later, the Wars of the Family
Compact and of the American revolt — •
5475
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
stood in the way of the resumpticin of the
purveying of slaves to Spanish America
in British ships. The Spaniards obtained
them through the French and Portuguese,
and finally made arrangements with Por-
tugal for the cession of the West African
island of Fernando Po and an establish-
ment on the African mainland at Corisco
. Bay, so that Spaniards could
♦kt^nl^i^k '^^ their own slave - buying
and running. But this was
the British
Colonies
little loss to the British slave-
traders, because, as the eighteenth
century advanced towards its middle,
the British-American and West Indian
colonies became more and more pros-
perous and in need of labourers.
In the closing years of the seventeenth
century rice from Madagascar had been
introduced into South Carolina, and
rapidly became an article of profitable
culture in the sub-tropical states of
British America, provided there was a
sufficiency of negro labour. Between
1700 and 1776 about 2,000,000 negroes
had been conveyed to the British colonies
of Eastern North America by British
ships, and in this same period quite
600,000 to the British West Indies
— 1,000,000 before the century's close.
With the American revolt the slave-
market, in what were now the United
States, was practically closed to Great
Britain. Moreover, coincidently with this
revolt arose the first determined movement
against slavery in North America. The
Quakers, who played such a great part in
the settlement of the original States of
New England, had from the first disap-
proved of slavery. The State of Pennsyl-
vania practically abolished slavery within
its limits in 1776, and Vermont in 1777.
Slavery, in fact, would have never been
recognised by the constitution of the
United States but for the insistence of
Georgia and South Carolina. It was
possibly cotton which gave a ninety' years'.
. , extension to the institution
America s _ ^^ slavery in America.
StateT ^""""^ The cultivation of cotton,
curiously enough, though
the best wild cotton-plants are indigenous
to Southern North America, did not begin
in Georgia and the Carolinas until 1770.
After a few miscarriages of samples at
Liverpool, in 1764, it became an astonish-
ing success. Previous to this discovery of
the special value of the climate of Georgia
as a cotton-producing country, the small
5476
supplies needed by the modest manu-
factories of cotton goods at London,
Nottingham, and in Lancashire were
obtained from Cyprus, Asia Minor, and
the West India Islands of Barbados,
Anguilla, and St. Christopher. But a
simultaneous provocation to the con-
tinuous retention of slave' labour in the
United States arose from England itself.
From 1750 onwards a series of
splendid inventions — Kaye's fly - shuttle,
Hargreave's carding - engine and "spin-
ning-jenny," Arkwright's spinning-frame,
mule, and throstle — revolutionised the
cotton industries of England, the whole
history and development of Lanca-
shire, whither cotton manufacturers were
being removed from London because of
the greater cheapness of labour and the
peculiar qualities of the Lancashire
climate, and even the social fabric of
England. Cotton spinners, American and
West Indian merchants became enormously
wealthy and influential, and their sons
entered Parliament. Thus were founded
the careers of the great Sir Robert Peel
and of Gladstone. These wonderful develop-
_ ,. - ments of British industry caused
Orowth of 1 J r xu
an enormous demand for the
the Cotton
Industry
raw material. It was before the
days of steamships, though the
machines with steam power invented by
James Watt applied to cotton spinning
were the origin of the application of
steam-power to locomotion; and the
sailing voyages from Turkey through a
war-devastated Mediterranean, were too
uncertain as a means of a large and con-
stant supply. In the West Indies the area
under British control suited to cotton
cultivation was too small. As soon as
the war with the American colonies could
be brought to a conclusion, a trade in
cotton, cultivated by slave labour, sprang
up between the United States and Liver-
pool so enormous as to preclude for a
long while, any, serious movement on the
American side for the abrogation of the
slave status.
. But the prohibition of the foreign slave
trade by the United States in 1794-1808,
and the similar prohibition by Britain in
1808 — strengthened by the provisions of
the Treaty of Ghent in 1814 — effected a
great improvement in the position and
happiness of the slave in America and in
the British West Indies. Hitherto the wast-
age of life had been terrible. There were
about 800,000 negro and mulatto slaves
5477
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
in the British West Indies in 1791, but it
required annual drafts of about 30,000
to maintain the labour force at its sufficient
quota. In 1780 there were about 600,000
negroes in the Southern United States.
This figure had risen in 1790, under the
stimulus of cotton-planting and increased
demand for slave labour — perhaps also
r- i D -1 • ' to a more careful census — to
Oreat Britain s t-> o v, i i
Solicitud 757.000- By 1800 it exceeded
for the Negro
a million, of whom, however,
more than 100,000 were
already free. By 1820 there were 233,000
free negroes in the United States, to whom
the ordinary franchise of free citizens
was practically denied. The embarrass-
ment thus caused was met by the
foundation in 1822 of Liberia, on the
West Coast of Africa, to receive back in
Africa the descendants of freed slaves
whom America rejected as voting citizens.
Great Britain had already felt this
difficulty of conceding political rights to
the freed slaves of the West India Islands,
and further had to find homes for the
loyahst negroes who had fought on the
British side during the American War of
1777-1783. These had first been moved
to Nova Scotia ; then they were con-
veyed to London, and finally to the
Sierra Leone peninsula, which had been
acquired by a philanthropist chartered
company for the repatriation of negroes.
The foundation of the future Colony and
Protectorate of Sierra Leone, in 1787-1792,
was the first episode in a new order of empire
building ; sentiment or sentimentality was
henceforth to rank with other more prac-
tical reasons for annexing countries, large
and small, to the British Crown.
The alleged philanthropic origin of
some of our possessions is an explanation,
which, down to a few years ago, would
have called forth the snort or the sneer
from home or foreign critics of the empire.
But although Great Britain is rightly
famed for keeping an eye on the main
g . chance in her Imperial policy,
it is a fact that several of
in Imperial
her investments in Africa and
Policy A ■ • ,, • -I 1
Asia in their origin have been
undertaken for motives of sincere philan-
thropy, and not with the immediate
prospect of gain. Thus, Sierra Leone was
first started as a chartered company, and
then grew inevitably into a crown colony.
Lagos was conquered and annexed in
1861 because it remained obstinately a
stronghold of the slave trade. British
intervention in the affairs of Nyassaland
was largely the outcome of Livingstone's
denunciation of the Arab slave trade.
British missionary propaganda was in the
first place the only motive in Bechuana-
land and Central Zambesia.
The same may be said for the be-
ginning of British interest in Uganda,
in all probability antedating the anxiety
concerning the sources of the Nile
water-supply and the irrigation of the
Northern Sudan and Egypt. Philan-
thropy—of a rather sickly kind — started
the creation of British commercial and
political claims over the Lower Niger, and
ranged public opinion behind the vacillat-
ing British Government of the 'nineties
— it would equally have stood behind them
in the 'eighties* — in the last century, when
Lord Kitchener was allowed to under-
take the reconquest and resettlement
of the Egyptian Sudan. In no region
of the British Empire was philanthropy
more justified in urging on a conquest
than in these regions of the Central
Nile valley. The uprising of the bastard
Arab element in this region
was in all truth a revolt in
favour of the reinstitution of
the slave trade in its most
extravagantly cruel and infamous aspects.
The Mahdi's revolt had blasted and
depopulated a region of the earth's
surface which, under proper administra-
tion, should have been the home of popu-
lous tribes of dark-skinned people engaged
in rearing large herds of camels, cattle,
asses, horses, goats, and sheep, and in
cultivating millions of acres of wheat or of
date palms.
Its previous government by Egypt
had been undertaken first of all on
a purely slave-trade basis, and secondly
as a speculation very much on the
lines of King Leopold's rubber empire
on the Congo. The British conquest,
occupation, and reorganisation of the
Sudan has been a very great gain
to civilisation and human happiness.
Whether such a verdict shall be pro-
nounced on all other extensions of British
rule is discussed in greater detail in this
survey. But it is noteworthy that many
a British conquest, in order to excite the
philanthropic motive in the British people, M
has been preceded by a blackening of the 1
character of those about to be conquered.
British
Influence in
the Sudan
5478
THE
BRITISH
EMPIRE
IV
BY SIR
HARRY
JOHNSTON,
G.C.M.G.
COLONIES GROWN FROM CONVICT
SETTLEMENTS
EFFECT OF THE OLD TRANSPORTATION
SYSTEM ON THE EMPIRE'S EXPANSION
A NOTHER inducement to acquire over-
■**• sea possessions should not be over-
looked, as it has contributed powerfully, if at
first unhappily, to the formation of British
and French colonies from the early part of
the seventeenth to, in the case of Britain, the
last half of the nineteenth century : the trans-
portation of criminals or political prisoners.
The fact that several of our proudest,
most prosperous colonies began in this
way, or were reinforced in population by
these means, we need have no scruple
in admitting or regret in recording, for in
all the period of English history previous
to the reform of the criminal laws in
1826, 1832, 1837, persons not hanged,
drawn and quartered — allowed to survive
their trial — could not have been so very
wicked, since the death penalty in those
days was frequently imposed where now
three months' imprisonment would be
considered ample to meet the require-
ments of justice, to say nothing of the
enormous frequency of false witness, of
miscarriages of justice, wherein a humane
judge or Minister would give the prisoner
the benefit of the doubt by sentencing
him or her to transportation for the en-
forced colonisation of new lands.
Given the shocking social condition of
England and France in the eighteenth and
early nineteenth centuries, this plan was
really a blessing in disguise. The wretched
criminal, often more sinned against than
_ ^. , sinning, was removed from a rut
Essentials r i 1 • 1 j- ivc
. jP . of hopeless social disqualmca-
^ . ™. tion, and from incessant temp-
tation to run counter to local
laws, to a region where muscle, pluck,
endurance, resourcefulness — the brigand's
instincts, moderately curbed — were the
essentials required in empire building.
At home he oi: she would have eventually
ended a miserable career on the gallows
or in the workhouse prison. In the
Two Sides
of the Australian
Picture
American States, the northern West Indies,
Australia or Tasmania, the transported
developed in many cases into healthy,
happy, virtuous, prosperous fathers, or
mothers of sturdy colonists, themselves to
be the ancestors, perchance, of such as
shall found the mighty independent states
of the future. Some of
the finest of Australian
citizens, I have been told,
can trace their descent
from stalwart English poachers, whom the
iniquitous game laws of a pre-Victorian
Britain condemned to transportation.
Similar ])oachers nowadays, unprosecuted
or mildly punished, might develop into
successful and very respectable professional
cricketers, football players, or golfers ; or
enter the army, rise to be sergeants-major
or inspectors of police, and endow their not-
sufficiently-grateful country with families
of ten to twelve healthy children.
There was, of course, another side to the
picture in Australia, and, above all, in
Tasmania. A proportion of the convicts
were really wicked men and women, and
the partial hberty they attained on
reaching the southern hemisphere enabled
them to spread their wickedness like a
subtle moral contamination. The special
and isolated penal settlements in New
South Wales, Tasmania, Norfolk Island,
Moreton Bay, West Australia, became —
according to writers of that and a later day,
in pamphlets and in novels — "terrible
cesspools of iniquity." But the ex-convicts
and ticket-cf-leave men became prosperous
and outspoken citizens : it has been stated
in reports on the transportation question
that by 1835 some of the New South Wales
ex-convict citizens possessed incomes of
between £20,000 and £40,000, derived
from houses, lands, ships, cattle, and land
transport. They advocated on the platform
and in the local Press views that were
5479
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
described as " unprincipled," but in many
respects seem nowadays merely Socialism
of a respectable and accepted type. The
vicious members of the penal settlements
mostly died out from their evil courses and
left no offspring to perpetuate their moral
obliquity. For the rest, the open air, the
sunshine, great spaces, necessity for
„ . . , physical exertion, effected a
p .. J bodily and mental purifica-
rr , 4. tion. The Australia and Tas-
mania of the twentieth cen-
tury bear no more traces in their 4,200,000
wholesome people of the sorrows, tor-
tures, crimes, and privations of a certain
section of the original colonisers than do
the modern New Englanders, who are in
part descended from a similar recruitment.
Penal colonies or settlements of outlaws
or mutinied soldiers were not unknown in
the polity of ancient Egypt, the Greek or
the Roman worlds, and here or there in
legend and in history are quoted as the seed
of subsequently prosperous communities.
In the evolution of the British Empire the
policy of transporting law-breakers to lands
beyond the sea was foreshadowed by the
Vagrancy Act of Elizabeth's reign, on the
strength of which her successor, James I.,
directed that " a hundred dissolute per-
sons " should be sent to Virginia. In 1660
and 1670, Acts of Charles II. prescribed the
transportation of offenders against the
laws, which then included many who were
merely " lewd, disorderly, or lawless
persons," or who were dissidents in
religion ; and from this time onwards men
and women were regularly drafted to the
plantations in New England.
In 1718, an Act of George I. ordained that
criminals guilty of grave offences, who
escaped the death penalty, were to be
farmed out to labour- contractors for trans-
port to the American colonies. The con-
tractors were thus enabled to sell the labour
of these white slaves — men at about £10 a
head, and women at £8 or £9— for what-
Fate of ^^^^ term .the. judge . had
the Whit attached to their transportation,
c, ^ say, from seven to fourteen years.
At the end of that period the
labourer became free, theoretically, and
although in many instances, no doubt, a
wicked master kept his " convict " at work
beyond the term of his sentence, in many
others he became a free colonist lone before
or settled the question himself by running
away to the backwoods, or joining the
Indians and becoming the father of
5480
vigorous half-breeds. Convicts were also
sent to Jamaica, Nova Scotia, the Ber-
mudas, Barbados, and other islands of the
British West Indies. But with the revolt
of the American States, the transportation
of British law-breakers across the Atlantic
came to an end. The simultaneous revela-
tion by Captain Cook of the vast Australian
territories suggested a far better outlet for
the energies of those unhappy convicts in
whom the great philanthropist Howard
was forcing his fellow citizens and govern-
ment to take an interest.
The first fleet of convict settlers left
England for New South Wales in 1787,
and, after a voyage of seven months, landed
its consignment on the site of the modern
Sydney m January, 1788. In the same year
another convict station was established at
Norfolk Island, about 400 miles to the
north-north-west of New Zealand. In
1804 the first settlement was effected in
Tasmania, when 400 convicts, many of
them Irish political prisoners, were estab-
lished on the site of the modern Hobart.
The next year the Norfolk Island convicts
were removed to Tasmania, and estab-
lished on the banks of the Upper Derwent.
„ . Asearly as 1832, however, pro-
^ . . , . tests began to reach England
Criminals in j- ,, . i 1 ,• r
. ... from the reputable section of
Australia . , ,. ^ . , • , ,,
Austrahan society against the
principle of transporting thither the
criminals of Great Britain. There had
always been alongside the deported prisoner
of the State a steady influx of free colonists.
Some of these came to Australia with a
view to farm, by means of cheap convict
labour ; and no doubt by this association
of white and black sheep, not a few among
the latter regained their former spotless-
ne?s of fleece. It is at any rate certain,
though enough emphasis has never been
placed on this happy fact, that a propor-
tion of nearly, if not quite, half the convicts
sent out to Australia found their way back
into.the life of decent, self-respecting men
and women. .
It must also be remembered that be-
tween 1800 and 1820 a large number of
the prisoners were political : Irish rebels
or English rioters, fighters for freedom
merely, and often high-minded, pure-
minded men. On the other ho.nd, after
the first reform of the terrible English
criminal code in 1826 and 1832, the persons
deemed to have merited transportation
were more certainly thorough-going law-
breakers than under the former and harsher
COLONIES GROWN FROM CONVICT SETTLEMENTS
laws. So it came about that all the
respectable elements of Australian society
— from whatever source recruited matters
not, for their lives and exploits were
sufficient testimony to their character —
struck at the dum])ing of any more con-
victed criminals on Australian soil. Their
protests were endorsed by their judiciary,
and after 1840 no more state piisoners
were sent to the eastern half of Australia.
A good many of the irreclaimable
convicts 'of New South Wales and Queens-
land (Moreton Bay) were removed to
Norfolk Island, which continued to be a
convict station till 1854. Tasmania received
all the output of British convicts until
1846, when, in consequence of protests
from its Government, the supply was
stopped until 1848. Then it began again,
especially with regard to Irish and English
Chartist political prisoners. This was in
1850, when an attempt to land 250 con-
victs in the previous year at the Cape of
Good Hope provoked almost an insurrec-
tion. After 1850 no more convicts were
sent to the beautiful island of Tasmania,
which, in 1825, had been thrown open to
free emigrants. - In Tasmania the worst
' features of convict colonisa-
rou esome ^^^^ were certainly manifest.
Convicts T,, . , , , -^ ,
. T, . The mdentured or assigned
iQ Tasmania .... ^ ■ 1 ^
cnmmals, who were subjected
to but little supervision, frequently
escaped into the bush, and between 1804
and 1830 the island was terrorised by
bushrangers. This precipitated trouble
with the black indigenes, whose treat-
ment, active and passive, at the hands
of British ofhcialdom will always be one
of the blots on the empire's record, from
the point of view of science as well as
philanthropy. The worst type of convicts
were herded at the penal settlement of
Port Arthur, on Tasman Peninsula, under
conditions graphically described by the
late Marcus Clarke in his powerful novel,
" His Natural Life."
Western Australia had been founded as
a colony in 1829, but for many years it
languished in growth owing to the superior
attractions in rapid fortune-making offered
elsewhere in the island-continent. .. It
heeded cheap labour above all for the
development of its resources, so that when
the other states of Australia were indig-
nantly repudiating the principle of convict
immigration, the legislature of the Crown
Colony of West Australia actually pro-
posed to the Home Government, in 1846,
I Z 27 D
of Transportation
Abolished
the sending out annually of a limited
number of British convicts. The proposal
was eagerly accepted by the British
Government in 1849, a-t a time when they
were placed in a very awkward dilemma
by the outbreak in Cape Town against the
landing of convicts. Accordingly, trans-
portation of criminals was resumed
T,. c . Australia-wards, and the
The System , ,
prisoners, released on
ticket-of-leave for the
most part, were sent
annually to Fremantle and Albany until
1865. Many of these so-called convicts
were little more than boys from the
reformatory prison at Parkhurst, Isle of
Wight. But later the Imperial Government
began to develop a plan of regular penal
establishments in Western Australia for the
using up of British criminals in the mass,
and this contemplated procedure offended
the growing national pride of Australia.
Moreover, it was complained of by the
colony of South Australia, which had never
been associated in its foundation with con-
vict immigrants, but which now witnessed
a permeation of its settlements by escaped
criminals from West Australia. In 1865,
therefore, the s^^stem . of transporting
convicts to Western Australia, or to any
region beyond the limits of Great Britain
and Ireland, came to an end for ever.
There is nothing to gird at in this
record. Transportation was a plan which
in the circumstances of the time, of home
institutions, and colonial needs, served a
purpose that in the main was beneficent.
At any rate, whether or not unpleasing to
British pride, it must be ranked among
the principal causes which led to the
colonisation of North and South Carolina,
Virginia, and Massachusetts ; of Jamaica,
the Bahamas, and the Leeward Islands ;
of Australia and Tasmania.
But for the need to find a dumping-
ground for offenders against the criminal
laws or for political prisoners, Australia and
. Tasmania would have be-
Colonies ^^^^^ French possessions ; no
that were Lost ^^^^^^ ^^^^ Zealand as well.
to France prance, with the gold and
copper of Australia and the magnificent
climate of New Zealand as baits for
French emigrants, might have played a
very different part in the world's history.
It is curious to reflect on the partly for-
gotten causes and personalities of this
movement towards Australia. After the
middle of the eighteenth century there
5481
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORI.D
The Beauty
and Wonders
of Australia
were British Ministers who took an interest
in science lor the mere love of knowledge.
Lord Halifax, in lybS, had despatched
James Bruce, British consul in Algeria
and Tunis, to Egypt, to discover the source
of the Nile. In the same year, partly
through the influence of the same Secretary
of State — whodiedini77i — .Captain James
Cook was sent with a small
naval expedition to the South
Seas to observe from the longi-
tude of Tahiti the transit of
Venus. On his homeward journey he dis-
covered, or se- discovered, New Zealand and
Australia. His landing at Botany Bay, near
Sydney, at the beginning of the Australian
autumn, M'hen there was a renewed out-
burst of leaf and blossom under the
influence of the rains, caused him to give,
on his return to England in the summer of
1771 — besides the reports of his scientific
staff, among whom was Sir Joseph Banks
— such a glowing account of the beauty
and wonders of Australia as fascinated the
attention of arm-chair geographers in
England. Amongst this type of useful
and enthusiastic students was a Mr. Matra,
afterwards British Agent at Tangiers, who
had access to the ear of Lord Sydney, the
Minister then in charge of Colonial affairs.
The philanthropist John Howard, in
1777-1779, had been agitating for prison
reform. The American colonies were now
closed as places to which criminals could be
transported. The prosperous West Indian
Islands rejected this labour material, not
half so useful as negro slaves ; where, then,
was a harassed administration, just awaking
to the impulses of modern philanthropy —
largely created by the Quakers — to send
the wretched beings it was too humane to
slaughter and too ignorant to reform ?
Some suggested a penal settlement at
Gibraltar; others, with more sardonic
intent, the Gambia River, where the
climate was reported to kill one in six
among the Europeans landed there. But
Mr. Matra espoused the suggestions of
Sir Joseph Banks that the beautiful
country of New South Wales should receive
a British settlement ; and afterwards
shaped his plans so as to incorporate Lord
Sydney's suggestion that the Botany Bay
colony should comprise a scheme for the
transportation of large numbers of convicts.
Mr. Matra seems to have been a Corsican,
the relation or descendant of a Corsican
patriot who sometimes fought with, some-
times against, Paoli, in the Corsican
struggle for independence w'hich preceded
the French Revolution by twenty to thirty
years. Matra had become domiciled in
England, and, as far as can be ascertained,
never was in Australia, but merely became
interested theoretically in that country's
possibilities and in colonisation generally.
Lord Sydney, as Sir Thomas Townshend
and later as a peer, was at the Foreign
Office between 1782 and 1791.
Then, owing to the disgust occasioned
by the issue of the American War, the
Ministry of the colonies had been abolished
and the oversea possessions of Great
Britain were dealt with by the Foreign
Department. Matra, with his
knowledge of French and
Italian, was useful to Lord
Sydney, no doubt in Mediter-
ranean questions. His own chief pre-
occupation at this time, 1783, seems to
have been to found a new home for the
American loyalists. Lord Sydney's aim was
to select a suitable portion of the globe for
the reception of transported criminals.
From this curious conjunction of plans and
enthusiasms sprang British Australasia.
The Birth of
British
Australasia
AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINES RECEIVING BLANKETS FROM THE GOVERNMENT
5482
BY SIR
HARRY
JOHNSTON,
G.C.M.G.
THE WARS OF THE EMPIRE,
JUST AND UNJUST
HOW BRITAIN'S OVERSEAS DOMINIONS
HAVE BEEN EXTENDED BY FORCE OF ARMS
AND THE LOSS OF THE AMERICAN COLONIES
nPHE participation of England in the Cru-
•'■ sades, and, indeed, all the wars carried
on by Norman, Angevin, and Plantagenet
kings outside the English realm, with the
exception of the conquest of Ireland,
Wales, and Scotland, can hardly be called
wars for the foundation of the British
Empire. The campaigns of Henry II.,
Richard I., the first three Edwards, Henry
V. and VI., were undertaken as the
attempts of French princes to reign in
France, while their work in the Crusades
was really a lingering vestige of the
Western Roman Empire, a continuance
of that work of Rome which was really
resumed after the Saxon interregnum.
For a brief period after the Anglo-
Saxons had done much to destroy Roman
civilisation in Britain, Ireland may have
been more civilised and prosperous than
England or barbaric Caledonia. Were it
not, however, for the vestiges of an
undoubted and very beautiful art, the
early mediaeval civilisation of Ireland
might be questioned, seeing how much
invention and exaggeration have accumu-
lated in the monkish legends. [Students
of this part of British history would do
well to read " The Elder Faiths of Ire-
land," by W.H. Wood-Martin; and "The
Making of Ireland and Its Undoing," by
Mrs. Alice Stopford Green.] With the
influence of the Romanised
Franks on the Saxon courts,
Roiuan civilisation soon
raised its head again in the
realm of the Anglo-Saxon from Edinburgh
to Southampton, and the new English
civilisation began to infiltrate Iberian
Wales and Cornwall. The necessary pre-
liminary to a British Empire abroad was
the political consolidation of Great Britain,
Roman
Civilisation in
B ritain
Ireland, and Man into a single great power
with a central government. Until that
could be brought about in deed, if not in
word, there could be no motive, no security
for an empire beyond the seas of the British
Archipelago. The first wars of the empire,
therefore, were those which the
tK^T^ *f N^orman and Angevin kings,
.t.^ ..t'™^ ° incited by the Pope, with his
the Normans . ■ , -' r A Mr .
desne to unify the Western
Christian Church, undertook for the sub-
jugation of Ireland and Wales. For
Imperial purposes, the conquest of Ireland
was sufficiently achieved in the reign of
Henry II. The Danes had largely prepared
the way for the English. They had
slain the last Keltic king of all Ireland,
Brian Boru. Ireland was then, as now,
composed, in a different proportion, of
muc'i the same racial elements as England,
Scotland, Wales and Cornwall.
It is probable, however, that at the time
of the Norman invasion Danish was a good
deal spoken on the coasts of Ireland, and
from that to the English of Henry II.'s
period was no very difficult step. But it
was really the Roman Church that kept
Ireland under English control until such
time as the English infiltration had grown
too strong for a national resistance.
Wales had been brought into the English
hegemony at the conclusion of the reign of
Edward I. Anglo-Saxon, Norman, and
Danish infiuence combined, had, between
700 A.D. and the reign of Robert Bruce,
settled the question whether Scotland was
to be an independent Keltic kingdom with
a predominant Keltic language, or a
country ruled by the English speech, by
Roman and Norman ideas of law and
custom, although for two centuries more
she remained a power more often hostile
5483
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
Scotland's
Union with
England
than friendly. The Isle of Man had come
within the English sphere of influence in
1344 and 1406, when it had ceased to be
ruled by a Norwegian dynasty, and had
been finally wrested from intermittent-
Scottish occupation. The Hebrides and
outer islands of West Scotland were
secured from Norway, and, later, from
independent rule — by the
"Lord of the Isles" — in 1264
and 1427. The Orkneys and
Shetlands were also pledged
by Norway (Denmark) in 1469 as the
security for the dowry of Margaret of
Denmark, who married James III. The
pledge was never redeemed. Thus the
kings of Scotland, mainly by war prowess,
between 844 and 1470 brought the entire
mainland and adjacent islands of North
Britain under one rule, and in 1603 united
it with the Crown of England, Wales,
Ireland, and the Channel Islands, and the
suzerainty over Man.
Though the nominal independence of
Scotland continued until the fusion of the
two crowns in the person of James VI. (I.),
vScotland had no Imperial policy of her own
after the Battle of Flodden Field, except
the unfortunate Darien expedition of 1698-
1700 to the Gulf of Uraba at the southern
beginning of the Isthmus of Panama,
and did not actively participate in the
Imperial schemes of Britain till after the
Act of Union in the reign of Queen Anne.
It was likewise not until the middle of the
eighteenth century that Irishmen born in
Ireland are founcl taking any prominent
part in colonial expansion.
The war-worn Henry IV. had dallied
with Imperial projects of trade in the
Mediterranean, and had even received
embassies from the Moors of North Africa ;
but his death at the early age of forty-
seven cut short his plans of expanding
English influence. The eighty years of
turmoil that followed distracted men's
thoughts from any questions but those of
England, Scotland, France, and
Burgundy. Thus the great
The Seeds
of Imperial
Desires
stirrings of the Southern Eng-
lish— for at first all Imperial
enterprise came from south of the latitude
of Lincoln — towards oversea adventure and
acquisitions did not make themselves felt
till the reign of Henry VII. The growing
relations of trading Britain with the Low
Countries, with Venice, Portugal, and the
Hanseatic towns, which became very
marked in the reign of Edward IV., sowed
5484
the seeds of Imperial desires. We were
prom])ted to found an empire by giant
minds of Venice and Genoa, who, eager to
take their inspirations to any monarch with
the power of executing them, and often
thwarted or maltreated by Spain or Portu-
gal, came to England, and attracted the
inchoate desires of this people — emergent
from civil wars, safe at home, and fer-
menting with the new learning — towards
the discovery and conquest of lands
across the Atlantic Ocean.
The first war undertaken for an empire
beyond the shores of Britain did not
occur till the early part of Elizabeth's
reign, and then for a long time it was an
unofficial '.var, waged by gallant men whose
status was little superior to that of pirates.
Drake and his comrades, incensed by the
attempts of the Spanish monarchy to
retain all America within the limits of a
Spanish monopoly, boldly attacked the
colossus in detail, and by surrendering to the
greedy Elizabeth much of the wealth thus
acquired, escaped being hanged as pirates.
But after their exploits had provoked
the despatch of the Spanish Armada,
Ehzabeth took a bolder line.
, . * f " She afforded a somewhat
Line of Queen , t 1 j , .
_,,. . ,. churlish and treacherous
Elizabeth . ^ . .1 , v _
assistance to the struggling
people of the Netherlands, and waged a war
here against Spain — not by any means
crowned with honour — which was probably
intended, if she saw her w'ay clear, to add
the Netherlands to the dominions of the
British Crown — still claiming the kingdom
of France. The Dutch, after the dis-
graceful behaviour of Leicester, were by
no means minded to pursue their original
invitation to Elizabeth to become queen
over the Low Countries. Outraged at the
treachery displayed by Elizabeth's generals,
they resolved to lean* on the House of
Orange and its German connections, and
to pursue an independent and even a rival
course to that of England.
This divergence of paths between the
people speaking two Low^ German dialects
in the deltas of the Rhine and the Ems,
and the people speaking another language
of the same stock in Great Britain,
Scotland and Eastern Ireland, was to
culminate seventy years later in some of the
toughest of our colonial tights, and reverbe-
rated to its last echo, it may be hoped,
in the South African W'ar of 1899-1902.
James I. probably permitted rather than
encouraged the foundation of a British
THE WARS OF THE EMPIRE, JUST AND UNJUST
Empire beyond the ssa, firstly because it
was difficult to check the imi)ulses in
that direction which had grown up under
Elizabeth, partly because these enter-
prises were encouraged by his gallant
eldest son, Prince Henry, who died untimely
in 1612 ; and lastly, because the pro-
moters of these colonial schemes had only
to bribe James's favourites to get what
charter they desired. James's own colonial
or Mediterranean wars were unfortunate,
and resulted in no advantage. He be-
headed Raleigh to please Spain, and
because Raleigh had discovered no gold
or silver mines in Guiana.
Cromwell's first colonial war was with
Holland. The effect of the massacre at
Amboina in 1623 of a number of English-
men and their followers — nine Englishmen,
one Portuguese, nine Japanese, and about
ninety Malays^n order that the Dutch
might retain the monopoly of the spice
trade, had taken some time to reach
England, but had never been forgiven or
forgotten. Internal troubles had prevented
the exaction of any indemnity until the
establishment of Cromwell's power in 1652.
_, „, The Dutch had taken full ad-
„ vantage ot the i:)aralysis 01
♦k rk « k England at home between 1630
on the Dutch ° ^ ^ . „ j. ■ ^■
and 1052, Prmce Rupert aidmg
on behalf of Charles II. to chase British
ships from the carrying trade in the Medi-
terranean, Atlantic and Indian Oceans.
They had, of course, added to their
offences in Cromwell's eyes by receiving
an envoy from Charles II. after the death
of his father. Therefore, in 1651, the
Commonwealth Parliament devised the
extraordinary Navigation Act; which
obliged all colonial or Indian produce
to be carried to Great Britain in British
ships only, or foreign goods to be brought
in ships of the country producing those
goods. Thus they dealt a severe blow
at the Dutch mercantile marine, which had
become the common carriers of the world.
They wished also to check the free
use of British fisheries by the Dutch
fishermen, and demanded as a royalty
the tenth herring of every catch. They also
required — which was less defensible^^
that the Dutch should salute the British
Fleet first whenever the two squadrons
met in the Channel. The results of the
naval war which broke out in 1652 were
very favourable to Britain, and the
position of the British in the East Indies
and on the east coast of North America
vyas materially strengthened. As regards
Spain, which was covertly harassing the
British settlers in the Bahamas and
Leeward Islands, who for their frequent
raids on Hispaniola and Jamaica no
doubt deserved such reprisals, Cromwell
sent an expedition, 1654-1655, under
Admiral Penn— the father of the founder
Jamaica °^ Pennsylvania— and General
Seized by the ^enables to Barbados. At this
English island they opened their sealed
orders, and found they were
to attack and occupy the large island
of Hispaniola. Besides the 4,000 soldiers
they had on board, they were to recruit a
further force from among what we should
nowadays call the convict settlers of
Barbados, and were further to take up
more fighting men at St. Christopher.
With 10,200 men they proceeded to
attack the port of San Domingo in a most
blundering fashion, and at length were
beaten off by the Spaniards and the
results of great sickness among their men.
Ashamed — or. rather, afraid — to face Crom-
well with no better results than this
repulse, they proceeded to Jamaica, never
very strongly garrisoned by Spain. Their
seizure of the island, in May, 1655, met
with but a feeble resistance on the part of
the Spaniards. The folk who seemed
most annoyed at the arrival of the British
were the negro slaves of the Spaniards who
had replaced the exterminated Arawck
Indians, slaves probably brought to
Jamaica originally in British vessels.
These fled to the mountains, and long
remained recalcitrant to British rule.
A small proportion of these descendants
of the Spanish slaves claim still a certain
independence and peculiar ]:irivileges of
their own in the bush country of
Eastern and Western Jamaica. The
Spaniards nicknamed runaway negroes
who took refuge in the interior mountain
ranges " Cimarrones," from " Cima," a
mountain peak. This term was shortened
and corrupted in West Indian
England s English into " Maroons." This
Unscrupulous .° , 01
. . attack on a Spanish possession
in a time of peace, and when a
Spanish, ambassador had been accredited
to Ci-omwell and to the Parliament for the
purpose of arriving at a settlement of all
outstanding disagreements, and even of the
conclusion of an alliance between the two
nations, can only be described as a dis-
honourable and unscrupulous action which,
if it had been committed against England
5485
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
by Spain, British historians would never
have ceased denouncing. As it is, I cannot
find a word of chsapproval in the work of
any British historian ; only expressions
of regret that the drunken squabbles of
the leaders of the expedition caused it to
fail humiliatingly in the original purpose
entertained by Cromwell— the conquest
_ , . of Hispaniola. After this out-
England 011 i n
w X2jg& Spain declared war. Crom-
With S i ^'^^ ^^^ already (1655 - 6)
despatched a British fleet to
the Mediterranean under Blake simultan-
eously with the expedition under Penn and
Venables to the West Indies. Blake was to
punish the Barbary rovers for their attacks
on British shipping, and to strike terror into
the courts of Tuscany and Rome for their
having given harbourage to the recusant
English war vessels, the remains of Charles
I.'s navy, under Prince Rupert.
Blake threatened to bombard Leghorn,
but finally agreed to accept from Rome and
Tuscany an indemnity of £60,000. He
then proceeded to Algiers, but the Turkish
dey of that country promised reparation.
The dey of Tunis refused satisfaction, so
the castles of Goletta and Porto Farina
were battered by Blake's artillery and the
shipping they protected was destroyed.
Tripoli was afterwards threatened, but
submitted. Blake followed up the
Spanish declaration of war in 1656 by
blockading Cadiz and burning a Spanish
treasure fleet at Santa Cruz (Teneriffe,
Canary Islands). The alliance with
France which followed the outbreak of
war with Spain led to the capture and
retention of Dunkirk by the English.
Dunkirk was then a town of the Spanish
Netherlands. In 1658 Charles II. sold
the place to Louis XIV. for £200,000,
which he spent on his mistresses.
In 1664-1667 the war with Holland was
renewed, owing in part to Charles II. reviv-
ing the Navigation Act of the Common-
wealth. But hostilities were further
provoked by the unfriendly
attitude of the Dutch towards
the newly founded Royal
African Chartered Company,
which was attempting to establish itself on
the Gold Coast in order to take a share in
the slave trafhc and in the export of gold.
Out in the Far East, indeed, there was
constant bickering between Dutch and
English, and many a spell of " unofficial "
warfare between their land or naval
forces occurred sometimes when the two
5486
Unofficial
Warfare in the
Far East
nations were at peace with Europe.
This went on until the latter part of the
eighteenth century, and had for its
general purpose the expulsion of the
Dutch from Bengal and the driving away
of the English from Ceylon and the
Malay Archipelago. An example of one
of these local wars was the arrival in 1759
of a Dutch flotilla in the Hugh to assist
Mir J afar to turn out the victorious
English. Clive and Colonel Forde turned
fiercely on the Dutch and captured or
destroyed the whole flotilla. During the
eighteenth century it was France rather
than Holland that we had to fight for
the extension of the British Empire in
America, the Mediterranean, and India.
We made use of the War of the Spanish
Succession at the beginning of the
eighteenth century to seize Gibraltar and
Minorca. The holding of Gibraltar had
been once or twice suggested as the alter-
native to the surrender of Tangier in
1684, and the question of a secure harbour
of refuge at the outlet of the Mediterranean
had become more urgent to British naval
policy after the defeat of Sir George
^.. ., Rooke by the French of^ Cape
Gibraltar - -' ^
Captured by
St. Vincent in 1693, and the
. „ . . . capture of the British merchant
fleet from Turkey, and, later,
during the subsequent operations of
Admiral Russell off Cadiz. But the
actual capture of Gibraltar was effected
rather as a side issue, and not entirely by
British valour.
In the third year, 1704, of the war. Sir
George Rooke was despatched with a
force of German and English soldiers
under the Prince of Hesse Darmstadt to
seize Barcelona. Here, however, they
were repulsed by the Spaniards, who
held the place for the Bourbon King
Philip. They, therefore, sailed back to-
wards England, but on their return sur-
prised Gibraltar, which was not expecting
any attack. The importance of Gibraltar
was, at all events, not yet fully realised,
though at the Peace of Utrecht, signed
on April nth, 1713, it was, together with
Minorca, ceded to Great Britain b}' King
Philip of Spain. Five years afterwards,
the Prime Minister, Lord Stanhope,
thought Gibraltar of no consequence,
and proposed to retrocede it to Spain
in order to pacify Cardinal Alberoni.
Minorca, the second largest of the
Balearic Islands, had been captured by an
English force under General and Admiral
BRITAIN'S FIRST FOOTING IN CANADA: THE FRENCH SURRENDER OF QUEBEC
Making his first voyage to Canada in IGn:;, Samuel du Champlaiu founded Quebec^inltiOS^^and subsequently became
French governor of Canada " ' ■• ■ , „ , . r, •^■
Kirke, but the captured ter
French governor of Canada. In 1629, he was compelled to surrender Quebec to British adventurers under Admiral
■""'"■ ' srritory was restored to France, peace having been arrived at between the two countries.
From the drawing by K. Caton WoodviUe
5487
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
Stanhope in 1708. It remained as a British
possession till 1756, when it fell to a French
attack after the defeat of Admiral Byng.
At the peace of 1763 it was restored to
Great Britain, again lost to the Spaniards
in 1782, seized once more by British arms
in 1798, and finally restored to Spanish rule
in 1803, the British deciding to retain Malta
as an alternative "padlock"
on the Mediterranean. The
Founding of
the South
Sea Company
results of the War of the
Spanish Succession — 1702-
1713 — also strengthened the British posi-
tion in the Hudson's Bay territories, New-
foundland, and in the West Indies ; and
by the Treaty of Utrecht the " Asiento " for
the supply of slave labour to Spanish
America seemed to the eager British to
carry with it the right or the excuse to
evade the jealous Spanish monopoly of
trade with South America. On such a
pretext as this the South Sea Company
was founded to trade with the Pacific
coasts of Spanish America.
But the powerful Prime Minister of
Spain, Cardinal Alberoni, had no inten-
tions of allowing this misreading of the
rights obtained under the Asiento. His
hostility was accentuated by the inter-
ference of George I., in 1718-1721, with the
disputes between Spain and Austria as to
the division and allotment of Italian
territories. The ill-feeling smouldered for
years, breaking out in 1727 into a four
months' Spanish siege of Gibraltar, a
siege which led to assistance being afforded
to the British by Morocco, and to the
beginning of friendly relations with that
empire never since interrupted.
In 1739 war was definitely declared on
Spain, the war of " Jenkins's ear," over
the interpretation of the Asiento, and was
not brought to a close until 1748. During
this war — largely concerned as it was
with the defence of the Netherlands and
Rhineland against the ambitions of
France, and the counter attempts of
, „ France to restore the Stuart
Anson s Famous , , jji-
V R d dynasty — no additions were
oyagc oun j^g^^jg ^q ^\^q gj-^^- jgj-^ Empire ;
theWorld i,,i -1 1
but the raiding voyage of
Commodore (afterwaids Lord) Anson
round the world again drew British
attention to the possibilities of the Pacific
containing unexplored lands of value.
The peace signed at Aix-la-Chapelle in
1748 was of brief duration. The terri-
torial ambitions of France and Britain in
North America were already becoming
5488
acutely hostile. The quarrel really cen-
tred on a very important principle. Were
the British settlers to be allowed by
France to penetrate across the Ohio
River, and thus break through the ring
of French forts and claims of sovereignty
stretching from the St. Lawrence to the
Mississippi ? If the British accepted this
confinement, then Anglo-Saxon America
would at most have been lirnited to a
small portion of Eastern North America,
and perhaps to Newfoundland, which had
been ceded to Britain at the Peace of
Utrecht in 1713 ; though it is doubtful
whether the victory of the French (in a
struggle which reached its climax in the
British attack on Quebec in 1759) would not
have ended in the eventual supremacy of
France over the whole of North America.
This American war began unofficially
in 1754 by skirmishes and serious fights,
in which George Washington, at the age
of twenty-one, was engaged, between
British and French colonists and regular
soldiers along the Ohio River ; and by
naval combats and raids between British
and French naval forces off the coasts of
Newfoundland and in the
Results of British Channel. In those pre-
the Seven , i i_ j i
Y ^ telegraph days an unacknow-
ledged state of war could con-
tinue, in a condition strongly resembling
piracy, for more than a year before it was
thought necessary to issue a formal
declaration of belligerency.
This war, declared in 1756, lasted until
it involved Spain, besides Prussia, Russia,
and Austria, and became the " Seven
Years War " of the " Family Compact."
Its results, ratified by the Peace of
Fontainebleau, or Paris, on February loth,
1763, led to most momentous issues :
to the establishment of a vast Anglo-
Saxon North America— France only
retained the two little islands off the New-
foundland coast and a small portion of
Western Louisiana, and Spain gave up
all territory east of the Mississippi — to
the empire of British India through the
victories of Clive and Eyre Coote ; to the
enlargement and consolidation of that
Prussia which was to grow into the great
modern empire of Germany ; to the
British acquisition of Senegal, which first
turned our thoughts towards the Niger ;
and, lastly, to the beginnings of British
Honduras and the acquisition of Dominica,
St. Vincent, and Tobago in the West Indies.
The Seven Years War, that began in
THE WARS OF THE EMPIRE, JUST AND UNJUST
1756, moreover, was remarkable for a
fighting element on the British side which
has never since been absent from our land
forces in times of need — the Highland regi-
ments, the " Berg-Schottische " that de-
lighted and surprised the King of Prussia
when they served with Hanoverian, Hes-
sian, and Brunswick soldiers to defend the
electoral dominions in Western Germany.
It was the idea of the great Pitt, derived
from a suggestion made eighteen years
earlier by a Scottish statesman, Duncan
Forbes, to enlist in the British Army for
foreign service warlike Highlanders, who
only eleven years before had been
invading England under Charles Edward.
From this time forward dates the com-
plete fusion of Scottish and English
interests in the conquest and adminis-
tration of the British Empire.
Attention should also be drawn to the
very important part played in all our
Imperial wars of the eighteenth century,
from 1704 to the struggle with Napoleon,
by the German soldiers taken into British
pay. It must be remembered that in the
early eighteenth century there was prac-
tically no standing army in Great Britain,
... merel}' a militia. A good deal
ri ain s ^^ British fighting was done at
Wars on Sea wt r • j
, , . sea. Warfare was carried on
^nd Land ... , ,
m America much more by
armed colonists than by means of im-
ported British soldiers. Some thousands of
British soldiers were enlisted for the wars
carried on by Marlborough, the Duke of
Cumberland, and George II. in Flanders
and the Rhenish Provinces ; but a large
proportion, also, of the troops under British
generals were Dutch, Hessians, Hano-
verians, Westphalians, Brunswickers.
Even under Queen Anne, Hessians, com-
manded by their ownprince, were subsidised
to do the work of the British Army ; and
we have already noticed that it was with
a force of this kind, largely composed of
Germans and commanded by the Prince
of Hesse, that Gibraltar was captured.
When George I. and II. were on the throne,
German troops were not only employed
with British subsidies to defend Hanover,
but were imported into England, used in
Ireland, and sent over to America, just
as in the latter part of George III.'s reign
they were employed to garrison South
Africa. Men thus employed seldom re-
turned to Germany. They usually married
English or colonial wives, and, when dis-
banded, remained in or migrated to
British colonies, forming in time one of
the best elements in the British Empire,
physically and mentally.
In 1763, France ceded to Great Britain
all the French possessions in North
America except Louisiana. Canada was
thus united to Newfoundland, the thir-
teen colonies of New England, and to the
Tk \M .k Floridas. Three years after-
rhe Mother , ., o, a .
<" * .\i/ wards, the Stamp Act was
Country at War ,' , ,, r> J^ ^ -r^ ^■
wwk a™.,;., passed by the British Parha-
With America ^ . n^i ■ ,■ r ,1
ment . i his assertion of the
principle that Britain might tax her
American colonies without their giving
consent to such contributions either by
elected representatives at Westminster,
or at any provincial assembly of their
own, produced serious disturbances in
Massachusetts, New York, Virginia, and
other of the New England " provinces " ;
and, although the Stamp Act was repealed
in 1766, and in 1770 all the American
Imperial import duties were removed, with
the exception of the duty on tea, this last
was insisted on in a way which brought
the conflict between Mother Country and
colonies to a head. A state of war with
the colonials began in 1775 with the Battle
of Lexington, near Boston.
France joined in this unhappy war in
1778, after the capitulation of Burgoyne's
troops at Saratoga. French money, men,
and the diversions caused by the French
Nav3', which took away from Great Britain
several of the recently acquired Windward
and Leeward Islands, ultimately decided
the American struggle in favour of the
colonial forces under George Washington,
Gates, Sullivan, and Greene. But for the
French, it is highly probable that Sir
Henry Clinton, who succeeded Sir Wil-
liam Howe as chief in command of the
British forces in North America, would
eventually have got the better of the
colonists, who lacked money, stores,
and munitions of war. But the
ultimate result would have been much
the same. During the Na-
France and igoi^jc ^^,^1-5 the United
Spain Against ^^^^^^^ ^^ ^^^^^ became from
England ^^^^^ ^^^^j^ probably have
effected a completion of their indepen-
dence, and might by then have won over
the French Canadians, and not have left
to Great Britain any foothold on the
North American continent.
Spain, smarting from the losses she had
sustained at the Peace of Paris in 1763,
hastened to join France in attacking
5489
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
Florida, one of the most im-
„ .. . portant gains of 1763. Russia
Britain ^ ° / . .
England over the American question. She
devoted her efforts chiefiy to the great
siege of Gibraltar (1780-1782) and Id
recapturing Minorca, in neither of which
enterprises she succeeded. Nevertheless.
at the end of the war in 1782, England
retroceded to Spain the Island of Minorca
and the two Florida ])rovinces in North
^ America, thus renouncing, in
Dutch ' *
Jealousy of
showed marked unfriendliness
in 1780, combining with Denmark and
Sweden in the League of Armed Neutrality.
Holland went farther and declared war.
At this period the Dutch were much under
French influence, and were bitterly jealous
of the British successes in India.
The reply to the Dutch declaration of
hostilities, besides the destruction of
Dutch shipping in home waters, was the
despatch in 1781 of a powerful squadron
under Commodore Johnstone to seize
the Cape of Good Hope. Owing to the
treacherous communication of the British
plans by a spy the French Government
was enabled to forestall Johnstone. He
was attacked at the Cape de Verde
Islands by the great French Admiral
Suffren, and his squadron was seriously
crippled. Suffren then went on to South
Africa, and landed men at Cape Town to
assist in driving off the British, whose
second attempt, in 1782, likewise failed.
After Lord Cornwallis had capitulated
to the French and Americans at Yorktown
in October, 1781, this war of seven years'
duration drew to a close, and was con-
cluded by the Peace of Versailles in Janu-
ary, 1783. It is true that during 1782 the
siege of Gibraltar had been brilliantly ter-
minated by the heroic bravery and enter-
prise of the besieged force under General
Elliot (Lord Heathiield), and that Rodney
had smashed the French fleet under De
Grasse in the West Indies ; but this war of
the American revolt nevertheless imposed
severe losses and humiliations
on the British Empire, and it
is difficult to understand why
the settlement at the Peace of
Versailles is alluded to by British his-
torians with complacency. As a matter of
fact, it has been so far the most serious
set-back that the empire has sustained.
Besides the recognition of the independence
of the thirteen states of New England,
we retroceded the Floridas to Spain.
We gave up Minorca ; restored Senegal to
5490
A Set-back
to the British
Empire
the French; abandoned all stipulations
concerning the non-fortification of Dun-
kirk, and ceded to France the West India
Islands of St. Lucia and Tobago, besides
several posts in Eastern India.
In 1790-1794 there was nearly an out-
break of war with Spain over the question
of Nootka Sound, Vancouver Island, in
reality the question whether the British
territories of Hudson's Bay and the
Canadas should have a Pacific coast. Spain
had already occupied California (called
by Drake New Albion) ; Russia, under
Catherine II., was establishing fur-trading
stations in Alaska. Alaska was discovered
in 1721 by the Danish navigator Behring,
in the employ of the Russian Government.
The Emperor Paul, in 1799, issued a
charter to a Russian fur-trading company
to occupy Alaska. Spain was desirous of
extending northwards along the Pacific
coast until she met the Russian flag.
She dreaded the proximity of the English.
The expeditions of Cook in 1778, and of
Vancouver in 1791-1792 excited her appre-
hensions, and perhaps for this reason as
much as others she was willing, as soon as
the first horror of the French
B**t°'*^' Revolution was over, to join
o ri ain s p^-g^j^^^g jj^ 1796 in the renewed
Dominions i r- i_ to l •
war against Great Britain.
In 1793 was the beginning of those
long Napoleonic wars which lasted, with the
very brief interval of the Peace of Amiens,
till 1815, and which enabled Great Britain
to add to her dominions Heligoland,
the Ionian Islands, Malta, Cape Colony,
Mauritius, the Seychelles, Ceylon, Guiana,
Trinidad, the remainder of the Windward
Islands, and British Honduras; besides
Minorca, Java and Sumatra, Senegal,
the French West Indies and Cayenne,
and the Island of Reunion ; all of which
were restored at the Peace of Amiens or
at the Congress of Vienna.
Attempts to capture the Canary
Islands, Uruguay and Buenos Ayres had
failed, the last-named, undertaken in
1806-1808, causing much disappointment
in England. The value of temperate South
America as a horse and cattle-breeding
country had already been appreciated.
The monopohst policy of Spain had for
generations disgusted and alienated the
Spanish and Portuguese colonists, and it
was believed that the road lay open for the
creation, through Uruguay and Buenos
Ayres, of a possible British empire over the
non-Portuguese part of South America.
THE SURRENDER OF MAURITIUS TO THE BRITISH IN 1810
Formerly called the Isle of France, Mauritius was discovered by the Portuguese in l.i07, it being- at that time without
inhabitants and unknown to Europeans. Its name was changed on coming into the possession of the Dutch in 1598 ;
they abandoned it about a hundred years later to the French. The British captured it from the French in 1810, and
when hostilities ceased, in 1814, the holding of the island by Britain was one of the provisions of the Treaty of Paris.
From the drawing by R. Caton Woodville
5491
Hx\RMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
But though the South American Spaniards
had been alienated from their selfish metro -
pohs and its new Napoleonic dynasty, they
were still sufficiently Roman Catholic
to loathe the supremacy of a Protestant
Power, of a nation which still oppressed its
own Catholic subjects in England and
Ireland. Therefore they showed such a
dogged resolve to resist to the
death that in 1809 the British
Landmark
in British
History
forces under General Whitelock
finally abandoned the attempt
to conquer the city of Buenos Ayres, and
withdrew from South America, a result
which covered Whitelock with altogether
undeserved obloquy.
With these exceptions, by the end of the
Napoleonic wars the outlines and starting
points of the British Empire of to-day
in America, Asia, Africa, and Oceania
were pretty clearly indicated. From the
fact that we have had no " colonial "
war with any European or American
Power since 1815, that date becomes
an important landmark in the history
of the British Empire ; but to some
extent in Imperial warfare the division
between ancient and modern should rather
be placed at 1763. Up to that period the
share in the conquest and defence of
the empire fell almost entirely on Eng-
land and Wales, and more on the navy
than on the army. After that date, first
Scottish and then Irish soldiers took a
notable part in the land warfare of Great
Britain, while the Army as a whole began
to play a great part in Imperial conquest
and maintenance. Indeed, since 1815, the
role of the Navy has been almost entirely
a subordinate one, an unknown quantity.
It has been there to serve as a
means of safe transport for the army
and as a warning to other Powers not to
interfere and not to transgress on British
claims, and as an effective security against
their attempting to do so. The Napoleonic
wars, so far as Great Britain was con-
cerned, began with the murder
of Louis XVI., and with the
ebullition of the French Re-
public and its propaganda
outside the limits of France. But they
we^e waged very soon for directly Imperial
purposes. Statesmen of that time saw
the enormous advantages Great Britain
might derive from the general upset of
affairs contingent on the French Revolu-
tion. The position of the Dutch had
long excited British envy. Their attitude
5492
Britain
Envious of
the Dutch
towards us in Bengal, Java, and the Spice
Islands had never been forgotten or for-
given. Their dogged tenacity and colonis-
ing genius in South Africa, which may
some day be paralleled by the work of the
Scottish planters in Nyassaland — the
Scottish and Dutch are singularly alike —
showed Great Britain of what vital im-
portance Cape Colony might become to the
Mistress of India as a half-way house for
the provisioning and repair of squadrons
and as a home for British emigrants.
The strength and the situation of Trinco-
mali, in Ceylon, and the menace to India
which it would prove in French hands de-
cided the British to seize Ceylon in 1795-96.
We also took possession then or later of the
Dutch settlement in J ava and Malaya. Our
morality in these actions was no worse than
that of the Dutch who, 200 years before . had
taken advantage of poor little Portugal
being in the grip of Spain to rob her of
nearly all her oversea possessions, some
of which the British sea-eagle has made
the Dutch osprey disgorge, though they
were once in the pouch of the Portuguese
gannet. No colonial war has been waged
_ .^ . , , with a European Power
Britain s long ^- ^^ ^o^, T3.f+ „...- f^^ +u^
Immunity from
Colonial Wars
since 1815. But war for the
extension or maintenance of
our empire has often been so
close that ultimatums have been tendered,
though subsequently replaced in diplomatic
tail-pockets. Wars between France and
Britain over colonial questions or ambi-
tions in the Eastern Mediterranean or
Pacific Ocean were very near in the
'forties of the nineteenth century. At
that period, also, began an embittered
feeling between the nascent power of
the United States and successive British
administrations relative to the growth
of Canada and of British ambitions in
North America. Several times the
questions of the Oregon frontier and the
amount of seaboard due to British Colum-
bia brought us to a snarling match with
the government at Washington.
There were also questions as to the
northern frontier of Maine, which projects
inconveniently into eastern Canada. The
great Russian possession of Alaska was
bought by the United States in 1867
more to annoy Great Britain than for
any other reason, and long before the
existence of Klondyke gold was suspected,
or seal-skin jackets had become the
reward of virtue or the solace of vice.
But for the threats of the United States,
THE WARS OF THE EMPIRE, JUST AND UNJUST
Great Britain would now be in occupa-
tion of Haiti and a good deal of
the disorderly republic of Venezuela.
The Crimean War, as to the wisdom or
unwisdom of which we cannot as yet
pronounce a definite decision, was only
slightly colonial, in the idea which
prompted Great Britain to defend the
rotten empire of the Turks.
The Turk was still the suzerain of Egypt,
and Egypt, through the British-established
overland route, was becoming the main road
to India. What, in those days of absolute
non-scruple regarding " native " rights,
withheld Great Britain from accepting
the proposal of the Emperor Nicholas that
she should annex Crete and Egypt, and
in return offer no objection to a Russian-
occupation of Constantinople, it is difficult
to understand ; unless statesmen of those
days were so far-sighted, an assumption
which it is not easy to deduce from their
memoirs, as to feel that the abandon-
ment of Constantinople to Russia would
mean a future overwhelming impact of
the Russians against the British Empire
in India. It may have been an impression
that France would resist a outrance a
- . British Egypt. Yet, not long
xxr ™ TM L afterwards, the Emperor Na-
War s Effect , i • ir i xi, ^
J. poleon himself proposed that
\irop France should occupy Morocco,
Sardinia (Italy) should take Tunis, and
England Egypt. Neither can this reluct-
ance be ascribed to a period of Imperial
lassitude, for whilst Russia was suggesting
the division of the Turkish Empire
Britain was absorbing vast territories
further east.
In the opinion of the writer, the general
policy of the Crimean War was right, so
far as any war can be right, since it imposed
a pause on European ambitions. Both
Turkey and Egypt obtained a respite,
during which, under wiser sovereigns,
these important Mohammedan states
might have developed firm and progressive
governments. Probably we shall one day
see Constantinople the capital of a free
and civilised Balkan confederation, in
which the Turk, regenerated in his civil
estate, will play a leading part, in close
alliance with the Bulgarian, Roumanian,
and Greek states — a new quadruple
alliance whose compact strength will
contribute to the maintenance of the
world's peace and the restoration of
civilisation to the lands of the Mace-
donian and Byzantine Empires. There
was some menace of trouble with Spain
towards the close of the 'fifties over
the question of Morocco, which had just
been invaded by a Spanish army (1859).
Great Britain for a long time regarded
Morocco as a possible protectorate, and
as a means of controlling access to and
egress from the Mediterranean. During
„ ., . . the 'sixties of the last century,
Preparations "^'^f ^^^ ^uez Canal was, ni
for War ?>V'i^^Q ot the predictions of
the late Lord Palmerston, ap-
proaching achievement, the British Govern-
ment wobbled between a policy that should
keep Spain and France out of Morocco and
one which should give Great Britain a
definite share in the control of Egypt.
The next menace of war on Imperial
causes was again with Russia, when the
internal disorders of the Turkish Empire
furnished a pretext for the Russo-Turkish
War. A seriously directed Russian
attempt to occupy Constantinople would
certainly have precipitated a fight in
1878. As it was, the Russians, the
collapse of whose military power against
Japan was foreshadowed by their defects
of army organisation in 1877-1878, drew
back from a struggle in which they would
have had no ally, and Great Britain
received as compensation for the
£6,000,000 sterling she had spent in war
preparations the lease of Cyprus, and a
vague protectorate over Asia Minor,
which she subsequently abandoned.
Again, in 1884-1885, the danger of war
with Russia arose, this time over the
safety of the Indian Empire. This was
the slow-match of Russia's revenge for her
enforced departure from Constantinople.
The great success, administrative more
than military, which had attended the
extension of the Russian power over the
Mohammedan sultanates in Central Asia
inspired ambitious Russian soldiers with
the belief that they might similarly lay
hands on Afghanistan, and from this point
^ . of vantage win over the people
Extension ■ ^^ j^^^j^ -^^ ■ ^ preference for
of Russian ^^^ supposed easy -going
Fower Russian as a ruler in place of
thevexatiously interfering, moralising, edu-
cating Britisher. But Russia's belief and
interest in the matter were half-hearted.
Already, in 1885, her ambitions were
returning towards Asia Minor and ex-
tending over Tibet and the Chinese
Empire. Famines and plagues had begun
to take the gilt off the Indian gingerbread.
=5493
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
Russia was so splendidly unattackable
over the matter of the Central Asian
khanates that she worried Indian officials
about Afghanistan more pour le plaisir
dii taquinage than for any greater purposes.
Moreover, she was already feeling her way
towards a French alliance, and knew that
xhis annoying intervention in Afghanistan
^ . « .X . . would effectually stop the
Great Brit&in s . ,. , •' - r -!,„
_.„ mimediate reconquest of the
Differences t- ,■ o j xr
.,, „ Egyptian Sudan. rrom
with France ,, -^ , r ,, > • i.- -f
the close of the eighties oi
the last century British relations with
France in regard to Egypt, the extension of
French domination over Nigeria,and French
aggression on Siam, brought us almost to
the deliverance of an ultimatum in 1893.
We were probably then nearer to war
with France over Imperial questions than
even some five years later over the question
of Fashoda. France, however, knew better
than to go to war with Great Britain over
affairs on which we were always ready
to compromise. She knew that she had no
chance against the British Fleet. On the
other hand, she was equally aware that
since 1884 a new factor had come into the
colonial field — that Great Britain nourished
a deep-seated dislike to Germany for having
ousted her from the Kameruns, taken
Damaraland under her very nose, and
snatched at other portions of South Africa ;
wrested from Great Britain a vast East
African dominion, previously controlled
by the potent personality of Sir John
Kirk, founded a German state on the flank
of the Gold Coast ; threatened the Lower
Niger ; and occupied or bombarded Pacific
archipelagoes which were only not British
because we had not thought it worth while
to hoist the flag. France knew^ that Great
Britain did not wish to push her too far,
lest a Franco- German alliance should
menace the British position in Egypt.
So, between 1893 and 1899, France
gave in on this point, and on that principle,
and Britain surrendered some undefined
claim, swallowed some dis-
D . xt appointment, or abandoned a
Between the ^^ • , a n j
Powers ^'^S^^ project. AU danger
of a conflict between the two
Powers on questions of colonial "policy dis-
appeared with the withdrawal of Marchand
from Fashoda, and the dropping of any
intention on the part of Great Britain to
maintain the independence of Morocco.
All things considered. Great Britain had
got the better of Germany over the rush
for empire in East and Central Africa.
5494
Bismarck had indicated the nth parallel
of south latitude as the ne plus ultra of
British extension from the Cape north-
wards, and he or his successors had hoped
to secure Uganda and much of the Congo
State for German expansion. This and
that rapprochement, this and that con-
sideration, not forgetting the serious Arab
revolution in German East Africa, checked
the German lust of empire over savages.
But as the German mind ruminated over
the distribution of the spoil which followed
the great European rush for Africa, a
bitter feeling was engendered against the
British. Partty to humour this, partly
with an idea that it might lead to some-
thing, German Imperial policy dallied with
a Boer alliance. It was felt instinctively
that under their skins, Boer and North-
west German are singularly alike. If the
Boers could not stand alone against
England, they might throw in their lot
with the future of Germany, and become
the nucleus of a great German-speaking
dominion in the south of Africa. Hence
the intrigues with the Transvaal which
provoked the foolish Jameson Raid on the
-, , part of the passionate Rhodes,
ermany s ^^^ -^ ^^^^ ^^^ ^^^j^ telegram
p J . of the German Emperor. But it
- * ^ is doubtful, if all the secrets of
the chancelleries were known, whether there
has been any serious menace of war with
Germany over colonial questions since
1890, so far as the direct interests of
Great Britain are concerned. There has
been much more danger of an Anglo-
German conflict over the position of
France. Britain, in order to settle herself
definitely in Egypt, " gave " Morocco to
France, in the calm W'ay in which we
nations of higher culture, and consequently
greater power, direct the fortunes of the
backward or savage peoples. Germany
at that time (1904) was giving her Imperial
policy an altogether different bent.
Disappointed of dominion over Africa,
choked off the conquest of China by the
uprise of Japan, temporarily diverted
from American enterprise by the ominous
hints of the United States, she decided
that the line of least resistance lay in the
direction of the Balkan Peninsula, Con-
stantinople, Asia Minor, and the Persian
Gulf. For the moment, owing to the out-
come of the war with Japan, Russia was
helpless. France and Britain — France, for
some reason, most of all — barred the way
to Constantinople. Italy viewed with
THE WARS OF THE EMPIRE, JUST AND UNJUST
marked disfavour the unavowed German
scheme, the Drang nach Osten. France was
the pivot of this new alhance for the
temporary preservation of the Turkish
Empire. France was the easiest hit at.
Thence arose the emperor's visit to
Tangier, the open threat to France, and
the nearest approach as yet in history to an
armed conflict by land and sea between the
forces of Great Britain and those of the
German Empire, allied certainly with
Austria-Hungary. This happily averted
struggle would have been a colonial
war, for it would have originated in the
Egyptian question.
As regards Russia, it is doubtful whether
we have ever been on the verge of war
with her over Imperial interests since the
Afghan settlement of 1885. We were
annoyed, exasperated, bothered by the
Russian designs on Northern and Western
China. But had those designs been pushed
to annexation of Chinese territory, and
had Japan been powerless to resist, we
might have preferred to indemnify our-
selves by the occupation of Tibet and a
protectorate over Central China rather
than by going to war with Russia. It was
Germany, to a very great extent, that
nipped in the bud our plans in regard
to Tibet, and perha])s most of all as
regards Central China.
It was by no means certain whether, in
spite of our benevolent neutrality during
the Spanish War, the United States would
have given us any backing in regard to
Chinese protectorates or spheres of in-
fluence. Consequently, linding this policy
led to danger, the British Government
revived the idea already suggested by
Lord Rosebery of an alliance with Japan
as a means of holding Russia in check and
preserving the balance of power in China.
The outcome of the Japanese alliance
may have momentous results, not, per-
haps, in all directions palatable to Great
Britain, These, however, are best dis-
cussed under another heading.
PIONEERS OF EMPIRE : THE HOME OF A BRITISH SETTLER IN THE SOUTH SEAS
5495
THE
BRITISH
EMPIRE
VI
BY SIR
HARRY
JOHNSTON.
G.C.M.G.
BRITISH CONQUESTS IN THE EAST
EXPANSION OF THE INDIAN EMPIRE
AND THE OPIUM WAR WITH CHINA
"\Y/E have so far dealt with the wars
'^ • undertaken against or narrowly
averted with nations of white men in
connection with British imperial interests.
Wars of conquest waged with races that
were black or yellow have been numerous
since the middle of the eighteenth cen-
tury. The wars with other Europeans
were unmoral rather than just or unjust.
Roth parlies quarrelled about the property
of a third party, or lands that Ijelonged
to nobody worth consideration.
But the imperial wars waged in Africa
and Asia have often been unjust, though
there were instances of doing evil in order
that presumed good might follow. On the
American continent and in Australia the
population has been too little in opposition
to the incoming British settlers to have
provoked any conflict worthy of record
as a " war " ; but the case has been
otherwise in New Zealand and some parts
of India, Burma, China, and South Africa.
Putting aside the conflicts of colonists
with American Indians in Eastern-north
America, our first imperial war with
non-Euro})eans and non-Christians was
the conflict against the Moors round
Tangier conducted by British regiments
in the reign of Charles II. This fighting,
however, was not altogether unjust. The
Portuguese, two and a half centuries
before, had taken Tangier from the
_, . Moors, and transferred it by
-r f A arrangement to Great Britain,
to'^B^rittir Pi'obably because if Portugal
had not done so the Moors
would have taken it from her, as they had
taken other Portuguese posts on the
Atlantic coast of Morocco. Seeing, how-
ever, that our position in Morocco could
only be maintained as the outcome of a
practical conquest of that state, the
British withdrew from the struggle and
2 A 27 D
surrendered Tangier to the Moors ; and
although they afterwards indemnified
themselves by snatching Gibraltar from
Spain, still, there is no unjust war to be
laid to our charge in Morocco. The next
fighting with native peoples of non-
European race took place in India seventy
I d' th years afterwards. Here our
B'rth 1 merchants found themselves
f Man**^ in the most splendid, thickly
inhabited part of Asia. China
in her best provinces might vie with
India in density of population, and in her
total sum of inhabitants ; but the glory
of China was pale before the art, the
science, the history of India, and its
magnificent physical endowments of fauna
and flora. India should be placed first in
the list of the world's countries, for she
is almost certainly the birthplace of man.
But the India of the middle eighteenth
century was an empire to be had for the
taking. The Mohammedan power, which
had begun with the irruption of Arabs,
Afghans, and Tartars in the eighth and
eleventh centuries, had crumbled to fe^ble-
ness. The power of non-Mohammedan
peoples and principalities had revived.
There was no universal national spirit in
India. Each big or petty prince was as
ready to ally himself with the power of the
European for his own advantage as, in
the days before 1870, each kingdom, duchy
or principality of Germany was ready to
take part with France against the power
of Prussia or Austria. The wars waged in
India by the East India Company during
the eighteenth and the first half of the
nineteenth centuries were in a measure
wars waged with Indians against Indians.
As Sir William Hunter remarks in his
great work on the Indian Empire, " the
British won India, not from the Moham-
medans— the Mogul dynasty — but from
5497
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
the Hindus." In the early part of the
eighteenth century the Mogul Empire,
founded by the House of Timur, the
Tartar, in 1526, was falling to pieces under
the attacks of the reviving Hindu power.
Though Arabs, and soon afterwards
Afghans, had invaded North-west India
between 711 and 828, Mohammedan rule
P . over Northern India did not
fl^^\ begin until the year 1000. For
p .,.^, five hundred years afterwards
there were constant compro-
mises with the many millions of Hindus,
whose religion co-existed valiantly alongside
militant Mohammedanism. Down to the
establishment of universal British domina-
tion, there remained Hindu kingdoms and
dynasties which had never been conquered
or ousted by the Afghans or the Moguls.
But in the middle of the seventeenth
century a very definite revival of the
Hindu power began in South-west India,
in the hilly country to the south and west
of Bombay. This was the confederation of
sturdy Hindu peasant farmers, cavalry
armed with spears, to be known subse-
quently as the " Mahrattas," apparently a
corruption and shortening of Maharashtra.
The Mahrattas' power was built up by a
succession of warrior kings beginning
with the great Rajput adventurer Sivaji.
The power of this dynasty over the whole
Mahratta confederation passed, early in the
eighteenth centur3', into the hands of a
Brahman prime minister — the Peshwa —
and became hereditary in this form.
The French, under Dumas and Dupleix,
governors of the French settlement of
Pondichery on the coast of South-east
India, had started the idea of interfering
in the internal wars of nizams and nawabs,
rajahs and wazirs. This had been carried
on with such success by Dupleix himself,
and by the Marquess de Bussy, that a con-
siderable tract of Eastern India between
Bengal and Madras had been made over to
the French by the Nizam of Haidarabad,
P and the French had become
the dominant power in Deccan
th F h ^"^ Southern India. But by
1761, in consequence of the
brilliant military operations of Robert
Clive, Colonel Forde, and Sir Eyre Coote,
and the extraordinary lack of support
afforded to their agents by the French
Government, there was scarcely a French
flag flying over any portion of India.
Although at the Peace of Fontainebleau
(1763) the sites of Pondichery, Chanderna-
5498
gore, and two or three other trading
stations were restored to France, after 1761
she had ceased to count seriously as an
Indian power. The British were now face
to face with the crumbling Mogul Empire
— itself in the throes of a death-struggle
with the new Mahratta power and its
independent or semi-independent Moham-
medan feudatory states, no other European
nation intervening. Prominent among
these independent Moslem princes, the
descendants of former governors, or wazirs,
under the Moguls, was the Nawab of
Bengal, Suraj-ud-Daulah.
He succeeded his grandfather in 1756,
and immediately afterwards quarrelled with
the English of the Calcutta settlement. His
capture of Calcutta, in 1756, and the
episode of the " Black Hole " need not be
further described here. Calcutta was
recovered by Clive soon afterwards. Clive
had first distinguished himself — in 175 1 —
in surprising and afterwards defending
Arcot, a native stronghold in the Madras
Presidency. The series of surprising bold
actions in Southern India on the ]mrt of
the British had for result the complete
. breakdown of. the French career
_" *.* of conquests. War having been
mpire g^^^.g^^jy (leclared against France,
Clive proceeded up country and
seized the French post of Chandarnagar.
This action led to Suraj-ud-Daulah and
the French making common cause. At
the Battle of Plassey, in 1757, Clive,
with 1,000 British troops, 2,000 sepoys,
and eight guns, defeated the army
of the nawab, which consisted of 35,000
infantry, 15,000 cavalry, and 50 cannon.
Moreover, Suraj-ud-Daulah had with him
some fifty French artillerymen.
This victory founded the British empire
over India. After several other fights with
the French and Dutch, and a series of
battles with the nawab's forces, terminat-
ing with the decisive victory of Sir Hector
Munro at Baxar in 1794, Clive was able to
bring a good deal less than a quarter of
India under British control, direct or in-
direct. In ' 1765 he became governor of
Bengal, and took the Mogul emperor under
the chartered company's protection.
Warren Hastings, who succeeded Clive
as governor-general, lent British troops
to a British ally, the wazir of Oudh, in
order ^/,to check the invasions of the
Rohilla Afghans, who were attempting
to intrigue with the Mahrattas against
the INIogul emperor and his feiidatories.
BRITISH CONQUESTS IN THE EAST
British interference from Bombay in
Mahratta affairs — the promotion of a
British candidate for the throne of the
Peshwa — precipitated the first struggle
with the Mahrattas. This began in 1778
with Goddard's brilHant march across
India from Bengal to Gujerat, which
province, the last home of the lion, he con-
quered almost without fighting. One of
his subordinate officers, Captain Popham,
captured brilliantly the rock fortress of
Gwalior, which was restored finally to the
native prince, Sindhia, in 1886. In the
following year, 1779, the British forces
were defeated at Wargaon, and the. first
Mahratta War ended with the mutual
restoration of all conquests, except Salsette
and Elephanta Island, both near Bombay,
which were retained by the British.
The two powerful Mohammedan states
of the Deccan and Southern India,
Haidarabad and Mysore, next assumed a
hostile attitude towards the aggressive
British. Warren Hastings managed to
detach the Nizam of Haidarabad and
minor Hindu princes from this league, and
the British strength was mainly directed
, against Haidar Ali of Mysore,
apo con s ,^^-^pgg g^j^ Tippu Sahib, was
Scheme to , x j. s
g . p to prove one of our most tor-
^^ midable enemies in India. The
Mysore army had conquered nearly all the
British establishments in South-eastern
India, except the actual town of Madras ;
but by persistent fighting all these posses-
sions were won back by 1784. The second
Mysore War began in 1790, conducted by
Lord Cornwallis. By this time diplomacy
had arrayed on the side of the British
the important forces of the nizam and of
the Mahratta confederation. Tippu Sahib,
therefore, was partially conquered, and his
kingdom was reduced by one-half.
He was also made to pay a war indemnity
o^ £3,000,000. Enraged at this, he com-
menced a correspondence with the French
Government, and his letters inspired
Napoleon with the idea of seizing Egypt
and attacking the British in India. The
naval exploits of Nelson ruined that
scheme, and in 1799 the British, under the
Governor-General, Lord Mornington (Mar-
quess Wellesley) and General (Lord)
Harris, fell on the isolated Tippu and cap-
tured his last fortress. Seringapatam, in
the defence of which Tippu was killed.
The second Mahratta War, of 1802-1804.
resulted, through the victories of Sir
Arthur Wellesley (afterwards the Duke of
Wellington) at Assaye and Argaum, in
the Deccan, and those of Lord Lake at
Aligarh and Laswari, in the removal of the
Mogul emperor from the control of the
Mahratta confederation to that of the East
India Company, in the British control over
Delhi and the North-west Provinces, and
in enormous territorial gains in Eastern
Britai ' ^'^^^^^ Unfortunately, it was
yfg^f^ followed by a disastrous retreat
ia India ^^ ^^^^ British forces and a re ■
pulse of Lord Lake at Bhartpur,
during the war with Holkar, a member of
the Mahratta confederacy, in 1804-1805.
The Ghurka or Nepalese Wars of 1814-1815
ended by a peace being signed, after the
victories of General Ochterlony, near the
capital, Khatmandu, the terms of which
confined the Ghurkas to their present
territory, recognised the British control
over Sikkim, and secured for the Indian
administration the hill stations of Simla
and other Himalayan tracts, and the
faithful alliance of the Nepalese people.
In Central India robber bands, rising
here and there to the dignity of predatory
states and known as the Pindar is, were
ruining settled commerce and agriculture
by their raids. They were partly formed
by the debris of the Mogul Empire, and
were to some extent supported by the
Mahratta confederacy in their guerrilla
warfare. They were finally crushed, and
their leaders killed, imprisoned, or won
over to allegiance by an army of 120,000
men wisely collected by the Governor-
General. Lord Moira, Marquess of Hastings.
The reason for this overpowering force
was the threatening aspect of the Mahratta
confederacy. This attitude resolved itself
into a rising — the third and last Mahratta
War— in 1817. The Battle of Mehidpur
(1817) and the magnificent defence of the
sepoy garrison of Sitabaldi enabled the
British administration to break up, once
and for all, the Mahratta confederacy,
and to make territorial arrangements
in the Bombay Presidency
Mahratta ^^^ -^ Central India, which
BrokenT*''' have lasted to this day. The
n up peshwa, or president, of this
great Hindu league surrendered and went
to live near Cawnpore on a pension of
;/^8o,ooo a year. His adopted son was-
the notorious Nana Sahib, who, in the
Indian Mutiny of 1857, avenged on the
bodies of English women and children
the rage and disappointment he felt at
not being allowed to succeed to all the
5499
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
emoluments and privileges of his patron
and adoptive father. Coincidently with
the rise of the British power in India
proper, the Indian or Burmese states
of Assam, Chittagong, Ava, Bhamma,
Arakan, Pegu, and Tenasserim had come
under the supreme control of the new
Burmese dynasty' of the Alaung-paya
^. ^ (Alompra). Elated with his
The Two ■ , ■ • TT- 1 J. J.
_ Victories over quasi-Hmdu states
^ like Assam and Tipperah, the
Burmese monarch of Mandalay
permitted or encouraged his soldiers or
subsidiary/ chiefs to raid into territories
more distinctly British. The eventual
results were the first Burmese War of
1824- 1826, followed by the annexation
of Assam, Chittagong, Arakan, Tavoy,
Mergui, and Tenasserim ; and the second
Burmese War, of 1852, which further added
to the Indian Empire the delta of the
Irawadi, leaving only to native rule two
provinces of the short-lived Burmese
•Empire — Upper and Lower Burma.
In 1839 took place the first invasion of
Afghanistan. On the face of it this action
on the part of Lord Auckland might seem
foolhardy and a reckless courting of need-
less difficulties, except that Britain, ever
since she became responsible for the main-
tenance of peace in India, has been forced
at intervals to oppose the Afghans, from
Warren Hastings' loan of British troops
to attack the Rohillas in 1773 to the
Mohammed border warfare of igo8. Lord
Auckland endeavoured to place a prince
— Shah Shuja — friendly to the British on
the throne of Afghanistan, because the
usurping ruler of that country, Dost
Mohammed, was endeavouring to regain
Peshawar, then in the power of the Sikhs,
and was entertaining suspicious relations
with Russia and Persia.
The installation of Shah Shuja in 1839,
after several battles, in which the British
were successful, meant the garrisoning of
Jellalabad, Kabul, and Kandahar by
_. British troops. Two years
* n w'^i. later two of the principal British
to British ,., . 1 rn ^
P political oincers were assas-
sinated, the Kabul gariison
attempted to retreat, and 4,000 British
and Indian soldiers with 12,000 cani])-
followers perished.
Only one survived to reach the
garrison of Jellalabad. The British women
and children and a few sick officers
had been detained as hostages by the
Afghans, and, on the whole, well treated.
5500
This disaster was avenged by the re-
markable marches across Afghanistan of
Generals Pollock, Xott, and England.
Coming respectively' from Jellalabad and
Kandahar, they met at Kabul, and there
blew up the bazaar and recovered the
prisoners. They afterwards left Afghani-
stan to its own devices and the rule of-
Dost Mohammed. In the following 3'ear,
1843, Sind was conquered by Sir Charles
Napier, the crucial battle being that
of Miani, in which a British force of 2,600
men defeated 22,000 Baluchis. The battle
of Miani was a glory to the British arms
and the discipline of the Indian army.
The little force under Sir Charles Napier
consisted of 400 British soldiers — mainlv
Irish — of the 22nd Regiment under Colonel
Pennefather. The 2,200 Indian troops
included some Bengal cavalry. The baj'O-
net in the strong arms of the Irish, the
magnificent ride of the Indian cavalry
against the cannon of the Sindi army, the
accuracy of the British artillery, and Sir
Charles Napier won the day against an
enemy of almost dauntless bravery.
In 1845, the Sikhs, governed by a com-
mittee of generals since the death of Ranj it
Singh, annoj/ed at the British
annexation of Sind, crossed
The Great
Mutiny of the
Id* A ^^^^ Sutlej and invaded
rmy gj.j^jg}-^ India. They were
defeated in the bloody battles of Mudki,
Firozshah, Aliwal, and finally Sobraon.
A British protectorate over the Punjab
followed. But, two years later, the Sikhs
rose again, and the second Sikh War began
with the terrible Battle of Chillianwalla, in
which the British lost 2,400 officers and
men, the colours of three regiments,
and four guns. But less than a month
later the conclusive victory of Gujarat
destroyed the Sikh army and made it
possible to annex the Punjab.
In 1857 broke out t\e great mutiny of
the Indian army. In 1806 a mutiny of
the native troops had occurred at Vellorc
in the Madras Presidency, which had
commenced with a terrible slaughter
of British soldiers, had been suppressed
with the sternest reprisals, while dis-
content w^as afterwards appeased bv
concessions. The effects of this rising
had been to some extent neutralised
by disbanding the more tainted portions
of the Madras army. In 1824 another
mutiny nearly broke out in Bengal over
the first Burmese War. The Hindu
soldiers declared it would break their caste
BRITISH CONQUESTS IN THE EAST
, to cross the open sea, and eventually the
difficulty had to be compounded by march-
ing them all the way round by the northern
shores of the Bay of Bengal. It is not
necessary here to review all the causes of
the great mutiny of 1857-185S, which for
a time partially extinguished British gar-
risons and power in the kingdom of Oudh
and in a portion of North-central India.
It was in the main an insurrection of
angry soldiers, who had some real and
some imaginary grievances. But it was
conjoined with the fury of the dispossessed
princes or princesses and nobles of Oudh
and Jhansi and the treacherous enmity of
the adopted son of the last peshwa of the
Mahrattas, Nana Sahib. Also there was
much Mohammedan fanaticism and regret
for vanished glories at the court of the
aged Mogul Emperor at Delhi.
The credit for the military operations
which suppressed the mutiny, and the
dangerous national rising which it was
beginning to create, lies with Sir Henry
Lawrence, who defended the Residency at
Lucknow, and so detained the rebel forces
of Oudh ; Sir Henry Havelock and Sir
James Outram, who saved
crocs ^j^g slender garrison after
of the Indian y > i ^1 o- /- i-
j^ .. Lawrence s death ; Sn- Conn
Campbell (Lord Clyde), who
rescued the Lucknow foices under Have-
lock and Outram and finished the recon-
quest of Oudh and Rohilkund ; Nicholson,
the never-to-be-forgotten hero of the siege
of Delhi ; and Sir Hugh Rose (Lord Stiath-
nairn), who defeated the principal native
general of the mutiny, Tantia Topi, who
recaptured Jhansi and who finished the
insurrection in April, 1859, in the wildest
jungles of Central India. Probably the
greatest of all these dauntless soldiers,
and certainly the most picturesque, was
John Nicholson, of Delhi.
Nothing has so much justified the
abnormality of India being governed by
a hundred thousand warriors and officials
from islands five thousand miles away in
the North Sea as the conduct of the
British soldiers of all ranks, the British
officials, from governor-general to Eura-
sian telegraph clerk, during the stress of
the Indian Mutiny. One may at this
distance of time see and regret the stupid
blunders that provoked the mutiny, and
put one's finger to a nicety on the precise
measures which might have nipped the
mutiny in the bud ; but once the catas-
trophe has occurred, one can only marvel
at the qualities of officers and men in that
heroic handful of British troops which twice
relieved a Lucknow besieged by thousands
of well-armed fanatics; in those 8,000
men that fought their way inch by inch
through the high, red walls and narrow
lanes of a murderous Delhi defended by
30,000 desperate, drug-maddened sepoys,
, . better trained in the actual
oHh^c Sikh ^^^^ °^ ^^^' perhaps, than the
Soldiers iH-educated English, Welsh,
Scottish, and Irish soldiery
who, by sheer force of character and
strength of arm, became their conquerors.
But in reviewing the history of this time
of stress one must admit it was not only
men born in the British Isles that crushed
a revolt of savage sepoys and frantic people.
India might have been temporarily
lost to us but for the co-operation of
the splendid Sikh soldiers, men whose
valour to the British cause was in no
way inferior to the heroic behaviour of
the British soldiers on their mettle.
We received the loyal assistance of the
great Mohammedan kingdom of Haidar-
abad, which had the effect of keeping
Southern India out of the area of
disturbance. At the same time the inde-
pendent state of Nepal sent a force of
Ghurkas, under Sir Jung Bahadur, to assist
in restoring order in Northern India. A
small war with the Himalayan state of
Bhutan took place in 1864. With that
exception, there was peace in India until
1878. Then once more the affairs of
Afghanistan compelled attention.
Russia had despatched a mission to that
country, which had been received with
ostentatious honour. To have acquiesced
in this situation would have been to give
tacit permission to Russia to win over the
country of Afghanistan to her influence,
to make of it, perhaps, a vantage-point
from which the invasion of India might
be attempted with the Afghans as allies.
Biitain had nothing to offer Afghanistan
but the somewhat barren
'^Af I, privilege of isolated indepen-
Raids^ " dence in a sterile land, with
a climate of ferocious extremes.
The British arm had been interposed evei
since 1773 to shield India from those devas-
tating Afghan raids which have inflicted
deep and shocking wounds on her civilisa-
tion since the days of Mahmud of Ghazni.
Gradually, by British diplomacy or feats of
arms, Afghan rule was pushed back across
the Hindu Kush and the Suleiman Hills.
5501
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
And there it would have been left
unmolested but for Russian ambitions
turning India-wards in the thirties of the
last century. In 1878 a British army
entered Afghanistan and rapidly occupied
Kandahar and the roads leading to Kabul.
Sher Ali, the amir, fled to Turkestan and
died. His son was recognised by us in his
. . stead, after a treaty, which
UnderBriHsh Practically placed Afghani-
p . . Stan under British protection.
But the history of 1839-41
re])eated itself almost exactly, except for
the disastrous retreat. The British Envoy
and Resident at Kabul, Sir Louis Cavag-
nari, and his insufficient escort were
attacked and massacred, Sir Frederick
(Lord) Roberts occupied Kabul with a
British army, and the new amir, Yakub
Khan, abdicated.
Abd-ur-Rahman was then recognised
as amir over two-thirds of Afghanistan,
and the remainder, with Kandahar as a
capital, was erected into a separate state.
But in 1880 a severe defeat was inflicted
on a British force at Maiwand, between
Kandahar and the Halmand river, by Ayub
Khan, a younger son of Sher Ali, and an
Afghan prince who in this contest played
the part of national hero better than the
Russian pensioner, Abd-ur-Rahman.
The position of the British in Afghani-
stan in 1880 was retrieved by the splendid
march of Lord Roberts from Kabul to
Kandahar, which led to the total rout of
Ayub Khan's army outside the precincts
of Kandahar. This place was subsequentlj^
abandoned by the British and reoccupied
by Ayub Khan. Then followed a conflict
between Abd-ur-Rahman and Ayub, which
left the former master of Afghanistan
until his death, in 1901, and led to Aj^ub's
honourable captivity in India.
In 1885 the last Burmese War took
l^lace. It was really the advance of a
very strong expedition under General
Prendeigast up the Irawadi River to
. Mandalay, which met with no
f tlT^ opposition worth noting. The
_ . real Burmese War broke out
afterwards in a prolonged and
gallant resistance to British occupation
on the part of the so-called " dacoits " —
bands of irregulars commanded or inspired
by Burmese nobles or princes. The dis-
tinct tribes of the Kachins and Shans took
])art in the four years of desultory fighting,
which scarcely came to an end until iSSg.
The feeling of unrest produced in this
5502
region led to an outbreak in 1891 in the.
adjoining state of Manipur. which was
put down without much difficulty. In
1888 an expedition had to be sent
against the Hazara Pathans to the north
of Peshawar ; and in the same year
British authority was asserted over the
important little state of Sikkim, which
separates Nepal from Bhutan, which has
been under British influence and protection
since 1815, and which the Tibetans —
inspired, perhaps, both by Russia and
China — were endeavouring to conquer.
The definition of the frontiers between
British India and Afghanistan in 1893 and
the enforcement of its results amongst the
turbulent border tribes led 'to the pro-
tracted Tirah campaign (i895-i898)against
the Waziri, Swati, Mohmand, and Afridi
tribes, and the clans of the Zhob valle}'
between Quetta and the Indus. There
was also some fighting in the north-west of
Kashmir (Ghilghit and Chitral). Kashmir
is an important country in whose govern-
ment the British had taken a more direct
interest since the approximate settlement
of the various frontier questions of
. , Afghanistan, Russia, Chinese
us la Turkestan, and Tibet. In this
•"t"!**!* campaign, the work of which is
only half-finished, the British
lost 1,050 men killed and missing, not to
mention over 1,500 wounded ; while the
cost amounted to over ;^3,ooo,ooo. The
prosecution of this frontier war was
accompanied or preceded by some ominous
signs of disaffection amongst the peoples
of North-west India.
Russia had again been intriguing with
religious notabilities in Tibet at the
beginning of the twentieth century,
partly, no doubt, to embarrass Britain,
whose alliance with Japan — projected or
accomplished — was barring her way in
China. It was decided, rightly or wrongly,
to put an end to these anxieties which
form a pendant to those of Afghanistan,
and to force on Tibet the assumption of
intimate diplomatic relations with British
India not far removed from a protectorate
— China, the recognised suzerain, being
unable or unwilling to restrain the Tibetans
from entering into relations with Russia.
The expedition of 1904 started in March,
and was obliged to fight its way, more or
less, to Lhasa, which was entered on
August 3rd, 1904. Here a treaty was
made, fixing a war indemnity, arranging
for future commercial intercourse, and
BRITISH CONQUESTS IN THE EAST
giving some recognition to British rights
over the Chum-bi valley, which projects
into British India as a wedge between
Bhutan and Sikkim. The British Govern-
ment decided to submit this treaty to the
sanction of the Chinese Government, and
the latter, incited by the German Minister
at the court of Peking, refused to agree to
the conditions imposed on the Tibetans.
Practically no results remain of the costly
expedition to Lhasa, except a thoroughly
accurate geographical survey of Southern
Tibet. A treaty has been recognised by
China, but it is a colourless document.
To some extent, however, the Tibetan
question has been settled for a long time
to come by the 1907 convention with
Russia. If this convention is faithfully
adhered to, it will obviate any danger to
India from the direction of Tibet.
In the year igo8 frontier warfare was
resumed on the Afghan borders with the
Zakka Khels on the south-west, and the
Mohammedans on the north-east, both
sections of hostile mountaineers being aided
unolificially by an Afghanistan no longer
efficiently controlled by the firm hand of an
.J Abd-ur-Rahman Khan, but
'^ f , influenced by the fanatical
Treachery and ,• ,-, , ,, -^t-
P .. dislike to the European con-
ceived by the younger brother
of the present amir, Nasir-Ullah Khan.
To some extent Afghan hostility has been
neutralised by the recent Anglo- Russian
Convention, and a war with Afghanistan,
followed by a permanent conquest of that
land, which has been the source of so
much woe to India, would present no
serious difficulty to the Indian Govern-
ment if the policy was one that commended
itself to the views of the intelligent
majority of Indian Mohammedans, who,
if they read accurate history and profit
by its lessons, must by this time be weary
of Afghan treachery and rapacity.
Passing outside the political limits of
the Indian Empire, the other wars in Asia
undertaken by the British Government
against native powers may be noted as
follows. In 1838 an armed demonstration
against Persia — by the despatch of a
British expedition to the Persian Gulf — was
rendered necessary because of an attempt
on the part of the Persians to take Herat.
For the same reason, in 1856, Great Britain
declared war on Persia, and seized several
ports on the Persian Gulf until the restitu-
tion of Herat to Afghanistan was effected.
The reason of these stern measures was
that Herat was believed to be the key of
India, and Persia was regarded as being
merely the stalking horse of Russia. All
these anxieties have been set at rest by
the Anglo-Russian Convention ; the British
sphere in Persia suffices to maintain an
orderly control over the Persian Gulf.
Between 1795 and 1801 the island of
Ceylon, so far as its coastal regions were
1M. n •*• t concerned, was occupied by
The British r^ . r, ■. ■ ■
Q . Great Britain as a war prize
fQ^ I * taken from Holland, a country
then in the possession of France.
The British had been partly assisted in
these operations by the forces of the king
of Kandy, the representative of the
extremely ancient Singalese dynasty. This
monarch, however, died in 1800 without
leaving direct issue.
Interior Ceylon was, like so many Oriental
countries, really governed by a powerful
Minister, the adigar. The British governor
of the coast districts interfered in the
matter of the succession with a view to
securing substantial advantages for his
own Government. An expedition to Kandy
was undertaken, and a small garrison left
at that capital — 200 British troops and
500 Malays, under the command of
Major Davie. But in those days the
climate of the forest regions of Ceylon was
extremely unhealthy to Europeans, and
the bulk of Major Davie's English soldiers
were incapacitated by sickness. Then they
were attacked by overwhelming numbers
of Singalese, and at last obliged to capitu-
late and retreat. The terms of the capitula-
tion were not observed by the cruel king
of Kandy, who gave orders to massacre
.the entire party on the banks of the
Mahaveliganga, three miles from Kandy.
Scarcely a single member of the force
survived except Major Davie, who was
taken back to Kandy, where he dragged out
a miserable existence for another seven
years. This massacre of the Mahave-
liganga was not avenged by
Atrocities ^^^ governor, whose policy in
fu A connection with Major Davie's
of Kandy ^abandonment had been most
reprehensible. Consequently, the king of
Kandy, encouraged by this absence of
reprisals, sent armies to attack the coast
possessions of the British. His forces were
repulsed, and a truce was arranged which
lasted for several years. But the king of
Kandy gradually became ferociously cruel
towards his own Ministers, nobility and
people, besides causing native merchants
5503
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
— British subjects — to be mutilated or
killed outright. His own people rose
against him in 1815, and invited and
facilitated a British occupation of Kandy,
which took place unopposed. The king
was captured and sent as a political
prisoner to Vellore, m the Madras Presi-
dency, where he lived until 1832. The
_ , occupation of the interior of
Q ^ ? f Ceylon seems to have been
J, .. characterised by some tactless
procedure which offended the
people's religious prejudices. In addi-
tion, the chiefs and priests were rendered
inimical at the diminution of their power
and emoluments. Consequently, in 1817,
a serious insurrection broke out in the
eastern provinces of Ceylon, which it
took two years of hard bush-iighting
to suppress. Two other insurrections
occurred in 1843 and 1845, caused by
the imposition of taxes.
In 1810, a British expedition, under Sir
Stamford Raffles, landed in Java and
attempted to wrest that island from the
Dutch. At the same time other British
expeditions seized the Dutch islands of
Amboina and Banda. The Dutch, how-
ever, fought fiercely near Batavia, though
they were ultimately defeated, and sur-
rendered the island, which was restored
to Holland eight years afterwards.
In 1826, British commerce with the
Malay Peninsula and Sumatra having
suffered much at the hands of pirates
coming from the Malay state of Perak, and
especially from the Perak River, it was
arranged that the Pangkor and Sembilan
Islands should be ceded to Great Britain
as abase for naval action against the pirates.
These settlements, somewhat enlarged,
are now known as the Dindings. In
1873-1874. the large Malay state of Perak
was brought into closer political relations
with Singapore Government, and agreed to
accept a British resident. The official
appointed to this post, Mr. J. W. Birch,
was, however, murdered, with
^ *, '^^ the connivance of the Malay
Sultan u • o - A i-
„ ... sultan, m 1875. A punitive ex-
pedition, composed 01 British
and Indian soldiers under General Sir
Francis Colborne, divided into two columns
and crossed Perak in several directions,
defeating the native forces in four or five
stii^ engagements, warfare in this land of
dense forest being peculiarly difficult.
Perak was in the end thoroughly subdued,
and, in 1877, the sultan, who was accessory
5504
to Birch's murder, was banished to the
Seychelles Islands, another sultan being
recognised in his stead. This effective
piece of fighting sufficed for the assertion of
the Pax Britannica on the Malay Peninsula.
The East India Company began to trade
with the north of Borneo in 1609. At the
end of that century they had transferred
their attention to the south side of the
island, whence they were driven away by
the Dutch. In 1762-1775, the East India
Company obtained a concession of 'the
island of Battambang from the sultan
of Sulu, together with Labuan and the
territory which is now known as British
North Borneo. A treaty was also entered
into with the sultan of Brunei. But the
people as a whole did not welcome the
British, as the presence of Europeans inter-
fered with their wide-spread piratical
operations. The British were attacked and
their posts demolished. The Dutch also
were driven away.
The establishment of Singapore, how-
ever, in i8ig, once more drew attention to
the northern regions of Borneo. Trade
was opened up with the sultanate of
Brunei, which then included nearly all the
_ northern regions of Borneo,
Commerce - "-^
Hampered
except the extreme north-east.
t p- Unfortunately, all this region
was, on its coast line, the seat
of a vast piratical organisation, in which
not only Malays, natives of Borneo (Sea
Dyaks), and Chinese were engaged, but
also Arabs. These pirates preyed on the
extensive commerce which passed through
the China Sea. They were becoming a public
nuisance, and even a danger to European
trade with China. This was noted by a
retired official of the East India Company,
James Brooke, who, wounded in the war
with Burma, was travelling to China for his
health. Brooke visited parts of Borneo and
the Malay Archipelago, and regretted that
such rich regions should be infested by
these pirates, many of whom took to
piracy because they had nothing else to do.
Having inherited his father's property,
Brooke resolved to fit out an expedition of
his own and visit Borneo. He reached the
present state of Sarawak in 1839, ^^^
found the uncle of the sultan of Brunei at
war with a rebellious officer turned pirate.
Brooke's intervention gave victory to the
Brunei Government, and for this service
the title of Rajah of Sarawak was con-
ferred on him (1841-42). For six years
Brooke, on land and sea, co-operated with
BRITISH CONQUESTS IN THE EAST
the British naval forces under Captain
(afterwards Sir Harry) Keppel in attacking
the Borneo pirates, who, it was found, reaUy
derived much of their strength and supphes
from the town and sultan of Brunei.
Eventually the town of Brunei was bom-
barded by a British naval force, while the
sultan's army was routed by Brooke. The
sultan, himself was restored to his throne
after agreeing to give no more harbourage
to pirates. At the same time he sold to the
British Government the little island of
Labuan as a base for naval operations in
those waters. Sir James Brooke not only
by degrees extinguished piracy along the
north-west coast of Borneo, but he also,
with extraordinary bravery and resolution,
put down a Chinese mutiny and rebellion
instigated by Chinese pirates in 1857.
He subdued two other risings, but since
his death, in 1868, the peace and stability
of North-western Borneo have not been
seriously menaced. The British North
Borneo Company, founded in 1882 as a
government over North-eastern Borneo,
has had to subdue several insurrectionary
movements, under a leader named Mat
... Saleh, between 1901 and
ri am s iqo6. British trade relations
Trade Kelations -,, n^ ■ ^ i •
. . _. . With China began early in
the seventeenth century by
James I. chartering a company for the
exclusive commerce with the regions
beyond the Malay Peninsula. But this
charter lapsed, and later on the trade
monopoly with China was acquired by the
East India Company, whose commercial
relations with China, though very limited,
were not much troubled by unfriendli-
ness till the advent to power of the
warlike Emperor Kin-lung. This monarch
strengthened the Chinese hold over Tibet,
and marched an army of 70,000 men into
Nepal in 1792, the Chinese penetrating to
within sixty miles of the British outposts.
At the same time the emperor allowed the
agents of the East India Company to be
badly treated by the viceroy and other
officials at Canton. Consequently, it
was deemed wise to send a special envoy
to open up diplomatic relations with
China, and Lord Macartney was despatched
with a special mission to Peking, arriving
there in 1793. But neither he nor his
successor. Lord Amherst, in 1816, could
obtain any alleviation of the severe
disabilities imposed on European traders.
In 1834, the East India Company's
monopoly of the Chinese trade came to an
end, and there was a consideral)lc develoj)-
ment of British commerce with China — on
the part of British Indian subjects, among
others — which necessitated the establish-
ment of a superintendent or commissioner
at Canton to watch over the affairs of the
British merchants, a superintendent who
became the precursor of the present highly
-, . organised and efficient Consular
_.!'^*.^ Service. The hostility of the
Objection ^, • , -r, ■.■ , -^
. -. . Ciunese to British commerce
to Dpium 111 , ■
was largely due to the im-
portation of opium in large quantities from
India. The Chinese officials, especially in
the south of China, were becoming
awakened to the serious effects of the abuse
of this drug on Chinese manhood. They
wished to prohibit its introduction alto-
gether. In other directions they brought
pressure to bear on British traders.
The latter, through their superintendent,
agreed to surrender to the Chinese com-
missioner of Customs at Canton 20,283
chests of opium, which were forthwith
destroyed. They also bound themselves
to deal no more in this drug. Apparently,
however, the semi-independent govern-
ment of Canton gave no compensation for
this voluntary surrender of opium, and
took advantage of the superintendent's
conciliatory behaviour to inflict further
disabilities on British trade and even
offer gratuitous violence to British ship-
ping. The Home Government considered
that the British merchants had a right to
import opium ; at any rate, that the other
actions of the Cantonese officials were insup-
portable. Accordingly they sent a British
fleet to China and a small military force.
War was declared in 1840. and in
that year the Chusan Archipelago, to the
south-east of the mouth of the Yang-tse-
kiang was occupied. In 1841 the forts
guarding the entrance to the Canton
River were stormed and captured, and
the island of Hong Kong was seized.
The Canton viceroy then agreed to
T,. ^ . cede Hong Kong and to pay
The Opium ^^ indemnity of £1,200,000.
These terms were, however,
repudiated by the Imperial
Government at Peking. The war there-
fore continued. Sir Hugh Gough occu-
pied Canton. Amoy, Ningpo, Chapu,
Shanghai, and two other coast towns.
He was about to take Nanking when the
Chinese emperor sent commissioners to
make peace. The treaty concluded by
Sir Henry Pottinger in 1842 provided not
5505
War
with China
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
only for the cession of Hong Kong, but
also for the throwing open to foreign trade
of the ports of Amoy, Fuh-chau-fu,
Ningpo, and Shanghai, and the payment
of an indemnity of about ^^3, 500,000.
The original cause of the war — the claim
to be able to trade in opium — ^was an in-
defensible one, of which Britain has since
felt ashamed ; but the results
The Policy
that
of this forcible opening of
c J ^f China to European commerce
Saved China , ^1 ^ ^ ■> j.\
have, on the whole, been the
salvation of that vast empire from falling
into complete senile decrepitude. But
the Imperial Government at Peking —
for two centuries the curse of China —
did not appreciate the cruel kindness of
Britain. It had yielded to urgent force ;
now it wished to have as little as pos-
sible to do wi h the red-haired barbarians
and their Indian subjects. Russia was a
different matter; the frontiers of Russia
began westwards and northwards where
those of China left off. Russia, therefore,
was entitled to have a diplomatic repre-
sentative at Peking. As to France and
England, they were small nations of sea-
pirates unworthy of a place at the court
of the emperor. Russia, no doubt, in
revenge for the Crimean War, encouraged
this attitude of disdain.
On the other hand, a great revolt had
taken place in Central China, which was
eventually headed by Hung-Siu-tsewen,
who proclaimed himself as Tin Wang,
first emperor of the Tai-ping dynasty.
This was r.n uprising which, one would
have thought, might have appealed to all
the generous instincts of Britain as the
champion of liberty and reform. The
recent Chinese emperors had been so
shockingly licentious that their moral
depravity had affected the tone of public
morality. The Tai-ping revolt was greatly
a protest at the iniquities of the imperial
court. Then, too, Hung-Siu-tsewen was
a Christian, to all intents and purposes.
The behaviour of himself and
his followers was admirable.
His liberal-minded measures
vastly encouraged foreign com-
merce at Nanking and Su-chau. Above
all, the movement was a Chinese one, and
might have led to the re-establishment
of a national Chinese dynasty in the place
of the Manchu Tartars, whose rule has,
latterly, at any rate, done so much
to arrest the growth of Chinese intellectual
development and friendly, mutually-pro-
5506
Revolt
in Central
China
Britain and
France as Allies
in China
fitable intercourse with foreign nations.
Yet Britain, after coquetting with the
Tai-ping revolt, proceeded to lend officers
— Charles Geort,e Gordon from the Royal
Engineers, first and foremost — and support
for its suppression, and the renewed fixing
on the necks of the Chinese people of that
Manchu yoke from which the more intel-
ligent were trjdng to free themselves.
In 1856, the Chinese viceroy or com-
missioner at Canton seized, on an accusa-
tion of piracy, a sloop or " lorcha " from
Macao whose captain was a British sub-
ject. It is very probable that the Arrow,
as this vessel was called, was up to no good,
but the Chinese commissioner, Yeh, seems
to have been technically in the wrong.
Sir John Bowring was then administering
the government of Hong Kong and in
charge of British interests in China. He
decided to deal energetically with the
incident of the Arrow, and requested
the British admiral on the station to bom-
bard Canton. This took place in 1857.
Lord Elgin was despatched to China with
a strong force to act as British plenipo-
tentiary. He was diverted
from his immediate object
by the outbreak of the
mutinyinlndia. The troops
he brought with him proved a most welcome
reinforcement to the British in Bengal.
Lord Elgin, however, reached Canton
towards the close of 1857, and succeeded
in capturing the commissioner or viceroy,
Yeh, whom he sent as a prisoner to Cal-
cutta, where he eventually died. In 1858,
France joined Great Britain in demanding
redress from China for injuries suffered
by French subjects and in requiring that
a French representative should be accepted
at Peking. At the close of 1858 the Treaty
of Tientsin was negotiated. This treaty
was to have been ratified by the empe:or
early in 1859 ; but when, in June of that
year, the British and French representa-
tives attempted to proceed to Peking under
a strong escort, their expedition was
stopped before it could land, and the
British lost three gunboats and 400 men
in the action which followed at the
mouth of the Peiho.
Lord Elgin and Baron Gros returned in
i860, and at the head of a very strong
force occupied Peking. Here the cele-
brated summer palace was destroyed by
Lord Elgin's orders, an action which has
been deplored as an offence against the
canons of art. Lord Elgin, however^
BRITISH CONQUESTS IN THE EAST
could think of no other means of abasing
Chinese imperturbabiUty, which was pro-
longing the negotiations, and, which was
more serious, the sufferings of the English
prisoners who had been treacherously
seized by the Chinese in very bad faith.
The Treaty of Tientsin, however, was
ratified in i860, and from 1861 onwards
Great Britain, France and other European
Powers, besides Russia, have been repre-
sented at Peking by diplomatic Ministers.
The third occasion on which we have
found ourselves at war with China was in
the last year of the nineteenth century.
The war between China and Japan,
concluded in the spring of 1895, had
exposed the seeming helplessness of China.
After intervening to modify the terms
of the Treaty of Shimonoseki in favour
of China, Russia, France and Germany
began to ask for concessions, leases, or
admissions of spheres of influence ; and
Great Britain, not liking to be left in the
cold, required her share. Out of this
Chinese scramble we came successfully,
with considerable additions to the pros-
perous little colony of Hong Kong, and
the leasehold of Wei-hai-wei.
In fact, the course of events
China's
Spirit
. . between 1895 and 1900 was
thoroughly Chinese in its con-
trariety. We and the other land-hungry
European Powers had our annexations
first and our war afterwards. The national
spirit of China was aroused, at any rate
in the foreigner-hating Manchus of the
north, and early in 1900 it broke out in
the renewed murder of missionaries and
native Christians, and finally in orders to
the foreign representatives at Peking to
leave the country.
Not wishing to trust themselves to the
tender mercies of the Boxers, as the
unofficial allies of the reactionary party
were called, the foreign legations prepared
to stand a siege in their " town-within-a-
town" in Peking. The British, Japanese,
Russian, American, and French authorities
from their various Asiatic possessions
despatched an urgency relief expedition,
the British section of which was com-
manded by Sir Alfred Gaselee.
Peking was entered first by the British.
It was found that of the 500 civilian,
naval and military defenders of the
different legations, 65 had been killed, and
131 were more or less severel3' wounded.
When this trouble was over, the 20,000
German troops arrived under the com-
mand of Field-Marshal von Waldersee,
but the British Government discounten-
anced any unnecessary coercion of China.
The acquisition of California, by the
United States in 1848, led that branch of
the Anglo-Saxon power to desire com-
mercial expansion across the Pacific. In
1853-1855 a naval expedition under Com-
Thc Open "bander Perry was sent to J apan
Pqjj^ to force that country to enter
in Japan ^"^^ commercial and political
relations with the United States.
After some display of force Commander
Perry succeeded in his famous mission — one
of the turning points in world-history. In
the year 1858 advantage was taken of
Lord Elgin's presence in the Far East for
. the conclusion of a treaty between the
British and the shogunate of Japan —
ratified by the mikado in 1864 — which
obtained for Great Britain the same
(limited) privileges as those granted to
the United States.
But these concessions were detested by
the military caste of the Samurai, by many
of the Japanese nobihty, and by the
mikado himself when he came to hear of
them. Indiscreet behaviour on the part
of British traders provoked one or two
outrages with loss of life. Finally, in
1863, a British naval force, under Admiral
Kuper, appeared before Kagoshima and
demanded redress for grievances from
the shogun. Failing to receive this,
Admiral Kuper reduced Kagoshima to
ashes and destroyed three war steamers
of the Japanese. This action brought to
reason the Satsuma chieftains ; but there
was another potentate acting indepen-
dently— what time the titular Emperor of
Japan lived sequestered in his huge harem
at Kioto — and firing indiscriminately
on foreign shipping passing through the
straits of Shimonoseki. This was the
Daimiyo, or Lord of Cho-shu or Nagato.
After a preliminary chastisement at the
hands of the United States, France and
. Holland, he, as he still declined
oreign ^^ allow foreign shipping to
Intercourse . . , t 1 j o / t
... , enter the Inland Sea of J apan,
with Japan ^ ^ 1 j i ■ j.
was attacked by an mterna-
tional squadron under the command of
Admiral Sir Augustus Kuper in September
-October, 1864, and utterly defeated on
land as well as on the sea. The shogun's
government agreed to pay an indemnity
of about £700,000, and from that time
onwards no serious hindrance was put in
the way of foreign intercourse with Japan.
5507
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■■-^i#.sm'*%"^ still
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5508
THE
BRITISH
EMPIRE
VH
BY SIR
HARRY
JOHNSTON,
G.C.M.G.
BRITAIN'S CONTESTS IN AFRICA
AND THE PACIFIC
THE LONG SERIES OF VICTORIES IN
THE PROGESS OF EMPIRE-BUILDING
"VY7ARS of the empire undertaken against
^^ the natives of Africa, apart from
conflicts in which we were really fighting
European nations, may be said^ to have
begun with Admiral Blake's chastisement
of the Tunisian sea rovers of Goletta and
Porto Farinain 1656. In those days, Tunisia
was a kind of dependency of Turkey.
having been recovered from the possession
of Spain by Turkish and renegade Moslem
adventurers in the employ of Turkey
during the last half of the sixteenth
century. Blake had also threatened
Algiers and Tripoli and the SalU rovers of
Morocco. The occupation of Tangier, in
succession to the Portuguese entailed such
constant fighting with the Moors that the
new possession' was deemed unprofitable,
and was surrendered to Mulai Ismail,
sharifian sultan of Morocco, in 1684. The
effective punishment of the piratical
Algerine state by Lord Exmouth and the
Dutch, in 1816, has already been described.
In 1808, the British Government, having
thoroughly awakened to the importance of
Egypt as a half-way house to India, and
having regretted the easy terms which had
allowed the French to withdraw, and a
more or less Turkish Government to take
their place, attempted, on a rather feeble
l)retext, to land in Egypt, with the obvious
intention of never withdrawing. But
„ .. . . their landing was opposed by
Britain in ,, ,. ? ^^ ,, -^
o »i- * -.k tbe self-made governor, Mo-
Conflict with , J AT -4.1 1 • •.
. J. hammed An, with such spirit
egro that the attempt was baulked
and not renewed till seventy-four years
later. We first came into serious conflict
with the negro over South African
questions. Petty skirmishes no doubt had
occurred between the soldiers in the
employ of the Royal African Chartered
Company and the. natives of the Gold
Coast. Some show of force also had to
accompany the definite establishment of
the Sierra- Leone settlements, while prior
to the- annexation of Sierra Leone +he
British Chartered Company, which was to
found a West African Utopia for freed
slaves, had engaged in a good deal of
fighting with the turbulent natives of
Bolama (Portuguese Guinea), who did not
Th F* ^^ ^^^ ^relish having an anti-
of th slave-trade colony founded on
Kaffir Wars *^^^'^^' ^^'^ front. But the first
Imperial war with the black
man was undertaken in 1809 and 1811-1812
when, in order to defend the rigiits, or, at
any rate, the claims, of the Dutch colonists,
20,000 Kaffirs were driven b}/ British
soldiers away from the " Zuurveld," and
across the Great Fish River to its eastern
banks. This was . the first in the long
series of Kaffir wars which was to culmi-
nate in the capture of Ulundi in 1880,
and of Buluwayo in 1893.
In 1818-9, the second Kaffir War broke
out. It originated in an internecine feud
between two .rival Kosa Kaffir chiefs,
Gaika and Ndlambe. [Kosa is written by
some South African authorities Xosa, the
-"X" expressing a side click. Another
Kaffir name is often written Gcaleka, the
" c " expressing another click. Likewise, the
" C " in Cetewayo (Ketshwayo) is a click.
The present writer prefers to render all
these w:ords with the gutturals, K, G, or
O]. For some reason the Cape Governm.ent
sent soldiers to enforce the claims of the
defeated rival, Gaika. The British force
crossed the Great Fish River, and then, in
revenge, the Kosa warriors under Ndlambe
entered the colony and besieged Grahams-
town. The Kaffirs were, of course, defeated,
and their frontier was j)ushed farther to
the east, to the Keiskamma River. The
land in between the two rivers was to
be regarded as neutral ground, though
5509
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
actually belonging to the British Crown.
The Keiskamma, as a matter of fact,
had been the original boundary between
Kaffir and Hottentot.
In course of time certain Kaffir chiefs
were permitted to settle on this neutral
territory ; then they were ordered to move
off again. For this reason, or more pro-
bably because the Kaffirs
* .""* thought they could drive the
^ . white man away altogether by
^'~^^ attacking in force, 12,000 of
them crossed the eastern frontier of the
colony in December, 1834, ^^^ ^or a fort-
night carried all before them, killing the
white colonists, burning and destroying
their homesteads and farms, and turning the
district between Somerset East and Algoa
Bay into a desert. The raid had from the
white settlers' point of view been abso-
lutely unprovoked, and there were loud
cries for vengeance from Boer, German,
and British colonists alike, nor did the
missionaries attempt to defend the action
of the invading Kaf&rs. Colonel Smith,
afterwards to be known as Sir Harry
Smith, drove the Kaffirs back beyond the
Keiskamma, and then beyond the Kei
River. This was the third Kaffir War.
The Kosa Kaffirs then sued for peace.
Their new frontier was drawn at the Kei
River, and the land between the Kei and
the Keiskamma was created a new pro-
vince of the colony, and named after
Queen Adelaide. But within this new
province all the Kaffirs who had taken no
part in the raid were allowed to remain,
and, in addition, grants of land were given
to the Fingo tribe, who had been enslaved
and ill-treated by the Kosa.
But this settlement, approved alike by
the European settlers and the missionaries,
was set aside by the Colonial Secretary
in England, Lord Glenelg, and Queen
Adelaide province was restored to the
Kosa Kaffirs, while Sir Benjamin D'Urban,
the governor, was recalled. This unwise
action laid the seeds of much
future mischief. It was one of
Trouble
with the
Kalfirs
the causes which sent the best
of the Dutch farmers out into
the wilderness to carve out homes with
their right hands and their guns— rifles had
not come into general use — independent
of the vicissitudes of a dual government
wherein the man on the spot might have
his policy reversed heedlessly by the man
at home. The Kosa Kaffirs were not
satisfied, and the Fingoes found themselves
5510
handed over to the tender mercies of the
Kosas. In 1846-1847, war— the fourth
Kaffir War — broke out again, provoked by
the Kaffirs themselves. At its close the
former province of Queen Adelaide was
reconstituted under the name of British
Kaffraria. In 1850 began the fifth Kaffir
War, chiefly with the Gaika clan of the
Kosa Kaffirs living in the Amatola
Mountains. It extended far and wide over
the eastern border districts of Cape Colony,
and was marked by not a few disasters.
One of these was not directly con-
nected with the Kaffirs, though it added
to the general uneasiness and dislike with
which the war was regarded at home.
The troopship Birkenhead foundered in a
gale off Simon's Bay, and sank with 400
soldiers and many seamen on board. By
1853, General Cathcart had captured all
the Gaika strongholds in the Amatola
Mountains, and had deported the Kosa
Kaffirs from that district, which was after
wards settled by Hottentot half-breeds,
and became known as Grikwaland East.
In 1856 a terrible delusion seized on the
Kosa Kaffirs through the crazy teaching of
K- ir tf 9- " wizard " who had received
1^71/1 a smattering of Christian
Deluded by , , • , • • 1 - i
"W d" "teachmg at a mission school.
He predicted the coming of a
millennium, in which the Kaffirs would be
reinforced by their dead chiefs returning
to earth with many followers, and further
assisted by the Russian soldiers of the
Crimean War. But to secure this millen-
nium, the existing cattle and crops must
first be destroyed. This teaching led to a
terrible famine, for the deluded Kosa
Kaffirs slew their cattle and cut down their
crops of growing mealies. The unhappy
people were obliged to emigrate to the
extent of nearly 100,000, some 25,000
dying of starvation. The restless move-
ments of these desperate men among
more settled tribes brought on the sixth
Kaffir War, in 1858. After the. war,
large numbers of Fingo Kaffirs settled
in British Kaffraria, and some of the
Kosas returned thither or found a home
in the adjoining new Transkei province.
Others migrated into Pondoland.
In 1851 and 1852 there were fights with
the Basuto (Viervoet and Berea), the first
of which was a defeat for the British, the
second a drawn battle. In the last instance
General Cathcart, after conquering the
Kosa Kaffirs, had attempted to seize Thaba
Bosigo in order to compel the Basuto
THE FOUNDERING OF THE BRITISH TROOPSHIP BIRKENHEAD ON FEBRUARY 26th, 18554
The disaster Ulustrated in the above picture occurred during a gale off Simon's Bay, South Africa, and will ever be
memorable for the heroism exhibited in the face of death. On board the ill-fated steamship were nearly oOO ofhcers and
men, who stood calmly awaiting their fate while the women and children were saved. The then Kmg ot i'russia causea
the splendid story of iron discipline and perfect 4uty to be read aloud at the head of every regiment in his kingdom.
From Ihc paiiUi[ig by C. Napier Heiiiy, by permission of Messrs. Henry Graves & Co.
55"
HARMS WORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
king, Moshesh, to come to terms, the
Basuto having been attacking the Griqua
Hottentots and Boer trekkers. The
issue was not a defeat to the Basuto, but
Moshesh wisely came in and agreed to a
peace which has never since been broken,
so far as the Imperial Government is con-
cerned, though the Ba£>ito had somewhat
T'L c *!. serious conflicts with the
The Seventh ^ /^ i • i /^ j_ •
. , Cape Colonial Government m
Kaffir War 1879-I880, conflicts which
were eventually solved by
their coming under direct Imperial control.
In 1877-187(8 occurred the seventh and
last Kaffir War. After the terrible famine
and migration of 1856-1857, a portion of the
Galeka clan of the Kosa Kaffirs, under the
celebrated chief Kreli, or Kareli, the son of
Hintsa, who had surrendered to the
British after the Kaffir raid of 1834, had
been allowed, in 1865, to settle on the coast
of British Kaffraria with the Fingoes and
other Kaffir tribes behind them. They
increased and multiplied, and in 1877 they
turned round and fought the Fingoes. The
British Government intervened, and the
chief Kreli was deposed. Fighting spread
into the colony, and was joined in by the
Gaika clan under chief Sandile. This war
was brought to a close in 1878 by the death
of Sandile and the flight of the aged Kreli.
The impartial historian of South Africa
must admit that though many good
qualities are inherent in the Boer people,
a scrupulous consideration for the ante-
cedent rights of the negroes is not to be
attributed to them. In their eyes the
natives had no rights, though, at the same
time, they were not harsh if Hottentot or
Basuto, Bechuana or Zulu were willing
to serve for board, lodging, and occasional
blankets and Cape brandy. But wherever
the Boer ruled he carried on a native policy,
as regards land and products, so like that
of King Leopold on the Congo as to make
one think that in this respect the king of
the Belgians may really have borrowed
„ , his native policy from Dutch
Boers Leave . i-,- c " r, ,,
_ . . . traditions. Soon after the
^ . discontented Boers left British
territory, because the British
Government would not evict native tribes
legitimately settled on the soil in favour
of incoming white men. The pioneers
of the Orange River territory and the
founders of the Transvaal State fell out
with the warlike Basuto, the southern-
most tribe of the wide-spread Bechuana
stock. The British forces had repeatedly
5512
to intervene, either to save the trekking
Boers from extermination by the enraged
Basuto, or later to save the Basuto from
being wiped out by the land-hungry Boers.
Between 1836 and 1840 the emigrant
Boers, whom Lord Glenelg's foolish policy
— among other causes — had driven out of
the eastern parts of Cape Colony, had
brushed aside the 'Northern Basuto, de-
feated the Matabele hordes of the southern
Transvaal, and broken the Zulu power in
Natal. As regards Matabele and Zulu, im-
partial history will probably say that they
got no worse than they deserved. They
were treacherous, cruel, devastating, and
not much earlier comers in the Bechuana
countries than the Boers themselves. As to
the Swazi, a northern section of the Zulu-
Kaffir group, they were partially protected
by the Transvaal Boers from Zulu cruelty.
But in regard to Sekukuni, the govern-
ment of the Transvaal behaved badly.
Sekukuni ruled over a section of the
North-eastern Bechuana in the country
just south of the Upper Limpopo. The
Transvaal Boers from the early part of the
sixties were constantly seizing Sekukuni's
A Blot on ^^"^ ^^ people, and ignoring
c ^1. AT • his rights. This chief estab-
bouth African ^• -, F ^ ■ ^c J. 1
„. Jished himself strongly m
the Zoutspanberg Mountains,
and after 1870 the Boer Government of
Pretoria launched against this unhappy
people bands of conscienceless adven-
turers ; one of the cruellest of these was
an ex-Prussian officer, Von Schlickmann,
whose atrocities were a disgrace to the
Boer name and will be a permanent blot
on the history of South Africa. But
Sekukuni held out so stoutly that he wore
out the energies of the Transvaal State.
As the Boer dealings with the Swazis had
drawn down on them the animosity of
the Zulus, it was feared by the Imperial
Government that the mishandling of native
affairs in the Transvaal might set going a
vast negro revolt against the white man. So
Sir Theophilus Shepstone was despatched
with a few military officers and twenty-five
mounted police to investigate. He took
the bold step of annexing the Transvaal.
The British had taken no great share in
the fighting against the Zulu monarchy
which had won Natal for the white man's
rule. The Transvaal Boers had done that
and had also installed Panda as king of
the Zulus in place of the bloodthirsty
Dingane. In 1873 the British Government
had been represented at the installation
CONTESTS IN AFRICA AND THE PACIFIC
of Cetewayo as successor to Panda. The
limit of the recognised Zulu kingdom
then, on the west, was the Tugela River.
Of course, the colony of Natal contained
hundreds of thousands of Zulu-speaking
natives, but these, for the most part, had
been long dissociated from Zulu rule.
In the North-west of Natal, however,
there was the Hlubi clan, originally
refugees from Zulu and Basuto lands.
These people, under their chief, Langali-
balele, began to show themselves turbulent
in 1873, and had to be brought to order
by the despatch of a small military force.
The operations against the Gaika and
Galeka clans of the Kosa Kaffirs in 1877-
78 sent a thrill of racial sympathy and
disturbance through Natal and Zululand,
and probably decided the ill-informed
king of the Zulus to make a determined
fight for Kafifir independence and dominion
before the white man grew too strong.' It
must be remembered that there is very
little linguistic difference between Kaffirs
and Zulus. Kaffir is an entirely artificial ■
name. It is simply an Arab term meaning
"unbeliever," which was applied to the
... . pagan Bantu along the South-
p" '^ . east African coast by the Arabs,
2 J , . and by them transmitted to the
Portuguese, Dutch and English.
Sir Bartle Frere saw the coming danger
to Natal, and resolved to forestall it by
calling on Cetewayo to disarm, after
giving him full satisfaction in regard to
territories in dispute between the Zulus
and the former Republic of the Transvaal.
No answer was received to the ulti-
matum. On January 22nd, 1879, the
British troops under Lord Chelmsford
entered Zululand. The opening of the
campaign was marked by two striking
incidents. The capture of the British
camp at Isandlhwana, the " Hill of the
Little Hand," with a loss to the British
of 800 white and 500 negro soldiers ; and
the defence of Rorke's Drift, on the Buffalo
River, under Lieutenants Chard and
Bromhead, and 120 British and Colonials
against 4,000 Zuhis, flushed with the
victory of Isandlhwana. Another episode .
of this war, which has raised it in the
interest of world-history far above
other Kaffir wars, was the death of the
Prince Imperial on a reconnoitring expe-
dition. This sad event materially altered
the course of modern French history.
Zululand was conquered finally by
August, 1879, in the battles of Gingihlovo,
In Contact
with the
Matabele
2B
*7
Kambula, and Ulundi ; and the king,
Cetewayo, was captured and sent into
temporary retirement. Sekukuni, of the
Northern Transvaal, was then tackled and
finally disposed of, while the Swazis were
also brought under control. Between
1879 3-i^d 1893 there was peace, except
mere police operations, between the
British and the natives of
South Africa. All our atten-
tion was concentrated on a
struggle for supremacy with
the Dutch-speaking section of the white
community. A British advance towards
the Zambesi began in 1887-1888, a
movement which brought us into contact
with the Matabele power.
The Matabele were a section of the Zulus
whom internecine quarrels had driven from
Zululand and Natal into the Southern
Transvaal. From this territory, where they
had supplanted the Bechuana stock of the
Bantu, the Matabele were driven by the
Boers beyond the Limpopo. The Matabele
in their turn, from 1840 onwards, became a
predatory people, and made themselves
masters of the lands between the Limpopo
and the Zambesi. They enslaved more or
less the pre-existing Makaranga, Mashona
and kindred tribes of Nyanza stock, and
were a sore affliction to the more peaceable
Bechuana on their western ftank.
Cecil Rhodes and his pioneers, however,
had to deal with the Matabele as the
effective masters of the country between
the Kalahari Desert and the Eastern
Portuguese dominions. Various far-reach-
ing concessions were purchased from the
greedy Matabele king, Lobengula, who was
not very particular as to what he sold,
because in his own mind he had determined
exactly what the white men should do and
what he would withhold from their scope.
But in Dr. Jameson he had a masterful
person to deal with. Jameson had accu-
rately gauged the Matabele strength, and,
in a short but very brilliant campaign, con-
ducted by himself and Major
Forbes, and by Colonel Goold
Adams — on behalf of the
Imperial Government — Bulu-
wayo was captured, and Lobengula driven
towards the Zambesi, where he afterwards
died. Out of a force sent in pursuit of
Lobengula, a party of thirty mounted
men under Captain Allan Wilson was cut
off from the main body and killed by the
Matabele after a heroic resistance. The
Chartered Company's administration,
5513
Dr. Jameson's
Brilliant
Campaign
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
which foDowedthat of Lobengula, was not
in all respects quite wise, and discontent
arose among the natives, Mashona as well
as Matabele. After the unfortunate issue
of the Chartered Company's armed entry
into the Transvaal, the Matabele rose
against their white rulers, and though they
never succeeded in taking Buluwayo or
any other fortified post, they
/^^ ^ infficted much damage and
mong e g^^^g j^gg q£ jj-fg ^j^ ^^^ British
settlers. Rhodesia was not
finally restored to order until the year 1897.
Since the great South African War of
1899-1902 there has been a certain amount
of unrest among the natives south of the
Zambesi, more especially among the
Hottentots on the German borders, the
Basuto, the Kaffirs of Natal, and the Zulus.
This has been caused by a multiplicity of
excitants. The movement originated with
certain American negroes of the Ethio-
pian Church, a form of Christianity which
was to treat the interests of the black race
as quite distinct from those of the Cau-
casian ; the spread of education, which
imparted an honest pride and capabilit}^
to Christianised Hottentot and Kaffir — so
that dull, stupid, violent government at
the hands of German or British-Colonial
officials or army officers became intoler-
able : the resentment felt by Zulus and
Natal Kaffirs at the alleged filching of their
land ; lastly, the abundance and cheapness
of rifles and ammunition during and after
the Boer War; all these were reasons,
apart from a general awakening of the
negro, why movements towards turbu-
lence and independence necessitated much
vigorous police work in 1906-1908 —
almost amounting to warfare — ^on the part
of British and Colonial troops in Western
Bechuanaland, Natal, and Zululand.
Amongst " native " powers which the
British Empire has had to fight in South
Africa must be enumerated the Boers of
Cape Colony, Natal, the Orange State, and
^. „ , the Transvaal. This was a
1 he tSOCrS ^ a- ■^^ u ^ ■, >>
jj. ... . Vigorous, emphatically white
theBrU°sh ^'^^^ «^ .''^^T'^'^ physique,
compounded for the most part
of men of Flemish or Dutch descent,
mingled with some proportion of French
Huguenots and German immigrants.
The resident Boers, as distinct from the
officials of the Dutch East India Company,
never liked the British intrusion from the
day of the first landing of British trOops at
Simonstown on July 14th, 1795, down to
5514
the granting of self-governing constitu-
tions to the different states of the future
South African Confederation. In 1815 the
Dutch farmers had risen against the
government of Lord Charles Somerset
because it interfered with their summary
treatment of the natives; but they were
surrounded, and laid down their arms at
the place since called Slachter's Nek. In
spite of their surrender five of them were
hanged for high treason, an act inexcus-
ably harsh on the part of the tyrannical
governor. Lord Charles Somerset, whose
name for the value of his work is too
much commemorated in Cape geography.
Dissatisfaction with Lord Glenelg's
fatuous intermeddling and with the. often
well-founded, accusations of British and
Moravian missionaries as to maltreatment
of natives, impelled the migration north-
wards and eastwards, beginning in 1836.
of large numbers of Boer farmers. This
led to their wresting the Orange Free
State from the Basuto, the Transvaal
from the Matabele hordes of Umsilikazi,
and Natal from Dingane and the Zulus.
Apart from the unfortunate rising .of
Slachter's Nek, Boer .and Briton
ocr an ^^,^^ came into armed conflict
-, ... over Natal. The port of Durban
had, it is true, been originally
colonised bj' British and Americans ; but
the mighty power of the Zulus had. been
first broken by Boer valour. After the
emigrant farmers had .made themselves
masters of the country now known as
Natal, the intolerable shilly-shalh' of the
home ^Ministers began. This was . the
cause in the past of man}' a war, large and
small, and was the result of the old prin-
ciples of party government and the placing
of incompetent or ill-educated men for
short and shifting periods at the head of
great departments of state. Slowly, im-
perceptibl}-, this system has changed in
favour of a trained bureaucracy— a rule
of the permanent official, who shapes the
policy which his temporary parliamentary
chief endorses and adopts as his own.
The Natal " War " of 1842 resolved
itself into a night attack by the English-
men of Durban on the Boer position
(which failed), and a siege of Durban bj-
the Boers. This siege was raised by the
arrival of a British expeditionary force. The
Boers retired, and, a commissioner arriving
from England in 1843, terms were arranged
by which the Boers had a free hand to
the north of the Drakensberg, whither
55^5
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
the bolder spirits betook themselves.
After well-nigh intolerable vacillation,
contradictory proclamations, flag hoistings
and pullings-down, treaties with native
chiefs or hybrid adventurers, restraining
and loosing of the justly exasperated
Boers, the British Government of the
Cape declared the present Orange State
The B s ^° ^^ British territory in 1848.
w>. . This action was resented by the
Kise in , T-, .,_,/.
Rebellion emigrant Boers, with rretorius
at their head. They rose
in rebellion, but in meeting Sir Harry
Smith — one of the great names in South
African history — they met one of their
own kidney. After a severe fight, the
Boers were defeated at the Battle of
Boomplatz, and Pretorius and his men
fled across the Vaal River.
The recognition of the Transvaal as an
independent state in 1852, and of the
Orange River Territory in 1854, are
episodes in the relations of Boer and
Briton which have been described else-
where. No further armed conflict with the
Boers occurred until December 20th, 1880.
In 1877, the Transvaal Republic, in
great difflculties over its conflict with the
natives, had been somewhat summarily
annexed by Sir Theophilus Shepstone on
behalf of the British Government. This
measure was most unpalatable to the
mass of the Boer farmers under the leader-
ship of Kriiger, Pretorius, and Joubert ; and
they never ceased petitioning against it.
At length, encouraged by the British
lassitude which had followed the Zulu
War, they rose in rebellion, and after
the British defeats at Bronker's Spruit,
Lang's Nek, and Majuba Hill, obtained
eventually the recognition of the inde-
pendence of their republic, with only
slight modifications, modifications which
were pared away to a transparency by the
Convention of London in 1884. Though
this convention established more or
less clearly the boundaries of the Trans-
p . vaal, the Boers did not hesitate
Expansion ,, ., „ .,. .
»K» A- ^t — ^'^V more than the British
the Aim of ,' J
the Boers would have done — to trespass
beyond these limits as far as
British forbearance would allow, and jiro-
])osed to themselves, on the one hand, to
seize and monopolise the road to Central
Africa, and, on the other, to conquer
Zululand and thus attain access to the
sea. To stop both these movements an
important armed demonstration was
made by the British Government in 1885,
5516
whereby Sir Charles Warren, with a force
of 4,000 men, marched up into Bechuana-
land and suppressed the infant republics
of Stellaland and Goshen, and substituted
for them the British Protectorate of
Bechuanaland, which was ultimately ex-
tended to the Zambesi. Zululand was
annexed, and ultimately, in 1887-1898,
Amatongaland also. The southern and
western boundaries of the Orange State
had, by a piece of rather sharp practice,
been clipped and defined in 1869, 1871, and
1876. From 1898 a final duel between the
British and the Boers for the overlordship
of South Africa became inevitable. The
Boers were resolved to expand, the British
determined to compress them within
treat}' limits, and even to strangle them
in their own homes.
First came about the unofficial war, the
abortive raid of Jameson at the head of
the Chartered Company's forces into the
Transvaal in December, 1895. Then ensued
four years of preparations on both sides.
Those of the Boers were directed to steady
armament and training, with results which
certainly " staggered humanity " ; those
Th G t ^^ ^^^^ British to sounding
^ . France, Russia, Portugal, Italy,
S th Af * America, and perhaps Germany
as to their attitude in the
event of a South African War. The
outbreak of this long contemplated
struggle was precipitated by the two
allied Boer States delivering an ultimatum
on October 9th, 1899. It is not necessary
here to recount the incidents and fluctua-
tions of this great and lengthy contest ;
it is sufficient to record that the war began
with a series of British defeats, retreats, and
besiegements in fortified cities or camps.
Then came Lords Roberts and Kitchener,
and their march right into the heart of the
Orange Free State, and thence by a series
of successes, which went far to damp any
thought of European intervention, to
Pretoria, Lydenburg, Komatipoort.
By the autumn of 1900 the Orange River
Republic and the Transvaal had been
annexed to the British dominions, and
President Kruger had fled to Europe. Most
persons now thought the war at an end, but
the Boers managed to keep up a guerrilla
warfare for eighteen months longer, thus
securing for their countrymen far better
and more honourable terms of peace than
would have been granted in the autumn
of 1900. As military leaders, De Wet,
De La Rey, Botha, Kemp, Lucas Mej'er,
CONTESTS IN AFRICA AND THE PACIFIC
and other Boer generals covered themselves
with glory, and taught the world new
lessons in warfare. But in the meantime
Central South Africa was being ruined.
These same men who fought so well would
not carry on a hopeless struggle after the
offer of reasonable terms. To the great
relief of all concerned, a peace was ratified
on May 31st, 1902, which has left no sting
behind it to either party in the struggle.
The Orange State, under a slightly diffeixnt
name, and the Transvaal continue to
exist as self-governing communities ready
to take their part as equals in any future
confederation of South Africa, with Cape
Colony, Natal, and Rhodesia.
The question of war between the white
and the black man in trans-Zambesian
Africa is, I fear, not finally laid to rest.
Contemporary and later historians have
frequently described this, that, or the
other Kaffir war as an unjust one. There
is no doubt that we sometimes fought over
a wrong issue, but there is equally no
doubt in the mind of the present narrator
that the British power has been a great deal
more anxious to do the right thing and
Th B ' s-'^oiclii^iustice in its fights with
», J the great Zulu-Kaffir congeries
.. J, .. of peoples in the southern
prolongation of Africa than
it has shown itself elsewhere in the lands
of Black and Yellow. In the first place,
South Africa during two-thirds of the
nineteenth century was not regarded as
an extraordinarily valuable acquisition.
The Dutch colonists, it is true, were
perfectly ruthless in regard to displacing,
dispossessing, killing or enslaving the
black races that had preceded them.
They were no more scrupulous in this
respect than the English who settled on
the Atlantic coast of the United States,
the Spaniards in South America, the
Portuguese in India, or the Dutch in
Mala^'a. They, the Boers, were " God's
chosen people" ; the yellow or black Hot-
tentot-Bushman, or Kaffir, was a heathen,
with no more claims to consideration than
the beasts of the field, and both alike
were shot down by the deadly accu-
racy of the Boer marksman. But British
missionary enterprise was early afoot in
South Africa, and, as I have said before,
the country was not thought particularly
worth taking away from its black in-
habitants. No minerals of importance
had been discovered prior to the diamond
revelation in 1869. In many districts
on
the Zulus
horses and cattle could not live, and there
European settlers could not thrive. It
was a land of droughts and floods, of ice
and sunstroke, of barren steppe more hope-
less than the Sahara, of thorn jungle, and
of man-eating lions. So far as anyone
therefore is to blame for the unjustness
of the Kafftr wars, it is the Dutch or Afri-
War Forced ^^^^^^ COlonistS who first
picked a quarrel with the
natives, and then dragged the
British Government into the
settlement of that quarrel. Whenever the
treatment was just towards the native
it provoked a rising, a secession, or, at
any rate, a severe disaffection amongst
the white settlers.
It is true that in 1879 Sir Bartle Frere^
a great and far-seeing viceroy — ^having
annexed the Transvaal, largely because
of the Boer mishandling of native rights,
forced a war on the king of the Zulus.
The alternative was to wait until the Zulu
power, a little stronger, a little more reck-
less, launched itself on the colony of
Natal, drowning it in blood, as Cetewayo's
grandfather had done, pitiless alike to
white and black, for no one has ever
been so cruel to the negro as the negro.
The Chartered Company's war against
the bastard Zulus of Lobengula, the
descendants of the hordes led northwards
by Umsilikazi or Mosilikatse. has been
arraigned as unjust, except when argued on
the basis of the Parable of the Talents.
Lobengula and his Amandebele indunas
desired to keep the white man out of the
country as much as they could, except as
an ivory hunter or purchaser, or possibly
as one who should find minerals at his own
risk and expense and hand over a handsome
royalty to the king and his courtiers, who
would spend it on the purchase of more
oxen, more wives, and more guns and
gunpowder, with which to carry out more
extensive slave-raids to the north. The
Chartered Company had not interfered
with the natives' rights over
Chartered ^j^^ j^^^^ ^^^ ^^^ ^j^^^ ^^.
Company and ^ ^^^^ assumption of
the Zulus • • 1 J. T>i:
governing rights. They were
genuinely anxious — the present writer can
testify — to avoid any quarrels with the
Matabele, partly, to cite no higher motive,
because they had greatly over-estimated the
fighting strength and capabilities of the
Matabele. The quarrel really arose over the
position of the indigenous tribes, Mashona
and ]\Iakaranga, who were treated by the
5517
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
Wars with
the
Matabele
Matabele as their slaves. The Matabele
theory was that if the white men wished
the Mashona or other of their subject
tribes to work for them as porters,
labourers, or guides, their services must
first be purchased from the Matabele
chiefs. The Mashona and their congeners
had been waiting for the white man's
advent to shake off the Zulu
yoke which had lain so heavily
on them since about 1S45.
Often, when pursued or plagued
by the Matabele, they would fly for refuge
to one or other of the white men's forts,
and they were frequently followed by the
Matabefe and brought back. One or two
episodes of this kind, though ending in
bloodshed, were smoothed over by the
company's officials ; the Matabele warriors
became more and more daring, and at last
a stand had to be made. In July, 1893,
a Matabele army entered the township
of Victoria, and attacked the Mashonas
residing there, slaughtering many before
the company's police could intervene. A
fight between the Matabele warriors and
the mounted police ensued, resulting in
considerable loss of life to the Matabele,
and in an open war with Lobengula's
forces, which ended in the Chartered Com-
pany becoming the government of the land
in the place of these raiding Zulus who
had preceded them by forty or fifty ^-ears.
In the second Matabele War, which
followed in 1896, it is true that the Mashona
joined hands with their forrner oppressors,
but the discontent which provoked this
war was largely caused by the compan^^
having employed an oppressive Matabele
police, which, in a different uniform and
with a new authority, continue to plunder
the unfortunate tillers of the soil.
The foundation of the colony of Sierra
Leone, in 1787-1807, for the purpose of
re})atriating liberated slaves led to very
little trouble with the natives till Sierra
Leone had been about eight\' 3'ears in
. existence as a British colony,
^°i^ ^ .J mainly because little attempt
on the Gold ■ J X ■ -D i • v
^ was made to exercise British
authority beyond the Sierra
Leone Peninsula and certain islands on
the coast dulj' purchased from the native
owners. The same may be said in regard
to the Gambia. But as early as 1824
trouble arose on the Gold Coast with the
powerful native kingdom of Ashanti.
As related elsewhere, the British Crown
had shirked as much as possible any direct
5518
responsibility for the West African settle-
ments, though these were amongst the
earliest attempts at empire beyond the
British Channel. The forts and settle-
ments were held somewhat intermittently
by chartered companies. But in 1824 the
governor of Sierra Leone — the Gold Coast
ports were brought under the Sierra Leone
government from 1821 to 1850 — Sir
Charles Macarthy, was forced into a
conflict with the Ashanti people in order
to defend the coast tribes who were under
British protection. He w^as kiUed in war-
fare (Ensimankao, January 14th, 1824),
and the British Government was obliged
to avenge his death and re-establish
British authority; this was the first
Ashanti War betw^een 1827 and 1831.
A short war with Lagos in 1851 was
the result of an attempt to put down the
slave trade. On this pretext, and also to
avenge wrongs done to British merchants,
the Dahomeh coast was frequently block-
aded or bombarded during the third
quarter of the nineteenth century, and
punitive expeditions were undertaken in
the Niger delta, 1886-1906. and the Congo
. estuary, 1875. The transfer of
xr"^^ • • the Dutch possessions on the
A h f Gold Coast to Great Britain en-
tailed another war with Ashanti
in 1873-1874. This was the first occasion
on which West African warfare was taken
seriously. Sir Garnet Wolseley, who had
distinguished himself as the commander
of the Red River expedition in Central
Canada, commanded a British force of
about 10,000 men, 2,400 British, and the
remainder negro soldiers, which, together
with native auxiliaries under Sir John
Glover, entered Kumasi and imposed a war
indemnity which was never completely
paid. Ashanti was only finally conquered
after two more expeditions (1896-1900).
It is now directly administered by the
British Government, and has consequently
increased very considerably in prosperity.
The action of France about the sources
of the Niger, beginning in the early
'eighties of the last century, obliged the
British Government to concern itself about
the hinterland of Sierra Leone ; and the
various attempts to impose British influence
over the warlike Temne and Mende peoples
entailed a number of armed expeditions or
small wars, such as the Yonni war in 1886,
in what is now the rather considerable
territory of the Sierra Leone Protectorate.
These culminated in a regular rising of the
CONTESTS IN AFRICA AND THE PACIFIC
Temne and Mende peoples, owing to the
imposition of a hut tax, in i8g8. The
complete subjugation of the colony
which followed, coupled with the build-
ing of a railway across a portion of the
hinterland, brought about the most
extraordinary changes in the prosperity
of the natives. Sierra Leone is now one
of the best governed, most prosperous,
and generally successful of the British
possessions in tropical Africa. Similar
attempts to open up the hinterland
of the Gambia, and to protect commerce
along the British banks of that river,
likewise occasioned a few armed expedi-
tions against the Mandingo or Fulbe sultans
of the interior. The last of these was the
expedition against Fodi Kabba in 1900.
In the hinterland of Lagos, in the Ibo
territories of the Niger Delta, there were
punitive expeditions, enforced conquests
of natives who would not let the Britisher
or his nativt subjects alone. These occurred
mainly between 1885 and 1905, including
the expedition in 1897, which rapidly
conquered the blood-stained kingdom
of Benin, a feat thought to be almost
impossible owing to the physical
onques (difficulties of reaching Benin
... . through leagues of forest-swamp.
•gcria g^^ amongst notable exploits
of warlike enterprise on the battle-roll
of Britain, nothing in this direction
equalled in importance of achievements
the conquest of Nigeria. As usual, the
British Government had turned over to a
chartered company of merchants the first
responsibility of laying the foundations of
the Nigerian Empire. The original attempts
of 1841 and 1858 to establish something
like a British protectorate or control over
the banks of the Niger had failed through
the frightful mortality which attacked the
naval expeditions. The Lower Niger was
justly regarded then as a region so
impossibly unhealthy that it could not
profit the British Government as a means
of reaching the Nigerian Sudan.
As related elsewhere, the foundations
of modern British Nigeria were laid
by Captain Goldie Taubman, afterwards
Sir George T. Goldie. The Royal Niger
Company, which he founded, soon experi-
enced, however, enormous difficulties in
carrying their charter into effect. It was
relatively easy to keep order amongst the
savage cannibal negroes along the banks
of the Niger and navigable Benue ; but
immediately beyond these regions were
the Nigerian Sudanese — the Mohammedan
Nupe, Fulbe, Hausa peoples under a general
Fulbe suzerainty — hordes of cavalry per-
meated with Mohammedan bravery. These
peoples in those days were possibly egged
on to try conclusions with the British
company by its French and German rivals,
who, in the first place, resented the British
British appropriation of Eastern Ni-
Rulc in the §^"^' ^^^ i" *he second, disUked
Sudan "^^^^ ^^ ^^^ ^h^t the govern-
ment of the country should be
entrusted to a commercial company.
The company had to face the situation,
conquer the amir of Nupe, and impose peace
by a show of force on the Fulbe sultan of
Sokoto. The expedition of 1897, practically
led by Sir George Goldie, was to all intents
and purposes organised by the British
Government, and was commanded by
Imperial officers. It achieved its object
after one or two pitched battles, but ran
the narrowest risks of failure and disaster
owing to the difficulties of transport once
it quitted the navigable waterway.
When the company was succeeded
by the direct rule of the British Govern-
ment, Sir Frederick Lugard found it quite
impossible to cry halt until, with the forces
under his command, led by Colonel
Morland, he. had conquered the Fulbe
power and established British rule over
the great Hausa cities of the Central
Sudan. These campaigns of 1902 and 1903
were remarkable for the extent of ground
covered, the relatively small fighting force
at the disposal of the British, and the
effect of the victories. It would be too
soon to say that the Moslem peoples of
Eastern Nigeria will never again raise the
standard of revolt ; but the surest way of
turning their thoughts to better things,
the cheapest way of maintaining our
hold over this important region of Africa,
is by the building of railways. As re-
gards wars in North-east Africa within
the memory of living men, the first
to record is the somewhat
quixotic Abyssinian expedi-
The Quixotic
Abyssinian
Ex ediZn *^°^ °^ 1864-1S68. Of all the
xpe I ion episodes in the history of the
British Empire, this will seem the most
difficult to explain. Its analogue in our
wars of the first class with European
Powers is the Crimean War. Some well-
meaning but over-zealous missionaries had
offended the usurping monarch of Abys-
sinia, Theodore. This curious personality,
who, like his immediate ]iredecessors for
55 TO
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
about seventy years back, had begun to
get into touch with the civihsation of the
outer world b^' commerce carried on
through Indian traders, had invited to his
court mechanics or industrial missionaries,
and then, if he were capriciously displeased
with them, would hold them as his
captives. A British consul of Levantine
u or Armenian extraction,
Theodore, the ^^^^^^^^ f^j. j^is knowledge of
of Ab ssfnia ^^^^^^ ^^^ Amharic, was
yssinia ^^^^ ^^ ^^^ these captivcs
out of Theodore's toils by negotiations.
But Theodore, who was more than half a
crank, and who had proposed marriage to
Queen Victoria upon hearing that she was
a widow, but had received no reply to his
proposal, kept back the consul, too.
In a less sentimental age it might have
been questioned whether, as Great Britain
had at that time no desire to interfere in
the affairs of North-east Africa, she was
warranted in spending several millons of
money, and perhaps in all about a thou-
sand lives, in trying to rescue a few
misguided Europeans who had accepted
all risks ingoing to thecourt of a barbarous
monarch. But there was the question of
the British envoy, Mr. Rassam, and British
prestige in the Eastern world.
So 16,000 (mainly Indian) soldiers, and
some 15,000 non-combatants, marched
through the mountains of Abyssinia till
they had released the captives and cap-
tured Magdala, the last stronghold of
Theodore, who committed suicide. Then,
after furnishing their principal native allj^
Prince Kassai, of Tigre, an Abyssinian
prince of less doubtful lineage, with the
means of aspiring to the throne of
Ethiopia, the British forces marched back
again to the Red Sea. In this achievement
we were in far better circumstances than
the Italians thirty years later, for the
British protestations that they desired
no territorial acquisitions were believed,
and the mass of the Abyssinian people
. was on the side of the British
. " '^ against the misconduct of the
■ ""e^ mad, though talented, usurper.
British soldiers were not to set
foot in North-eastern Africa again for
fifteen years. Then, in 1882, a British
force was landed at Port Said under Sir
Garnet Wolseley of Ashanti, who was to
become Lord Wolseley of Cairo. Here the
immediate objective was the subjugation
of Arabi's revolt and the reassertion of the
power of the legitimate ruler of Egypt, the
5520
khedive. The motive was absolutely not
any desire to acquire more territory, but
in reality to save the Suez Canal from
falling under the exclusive control of
France, of Turkey, or of a new Moham-
medan nationality, fanatical and successful ,
which might be arising under the some-
what stupid colonel of artiller}^ Ahmad
Arabi. Britain had seen between 1835
and 1840 a great military power arise
in Egypt, which had conquered nearly
the whole of Arabia, had wrested Syria
from the Porte, and, unchecked, might
have re-created from an Egyptian base
a vast Mohammedan empire. It was
quite possible such a thing might occur
once more, with Arabi in the place of
Ibrahim, the son of Mehemet Ali.
The British occupation of Lower Egypt
was followed by the downfall of Egyptian
rule over the Sudan, the futile despatch
of Gordon, and the too-late expedition
in 1884 sent to extract Gordon from a
besieged Khartoum. Here, again, there was
no other motive than the desire to retrieve
Britain's honour, much as there had been
in the case of Abyssinia. Nothing was
desired less at that moment
than the addition to the British
Empire of the Egyptian Sudan.
The too-late expedition, only
just too late, was recalled from its natural
impetus to avenge Gordon by complica-
tions with Russia in Central Asia. Little
collateral wars had been carried on with
the fierce Hamitic tribes of the Nubian
Desert between the Red Sea coast and the
Atbara, but the British and Egyptian
forces were withdrawn to Wadi Haifa and
the walls of Suakin, and for some 5'ears
confined their efforts to repelling the
attacks of the Dervishes.
The deliberate attempts at conquest
of the bastard Zanzibar Arabs, descend-
ants of the fierce Omani seamen and
merchants, whose assaults on the Zanzibar
coast had extinguished the power of the
Portuguese in the eighteenth century, had
steadily pushed inland, and had developed
the slave trade to such an extent that they
had scandalised the British public through
the revelations of Livingstone, Speke,
Grant, Stanley, Thomson and others.
Ideas of empire had come to them, and
they had determined to found vigorous
Mohammedan slave states in Central
Africa. But they knocked their heads
against harder ones — the dogged Scottish
pioneers of Xyassaland. It was with the
Gordon's
Death at
Khartoum
CONTESTS IN AFRICA AND THE PACIFIC
African Lakes Company at the north end
of Lake Nyassa that the"war broke out first
between European and Arab for the
possession of Central Africa. Trade had a
little to do with it. The Arabs had begun
to interfere between the native seller and
the European purchaser ; but it is only
fair to state that sheer horror at the
atrocious cruelties of the Arab slave raids
precipitated the fight on the part of such
agents of the African Lakes Company as
the late Monteith Fotheringham and the
still living Moir brothers. The African
Lakes Company hastily called for volun-
teers, and enlisted amongst others a
Captain Lugard, bent on East African
adventure, and a hunter of big game,
Alfred Sharpe. The one became the
subjugator of Nigeria and the province of
Uganda, and the other is still governor of
the British Central African dominions.
But the Arabs were too strong to be sub-
dued by a rabble of undisciplined blacks
officered by five or six brave English or
Scotch. A drawn battle was practically
the result. The slave-traders had to be
attacked nearer to their base before the
Arab power could be dealt with
a British ""^ effectually at the north end of
n I \ ^ Lake Nyassa. It fell to the lot
Protectorate ^ ,, -' ., r ., , ,
of the writer of these chapters
to he-^.d this next movement, which culmi-
nated in 1895-1896 by the defeat and death
of all the Arab leaders, and the definite
establishment of British dominion up to
the south end of Tanganyika and the shores
of Lake Mweru. A little campaign against
the power of the Angoni Zulus, who had
invaded Nyassaland in the early part of
the nineteenth century, completed s^nch
conquests as were necessary to establish
a British protectorate over the whole of
British Central Africa from the upper
waters of the Zambesi to the Portuguese
possessions east of Lake Nyassa.
The British establishment at Aden,
which was rendered necessary by the
opening of the overland route to India
through Egypt and the Red Sea, brought
the British power into contact with the
Somali coast. There had been British
envoys to Ethiopia and Shoa as far back
as the closing years of the eighteenth
century. The coastlands and a good
deal of the interior of the Somali country
produced sheep, goats, camels, and even
oxen, besides other commodities which
were required to feed the British garrison
at Aden, and also the ever-increasing
number of steamers which called at
Aden on their way to and from India.
Therefore, as far back as the early 'fifties
of the last century Great Britain, by
means of official and unofficial explora-
tions, was taking a marked interest in the
fate of the Somali coast. During the
period of Imperial lassitude coincident
P . with the 'sixties and early
.. „ .. 'seventies, Great Britain looked
the Egyptian .,, , t j.u
p on with a shrug of the
shoulders whilst Egypt, which
at any rate, in our eyes, was better than
France for such a purpose, attempted to
make herself mistress of Somaliland.
When the Egyptian power fell, however,
with the annihilation of General Hicks's
army and the death of Gordon, it was
necessary to do something, or else the coast
opposite Aden might be jointly occupied
by France and Italy. So the very oddly-
shaped protectorate of British Somaliland
came into existence, and, needless to sa5^
the attempts of the British to become
responsible for law and order on the
Somali coast dragged them much against
their will into an equal responsibility for
the disorder of inner Somaliland.
A mad mullah, a robber-fanatic, be-
ginning as so many of these Moslem
leaders have done, in a very prosaic way
as a disappointed store-keeper or a
market gardener whose crops had been
ravaged by locusts, and who in a vague
way has attributed his grievances to the
incoming of the British government,
drew to a head the dissatisfaction of
the turbulent Somalis at seeing their
misgoverned country somewhat rigidly
administered by the yellow soldiers and
white officers of a Christian empire, or
an empire synonymous in their eyes with
an interfering Christianity. Had our
African policy been wisely directed at the
time, the mad mullah, beyond our repelling
his attacks on settlements near the coast,
would have been fought by a railway
instead of by armies of negro
Operations ^^^^ ^^^^-^^^ soldiers gallantly
t^'^A^ liu led by British officers into the
Mad Mullah ^j^^^^^y deserts over an area as
large as England, in attempts, that were
to a great extent vain, to grasp the
mobile enemy by the throat. Troubles
began in Somaliland in 1898. The opera-
tions against Sayyid Mohammed, the
" Mad " mullah, now no longer regarded
as mad, commenced in 1901 and did not
terminate until 1904. In 1905 Sayyid
5521
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
Mohammed was recognised politically by
Italy and Britain as a native ruler over
a defined sphere with access to the coast.
So much bravery and endurance were not
entirely thrown away ; the Somalis re-
ceived a drastic lesson. But in the light
of later wisdom we now realise that the
millions which this little war cost Great
-,. . . Britain might have been far
ivi ising j^-jQj-g profitably and conclu-
f R '1 sively employed in the construc-
1 ways ^.^^ ^^ ^ railway. Perhaps this
lesson has been brought home to the empire.
In Nigeria, in Sierra Leone, in the hin-
terland of Lagos, the policy of railway
building has now been thoroughly under-
stood. It is realised that a railway is the
best investment of British Imperial money
in these and other undeveloped countries.
It is true that the construction of a railway
cannot be undertaken without a force to
guard the railway workers ; but it is far
easier to advance from the secure base
as the railway progresses, and the process
requires a far smaller armed force than
risky expeditions on a large scale into the
unknown. The trouble in all African
warfare is not the fighting when it comes
to close quarters, but the question of
transport in a roadless country. If you
rely on native porters, they are relatively
defenceless, and may bolt at the first
appearance of the enemy ; if on beasts of
burden, mules or camels, they may be
stampeded, maimed or killed by an enemy
used to making such procedure the first
thought in warfare. On the other hand,
the railway inspires interest, curiosity,
amazement, and suggests the very sweet
thought of profitable commercial relations.
It offers well-paid work for vigorous men,
and a certain market for all native supplies.
Not long after the Arab question was
settled in South-central Africa in 1896,
trouble was brewing in the equatorial
regions of Eastern Africa. Echoes of the
revolt against the Germans in Swahili
. Africa amongst the so-called
. '^r**^, Arabs or Arabised negroes had
^^. . spread to the British territories
at the back of Mombasa. Here
was wont to resort an Arab prince who
was by many Moslems of East Africa
regarded as the rightful occupant of the
Zanzibar throne, the descendant of an
Arab dynasty that, had been replaced by
the Sayyids of Oman. Sidi Mubarak
stirred up trouble for the British. More-
over, it had been necessary to conquer by
5522
a naval expedition a small Swahili sultan-
ate on the Ozo River. The question of
slavery and the slave trade lay at the
bottom of this disaffection against
British rule. When these troubles were
appeased came rumours of more serious
disturbances further to the west, in the
Uganda Protectorate.
Sir Frederick, then Captain, Lugard
had imported into the Uganda Protec-
torate, in the days when it was no more
than a sphere of influence, a number of
Emin Pasha's Sudanese soldiers. These
men were brave, but they were emphatic-
ally Mohammedans, and with a few of
them the old Arab dislike to the rule of the
Christian still lingered. Their first easy
victories in keeping order in Uganda in-
spired them with a contempt for the pagan
or Christian negroes of that region. They
also had legitimate grievances in regard
to the manner in which they had been
handled by one or two officers in command.
Added to this source of trouble was the
extreme dislike on the part of the king of
Unyoro and his counsellors and the king
of Uganda to the imposition of British
control. The mass of people in
u iny o Uganda, and their local chiefs
Sudanese i j .1 .
_ ... or headmen, on the contrary,
strongly desired a British
protectorate, and were opposed to their
disreputable monarch on many grounds.
But the first attempts to crush the
mutiny of the Sudanese soldiers provoked
a formidable rising of the Banyoro and
disaffected Baganda. The British force,
mainly consisting of Indian soldiers and
thousands of Baganda " friendlies," got
the better of the mutineers in several very
bloody engagements, and finally the two
kings of Unyoro and Uganda were cap-
tured and deported from East Africa.
The Uganda mutiny ended, so far as
serious fighting was concerned, in 1899, ^^^
a few further engagements with the rem-
nant of the Sudanese followed, and in 1900
there was trouble with the Nandi moun-
taineers. In all these contests it was
obvious — the writer naturally speaks as
an eye-witness — that the bulk of the
natives of all races and tribes of the large
British Protectorate of Uganda were with
the British in their attempts to introduce
decent government and })rofitable com-
merce. Had it not been so, it would have
required a force of 10,000 soldiers and an
expenditure of ten millions of money to
reduce these lands to obedience. As a
CONTESTS IN AFRICA AND THE PACIFIC
matter of fact, they were pacified by a
force of some 400 Indians and 3,000
native soldiers, commanded by British
officers and non-commissioned officers.
Moreover, an important remnant of the
Sudanese remained faithful throughout
to the British Government.
After the British Government advised
the khedive of Egypt to withdraw his
troops and officials to Wadi Haifa or the
walls of Suakin, about the year 1886, no
further steps of a warlike nature were
taken for the reconquest of the Sudan.
The task was tacitly postponed till a more
convenient opportunity. Meanwhile, the
present sirdar and governor-general of
the Sudan, Sir Reginald Wingate, was
steadily collecting information through
one of the best organised intelligence
departments in the world.
Emboldened by this silence, after the
mahdi's death, when the Khalifa Abdallah
succeeded to supreme power, a fierce attack
was made on Egypt ; but the Anglo-
Egyptian army — that is to say, Egyptian
soldiers fortified by an admixture of British
non-commissioned and commissioned
TM. n I . officers — assisted by British
The Rebel ■, ■, j 1 u
^ _. cavalry and commanded by
Q - General (Lord) Grenlell,
inflicted on the Dervishes at
Saras, about thirty miles to the south
of Wadi Haifa, a defeat so overwhelming
that it checked once and for all any
further aspirations of the khalifa for the
reconquest of the world. The battles and
skirmishes with Osman Digma, between
1884 and 1897, round Suakin and in the
Eastern Sudan, had no such conclusive or
effective retort ; but the enemy here was
worn out by continual defeats, and Osman
Digma abandoned the struggle and repaired
to the khalifa's army on the Nile in 1897
to oppose Kitchener's main advance. He
was subsequently captured in the hills
behind Tokar, in January, 1900.
How long this stage of waiting and
preparation would have continued it is
difficult to say, had not the conclusion of
the drama been hastened by the action of
France and the misfortunes of Italy.
French rancour against the British occu-
pation of Egypt continued to increase
during the early 'nineties of the last cen-
tury. It was envenomed by the opposi-
tion offered on the part of the British
Government to a French annexation of
Eastern Nigeria, and perhaps by the
barrier we erected against the absorption
of the kingdom of Siam. British inaction
was mistaken for indifference or cowardice.
The marvellously rapid way in which
the French had opened up connections
between the Atlantic coast and the Mu-
bangi River, the great northern affluent
of the Congo, and between the Mubangi
and the regions of the Shari and Lake
French Chad, inspired them with the
Expedition ^^^^' enhanced by the similar
in Egypt successes of the Belgians
advancing from the Congo,
that the power of the Dervishes was either
greatly exaggerated or was on the wane.
They found that they could enter the
south-western regions of the Bahr-el-
Ghazal by friendly understanding with
the Niam-Niam sultans, and so they
conceived the idea of opening up direct
trans-continental relations between the
Gulf of Guinea, Abyssinia, and Somali-
land, thus carrying a band of French
influence right across Africa from sea to
sea. It was known to the British Govern-
ment, and was noted in a historic speech
by Sir Edward Grey, that a French expe-
dition was advancing to the Upper Nile.
Italy, in the meantime, was aspiring to
conquer and acquire the whole of Abys-
sinia. Her hopes were shattered at the
Battle of Adawa, in 1896. The imagined
consequences of this disaster at the time
were probably exaggerated in the mind of
the German Emperor, who strongly urged
the British " Government to retake the
eastern portion of the Egyptian Sudan,
and thus distract the Dervishes from
joining forces with Abyssinia, and sweep-
ing the Italians into the Red Sea.
Fortified by this hint on the part of a
potent personage, whose moral support in
Egypt counteracted the threats of French
hostility, the British Government sanc-
tioned the advance to Dongola, long
prepared by Sir Herbert Kitchener, and
carried into effect with a method,
accuracy, punctuality, and economy which
filled the British Government
France ^^-^j^ admiration, and encour-
Retires from ^^^^ j^-^j^ ^^^^^^ ^^ ^^^^^.^^ ^^ ^
^^^ similar advance on Khartoum.
This, indeed, followed in the year 1898
as a necessary consequence of Dongola.
It was the only way to prevent a French
annexation of the Egyptian Sudan. Om-
durman and Khartoum were retaken on
September 2nd-3rd, 1898, and the episode
of Fashoda followed. France bowed to
the verdict of the stricken field, and
5523
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
withdrew. But the khalifa and some of
his principal lieutenants still remained at
large. They had withdrawn into that
ominous thorny desert of Kordofan, where
Hicks's army had been lost — and the
Sudan with it — in 1883. So long as they
remained at large, gathering again re-
actionary forces for the attack, there
_ could be no rest for the British
Conquerors , Tn i n
governor at Khartoum. Con-
of the
r . e J sequetly, the third and last
Eastern Sudan ^ ■ ,-i , i ^i
campaign that regained the
Sudan for civilisation was entered upon by
Sir Reginald Wingate, to the great anxiety
of those who were watching afar off. A
success, in its way as triumphant as that
of Kitchener, settled the question once and
for all. In the battle of Om Dubreikat
on November 25th, 1899, the khalifa
Abdallah and all his emirs were killed.
Colonel Hunter and Colonel Parsons,
between them, had conquered the whole
Eastern Sudan, from the Blue Nile to
Kassala, in September, 189S ; but this
region required a small punitive expedition
as late as 1908. The great cai tie-breeding
tribe of the Dinkas has elicited more than
one display of Anglo-Egyptian force, and
the N:am-Niams of the Western Bahr el
Ghazal likewise.
The only " native " wars in Polynesia
sufficiently important to be chronicled
have been those which took place in New
Zealand in two periods, from 1845 to
1848, and from i860 to 1870. The
indigenous New Zealand Maori population,
of Polynesian origin, was certain, sooner
or later, to come into conflict with the
British colonists. Documents were drawn
up, and received the crosses of unreflecting
chiefs who thereby had disposed of large
areas of communal land without realising
the after effects. The unscrupulous actions
of the European settlers were met by
r
reprisals. The usual muddle took place in
dealing with the great war of 1860-70 in its
first stages, and before it came to a final
end a good number of British soldiers and
settlers had lost their lives. But, as might
be anticipated, it resulted in the definite con-
quest of the Maori ; also in more conscien-
tious settlement of their land questions.
No colonial war of recent years has
taken place in any British American
possession ; but in 1865 there was a serious
danger of a wide-spreading negro revolt
in the island of Jamaica. The somewhat
panic-stricken and illegal actions taken by
Governor Eyre and the officers under his
command cost that otherwise excellent
colonial official his career.
The revolt in Upper and Lower Canada
between 1835 and 1838 entailed a good
deal of stiff fighting. It was finally ex-
tinguished by the evident determination
of the British Government, through the
work of such able administrators as the
Earl of Durham and Lord Sydenham, to
endow the Canadas with a complete and
popular form of constitutional govern-
ment. In 1870 the revolt of the French
half-breeds in the Red River district, under
Louis Riel, entailed a military expedition
commanded by the present Viscount
Wolseley, then a young colonel. But
Louis Riel reappeared fifteen years later,
and defeated a body of Canadian
mounted police and volunteers.
This success rallied round him
the still recalcitrant element
of French half-breeds and pure blood
Indians. But a body of over 5,000
Canadian militia soon overcame Kiel's
resistance. He was captured, tried for
murder — he was practically an outlaw,
having fled from justice after the murder of
Thomas Scott in 1870 — and hanged at
Regina in November. 1885.
Fate of the
Rebel
Louis Riel
BRITISH HAUSA TROOPS STATIONED ON THE GOLD COAST
5524
THE
BRITISH
EMPIRE
VIII
BY SIR
HARRY
JOHNSTON.
G.C.M.G.
THE FIGHTING FORCES OF THE
BRITISH EMPIRE
NAVAL ACHIEVEMENTS FROM THE TIME
OF KING ALFRED TO THE PRESENT DAY
HTHE British, or more strictly speaking,
■'■ the Enghsh Navy began in the time of
Alfred as a means of counter-attack against
the Danes, and continued afterwards as a
collection of armed merchantmen. After
the Norman conquest and under the
Plantagenets it served as a method of
attacking Ireland, Scotland, France.
Flanders, and Spain. But as a means to
the end of founding a great empire be-
yond the seas it only began in the
time of Elizabeth. Even then there were
" Queen's ships " and the vessels of
private adventurers whose proceedings
were either licensed or winked at by the
sovereign, and who were only to be dis-
tinguished from common pirates in that
their hostile actions were usually limited
to the property of such nations as were
at war or on bad terms with England.
The first of such sea-fights under the
national flag was the battle of an English
fleet under Sir John Hawkins and Sir
Francis Drake against the ships of the
Spanish viceroy off San Juan de Ulua,
on the coast of Mexico, in 1567. This
ended in a decisive victory for the British,
and was the beginning of the long series of
attacks on Spanish America, which con-
tinued down to 1808, and even found their
echo in the United States' war against Spain
p, J ., on account of Cuba and Porto
Earl ^ ^ Rico. This particular fight at
Sea Fiuhts ^^^ Juan de Ulua arose over
the desire of the English to
carry on a trade in African slaves between
Guinea and America in defiance of Spanish
monopolies of commerce and privileges.
Sir John Hawkins had begun the slave
trade under the indirect permit — ^a sub-
concession from Genoese and Portuguese
concessionaries— of Spain in 1562, and it
had proved so profitable that Queen
Elizabeth had put two of her ships and
several thousand pounds into the business.
This unofficial war between England and
Spain, provoked by the Spanish and
Portuguese monopolies of trade and com-
munications between Europe and America,
Africa, and India, was continued by
Drake's piratical expeditions of 1572-1573
, and 1577-1580, in the course
p. . of which he attacked and plun-
- J .. dered the Spanish settlements
xp 01 s ^^ g^^ Domingo, Florida,
Cuba, and, most wonderful of all, Peru.
He sailed round South America, attacked
the Spaniards on .the undefended Pacific
coast, and then, first of all leaders of men,
so far as we know, completed the circum-
navigation of the globe. Magellan, the
Portuguese navigator, died in the Spice
Islands after discovering the Magellan
Straits. His ships, not he, completed the
first voyage round the world. In 1585,
when Spain and England were at last at
open war, followed Drake's Carthagena
expedition, and in 1587 was the raid on
Cadiz, in which he destroyed or captured
eighty Spanish ships which were employed
in preparing for the great Armada.
The exploits or outrages of Drake were
among provocative causes of the dis-
]:)atch of the great Armada which was
effectually to subdue this nation, of Pro-
testant pirates in the Northern seas.
The resistance offered to this mighty
Spanish fleet may be justly regarded as
one of the earliest glories of the English
Navy, but we should also not forget
that it was equally Dutch valour which
rendered the purposes of the Armada
impossible and saved England from ex-
periencing at the hands of Spain woes
such as England herself had inflicted on
Ireland. Frobisher, Howard of Effingham,
55-5
HARMS WORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
Drake and Hawkins, tackled this enormous
and clumsy fleet of sixty magnificent
vessels as soon as it had entered the
British Channel, and followed it resolutely
to the Straits of Dover. Here, whilst the
Spanish naval commander-in-chief was
awaiting the arrival of the Duke of Parma's
army for England, which was to sally out
from the Flemish and Dutch
...* o° -1. seaports in shallow vessels,
the Spanish ,, ^ , t-\ i t_
. . the brave Dutch mariners
blockaded the coasts and
deltas of the Netherlands, and prevented
the Spanish soldiers from putting out to
sea. During this hesitancy an English
sea-captain, probably Winter, thought of
the splendid idea — really originated some
years earlier by an Italian engineer, Giam-
belli — of sending fireships to drift with
wind and tide into the midst of the
huddled and anchored Armada. This for
the first time scattered the Armada. The
decisive engagement and the complete rout
of the fleet took place next day. though the
chase was continued on the part of the Eng-
lish to as far north as the latitude of 56°.
The next great naval exploit was the
capture of Cadiz in 1596, by Essex, Raleigh,
Effingham, and Howard, followed by a
raid on Spanish shipping in the Azores
Archipelago. Then for a time Spain and
England were at peace. The next enemy
to be encountered on the sea was Holland.
An EngHsh fleet under Monk, commissioned
by the Lord Protector Cromwell, defeated
the Dutch off the North Foreland in
1653, and destroyed much Dutch shipping
in the Texel.
All this warfare with Holland, like that
with Spain, arose over the question of
commercial monopolies in the Colonies
and the Eastern seas. Admiral Blake
proceeded to the Mediterranean in 1656
and bombarded Porto Farina and Goletta
on the coast of Tunis, to punish the
dey of that Turkish principality for
attacks on British shipping. In 1657
, Blake's fleet won a victory
ng an s ^^^^ ^^^ Spaniards at Cadiz.
fh N "^ The glory of the navy has been
a peculiarly English one, and
perhaps accounts for the predominance of
England over Ireland and Scotland. The
Scandinavians, who colonised the coasts
of Ireland and Scotland, did not implant
there as strong a lust for a seafaring life as
they did all round maritime England, from
Berwick to Penzance, and from Dungeness
to Lancaster. Of course, English navigation
5526
was confined pretty much to home waters
— to the shores of Scandinavia, Holland,
France, Spain, and Portugal — during the
Middle Ages, and the first great swoops
of discovery and conquest under the early
Tudors were made at the instigation
of Venetian, Genoese and Portuguese
pilots or captains ; just as under the later
Plantagenet kings the English marine
learnt much from the Flemings and the
Dieppois. But by the time of Elizabeth's
accession the English — equally with the
Dutch — were the hardiest navigators and
the boldest sea-fighters in the world.
Thenceforth, though they were not too
proud to learn new methods of naval
construction or of maritime warfare from
Holland, Spain, France, Genoa, or from the
Algerine pirates, the English needed no one
to show them the way into strange seas,
nor, in the long run, could any other navy
prevail against them. They fought and
beat the Portuguese off the coasts of Africa,
India, and the Persian Gulf ; they
withstood the mighty ships of Spain in
English and Irish waters, off the coasts of
Spain and of the Mediterranean, in the
Gulf of Mexico and the Carib-
bean Sea along the Pacific
The Naval
Triumphs
of England
coasts of South America, amid
the Spice Islands, and the archi-
pelago of the Philippines. They won
final victories over the Dutch at the close
of the seventeenth and eighteenth cen-
turies— since when, for unexplained causes,
Holland has ceased to be a first-class
naval power — and closed their chequered
but generally successful duel with the
French Navy by the battle of Trafalgar.
America fought with equal valour and
address, but with infinitely smaller re-
sources, in the war of 1812-1814, and since
then, happily, has been at peace with us.
Turkey received an occasional drubbing in
the Eastern Mediterranean or the Red
Sea between the seventeenth and the early
nineteenth centuries. The Barbary rovers
were finally settled by Lord Exmouth's
bombardment of Algiers in 1816. Since
1806 Great Britain has held the world's
championship on the open sea. And the
glory till that date lay chiefly, though
not entirely, with men of English birth.
In 1692, Admiral Russell defeated the
French in a great naval battle off LaHogue,
and thus baulked a most serious attempt
on the part of Louis XIV. to restore the
Stuart dynasty under conditions which
would have materially crippled the British
THE FIGHTING FORCES OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
Empire beyond the seas. The British Navy
co-operated with an Anglo-German force in
the capture of Gibraltar in 1704. In 1718,
as a consequence of the War of the Spanish
Succession and the disputes over Italy, Sir
George Byng fought a successful battle
which practically destroyed the Spanish
fleet off the coast of Sicily.
In 1747 Admiral (Lord) Anson, Com-
modore Fox, and Admiral (Lord) Hawke,
inflicted tremendous naval defeats and
losses on the French Navy between Cape
Finisterre and Belle He, thus cutting off
France from intervention in the West
Indies and North America. In the war of
1756-63, the British Navy accomplished
many noteworthy feats which atoned for
the feebleness displayed by Admiral Byng
over the relief of Minorca. It prevented all
chance of reinforcing Montcalm in Canada,
or Lally in India. Lord Hawke in 1759
destroyed the main portion of the French
fleet off the mouth of the Vilaine on the coast
of Brittany. In 1762, Lord Albemarle
and Admiral Pocock led a naval force
which attacked and captured Havana, and
practically the whole island of Cuba ; in the
. same year Admiral Cornish
. *w*^^ *?v and Sir William Draper, sail-
j, . ing from Madras, achieved the
same result with Manila and
the Philippines. Both these expeditions
enriched the war-chest of the British
Government with several million sterling.
The luckless War of American Indepen-
dence was, in its earlier stages, marked by
singular ill-success on the part of the
British Navy, which proved unequal to the
task of preventing the transport of large
bodies of French troops to America, and
failed to beat or evade the French, or to
seize the Cape of Good Hope as a return
blow to the Dutch for joining the coalition.
But, in 1781, Admiral Parker, in the battle
of the Dogger Bank, administered such a
severe punishment to the Dutch fleet as
disabled it for the remainder of the war.
In 1782, Rodney defeated the Comte de
Grasse off Dominica, in the West Indies,
and thus checked the very serious depreda-
tions which the French were making on
British possessions and commerce in that
quarter. Nevertheless, this period of the
eighteenth century (1775-1785) witnessed
the greatest ascendancy of French sea
power. The British naval supremacy was
never so seriously threatened as between
1770 and 1892. Lord Howe's victory off
Ushant on the " Glorious First of June,"
1794, upset the plans of the French Republic
for the invasion of maltreated, disaffected
Ireland. In the battle of Camperdown, in
1797, Admiral Duncan destroyed the effi-
ciency of the Dutch fleet, which was then
under French orders, and in the same year
Admiral Jervis rendered a similar service
in regard to the naval force of Spain off
The British ^^P^^ ^t. Vincent. The year
Navy's Checks ,^798 saw Nelson s marvel-
to Napoleon ^^^ Victory over the French
battleships and transports at
Aboukir Bay, a defeat which hopelessly
crippled the French plans for the permanent
conquest of Egypt. A detachment of the
British Fleet under Sir Sydney Smith, by
its watchfulness along the Syrian coast and
its defence of Acre, rendered impossible
what otherwise might have still taken
place — a conquest by Napoleon of the
empire of the Nearer East. Similarly, the
naval action of the British off Valetta
made it possible for the Maltese to expel
the French from their island. The same
force prevented Napoleon's soldiers from
capturing Sicily and Sardinia.
Calder's victory over Villeneuve off Cape
Finisterre in the late summer of 1805,
followed by Nelson's never-to-be-forgotten
achievement of Trafalgar — when the naval
strength of Spain and France was ruined
till the close of the Napoleonic wars — fitly
closes this amazing record of victories with
a crowning grace so splendid, so complete,
that for one hundred and four years no
sea Power or group of Powers has thought
it wise to challenge our supremacy. To
Nelson, more than to any other hero on
the roll of fame, the British owe the
extent, the stability, the wealth, and the
happiness of their empire.
Since 1805, the British Fleet has fought
no action of vital importance, and has,
consequently, no striking victory to record
over the Great Powers of the world. If
the navy has had no chance to add to its
laurels since 1814, except in the bombard-
_ . . , „, ment of Russian forts in the
Britain s Fleet g^j^.^^ ^j^^ interference with
the Mainstay j^^]^-^^ ^^^ Egyptian squad-
of the Empire °^^ r -S ,
rons over questions of Grreek
and Egyptian independence, the chastise-
ment of Arab, Malay, Chinese and negro
slave-traders, and the capture of piratical
South American warships; its existence and
readiness for action have been the chief
mainstay of the imperial forces. Without
this overwhelming fleet we could never have
restrained France from fresh descents on
5527
FLAGSHIP OF THE ENGLISH FLEET AT THE TIME OF THE SPANISH ARMADA
SBSfiK^
/
WARSHIPS OF THE lirvifc. Or- OUEEN ELIZABETH
%
' Tb ' -iB '-igpz. ' mi
THE ROYAL PRINCE: A WARSHIP OF THE TIME OF JAMES I.
BRITISH SHIPS OF WAR IN THE TIMES OF ELIZABETH AND JAMES I,
5528
FAMOUS FIGHTING SHIPS, WITH THE VICTORY IN RIGHT FOREGROUND, OFF SPITHEAD
BATTLESHIPS OF THE GEORGIAN AND EARLY VICTORIAN PERIODS
2 C 23 D 5529
HARMS WORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
Egypt and Syria in the middle of the
nineteenth century, Russia from occupying
Constantinople or Peking, Germany from
armed intervention in South Africa,
Portugal from annexing Nyassaland, or
Turkey from resuming her sway in Egypt
or absorbing the Imamate of Oman. But,
as before stated, it has always been behind
^. . . our land forces to ensure
.. . J . their victory sooner or later.
Pirate Nevertheless, in this record of
achievements mention might
be made of the various actions of the navy
in the building up of the empire since 1815.
In 1816, when the anxiety of the Napo-
leonic struggle was at an end, it was
decided to put a stop once and for all to
the insolence of the Algerine pirates.
Since Blake's appearance in the Mediter-
ranean, they had been chary of interference
with British shipping, but they still inter-
fered with the Maltese and the Ionian
Islands, and continued their piracies along
the coast of Naples, Sicily, and Sardinia.
Thousands of wretched Maltese, Greeks,
and Italians were life-long slaves of the
Turkish rulers of Tripoh, Tunis, Bona, and
Algiers. Lord Exmouth was proceeding to
attack Algiers, after freeing the Christian
slaves of Tunis and Tripoli without
recourse to force, when he was joined by
a small but efficient Dutch fleet under
Admiral van Capellen. Together the
British and Dutch smashed the fortifica-
tions of Algiers, and destroyed the dey's
warships, besides exacting ample repara-
tion for past injuries.
In 1827 the British, French and Russian
Fleets destroyed the Turco-Egyptian war
navy under the Egyptian Ibrahim Pasha
in the Bay of Navarino or Pylus, south-
west coast of Greece, with a view to
establishing the independence of Greece.
Then ensued a long spell of peace on the
seas, scarcely broken, if at all, by the
police duties of the British Navy on the
West Coast of Africa — where steam vessels
_ . . , were first emplo3'ed in 1827 —
^ , ,,, the Malay archipelago, the
Naval Wars ,xr - t r i ii ti -i^
with Chi West indies and the Pacific.
In 1840, the British Fleet in the
Mediterranean bombarded and captured
that Acre which Napoleon could not take ;
but this was when Britain was endeavour-
ing to force Mehemet Ali, the viceroy of
Egypt and vicarious conqueror of Syria,
back into his subjection to the Porte.
During the first conflict with China,
British naval forces occupied the Chusan
5530
archipelago and Hong Kong, destroyed
the Bogue forts which protected the
entrance to the Canton River, and even-
tually enabled British land forces to
occupy Canton, Amoy, Shanghai and
other coast towns. In the second Chinese
War, the navy again occupied Canton
after a bombardment. It also co-operated
in the attempt to force the river access
to Peking in 1859-1860, and in suppressing
the Boxer revolt in 1899-1900,
/: The navy, in 1863 and 1864, conducted
to a successful issue our only armed
conflict with Japan. The dangerous
Malay pirates of Borneo and the China
Sea were dealt with between 1840 and
1857. A naval expedition, under Admiral
Sir William Hewett, cleared out the pirates
of the Congo estuary in 1875. Piracy in
the Persian Gulf has also been suppressed
by the patrolling of British war- vessels.
From 1826 until 1885 a detachment of
our navy watched the east and west
coasts of Africa to suppress the slave
trade. A heavy toll of deaths from fever
and climatic causes has been exacted
from the west coast service, while on the
east not a few lives have been
uppression ^^^^ ^^ ^j^^^ attempts to board,
e, T, . inspect, or capture Arab slave-
olave Trade t ^ ,^ ■ n .,
daus. Occasionally, on the
west coast, the measures taken to stop the
sale and export of slaves have risen to the
importance of small wars. Thus, the
roadstead of Dahomeh was blockaded for
seven years from 1876 to 1883. Lagos,
a great slave- trading stronghold, was
bombarded in 1851. Out of opposition to
the slave raiding and trading, which were
ruining interior Africa, arose the desire to
combine a practical, honest commerce
with philanthropic police work. It was,
therefore, attempted in 1841, and later,
in 1856-9, to open up the Lower Niger
and Benue. In the first of these expedi-
tions the Royal Navy and naval officers
played a considerable part, while the
second was also under naval supervision.
Gradually the navy, conjoined with a
consular service, came to police the whole
Niger Delta and the Kamerun. This
state of affairs grew in the latter part of
the nineteenth century into the British
protectorate of Southern Nigeria. Before
this protectorate possessed a properly
organised police force, British war vessels
iniiicted salutary punishment on the
eagerly commercial but very bloodthirsty
negroes of the Niger Delta. There were
THE FIGHTING FORCES OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
naval expeditions to deal with the
turbulent people of Opobo (1887-1892),
the cannibals of Brass (1895), while an
expedition mainly naval, conducted with
remarkable skill, under circumstances of
the acutest difficulty, put an end for ever
to the blood-stained rule of Benin (1897).
Gunboats and naval detachments have
also maintained or restored order on the
Gambia and up the Sierra Leone rivers.
In Eastern Africa the navy has played
a considerable part in the operations
(1891-1895) against the slave-trading Arabs
and Yaos of Nyassaland. Zanzibar was
bombarded in 1896 when the reactionary
party among the Arabs wished to place -
on the throne a candidate who was not
the recognised heir. Earlier than this, in
1895, a naval expedition succeeded after
an exceedingly tough light under difficul-
ties of swamp, forest and scrub, and
native ferocity — resembling the expedition
to Benin — in conquering the little indepen-
dent Swahili sultanate of Vitu, which had
so long defied attack from Muscat or
Zanzibar Arabs, Germans or British.
Our navy during the whole nineteenth
, century has policed the Red
Scrvicc7 * ^^^' ^^^® ^^^^ °^ ^^®"' ^^^ ^^®
th* St adjoining coasts of Somaliland
and Southern Arabia, ad-
ministering chastisement, when they
could be got at, to Arab sheikhs and
Somali tribes. It has more than once
intervened to maintain the Imam of
Muscat on the shaky throne of Oman.
Its services during the Egyptian War
of 1882 were mainly the bombardment of
Alexandria and the control of the Suez
Canal. It contributed a contingent to
the Gordon relief expedition of 1884-1885,
and intervened effectually to prevent the
Dervishes from capturing Swuakin.
In the New World, since 1814, its
services to the empire have been mainly
limited to supporting the civil arm at
times of ebullition and threatened revolt
among the negro population of the West
Indies and British Guiana ; or to exacting
reparation for injuries to British commerce
or British subjects on the part of the im-
pulsive governments of Central America.
Off the south Peruvian coast, H.M.S. Shah,
of the British Navy, in 1877,. pursued and
sank the rebel gunboat of Peru, the Huas-
car, which had turned pirate on a large scale.
In Oceania the navy has never yet
fought a great battle, but for a hundred
years and more it has maintained a police
of ever increasing vigilance among the
many Pacific and Papuan islands under
independent chiefs or British protection.
It has, since 1870, protected the South
Sea Islanders against unscrupulous
Europeans or has chastised them for un-
provoked acts of aggression against each
other or against the white man. Lastly,
„ . in that nobler war, the fight
Science • , • j.i j. j. 1
agamst ignorance, that struggle
th N ^°^ ^^^^ disinterested gains of
^ pure science, the British Navy
has for the last 150 years played a notable
part. In 1768, Captain James Cook sailed
for the Pacific in H.M.S. Endeavour (only
370 tons), in command of a scientific
expedition to observe the transit of Venus
across the sun's disc. The astronomical
observations were completed at Tahiti, and
Cook then directed his course for the
scarcely known southern continent, re-
discovering New Zealand on the way.
The botanists and zoologists on board
his ship had the privilege of first collecting
and bringing back for the enlightenment of
European science specimens of the extra-
ordinary fauna and flora of Australia.
In 1773, the first directly naval expedi-
tion sailed from England for the Arctic
regions, though seamen in the service
of the Crown had figured much earlier
in this field of research. Captain Phipps,
R.N., procceeded as far north as 80° 48'
N. Lat., with the ships Racehorse and
Carcass, beyond Spitzbergen. Since then
the share of the British Navy in Arctic
discovery has been so gigantic as to be
impossible of description in a few sentences.
Among many great names on the roll of
Arctic exploration may be mentioned Sir
John Franklin, Sir John Ross, Sir Edward
Parry, Sir George Back, Admiral
F. W. Beechey, Sir Leopold McClintock,
Sir R. J. McClure, Captain Austin, Sir
R. Colhnson, Sir Edward Belcher, Sir
Albert Markham, Sir Clements Markham,
and Sir George Nares — all of the Royal
Navy, in one category or
Explorers ^^^^^^^^ Between them, and
*D * ^i Ki with th^ valuable assistance of
Royal Navy ^^^^ Hudson's Bay Company.
served by such men as Hearne, Mac-
kenzie, Simpson, Dr. Rae, and Sir John
Richardson, they laid down on the world's
charts the greater part of the coast-line
of North America and its huge annectant
islands between Bering's Straits and the
coast of Labrador. The Antarctic regions
were first explored by Captain James Cook,
5531
l6X2
(700
1706
b^
1799
Ai^' ' Vl^ ^
HISTORIC TYPES OF THE SCOTS GREYS, THE OLDEST CAVALRY REGIMENT
5533
HISTORIC TYPES OF THE COLDSTREAM GUARDS, ONEJ OF THE OLDEST REGIMENTS
5533
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
in 1773, in two ships of the Royal Navy,
H.M.S. Resolution and Adventure. Captain
James Ross commanded the greatest
naval expedition directed towards the South
Pole, that of 1839-1843. And the last ex-
plorations of these regions — English and
Scottish, 1903-1904, 1908-1909 — have been
conducted by officers of the Royal Navy
Ti. u- X • (Captain Scott and Lieu-
vt'a rlr' *^"^^^ Shackleton). In 1821-
HM^ B ! ^^22, Lieutenant Beechey,
cag c j^ >^- ^ surveyed the coasts
and ruins of the Cyrenaica, then, as now,
one of the least known parts .of Africa.,
A landmark in the history of human,
knowledge will always be the voyage of
H.M.S. Beagle, in 1831-1836, with Darwin
as surgeon and naturalist. Captain W. F.
Owen's great surveying voyages (1822-
1827) all round the continent of Africa
and Madagascar were truly remarkable in
their enormous additions to geographical
knowledge. For the first time in history,
Africa w^as correctly outlined in detail in
almost all the intricacies of its coasts ;
in the depths or shallowness, the rocks,
shoals, sandbanks, deep channels, and
creeks of its harbours, estuaries, river-
mouths, bays, gulfs, and lagoons.
Owen's voyage was the forerunner of
a general survey of the whole world of
waters by the British Navy. There is not a
mile of coast in the known continents and
islands of both hemispheres which has not,
at some time or other, been surveyed and
sounded by a British ship. The charts of
the Hydrographical department of the
British Admiralty are in use all over the
world as works of standard reference.
The four years' scientific researches
carried on by the staff and crew of H.M.S.
Challenger (1872-1876) were epoch-making
in their results. All the great oceans were
examined as to their depths, currents,
temperatures, fauna (especially the living
creatures of profound depths), and the
conformation of their floors ; the formation
_ -^ of coral islands was examined ;
• c • **Jr- the action of the sun's rays on
P . sea water was studied ; nor was
the ethnology of the Pacific
Islands overlooked, and the ornithology —
the petrels, gulls, and pelicans — of the
ocean wastes, or of oceanic rocks and atolls.
The Imperial army in its personnel and
recruitment has not always been as
English or as British as the navj'. For
example, the Foreign Legion recruited by
the British Government for service during
5534
the Crimean War — not including Turkish
irregulars; Bashi-Bazouks — amounted to
16,559 soldiers — German, nearly 10,000,
Swiss, and Italians. Until the close of the
Crimean War the British Government did
not hesitate to fight its land battles by
means of foreign mercenaries. Plan-
tagenet kings accomplished much of their
conquests of England, Wales, Ireland,
and of Scotland with French, Gascon,
Flemish, Burgundian troops ; though Henry
VIII. was all English in his armed force.
Mary I. employed Flemings and Spaniards
abroad. Elizabeth more than once relied
entirely on English valour for her incursions
into the Netherlands and the American-
Spanish dominions, and also for her
ruthless and destructive conquest of
Ireland. James I. supported his colonial
seizures with English soldiers, a large
proportion of whom were what we
should now call convicts.
But in the times of the Stuarts — the
early Stuarts especially — feudal instincts
were still aliv^e. Great nobles were still, to
some extent, the rulers of shires or of
smaller districts. When James I. or
Charles I. "sold" or bestowed
M f° ^^ chartered any West India
\ ^ ' "* island or North American
^"^^ state to an English earl, baron,
or marquess, that nobleman in person or
by deputy would proceed to arm and equip
a number of lusty and adventurous young
men from among his tenantry or hangers-
on — Irish, as well as English and Welsh —
and these became the first fighting force
against interlopers, against Caribs, Arawaks,
' Mohawks, or Choctaws. Courtiers and peers
who were financially interested in the East
India Company furnished likewise the few
fighting men, not actually sailors, who
were required for the defence of the
company's small forts, to defend which,
later, large native armies of sepoys and
Eurasians were employed.
It was really not till the struggle between
king and parliament during the middle of
the seventeenth century that the English
national army came into being ; and this
growth was to some extent checked after
the Restoration. But under Charles II.
two of the regiments of Lifeguards (Cold-
streams — the Coldstreams were the last
vestige of Cromwell's and Monk's standing
armyr-and ist Lifeguards) began, which
have been extended and continued as a
corps d'elite to the present day ; and in
this reign the first regiments for foreign
THE FIGHTING FORCES OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
service, the ist and 2nd Tangier Regiments,
cavalry and infantry, " Kirke's Lambs,"
nowadays known as the 1st Dragoon
Guards and the Queen's, or Royal West
Surrey Regiment, were recruited, at first
mainly from amongst the rascaldom of
London and Dublin. Wilham IIL em-
ployed a large number of Dutch and
Danish soldiers in his fight for the British
Crown, and for some time after his
coronation kept his Dutch Guards in
London. In fact, he really conquered
Ireland — and thereby retained England —
with foreign soldiers.
George I. and George II. brought Ger-
man regular soldiers to England, and,
although these were eventually sent back
to Hanover, the principle of recruiting
German, mainly West German, merce-
naries for service as, and with, the British
Army abroad continued until 1857, having
commenced under Queen Anne. To these
German legions, their most faithful, un-
complaining service, their unswerving
loyalty and unstinted bravery, the British
Empire owes much. As elsewhere related,
they became in many individual instances
j^. . the salt of our early colonial
^. . . . efforts in America, South
.. *" T, J " ' Africa, and Australia. There
the Tudors , , . ,
was no standmg or profes-
sional army in England for home or foreign
service until the middle of the seventeenth
century. There was a militia, and in
feudal days and under the Tudors nearly
all the vigorous males of the community
of all ranks of life were trained to arms of
some kind instead of wasting their time on
fruitless athletic sports, the survival in
some cases of actual crude efforts to attack
or defend. The serfs, peasantry, and
mechanics learnt to use the bow, wield the
pike, sling the stone, discharge the rude
musket. They were the infantry. The
gentry, successors of the knights, were the
cavalry, who wielded sword or battle-axe.
This cavalry came in time to include
the enfranchised yeomanry, " the upper
middle class " of to-day- When a war, '
internecine or foreign, was toward, the king
called on his barons, and they in their turn
on the lesser authorities below them, to
furnish from out of their serfs or tenantry
the requisite number of " men-at-arms."
And thus an army was gathered together.
But it was less easy to do this for foreign
service. Men would have come forward
readily enough to fight within a few days'
or even weeks' march of their own homes ;
but when it came to embarking on board
ship to leave for foreign parts, desertions
were numerous among the militia. More-
over, the period during which feudal ser-
vice could be claimed was limited, so
that the English kings who carried on war
in France were obliged by degrees to pay
the soldiers whom they engaged to accom-
V. ,. «!♦ A- pany them. Edward IIL
First Standing f / , /- , •
j^fjj^y landed an army near Calais
;„ v^cri^^A i" 1346 which consisted of
m li^ngland u ^ t- i- 1
about 25,000 English, 4,450
Welsh, and 1,100 Irish. Their daily pay
ranged from 6s. 8d. for the officers of
highest rank to 3d. for the English soldiers.
The Welsh, being less skilled in archery,
received only 2d. a day. This was the
force which won the battle of Crecy.
But, except for companies of archers,
halberdiers, and showy men-at-arms, who
formed part of the sovereign's household
and were a guard about the palace, there
was no standing army in England until the
time of Cromwell's protectorship. Then
there was a public force of 80,000 men.
When Charles II. came to the throne
this had become in the main the army
under Monk which practically suppressed
the Rump Parliament and gave the throne
to Charles. Nevertheless, the king made
haste to disband it, only retaining out of
all this force the Coldstream regiment,
which became the Coldstream Guards, the
oldest regiment in the British Army. He
also received back to English service the
Scottish soldiers who had migrated abroad
after the downfall of Charles I.
After Charles II. 's marriage, however,
it became necessary to raise a limited body
of troops for the occupation and garrison-
ing of Bombay and Tangier. Men were
recruited, therefore, from the wilder and
more reckless remainder of Cromwell's
army to form the Bombay Fusiliers — after-
wards known as the 103rd Regiment — the
first regular troops of the Crown main-
tained in India, and the two Tangier regi-
ments — one of cavalry (the 1st
The Army j^^^^j Dragoons of to-day) and
° 1 II ^^^ other infantry (Queen
Catherine's Regiment, after-
wards the Queen's or the Royal West
Surrey). When Tangier was restored to the
Moors these regiments were brought to
England, and formed part of the regular
standing army, which at the end of
Charles II. 's reign amounted to a total of
16,500 men. James II. raised this figure
to 20,000. Much of this army went over
5535
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
How the
Army
has Grown
to William III. after his landing, but for
a long time he preferred to surround his
person with Danish or Dutch soldiers,
whose fidelity he could trust, and Ireland
was conquered by him in 1689 by an army
composed of Dutch, Danish, and English
regiments, besides contingents from the
Ulster Irish. Twenty British regiments
accompanied Marlborough to
Flanders on the outset of his
marvellous campaigns, c?m-
paigns which won us colonies
and the outlines of empires as their ultimate
results. In 1689 William succeeded in
getting the Mutiny Act passed, which,
renewed every year, makes the mainten-
ance of a standing army legal, and subjects
it, through its finance, to the constitutional
control of the House of Commons.
Under Anne increasing bodies of regular
soldiers were sent out to defend the Amer-
ican colonies and West Indies. By 1713
the British Colonial Army in America
amounted to 11,000 men. The Home
Army at this period was about 70,000 of
all arms. After the Peace of Utrecht this
force was disbanded, all but about 8,000,
to which George I. added some regiments
of German Guards.
In 1759 the 39th Regiment was raised
and sent out to India to assist Clive and
the forces of the East India Compan3^ In
1793 the Home Army on a peace footing
was only 17,013 men. In 1803, on a war
footing, it had risen to 120,000 regulars,
78,000 militia, and 347,000 volunteers.
In 1822 the standing army, home and
foreign service, was only 72,000 in strength.
By 1866 this total had risen to 203,500.
At the present day the regular army of
the United Kingdom consists of about
252,400 officers and men, of whom some
20,000 are non-combatants. Of this total
about 126,000 are stationed in India (which
has 80,000), and in the crown colonies,
protectorates, and in South Africa.
Since the Crimean War, where European
soldiery has been necessary to the situa-
tion our troops have been recruited
mainly in England, Scotland, Wales and
Ireland, Man and Channel Islands, Malta,
Canada, Australia, and South Africa.
Slowly, unwillingly, the truth is being
realised that before long we must, in the
United Kingdom and in all its white
daughter-nations, submit to the yoke of
universal, compulsory military service if
we are to hold together the empire we won
_ mainly with mercenaries. As a
c rospec ^^^^^^j.^ ^^.g English have always
^ . ^. disliked extremely the idea of
Coascription ,,0 t ti-i i-
State Socialism. Individualism
has in all things been our guiding principle.
So we have rebelled at all effective arrange-
ments of militia, volunteers, and citizen
armies. But by one expedient after
another, cautious statesmen are bringing
us nearer and nearer to the option of con-
scription or abdication as a ruling power
beyond the limits of the United Kingdom.
A DETACHMENT OF CAIJAD AN NORTH-WEST MOUNTED POLICE
.5536
PUTPOSTS^EMPIRE
Being a series of photographs taken in
widely distant parts of the British Empire,
selected for the purpose of illustrating
the diversity of the countries and climes
over which the British flag is flying.
5537
GENERAL VIEW OF ST. HELENA, SHOWING LADDER HILL ON THE RIGHT
IN THE SEYCHELLES: SCENE IN THE ISLAND OF MAHE
BRITISH ISLANDS IN THE ATLANTIC AND PACIFIC OCEANS
5538
TOWN AND PORT OF ST. GEORGE'S. IN THE BERMUDAS
PUBLIC BUILDINGS AT BRIDGETOWN, IN BARBADOS
SCENES IN BRITISH ISLANDS OF THE WEST ATLANTIC
5539
CHRISTMAS ISLAND, SHOWING THREE OF THE TEN EUROPEAN RESIDENTS
CAPE BATHURST IN THE PARRY ISLANDS OF THE ARCTIC OCEAN
WHANGAWA BAY 1
L CHATHAM ISLANDS
BRITISH TF^RRITORY IN THE FAR NQRTH AND SOUTH
5540
GENERAL VIEV\/ OF HONG KONG AS SEEN FROM BOWEN ROAD
BHOTI ENCAMPMENT IN THE FARTHEST NORTH-WEST OF INDIA
SEA-COAST AND MOUNTAIN OUTPOSTS OF THE FAR EAST
5541
ID*-
ASCENSION ISLAND, WHICH IS "RATED" AS A BRITISH MAN-OF-WAR
TRISTAN DACUNHA: "EDINBURGH," THE ONLY SETTLEMENT ON THE ISLAND
PITCAIRN ISLAND, INHABITED BY DESCENDANTS OF MUTINEERS OF THE BOUNTY
LONELY ISLANDS OF THE OCEAN WHERE THE BRITISH FLAG FLIES
5542
BAFFiN'S BAY, SHOWING NORTHERNMOST INHABITED HOUSE IN AMERICA
ALBERT HARBOUR, ALBERT LAND, IN THE ARCTIC REGIONS
POINTS OF BRITISH TERRITORY IN THE FROZEN NORTH
5543
A TRADING STATION IN THE WESTERN SOLOMON ISLANDS
BUYING COPRA AT MARAN IN THE SOLOMON ISLANDS
BRITISH TRADING CENTRES IN THE SOUTH SEAS
5544
THE
BRITISH
EMPIRE
iX
BY SIR
HARRY
JOHNSTON,
OC.M.G.
COMPOSITION OF THE EMPIRE
THE VARIED PEOPLES UNDER THE BRITISH FLAG
THEIR CUSTOMS, LANGUAGES AND RELIGIONS
'"THE British Empire should be divided
■^ into two distinct sections^that which
is governed from London, and that which
governs itself. The first is the special
appanage of Great Britain and Ireland,
and the second is rapidly differentiating
into a series of independent states —
daughter nations — managing their own
affairs, political, fiscal, commercial, with
little or no concern for the requirements
and interests of the metropolitan kingdom.
They are bound to us in some vaguely
filial way ; bound to us mostly at present
by finance, by a remarkable community
of race-feeHng — except possibly in those
rare sections where the nationality of origin
and mother tongue were different — by the
use of the same language, the same
irrational weights and measures, the same
literature and art, the same religious beUefs
and prejudices, and by the acceptance of
the same sovereign head. The
countries of the first section,
outside Great Britain, Ireland,
Man, the Channel Islands, and
the small Mediterranean possessions, are
inhabited in the main by yellow, brown, or
black men, essentially non-European in
race, rehgion, civilisation, and languages ;
those of the second section are ' ' white men's
lands," where the preponderating mass of
the population is in origin of the white
European stock, mainly Anglo-Keltic,
and where the climate and conditions are
of a nature to permit of the white man
raising a vigorous progeny, which shall
become the real indigenes of the land. *
The first section — the Inner Empire
— includes, outside Great Britain, Ireland,
Man, and the Channel Islands, Gibraltar,
Malta, and Cyprus; the control of Egypt, and
the protectorate over the Anglo-Egyptian
Sudan ; the Crown colony of the Gambia,
the Crown colony and protectorate of
Sierra Leone, the Gold Coast Colony,
Lagos, and Southern Nigeria, the vast
2D 28 D
Britain's
Vast Inner
Empire
territories of Northern Nigeria ; the South
Atlantic islands of Ascension, St. Helena,
artd Tristan d'Acunha ; British Central
Africa, including Nyassaland ; the island
of Mauritius and its dependencies, the
Seychelles Archipelago ; the protectorates
of Zanzibar, British East
Africa, Uganda, and Somali-
Territories
Under the
British Flag
land ; the vast Empire of India,
stretching from Aden and
Perim at the southern entrance of the Red
Sea and the large island of Socotra, off the
Gulf of Aden, right across Southern Arabia
to the Persian Gulf and Eastern Persia to
Baluchistan, and thence through India
proper to the frontiers of Siam and French
Indo-China ; the island of Ceylon and
the Malchve Archipelago ; the Malay
Peninsula from Burma to Singapore (the
Nicobar and Andaman Islands belong to
India) and the northern third of Borneo ;
the island and peninsulas of Hong Kong,
the leasehold of Wei-hai-wei, in Northern
China ; the Solomon Islands, the Fiji
Archipelago, the Tonga group, and numer-
ous other islands and islets in the Pacific.
In the New World, Jamaica, the Ber-
mudas, Bahamas, Turks, and Caicos
islands ; British Honduras, the Leeward
and Windward Islands, Barbados, Tobago,
Trinidad, and the large colony of British
Guiana ; and the Falkland Islands.
The second section, or Outer Empire,
comprises, or will comprise before long,
Newfoundland and the vast dominion of
Canada; the commonwealth of Australia,
the dominion of New Zealand ;
Possessions ^^^ g^j^-^j^ ^^^^^ j^^^-^^ ^^ ^^
iT , ^ . the Zambesi. The last, how-
Outer Empire ^^^^.^ ^^^^^ ^^ ^^^ ^^^^^^^^ ^^
treated still as belonging to the first
section. The Falkland Islands possess most
of the conditions requisite to enable them
to enter the category of the second section
in course of time. There is no native race
whose interests require to be safeguarded
5545
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
by the Mother Country ; the colony is now
self-supporting. It is only a question of
waiting till the population of this wind-
swept but healthy dependency — as large
as Wales, if its area includes the unin-
habited South Georgia — reaches a suffi-
ciently large number for it to be granted as
complete powers of self-government as
1M. r L Newfoundland. Considerable
The Future <• ir i.
, powers oi self-government
« *K Ar • are already in the possession
South Africa r t^ x- i /- • n i j
of British Guiana, Barbados,
Bermudas, and Jamaica. The future of
Guiana may, if the European population
increases considerably, lie rather in the
same direction as that of the dependencies
of the second section — greater independ-
ence of its government from the strict
control of the metropolis.
On the other hand, although it is certain
and inevitable that British South Africa
from the Cape up to the Zambesi will some
day be a completely self-governing con-
federation of states, eventually including
German South-west Africa and Portuguese
South-east Africa — as independent of
direct control from Great Britain as is
Canada — that consummation cannot be
completely effected till the position,
claims, and rights of the aboriginal peoples
have been settled to the satisfaction of
Great Britain, their present protectress and
guardian. Consequently, in some aspects,
at the present day British South Africa
does not altogether come within the
second category of enfranchised daughter
nations. She is not as yet entirely mistress
of her own destinies.
It is very important that we should
realise the distinction between these two
categories. We are no longer directly
responsible for what goes on in Canada
and Newfoundland, in Australia and New
Zealand, in Cape Colony, Natal, the
Orange River State, and the Transvaal.
On the other hand, we, the citizens of
Great Britain and Ireland — ridiculously
. , enough, we allow no Imperial
mpircs j-gpj-gggjitg^tJQj-j iq Man and the
„ . Channel Islands — support alone
the financial burden and the
defence of the Inner Empire in the Medi-
terranean, Tropical Africa, Arabia, India,
Malaya,' Hong Kong, the Pacific archi-
pelagoes, and Tropical and South America.
We lay down the law, more or less, as
to the fiscal and commercial policy in
those regions, the relations between the
different human races, legislation affecting
5546
marriage and property, the maintenance
or otherwise of a State Church. In fact, we
are the complete masters of the destinies,
down to the smallest detail, of the
peoples dwelling within this first category
of Imperial possessions. Their inhabitants
have no independent diplomatic national
representation in London similar to the
agents-general of the daughter nations ;
the Crown colonies and protectorates are
represented in the metropolis by the
Crown Agents, a branch of the Colonial
Office ; the 300,000,000 of India and its
dependencies are represented by the India
Office ; Egypt, the Egyptian Sudan, and
Zanzibar by the Foreign Office. All
treaties with foreign Powers affecting the
fiscal or commercial interests of these lands
of the first category must be negotiated
through London.
The United Kingdom acts practically as
paymaster, as ultimate treasurer, to all
the Inner Empire, except perhaps to India.
Even the Budget of India must in a sense
be submitted to the inspection and
criticism of the India Office, because the
United Kingdom is, in the eyes of the
, .. ,, . world, responsible for the
India Under • , ^ . , r t ^■
„ .,. . Wisdom or unwisdom of Indian
British ,, -r T . ,
Q finance. India is governed
by the Viceroy-in-Council, but
that viceroy can at any moment be
removed by the king on the advice of his
responsible Ministers of the British Cabinet.
The wishes and opinions of the British
Government, to the veriest detail, are
conveyed to the viceroy through the
Secretary of State for India, who is aided
by an advisory council. It is on this
council that India might well be repre-
sented, not only by retired Anglo-Indian
officials, the value of whose opinion is
deservedly recognised, but by natives of
India, representatives, more or less diplo-
matic, of Bengal, Burma, Haidarabad,
Mysore, Rajputana, of the Parsees, the
Sikhs, and the Punjab Mohammedans — a
consultative body, at any rate, if not of the
innermost council at present.
At the time of writing the Treasury of
the United Kingdom, that is, the British
taxpayer, finds annually about £800,000
in grants-in-aid to such Crown colonies
and protectorates as cannot make both
ends meet in balancing their revenue and
expenditure. Besides this, occasional
special grants out of British funds are
made to such West Indian or African pos-
sessions as are temporarily overwhelmed
COMPOSITION OF THE EMPIRE
by unlooked-for disasters — earthquakes,
famines, fires, floods or droughts.
Private British benevolence, directly in-
stigated by royal or municipal authority,
transmits from time to time to India
almost as much money as, spread over
the years, is paid by the Indian taxpayer
to the British Indian Civil Service. More-
over, all these Imperial possessions within
the first category can borrow money
for their public purposes far more cheaply
in the world's financial markets because of
their connection with the United King-
dom, which not only controls such incur-
ring of indebtedness, but stands as the
eventual guarantor of the borrower.
Lastly, for both categories of empire
the British people of the United Kingdom
keep up a magnificent fleet and a standing
army for foreign service, and a Diplomatic
and Consular Corps. It is true that
Australia, New Zealand, Cape Colony and
Natal contribute small subsidies to the
cost of the navy, but at present these
subsidies are so small that they make no
appreciable difference to our annual
financial burden. No country outside Great
_. ,, , Britain and Ireland, except
The Upkeep ,, t j- t- i
, . the Indian Empire, makes
...... any contribution towards the
British Army -^, r ,, r , ,
cost of the army or of the
Diplomatic and Consular Service. The
Indian Empire pays for the 80,000 British
soldiers serving in India, for the Indian
Council sitting in London, and for a
proportion of the cost of diplomatic
and consular representation in Turkey,
Persia, Siam, etc.
In the states of the first category no
commissioned appointment of any im-
portance is made except from London,
and by the sovereign acting through the
officers of the British Government. In the
states of the second category all appoint-
ments to the public services are made by
the sovereign through his local repre-
sentative, as advised by the local respon-
sible government. Therefore, although the
Colonial Office and Crown Agents, the
Foreign Office, India Office, War Office,
Admiralty, Board of Trade, Trinity House,
Office of Works, and other government
departments may possess the power of
filling all posts of any authority or emolu-
ment held by Europeans in India, Tropical
Africa and America, Malaya, China,
Ceylon, and the Mediterranean, they
possess of right no such patronage over
Australia, New Zealand, Canada, or South
Africa. As a matter of actual fact, even in
these great self-governing states the Mother
Country is often invited to select the
persons to be appointed to most of the
higher posts in the civil service, armed
forces and marine. An unwritten rule
directs that in the postal service the
higher officials shall be selected by St.
TK %i i,- Martin's-le-Grand ; that great
The Making -,■ ^ • ^ x i n
of Colonial ',!'^^^,^^1 appointments shall
Appointments hl^ed up on the advice of
the Royal Society, the Crown
Agents, the Royal College of Surgeons or
Physicians, or the Army Medical Depart-
ment ; that the curators of museums, or
of zoological or botanical gardens shall be
recommended by the British Museum or
Kew ; judges and lawyers be selected
from the British Bar ; bishops ' and
chaplains from the Anglican Church ;
customs controllers from the British
Customs Service ; commandants of police
from the British Army, and port officers
from the British Navy.
In this way, and in spite of local
patriotism and that natural local clannish-
ness which, unchecked, leads to the evolu-
tion of separate nationality, the veins of
the empire — its principal arteries, at any
rate — are kept flowing with British blood.
Perhaps, however, it would be a happier
simile to say that as yet a British brain
directs the trunk and members of the
British Empire.
The total land area under the regis of
the British Empire — including the Siamese
portion of the Malay Peninsula, the British
sphere in Persia and in South Arabia, also
Egypt and the Egyptian Sudan — is approxi-
mately 13,138,900 square miles; without
these last additions the area is 11,437,486
square miles. Of this sum about 3,140,900
square miles belong to the Inner Empire,
and 9,998,000 to the outer or mainly self-
governing division ; 6,058,669 square
miles lie within the temperate or Arctic
regions, and 7,080,231 within the tropics.
About 1,700,000 square miles
of land in British North
America are subject to such
arctic conditions as at present
these regions are either uninhabited, 01
merely maintain a few thousand Eskimo.
About 150,000 square miles of British
Arabia, 100,000 square miles of British
India, 200,000 square miles of British South
Africa, 600,000 square miles of Egypt and
the Sudan, and one-third of the area of
Australia — say 1,000,000 square miles — are
5547
Britain's
Uninhabitable
Territory
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
British Areas
and
Populations
at present uninhabitable by reason of the
lack of rainfall and consequent sterility.
These, however, are adverse conditions
which the energy and works of man can
abate, and- even eventually cause to dis-
appear. It is far more difficult, however, to
grapple with the remains of the last Glacial
Period — still holding North America and
Northern Asia in its clutches
— than to draw up the rain
water of the Miocene and
Pliocene, stored for ages under
the surface formations of Australia, and
therewith create a verdure which of itself
attracts and precipitates the fickle rain.
Roundly speaking, when all deductions
for present uninhabitability are made, we
are left with 9,400.000 square miles of land
under the British flag, which at present sup-
ports a population of about 405,000,000.
The proportion of population to area
varies greatly. That of the United
Kingdom (area, 121,390 square miles ;
population, 44,100.000) is 342"5 to the
square mile ; that of Malta and Gozo
(area, 117 square miles ; population,
206,690) is 1, 766" 8 to the square mile ;
of India, from Baluchistan to Siam (area,
1,766,517 square miles; population, about
297,000,000) is 179' 5 to the square mile ;
of Australia (area, 3,065,120 square miles ;
population, 4,479,840) is only i'3 to the
square mile ; of the Canadian Dominion
and Newfoundland (area, 3,908,300 square
miles ; population, 6,216.340) is i'6 to the
square mile ; of Trans-Zambesian South
Africa (area, 1,091,770 square miles ;
population, 7,015,200) is 6*4 to the square
mile ; British Central Africa (Nyassaland
and North-east Rhodesia : area, 150,000
square miles ; population, 1,274,000) is
6' 4 to the square mile.
In the West Indies it is 131 to the square
mile ; in Ceylon, 141 ; in British Malaya
(less the Siamese Malay States and Borneo),
55; in Hong Kong, 1,121; Northern
Nigeria, 62 ; Southern Nigeria, loi ;
^Mauritius and Dependencies,
453 ; Zanzibar, 245 ; Gold
Coast, 12 ; and New Zealand,
nearly 9 (area, 104,750 square
miles ; population in 1906, 936,309). Of the
total 405,000,000, 62,350,000 belong to the
white or Caucasian race (say, 56,464,000
Germano-Kelt, and 5,886,000 Mediter-
raneajj, Iberian, Greek, Arab, Jew,
Persian, Eurasian and Quadroon peoples) ;
282,000,000 to the dark Dravidio-Caucasic
stock ; about 14,500,000 to the Mongol type ;
5548
Mixed Races
Under
British Rule
while there are approximately 1,213,000
^Malays (including the Siamese Malay
States) ; 4,000 Veddahs ; 3,500 Negritoes
(Malay Peninsula and Andaman Islands) ;
66,000 Black Australians ; 550,000 Papuans
and Melanesians ; 100,000 Polynesians ;
120,000 American Indians ; and 15,000
Eskimo. In British America there are
1,901,000 Negroes and Negroids, and in
Africa some 37,500,000. Of the African
Negroes who are British subjects or
under British control or supervision,
about 29,000,000 are pure negro (Guinea,
Sudanese, Nilotes, and Bantu) ; 8,500,000
are Negroid (Arab hybrids, Hamites, Somali,
Gala, Fulbe, Mandingo. Hima, Creole half-
castes) ; and30.oooareHottentot-Bushmen.
Under the British flag — somewhat im-
perfectly protected thereby in some cases
— are the lowliest in development of all
existing human races, and consequently
the most interesting to students of an-
thropology— Veddahs in Ceylon, Austra^o-
Papuans, Andaman and Malayan Negritoes,
South African Bushmen, and Equatorial
Pygmies. The same flag covers what we
believe to be the handsomest people
in the world to-day — English
ypes o^ ^^^^ j^.-gj^ — ^^j^^ seem to have
Beauty m the - 1 1 i. ■
„ . . acqmred by some mysterious
Dominions ^ , -'. ■•' r
process of transmission or 01
independent development the physical
beauty of the old Greeks, possibly because
they, like the extinct Greek type, are more
purely Aryan in descent than the South
and Central or extreme Northern Euro-
peans of to-day. This physical beauty
is equally shared by the men and women
of Canada and New Zealand, if the ideal
sought for is to be white of skin.
If, on the other hand, a dark skin is not
held to diminish beauty of J3odily form, then
unquestionably in no part of the British
dominions are there more handsome men,
from the sculptor's point of view, than
among certain types of Nilotic negro or
Negroid, Bantu, or Fulbe. But amongst
almost every group of negro peoples
the women are still in an ugly stage of
physical development. On the other
hand, in North-western India may be
seen some of the handsomest human
beings in the world, women as well as
men, if the monotony of the yellow-
brown skin and the sleek black hair can
be accepted in lieu of the blue-grey iris,
the golden-brown hair, and ivory-white,
pink-tinted skin of the better-lookin-^
types of England, Ireland and Scotland.
COMPOSITION OF THE EMPIRE
As regards the range of intellectual
dev^elopment, the British Empire can offer
the same extremes as in bodily beauty or
ugliness. There are Pygmies, Negritoes,
or Bushmen, who barely know how to
originate fire and who are still living
in the age of stone implements, or the
still earlier phase of the bamboo splinter,
the natural club or twisted branch, the
undressed stone or pebble, the fire-
sharpened stake, the palm or fern-rind
bow-string. There are negro peoples on
the British verge of the Congo forest, or
in the southern basin of the Benue, whose
ideas of preparing food by cooking are
mainly limited to partial putrefaction.
Cannibalism still prevails in parts of
British Africa, Australasia, British Guiana ;
but the eating of human flesh, though
repulsive to our modern ideas and extinct in
England since, let us say, 500 B.C., and in
Ireland since 100 a.d., is not necessarily a
sign of low mental development. Never-
theless, Great Britain is the political
guardian of at least a million professing
cannibals at the present day. She is also
the tutrix of another million Africans, per-
«... .L haps a few Negritoes, Austral-
Britain the -^ j /^ • a •
^ .. asians, and Guiana Amerin-
f ^ ... dians, who are absolutely
of Cannibals ^ ' ^ . -^
naked, knowing no more
shame in lack of body-covering than the
beasts of the field. Another 20,000,000 or
so, in Africa, America, Malaya, Australia
and Oceania, take little interest in clothes
as a source of aesthetic delight, but adorn
and vary the monotony of an exposed
skin by the arts of cicatrisation, tattooing,
plastering, rouging and dyeing. Some push
the predilection for ear-rings to such an
extent that the ear-lobes hang down in
great loops of leather to the shoulders.
Others ring the septum of the nose or
insert large discs of wood or shell or ivory
into the upper or lower lip. Quite 20,000,000
also think it more comely and convenient
to knock out the upper or lower incisor
teeth or to file the teeth to a sharp point.
Nearly a hundred million stain their teeth
orange-brown with betel nut. About
ten million women and men in Scotland
and England prefer to lose their front
teeth or have them permanently blackened
with premature decay sooner than appeal
to the resources of modern dentistry.
A million women in the Eastern and
Equatorial regions of British Africa think
it womanly and becoming to live bald-
pated, their heads continually shaved,
while their husbands go burdened with
chignons or natural perruques. Perhaps
2,000,000 or 3,000,000 men, Africans and
Eastern Asiatics, affect the closely shaven
skull, in close proximity, it may be, to
other millions of males sworn never to
clip their abundant locks, or obliged by
custom to wear the yard-long hair in in-
_ convenient, unsightly pigtails.
f Differ nt ^^^^^ these or other milhons
D^^^i^., the beard is obligatory and
Feoples , . •. • "^
sacred ; with others it is scrupu-
lously shaved or pulled out with tweezers.
Some, like the old and dying generation
of France, Italy, Spain, and Portugal,
grow long finger-nails (Gibraltarese, Mal-
tese, Malays and Chinese), to show,
like the unconscious snobs they are, that
they have never done manual labour.
Others wear their nails down to the quick.
Two hundred millions at least of British
Indians, British Africans and British
Arabs keep their nails and hands and feet
exquisitely manicured and pedicured, nails
clipped and clean, toes cornless ; others,
like a proportion of the middle and lower
classes of the metropolitan state, say
20,000,000 of English, Irish, Scottish,
live all their lives long with dirty nails,
filthy and deformed feet, and hands not
fit to be grasped by a squeamish person.
Ninety-two millions of British subjects,
or wards of the empire, practise circum-
cision as a religious or a mystic rite ; about
1,000,000 of British Africans and some
50,000 black AustraUans pass beyond this
harmless custom to elaborate mutilations de-
scribed in works of technical anthropology.
About 10,000,000 out of the 44,000,000
population of men, women, and children
in the British Isles are scrupulously clean
as to their persons ; about 250,000,000 are
the same in India ; personal cleanliness
is the prevailing characteristic of the
negro, of some Arabs, and of the Malays
and Polynesians. It is fortunately a
strong point with the Neo-British in
Canada above all, in Austraha,
°° . New Zealand, and some parts
Sub-eclr ^^ ^*^^^^ ^^"^^- ^^ regards
" "'^*^ * food, 223,000,000 of Hindus,
Burmese, Shans, Singhalese, and Tamils,
are mainly vegetarian and subsist on
sorghum, millet, and wheat flour, rice,
butter, sugar, pulse of many kinds, pump-
kins, melons and European vegetables, the
egg plant, cucumbers, onions, coco-nuts,
dates, mangoes, and other tropical fruits.
A million and a half of British Chinese live
5549
A FRENCH-CANADIAN GENTLEMAN
A CENTRAL AFRICAN DANDY
Photos Valentine, R. Martin, and K. N. A.
RACIAL CONTRASTS UNDER THE BRITISH FLAG
5550
Photo of Vcddah by Dr.^. I-'ritz .md barasin
DUSKY BEAUTY AND UGLINESS UNDER THE BRITISH FLAG
5551
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
more or less omnivorously, but probably
make rice the staple of their diet. The
Mohammedan natives of India, the pagan
and Malay natives of Eastern Asia, avoid
pork if they are strict Mohammedans,
but otherwise are fond of all kinds of
meat and fish. The Sikhs of North-west
India delight in eating pork, mutton, and
yj^, goat, but share with the Hindu
. J"^ . the horror of touching the sacred
g . ox. The British, Neo-British,
Malays (substituting buffalo
for ox), Masai, and other tribes of Equa-
torial East Africa, and to a certain extent
the South African negroes also, are very
fond of beef. Throughout the Moham-
medan Mediterranean, African and Ara-
bian regions subject to Britain, the sheep
is the most common meat provider ; and,
of course, mutton is almQst the staple of
the Falkland Islands, England, Scotland,
Wales, New Zealand, Australia, and parts
of white South Africa. Goat's flesh is
much eaten at Gibraltar, Malta, Cyprus,
and throughout tropical Africa. Camel's
flesh is a favourite meat in Somaliland,
British Arabia, and Baluchistan.
Pork is not only eaten rapturously by
the refined and lordly Sikh, but by many
low-caste or pagan tribes in India. It
is said even to be indulged in by the
Sennaar Arabs, who have in the Eastern
Sudan an indigenous type of wild boar.
Wild and domesticated pigs are also eaten
in the non-Mohammedan parts of North-
central and West Africa. The pig, as we
know, is almost the national anifnal of
Ireland ; it is a good deal favoured by the
Maltese. Jambon d'York was at one
time a compliment paid by the French
cuisine to the pigs of the English Mid-
lands. And, again, in the Malay Archipe-
lago, Papua, and all the Oceanic Pacific
islands, pork is the people's favourite
meat. Here, also, they eat dried shark,
and the hundred and one edible sea-fish
of the coral-reefs and blue lagoons. Dogs
are eaten in Hong Kong and
Wh'^F^ d Wei-hai-wei, in some of the
U Pacific islands, and in Equatorial
ogs ^fj.j(,g^ -pj^g Eskimo subjects
of the British Empire live on walrus and
seal meat, and whale blubber ; those of
Tristan d'Acunha on — amongst other
things — the eggs of penguins and petrels.
The Indians of British Guiana will eat
jaguar, if they can succeed in killing
the American leopard, besides all the
other wild animals of the woods. Ter-
5552
mites (white ants), locusts, beetle-
grubs, and the caterpillars of certain
moths are greedily devoured by millions
of negroes in British Africa from the
Zambesi to Lake Tanganyika, and the
Blue Nile to the Gambia.
Fish, potatoes, pork, geese, tea, milk and
whisky are the principal ingredients of Irish
diet ; fish, mutton, milk, whisky and oat-
meal the staples of the Scottish peasantry ;
milk, pancakes of wheaten flour, pork, pota-
toes, cheese, cream, whisky and cider nourish
the sturdy Welsh countryfolk; bread,
cheese, beer, tea, cider, beef, bacon and fish
form the average sustenance of the English
peasantry, a wholesome diet varied in the
towns with an endless variety of tinned
stuff. The Maltese live chiefly on fish,
pork, goat's flesh, stirabout made of wheat
or maize flour, olives and olive oil, fruit,
onions, cheese and wine. The diet of the
Cypriote consists of much the same as the
foods of the Maltese, less pork.
The Egyptian fellahin use bread or
porridge made from the flour or groats of
sorghum, wheat, maize and millet as the
groundwork of their daily food. They also
. eatmutton, goat's flesh, pigeons,
butter from buffalo and cov/
„. I, . milk, dates, rice, vegetables of
Rice Foods 11 1
many kmds, and coarse sweet-
meats made of honey or molasses, flour
and olive oil. The grains and vegetables
cultivated are wheat, rice, maize, sorghum
and millet ; pulse of several kinds,
cucumbers, gourds, melons and onions.
Their principal drink besides water is
coffee, and for the Christians or the lax
Mohammedans, arrack, a spirit made
from rice, and the less heady " palm
wine," the sap of the date palm.
Rice, of 250 varieties, is the staple of
all coastwise India, Burma and the Malay
States, also of British China. But wheat
is largely grown over all North-west India ;
also barley (upper valley of the Ganges),
sorghum or great millet everywhere below
the mountains, spiked millet (pennisetum),
" ragi " (eleusine), in Southern India,
and paspalum and two kinds of genuine
or Italian millet — panicum. There are also
many oil-seeds used for food — sesamum,
rape and linseed, and ten or eleven kinds
of peas and beans (cicer, phaseolus,
dolichos, cajanus, ervum, lathyrus and
pisum). Many of these Indian grains
and pulses are of ancient introduction into
tropical Africa, where, with maize, they
form the staple of the peoples' vegetable
COMPOSITION OF THE EMPIRE
food. No indigenous African grain or
bean is cultivated ; almost the only
vegetables in native dietary indigenous to
that continent are the "yam" (dioscorea,
also found in India), and the coco yam
(colocasia), and a number of plants with
edible leaves like spinach. Manioc, so
much eaten in negro Africa, is the same
as tapioca, and has been introduced from
Brazil. Manioc is also much grown in
British Malaya, and this region, with
Borneo, is the home of the sago palm.
The colocasia yam, really the tuber of
an arum, under the name of taro, is the
principal vegetable food of New Guinea
and the British Pacific islands.
The citizens or the wards of the empire
profess almost every known form of
religious faith. There are, first of all,
about 63,252,000 ostensible Christians —
namely, 44,000,000 in the United Kingdom ;
403,000 in Gibraltar, Malta, and Cyprus ;
732,000 in Egypt and Sinai ; 3,000,000
in the Indian Empire ; 17,000 in China ;
5,000 in Borneo ; 40,000 in the Pacific
islands ; 920,000 in New Zealand ;
4,400,000 in Australia ; 1,200,000 in
. British South Africa, St. Helena,
eigious ^^^ Nyassaland; 300,000 in
. _, . Uganda, East Africa, Za.nzi-
mpire ^^^^ Seychelles and Mauri-
tius ; 175,000 in Sierra Leone, Gold
Coast, and Southern Nigeria ; 6,100,000
in British North America, and about
2,000,000 in the British West Indies,
Honduras, Guiana, and the Falkland
Islands. Of these Christians, to quote
approximate round figures only, about
11,147,616 belong to the Roman Catholic
Church ; 10,880,000 to the Anglican ;
13,000,000 to the Free Churches — Pres-
byterian, 6,200,000 ; Baptist, 1,500,000 ;
Methodist - Wesleyan, Congregational,
Society of Friends, etc., 3,500,000 —
255,000 to the Orthodox Greek Church ;
580,500 to the Nestorian ; and 610,000
to the Coptic Church ; leaving about
26,000,000 of men, women, and children
undefined as to their actual sect in the
Christian Church.
The British flag shelters about 290,000
Jews, of whom 196,000 dwell in the United
Kingdom, 26,000 in Egypt, and 23,100
in South Africa. There are 88,000,000
Mohammedans in the British Empire
and its feudatory states, mostly belonging
to the Sunni division, but also including
the Khojas of India, who follow the Aga
Khan, a hierarchical descendant of the
Old Man of the Mountain, whose adherents
were the original " Assassins." The
Buddhists, including the enlightened
Jains of India, under the British flag
number about 14,000,000. They are
found chiefly in Ceylon, Bengal, Sikkim,
Burma, Bhutan borders, the Northern
Malay Peninsula, and Hong Kong. About
Indi ft 210,200,000 natives of India,
Fire Ceylon, and Indian colonies in
Worshippers "'^^"^^ ^.nd tropical America
follow the religion of Brahma
(Siva, Vishnu) in varying forms and sects.
The Parsees of India, some 100,000, are
still fire worshippers. A large proportion
of the Polynesians and Melanesians on
British Pacific islands, of Indians in the
dominion of Canada, and the Caribs in
British Honduras and the Windward
Islands, are Christians.
Those that are not still follow vague
fetishistic faiths, usually including a belief
in a Supreme God of the Sky, in ancestors
living again as spirits, in demigods and
demons personifying natural forces and
diseases, and in magic, magic being under-
stood to be undefinable, empiric energy
acting often through material means or
resident in a natural object, or in one which
has been shaped by man's hands. These
so-called pagans really practise vague,
unsuccessful religions closely akin in all
their manifestations to the great stereo-
typed faiths of the more cultured races.
The languages of the British Empire
are indeed multiform. Scarcely any
great acknowledged family of human
speech is unrepresented within the limits
of its aegis, except the Basque, the
Japanese, and the languages peculiar to
the Caucasus Mountains.
Of the Aryan languages 56,810,000 in
the United Kingdom, Canada, the West
Indies, and British Central and South
America, Australia, New Zealand, the
Pacific islands, India, Mauritius, and
British Africa, speak English. The living
Keltic tongues, Irish, Manx,
Languages ^^^^j-^^ ^^^ ^y^^^^^^ ^^^ ^^-^
of the Bnttsh ^sedbyabout 1,811,000 people
Empire ^^ \\Q,\es, Ireland, Scotland
and Man, 1,955.000 use the French language
in the Channel Islands, the Quebec, Ontario,
and Manitoba provinces of Canada, in Trini-
dad, Mauritius, and the Seychelles, besides
the large extent to which French is used in
Malta and Egypt. Spanish is spoken at
Gibraltar and in Trinidad. Portuguese in
a rather dialectal form is much spoken by
5553
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
Eurasians in parts of India and on the
coast of Ceylon, also in British Guiana.
Italian is a good deal employed in Malta
and in Egypt ; Greek in Cyprus, Egypt,
and the Egyptian Sudan. As regards the
Indo-Aryan languages, Persian, with
Arabic, is the language of the British
sphere in South-east Persia, besides being
the literary language of much
^ '.^ ^ of North-west India ; about
./*"' , 1,000,000 speak Baluchi, and
Vernaculars . i a x i t. i j.
1,300,000 the Afghan or Pushtu
dialect ; Sindhi is the speech of over
3,000,000 in the Sind province. The
languages or dialects descended from Sans-
krit, which have become the vernaculars
of two-thirds of India proper are Hindi
(87,240,000 people), Bengali (45,000,000),
Marathi (19,000,000), Punjabi or Gurmukhi
(17,000,000), Gujarati (10,390,000), Uriya
(10,000,000), and Pahari or Tsepalese
(1,300,000), besides Kachhi (of " Cutch "),
Kashmiri, Konkani (Malabar), and Singh-
alese, this last being spoken by nearly
2,500,000 in Ceylon.
The Uro-Altaic languages, which cover
the north-eastern parts of Asia from the
Baltic shores and Lapland to Bering
Straits and China, and which include the
outlying sub-groups of Turkish and
Hungarian, are only represented in the
British Empire by the much Arabised
speech of the modern Turks, which is still
to some extent spoken in Cyprus and — a
very little — in Egjq^t.
The Dravidian and allied groups are
wholly confined in their present range to
British India, where they are spoken by
about 65,000,000. The Tibeto-Burmese
group of at least twenty languages fur-
nishes the speech of something like
11,000,000 of people in Northern Nepal,
Sikkim, Bhutan, Garo (part of Assam),
Tipura, Naga, Manipur, and Upper and
Lower Burma. Northern and Eastern
Burma (the Khamti and Shan states) and
the upper part of the Malay Peninsula are
_ covered by the Siamo-Chinese
c v"*^* » RT-oup, which in its great Eastern
„ ., . branch (Chmese) is spoken by
Britain ^ x n •^- 1 i."^
some 2,000,000 ct British sub-
jects in the southern Malay Peninsula
and Singapore, British Borneo, Hong Kong
and Wei-hai-wei, to say nothing of the
useful Chinese sojourners in British
Columbia. The deltaic region round
Rangoon and the isolated patch of Palung
in Upper Burma are populated by people
speaking dialects of the Mon language,
5554
which is closely allied to the Annamese of
French Indo-China. In the middle of
Assam is the isolated Khasi language of
uncertain affinities, spoken by about
100,000 hill people. Another isolated group
is the Kolarian of Eastern and Central
India, the language, in many dialects, of
the Santalis, Mundaris, Savara, Kurku, etc.
The Malay language is spoken by about
1,600,000 of British or British-protected
peoples ; the Malayo-Polynesian languages
from New Guinea to New Zealand, by
100,000 ; the Melanesian languages by
another 200,000, and Papuan by 350,000.
In the heart of the Malay Peninsula
there may still be lingering isolated Negrito
languages ; there is certainly a Negrito
speech in the Andaman Islands. A possibly
Negrito dialect is still preserved by a small
section, some 3.000 or 3,000 of the V'eddahs
of Ceylon (Rhodiyah). It would be interest-
ing for the ethnologist to compare carefully
the fragments of Negrito speech in
Southernmost India, Ceylon, the Anda-
mans, the Malay Peninsula, with the
Papuan and Melanesian families, and
further with what little is recorded of the
^. „ , language of the extinct Tas-
The Bantu '^- ° ^, 1- , ,
, manians. ihe diverse, but
f . .".* perhaps distantly interrelated,
languages, in two very distinct
groups, of the black Australians are
spoken by about 66,000 savages and
semi-savages still lingering in Australia.
In British Africa we have still repre-
sented by living speakers the wonderfully
interesting Bushman-Hottentot language
group, so extremely unlike any other
human speech of the present day by its
intercalation of noisy clicks among the
normal consonants and vowels. There are
still, perhaps, 5.000 (British) Bushmen, and
25,000 Hottentots alive to perpetuate this
primitive phonology.
The Bantu languages of Africa are
spoken by about 11,000,000 negroes in
British, South, Central, and Eastern
Equatorial Africa ; besides a few " Semi-
Bantu " of the eastern parts of British
Nigeria. The languages of the Anglo-
Egyptian Sudan, Uganda, and East Africa
comprise the Nilotic family, about
4,300,000, ranging from the western
parts of the Bahr-el-Ghazal to Masailand,
near the Indian Ocean ; the unclassified
Krej and Bongo groups, and heterogeneous
Sudanian congeries (Niam-Niam, Mang-
battu, Mundu, Madi, Lendu, Momvu, etc.).
In the north-western parts of the Eg^rptian
COMPOSITION OF THE EMPIRE
Sudan is the isolated Nubian family of lan-
guages, and the For and Maba of Darfur.
In Northern Nigeria there are the distinct
Kanuri speech of Bornu, the unclassified
dialects of the lake-dwelling Buduma, the
great Hausa language — spread as a trade
medium from Lake Chad to the inner
Gold Coast, or spoken as their native
^ . tongue by about 15,000,000 of
Dominance °, -^ o 1 ■
northern Sudanian negroes,
?j g , Musgu to the south-east of
up pecc pig^^gg^^ ^j^(^ ^j^g semi-Bautu
dialects, such as Ghari, of the Benue basin,
north and south, down to its confluence
with the Niger. The Nupe speech is the
dominant la-.iguage of Central Nigeria, and
to the west are the Borgu dialects that are
related to far-off Ashanti. In Southern
Nigeria there are the languages of the
Igara, Igbira, Ibo. Jekri, Ijo, and Yoruba ;
and the Efik group and the semi-Bantu
languages of the Cross River basin- Dotted
over much of British Nigeria is the Fulbe
language, the range of which extends,
with many gaps, for a distance of nearly
2,000 miles across Africa from the Senegal
River to the borders of Wadai and Darfur.
The dialects of the Gold Coast belong in
the main to four groups, the Chwi or
Ashanti, the Ga (Akkra), the Mosi, and
Teme. The languages of Sierra Leone are
particularly interesting, and belong to the
Mandingo family of Western Nigeria, and
to the prefix and concord- using Temne
and Bullom families. The languages of
the Gambia are very little studied by a
Britain which has possessed the Gambia
for 200 years They come under the Felup,
„ Wolof, and Mandingo groups.
pea ers ^^^^ Libyo-Hamitic language
p. J family of North and North-
east Africa is represented by
such wandering Libyans of the Sahara
as find their way into the dominions
of the sultan of Sokoto, and by the
Libyan- speaking inhabitants of the Siwah
and other oases on the western outskirts of
Egypt ; by the remains of Ancient Egyp-
tian in the form of Coptic ; by the dialects
of the Beja and Bishari, the Danakil and
Somali in nearly all the coast lands of the
Red Sea, and all the non-Arabic-speaking
tribes between Kordofan and Abyssinia ;
by tlie closely allied Gala and the other
non-Semitic Ethiopian dialects north and
east of the Nilotic negro domain. Hamitic
dialects are also spoken in Southern
Arabia and in the island of Socotra.
The Semitic languages are represented in
the British domain by the Maltese language ;
such Hebrew as is preserved in use by Jews
in the United Kingdom, Gibraltar, and
Aden ; and by the Arabic of Egypt, British
Arabia, Zanzibar, and the Persian Gulf.
In British America the Eskimo language
is spoken by the sparse inhabitants of the
frozen shores of the Arctic Ocean between
Alaska and Labrador. Of the American
Indian language groups, not much more
clearly interrelated than the African
languages, the following are represented
on British territory : The Thlinkit in
the north-westernmost part of the coasts
. and islands of British Colum-
anguages ^^.^ . ^.^^ Haida of Vancouver
. . Island and British Columbia ;
the Athabascan, Tinne, or
Dene of all the central and northern parts
of the Canadian dominion between the
Rocky Mountains and the eastern shores
of Hudson's Bay ; the Algonkwin, Chip-
pewa, or Kri, " Montagnais," of Central
and Eastern Canada (using Canada
in its widest sense), also in Labrador,
Northern Quebec, and once in New
Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Newfound-
land ; the Huron (Iroquois) of On-
tario and southernmost Canada ; and
the Dakota, Puan, or Siu, found still in
the southern parts of Saskatchewan and
Manitoba. Then there are the Maya-
Kiche group on the interior borders of
British Honduras ; the speech of the
Caribs still lingering in a somewhat mixed
type on the coast of British Honduras
and in the West Indian island of Dominica
and existing far more numerously in the
maritime regions of British Guiana ; and
the Guiana group, divided into the sub-
groups of Arawak, Wapiana, and Atorai.
SCENE IN BRANI, IN THE RECENTLY ACQUIRED BRITISH TERRITORY OF THE MALAV STATES
5555
HOUSE OF KEYS, ISLE OF MAN : MEETING OF THE TYNWALD COURT
MINOR PARLIAMENTS OF GREAT BRITAIN
5556
THE
BRITISH
EMPIRE
X
BY SIR
HARRY
JOHNSTON,
G.C.M.G.
GREAT BRITAIN'S INNER EMPIRE
THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE VAST
POSSESSIONS OF THE BRITISH CROWN
IT is not necessary to delineate here
* the elaborate system of partially repre-
sentative government in national affairs,
or wholly elective administration of local
provincial matters which prevails in Great
Britain and Ireland. It is sufficient to
point out that the Upper Housq in the
Legislature differs from all the similar
institutions in the daughter nations and
colonies in that it is composed of hereditary
legislators. Elsewhere the members of
the Upper House, or Senate, or Legislative
Council, if they are not elected by the
people, are appointed for a term of years
or for life by the king-emperor, or by his
representative, the viceroy, or governor.
Nowhere else in the empire does this
principle of hereditary legislators obtain ;
nowhere else would it be tolerated but
in the Homeland, so tolerant of institu-
tions which have outlived their usefulness.
The Isle of Man has a Council of Public
Affairs, nominated by the Crown, and a
House of Keys, which is a representative
assembly of twenty-four elected members.
The term of sitting for this House is seven
years, and the suffrage is based on a pro-
perty qualification.
The island of Jersey has a lieutenant-
governor and a bailiff, who is a kind of
president of the legislature appointed by
the Crown. The legislature consists of
twelve jurats and twelve rectors of
parishes elected by the people for life,
and twenty-eight constables, mayors, or
deputies, elected for three years. Guernsey
and Sark, and also Alderney,
are under one lieutenant-
governer, but have two
separate legislatures, which
consist of jurats, rectors, and sheriffs,
elected indirectly, and delegates and
deputies elected directly by the ratepayers.
Within the far-flung net of the British
Empire are a number of states practically
independent as regards their nome rule,
Independent
States in the
British Empire
but subject to the British Government
in London, directly or through the vice-
roy of India or the high commissioners
of South Africa or of the Straits Settle-
ments, as regards their foreign policy,
and perhaps subordinated in some other
_ . . directions. These are : The
, ,, * . khediviate of Egypt (area,
Influence in i •; ,, ,,
the Suda 400 ,000 square miles) ; the petty
Arab sultanates to the north-
east of Aden and along the south coast of
Arabia (area, about 100,000 square miles) ;
the sultanate of Muskat and the trucial
chiefs in South-east Arabia and along the
Persian Gulf (area, 110,000 square miles) ;
the British sphere in vSouth-east Persia
(area, 122,500 square miles) ; Baluchistan
(area, 78.530 square miles) ; Afghanistan
(area, 250,000 square miles) ; the sultanate
of Johor (area, 9,000 square miles). Per-
haps to these should be added the
sultanate of Darfur, in the western part
of the Egyptian Sudan, with an area of
about 50,000 square miles. Afghanistan,
except in regard to its foreign policy, is
an absolutely independent country, and
none of its statistics are included in this
survey of the British Empire.
The Anglo-Egyptian Sudan is divided
into thirteen provinces, the governors of
which are all British officers of the Egyp-
tian Army ; the sub-governors of districts
are Egyptians. The six principal judges
are British ; the kadis, who deal with
Mohammedan law in matters of succession,
marriage, and charitable endowments,
are Mohammedan Egyptians or Sudanese.
The governor-general over the whole of
this vast area, including supervision over
Darfur, is jointly appointed by the British
and Egyptian Governments. He legislates
by proclamation. The sultan of Darfur
is practically independent in the manage-
ment of the internal affairs of his country,
but he is required to pay an annual
tribute to the Sudan Government. The
5557
r
'-WK-;--':^
DOUGLAS, THE BEAUTIFUL CAPITAL OF THE ISLE OF MAN
Anglo-Egyptian Sudan is entirely separate
from the internationalised " capitulations "
area of Egypt or other parts of the Turkish
Empire ; foreign consuls must be first
approved by the British Government
before they can receive an exequatur.
Egypt itself is still regarded as being
under Turkish suzerainty. But for this
theory, its native ruler, the khidewi, or
khedive (Abbas Hilmi), might be regarded
as an independent ruler of a countrj^ of
400,000 square miles in area, of which
only about 13,560 square miles are at
present inhabited, in close and peculiar
relations with Great Britain. Nominally,
the khedive rules through a Ministry com-
posed of seven members, plus a British
financial adviser. But since 1883 there
have been the beginnings of representa-
tive institutions. These are a legislative
council — which is a consultative body,
partly elected, partly nominated, qualified
to pronounce opinions on the Budget and
on all new laws — and the General
Assembly. This last consists of the seven
Ministers, the thirty legislative councillors,
and forty-six popularly elected members.
The General Assembly, however, has no
power to legislate, but can in a measure
control all new taxation of a directly
personal character or connected with
land. The territories of the Persian Gulf
which are within the British sphere of
5558
influence or are actual British posses-
sions or protectorates are : The British
sphere in South-east Persia, from Bandar
Abbas to Gwattar, and inland to Kerman
and Birian. governed by the Shah ot
Persia, with British consuls at Bandar
Abbas, Kerman and Malik Siah (Seistan)
to watch over British interests and
subjects ; and, in addition, the port of
Basidu on Kishni Island and the port of
J ask on the Mekran coast, under the
direct management of the British Indian
Government ; the Bahrein Islands, on the
southern side of the Persian Gulf, ruled
by an Arab sheikh under the control of a
British political agent.
There is also the quasi-independent
imamate of Oman, under a sultan, or
sayyid, whose dynasty began as a sort of
prince-bishopric at Muskat in the middle
of the eighteenth century. Great Britain
and France are mutually bound to refrain
from an exclusive political control or
annexation of the sultanate of
Muskat, but force of circum-
stances has compelled Great
Britain, through the Govern-
ment of India, to take the leading advisory
part in the direction of the affairs of Oman.
These are managed almost entirely under
the advice of a British consul and political
agent at Muskat. The Kuria Muria Islands,
off the south coast of Oman, actually belong
Britain's
Kuria Muria
Islands
THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE INNER EMPIRE
tc Great Britain, and their affairs are super-
vised from Aden. From Soham to Masirah
Island, the government of Eastern Oman
is carried on, more or less, by the sultan
of Muskat, but the coast regions to the
west as far as the Turkish frontier at Al
Hasa constitute what is called Trucial
Oman, a region in which the numerous
H B •♦• h P^^^y Arab chiefs have been
ow ri IS (.Qgj-(,g(^ ]-,y ^j^g British power
. -, .in the Persian Gulf into an
IS Governed j. ^ . i . i
agreement not to molest each
other or the sultan of Muskat. Law and
order in a general way are maintained in
all these regions of the Persian Gulf, and
justice is administered to British subjects,
by a British political resident residing
at Bushire, on the south coast of Persia.
British Arabia, not connected with the
geographical or political systems of the
Persian Gulf, is managed by the political
resident, the virtual governor and com-
mander-in-chief, at Aden. This official
depends at present on the Government of
Bombay. He supervises the affairs of the
Aden Protectorate and the island of
Perim ; those of the island of Socotra
and its adjoining archipelagoes ; the coast
sultanates of Makalla, etc. ; the Kuria
Muria Islands, and the Oman coast as
far east as the island of Masirah. Within
these regions of Southern Arabia there are
numerous Arab sultans and sheikhs who
govern their people with as little inter-
ference as possible on the part of the
British, whose own direct rule does not
extend over more than the island of Perim,
the town and port of Aden and its hinter-
land, about 9,000 square miles, and the
Kuria Muria Islands.
The empire of India, whose outlying
spheres of influence in Persia and Arabia
we ha\e just been considering, is divided
into the following types of government :
There is, first of all, British India — i.e.,
the districts actually annexed to the British
Crown, with a total area of 1,097,901
square miles, and the following provinces :
Bengal, Eastern Bengal and Assam.
Burma, Madras, the Andamans and
Nicobars, Bombay, Punjab, North-west
Frontier Province, British Baluchistan,
United Provinces of Agra and Oudh,
Central Provinces, Berar and Coorg.
4 number of small principalities within
these provinces are ruled to a certain
extent by their native rajahs, or by Moham-
medan chiefs ; but, for the most part, this
vast area is administered directly by
British officials in all the principal
and responsible posts, and by native
officials in all the subordinate positions
THE PROCLAMATION OF LAV7S ON THE TYNWALD HILL IN THE ISLE OF M -^ N
5559
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
Then follow the feudatory slates of the
Indian Empire : Haidarabad (area, 82,698
square miles), ruled by the nizam ; Kash-
mir and Jamu (area, 80, goo square miles),
ruled by a maharajah ; Baluchistan (area,
78,530 square miles), ruled by the khan of
Khelat and a few small independent
princes ; Jodhpur of Rajputana (area,
34,963 square miles), ruled by a maha-
rajah ; Mysore (area, 29,433 square miles),
ruler, a maharajah : Gwalior (area, 25,041
square miles), the largest Mahratta state,
under a maharajah (Sindhia) ; Bikanir, a
Rajputana state (area, 23,311 square miles),
under a maharajah ; Jaisalmir and Jaipur,
both Rajput states (respectively, 16,062
and 15,579 square miles), the first ruled by
a mahalawal, the second by a maharajah ;
Bahawulpur, in the Punjab (area, 15,000
square miles), governed by a nawab.
In addition to the list of big feudatory
states with areas of 15,000 square
miles and over, there is the old
Mahratta state of Baroda, governed by
the maharajah gaikwar, which has only
an area of 8,226 square miles, but which
ranks first on the list of feudatory states,
and has a royal salute of twenty-one guns.
There are eight minor states in Rajputana ;
five in Central India (including the inter-
esting little Mohammedan principality of
British
Rule
in India
Bhopal. under a female sovereign, the
begum), and Indore, a Mahratta state under
tlie maharajah Holkar ; three in the
Bombay Presidency, the largest of which is
Cutch, whose ruler is known as the
rao ; five in the Madras Presidency,
of which might be specially mentioned
Travaniore. the southernmost portion of
India, whose maharajah rules
over 3,000,000 people ; one in
the Central Province, Bastar
(area, 13,000 square miles);
Kuch Behar, in Bengal ; Hill Tipura. on
the borders of Burma ; Rampur and
Garhwal, between Agra and Oudh ; four
Sikh and three Rajput states in the
Punjab ; and tne interesting little Tibetan
principality of Sikkim. In addition to
this list, there are numerous small areas
administered by minor princes, much on
the lines of the smaller German duchies.
The total area of feudatory India is
690,272 square miles.
For the administration of British India
there is the Viceroy, who rules despotically
as the Governor-General-in-Council, sub-
ject to the orders of the king-emperor,
as transmitted through the Secretary of
State for India. The expenditure of the
Indian revenues in India and elsewhere —
that is to say, the annual Budget of the
GENERAL VIEW OF ADEN,
A STRONGLY FORTIFIED POSSESSION OF BRITAIN^
5560
VOLCANIC SCENERY AT ELPHINSTONE INLET IN THE GULF OF OMAN
The scenery of Elphinstone Inlet, of which the above is a typical example, has been described as the grandest but the
most deso'ate in the world. The heat is so terrible that the native can live in the place only from November till March ;
a cable station was once established on Telegraph Island, but it was soon abandoned as some of the men died, while
others went mad and the remainder fled. The rocks in the foreground are entirely red, while the seals a brilliant blue.
Viceroy's government — is controlled by
the Secretary of State and the Council
of the India Office, who thus, in a manner,
act as a kind of selected parliament to
discuss and determine by a majority of
votes how the revenues of India shall be
spent. It is on this board of financial
control — the India Offtce Council^that it
has been suggested elected or selected
native-born Indians should sit to represent
the views of native-born Indians at head-
quarters on matters of Indian
finance and taxation. The
Governor-General is assisted
in his government of India by
a council of seven members appo'nted by
the Crown through the Secretary of State
for India. These councillors hold their
appointment ordinarily for five years,
and constitute practically a Cabinet of
Ministers to carry on the Viceroy's govern-
ment. The seventh member of Council,
for some reason called " extraordinary,"
is the British commander-in-chief over
all the king-emperor's forces in the
Indian Empire. He is practically IMinister
for War in the Viceroy's Council. The
2E 2S
Viceroy's
Council
of Seven
foreign affairs of the Indian Empire,
which include dealing with the feudatory
and allied states within and without
the limits of the Indian Empire, are
under the special superintendence of
the Viceroy. One of the government
members of Council takes charge of the
finances of India, another of revenue and
agriculture ; a third is the military member,
charged more especially with army supply;
a fourth supervises the Public Works, a
fifth the Home Office and the Legislative,
and a sixth commerce and industry. Each
of the nine departments of state has a
special secretary at the head of it. In-
cluding the Viceroy, there are only eight
" Ministers " in the Executive Council.
There is further a Legislative Council
nominated by the Viceroy, consisting of
not more than sixteen members, or seven-
teen with the addition of the lieutenant-
governor of Bengal. This Council has
power, subiect to certain restrictions, to
make laws for all persons within British
India, for all British subjects within the
native states, and for all Indian subjects,
or protected subjects, of the king in any
D 5561
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
part of the world. The members of this
Council are nominated by the Viceroy
under the provisions of Viscount Cross's
Act of 1892, a clause of which makes it
possible for the \'iceroy to introduce the
elective principle into the nomination of
some or all of these legislative councillors.
We have here a door already provided, by
, . . ,. which the new measures of
Legislative , ,• , n
M th d representative government will
. I J- be prudently introduced into
India. The Legislative Council,
which includes the members of the Execu-
tive Council, holds its sittings in public,
and the text of the Bills to be discussed
must first be published for general informa-
tion through the government " Gazette."
Further, no Bill, as a rule, is brought
before the Viceroy's Legislative Council
which has not first been subjected to
the criticism of the several provincial
governments. The wide development of
the British Indian and vernacular Press
ensures the fullest publicity for the text of
all new measures, and the national voice of
India to some extent thus reacts on its
government, for there is no hole-and-
corner legislation, and the Viceroy's
Council, before placing any new law on
the Statute Book, is well informed as to
its popular reception.
Among the Viceroy's nominated council,
natives of India probably predominate in
numbers over the unofficial British mem-
bers. Of these last there are generally
representatives of commerce, of the Bar,
and of railways. This supreme Legislative
Council might undoubtedly be much larger
— the maximum of sixteen, as it is, is not
always attained ; it might include repre-
sentatives of the larger feudatory states,
of the principal rehgions, of native law,
medicine, commerce, and industry. To
a certain extent, also, the elective principle
might be prudently and gradually intro-
duced. Since these lines were written,
Lord Morley's far-reaching measures for
1 AMI representative government in
°1 1 a***" *^ Iridia have met most of these
_.„. ... difficulties and have attempted
Difficulties , 1 ,, . j^.i
to solve them. As regards the
great provincial administrations, there
are legislative councils in Bengal and the
Central Provinces, in Burma, Eastern
Bengal, the United Provinces of Agra
and Oudh, the Punjab, Madras, and
Bombay. The acts of these provincial
legislative councils, on which there are
invariably native members, can only deal
5562
with the matters of the province, and are
subject to the sanction of the Governor-
General. None of these legislatures may do
more than discuss the financial statements
of the supreme and local governments,
and ask questions about them. They may
not propose resolutions or call for any
votes on the subject of finance.
The metropolitan state of Bengal, and
all the other provinces of British India, are
under governors, lieutenant-governors, or
chief commissioners. With the exceptions
only of the governors of Bombay and
Madras, who are appointed by the king
on the recommendation of the British
Government, outside the ranks of the
ordinary service, all these great executive
posts are filled from the Indian Civil or
Political Service. The Viceroy nominates
and the Crown appoints the lieutenant-
governors, and the Governor- General in
council appoints the chief commissioners.
Each Indian province is divided into
divisions under commissioners. These,
again, are split up into districts, which
form the unit of administration. At the
head of each district is an executive
^. . . officer, styled " collector,"
Divisions ,( • X A >' << J i.
, , .. magistrate, or deputy-
of Indian °- ■ m , v -•
p , commissioner, who has entire
control of the district and is
responsible to the governor or chief
commissioner of the province. Associated
with or subordinate to the collector are
deputy- collectors, other magistrates, or
assistants.
" The main functions of the collector-
magistrate are twofold," says Sir William
Hunter. " He is a fiscal officer, charged
with the collection of the revenue from
the land and other sources ; he is also
a civil and criminal judge, both of first
instance and in appeal ; he is the
representative of a paternal, and not of a
constitutional government. Pohce, gaols,
education, municipalities, roads, sanita-
tion, dispensaries, the local taxation, and
the Imperial revenues of his district are to
him matters of daily concern. He is
expected to make himself acquainted with
every phase of the social life of the natives,
and with ev^ery natural aspect of the
country. He should be a lawyer, an
accountant, a surveyor, and a ready
writer of state papers. He ought to possess
no mean knowledge of agriculture,
political economy, and engineering."
There are at present some 260 districts
in British India administered by these
THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE INNER EMPIRE
collector-magistrates. In some cases there
is a collector and a magistrate, the two
functions being occasionally separate. It
is scarcely necessary to point out that
these invaluable officials are drawn from
the far-famed Indian Civil Service, the
finest Civil Service in the world, entrance
into which is no longer a matter of
patronage, but through open competition.
The collector is the mainstay of the
British Government in India. British
valour won India in the first instance, and
regained it after the mutiny ; but the wise,
incorruptibly j ust behaviour of the Civil Ser-
vice, from its reconstruction in 1853-1858
to the present day, has done more than
any feat of arms to retain the allegiance
of the masses among the 200,000,000
of directly governed natives of India.
The people of the feudatory states are
governed by their native princes in most
cases, through a machinery of Ministers
and councils, similar in degree to that of
British India, except, of course, that the
employes are all natives of India. In most
cases justice between British Indians on
the territories of the feudatory states is
_. administered by the resident or
'^'j.*" agent of the Governor-General,
p . who resides at the court of each
feudatory prince, and advises
the latter in such of his affairs as call for
attention. No feudatory prince has the
right to make peace or war, to send
ambassadors to other feudatory princes
or to external states, or to keep an armed
force above a number agreed upon.
Moreover, no Europeans may reside at
their courts without the sanction of the
supreme government. Chiefs who oppress
or misgovern their subjects, or who waste
their revenues, or are unnecessarily absent
from their states, are sharply taken to
task ; but in normal circumstances they
are very little interfered with, and it is a
matter of no dispute that at the present
day several native states are as well
and more cheaply governed than the parts
of India under direct British government.
At the present date there are 760 towns
in British India large and important
enough to possess municipalities that have,
under the Local Self-Government Acts of
1883-1884, been accorded an elective
character. The majority of the members
of committees are elected by the rate-
payers. These municipal bodies have the
charge of roads, water supply, drains,
markets, and sanitation. They can impose
taxes, enact by-laws, make improve-
ments, and spend money ; but the sanction
of the provincial government is necessary
before new taxes or new by-laws can
be enforced. Very naturally, the vast
majority of the members of these munici-
pahties are Indians, and this experiment
in self-government is being watched with
Experiment S^^^^ interest by those who
:« i„^j.„ hope, httle by little, to induct
in Indian ^i i • r t i- •
Government }^^ ^^^^^'^^ ^^ ^^^clia mto the
harmonious, capable, and honest
administration of their home government.
For rural tracts there are district and
local boards which are in charge of roads,
schools and hospitals. Gibraltar, a Crown
colony, is little else than a garrison town —
nearly two square miles in area — governed
autocratically by a military governor and
a civilian colonial secretary.
Malta, Gozo, and Comino are an archi-
pelago of three islands and two islets in
the Central Mediterranean (117 square
miles in area ; population, 206,690).
The governor, always a military officer, is
assisted by a lieutenant-governor (civilian),
an executive council, and a council of
government consisting of eleven official
members, including the governor, and
eight elected members. The governor has
a right in case of necessity to legislate
by order-in-council.
Cyprus is still theoretically a Turkish
possession. By agreements concluded
with the Porte between June and August,
1878, the island of Cyprus was handed over
to Great Britain to be administered
entirely free from Turkish control, until
Russia restored to Turkej^ the fortress of
Kars and other parts of Armenia acquired
as the results of the Russo-Turkish \\'ar
of 1877-78. At the present time the
island is governed by a high commissioner
on the lines of a Crown colony. There is
an executive council consisting of the
chief secretary, the king's advocate, and
the receiver-general ; and a legislature
of eighteen members, which,
p"**^ besides the above-mentioned
u e m ^j-jj-gg officials, comprises the
^^'^^ chief medical officer, the regis-
trar-general, the principal forest officer, and
twelve elected councillors — nine Christian
and three Mohammedan. The voters are
all male Turkish or British subjects, or
foreigners who have resided at least five
years on the island and are payers of land
taxes. The council may be dissolved at
the high commissioner's pleasure, and
5563
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
cannot sit for a longer term than five years.
Ceylon is administered by a governor
aided by an executive council of five
and a legislative council of seventeen
members, comprising nine officials and
eight nominated unofficial members, who
represent in their personalities the Singha-
lese, Mohammedan, Eurasian and British
elements in the population. For purposes
of general admimstration the island is
divided into nine provinces, presided over
by government agents who are the
eqviivalent of the Indian collector. These
in their turn are assisted by subordinate
of Singapore and Penang, though their
nomination must be confirmed by' the
Crown. The governor of the Straits
Settlements is also high commissioner
for the Federated Malay States, which
fact carries his commission right up to
the confines of India and Siam. and for
Brunei, in Central North Borneo ; and is
also consul-general for the protected
countries of Sarawak and North Borneo.
The Federated Malay States — except
Johor — are administered by state councils
composed of the native sultan, a British
resident, a secretary to the resident, and
THE COUNCIL HALL IN THE GOVERNORS PALACE AT VALETTA, MALTA
British, Eurasian and native officials.
The Maldive Islands, 500 miles west of
Ceylon, are governed by their own here-
ditary sultan and a cabinet of seven
ministers. The}' are under the general
supervision of the Ceylon Government, to
whom the sultan is tributary.
The Straits Settlements — Singapore,
Malacca, Penang, Labuan Island, Christ-
mas Island, and the Cocos Islands — are
governed much on the lines of Ceylon by
a governor, with executive and legisla-
tive councils ; except that of the un-
official members of council two may be
nominated by the chambers of commerce
5564
selected native (Malay) chiefs and Chinese
notabilities. A British resident-general
under the control of the high commis-
sioner super\nses the general affairs of the
Malay Peninsula. The state of Johor
remains outside this scheme of adminis-
tration. Its sultan governs the territory
of Johor through native ministers and
headmen, but entrusts all his foreign
relations to Great Britain. The same
arrangements prevail in Sarawak, a large
Borneo state ruled by an English rajah.
In Brunei, the countrj^ — 3,000 square
miles — is governed by a British resident
with the co-operation of the sultan and
S. 13. Barnard, Cape Town
A SITTING OF THE CAPE PARLIAMENT: THE LATE CECIL RHODES IS INDICATED BY A X
THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL OF »IJI IN SESSION
1. W. Wcders. t-iji
PARLIAMENTS OF BRITAIN'S OVERSEAS DOMINIONS
5565
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
native ministers. British North Borneo
is administered by a governor, practically
appointed by the Crown, and a court of
directors sitting in London. The territory
is divided into ten provinces, and is
administered — as in Sarawak — much on
the lines of a Crown colony. In Sarawak
the rajah is assisted in the work of
. government by a nominated
°'^!".'!'"^ council of seven members. The
I *l '^'d colony of Fiji has a governor,
executive and legislative coun-
cils ; but six members out of eighteen are
elected by the non-native settlers, and
two are native representatives nominated
by the governor. The native population
(Fijians) — over go,ooo in number — are
accorded a large share of self-government.
This is arranged for by village and
district councils, meetings of chiefs, and
a native regulation board, which has the
governor as })resident and four European
and thirteen native members. The
native legislation of the board must
receive the sanction of the legislative
council before becoming law.
The Fiji Islands are divided into seven-
teen provinces under the control of
European or native commissioners. The
governor of Fiji is also high commissioner
lor the Western Pacific, and as such
controls the native governments of Tonga
(which kingdom has a legislative as-
sembly), the New Hebrides (jointly with
France), the Gilbert Islands, British
Solomon Islands (area, 8,357 square miles),
Santa Cruz Islands, Maiden Island, etc.,
etc. He is also assisted by resident
commissioners and deputy commissioners.
The Crown Colony of Hong Kong is
administered by a governor, an executive
council, and a legislative council of the
usual type — eight official members and
six unofficial. Of these last, four are
nominated by the Crown, and one is
nominated by the chamber of commerce,
one by the justices of the peace. Wei-
_. . , hai-wei, in North China, is ad-
, , mmistered by a commissioner,
Wei-hai-wci ^^^° legislates by ordinance.
The territory is leased by
China on an uncertain term, and includes
the walled city of Wei-hai-wei and an
area outside of about 283 miles. Over
this last the administration is mainly
carried on by native headmen un(^er the
supervision of the British commissioner.
The native government of the sultanate
of Zanzibar, off the east coast of Africa,
is limited to the islands of Zanzibar and
Pemba, though the sultan, or sayyid, is
still the theoretical sovereign over the
coast strip of British East Africa. The
government of Zanzibar is carried on by
the sultan through a British Prime
Minister and native officials, judges, etc.,
but under the supervision of a British
agent and consul-general, who also have
exclusive jurisdiction over all British
subjects or foreigners not the subjects of
Powers having special treaty relations with
the sultan's government. The Somaliland
Protectorate is administered simply by a
commissioner and commander-in-chief.
British East Africa (area, 177,100 square
miles) has a governor and commander-in-
chief, and a lieutenant-governor ; an exe-
cutive and a legislative council. This
last consists of eight official members
and three (nominated) unofficial. The
territory is divided into seven provinces
under provincial commissioners, who
have twenty-six collectors under them.
The Uganda Protectorate is ad-
ministered by a governor and com-
mander-in-chief, but there is at present
no council. The Uganda
gan a s Province and portions of the
n^ \^^ ^ Western Province (Toro and An-
Parliament 1 , , , ^ , •
kole) are under native govern-
ments, except as regards jurisdiction over
non-natives of the province or British or
foreign subjects. These native govern-
ments are carried on under British super-
vision, and the British governor alone has
the power of life and death. There are
five provinces. In the native kingdom of
Uganda there is a native parliament, or
lukiko, the deliberations of which assist
the king, or " kabaka," of Uganda (at
present a minor) and his ministry in their
government of the kingdom of Uganda,
a state of great antiquity.
The territory once called British Central
Africa, north of the Zambesi, is now
divided into the protectorate of Nyassa-
land and North-east and North-west
Rhodesia. The first-named is adminis-
tered by a governor and commander-in-
chief, an executive and a legislative
council, the latter consisting of nominated
and official members whose legislation is
subject to the governor's veto. This
virtual colony is divided into thirteen
districts under the charge of residents,
first, second and third class. North-east
and North-west Rhodesia are governed
by administrators and magistrates in the
THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE INNER EMPIRE
service of the British South Africa
Chartered Company. Lewanika, king of
the Barotse, has still a considerable
amount of autonomous power over his
own sub] ects. North-west Rhodesia comes
within the purview of the South African
high commissioner ; North-east Rhodesia
is subject to some supervision by the
governor of Nyassaland, who, by arrange-
ment, supplies the armed force for the
country's defence.
The court of appeal from the courts of
Nyassaland and North-east Rhodesia lies
in Zanzibar ; that of North-west Rho-
desian justice in Cape Town. As time goes
on, North-west and Southern Rhodesia
will probably take their places in the
great South African Confederation, while
North-east Rhodesia and Nyassaland will
become once more fused under their
original title of British Central Africa,
and will constitute a great negro state
under direct British management.
The Seychelles Archipelago is admin-
istered by a governor, and executive
and a legislative council, the last con-
sisting of nominated members, three
official and three unofficial, the governor
having an original and a
Representahve ^^^^.^| ^^^^_ ^j^^ -^^^^^ ^^
Government
in Mauritius
Mauritius has an area of 705
square miles and a popula-
tion of 378,000. The government is
carried on by a governor, who is assisted
by an executive council composed of the
commander of H.M. troops, the colonial
secretary, the procureur-general, the
receiver-general, the auditor-general, and
two elected members of the council of
government. This last is almost equivalent
to a lower house of legislature.
It consists, besides the governor and
eight ex-officio members, of nine members
nominated by the governor and ten
members elected by the people on
a moderate franchise. So that the
Mauritians — rapidly becoming a people
of Hindu, Negro and Chinese race —
possess the beginnings of a representa-
tive government. The small island de-
pendencies of Mauritius are governed by
magistrates appointed by the governor.
The Transvaal is the youngest of our
self-governing colonies. It has a governor,
who, in this instance, is also the high
commissioner for all South Africa. He
governs constitutionally through a
legislative council (which is to be ulti-
mately an elective senate) and a
legislative assembly of 69 members, all
freely elected by the registered voters in
the 69 existing electoral divisions. The
franchise is limited to " white male
British subjects," and the qualification is
a minimum of six months' residence in
the Transvaal. The registration of voters
takes place biennially. The duration of
„ . . , the assembly is a maximum of
Y five years, if not dissolved earlier
Colon^^ by the governor on the advice
^ of his ministers. Members of
the legislature are paid a maximum
of /!^300 annually. The languages of
discussion are English and Dutch, but
the language of record is English. Pro-
vision is made in the Transvaal Constitu-
tion for the safeguarding of the landed
and other interests of the native negroes,
which in a great measure atones for the
denial to them of the franchise.
The constitution and government of the
Orange River Colony resemble very closely
those of the Transvaal. The number of
members of the legislative assembly is at
present thirty-eight, elected by registered
voters. Basutoland, between the Orange
State and Natal, is a great negro reserva-
tion, of which the high commissioner of
South Africa is governor. The territory is
governed by a resident commissioner
under the direction of the high com-
missioner, who has exclusive jurisdiction
over all persons not native Basutos. To
these Europeans, Asiatics, or foreign
negroes, numbering in all scarcely more
than 1,000, justice is administered by
seven assistant commissioners who are
also magistrates. The 347,000 Basutos
are ruled by their own chiefs subject to
appeals to the British magistrate's court.
Natal, with which the native territories
of Zululand and Amatongaland and the
former Transvaal district of Vrijheid are
now amalgamated, is ruled by a governor,
a responsible ministry, a legislative
council, and an elective legislative as-
sembly. The members of the
The Ruling iggigjative council are sum-
■Z^\ moned to act by the governor-
in Natal in-council. They sit for ten
years, and at present are thirteen in
number. No one can be summoned to
this " senate " unless he is the proprietor
of at least £500 worth of immovable
property within the colony. The fran-
chise for the election of members of the
legislative assembly is limited to the
male sex, is apparently granted without
5567
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
considerations of race or literacy, and
is only qualified by the possession of
immovable property of the minimum
value of £50, or by paying rent for such
property of at least £10 per annum,
or having resided at least three years
in the colony, and possessing not less
than £96 income per annum. The same
-J qualifications apply to member-
-, . ship of the legislature. The
Negroes m ui i. r x j.u
„ , , . assembly sits lor not more than
lour years. Members of the
legislature are not paid, unless they are
ministers, but receive a travelhng allowance.
The province of Zululand is almost
entirely occupied by native negroes. Only
an infinitesimal part of its area — one-
thirtieth — has been taken up by non-
natives. One-fifth of the area of "old"
Natal is set aside as a native reserve,
besides large areas that have been bought
by negroes from the government.
In this and other respects the negroes of
Natal seem to have been very well treated
by the Colonial Government ; but the
means of administering justice among
them, and the extent to which their
interests are represented in the Natal
Parliament, seem to require improvement.
The negro territory of Swaziland, on
the eastern side of the Transvaal (area,
6,536 square miles ; population, 85,000
negroes, 900 whites), is governed by a
resident commissioner under the direc-
tion of the high commissioner of South
Africa, much on the lines of Basutoland.
Cape Colony is the premier state of
South Africa, and by far the oldest self-
governing colony in Africa. It has pos-
sessed representative institutions since
1853, but the present form of government
through responsible ministers only dates
from 1872. The system, of course, starts
with a governor, who receives no less
than £"8,000 a year, and who rules with
the advice of six ministers. There is a
legislative council of twenty-six elected
_. „ . members, who sit for seven
The Premier ,, ,x: x- u ■
g years, the qualification being
c .u Ar • /2,ooo of immovable, or /4,ooo
South Africa '^ . ,, ^ ^ Vi
01 movable property. The
house of assembly consists of 107 elected
members, and lasts (unless dissolved
earlier) for five years. The qualification
for the exercise of the franchise for the
flection to both houses, and for sitting
in the house of assembly, is the possession
of personal property (not tribal) worth at
least £75 (or salary of not less than /50
5568
per annum) and a standard of literacy-
ability to write one's name and address.
The suffrage is still limited to males, but
no race, colour, or rehgious distinction
is made in the distribution of the franchise.
Members of both houses are paid
at the rate of ;^i is. a day, with about
£60 extra for travelling expenses.
Local government (divisional councils,
municipaUties, and village-management
boards) of an elaborate and efficient type
is fully developed over Cape Colony and
the included district of British Bechuana-
land. The Bechuanaland Protectorate
stretches between the northern parts of
Cape Colony and the Zambesi, with an
area of 275,000 square miles, and a popu-
lation of 129,000 negroes and 1,000 whites.
It is governed as regards the natives by
six native chiefs, the most important of
whom is Khama. As regards Europeans
and internal or inter-tribal affairs the ad-
ministration is directed by a resident
commissioner, government secretary,
assistant commissioners, magistrates, etc.,
under the general direction of the high
commissioner for South Africa. The
„. , . , area of Southern Rhodesia is
Khodesia s o -i x-l
..... 148,575 square miles, the
Limited T- IX- ■ o
P . . European population is 14,018 ;
and the native population,
639,418. The country is governed by
the British South Africa Chartered
Company, through an administrator, an
executive council of six, and a legislative
council of sixteen members. Seven
members out of these sixteen are elected
by registered voters on a franchise which
appears to be limited to European resi-
dents. The executive and legislative
councils sit for three years.
All laws passed must be submitted for
sanction to the high commissioner of South
Africa, under whose control is placed the
military police. The high commissioner
is represented locally by a resident com-
missioner. For administration Southern
Rhodesia is divided into two provinces
and eight districts. Native affairs are
managed (under the administrator) by
a department of state and thirty-one or
thirty- two native commissioners. All legis-
lation and land questions affecting natives
are especially under the supervision and
control of the high commissioner.
The little island of St. Helena, in the
Atlantic, is 47 square miles in area, and
has a population of about 4,000. Its
affairs are managed by a governor and an
INSPECTION OF CONVICTS AT MANDALAY GAOL IN BURMA
ADMINISTERING JUSTICE TO BRITISH SUBJECT PEOPLES
5569
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
executive council. The island of Ascension
is administered by a naval commandant
under the Admiralty. Southern Nigeria
has a governor, lieutenant-governor, and
colonial secretary, an executive of seven
official members, and a legislative council of
ten official and four nominated unofficial
members, two of whom are negroes. The
»j ^. colony is divided into three
Negro Kings .-^ j u ^ ^ a
• Ki .k provmces and about twenty
in Northern K- . ■ . j • • , j u ^u
7^:cv»--« districts, administered by three
iNigeria . . -^ .
provincial commissioners and a
large number of district commissioners.
Northern Nigeria is governed by a high com-
missioner without any executive or legis-
lative councils. The fourteen provinces
are supervised by ninety-nine residents
and assistant-residents. A large amount
of North Nigerian territory is directly ad-
ministered, so far as natives are concerned,
by negro or negroid kings and rulers.
The colony of the Gold Coast has a
governor, an executive council of four,
and a legislative council of five official
and four unofficial nominated members,
of whom one is a negro. There is a depart-
ment and a secretary for native affairs,
and Ashanti and the northern territories
are governed — under the Gold Coast
governor — by chief commissioners, pro-
vincial, and travelling commissioners.
Sierra Leone, for administrative pur-
poses, is divided into a colony of about
4,300 square miles and a protectorate of
28,110 square miles in area. Both are
under the administration of the same
governor, colonial secretary, and general
staff ; but as regards the colony along the
coast the governor is assisted by an
executive council of five members and a
legislative council of five official and four
unofficial nominated members, of whom
two are negroes. The protectorate is
divided into five districts, which are ad-
ministered by district commissioners, a
good deal of power over the natives being
still left in the hands of the native chiefs.
n . In the Gambia Colony the
Bermudas j^ 1 <( 1 • 1 m 1
, , . actual colonial area is onlv
an Important , ^ ^ •, , .-^
Naval Base ^"^"^ "9 square miles, and is
ruled by a governor, execu-
tive council (three members), legislative
council (six official, three unofficial nomi-
nated members, one of them a negro).
The protectorate — 3,911 square miles — is
administered by the governor through
a number of travelling commissioners.
The lovely little archipelago of the
Bermudas was really intended by Nature
5570
for the Sea Queen's capital and the Syrens'
pied'h-lerre. It was more than that in
the realms of fancy, having been chosen
by Shakespeare for the scenes of " The
Tempest." Instead of this, we have
turned it in the course of centuries into
an important naval base on the North
American station, with dockyard, victual-
ling establishment, and coaling station.
There are 360 small islands in the group,
and only about twenty square miles of
habitable land, with a population of 683
whites and 11,000 blacks or half-castes.
The governor over this microcosm is the
officer in command of the troops, and he
is assisted by an executive council of six
members, a legislative assembly of nine —
both these are appointed by the Crown —
and a house of assembly — thirty-six
members — elected by the people. The
franchise is dependent on the possession
of freehold property of not less than £60
value. Members of the legislature are
paid eight shillings a day for attendance.
Representative institutions in the Ber-
mudas date from 1620. The constitution
of Jamaica, granted in 1662, was, like
that of Bermuda, more suited to a
_ . , large country than a small
Jamaica s ij .1 it t_
„ , . island, though amaica has
Enlarged r ° ■,
^ .. . an area of 4,207 square miles
and a population, mainly
negro, of 830,261. But the ancient con-
stitution was surrendered in 1866, and,
after several changes and enlargements,
now stands thus :
The governor rules with the assistance of
a privy council of not more than eight in
number — mostly officials — appointed by
the Crown ; a legislative council of the
governor, six ex-officio members, ten
nominated and fourteen elected. The
legislative council may not sit more than
five years without being dissolved. The
franchise on which these fourteen repre-
sentatives, as well as the members of the
parochial boards, are elected is regulated
by a small property quahfication, residence,
rate-paying, and British nationality.
Matters of local administration in
Jamaica are carried out by fifteen elected
parochial boards of fifteen parishes, into
which the whole island is divided. The
Turks and Caicos Islands are a de-
pendency of Jamaica, with 5,287 inhabi-
tants, the former group being administered
by a commissioner and a legislative
board appointed by the Crown. The
Cayman Islands are likewise administered
THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE INNER EMPIRE
by a commissioner under the supervision
of the gr>vernor of Jamaica. The Bahama
Islands have a governor, an executive
council of nine, a legislative council of
nine, and a representative assembly of
twenty-nine members elected on a small
property franchise. The total area of
this group is 5,450 square miles.
The Leeward Islands — area, 701 square
miles ; population. 128,000 — have a
governor, a federal executive council
nominated by the Crown, and a federal
legislature of eight nominated and eight
elected members. These last are elected
by the unofficial members of the local
legislative councils of Antigua, Dominica,
and St. Kitts-Nevis. The Leeward
Islands are divided for purposes of local
administration into five presidencies : the
island groups of Antigua, Montserrat, St.
Kitts and Nevis, Virgin, and Dominica.
The three first-named and Dominica
possess local executive and legislative
councils, the members of which, official
and unofficial, are nominated. The Virgin
Islands have only an executive council.
There is an administrator for St.
Christopher, etc., and one
for Dominica, and com-
missioners for Montserrat
and the Virgin Islands. The
Windward Islands — area, 524 square
miles ; population, 175,587 — have a
governor, who usually resides at Grenada,
an administrator for St. Lucia, and an
administrator for St. Vincent. In each of
the three islands there are executive and
legislative councils, the members of which
are nominated. In all the legislative
councils there are unofficial members.
The island of Barbados has an area of
only 166 square miles — a little larger than
the Isle of Wight — and a population of
under 200,000, but it goes far beyond any
other West Indian colony in representa-
tive government. It has a governor all to
itself, an executive of four members
besides the governor, an executive com-
mittee partly elective, a nominated legis-
lative council of nine members, and a
house of assembly of twenty four mem-
bers. The last-named are elected annu-
ally by the people on a low property fran-
chise. The executive committee has
almost the functions of a responsible
ministry. The non-elective element con-
sists of the four members of the House
of Assembly appointed by the governor
to serve on the executive committee.
Advanced
Government in
Barbados
As Barbados is exceedingly prosperous,
this elaborate machinery of government
is apparently worth while. Trinidad and
Tobago, with an area of 1,868 square
miles and a population of about 273,898,
have no representative institutions.
Tobago Island is simply a district of
Trinidad, under a district officer. The
rp. D two islands are under the
1 he Prosperous 1 x ii
, , J rule of a governor, with an
Island ,. "^ ., ,. .
fp • -J J executive council of six
of 1 rinidad , , 1 • 1 , •
members and a legislative
council consisting of the governor, ten
other officials, and eleven unofficial
members nominated by the governor for
five years. The large and prosperous
island of Trinidad is divided into sixteen
counties, and these are administered by
nine district officers. It is therefore entirely
without representative institutions.
The colony of British Honduras, on the
mainland of Central America, is adminis-
tered by a governor, an executive council of
five members, and a nominated legislative
council of three official and five unofficial
members. It is divided into six districts
under district commissioners.
British Guiana, on the mainland of
Northern South America, is a relatively
large possession, over 90,000 square miles
in area, with a population of 307,000, the
largest elements in which are negroes and
East Indians. The administration consists
of a governor, an executive council of
eight members, two ex-officio, six nomi-
nated, a Court of Policy (legislative
council), and a Combined Court, which
deals with finance. The Court of Policy
is composed of seven official and eight
elected members ; the Combined Court
consists of these fifteen members of the
Court of Policy (which is a purely legis-
lative body), and, in addition, of six elected
financial representatives. Thus the Com-
bined Court comprises fourteen elected
unofficial members and seven officials. The
functions of this Combined Court are to
consider the estimate of expen-
diture prepared by the governor
in executive council and to de-
termine the ways and means to
meet it. This court alone can levy taxes.
Thus, in the possession of this Combined
Court, with a preponderating unofficial
majority of seven elected representatives,
the voting inhabitants of British Guiana
come nearest of all the British possessions
in Tropical America (except Barbados)
to a government of popular control. But,
5571
How British
Guiana
is Governed
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
though there are no specific principles of
race exclusion, the qualifications for
membership of the legislature and the
franchise for electors at present render
it difficult for non-Europeans to control
the country's destinies.
The qualification for election to the
Guianan Court of Policy consists of (i)
ownership of 80 acres of land, half of which
must be under cultivation ; or (2) owner-
ship of immovable property of a value not
less than £1,562 los. ; or (3) ownership or
possession under a lease for twenty-one
years and upwards of a house or house and
land of the annual rental value of ;;^25o.
The qualification for a financial representa-
tive is the same as for a member of the
Court of Policy, with the important addi-
tion that such representative must also
possess a " clear annual income of £300
arising from any kind of property not
mentioned in any other property qualifica-
tion, or from any profession, business, or
trade carried on in the colonj'."
The franchise which elects these four-
teen members of the legislature is either
" county " or " city." Its restrictions
are not very severe, being either ownership
or tenancy of cultivated land or houses,
or a minimum income of not less than
£100 (coupled w^th residence), or payment
of twelve months' taxes of not less than
£^ 3s. 4d., combined with not less than
six months' residence prior to date of
registration. The number of registered
electors at present out of a population of
307,000 is about 3,100. Only about 130
square miles of British Guiana are under
cultivation. There are two municipalities,
with mayor and town council — George-
town and New Amsterdam — and local
government is further provided for by fifty-
four village and country district councils.
The Falkland Islands have an area
(excluding the uninhabited South Georgia,
1,000 square miles) of about 6,500 square
miles, and a population of about 2,100.
They are administered by a governor, an
executive council of four officials, and a
legislative council of three officials and
two unofficials appointed by the Crown.
Before passing on to consider the sta-
tistics of other parts of British America,
we might note the following points about
the possessions in the West Indies and
Bermudas, Honduras, and Guiana. The
... . „ total white population of
Mixed Races tj •; ■ 1 / • i \ t> j. „
Under the British (mamly), Portuguese,
D •*• I- n French, and Spanish descent
British Flag . ^ ' <t ,
IS 62,300. Negroes and
mulattoes amount to about 1,550,000 ;
natives of British India, 210,000 (chiefly
in Guiana, 110,000; Trinidad, 87,000;
and Jamaica, 13,000); Chinese, 1,500;
aboriginal Amerindians (in British Hon-
duras, Dominica, and Guiana, about
11,000) ; mixed races, compounded of negro,
East Indian, and Amerindian, 10,000.
GENERAL VIEW OF THE NEW DOCKS AT SIMONS BAY IN SOUTH AFRICA
5572
THE
BRITISH
EMPIRE
XI
BY SIR
HARRY
JOHNSTON.
G.C.M.G.
PARLIAMENTS OF the OUTER EMPIRE
CANADA AND AUSTRALIA AND THEIR
ADVANCED SYSTEMS OF GOVERNMENT
*~PHE vast Dominion of Canada (nominal
■*• area, 3,745,574 square miles, though
only about 2,000,000 square miles are really
habitable) is perhaps the portion of the
British Empire that is most independent
of Great Britain. Canada makes no contri-
bution, direct or indirect, to the Imperial
fleet or army ; but she shares with us
the supreme rule of the king-emperor, and
admits an appeal to the Judicial Com-
mittee of the Pri\';^' Council, which is almost
expunged from the Australian constitution,
The rule of the king is delegated to a
Governor-General, appointed usually on
the advice of the British Cabinet. But this
governor, once appointed, enjoys greater
independence than any other delegate of
regal authority, and directs the govern-
ment of Canada more like a constitutional
president elected for five years than a
nominee of the British Colonial Ofhce. He
is assisted by a Privy Council, chosen and
nominated by himself. Representing the
king, he rules with the advice of respon-
sible ministers, through a parliament of
Senate and House of Commons.
The Dominion of Canada is divided at
present into nine provinces and a terri-
tory (Yukon). The unorganised remainder
of the far north and east is administered
through the Home Office of the Dominion
Ministry. With the exception of the Yukon
-, ^ territory, each province has a
Government , „ -^ • , , i
■ c A' fully-equipped local govern-
„ . raent — 1 ieutenant- governor,
responsible ministry, elected
legislature. In the case of Quebec and
Nova Scotia the local parliament consists
of two houses — a Legislative Council
equivalent to a senate, and a Legislative
Assembly.. All the other provinces have a
Legislative Assembly only.
The Dominion Parliament has much
greater and more comprehensive powers
than the Senate and Congress of the United
States. The provincial legislatures deal
only \\'ith direct taxation within the
province, provincial loans, the manage-
ment of provincial lands, provincial and
municipal offices, licences, pubhc works,
education, and general civil law. They
also possess concurrent legislative powers
with the Dominion Parliament on ques-
tions of agriculture, quarantine, and
immigration. All their Bills require the
assent of the lieutenant-governor, and may
P . - be disallowed within one year
the Domi i ^^' ^^^ Governor-General. The
Parli&ment Dominion ParHament deals
with all questions except those
specifically delegated by the constitution
to the provincial legislatures, and may
even negotiate commercial treaties with
foreign Powers or other self-governing .
portions of the British Empire. But all
Bills passed by the Dominion Parliament
require the assent of the Governor-
General, and rnay be disallo\\'ed by the
king-emperor within two years.
The Senate consists of eighty-seven
members, nominated for life by the
Governor-General. Their qualifications
are : (i) Having attained the age of thirty ;
(2) birth or residence in the province for
whic^ they are appointed ; (3) the posses-
sion of at least £800 worth of property.
The members of the House of Commons
need no property qualification. They
must be British subjects, born or natu-
ralised, and twenty-one years of age or
upwards. A member cannot sit for both
a provincial legislature and the Dominion
Parliament. Members are elected by
ballot on a male suffrage — suffrage has
not been granted to women in CS.nada —
which is very wide, practically manhood
suffrage in Ontario, Manitoba, British
Columbia, and Prince Edward's Island,
Saskatchewan and Alberta ; a small
property hmit in Quebec, Nova Scotia, and
New Brunswick. Since 1898, the decision
as to the suffrage for election to the
557 Z
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
Dominion Parliament has been left to the
provinces to decide according to local
views. Senators and members are paid :
senators, £500 per annum ; members, a
maximum of ^^500 per session. A parha-
ment may not last longer than five years.
Local government throughout settled
Canada is admirably and fully developed
by rural, village, town, city, and county
councils. The colony of Newfoundland, with
the adjoining coast strip of Labrador, is
not part of the dominion of Canada, but an
independent government under a governor
and responsible ministry. There is an
Executive Council of nine ministers, over
term for each elected assembly is four
years. The majority in each assembly
elects the ministry which is to serve as the
governor's executive. Local government
— except for the Municipal Council of
St. John's — is almost entirely directed by
the ministry and government depart-
ments at headquarters (St. John's).
It is interesting to note that in differ-
ences between the Dominion ParUament
and the provincial legislatures an appeal
to the Judicial Committee of the Privy
Council resulted in a satisfactory settle-
ment. Appeals still lie from the Supreme
Court — created in 1876 — of the Canadian
THE CANADIAN HOUSE OF COMMONS IN SESSION
which the governor presides ; a Legisla-
tive Council of eighteen members, nomi-
nated for life by the Governor-in-Council ;
and there is a House of Assembly of thirty-
six members, elected by ballot on manhood
suffrage. There is a property qualification
for members of a minimum value of /500,
or a yearly income of £100. A payment of
/24 is made in each session to each
legislative councillor, and of £^0 or ;^6o —
according to distance of residence — to
each member of the House of Assembly.
The session seldom lasts more than three
months in each year, and the maximum
5574
Dominion to the Privy Council of the
United Kingdom. If this could become and
remain the final court of appeal for the
whole empire it would do more than any
other measure to bind us together. But
our law lords, our Treasury, our national
indifference to pomp and show, combine
to hinder the creation of an ideal Supreme
Imperial Court of Appeal out of the
Judicial Committee of the Privy Council.
" Such a court," said Sir Edward Clarke
some time ago, " should be strong in its
constitution, dignified in its ceremonial,
and even splendid in its surroundings,
THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY OF VICTORIA
SCENES IN TWO OF AUSTRALIA'S HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT
5575
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
so as to command the respect and touch
the imagination of our brethren beyond
the seas." " The Judicial Committee of
the Privy Council," said a morning paper
recently, " which is the final court of
appeal for the citizens of the Greater
Britain, is one of the curiosities of our legal
system. It occupies a bare, barn-like
_ ,., room in Whitehall ; its mem-
J bers drop in casually and sit
. . .. around a horseshoe table
in their ordinary walking
clothes, and there is not a solitary symbol
of the dignity one would naturally expect
to see associated with a tribunal of such
imperial importance and world-wide
jurisdiction."
The Commonwealth of Austraha did not
attain to completion as a unified organisa-
tion until tw'enty years after the Canadian
Dominion, by the inclusion of the great
North-west, assumed its present unity and
comprehensive national force. The act
creating a Commonwealth of Australia
came into vigour on January ist, 1901.
The commonwealth consists of the six
states of New South Wales, Victoria,
South Australia, Queensland, Tasmania,
and Western Australia ; the little
islands of Norfolk and Lord Howe —
governed by New South Wales — and the
territory of Papua, administered by the
commonwealth government. All the six
states have governors appointed directly
by the Crown — i.e., on the advice of the
British Cabinet; but the lieutenant-governor
of Papua is appointed by the Governor-
General of the commonwealth, on the
advice of his Ministers. The governors of
the six states may correspond direct with
the Colonial Office, but must supply the
Governor-General with copies of their
despatches.
The constitution of New South Wa les com-
prises a governor and lieutenant-governor,
a Legislative Council of not less than
twenty-one members (actually fifty-six),
'TL ^ *•* *• appointed for life by the
The Constitution r- i t • 1 , •
J j^ Crown; and a Legislative
South Wales Assembly of ninety elected
members, ihe Assembly
sits for three years, unless dissolved sooner.
Each of the ninety constituencies only
returns one member, and each member is
paid £300 a year ; and, like the members of
Council — who are not paid any salary in
their capacity of legislative councillors — can
travel free on all government railways and
tramways, and send their letters postage
5576
free. The electoral franchise is conferred on
men and women alike since 1902. Every
man or woman, being a natural-born or
naturalised subject of his Majesty, above
twenty-one years of age, having resided
one year in the state, and three months
in a particular electoral district, is qualified
as an elector, and is entitled to one vote
only. Local government in New South
Wales is fully provided for through the
shires and municipal councils.
In the state of Victoria there are gover-
nor, lieutenant-governor, a Cabinet or
Executive Council, a Legislative Council
(thirty-four in number), and a Legislative
Assembly. Members of the Upper House,
or Legislative Council, are elected for
six years. Their qualification is the posses-
sion of an estate of the net annual minimum
value of ^^50 for one year prior to the
election. Electors of the Council must be
in possession of property of the rateable
value of £10, if freehold, or £15 if derived
from leasehold ; unless, that is, they are
graduates of a British or colonial university
or students of the Melbourne University,
ministers of religion, certificated -teachers,
„. . , lawyers, medical practi-
^ , X I , tioners, or officers of army or
Complete Local , ,, -^ ,
-, . navy; in such case the v need
uovernment -' ' , ,.^ , .- -
no property qualification for
the election of senators. The members of
this upper house are not paid. The Legis-
lative Assembly, which, like most of the
Australian lower houses, sits for three years
only, unless dissolved earlier, is composed
of sixty-five members. Neither these nor
their electors require any property qualifi-
cation. There are the usual provisions
as to being a British or naturalised
British subject. Members of the lower
house are paid ;f300 per annum. The
franchise for the election of members
of the lower house is practically the same
as that described for New South Wales,
except that it is limited to males.
Local government in Victoria is very
complete, and is carried out by means of
municipal and shire councils. For election
to these councils — by the ratepayers —
the suffrage is extended to women. In
South Australia, the Legislative Council
consists of eighteen members elected on
much the same terms as in Victoria,
except that the members elected must be
at least thirty years of age, and have
resided in the state for at least three years,
while the property limit of the council
suffrage is slightly higher, and there is no
PARLIAMENTS OF THE OUTER EMPIRE
exemption therefrom for the classes of
l^rofe^sional men as in Victoria. This
suffrage, Hke the others, is conferred
equally upon women. The House of As-
sembly consists of forty-two members
elected for not more than three years.
Qualifications and suffrage are similar
to those of Victoria, except that the
suffrage is also extended to women.
Members of both houses are paid a
salary of £200 a year whilst they serve.
Local government is carried on through
thirty-two elective municipal and dis-
trict councils in the settled regions.
In Queensland there is apparently no'
lieutenant-governor. The members of
A good deal of the state is divided into
shires (rural districts) and municipal areas
(cities, towns) — 670,255 square miles in
all — and over these local government,
under elected councils, is fully enforced.
Tasmania has a governor, deputy-
governor, and the same type of executive
and legislature as the other Australian
states. There is a maximum of eighteen
members in the Legislative Council. This
body is elected for six years. No property
qualification is necessary in either house,
but there is a very small property quali-
fication attached to the Senate franchise,
though, as in Victoria, this is not asked for
in the case of university or professional
THE TASMANIAN HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY IN SESSION
the Legislative Council (forty-four) are
all nominated by the Crown for life, and
are unpaid. The Legislative Assembly
comprises seventy-two members elected
for a maximum period of three years, and
paid at the rate of ;^300 a year. There is
no property qualification for the members
of either legislature.
The franchise is granted to all men and
women, born ornaturalised British subjects,
from the age of twenty-one years, after
twelve months' residence in the state, pro-
vided they are not insane, have not been
criminally convicted or, in the case of men,
have not been guilty of wife-desertion.
2 F =3 D
men. Members of the House of Assembly
(35 in number) are elected for three years,
the qualification being as described for
South AustraUa, on the usual adult (male
and female) suffrage. The only persons
who may not sit in the legislature of
Tasmania are judges of the Supreme
Court, paid officials of the Crown (except
responsible ministers), or contractors to
Government ; neither may any member
of the local legislature here or elsewhere
in Australia be at the same time
a parliamentary representative in the
Commonweath Parliament. The local
government of Tasmania is entrusted to
5577
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
elected municipal and rural councils. West
Australia has a governor and lieutenant-
governor, a Legislative Council of thirty
members, and a Legislative Assembly of
fifty. The councilloi's are elected for six
years, and the members of the Assembly for
three. The qualification for a councillor is
(i) to be not less than thirty years old;
„ ,. , (2) a resident in the state
Parliamentary r . 1 . . / \
-, ,.,. ^. . tor at least two years ; (3) a
Qualifications in t-, -z- 1 1 • ^ r
'^xi i K ♦ 1- British subject or nve-years
naturalised subject. Ihe
franchise for the upper house is conferred
on persons of both sexes over twenty-one,
British subjects, resident in the state six
months, and possessing a freehold estate of a
clear value of /lOO ,or the usual proportionate
equivalent in leasehold, rent or ratepaying.
The qualification for members of the
lower house is that they should be
male British subjects over twenty-one
who have resided in the state for twelve
months ; or, if naturalised for five years,
then' their residence must be at least
two j-ears. The franchise for the lower
house is granted to any man or woman
above twenty-one — provided they are
British or naturalised subjects — when they
have resided at least six months in the
state, and whilst they are actually resi-
dent in the district at the time of their
claim. This condition about residence at
the time of claiming the vote is waived
for those who have a small property
qualification. As throughout the rest of
Australia, no elector has more than one
vote for the lower house.
^lembers of both houses are paid /200 a
year and travel freeon government railways.
Local government in Western Australia
is entrusted to municipal councils elected
by the ratepayers, and to a number of
public institutions apparently depending
on the Executive or the Legislature —
boards of water supply and sewerage (not
a very happy conjuncture !), road boards,
and local boards of health. The ad-
tmri. «r miuistration of Papua con-
Where Women • ^ r 1 ■ , .
P . sists 01 a heutenant-governor
.. g „ and an Executive Council of
six members (officials), and
a Legislative Council composed of the
Executive and three unofficial members
appointed by the governor.
So much for the provincial administra-
tion of Australia. It will be observed that
in every state svith responsible govern-
ment, except Victoria, the suffrage is
granted on equal terms to men and women
5578
alike, universally on the principle of one
man one vote ; that the terms of duration
of the elected lower houses are invariably
limited to three years, and that there is no
excluding property qualification attached
to either membership or suffrage for the
lower houses of legislature.
The federal government of Australia
consists of the king (represented by a
governor-general), a Senate, and a House
of Representatives. The Governor-General
is assisted by an Executive Council of
ministers who are, or who must become
within three months, members of the
Federal Parliament. There are 36 senators
who are elected for six years, and receive
;^6oo a year each, unless already holding
salaried posts as ministers, or salaried
officers of the house.
Members of the House of Representa-
tives are elected for three years (unless the
house is dissolved sooner), and are paid at
the rate of /600 a year. There are at
present 75 representatives, but the num-
bers fluctuate in each parliament in
relation to increase or diminution of the
population. The number of the senators
. , ,. , may be increased or diminished
Australia s • -i, r , u x i
P ill the future, but always on
Q the lines that no original state
shall have less than six senators
nor more than any other original state.
The qualifications for senators and
representatives are identical : twenty-
one years of age, to be an elector, or
entitled to be ; to be resident at least
three years in Australia ; to be a British
subject born, or a naturalised British
subject of five years' standing. The
federal franchise for election in both
houses is universal adult suffrage (male
and female), on the usual terms —
twenty-one years of age and upwards,
British citizenship, and a minimum of
twelve months' residence.
The Canadian legislature has been
commended because it left practically no
loophole for dispute as to the competency
of the Federal Parliament. The subjects
on which the provincial parliaments could
legislate were clearly stipulated, and the
Federal Parliament was empowered to deal
with all else which did not infringe the
prerogatives of the British Crown. In the
Australian Legislature, the case is reversed.
The scope of the Federal Parliament is
defined in thirty nine articles, and the
powers of the state governments are
not otherwise limited. Disputes on the
PARLIAMENTS OF THE OUTER EMPIRE
interpretation of the federal constitution
will have to be referred to the new High Court
ot Australia, which is to be an appellate,
as well as an original court. An appeal to
the final decision of the Judicial Committee
of the Privy Council from the decisions of
the High Court, or from those of the
Supreme Courts of the federal states, may
only be carried out on a certificate to be
granted by the High Court at its own dis-
cretion. The Federal Parliament under-
takes to legislate for, and to control, the
naval and military defence of Australia,
its trade, taxation, public debts, loans,
postal service, census, and statistics,
currency, banking, marriage, divorce, old
age pensions, immigration, emigration,
railways, regulations dealing with insol-
vency and corporations, departments of
state, foundation of a state capital, etc. etc.
The dominion of New Zealand has an
area (including all island groups attached
to its administration) of about 105,249
square miles, and a population of nearly
950,000. Its government consists of a
governor and commander-in-chief, an
Executive Council of Ministers, a Legis-
Uitive Council of 45 members, and a House
of Representatives of 80 members, includ-
ing four Maories. The extreme duration
of membership in the upper house is
seven years ; the House of Representatives
sits for three years, unless previously
dissolved. Members of the Council are
paid £200 a year, representatives £300.
Councillors are appointed by the governor,
representati\es are, elected by the people,
the qualification for the last-named being
that of an elector. The franchise is granted
-, . . to all men and women of
Maories m ,- . i. i
., ^ , ., European race over twenty-
New Zealand s ^ ^ , , •'
r^ . one years ot age who have
Oovernmcnt • / i , i P
resided at least one year m
the colony and three months in the
electoral district. For the election of the
four Maori members every adult Maori can
vote who is resident in the district for
which the Maori candidate is standing.
As regards local government, this also
is elective on the part of the ratepayers.
The dominion is divided into municipali-
ties and counties, road districts and town
districts, river drainage, water supply
boards, etc. The qualifications for
electors are ratepaying, residence, or the
possession of property. Municipal fran-
chise is equally extended to women . From
this purview of the forms of government in
every part of the British Empire and sphere
r- ^ ♦ n •. • • of influence, coupled with
Great Britain s , 1 j r,/ • ,•.
Advanced ^ knowledge of the mstitu-
Daughter Nations tionsof theBritishjIslands,
it wiJl be seen that the
countries with the most modern and ideally
perfect type of constitution are Australia
and New Zealand ; next, and only inferior
because it still denies the franchise to
women, is Canada. The states of South
Africa are not far behind, but some of
them are fettered by considerations of race
questions and restricted franchise. The
Mother Country is still behind the more
advanced daughter nations in the solution
of several social problems and the simpli-
fication of administrative machinery.
India lacks an admixture of the native
element in her highest councils. Trinidad
is thought by some to be too purely
ofhcial in its government. Gibraltar,
Northern Nigeria, Uganda, and the
Egyptian Sudan are administered auto-
cratically without executive or legisla-
tive councils. Gibraltar, of course, is little
else than a garrisoned fort ; in Uganda
there is a highly developed representative
native administration, and a good deal of
Northern Nigeria is still governed in parts
by native princes.
The sultan of Zanzibar governs despotic-
ally through a ministry of English and
Arabs, but in constant touch with the
feelings and interest of the populace ; the
despotism of the petty Arab sultans in
Aden territory, Socotra, the Hadhramaut,
Oman, and Bahrein is tempered by the
advice of British residents. The rest
of the inner British Empire is not with-
out some measure of elective or popular
representation in its councils, and the
full measure of popular government in
Barbados and the Bermudas seems to
have induced quiet and prosperity.
STABROEK MARKET AND THE STELLINGS AT GEORGETOWN IN BRITISH GUIANA
5579
IN THE ROCKIES: ELBOW RIVER VALLEY AND THE THREE SISTERS
KINCHINJUNGA, THE HIGHEST POINT OF THE NEPAL HIMALAYAS IN NORTH INDIA
THE NUWARA ELIYA MOUNTAIN IN THE ISLAND OF CEYLON
MOUNTAIN RANGES IN GREAT BRITAIN'S OVER-SEAS DOMINIONS
558Q
THE
BRITISH
EMPIRE
XII
BY SIR
HARRY
JOHNSTON,
G.C.M.G.
THE SINEWS OF EMPIRE
THE RESOURCES, EDUCATION, AND
DEFENCES OF GREATER BRITAIN
'T'HE British Empire not only includes
* that extraordinary diversity of human
races enumerated in another chapter,
but it is equally diverse in its physical
geography, fauna, flora, and climates.
It contains deserts such as may be found
in Southern Egypt, Southern Arabia,
West-central India, and Australia, wherein
it may not chance to rain more than once
in seven years. It includes regions of
mountain and forest like Assam, where
the annual rainfall is the highest known —
about 300 inches per annum.
It extends to the South Pole and the
North Pole, and possesses territories
within the equatorial belt in Africa, East-
ern Asia, and South America. It takes
under its aegis the highest mountains in the
world, the loftiest peaks of the Himalayas,
and other such notable mountains as
Ruwenzori, Elgon, Kenya, Mlanje, and the
., , . Drakensberg in Africa, Mount
Mountains i^.j ■ ^ at ic-
Troodos m Cyprus, Mount bmai
J. . in Eastern Egypt, the moun-
tains of Penang and Perak in
the Malay Peninsula, the Australian
Alps, the New Zealand Alps, Roraima
of British Guiana, the Blue Mountains of
Jamaica, the Cockscomb Mountains of
British Honduras, and the Rocky Moun-
tains of Canada, these last unsurpassed in
splendour of scenery anywhere in the
world. Nor as providers of inspiring land-
scapes need the mountains of Scotland,
Ireland and Wales, the hills of Shropshire,
Derbyshire, Gloucester or Monmouth,
Somerset, Devon, and Sussex be left out
of the record of the empire's scenic
beauty or health resorts.
We control half of the basins of the
Niger and the Zambesi, and the sources
of the Congo ; the Nile, from its twin
fountains to its mouth, is wholly within
the British sphere. We share Niagara with
the United States, and own exclusively
its only rival among the world's great
waterfalls — those which David Livingstone
discovered on the Zambesi. Fate has
entrusted for a time to our charge — and
it is to be hoped we shall be worthy of
the stewardship — the largest share of the
world's wonders, the choicest examples of
„ .. . , , terrestrial loveliness. At
Britain s Large ., , • ,, ,
c. f 11. the same time the most
ohare 01 the , , ■ r , <
World's Wonders P^ductive regions of the
world are under our sway.
Even the seemingly unproductive, such
as those as are well nigh locked in the
grasp of the last Glacial Period or
scorched by the sun of the Sahara Desert,
are found to be rich in minerals — in
gold, nitre, or precious stones.
The gold of Spanish America and Cali-
fornia did much to increase the world's
wealth in that metal, but not so much as has
been obtained in the last sixty years from
Australia, New Guinea, New Zealand, South.
Africa, British Guiana, India, and West
Africa. We have silver also in Canada,
Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa.
Copper is obtained from Australia, from
the arid South-west Africa and Northern
and Southern Rhodesia, from Canada and
Newfoundland ; and some day, no doubt,
will be obtained from the Egyptian Sudan.
Tin, once the principal attraction to
ancient explorers of the British Islands,
and still much mined in Cornwall, is now
found to be singularly abundant in the
Malay Peninsula, and is also obtained from
Australia and Northern Nigeria. Coal, the
great product of the United Kingdom itself,
is also now worked profitably
in Australia, New Zealand,
Canada, India, Borneo, Natal,
the Transvaal, Rhodesia, and
Cape Colony, Petroleum is found in
Burma, Canada, and (in a more bituminous
form) in Southern Nigeria, Barbados (West
Indies), and Trinidad. Diamonds of a
good second quality abound in South
Africa to such an extent that the trade has
5581
South Africa
Rich
in Diamonds
A BKITISH PORT IN CHINA : GHNHKAL VIEW OK WEl-HAI-WEI, SHOWING DOCKVAKUb
to control their output. Of a better quality
are those still found in India and in British
Guiana, and perhaps in Australia. Austra-
lia is rich in opals. Opals, rubies, sapphires,
and emeralds come from India. But I
think it will be found as the civilisation
of the world progresses that the so-called
precious stones will deteriorate in value.
There will be a market for them where
they can be used industrially, as is the
case with the diamond, but as mere orna-
ments the educated world will be growing
too sensible to spend money on them. It
will prefej- the pure and cheap beauty of
flowers and the sensible warmth of furs.
As regards this last accessory to an
artificial life, the British Empire is still
exceedingly rich, though it may be ques-
tioned whether it is not gobbling up its
capital at a foolish rate and making no
provision for a future supply. The terri-
tories of the Canadian Dominion to the
north of the fifty-second degree of north
latitude are, together with Siberia, the great
fur-producing regions of the world.
Hence are exported the skins of beavers,
foxes, martens, stoats, otters, lynxes,
wolves and bears, which provide such a
large proportion of the world's fur coats,
muffs, trimmings, and carriage rugs. The
Canadian Government, however, might
well consider whether measures should not
be taken to restrict the output and preserve
many valuable species of fur-bearing ani-
mals from complete extinction. This
problem in regard to the skins of the sea-
lions, exported from the Pacific coasts of
Canada, has already received attention.
THE IRRIGATION WORKS AND PUBLIC RESERVOIR AT HAIDARABAD, IN INDIA
55^2
THE SINEWS OF EMPIRE
India contributes thousands of tiger,
leopard, l^ear, deer, and antelope skins
annually. Australia sends a certain
proportion of the so-called opossum fur
(the soft, woolly pelts of the phalanger).
South Africa forwards a diminishing num-
ber of karosses made of the skins of red
lynxes, foxes, jackals, and springboks.
West Africa exports leopard and monkey
skins ; East Africa the hides of lions, •
leopards, cheetahs, and jackals.
But passing from the pelt that is used
for its beauty and heavy fur, we may
enumerate the more essential product of
mere -leather. Ox, antelope, and zebra
hides are an export of growing importance
from the territories of Uganda and East
the world, together with cattle for hides,
meat, and draught purposes. vSomaliland,
the Egyptian Sudan, and British Arabia
will also become great camel-breeding
regions. This is already the case with
much of West Central India — in which
magnificent one-humped camels (drome-
daries) are found. In far North-western
India and in all the regions of Central
Asia adjacent thereto, and, more or less,
under British influence, there is the
" Bactrian " two-humped camel, still wild
in Tibet. This is an exceedingly useful
beast for transpo«:t, and furnishes valuable
hair for weaving fabrics and for felting.
In this region also is the yak — a wild and
also domesticated species of ox, which has
CLEARING AN INDIA-RUBBER FOREST IN THE STRAITS SETTLEMENTS
Africa, and enormous numbers of hides are
sent to the leather markets from India,
Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa.
The wool and hair products of the
British Empire are a most important item.
Australia and New Zealand are largely
given up to the breeding of sheep — for
Vv^ool as well as meat. Cape Colony and
other parts of South Africa are breeding
Merino sheep, and, above all. Angora goats.
The great industry of the Falkland Islands
is sheep and sheep products — wool, tallow,
meat. It will probably be found that
Somaliland and a good deal of the Egyp-
tian Sudan will take prominent places in
the future as countries furnishing goats'
hair, sheep's wool, and meat to the rest of
an extravagant development of hair along
the tail and sides of the body. The yak may
bear some relation in origin to the bison.
The bison, alas ! once abounded in Southern
Canada, but is now nearly exterminated.
Australia and British Arabia — later on,
Somahland, Nigeria, and parts of the
Sudan— Ireland and Great Britain will
produce between them, sufficient horses for
the needs of the empire and for all climates
and purposes. If less attention were
given to racing as an odious form of
gambling, mixed up with so much that is
disreputable and fraudulent, and greater
encouragement were given by the state
to honest horse-breeding for honest pur-
poses, Great Britain ought to be able to
5583
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
supply herself with all the horses she
needs, and not have to import any from
Belgium and Hungary. As regards the
domesticated birds produced by the
different sections of the empire, Canada is
going ahead with her fowl-breeding, not
prevented, as are the people of England
and Ireland, by the ridiculous cult of the
fox, which checks the maintenance of so
many i^oultry farms in the home country.
In this direction the United Kingdom
lags behind its possibilities as a country i or
the breeding and rearing of choice poultry.
India raises large quantities of peafowl,
Chinese geese, and domestic fowls of various
breeds. The rearing of turkeys on a con-
siderable scale
has lately
progress in
made
Aus-
tralia and New
Zealand, and
even on a portion
of the Gold Coast
in West Africa.
In all the southern
regions of Cape
Colony and
Natal poultry is
usually very suc-
cessful, and may
before long be
made an article
of export. The
ostrich farms of
South Africa are
so famous that
they need no
description. The
wild fauna of
the empire is, or
should be, one of
its glories, for
Great Britain at present controls the
fate of some of the most interesting,
wonderful, and beautiful creatures still
living on this planet. Our political
limits include the Polar bear of Arctic
Canada and the okapi of the Semliki
forests ; the lion, tiger, and elephants
of Africa and Asia.
The white and the black rhinoceroses are
still allowed to exist under the British flag
in nooks and corners, and one or two game
reserves, where the British sportsman
(and his American, German, and Russian
friends) has not as yet succeeded in ex-
terminating them. The hippopotamus is
still a nuisance to navigation in most of
our African rivers. It is possible that the
5584
OIL-WELLS AT YANANGYET, IN BURMA
easternmost parts of Sierra Leone contain
the p>'gmy hippopotamus of the adjoining
Liberia. Somaliland, the Egyptian Sudan,
British Central, and British East Africa,
and the hinterland of the Gambia are
marvellously rich in antelopes, giraffes,
and three types of buffalo. The kangaroo is
almost entirely a British subject. He may
have a few arboreal cousins living under
the Dutch and German flags.
Practically speaking the British ensign
covers all the marsupials of the world,
except the opossums of America and the
cuscus of the Malay Archipelago, or the
rat-like Coenolestes of Ecuador. We pos-
sess specimens of every species of zebra
and wild ass, a*nd
have but some
day to extend our
political influence
over Tibet to
throw our aegis
over the only
remaining wild
horse. The tapir
of British Guiana
and the tapir of
the Malay Penin-
sula are both
citizens of the
British Empire.
Many a wonder-
ful parrot or lory,
a pheasant, horn-
bill, plantain-
eater, or sun-
bird is entirely
" British " in its
range. The lyre-
bird— one of the
small wonders of
creation — is a
fellow-citizen of Australia with the
kangaroo, though not yet accorded that
rigid protection it deserves. As to our
botanical wealth, it is stupendous.
The British flag waves over the grandest
forests of the world, temperate and tropical.
The pines and firs of Canada, the oaks and
beeches of England, the mahogany of British
Honduras and British Guiana, the Kauri
pine of New Zealand, the eucalyptus and
acacia of Australia, the teak of India ; the
ebony, the incense trees, the khayas of West
Africa ; the junipers and giant yews of the
East African mountains ; and the sandal-
wood and bamboos of the Malay Penin-
sula ; the orchids of Burma and British
Guiana, the roses of England and Canada,
THE EUROPEAN MINING METHODS IN THE SAME PLACE
NATIVE AND BRITISH METHODS AT THE RUBY MINES OF MOGOK IN BURMA
5585
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
the vines of South Africa and Austraha,
the wheat of British North America, the
wheat of India and New Zealand, the
bananas of the West Indies and of West
Africa, the oranges of Jamaica and of New
South Wales, the sugar of Barbados and of
Queensland, the apples of New Zealand and
Canada, the mangoes and mangosteens
_ . . , of India, the apples, plums,
y . . peaches of South Africa, which
w^^.t ^ are some day eroing to be
Wealth , , -^ . • . ° , . ,
amongst her prmcipal articles
of export to a fruit-loving world ; the oil-
palm of West Africa ; the rubber from the
same region, from Ceylon, and from the
Malay Peninsula ; the tea from Assam,
Ceylon, and Natal ; coffee from Nyassa-
land, Uganda, and Sierra Leone ; cacao
from the Gold Coast, Jamaica, and Trini-
dad ; rice from India and West Africa.
These are a few of the items to be recounted
in our tale of vegetable wealth. It is a
subject for serious consideration that the
rule of the British king as directed and
advised by his numerous legislatures all
over the world should control such an
enormous portion of the world's food
supplies. In the time to come — which no
living reader of this history may see — food
may be more valuable than the so-called
precious metals and precious stones.
The educational establishments of the
British Empire, besides those of the
United Kingdom and the Channel Islands,
consist of the following. Gibraltar has
thirteen government-aided elementary
schools. In Malta there is a university,
founded under the rule of the Knights of
St. John in 1769, with four faculties, and a
lyceum, or public school, for boys, besides
two government secondary schools for
boys and for girls, 167 elementary schools,
four technical and art schools, and seventy-
one private educational establishments.
In Cyprus there are two Boards of
Education to regulate (a) the Christian
and (b) the Moslem schools of the island.
These consist of four Greek high schools,
o. . A-, , and a Greek " gymnasium," or
Sch 1 university ; one Moslem high
j^ Q school, two similar Armenian-
Christian establishments (high
schools for boys and girls), a third
Armenian school conducted by monks,
and three schools for the Maronite Chris-
tians are also state-aided. Of the 526
elementary schools, 178 are Moslem.
In Egypt there were, in 1907, 2,761
Moslem elementary schools, imparting
5586
sufficiently useful education to receive
governmental assistance. There are also
many government technical schools for
teaching carpentry, metal work, etc.
Under the Ministry of Education there
are 143 elementary schools for Moslems,
thirty-four primary schools, four secondary
schools, ten special and technical schools
for deahng with agriculture, art, engineer-
ing, teaching, etc., and eleven professional
colleges (medicine, law, military, veter-
inary science, engineering, teaching, etc.).
In addition there are also 305 first-class
schools maintained by foreigners, notably
by Americans. There is the great useless
Moslem university of Al Azhar, near
Cairo, still wasting human time and
marring the intellectual progress of modern
Egypt by an antique, fanatical, unscientific,
unpractical style of teaching.
Education in Egypt owes a debt to
Britain mainly on account of our patience
and energy in pressing on the Egyptian
Government the need for rescuing know-
ledge from the strangling grasp of Moham-
medan fanatics. But it also owes much
recognition to the memory of M^hemet
_, „ , , Ali and his great-grandson.
The budan s t -i n 1 i n ^
_ ^ Ismail Pasha : also equally to
Oovernmeat ,, , • . -• r
r . .. the personal intervention 01
the present khedive and his
father Tewfik. And last, but not least,
to private Mohammedan generosity and to
the missionary efforts of America.
In the Anglo- Egyptian Sudan there are
fifteen elementary Arabic schools, and six
"secondary. These government schools
are practically secular, and Christian as
well as Moslem children are educated
there. There are two industrial schools,
besides that which is attached to the
Gordon College, and three training
colleges for teachers. Gordon College it-
self at Khartoum includes a department
for the education of the Sudanese in law
and the other subjects required by them
for entry into the civil service ; and also
a high school for boys to be taught
engineering, surveying, English, etc.
Very little seems to be done for the
education of the Arabs or Somalis at
Aden or in British Somaliland — practic-
ally nothing, in fact ; nor are missionaries
encouraged to work there, owing to Moham-
medan fanaticism. The same is the ca^e
in the Persian Gulf and in Baluchistan.
In India only about 16,500,000 people
out of a total population of 297,000,000
are able to read and write in any language.
NATIVES DIGGING THE PITCH
J. W.MC
ONE OF THE WORLD'S WONDERS: THE PITCH LAKE AT LA TREA. TRINFDAD
5587
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
Only about 25 per cent, of the boys ever
attend school, and only 3I per cent, of the
girls. The best educated region is Bengal.
On the whole, the Hindus are better edu-
cated than the Mohammedans. There
are five universities — Calcutta, Madras,
Bombay, Lahore, and Allahabad. There
are 185 colleges, among which is the Mayo
College for the education of the sons of
princes, 115,869 government or govern-
ment-aided schools, including 1,664 train-
ing and special schools for the instruction
of school teachers and the teaching of
many technical subjects. There are
numerous government schools of art.
There are also 42,604 private and charitable
schools. Of the colleges, twelve only are
for the education of women, for whom also
there are 112 training schools, and 11,256
primary, secondary, and private schools.
In Ceylon, which has a total population
of 3>578,333, there are 590 government
schools, and 1,785 private schools.
There is a royal
college and a
government
training college,
besides several
English high
schools. Less
than half the
population is
illiterate — a great
contrast to India.
In the Straits
Settlements, the
sultanate of
Johor, and the
Federated Malay
States there are
about 245 schools
of all degrees
maintained by
the British or the
native govern-
ments (210 in
the Straits
Settlements).
The educational
e s t a b 1 i shments
of Sarawak and
North Borneo
are almost
entirely main-
tained by mis-
sionary societies.
Hong Kong has
seventy primarv
schools, two gn-ls' A PLUMBAGO MINE AT
high schools, three high schools for both
sexes, and two high schools for young
people of European parentage. On the
leasehold of Wei-hai-wei there are four
government schools teaching English, one
private school for European children, and
numerous Chinese schools.
In Mauritius there is the royal college,
with two preparatory schools, and there
are a training college for teachers, sixty-
seven government primary schools,
eighty-eight state-aided schools, and one
assisted Mohammedan school. Educa-
cation is gratuitous but not compulsory.
The Seychelles Archipelago, with a popula-
tion of 22,000, maintains twenty-seven
primary assisted schools, the Victoria
secondary school for boys, two Catholic
secondary schools, one for girls, and an
efficient infants' school. There are two
government scholarships of £50 a year.
In Cape Colony there is a university
(Cape Town), and there are five colleges
and 3,750 schools,
primary and
s e c o ndary. In
Zanzibar, and
in the various
Crown colonies,
protectorates,
and spheres of
influence of
Tropical Africa,
except the Gam-
bia and Sierra
Leone, education
is mainly in the
hands of the dif-
ferent missionary
societies, and is
entirely confined
to the natives of
Africa. In Sierra
Leone the edu-
cational estab-
lishments are
excellent. There
is Fula Bay
College, a first-
class institution ;
there are seventy-
five primary
schools, seventy-
four secondary
schools, four
Mohammedan
schools, and a
college at Bo —
in the interior —
KURUNEGALA, IN CEYLON
Plioto Morgan Crucible Co.
558S
I . K I. iii.bert 0^ Co
A TIN MINE NEAR KWALA LUMPUR, THE CAPITAL OF SELANGOR
for the sons of chiefs. In the Gambia there
are six elementary schools under missionary
management which receive state aid. There
is also one secondary school.
On the Gold Coast, in proportion to its
size and wealth, education is not much
fostered by the government, and were it
not for the work of the Swiss Basle
Mission — which for thirty years has
flooded West Africa with enlightenment
and education of a most practical, indus-
trial character — the Gold Coast natives
would contrast disadvantageously with
the rest of British West Africans. There
are seven government schools in the
coast regions of this colony and 140
assisted schools. There are no govern-
ment schools in Ashanti. In Southern
Nigeria education has of late been taken
in hand by the government with vigour
and success. There is a high school at
Bonny, another at Old Calabar, and a
grammar school at Lagos. In addition,
there are thirty-one government primary
schools (four for girls) and sixty-nine
assisted schools. A Mohammedan school
has been opened at Lagos.
In the Bermudas, where there is a popu-
lation of nearly 18,000, there are five
schools for the children of the soldiers and
sailors, twenty primary schools, and five
secondary. There are said to be three
Bermudan Rhodes scholars at Oxford.
In the Bahamas the government schools
number forty-six, together with twelve
that receive state aid and forty-nine
unaided. All this for a population of
only 60,000 promises well for the advance-
ment of the Bahamas.
In Jamaica, with a population — mainly
black — of about 830,000, there are 687
government schools, three training colleges
for teachers, and a high school at Kingston.
There are also a large number of endowed
high schools, industrial and technical in-
stitutions. Seven elementary government
schools are maintained on the Turks and
Caicos Islands dependent on Jamaica.
In the Leeward Islands, to a population
of 134,000, there are 115 primary schools,
six secondary, an agricultural college, and
an industrial school. In the Windward
Islands of Grenada, St. V^incent, and St.
Lucia there is a population of 372,000 ;
and there are 118 primary schools, one
grammar school in Grenada, and an agri-
cultural school in St. Vincent. Barbados
has a population of 197,000, and main-
tains 166 primary schools, five secondary,
three high schools, and Codrington
College, affiliated to Durham University.
Trinidad and Tobago together have a
5589
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
population of 328,000. There are 250
government schools, many private
schools, a queen's royal college, and a
Roman Catnolic college. The Central
American colony of British Honduras has
a population of 41,000 and forty-one
primary schools, together with five
secondary schools. British Guiana, in
^ c •. . Northern South America
Camp Schools , 1 . • r 1 .
• .k r 1. 1 J has a population of about
in the Falkl&ad ^ ^ , ,
, , . 307,000, 220 schools re-
Islands -'/'. '^^ ., ,
ceivmg state aid, and a
government college in Georgetown. Besides
this, the local government affords certain
means to natives of the colony to pursue
a university education in England.*
In the Falkland Islands, near the
southern extremity of the South American
continent, there is a population of about
2,100, and there are five permanent
schools — one Roman Catholic — besides
an excellent S37stem of camp schools,
with travelling schoolmasters. Education
here is compulsory.
In the little lonely South Atlantic island
of St. Helena there is a native population
of 3,500, for whom nine schools are main-
tained, partly at government expense.
So much for the education of the Inner
Empire ; that of the self - governing
daughter nations is as follows :
The dominion of Canada has an approxi-
mate population at the date of writing of
6,000,000. Her nine provinces and Yukon
territory maintain 20,570 schools — public,
high, and for secondary education. There
are, in addition, many private schools.
There are, further, tliirty colleges, mostly
gathered round eighteen universities. Edu-
cation is compulsory throughout Canada.
The population of Newfoundland and
Labrador is about 233,000 at the present
time.' There are 881 public and secondary
schools and three colleges, supported or
partly supported by state funds, but entirely
managed by the local Anglican, Roman
Catholic, and Methodist churches. Edu-
cation does not appear to
be compulsory. In Cape
Colony there is a popula-
tion of more than 580,000
whites of European descent, of whom
nearly 145,000 are ilhterate. The total
population is 2,500,000, and education —
not compulsory — is state - provided in
some 3,750 primary and secondary
schools and in five colleges. There is
an examining university in Cape Town.
In Basutoland there are four government
5590
Cape Colony's
Schools
and Colleges
schools, an industrial school, and 250
schools maintained — partly state aided —
by missionaries. The education in
Bechuanaland is entirely conducted by
the London Missionary Society and the
Dutch Reformed Church.
In Natal there is a European population
of about 95,000 ; Asiatics, 112,000 ;
negroes, 945,000. For the European chil-
dren there are 295 government or state-
aided primary schools, two government
high schools in Durban and Pietermaritz-
burg, two government art schools, 167
government or government-aided schools
for negroes, and twenty-eight government-
aided schools for Indian children. There
are altogether forty-five schools entirely
managed by the government and 469 that
receive state funds. Education, though
much encouraged, is not compulsory.
In the Orange River Colony education
since 1905 is practically compulsory. The
European population is about 145,000.
There are about 170 primary schools, three
residential high schools (one for girls),* a
training school for teachers, and the Grey
University College, near Bloemfontein. Two
-, hundred and ninety thou-
m « sory g^nd inhabitants entirely of
Education in t- ■ ■ ■ ^^ ^
.. T, , European origin in the irans-
the Transvaal , r, ° . , ., , ,
vaal have their children s
education attended to at 502 primary
schools. There are about twelve schools
specially provided for children of mixed race,
and there are 209 schools for negroes. There
is a normal college for the training of teachers
and a Transvaal University College. Educa-
tion for Europeans is compulsory. The
whole character of the educational measures
passed by the first Transvaal parliament,
in 1906, is essentially modern and efficient.
In Southern Rhodesia there are private
schools for European children at Buluwayo
and at Salisbury, but of necessity the
European population of the three Rho-
desian provinces (about 16,000) is at
present mainly adult. The education of
the great Zulu-Kafihr race in South Africa
has received in general a great impulse from
the Lovedale Institute of the Free Church of
Scotland Mission in Eastern Cape Colony.
The commonwealth of Australia, includ-
ing Tasmania and Norfolk Island, has a
total population of European race of
about 4,150,000. For the general and
primary education of these there are 7,362
government or state-provided schools,
and 2,284 recognised private schools. New
South Wales has the University of Sydney
A VAST SEA OF SAND IN THE ARABIAN DESERT
A SAND-BLOWN GRAVEYARD IN THE DESERT
DESERT SCENES IN THE BRITISH EMPIRE
5591
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
Educational
Institution
and the Technical College, which last gives
instruction in agriculture, among other
subjects. There are schools of art in most of
the principal towns. Education is compul-
sory. Victoria has a universit3^ at Melbourne
with three colleges, a school of mines,
and seventeen technical colleges. Educa-
tion is compulsory, and it is said that only
. , , . , 2 per cent, of the population is
Australasia s .,/ , t r\ i j i
illiterate. inCJueensland educa-
tion is not yet compulsory. A
university is about to be estab-
lished at Brisbane. In South Australia,
which has a population of nearly 385,000,
education is compulsory, but it is said that
nearly 17 per cent, of the people are
illiterate. No doubt, under this head are
included the few thousand Chinese and
aborigines. This state has a university at
Adelaide, and maintains a training college
for teachers. In West Australia education
is compulsory, and only 3 per cent, are said
to be illiterate. Tasmania has a university
at Hobart, two schools of mines, and two
technical schools. Education is compulsory.
Little Norfolk Island, under the manage-
ment of New South Wales, has one efficient
government school for its population — ■
European and Melanesian — of nearly 1,000.
The dominion of New Zealand has a
population of about 890,000 whites, 48,000
Maories, 2,570 Chinese, and in its dependent
archipelagoes 12,340 Polynesians. Educa-
tion is compulsory. There are 1,847 public
primary schools, 308 private schools, 28
secondary schools, seven school of mines,
four normal schools; five principal schools of
art, and 11 industrial schools, besides 104
schools for Maories. There are colleges
at Dunedin, Christchurch, Canterbury, and
Wellington for specialist education, and
these are affiliated to the university of
New Zealand at Wellington.
The territory of Papua (British New
Guinea) is governed by the Australian
Commonwealth. It has a population of
under 900 Europeans, almost all adults.
The native population of
Papuans is estimated at
400,000. Their education is in
the hands of the London Mis-
sionary Society, the Roman Catholic
Society of the Sacred Heart, the Church
of England Mission, and the Methodist
Missionary Society of Australasia.
In the Crown colony of Fiji, the
European population is steadily increasing.
It numbers at present about 3,300.
Education for this section of the com-
5592
Europeans
Increasing
in F i j i
munity is provided at the cost of the
community, and is directed by the school-
boards of Suva and Levuka, and carried on
by two government schools at these places.
There are also three good Roman Catholic
schools at Suva and Levuka. A govern-
ment native high school has been estab-
lished for some considerable time at
Nasinu, near Suva, where an excellent
higher education is offered to the native
Fijians and the children of the Asiatic
settlers (Indian coolies, mostly).
The Wesleyan and Roman Catholic
missions provide entirely the primary
education of the natives (Melanesians and
Polynesians) throughout the Fiji and
Rotuma Islands. The Wesleyans also
conduct the education of the natives of the
protected kingdom of Tonga. Missionaries
of the Wesleyan, Presbyterian, Anglican,
and Roman Catholic Churches also preside
— without any grant or state assistance
whatsoever — over the education of the
thousands of natives of the British pro-
tected Gilbert, Solomon, and Santa Cruz
Islands in the Equatorial Pacific.
The total number of armed men ready
for war service — the standing armies,
. . 1st Reserve, colonial volun-
Armies , 2 , 1 ■ ■ i
f th B "f h *^^^^ 1^^ constant training and
£ . thoroughly efficient, also the
military police — of the British
Empire at the close of 1908 amounted to
about 926,000, incluchng the British Re-
serves, Channel Islands Militia, Honourable
Artillery Company, and permanent staffs
of militia, etc., but not the English Militia,
Imperial Yeomanry, or Territorial Army.
Of these, in the first place, should be
mentioned the regular (professional) army
of the United Kingdom, amounting to
216,018 combatants of all arms, and 31,348
non-combatants. This army is distributed
thus : 115,148 in Great Britain, and about
15,000 in Ireland ; 3,809 at Gibraltar ;
7,099 in Malta and Crete ; 123 in Cyprus ;
76,155 in India; 1,000 in Ceylon ; 5,719 in
Egypt and the Sudan ; 1,500 at Singapore ;
3,101 at Hong Kong and Wei-hai-wei ;
16,213 in South Africa; 18 at St. Helena;
1,309 at the Bermudas; 547 in Jamaica;
and about 726 in Mauritius. The total
colonial contingent is 41,063 for 1908-
1909, but in 1907-1908 there were 49,804
British soldiers in the colonies.
Canada has a military force on the
footing of active service, including military
police, of about 3,000, and an active
militia of about 51,000. Australia maintains
THE SINEWS OF EMPIRE
a tiny permanent army of 1,329 officers and
men, and a partly paid trained militia of
15,445. Including volunteers, rifle-clubmen,
cadets, and reserve of officers, the common-
wealth has a potential army of 84,000 men.
The six Australian states, moreover, main-
tain a force of about 10,000 mounted police,
first-class irregular soldiers in war time.
New Zealand also has a permanent militia
of 341 artillery and engineers, and a regu-
larly drilled volunteer force of not less
than 18,000, notwithstanding 700 mounted
police. Cape Colony — besides the Imperial
troops stationed in the colony — maintains
short notice put in the field a good fighting
force of at least 5,000 volunteers, mostly
mounted. The Egyptian army in Egypt
and the Sudan consists of a force of 19,010
rank and file, including 121 British officers.
Egypt pays an approximate £150,000 a
year towards the cost of the British army
of occupation. Malta maintains a respect-
able contingent— the Royal Malta Artillery
(446), the King's Own Malta Regiment
(war strength, 2,258), and the Malta
Militia Submarine Miners (63). The
Maltese Government also pays £5,000 to
the Imperial Government as a military
G. K. Lambert
OPENING OF THE FIRST STATE RAILWAY IN THE MALAY PENINSULA
a respectable armed force : 705 Cape
Mounted Rifles, 1,734 Mounted Police, and
a body of 5,835 volunteers in regular drill.
Natal has an armed force — mounted police,
mounted rifles, naval gun corps, and
trained militia — of about 6,430 men. She
also subsidises rifle associations (5,774
officers and men) and cadet corps (3,471).
The Transvaal and Orange State together
maintain the South African Constabulary,
an efficient force of 2,700 officers and men.
In addition, the Transvaal maintains a
well - trained volunteer force, mostly ex-
soldiers, of 10,000 men. Rhodesia can at
2 G i8 D
contribution. Ceylon pays about £70,000
for its Imperial garrison, and maintains
in addition an efficient volunteer force of
2,333 officers and men.
India has a magnificent army of 160,000,
including British officers, a military police
of 56,887, a volunteer force of 34,000
Europeans and Eurasians, and contin-
gents furnished by the feudatory states
of 20,189, a total force — apart from the
Imperial garrison of 76,155, for Which
India pays Britain about £1,395,000 annu-
ally— of 271,076 officers and men. The
Straits Settlements, besides their Imperial
5593
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
and Indian garrison, lor which they pay,
have a very efficient volunteer force of
about 770 Europeans, Eurasians, and
Chinese. The Federated Malay States
have a smart little army known as the
Malay States Guides — British officers,
Sikhs, Pathans, and Malays, 2,665 in all.
The local military forces of British
South Africa, from North-
west Rhodesia to Cape
Defenders of
British
1- • . Ar • Colony, have already been
1 ropical Africa , .t' , ... . ,•( ,
described ; likewise those of
the Egyptian Sudan. Mauritius is garrisoned
by a small detachment of British troops,
formerly as many as 1,394, towards the
cost of which the colony paid annually
;^27,ooo, but now reduced to about 726.
The rest of British Tropical Africa is
divided into two great sections. East and
West. The Eastern section comprises the
colonies or protectorates of Somaliland,
Uganda, British East Africa, Zanzibar,
and British Central Africa — Nyassaland
and North-east Rhodesia. This section
is defended by a regiment of negro
soldiers known as the King's African
Rifles. Of this at present there are five
battaUons, No. i to 6 (No. 5 is at present
non-existent). The ist and 3rd batta-
lions are in East Africa and Zanzibar,
the 2nd in Central Africa, the 4th in
Uganda, and the 6th in Somaliland.
At present the total number of King's
African Rifles under arms is 2,700.
In East Africa there is, in addition, a
mihtary police of 1,800 under 35 British
officers ; in Uganda a constabulary of
1.060 ; in Zanzibar, 500 ; in Nyassaland,
200. There is also a corps of 160 Sikh
soldiers from the Indian Army stationed
in Nyassaland. In the West African
section the indigenous regiment, so to
speak, is the West Africa Frontier Force.
This is stationed in the Gambia Protec-
torate (126 men), the Sierra Leone
Protectorate (470 men), the Gold Coast
hinterland (2,175 men). Southern and
^, ^ Northern Nigeria (5,266 men).
The Forces j ■,•,•,• f, ^-^ ,, ^,r .
• B "f h addition there are the West
w t^Af * African Regiment and the ist
battalion of the West India
Regiment, besides artillery, engineers, etc.,
at Sierra Leone (2,612 officers and men in
all). The Gambia maintains a military
pohce of 80 men ; Sierra Leone, 240 ;
Gold Coast, 621 : Southern Nigeria, 980 ;
and Northern Nigeria, 1,180. Lastly,
there should also be counted with the
effective forces in British West Africa
5594
the Gold Coast volunteers (1,056 officers
and men), partly paid, and maintained
more or less on a war footing.
The local soldiery or military police in
the West Indies and Tropical America,
apart from the British garrison in
Jamaica, consists of the 2nd battaUon of
the West Indian Regiment in Jamaica
(500 officers and men), and 800 militia, ,
besides a very efficient constabulary (1,753) j
modelled on that of Ireland, and, as a '
matter of fact, officered and sub-officered
by officers and men chosen from the Royal
Irish Constabulary. In Barbados there is
a pohce force of 315, and measures are
being taken to raise and maintain a small
colonial force of mounted infantry.
In the Bahamas, Leeward and Windward
Islands there are small forces of civil
police. In Trinidad there is a constabulary
of 652, and a volunteer rifle corps of 352.
British Honduras maintains a constabu-
lary of 100, and a volunteer light infantry
corps (mounted and unmounted) of 260.
British Guiana either fears no foe, within
or without, or is very shy of disclosing its
arrangements for the maintenance of
public order, for no particulars
are extant as to its military
and police. There are said
to be militia and volunteers
to the total number of 240. The Falkland
Islands support a volunteer corps of 98.
The total of the forces, therefore, for
offence or defence throughout the empire
ready for immediate action — professional
army, military constabulary, volunteers
or militia in constant training and avail-
able for immediate service — is about
926,300, of whom approximately 560,000
are white, and 366,000 belong to the
coloured races — Indian, Egyptian, Negro,
Mulatto, Malay, Chinese and Polynesian.
Behind this force there are as yet
undefined potentialities which at present
take the place of that actuality so neces-
sary to the safety of the British Empire,
throughout all parts of which (in the
opinion of the present w'riter) compulsory
military service on the part of all males,
more or less between the ages of 19 and 40,
should be an article of the constitution of
every country under the British flag,
most of all in the Motherland. Compulsory
service in the militia is now a law of the
state in New Zealand (it is projected in
Australia), in Canada, in Natal,'and in Cape
Colony. There is something similar in the
Channel Islands, where the militia in
Empire's
Fighting
Strength
t»'-j".^.-,-ii«ri»'-"
A NATIVE OPEN-AIR SCHOOL AT OPOBO IN NIGERIA
DUTCH CHILDREN AT SCHOOL IN BRITISH SOUTH AFRICA
EDUCATING THE YOUNG SUBJECTS AND CITIZENS OF GREATER BRITAIN
5595
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
training amount to the respectable force of
3,163. The manhood of the United Kingdom
is invited to furnish voluntarily a territorial
force (314,063) for the defence of the
Home Country. This, together with the
militia (84,505) and militia reserve (3,413)
and the Imperial yeomanry (25,195) is
estimated to reach a total strength of
Britain's 447>i76 during 1909. Behind
. J the regular army of about
rmy o J20,i48 Stationed in the United
Kingdom there is a reserve of
about 222.850 trained officers and men,
making an effective trained home army
of about 352.998.
The martial spirit of the British Islands
is such that in the event of real danger we
could easily count on a territorial army
of at least 325.000 partiall}^ trained men
to stand beside our regular forces, giving
us therefore a body of 677,998 fighting
men for home and foreign defence ; this in
addition to the 118,000 British soldiers
garrisoning India, South Africa, Egj^t,
the Mediterranean, Mauritius, West Indies,
etc. To this arraj^ again might certainly
be added in war time the magnificent
fighting body, the Royal Irish Constabu-
lary, numbering nearly 10,000 strong.
The navy of the empire is mainly the
British Navy, to the cost of which Canada
contributes nothing, while the Indian
Empire pays annually ^^103, 400, the
Australian Commonwealth ^200,000, New
Zealand ;/^40,ooo, Cape Colony £50,000,
Natal £35,000, and Newfoundland £3,000.
The total number of ships complete for sea
in the British Navy at the close of 1908
was about 497, including 60 great battle-
ships, 57 of which are of the most modern
types. In addition to this, most of the
Crown colonies or protectorates have armed
vessels for police or defence purposes on
their coasts, rivers, and lakes. New Zealand
and Australia have a few torpedo boats.
The Imperial coaling stations, more or
less fortified, are (outside British waters)
J Gibraltar, Malta (possibly
Coaling
Alexandria), Aden, Karachi,
,., .. Bombay, Colombo, Rangoon,
otations „. -^ TT T^ T^
bmgapore. Hong Kong, Port
Darwin, Hobart. Wellington, Esquimalt,
Halifax, Bermuda, Kingston, Port Louis
(Mauritius), Simon's Town (Cape of
Good Hope), St. Helena, Ascension', and
Freetown (Sierra Leone). The additional
British ports, however, at which there
are supplies of coal on hand, and which
are to a certain extent defended against
5596
a naval coup-de-main, are far too
numerous to be catalogued. The great
dockyards of the empire outside British
waters are at Gibraltar, ^^aletta (Malta),
Bombay, Kidderpur (India), Hong Kong,
Wei-hai-wei, Sydney, and Ascension.
There is also dock accommodation at
Trinkomali (Ceylon), Simon's Town (South
Africa), Halifax (Nova Scotia), and Esqui-
malt (British Columbia).
The mercantile marine of the empire,
including that of the United Kingdom,
comprises about 9,511 steamers of a total
tonnage of 17,001,139, many of which are
easily convertible into war vessels. The
nearest competitors in this respect are :
Germany, 1,713, tonnage 3.705,700 ; United
States, 1,577, tonnage, 3,160,895 ; and
Norway, 1,181, tonnage, 1,264,002.
The value of the commerce of the
British Empire (including Eg\^t and the
Egyptian Sudan, Bahrein Islands, and all
British Borneo), calculated in imports
and exports only, amounted in the year
1906 to the amazing total of £2,189,681.147.
The actual commerce of the United King-
dom reached in that year the total of
/i, 068, 566, 318. The Indian
Commerce r? ■ • ^r l j
Empire m 1906 had a com-
Empi*rc ™^^^^ valued at £239,695,904;
British South Africa (ex-
cluding Nyassaland), £127,010,290 ; the
Australian Commonwealth, £114,641,710 ;
dominion of Canada, £113,234,930 ;
Straits Settlements and Federated Malay
States, £91,241,860 ; Egypt and Egyptian
Sudan, £66,638,341 ; New Zealand,
£33,306,540 ; British West Indies, British
Honduras and Guiana, £21,027,274 ;
British West Africa, £10,833,850 ; and
British East Africa (Uganda, Somahland,
East Africa, Zanzibar, Seychelles, Nyassa-
land and Mauritius), £9,058,281. Even
the little Bahrein Islands, off the
Arabian east coast, did a total trade of
£3,154,549 in the year 1906.
Out of all the great sections of the
empire the most considerable trade with
Great Britain, in 1907, was that of the
Indian Empire (£106,956,000) ; the next
best, the future South African confedera-
tion (£90,053,620), and the third, the
Australian Commonwealth (£59,429,880).
Canada came fourth with a trade between
her and the United Kingdom of
£41,506,980. The value of the trade
between Egypt and the Egyptian Sudan
and the United Kingdom is £23,717,963
approximately (1907) ; between us and New
THE SINEWS OF EMPIRE
Zealand for the same period, ;r23,050,400.
The total public indebtedness of the
whole empire, including that of Egypt
(£96,180,000), is something like
£1,611,231,869. The approximate annual
revenue of the vast area (including
Egypt, etc.), was, in 1907, £331,019,695 ;
and the expenditure during the same
period, £308,033,010 ; so that the empire
as a whole is living well within its
means. During this period the revenue
of the United Kingdom was £144,814,073,
and its expenditure £139,415,251. India,
vaguely thought to be fabulously rich,
with an area fourteen and a half times
that of the United Kingdom (1,766,517
square miles against 121,390 square
miles), and a population of nearly
297,000,000 (United Kingdom population,
44,100,231), had a revenue of only
£75,626,900, which her expenditure was
framed to meet exactly.
This chapter may, perhaps, fitly be
closed by a few comparisons :
Area of British Empire, 13,138,900
square miles ; Russian Empire, 8,647,657 ;
French Empire, 4,604,880 ; Chinese
Empire, 4,227,170 ; United
States, 3,567,563 ; German
The World's
Great
Empires
Empire, 1,260,603. Population
of Chinese Empire,433,553, 030;
British Empire, 405,000,000 (approxi-
mate) ; Russian Empire, 149,299,300 ;
French Empire, 96,389,985 ; United States
(nearly), 84,000,000 ; German Empire,
73,200,000 (approximate); Japanese Em-
pire and Korea, 60,000,000 (nearly).
Commerce (imports and exports), of
British Empire, £2,189,681,147 ; German
Empire, £712,688,015 ; United States,
£669,336,930 (1907: This was a slump year.
Probably the best average annual estimate
for the United States of America commerce
at the present time would be £710,000,000) ;
French Empire, £570,605,458 ; Russian
Empire, £189,040,736 ; Chinese Empire,
£107,440,456.
National indebtedness of British Em-
pire, £1,611,231,869 (the actual debt of
the United Kingdom is £774,164,704) ;
French Empire, £1,265,630,019 ; Russian
Empire and Finland, £940,556,410 ;
United States. £491,437,612 ; German
Empire, £179,583,330 ; Chinese Empire,
£123,685,930.
Annual revenue of British Em-
pire (1907), £331.019.695 ; Russian
Empire, £214,210,000; French Empire,
£170,727,474 ; United States, £169,345,068 ;
German Empire, £120,791,550 ; Chinese
Empire, £15,000,000.
Annual expenditure of British Em-
pire (1907), £308,019,010 ; Russian
Empire, £266,000,000 (approximate) ;
French Empire, £168,276,097 ; United
States, £152,497,750 ; German Empire,
National £"125,863,152; Chinese Empire,
. . £18,000,000 (approximate).
. KT • Nothing is known positively
and Navies , , , , ^ i
as to the total revenue and
total expenditure of the whole empire of
China. These approximate estimates deal
with known results of customs, etc., and
recorded Imperial expenditure.
Standing army of French Empire,
soldiers, first reserve, and colonial troops,
1,300,000 officers and men (approxi-
mate) ; Russian Empire (soldiers and
military police), 1,200,000 officers and
men (approximate) ; German Empire
(including small colonial forces), 1,180,000
oificers and men (approximate) ; Austria-
Hungary, 1,154,000 officers and men
(approximate) ; British Empire (soldiers
of regular army and reserve, Indian
Army, volunteers and militia of colonies
on a war footing, and mihtary police),
926,000.
These summaries include all disciplined
soldiers prepared to fight at two weeks'
notice.
Navy on peace footing of British Em-
pire, 497 ships of all classes ; French
Empire, 580 (360 of these are torpedo
boats or submarines) ; German Empire,
205 ; Japanese Empire, 14S ; United
States, 139 ; Italy, 239 (of these 85 are
old and of small account).
Mercantile marine of the British Em-
pire (steamers over 100 tons), 9,511.
tonnage, 17,001,139 ; German Empire,
1,713, 3,705,700 ; United States, 1,517,
3,160,895 ; Norway, 1,181, 1,264,002 ;
Sweden, 889, 686,517 ; Japanese Em-
pire, 829, 1,068,747 ; French Empire,
809, 1,284,368.
5597
55 9«
THE
BRITISH
EMPIRE
XIII
BY SIR
HARRY
JOHNSTON,
G.C.M.G.
BRITISH EXPANSION IN EUROPE
AND THE STEADY PROGRESS OF
EGYPT UNDER BRITISH CONTROL
"VV7HAT effect have the establishment and
^' growth of the British Empire had
on the world outside the limits of Great
Britain and Ireland ?
In Europe, the ethnological results of
the extension of British rule beyond the
Irish and English Channels was inconsider-
able down to about twenty years ago ; in
short, down to the time that the other
great nations of the White world applied
themselves in all seriousness to the
foundation of empires beyond the seas.
They then began to adopt many British
ideas, words, games, notions in art and
industry, clothes, furniture, and sport. It
is true that in horse-racing, railways, steam-
ships, the training of children, farming,
and agriculture we had engendered
original concepts and inventions expressed
in idiomatic Anglo-Saxon, and these had
spread the British influence of jockeys,
_ . engineers, governesses, stock-
, " '^ men, and gardeners throughout
Influence y^ x^r j^ /-
.. . 1* ranee, Western Germany,
Italy, Russia, Tunis, and Egypt;
also that the success of our constitutional
government had for at least 150 years
turned the eyes of all reformers and political
theorists towards England.
But down to twenty years ago it was
rather France that set the fashions in all
departments for all Europe than the
Anglo-Saxon. This "British" influence
abroad is at least one quarter Ameri-
can. It is so difficult to discriminate
nowadays between what notions and
ideas are started in the United States
and what have their origin in British,
Canadian, Australian, South African, or'
British-Indian brains, that for the purpose
of this review the British and American
Empires must be held to be one.
We started, of course, by borrowing our
dominant language, our culture, indus-
tries, ideas, science, architecture, religion,
rulers, laws, weapons, and cooking from
France, Rome, the Netherlands, Frisia,
Western Germany, and Italy. Our
nearest political and racial colonies,
beyond our strict geographical limits, were
the Channel Islands. These were at first
not so much colonies or conquests as the
_ , , last vestiges of the Norman
Peoples of u- I 1 1 1
4k r-u 1 power which had conquered
the Channel f- , , . rr t>i /-i 1
Islands England m 1066. The Channel
Islands had been peopled
from quite a remote antiquity by types
of the different races that overran the
North of France, with which, indeed,
Guernsey and Jersey were almost con-
nected by sandbanks and fords of shallow
water at the beginning of the historical
period. They were taken possession of
and named from the ninth century
onwards by Norse rovers from Norway,
and consequently came to form part of the
Duchy of Normandy, of which, politically,
they are the last remnant.
These Normans mingled with the pre-
ceding Iberian and Aryan Romanised
Kelts. Down, therefore, to about the
reign of Elizabeth, the Channel Islanders
were scarcely distinguishable, anthropolo-
gically, from the Normans of Northern
France. But in the sixteenth and seven-
teenth centuries the political troubles in
England caused a number of English
to settle in Jersey and Guernsey, and the
complete detachment of all the Channel
Islanders from the Church of Rome in the
middle of the sixteenth century added to
the separation from Norman France. In
Alderney, Jersey, Guernsey,
The Channel ^^^ g^^.j, ^j^^ ^^ j ^j^^-^^
Islands Secede ^ '■ -
From Rome
without exception, belong to
the Anglican Church, and
here alone is the Liturgy of the Church of
England rendered in French. It is some-
what surprising that this adherence to the
national Church has not been rewarded by
the institution of a bishop of the Channel
Islands (they are under the See ol
5599
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
Winchester). There are, moreover,
learned societies in Jersey and Guernsey
which conduct their proceedings in French.
From the eighteenth century onwards the
islands have been garrisoned by detach-
ments of British troops, and not a few of
these soldiers or sailors from the British
fleet have subsequently married and settled
down in the Channel Islands, whither
also during the last hundred years English
families have resorted for permanent
settlement because of the delightful ch-
mate, lovely scenery, low cost of living,
and educational advantages. The use of
the English language is spreading year
by year over a larger area in these islands.
As it is, Alderney is almost entirely
the use of the French language ; but all
these parts of the world have retained
the Roman Catholic form of Christianity.
So far as language, prejudices, mode of
life, and all that goes to the making of a
people is concerned, the Channel Islanders
of the present day — in spite of the hundred
miles of sea that separate them from
England — are more closely knit up with
us in sympathy than are the people of
half Ireland. They could never be made
French citizens except by the continuous
application of force, just as, in all proba-
bility, the inhabitants of Northern Lorraine
wDl resist for centuries the attempt to
coerce them into Gennan citizenship, or
the Germans of the Baltic provinces willingly
CASTLE CORNET IN THE ISLAND OF GUERNSEY
English-speaking. In Guernsey only
about a quarter of the population is now
unable to speak English, while another
quarter can speak no French. The local
language is very different from literary
French, and is the old Norman speech
that was introduced into the island after
the Conquest. In Jersey the same thing
is taking place, if anything more markedly.
In Jersey, however, if not always in
Guernsey, the official language is literary
French, which, by the wa\^ is as illogical as
making Italian the official language of Malta.
Probably here alone in the whole world is
the service of the Church of England
rendered in French. Other portions of the
globe have been peopled by the French and
acquired by the British, and yet retain
5600
remain subjects of the Russian Emphe.
Gibraltar, after two hundred years of
British occupation, has had singularly httle
effect on the people of Spain and Portugal,
beyond the neutral zone, which restricts
the intercourse of the British garrison on
this square mile and seven-eighths of rock
with the people of the Iberian peninsula.
The British soldiers and officials for two
hundred years have freely intermarried
with the Genoese and Spanish women, the
descendants of the original inhabitants of
Gibraltar when the British took possession
of it. The resulting " Rock Scorpions "
vary considerably in type and social
status. Several of the most beautifui
and accomplished women of the world
during the nineteenth century have been
MONT ORGUEIL IN JERSEY, SHOWING THE ANCIENT CASTLE
GUERNSEYS PRINCIPAL TOWN : VIEW OF ST. PETER PORT AND HARBOUR
THE HARBOUR OF ST. HELIER, THE CHIEF PORT OF JERSEY
SCENES IN THE CHANNEL ISLANDS
5601
GENERAL VIEW OF THE TOWN
A POPULAR PROMENADE, SHOWING PART OF MOORISH CASTLE ON THE HILL
GIBRALTAR: A VALUABLE POSSESSION OF GREAT BRITAIN
5602
THE SIGNAL STATION ON ITS ROCKY EMINENCE
WATERPORT STREET, THE PRINCIPAL BUSINESS THOROUGHFARE
OTHER SCENES IN THE FORTRESS TOWN OF GIBRALTAR
5603
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
of Gibraltar birth and descended from the
unions of British officers with Spanish
ladies. But these have married officials
in the army, navy, or diplomatic service,
and have soon passed away to spheres of
influence beyond Gibraltar. There is a
considerable Jewish element
in the shopkeeping class, and
The Jewish
Element
in Gibraltar
it is these who, together with the
descendants of English soldiers
and Spanish women, form that type of
" Rock Scorpion " that may be met with
nowadays so frequently in Morocco, Al-
geria, Tunis above all, Malta, and the
Ionian Islands. At one time there were
quite a number of Gibraltarese in the
regency of Tunis, attracted thither by the
favourable conditions enjoyed by British
the part of the Maltese people, who
largely by their own personal efforts and
bravery expelled the French garrison,
though, of course, they had been assisted
in this task by Nelson's overthrow of the
French forces at sea. Fearing lest they
might not be able to maintain themselves
against future attacks on the part of
France, and disUking very much the idea
of reverting to that Neapolitan sovereignty
from which the islands of Malta and Gozo
were withdrawn by Charles V., the Maltese
people offered their country to the King of
Great Britain and Ireland. Europe con-
firmed this choice at the Congress of 1815.
Under our rule the Maltese have pros-
pered exceedingly. Magnificent public
works have been constructed in the island
BRITISH TROOPS IN MALTA; THE MAIN GUARD AT VALETTA
commerce down to 1898. The regency of
Tunis was at one time very near becoming a
British protectorate, owing to the influence
that radiated from Malta and the friendly
relations between the beys of Tunis and
the British naval officers which followed
on the defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte. In
the curious struggle that went on, under
the surface, between France, Britain, and
Italy for predominance in Tunis, Gibraltar
Jews were generally the men of straw used
by these conflicting influences in their
attempts to acquire landed property or
other stakes in the country.
The British acquisition of Malta was
not — it is sometimes necessary to remind
red-hot Imperialists — a conquest, but the
result of a voluntary and graceful act on
5604
of Malta — Gozo has not been so well
attended to — and under the aegis of the
British flag the Maltese have founded
flourishing colonies — here 30,000, there
20,000, in another place 10,000 — in Algeria.
Tunis, Tripoli, Barca, and Egypt, and even
in Crete and elsewhere in the Levant. The
Maltese in Algeria tend more and more to
adopt French nationality, de-
riving therefrom considerable
commercial advantages, and
finding perhaps in the French
nation a more courteous foster-mothei
than Great Britain has been to them.
" His mother was a Maltese, you know,"
is the sneering phrase that I have often
heard from a British officer in the army or
navy or in the Colonial Civil Service in
Malta's Great
Prosperity
Under Britain
sifl^i.l'^
THE BARACCA ; A BEAUTIFUL VIEW IN VALETTA
A CURIOUS STREET OF STEPS AND THE HARBOUR AT VALETTA, THE CAPITAL
MARSA MUSCET, SHOWING THE STRONGLY BUILT FORTIFICATIONS
SCENES IN MALTA. BRITAIN'S CROWN COLONY IN THE MEDITERRANEAN
5605
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
reference to some more or less distin-
guished man in the employ of the British
Government. " He says she was an
Italian countess, but she really was nothing
but a Maltese, I can assure you." Why it
should be in any sense derogatory to be
born a Maltese the present writer is at a
loss to understand. The population of
. these islands is considerably
" *^ mixed in origin it is true, but
f^M**!? ^°^ ^^ ^^ derived from very noble
sources — from the best of the
chivalry of Aragon, France, England,
Germany, and Northern Italy ; or if it
be of a brunette type, then from a splendid
Mediterranean stock which goes back in
origin to the Phoenicians.
At one time it was thought necessary to
treat Malta on very military hues ; but it
has gradually been borne in on the British
Government that the military and civil
departments should be to some extent
separated, and the time may come when
^lalta may have a civilian as governor,
or even — why not ? — a Maltese noble or
eminent citizen in that position ? But
though our connection with Malta has been
marked by episodes of a bad taste that
seems peculiarly British — and yet not an
ancient, but quite a modern trait in our
race — the main results of the British occu-
pation of Malta have been of enormous
benefit to the inhabitants of the two
islands. We have, in fact, definitely
created a Maltese people, destined to play
a very notable part in the commercial
development of the Mediterranean.
If we, as the garrisoning race, should
mend our manners, the Maltese might well
at the same time cause an impartial
history of Malta during the last hundred
years to be drawn up and published, and
thereby realise how much indeed they
owe in gratitude to the acceptance
by George III. of kingship over Malta.
The British protectorate over the Ionian
Islands did much the same for the Greeks
^ , .of Corfu as for the mixed races
Greeks and ^f ^rab, French, and Italian
Lan ua e ^^^^in in Malta. It certainly
anguagc gpj-gg^^ acquaintance with and
use of the English language amongst the
Greeks of the Levant. Many a Greek
commercial house now of world-wide im-
portance arose from the British occupation
of this archipelago, which, until the on-
slaught of Napoleon Bonaparte, had
belonged to Venice since the time it was
detached from the Byzantine Empire.
5606
The Ionian Islands, indeed, were at last
the only refuge of Greek culture from the
sickening barbarism of Turkey. It is
possible that but for the British occupa-
tion of these Islands, Greece would never
have aspired to or have recovered her
independence, would never have possessed
a base from which she could organise
resistance to the Turkish yoke.
Sentimentality fortunately swayed the
nations of Europe in favour of Greece in
the first half of the .nineteenth century ;
yet it is doubtful whether the spark of.
Hellenic nationality in Greece itself could
ever have been revived and fanned into a
powerful flame but for British encourage-
ment emanating from the Ionian Islands.
Nor, had this occupation not taken place,
could those Greek houses of commerce
have arisen to a secure affluence and have
developed such a large Anglo-Hellenic
trade as now exists in Western Asia Minor
nor at Costantinople.
Curiously enough, Greeks are happier
governed by Greeks — even if they be
less well governed — than by intelligent
foreigners ! We should feel it in the same
way if the Germans occupied the Isle of
. Wight. They would probably
^landT'""* ^° ^ ^^^^ ^^^^ ^° improve the
.f ^" V service on the Isle of Wight
Under Greece t-, -, j ^ u
Railway, and carry out much
needed public works in a masterful manner,
besides endowing the island with better
schools than those which we give it under
our existing half-hearted educational estab-
lishment. Yet — illogical and ungrateful
though they might be — the inhabitants of
the Isle of Wight would probably prefer
to remain under or to return to the control
of the British Government rather than
become citizens of the German Empire.
Consequently, Great Britain acted wisely
in yielding to the wishes of the lonians
that they might come under the sove-
reignty of Greece. Nevertheless, anyone
who has visited the island of Corfu, if he
be of British blood, cannot but admire the
magnificent public works which we carried
out on that island, and ask himseli
whether the material prosperity of that
group might not be far higher than it is
at present were the supreme administra-
tion in the hands of honest Anglo-Saxons.
There is little doubt, however, that our
continued retention of this protectorate
would have involved us in disagree-
able European complications, and cer-
tainly would have ended by offending the
VENDOR OF GOATS' MILK A MALTESE LADY PRIEST IN CLERICAL ATTIRE
COMMON STREET PORTER A SELLER OF SWLLi
A BRAN-SELLER
TYPICAL CHARACTERS OF THE ISLAND OF MALTA
5607
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
growing power of that kingdom of Italy,
with whom we desire to be connected by
every tie of affection and interest. Yet,
having lost the Ionian Islands, which gave
us a certain hold, a useful garrison in the
eastern half of the Mediterranean, we
yearned for some alternative possession.
The feeling burrowed underground through
the tortuous channels of the
• ^B*^ V h official mind, and emerged at
u " ** last to the surface through
the romantic action of Lord
Beaconsfield in 1878 in acquiring for
us the leasehold — the practical posses-
sion— of the island of Cyprus. Several
times before and since Great Britain
has coquetted with the idea of acquiring
Crete, more especially on account of
the importance of Suda Bay to a great
naval Power. But for unpublished — per-
haps only spoken, and not written —
warnings from other European Powers that
the addition of Crete to Cyprus, or, as was
once or twice contemplated, the substitu-
tion of this much more valuable island for
the half -barren, altogether harbourless
Cyprus, would mean the overflowing of
the cup of bitterness and the declaration of
war, Crete might now by some fiction or
another be under the British flag. As it
is, its destiny will be inevitably to form
part of an enlarged kingdom of Greece.
In Cyprus much the same effect has been
produced by British rule as occurred in the
Ionian Islands : magnificent public works —
sometimes carried out without any re-
gard to picturesqueness or respect for
valuable historical remains — an absolutely
honest, painstaking administration, the
saving, just in time, of the native forests,
and with them the climate, which has been
rapidly deteriorating under Turkish rule
from one sufficiently moist to maintain an
exuberant vegetation to conditions of
almost waterless sterility ; on the other,
the ingratitude of the Greek, due, it is
alleged, to the exclusion of Greeks from most
of the posts under the British Government.
Where the strangely enough, we rely for
„ , local support in Cyprus not
Turks are ,, ^5- i u \ xi
„ - J on the Greek, but on the
Turkish element in the popu-
lation, and we prefer much more to
employ Turks than to engage Greeks in
the public service, assigning as our reason
that the latter are not honest and cannot
be depended on for steady work ; while as
a servant, a public servant, under an
honest and capable employer, the Turk is
5608
well-nigh perfection. In this case, in
Cyprus, the Turk is very often simply a
Mohammedan Greek. Actually, in Cyprus,
in Crete, in Bosnia, and in many parts of
the Balkans and Asia Minor, there is no
racial difference between the good and the
bad employe, the honest and dishonest
merchant, but merely a question of religion.
As a master, the Mohammedan has been
hitherto narrow-minded, intolerant, unpro-
gressive, and financially corrupt ; as a
servant, under an employer of the North
European type, a more admirable type of
faithful, quiet, industrious public officer
does not exist. The British occupation
of Cyprus, together with our joint occu-
pancy of Crete at the present time, is
producing this effect on the Mediterranean
peoples : that it is developing the Turk in
the right direction, whether or not it is pro-
ducing a wholesome effect upon the Greek.
But our occupancy of Egypt, though it
should properly be treated of later on in
connection with African questions, has
in a sense knit us up with the Greek world
of commerce to such a degree that in
weighing the future relations of the Greek
_, peoples with the British Empire
rce s as ^j^^ peevishness of the Cypriotes
x^ioi\C£rs 01
^ will be unheard. No nationality
Commerce * , r , 1 ^
has profited so enormously
by the British conquest of Egypt arid
of the Egyptian Sudan, or even of East
Africa generally, as have the Greeks.
Since we started somewhat blindly on
this Imperial movement which has led us
inevitably on the path from Cairo to the
Cape, Greek adventurers of commerce
have marched pari passu with the British
forces, military and naval.
There are Greek merchants as far south on
the East Coast as Delagoa Bay. They pene-
trate to Mashonaland and to Uganda ; while
on the coast of Somaliland they are more
numerous than any other Europeans not
of the official class. Khartoum is de-
scribed as being a Greek city. Greeks and
Maltese form a kind of middle- class in
Egypt, between the indigenous Arabs and
negroes on the one hand, and the foreign
officials — British, French, and Italian — on
the other. The servants of the Suez
Canal Company, below the highly paid
posts, if they are not Maltese are Greek.
British intervention in the affairs of
Egypt and of the Egyptian Sudan, in
common with that of France, really dates
from Napoleon's invasion of 1799. The two
countries see-sawed as to their influence
THE BRITISH EXPANSION IN EUROPE AND ECYPT
over the viceroys of Egypt. France
instigated the exploration and conquest
of the Upper Nile, and French officers
accompanied and historiographed the first
expeditions despatched up the Nile by
Mehemet AH.
The British soon sent consuls to Khar-
toum, who drew thither other explorers and
big-game hunters, who in time turned
into governor-generals or other officials in
Egyptian pay. French engineers con-
structed great canals, their masterly work
Empire. With what results ? Her ex-
travagant debt is now, in 1908, reduced
from £103,969,020 to £95,833,280, in addi-
tion to which reduction there is a general
reserve fund of £11,055,413 ; her popula-
tion has risen from 6,814,000 to nearly
12,000,000 ; her cultivable area from
about 4,000,000 acres to 6,500,000 ;
forced labour is abolished ; the rights of
the peasants are absolutely secured ;
justice is pure and prompt ; education
enormously advanced ; canals infinitely
A LOST POSSESSION OF THE ENGLISH CROWN : GENERAL VIEW OF CORFU
culminating in the canal of Suez. The
British demanded in compensation the
permission to build railways and to open
the overland route. The Franco-German
War weakened French influence, and 1882
found Great Britain with an almost pre-
scriptive right to interfere in the Sudan, a
control of the railway system, a virtual
monopoly of the steamship traffic on the
Nile, and a vested right in the Suez Canal.
Egyptian bankruptcy having compelled
our intervention, Egypt since 1882 has
been under the control of the British
extended ; railways carried to Khartoum
and the Red Sea ; the Sudan reconquered
and administered to the infinite blessing
of its native inhabitants, the enrichment
of Egypt, and the advantage of European
and American trade ; and, finally, the
people of the khediviate brought within
sight of sound representative institutions.
The British occupation of Egypt,
without the slightest doubt, has been the
happiest event, in its results, which has
ever befallen that country since the
memorable expulsion of the shepherd kings.
2H
2S
5609
THE
BRITISH
EMPIRE
XIV
BY SIR
HARRY
JOHNSTON.
G.C.M.G.
BRITISH EXPANSION IN AMERICA
AND THE PASSING OF THE NATIVE RACES
IN this survey we are treating the
■'■ United States historically as an out-
growth of the empire of which they formed
a part down to 130 years ago. When the
British first landed as colonisers on the
Atlantic coast of North America, in the year
^. T,. . 1578, the Spaniards had already
The First ^' tti j 1 u^ 1
overrun rlorida, and had
. * . occupied a good deal of Mexico.
m Otherwise, the American Con-
tinent to the north of the Gulf of Mexico
was free from the presence of the Cau-
casian. It was at that time populated
sparsely by Red Indians, who, as com-
pared to the races conquered by the
Spaniards further south, were leading the
life of savages, though there were under-
lying indigenous civilisations in the tem-
perate or sub-tropical portions of North
America which had existed and had died
away, or had been overthrown by the
arrival of nomad savages from the north.
The Amerindian race probably extended
in those days as far north as the Mac-
kenzie River and the shores of Hudson's
Bay. (The writer of this essay thoroughly
approves the fused word of " Amer-
indian " to indicate the autochthonous
races of North and South America.
" American " is more aptly applied to the
white peoples ; " Indian " is too likely
to lead to confusion with the Dravidian
peoples. Yet physically the Amerindians
are nearly connected with the Malays,
Dayaks, and Mongoloid races of further
India and the Malay Archipelago.
" Amerindian " is a happy blend of the
„ .., ,. characteristics of the " Ameri-
Habitations t i >»\ tt j-u
J . can Indians. ) Here they im-
r . pinned on the Esquimaux, whose
Esquimaux ^ •.. ■ * ^.u i
range m the sixteenth century
was not far different from v.'hat it is at the
present day — along the Greenland coasts,
the great islands of the Arctic regions that
lie between Greenland and the North
American Continent, and along the con-
tinental shores of the Arctic Ocean as far
5610
as Bering Straits. Southwards, the Es-
quimaux seem to have penetrated on the
east coast of America as far as 50° N.
Lat., in Newfoundland and Labrador, and
to have come as a conquering race, driving
before them Red Indian tribes. It was
still farther to the south of these regions,
v.'here the Esquimau' prevailed over the
Red Indian, that the Norse colonies of
the ninth and tenth centuries had been
established (in Nova Scotia and Massa-
chusetts) and had in turn been over-
thrown, mainly through the attacks of
the Esquimaux, or at any rate of some
race which in default of better knowledge
we identify with the Esquimaux.
The Esquimau — the word is derived from
a Red Indian nick-name meaning " eaters
of raw flesh," the people's own term
for themselves being Innuit — differs in the
main from the Red Indian stock (which
»irt *t. is identical with the existing in-
Whcrc the 1- 1 , . r K ■
-. . digenous population of America
Esquimaux . ° j.\ t ^.i, • i,^ j
Q . . . from the far north right down
to Tierra del Fuego) in being
moderately dolichocephalous— long-headed,
instead of round or short-headed. Other-
wise the Esquimaux, like the Amerindians —
in a less pronounced form — seem to be-
long to the Mongolian sub-species of the
human race. Probably the Esquimau is
one of the most primitive representatives
of this third main div-ision of the human
species. The straight-haired, slanting-
eyed, large-cheekboned, yellow-skinned
variety of humanity, which differs from the
other two main divisions — the Negro and the
Caucasian — in having a very sparse growth
of hair on the face and body, originated
in North-eastern Asia, and spread thence
northwards round the Polar regions.
The type may be a very ancient one,
however, that existed as far back as the
time when a land connection remained
between North America on the one hand,
and Northern Europe on the other, by
way of Iceland and Spitsbergen. The
BRITISH EXPANSION IN AMERICA
Esquimau type indeed may even during the
Glacial periods have penetrated with the
glacial conditions of life into the British
Islands, France, and Scandinavia.
The Amerindians {i.e., all the existing
indigenous races in America) belong, in
the main, to a Mongoloid type, but one
that has developed special features of its
own, and which may have absorbed pre-
existing long-headed, Aino-like tribes of a
more generalised type, such Caucasoid
tribes having preceded the Mongolian in
the occupation of North America.
When the British colonists founded the
settlement of Virginia, the Amerindians
were, from our present point of view,
savages, leading an existence more or less
nomadic, with a preference for tents or (in
the West) caves over huts. It is doubtful
whether any of them dwelt in stone houses
such as had once existed in the southern
regions of North America, or in Mexico.
They lived largely as hunters, but
probably did not number in all more than
5,000,000, if as much, throughout North
America from the northern frontiers of
Mexico to the Arctic Ocean. Their relations
with the British settlers of
the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries were in the main
hostile. Tribe after tribe was
gradually exterminated by diseases intro-
duced by the Europeans, by warfare — often
civil war between tribe and tribe, instigated
by the European, or by alcohol.
France, late in the race for American
colonisation, made up for lost time during
the seventeenth century by the vigour and
ability with which she colonised. By the
early part of the eighteenth century she
had laid the foundations of a Canadian
empire and of a magnificent domain in
what are now the southern states of North
America. She dominated the Mississippi
River from its mouth northwards so far as
to bring her colonists of the south almost
into touch with her colonists on the Great
Lakes. Through her ra ssionaries and her
settlers she obtained a far-reaching influ-
ence over the Amerindians, with whom
the French " habitants " mingled more
freely — sexually — than did the Puritans or
Hollanders of the Anglo-Saxon settlements.
The results are the French-speaking
lialf-breeds of to-day in Canada — a
handsome, stalwart race, often so pre-
possessing physically that they have
been reabsorbed into the Caucasian
community with little or no racial
Exterminating
the
Amerindians
objection. Yet the British settlers in the
hinterland of New England also made
friends here and there with Amerindian
tribes. At last the Indians became
involved in the hundred years' struggle
between France and England for predomin-
ance in North America ; and at this game,
though the Europeans throve and increased,
r , .. , the Indians decreased in
tyngland s Long , , . , , ,,
Struggle for numbers, dymg out from the
North America fxtremely savage attacks of
tribe agamst tribe, both
waging that quarrel of the white man
which was not theirs. By the time the
United States were recognised as an inde-
pendent power, and France had definitely
abandoned political sway over any part of
the mainland of North America — at the
beginning of the nineteenth century, let us
say — the Amerindians of North America
had diminished in numbers both in Canada
and the United States from the hypothet-
ical 5,000,000 which were there when the
white man first arrived to possibly not more
than 3,000,000, distributed mainly over the
countries west of the Mississippi and of the
Canadian Rocky Mountains.
The middle of the nineteenth century
saw the United States carrying on many
an Indian war, which had arisen from the
unchecked rapacity and shameless beha-
viour of the white colonists, who were
pushing determinedly westwards towards
the Pacific. Locations were set up by
which it was hoped to provide a definite
territory for one Indian tribe or another.
A few of these locations are still maintained
{8y,2^y square miles in 1906), but there is
practically now no purely Indian territory on
the soil of the United States or in Canada.
But the decrease of the Indians in the
whole of North America, which may have
brought their total as low as 1,300,000
somewhere about 1875 — this estimate
would include all Northern Mexico,
with about goo,ooo Amerindians — has
apparently been checked of late years.
In Canada and in the United
Better imes g^-^^gg conscientious legislation
""^ , .. has arrested the drink curse,
the Indians j , 1 j x t-
and the greed of a European
education is spreading amongst the Indians
together with settled habits. Men and
women of purely Indian blood are slightly
more numerous in 1907 than they were
thirty years ago. Including all Mexico,
Yucatan, and Alaska, as well as the
United States of America and the Cana-
dian Dominion, there are seemingly at
5611
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
the present time 1,474,000 pure-blood
Amerindians in North America. Yet they
are less and less discernible to the traveller
from abroad, inasmuch as they tend to
dress and demean themselves increasingly
more like the Americans of Caucasian race.
They intermarry, or, at any rate, mix
sexually with white men, the half-breed
being of a comely type ; so that
f^N^'^th ^^^® eventual absorption of the
. . American Indians into the Cau-
casian community of North
America seems to be inevitable. Indeed,
more than one anthropologist has con-
sidered the non-Esquimau American
aborigines to have resulted from an early
intermixture in far-back prehistoric days
between a primitive type of Caucasian (like
the Aino of Japan) and an Esquimau
Mongoloid. At any rate, the cross between
the Caucasian of North Europe and the
Amerindian is a handsomer type of human
being than the hybrid between the same
race of white men and the negro.
The future of all English-speaking and
French-speaking North America is no doubt
the future of a white race, but before this
result can be definitely achieved a solution
will have to be found for the black problem
in the United States. Within a relatively
small geographical area of the United States
east of the Mississippi there are at the
present moment something like 9,500,000
negroes. This estimate includes some
2,500,000 persons of mixed negro and Euro-
pean blood. The tendency of public feeling
at the present time in the United States
is to lump together as negroes — " coloured
people " — all men and women of recognis-
ably negroid appearance and ancestry.
In some parts of the United States
it is very awkward socially for anyone
to be born with black hair and brown
eyes even if they have a lively pink
complexion. No doubt, many of these
liandsome brunettes owe their black hair
and brown eyes either to Spanish inter-
mixture or to an older strain of
Amerindian. These are the
The Black
. • . explanations they strive to put
forward, but woe betide them if
their complexion is sallow ! During the
days when slavery was an institution, the
planters in the south mixed freely (sexu-
ally) with the negro or half-caste women
whom they kept as their mistresses. But
since the great Civil War and the emanci-
pation of the negro, sexual intercourse
between undoubted white men and
5612
undoubted negro women has decreased,
being now forbidden by motives of racial
pride — at any rate, on the side of the
white man. The two races, therefore,
co-exist side by side with far less tendency
to intermingle than was the case when
they were respectively master and slave.
But the negro has taken increasingly
to the American climate and soil. Were
it not for the opposition of the white man,
he would have overrun the whole of the
continent, and adapted himself eagerly
to the most rigorous climate. His future
is one of the greatest problems of the
world. The white races, to begin with,
are numerically as three to one with the
negro. They are beginning to refuse him
permission to extend as a settler beyond
certain geographical limits, and ev^en within
these limits they are yearning to find so'me
excuse to eject him from his lawful rights
and expel him beyond the continental
limits of North America.
If the tendencies of the extreme negro-
phobes rule American state policy, where
will these ten millions of negroes and
negroids find a permanent home ? An
. , attempt was made to solve
a!? "^- ^ t this problem by the institu-
Attractions for , ■ ^ j. _ ., • •' • , ,
. p, tion of Liberia eighty years
ago. Liberia has achieved
some results, and may yet be a very valuable
essay in negro self-government ; but so far
she has proved a failure as a dumping
ground for the American negro, for the
simple reason that negroes born and bred on
American soil find as great a difficulty in
establishing themselves in Tropical Africa
as does the European. They are almost
equally subject with him to the effects of
malaria, and they seem unable, as a general
rule, to procreate healthy, vigorous chil-
dren, unless they mingle with the indi-
genous races and thus allow themselves to
be reabsorbed into the savage or semi-
civilised negro tribes of the Dark Continent.
But the Americanised negro colonist
clings instinctively, passionately, to Ameri-
can civilisation. He will literally die
rather than give up European clothing
and American notions of life, and slip
back into the palfeolithic or neolithic
conditions of the African savage. It
seems to the writer of this essay that if
the cruel injustice of the white man in
North America is to refuse to the negro
a portion of the United States which can
become his permanent home, his only
resort will be the islands of the West
BRITISH EXPANSION IN AMERICA
Indies and the states of Northern South
America. Though in Africa he can scarcely
withstand malaria better than the Euro-
pean, he can resist the sun. In America,
as in Africa, the man of negro blood can
perform manual labour under circum-
stances of heat and sun exposure which
are fatal to the white man. A new Africa,
therefore, may arise in Tropical America.
Great Britain is concerned with this
problem, because at the present day the
British West Indies are in the main peopled
by negroes and negroids. In the British
West Indies themselves there were very few
indigenous inhabitants (Amerindian) when
Britain took over the different islands,
except in St. Vincent, Dominica, and
perhaps Trinidad. In St. Vincent there
were Caribs of more or less mixed type,
sometimes hybridised with negroes. In
Trinidad the few indigenous people linger-
ing on the west coast belonged more or
less to the Carib stock, but they were very
few in number at the time of the British
occupation of the island in 1796, and soon
became absorbed in the mixed population
of negroes and Creoles. This island will
eventually become peopled by
_ **^ . a homogeneous race of mixed
T* A d i^6gro, European, and East In-
dian origin. In British Guiana
the Amerindian population forms a con-
siderable item, perhaps 10,000 to 12,000 ;
though it has probably diminished in
numbers rather than increased during the
hundred years of British occupation.
These people belong to the Arawak,
Wapiana, Atorai, and Carib groups,
related to South American stocks in the
adjoining regions of the northern basin
of the Amazon and to the former in-
habitants of the West Indies. They do
not seem to take very kindly to civilisa-
tion, and are probably destined to be
absorbed into a negro or negroid peasantry,
which may be further complicated by
intermixture with the Indian coolie and
the Portuguese colonist, the resulting
race emerging as a type very like the
Papuan of New Guinea or the Melanesian
of the Western Pacific.
In the Falkland Islands there were no
indigenes to be exterminated or saved.
The islands were uninhabited by man
when they became the resort of whaling
ships. The present inhabitants are largely
composed of British (Scottish, English,
and Anglo-Saxon North American) stock,
with an admixture of Spanish Americans
from Uruguay. British interest in the
Falkland Islands, and consequently our
relations with the terminal portion of the
South American continent, have, however,
done a great deal to mend the lot of the
miserable inhabitants of Tierra del Fuego,
chiefly through the work of British mission-
aries. The Fuegians, a people of the
A T -k * « Amerindian race, were first
A Tribute to , , , • . 1 -
Missionary bought proinmently to our
Enterprise ""^^C^. ^^y /^^ .^"^jngs of
Darwm, who visited South
America in the Beagle in 1833. At the
time of his visit these people were leading a
completely savage existence under miser-
able conditions of climate. They were
almost entirely nude, and led the simple
existence of the Stone Age, being unac-
quainted even with the use of fire, practising
hardly any arts, and living the hunter's life.
The attention paid to Tierra del Fuego
by the contending nations of Argentina
and Chih, more especially by the Anglo-
Saxon and Irish pioneers in the nominal
service of those governments, led, in
the second half of the nineteenth century,
to the usual introduction of spirituous
liquors and syphilis, and from one cause
and another the Fuegians were rapidly
becoming exterminated. But the advent
of the South American Missionary
Society has, during the last quarter of
a century, not only saved the remnant
from perishing but has infused into them
such a degree of reasonable civilisation
as may enable them to recover their
numbers and better their position.
Elsewhere, in Chili or in Patagonia, the
influence of British settlers, captains
of industry or officials in the service of
the Chilian and Argentine Governments,
lias stayed any tendency there might have
been, to provoke or extend wars between
the European settlers and the local
Amerindian tribes. But the inevitable
tendency of these people in temperate
South America, as in temperate North
. America, will lie towards fusion
fTh^"^ with and absorption by the
^ .. invading Caucasian, from whom
they are not removed so far
physically as the latter is from the negro ;
no doubt because among the strands that
go to weave the Amerindian type are
Caucasian threads, traces of very ancient
intermixture with the basic stock from
which arose the European white man,
whether that intermixture took place in
far North-eastern Asia or came by way
5613
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
of the Pacific archipelagoes. , Both routes
may have been followed. The summing
up, therefore, of the effect which the
British Empire will have produced on
humanity in the United States and British
North America, in the West Indies and
in South America, is this •
In the English-speaking regions of North
America, north of the limits of Mexico,
there will grow up a people which would be
best represented at the present day by a
composite photograph of all the races of
Europe between Spain and Siberia, Greece
and Scandinavia. The black drop in the
blood of this . potent race of the future
will be no greater than that which has
infused anciently the populations of Spain,
Southern France, Sardinia, and Sicily,
or which makes itself noticeable in such
cities as Glasgow, Liverpool, Bristol and
London, which traded with the West
Indies and thereby mixed with negro
sla\'L'S in tlic three last centuries. The
Amerindian in North America will be
gradually absorbed, and will improve
rather than spoil the vigour and beauty of
the American race. It will have mucio the
same racial significance as the Mongolian
strain which permeates parts of Scan-
dinavia, Russia, Germany, Alsace, Brittany
and Ireland.
The Canadian French and the de-
scendants of the French colonists of
Louisiana, the Spanish tinge in Texas,
California, and Florida, the million or so
Italians settled in America during the
last fifty years, the other millions of
Iberian Irish, the darker types of Hun-
garians, will leaven the blond masses,
the descendants of the settlers from
Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Russia,
Poland, Scandinavia, Iceland, and Ger-
many. The most stalwart of the peoples
promise to arise in Canada ; the Canadian
may be the aristocrat of the New World
in tlie last half of tlie twfiilictli century.
UKITANNlAb REALM
5614
THE
BRITISH
EMPIRE
XV
BY SIR
HARRY
JOHNSTON.
G.C.M.G.
BRITAIN'S GREAT INDIAN EMPIRE
THE MARVELLOUS EFFECTS OF A CENTURY
AND A HALF OF BENEFICENT GOVERNMENT
r\S Asia, whatever may be the ultimate
^^ fate of the British Empire and the
length of its duration, traces of its existence
will have been left as far-reaching and in-
effaceable in their nature as those of Rome
on the Mediterranean world or of Macedon
on the Nearer East. The peninsula of India
is at once the nucleus and the starting-point
of the British Empire in Southern Asia.
An inhabitant of Mars, looking at the
outlines of the land surface of our planet,
would certainly never have guessed
that the people of the southern half of an
island off the north-west coast of Europe
would have made themselves the masters
of Hindustan. It was virtually England
that conquered India down to the close of
the eighteenth century, largely as Ireland
and Scotland have subsequently com-
pleted and strengthened the achievement.
That a military power uprising in the
Balkan Peninsula should ex-
tend its sway continuously over
Asia Minor, Persia and India
is easily conceivable, as also
that India should have fallen a prey to the
Russians or the Turks of Central Asia.
Yet, of course, our Indian Empire is not
much more remarkable as a political
achievement of the eighteenth and nine-
teenth centuries than is the Dutch Empire
over the Malay Archipelago or what would
have been a French overlordship of the
Indian Peninsula. The first two conquests
are the results of the development of sea
power, and France, in the main, failed
to take the place now occupied by Great
Britain in Southern Asia because when her
sea power was put to the test it \ielded
before that of the Anglo-Saxon.
If France has satisfied her Asiatic aspira-
tions by the acquisition of large dominions
in Indo-China — an almost sufficient com-
pensation for what she lost to us in
Hindustan — it is because at one time or
another in the nineteenth century her
Britain's
Indian
Empire
fleet has been sufficiently powerful to
deter Great Britain from the risk of an
avoidable war. In other words, in our days
of imperial rapacity — the 'eighties and
'nineties of the last century — we put up
with the growth of French dominion over
_ „ Annam, Tonkin and Eastern
J J .J Siam because, up to a certain
o mpena p^jj^^ ^yg j^^^ ^qq much to risk
Rapacity ■ ■ . xu t-
m gomg to war with France
at sea to interpose a determined veto on
her plundering of China and Siam.. At
such movements, of course, we expressed
an unaffected disapproval with a naivete
the more extraordinary as the French activi-
ties, after all, were merely coincident with
our own conquest of Burma and the Shan
States and our determination to acquire
undisputed political rights over the Siamese
provinces of the Malay Peninsula.
In the eighteenth century we found
India to be a prey to internecine war.
After many invasions from the north-
west, going far back into prehistoric days,
the people of North Central India had been
conquered by a Turkish prince at the head
of an army composed of Moguls, Turks,
Afghans, and Persians.
Thus in 1526 was founded the Mogul —
properly spelt Mughal — Empire. Prior to
this, much of Western and South Central
India had been Mohammedanised and
Arabised, so that the irruption of Babar
slightly intensified the Mohammedan ele-
ment, and enabled his descendants for
the next two centuries to rule with fairly
undisputed swaj' over about
f^H'^d 120,000,000 people, consider-
p "^ " ably more than two-thirds of
whom belonged to the Hindu
religion, and were thus violently opposed in
their social customs and traditional beliefs
to the ruling Mohammedans. The Hindu
element began to revive in power and cour-
age in the seventeenth, and above all in the
middle of the eighteenth, century. Had
5615
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
the country been firmly united in religion
under a dynasty that practised the faith
of the majority of its subjects, our military
and' naval forces of the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries would never have
been able to defeat the Portuguese,
Dutch, and French, one after the other,
and conquer in turn the native vassals
or the- foes of the Mogul dynasty till
at last that dynasty became in the
nineteenth century — it did not expire till
1858 — the tool and pensioner of the
British Chartered Company. India,
speaking from the point of view of the
human race and of the origin of many
other important
mammalian
types, is perhaps
the most remark-
able portion of
the earth's sur-
face. It is in the
main the great
Mother Country
— fi r s 1 1 y , of
humanity as a
genus of the ape
order ; secondly,
it may be, of
human civilisa-
tion, and almost
certainly of the
principal relig-
ious ideas that
now pulsate
through the
human world.
In the Tertiary
Epoch there seem
to have arisen in
India, not only
the human genus
and species from
out of a pithec-
anthropoid form, but possibly also three
amongst the types of surviving anthropoid
ape, and also the baboon genus. Moreover,
this productive region appears to have been
the birthplace of the bovine, antelopine,
capricornine ruminants, several groups of
carnivora, of dogs, deer, and swine.
Here, perhaps, arose the true elephant
genus from out of the mastodon. Here was
the great radiating centre of the gallina-
ceous birds. India ranks with North America
and North-east Africa as one of the great
evolutionary breeding grounds from which
have arisen and dispersed the principal
forms of animal life. Southern India, j oined
5616
MAKING
it may be then with Malaysia, was almost
certainly the place of origin of the human
genus, and of the three species or sub-
species into which modern man is divided.
When, however, the Ganges Gulf had dis-
appeared, and the peninsula occupied very
much its present form^in short, some
ten to twenty thousand years ago — this
portion of the world was inhabited mainly
by what are styled the Dravidian races,
a low type of Caucasian man, higher in
development than the generalised black
Australian or Veddah of Ceylon, yet not
so distinctly a "white man" as the
next upward step, the Iberian or brunette
M e d i t e r r anean
race. This last
furnishes the
principal racial
element in the
peoples of
Afghanistan,
Persia, North
Africa, Southern
and Western
Europe at the
present day. On
these Dravidians
recoiled pre-
historic invasions
of Mongols, of
the yellow, bare-
skinned, straight-
haired type of
humanity which
may have arisen
from the existing
human species
either in India or
in Further India.
These Mongolians
penetrated here
and there in pre-
historic times
amongst the Dravidian peoples, who them-
selves had overlaid pre-existing negroid
Australoid races, for the more ancient
negro type likewise originated in India ; so
that here and there in Northern and Central
India, and perhaps along the east coast,
there are Mongolian elements older than
those which penetrated India from Tibet
and the Pamirs within the last 2,000 years.
At some unknown date, this side of
7,000 years ago, occurred one of the great
landmarks in the unwritten history of
India — the invasion of the Aryans. The
name Aryan — ^itself of Indian origin — •
has been applied in past times with a
PUBLIC ROAD THROaOH THE FOREST
CUTTING A ROAD THROUGH THE JUNGLE IN THE FEDERATED MALAY STATES
5617
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
degree of looseness which led for a while
to its falling into disrepute. Its linguistic
purpose was confused with a racial desig-
nation, which is probably of a far more
abstruse and limited scope. One may
perhaps — as a not altogether improbable
theory — identify the original inventors of
the Aryan tongues with the blond, grey-
eyed Europeans of Russia,
The Ancient Cg^tral and Northern Europe.
^'"^*" But for several thousand years
anguages ^j-yg^j^ languages have been
spoken by all the types of Caucasian man
in Europe and Western Asia, except Lap-
land, Finland, North-east Russia, part of
Hungary, a small part of Turkey, Syria,
and the borderlands of France and Spain.
These languages seem — from such
knowledge as we now possess — to have
arisen somewhere in Eastern Russia or
Western Asia, north of the Caucasus, and
to have been the appanage of a white-
skinned people of pastoral habits, physi-
cal beauty, and of a stage of culture which
had reached the age of metals — copper,
bronze, and perhaps iron. Some have
maintained that this golden-haired or red-
haired, grey-eyed people may have deve-
loped in North Africa from the brunette
Mediterranean race or from some more
generalised type of Caucasian man. The
only clues that we possess at present
as to the origin of Aryan languages
would seem to lie in the direction of a
Finnic or Mongolian stock.
But in prehistoric times, from 7,000 to
5,000 years ago, possibly more than that,
Aryan conquerors had entered India from
the north-west, and had produced much
the same impression on the dark-skinned
Dravidians as was made on the pristine
negroes of Africa b}' the prehistoric in-
vasions of Hamites from Egypt.
The Aryans introduced to the millions
of Northern, Central and Western India a
language of the same family as that to
which Lithuanian, Slavic, Greek, Latin,
. and Keltic tongues belong. This
th^Buddha language, represented pretty
„ ,. . closelv by Sanskrit, developed
Religion 4.1 " r 1 XI
m the course of several thou-
sand years into the modern dialects of
India and of Southern Ceylon, leaving
only outside its influence the Dravidian
speech of Southern and South-eastern
India and the tongues of a few aboriginal
tribes. The Aryans brought with them
religious ideas which modified the religion
of Brahma and eventually gave rise to
5618
that of Buddha. From them and their
intrusion and infusion of superior northern
blood arose the idea of caste. The original
blond hair and grey eyes of the Aryans
soon disappeared in their physical absorp-
tion into the millions of dark-haired,
brown-eyed, swarthy Dravidians or the
yellow-skinned, black-haired Mongolians.
The traces of this northern physical tyjDe
still linger in the highlands of Afghanistan
and of the Hindu Kush. Curiously enough,
these brown-haired, grey-eyed Afghans
resemble strikingly the brown-haired, grey-
eyed Berbers of the Atlas Mountains of
Tunis and Algeria.
The Aryan influence may also have
penetrated beyond India to the recesses
of Siam and Cochin China ; but at the
present day the mass of the population
eastwards of Bengal belongs in the main
to the Mongol type in varying degrees,
with an underlying stratum of Negrito.
The people of Bengal, the familiar
" Babu " type, no doubt also have an
infusion of the Mongolian in their blood.
These Aryan invaders of prehistoric
times were reinforced as regards language
and fighting power by subse-
th D * quent incursions, legendary and
f H" r historical, from across the Hindu
Kush. Across the lower valley
of the Indus, however, at the dawn of
history, races of Dravidian stock seem-
ingly were pushing westwards through
Baluchistan and Southern Persia to Meso-
potamia and Eastern Arabia. Indeed,
it would appear as though there had been
a strong set of the Dravidian peoples
towards Arabia at a remote period in the
history of that peninsula, and that there
may be even a Dravidian element in the
blood of the Semitic and Hamitic tribes
of Arabia and Ethiopia.
Alexander the Great definitely linked
the fortunes of Europe with those of
India. From his celebrated invasion on-
wards Europe never completely lost
touch with the peninsula of Hindustan.
Even Alfred the Great, King of Wessex,
caused inquiries to be made about India.
The invasion of the Greeks 300 years
before Christ further strengthened the
Aryan influence over North-western India,
as is testified by the remains of a debased
Greek art in the Northern Punjab and even
Greek types of face amongst its people.
The next great event in the history of
this motherland was the invasion of the
Mohammedan Arabs, which began in
BENGAL SAPPERS AND MINERS ROAD MAKING IN CHITRAr
CONSTRUCTING THE PERIYAR DAM IN SOUTH INDIA
SCENES IN MANS FIGHT AGAINST NATURE
5<>i9
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
looi A.D., and which, carried on by the
Arabised Turks and Persians, culminated in
that ]\Iogul Empire for which the British
Crown was substituted in 1858 and 1876.
We found India in the seventeenth
century more or less completely under the
sway of the Mogul emperors. The India
which they ruled, directly or indirectly,
though it included Southern Afghanistan,
scarcely extended to Baluchistan, and
certainly stopped in the Far East at the
mouth of the Ganges. It did not include
Ceylon, which remained more or less
governed internally bj^ an ancient dynasty
of Aryan origin and Buddhistic religion,
but the coasts of which were controlled
ever since the sixteenth century first
by the Portuguese, then by the Dutch, and
finally, in the nineteenth century, by the
British. The India of the seventeenth
century, ruled by the Mogul emperors,
probably contained a population of
150,000,000. The
Indian Empire of
to-day, excluding
Ceylon, extends
from the Persian
Gulf to the
frontiers of
Tonkin and con-
tains some-
thing like
297,000,000
people. To about
150,000,000 we
have brought the
means at the
present day of
acquiring an ex-
cellent education,
scarcely inferior
in its scope to
that which is
provided for our
fellow - country-
men at home.
To the whole of
the 300,000,000
of Baluchistan,
Kashmir, Little
Tibet, of the
Indian peninsula proper from the Hima-
layas to Cape Comorin, of Burma and the
Shan States we have given security of life
and property to a degree never known by
these Asiatic peoples in all their recorded
history. Equal security has been given
to the native dynasties of kings and chiefs
who have accepted our suzerainty, and who
5620
RAILWAY SCENE IN BURMA H. c. ■v\Tiite Co.
The above interesting picture not only shows how closely the railway
system of Great Britain is copied in Burma, but also illustrates the
spread of the English langnage in that country. Compartments
reserved for women have the words "Women only " painted on the
doors, while the picture of a woman above the lettering indicates the
purpose of the compartment to those who have not learnt to read.
conduct the affairs of their kingdoms and
principalities with decorum and justice.
The wealth of India during the last
hundred years, since the British became
the effective masteis over this region,
must have increased tenfold, while the
population has nearly doubled.
Magnificent public works have been car-
ried out — thousands of miles of railways,
canals for communication and irrigation,
gigantic dams and reservoirs for the storage
of water, bridges across rivers that are
wondeis of the world, the sounding,
charting, and buoying of great capricious
rivers up which ocean ships may travel
hundreds of miles ; we have developed
coal-mines that have added enormously
to the wealth of India ; gold-mines,
diamond mines. We have introduced the
tea plant, and have made its cultivation
one of the great industries of North-
eastern India : the cinchona tree, with
its fever-healing
bark ; the coffee-
tree from Africa,
and many other
useful products
of the tropics
and the tem-
perate zones
which thrive on
Indian soil. We
have taken up
and developed
indigenous pro-
ducts like jute,
indigo, cotton,
wheat and rice.
We have i m -
proved the indi-
genous breeds of
horses; taken
measures to
preserve the wild
elephant from
extinction;
checked the
devastations and
the numbers of
harmful wild
beasts and
poisonous snakes. Move important by far
than this interference with the tiger and
the viper is the tracking down of the
plague, cholera, malaria and s\q3hilis bacilli,
and the war we have recently been waging
on microbe-bearing rats, fleas and mos-
quitoes. We have fought famine in those
recurring years of scarcity wherein the
m- " ff3kJ^7*T*j+T-R?# » *i*^.yriyjif~)
f ff S
NATIVE EDUCATION IN INDIA : SCENE IN A MOHAMMEDAN
' iMiie & Shepherd
SCHOOL
rainfall was deficient, and \ve have striven
to retain the rainfall necessary to the
country by a careful control of the forests
and the replanting of trees. When we
took up the rule of India in the guise
of a great amorphous trading company,
India was rapidly being ruined by inces-
sant warfare between degenerated Turkish
and Afghan dynasties and their Hindu
and Sikh opponents.
The country was becoming disforested by
fires, by the unchecked browsing of goats
and cattle, and by clearing for cultivation.
And though this destruction of the wood-
lands could hardly affect the mighty
ranges of the Himalayas or the tropical
jungles of Southern India, it was, together
with the neglect of irrigation, slowly
extending the area of the waterless desert
region in the north-west and centre.
Temples and mosques and other marvels
of Indian architecture at their best
were crumbling into decay through the
decline of art and the incessant wars
between Mohammedans and Hindus. It
is said, nevertheless, that the people
were less taxed than they are under our
existing regime, and that the population
being only half what it is now, disease
was not so rampant from overcrowding
in towns, while famines were less frequent
and severe.
It is doubtful whether these counter
assertions are correct. Some of the people
were no doubt hghtly taxed, or paid no
taxes at all, through leading the life of
savages. Others again were subjected to
such considerable and such irregular
extortions that private enterprise was
often crippled. The effects of the old
regime have not quite vanished yet.
Rulers and people were accustomed not
only to put their savings into bullion of
gold and silver, but, in the uncertainty of
their lives, to trust no man. no institution,
no government, with their hoards of wealth ;
rather to bury their gold and silver in the
ground against such time as they should
need it. In this way many a store of
bullion has disappeared which might
otherwise have been circulating through
the country and stimulating commerce.
As to the records of disease, so little
attention was paid to these questions in
the native annais that there is scarcely
any evidence on which to base a
5621
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
The Fight
With Disease in
India
comparison between the death-rate now
and the death-rate a hundred years ago.
The great increase in the population, and the
going to and fro, hither and thither across
the Indian FJmpire, have no doubt spread
certain diseases at one time restricted to
special localities. But through the measures
undertaken by British medical science some
ciiseases like small-pox have
been robbed of their terrors,
and others, like cholera,
malaria, and the plague, are
being brought gradually under control.
Progress in the elimination of disease
would have been quicker but for the
suspicion, the prejudices, the religious
fanaticism of Hindus and Mohammedans.
It is scarcely an exaggeration to say that
only two or three thousand natives of
India out of three hundred millions have
as yet grasped sufficiently the principles
of natural science to realise the true
causes of disease, and to be convinced that
sensible people would not allow either
superstition or misapplied religious prin-
ciples, or foolish social customs and preju-
dices, to stand between an enlightened
government and the elimination of such
diseases as the plague.
The effect of 150 years of British rule
on the peoples of India has been stupen-
dous. We have put an end to Afghan
raids which at intervals since looi
scattered the accumulated capital, de-
stroyed the cities and the public works of
I .. , the industrious races, and punc-
jj . tuated the annals of India with
g .. . holocausts of human victims.
We have done away with
Thuggism, widow-burning, and our in-
fluence is rapidly making child-marriage
an obsolete custom. Under our rule there
is complete religious liberty for all who
do not want to adopt murder or torture
as an article of faith. We may not last
long enough to make a homogeneous
undivided people out of the 300,000,000
inhabiting this sub-continent, for that is
nearly as difficult as to fuse all the states
of Europe into a single polity ; but, at
any rate, we have set the Parsees on their
feet, have raised the sect of the Sikhs to be
deservedly one of the dominant forces of
India, have enabled the Mohammedans of
Bengal, Oudh, and Agra, and also of the
Punjab and of Haidarabad, to develop
their religious ideas in unfettered liberty of
opinion till, if any group can save the teach-
ing of the Arabian prophet from falling com-
pletely out of harmony with our present life,
it will be the prosperous, educated, reason-
able Moslems of the Indian Empire.
We may in the same way save the Hindus
from themselves by sapping the intoler-
able nonsense of caste, of the Brahman
cult, the non-hygienic principles that direct
this and that restriction on wholesome
food or drink, of the worship of black
^ goddesses with two dozen
Consequences ? , r ^^ .-, v i.i
, _ .^ . , breasts, of all the ghastly
^ J D , rubbish which still reduces
Good Rule r TT- J ,
200,000,000 of Hmdus to a
negligeable quantity in the weights of the
intellectual world. We shall also have had
the privilege of assisting and rendering
prosperous and numerous one of the very
few good and noble religions which have
arisen in the world — the sect of the Jains.
The effect of the British Empire on the
Malay Peninsula and in Borneo has been
the abolition of piracy, the stoppage of
internecine wars between one Malay
sultan and another, and of the Arab slave
trade ; and the great recent increase of
population which has resulted from the
abatement of the dense forests and their
profitable exploitation, the discovery of
tin and coal, and the hundredfold increase
of human health, happiness, wealth and
intellectual progress in these parts. If
there is any portion of the British Empire
without a blemish in purpose or achieve-
ment, it is the Malay Peninsula, the Straits
Settlements, and all their appurtenances.
THE GOLDEN TEMPLE OF THE SIKHS AT LAHORE
5622
THE
BRITISH
EMPIRE
XVI
BY SIR
HARRY
JOHNSTON,
G.C.M.G.
BRITISH EXPANSION IN AFRICA
AND THE PACIFIC
AND ITS EFFECT ON THE NATIVE RACES
npHE existence of a great island or
•'• continent to the south of the Mala}'
Archipelago had been suspected by the
Portuguese early in the sixteenth century.
This dim knowledge was crystallised into
an allusion to " Greater Java." The
Dutch were the first, in 1598, to refer
to this continent to the south of New
Guinea as " Australis Terra." The sub-
sequent histor}' of the discovery and
settlement of Australia has already
been given in preceding chapters.
What were the conditions of Australasia
when white men in the seventeenth century
were feeling their way towards fresh
conquests and occupation ? Why, when
island after island in the Malay Archipelago
was rapidly conquered and occupied by
the Portuguese, Spaniards, Dutch or Eng-
lish, did these lands of the southern hemi-
sphere so long evade the white man's sphere
of practical politics ? The
westernmost promontories
Australasia's
Savage
Inhabitants
and islands of New Guinea
were included by the Dutch
within their sphere of commercial and
political influence as early as the end of
the sixteenth century ; but the whole of
the remainder of New Guinea, Australia,
New Zealand, and the adjacent Pacific
archipelagoes were left to themselves
till the last half of the eighteenth century.
The reasons for this late development
were principally the savage and ferocious
nature of the inhabitants, who lay utterly
outside Hindu, Malay, and Mohammedan
influence, and the existence of the Great
Barrier Reef, which hindered approach to
the coast of North-east Australia.
The extent of this reef southwards was
probably over-estimated. But where it
came to an end the seas were sufficiently
far south to be affected by "heavy gales.
It was not until better and bigger ships
and more scientific navigators entered these
waters, with Captain Cook as a pioneer,
that any approach was made by English or
French towards discovery and settlement.
But the nature of the inhabitants of
these Australian lands was a more powerful
deterrent than the dangers of navigation.
The complete absorption of the Malay
,, . . Archipelago and Peninsula
Mohammedan xr,- z.u xr „^
_, ,. . _ , withm the European
Keligion Spread 1 J- i j-
. * . \^ political area m a lew vears
by the Arabs ^ ., ,- 1 1 '1
after discovery had been
enormously facilitated by the civilisation
of the Malay race at some unknown
period by Hindu influences, and, much
later, by their conversion to Islam.
Just as the Islamising of the northern
half of Africa shed a flood of light on a
country the indigenes of which (south
of N. Lat. 10°) were in a stage of early
culture singularly akin to that of Austra-
lasia, so the carrying of the Mohammedan
religion by Arabs through India and along
the trade route to China amongst the Malay
Islands did more for mediaeval geography
and the linking up of the worlds of Europe
and the Far East than the attempts of
Greece, Rome, and Constantinople or the
growth of the Chinese Empire.
The conversion of the Malays to
Islam definitely attached the coasts of
the East Indian Islands and promontories
to the civilised world. The plumes of
New Guinea birds of paradise, the cam-
phor of Formosa, the spices and even the
cockatoos of the Moluccas may have
reached the Persian Gulf, the Mameluke
rulers of Egypt, the Greek emperors of
_. _ _ Byzantium, the merchants
, . .r.. .?.! of Venice, and the Arab
rulers of Grenada before the
oversea exploits of the
Portuguese made these regions of the Far
East tributary to Western and Northern
Europe. The.culture which prevailed over
New Guinea, excepting the small ^lalay
sultanates of the far north-west, over all
Australia and Tasmania, was of such a
of Australasian
Aborigines
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
low order that it might be called Paheo-
lithic. The aborigines of New Guinea,
Australia and Tasmania were, in the main,
of a more primitive, less differentiated
character than any living races at the
present day, except their outlying relations
such as the Veddahs and Negritoes. The
lowest Australian types of men bear in
. cranial formation a striking
Diversity si^iilarity to the Neanderthal
of Race in g^g^^gg ^f ^]^q genusHomo which
Australia inhabited Europe at a very
remote period. They are, indeed, the
nearest living representatives of early
PaL-eolithic Man in Europe. Elsewhere
this generalised type of our species has
been developed, specialised, or exter-
minated. At the present day the Papuan
race of New Guinea makes a distinct
approximation towards the negro, and this
negroid type penetrates eastward and
northward, mixed in varying degrees
with the Polynesian, till it reaches
Hawai, Formosa, and Japan.
The theory sometimes advanced to
account for the physical attributes of the
extinct Tasmanians is that this negroid
type migrated southwards along the
east coast of Australia and crossed thence
to Tasmania, being afterwards succeeded
on the continent of Australia by races
with straighter hair and more prominent
noses, akin to the Dravidian.
In New Zealand there was a different
state of affairs. The first European ex-
plorers that landed on its coasts — French
and English, at the close of the eighteenth
century — observed two types amongst the
aborigines : a short, dark-skinned negroid,
and the tall, light-skinned Maori ; and
the theory was advanced some thirty years
ago that the arrival of the last named
from Polynesian archipelagoes had been
preceded by a Tasmanian immigration. But
it is inconceivable that this low race could
have constructed canoes to cross a thousand
odd miles of sea between Australia and
-. r, , ., New Zealand ; it is difficult
New Zealand s ^^^^^^j^ ^^ ^^j-^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^j^
1 V^ V-. . a primitive type could even
Inhabitants , ^ a r. a -i
have crossed on rafts a strait
of a few miles in width between Wilson
Promontory and Tasmania ; and it has
been surmised that their colonisation of
this island dates from a time when it was
connected by an isthmus with the Aus-
tralian continent. Therefore, it is more
probable that if there was a negroid element
in New Zealand, it accompaniedtheMaories
5624
from the Polynesian archipelagoes. It
is the main element of the popula-
tion of Fiji, and is traceable in Tonga.
The Papuans of New Guinea are fairly
abundant, of medium height, and good
proportions, though some of the tribes
of the interior tend to a shortness of
legs which recalls the forest negroes of
Africa. The skin colour is sooty brown
like that of the Australian.
The dark races of South-eastern Asia differ
from the "black" negroes in that there
is less red colour in the skin, and in the
case of the Papuans and Australians there
is a much greater projection of the brow-
ridges ; the nose, moreover, being seldom
absolutely fiat in the bridge, though the
tip is wide and fiat at the nostrils, and
the lips, though thick and projecting, are
riot so largely everted as with the average
negro. The hair of the Papuans is black
and frizzly, and grows semi-erect, like
a mop. That of the Australians is curly
in a large way, but except for its coarse
texture grows very much like a European's.
Like the lower races of Europe and India
the Australian's body, in the male, is very
_. ■ ■ ... hairy. This is one of the
of rhT " '" characteristics which points
p J . to a basal affinity between
o ynesians ^^^ Australoid and the
Caucasian. The Polynesians seem to be
a Far. Eastern prolongation of Malay in-
fluence, though in physical characteristics
perhaps nearer akin to the Caucasian.
They differ from the Western. Caucasian
in the relative absence of body-hair, and
a tendency to the straight, coarse head-
hair of the Mongol, Malay, and Amerindian.
1 1 may be that before the Mongols of China,
Japan, North Asia and the Esquimaux
had become differentiated and had reached
their present habitat an early Caucasian
type threw off a smooth-skinned, straight-
haired branch which migrated to North-
eastern Asia and thence colonised much of
America, while it made its way also south
and east to the Pacific archipelagoes, to
absorb culture from the more Mongolian
Malay and mingle his blood with his.
In many of their physical characteristics
the Polynesians recall the Indians of
Western America. In modern times they
have mingled with the negroid Melanesians,
inheriting from them wider noses, undu-
lations in the head-hair, and darker skin
colour. Yet, when all has been said and
done, the best Polynesian type recalls the
European, and fundamentally the two
BRITISH EXPANSION IN AFRICA AND THE PACIFIC
races may be akin, a fact which will
probably have the happiest effect on the
future status of the Polynesians, inter-
marriage with whom will be no more
prejudicial to racial beauty and mental
development than the intermixture with
the Amerindian or the Northern Mongol.
The effect of the British Empire on the
autochthonous races of Australia and
Polynesia cannot be described in terms
of such glowing praise as I have applied
to our altogether splendid record in India,
Ceylon and Malaya. From the point of
view of the anthropologist and the
philanthropist it is here that our record
is sorriest and most ignoble. When we
invaded Austraha and Tasmania the
welfare, rights, and anthropological im-
portance of the indigenes seem to have
been completely absent from our minds.
Our Imperial conduct, in fact, in these
regions ranks much lower in the scale of
morahty than that of the King of the
Belgians, who, if he has afflicted and
diminished the native tribes of the Congo,
has at an}/ rate contemporaneously illus-
trated their arts, customs, and beliefs whilst
,^ such things could be re-
corded. Our treatment of
the Australian and Tasma-
nian blacks has been stupid
and brutal down to about 1896, long before
which time the Tasmanians were extinct,
and we deserve to be scourged for it
before the world's tribunal quite as much
as the Spanish nation for its treatment of
the Amerindians, or Leopold of Coburg for
his merciless exploitation of the Congolese.
But for the missionaries and, in addition,
the fighting qualities of the Maories the
Polynesian inhabitants of New Zealand
would have been as mercilessly dealt with.
- When we laid hands on all Australia,
from the point of view of keeping other
European Powers out, say, in 1800, the
nativ^e population of the entire island
continent cannot have been less than
200,000 ; to-day it is computed at 65,000.
Extermination seems to have been the
order of the day: — extermination by rum,
syphilis, starvation, and later the more
merciful and direct assassination by the
rifle bullet. In .about forty years from
1800, the natives of New South Wales,
Victoria, and of South Australia, had been
reduced from a possible 100,000 to about
5,000, not, of course, including those of the
central and northern regions, which are
still so inappropriately linked with
Great Britain's
Black Record
in Australia
" South " Australia. Queensland has had
as merciless a record, but here the territory
was vaster, hotter, and a larger proportion
of the indigenes have survived to profit
by the development of Queensland public
opinion on to a higher plane of thought.
Their treatment now is vastly improved
in this direction. Western Australia in
TK N f ^^^^ bade blocks, and above all
.T J i-> ^ 1 ill fhe far north-west, has still
Under Cruel , ... ,
~, much scourgmg to receive and
atonement to make ; from
the half-suppressed reports of clergymen
and missionaries the Westralian treatment
of the natives under their control has been
quite as bad as anything recorded of the
Congo. But in these matters, where the great
daughter nations are concerned, the British
Press is inclined to complacent silence.
The black Australian, as we first found
him, was certainly a savage, and an
unamiable, treacherous savage. " Ce!
animal est tres nv'chant ! Quand on
I'attaque il se defend!" If our fairest
coast regions were suddenly invaded by
an almost irresistible race of Martians, we,
in our futile defence of our homeland,
might show ourselves equally treacher-
ous. For a long time he was said to be an
" irreclaimable " savage. But this has been
shown to be as true as the dictum of King
Leopold's Congo Ministers that the Bantu
negroes of Congoland were " outside the
pale of the family idea." The irreclaim-
ability of the Austrahan — as announced
by the white colonist — is as true as the de-
pravity of the lamb in the eyes of the wolf.
Fortunately, however, there were other
and nobler forces at work in Australia, and
the result of their efforts, and those of the
colonists and governments helping them,
is that there are many police, stock-
riders, trackers, farm servants, and other
workers of use to the general community
at the present day, who are of pure
Australian blood. It is no longer probable
that this wonderfully interesting race will
be exterminated ; it is less un-
A Brighter
Prospect for
the Native
likely that it will be absorbed.
The half-caste between white
2 I
96
man and Australian aborigine
is not such a disappointment as are some
other human hybrids, either physically or
mentally. And again, from this cross to
further intermixture with the whites — or,
as seems now more customary, with such
Afghans, Indians, Chinese, or Polynesians
as the rigid immigration laws may per-
mit, or fail to prevent — may in time create
.5625
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
a small but prosperous class of dark-eyed,
pale-skinned, black-haired, not uncomely
people, who may find a place and a
decent recognition for themselves in the
future great Australian nation.
We had no recognised empire in the
Pacific until we annexed New Zealand in
1840, but the unofficial influence of the
^,. . , British on the Polynesian and
Missionaries ^^/r ■, 1 u .n
_ . . Melanesian peoples began With
. p, . the voyages of Cook and the
mpirc ^^^^ settlement of Austraha.
The way for the empire was prepared,
unconsciously no doubt,, by missionaries,
whalers, and traders in small sailing ships,
together with the frequent cruises of men-
of-war. The missionaries, most of all,
brought the Pacific islanders to the idea
that their only way of political salvation —
decimated as they were by their own inter-
tribal quarrels, and constantly under
menace of attack from European pirates —
was to offer the supreme rule or wardship
over their countries to the British queen.
No doubt, they were instinctively right.
At any rate, if the islands had not hoisted
the British flag they would have been
placed under that of France, the United
States, or Germany.. But it is sad to
think that since New Zealand became
British its indigenous population has
decreased from a hypothetical 100,000 to
about 48,000 at the present day. The
population of Fiji was estimated at about
200,000 in the middle of the nineteenth
century, and is now no more than 87,125
(in igo6), and is diminishing rather than
increasing. Elsewhere in the Pacific,
Tonga, Santa Cruz, Solomon Islands,
Gilbert Islands, Ellice Islands, the popu-
lation of native strain is on the increase.
Many of these islands were depleted of
their able-bodied men by the labour traffic
of 1870-1890, which at first kidnapped, and
later lured them for work on plantations
in Eastern Tropical Australia. Many of
these labourers have since returned to
_^ ^ , their homes, materially and
The Future , n j u j.i- ■
. . mentally improved by their
p . . exile. There is no cause now
but the inherent weakness of
racial stamina why the Polynesians and
Melanesians should not once more begin
to increase in numbers. Yet in Hawai,
under the Americans, and in Fiji under
the British — both governments showing
the utmost solicitude for their Poly-
nesian wards — the native race is ceasing
to have children, is dying of white
5626
men's diseases, is silently melting away
before the Indian coolie, the Japanese,
Chinese, and Portuguese immigrants. It
is said that native women are more fertile
with Japanese, Chinese or European
husbands ; it may chance, therefore, that
the fate of this Polynesian race may be
reabsorption, to form with these other racial
elements another and stronger Polynesian
people, an amalgam, like the predecessors,
whom Cook first described, of Australoid,
Caucasian, and Mongolian strains.
In other ways, the effect of the empire
on New Zealand, and on these " Summer
Isles of Eden set in dark purple spheres
of sea," has been wholly good, so far as
the general enrichment of the world is
concerned. New Zealand has become in
sixty-eight years a young nation of magni-
ficent vigour, with a mighty future before
her, and a population of nearly a million,
Fiji now does an annual trade in exports,
such as sugar, dried coco-nut kernels, and
fruit, and imports of the value of £1,213,000.
This archipelago, extraordinarily endowed
as to climate and healthfulness, scenery,
and fertility of soil, is of the area of Wales,
„ and supplies both Australia and
Frosperous ^ j ^ ^ • , , , • , ,
p .i. Canada with tropical produce.
I J - The inhabitants of nearly all
the other Pacific islands under
British jurisdiction are converted to
Christianity, and have given up canni-
balism and civil war. They are, for the
most part, busily engaged in the copra —
dried coco-nut — trade, but a number of
them still seek service in Queensland, in
Pacific islands belonging to France or
Germany, or even go as far afield as
Mexico, confident that their British nation-
ality will afford them ample protection.
Thus, after vicissitudes extending over
more than a century — since their first
discovery, or rediscovery, by British and
French mariners — the Pacific islands seem
to have found peace, prosperity, compara-
tive freedom and political stability.
Except in New Zealand, we have nothing
to regret in our treatment of these Poly-
nesian and Melanesian races, since a direct
government control was established over
the islands, large and small ; but there
remain some seventy or eighty years of
previous unofficial British or British
colonial dealings with the peoples that are
a sorry record of slavery, kidnapping,
alcohol-poisoning, debauchery, disease,
ridiculous or even vicious \vrangles
between Christian sects and churches,
BRITISH EXPANSION IN AFRICA AND THE PACIFIC
cannibalistic outbreaks and sanguinary
revenges, farcical governments got up by
European or American adventurers, and
floated with repudiated paper currencies.
These influences combined must have
reduced the total native population of
Oceania, excluding New Guinea but
including New Zealand, from a possible
2-1- millions to about a million at the
present day. Of course, it must be remem-
bered this 2 1 millions had been living
lives of useless happiness, apart from the
rest of the moving world, aloof from the
sorrows and struggles of the toiling
thousand millions in temperate or torrid
than the nourishment of unintellectual
idleness in cannibalism and sexual orgies
of 2,000,000 brown Polynesians. Such
fragments of the Earthly Paradise are
worthier to be the home of 50,000,000
men and women endowed with the finest
qualities of mind and body.
What has been the effect of the British
Empire on Africa ? In the west, the scene
of our earliest attempts at settlement as
traders and rulers, we first encouraged
to an enormous extent the trade in slaves.
This has led to much intertribal warfare,
and even the disappearance of certain
coast peoples. Between 1560 and i860 the
THE PRIMITIVE SYSTEM OF LANDING ON THE WEST AFRICAN COAST
continents. Seemingly, a policy of secluded
selfishness does not enter into the scheme
of the Higher Power for the development
of the human race^ Nature insists on a
unification of the genus, and to attain
this end extremes meet — the Dutchman
mingles with the Hottentot, the EngHsh-
man with the Polynesian, Scotsman with
West Indian negro, Portuguese with
Dravidian. Arab with Bantu, Frenchman
with x\merindian. The Summer Isles of
Eden and the 104,000 square miles of
pasture, meadow, woodland. Alp, lake,
and orchard, which constitute the noble
patrimony of New Zealand, were meant
for better things in the destiny of man
West African slave trade certainly tended to
the depopulation of parts of Guinea, Daho-
meh, the Niger Delta, and the Kameruns.
The British from 1815 and the French
from about 1835 set to work to suppress
the slave trade they had once encouraged.
This, of course, led to their increased inter-
ference in West African affairs, and by
degrees to a widespread use of the English
language as a medium of intercommunica-
tion. The trade in palm oil and palm
kernels — said to have been inv^ented in
Liberia — was, in its early days, a British
industry ; and so lucrative did it become
to natives as well as white men that it
probably proved a more efficient corrective
5627
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
of the slave trade than the vigilance of the
British cruisers. But the palm-oil trade
gave rise to incidents and tendencies which
provoked further — and often unwilling —
interference on the part of the British
Government with native chiefs. These last
would frequently attempt to make a corner
in palm oil, by preventing the interior
natives from coming into con-
on'[hc West *^^* ^^^^ ^^^ ^^^'^^ traders,
Af ■ ^ C ^^^ were thus compelled to
deal with the oil-markets by
making use of the coast negroes as inter-
mediaries and middlemen. Thus the pro-
ducing peoples of the interior received a
poor price for their industry, and the
European had to pay too dearly for the
oil which was becoming so increasingly
necessary to his home industries.
Now all these questions are regulated
equitably. The coast men share in the
general advantages of the coast govern-
ment, which is partly supported by the
customs duties levied on general imports
and exports. The natives of the interior
can dispose of their produce without let or
hindrance for the prices determined by the
law of supply and demand. But it is in
the coast regions, above all, that the
advantages of an enlightened British
administration have been shown. Here
a system of petite culture has been brought
into existence, in the Gold Coast Colony
especially, which has had the happiest
results, especially in the cultivation of
cacao. In this a trade of something like a
million sterling has been developed.
A glance at the revenues and expenditures
of all the British West African colonies and
protectorates will at once show their
prosperity. It is, above all, the prosperity
of the people of the soil, whose rights have
been most rigorously respected and rea-
sonably defined. The British West African
possessions are setting an example to the
rest of British Tropical Africa, and to a
great deal of Africa and Asia which is under
j^ p . other flags, of the new policy,
/d !^ ]^^ which is going to spread like a
of British I- 1 V, •
W t A' • new religion — ample recognition
of the rights of the indigenous
peoples to the land they live on and to the
natural produce of its soil. This theory
does not prevent the reservation of abso-
lutely vacant lands or lands containing
forests or mines, which must be dealt with
in the general interests of the community.
Such are held in trust for the community
by the established government of the
5628
territory, and the proceeds or profits
therefrom are publicly accounted for, and
form part of the local revenue. In the
administration which controls these sources
of public wealth the voice of the real
natives of the country will have a larger
and larger part as education increases in
the native community and fits the people
of the soil for playing a responsible part.
Whilst foreign capital is required to
fructify industries and to turn the re-
sources of the country to profitable account,
that capital must be allowed a fair repre-
sentation in the local councils, and receive
sufiicient guarantees as to its investments ;
otherwise the native community will
never obtain money on cheap enough
ternis for creating its industries. But
the ambition of all these negro states
under the British flag in West Africa and
Nigeria should be to obtain their working
capital in time through their own re-
sources and in time to show themselves
more and more worthy of home rule.
In East Africa, between the Nile Basin and
the Zambesi, the chief effect on the native
peoples has been produced by the abroga-
TK A K *^°^ ^^ Arab authority in the
O rfsston in *^°^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^ ^^® ^^®^"
pprcssion in ^^^^^ suppression of the Arab
East Africa , , j j c ^\ r
slave trade, and, finally, ot
slavery. The Arab treatment of East and
Central Africa has fohowed much the same
lines as European behaviour elsewhere.
First of all, the land was ravaged for slaves
and ivory. No thought was taken for the
welfare of the indigenes at all. They were
originally transported in thousands to
Arabia, Persia, Madagascar, and the Co-
moro Islands — a few also going to Western
India— and, later, they were used to de-
velop clove, sugar, coco-nut plantations
in Zanzibar and along the East African
httoral from Lamu to Cape Delgado.
When the Arabs appreciated the possi-
bilities of Congoland, the slaves of the
populations they harried were turned on
to create vast rice-fields, orange groves,
lime orchards, plantations of sugar-cane,
bananas, ground nuts, and maize in the
valley of the Lualaba-Congo. When
conquered at this epoch, the close of the
nineteenth century, the domain of the
Arabs on the coasts of Nyassa and Tan-
ganyika and in Eastern Congoland pre-
sented to the British, Germans, and
Belgians a certain appearance of well-
being, civilisation and contentment which
was in marked contrast to the savage
BRITISH EXPANSION IN AFRICA AND THE PACIFIC
regions outside the Arab settlements.
To some extent this contrast was an
unfair one to the pagan African, because
the unsettled regions outside the Arab zone
had been reduted to a condition of heed-
less savagery by the raids of the Arabs
and their negro allies. The wretched
remnant of the natives only secured some
immunity from attack by simply offering
no temptation to robbery. They accumu-
lated no stores of food, and avoided giving
any evidence of culture.
Had no European intervention taken
place, matters would have taken — more
slowly — the same course under the Arabs
as under the white man's predominance.
First, the Arabs would have cultivated
millions of acres by forced labour ; then,
as it became more and more difficult to
coerce great negro populations raised to
the same level of culture as the Arabs
themselves, the Arabs would have sought
to work by means of hired labour. Lastly,
they might have had the intelligence to
perceive what we are just appreciating —
thanks to the teaching of men like E. D.
Morel, Albert Chevalier, Vandervelde,
. Charles Dilke, Fox-Bourne,
ropica ^^^ Theodore Roosevelt —
Africa s Negro ,i , ,,
p . J that the negro is an m-
eradicable plant in Tropical
Africa ; and that, this being the case, it is
better to treat him as the owner and
dominant factor in the country', inspire
him with the pride of ownership — in-
dividual and communal — and by means
of trade allurements tempt him to exploit,
as a free man and a person with a stake
in his own commonwealth, the resources
and riches of his dwelling-place.
This theory has its imperfections when
contrasted with actual contemporary
facts, but on the whole it has proved the
best working hypothesis with the negro
peoples of Eastern as well as Western and
Central Africa. But there are other
factors in the East African problem that
do not exist in West Africa and the Congo
Basin. Half the area of British East
Africa, a quarter of Uganda, a quarter of
Nyassaland are regions of considerable
elevation above sea-level ; and partly on
this account, partly from other causes,
are — or were when we entered the country
— devoid of native inhabitants. To tell
the truth, although the negro may have
avoided settling on these elevated plateaus
when he was a nearly naked savage, he
has shown himself quite able to do so under
more civilised conditions. But most of
these cold countries were No-man's-lands
when we discovered them, and we have
not felt called upon to hand them over to
the black man. For thirty years there
have been Scottish and English coffee
planters (colonists) in Nyassaland ; for
seven years we have been permitting the
,, . . appropriation of vacant lands
Unoccupied i /•, .11 1.1
J, . . by white men on the healthy
tJ^' J uplands of East Africa. Here,
Paradises '^ . ttt , tt j J
as in Western Uganda and
Northern Nyassaland, there are earthly
paradises still awaiting the people. Con-
sequently, the political future of Eastern
Africa is likely to be far more complicated
as an entity than that of West Africa,
purely a black man's land, or South Africa,
where the white man is quite resolved to
be the predominant partner.
In British East Africa, including Somali-
land and Nyassaland, there will be small,
compact, powerful colonies or enclaves
of Europeans and Asiatics surrounded
by a very numerous, prosperous, and,
I hope, friendly, population of negroes
and negroids. The Arab element will
remain and will permeate the leaven of the
docile Bantu with a sense of self-respect
and personal pride which will compel a
decent treatment at the hands of the
British and Indian fellow-colonists.
The effects produced by the British
Empire on the native races of South Africa
have been most potent. The Dutch and
Huguenot settlers who preceded us had
conquered the feeble Hottentot and
Bushman tribes of the south-western
angle of Cape Colony sufBcienth' to be
able to dispose of the land between the
little Namaqua coast, the sources of the
Zak, and the Great Fish River amongst
European farm settlers. These last at
times were almost at war with the un-
sympathetic, selfish, stupid government ol
the Dutch East India Company. The Boer
pioneers of the future white South Africa
. shirked any contest with the
The Racial pg^^-gj-ful Bantu peoples to the
So7th AfVc'L ^^^^ ^"^ '^°^*^ °^ *^^® ^^"^ ^^^^
which the}' had ousted the
Hottentot. Indeed, the drift of the racial
struggle was rather the other way when the
British first took possession of Cape Town.
Should the Kaffir and Basuto be
allowed to drive the Boer farmers back
on to the Cape Peninsula and occupj' the
lands of the Hottentot in their stead ?
For centuries the big Bantu negroes had
5629
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
been pressing south from their original
home in Central Africa. They had
absorbed or exterminated the Hottentots
and most of the Bushmen in South-eastern
Africa ; on the south-west their advance
was hindered by the aridity of the Kalahari
Desert and Namaqualand, but they had
already turned the obstacle by coming
. , round the south coast of
5"'*"V5 , . the continent and ad-
« "M Z "" vancing thus on the delect-
South Africa , , " ■ r ii /- „ „r
able region ol the Cape of
Good Hope (one of the world's paradises).
The Sneeuwbergen and the Great Fish
River were the limits on the north and
east which temporarily detained them
when the Briton arrived on the scene.
But for his armed support — the
resources of Britain in men, money and
ships — it is doubtful whether the Boers,
left to their own resources, could have
stemmed this impetuous flood of Basuto
and Kaffir warriors. Supposing even
that Holland had remained the sovereign
of Cape Colony, could the Dutch nation
at that juncture have fought and van-
quished two or three millions of Bantu
negroes of the Zulu and Suto calibre when,
even with all the resources of modern
warfare and the unquestioned bravery of
her tioops, she has not been able to subdue
the small sultanate of Achin (Sumatra)
between 1815 and igo8 ?
It seems very probable that the assump-
tion of British control over Cape Colony
in 1806, and later over Natal, saved South
Africa for the white man, who, in the
temperate regions of the south-west, had
just as much right there as the Bantu.
The subsequent effect of British rule has
not been to lessen the black population of
Trans-Zambesian Africa. The Bushmen,
already half absorbed by the Hottentots
and nearly exterminated by the Bantu,
are, it is true, only about 4,000 to-day,
where there were perhaps 10,000 seventy
years ago, and the Hottentots are a decay-
ing people to some slight extent. They
seem more likely to exist in a half-caste
type, the original hybrids with the Boers
— Griqua — mixing again with the pure
bred Hottentots and strengthening the
race. But, thanks to the staying of civil
war and mad superstitions among the
Kaffirs, holocausts of slaughter and
incessant murderous raids by all the Zulu
clans, conquests and ravages by the differ-
ent Suto or Bechuana tribes between the
Upper Zambesi and the Orange River, the
settled Bantu population of Southern
Africa — Zambesi to Algoa Bay — has in-
creased probably from 3,500,000, as we
may compute it to have been in 1806, to
nearly 6,000,000 at the present day.
The increase has been most marked in
Eastern Cape Colony, Natal, Basutoland,
Bechuanaland, Eastern Rhodesia, and
Portuguese South-eastern Africa, where
the conditions of native life have been
vastly improved by the wages of the
mining labour market in Kimberley,
the Orange State, and the Transvaal.
Unfortunately, although the Imperial rule
of Britain has been — no honest person or
competent judge can deny — a very great
blessing to humanity in West, East, and
South Africa, it has in the south and south-
centre, and a little in the east, spelt ruin
to the magnificent wild mammalian fauna.
The Boer hunters counted for something
in this work of thoughtless destruction,
but only as the disciples of British sports-
men. These were originally officers in the
army, for the most part visiting the Cape
on their way to or from India. India had
initiated them into the joys and thrills of
big-game shooting, the rifle had come into
general use as a sporting weapon of pre-
cision, and thus were provoked the won-
derful crusades against elephants, buffalo,
, antelopes, rhinoceroses, giraffes,
un ers jjons, hippopotami, zebras,
C^ ' d^^ which have ended by leaving
nearly all Cape Colony with
no more notable wild beasts than a few
baboons, leopards, jackals, civets, spring-
boks, and rodents ; a campaign wliich has
placed the quagga and the blaubok on the
list of extinct animals, and has brought
the white rhinoceros. South African oryx,
and several other interesting mammalian
types very near the vanishing point.
BRITISH ENTERPRISE IN AFRICA : THE NYASSA-TANGANYIKA ROAD
630
D"J
THE
BRITISH
EMPIRE
XVII
A-fe A
BY SIR
HARRY
JOHNSTON.
G.C.M.G.
MAN'S TRIUMPH OVER NATURE
THE WONDERFUL RECORD OF BRITISH
ACHIEVEMENT THROUGHOUT THE WORLD
HTHE British nation has not merely fought
■*■ with rival or recalcitrant men for the
colonisation, retention, and development of
its empire ; it has done things more \\ orthy
of remembrance perhaps than that. It has
steadily fought the reactionary forces of
Nature, and has often scored a victory.
Surely something of the genius of old
Rome must have left its germs in British
soil and been absorbed by British men and
women, whether they were Kelto-Roman,
Danish, Saxon, Norman, or French in
their ancestr3^ The Roman nature of our
public works is not of to-day or the last
century only. Even the roystering, dissi-
pated, drunken, peculating soldiers and
officials of Charles II. left traces of their
brief occupation of Tangier in the massive
masonry of the mole. Though it is 105
years since we lost Minorca, \ve have
dowered that island with magnificent
„ ... roads, bridges, quays, and bas-
Builders ,• n ? -u \ii, ■
tions. Cortu bears the impress
J, . of the practical British mind
more thoroughly than any civil-
ised influence that has preceded or followed.
The public works of Aden are tremendous,
awe-inspiring, even though they may be
but the logical continuation of cyclopean
tasks begun by prehistoric Arabs.
In Canada, before the united " dominion "
days, the British and colonial govern-
ments had constructed canals across the
Niagara Peninsula, alongside the rapids of
the St. Lawrence. These have been sub-
sequently extended and improved by the
dominion government, until now the
waters of Lake Superior — 2,200 miles in-
land— and the other great fresh-water seas
of the St. Lawrence system, including the
port of Chicago, are in direct steamer com-
rnirnication, for reasonably small steamers,
with Britain and the rest of the world.
Since Canada became a self-governing
countr3', British capital and credit almost
entirely — besides British heads and arms
— have built the Canadian Pacific Railway,
which has revolutionised the economics
of Northern America. Energy, either of
direct or indirect British origin, is com-
bating the Glacial Period in North-western
Canada, in the region of the Yukon,
grappling with the permanently frozen
„ ....... soil, extorting riches and com-
PoSSlbllltieS r ,r i.u • 2-1 ^ ■ ■
t r fort irom the icy north, driving
of Energy u 1 m. C 1 ^ u
and Sci n back, it may be, later on, by
the resources of science that
hatefullest affliction of our mother earth,
that possible foreshadowing of the end of
all things we shall never see — the icy
touch which brought about many succes-
sive glacial periods, and rendered the
Polar regions, north and south, un-
inhabitable. It is just possible that the
energy of Britons or the descendants of
Britons may push back artificially the
realm of ice to the shores of the Arctic
Ocean, bringing in happier conditions of
climate, and turning to account millions
of acres of rich soil now locked in ice that
has not melted for 100,000 years.
In Tropical America and the West
Indies our achievements have not been so
colossal. Here they should lie in the ex-
termination of disease. We have, how-
ever, erected and endowed colleges, built
railroads, roads, and bridges — Jamaica,
almost from end to end, Barbados, British
Honduras (uncompleted), and Trinidad —
and regulated forests. In i8g8 was
founded the Imperial Department of
Agriculture for the West Indies under
_ . . Sir Daniel Morris. This de-
e\e oping partment is at present paid
^^^ . J .. for by the Imperial Govern-
West Indies i. T^ 1 1 1
ment. It has rendered great
services to torestry, agriculture and horti-
culture in the West Indies. A great deal
has been done in recent years to open up
the asphalt resources — the lakes of pitch
— in Trinidad and Barbados, the diamond
and gold mines of British Guiana, together
with the water power developed by the
cascades that tumble from the edges of
5631
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
the Vene/;uelan Plateau. Forestry in
British Guiana, 'British Honduras and
Trinidad, has received some attention.
Horticulture has beer much and wisely
developed in Jamaica, and the more im-
portant of the West India Islands. From
Jamaica, indeed, West and Central Africa
have received most valuable contribu-
. tions in the shape of improved
zl^^^r" varieties of cotton, coffee,
. j*"^ bananas, oranges and many use-
ful plants for tropical cultiva-
tion. In the Falkland Islands, since our
definite assumption of authority in 1833,
much has been done to develop the possi-
bilities of cattle and sheep breeding. Lat-
terly, sheep have become more important
than anything else, not necessarily for ex-
port in the form of mutton and wool, but
for the rearing of good rams for breeding
purposes. These are exported to South
America. Here also has been made an
important coaling and provisioning station
for vessels going round Cape Horn.
The first great public works of Britain
in India were probably trunk roads. These
were begun as far back as 1790, when the
East India Company settled down seriously
to taking up the reins of government.
The great trunk^:^ road from Calcutta and
Bengal to Peshawar was first projected
by an Afghan emperor, Sher Shah, and
was more than half completed by the
Mogul rulers. It was continued by the
East India Company, and finished about
1830. A great triumph in roadmaking,
achieved early in the nineteenth century,
was the road up the Ghats from Bombay
Island to the interior plateau. The roads
of British India now run to 193,000 miles
of metalled and unmetalled surface.
Canals in India followed the damming
of streams — .especially parallel with the
seaj-coast of Malabar, where they linked
one lagoon to another — and then came
the construction of great irrigation
works. There are now 4,055 miles of
navigable canals in India and
The Era
of Indian
Railways
about 43,500 miles of irriga-
tion canals bringing water to
13,606,000 acres. In 1850 began
the era of railways. By the end of the
nineteenth century' the Indian Govern-
ment had constructed about 25,000 miles
(November, 1908, about 30,000 miles)
of railways, from the hill stations of the
Himalayas, such as Darjeeling and Simla,
to Cape Comorin, opposite Ceylon, and
from the frontier of Arakan to Quetta
5632
and the Afghan frontier. Since then, the
railways have been creeping on towards
the Persian Gulf, on the one hand, and
Burma on the other. Before long, no
doubt, there will be direct railway com-
munication from some port on the Persian
Gulf, from which again a connection
across Persia with the Russian railway
system is inevitable, to Singapore.
Some of us who read these lines may
yet live — still enjoying health and vigour —
to travel from Calais to Singapore without
changing the carriage, or, if something less
" 1850 " than the present condition of
the South-Eastern Railway can be brought
into existence, we maj' enter our travelling
and sleeping compartment at Charing
Cross, and enjoy a marvellous panorama
of the most varied landscapes, races and
products of the earth's surface before we
quit our compartment at the southern-
most extremity of the Malay Peninsula.
The engineering works of India, such
as the great bridge across the Indus at
Attock, are worthy examples of the
mechanical achievements of the British
Empire. So is the bridging of the Zambesi
at the Victoria Falls in South
Central Africa ; so is the
A Series of
Engineering
Triumphs
damming of the Nile at
Assuan, Esna, Assiut andZifta.
These engineering works, conducted
under the auspices of Great Britain in
Egypt, have conferred enormous benefits
on the peasantry and the industries of
that country. Water has been brought
from the foot-hills of Ethiopia to Port
Sudan, and also to the town of Suakin.
The Red Sea has been united with
Khartoum by a railway, and Khartoum
with Upper Egypt. Steamers now ply on
the Nile from Khartoum to the Uganda
frontier, and right into the heart of Africa
up the tributaries of the Bahr-el-Ghazal
or to the Abyssinian frontier on the Sobat.
On the West African coast the pubHc
works have not been altogether worthy of
the British Empire until quite recently.
Down to a very few years ago everyone of
high and low degree who desired to land
or embark on the Gold Coast had to do so
more or less at the peril of his life, in
heavy surf-boats, through breakers that
occasionally capsized the boats and
drowned the passengers. Even at the
present day, Freetown, the capital of
Sierra Leone, is very early nineteenth
century, and compares unfavourably with
the new French cities of North-west
MAN'S TRIUMPH OVER NATURE
Africa, where the ocean-going steamer
can draw up alongside a magnificent
quay. At Freetown the passenger has
still to embark or land in a small boat.
But things are moving, even in British
West Africa. The public works of the
Sierra Leone Protectorate are worthy of
portions of India in the way of roads and
bridges, and a railway of 230 miles con-
nects Freetown with the north-western
frontier of Liberia, and has already doubled
the exports of the country that was once
called the " white man's grave."
There is also a railway advancing from
Lagos to the Niger, and from the Niger
across to the commercial centres of
the Hausa country, perhaps linking up
some day with the railways of Egypt and
of French West Africa. No enterprise
would be more beneficial to the commerce
and peoples of Africa than a railway from
the Mediterranean to the Gulf of Guinea
across the Sahara Desert ; for the railway
causes the desert to blossom as the rose.
If only the dread of Germany could be put
aside, and Britain and France could turn
their entente to the magnificent end of
crossing the Sahara by a rail-
u"'th'*^ way, they would have achieved
„** . a triumph over recalcitrant
Nature as grand as the attacks
on the Glacial Period which are going
on in North-western Canada. One of the
best schemes conceived by Rhodes — his
own especial scheme, started and main-
tained by his own money — was the
trans-African telegraph, a line which
was to run from the Cape to Cairo.
Thus far, the communication is inter-
rupted in several places. Through the
efforts of the British South Africa Company,
Cape Town is linked with Lake Nyassa and
the south end of Tanganyika, and even with
Ujiji in German East Africa. The next
gap to fill will be from Ujiji to the tele-
graph system of the Uganda Protectorate.
This extends no further, at present, than
Lake Albert. Probably by the time these
lines are in print it will have reached
Gondokoro. From this point there is
no further break till Alexandria is reached,
near the mouth of the Nile. A land line
now goes from Lagos to the heart of
British Nigeria, and from Sierra Leone to
the north-west frontier of Liberia.
This last will soon be linked with the
French land lines of Senegambia, and
these again, before many years are past,
will have traversed the Sahara Desert.
A telegraph line crosses the inhospitable
interior of Australia from north to south.
It has seemed to the present writer that
this was one of the most marvellous
achievements in its way to be placed to
the credit of the British Empire. The
central part of Australia is a more terrible
desert, perhaps, than any part of the
• ... Sahara. At the time the
Australia , ^ , , t ^■
« J k *t overland telegraph Ime was
spanned by the i •, ^ ,• n
Teleera h Conceived it was practically
an unknown country ; all
that was recorded of it was the death or
disappearance of explorers. It was not
uninhabited, though almost uninhabitable
(in its pristine conditions), but the in-
digenes were hostile and treacherous.
Yet these difficulties were overcome, and
in a few years. The spanning of Australia
by this wire deserves to rank among the.
great Imperial achievements.
Although carried out by commercial
companies and not directly by the govern-
ment, mention must be made here of the
deep-sea cables which are another source
of gratification to our national pride.
Great Britain was long the first to con-
struct and lay a deep-sea cable. The
whole conception and working out of
this feat in all its parts was the work of
British minds. All the great oceans, the
narrow connecting seas of the world, are
now spanned by British cables. Africa is
girdled with them, so is South America.
Thus we have striven to conquer dis-
tance and efface time. In the course of a
few hours we can send a message to the
heart of Central Africa, to the watershed
of the Arctic Ocean, to the hill stations
of the Himalayas, and receive a reply ;
and the agency principally or wholly
employed will have been a British-laid
cable or a British-hung land wire. We can
travel from Cape Town to the Victoria
Falls in five days where Livingstone fifty
years ago took five months. We can
traverse India from Baluchistan to the
vicinity of Burma in another
esu s o ^^^ ^^yg . ^^^ -^ ^ period of time
_'^* ** . scarcely longer, rush from the
n erprise ^^^^^^^g q£ ^j-^g Himalayas to the
Equatorial luxuriance of Ceylon. Already
Egypt, under British guidance, is feeling
her way in railway construction towards
Tripoli and across Arabia.
If Turkey can be brought to see the
advantages of co-operation, there may be
still within our lifetime a delightful alterna-
tive railway route to India, say for the winter
5633
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
season, when the hne through France,
Switzerland. Italy, Austria, Roumania,
Russia, and Persia is too cold. By the
alternative route vve may travel via Paris,
Madrid, Algeciras, Tetuan, Algiers, Tunis,
Tripoli, Cairo, and Basra — unless before
that time airships or aeroplanes that are
really safe, certain and commodious have
_ . made railways only useful for
ai ways ^ goods traffic. The present
as a Civilising ° ., ,,, r ai-
, ,, writer would be sorry for this.
Nothing fertilises, nothing
pacifies, nothing civilises like a railway.
Perhaps, in fairness, something should be
said about what Britain has done about
steam communication at sea. The British
Empire has given birth to a marvellous
mercantile marine. Being of necessity the
creation and dependent of sea power,
this fleet of g.ooo or 10,000 steamships
has always had a strong navy as its corol-
lary. But the triumphs of peace have been
those of the mercantile marine, a marine
that has grown up and prospered with very
little direct encouragement from the state.
The first practicable British steamers —
paddle-wheelers — plied about the west
coast of Scotland from 1812 onwards. In
1833 the first thorough-going steamship —
i.e., not a sailing vessel with auxiliary
steam power — crossed the Atlantic, the
Royal William, of Quebec. This steamer
made the journey from Nova Scotia
to Gravesend in twenty-two days. She
had been entirely built by Canadians
on the St. Lawrence, and was engineered
by them across the Atlantic. The return
voyage was first made by an Irish steamer
of the Cork Packet Company. The City
of Dublin Steam Packet Company had been
founded in 1823, and really became the
parent of the great Peninsular and Oriental
Steam Navigation Company in 1826.
This line originally started by a feeble
steamship service to Gibraltar, then
was extended in 1839-1840 to Alexandria
to meet the demand for the overland
route. Others of its steamships
D * Vth ^^^ painfully laboured through
St**^* °h* stormy seas round the Cape,
and established themselves on
the Red Sea side of the Isthmus of Suez.
The General Steam Navigation Company
was founded in 1824 \ f h^ first steam voyage
to India, round the Cape, was made in
1825 ; the Aberdeen Line — George Thomp-
son— had been founded in 1824 ; the
Harrison Line in 1830 ; the Royal Mail —
West Indian Line — in 1839 ! the City Line
5634
of Glasgow in 1839 ; the Cunard in 1840.
In this same year the Pacific Steam
Navigation Company began running
steamers to South America. The Wilson
Line of Hull was founded in 1845 ; the
Natal Line — ^Bullard — and the Inman Line
in 1850 ; the Bibby in 1851 ; the Anchor
Line (Indian) and the African Steamship
Company in 1852 ; the Union Steamship
Company' (of South Africa) in 1853 ; the
Allan in 1854 \ the British India Steam
Navigation Company in 1855. Several of
these lines of steamships began as associa-
tions trading with sailing-ships, so that
some of the great houses with their won-
derful modern fleets of passenger and
cargo steamers have a history beginning
with the nineteenth century.
British statesmen have left one blot on
the record of British prescience, in that
they never believed in or encouraged the
cutting of the Suez Canal, nor realised till
the work was an accomplished fact what
a marvellous gain it would be to the
shipping industry of the British Empire.
Ferdinand de Lesseps was one of the
greatest benefactors of the British Empire.
_ . , The remembrance of that fact
_" " should be an additional incite-
„ , ment to an everlasting friend-
Frenchman , . -,1 T^ T^
ship with r ranee, ror many
years the British steamship companies held
the field in regard to all long sea j ourneys.
Then there grew up rivalry in the Mediter-
ranean, the Red Sea, and Indian waters
on the part of steamship lines from Mar-
seilles, Trieste, Genoa, and Barcelona to
Tropical America ; Hamburg to the West
Coast of Africa ; Rotterdam to the Malay
Archipelago ; and, after 1880, that mar-
vellous development of German shipping
enterprise, which created first-class steamer
communication between the north-eastern
ports of Germany and almost all parts of
the world. In speed the British vessels
still hold their own, though it is a neck and
neck race with Germany. In comfort,
modernity of appliances, and food, it is to
be feared that the German, French, and
Austrian liners are superior to the British.
The Nobel Prize, however, has yet
to be awarded to that steamship line
which introduces the surest element of
civilisation into its. passenger traffic — one
passenger, one cabin. It ought to be made
penal to compel two, three, or four unre-
lated strangers to share a single sleeping
compartment. In forestry and horticulture
the British Empire has taken a leading
THE LANSDOWNE BRIDGE OVER THE INDUS AT SUKKUR F. Bremner, Ouctia
THE REVERSING RAILWAY STATION AT KHANDALLA IN INDIA ^ '"'•
OVERCOMING NATURE'S DIFFICULTIES: TRIUMPHS OF BRITISH ENTERPRISE
5635
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
of Biological
Research
part, though it has irequently l)orro\ved
from Germany its adepts in forestry and
economic botany, to the great advantage
of British research in those di)-ections. The
names of Gustav Mann, West Africa and
India ; of Brandis and Kurz, the Hima-
layas ; Sir Juhus Vogel, New Zealand ;
Dr. Otto Stapf, Kew Gardens, will at
once occur to themind of any
,„. . ^. . reader interested in these
subjects. But there have been
great exponents of what might
be termed Imperial botany of wholly
British descent — men like Sir Joseph
Banks, Sir Joseph Hooker, Professor Daniel
Oliver, Sir W. Thiselton Dyer, Sir Daniel
Morris, and Lieut. -Col. D. Prain.
The work of these men is of even greater
fame in Germany, France, Belgium, and the
United States than to the careless minds
of Britishers, so indifferent in the main to
scientific research. Purely scientific re-
search, and the reading of the world's past
history, the very secrets of the origin and
development of living forms, have owed
nearly as much to the exploring journeys,
of Hooker in the Himalayas and on the
Atlas Mountains of Morocco as they did
to the king of British biological research,
Darwin — Darwin, who also qualified as an
agent or servant of the empire when he
accompanied the Beagle on its famous
cruise in the interests of science.
Sir John Kirk, in a somewhat similar
capacity in connection with Livingstone's
government expeditions, opened our eyes
to the wealth and the economic importance
of the East African flora. British enter-
prise has introduced the tea-shrub into
India and Ceylon, cotton into alL parts of
Africa and the Pacific, cacao into West
Africa, coffee into Ceylon, Nyassaland,
Jamaica, and Trinidad.
Sir Clements Markham won his eventual
C.B. and his first renown by his splendid
attempts to secure the seed of the cin-
chona-tree, jealously guarded as its trans-
mission was by American In-
Blessings
dians and South American
of Botaaical , ^^ ^^ j .x
n. . governments. He enabled the
Discoveries °- , , , i , t • i i
cmchona to be planted widely
over the tropical regions of the world,
and brought down the price of quinine,
the most potent drug yet known against
malaria fever, till it eventually came
within the reach of poor sufferers. If
in this field of botany and agriculture
there have been triumphs, what are we to
say about zoology ? Well, there are two
5636
sides to the account, though the debit
balance of humanity is largely in the
ascendant. We are credited, and only too
truly, with having caused over Tropical
Africa a devastation in the mammalian
fauna which it might have taken a whole
geological epoch to have brought about.
Gordon Gumming, Cotton Oswell,
William Webb, William Baldwin, and F. C. I
Selous led the way in that crusade against ■
the big game of the South African penin-
sula which has gone far to rob that future
confederation of one of its most attractive
possessions in the eyes of educated men
and women. Oswell, Baldwin, and
Selous were, at any rate, naturalists who
greatly — Selous very greatly — enriched
scientific zoology with specimens and
information as to life and habits.
The rampant desire to kill, kill, kill, to
have the joy of hearing the bullet go plunk
into a mighty carcass, or some form of mar-
vellous beauty and swiftness, still animates
the minds of most South African pioneers
who are carrying on the work of empire
ever nearer to the Equator. Much of the
big game of Somaliland near the coast
, . . . has been killed out. Every-
R^afrof'" °^^ '"'^^ ^^^ ^^^"^ divorced
VI*'* 1 u- . or who wishes to divorce,
Natural History , ■ ,, , ■, m.i
who IS threatened with a
breach of promise action, or has made an ass
of himself — in the phrase of his relations —
hies to East Africa to wipe out an unpleasant
little piece of past by big-game shooting.
There are, and have been, of course,
important exceptions to this category —
men who have shot wisely and well, and
who have observed and annotated, and
have thus enriched not only our museums
with important specimens — skins, bones,
and pickled corpses — but who have given
us the life history of the animals they
pursued. Natural history, a better term
in this last respect than biology, owes
much to the writings of Livingstone, Sir
Samuel Baker, W. C. Oswell, Baldwin,
Selous, J. G. Millais, R. Crawshay, Alfred
Sharpe, Alfred Neumann, E. N. Buxton
in Africa, Sir Emerson Tennant in Ceylon,
Sir Samuel Baker, Dr. W. T. Blanford,
B. H. Hodgson, and R. Lydekker in India
and Central Asia. One of the leaders in
this modern movement of the camera
versus rifle, himself distinguished as a
shot and pursuer of shy beasts over
difficult ground, is Edward North Buxton,
who has illustrated the rare wild beasts of
Corsica, Sardinia, Central Africa, and the
MAN'S TRIUMPH OVER NATURE
Sinai Peninsula, besides those of Eastern
Africa. J. G. Millais has perhaps done
the most striking work of all, in founding
a school in the artistic and faithful por-
trayal of the wild life of beasts and birds in
Britain, South Africa, and Newfoundland.
As regards great naturalists — biologists
if you will — men to whom the study
of all living things was one, indifferent as
to whether they exercised their wits on
geology, botany, zoology, anthropology —
what a crown of glory will rest over the
British Empire as long as British records
remain ! Darwin at the apex, Huxley,
Sir Charles Lyell, Sir Joseph Hooker,
Alfred Russel Wallace, Sir John Murray
of the Challenger — a Canadian, Sir
Richard Owen, Six William Flower, Henry
Walter Bates, Sir E. Ray Lankester,
Alfred Garrod, W. A. Forbes, P. L. Sclater,
E. B. Tylor, Alfred Newton, F. M. Balfour,
and Wyville Thomson. Our men first
revealed the curious water fauna of Lake
Tanganyika — J. E. Moore and Dr. W.
Cunnington — and then that of the Victoria
Nyanza, not less remarkable because of its
coincidence. They — Falconer, Lydekker,
_ Bain, Dr. Anderson, Dr. Lyons,
P * ^ Capt. Gregory, and others — dis-
f M covered, elucidated, and illus-
trated the wonderful extinct
mammaHan fauna of North-west India, the
strange beast-reptiles of South Africa, the
early elephants, Sirenia, hyraces of Eocene
Egypt, the extraordinary giant mar-
supials and birds of Pleiocene Australia.
These achievements not only led to the
purest of all joys, the increase of abstract
knowledge, but have aided us in our fight
against the real reactionary Nature.
For, in the most part the deadliest foes
of man are the minutest organisms at the
bottom of the tree of life, simple develop-
ments of living matter scarcely to be
classified as animal or vegetable. In
the fight against the bacillus, spiril-
lum, amoeba, coccidium, treponema and
trypanosome, the British Empire has
taken a leading place — a dominant place
almost, not forgetting the splendid co-
operation of France, Germany, Italy, and
America. Sir Patrick Manson, Ronald
Ross, and others, discovered the whole
process by which amaeboid spores are
introduced into the human system by
such agencies as the mosquito, tick, and
flea, thereby producing malarial fever
and other dread diseases. Sir David
Bruce elucidated the mystery of the
tsetse disease and, in concert with
Drs. Nabarro and Castellani, solved the
problem of sleeping sickness. An Indian
army medical officer. Colonel Lambkin,
has discovered a means of inoculating for
syphilis — syphilis, like sleeping sickness, is
produced by a flagellate protozoon, in this
case a treponema — which may eventu-
Thc Toll ^^^y stamp out that horrible
of Sleeping malady. Our eagerness to open
Sickness ^P Equatorial Africa brought
the sleeping sickness into
Uganda, and has cost that protectorate
in all nearly 100,000 hves. This is a
terrible item at first sight, but one we can
balance at once by discounting the (at
least) 100,000 hves probably lost in
Uganda and Unyoro during the reigns of
the kings Mtesa, Kabarega, and Mwanga,
by the internecine wars, poison ordeals,
slave-raids, famines, and other causes of
depopulation which have been abolished
by the introduction of law and order
under the British aegis.
It is a mistake to suppose also that the
indigenous population of Africa was exempt
from these awful visitations of disease
before we mixed them all up ; before we
opened routes this way and that way
across the continent, which conveyed
disease through insect agencies from one
lot of people to another, hitherto separated
by mutual distrust or by pathless forests.
On the contrary, before the white man
arrived on the scene, the population of
Africa was, I surmise from native legends
and traditions, constantly being wiped out
by epidemics, first of one disease, then of
another ; by famines due to unexpected
droughts, locusts or other insect plagues,
or by attacks on food crops by herds of
elephants, and the destruction of live-
stock by lions and leopards.
These are all evils which have been or are
being abated by British energies. I confi-
dently expect that we shall soon have
mastered the mysteries of sleeping sick-
ness, blackwater fever, cholera,
and many other diseases, and
Sanitation
the Enemy
of Disease
be able to prevent them or
to cure them with certaint\'.
In India it has been realised for the last
ten years that sanitation, a cleanlinesswhich
would suppress the flea, other precautions
which would exterminate the mosquito,
might reduce the mortality from plague,
cholera, and other dreadful maladies of
the tropics to small dimensions, ever
dwindling to cessation ; and this has been
=5637
HARMS WORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
one of the hardest, most disinterested,
most thankless tasks which the British
Empire has taken on its shoulders. Un-
happily, though the education of India
has advanced by leaps and bounds, the
masses of ignorant Moslems and fanatical
Hindus do not appreciate the value of
science and of a scientific
" ^^^. . ^ conduct in our lives, any more
ScTencT °^^^^ do the peasants of
Ireland, of some parts of
England still, of Spain, Italy, or Russia.
India has once or twice been brought
nearer to general revolt by honest
and sincere attempts to get rid of
plague and cholera than she has by the
imposition of salt taxes or the insuffer-
able snobbishness of " mem-sahibs " or
eyeglassed officers.
Our efforts to improve the breeds of
horses, cattle, sheep, pigs, goats, dogs,
and many domestic birds are world-
famous. We have domesticated the
ostrich, introduced the Angora goat into
South Africa, the Merino sheep into
Australia, New Zealand, and South
Africa ; the camel into Australia ; the
horse into South and South Central
Africa, Australia, and New Zealand ; deer
into New Zealand and Mauritius. The
mountain streams of New Zealand, British
Central and East Africa have been
abundantly stocked with trout. We have
systematised the preservation of the
Indian elephant, his capture and training
for industrial purposes.
When we first took Cyprus in hand, the
forests and the native agriculture were
disappearing under the combined attacks
of domestic goats and swarms of locusts.
The goats were soon kept outside the pro-
tected area, but the fight against the
locusts was a struggle that lasted for many
years. This hateful insect pest is now
practically extinct in Cyprus, to the very
great gain of the island's prosperity. We
are now bracing ourselves for an attack on
^^ the mosquitoes, rats, sparrows,
. tt , , flies, fleas, and other small but
in Natural • -r / . r ^i
p . . signincant pests of the empu"e.
Tlie mineral discoveries of the
British have already been alluded to
in the chapters dealing with their
economic aspects. Our exploitation of the
gold of India, British Columbia, Australia,
New Zealand, West Africa, South Africa,
Egypt, British Guiana, and the Far North-
west of Canada has added appreciably not
only to the wealth of the world in general,
but to that of the indigenous peoples of the
gold areas. The same may be said about
the tin of the Malay Peninsula, the coal of
India, Natal, Borneo, Australia, and
British Central Africa. We have dis-
covered and worked petroleum and bitu-
men in Burma, Nigeria, and Barbados.
Copper has enabled us by its intrinsic
value to gain for the general use of man
the ghastly deserts of South-west Africa
and Australia. Diamonds have brought
water, trees, flowers, livestock, human
settlers, and the amenities of a highly
civilised life to bare, stony, lifeless plateaus
of inner South Africa. Their attraction is
enabling us to combat the choking vegeta-
tion of British Guiana.
It is impossible in the space at my com-
mand to enumerate the names and the
individual services of those British sub-
jects whom the special conditions of the
empire have impelled to wonderful dis-
coveries in all the unenumerated branches
of pure science — philology ; comparative
study of religious beliefs, mythology, and
folk lore ; comparative anthropology, and
, all branches of human
nains anatomy and medical iuris-
Predominance , •' j- • j
• it %ir . J prudence ; m medicme and
m the World ^ • , i , i r
surgery, m law and the fram-
ing of legal codes ; in military and naval
strategy ; industrial appliances ; electri-
city ; ship construction ; the invention
and improvement of locomotives, steam-
engines, bicycles, automobiles, and tur-
bines ; in chemistry and metallurgy ;
in sanitary engineering ; in architecture,
photography, painting, etching, engraving,
book illustrating, printing, cabinet-making,
tailoring, dressmaking, and upholstery (the
carpets of the British Empire deserve a
special mention) ; in the drama and
literature, prose and poetry.
Innumerable works of reference would
show either the active participation or
the predominance of British citizens in
all the spheres of great intellectual and
practical achievements. It is to this
record we appeal in maintaining that —
with all its imperfections, shortcomings,
blunders, or episodes of wrongdoing,
violence, or injustice fully discounted —
the British Empire has been a greater
blessing to the world at large and to all
the countries within its scope than any
congeries of states under one head that
has preceded it in history.
■638
THE
BRITISH
EMPIRE
XVIII
BY SIR
HARKY
JOHNSTON.
G.C.M.G.
CIVILISATION AND CHRISTIANITY
EMPIRE'S DEBT TO MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE
IT has been the custom until quite
recently to sneer at missionaries, pro-
pagandists of the Christian religion, in all
circles except those of the professedly
devout. The late Lord Salisbury, in veiled
terms, once or twice described them as a
nuisance. They have often been regarded
as such by statesmen who conducted our
foreign or colonial affairs. I am not going
to deny that there has been misdirected
zeal in the past, and that in some cases the
wrong kind of missionary did a great deal
of harm and put Great Britain to much
anxiety and expense.
Elsewhere I have animadverted on the
somewhat crack-brained, uneducated mis-
sionaries who wandered into Abyssinia to
convert the Abyssinians to a different kind
of Christianity to that which they already
professed, and who involved Great Britain
and the British taxpayer in a war which
cost quite a thousand lives and several
^. ^ . millions sterling. This is the
The Good 1 T n i j
,,, , , only case 1 can call to mmd
Work of , -^ , •
„. . where missionary enterprise
Missions , -'■i, ,. ^, ,
was excessively ill - directed,
and where it gave just ground for the
animadversions of the i860 type of
statesman, who would not dream of omit-
ting attendance at church on a Sunday
morning, yet was perfectly indifferent
to the spiritual or moral welfare of the
myriads of black or brown people with
whose affairs Great Britain was begin-
ning to interfere politically.
When our descendants are able to look
back on things from the large end of the
telescope, and the history of the nineteenth
and twentieth centuries is concentrated
into a single readable volume, I think a
very large part of that volume will be
taken up with the results of mission work,
possibly a larger space than is accorded to
the successful campaigns of great con-
querors by sea or land. The point of view
from which I write is a peculiar one, which
will probably please no one set of thinkers.
I know it is no longer fashionable to
denounce Mohammedanism or idol-wor-
ship, just as any lively interest in a new
metrical arrangement of the Psalms is
almost impossible to find, even in the
unexplored parts of New England. My
own lawless views, if I may obtrude them
without impertinence, would be rendered
-_. _ thus: That nearly all religions
The Supreme 1 , j. u j
p - have been a great burden, an
-,. . .. .. incessant clog on the upward
Christianity r i •, i ^i
progress of humanity, and the
only teaching which seems to the present
writer to be in consonance with progress
is the teaching of Christ and the words of
such of His apostles as caught His spirit.
Christ's teaching, like two or three other
great utterances of humanity, seems the
goal of which we are never quite abreast ;
it is always a little ahead of the ideals of
true Socialism.; it is a religion which is an
expression of the truest Liberalism.
Many versions of Christianity have
developed into fetish worship and fatuous
formalities, mystic rites bordering on
sorcery, Judaism run mad; the letter has
killed the spirit; the Incarnate Love has
been lost in fanatical hate. Still, this
religion, even in its most violent or foolish
phases, has never quite left the skirts of
commonsense, the middle path of sanity
along which man advances, with occasional
checks and deviations, towards the goal
of the Millennium.
What has Mohammedanism done for
the world ? What has been accomplished
of permanent good by Buddhism, and bjr
the wild, raving, nightmare nonsense of
Hinduism ? It is true that the
Arabs less than a centur}^ after
the death of Mohammed ab-
sorbed Persian and Byzantine
culture, and spread this through Syria,
Egypt, North Africa, and Spain. It is also
true that, to a limited extent, they kept
the lamp of civilisation burning, some of
the old Greek culture living with them,
while Roman civilisation in Northern and
Western Europe was overwhelmed by the
5639
Religions
of
the East
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
Goth, Hun, Frank, and Lombard. To a
great extent the civiHsation of the Arabs
in pre-Turkish days was the distorted
civilisation of Rome. Rom.e and Byzan-
tium, the direct inheritors of Hellas, had
implanted their civilisation too strongly
along the shores of the ^Mediterranean for
it to be annihilated by that mixed herd of
Saracens, which after all only included a
proportion of Arabs of the desert in its
ranks, and was recruited largely from the
Mediterranean world.
But there was something in the Moham-
medan religion which prevented intellectual
advance. Like the other great religions of
Asia, it was a case of arrested development.
The results are plain to the minds of all but
fantastic perverts. Why is the Christian —
real or nominal — top dog to-day ? Because
he is healthier, stronger, far wiser, much
superior in mental capacity to the millions
of Asia and Africa. What have the Turks
invented ? They have conquered mainly
b}^ Christian weapons, by the arts invented
and perfected under the comparative
freedom of Christianity.
The Japanese have emerged from the
vassaldom of Asia because they have
copied the arts and sciences of Christen-
dom, because they are unhampered by any
binding religion which makes it impossible
for them to live after the manner of Chris-
tians. It was the more primordial and pure
type of Christianity that, consciously or
unconsciously, the great Protestant and
Catholic missions of the British Empire
have sought to implant in the backward
and foolish places of the world during the
religious revival of the nineteenth century. .
The Christian propaganda of the Crusades
was, of course, no better in any one whit
than the holy wars of the Moslems.
If anything, the Christians of the eleventh
to the thirteenth centuries conducted
themselves worse in Syria and the Holy
Land than did the ^lohammedans, when
it was their turn to be uppermost. They
practised a form of religion which in
many aspects was a degrading fetish
worship and an instigation to deeds of
violence and oppression essentially un-
christian. The Crusaders' t^'pe of
- Christianity lasted down to
e ua crs ^-^^ sixteenth century and
as Pioneers ,i o it i
c ^. . the Spanish discovery and
of Missions ^ , r ^ 1 A
conquest of tropical America.
It was the Quakers that really started
on the missionar}^ path the churches out-
side the pale of Rome. They seem, first
of all, to have conceived — apart from the
Jesuits, Capuchins, and Franciscans of the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries — the
idea of peoples of a different race and a
dark-coloured skin enjoj'ing equal rights
of humanity with the conquering Caucasian.
The Society of Friends — "Quakers " is a
silly nickname wiiich might surely be
allowed to die — in fact, had not long been
in existence as a definite sect of thinkers
before they had begun a crusade against
the slave trade, which was never to
die out or even perceptibly to slacken
THE .^OMAN CATHOLIC CATHEDRAL AT LAGOS IN WEST AFRICA N. w. irnm
5640
THE HANDSOME MISSION CHURCH AT BLANTYRE IN BRITISH CENTRAL AFRICA
until the trade in slaves was exterminated.
The Anti-Slavery Society of Great Britain
and Ireland, which exists to this day, was
founded and has been mainly supported by
Quakers. In the eighteenth century — the
unsectarian missionary Society for Pro-
moting Christian Knowledge was founded
in 1698 ; the Society for the Propagation
of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, in 1701
— other Nonconformist bodies in the
West Indies and the United States cham-
pioned the cause of the negro. It was not
until the time of Wesley that any section
of the Church of England interested itself
actively in humanitarian propaganda. The
. interest that the Quakers,
issionary gg^p^^g^g a.nd Wesleyans took,
Interest in ^ -^
the Negroes
more especially in the fate of
the West Indian and North
American negro, drew them inevitably to
the coasts of Africa, firstly to repatriate
negroes who had attained freedom, and
who found themselves outcasts in the body
politic of white men's colonies or states ;
and secondly — with a much greater en-
thusiasm and success — to evangelise the
indigenous savage negroes of West Africa.
India offered an immense field for
missionary enterprise. The kings of Den-
mark, from 1705 to the early part of the
nineteenth century, promoted actively
Danish, German, and Nonconformist
British missions to the east coast of
Hindustan. For some fifty years after the
British dominion had been founded by
2 K 27 D
Clive, anything like a Christian propaganda
was sternly discouraged by the honourable
East India Company from the fear that it
would arouse Mohammedan and Hindu
fanaticism ; also because in England itself
interest in religion had very much slack-
ened, and official Christianity was not
considered an article d' exportation.
The Church of England had no zeal for
propaganda amongst the heathen as a body,
though there were a few notable excep-
tions amongst its clergy who went abroad.
Bishop Heber (1783-1826) was probably
the first to arouse the sympathy of the
members of the National Church in regard
to the deplorable condition of the natives
of India. The Church Missionary Society
was founded in 1799. Its first field of
operations was India. It was supported by
the Low Church rather than the High,
and in its early days it drew down a certain
amount of ridicule on mission work by,
possibly, an excess of sentimentalism.
In its desire to make up to the negro for
the wrongs that he had suffered at the
hands of the white man for the two cen-
turies, during which the exponents of
Anglican teaching were too much in-
clined to stand behind the slave-owner,
the negro was placed on a pedestal by the
Church Missionary Society, and credited
with qualities of head and heart that he
did not, unfortunately, always possess.
The Baptist Missionary Society, founded
in 1792, began a great educational work
5641
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
in India at the close of the eighteenth
century, and soon afterwards began to
work among the West Indian negroes.
It laid the foundations of a negro civilisa-
tion in Fernando Po during the middle of
the nineteenth century, which even under
the once unfriendly rule of Spain and many
other difficulties grew slowly to its modern
. . developments. The same thing
Livingstone ^^,^^ ^^^^^^ ^^^. ^^^ ^^^^ country
of the Kameruns, and is being
the Great
Mi
issionary ^^^^ ^^^^ j^^ ^^^q central basin
of the Congo. The educational work of
the same society in India and China is
also being conducted on a gigantic scale.
The London Missionary Society came
into existence in 1795, and represented the
aspirations of the Congregationalists and
Wesleyans. One of its first great pioneers
was David Livingstone. It is difficult to
exaggerate the benefits that the Bechuana
tribes in South Central Africa and the
peoples of the Nyassa-Tanganyika Plateau
and of Madagascar have owed to the agents
of the London Missionary Society.
The Universities' Mission was founded
in i860, after the appeal of Livingstone in
1856, and has since taken a large share
in the evangelisation of East Africa and
Nyassaland. The great missions of the
Presbyterian churches have done much
for education in India, China, British
Central Africa, Nigeria, and South Africa.
The evangelisation of the Pacific has
been largely the work of the Church of
England and of the Wesleyans. Most
people nowadays have read of the success
of the Church of England in Uganda.
There is an English Catholic Mission,
directed from Mill Hill, at work in the
eastern section of the Uganda Protec-
torate. Some mention should be made of
the struggling North African Mission, which,
I believe, has also sent exponents of Pro-
testant Christianity to Persia and the
Turkish dominions. It has been an up-hill
task for the brave men and women of this
_. „ . band to fight against Moham-
The Value j • j- . ..•
, -- ,. , medan premdice, superstition,
of Medical , • ^ • n
„. . and Ignorance, especially in
Missions ,, ° J. 1 .^ -'t,, .
matters of hygiene. This
mission, so far as it has succeeded, has done
so by following the only means of access
to the citadel of the Mohammedan heart —
a thorough-going knowledge of Arabic,
of the history of Islam and the features
of its faith, and of medical science.
Medical missions indeed, during the last
quarter of a century, have developed to a
5642
remarkable degree in India, China, and
Africa. Along these lines of approach it
is not easy to overestimate the sheer good
that has been effected by Christian
missions. This leads me to my plainest
speaking and the core of my argument.
The whole of the Christian world itself
is far from being in agreement on even
fundamental dogmas of its religion, and
so long as each sect, branch, or church
adhered rigidly to the exposition of its
own version of Christian dogma and of
that alone, so long much of its work with
intelligent non-Christian races was fruitless
and even baneful, since it revived the dis-
like and distrust of the Christian as an
official or ruler. But when, as has been
the case almost universally for the last
thirty years, each mission in its turn
thought more of the teaching of Christ as
a means of beginning, and endeavoured
to deal fraternally rather than paternally
with the people it had come to teach.
Christian propaganda began to achieve
success by leaps and bounds. WTien
some historian of the world sums up its
results a hundred years or so hence, he
. will — I say with confidence —
A Testimony ^^ ^^^^ ^^ ^y^^^^, ^^^^ ^^^ .^^^
to Missionary /-i • ,• ,•
. ^. / Christian missions emanating
Achievement ^ t- j a •
from Europe and America
have conferred on the backward countries
of the world, to say nothing of the
savage regions, a veritable renaissance,
an education, an elevation which has
been conveyed in a better and more
salutary manner than it could have been
by soldiers or officials, whose teaching
was imposed by force and not persuasion.
I am well aware that that is not the ver-
dict of to-day in all respects. Missionary
efforts, in China especially, have not only
been extremely obnoxious to the
indigenous governing class and to unin-
formed public opinion in that region of
400,000,000 conservative, industrious
people, but the troubles which have ensued
have entailed armed intervention on the
part of European nations. For these wars
the missionaries have been held to blame.
Several European and American statesmen
have told them that they were not wanted
in China, and had much better go away.
Yet, a hundred years hence, even if the
missionaries were to depart from China to-
morrow, it will be realised that they have
done much to lay the foundations of a
new China, to harmonise the ideas of
China with those of Europe and America.
CIVILISATION AND CHRISTIANITY
They have broken down more completely
than any other force the isolation of China
from the world's movements ; and surely
it is not well for the progress of the human
race that 433,000,000 out of a total of
1,200,000,000 should be entirely out of
touch with the rest ?
What has been the result to China of
her isolation and her degenerate pursuit
of false knowledge ? That at the present
day, though she numbers 433,000,000 of
people under the nominal sway of the
Chinese Emperor, she is more or less under
the thraldom of Japan (50,000,000), with
an alternative of being under the thumb
of Russia (150,000,000). Take one instance
alone of the false culture that missionary
teaching has attempted to remove — the
cramped foot of the Chinese woman.
There may be some variation in a code of
morals or accepted canons of beauty.
The ultimate test of the value of both
probably is the prosperity and happiness
of the people that adopt them. Put to this
test, it must surely be admitted that the
taste, morality, and good sense of the white
races of Europe and America are superior
\uu ^k- ^o those of the backw^ard
What Chinese ^ i^^ The alternative is to
Women Owe j ■, ir • j. r
, ... . admit oneself ignorant or of
to Missions , , 1 -1 xxr j^
unbalanced mind. We must
cling to some standard in these things, and
all the evidence which can be submitted to
reasonable, sane men points to the fact
that the European standard has generally
been the best. Well, according to the
European standard the cramped foot of the
Chinese woman is as silly as the precau-
tions against defilement on the part
of the IBrahmans, the law which forbids
the eating of beef to the Hindus, the
Levitical prohibitions of the pig, the hare,
and the oyster, the Moslem disapproval
of pictures and statues, or the fetishistic
practices of negro Africa. When Chinese
women all over China are able to walk
about with the ease and comfort intended
by Nature, they should put up some
commemorative tablet to the memory of
the Christian missionaries whose advice
and influence abolished this and other
preposterous mistakes in the perverted
culture of the Chinese.
I have ventured in other places to
call .the missionaries the tribunes of the
people. Mission influence created Exeter
Hall, and all which that now vanished
place of meeting portended in the attitude
of the British Empire towards indigenous
and inferior races. This policy, one may
hope, will still be maintained by the
Aborigines Protection Society. Again and
again the responsible rulers of the British
Empire have been prevented by its
influence from committing acts of injustice,
or allowing colonists or colonial officials to
do so, against the previous occupants of
J-. the soil. Many of these had
j^j^ Y never been conquered, but had
Races '^^ accepted the advent of the
British Empire peacefully, and
even with acclamation, as a force which
would maintain law and justice.
Unfortunately, the first instinct of
the impetuous colonist or pioneer has
been to deprive these prior inhabitants of
their just rights. There has been, no
doubt, exaggeration on both sides. It
would have been manifestly unfair to
attribute to inactive, ignorant savages the
whole of the vested rights over vast areas
which have only been turned to profitable
use by the expenditure of British capital
and British lives. In some few instances the
European missionaries may have been
unjust towards the European pioneer or
trader, and have denied him the reward
to which he was entitled for his supreme
efforts in the cause of civiHsation. On the
other hand, these lay colonists would
have reduced the indigenes to miserable,
landless serfs, have denied them a common
humanity with us — though that this tie
existed was soon shown by the hybrids
which sprang up — but for the outcries of
the missionary and the philanthropist.
The final test of the right to survive
can only be physical and mental fitness ;
but it is advisable that there should be a
brake on the reckless advance of the
Caucasian, and this drag is provided by
both the teaching and the true practice
of the principles of Christianit3^ There
should be a real Christian science,
not the blasphemous, nauseous fraud
which passes under that name in America,
which should apply the prin-
A Plea for ^j^j^^ ^^ Christianity to the wild
?!? ". . flora and fauna of the world.
Missionaries ^^^^^^ human race and every
type of animal or plant should be given
a chance to show if it cannot find some
niche in the mosaic of the wide world.
There should be missionaries of biology as
well as missionaries of Christianity, and
both alike should plead the cause of the
overwhelmed, the backward, the im-
perfect that may yet be made perfect.
5643
THE
BRITISH
EMPIRE
XIX
BY SIR
HARRY
JOHNSTON,
G.C.M.G.
THE FUTURE OF THE EMPIRE
PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN THAT
DEMAND ATTENTION AND SOLUTION
The Question
of Imperial
Federation
AGROWlNCx difficulty, the principal
unsolved problem of the immediate
future, is the regulation of the interrela-
tions between the different states, colonies,
protectorates, and other divisions of the
empire in regard to mutual defence, or
a common action of offence, the conduct
of Imperial diplomacy, and,
above all, inter- and extra-
Imperial commerce. When
through such workers on the
imagination as Lord Beaconsfield and Sir
Charles Dilke (in his " Greater Britain ") an
idea of the majesty, the marvellous scope
of the British Empire began to permeate
the minds of educated people, the question
of Imperial Federation became, and has
remained, an important political idea.
The desire was born in England, and has
remained until recently an English aspira-
tion, not as yet warmly espoused in
Scotland, and only shared by that small
portion of Ireland that is English in
sympathies. South Africa in the 'seventies
of the last century was so strongly Dutch
in feeling, and so inherently hostile to
England, that the late Lord Carnarvon
was unable to bring into existence even a
confederation of the South African states,
though he had solved that difficulty
between French and English in Canada.
A certain Irish element that prospered in
South-eastern Australia, and by its talent
and influence directed a good deal of the
local Press opinion, threw cold water on
the Imperial Federation idea so
roposed ig^^. g^g ^^ concerned Australia.
India at that time possessed no
vehicle for the expression of
Indian opinion. It merely spoke through
the mouths of Anglo-Indian officials.
Nevertheless, the idea made progress
up to a certain point. It was dis-
cussed on two lines : A commercial union
and the universal participation of all parts
of the empire in the common support
5644
Grounds
of Union
of the armed forces by land and sea.
The desire to promote Imperial unity of
purpose induced several statesmen, such
as Lord Randolph Churchill, Jan Hofmeyr,
and Joseph Chamberlain, in 1885, 1892,
and 1903, and also important organs of the
Press to modify their views on Free Trade,
and to advocate the restoration of differ-
ertial duties, in favour of the colonies and
India, at the ports of Great Britain and
Ireland — in short. Protection.
So long as there was any chance of the
great raw-material-producing portions of
the empire like India, Australia, and New
Zealand and Canada caring nothing about
the fostering of local industries, but
agreeing to devote all their energies to the
production of raw materials which might
be manufactured by the looms, forges, and
factories of Great Britain and the North of
Ireland, there was much to be said in favour
of a commercial union of the
whole empire which would
discriminate in all its cus-
toms Houses against the
goods arriving from countries not belonging
to the Imperial pact. Great Britain would
then have become a privileged market for
the sale of colonial produce (raw material),
and the colonies would have absorbed the
bulk of the British manufactured goods.
There would have been small local sacrifices,
but such a bond as this would have knit the
empire together, and the wealth and power
derived from this close commercial asso-
ciation would have made it irresistible by
land and sea — the mistress of the world.
Unhappily, as some think, India,
Australia, New Zealand, and Canada did
not share these views. They wished not
only to produce enormous quantities of raw
material, but to be equally endowed with
highly organised industries to manufacture
that raw material. They wished to protect
these nascent industries by a relatively
high tariff wall which would make it very
The Colonies
and
Self-Protection
THE FUTURE OF THE EMPIRE
nearly impossible for the Mother Country
to compete against local manufactures.
It is true that a somewhat illusory pre-
ference was to be granted to British goods
in comparison to those coming from other
countries, but this preference was not
enough to make Australia, New Zealand,
or Canada a better market for the manu-
factures of Britain than any other civilised
country of the world. In India, as the
government of King Edward has the
supreme controlling power, while there has
been fair play to local Indian industries
and administrative independence. Free
Trade has been maintained throughout all
Southern Asia under British influence, and
British manufactures are still able to find
a profitable market under the British flag.
There has also been less attempt on the
part of the self-governing colonies in
South Africa to shut out British manu-
factured goods than has been the case
with Australia, Canada, and New Zealand,
This being the general position, there-
fore, the policy of Protection has fallen to
the ground — inevitably — since our trade
with the non- British world is at present as
three -to one in comparison
P*^*^" . ° with our trade with the rest of
^ ^ the British Empire. If we
Commerce i i • i . .-
broke our commercial treaties
in order to discriminate in our home ports
in favour of our daughter nations, colonies,
or protectorates, we should probably be
ruined as an industrial nation, for the self-
governing portions of the empire offer us
practically nothing in exchange.
Unfortunately, to those who still take
an interest in Imperial federation, the
great daughter nations are setting their
faces towards the ideal of fiscal independ-
ence and isolation. It may be, from the
point of view of all humanity, that this is
the best plan to cherish. If persisted in,
it will mean that every separate section of
the empire which is independent of mone-
tary subsidies or help from the British
Parliament will frame its own tariff and
initiate its own commercial relations, with
the point of view solely of local advantages,
and without any regard to the commercial
welfare of the empire as a whole.
If Jamaica can make better terms for her
sugar, fruit, or other products by joining
the Customs Union of the United States, to
the disadvantage of British imports, she
will do so. Perhaps, from the Jamaican
standpoint, she will be right. New Zea-
land or Australia may also enter into
special arrangements with the United
States, to the disadvantage of Britain,
but to the gain of local manufactures or
products. India may enter into closer
arrangements with the empire of China or
with Japan — in matters of commerce —
than with the two islands in the North
_ Sea. South Africa may cou-
th B "f h ^^^^^ ^ commercial alliance
Taxpayer ^^^^ Canada or with Australia,
to the great advantage of all
these regions, but very much to the
detriment of purely British commerce.
The very unfair part of the entirely self-
seeking views now in vogue with colonial
statesmen is that to the British taxpayer —
almost alone — is left the onerous charge
of supporting a navy which mainly exists
to defend the overseas possessions of
Great Britain, and an army which must
be ready to strike at foes of the empire
in any or all of the continents when called
upon to do so.
If the self-governing sections of the
empire contributed proportionately to
their population and their commerce to
the Imperial cost of the Imperial army
and navy, then there would be less hard-
ship to us, their creditors and creators, in
their utter disregard of our commercial
requirements. But to continue to leave
us almost the entire expense and responsi-
bility of defending the empire, and main-
taining law and order within its limits, is a
policy which must in the long run split
up the British Empire. There is a Hmit to
our resources in money, as well as in men.
Colonial statesmen argue that there
shall be no taxation without representa-
tion ; that they have no unbounded faith
in the wisdom, economy, or talent of the
Board of Admiralty, the War Office, or the
Ministries for Foreign AfiEairs or for the
Colonies ; they are not disposed to
furnish funds from out of their own internal
revenues to be spent at the discretion of
the government sitting in London. If
they are to contribute, they must be pro-
portionately represented at
*i^ °'". some Imperial council stationed
Courii!"* ^"^ London, and be able to in-
fluence the general policy of the
empire in all matters that might lead
to interstate trouble or external wars.
The opposition to any such Imperial
policy and to the intervention of delegates
from the daughter nations or dependent
kingdoms or empires in bureaucratic
affairs comes entirely from Britain itself,
5645
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
chielly from that great and important
body of permanent civil servants, trained
by generations to exceeding discretion,
reserve, and prudence. Statesmen from
the great colonies are often widely different
in nature from the men that serve
King Edward in the Home Country.
They are negligent of official secrets,
, .. ,. daring in public speeches, and
Indiscretions ,. „i i /r r
, _ , . , reckless of consequences, for
of Colonial ,■, j ^ a^ • .
c. . the very good and sufficient
Statesmen .iT. •, ■ , i
reason that, situated where
they are, they are so absolutely safe. They
can say and do the most imprudent things
to foreign Powers, and leave Great Britain
to bear the brunt of their reckless actions.
The statesmen of Canada know that
a punitory expedition or a great in-
vasion of Canada by another Power from
across the seas is an almost impossible
feat, though it may be much easier for
Germany or France to bombard London.
Australia and New Zealand also know
that they are immune from serious attack
on the part of the United States, Japan,
Russia, Germany or France. On the other
hand, the two home islands are exceedingly
vulnerable, more so, perhaps, than the
mass of their population or some short-
sighted Ministers believe.
Whatever course may be taken by
events, there is no real danger to the in-
dependence of Australia, New Zealand,
South Africa, and Canada. If Great
Britain were driven out of India as a
governing power she would not be re-
placed by any other European nation.
It is possible that in course of time strong
commercial relations may grow up be-
tween South Africa and Australia. Both
countries may maintain fleets, with New
Zealand, perhaps, as a third, which
would be sufficient to prevent the hostile
action of Asiatic or European Powers in
the southern seas. The only danger to
Canadian independence is from the United
States, which, however, is hardly likely to
waste blood and money in an
anger o unprofitable war for the an-
Cfanadian ,• r r^ ^ tc .t
J . . nexation of Canada. If the
Independence t • i t- i • • i •
Imperial r ederation idea is not
revived and carried through to ultimate
success with an Imperial council that will
be a real working element, and with some
sacrifices on the part of the component
daughter nations, the next stage or phase
of the British Empire to be reviewed by
historians may be its restriction to the
control of India and Southern Asia,
5646
Egypt, and all existing British Africa
down to the River Zambesi, the Medi-
terranean Islands, Gibraltar, the Falkland
Archipelago, the West Indies, Guiana and
British Honduras, together with the com-
mercial outposts in China and the Pacific.
And here, again, we must not look for
finality. In all these regions we are
simply playing the part of educators.
Our descendants will have to face the
idea of a universally educated, self-
governing India, wherein the British
Empire may be only a subject of grateful
remembrance, local nomenclature, and
innumerable votive statues. Perhaps the
English language, if all European tongues
have not been set aside for a universal
Esperanto, may remain as the commercial
medium in India. We shall have left on
that vast region of Southern Asia, the
original matrix of Man, an impress more
lasting and more creditable than the
effect of the Roman Empire on our own
land and kindred European countries.
The only way to counteract such a fate
— and, as it may not come about for a
hundred years, it need not unduly agitate
the readers of this History —
T c Better ^q^j^ i^g ^j^g suspension of
Oovernment ■,• ■ • j-
, , ,. race or religious premdices,
of India , , 1 , • f J.
the inculcation ot courtesy,
sympathy, and unswerving justice in all
the civil and military oificials sent from
Great Britain to serve in India, and the
patient education of the peoples of India
to see the world a little more through
our eyes, to take advantage of our own
painfully acquired knowledge.
On our part, we must associate the
educated classes of India more and more
with the administration of our Indian
Empire ; we must give them a share
in the councils which regulate the finance
and taxation of their native land. India
at the present day is not ripe for com-
plete self-rule ; the withdrawal of the
British Civil Service and soldiery would
merely lead to devastating warfare
between the Mohammedans on the one
side and the Sikhs and Hindus on the
other, either or both of these sections
enslaving and oppressing the unwarlike
races of Southern India or Burma.
Much the same may be said about the
future of Egypt and of British Tropical
Africa ; we are only in Egypt as educators.
But this is a land which by climate, even
as far as some parts of the Sudan, is as
favourable to the settlement of the races
THE FUTURE OF THE EMPIRE
of Southern Europe as it is to the indi-
genous people, who are compounded of an
ancient minghng of European, Asiatic and
negro elements. There may be a steady
set of Greek, Maltese and Italian settlers
towards the lands irrigated by the Nile
and its tributaries. A new European
nation may be compacted ; it will contain
very little that is North European and
British in its physical elements, and
it will some day ask to stand alone.
In Uganda, Nigeria, Sierra Leone,
with the kindred Liberia alongside, work-
ing on similar lines, we are building up
educated negro nationalities. Little by
little they will get a larger and larger share
in their own self-government, until at last,
like India and Egypt, they may thank us
warmly for all we have done for them, and
request to be allowed to manage their own
internal and external affairs in future.
Such, likewise, may be the fate of a new
Cyprus, and of a Malta, which was never
conquered, but placed herself unreservedly
and trustingly in British hands, and
therefore deserves all sympathy within
the limits of reason in the protection of
her well-marked nationality
and many claims to self ad-
A Possible
Alliance of
the Future
ministration. A day may dawn
when British men and women
may no longer be sent from these shores
to govern, control and educate races that
are no longer backward in the march to-
wards a universal civilisation. It is to be
hoped, however, that if we have played our
part fairly, these races and peoples that
we have raised up from a condition either
of savagery or of hopeless confusion may
unite with us on some basis of strict and
honourable alliance, together with our
white daughter nations ; an alliance
which shall only be framed and directed
for the maintenance of the world's peace
and the study of the world's happiness.
Until the question of the internal ad-
ministration of Ireland, Scotland, England
and Wales has achieved a proper and fairly
complete settlement it can hardly be
said that we are fully prepared for the
responsibilities of empire outside these
islands. To some extent, almost enough
for practical purposes, Scotland has at-
tained Home Rule, and Wales is well on
the way towards it. The arrangements for
quick legislation in and for England as
regards purely English requirements are
still very imperfect. But the question of
Ireland is an urgent one. In this case we
have an island blest with a temperate
and a healthy climate, set in seas remark-
able for their wealth of fish, a co,untry of
32,605 square miles, which, if handled
scientifically in the way of agriculture,
forestry and horticulture, ought to support
a prosperous, robust, and intellectual
population of 20,000,000. As it is, its
people (4.458,000) are less in
St^trof ""^^^'^ ^^^^' t^^^ inhabitants of
^. * ! ? . London. Such as they are, they
the Irish .11 1^1 i.
are a notable race. 1 hough
they differ much in physical type, all their
types can be paralleled in the adjacent
island of Great Britain. Religion is mainly
to blame for the desperate case of the
Irish, and the intolerance on the part of
all the principal religious bodies in Ireland
still stands to some extent in the way of
a fusion of interests.
Home Rule would have been restored
long ago but for the extremists of the
Nationalist party — that is to say, the party
of Irishmen mostly, but not entirely, Roman
Catholics, who have openly clamoured
not only for the right to administer their
own internal affairs — which, with some
reservations, is clearly due to them —
but for the power to sever their political
connection with Great Britain. This de-
mand is so wholly unreasonable from the
racial, the religious, commercial and
political points of view that it is httle
wonder it has been resisted so far by the
majority of the electorate in Great Britain.
The Ulster minority in Ireland repre-
sents an enormous amount of profitable
industry ; it stands for the prosperous and
well populated portion of the island.
Racially speaking, it is less Iberian and
autochthonous than the rest of Ireland.
Historically, its colonisation from the
adjacent coasts of \\'ales, England and
Scotland was much more recent than other
settlements from these directions. This
minority declines to place itself under
the rule of the National party, since it
fears injustice in fiscal and
Ireland s religious matters. Extended
Need of Home ^gasures of local govern-
Government ^^^^ ^^.^^j^ probably clear
away this danger. The administration of
their own internal affairs must be eventually
accorded to the Irish people, coupled with
the same participation in the affairs,
responsibilities and charges of the United
Kingdom as a whole, and of such of the
British Empire as is equally adminis-
tered by Scotland. Wales and England.
5647
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
Home Rule
Beyond
Beyond the seas, the idea of Home Rule
is no new one. The states of British origin
that now compose the United States of
America all had their local assemblies
and considerable powers of self-administra-
tion ; but a foolish king and an ignorant
Minister fought the battle of taxation
without representation in the eighteenth
century, and lost it. This im-
planted an idea in the minds of
British subjects beyond the seas
^*^ that has never been allowed to
die. The representative institutions of the
component parts of the empire outside
the British Islands have been described
elsewhere. It only remains to glance at
their past history and at the problems
they may raise in the immediate future.
Assembhes of an elective and fully
representative character were early brought
into existence in the West Indies at
various dates from 250 years ago. It is
possible that in these instances the idea
of Home Rule was premature and carried
to extremes. Area, population, and the
future race-elements of the population
were not taken into consideration in
granting these rights : and at various
times during the nineteenth century the
representative institutions — except in the
Bahamas and Barbados — were abrogated
or seriously limited.
A constitution and elective lower
houses of parliament were conceded to
the two organised provinces of Canada in
1792 ; and responsible government for
Upper and Lower Canada, New Bruns-
wick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward
Island was introduced in 1841, after what
might almost be called a series of rebellions
between 1837 ^^'^ 1839. -^^^^ ^^^' ^^is
wise concession, the vast provinces of
Canada would long ago have been part of
the United States, to the detriment of
British commerce and British influence on
the fate of the North American Continent.
A constitution was given to Newfound-
land in 1832, and full Home
Rule in 1855. Home Rule was
Constitutions
in the
Colonies
accorded also in a reasonable
degree to the colony of British
Guiana in Northern South America in
continuation of the Dutch Constitution
already in force in 1803. This was modified
or extended in 1812, 1826, 1831, and 1891.
The provinces or colonies that now
compose Australia received constitutions,
and finally Home Rule, as soon as they
were able to show indications of the
5648
power to maintain orderly government.
These rights were granted to New South
Wales in 1824, 1842, and 1855 ; to
Victoria in 1851 and 1855 ; South
Australia (Northern Territories added in
1861-1863) in 1856 ; and Tasmania in the
same year ; Queensland in 1859 '■> ^^^
West Australia in 1850 and 1890. The
enfranchisement of the six colonies cul-
minated in the recognition by Great
Britain of the Australian Commonwealth
as a whole in the year 1900. New Zea-
land received Home Rule in 1882, and
the status of a dominion in 1907.
South Africa has presented greater
difficulties in the framing of responsible
government because of the two rival
types of European colonists — British and
Britannicised Germans speaking English ;
and Boers, with the descendants of
Huguenot Frenchmen, speaking Dutch.
Further, there were the millions of in-
digenous negroes to be taken into consider-
ation. Cape Colony, which was by far
the " whitest " of the South African
states, was erected into the position of a
self-governing colony in 1853 and a
responsible government in
1872. Natal did not receive
full responsible powers of self-
government till 1893. The
Orange Free State and the Transvaal were
respectively accorded the position of inde-
pendent nations in 1854, and 1852-1858.
When the Transvaal was annexed in
1877, it was the intention of the British
Government to bestow on it a few years
afterwards much the same powers of
self-government as were already under
consideration for Natal. This solution of
the difficulty, which would have probably
saved us the South African War, was
prevented by the Boer uprising in 1881.
Before the Orange River Colony and the
Transvaal could be brought into line
with the rest of our colonies in South Africa
they had to be conquered and annexed.
They were then as speedily as possible
(Transvaal in 1906, Orange River Colony
in 1907) re-erected into responsible self-
governing states, in the same quasi-inde-
pendent position as Cape Colony and Natal.
There still remain subject to a great
extent to the direct administration of
Downing Street, Basutoland, Bechuana-
land, and the vast Rhodesian territories
to the north and south of the Zambesi.
Bechuanaland and Basutoland will no
doubt remain for a very long time to
Self-Governing
States of
South Africa
THE FUTURE OF THE EMPIRE
come, black states, wards of the British
Empire, with the guardianship either
remaining in London or eventually en-
trusted to the White Confederation of
South Africa — not, however, until such
time as we can trust the colonists to
give fair play to their black neighbours
and fellow-citizens, and until they are
entirely able to relieve the Mother Country
of the cost and responsibility of interven-
tion. The Rhodesian provinces south of
the Zambesi will eventually become self-
governing white man's lands of the same
status as those other great states that will
with them form the Confederation of
South Africa. The provinces north of
the Zambesi will, no doubt, be grouped
under the general government of British
Central Africa, and eventually be dealt
with on much the same lines as the
country of the Basuto and Bechuana.
They, at any rate, emphatically are black
man's lands, and should certainly be
regarded as a future home and privileged
reserve for such negro peoples of South
Africa as may choose to migrate thither,
seeking a refuge from the incompatible
white man. The statesmen and
The Hindu thini^gi-s of the British Empire
Demand for u ■ • j. x j.i-
„ „ , are now begmnmg to face the
Home Rule ,. r ix
question of sell-government m
such territories under the administration
of the empire as are not inhabited in the
main by white men and Christians. The
lands of the Mohammedan have certainly
the best of the premature claims to self-
government, because the Mohammedan
religion is less unreasonable than that of
the Hindu or the Buddhist. But at
present the cry for Home Rule is louder
and more menacing from the educated
Hindus of East Central India than it is
from lands where the Mohammedan
influence predominates.
As regards the Straits Settlements (Malay
Peninsula and Borneo) and much of the
surface . of India, the question is partially
solved by the preservation and educa-
tion of native rulers. Such, probably,
will be the course followed in Egypt, in
Southern Arabia, in the Persian Gulf, and
in Zanzibar. We shall not grab at the
land of these countries, nor seek to
substitute a white man for a yellow or
black as settler or colonist.
We shall work for free play and full
protection for the white man's commerce
and commercial agents, and also maintain
as far as is reasonable the principle of
Free Trade. But we shall strive by our
advice, our threats (if necessary), our
cash influence to educate the native
dynasties in the ever better government
and administration of the lands subjected
to them. If these native rulers consider
it advisable by degrees to enlarge their
„ . , native councils into elective
^j,. _ ,. legislative assemblies, such a
Wise Policy ° u . i i i
i u d course will not be opposed by
Great Britain, provided the
native legislatures show themselves pru-
dent and observant of treaty obligations.
In Uganda the present writer was
permitted to restore the indigenous legisla-
ture, and more clearly to define and
strengthen the prerogatives of the native
king. Other supreme chiefs were set up
by himself or by his successors as adminis-
trators, and the peace and quiet which
have followed have shown the wisdom — in
this part of Africa, at any rate — of trusting
to native dynasties to rule their own
people. A similar course has been followed
in the protectorate of Sierra Leone, and
is, no doubt, being adopted in Nigeria.
Besides the questions of interstate
commercial relations and Home Rule
there are other problems and dangers to
be faced and solved — not perhaps with a
rush, but as occasion serves. One of these
is the colonisation of vacant lands, and
consequently the distribution of the world's
racial types. Within the vast limits of the
Canadian Dominion there are perhaps a
million square miles of fertile land with a
healthy climate still uninhabited by men.
Most notable perhaps are the coast-lands
and islands of British Columbia, an
earthly paradise for scenery, chmate, and
wealth of natural products. British
Columbia, calculated on its endowment by
Nature, should be a country with the popu-
lation of France, and should be one of the
envied nations of the world. At present
it is inhabited by about 200,000 men and
women, mainly of British origin — there
are also 13,000 Chinese, and 4,600 Japan-
ese— some of whom have
Mixed Races ^^^^^ ^-^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^ Mother
m British Country, others by way of the
Columbia T- J. r- J- •
Eastern Canadian provinces,
or from the United States. There is,
in addition, an Indian population of
about 29,000, living very much the Hfe
of gypsies. This Indian type will — I
venture to predict — become fused into
the general community without harm to
it. Physically, it does not differ very
5649
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
much more from the modern type of
British colonist than do some of the cotter
fishing folk of North-western Scotland and
Western Ireland from the more modern
race types of the British Islands.
Still, 200,000 British colonists and
29,000 Amerindians are not a sufficient
population for the area and extraordinary'
natural advantages of British
Japans ^ Columbia and its dependen-
Overflowing ^-^^^ j^^ Japanese divined this
Population long ago. The limits of Japan
are all too small for its overflowing
population. Korea may receive some of
the overflow ; China, on the other hand,
may resist Japanese immigration, and is
quite vigorous and numerous enough in
her peoples to do so. Even if Japan should
wrest the Philippine Islands from the
United States — as she may yet try to do —
this region does not offer great possi-
bilities for the building up of a powerful
people. It is small wonder, therefore, that
Japan has hoped, little by httle, by
degrees, unobtrusively, to infiltrate the
lands of British Columbia, Alaska, and the
North-western part of the United States,
and thus in time create a new Japan be-
yond the seas which might resist aggression
by the eventually effete races of Europe.
Canada and British Columbia, and
also the United States, are alive to this
difficulty, and seemingly resolved to
resist it. This movement has done some-
thing to weaken the Anglo- Japanese
Alliance, and it may considerably em-
barrass the Asiatic policy of the British
Government. Yet the problem of Cana-
dian-British Columbian colonisation will
not be solved by our keeping out the
Japanese and Chinese.
The alternative seems simple: "En-
courage white immigration." But the
emigration of poor whites, labourers, com-
petitors with the working men already in
possession, is not encouraged ; rather
the reverse. One can understand the
D ki t objection of Canadian citizens
Problem of ^o having their Motherland
Canadian i j.i. j i j-
^ , . ,. made the dumpmg ground for
Colonisation , •, r Vv.- j.-u i.
white refuse. 1 his they have
every right to reject. But if they are not
to admit for menial work, or for the less
attractive walks of life, the Oriental races —
also an exclusion with which we can sym-
pathise— then something must be done to
attract large numbers of white settlers
who will come ready to work, though with
no more capital than their head and limbs.
5650
The objection to this policy — of throw-
ing open the Canadian Dominion to all
white immigrants on the easiest terms
subject to the indispensable conditions of
healthiness and morality — arises from the
labour leaders and trade unions of
Canada. " We will not have labour
cheapened" is the substance of their out-
cry. Their argument would probably be
that they do not want to repeat in Canada
the miseries of the Old World. " All labour
shall be highly paid in future," almost
equally paid, whether it be hair-cutting,
wood-sawing, teaching mathematics, paint-
ing pictures, composing operas, writing
books, reaping corn, preaching sermons,
pleading or defending at the Bar.
Perhaps they are right. But mean-
time agricultural, mining, domestic work
is almost at a standstill in the Far West
while these laudable attempts are being
made to solve the social problem, to create
a white Canada in which there shall be no
distinctions between skilled and unskilled
labour — for that is what the argument
resolves itself into in the long run.
Already young native Canadians are
migrating to Mexico, and the
young married womanhood of
Canada's
Social
Conditions
the western parts of the do-
minion is wearing itself into
old age and ugliness in the endeavour
to be cook, washerwoman, housemaid,
governess, nurse and wife in one. These
are the complaints voiced by many private
letters, by signed and unsigned contribu-
tions in the colonial Press. The population
of Canada has not increased proportionately
by anything like the same ratio as that of
the United States, though there is an
almost equal area of territory suited to
the habitation of the white man.
Japan may also turn her attention
to the colonisation of Australia, but the
lands left open to her here do not offer one
tithe of the advantages and attractions
of British Columbia or of North-west
America generally. They are arid and
extremely hot, and in some parts very
unhealthy. Possibly J apan may hope for a
tropical future. It is a people of extremely
mixed elements, as likely to develop
into a tropical race as into a people of
the temperate zones. In that case, Japan
may accept in return for a promise to leave
America severely alone the overlordship
of the Philippine Islands, and little by
little become the mistress of the Dutch,
German, and perhaps a part of the British
THE FUTURE OF THE EMPIRE
Empire in that region of Malaya between
Australia and New Guinea on the south-
east and Cochin China on the north-west.
Meantime, if any movement should be
directed by the Imperial statesmen of
Great Britain, it should be the direction
of British emigration towards British
Columbia — one of the world's paradises.
There is a future before Trans-Zam-
besian Africa, from a white man's point of
view, that is scarcely realised. Before
many years have passed, science will have
found a means of extirpating such local
germ-diseases as affect man and beast.
The climate over nearly the whole of this
region from the Zambesi to the southern
ocean is magnificent. Where the soil is
arid it is packed with precious metals, but
much of the aridity is caused by the ill-
regulated water supply. Afforestation is
already producing a change in this respect,
and increasing the rainfall. In fact, the
rainfall may be equalised by a moderate
de- foresting of the too tropical eastern
coast-belt coincident with the planting up
of the interior deserts. The streams pro-
duced by the heavy tropical or temperate
^. ,,,^ .^ rains will be made to supply
The White , r Ai • ■ 4.- r
., , _ ^ water for the irrigation of
Mans Prospects ,1 , r j •
. -, . the less favoured regions.
m Africa ™, . , .
The coexistence of a negro
population of some five or si.x million within
these limits is, together with the general
question of unskilled labour, one of the
problems that the empire has to face and
solve before long. About 1,500 years ago,
in all probability, there were very few big
black negroes dwelling in the lands to the
south of the Zambesi. This sub-continent
then was sparsely peopled by a Hottentot-
Bushman race of low or arrested physique,
and of poor intellectual development.
These men were leading the almost
animal life of the Stone Age. Then came
successive rushes of the powerful Bantu
negroes from the north and east, and a good
deal of the centre and east of South Africa
was populated by black men, the ancestors
of the modern Bechuana, Zulu, and Nyanja
tribes. The Hottentots in the south-west
had made a more determined resistance,
and when the European first arrived on the
scene, in the sixteenth century, much of
the south-western part of this sub-
continent was still outside the Bantu
sphere. The persecution or the control
of the Hottentots by Dutch and British
indirectly assisted the attempts of the
Kaffirs to extend further and further to
the south-west. Speaking, however,
racially, some sections of the Zulu-Kaffir-
Bechuana peoples are no earlier colonists
of South Africa than the Dutch and even
the British. Some sections of them have
inherently no better right to the soil of
a No-man's-land than we have ; both alike
have entered into the inheritance of a van-
Th E 1 ished Bushman type, if one can
^ f .*!" ^ , seriously ascribe full territorial
Colonists of ■ , . , ■' r 1 •
South Africa "g^^^s to a race of wandering
human nomads, as much, and
no more, entitled to the fee-simple of the
sjil they roved over than the wild beasts
they were attempting to dispossess.
In deciding such grave questions it
has always seemed to the present writer
that a very great distinction must be made
between nomads and agriculturists. An
agricultural race that has distinctly bene-
fited the land it has occupied, by subduing
Nature and making the country fit for
intelligent human occupation, has ac-
quired a fee-simple in the soil ; not so the
nomad, who is a mere hunter. Pastoral
peoples should be given reservations in
return for the care they have bestowed
on domestic animals, and for their having
subdued more or less the wild beasts that
would make the keeping of these flocks
and herds impossible ; or they may have
uprooted poisonous herbs, and have miti-
gated marsh or thorny scrub.
To reduce a long argument into as few
words as possible, the future settlement of
race distribution in Trans-Zambesian Africa
should follow these lines : The existing
agricultural races should be granted defi-
nite areas of land, which would become
as much theirs as land similarly taken up
by white men ; but every inducement of
teaching, all fair persuasion, should be
used towards these negro tribes to leave
the high, cold regions or the temperate
coast lands and migrate little by little
to the tropical eastern belt, and, most
of all, to the basin of the Zambesi, especi-
ally the magnificent territories
A Black ^^ British Central Africa. This
is a climate well suited to
negro physical development,
not so well suited to the white man. As
compensation for the gradual creation of
a white South Africa, the building up of
a black Central Africa should be carried
on simultaneously. No injustice should be
done to Basuto or Zulu, to Bechuana or
Baronga. But actual inducements may
be offered to the more vigorous and
5651
Central
Africa
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
Bonds of
Union for Black
and White
enterprising amongst the black men to
migrate a little farther to the east and
north in return for a good substantial grant
of land. In exchange, the vacant soil of the
high cold plateaux might be disposed of to
European settlers. Gradually in this way
the two races might draw apart, the black
men living more to the east and north, and
the white to the south and
south-west. As in India,
so in South Africa, the alter-
native to this policy is the
setting aside of racial prejudice and the free
interbreeding of black and white ; the same
education, the same laws, the same social
organisation being made to apply to both.
This consummation is less and less in
favour. The blacks dislike interbreeding
with the whites quite as much as the
reverse is the case, and so far the result
of such intermixture between the absolute
negro and the absolute white man has
not been happy either in its physical
attributes or its political status.
On the other hand, the retention of
five, six, ten millions of negroes as a
permanently servile force has likewise
ceased to be possible. Sufficient educa-
tion has been brought amongst them by
the white man, he has departed sufficiently
from the ideas of the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries, to have made the
reinstitution of negro slavery a physical
impossibility. The negroes would resist
it to the death, and the white man has
not the numbers, the strength, or the
money to reimpose such a condition on
his still slightly inferior brother, whom
at one time he would, if he could, have
reduced once more to the level of a beast.
Of course, if the white peoples decide
for a white South Africa they must face
and settle the problem of unskilled labour.
Either they must consent to work with
the pick and shovel, the mason's trowel,
the bricklayer's hod, the gardener's spade,
to perform all the menial functions of do-
^. ... mesticity, to police, to be sig-
Thc Ideal 1 -^ • i J J
nalman, pomtsman and guard,
c .1. */•* telegraph clerk and messen-
South Africa , ,
ger, postman, groom, carter,
shepherd, vine-dresser, ostrich attendant,
and dock labourer ; or they must decide
for a partnership on equal terms with
the black and possibly the yellow man
so far as South Africa is concerned. The
Chinaman need have no say in the de-
velopment of South Africa. He has
quite a large enough sphere in Eastern
5652
and Central Asia, but if the " White
South Africa " ideal is to be lowered
because the white man dislikes to work
as an unskilled labourer, the Indian must
be readmitted to take his share in the
development of this neglected region.
There are few problems now to be
solved in British West Africa since we
have most wisely decided it is the black
man's country, to be owned and developed
by the negro and negroid. In Uganda
the same principle is in force, but in East
Africa the future is much more com-
plicated ; a parti -coloured policy may be
the wisest to adopt. The rights to land,
communally and individually, on the part
of the indigenous blacks and browns are
already recognised and have been secured.
There still remain territories, collectively
as large as Ireland — situated at altitudes
between 6,000 and 13,000 feet above sea-
level, above sunstroke and most tropical
diseases, except malaria, which is a matter
of infection — which are in every way suited
to European settlement. Owing to former
wars between tribe and tribe, and to the
cold climate, there are no existing native
, inhabitants. Shall we actively
promote the colonisation of
these still vacant lands by
homeless Britishers or shall we
let them drift into the possession of Boers,
Italians, Greeks, or Russian Jews? Then
in East Africa is also the Asiatic problem.
Are we then to encourage, dis-
courage or remain indifferent to the
immigration on a large scale of natives
of India, who shall come not merely as
employes, merchants or soldiers, but as
settlers, bringing their women-folk and
determined to find in East Africa that
America we are denying them in Natal
and the Transvaal. Can we refuse them
this satisfaction ? Are we as Imperialists
to shape new homes for white men only ?
Or should we expect the overplus of India
to be content with new fields of energy
nearer home — Southern Arabia, Southern
Persia, Malaya, Borneo, Fiji, Northern
Austraha, Mauritius ; or in Tropical
America — Honduras, Jamaica, Trinidad,
Guiana, leaving Africa to the Negro,
Negroid and Caucasian ?
Egypt is one of the knottiest problems
that offer themselves for our solution.
We have raised a Mohammedan people
from the dust, have forced on it education,
law and order, security and affluence,
have even assiduouslv taught it what it
East Africa's
Asiatic
Problem
THE FUTURE OF THE EMPIRE
had forgotten since it was submerged and
denationalised by Islam (that lava flow
of human history), that the lands of the
Lower Nile and the people generated from
Nile mud and sand were once the cradle
and the exponents of a mighty civilisa-
tion. By our intervention this modern
Egyptian race has been saved from dwind-
ling into virtual extinction, bled to death
by heartless Turkish pashas and their
Circassian and Armenian servants.
Now, under an enlightened prince, who,
like his father, has Egyptian blood in
his veins, and administered by a new
school of Egyptian, Armenian, and
Turkish ministers, Egypt desires to be
allowed to run alone. The Sudan, it is
virtually acknowledged, is a totally
different question ; it has its own outlet
to the sea at Port Sudan and via Uganda
and Mombasa. The Sudan administered
by Britain will relieve Egypt from one
great menace on the south. If, argue
some Egyptians, the British troops were
removed from Cairo and Alexandria to the
other side of the Suez Canal, in short, if
the Sinai peninsula were definitely ceded
to Great Britain and Egypt
^-.. . became an absolutely inde-
■ E*^ ^ pendent kingdom, the British
^^^ would obtain means of defend-
ing the Red Sea route to India and the Suez
Canal and yet might reheve the administra-
tion of Egypt of that admixture of British
officials, which, by its crushing superiority
of attainments and ideals, galls the rising
generation of the upper and middle classes
of the native-born Egyptians.
There are other Egyptians who say or
write that they are in no hurry to lose the
British civilian employes of the khedive's
administration ; the admirable qualities
of these as judges, financiers, engineers, or
police officers, are fully recognised. It is
the military officers who, for some reason,
have made themselves disliked through
want of tact, consideration, or sympathy.
It is the army of occupation rather than
the British officered Egyptian army which
is the thorn in the wound. "If the British
soldiers were removed to the Sinai Penin-
sula," say the Young Egyptians, '• we
should be content to remain for some
further period under British tutelage : but
let thekhedivebe master in his own house."
This much is clear to us in the United
Kingdom, that Egypt, by its mere geo-
graphical position, is the central connecting
link of our empire in Europe, Africa, and
Asia. Under present circumstances, and
until the navigation of the air is a common-
place fact — when there may be universal
peace and a world-federation — it is vital to
the continued existence of the British Em-
pire abroad that we should neutralise the
geographical advantages of Egypt by con-
trolling the destinies and the foreign policy
_ of that country. So much so,
iT^j'* D •,!• t that,if need be, violence must
Under British i , . ,i A r ^■ c
J, J be done to the finer f eelmgs of
the Egyptians by the declara-
tion of an actual protectorate or suzerainty
— a clear intimation to the khedive and his
people that they are, and must remain, for
an indefinite period within the diversified
confederation which we call the British
Empire. We justify this high-handed
action by an appeal to the civilised powers
that count in the world's councils.
We ask educated India, Australia, East
Africa, Uganda, British Central and South
Africa, Zanzibar, Mauritius, New Zealand,
and even Canada, to consider what would
happen to them and to their commerce if
the Suez Canal were under the control of an
absolutely independent power which could
close it at any moment to British ships ;
or else in the keeping of a state so feeble
and so disorganised that it was at the
mercy of a coup-de-main on the part of
any strong Mediterranean nation.
With the proviso, however, of the full
recognition of Great Britain's supremacy,
there is no reason whatever why Egypt
should not receive in time full representa-
tive government under the khedive, who
might well be raised to the rank of sultan,
and even exercise almost completely
independent powers in regard to internal
administration and the foreign affairs of
Egypt proper. Perhaps the best arrange-
ment in the long run would be the cession
to England of the Sinai Peninsula and the
Sudan, the British troops being withdrawn
from the sultanate of Egypt, but the sultan
of that country acknowledging the over-
• PI lordship of the British Em-
• !k ^ *^* peror, just as Bavaria does
that of the German Emperor.
Provided our vital rights of
control over Egypt and Southern and
Eastern Arabia are recognised, the British
people would welcome most heartily the
regeneration of Turkey. It may be neces-
sary to the peculiar position of Italy in the
Mediterranean that Turkey shall cede some
rights in Tripoh to the Italian kingdom, in
return for assurances that Italy will not
5653
in the
Mediterranean
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
interfere in Albania. It may also come
about that Crete is definitely assigned to
Greece, as Bosnia has been to Austria, and
Novi Bazar to the Serbs, the right to build
the Bagdad railway to Germany, and
the free passage of the Dardanelles and
Bosphorus to the warships of the whole
world. This really means curtailing by
rp V ^^ry little the actual extent
The Factor ^^ ^^^ present administra-
of the^Gcrman ^.^.^ ^^^^ ^^ ^^^ Turkish Em-
mpirc pire. In return for these
concessions — including the recognition
on the part of the Powers of a French
protectorate over Morocco — the capitu-
lations, and later the special post offices,
and all other extra-territorial privileges of
the foreign Powers in Turkey might be
abrogated, and Turkey left free to attend
whole-heartedly to internal reform and
the peaceful exploitation of her wealth
in natural products.
Behind all these projects stands the
German Empire, \\ithout whose acquies-
cence much of this planned settlement
of world affairs is idle chatter. The
necessary entente with Germany, follow-
ing on the still more necessary understand-
ings with France and Russia, should now
be the object of every British statesman's
desire. Every reasonable effort must be
made to frame an understanding with
Germany; if possible, one which shall
embrace and settle for at least a hundred
years to come the aspirations of France,
i3elgium, Holland, Russia, America, and
Japan. Then we ma3^ be able to think
about relative disarmament, and the con-
centrating of our forces on the development
of all the backward places of the world.
When such a guarantee of the world's
peace is attained as the understanding
between Britain and Germany, then,
indeed, we ought to turn our attention
more vigorously than ever to the reforms
which are needed in our own Imperial
domains. Besides those already touched
on — local administration, com-
j* °'' mercial interrelations, and
a ni orm 5gQ^ia.r technical education — we
anguagc j^^g^ g^jj^ g^^ making the Eng-
lish language, a universal medium of inter-
communication. It must become eventu-
ally the one official language of the whole
empire. This need not lead to the neglect of
other forms of speech ; on the contrary, for
purposes of literature, science, history, and
the right understanding of diverse minds
and intellects, language study — not merely
5654
Hebrew, Ancient Greek, or Latin — must be
enforced on all persons in the Imperial
service. But Enghsh should be taught
everywhere in all government or state-
aided schools, and all higher instruction
be accessible in that language.
And we must put our own pride in our
pocket and make on our part concessions
to commonsense. English must have its
standard pronunciation fixed for a hundred
years, and must then be spelt phonetically
in the Roman alphabet, just as we spell
African and Indian languages phonetically.
Moreover, there must be but one alphabet,
one printing type all over the empire. At
present we tolerate the Irish alphabet in
Ireland ; the Greek letters in Cyprus ;
Coptic in Egypt ; Arabic in Arabia, Egypt,
India, Central Africa, and Malaya; about
fifty different alphabets in India and
Ceylon ; and the Chinese syllabary in Hong
Kong. This leads to a sickening waste of
time, and to an obscurantism beloved of
schoolmasters, clerics, cranky professors,
pedantic prigs, sulky bonzes, rebellious
Hindus, intriguing Arabs, and all those
who are realh^ opposed to the enlarged
study of languages and their
rapid acquisition by people in
a hurry. No one can accuse
me of a narrow nationalism
in advocating the universal use of the
so-called Roman alphabet, because this
elegant, clear, easily recognised type
was invented in Italy, and as regards
its adaptation to the phonetic rendering
of all known languages is a German inven-
tion by the great Lepsius.
Besides a uniform alphabet we want a
uniform coin of standard value, uniform
weights and measures, and postal rates.
This last reform is nearly accomplished.
In weights and measures we might very
well adopt the metric system, and thus
put ourselves in harmony with France and
the whole Latin world, Germany, Latin
America, Turkey, the Balkan States,
Roumania, Austria-Hungary, and Japan.
In regard to coinage, see how ridiculously
the empire differs one portion from
another. In Great Britain, Gibraltar,
Malta, Cyprus, British Central Africa,
South Africa, West Africa, St. Helena, the
West Indies, Falkland Islands and British
Guinea, Austraha, New Zealand, Fiji and
the \\'estern Pacific, we have a gold stan-
dard and the pound sterling as unit of
calculation, and a very sensible unit, too.
In Egypt and the Egyptian Sudan there
Reforms that
Would Benefit
the Empire
THE FUTURE OF THE EMPIRE
is a monetary system nearly in accord with
that of Britain, but the Egyptian pound
is worth about threepence more than the
Enghsh sovereign. It is divided into
100 piastres. In British Arabia, the
Central Sudan and Zanzibar the Maria
Theresa dollar of an approximate 3s. 8d.
still lingers. But throughout the Aden
territory, British East Africa, Zanzibar,
Seychelles, Mauritius, Persian Gnli, Cey-
lon, and the whole Indian Empire, the
silver rupee of a more or less fixed exchange
— value of fifteen rupees = £1 — is the
established currency.
In the Straits Settlements and the
federated Malay States the official currency
is a dollar, worth 2s. 4d. At one time
there were three kinds of dollar in circu-
lation as legal tender : the Mexican dollar,
say 4s. ; the British dollar, value about
2s. 6d. ; and the Hong Kong dollar, value
about 2S. These are still, with varying
values, the currency of Hong Kong.
In 1902 a committee sat at the Colonial
Office to consider and make recommenda-
tions regarding the currency question in
. the Straits Settlements. They
""^"^^ "* recommended a return to the
c ..1 '^** ! gold standard, but, for some
Settlements P , ui .l i r
mscrutable reason, mstead of
taking this occasion to introduce the Impe-
rial coinage, they started this great Malayan
colony off on a fresh currency of its own,
equivalent to the British dollar of an ap-
proximate value of 2s. 4d. — another unit of
independent value added to the Canadian
dollar, the pound sterling, the rupee, the
Hong Kong dollar, the five-franc piece,
(which is much used in British Gambia
and in Jersey). It is actions like these that
stand in the way of Imperial federation.
The currency of Hong Kong and Wei-hai-
wei is enough to make the brain whirl, and
must cause many a suicide among cashiers
and accountants. The Hong Kong dollar
is at present worth about is. iifd. Two
other dollars of totally different and con-
stantly varying value equally pass current.
The copper coinage is shamefully bewil-
dering. British Borneo shares the dollar
standard of the Straits Settlements.
Canada has from its entry into the
empire adopted the dollar of the United
States as its unit. Newfoundland also
keeps its accounts in dollars and cents
(American), but British sterling is legal
tender. British Honduras likewise employs
the American dollar of an approximate
4s. .2d. as its unit of value. Thus through-
out the British Empire we have the
following units and values — often fluctuat-
ing— for monetary media and the keeping
of accounts : The pound sterling, value
20S. ; the five-franc piece, value 4s. ;
,, . the Egyptian pound, value
Money Values ^^ ^^ ^^ ^j^^ ^^^-^ ^j^^^^^^
Throughout
the Empire
dollar, 3s. 8d. (?) ; the Mexican
dollar, 4s. (?) ; the British dol-
lar, 2s. 4d. ; the Hong Kong dollar, is. iid.
to 2s. ; and the dollar of British America,
about 4s. 2d. For lesser coins in copper,
bronze, and nickel there are many values
and names — pence, cents, piastres, annas.
In some parts of West, East, and Central
Africa the kauri shell is not demonetised.
In Nigeria, 1,000 kauris are worth three-
pence ! This will give some idea of what
a worry they can be as cash or in accounts.
In British China there are copper coins
representing one-hundredth part of the 2s.
dollar — less than a farthing, and one-
thousandth part of the same coin, or one
forty-first part of a penny ! On the
other hand, in South Africa there is a
distressing dearth of small cash, no coin
below a silver threepence being in circu-
lation.
Will no great Imperial statesmen arise,
will no council of broad views and domi-
nant authority come into existence which
will cause the empire to agree on :
1. A phonetic spelling and writing of
the English language.
2. Uniform weights and measures
(metric).
3. Uniform coinage and unit values in
calculation (decimal).
4. A single alphabet — the Roman — for
writing and printing all languages on an
identical phonetic system, the same that
is applied to English ?
I doubt if there are great men to devise
great measures, and if this magnificent but
unwieldy empire, too loosely
compacted, too perversely in-
dividualistic in all its parts,
be not drifting on to eventual
dissolution for the want of men in its
supreme councils " with head, heart, hand;
like some of the simple great ones gone ;
for ever and ever by," who will impose
unity in essentials and allow liberty of
judgment in what is unessential.
Harry Johnston
The Drift
of
Empire
5655
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■^^ A R CT I C OCCAM
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THE ATLANTIC OCEAN, SHOWING THE ROUTES FOLLOWED BY EARLY VOYAGERS
Separating- the Old World from the New, and extending from one Polar circle to the other, the Atlantic Ocean has,
since the sixteenth century, been the chief commercial highway of the world ; but even earlier than that period, har(iy
voyagers were bold enough to venture on its waters in their quest for lands unknown. In the above map the routes
taken by the various discoverers are distinctly shown, while the dates of their famous voyages are also given.
5656
THE ATLANTIC OCEAN]
AND ITS PLACE IN HISTORY
By Dr. Karl Weule
THE ATLANTIC BEFORE COLUMBUS
npHE Atlantic may be regarded as a long
■*■ canal v/hich winds, in the form of a
letter S, and preserving an almost uniform
breadth, between the Old World and the
New. It extends from one Polar circle to the
other. Such a configuration, when once it
became known to mankind, was bound to
favour international communications. The
narrowness of the Atlantic has had momen-
tous results for the history both of states
and of civilisation. But it was long before
the shape of the Atlantic was realised, and
this for two reasons. First, the Atlantic
has few islands, and this is particularly
true of the zone which was the first to be
attempted by navigators, the zone lying
opposite the mouth of the Mediterranean.
Secondly, the Mediterranean was a poor
school for explorers. The broken coasts
and the numerous islands of that sea
make navigation too easy. The Mediter-
ranean peoples did not, therefore, obtain
that experience which would have fitted
them for the crossing of the outer ocean.
Their explorations were never extended
more than a moderate distance from the
Pillars of Hercules, either in the Greco -
Roman period or in more recent times.
Almost the same obstacles existed to the
navigation of the northern zone
of the Atlantic. The North
Sea and Baltic ai-e not easily
navigated ; they presented
difficulties so great that for a long time
they discouraged the inhabitants of their
httorals from taking to the sea. The
dolmen builders, indeed, showed some
aptitude for maritime enterprise ; and
much later we find that the men of the
2L 87 n
Features
of the
Atlantic
Difficulties
in the Way of
Navigation
Hanse towns and their rivals in Western
Europe made some use of the sea lor
trade. But maritime enterprise on a great
scale was not attempted by these peoples.
In the days before Columbus, only the
inhabitants of Western Norway made
serious attempts to explore the
ocean. They were specially
favoured by Nature. A chain of
islands, the Faroes, Iceland, and
Greenland, served them as stepping-stones.
But the voyage from Norway to the Faroes
is one of more than 400 miles over a
dangerous ocean ; and this was a much
more difficult feat than the voyage of the
ancients from Gades to the Isles of the Blest,
if indeed that voyage was ever made. The
evidence for it is by no means of the best.
The Atlantic is not merely remarkable
for its narrowness and dearth of islands,
but also for the great indentations which
are to be found in its coasts on either
side. These have exercised a great and a
beneficial influence on the climate of the
Atlantic seaboard. Those of the American
coast-line balance those of the Old World
to a remarkable degree. It is true that the
eastern coast of South America bends
inward with a sweep less pronounced than
that of the west coast of Africa.
But there is a striking parallelism ;
and the same phenomenon strikes us
when we study the shores of the North and
Central Atlantic, in spite of the fact that
broken and indented coast-lines make it
difficult to perceive the broad similarities
at the first glance. Thus the Mediter-
ranean corresponds to the immense gulf
which separates North and South America.
5657
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
The part which the Mediterranean of
the Old World has played in history is so
important that it has demanded special
treatment in a previous chapter. The Medi-
terranean of America has no such claim
upon the attention of the historian. It
facilitated the conquest and settlement of
the Spanish colonies. It has favoured the
.... ,. development of those motley
Linking the ^ •,• i • i x • •/
AH t- tu communities which fringe its
, P •(■ shores from Cuba and Honda
on the north to the Cape of San
Roque on the south. But when we have
said this we have exhausted the subject
of its historical importance. More im-
portant it doubtless will be in the future.
Even at the present time it affords the
sole outlet for the Central and Southern
States of the American Union ; and when
the Panama Canal is completed, this sea
will become the natural high-road between
the Atlantic and the Pacific — a great factor
in political and economic history. It will be
what the Eastern Mediterranean was in the
early days of the Old World. But we are con-
cerned with history and not with prophecy.
North of the latitude of Gibraltar the
two shores of the Atlantic present a
remarkable symmetry. In shape the Gulf
of St. Lawrence and Hudson's Bay
resemble the North Sea and the Baltic.
Labrador, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia,
and Cape Breton Island may be compared
with North-western Europe. The chief
difference between the two coast-lines is
one of scale. Hudson's Bay, for example,
is considerably larger than the North Sea
and the Baltic put together. This does
not detract from the importance of the
symmetry which we have pointed out. It
is all the more important because it is
most striking on those lines of latitude
which have been most important in the
history of mankind.
The Northern Atlantic Ocean has
influenced the development of our general
civilisation ■ in two directions — namely,
ft. /^ .by those physical character-
Ihe Ocean s ■ l- , . ^ -'. .
, „ istics which originate Irom its
Influence on ^ ,. i i ^ •,
f,. ... . configuration, and by its situa-
tion with reference to the other
countries on the globe. The extensive
fishing grounds which it affords have been
a source of wealth to European popula-
tions. Even when we take into account
the colossal proportions of modern inter-
national trade, deep-sea fishing is none the
less an industry of note, and makes a very
important difference in the profit and loss
5658
accounts of many a northern country.
Three hundred, and even two hundred, years
ago the fishing fleets of the Northern Sea,
which were then numerous though clumsy,
gathered, no doubt, a harvest in no degree
greater than do the steam fishing- boats of
the present day ; but at that time the
profits made a much more appreciable
difference to the national wealth, and the
safety of the national food supply was
more largely dependent upon their efforts.
Much more important, from a historical
point of view, is the influence on character
of this trading in the difficult northern
seas ; for the Teutonic nations of North-
west Europe and for the French, it was
the best of all possible schools of seaman-
ship, and largely contributed to the fact
that these nations were able to play a
leading part in the general annexation of
the habitable globe which has taken place
during the last three centuries.
The fisheries are here in closest communi-
cation with that other attempt, which, his-
torically at least, exercised influence no less
enduring, to find a passage round North
America or round Northern Europe and
Asia to the east shore of Asia.
ng an s Xothing did SO much to promote
upremacy ^^^^ maritime efficiency of the
British nation as the repeated
attempts that were made to find the North-
west and North-east passages, which began
with the voyage of the elder Cabot, and
continued to the middle of the nineteenth
century. To the Atlantic as a whole
belongs the high service of having led the
civilised peoples of the Old World out to
the open sea from the confines of the
Mediterranean and other land-locked
waters ; from the time of Columbus it
has been a school of technical skiU and
self-reliance. However, its most northern
part, storm-lashed and ice-bound as it is,
is in no way inferior to the whole, in this
respect at least, that it gave to one sole
nation not otherwise particularly strong, to
the English, the supremacy over the seas
of the world within a short three centuries. j
The Atlantic Ocean may be regarded I
,as a broad gulf dividing the western and
eastern shores of the habitable world,
conceived as a huge band of territory ex-
tending from Cape Horn to Smith Sound ;
this implies a limitation of our ideas
regarding the age of the human race.
Its share in universal history does not
begin before the moment when the keel
of the first Norse boat touched the shore
THE ATLANTIC OCEAN BEFORE COLUMBUS
of Greenland or Helluland. Thus, this sea,
so important in the development of the
general civilisation of modern times, is,
historically speaking, young, and its
significance in the history of racial inter-
course is not to be compared with that of
the Pacific or the Indian Ocean.
When compared with those ages during
which these two giants, together with
our Mediterranean, our Baltic and North
Seas, made their influence felt upon the
course of history, traditional or written,
the thousand years during which the
Atlantic has influenced history become
of minor importance. The investigator,
indeed, who is inclined to regard as
" historical " only those cases in which
the literary or architectural remains of
former races have left us information
upon their deeds and exploits will
naturally be inclined to leave the Atlantic
Ocean in possession of its historical youth.
He, however, who is prepared to follow
out the ideas upon which this work has
been based, and to give due weight to all
demonstrable movements and meetings
of peoples, which form the first visible
sign of historical activity upon the lower
. . planes of human existence, will
egmnings (,Qj^5J(]^gj- ^j-^g importance of the
^ ... Atlantic Ocean as extending
Mankind , i i < i
backwards to a very remote
antiquity. Our views of historical develop-
ment, in so far as they regard mankind
as the last product of a special branch of
evolution within the organic world, have
recently undergone a considerable change ;
the most modern school of anthropologists
conceives it possible to demonstrate, with
the help of comparative anatomy, that the
differentiation of mankind from other
organisms was a process which began, not
with the anthropoid apes — that is to say,
at a period comparatively late both in
the history of evolution and geologically —
but at a much earlier point within the
development of the mammals.
From a geological and palaeontological
point of view, however, this conclusion
carries us far beyond the lowest limits
previously stated as the beginnings of
mankind. We reach the Tertiary Age,
a lengthy period, interesting both for the
changes which took place within organic
life and for the extensive alterations that
appeared upon the surface of the earth.
Tlie nature and extent of these changes
must, in so far as the new theory is correct,
have been of decisive importance for the
earliest distribution of existing humanity.
If the theory be true that during the
Tertiary Age two broad isthmuses ex-
tended from the western shore of the
modern Old World to modern America,
then from the point of view of historical
development there can be no difficulty
in conceiving these isthmuses as inhabited
Th Atl f ^y primeval settlers. That
as a G If point of the globe over which at
of Division ^^^® present day the deep waters
of the Atlantic Ocean heave
would then, in fact, have been not only
the earliest but also the most important
scene of activity for the fate of mankind.
As regards the later importance of the
Atlantic Ocean, the collapse of these two
isthmuses marks the beginning of a period
which is of itself of such great geological
length that those first cx)nditions which
influenced the fate of our race appear to
its most recent representatives as lost
in the mists of remote antiquity. After
the Atlantic Ocean appeared in its present
form, the inhabitants of the Old World
had not the slightest communication with
the dwellers upon the other shore. The
Atlantic Ocean then became in fact a
gulf dividing the habitable world.
In all times and places mystery and
obscurity have exercised an attraction
upon mankind, and thus, too, the Atlantic
Ocean, bounding as it did the civilisation
gathered round the Mediterranean, at-
tracted the inhabitants of those countries
from an early period. As early as the
second millennium before the birth of
Christ we find the Phoenicians on its
shores, and soon afterwards their western
branch, the Carthaginians.
The inducement to venture out upon its
waves was the need of tin, the demand for
which increased with the growing use of
bronze ; and the rarity of this metal induced
them to brave the dangers of the unknown
outer sea. However, these two branches
of the great commercial nations of Western
Asia did not attain to any great
"'''^J knowledge of the Atlantic
""** ° Ocean. We are reminded of the
reluctance of the towns and re-
pubhcs of Italy to pass through the
Straits of Gibraltar, though the high seas
had long been sailed by the Portuguese
and Spaniards, or the cowardice of the
Hanseatics, who hardly dared to approach
the actual gates of the ocean, when we find
these two peoples who ruled for so many
centuries over the Mediterranean, which
5659
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
is itself of no small extent, unable to
advance any material distance beyond the
Pillars of Hercules. Even as regards the
tin trade, the chief labour was probably
undertaken by the seafaring coast-dwellers
of separate parts of Western Europe.
How small in reality were the achieve-
ments of both nations upon the Atlantic
is shown by the amount of
e *y^ ° praise lavished upon the coast-
^^ ... ^. ing voyage of Hanno, which.
Civilisation , ^ -' o . , , <■
however important tor geo-
graphical science, was no great achieve-
ment of seamanship. It is a characteristic
feature of all landlocked seas to limit not
only the view, but also the enterprise of
the maritime peoples upon their shores.
In Greek civilisation the Atlantic Ocean,
as such, is only of theoretical importance.
A few explorers did, indeed, advance from
the Mediterranean northwards and south-
wards into the Atlantic. Such were
Pytheas of Massilia (about 300 B.C.), who
journeyed beyond Britain to the fabulous
land of Thule ; his compatriot and con-
temporary, Euthymenes, followed by
Eudoxos of Cyzicus (about 150 B.C.) and
the historian Polybius (about 205-123 B.C.)
succeeded in reaching different points
upon the west coast of Africa ; but none
of these undertakings led to any practical
result. The reason for this fact is to be
found in the length of a voyage from the
coast of Greece, which was a far more
difficult undertaking for the sailors of those
days than it now appears. Especially im-
portant, moreover, is the fact that the
Greeks, although they were the general
heirs of the Phoenician colonial policy,
never attempted to overthrow the su-
premacy of the Carthaginians in the
western half of the Mediterranean Sea.
For them, therefore, the great western
ocean remained permanently wrapped in
the obscurity of distance, a fact which
enabled them to people its illimitable
breadth with creations of fancy, such as
the "Atlantis" of Plato;
but distance was too import-
ant an obstacle to be success-
fully overcome by their in-
stinct for colonisation and discovery. The
Atlantic Ocean came^ into the purview of
the Romans at the moment when their
struggles with Carthage for the Iberian
Peninsula ended definitely in their favour
(210 B.C.) ; it was not until then that this
rapidly developing Power in the west of
the Mediterranean was able to advance
5660
Rome's
Struggles With
Carthage
from the east coast of Spain to the interior of
th$ country and thence to its western coast.
Notwithstanding the activity of Rome in
colonisation, her supremacy in Iberia led
to no enterprises by sea ; nor were any
such undertaken by the Romans until they
had established themselves in Gaul, and
had thus gained possession of a consider-
able seaboard upon the Atlantic Ocean.
It was in 54 and 55 B.C. that JuUus
Caesar made his voyages to Britain ; a few
decades later came the advance of Drusus
and of Germanicus into the North Sea.
The nature of these conquests precluded
adventure upon the open sea. The Romans
were attempting only to secure their
natural frontier against the threatened
encroachments of the Germanic tribes, and
confined their explorations to the southern
portion of the North Sea.
During the first thousand years after the
birth of Christ the North Sea is the only
part of the Atlantic Oecan which can be
demonstrated to have had any enduring
influence upon the history of Western
Europe. The Veneti, and other tribes
inhabiting the western coast of Spain,
Gaul, and Germany, certainly
_ ^^ *^ adventured their vessels upon
Ocean in ,, ^i j ■
. . the open sea southward m con-
tinuation of the primeval trade
in tin and amber ; even the Romans, before
indefinitely retiring from Britain, made
one further advance during the expedition
which Cn. Julius x^gricola (84 a.d.) under-
took in the seas and bays surrounding
Great Britain. Of other nations, however,
we hear nothing during this age which
would lead us to conclude that they carried
on communication by means of the ocean
to any important extent.
The age preceding the tenth century a.d.
is entirely wanting in maritime exploits,
with the exception of the expedition of
the Norsemen, but is, on the other hand,
rich in legends, the locality of which
is the Atlantic Ocean. These are impor-
tant to the history of civilisation by reason
of their number ; they are the most
striking proof of that general interest
which was excited, even during the
" dcirkest " century of the Middle Ages,
by the great and mysterious ocean upon
the west. Historically, too, they are of
importance for the influence which their
supposed substratum of geographical fact
has exercised upon the course of discovery.
This interest appears, comparatively weak
at first, in the "Atlantis" legend. The
THE ATLANTIC OCEAN BEFORE COLUMBUS
legend, together with many other elements
forming the geographical lore of classical
Greece, was adopted by the Middle Ages,
but cannot be retraced earlier than the
sixth century. For nearly one thousand
years it disappears, with Cosmas Indi-
copleustes, that extraordinary traveller
and student in whose works the attempt to
bring all human discovery into harmony
with the Bible, an attempt characteristic
of patristic literature, reaches its highest
point. In the " Atlantis " of Plato, Cosmas
apparently sees a confirmation of the
teachings of Moses, which had there placed
the habitation of the first men ; it was not
until the time of the Deluge that these men
were marvellously translated to our own
continent. The ten kings of Atlantis were
the ten generations, from Adam to Noah.
The power of legend as a purely theo-
retical force continued after the first
millennium a.d. only in the north-eastern
borders of the Atlantic Ocean. The Baltic,
owing to its Mediterranean situation, was
at that period the theatre of so much
human activity and progress that it has
already received special treatment. The
North Sea, regarded as a land-
• tK * ^^^^ locked ocean, was not so greatly
N th S benefited by its position as it
has been in the later ages of
inter-oceanic communication ; at the same
time, the coincidence of advantages, small
in themselves, but considerable in the
aggregate, have made it more important
than any other part of the Atlantic Ocean
as an area of traffic. These advantages
included one of immeasurable importance
to early navigation — namely, a supply of
islands which, as formerly in the Mediter-
ranean, conducted the navigator from
point to point ; a further advantage was
the character of its inhabitants, who
were far too energetic to be contented
with a country which was by no means
one of those most blessed by nature.
Hence we need feel no surprise at the
fact that the North Sea was navigated
in all directions as early as the eighth
century by the Vikings ; their excursions to
Iceland, Greenland, and to that part of
North America which here projects farthest
into the ocean, are fully intelligible when
we consider the training which the stormy
North-eastern Atlantic Ocean offered to a
nation naturally adventurous.
The example of the Norsemen was not
generally imitated in Europe at that time.
Charles the Great launched, it is true, a
fleet upon the North Sea to repulse their
attacks, and this was the first step m.ade
by the German people in the maritime
profession ; though we also see the mer-
chants of Cologne from the year looo
sending their vessels down the Rhine and
over the straits to London, the com-
mercial rivalry of Flanders and Northern
_ . France following them in the
^° thirteenth century, and about
... ,. the same time the fleets of the
Easterlings visiting the great
harbour on the Thames. For the imme-
diate estimation of existing transmarine
relations on the Atlantic side of Europe,
these expeditions are useful starting-
points ; they have, however, nothing to
do with the Atlantic Ocean as a highway
between the Eastern and Western Hemi-
spheres. The navigators who opened up
the Atlantic for this purpose started from
the point which past history and the
commercial policy of civilised peoples
indicated as the most suitable ; that is,
from the Mediterranean.
The sudden expansion of the Moham-
medan religion and the Arabian power
over a great portion of the Mediterranean
gave a monopoly of the whole of the
trade passing from east to west to the
masters of Egypt and of the Syrian ports ;
a considerable alteration took place in
those conditions under which for more
than a century commercial exchange had
quietly proceeded between the Far East
and the West — an alteration, too, greatly
for the worse. Commercial intercourse
became so difficult that the chief carrying
peonies of the Mediterranean, the com-
mercial city-states, began to consider the
possibility of circumventing the obstacles
presented by the Moslem Power, which not
even the Crusaders had been able to shatter.
From the year 1317 the traders of Venice
and Genoa regularly passed the Straits of
Gibraltar to secure their share of that ex-
tensive trade in England and Flanders which
had ev^erywhere sprung
into prosperity north of the
Alps, owing to the great
economic advance made by
North-west Europe. Almost a generation
earlier they had advanced from Gibraltar
southwards in the direction which should
have brought them into direct communica-
tion with India, according to the geograph-
ical knowledge of that day. This idea is
the leading motive in the history of dis-
covery during the fourteenth and fifteenth
5661
Traders of
the Fourteenth
Century
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
centuries, so far as the history was worked
out upon the sea. We see it reahsed in the
voyage of the brothers Vadino and Guido
de Vivaldi of Genoa in 1281, and that of
UgoHno Vivaldi, who in 1291 sailed down
the west coast of Africa in a ship of
Teodosio Doria with the object of discover-
ing the sea route to India ; it is an idea
apparent in the voyages
Arabs as the ^^^^ , ^j^^ Italians to Ma-
teachers of j • ■ .1 /- j 4.
. y, deira, to the Canaries, and to
the Azores, enterprises both
of nautical daring and of geographical im-
portance. Mention must also be made at
this point of the several advances upon the
west coast of Africa made by Henry the
Navigator ; this series of attempts occupied
the whole hfe of that remarkable prince.
It is true that the Portuguese of the
fifteenth century, like the Italians before
them, proposed to use the Atlantic Ocean
as a means of communication only up to
that point where an imaginary western
mouth of the Nile came forth from the
Dark Continent. Not in vain were the
Arabs the teachers of the West, both in
what they did and in w^hat they did not
understand ; their additions to the know-
ledge of river systems are even more
superficial than those made by European
geographers of the Dark Ages. The mis-
take of the Arabs most fruitful in conse-
quences was their division of the Upper
Nile into three arms — one flowing into the
Mediterranean from Egypt, one flowing
into the Red Sea on the coast of Abyssinia,
and one flowing into the Atlantic Ocean
on the coast of North-west Africa. This
hydrographical myth, of which a hint
had been given long before by Ptolemy,
was transmitted to the West immediately
by the Arabs.
It is to the influence of this strange
theory we must ascribe the attempts
made by the Italians and also by
Prince Henry ; • they hoped to find a
short cut to the realm of Prester John
^. ^ , . and the Elysium of Southern
The Atlantic . » -^ r ,
P Asia. A common feature in
*j*r f . . all the theories of the time
about the Atlantic Ocean is
the tendency to consider it as the illimit-
able western boundary of the habitable
world. In the history of discovery, this
mental attitude continues until the time
of Columbus, whose westward voyage
cannot for that very reason be compared
with any similar undertaking, because it
was based upon the conception of the world
5662
as a closely united band of earth. However,
in the scientific treatment of the great
sea upon the west, views and conceptions of
the world as a united whole had made
their influence felt almost two centuries
earlier. The fact that elephants are to be
found both in Eastern India and Western
Africa had led Aristotle to suppose that
the two countries were separated by no
great expanse of ocean.
After the Patristic Age, the theory
was revived by scholasticism upon
the basis of Asiatic and Greek geo-
graphy. As transmitted by the Arabs,
this theory respecting the configuration
of the ocean assumed that form which was
bequeathed by Marinus of Tyre about
100 A.D. and by Ptolemy to the Caliphs.
The Western Ocean, upon this theory,
was not reduced to the narrow canal which
Seneca had conceived ; but, compared
with the length of the continent which
formed its shores, it yet remained so
narrow that a man with the enterprise of
Columbus might very well have enter-
tained the plan of finding the eastern
world by crossing its waters westwards.
Ptolemy had given the extent
The Coming
of
Columbus
of the continent between the
west coast of Iberia and the
east coast of Asia as 180° of
longitude : thus one-half of the circum-
ference of the globe was left for the ocean
lying between. He had thus considerably
reduced the estimate of his informant
Marinus, who had assigned 225° longitude
for the whole extent of land, thus leaving
only 135° for the ocean.
Columbus was more inchned to rely upon
Marinus, as Paolo Toscanelli had estimated
the extent of land at very nearly the same
number of degrees as the Tyrian. Relying
upon the stupendous journeys of Marco
Polo and the travelling monks of the
thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, he
obser\^ed that Marinus had estimated his
225° of longitude only for that part of
Eastern Asia \\'hich was known, to him ;
whereas the fact was that this continent
extended far beyond the eastern boundary
assumed by Marinus, and should therefore
be much nearer the Cape Verde Islands
than was supposed. This view strength-
ened Columbus in that tenacity and en-
durance which enabled him to continue
working for his voyage during ten years
full of disappointments, and it gave him
that prudent confidence which is the most
distinguishing feature of his character.
THE
ATLANTIC
OCEAN
II
BY
DR. KARL
WEULE
THE AGE AFTER COLUMBUS
THE INFLUENCE OF THE ATLANTIC ON THE
WORLD'S COMMERCE DURING FOUR CENTURIES
/^NE of the most remarkable facts in the
^-^ history of geographical discovery is the
failure of the discoverer of the New World
to recognise it in its true character as an
independent portion of the earth's surface ;
Columbus died in the belief that he had
sailed on four occasions to the eastern and
southern shores of Asia, and to his last
breath remained faithful to that picture of
the globe which has already been described.
His contemporaries were under the
same delusion. This adherence fo old
beliefs regarding the hydrography of the
globe has produced the characteristic cir-
cumstance that, in political history and in
the history of exploration, the Pacific and
Atlantic are closely linked, until the year
1513, when Nunez de Balboa descended
from the heights of Darien to the shore of
IT 1. w . • the southern sea. The Pacific
Vo"! of ""^ and Atlantic Oceans were
oyagc o ^ considered as forming one
the Victoria 1 • i i u i. j.-u
sea, which lay between the
western and eastern shores of an enor-
mous continental island, the Indian Ocean
being nothing more than an indentation
facilitating communication to the western
shore. It was not until the return of the
Victoria from the voyage of circum-
navigation undertaken by Magalhaes that
Europe learnt that between the western
and eastern shores of their own world there
lay, not the narrow sea they had expected
to find, but two independent oceans,
divided by a double continent, narrower
and running more nearly north than south,
and possessing all the characteristics of an
independent quarter of the globe.
An entirely new picture of the world
then arose before the civilisation of the
age — new in the influence it was to exert
upon the further development of the
history of mankind, which had hitherto
run an almost purely continental course.
In every age, from that of the early
Accadians to that of Hanseatic ascendancy
in the Baltic, the sea has ever been used
as a means of communication. Before
the year 1500 a.d. we see the Mediterra-
nean and the Indian Ocean with all their
branches, as well as the North Sea and the
Baltic, in constant use by mankind, and
during that long period we know of a whole
series of powers founded upon
, ., °.Y.^' purely maritime supremacy.
of Maritime r, j. A. ^■J.■ i j •
j^ . But the political and economic
history even of those peoples
whose power was apparently founded upon
pure maritime supremacy has been every-
where and invariably conditioned by
changes and displacements in their respec-
tive hinterlands ; even sea powers so
entirely maritime as the Phoenician and
Punic mediaeval Mediterranean powers
and the Hanseatics have been invariably
obHged to accommodate themselves to the
overwhelming influence of the Old World.
To those peoples their seas appeared, no
doubt, as mighty centres of conflict ; but
to us, who are accustomed to remember
the unity underlying individual geograph-
ical phenomena, these centres of historical
action give an impression of narrow bays,
even of ponds. On and around them a
vigorous period of organic action may
certainly have developed at times, but
their importance to the geographical dis-
tribution of human life surpasses very
little their spatial dimensions.
After the age of the great discoveries
history loses its continental character,
and the main theatre of historical events
is gradually transferred to the sea. At
the same time, the co-existence of separate
historical centres of civilisa-
The Atlantic ^^^^ comes gradually to a
as a^i Agency ^j^^^ ^^^ history becomes
of Education ...^rid-Wide. The leap, how-
ever, which the population of Europe was
then forced to make from its own con-
venient landlocked seas to the unconfined
ocean was too great to be taken without
some previous training. This training the
Atlantic Ocean provided in full ; in fact,
5663
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
during the sixteenth century its historical
importance begins and ends with the task
of educating European nations to capacity
for world supremacy. No other sea upon
the surface of the globe has exercised such
an influence, nor was any sea so entirely
suited as a training ground by configura-
tion or position. The Pacific Ocean lies
entirely apart from this ques-
tion : From 1513 the task natu-
Thc Pacific
Greatest of
„ _ rally placed before the white
all Oceans - ^ j^i. . <• i j.
races was that 01 learnmg to
sail this sea, the greatest of all oceans, and
apparently the richest in prospects. Its
importance is chiefly as a battlefield ; it
has nothing to do with military training.
In this respect the Indian Ocean can
also be omitted particularly for geo-
graphical reasons, though at the same
time the chief obstacle to its extensive use
by European nations is its lack of some
natural communication with the IMediter-
ranean. Compared with these hindrances,
the political obstacles, varying in strength
but never wholly absent, raised by the
Moslem powers of Syria and Eg^^pt are of
very secondary importance. How im-
portant the first obstacle has ever been is
showTi by the results of the piercing of it
in modern times by an artificial water-
wa5^ which is kept open by treaty to the
ships of every nation.
Speaking from the __standpoint of uni-
versal history, we may say that the
Mediterranean has exercised a retrograde
influence upon humanity, even more so
than the Baltic. Both seas conferred
great benefits upon the inhabitants of
their shores, and indeed the Mediterranean
gave so much that we may speak of a
Mediterranean civilisation which had
lasted for thousands of years, and did not
end until the growing economic, political,
and intellectual strength of Northern and
Southern Europe transferred the historical
centre of gravity from this inlet of the
Atlantic Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean itself.
But neither of these two
Influence of the ^^^ enabled the inhabitants
Mediterranean -^ -l. x a i xv, 1 j
„ ., on its shores to take the lead
on Humanity ,, 1 ,,
upon the ocean, when the
fulness of time appeared with the westward
voj^age of Columbus, the eastward voyage
of Vasco da Gama, and the circumnaviga-
tion of the globe by Magalhaes. These
seas renounced the claims which they pre-
ferred before that great decade, if not to
be regarded as the transmitters of civili-
sation and history, yet to be considered
5664
as a history and as a civilisation. We do
not see either Venice or Genoa crossing
the Straits of Gibraltar, or the Hanseatics
crossing the Skagerrack or the Straits of
Dover, with the object of taking their
share in the struggle that was beginning
for maritime supremacy. Those powers
were sufficiently skilled in seamanship to
maintain their supremacy within their
own narrow circles, but their experience
was insufficient to enable them to venture
upon the open seas surrounding the globe.
A strict and thorough maritime educa-
tion has been from the age of discovery
the fundamental condition for the attain-
ment of the position of a modern civilised
power in the hard struggle between
races and peoples. Of the nations whose
voices are heard with respect in the
councils of peoples, there is none which
does not consider itself permanently
equipped and armed for the wide and
mighty political and economic struggle
upon the stage of the world ; for of the
original combatants on the scene those
who have obviously remained victorious
were forced to gain their early experience
.in the hard school of maritime
The Atlantic g^i-^ggig jhese Original com-
n^.^, r- ij batants were Spain and Port-
Battlefield 1 f J TT 11 J
ugal upon one hand, Holland,
England, and France upon the other, and
the scene of struggle was the Atlantic
Ocean. As regards Spain and Portugal, it
is a remarkable fact that this sea con-
cerned them only temporarily and within
definite limits, thanks to the Papal edict
of May 6th, 1493, which divided the
world between the two Romance powers
at the outset of their career of colonisation
on conditions which placed their bound-
aries within the Atlantic Ocean itself.
This line of demarcation was to run from
north to south at a distance of 100 leagues
from the Cape Verde Islands, extended to
370 by the Treaty of Tordesillas of June
7th, 1494. Thus, as soon appeared, the
main portion of the New \\'oiid fell within
the Spanish half, and only the east of
South America was given to the Portu-
guese. The importance of their American
possessions was naturally overshadowed
by the far more important tasks which fell
to the share of the little Portuguese
nation in the Indian Ocean during the
next 150 years. Brazil served primarily as
a base for the further voyage to India and
the Cape of Good Hope. It was impossible
to make it a point of departure for further
THE ATLANTIC AFTER COLUMBUS
Portuguese acquisitions, as the Spaniards
opposed every step in this direction on the
basis of the treaties of partition.
During the first half of the sixteenth
century other European powers besides
England and Holland crowded into the
north of the Atlantic Ocean in pursuit
of the same objects ; we find not only
French explorers and fishermen, but also
Spaniards and Portuguese, in the Polar
waters of the American Atlantic. How-
ever, none of the other nations pursued
their main object with such tenacity as
the two first-named peoples, above all,
the English ; the period between 1576
and 1632 belongs entirely to them, and
was occupied without interruption by
their constant endeavours to discover
the north-west passage.
The reward, however, which the English
people gained from their stern school of
experience in the northern seas was one of
high importance. England then was
unimportant from a geographical point of
view, and a nonentity in the commercial
relations of the world at large ; but it was
not until the middle of the nineteenth
-J, , century that clear evidence
ng an s ^^^ forthcoming that the com-
. „ munication by water between
Baffin Bay and the Bering
Straits, though existing, was of no use
for navigation. But the high nautical
skill, the consciousness of strength, and
the resolve to confront any task by sea
with adequate science and skill — in short,
the unseen advantages which the English
nation gained from these great Arctic
expeditions, and from their slighter efforts
in the first half of the sixteenth century,
proved of far higher importance than the
tangible results achieved. It was these
long decades of struggle against the
unparalleled hostilities of natural obstacles
that made the English mariners masters
on every other sea, and taught the English
nation what a vast reserve of strength
they had within themselves.
In considering the historical career of this
extraordinary island-people from the six-
teenth century onwards, we are forced to
regard modern history as a whole from the
standpoint of national Arctic exploration,
although this is far too confined for our
purposes as compared with the sum total
of forces operative throughout the world.
During the age when maritime skill was
represented by the city republics in the
Mediterranean and the Northmen in the
North Sea and the Northern Atlantic
Ocean, the Spaniards and Portuguese were
already fully occupied with their own
domestic affairs, the Moorish domination.
Their first advance in the direction of
nautical skill was not made until a con-
siderable time after the liberation of
Lisbon from the Moorish yoke (1147), when
jj the magnificent harbour at the
, «j . J mouth of the Tagus had be-
of spam and . ^
Portugal come more and more a centre
for Flemish and Mediterranean
trade ; even then it was found necessary
to call in all kinds of Italian teachers
of the nautical art. It was only slowly
and at the cost of great effort that Spain
and Portugal became maritime peoples ;
and their subjects were never seafarers in
the sense in which the term is applied to
the English and Dutch of the present day,
to the Norwegians, or even to the Malays.
Indeed, the period of their greatness
gives us rather the impression of an age
of ecstasy, a kind of obsession which can
seize upon a whole nation and inspire them
to brilliant exploits for a century, but
which results in an even greater reaction
so soon as serious obstacles to their activity
make themselves felt. Only thus can we
explain the fact that these two peoples,
once of world-wide power, disappeared with
such extraordinary rapidity and so entirely
from the world-wide ocean. The last
Spanish fleet worthy of consideration was
destroyed off the Downs by the Dutch
lieutenant-admiral, Marten Harpertzoon
Tromp, in 1639 5 about the same period
the Portuguese were also considered the
worst sailors in Etfrope.
The Dutch and the French held their
ground more tenaciously. In both cases
Arctic training ran a somewhat different
course than in the case of the English
During the sixteenth and seventeenth cen-
turies they certainly took part in the
attempt to discover the north-west and
north-east passages ; with a tenacity
The Age of highly praiseworthy they ap-
. plied themselves to the more
an im practical end of Arctic deep-sea
'^' fisheries and sealing. That such
occupations could pro\dde a good school of
maritime training is proved by the energy
with which the Dutch, and afterwards the
English and the French, made the great
step from the Atlantic to the Indian
Ocean ; further evidence is also to be seen
in the unusually strong resistance which
the two colonial powers in the seventeenth
5665
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORJ.D
and eighteenth centuries were able to offer
to their most dangerous rival, the rapidly
growing power of Great Britain.
Towards the end of the sixteenth cen-
tury the historical character of the Atlantic
Ocean undergoes a fundamental change.
From the beginning of the period of great
discoveries its special destiny had been to
A p • J provide a maritime training
, , f^*" . for the nations of North-west
of Licensed t- i j. i xi
p. Europe, and to make these
nations sui^ciently strong for
successful resistance to the two powers of
Spain and Portugal, for whom the supre-
macy of the world seemed reserved by
their geographical position, the world-wide
activity of their discoverers, and the pro-
nouncements of the Pope. Maritime
capacity they had attained by their bold
ventures in the Arctic and Antarctic
waters of the Atlantic Ocean ; the struggle
was fought out by these nations inde-
pendently or in common in the seas to
the south either of their own continent
or of the West Indies.
We refer to the great epoch of the Eng-
lish and Dutch wars against the " invin-
cible " fleets of Philip II. ; it was a period,
too, of that licensed piracy, almost equally
fruitful in political consequences, which
was carried on in the waters of East
America by representatives of all the
three northern powers. The North Sea,
the Baltic, and the Mediterranean have all
been scourged by pirates at one time and
another ; and in all three cases the robbers
plied their trade so vigorously and for so
long a time that the historian must take
account of them.
This older form of piracy was undertaken
by ruffians beyond the pale of law, who
v/ere every man's enemy and no man's
friend, and plundered all alike as oppor-
tunity occurred, it being everybody's duty
to crush and extirpate them when possible.
But towards the end of the sixteenth cen-
tury a different state of affairs prevailed on
the Atlantic Ocean. After the
Powers
Seeking a
discovery of America as an inde-
u'c^Biug " pendent continent, it became a
question of life and death for
the North-west European powers, which
had grown to strength in the last century,
to find an exit from the Atlantic Ocean to
the riches of the eastern countries of the
Old World. It was possible that this exit
was to be found only in the south, in view
of the constant ill-success of expeditions
towards the Pole ; and to secure the pos-
5666
session, of it in that quarter was only
possible by the destruction of the two
powers that held it. This attempt was
undertaken and carried through in part by
open war, in part by piracy, which was not
only secretly tolerated but openly sup-
ported by governments and rulers.
No stronger evidence is forthcoming for
the value attached to these weapons and the
free use of them during ths last ten years
of Elizabeth's reign than the honourable
positions of Sir Thomas Cavendish, Sir
Francis Drake, Sir John Hawkins, and
Sir Walter Raleigh. On April 4th, 158 1,
the maiden queen went on board Drake's
ship, concerning which the Spanish ambas-
sador had lodged a complaint of piracy
on its return from the circumnavigation of
the globe, and dubbed him knight.
This irrepressible advance on the part of
the North-west powers towards the east
of the Old W'orld is closely connected with
the fact that the struggle for maritime
supremacy was confined to the Atlantic
Ocean only for a short period ; no sooner
had England and Holland become con-
scious of their strength than we find both
powers in the East Indies, and
cencs o ^ ^^ ^^^^ west coast of America ;
the Nations 1,1 •,
^ ,.. m short, wherever it was pos-
sible to deprive the two older
powers of the choicest products of their
first and most valuable colonies. So early
as 1595 Cornells de Houtman sailed with
four Dutch ships to Java and the neigh-
bouring islands ; he was followed shortly
afterwards by the English and Danes.
When the North-west European powers
began to extend their • encroachments
beyond the limits of the Atlantic Ocean,
this latter naturally ceased to be what
it had been for a century past — the
main theatre of the naval war ; not
that it became any more peaceful during
the next two centuries. On the contrary,
the struggles which broke out amongst the
victorious adversaries after the expulsion
of the Portuguese and Spaniards from
their dominant position were even more
violent and enduring than those of earlier
days. This conflict, too, was largely
fought out in the Indian Ocean, but it was
waged with no less ferocity on the Atlantic.
The great length of the two coast lines
which confine the Atlantic Ocean, and the
general strength and growing capacity of
the states of North-west Europe, led to
the result that, during the course of the
last three centuries, repeated changes
THE ATLANTIC AFTER COLUMBUS
have taken place both in the locahty and
vigour of the struggle for the supremacy
of this ocean, and also in the personality
of the combatants. Among these latter we
find Portugal and Spain long represented
after their rapid decadence. In the first
decades of the seventeenth century the
Portuguese colonies on the coast of Upper
Guinea fell quickly one after the other into
the hands of the Dutch ; Elima was con-
quered in 1537 ; in 1642 Brazil fell into
the hands of Holland, after eighteen years'
struggle, though nineteen years later
it was restored to Portugal for an
indemnity of ;^8oo,ooo; in 1651 the Dutch
seized and held for 115 years the important
position of the Cape of Good Hope.
In the West Indies the division of
the Spanish possessions began from 162 1
with the foundation of the Dutch West
Indian Company, " that band of pirates
on the look-out for shares." In the course
of the next ten years the majority of the
Lesser Antilles were taken from their old
Spanish owners. In 1655 Cromwell took
possession of Jamaica. The rest of the
Greater Antilles remained Spanish for a con-
siderably longer period ; Hayti
ig or c j^gj^ ^^^ -^g eastern part until
Mh "*3*^^ 1821, and Cuba and Porto Rico
remained Spanish until 1898.
The combatants in North-west Europe
are divided into groups, according to their
respective importance ; on the one hand,
the three powers of England, Holland, and
France, each of which has made enormous
efforts to secure the supremacy of the
Atlantic and Indian Oceans, and, on the
other hand, Denmark, Sweden, and Prussia,
which pursued objects primarily commer-
cial and on a smaller scale. Their efforts on
the African coast are marks of the rising
importance then generally attached to
trans-oceanic enterprise, and form points
of departure of more or less importance in
the histories of the states concerned ; but
in the history of the Atlantic Ocean all of
these are events of but temporary import-
ance compared with the huge struggle
between the other three powers.
The beginnings of this struggle, as far as
England and Holland are concerned, go
back to the foundation of the English East
India Company ; the first serious outbreak
took place upon the promulgation of the
Navigation Act by the commonwealth on
October gth, 1651. Henceforward English
history is largely the tale of repeated
efforts to destroy the Dutch supremacy, at
first in home waters, afterwards upon the
Atlantic, lastly on the Indian Ocean. This
policy produced the three great naval
wars of 1652-1654, 1664-1667, and 1672-
1674, which, without resulting in decisive
victory for the English, left them free to
proceed with the second portion of their
task, the overthrow of French sea power and
g , the acquisition of predomin-
.jj, ance in the commerce of the
Wars on i i t i i i i
Land and Sea ^^F^^" Judged by the prize at
stake, this struggle must rank
amongst the greatest of modern times.
It began in 1688, when Louis XIV. opened
his third war of aggression ; it continued,
with some cessations of hostilities, until
the Congress of Vienna (1814-1815).
The struggle was carried on at many
points. A land war in India (1740-1760)
decided the future of the Indian Ocean.
The contest to secure communications
with that ocean was fought out in
Egypt (1798-180 1 ) and at the Cape (1806) ;
but the main conflicts were waged on the
seaboard of the Atlantic or on its waters.
Supremacy in the Atlantic meant supre-
macy in the world until the age of
steam began and the Suez Canal opened
a new route to the Farther East.
Some events which are otherwise of
secondary importance deserve notice be-
cause they prove how much the current
estimate of the Atlantic's importance
changed in the course of the struggle.
Tangier came into the hands of England in
1662 as the dowry of Catharine of Braganza,
the queen of Charles II. ; it was given up
in 1684 on the ground that it cost more
than it brought in. Twenty years later
English opinion as to the value of Tangier
had been materially modified ; and
Gibraltar, on the opposite shore, was
seized in 1704. Since then England has
never relaxed her hold upon this fortress ;
it has been repeatedly strengthened and
defended under the greatest difficulties.
Were Tangier an English possession to-day,
. English it would certainly re-
Gibra tar s j^^j^ ^^,q^ though it were to cost
*g^ . infinitely more than the yearly
ri am ^^^^^ ^^ £40,000 which England
has expended on Gibraltar for the last
two centuries. Equally significant is the
attitude of England towards the solitary
isle of St. Helena. The Portuguese, by
whom it was discovered in 1502, were
content to found a little church on the
island ; the Dutch noticed St. Helena so
far as to destroy the church in 1600. But
5667
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
the East India Company^ upon acquiring
it in 1650, recognised its importance by
establishing upon it the fort of St. James.
The island, however, was not appreciated
at its full value until the English supremacy
in the Indian Ocean and until Australia
had been founded ; that is, not before
the beginning of the eighteenth century.
St H '^'^^ taking over of St. Helena
■ .^. ^^'^ by the English Government in
„ . 1815 was the logical sequel to
Possession ,, ^ ,. ° r ,^ ^r-
the occupation 01 the Cape.
Both of these new possessions were
intended to serve as calling stations on the
main line of ocean traffic. It was not until
the opening of the Suez Canal that this
line declined in importance. The main
route now runs from Gibraltar, by Malta
and Cyprus, to Egypt, Perim, and Aden.
The eastern part of the Atlantic has
served, like the Indian Ocean, as an ante-
room to the Pacific. The first explorers
of the Atlantic, and those powers which
first seized strategic points in it, had the
Pacific for their ultimate object. The
opening of the Suez Canal has taken away
this characteristic of the Atlantic, which
is now important for its own sake alone.
The political liistory of the Atlantic
begins upon its western seaboard, though
not so earlj; as the history of exploration
might lead us to expect. In the Spanish
and Portuguese colonies of South and
Central America a vicious system of
government acted as a bar to political and
economic development. In the French and
English colonies of North America pro-
gress was slow, owing to the existence
of physical obstacles. Independent deve-
lopment began in the American continent
with the Declaration of Independence.
The American War of Independence
marks from yet another point of view a
turning-point in the history of the Atlantic
Ocean. After the Convention of Tor-
desillas, in 1494, Spain had ruled supreme
in the Atlantic, and had almost put her
P , authority in a position above
Sh a ^^^ possibility of challenge
jj when she attempted to use Hol-
land as a base for attacking
England, the second of her rivals as an
instrument for the destruction of the first.
The Treaty of Paris (1763) gave England a
similar position of predominance in the
North Atlantic, since it definitely excluded
the French from North America and left
their navy in a shattered condition. The
treaty created a luare clmisiim on a great
5668
scale, and for the last time ; under it
England for the first time realised the
object towards which her policy had been
directed for the last two hundred years.
This situation, the most remarkable which
the Atlantic had witnessed since the days
of Columbus, lasted for over thirteen
years. It was not at once destroyed by the
Declaration of Independence (1776), but
the growth of the United States introduced
a change into the existing conditions.
England's position was altered for the
worse ; and the North Atlantic began to
play a new part in the history of the
world. Hitherto there had been a move-
ment from east to west ; this was now
reversed by slow degrees. Europe had
acted upon America ; America began at
the opening of the nineteenth century to
react upon Europe ; and now, at the
beginning of the twentieth century,
America has become a factor, sometimes
a disturbing and unwelcome factor, in
European complications.
The American War of Independence was
a chapter in the conflict for colonial and
commercial power between England and
France. The United States
r*"* •**» •*• 1. were largely indebted to
Era in British 0.7
History
French support for their vic-
tory. The desire to obliterate
the humiliation of the Treaty of Paris and
to avenge the loss of vast tracts of territory
in America and India had proved too much
for the French. Their interference was
repaid with interest by the British ; for
a long period the French marine was swept
from the seas ; for a considerable portion
of the nineteenth century Britain
monopolised the seas of the whole world.
Next to the period of Atlantic supremacy,
from 1763 to 1776, that which followed the
Peace of 1815 is the most brilliant in the
" rough island story " of the British.
Geographical conditions were favourable
to them. But they also showed a quality
which few nations have possessed — the
power of not only recognising, but also
of securing, their true interests.
With the two conventions of peace
concluded at Paris on May 30th, 1814, and
November 20th, or with the closing act
of the Vienna Congress on June qth,
1815, the Atlantic Ocean begins a new
period of its historical importance. In
those conventions Britain had certainly
condescended to return to her former
masters some portion of the colonial prizes
that she had gained during the last twenty
THE ATLANTIC AFTER COLUMBUS
years. These concessions were, however,
of very httle importance compared with
the extent and the economic and strate-
gical value of that increase to which the
island kingdom could point upon the
Atlantic Ocean alone. Even at that time
these concessions were more than counter-
balanced by Britain's retention of the Cape,
and the claims which such a position
implied to the whole of South Africa.
Tobago and Santa Lucia in the West
Indies, and Guiana in South America were
to be considered, under these circum-
stances, as accessions all the more welcome
to Britain. These possessions' could not
compensate for the irrevocable loss of the
North American colonies, but they implied
an increase in the area of operations from
which she could contentedly behold the
development of the strong and independent
life in the New World. The rocky island
of Heligoland, which had been united to
Britain in 1814 for seventy-six years,
narrow as it was, was only too well placed
to dominate commercially and strategically -
both the Skagerrack and particularly the
mouths of the Weser and Elbe ; it gave Eng-
„ . ^ , land the position, so to speak,
Britain r j- j.11
„ . . ^01 guardian over the slow
Fredominant ",, r ^ , .,
*.- f\ growth of Germany and the
on the Ocean ° , , -^ r -rx
no less slow recovery of Den-
mark. Britain's maritime predominance
after the conclusion of the great European
w^ars was so strong, and the transmarine
relations into which she had entered in
the course of the seventeenth and eigh-
teenth centuries were also so numerous,
that this energetic nation could not fail
to draw the fullest possible advantage m
every quarter of the world from the posi-
tion which she occupied at the moment.
The period of England's unlimited pre-
dominance in the Atlantic Ocean, which she
had gained at some cost to her own strength
by the wars against France (1755-1763),
had been too short for the completion of
those transmarine objects which she had
in view ; but after 1815 she alone of
all the powers not only found herself
at the height of her strength, but had also
the additional advantage of being able
to avail herself of a longer period of time
to strengthen her position in other
respects precisely as she pleased. Then it
was that Britain extended her Indian
colonial empire in every direction, founded
an equally valuable sphere of rule in
Australia, and estabhshed herself in South
Africa and on the most important points
along the Indian Ocean. In view of these
undertakings, which claimed the whole
of her attention, Britain had but little
energy to spare during this period for the
Atlantic Ocean. The occupation of the
Falkland Islands to secure the passage
of the Straits of Magellan, in 1833, the
occupation of Lagos as the obvious exit
The Ra id ^™"^ ^^^^ Sudan district of
Growth^of ^^f""^^ ,^^"ca in the year
Steam Power ^^^.f ' '^^^^ Anally the beginnmg
of the further development of
a limited trade on several other points on
the West Coast of Africa — these were at
that time the only manifestations of
British activity on the Atlantic shores.
The increase in the value of the Atlantic
Ocean to the nations of the world at large
only began with the coincidence of a large
number of new events. Of these the
earliest is the surprisingly rapid growth
of steam power for the purpose of trans-
Atlantic navigation. Not only were the
two shores of the ocean brought consider-
ably nearer for the purpose of commercial
exchange than was ever possible with the
old sailing-vessels, but passenger traffic
was increased ; emigration from Europe
to the New World on the scale on which
it has been carried out since 1840 was
only possible with the help of steam traffic.
The European Powers of the last two-
thirds of the nineteenth century have not
yet fully realised the importance, either
from an economic or political point of view,
of the emigration to the United States, a
phenomenon remarkable not only for its
extent, but for the unanimity of its object ;
yet the states thereby chiefly affected
had already drawn general attention to
the fact. This process of emigration and
its results only forced themselves upon the
general notice upon either side of the
ocean after the youthful constitution of
the United States of North America had
coalesced into a permanent body politic and
had developed a new race, by a fusion,
. ^, _ unique in the history of
A New Race , ^ ■, r j.u ^ •
Developed h^™amty, of that growmg
. . . Tiopulation which streamed to
m America f V . r , ,
it irom every country of the
world ; and, finally, when this new nation
had applied its energies to the exploita-
tion of the enormous wealth of natural
riches in its broad territory.
This highly important point was reached
considerably earlier than ary human
foresight could have supposed, owing to the
unexampled rapidity of the development
5669
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
of the United States ; and its importance
holds good not only for the Atlantic
Ocean but for the habitable globe. So
early as 1812 the United States, when
scarcely out of its childhood, had de-
clared war upon the mighty maritime
power of Britain, for reasons of commer-
cial politics. In consequence, the United
States seceded, somewhat in-
o. ^. ^L^ , gloriously, and paid for its
states Secede r , , , -^ , , ,
, D •. • ni'st attempt at trans-oceanic
from Britain . \ ^ ■ ^ ir
aggression by confining itselt
to its own internal affairs for a long period ;
in particular, the proclamation of the
Monroe doctrine on September 2nd, 1823,
is to be considered as a political act materi-
ally affecting the Atlantic Ocean.
As a matter of fact, the doctrine still re-
mains in force, notwithstanding the selfish
demands of France upon Mexico in 1861,
and certain views apparently entertained
by Britain and Germany with regard to
South America, as the American Press
affirmed, during the distui'bances concern-
ing Venezuela. To this sense of their own
military and naval insufficiency is chiefly
to be ascribed the fact that the trans-
marine efforts of the United States were
applied first of all to the Pacific Ocean, which
is turned away from Europe, although the
European side still forms their historical
coast. Between 1870 and 1880 America
secured her influence in Hawaii, while at
the same time she succeeded in estabhsh-
ing herself in Samoa. It was not until she
advanced to the position of a leading state
in respect of population and resources
that she ventured any similar steps upon
the Atlantic side, and even then her attacks
were directed only against the Spaniards,
who had grown old and weak.
The war of i8g8 was the first great
transmarine effort on the part of the
United States. By their action at that
time they openly broke with their former
tradition of self-confinement to' their own
territory ; for that reason, above all
others, the United States
have become a factor in the
politics of the rest of the
world, not on account of the
military capacity which they then dis-
played : any European power could have
done as much either by land or sea. Far
more important to European civilisation
than their military development is the
economic development of North America,
which has advanced almost in geometrical
progression. The immediate consequence
5670
America a
Factor in World
Politics
of that development has been that home
production not only suffices for the personal
needs of the United States, but has intro-
duced a formidable and increasing competi-
tion with European wares in Asia, Africa,
and the South Seas, or has even beaten
them on their own ground ; moreover, the
abundance of economic advantages has
transformed the previous character of
trans-Atlantic navigation materially to the
advantage of the United States.
It is hardly likely that the bewildering
number of trans-Atlantic lines of steam
and sailing ships will in any way diminish
in the face of the North American trust,
which was carried out in 1902. But
American control over British trans-
Atlantic lines and certain Continental
lines most certainly in>plies a weakening
of Eui"opean predominance. Hencefor-
ward the Atlantic Ocean loses its old
character and becomes a great Mediter-
ranean sea. The teaching of history
shows us that its further development is
likely to proceed in this direction ; so
much is plain from the development of
circumstances on either side of the
. , Atlantic. Our European
Future"*' ^ Mediterranean and Baltic are
_" I"" . not, perhaps, entirely parallel
Development ' ^ . ^ ' . , . -^ ^
cases, owing to their compara-
tively smaller area ; yet the history which
has been worked out upon their respective
shores is in its main features nearly
identical. Whether we consider the
Phoenicians and Carthaginians, the Ionic
Greeks, or the modern French on the
shores of the Mediterranean, or turn our
attention to the Hanse towns or the
Swedes upon the Baltic, the result is the
same. First of all, we find tentative
efforts at occupation of the opposite
shores. Phoenicia occupies Carthage ;
Greece colonises Asia Minor ; France,
Algiers and Tunis ; and Sweden, Finland
and Esthonia. In this way permanent
lines of communication are slowly de-
veloped, though the mother country for
a long period remains the only base.
Independent commercial and individual
life on the part of the colony only appears
as a third step. Both the Carthaginians
and the Greeks of Asia Minor surpassed
their mother countries not only in the
extent and organisation of their economic
development but also by the boldness
with wliich they carried it out. Apply-
ing these conclusions to the Atlantic
Ocean, the prospects before the Old
THE ATLANTIC AFTER COLUMBUS
World seem somewhat doubtful ; even
to-day, many an individual might find
good reason for charaeterising the once
boundless ocean as a future mare clausum,
access to which is to depend upon American
favour. In any case, the times when the
European Powers could rightly regard the
Atlantic Ocean as their special domain by
right of inheritance are past for ever.
Probably, after the opening of the Central
American Canal, the Pacific Ocean and
the countries upon its shores will become
more prominent than hitherto ; however,
the general direction of American life
will remain as before, directed towards
Europe and the Atlantic Ocean.
The reasons for this are both historical
and geographical. Historically speaking,
the closest national and political relations
conjoin both shores of the Atlantic
Ocean. It is true that, when viewed in
the light of the rapid growth of modern
life, the dates of the foundation of the
South and North American colonies appear
considerably remote. None the lesS: Brazil
at the present day considers herself a
daughter of Portugal, and the united pro-
_. vinces of Canada recognise
Prosperous xi ■ - • .1 .1
States of North ^^^"" °"S^" ^P°^ ^^^® °^^^^
. . side of the Atlantic. These
old ties of relationship tend
to reappear with renewed force. In the
financial year 1890-1891 2*4 per cent, of the
United States imports went through New
Orleans, 6 per cent, through San Francisco,
but no less than 8i"5 per cent, through the
great harbours of the Atlantic coast. More-
over, notwithstanding the rapid develop-
ment of the West, the most populous and
the most commercially powerful colonies
and states of North America are to be found
on the Atlantic coast ; the great towns, the
most important centres of political and
intellectual life, are also situated upon
the shores that look towards Europe.
The indissoluble character of these
historical relations is reflected almost
identically in the geographical conditions.
To a modern steamship even the great
breadth of the Pacific is but a comparative
trifle, and this means of rapid communi-
cation is proportionately a more powerful
influence in the narrower seas. It was
not until steam navigation had been
developed that the full extent of the
Indian and Pacific Oceans was explored.
In the case of the Atlantic the date of
exploration is much more remote, but this
ocean has profited to an infinitely greater
extent than the two former by the new
means of communication. The advantage
of friendly shores lying beyond its harbours
favoured extensive sailing voyages ever
since 1492, and this advantage naturally
exists in increased extent for steam
navigation. The general shortness of the
lines of passage is more than a mere
Relations of geographical phenomenon.
th Old d -l^ohtically and economically,
nIw Wo^rHs ^^ brings the countries and
continents into closer relation.
Britain and North America are not only
more closely related anthropologically and
ethnographically, but at the present
day they carry on a larger interchange of
commercial products than any other two
countries. Improved communication be-
tween the harbours of these two countries
is certainly not the ultimate cause of the
two phenomena above mentioned.
Upon the west of the Atlantic Ocean the
achievements of technical skill in steam
navigation, together with the political
and economic advance of the United
States, has increased the importance of
this sea to an unforeseen extent ; so, too,
upon the east the achievement of connect-
ing the Mediterranean and Red Sea, and
the political progress implied in the rise
of the German Empire, have led to the
same result. To the southern part of the
ocean as a whole the opening of the
Suez Canal implied at first some loss ;
since 1870 the old lines of steamship
traific from Europe to India and the
Pacific, by way of the Cape, have been
deserted ; sailing lines carrying heavy
cargo to the south and eastern shores of
Asia and the steamship lines bringing
Europe into direct communication with
the west coast of Africa have remained.
Notwithstanding the rise of a commercial
movement from west to east and a con-
sequent lessening of the importance of the
eastern ocean, the Suez Canal may in a
certain sense be regarded as the primary
cause of the greater value
which has been recently at-
tached to the eastern Atlantic
Ocean and its shores. The
opening of this canal — of no use to
sailing-ships — through the old isthmus at
the end of the Red Sea was certainly not
the first and only cause of the remarkable
sudden rise in oceanic communication,
which is a feature as distinctive of the
years 1870 to 1880 as is the decay in com-
munication by sail that then began ; this
5671
Suez Canal's
Commercial
Importance
HARMSWORTH HISTORY OF THE WORLD
advance in trans-oceanic communication is
much rather to be ascribed to progress in
the art of naval construction. The fact,
however, remains that since that period
the Indian and Pacific Oceans, which had
formerly been unknown to the maritime
nations of Europe, with the exception of
peoples like the English and Dutch who
had sailed on them for nearly
* . ° ^^^ three centuries, have now been
mpirc thrown open to the maritime
of Ocrmany 11.1 .1
world at large ; these powers re-
quired but a very mild stimulus to become
aspirants for colonial possessions instead
of desiring merely commercial activity.
This impulse is now visible as an influ-
ence affecting every district of the world
that still awaits division, and it was
Germany that performed the historical
service of giving it ; we refer, not to the
old " geographical idea," but to the
modern united empire of Germany, which
has realised the necessity of making
strenuous efforts if it is not to go unpro-
vided for in the general division of the
world. All the old and new colonial
powers at once gathered to share in the
process of division, so far as it affected the
islands and surrounding countries of the
two eastern oceans — a fact that proves the
importance of the new line of communica-
tion which had immediately given an in-
creased value to the districts in question.
These attractions were nowhere existent
in the case of the west coast of the Dark
Continent, which has only recently been
opened, and perhaps not yet entirely, to
commerce ; they would, no doubt, have
remained unperceived even yet had it not
been for the surprising rapidity with which
Germany established herself on different
points of the long shore, and thereby
attracted the attention of others to that
locality. So quickly did the value of the
continent rise that in the short space of a
p fc year not a foot of the sandj' shore
. . , . , remained unclaimed. Since that
Interior date, almost the whole of the
interior of Africa, which had
remained untouched for four centuries, has
been divided among the representatives
of modern world policy. Owmg to the
massive configuration and primeval cha-
racter of the district, the greater portion of
its history ha>3 so far been worked out
within the continent itself behind its sand-
hills and mangrove forests ; at the same
time, this discovery of modern politics,
which in our own day implies an imme-
diate commercial development, has again
made the adjoining area of the Atlantic
Ocean a prominent factor in the great
struggle for the commerce of the world,
more prominent, indeed, than could have
been imagined two decades previously.
The conquest of the ocean was success-
fully carried out for the first time at a
point where geographical configuration
favoured the passage, while also demand-
ing that maritime capacity which can only
be acquired in a hard school of training.
Such a school was provided for nearly a
century by the Northern Atlantic Ocean
for those nations who were forced to stand
aside — even after the discovery of the
New World, and the clear delineation of its
hydrographical conditions, by two enthu-
siastic and highly favoured nations of the
south had greatly increased the sphere of
influence of the white races.
In the event, neither enthusiasm nor
good fortune proved for success in this
labour ; the honour due to the
" "*^ final conquerors of the Atlantic
\. . Ocean and the sea in general
belongs chiefly to the English
nation after its training in the Arctic school.
The Atlantic Ocean has lost its Old World
character as a boundary sea or oceanus ;
at the present day it is a Mediterranean
dividing the two worlds. In the Old
World, the narrow area of the European-
African Mediterranean once gathered the
material and intellectual wealth of anti-
quity upon its shores, and became the
nurse of widely differentiated civilisations;
so at the present day the Atlantic Ocean,
especially on its northern shores, has
become the intermediary of our civilisa-
tion, which embraces the world.
This ocean is now the permanent means
of communication between the two great
centres of civilisation, and the promoter
of every advance in culture. We ask
whether this is to be permanent ? The
value of the Indian and Pacific Oceans,
of the Baltic and Mediterranean, to
humanity in the past can be traced without
difficulty, while their value at the present
is clearly apparent, but what their influence
will be upon humanity hereafter, how their
relations may be adjusted with the Atlantic
Ocean, their latest and most successful rival,
only time can show. Karl Weule
END OF SEVENTH VOLUME
5G72
1)
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