'^fe, fc o H D U w X W SIX THOUSAND YEARS OF HISTORY EDGAR SANDERSON, A. M. AUTHOR " HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE" J. P. LAMBERTON, A. M. AUTHOR " HISTORIC CHARACTERS AND FAMOUS EVENTS," " LITERATURE OF ALL NATIONS," ETC, JOHN McGOVERN AUTHOR "THE GOLDEN LEGACY," "THE TOILERS' DIADEM," "FAMOUS AMERICAN STATESMAN," ETC. AND THE FOLLOWING EMINENT AMERICAN EDITORS AND WRITERS: JOSEPH M. ROGERS, A. M. ; LAURENCE E. GREENE ; M. A. LANE ; G. SENECA JONES, A. M. ; FREDERICK LOGAN ; WILLIAM MATTHEWS HANDY INTRODUCTION BY MARSHALL S. SNOW, A. M. PROFESSOR OF HISTORY WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY AND DEAN OF THE COLLEGE ; AUTHOR "CITY GOVERNMENT," "POLITICAL STUDIES," ETC., ETC. TEN VOLUMES VOL. II. MODERN EUROPE E. R. DuMONT, PUBLISHER PHILADELPHIA CHICAGO ST. LOUIS IQOO COPYRIGHT, 1899 BY EARL R. DuMONT Slack \.i.l3X 5 ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE CHARLES I. ON THE WAY TO EXECUTION - i LUTHER'S EVENING AT HOME - - 21 MILTON VISITING GALILEO - 32 DEFEAT OF THE SPANISH ARMADA THE ARK ROYAL ENGAG- ING THE SHIP OF DON ALONZO DA LEYVA - - 62 THE DEFENESTRATION AT PRAGUE COMMENCEMENT OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR - 96 STORMING THE VILLAGE OF BLENHEIM, THE KEY TO THE FRENCH POSITION, BY THE SECOND NORTH BRITISH DRAGOONS - 121 LOUIS XIV. AND MOLIERE - 154 JOHN MILTON - - 156 THE VICTORIOUS PRUSSIAN GRENADIERS SINGING A " TE DEUM" AFTER THE BATTLE OF LEUTHEN 184 VOLTAIRE RECEIVES MADAME D'EPINAY AT LES DELICKS - 207 ROUSSEAU AT MADAME BASILE'S 209 THE MURDER OF MARAT - - 240 NAPOLEON IN EGYPT - - 256 ADMIRAL NELSON ON BOARD THE VICTORY DURING THE BAT- TLE OF TRAFALGAR - - 264 NAPOLEON AT THE HEIGHT OF His GLORY - 272 THE SUNKEN ROAD OF OHAIN, BATTLE OF WATERLOO - - 280 THE CHARGE OF THE FRENCH CUIRASSIKRS GRAVELOTTE (SE- DAN) - - 336 THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE AT BALAKLAVA - - 368 BATTLE OF PLASSEY, THE NAWABS ARTILLERY ON ITS MOV- ABLE PLATFORM - 448 ATTACK BY LORD KITCHENER'S FORCE UPON THE MAHDI - 480 MODERN EUROPE TRANSITION TO MODERN HISTORY The chief interest of modern history lies in the fact that it presents us with what lies nearest to ourselves, and discloses the events and influences that have directly and immediately created the conditions under which mankind now live and act. The main feature of this period is the growth of freedom. The revolt of human spirits in the Sixteenth Century, known as the Reformation, was the unfurling of the standard round which the Nations rally the banner of Free Spirit, face to face with its Creator, and determined to have truth found, and right done, without regard to human tradition, authority, intervention, or privilege. The essence of the Reformation is the dogma that man is, in his very nature, destined to be free. From religious freedom came, in a large measure, the political rights now enjoyed by the greatest and most enlightened peoples of the world. The great political fact of modern history is the consolidation of monarchy, in the form of sovereigns invested with an authority emanating from the State. The fixed and positive principle of this institu- tion is the exclusive right of one family to the possession of the throne, and the hereditary succession of rulers, fur- ther restricted by the law of primogeniture. This, or a President with similar duties, gives to the State an immov- able center. Sovereign power is consigned as a trust to the dynastic family, or President, while Parliaments, with various degrees of controlling power, possess security that that trust shall be faithfully discharged. VOI,. 21 2 MODERN EUROPE Ridi indeed has been the harvest reaped in freedom's field. The spirit of inquiry, once set free, has changed and blessed the whole world. To this we owe, in modern literature, some of the noblest creations of the human intellect. To this are due the discoveries of science, which have made life longer, easier, brighter. Hence have come, in every land, the triumphs of truth and genius over prejudice and power. This it is which has created the greatest of modern republics, and has filled the colonial world with flourishing self-governing peoples; has re- vealed the secrets of Central Africa and the isles of the great Pacific; 'has diminished distance by steam, and destroyed it by electricity; has struck off the fetters of the slave; and, last and best, has made the Nations know each other, and, in that knowledge, has prepared and is prepar- ing for the reign of universal peace. The Fifteenth Century may be well regarded as a time of transition from mediaeval to modern history, because during those years the previous growth of new ideas resulted in discoveries, changes, and inventions which in the end completely revolutionized the social, political, and much of the religious condition of the world, and brought about in most of its essential features the state of things under which we now exist. Five Centuries ago, for good or ill, mankind in Western and in Central Europe had come to thinking for themselves, to testing the claims to reverence of long-established systems and doctrines in religion, philosophy, and science, to rejecting much of what was old, to adopting much of what was new, and making change and progress the watchwords of the world's enduring conflict with the powers of nature and the problems of existence, instead of clinging to tradition as the guide, through every maze, and keeping timidly in view the landmarks of life's voyagers in the past. The TRANSITION TO MODERN HISTORY 3 changes which ensued under this condition of the minds of men concern alike religion, politics, commerce, the social system, literature, art, science, and war. An old order of things passes away in this transition time, and a new order comes. Not that these changes all occurred within the narrow bounds narrow as viewed amidst the whole vast field of history of this one hundred years of the Fifteenth Century. Much of the new had come before this period begins; far more has happened since the period ended; but none the less that hundred years is the time when men in Western and in Central Europe woke up to many of the facts around them, began to reason freely on those facts, and to act boldly from the judgments formed thereon, and thus, while gathering up the harvest of the past, sowed seed for crops that should be garnered in the Centuries to come. A list of the great events and changes belonging to this transition period will show the supreme importance of the time. Many of them are related to each other, as will easily be seen, in the way of cause and effect ; taken together, they changed at once or in remote results the aspect and condi- tion of the whole world. They are these: The general application of the mariner's compass to navigation, with the rediscovery of America and of the route to India round the Cape; the use of gunpowder in war, with the general fall of feudalism and of chivalry, and the rise of standing armies and absolute monarchies; the invention of print- ing, with the spread of books and of education, and the general revival of classical learning; the beginning of the modern State system of Europe, with the intrigues of diplomacy and the development of policy known as the "balance of power" ; the establishment of social order and strong centralized government, with the extinction or depression of constitutional liberties; and the final destruc- 4 MODERN EUROPE tion of the long-decaying Eastern Empire by the establish- ment of a powerful Mahometan Empire in Southeastern Europe, shortly before Islamism was finally driven from Spain in the southwest of the Christian continent. Of this array of topics some have been fully treated,* and need now only to be mentioned and insisted on for recognition and remembrance as established and important facts; we may here include the change in the art of war, the virtual end of feudalism as a power against the crown, the extinction of chivalry in its romantic and visible forms, the creation of standing armies, the acquirement of abso- lute power by the continental sovereigns and the gradual decay of the representative Assemblies or Parliaments, the expulsion of the Moors from Spain, and the beginnings of a revival of classical learning. In proceeding to deal with the rest of these matters, we shall take first a glance at the position of the different States of Europe about the year 1450 the middle of the Fifteenth Century. In the West, Portugal had entered upon the brilliant career of geographical discovery which has given this little State an enduring fame in the pages of history. After sharing, as the Province of Lusitania, the fortunes of the rest of the Peninsula, and being conquered by the Saracens, Portugal became an independent Kingdom under Alphonso I, after his defeat of the forces of Castile in 1 137, and his great victory over the Moors at Ourique, in the south of Portugal, in 1 139. A Cortes or Parliament gave the Kingdom a code of laws and a constitution in 1181, and a hereditary monarchy was fully established. King Dionysius of Portugal (reigned 1279-1325) encouraged agriculture (and bears the honorable title of the "Farmer"), manufactures, and trade; he admitted to the Cortes the representatives of towns; he was a liberal patron *See volume "Ancient and Mediaeval History." TRANSITION TO MODERN HISTORY 5 of learning, and founded the University of Coimbra in 1308. The Portuguese have styled him, from his wise and beneficent rule, the "Father of his country." John I reigned from 1385 to 1433, and did much for Portugal. Lisbon now became the capital instead of Coimbra. The arms of Portugal were carried into Africa in the capture of Ceuta (1415), and this led to the expeditions of dis- covery on the west coast of that continent, which were the foundation of Portugal's geographical renown. France was about to become a great and compact State in the final expulsion (1453) of the English from their possessions in the land (save at Calais). Italy needs little mention at this point. The northwest of the country was mostly held by the Duchy of Milan (or The Milanese, as the territory is often called) , including a number of flour- ishing cities under the rule of Francesco Sforza, a brave and unscrupulous leader of mercenaries, who seized his power in 1450. Venice and Florence have been dealt with in the volume "Ancient and Mediaeval History." The Popes held the center of the land; in the South were a Kingdom of Naples (or Sicily) and a Kingdom of Sicily (in the island) the former a fighting ground between a branch of the Spanish House of Aragon and the Dukes of Anjou, of the ruling House of France. Burgundy (soon to cease to be a duchy) in the east of France, ruled to the North also what is now French Flanders, Belgium, and much of Holland. The rise of Switzerland has been given in the preceding volume of this work. The decay of the power of Germany as an Empire has been recorded. The Duchy of Austria was gaining ground in the Southeast. There was no Prussia yet, only a small electoral State called Brandenburg. The German Emperor, who was Duke of Austria, was also King of the Slavonic State of Bohemia. The Magyar Kingdom of 6 MODERN EUROPE Hungary was a strong bulwark for Europe against the inroads of the Turks. In the east of Europe the powerful Slavonic Kingdom of Poland included much of what is now Prussia and Rus- sia, and was also serviceable to Europe as a defense against the Turks. This repeated mention of the Moslem invad- ers of Europe brings us to the account of their presence there in a force so formidable and so perilous to Chris- tianity after stating first that the rise of Russia to impor- tance in Europe will be given hereafter, and that Norway, Sweden, and Denmark (united in 1397 by the treaty called the Union of Calmar, a town in southeast of Sweden) formed a realm subject to fluctuations due to frequent revolts by one State or the other. Sweden rises to impor- tance at a later date in European history. The invasion of Europe by the Turks must be traced back to the inroads of the Asiatic people called Mongols or Moguls (generally known in Europe as Tartars) in the Thirteenth Century. This warlike race, under their famous leader, Genghis Khan (ruled from 1204 to 1227), conquered the north of China between 1209 and 1215, and then, turning west and south, overran Turkestan, captured Bokhara and Samar- cand, and carried their ravages into Europe as far as the banks of the Dnieper. It is estimated that the exploits of Genghis and his followers caused mankind the loss of over five millions of lives of every age and both sexes. It is certain that in the cities of Central Asia they destroyed countless treasures of literature and art. In religion these Mongols became, in the end, Mohammedan. Ogdai, the successor of Genghis, led his warriors on through Russia, Poland, and Hungary, and ravaged the land, but made no settlement except in part of Russia. In Asia the Mongols drove before them from the east of the Caspian Sea the Turks, who finally overwhelmed the Christians of TRANSITION TO MODERN HISTORY 7 Palestine in 1243. In 1258 a descendant of Genghis Khan took Bagdad. In Asia Minor the Kingdom of the Sel- jukian Turks was overthrown, and then the power of the Ottoman Turks began. One of the emirs (leaders) of the Turkomans who had been driven from their abodes by the Mongols was named Othman. He was simply a bold and successful captain of a band of robbers, who, in A. D. 1300, made himself master of much of Asia Minor, founding upon the ruins of the Saracen, Seljuk, and Mon- gol power the Empire of the Ottoman Turks in Asia. Oth- man died in 1326, and his successor fixed the capital of the Sultanate at Brusa (or Broussa) in Bithynia. Religious f atanticism and a passion for military glory were the spurs to action and success with this new dynasty of conquerors, and the Eastern Empire of Rome was in no condition to stay their progress westward, being weak, effete, and ready to vanish away. The enterprise and prudence of the Turkish rulers were conspicuous. A standing force of picked infantry was raised from among the bravest and strongest of the Chris- tian children whom the Turks enslaved, and brought up as Mohammedans with a thorough training in arms. This formidable body of troops was named the Janissaries, or "new soldiers," and soon became a terror to all opponents. It was the valient Soliman who first invaded Europe in 1355, and secured his connection with Asia Minor by forti- fying the Dardanelles. In 1360 the Sultan Amurath I took Hadrianople, and made it the capital of the Ottoman realm in Europe. At the head of his Janissaries he swept on into Macedonia and Servia, and gained a great victory at Kossova (in Servia) in 1389, over a confederacy of Slavonian peoples. The Sultan Bajazet (ruled 1389 to 1402) invaded Thessaly, reached the walls of Constanti- nople, fortified the Bosphorus, and made the Greek Em- 8 MODERN EUROPE peror pay tribute. Thus, by the year 1400, the Greek Empire was reduced to the possession of Constantinople, a part of Greece, and a few outlying fragments to west of Turkey and in northeast of Asia Minor. A temporary respite came in the downfall of the haughty Bajazet before the attack of a new foe from inner Asia, the famous Timour the Tartar, or Tamerlane, who by an irruption into Asia Minor diverted Bajazet from the siege of Constantinople in 1402, defeated and captured him at the battle of Angora, and carried him about for public show in a cage. Amurath II (died in 1451) did much to strengthen Turkish rule in Europe. Under his son and successor Mohammed II, the last of the Eastern Empire fell. Mohammed II became Sultan in 1451, when Constantine (XI) Palasologus was Emperor, and at once set himself to complete the Turkish conquest. With a vast army, supported by a powerful fleet and aided by heavy cannon (now first used, perhaps, with really great effect in battering walls), he assailed Constantinople in a siege of fifty-three days' duration. On May 29, 1453, the great city was stormed by the Turks ; Constantine fell fight- ing; a fearful slaughter of the citizens was made; the splen- did church built by Justinian became the Mohammedan Mosque of Saint Sophia; and the Ottoman Empire was established in Europe, with Constantinople for its capital, as a great and formidable power. Before his death in 1481 the Turks had conquered the Morea, the rest of Asia Minor (Empire of Trebizond, in northeast), Bosnia, Epirus, and the islands of Negropont and LemnO'S. During the greater part of what is called ancient his- tory and the Middle Ages, the historic stage was limited to Europe, a part of Western Asia, and a strip of Northern Africa. The travels of Marco Polo in Asia, between 1271 and 1295, had first given the modern world some glim- TRANSITION TO MODERN HISTORY 9 mering of light on the remote east of Asia-, and the close study by Christopher Columbus of Polo's famous book influenced the great discoverer in his desire for explora- tion. The English traveler, Sir John de Mandeville (born at St. Alban's about 1300), traveled much in Asia and northern Africa, and his accuracy in describing what he saw himself has been confirmed by travelers in modern times. The Arabs were familiar with the fact that Africa might be circumnavigated, and the Jewish traders to Mozambique by the east route first made known in modern Europe the existence of the Cape of Good Hope. America had been discovered about A. D. 1000 by Scandinavians, who reached the shore near where Boston now stands, but so low was the state of intelligence in Europe that the very memory of their voyages had been altogether lost. It is quite uncertain at what epoch the polarity of the magnet first became known in Europe. It was certainly known to a few as early as the Thirteenth Century, and was, perhaps, first applied to commerce in the Fourteenth Century by the Genoese navigators, who steered into the Atlantic Ocean toward England and Flanders, and began to interchange the exports of London, Bruges, and Alexandria. It was not, however, generally used in navigation till early in the Fifteenth Century. Prince Henry, known as "Henry the Navigator," third son of John I (or John the Great) of Portugal, led the way in plans of maritime discovery. Portuguese colonies were settled in Madeira in 1420, at the Azores in 1433, and about the same time on the Gold Coast of Guinea. Before the death of this enlightened man in 1463 the full knowl- edge of the Western African Coast was thus pushed onward from Cape Nun (opposite the Canary Islands) to Cape Bojador, then to Cape Blanco and Cape Verde, and southward nearly to the equator. Under John II, of io MODERN EUROPE Portugal (reigned 1481-1495), perhaps the ablest King the country has had, the expeditions of geographical dis- covery were continued with zeal and with , scientific method. Portugal received as citizens many of the learned and enterprising Jews, who had been driven from Spain, and she derived benefit from her tolerance of spirit. Bartholomew Diaz doubled the Cape of Good Hope in 1487, and when the coast was found to run northeast, giv- ing a good prospect of success in%-eaching India, the King changed the name of the storm-beaten headland from Cabo Tormentoso, or Cape of Storms, to Cabo de Boa Esperanqa, or Cape of Good Hope. In the following reign Vasco da Gama reached round the Cape the port of Calicut on the Malabar (southwest) coast of India, and the long-sought object of a sea route to Southern Asia was thus attained in 1498. To anticipate, for a moment, the grand achievement of Columbus, we will mention that the Portuguese Admiral Alvarez de Cabral, in April, 1500, on a voyage to the East Indies, made his way across the Atlantic to Brazil, which had been discovered three months before by Pingon, one of the companions of Columbus. The Portuguese dominion in India was established by the energy and courage of Almeida de Abrantes, the first Viceroy, between 1506 and 1509, and of his greater suc- cessor Albuquerque, who conquered Goa and made it the capital of the Portuguese dominions in the East in 1511. In the Persian Gulf they made settlements at Ormuz and Muscat; at Madras, in the Bay of Bengal; in Ceylon, the Moluccas, Java, Sumatra, Celebes, and Borneo. The Por- tuguese began to trade with China in 1517, and with Japan in 1542. Most of the above possessions were after- ward lost to the rising power of the Dutch in the Seven- teenth Century. Christopher Columbus was an ingenious, enterprising, TRANSITION TO MODERN HISTORY 11 and bold native of Genoa, but Spain claims the merit of his great discovery, because it was made with the assist- ance of her Queen, Isabella* About 1474 Columbus seems to have formed his plan of reaching the East Indies entirely by sea, a project to which he was urged by the desire of benefiting the merchants of Genoa, whose land trade with India by way of the Crimea and the Caspian Sea had been greatly injured by the irruptions of the Tartars and the Turks. It must not be forgotten that Columbus started with no idea of discovering a new world, but simply of mak- ing his way to India by a Western route in rivalry of the Portuguese efforts to reach the same goal round the south- ern point of Africa. It is also certain that Columbus never knew the nature of his own discovery, but died in the belief that it was actually some part of Asia; Amerigo Vespucci, the Florentine, held the same opinion, and their immediate successors believed Mexico to be a part of Marco Polo's China. The first expedition that ever sailed round the world was that which started under the command of the famous Portuguese navigator Fernando de Magalhaens (or Magellan), who did not live to complete the voyage. He entered the service of Spain in 1519, sailed southwest for the Spice Islands of Asia, passed through the Strait of Magellan into the Pacific (his own name for the calm expanse of water that he saw), and across that vast ocean reached the Philippine Islands in 1521, where he died in a struggle with the natives according to the statement of his followers, who have been suspected of his murder. His lieutenant, Sebastian d'Elcano, took the ship back to Spain by September, 1522, after achieving the first circum- navigation of the globe. The earth was at last proved to be round by evidence which could not be denied. *See Volume " Famous Women of the World." 12 MODERN EUROPE These discoveries of new lands and new markets for goods gave a great impulse to trade and manufactures, increased the wealth of Europe, and soon caused the build- ing of powerful navies by the chief new maritime States, Spain, Portugal, England, and Holland. Sovereigns and statesmen began to see that commerce was a great pro- moter of prosperity and power for Nations, and the colon- ization of the world began in the East and the West. The effect of the adoption of the route to India round the Cape of Good Hope was disastrous to the Republic of Venice. The shortest and safest road to India from the Mediter- ranean was by the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea, and Venice had the command of the ports of Syria and Egypt through which the traffic of India passed to and from Central and Western Europe. By the adoption of the new route round Africa, Venice lost her commercial supremacy; Egypt, lately an avenue to India, was left out in the cold; the commercial monopoly of the European Jews was broken down; Western Europe, instead of the Mediterranean, became the center of the world's trade, and the British Islands were soon put in the front of the great new movement, and in a position to obtain the commercial and maritime supremacy of the globe. The Dutch acquired at first the carrying-trade of goods which the Portuguese brought from the East to Lisbon, and the profit was such that the wide-'awake Hollanders determined to get the Eastern trade and settlements into their own hands as soon as they could oust their rivals of the Peninsula. Much was done for the revival of letters by the enlight- ened and munificent Medicis, but it was the fall of Con- stantinople that gave a great impulse to the study of classi- cal learning which had long been gradually rising. The Latin language, in which all legal instruments were drawn up, and which all ecclesiastics used in their correspondence, TRANSITION TO MODERN HISTORY 13 had never ceased to be familiar to men of culture. During the dark ages, however, from the Sixth to the Eleventh Century, it is rare to meet with a quotation from any class- ical author of Rome; her greatest writers had almost ceased to be read. During the Twelfth Century, a change took place, and classical Latin authors began to be read, and the language to be written with greater purity. Frequent quotations are made from Livy, Cicero, Pliny, and others. Virgil began to be imitated, at a great distance, in Latin verse compositions. About the middle of the Fourteenth Century, a zealous desire to restore the ancient learning begins to appear. The copying oi books had become a regular trade, and books were much lowered in price, an improvement which was aided by the introduction of paper made from linen rags. Translations from classical authors began to be made. It was south of the Alps, in Italy, that literature really flourished; France came next, and Eng- land and Germany were, in comparison, very backward. The scarcity of manuscripts of the classics was the great difficulty to the early pioneers of the new movement. They lay hidden away in monasteries, in charge of those who did not value them, and were difficult to get at. Pe- trarch in his age (Fourteenth Century) took great pains to preserve the remains of authors who were perishing from neglect and time. Another great Florentine writer, Boc- caccio, aided this work, and the errors made by transcrib- ers were corrected by these Italian scholars, to a great ex- tent, so as to furnish an intelligible text of the Latin classics a Century before the invention of printing. In the Fifteenth Century more still was done for classical learn- ing. The Italian scholars gave up their lives to the rescue of manuscripts from a mouldering death, and to the rer vival of philology. To Italy, far more than to any other country, the world of letters owes the present possession 14 MODERN EUROPE of the recovered treasures of classical writing. To name one more of these illustrious and devoted men in what was then the most enlightened country in the world, Poggio Bracciolini, in the early part of the Fifteenth Century, dis- covered and rescued from destruction by damp and dirt the entire work of Quintilian, twelve comedies of Plautus, the works of Lucretius and Silius Italicus, and many other less known writers. The Greek language had been all but forgotten in west- ern Europe. A few of the schoolmen knew some Greek, but the ignorance of it, even in Italy, was almost universal, and hardly a line from a Greek poet is found quoted be- tween the Sixth and the Fourteenth Centuries. As with the classical Latin, so with the Greek, Petrarch and Boc- caccio led the way in a revival of the language, and in the restoration of its learning. They both studied it themselves, Petrarch reading Plato with a scholar from Constantino- ple, and Boccaccio causing public lectures on Homer to be delivered in Florence. A little before the end of the Four- teenth Century, a scholar from Constantinople named Emanuel Chrysoloras, taught Greek literature at Florence, and then, in succession, at Pavia, Venice, and Rome. A taste for the new learning was created; Italian scholars went to the fountain-head at Constantinople, to drink deeper yet of the new Pierian spring, and returned to their native land, not only with stores of learning in their heads, but with rich treasures of manuscripts in their hands. In 1423, one of the zealous students brought home to Venice nearly 240 volumes of classical lore. The fulness of time was come for the general revival of Greek literature when the Ottoman Turks captured Constantinople, and drove in flight over Europe a great number of scholars with their books. Some of the popes, especially Nicholas V, in the Fifteenth Century encouraged the Greek learning, and TRANSITION TO MODERN HISTORY 15 Bessarion, Theodore Gaza, and George of Trebizond spread the knowledge of it at Florence, Naples, and Rome, before the fall of Constantinople. Of the Greek exiles, Lascaris was, perhaps, the most illustrious. From Italy the zeal for the restoration of classical literature had spread slowly to France, England, and Germany : a Greek professor was first appointed at the University of Paris in 1458, and it was later still that Greek was taught at Ox- ford by Grocyn and Colet, and by Erasmus at Cambridge. Block-printing, or printing from blocks each present- ing perhaps a whole page, had been known for many Centuries in China and for some ages in Europe before the invention of the moveable metal types which constitute in wide practical value the art of printing. As in the case of many other great improvements, it is impossible to assign to the real author with absolute certainty the glory of the invention of this method of printing. It is generally given now to John Gutenberg of Mainz (Mentz or May- ence) in Germany. Peter Schoffer, also of Mentz, made the immense improvement of inventing the casting of types, instead of the former method of cutting each indi- vidual type in wood or metal, a troublesome and expensive process. The earliest known complete printed book is what is called the Mazarin Bible, because the first copy was discovered in the library founded by Cardinal Mazarin at Paris its probable date is between 1450 and 1455. Several copies have since come to light. In 1462 appeared the second Mentz Bible (printed, as the Mazarin probably was, at the press of Gutenberg and Faust, or Fust), con- sidered to be the first book printed with the cast-metal types. In 1465 the same press issued the first printed classical work, an edition of Cicero's "Offices," a treatise on moral duties. From Germany the art of printing was carried at once to Italy, and before the end of the Fifteenth 16 MODERN EUROPE Century many of the classical authors had been copied in the new form from which was to make their treasures of wisdom and of style immortal. There is little need to dwell on the results that have proceeded from the invention of the art of printing; they amount to an intellectual transformation of the world. Two immediate or not remote effects may be noticed. Books were multiplied and cheapened, and not only was the new demand for mental light supplied, but the in- creased supply created a demand ; cheap books bred read- ers, and as the press made books more abundant, there were more persons to whom they became a necessary of life. Again, the mode of communicating knowledge was changed; the pulpit was to a great extent superseded by the printing press. It is easy to see how this affected the ecclesiastical world. The new ideas were silently spread by printing, nor could the exertions of the church in the pulpit either prevent or greatly counteract the working of what the orthodox held to be poison. The effect of oral eloquence is powerful while it lasts, but it is transient in its impres- sion, and troublesome to produce the hearer must be brought to the speaker, and the memory carries little away. The printed, like the written, character abides, and it can be read, and thought over, and read again in the leisure of the fireside and the tranquillity of home. The political effect of the invention of printing was that the government was at once brought into direct relations with the governed without the intervention of ecclesiastical authority. The production of newspapers in the Seven- teenth Century was a development which, in the most modern days, has acquired a prodigious influence. But we are dealing now with the close of the Fifteenth Cen- tury, when Europe, and through Europe the world, was TRANSITION OF MODERN HISTORY 17 about to enter, through the great awakening of the human mind, on a new career of rapid progress and unequaled interest, of changeful intellectual, physical, and moral con- flict, which should affect in large degree the future of man- kind. For from printing came reading, and from read- ing came, for good or for evil, that which is called the Reformation the great revolution in religious matters which for ages set enmity between the Nations of Europe. As the chief States of Europe became settled in the form of strong centralized governments, having absolute monarchs at the head of them, with standing armies (save in England) to enforce their will, and with the succession to the throne hereditary in particular lines, there was de- veloped that curious and pernicious disease of inter-mon- archical (and sometimes international) jealousy known as the theory oi the "balance of power." It was held that no single State must be allowed to acquire such power as to make it formidable to others, and thus, in the way of alliances brought about by royal intermarriage or by the other resources of diplomacy, continual efforts were made to thwart an ambitious power and secure its rivals against unjust pretensions and undue aggrandizement. The re- sults were frequent wars, waged by aspiring sov- ereigns for their own purposes with little or no regard to the people's real interests, and a complicated condition of international relations which is known as the "states- system of Europe." Voi,. 2 2 SPAIN AND THE REFORMATION Spain comes before us in brilliant guise as the greatest power in Europe during most of the Sixteenth Century. She had become a compact State under Ferdinand and Isabella at the end of the Fifteenth Century. Soon after the discovery of America Spain became the possessor of a new Empire beyond the Atlantic. Between 1519 and 1521 the brave, able, perfidious, and cruel Fernando Cortez conquered Mexico; the equally, faithless and barbarous adventurer Pizarro took possession of Peru in 1531-32. The ascendency which Spain acquired in Europe was gained by undoubted superiority in all the arts of policy and war. As Italy was first in the fine arts, and Germany in the new boldness of theological speculation, so Spain was, in the Sixteenth Century, the land of soldiers and of statesmen. The diplomatists O'f Spain surpassed in skill those of all other countries in Europe. The Spanish in- fantry was the most formidable military force in existence. The Spaniard of this age, moreover, took to himself the arts and the literature of the Italy which he subdued, and the great men of Spain were often distinguished not less as writers than as soldiers and as politicians. Valor, intelligence, energy displayed in such wise as to make the name of "Spaniard" at once hateful and terrible even to the stout-hearted Englishman of that age made Spain in the Sixteenth Century the first country in the world. The growth of Spain's power in Europe must now be traced. In 1512 Ferdinand conquered nearly all the King- dom of Navarre, so that the whole Peninsula except Port- SPAIN AND THE REFORMATION 19 ugal had come under his power. Spain had already begun to make conquests abroad. Gonsalvo de Cordova, called by the Spanish el gran Capitan (the great Captain), was one of the most brilliant warriors of the age. In 1502 he drove the French out of the south of Italy. In 1504 he completed the conquest for Spain of the Kingdom of Naples, and ruled there as viceroy with a mild, just, and magnanimous sway which greatly strengthened the Span- ish hold on the country. In 1516 the Spanish throne came, by the death of Ferdinand, to his and Isabella's grandson, the Prince known in history as the Emperor Charles V. Charles V was born at Ghent in 1500, being the eldest son of Philip, Archduke of Austria, and of Joanna, the daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain. Philip was son of the Emperor Maximilian of Germany by Mary, daughter of Charles the Bold, last Duke of Burgundy. After her father's death Mary was ruler of the Netherlands (or Low Countries), and to these Philip (the father of Charles V) succeeded. The young Prince had thus, by his birth, the claim to a splendid inheritance. His father's (Philip) death gave him the Netherlands (the territory including what is now both Holland and Belgium) ; his grandfather Ferdinand's death (in 1516) gave him Spain; on the death of his grandfather Maximilian in 1519 he was elected Emperor of Germany. In Italy he had the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies (the island and the King- dom of Naples on the southern mainland) and Sardinia. His rival for the dignity of Emperor had been Francis I, King of France, but the electoral princes of Germany chose Charles of Spain (as his title then was), and he was crowned Emperor at Aix-Chapelle in 1520, being then twenty years of age. This remarkable man was silent, self-contained, patient, prudent, and subtle. Cool in tem- perament, energetic in business, slow in decision, ready in 20 MODERN EUROPE resource, a good judge of mankind, perfidious on occasion, refined in manners, and dignified in demeanor he was in some respects well adapted to his lot in life, great rather in his circumstances than in his character, a man with no heroic qualities, who never felt and never excited en- thusiasm. His career, as a whole, was a failure, from the lack of that high genius which could alone have enabled him to deal successfully with the extreme difficulties of such a position in such an age. The chief matters to be treated in an outline of his reign are the rise of Protes- tantism, and the wars carried on against Charles V by France and other States in order to maintain the balance of power in Europe. The Albigenses and John Huss in Bohemia were the beginnings of revolt from the spiritual authority O'f the popes, and of dissent from the accepted faith of the west- ern branch of the Catholic Church. The Albigenses had been put down by military force and by the Inquisition, worked by the zeal of St. Dominic and his friars. The Council of Constance, which met in 1415, had settled disputes between rival popes, and dealt with the innova- tions on received faith and practice advocated in Bohemia by John Huss and' Jerome of Prague, who were burned as heretics. At the beginning of the Sixteenth Century all the Nations of Western Europe were in communion with the Western Church, of which the pope was the re- cognized spiritual head. The real causes of the great change that was coming lie deep down in the springs of human thought and action, excited by the mental stir that had been long, as we have seen, at work in Europe. Early in the Sixteenth Century complaints began to be loud against alleged practical abuses in the church, against the absolute authority claimed by her in matters of faith, and against the undue interference of popes with the civil a LU LJ CO a: ui I I- SPAIN AND THE REFORMATION 21 rights of governments and with national churches. Such scholars as Reuchlin and Erasmus, without themselves taking any decisive step, undermined the position of the Roman See with many cultivated persons by the expres- sion of free thought on the subject of religion. The mass of the people was influenced by the diffusion of satirical epigrams, allegories, and jokes directed against the church and the monks. The printing-press was, of course, the chief material aid in the new movement. The doctrines and ceremonies of the church were attacked by allegations that many of them were unscriptural arrd against the prac- tice and belief of primitive Christianity. Among these topics we may name the use of images and the asking the intercession of saints; the doctrine of purgatory; the en- forced celibacy of the clergy ; the use of the Latin tongue in the services of the church; the enforced confession of sins to a priest; and, above all, the doctrine of the real bodily presence of Christ in the consecrated elements used at the sacrament of the Lord's supper. In 1508 Martin Luther, a monk of Erfurt (in Prussian Saxony), was appointed professor of philosophy at the University of Wittenberg, lately founded by Frederick III, Elector of Saxony, a zealous Catholic. From the first the new professor fearlessly asserted the rights of human rea- son, and, being made a Doctor in Theology in 1512, took up the cause of what he professed to find in the Scriptures against accepted doctrines O'f the church. Leo X became pope in 1513, and the characters of the two men were such chat a collision between them was inevitable. The imme- diate occasion of Luther's attack on the church was a quar- rel between him and a Dominican monk named Tetzel concerning the sale of indulgences. The theory as to in- dulgences in the Catholic system is that many saints and pious men have done more good works and suffered more 22 MODERN EUROPE than was required for the remission of their sins; the surplus constitutes a treasure for the church, of which the pope has the keys, and is authorized to distribute the same in exchange for pious gifts. Indulgences began in the practice of commuting penances for grievous sins into a money fine payable to the church. In the minds of the ignorant (who did not know that the grant of pardon for sin is made by the church only to the faithful who are truly penitent and have confessed) an indulgence became equivalent to a license for sin; and a manifest abuse re- sulted which all good Catholics repudiated. Tetzel was engaged in the sale of these indulgences in Germany, and traveled through Saxony in a wagon provided with two large boxes, one containing the letters oi indulgence, and the other destined for the money obtained by them. The wrath of Luther was excited, and in 1517 he attacked the sale of indulgences by affixing to the door of the great church at Wittenberg his famous Ninety-five Theses or questions, amounting to a challenge to a public disputation on the subject. A fire of discussion, attack, recrimination, and abuse soon spread all over Western and Northern Europe, and the Reformation had fairly begun. For, after attacking Tetzel, Luther went on to assail the authority of the pope and the doctrines of the church in a constant succession of pamphlets and sermons, which were conveyed by means of the printing press into everyone's hands. From the Pyrenees to the Vistula all Europe was eager to read any- thing written by or about this audacious monk that was defying Leo X. Luther set up the Bible, interpreted by man's private judgment, against the authority of the church, the tradition of ages, and the supremacy of the pope; and such an attitude could not but cause a struggle, as for life or death, between the Catholic Church and the SPAIN AND THE REFORMATION 23 followers of the Wittenberg reformer. During 1518 and 1519 Luther continued to refuse withdrawal of the propo- sitions contained in his theses, and to decline the summons and invitations of Leo X that he should proceed to Rome. In 1520 the Pope excommunicated Luther and his support- ers, and in December of that year the bold German eccle- siastic cut off all retreat for himself by publicly burning the pope's decree before the gates of Wittenberg. By this act Luther separated himself decisively and finally from the Papal See and the Catholic Church. Several of the German nobles and princes embraced the new cause, and Frederick of Saxony soon came over to the side of what was now called the Reformation. It is not to be supposed that the supporters of Luther were all actuated by sincere convictions as to the truth of his theological views and the justice of his cause. There were many who had been longing to revolt from authority, but wanted a leader to begin ; there were many who con- sulted only their own self-interest, and sought release from the payment of tribute to the Roman See; others, more sor- did still, were simply eager for the plunder of the landed and other possessions of the church within their domin- ions. As for the people, the German Nations in particular had long regarded the dominion of the papacy with feel- ings of national jealousy, as being the dominion of for- eigners, of Italians, of men who were aliens in language, manners, and modes of -thought. Under the banner of Luther, then, came "sovereigns impatient to appropriate the prerogatives of the pope, nobles desirous to share the plunder of abbeys, patriots impatient of a foreign rule, weak men allured by the glitter of novelty, bad men de- sirous of the license inseparable from great moral revolu- tions"; as well as, in some cases, good men offended by what they thought to be the corruptions of the church, and 24 MODERN EUROPE learned men eager in the pursuit of what they believed to be the truth. Leo X, after Luther's open defiance, called to his aid the newly-chosen emperor, Charles V, who summoned Luther in 1521 to appear before the Diet (or Assembly) of the German princes at Worms, a free imperial city on the Upper Rhine. The Reformer there (in April) at- tended before a great concourse of princes, presided over by the Emperor, acknowledged his writings, and refused to withdraw them. An edict was thereupon issued against the new doctrines. In December, 1521, the pope died sud- denly, and was succeeded by the mild Adrian VI. Luther now began to translate and issue his German Bible (com- pleted in 1534), the circulation of which greatly aided his work. None of the measures taken by the Catholics was able to prevent the spread of the movement, nor its success in many quarters. Austria, France, and some of the Ger- man sovereign-princes strove to suppress it by persecution. Meanwhile Luther assailed the principles of monasticism in his own person and conduct by throwing off his char- acter as monk in 1524, and marrying a nun named Catha- rine von Bora in 1525. The monasteries in Germany were soon in many cases deserted, and the priests in Saxony and Switzerland took wives. In 1525 the Elector of Sax- ony; Philip, Count of Hesse, and Albert of Brandenburg (Duke of Prussia) publicly declared themselves Luther- ans, and many German cities and States or portions of States embraced the new doctrines. A Diet O'f the Empire, held at Spires (Speyer) in 1529, issued a decree against changes in doctrine, and the protest of the Lutherans against this decree caused the professors of the new faith to be known afterwards as Protestants. In Switzerland the work of the new movement was carried on chiefly by Ulrich Zwingli (known as Zuinglius) and CEcolampa- SPAIN AND THE REFORMATION 25 dius, and led to a civil war between the Protestant and Catholic cantons, in which (1531) Zuinglius was killed. He was succeeded by the famous Frenchman John Calvin, a man of great learning and acuteness, who lived and worked till 1564, establishing at Geneva the body of fol- lowers who called themselves Calvinites. Melanchthon aided Luther in Germany, and drew up the famous state- ment of Lutheran doctrines which was presented to the Emperor Charles V at the Diet of Augsburg in 1530, and is known as the Augsburg Confession. During the fifty years which followed the separation of Luther (in 1520) from the communion of the Catholic Church, Protestantism reached its height. In England, Scotland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, North Germany, Saxony, Hesse, Wiirtemburg, the Palatinate, the North- ern Netherlands (now Holland), and in several Swiss cantons, the Reformation had completely triumphed. Ireland, Spain, Portugal, and Italy remained in the Cath- olic communion; so did much of Southern and Central Germany. In France the contest was for a time unde- cided; the Protestants there acquired the name of Hugue- nots, a term of uncertain origin, first applied to them by the Catholics in contempt; and France in the end remained almost wholly Catholic. Speaking broadly, the Teutonic Nations accepted, the Romance and the Slavonic peoples rejected, the reformed faith of which Luther was the most energetic and violent champion. Before relating what the Catholic Church effected on her side in the way of reformation and reaction, we shall give a brief account of the wars of Charles V, occasioned by the jealous rivalry and fears of France and other States, and of the civil wars in France, partly arising out o>f the Reformation. Francis I of France (reigned 1515-1547) was enraged against Charles V on his election as Emperor of Ger- 26 MODERN EUROPE many. They intrigued against each other for the alliance of England (under Henry VIII), which ultimately joined the Emperor, and in 1521 war broke out, waged in the north of France, on the Spanish border, and in the north of Italy. Francis, through his own unjust behavior, lost the services of his great General, the Constable de Bour- bon, w r ho went over to the side of Charles. He drove his countrymen over the Alps, took Toulon, and besieged Marseilles. Francis succeeded in rescuing Provence, and advanced into the Milanese in 1524. In February, 1525, he was utterly defeated by the Emperor's forces at Pavia, made prisoner, and sent to Madrid. It may be stated that there is no word of truth in the story about Francis I's letter to his mother, with the famous words, "All is lost, save only honor." In 1526 he obtained his release by sign- ing a treaty for the surrender of territory in Italy and Flanders, which he afterward declined to give up, and the war went merrily on from 1527 to 1529. An alliance called the "Holy League" was formed against Charles V by Pope Clement VII, Francis I, Henry VIII, Venice, Milan, and other minor States O'f Italy. In 1527 Rome was taken and sacked by the Emperor's troops under the Constable de Bourbon, who was killed in the assault. Fighting was ended for the time by the Peace of Cam- brai, in Flanders, in 1529, which left Charles V master of Italy, and by far the most powerful monarch in Europe. Francis I did much for France in encouraging litera- ture, science, and art, but his restless spirit urged him again to war with Charles V in 1535, renewed, after a truce, in 1541, and ended in 1545, after a struggle, which left Francis secure in his French possessions only because Protestantism in Germany called the Emperor to other work. The policy of Charles was to reconcile, if he could, the Protestants and the Catholics, and with this view he SPAIN AND THE REFORMATION 27 alternately threatened and courted the former. Luther died early in 1546, and war began between the Emperor and the league of Protestant Princes in Germany, which ended in the defeat of the Protestants and the breaking up of their confederacy. An alliance, however, made in 1552 between Henry II of France and Maurice, Elector of Saxony, restored the Protestant cause, and in 1555, after the Emperor had sustained several defeats, the Diet of Augsburg confirmed the Treaty of Passau (1552), giv- ing the Protestants equal rights with the Catholics in Ger- many. Within the different German States, however, great intolerance was exhibited on all sides between Cath- olics and Protestants, and the Protestant sects of Luther- ans and Calvinists, who all persecuted each other as far as they could. All this prepared the way for a desperate struggle in the Seventeenth Century. In 1555 and 1556 Charles V resigned to his son, the famous or infamous, Philip II of Spain (who is the subject of an article in the volume, "Great Warriors"), the sov- ereignty of the Netherlands and the throne of Spain, with all its belongings, and the dignity and rule of the Empire of Germany passed to his brother Ferdinand. Charles V died in 1558 in retirement at the convent of St. Justus (San Yuste) in Spain. Henry II of France (reigned 1547-1559) was the son of Francis I, and took up his father's old quarrel with the Empire, Spain, and Eng- land. In 1552 he seized the three German bishoprics of Metz, Toul, and Verdun (names made familiar in the Franco-German war of 1870); in 1558 his General, the Duke of Guise, retook Calais from the English; in 1557 the Spanish army of Philip II, with a contingent of Eng- lish troops furnished by his wife, Mary I, had defeated the French completely at the great battle of St. Quentin (in North of France), and checked the rising power of 38 MODERN EUROPE France. The war was ended by the Treaty of Cateau- Cambresis (in the North of France) in 1559. The wife of Henry II of France was the famous Catharine de' Medici,* an Italian princess of the celebrated Florentine house a woman beautiful, able, ambitious, and wicked. For four reigns (those of her husband and three sons who reigned in succession) she practiced the arts of Italian intrigue with great assiduity, and often with fatal success, until her death in 1589. The history of France during the latter half of the Sixteenth Century is mainly taken up with a series of civil wars, arising out of religious differences between the Catholics and the Protestants within the country. Henry II of France was accidentally killed at a tournament in 1559, and was succeeded by his son, a lad of sixteen, as Francis II, married to Mary Queen of Scots. The Government was, during his reign of eighteen months, in the hands of the Duke of Guise and his brother Charles, Cardinal of Lorraine the former directing military affairs, the latter being at the head of religious matters and of the finances. They both used their power solely as a means of gratifying their pride and avarice. The Protes- tants of France, called Huguenots, as we have seen, had adopted that form of the new faith which was called Cal- vinism, after its founder, Calvin, who had gone further away even than Luther from the Catholic doctrines. The French Protestants, who were then very numerous, had been persecuted by Francis I, and then by Henry II, and the party of the Guises continued this policy under Francis II. Anthony of Bourbon, King of Navarre, and his brother Louis, Prince de Conde, were jealous of the power wielded by the Guises, who were not of the royal line, and united with the Calvinists to overthrow them as the lead- *See Volume "Famous Women of the World." SPAIN AND THE REFORMATION 29 ers of the dominant Catholic party. We see that the cause of the quarrel was ambition, while religion was the pre- text. A conspiracy was formed against the government among the French nobility, especially those of the Cal- vinist sect, and civil war soon broke out. Francis II died in December, 1560, and was succeeded by his brother, Charles IX, then but nine years old. Charles IX reigned in name from 1560 to 1574. The real power was in the hands of the unscrupulous Queen- mother, Catharine de' Medici, and her supporters, the Guises. Against them were ranged Anthony of Bourbon and the Prince de Conde, who became a Huguenot, with the famous Admiral Coligny, a leading Calvinist. The Prince de Conde was an active, enterprising, and ambi- tious man ; Coligny was prudent, cautious, and well fitted to be a leader, skilled in repairing his frequent defeats, and as virtuous a man as that age could anywhere show. The Duke of Guise was a soldier distinguished in the Italian wars, and noted for his recapture of Calais (1558) from the English. He was a zealous Catholic. His chief supporter in the battlefield was De Montmorency, Con- stable of France, who had fought with distinction in Italy for Francis I, though he was also the defeated commander at the great battle of St. Quentin in 1557. The war broke out in 1562, through an affray in Champagne between the followers of Guise and a party of Calvinists at their worship in a barn. At the battle of Dreux December 19, 1562, Coligny and Conde were defeated by Guise, and Conde was taken prisoner on one side and Montmorency on the other. Early in 1563 Guise was killed near Orleans, and there was a lull in the fratri- cidal contest for a season. In 1 567 Montmorency defeated the Huguenots under Conde and Coligny in a battle at St. Denis, near Paris, but died of wounds received in the 30 MODERN EUROPE fight. The Duke of Guise had been succeeded in the lead- ership of the Catholic party by his son, Henry of Guise, a brave soldier and determined man. In 1569 the Calvin- ists were thoroughly defeated at Jarnac, where Conde was killed; and again, under Coligny, at Moncontour. Peace was made for a time in 1570. The most famous of the champions of the Huguenot cause in France had already come to the front. This was the gallant Henry, King of Navarre, son of the above- named Anthony of Bourbon and of Jeanne d'Albret, Queen of Navarre. He is often called the Bearnais, because he was born (1553) at Pau in the province of Beam, on the French side of the Pyrenees. He was brought up as a Calvinist, and, at the age of sixteen, fought at Jarnac and Moncontour. He was one of the bravest, frankest, and most lovable men that ever lived; his white plume waved ever in the thickest of the fight; his winning demeanor, the outward presentment of a soul in many ways noble and chivalrous, gave him an entrance to all hearts. In 1572 he married the beautiful Margaret of Valois, the King's sister, the nuptials being celebrated at Paris a few days before the fearful event known as the Massacre of St. Bartholomew (August, 1572). The slaughter of the Huguenots in Paris and the provinces on this occasion introduces one of the vexed questions of his- tory, into the discussion of which we cannot enter here. Admiral Coligny was killed in Paris, and Henry of Navarre saved his life by professing the Catholic faith. The Huguenots renewed the war for a time, and another year's useless bloodshed occurred. Charles IX died in 1574, and was succeeded by his brother, third son of Catharine de' Medici, as Henry III. In 1576 the new King, a selfish voluptuary, whose pleas- ures civil discord interrupted, issued an edict favorable 3 1 to the Calvinists, and this caused the formation of the famous Catholic League in December, 15/6. From time to time the civil war was renewed, and France was in a dreadful state of confusion and anarchy. In 1584, by the death of the King's brother, Henry of Navarre, who had again become Calvinistic in professed faith, became heir-apparent to the throne. The league resumed its activ- ity under Henry of Guise; and when it forced the King to withdraw', in 1585, the concessions made to the Protes- tants, fighting began again. In 1 588 Guise drove his sov- ereign from the capital, Paris; and in December of that year Henry III, after luring his enemy thither by a pre- tended reconciliation, had Guise murdered at the royal castle of Blois. ' Paris and several great towns then revolted, and Henry III made an alliance with Henry of Navarre and besieged Paris, which was defended by the Duke of Mayenne, brother of Henry of Guise, and now head of the league. The Catholic party now hated the King; and in August, 1589, a Dominican monk, Jacques Clement, gave him a fatal stab in his camp before Paris at St. Cloud. In Henry III the House of Valois in France became extinct. In 1589, in the person of Henry of Navarre, son of Anthony of Bourbon, the House of Bourbon came to the throne of France, and ruled there, save during the revolu- tion and first Empire, until 1830. The new King, Henry IV (Henri Quatre), had to fight for his throne, the Cath- olic League, headed, as above, by the Due de Mayenne, rejecting him as a heretic. In September, 1589, Kenry gained a great victory over the Catholic party at Arques, near Dieppe; in March, 1590, he won his brilliant battle of Ivry, west of Paris; in 1593 he professed the Catholic faith, and in 1594 entered Paris in triumph. Between 1595 and 1598 he was engaged in reducing the provinces 32 MODERN EUROPE of Burgundy, Picardy, and Brittany, held against him by Spanish troops, sent by Philip II, who claimed the French throne. Henry IV was now, as accepted King of France, to show the best side of his character, the paternal regard for his people's interests which has made his memory dear to the French Nation. It was his business to restore last- ing peace and solid prosperity to a country where the royal authority had greatly decayed, and which had long been suffering under the worst passions engendered in civil war. His first object was to reconcile, if possible, the contending religious parties. In 1598 Henry IV issued the celebrated Edict of Nantes, which defined the rights of the Protestants in France. By this document the free exercise of their religion was granted to the Huguenots, and all employments and political offices were thrown open to them. A struggle was thus ended for a time which had threatened to ruin both the monarchy and the country. We must remember that the Catholic faith was the religion of the great majority of the French people; and the Protestants, under the Edict of Nantes, were required to pay tithes to the State religion, and to observe the Catholic festivals and holidays. To the wise administration of affairs by the famous Duke of Sully was due in large measure the rapid recov- ery of France, under Henry IV, from the effects of the disastrous civil wars. The Due de Sully, Marshal of France, was a Calvinist who had in his youth, as the Baron de Rosny, from his birthplace near Mantes, escaped in Paris from the Massacre of St. Bartholomew. He fought for Henry IV and was severely wounded at the battle of Ivry (1590); his devotion to his country was shown by the advice which he, though he was a Protestant, gave to Henry, that the King should embrace the Catholic faith. In 1597 Sully became Minister of Finance, and afterward O w J < ffi o 3 o s H M be > .s O PL, h -i SPAIN AND THE REFORMATION 33 received charge of all fortifications, public buildings, ports, canals, roads, and river navigation. These great oppor- tunities were nobly used in behalf of his country and his King. Sully had to deal with a great public debt, and with a system of revenue collection so defective and fraudulent that but a seventh part, it is stated, of the taxes paid by the people actually reached the public exchequer. The reforms of the minister soon cleared off a large part of the debt, diminished taxation, created a large reserve fund, and doubled the amount o-f revenue received by the exchequer; four-fifths of the taxes paid by the people now reached the treasury. The energy of Sully was indefati- gable, and he showed the highest principle and the most disinterested courage in resisting the demands of greedy courtiers, and setting the welfare of France above all private considerations. Public virtue of this kind was rare, indeed, in that age), and an enduring fame has rewarded his exertions and integrity. Sully also greatly encouraged agriculture, which he justly regarded as the chief source of the French people's prosperity, and did much to benefit commerce. In pursuit of these objects marshes were drained, mulberry trees were planted, for- ests preserved; great highways were opened in all direc- tions, canals dug, free trade in grain introduced, and commercial treaties made with Holland, England, Turkey, and Spain. Henry IV soon became the most popular of sovereigns, and his popularity aided his determined efforts to strengthen the authority of the crown. The great nobles had become almost independent under the weak rule of the last Kings of the House of Valois, and Henry took severe measures in order to restore the royal power. The municipal franchises of towns were also annulled ; a strict censorship of the press was established; and such power v 01,. 2 3 34 MODERN EUROPE as the Parliament still retained was diminished. In his foreign policy Henry IV did all that he could to thwart the imperial house of Austria and the great Catholic power, Spain. In 1609 he made preparations for a war which, according to Sully's Memoirs, aimed at great designs for the rearrangement of affairs in Europe; but the following year (1610) he died by one of the most tragic, pitiful, and deplorable of assassinations. A fanatic named Ravaillac stabbed him to the heart as he sat in his coach in a street of Paris. The deed was probably that of a lunatic brought to that condition by misery combined with religious excitement. Henry IV left, besides other children, a son who succeeded him as Louis XIII. The mother of these was his second wife, Maria de' Medici, related to the reigning house of Tuscany, which had suc- ceeded the great Florentine Republic in 1569. On the outbreak of revolt from the Church, which is known as the Reformation, the danger to the Catholic system was formidable, but it was encountered with the ability and energy which have been often displayed by Catholicism at the crises of its history. In Italy there was a great unwillingness, both in the religious and the irreligious, to break with the Catholic Church; in Spain there was the strongest adherence to the ancient faith, and the most zealous resolve to maintain it at all points and at all hazards. The measures which were adopted by the rulers of every kind, confer academical degrees on them, appoint them to theological professorships, and in all ways further the objects of the society. The basis of the constitution was a general dispersion of the members throughout society, SPAIN AND THE REFORMATION 37 combined with entire union amongst themselves, and sub- ordination to the General and his Council at Rome. The Jesuits soon acquired unbounded influence in all parts of the Catholic world, and made rapid way in the countries still divided between the old faith and the new. As rectors and professors in colleges, as preachers in cities and at courts, as tutors and spiritual guides in families, as missionaries among heathens and heretics, as governors of colonies in remote parts of the world, as father confes- sors of princes, and as general pervaders of every class of society, from the highest to the lowest, they were con- stantly engaged in advancing the interests of the Catholic Church. Such were the energy, skill, discipline, courage, self-denial, devotion, and versatility of the members of the new society that it has been well said that "the history of the Order of Jesus is the history of the great Catholic reaction." Every quarter of the globe witnessed the zeal of Jesuit missionaries; every court was the scene of Jesuit intrigues; all art, science, literature, luxury, and fashion were pressed by Jesuits into the service of religion and the advancement of the cause of the Catholic Church. The Jesuits were soon established as a recognized and pow- erful order in Italy, Portugal, Spain, and Catholic Ger- many, especially in Austria and Bavaria. They had great success in making themselves acceptable to persons of all classes by adapting their own demeanor and the require- ments of the Church to the characters of each and the occasion of the moment, this spirit of worldly policy and accommodation to circumstances being derived chiefly from the principles of Lainez, the second General of the order. Their improvements, zeal, and skill in education of the higher class gave them a just and wide-spread fame, and scholars trained in their institutions did much for the study of history, geography, language, rhetoric, and 38 MODERN EUROPE mathematics. The Jesuits obtained a foothold in France with some difficulty, and were never so- influential there as in some other countries. It is certain that the Jesuits, more than any other influence, caused the great reflux in public opinion which followed the Reformation, and which is styled the Catholic reaction. To the Jesuits it is mainly due that whereas, half a century after the Reformation, the contest was still undecided between Catholicism and Protestantism in France, Belgium, Southern Germany, Hungary, and Poland in half a century more the Cath- olic Church was victorious and dominant in all those coun- tries. Nor must it be forgotten that the Protestants had shown a lessened zeal-and an inferior policy, and that while the whole efforts of the Catholics were directed against the .Protestants, almost the whole energy of the Protestants was directed against each other. In Germany the Cal- vinists and the Lutherans were too often engaged in per- secuting each other, and in England and Scotland men were wasting, in hot disputes on points of discipline and doctrine, the powers and time which might have brought over Ireland from the old faith to the new. The rise of the Inquisition began as a means of coping with the outbreak of heresy in the south of France among the Albigenses, at the end of the Twelfth and the begin- ning of the Thirteenth Century. Innocent III, who became Pope in 1 198, and his successors used the tribunal, known as the Holy Inquisition or the Holy Office, both to extirpate rebellious members of the Church and to extend the papal power at the expense of the bishops. The work of the officials of the Inquisition was to seek out adherents of false doctrines, and to pronounce sentence, without appeal, against their fortune and their life. Suspected per- sons were secretly seized and imprisoned, and the Domini- can and Franciscan monks, the chief agents of the tribunal, SPAIN AND THE REFORMATION 39 kept a strict watch also over the conduct of the bishops. The Inquisition was introduced into Italy, and into parts of France, but with less authority than in Italy. In Eng- land it was never established at all. In the middle of the Thirteenth Century the Holy Office made its way into Spain, and toward the end of the Fifteenth Century the Spanish Inquisition became the most remarkable and pow- erful development of the institution that ever existed. Ferdinand and Isabella used it politically against the pow- erful nobles, as well as religiously in persecuting heretics. In 1478 the famous Torquemadaj prior of 'a Dominican convent, was appointed the first Grand Inquisitor of Spain. He had 200 confidential agents, known as famil- iars, and a body guard for his defense. The ceremony of burning heretics was called an auto de fc, or act of faith. In 1483 the Pope (Sixtus IV) ratified the authority of the Holy Office in Spain, and the tribunal became a most powerful instrument in the hands of the Spanish sovereign, who appointed the grand inquisitor and his chief colleagues, for establishing the royal power on the ruins of the national freedom, for coercing the clergy, and restraining the nobles. The royal treasury was enriched by estates confiscated through the agency of the Holy Office, and Torquemada worked the institution vigorously till his retirement in 1491. For two Centuries the Inquisi- tion continued in full force in Spain, and was finally abol- ished by Napoleon in 1808. Such was the agency pow- erful, secret, and terrible that was now armed against Protestantism with new powers by the Catholic Church, and the persecution of heretical persons and the destruc- tion of heretical books had a great effect in forwarding the Catholic revival. Lastly, the Catholic Church took pains to define afresh the doctrines which she required to be received and held 40 MODERN EUROPE by the faithful. The Council of Trent, so called because its meetings were mostly held at the place of that name, met in 1545 under the pontificate of Paul III, and sat at intervals until 1563. Its decrees as to faith, morals, and discipline are embodied in the Creed of Pius IV (Pope 1559-1566), and these were unanimously accepted by the Catholic States. RISE OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC The name "Netherlands" now belongs to the Kingdom of Holland. In the Sixteenth Century the name denoted a number of provinces extending from the Zuyder Zee and the Dollart to the northern frontier of France, forming the tract of fertile alluvial land which now comprises the Kingdoms of both Holland and Belgium. Flanders, the southern portion of this territory, had acquired greatness in manufactures and commerce in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries, the most flourishing towns being then Ghent and Bruges. Early in the Sixteenth Century the Netherlands had come under the rule of Charles V, Emperor of Germany and King of Spain. At the Refor- mation the new faith made much progress in the country, and a contest of sects arose amongst those who had aban- doned the Catholic Church. In 1556, on the abdication of Charles V, the Netherlands had become a part of the great dominion ruled by his son, Philip II of Spain. The prosperity of the southern provinces especially was at this time great, in consequence of the valuable traffic carried on by the merchants of Flanders and Brabant, who exchanged the manufactures of the country for the riches drawn from America and India by the Spanish and Portu- guese. Antwerp had now succeeded to Bruges as the gen- eral mart of commerce, and was the richest town in the north of Europe. Wool to an enormous value was annually imported from England and Spain into the Netherlands for manufacture into cloth. The Zealanders carried on a most lucrative herring fishery in the Scotch waters. The 41 42 MODERN EUROPE people were strongly attached to liberty and chafed against undue restraint, the citizens of the great manufacturing town of Ghent being especially unruly under slight or oppression. The inhabitants of the northern provinces, now composing Holland, included the best sailors in Europe, famous for their courage and skill, which had been signally shown in expeditions made by their Sover- eign, Charles V, against the seats of heretical pirates at Tunis and Algiers. When the reformed doctrines made their way into the Netherlands, Charles V combated the heresy with severe measures of repression, which produced little effect. The invention of printing had produced its full effect of gen- eral enlightenment in the Netherlands, and the great increase of wealth and luxury had been accompanied by a keener taste for civil and religious freedom. Literature and the arts had made great progress. In the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries Flanders had produced historical writers who won great renown by charm of style; among these we may name Froissart (flourished about 1370- 1400), the chronicler of mediaeval wars, and Philip de Commines (lived 1445 to 1509), who wrote valuable memoirs on his own times, when he served Charles the Bold of Burgundy and Louis XI of France as a nego- tiator. Architecture had produced the cathedrals and town halls which yet form one of the principal charms of the country for tourists. The size, solidity, and beauty of design and execution in these wonderful buildings make them still speaking monuments of the stern magnificence and finished state of the age which brought them forth from the brain of the architect and the hand of the crafts- man. The musicians of Flanders were celebrated throughout Europe. John van Eyck, or John of Bruges, made great improvements in the art of painting in oil, and RISE OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 43 in linear and aerial perspective, and has left many exam- ples of his skill. Among the inventions due to the Neth- erlands were painting on glass, the polishing of diamonds, the making of lace and of tapestry, and the carillon or musical arrangement and working of bells, which still, from the fair aerial towers of Antwerp and of Bruges, delight the traveler's ear as with a song of angels singing carols in the sky. The University of Louvain was founded in 1425, and served greatly for the spread of knowledge, though it acquired afterward an evil name for fierce and useless theological disputes. The material glory of the Netherlands was the city of Antwerp, which was the great outlet for the industry of Europe, and the receptacle for the productions of all the nations of the known world. Its port was so often crowded with vessels that each suc- cessive fleet was obliged to wait long in the River Scheldt before it could obtain admission for the discharge of its cargoes. Such was the land, such were the people indus- trious, enterprising, energetic, enlightened, wealthy, and aspiring who were handed over to the rule of Philip II soon after the middle of the Sixteenth Century. Philip II (reigned 1556-1598) was a cold-blooded tyrant, remarkable for bigotry in creed and impurity in life; he was perfidious, patient, plotting, subtle, selfish, gloomy, ignorant, cunning, and cruel; history scarcely presents us with a character more revolting, more insensi- ble to, and more incapable of rousing, any human sym- pathy. The Empire over which this man was called to rule in 1556 was one of the most powerful and splendid that ever existed in the world. In Europe he ruled Spain, Portugal, conquered by him in 1581, the Netherlands, parts of what is now territory in the east and south of France, Franche Comte, a part of Burgundy, and Rous- sillon, by the Pyrenees, the Milanese, and the two Sicilies. 44 MODERN EUROPE Tuscany, Parma, and other small Italian States were com- pletely subject to his influence. In Asia this monarch pos- sessed the Philippine Islands and the rich settlements which had once belonged to Portugal on the coasts of Malabar and Coromanidel (in India), in Malacca, and the Spice Islands. In America, Mexico and Peru enriched him with the produce of their mines. He had a revenue estimated at ten times that which England yielded to Elizabeth. He had a powerful standing army, composed of the best soldiers in the world for discipline and train- ing, and he was possessor of a large and efficient fleet. He is the only sovereign of modern times who has been at the same moment supreme both on land and on sea. The power and influence which Philip II for several years wielded over Europe may be even regarded as superior to those which once belonged to- Napoleon I. Philip had resources which Bonaparte longed for in vain 'ships, col- onies, and commerce the trade of America and of the Indian seas, the gold of the West and the spices of the East. His maritime power was an object of dread to the statesmen of England even after the destruction of the Armada had forever freed them from fears of a Spanish invasion. Such was the mighty ruler defied by the men of the Netherlands when they were driven to revolt by persecution and tyranny. The odds were fearful; the struggle long, arduous, bloody, and desperate; the result was that freedom issued from the fiery furnace unscathed, triumphant, and secure. From the time of his accession to power (1556), Philip II had taken measures calculated to break down the constitutional liberties of his subjects in the Nether- lands; and he was determined, above all, to root out the religious heresy which had made progress in the country. His proceedings were cautious for the first few,years, and; RISE OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 45 aimed at undermining the safeguards for freedom which had been maintained under Charles V. The chief instru- ments of his rule a"t this time were Margaret, Duchess of Parma, a daughter of Charles V, and Cardinal Granvella, Bishop of Arras. As Philip's schemes of absolutism were by degrees unveiled, popular indignation caused him to remove Granvella in 1564; but in 1566 his irrepressible bigotry led him to introduce the Inquisition into the coun- try, and this step caused the outbreak known as the "Revolt of the Netherlands," which had its issue in the establishment of the Dutch Republic. A confederation of nobles was formed in the southern provinces; and the patriotic league took, in defiance, the name of the Gueux, or "Beggars," bestowed on them in derision by a sup- porter of the tyranny. The religious reformers of France and Germany took advantage of the occasion to pour into the Netherlands, and they made great progress in the work of proselytism, too often accompanied by outbursts of fanatical fury. The three chief Protestant sects were those of the Anabaptists, the Calvinists, and the Luther- ans, the city of Antwerp being the central point of union for them all, though the only principle which they held in common was their hatred against Catholicism, the Inquisition, and Spain. Fighting soon took place between the religious enthusiasts and the authorities, and matters were put beyond the reach of reconciliation by the excesses of the fanatics called Iconoclasts. These furious persons attacked the Churches throughout Flanders, Bra- bant, and other provinces, plundered and ruined the inter- ior of the splendid cathedral at Antwerp, wrought similar excesses at Tournay, Ghent, Valenciennes, Mechlin, and other towns, and pillaged in all several hundreds of Cath- olic shrines. William of Nassau, Prince of Orange, a small terri- 46 MODERN EUROPE tory in the south-east of France, known as "William the Silent," from his prudence and caution in diplomacy, and still gratefully called "Father William" by the Dutch, was the political creator of the new republic. Born in 1533, he was brought up as a Catholic, but became a Pro- testant in his manhood. Charles V discovered his abil- ity, and admitted him to his councils when he was little more than a boy. Philip II had from the first regarded the Prince of Orange with a just and jealous dislike, dis- cerning in him a dangerous antagonist. In subtlety of policy and penetration into characters and into motives of action, William was fully a match, as his career proves, for Philip himself, and he made the most energetic use of his powers of mind for the noble purpose of obtaining political and religious freedom for his fellow subjects. The wrath of Philip was excited against the whole people of the Netherlands 'by the doings of the Iconoclasts, and he resolved to crush by military force all resistance to his tyranny. An able Spanish general, a man of relent- less cruelty, named the Duke of Alva, arrived at Brussels with an army of veterans in August, 1567, and assumed the government of the country. The Inquisition was at once set to work, the decrees of the Council of Trent con- cerning the Catholic religion were promulgated, and a tribunal was appointed which soon earned, from its cru- elties, the name of the "Council of Blood." Its judg- ments were without < appeal; its decisions were swift and informal; its sentences were exile, confiscation, hanging, beheading, quartering, and burning. Alva and his sup- porters reveled in the gold obtained by organized plunder and the blood shed in torrents by systematic murder. It was the boast of Alva himself, when he laid down his authority, after less than six years' rule, that he had caused 18,000 inhabitants of the Netherlands to die by the hands RISE OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 47 of the executioner. William of Orange took the field against this reign of tyranny and terror in 1568, at the head of a force raised in Germany, and equipped by the help of the Huguenots of France, Elizabeth of England, and the German Protestant Princes. He was at first suc- cessful; but the patriots under his brother Louis of Nassau were severely defeated by Alva, and William's army melted from his want of means to pay and feed them. The cruelties o>f Alva were redoubled, and William of Orange retired to France to watch events and wait for another chance of striking a blow. In 1572 a gleam of success for the patriots came in the capture of the town of Brill (or Brielle), on an island at the mouth o>f the Maas. A general revolt at once occurred in Holland and Zealand, and the people declared for the Prince of Orange, and henceforth steadily sup- ported him in the Northern Netherlands. William marched into Brabant with a new army of French, Ger- mans, and English, and Louvain, Mechlin, Oudenarcle, and other towns were taken from the Spanish. A pow- erful fleet of Dutch vessels was equipped in the harbor of Flushing; and the Dutch navy, soon to acquire such fame, had begun to exist. The Spaniards retook Haar- lem after a siege of seven months; but it cost them 10,000 men from the desperation of the defense, and the cause of freedom grew visibly stronger. In 1573 Alva was recalled and was succeeded by Requesens, a man of mild character. The war continued with alternations of suc- cess. The skilled and valiant Spanish soldiery, ably com- manded, gained victories in the open field, but often failed in sieges. One of the most famous incidents of the war was the successful defense, in 1574, of the city of Leyden against force and famine; the place being saved at last by cutting the dykes and letting in the sea waters, which 48 MODERN EUROPE swept off the besiegers and brought up boats with pro- visions for the starving people of the town. At all points of the heroic struggle William o>f Orange was present either in person or in spirit, with prudent counsel, watch- ful care, and inflexible resolve. In 1575 the Spanish arms had more success; early in 1576 Requesens died; in November of that year occurred the awful event known as the "Spanish Fury," at Antwerp, when a large body of Spanish mutinous troops stormed and sacked the town, burning the Town Hall and hundreds of the better houses, slaughtering thousands of the citizens, plundering in reck- less madness for three days, and reducing the richest city in Europe to desolation and ruin. The representatives of the provinces -of the Netherlands were at this very mom- ent assembled at Ghent, and the treaty was drawn up known as the Pacification of Ghent, by which the prov- inces in the South bound themselves to aid the Prince of Orange and the provinces of Holland and Zealand to expel the Spanish forces, by any and by all means, from the territory of the Netherlands. By January, 1578, how- ever, the Spanish arms were again triumphant in the Southern Netherlands, where the population was chiefly Catholic, as in Belgium now, and those provinces finally submitted to Spain. The Prince of Orange, in January, 1579, by the Union of Utrecht, formed the northern provinces into a close league, and thus founded the Republic of the United Neth- erlands. In 1580 Philip II's hatred led him to put a price on William's head, payable to whoever should assassinate him. The United Provinces then renounced their alle- giance to Philip, and William of Orange was appointed Sovereign-Count of Holland and Zealand. In July, 1584, the Prince of Orange was assassinated in his house at Delft by a Burgundian fanatic named Eal- RISE OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 49 thazar Gerard, who fired three balls into his left side from a huge pistol. The murderer was seized and executed. William's son, Prince Maurice of Nassau, succeeded to his power in the United Provinces, and fought bravely and ably against Spain. The famous Duke of Parma, Alexander Farnese, one of the greatest generals of mod- ern times, was now (1585) in command of the Spanish forces, and his success in his great siege of Antwerp was a grievous blow to the patriotic cause. Elizabeth of Eng- land gave some ineffectual help, and in 1586 Sir Philip Sydney died gallantly and uselessly at Zutphen. The stubbornness of the Dutch alone enabled them to resist the genius and determination of Parma, but they did succeed in wearing him out at last, and Prince Maurice captured some towns from the Spanish in 1592; at the end of the year the great Spanish leader died of disease. In 1598, after further successes of Prince Maurice in the northern provinces, Philip II made the southern provinces, now Belgium, into an independent sovereignty under his nephew, the Archduke Albert of Austria. In September, 1598, Philip II died, and the Dutch Republic had got rid of her deadly and relentless foe. We cannot here pursue the fortunes of the rising State; it must suf- fice to say that in 1609 the Spanish government made a truce with the Republic, virtually, though not formally till 1648, recognizing Holland as an independent power. The protracted and dreadful war which had ended in establishing the Dutch Republic severely injured the south- ern Netherlands. Many thousands of the able artisans had fled from the tyranny of Alva into England, Germany, and Holland. Antwerp was ruined by the shocking event above recorded, and its trade and prosperity passed to Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and the towns of Holland and Zealand. The growth of Dutch commerce is shown in Vox,. 2 4 50 MODERN EUROPE the establishment of the India Company in 1 596, and the men of the Northern Netherlands soon superseded the Portuguese and surpassed the English in the trade with India, and established themselves without dispute in the seas further east. As a maritime people they became the first in the world, owning 1,200 merchant ships in Europe, manned by 70,000 sailors, being the great ship- builders for all nations, and reaping in all quarters of the globe the reward of skill, industry, and courage. The Jews driven from Spain and Portugal took refuge in Hol- land and added to the prosperity of her trade. The Dutch Republic had taken her place among the Nations of Europe in legitimate pride and with undeniable resources and power. ENGLAND UNDER THE TUDORS In England the Reformation was brought about without civil war. The divorce of Henry VIII from Catherine was the occasion but not the cause of its being accomplished. The event in itself was but the natural result of the workings of a man tyrannical by nature and who could not brook interference in spiritual affairs any more than he could in temporal matters. His prede- cessor, Henry VII, had striven as much as possible to rule without Parliament. Flattered and submitted to by dependents, Henry VIII was unequal to the great cir- cumstances among which he was thrown. The growth of tyrannical passions in Henry was due to the un- checked arrogance and self assertion of a stubborn will that nothing could turn from a purpose once formed. Ruin of fortune or death by the headsman's axe were the risks run by Ministers and courtiers who, after long and faithful service should venture to thwart his aims or offend his pride. Yet he courted popular favor and he gained it. At the very outset of his reign he aimed at popular measures. The old dream of French con- quest had not yet vanished from the minds of English sovereigns and Henry was persuaded to join his father- in-law, Ferdinand of Spain, in a league against France. He sent over a demand for the immediate restitution of his just heritage of Anjou, Maine, Normandy, and Gui- enne. TJie English were as vain and insolent as their King, and made little doubt of seeing him crowned in Paris. The result was a series of brilliant but useless victories, and such was always the history of his wars. The 5* 52 MODERN EUROPE two periods of really active warfare in his reign came at its two ends. From 1512 to 1514 was a time of war, a time of victory, on the part of England. The one year 1513 saw the defeat of the invading Scots on Flodden Field, and the conquest of Therouenne and Turnay by the King of England, in person. Again, in 1522 and 1523, Scotland and France were successfully invaded. Eighteen years later, in 1541, the Scottish wars began again; two years later England and the Empire were allied against France and Scotland. In 1544 England was again successful over both enemies. While the King in person took Boulogne, his brother- in-law burned Edinburgh and laid waste Scotland, as far as it came into his power. Neither by his diplomacy nor his successes did Henry VIII accomplish anything for England during his reign. However, his victories enabled him to carry the people with him in his more important meas- ures at home, such as the minimizing of the in- fluence of Parliament and the English Reforma- tion. The temporary dictatorship which he held by the popular will, and largely by the result of his use- less but glorious victories, enabled him to make radical changes. Henry's right hand for many years was Thomas Wolsey, who came to the head of affairs in 1515. The son of a butcher and afterward Court Chap- lain, he rose to be the only man in England at the head of both the Church and the State. He was Cardinal and Prime Minister, and aimed to become Pope. With his own ambition he mingled that of his. temporal chief, and to him was due the strength of England in diplomacy and the ease with which grants of money were made from Parliament. With Wolsey at his side, Henry had become one of the most ardent support- ENGLAND UNDER THE TUDORS 53 ers of the Papal authority in the struggle during the early days of the Reformation. He had even gone to the length of writing a letter in answer to Luther's arguments, which led Leo X to grant him the right to add "Defender of the Faith" to his titles. But a woman's face changed history. The marriage with homely Catherine of Aragon, staid and elderly, had never pleased Henry VIII, and he wished divorce, that he might wed the young and gay and beautiful Anne Boleyn, one of the maids of honor to the Queen. It is said that his desire for a male heir was also respon- sible for his wish for a new wife. To marry Anne, it was necessary to get rid of Catherine, and so, in 1527, Henry asked the Pope to pronounce the union null and void, on the ground that she had been his brother's widow. The Pope was in the power of Spain, and temporized. When the time came for a choice, he dared not offend Spain by granting the divorce, even had he been willing to countenance such illegal proceedings. Catherine was niece of Charles V, the great champion of the Church in its fight against Protestantism. The King suspected Wolsey of having thwarted his plans. With Henry, to suspect was to condemn unheard. He dismissed Wolsey, who died of broken spirit before he could be tried for treason. The period from the fall of Wolsey to the fall of his successor, Thomas Cromwell, is perhaps the most extraordinary in English history, as it is perhaps the most important. During this period were broken, link by link, all of the chains which bound England to the Papacy, and the country disparted from that system of the Nations which men had come to regard as no less divinely ordered than the system of the heavens itself. The severance of England from Rome was car- 54 MODERN EUROPE ried through by Parliament of 1529 to 1536, summoned after an interval of seven years, and largely composed of the creatures of the King. Despite the coldness of the Pope, Henry was as determined as ever on his divorce, and equally determined that he would not plead his cause at Rome, which would have been a direct admission of the Papal supremacy. By way of reliev- ing the scruples of the Pope, the case was submitted to the various Universities of Europe. Their verdict was not unanimous, but the majority declared that Henry's scruples were justified. The Pope, however, with the fear of the Emperor before him, would not be moved from his position. And, meanwhile, the Eng- lish Parliament, inspired by the King, proceeded with its work. By humbling the clergy, Henry doubtless thought that he would be most likely to bring the Pope to terms. Accordingly, one blow after another was struck at their privileges, until they were taught that their real master was, not the Pope of Rome, but the King of England. In 1531, by one of the meanest tricks that ever king played, the whole estate of the clergy was held to have fallen into a prsemunire, by admitting the legatine authority of Wolsey, which he had exercised with the King's full sanction, Their par- don was bought only by an enormous subsidy, and by acknowledging the King as supreme head on earth of the Church of England, a form of words now heard for the first time. In 1532, when all hope of a favor- able judgment from Rome had passed by, Henry is believed to have privately married Anne. In 1533 the death of Archbishop Warren made room for the pro- motion of Thomas Cranmer to the See of Canterbury, a promotion which was made by a show of Papal authority. The first act of the new primate was to ENGLAND UNDER THE TUDORS 55 hold a court, which declared the marriage of Catherine null and the marriage with Anne lawful. Then came the great, legislation of the year 1534, by which the Papal authority was wholly abolished, while the Act of Submission on the part of the clergy, subordinated all ecclesiastical legislation within the Kingdom to the royal will. The succession to the crown was settled in favor of the issue of Anne, to the exclusion of the issue of Catherine, and the punishment of treason was denounced against all who refused to swear to the suc- cession so ordained. The title of Supreme Head of the Church of England, already voted by the clergy, was now bestowed by Parliament, and full ecclesiastical powers were annexed to it. These powers were allowed to be exercised by deputy, and in 1535 Crom- well was made Vicegerent for the. King in ecclesiastical matters, with precedence in ecclesiastical convocation over the Metropolitan himself. On the other hand, a strict statute was passed for the suppression of heresy. The scheme of Henry was now fully established; the religion of England was Popery without the Pope. Professors of reformed doctrines did not gain any direct results by the change; but a direction was taken in the toleration of dissent. So great a change could not fail to lead to further changes, and the next six years of Henry's reign were a time in which all the influences at work were in the direction of further change, although Henry insisted that, with the excep- tion of the headship of the Pope, all Catholic doctrines were to be observed after the strictest orthodoxy. Thomas Cromwell's reign of terror, as it has been well called, now sets in. It is especially remarkable for the constant use of Acts of Attainder acts sometimes passed without giving the accused person the oppor- 56 MODERN EUROPE tunity of making any defense. Not that in Henry's reign a defense went for anything, even when the regu- lar forms of trial by a man's peers were observed. It was deemed for the King's honor that those whom the King accused should be convicted, and the Lords or the jury convicted accordingly. In more than one case entries were found in Cromwell's papers directing that such and such a person should be tried and executed. Meanwhile, new treasons and other crimes were invented. Martyrs were made on both sides. The supposed traitor and the supposed heretic were some- times drawn to death on the same hurdle. But the death of particular persons seemed but a small matter beside the great revolution which Cromwell wrought over the whole face of the country by his great work, the suppression of the monasteries. By order of the King, Cromwell had made a report on their condition. It justified the most drastic dealings, although the com- missioners were apt to make the best possible case for the King, and they gave plenty of one-sided evi- dence to prove that they had outlived their usefulness and were a detriment, rather than an aid, to public morals. On the strength of this report an act was passed (in 1536) for the suppression of all the monas- teries with a revenue of less than 200 a year. The year following the suppression of the small monasteries a formidable insurrection, known as the Pilgrimage of Grace, was organized in the northern counties, under the leadership of a barrister named Robert Aske. The revolt was crushed, and failed in all its objects, for the very next year Henry gave a final blow to the ancient Church by the suppression of all the remaining monas- teries. The revenues of the monasteries, to the amount of nearly 161,000, were devoted to small pensions for ENGLAND UNDER THE TUDORS 57 the Abbots and Priors, and for the erection of six new bishoprics. The bulk of the revenues, however, passed to the crown and those who made themselves useful to the King. By far the greater part of the vast reve- nues of the monastic houses was squandered or gambled away among the courtiers. Churches and church- yards were granted to private men, to be destroyed or desecrated at their pleasure. Cromwell was now the most powerful man in the Kingdom, but his fall, like Wolsey's, came through the King's passion for marriage. In 1536 Queen Catherine died, and the same year Anne Boleyn, of whom the King had tired, was executed in the Tower on the charge of infidelity to the King. The very day after her execution, Henry was married to Jane Seymour, who died giving birth to a son, afterward Edward VI. The succession being still insecure, Henry then took Anne of Cleves as his fourth wife, in hope of attaching Germany's interests to those of England. Henry was persuaded to marry Anne by a portrait Cromwell had shown him. When he found that Anne was extremely homely in appearance, he accused Cromwell o>f treason, and had him executed by Bill of Attainder, without the form of a trial. Anne was divorced, and Henry married Catherine Howard, who, within a few months, was exe- cuted for infidelity in her case, proved beyond dispute. A year later, in 1543, he married his sixth and last wife, Catherine Parr, who had the good fortune to survive him. During the last years of 'his reign the most important question was that of succession, and, although the King's daughters had been declared illegitimate, they were now placed in order of the succession of the crown after Edward, without being declared legitimate. The order of succession was placed at Edward, Mary, 58 MODERN EUROPE and Elizabeth. On no theory of law could Mary and Elizabeth be both legitimate, and the law had declared that neither of them was. The point is of importance, for in truth neither Mary nor Elizabeth reigned by any right of birth, but by a mere Parliamentary title. The reigns of his three children followed that of Henry in succession, according to the statute. The marked historical feature of these reigns is that they are the time of strictly religious reformation. It was found that the middle system of Henry could not last; that the English Church and Nation must throw its lot with one side, or the other in the great controversy of the age. Under Edward the religious reformation was wrought. Under Mary the work of Edward and then of Henry was undone, and the authority of Rome again admitted. Under Elizabeth the work of both Henry and Edward was done again. Her reign, four times the length of the two reigns of her brother and sister, is the time when the religious position of England took its final form. The National Church was organized in its essential features as it still remains. A main feature of the later religious history of England has been the steps by which the first Protestant dissenters and then the Roman Catholics have been admitted to full equality with the members of the National Church. Edward's reign (1547-1553) was without political effect, though it lasted six years. During her reign Mary (1553-1558) married Philip II, and lost Calais, the last English possession in France. She is remem- bered as "Bloody Mary," for her slaughter of Protes- tants, of whom 300 were burnt alive. The reign of Elizabeth (1558-1603) is one of the most brilliant periods of English history. No nobler group of ministers were ever gathered around a council ENGLAND UNDER THE TUDORS 59 board than that headed by Lord Burleigh. Though vain, frivolous, knowing nothing of womanly reserve or self-restraint in private life, with her ministers Eliza- beth became as a man, and if any trace of her sex lingered in her actual statesmanship, it was in her womanly tenacity of purpose. She was one of the ablest statesmen of her time, and her singular character has made her deserve a place in the volume on the "World's Famous Women," and the reader will there find refer- ences upon many events of the reign upon which we cannot dwell here. There will be found the famous story of her difficulties with Mary Stuart, Queen of Scotland, which was a quarrel both of women and of kingdoms. England was at war with France, and in close alli- ance with Spain, at the death of Mary Tudor. This state of things lasted during the early part of Elizabeth's reign. She helped the French Protestants, but she con- cluded peace in 1564. During the rest of her reign the old enmity to France died out. The accession of Henry of Navarre made Francei and England friends. As enmity for France -died out, so friendship for Spain died out also*. Philip, at first a suitor for Elizabeth's hand, became her most dangerous enemy. It was he who sent the famous Spanish Armada to attack England and con- quer the land which he claimed. When the news that Philip meditated the expedition came, Admiral Drake was sent to Cadiz, where he burnt a hundred vessels full of stores, and caused the expedition to be postponed for a year. But when it did come it was none the less for- midable for that. It consisted of 132 ships (besides caravels), 3,165 cannon, 2,088 galley slaves, 21,855 s l~ diers, 1,355 volunteers, and 150 monks, with Martin Alaraco, Vicar of the Inquisition, and was commanded 60 MODERN EUROPE by the Duke of Medina-Sidonia. A rudely armed and ill-trained militia, consisting of all the, men between sixteen and sixty years of age, was gathered by the English, but, fortunately, they were not matched against Philip's veterans. By the advice of Sir Walter Raleigh, it was resolved at all hazards to meet the foe at sea and endeavor to prevent the landing of the troops. The English fleet consisted of thirty-four vessels of the navy and a number of hastily armed merchant ships. On July 19, 1588, the Armada, dispersed once by a storm in May, entered the Channel, sailing in a crescent of seven miles in width from horn to horn. Ship after ship was lost to the Spaniards by surrender and destruc- tion, as the fleet advanced. The Spanish thought the English and their Dutch allies, who had come to their aid, would run at the sight of the Invincible Armada, as Philip called it. But they did not, and on July 29 Drake sent eight fire ships, well alight and filled with combustibles and explosives, drifting down with wind and tide among the crowded ships. In ter- rible consternation the Spanish tried to escape to the sea, and the English pursued them at a great advantage. A storm came up and drove the Spaniards among rocks and shoals, and the swift end of the "Invincible Armada" was that it lost thirty ships and 10,000 men, and, defeated and disgraced, sailed home again. England, by her wars with Spain, and especially that in which she aided the Netherlands, stood out as the great Protestant power of Europe. And in Elizabeth's reign England became more than a European power. Then was laid the foundations of her great colonial sys- tem. American colonization did not, as yet, really begin, and Indian colonization was yet more distant, but the defeat of the Armada showed the English their ENGLAND UNDER THE TUDORS 61 power at sea, and the seamen of England now broke into the maritime preserve of Spain. The English had always been considerable traders, although England formerly produced little but raw materials. The prod- uce of England, however, steadily increased after the Wars of the Roses. The woolen manufacture sprang into being, and the English had learned from the Italian merchants, who had long since been settled in Lon- don, to improve their vessels and carry their own com- modities to ports of Europe. In olden times, England had been supplied with Indian produce by an annual ship from Venice. They traded to Turkey for it as early as the time of Henry VII, and Frobisher tried to dis- cover the northwest passage to India. Sir Francis Drake was the first Englishman to sail to the Indian Archipelago (1577-1580), and the success of his voyage turned attention to the East. The Western Continent was not neglected. Possession was taken, in the name of a whole, of a part of North America, and the land was named Virginia, in honor of the Virgin Queen. Companies were formed on the Dutch model for plant- ing them with settlers. When Spain was shown to be too weak to drive them off, the merchants of London were not slow to compete with those of Amsterdam for the commerce which was fast slipping from the grip of the Portuguese, and on the last day of the Sixteenth Century the first East India Company was given its charter. The great seamen of Elizabeth's day Drake, Gilbert, and Cavendish like the others of their day, were little better than pirates, plundering the natives of the lands they visited, and robbing the ships they met at sea flying other flags. Aside from piracy, carried on under the name of privateering, from Elizabeth's day dates the English engaging in the slave trade, and 62 MODERN EUROPE the kidnaping and selling of negroes became an important part of English commerce. It is well known that the colonists in later days were forced to buy the cargoes of slaves sent them from England. In spite of many arbitrary acts of monarchical power, the cause of popular freedom was advanced during the reign of Elizabeth. The existing laws were strained, impartial jurors punished, and men imprisoned without warrant, while troublesome members of Parliament were suspended. Yet there was some progress, in that these evils were carried to a less extent than in previous reigns. In civilization, however, in spite of the intellectual bril- liancy of an age which produced Shakespeare and Bacon, England was behind other nations. Only about one-fourth of the land was tilled, manufactures were few, and the artisans unskilled. The population of 5,000,000 was ignorant and superstitious, and Francis Bacon himself refused to believe in the true theory of the solar system as expounded by Copernicus. It was still believed that the royal touch could cure scrofula. Medical science had no Ambrose Paire; witches were punished, and nearly everybody believed in all kinds of spirits, good and bad, fairies and imps, and elves and goblins. Bear-baiting, bull-baiting, and cock-fighting were the delights of the court. The foremost pastimes in the age of "Good Queen Bess" were gaming and drunkenness. In architecture was seen the chief sign of progress, with the appearance of chimneys, and of houses of brick and stone. O < O y. w w en z w ffi H h O H < W -r O K THE TURKS AND OTHER NATIONS IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY During the Sixteenth Century the power of the Ottoman conquerors continued to grow. Sultan Selim I conquered, in 1517, Egypt, Syria, and Palestine, and took possession of Mecca, the Holy City, in Arabia. Soliman II (the "Magnificent") reigned from 1519 to 1566. In 1522 he took Rhodes from the Knights of St. John. He then turned his arms against Hungary, which had been frequently exposed to Turkish assaults since the first appearance of the Ottoman power in Europe, and served as a bulwark to the rest of the con- tinent. Hungary had become a powerful Kingdom under Matthias Corvinus (reigned 1458-1490), who ruled with a firm hand, secured internal order and organ- ization, and was an able General and diplomatist. His measures for judicial administration were such that it was long a proverb in Hungary, "King Matthias is dead, and justice with him." He founded the University of Pressburg, and did much for Hungarian civilization. Under his successors things went badly for Hungary early in the Sixteenth Century. Oppression by the nobles caused insurrection of the peasants, which greatly weakened the State, and were with difficulty suppressed. In 1526 the first battle of Mohacs (in South of Hungary, on the Danube) sealed the country's fate for many years. There Soliman II, at the head of a great Turkish host, defeated and slew Louis II of Hungary, and for 160 years henceforth a great part of the country was a province of the Ottoman Empire in 63 64 MODERN EUROPE Europe. In Asia, Soliman deprived the Persians, in war, of Bagdad, Mesopotamia, and Georgia. After his great success in Hungary, Soliman threatened to over- run Germany, and to plant the standard of Mohammed in Western Europe, but was checked by defeat under the walls of Vienna in 1529, when Charles V was in power. At this period Turkey was formidable on the sea, and the Ottoman Admirals swept the Mediterranean, conquered Northern Africa, and landed troops who ravaged Minorca, Sicily, Apulia, and Corfu. Charles V succeeded in rallying the forces of Christendom against the Turks. The Venetians resisted their galleys on the sea. The great Genoese Admiral, Andrea Doria, who, in 1529, reorganized the Republic of Genoa on a new and permanent basis, took territory from the Turks in Greece in 1532, and in 1535 helped Charles V to capture Tunis. Ten Sultans, all of them brave and warlike, had now for two centuries and a half raised the power of the Crescent, but the internal strength of the State was undeveloped. In 1538 Soliman II united the priestly dignity of the Caliphate to the Ottoman Porte, making the Turkish Sultan the spiritual head of the Mohammedan races, but the conquered Nations were not incorporated into an organic whole, and after Soliman's death, in 1566, the power of the Ottoman Empire declined. The Sovereigns ceased to have ability and energy; the Nation sank into ignorance and slavery; rapacious and arbitrary Pashas ruled the provinces; while Europe made rapid progress in the arts of war and peace, the Ottoman Nation and Government remained inactive and stationary. Blindly attached to their doc- trines of absolute fate, and elated by former military glory, the Turks looked upon foreigners with contempt TURKS AND OTHER NATIONS 65 as infidels (Giaours). Without any settled plan, or on any principles other than those of religious hatred, and thirst for conquest, they fought with Venice, Hungary, and Poland. Dangerous revolts occurred among the provincial Governors (Pashas) and the petted soldiers, called Janizaries. The despotic Sultans used the dag- ger and bow-string freely against suspected persons, and the ablest Viziers or Ministers were sacrificed to the hatred of the soldiery and of the priests. The suc- cessor to the throne commonly put to death all his brothers, in fear of their rivalry, and the people looked with indifference on the murder of a hated Sultan or the deposition of a weak one. In 1571 the Turks, indeed, conquered Cyprus from the Venetians, but the same year brought a great disaster. At Lepanto (the ancient Naupactus, on the Gulf of Corinth), a battle was fought between the Ottoman navy and the combined fleets of the Christian States on the Mediterranean. Don John of Austria headed the Christian squadrons, and the result was the destruction of the Turkish fleet, to the number of 250 vessels of war. In this battle the great Spanish writer, Cervantes, author of "Don Quixote," fought bravely, and received three wounds, one of which disabled his left arm for life. Switzerland had gained independence in the Four- teenth Century, and vindicated it in the Fifteenth with triumphant success against the arms of Austria and Charles the Bold of Burgundy. In 1499, after a severe struggle and desperate fighting against the Emperor Maximilian I of Austria, Switzerland was definitely separated from the German Empire. New Cantons were from time to time admitted, and in 1513 the num- ber was brought up to thirteen, at which it remained till 1798. 66 MODERN EUROPE In the Sixteenth Century Savoy became an impor- tant State in Europe. In the Twelfth Century Amadeus III became Count of Savoy, in possession of Piedmont, and in 1416 Amadeus VIII was Duke of Savoy, as ruler of Piedmont and of territory now belonging to Switzer- land. Charles III of Savoy (reigned 1504-1553) helped the Emperor Charles V against Francis I of France, and was deprived in the end of all his territories by the French King, but his son, Philibert Emmanuel (1553-1580) regained them by the treaty of Cateau- Cambresis, in 1559. Savoy was a strongly Catholic State, and waged war against the heretical Waldenses, or Vaudois, who have been named in the account of the dawn of the Reformation. From time to time Savoy lost territory to the North, on the Swiss frontier, and gained new dominion to the South, in Italy. Charles Emmanuel I (ruled 1580-1630) lost territory in the war to Henry IV of France, but this was afterward regained, and during the Seventeenth Century Savoy increased in power and influence. Poland became powerful under Casimir III (reigned 1333-1370), surnamed the "Great," on account of his wisdom as a legislator and his exertions in civilizing the country. He fortified the towns and freed them from the oppression of the nobles, maintained peace with his neighbors, and greatly increased the national prosperity. The dynasty of the Jagellons, of Lithuania, began with Ladislas II, in 1296, when he embraced Christianity, married the Queen of Poland, and so united the crowns of Poland and Lithuania, and their rule con- tinued till 1572. Under this line of Kings, Poland gained in power and extent, obtaining territory in 1447 from the Teutonic Knights to the North, and annexing Livonia in 1561. In 1569 the Lithuanian nobles were TURKS AND OTHER NATIONS 67 admitted into the Polish Diet, and Warsaw was made the place of meeting. As in other countries of Europe, the popular representatives of towns and country dis- tricts lost their influence in Poland through the unpatri- otic selfishness of the nobles, and guarantees for the liberty of the people were done away with. On the extinction of the Jagellon dynasty, in 1572, Poland became an elective monarchy, and although for a time her arms were victorious against foreign attacks, her influence in Europe declined. A change occurred in Scandinavia early in the Sixteenth Century. From 1513 to 1523, Christian II, called "the Cruel," from his gross tyranny, was King of Denmark and Norway, and had become King of Sweden also, in 1520. In 1523 a great change came for Sweden. Gustavus Vasa, son of a Swedish noble, after fighting against the Danish oppression under' Christian II, had become a fugitive, working as a common laborer in the mines of Dalecarlia, in the center of Sweden. He raised a force in the district, and headed an insurrec- tion of the Dalecarlians, in 1521. He defeated the Danes, seized Upsala, and had such success that in 1523 he was elected King by a Provincial Diet, captured Stockholm, embraced Lutheranism, and was crowned as Gustavus I of Sweden in 1528. The Lutheran reli- gion was then formally established in Sweden, and Gus- tavus reigned with vigor till his death, in 1560, the King- dom having been declared hereditary in his line, and Sweden having now acquired a position of power and influence in Europe. THE RENAISSANCE Although during the Middle Ages humanity had not lost its intellectual life, still the name of the Renaissance has been adopted to designate the revival of art and let- ters in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries. The world, in fact, seemed to be born again. Princes and popes, nobles and monks, knights and burghers, seemed all seized with ardent thirst for knowledge and admiration of art. Scholars argued, poets sang, and in Germany Ulrich exclaimed, in allusion to this outburst of the higher curi- osity, "How good it is to live!" The sudden awakening was caused by a tempest that outwardly seemed little likely to benefit intellectual prog- ress. Constantinople, which still guarded the precious treasures of antiquity, had fallen, in 1453, into the power of rude and ignorant conquerors. The Greeks fled from their enslaved country, and dispersed, carrying with them the books they no longer studied themselves, but which were joyfully welcomed in France and Italy. It was a world refound. The rich imagination, the brilliant lan- guage of the Greek writers, masters of every style, sud- denly appeared, dazzling the learned, who until then had exhausted themselves in vain efforts to find perfection. Ancient Greek once more reconquered the West. At pre- cisely the same date, Gutenberg succeeded in completing his invention of printing. In a few years it had become universal, and printing multiplied the works of the ancient as well as of the modern authors. Alphonso the Magnanimous (1416-1458) had founded an academy at Naples, and in Rome Nicholas V 68 THE RENAISSANCE 69 founded the Vatican Library, where he collected five thou- sand volumes. In Florence Cosmo de' Medici (1389- 1464) the merchant Pericles, who ruled a republic not less variable than the Athenian State, surpassed all other Princes by the enlightened taste with which he encouraged letters and art. His grandson, Lorenzo de' Medici ( 1449- 1492), who transformed the purely moral authority wielded by Cosmo into a monarchical power, continued his liberality toward the learned in spite of this changed policy. He created an academy, and admired Plato so much that he revived a festival which his disciples had formerly cele- brated in his honor. He founded the library that still bears his name, the Medico-Laurentian Library. The lesser Italian Princes had their court poets, philosophers and artists; for instance the house of Este at Ferrara, the Montefeltro at Urbino, the Gonzagas at Mantua, the Sforza at Milan, the Benti-voglio at Bologna, lastly, John de' Medici, who became Pope under the name of Leo X, and united in his own person the glory of all these generous protectors of science and art. He deserved, through the incomparable greatness with which he pre- sided over the intellectual movement, to leave his name to a Century thus highly distinguished by its fertility in authors and artists. The imitation of the antique furnished the forms and rules of poetry, but inspiration was chiefly derived from the chivalric poems of France, whereon the Middle Ages had lavished all the imagination of feudal and Christian society. After some attempts at epic poetry from Luigi Pulci, who recited the "Morgante Maggiore" at the table of Lorenzo de' Medici, and from Boiardo, who wrote the "Orlando Innamorato," Ariosto (1473-1500), the poet of the early part of the epoch, appeared. Taking up the legend of Roland, already disfigured by Boiardo (1434- 70 MODERN EUROPE 1494), under another form, Ario'Sto composed and pub- lished his great work, "Orlando Furioso," where his imagination reveled in fantastic palaces, marvelous adventures, golden lances and winged horses, but where he sketched profoundly human characters. Inspired by Homer, Virgil, and Ovid, he borrowed the arts of descrip- tion and word painting from his great masters, while at the same time he retained the spirit of the "Chansons de Geste," and animated his characters with Christian senti- ments. His poem is the most vigorous expression of the society of that epoch, still enthusiastic for chivalry and religion in spite of a curious retrogression toward pagan idolatry. These characteristics are still more clearly seen in Tasso's poem (1544-1595), "Jerusalem Delivered." Following the plan of the "Iliad," he glorified the Cru- sades at an epoch when they were not likely to recom- mence, and blended Christian miracles with chivalric leg- ends and gallantries. We find one sign of the new times in this poem : women are celebrated under the names of Armada, Clorinda, and Hermione; and the charm of the "Jerusalem Delivered" lies in the tenderness of the senti- ment, though the extravagance of its conceits almost spoil it. Tasso's work is well nigh the last epic poem, for this style, which appears spontaneously in young naive societies, was not suited to the rationalistic, studious spirit of the Sixteenth Century. History and politics were more suited to the men of the Renaissance. Machiavelli (1469-1527), a disciple of Livy, educated in the schools of war and diplomacy of his time, joined the skill of the ancients to the penetra- tion of the moderns. His discourse on the first "Books of Livy" analyzes the causes of the greatness of Rome. His political correspondence displays, together with saga- cious observations of human conduct, thorough acquain- THE RENAISSANCE 7 1 tance with the interests of States. His "History of Flor- ence" is one of the most literary, if not the most conscien- tious, models of the art of narration. Machiavellism has always existed, but it owes its name to the author of the "Prince." He forms the subject of a sketch in the volume devoted to "Great Statesmen." Fighting for more than a half a Century in Italy, the French were dazzled by the civilization of the land which they invaded; they admired the cities from which they exacted ransom, the palaces they occupied as masters, the magnificent churches which they alone respected. The manuscripts, pictures and sculptures excited their curios- ity and envy, even more than the rich materials and ele- gant furniture. Charles VIII and Louis XII employed Italian workmen. Francis I surrounded himself with scholars and artists. Humanism then appeared in France to revive the studies that had become fruitless under the influence of scholasticism. Francis I encouraged learning, and Danes, Postel, Vatable, Turnebe, and Bude adorned his court. Bude induced Francis I to create the College of France. Francis I wished that Hebrew, Greek, and Latin should have special chairs, to which he afterward added chairs of science. The monarch thus encouraged a new method of instruction by the side of scholastic teaching; a fertile innovation, giving an impulse to education, which was never afterward lost. Francis I endeavored to attract to his new college the most famous doctor of his age, Eras- mus, born at Rotterdam, who traveled in every country, and had no home but the republic of letters. Erasmus (1465-1536) wrote in Latin, which he handled with con- summate ease; his biting satires against the monks and the abuses of the Church rendered him unwittingly one of the precursors of the Reformation; his aim was merely 73 MODERN EUROPE the diffusion of true learning. His "Praise of Folly" gives him a place among the observers of humanity and the keenest moralists, but his greatest work was perhaps his edition of the Greek Testament. Spain at that date exercised intellectual as well as political ascendancy. Her language, perhaps the finest of the Romance tongues, had been formed during the Middle Ages; more forcible and sonorous than Italian, it derived from the Arabs strength and a rich vocabulary. From the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries the Spaniards had their "Chansons de Geste," "The Poem of the Cid." Poets whose names are now lost, sprang up in Christian Spain, writers of stirring ballads, chiefly historical, relat- ing in short, graceful verse the exploits and gallantries of the knights. This literature was continued by a succes- sion of masterpieces which made the Spanish literature of that date well 'nigh the first in Europe. The cultured classes imitated the Italian poets, and even borrowed their meters. Boscan copied Petrarch. Garcilaso de la Vega, even while following Petrarch, Bembo, and San- nazaro, caught their full grace and sweetness, but unhap- pily introduced their conceits and affectation also. Castillejo rebelled against the too frequent imitation of the Italians, and rejected a pastoral style, which he deemed unworthy of a warrior race. Hurtado de Men- doza (1503-1575), a learned ambassador, poet, novelist, and historian, initiated in Spain the realistic novel, by his masterpiece, the first part of "Lazarillo de Tormes." Fernando de Herrera (1549-1623) revealed the beau- ties of the classic ode to Spain, and celebrated the exploits of a Christian hero, Don Juan of Austria. Fr. Luis Ponce de Leon (1528-1591) was the first of the great Spanish mystic writers. In fact, at this time the destruction of religious unity rekindled a more fervent faith in all Catho- THE RENAISSANCE 73 lies, and Spain produced Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the Jesuit order, and Saint Theresa, whose prose writings are admirable, and whose poems remind us of Blake in their dark doggerel gemmed with passages of inimitable beauty. The writings of chivalry had not yet ended. The "Amadis de Gaul," translated from old Celtic legends by Montalvo, obtained great success in Spain, and pastoral novels again became fashionable with Jorge de Monte- mayor. But these, particularly the romances of chivalry, soon encountered a terrible adversary in the famous Cer- vantes (1547-1616). This valiant soldier, who lost his left hand in the battle of Lepanto, and during his whole life was subject to the pressure of narrow means, was indignant with his countrymen for their liking for these romances, and their false extravagances. He found them an admirable subject for parody, and in his marvelous "History of Don Quixote de la Mancha," he made a hero of a poor hidalgo, whose head had been turned by these writings. If the work of Cervantes had been merely a literary satire it would probably have been forgotten in spite of its merits; but Cervantes, to a biting wit, a vivid imagination and a rare talent for depicting landscapes and characters, added a depth of observation that has rend- ered his novel a mirror of humanity. Blended with curi- ous episodes, the sole blot on the work, the burlesque, amusing adventures of Don Quixote and his companion, Sancho Panza, Cervantes introduced wise maxims, shrewd remarks upon the passions and vices not only of the soci- ety of his times, but of men of all ages. Walter Scott said that his book was one of the master works of the human mind. Cervantes had endeavored to give the Spanish theater the form that his knowledge and intelligence pointed out 74 MODERN EUROPE as the ideal. But he ceased writing for the stage when he saw the wonderful success achieved by Lope de Vega (1562-1635). Gifted with marvelous imagination and inexhaustible fertility (for it is said that he wrote fifteen hundred plays), Lope de Vega, who was soldier, priest, and monk, added historical and religious dramas to come- dies of intrigues called "Cloak and Sword." Although composed of a series of improbable adventures, these com- edies attracted the crowd by the clearness of the plot, and the vivacious and natural dialogue. With regard to his- torical tragedies, Lope de Vega never attempted to bind himself by imitating the ancients. He introduced history into his plays, without troubling himself about unity of time or place. His school even in the Sixteenth Century added so much luster to Spanish literature that it strongly influenced the literature of other countries, particularly of France. Portugal has only one great name, that of Camoens (1525-1579), who in "Os Lusiadas" celebrated the discov- eries and exploits of the Portuguese. His work is at the same time a magnificent epic and a history. His great epic poem, the "Lusiad," deals with Vasco da Gama's expedition to India a narrative of Portuguese history being mingled with splendid poetic descriptions, and Christianity being interwoven with mythological fables. The "Lusiad" is an Iliad to the Portuguese Nation, whose lower classes learn and sing its stanzas. The poem is rich in patriotic feeling, which endears it to the singer's countrymen ; foreign critics place it high among epics of the lower order. In England mental energy was kindled by the same rays that vivified Spain, France, and Italy. England from the earliest days of modern times had become a great power. The Nation had been formed from mingled Celtic, THE RENAISSANCE 75 Saxon, Danish, and Norman elements; the language, which after the Norman conquest had been strongly impregnated with old French idioms, and consequently with Latin words, was of Germanic origin. The litera- ture is marked by a greater variety and breadth, as well as beauty of style, than that of any other Teutonic tongue. In the Fourteenth Century appeared a great poet, Chaucer, who has never been excelled as a bright and cheerful painter in verse of the life of his contemporaries. The Classical and Pagan Renaissance of the Sixteenth Cen- tury, coinciding with the Reformation which completed the individuality of the English character, and also with the reign of Elizabeth, completed the conditions most favorable to the development of literature. From the Sixteenth Century English literature has shone with great brilliancy. Spenser (1552-1559) in his "Faerie Queen," made even epic allegory beautiful, and for splen- did, indeed almost excessive, richness of imagery has few rivals. In the theater, after precursors like John Lyly and Marlowe who at any other epoch would have been supreme Shakespeare (1564-1616) appeared, the great- est dramatic genius of England, indeed, it is admitted, of the world. The son of a burgess of Stratford, he became both actor and author, comedian and manager of the the- ater; under him the drama regained, in the Sixteenth Century, the power and inspiration of the great poets of Greece, added to the vigor and free imagination of the poets of the Middle Ages. Cosmopolitan and yet deeply patriotic, the admirer of modern and ancient Italy, but still more the admirer of his own country, Shakespeare was alternately Italian in Romeo and Juliet and in Othello. Roman in Coriolanus and Caesar, but above all English in his dramas founded on episodes in the national history 76 MODERN EUROPE like Henry V, Richard III, and Henry VIII, or Scotch legends like Macbeth. He was a genius who revived the past ages, clothing them with life, and was equally at home in violent scenes from the Italy of the Middle Ages, in the horrors of the War of the Roses, in semi-barbarous times, in depicting his contemporaries, or in weaving into his drama the delicate creations, the fairy glamour of poetic folk-lore. With a genius that breaks through all obstacles, he places an entire population upon the stage, carries history into the theater, and although he gives full play to his imagination, he is yet more true to history than many historians. Nothing can equal the movement and warmth of these complicated dramas, which unravel themselves now in a palace, now in a street, now on a bat- tlefield, placing on the stage and in close proximity men of all ranks, and replacing the old chorus by a crowd. Shakespeare thus passes to every key, grave and gay, often jocular, sometimes coarse. He descends into the common jests of the populace with as much facility as he rises to the sublime, and of his best pieces the world will never tire. But he has merited the admiration of posterity chiefly through his knowledge and description of the passions of humanity. The characters of his personages are even more true from a human than from an historical point of view. And, when he has had no model to draw from, he has created types of incontestable veracity. Macbeth, and his wife, Lady Macbeth, the types of criminal ambi- tion; Othello, of jealousy; Desdemona, the gentle victim of the noble but deluded Moor; Juliet, the graceful incar- nation of love; and, lastly, Hamlet, the philosophical dreamer, the man attacked by a melancholia unknown to antiquity, the precurser of thousands of tormented souls, possessed by the strange sadness that seems peculiar to THE RENAISSANCE 77 modern times. Shakespeare had little knowledge of the ancients, but he is a true poet, touched with the imprint of the keen sensibility, the humor, and the weird fancy which are characteristic features of the Northern races. The Greeks and Romans admirably described the sadness produced by misfortune, but they would not have under- stood a vague melancholy and discontent with life in the flower of youth and manhood. Great as were his contemporaries, Ben Jonson, Mas- singer, Fletcher, Webster, and Ford, England never pro- duced a second dramatic poet who could rank with Shakes- peare, and at that time her literature was only beginning to develop; though it afterward excelled in various other styles. The age that produced the greatest dramatist pro- duced the greatest essayist. Like Shakespeare, Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) was not appreciated by his contemporaries, but each Century has seen a widening of the circle of his admirers and they include the acutest intellects of every age. To be amusingly and simply self- ish is ever the part of this charmingly egotistical man. His motto was Que sais-jef "What do I know?" and frankly the skeptic declared that the answer was nothing. Merely to live, merely to muse over the spectacle of the world, simply to feel even if the thing felt be agony, and to reflect on the pain and on how it may be best borne this is enough for Montaigne. Bacon's essays appeared in England a few years later and won immediate popu- larity for their worldly wisdom. Bacon's philosophical works belong to the Seventeenth Century and they have been discussed in the volume on the World's Great Phil- osophers. Aroused by the great geographical discoveries and the needs of navigation, the curiosity of the human mind 78 MODERN EUROPE was now directed to the observation of nature and the explanation of the system of the world. Science revived at the same time as literature. At first scientific men, like scholars, only devoted themselves to translations of and commentaries on the work of the Greek sages, which, although better known and better interpreted than for- merly, could not, like the works of the poets, historians, and philosophers, satisfy the avidity of their readers, who were often discouraged by the small results obtained by their long labor. Meritorious as the works of the Greek mathematicians and astronomers undoubtedly were, par- ticularly of the Alexandrian school, they had never reached any true explanation of the physical system of the uni- verse, or of the movements of the planets and the stars. The glory of seeking and finding this solution belongs to the moderns. In literature they are the disciples of the ancients. In science they are masters and creators. Too much honor can hardly be paid to those men who, dispers- ing the darkness that had accumulated through the errors of the ancients, have in some degree replaced the world in its true orbit, and made the earth turn round the sun instead of the sun round the earth. ' Already some astronomers had, like Nicolas de Cusa, timidly essayed to correct the errors of our senses. Already the knowledge of the sphericity of the earth, vic- toriously proved by the discoveries of Christopher Colum- bus, had pointed to the truth. But the great facts of the solar system were first perceived by an obscure Canon of Frauenberg, in Prussia. Copernicus (1473-1543) born at Thorn, in Poland, in his little town on the Vis- tula, profiting by the knowledge acquired in several jour- neys to Italy, consecrated his entire life to the observa- tion of the stars and of calculations of their respective posi- tions. It was not until the end of his career that he THE RENAISSANCE 79 decided to publish a book on the ''Revolutions of the Heav- enly Bodies," which annihilated all the systems adopted, or rather imagined until then. The theory of Copernicus that the earth and the planets move round the sun, super- seded the old Ptolemaic theory that the earth was the center of the universe, and that the sun, stars, and planets moved round the earth as center. The Copernican theory is the foundation of modern astronomy. It must, how- ever, be remembered that as early as the Third Century before Christ, Aristarchus of Samos had discovered not only that the earth moves, which was known to Pytha- goras, but that it moves round the sun. This first expla- nation of the solar system was naturally very defective. Copernicus made many mistakes such as his idea that the earth, in her course round the sun, always turned the same side toward it but still he had at least glimpses of the truth and founded a new and correct system of astron- omy, a Century before the invention of scientific telescopes, by force of unwearied observation, mental independence, and penetrative power of intellect. For a long time men refused to accept his discovery. Astronomy made still further progress with Tycho Brahe (1546-1601) a Dane who, after erecting an obser- vatory, Uranienborg, i. e. the City of the Heavens, on the small island of Hven, three leagues from Copenhagen, and passing twenty-five years there in profitable obser- vations, was at last forced to leave it and placing himself under the protection of the Emperor Rudolph II, settled himself in the castle of Benatek, near Prague. His life work chiefly consisted in the vast array of facts stored up by his long and patient investigations for the use of those who followed after him. The progress of astronomical science in the Sixteenth Century led to an important reform in the calendar. The So MODERN EUROPE Julian calendar was based on the tropical year (three hundred and sixty-five days and a quarter, or six hours), but there was a difference of eleven minutes too many on the exact year, which accumulating from Century to Cen- tury produced real disorder in the recurrence of the yearly festivals. In 1582 Pope Gregory XIII (1502-1585), after consulting the celebrated astronomers of his time, ordered the suppression of ten days, from the fourth to the fifteenth of October, 1582. Still, as the Julian cal- endar, they retained one extra day inserted every four years, but it was arranged that certain leap years should be suppressed to maintain the quasi-perpetual equilibrium. The progress of astronomy had been greatly aided by the advance in mathematics. Tartiglia, Cardan, Ferrari, and others resumed the work of the old Greek geometri- cians, and continued it with so much ardor that they sent each other solemn challenges for contests of figures, as the knights did for their combats in the tilt yard. They invited each other to solve problems and equations, and the learned world paid great attention to these pacific rivalries, which, however, were not always without bit- terness, for the hot passions of the Sixteenth Century invaded even the sanctuaries of science. The French mathematicians rivaled the Italians, and through their noble emulations the science of geometry was built up. Pierre de la Ramee, called Ramus, the celebrated philoso- pher, secured a solid foundation for it by translating Euclid's "Elements." A jurisconsult, Viete (1540-1603) created algebraic language. Until then numerals were always used for operations, the unknown and its quantities only being represented by abbreviations and signs. Viete represented all quantities by letters. He thus developed geometry and trigonometry. Medicine made a decisive step with Paracelsus (1493- THE RENAISSANCE 81 1541 ) who rejected the Greek and Arab authors to devote himself to the direct observation of nature and a search for her remedies. Andreas Vesalius made it the basis of a serious study of anatomy and the human body. Reli- gious respect for the dead had been carried to such a point that dissection of corpses had not been allowed. Vesalius (1514-1564), physician to Charles V and Philip II, braved this prejudice, and from that time the healing science began to develop. Ambroise Pare (1517-1590), surgeon to Charles IX and Henry III, deserves to be called one of the benefactors of humanity. He healed as much as possible, instead of always amputating. Yet medicine and surgery, like other sciences, were still in their infancy. The efforts of true science were obstructed in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries by the obstinacy of the astrologers and sorcerers. It seems as though the chi- merical sciences had doubled their propaganda, judging by the terrible cruelty used for their suppression by the Inquisition and the Princes. Sorcerers multiplied; in vain were they burnt by thousands, for in a few years there were 6,500 cases of sorcery in the electorate of Treves. The moral epidemic (for it was really that) spread everywhere. The horrible persecution only increased the evil which it was intended to cure. Besides, this tendency to persecute astrology and sorcery was a real hindrance to true science. Learned men dared not publish all their theories, and more than one great student perished a victim of his boldness because his works com- bated some popular errors. Human thought had not yet attained liberty, and even the Century of the Reformation, far from being a Century of free examination, was an age of persecution. The executions of the printer, Etienne Dolet, and of the learned de Berquin, in the reign of VOL. 2 6 82 MODERN EUROPE Francis I, and of a number of others in all Centuries, the growing severity of the Inquisition in Spain, proved that in this society, outwardly so pagan, what was called reli- gion still ruled the State, and many of its chiefs, blinded by ignorance, never realized how Christianity was dis- torted and dishonored by these cruelties. Art had escaped from the fetters that in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries hindered the flight of the human mind. The true Renaissance was the revival of art. Architects, painters, and sculptors attained a perfection that has been the despair of later ages, although it has served as their model. There is, however, not much rea- son for astonishment, for in reality this Renaissance in Italy dated back to the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries. The epoch specially designated the Renaissance was only the epoch of its maturity. Italy had preceded other coun- tries in the development of wealth, industry, commerce, and the social spirit which triumphed over civil disunion. For several Centuries it had been elegant, cruel, polished, and barbarous. The streets of its cities were the scene of wars and assassinations, mingled with joyous festivals of rare magnificence. Its petty sovereigns, while encour- aging the poets, employed assassins; the admiration of the antique was joined to a reckless, ferocious disposition; religious observances followed or preceded grave crimes. Under an outer dress of exquisite refinement, in halls peopled with Greek and Roman statues or adorned with valuable paintings, tragedies took place which rendered the history of the Italian principalities and republics full of sinister incidents. But this state of civil war, of ambuscades, leagues, and persecutions, preserved the mind in such continual activity that the arts profited by it. The most marked feature of the Renaissance is the many- sided culture, the versatility, the fullness of the life of its THE RENAISSANCE 83 devotees. The power of the scholar, soldier, poet, theolo- gian, and artist in more than one art were often united in one individual, as in Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) painter, architect, sculptor, scientist, engineer and musi- cian. The real school of the Italian artists was antiquity at least, for architecture and for sculpture, since they had no examples of the painting of the ancients. To this love of antiquity they added religious inspiration, if not gen- uine, still forcible enough to produce masterpieces of art, for the churches were the chief works of the architects. The Pointed or Gothic style had hardly been acclimatized in Italy, where, in architecture, Byzantine influence had always predominated. At the end of the Thirteenth Cen- tury the study of the Roman monuments, the ruins of which were then being explored, inspired Arnolfo di Lapo, the architect of the cathedral of Florence. He designed the cathedral upon the plan of the primitive basil- icas. Brunelleschi (1379-1446) completed Arnolfo's work by adding the cupola, an octagonal arch on an eight- sided drum, the chief work of the Renaissance. This dome, which afterward inspired Barmante and Michael Angelo, was 358 feet high. From that time the Italians erected buildings in imitation of the antique, and archi- tecture merited the name of classic. Rome was embel- lished with palaces, like the Massimi Palace, the object of study and admiration of all artists, with its Doric ves- tibules and courts; and the Farnese Palace. But the churches were the chief objects of emulation to the archi- tects, Peruzzi, Antonio de San Gallo, Vignoles, and Jac- ques de la Porte. The monument which best represented the new art, which most majestically transmitted profane traditions and blended them with religious requirements, is the immense basilica of Saint Peter's at Rome, com- 84 MODERN EUROPE menced under Julius II from the plans of the celebrated Barmante (1444-1514), continued under Leo X and his successors, and only completed under Sixtus V. A series of illustrious artists after Bramante Giocondo, Julian de San Gallo, Raphael, Peruzzi, Antonio de San Gallo, and lastly Michael Angelo, labored upon this gigantic work, one of the wonders of modern times by its mass, by its extraordinary proportions (for it could contain several cathedrals), by the beauty of its marbles, stuccos, and mosaics, and by the boldness of its dome, which rises to nearly 420 feet above the pavement of the church. It is a triumph of science and art, of lines and curves, the per- fection of magnificence in architecture, and the most won- derful monument ever raised to the Christian religion with the aid of pagan tradition; but it is wanting in the deeply religious sentiment that pervades the Gothic cathedrals. In the following Century Bernini (1598-1680) placed a double semicircular colonnade in front of the porch of Saint Peter's, worthy of this prodigious temple. St. Paul's, in London, is the great specimen of the style of the Renais- sance and of the employment of the dome in England; it was built by Sir Christopher Wren ( 1675-1710). Sculpture had preceded architecture in Italy, an"i from the Thirteenth Century Nicholas of Pisa had carved the pulpits of Siena and Pisa, and the Tomb of Saint Dominic at Bologna. He was followed by Andrea de Pisa and Andrea Orcagna. In the Fifteenth Century Lorenzo Ghiberti (1378-1455) made himself famous by the bronze gates of the Baptistery at Flor- ence, to which he devoted forty years' labor. Dona- tello, Mino de Fiesola, Lucadella Robbia, and Sanso- vino ornamented the churches with numerous statues. Lastly, Michael Angelo (1475-1564) appeared, the uni- versal artist, who, whilst yet quite young, opened his THE RENAISSANCE 85 career by sculpture. He adorned the mausoleum of Lorenzo de' Medici with magnificent statues of "Dawn," "Twilight," and "Night," and decorated the churches of Rome with his masterpieces. Torreggiano merited the rank of Michael Angelo's rival. Benvenuto Cellini (1500-1570) jeweler, engraver, goldsmith, chaser, sculptor, and artist has left some sculptures at Flor- ence, but worked chiefly at Fontainebleau. The "Per- seus" ornaments the Loggia de Lanzi at Florence. The Byzantine painters, like the ancient Egyptians, had failed through conventionality and religious restric- tions. Yet from the Thirteenth Century the progress of study in Italy and the mental ardor awakened in the West, placed Cimabue (1240-1302) in the way of true art, which emancipated itself under Giotto (1276-1337), in the Fourteenth Century. This little shepherd, whom Cimabue had noticed drawing his sheep on the sand, and who became painter, sculptor, architect, engineer, mosaic-worker, etc., really founded the Italian school. He observed nature, studied foreshortening and per- spective, and gave his figures both life and expression. Painting was at this time treated in water colors, but, although its materials were imperfect, it made great progress. The Italian love of fresco decorations for churches and palaces gave birth to a great number of artists, and the walls of the civil or religious edifices were covered with vast pictures which time has, unfor- tunately, effaced. Andrea Orcagna (1329-1368) painted a grand fresco of "Hell" in Santa Maria Novella, of Florence, and an eccentric "Last Judgment," inspired by Dante, for the Campo Santo, at Pisa. Fra Gio- vanno, surnamed Fra Angelico, was the most devo- tional of painters. Michael Angelo observed that "the good monk must have visited Paradise, and obtained 86 MODERN EUROPE permission to paint his models from there." Masaccio (1401-1443), by his fresco and pictures, was one of the first restorers of painting. An old man's head, painted on a canvas, and now preserved in the Museum of Flor- ence, is a masterpiece of drawing and observation. The Florentine school was founded. Religious feeling, which is so deeply imprinted on the works of the earliest Italian painters who lived almost in the Middle Ages, was still more fervent in the Northern countries, particularly in Flanders, where the Corporation of Artists, formed in imitation of the Drapers' Guilds, worked with the ambitious desire to illuminate the churches like religious manuscripts. The wealth of the Flemish cities was not only displayed in the growing luxury of the houses belonging to the manufacturing burghers, but also in the Guildhalls and in the ornamentation of oratories and altars. The Dukes of Burgundy encouraged the first efforts of art, and an illustrated Bible, by Jehan of Bruges, who became famous toward 1372, is preserved in the Museum of The Hague. This artist, the first Flemish painter, was employed by the Duke of Anjou, brother of Charles V, to design the cartoons for the famous tapestries of the Apocalypse, which are preserved or, at least, some portion of them, in the Cathedral of Angers. In a short time nearly every town produced some artists, and the Renaissance commenced amongst the fogs of Flanders at the same time as under the beautiful Italian sun. In Flanders, the brothers Van Eyck, by the invention of oil colors and varnish, gave to painters the medium by which their compositions could be preserved practically forever. By this invention (discovered about 1410) Jan Van Eyck rendered to art the same service that Guten- berg rendered to literature by his discovery of printing. THE RENAISSANCE 87 Toward the middle of the Fifteenth Century an Italian, Antonello of Messina (1414-1493), came to Flanders, was initiated into the new method of painting, and car- ried it into his own country, where the artists gladly adopted it. Painting in oil was discovered at a favor- able moment, when the sudden impetus given to the studies of ancient art and literature aroused and excited the enthusiasm of the artists. The Renaissance of Painting was the result of the Renaissance of Letters. Fascinated by Dante and Petrarch, who had aided them to understand Homer, Virgil, and Horace, the painters evoked and presented in immortal pictures the immortal descriptions of the ancient and modern authors. But although mythology and history greatly influ- enced the work of the Italian masters, the Christian religion had a yet larger share in its development. From this point of view, the Italian painters are the followers of the sculptors in wood and the illuminators. Dramatic and touching histories from the Bible, the lives of the patriarchs and prophets, the Gospel parables, the impressive incidents of the Passion, legends of saints and martyrs, mysterious ecstacies of the faithful, all furnished subjects, which, with infinite variety in the combination of the natural and the supernatural, of heaven and earth, of men and angels, never seemed to have wearied admirers, in spite of their perpetual repe- tition. The artists transferred the adorations, prayers, and aspirations of the Christian world to the walls of their churches, or the pages of their illuminated manu- scripts. But this does not imply that all these artists were imbued with the naive, ardent faith of the masons who built the cathedrals, the sculptors who ornamented their walls, and the artists who decorated the Bibles. What we know of the luxurious life, corruption, and 88 MODERN EUROPE skepticism of the Sixteenth Century removes all the illu- sions on that head, and we can hardly suppose that the artists who surrounded Julian II and Leo X were bet- ter Christians than the warrior Pope or his epicurean successor, whose elegant but dissolute court would have drawn upon him the anathemas of the Fathers of the Church. This state of society explains the curious fashion in which some of the Italian painters have often travestied, rather than idealized, Christian subjects. They treated them in the style of Greek art, using them only as a pretext for representing the human body in every posture, and for thus displaying their anatomical knowledge. As a rule, they have taken their subject from religion, their inspiration from antiquity; they have painted Christian figures like heathen Deities. Masaccio (1401-1429), in the Fifteenth Century, founded the first school of painting at Florence, and its renown increased steadily until the end of the Six- teenth Century. Pietro Vanucci (1446-1524), called Perugino, gave a particularly graceful expression, a vivid coloring, and a golden tone to his religious pic- tures. He was worthy to be Raphael's master. Near Florence, at the Castle da Vinci, in 1452, Leonardo was born. Like Michael Angelo, he was at the same time sculptor, painter, and architect, in addition to his great powers as a mechanic and engineer. Brought into France to be the ornament of the brilliant court of Francis I, his pictures are not numerous, for Leonardo allowed himself to be fascinated too much by scientific, to the detriment of artistic efforts, and some of his finest efforts, such as the "Last Supper," a fresco in an old convent at Milan, quickly perished. He died at Amboise, in 1519. Leonardo, the first of the great masters, inspired by the monk Bartolommeo della Porta THE RENAISSANCE 89 (1475-1517), known by the simple name of Frate, beautified his figures of saints with an elevated expres- sion and a fine tone of color. Andrea del Sarto (1486- I 53 I ) was distinguished by the purity of his drawing, the unity of his compositions, and the grace of the atti- tudes in which he placed his religious or profane person- ages. Florence produced Giorgio Vasari (1511-1574), less known by his paintings than by his histories of the painters. Although a native of Tuscany, Michael Angelo Bounarrotti (1475-1564) founded the school of Rome. For nearly a Century Michael Angelo lived and worked, the glory of every art, foremost in sculpture as well as in painting and architecture. Disdaining narrow frames, he delighted in vast surfaces, which he covered with grand compositions, reproducing on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel the Creation of the World, and Scripture History, interpreting scenes from the Bible, and making them live again before our eyes with a vigor that equaled the descriptions of Moses. Thor- oughly master of anatomy, knowing every movement of the body, and how to vary the attitudes, exhausting all the resources and mechanism of the art of drawing, Michael Angelo was not afraid of handling even the subjects which had inspired Dante's genius, and he painted the "Last Judgment," a fresco which filled the whole wall of the Sistine Chapel, facing the entrance. A colossal composition, where 300 personages are rep- resented; a poem in color, cleverly arranged; a skill- ful combination of many scenes, harmoniously grouped this unique fresco compels admiration by the eleva- tion of the subject, by the life that illumines the bodies of the elect and torments the condemned, by the con- trast between the terrestrial and celestial groups. 90 MODERN EUROPE Michael Angelo shut himself into the Sistine Chapel for nine years, working with enthusiasm, and no one else has attained such extraordinary power or such aston- ishing majesty. Shorter, yet more productive in proportion to its duration, the career of Raphael Sanzio (1483-1520) marked the highest point of the Christian yet pagan art of the Renaissance. In his frescoes and pictures, his portraits (Julius II, Leo X, and the Fornarina), and his Holy Families, Raphael, without apparent effort, attained perfection by his genius for composition, drawing, and painting. We admire the calm effect produced by a skill certain of its own powers, making no effort to express its thoughts, pious or secular, observing yet idealizing nature, and satisfied, when it had succeeded, in representing upon canvas the images by which it wished to please and touch the spectators. Raphael's genius was essentially Greek. This not only because he made great use of mythology and history in his works, but chiefly because he had caught anew the serenity and grace of the old ideals. The principal pictures by Raphael can be admired in museums, but in the Vatican is the Loggia, the external gallery of one of the palace courts. In the ceiling of each of the tri- foriums of these galleries Raphael has painted four pictures, and thus obtained a series of fifty-two subjects, comprising the principal scenes of sacred history a really grand work, in which the master employed his pupils' services, chiefly those of Giulio Romano (1492- 1546). In the same palace Raphael painted the chambers that is, four large halls where he arranged his vast compositions : The "Dispute of the Holy Sac- rament" (also called "Theology"), and the "School of Athens" (or "Philosophy"), the "Parnassus" and "Jur- THE RENAISSANCE 91 ispnrdence," the history of Heliodorus stabbed on the threshold of the temple of Jerusalem, the "Deliverance of Saint Peter," the "Pope Saint Leo Stopping the Advance of Attila," and the vast scenes wherein Raphael glorified Constantine, the protector of the Church. In these large compositions the arrangement is majestic and noble, the groups harmonize, the draw- ing is free, vigorous, correct, and elegant, the figures are graceful without affectation, and the whole picture is full of delicate sentiments which produce an undying charm. But the artist surpasses himself in the "Trans- figuration," a picture which was exhibited at the head of the bed on which Raphael lay after death; it was car- ried in his funeral procession. Raphael, in spite of the eminent artists that have succeeded him, has remained incontestably the inimitable model and the educator of the painters who followed him. Michael Angelo and Raphael had carried the secrets of the Florentine school to Rome, and had created the Roman school. But Italian genius for art is so pre- dominant that masters were found in most of the Italian cities. In the north, where Leonardo', who inhabited Milan for a long time, had also introduced Florentine methods, the so-called Lombardy School had boasted even before Leonardo's appearance of Andrea Mantegna of Padua, and Bernardino Luini. Then alone, without seeing either Florence or Rome, and without any other inspiration than a single picture by Raphael (the "Saint Cecilia"), but which he felt awakened his genius, Antonio Allegri, called Correggio (1494-1534), almost rivaled the great masters. At Parma he painted the "Ascension" which decorates the dome of the church of San Giovanni, and the "Assumption" painted on the Doumo of Parma. Correggio was not only elegant 92 MODERN EUROPE and graceful, his painting is distinguished by a softness and suavity which none of his pupils have been able to equal. Caravaggio (1569-1609), an original painter, who only studied his own works and followed his own ideas, uncultivated, illiterate, disdaining the antique, affecting to despise Raphael and Correggio, recognized but one master, nature. But he only represented the trivial, common side of nature, out of harmony with his refined epoch, though full of energy and truth. The clear sky of Venice reflected in the blue waters of the Adriatic seems to have given the painters of that city something of its color and luster. The Venetians are masters of color, and their artists lavished the most bril- liant tints upon their pictures. The Bellini, two brothers, commenced that famous Venetian school afterward so seductive and so fertile. Giorgio Barbarelli ( 1439-1502), who died very young, decorated the Palaces of the Doges at Venice with his frescoes, remarkable for their warm tones. He left very few pictures, for which the Euro- pean museums eagerly compete. Giorgio or Giorgione was Titian's contemporary. Titian (1483-1520), like Michael Angelo, lived nearly a Century and occupied this long career with a quantity of works, decorating the Vene- tian churches and palaces, composing religious and secu- lar pictures for Princes and for wealthy citizens, scarcely able, in spite of the great facility with which he worked, to satisfy his crowd of customers of bishops and Kings, and it is said that the most illustrious of them, the Emperor Charles V, condescended to pick up the great artist's brush when he dropped it one day in the royal presence. With the greatest freedom he passed from sacred to heathen subjects, from saints to mythological divinities, from Holy Families to Venus and Adonis, giving them all life with his magic brush, even to the coldest allegories or the most THE RENAISSANCE 93 untruthful apotheoses. Art with him was completely emancipated, and in religious subjects he was even less scrupulous than the other painters of the Renaissance. Titian allowed himself to be led away by his imagination, his tastes, his caprices. But he portrayed his most capri- cious ideas in such glowing colors, his painting is of such brilliant tone, that it is still dazzling after the lapse of sev- eral Centuries. Titian, who was jealous in spite of his glory, had dis- missed one of his pupils from his studio. This was the son of a dyer, who rendered the name of his trade famous by becoming Tintoretto (1518-1594). This artist endeavored to be original instead of merely a copyist, and to avoid one of Titian's defects, for the latter was so much preoccupied with his color that he neglected his drawing, which Tintoretto studied under Michael Angelo. His rep- utation was so great that he was invited to fill the churches and palaces of Venice with his work. He decorated the ceiling of the Great Council Hall, in the Ducal Palace, with a vast composition sixty-four feet long by thirty feet wide: the "Glory of Paradise." He seemed to have derived his spirit as well as his drawing from Michad Angelo, and was called the "Furious;" but he worked too quickly, and never attained the perfection of his master, although he succeeded in rivaling Titian by his brilliant coloring. Paul Veronese ( 1528-1588) , another of Titian's rivals, was also one of the great magicians of art. He decorated the Hall of the Council of Ten, in the Ducal Palace, with the "Apotheosis of Venice." He also painted the "Abduc- tion of Europa," and above all four "Meals of our Lord" for monastic refectories. Of these works, the "Marriage of Cana" is one of the finest ornaments of the Louvre Museum. Paul Veronese broke through the traditions 94 MODERN EUROPE of the Roman school : he did not seek for historical truth but dressed all his personages in the fashion of his own times, whatever epoch they may have lived in. His apos- tles are rich Venetians, feasting in palaces. His groups are so well arranged, his figures (which were all portraits) have so much nobility, so much life, his coloring is so bright and rich, that one never wearies of admiring his prodigious works. To this school we may also add Cana- letto (1697-1768), who painted the canals, the buildings, and landscapes of his native city. The city of Bologna filled a place in the schools of painting, chiefly through the Caracci Louis Caracci (1555-1619) and his two cousins, Augustine and Anni- bal. The last named, the boldest and most original, suc- ceeded in religious pictures, but above all in landscapes, for which his works are the first fine examples of that style found in Italy. But the Bolognese school was particu- larly renowned in the Seventh Century through the pupils of the Caracci Domenichino, Guido Reni, and Albano. The influence of Italy spread all over Europe, and every artist desired to emulate the great masters. The relations between Italy and Spain were so closely linked that Spain was one of the first to imbibe enthusiasm for Italian art, and the schools of Valencia, Toledo, Seville, and Madrid were formed. Yet, however great the merits of Alonzo Berruguete, Juan de Juanes, Luis de Morales, el Mudo surnamed the Spanish Titian or of Alonzo Sanchez Coello may have been, Spanish painting did not really flourish until the following Century. It required time before study could produce its fruits. In France Italian artists were instructors of the French. Flanders in some measure anticipated Italy, but the Flemish artists, without losing their original character- istics, were influenced by the great Italian movement, and THE RENAISSANCE 95 profited by the lessons of those to whom they had taught painting in oil. Roger Van der Weyden went to Italy at the moment when Masaccio at Florence, Bellini at Ven- ice, and Fra Angelico at Rome, were restoring the art of painting. Hans Memling has left considerable and varied work, displaying scenes from the life and passion of Christ, in admirable landscapes, full of elegance, feeling, and charm. It would take too long to enumerate the artists who now appeared in all the Flemish cities, but we must not omit Quentin Matsys, the friend of Erasmus and of Sir Thomas More. The imitation of Italian painting was carried so far in the Sixteenth Century that entire colonies of Flemings settled in Florence and Rome. The taste for art aroused by wealth and luxury was so great that in 1560 the city oi Antwerp alone contained three hundred and sixty painters and sculptors. But this was only a beginning, and in the following Century Flemish genius attained a degree of excellence that quite equaled the Ital- ian art of the Sixteenth Century. The excellence of the Flemish painters aroused emu- lation in Germany. From the Rhine cities, the nearest to the Belgian provinces, art penetrated into Germany, and in the Sixteenth Century the country boasted of Holbein (1497-1543) from the school of Augsburg, who lived in Basle and England. His works, composed of historical pictures and portraits, are now in Hampton Court Palace. Basle contains his best designs and cartoons; amongst other things the famous "Dance Macabre," or "Dance of Death." Although his style was still naive, we cannot but admire Holbein's knowledge and correctness, and above all his brilliant coloring, which places him amongst the mas- ters of the Renaissance. At Dresden appeared Lucas Sunder or Lucas Kranch, friend of Luther's who has left a portrait of the Reformer 96 MODERN EUROPE and his disciple Melanchthon. At the same time Albert Durer, (1471-1528) whose genius was universal, since he was sculptor, architect, painter, engraver, and author, unites in his pictures the Flemish method with Italian in- spiration, but his art seems to belong to a much earlier per- iod. His serious style is powerful, profound, and mysti- cal. He was the last great German artist. The Refor- mation, in its hostility to images, turned Germany from the cultivation of the arts, which the long vicissitudes of the Thirty Years' War also forcibly interrupted. Paint- ing in Germany commenced and ended with Albert Durer and Holbein. Art tended to embellish everything. Princes, nobles, and burghers prided themselves on a worthy use of their wealth; tapestries worked from designs furnished by the great painters were used to ornament the sumptuous dwell- ings which the architects built with so much taste and skill and the sculptors decorated so carefully. The old for- gotten art of ceramics now revived. From the Fifteenth Century, Luca della Robbia, (1400-1482) sculptor and painter, was seized with the idea of taking his earthen mod- els and enveloping them in a vitrified unbreakable coating. His process was imitated, and the Italian majolicas, at- tributed to the Renaissance, were eagerly competed for. Francis of Medici himself owned workshops and furnaces; he ranked amongst the artists. Tuscany, the Marches, and Venetia, became covered with factories from whence issued an infinite number of varied and elegantly shaped vases. Italian artists went to France, Amboise, Lyons l Nantes, and Croisie, but Bernard Palissy, at first a com- mon glazier, soon resolved to do better, to abandon the use of painting on the surface, and to discover enamel through fusion. Pursuing his idea with rare pertinacity, sacrific- ing his modest resources, burning even his furniture and H ^ s h W w u X W > u > y's H j-. W z W U Q W K H THE RENAISSANCE 97 the floors of his house to feed his furnace, sometimes wear- ied but still unconquered, Bernard Palissy (Circa 1505- 1590) was one of those men who cannot be too highly hon- ored, for he was one of those extraordinary inventors who triumphed over difficulties, and enriched the world with new sources of wealth and with masterpieces of art; in fact, Bernard Palissy succeeded in making enamel in en- casing in unalterable colors, figures of animals or human faces upon his vases, dishes, and cups. Modern races had regained all that the ancients had acquired, they now possessed ceramics as well as sculpture, painting, and architecture. We cannot judge the music of the ancients, but modern times are supreme in this art, or rather this language of the soul. The instruments of the middle ages, the rebecq, monochord, and spinet, were perfected ; the rebecq became the violin. An Antwerp carpenter, Hans Buckers, im- proved the keyboard by giving it four octaves. From that time chants with different parts could be arranged for the masses, and religious music found a voice through Pales- trina (1529-1594), several of whose chants are still used in churches. Religious music opened the way to secular music, which in the following Centuries so successfully translated the sentiments of the heart. Such progress in the arts denotes the great power that the human mind acquired in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries; men learned to'see and to aspire after the beautiful, a sublime pleasure which never wearies, but which raises man above the common passions of daily life. Voi,. 2 7 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. The great struggle known as the "Thirty Years' War," which desolated Germany, and finally settled the limits of Protestantism and Catholicism on the continent of Europe, began about 1618 and ended with the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648. The war was at first religious in' its objects, as a struggle of Catholics against Protestants con- cerning the spiritual ascendency of the Church of Rome, but it afterward lost its religious character, and became a struggle of various nations Calvinistic, Lutheran, and Protestant banded against the House of Austria, and combating the temporal ascendency of that power. The war became a war for the equilibrium of Europe, one in which community of political interest was far more re- garded than community of religious belief. The war of sects was succeeded by the war of States, and since the middle of the Seventeenth Century there has been no relig- ious war between Catholics and Protestants as such. Germany had been distracted ever since the Reforma- tion by the mutual jealousy of Catholics, Lutherans, and Calvinists. The fire which had long been smouldering burst out into a flame in Bohemia, where the Protestant doctrines had made much progress and received great con- cessions from the Emperor Rudolph II in 1609. These were withdrawn by the Emperor Matthias in 1614, and in 1618 the Protestants in Prague offered violence to certain imperial councilors, and caused the first part of the great struggle that known as the Bohemian War. The Prot- estants in Bohemia revolted; Matthias died in 1619, and Ferdinand II, who was a rigid Catholic, succeeded, and re- THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR 99 fused all toleration to the Protestants. When Frederick, Elector Palatine, who was married to Elizabeth, daughter of James I, of England, a Protestant prince, was made King of Bohemia by the rebels, the Catholic troops of Ger- many marched against him, and in November, 1620, gained the victory of the Weissenberg, or W r hite Moun- tain, near Prague, which drove Frederick from his throne, put an end to the Bohemian rebellion, and crushed the Prot- estant cause in that quarter. Frederick's own dominions on the Rhine the Palatinate were conquered in 1621- 1622 by Spanish and Bavarian troops under the famous Count Tilly (a pupil of Alva's in the art of war), and the Emperor Ferdinand II was triumphant by 1623. Ferdi- nand's intolerance toward the Protestants caused help to be supplied from Holland, and the Lutheran King Chris- tian IV, of Denmark, plunged into the fight, partly from religious zeal and partly in hope of gaining territory. The celebrated Wallenstein, Duke of Friedland, whose history is told in an article in the volume entitled "Great Warriors," now appeared on the scene as the Emperor's general, and headed the forces of the Catholic League, in cooperation with Tilly, in 1625. In 1626 Wallenstein defeated the Protestant General, Count Mansfield, at Des- sau, in the center of Germany, north of Leipsic, and Tilly drove back Christian, of Denmark, to his own dominions. Holstein, Schleswig, Jutland, Pomerania, and Branden- burg were overrun by the imperial troops, and Ferdinand and Catholicism were supreme in Germany to the very shores of the Baltic. In 1628 they received a check at Stralsund, in northwest of Pomerania, opposite the island of Rugen, which Wallenstein besieged with furious efforts for ten weeks, being at last forced to retreat with great loss. In 1629 Christian, of Denmark, retired from the struggle, receiving back his devastated territories, and ioo MODERN EUROPE undertaking to meddle no more in German affairs. Ferdi- nand issued an edict which roused the Protestants once more against him. He required the restitution to the Catholics of all the church lands and other property that had been acquired by the Protestants since the religious peace of Passau in 1552. This was to deprive them of many bishoprics and of almost all the abbeys and other ecclesiastical foundations in North Germany; the Protes- tants refused to obey the edict, and both sides prepared again for war. Wallenstein was deprived of his com- mand, and Tilly became head of the imperial forces. In 1631 Tilly captured the Protestant town of Magdeburg, and the sack and destruction of the place followed, form- ing one of the most dreadful episodes of this fratricidal war. The Protestant hero of the struggle had already come forth to do battle for his cause. In June, 1630, Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden, landed with an army on the coast of Pomerania, and was hailed by the Protestant inhabitants of Germany as a deliverer from Ferdinand, and as a champion of their creed against the Catholics. This great man, the best King who ever reigned in Sweden, was a grandson of Gustavus Vasa, who was the author of Swedish independence. After an excellent training in classical and other studies, and in the military art, he commanded the Swedish army in a war against Denmark at the age of seventeen. His chancellor and chief minister was the famous Oxenstiern, one of the greatest of European statesmen. Gustavus had warred with success against Russia and Poland before his Protes- tant sympathies, not unmixed with a desire to extend Swedish influence and territory on the southern shore of the Baltic, called him into the Thirty Years' War. As a commander he was beloved by his troops, maintained THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR 101 admirable discipline, improved the equipment of soldiers, showed great skill, and acquired enduring renown by his brief and brilliant career. The army which the Swedish King took with him was small about 13,000 men but o>f the highest quality; he was aided with supplies of money by the French minister Richelieu, who was jealous of the power of the House of Austria, and thousands of Scotch and English volunteers went over to join his standard. In September, 1631, Gustavus completely defeated Tilly at the battle of Breitenfeld, near Leipsic, and the Swedes advanced to the Rhine and the Main. In April, 1632, Gustavus again defeated Tilly, who was mortally wounded at the battle of the Lech, a tributary of the Danube, in Bavaria, occupied Augsburg, and advanced to Munich. The Emperor Ferdinand had called Wallenstein again to his aid, and that General raised a new army. The caution of this skillful leader at first foiled Gustavus, who made unsuccessful attacks on his strong position near Nurem- berg, and then retired into Saxony, followed by Wallen- stein. In November, 1632, was fought the great battle of Liitzen, in which the Swedes, under Gustavus Adol- phus, with the troops of Bernard, Duke of Saxe- Weimar, stormed Wallenstein's intrenchments and gained a decided victory, but at the cost of the Swedish King's life an irreparable loss to the Protestant cause in the war. The war was continued by the Swedish Chancellor Oxenstiern, acting for the Queen of Sweden, a mere child, whose generals were Bernard, of Weimar, and the Swed- ish Commander Horn. In 1634 Wallenstein was mur- dered by a conspiracy of his officers, and in the same year the imperial troops completely defeated Bernard at Nord- lingen, in the west of Bavaria. The Elector of Saxony and some other German princes now retired from coopera- tion with the Swedes, and made separate peaces, in 1635, 102 MODERN EUROPE with the Emperor, who withdrew, in effect, his edict about restitution of property to the Catholic Church. The Thirty Years' War now assumed a new phase, as a contest of France and Sweden, directed by the able statesmen Richelieu and Oxenstiern, against Austria. Bernard, of Weimar, and the Swedish Generals Baner, Torstenson, and Wrangel, gained successes over the imperial forces, and the French armies fought with varied fortune in the west of Germany and on the Rhine. The Emperor Ferdi- nand II had died in 1637, and had been succeeded by his son, Ferdinand III; Richelieu died in 1642, and his policy was continued by Cardinal Mazarin. The great French Generals Turenne and Conde had begun to act with decided effect, when the Emperor at last yielded, and the long struggle ended with the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. The Treaty of Westphalia established a new political system in Europe. The religious and political condition of Germany were settled in a way that put Catholics, Lutherans, and Calvinists on a level as to the free exercise of their religion, and that frustrated the consolidation of the German Empire. Thus the policy of France and Sweden was triumphant. Richelieu, on behalf of France* had aimed at preventing the union of German States into one powerful whole; Sweden had aimed at obtaining equality of rights for the Protestants and acquiring terri- tory in Germany for herself; both had succeeded. The different princes and States of the Empire had now the recognized right of making war and alliances among them- selves or with foreigners. Germany was, in fact, dis- membered. The bishoprics of Metz, Toul, and Verdun, with Alsace, and ten imperial cities were now formally ceded to France; Sweden received part of Pomerania, the bishopric of Bremen, and other territory ; the total loss to Germany was 40,000 square miles. France acquired great THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR 103 influence in German affairs, and several German princes formed alliances with her. By the Treaty of Westphalia, too, the independence of Holland and of Switzerland was formally acknowledged. The general result was Ger- man disunion and weakness, French strength and aggran- dizement, destined to have important influence on the future history of Europe. For ages after this time Ger- many remained "a mere lax confederation of petty despot- isms and oligarchies, with hardly any national feelings"; popular freedom became extinct, and over two Centuries were to elapse before the creation of unity in a revived Empire. France became the leading power in Europe, Spain having greatly declined, and the House of Bour- bon took the first place instead of the House of Austria. The Thirty Years' War was not only productive of infinite misery to innocent people while it raged, but it had other ill effects on Germany of a more lasting kind. The increase of power in the petty princes led to the keeping up of expensive courts, standing armies, and hosts of civil officials, bringing heavy taxation on the long-suffering and industrious people. There was a great decline in trade and manufactures, which had been driven by incessant commotion and destruction to other lands. Many of the great commercial and industrial towns were quite impov- erished, and did not recover their position and wealth for several generations. German art and literature were for a long time destroyed, and foreign influences prevailed in every branch of culture, AGE OF LOUIS XIV After the death of Henry IV, of France, in 1610 by the hand and dagger of Ravaillac, his son succeeded as Louis XIII, at the age of nine, the regent being the Queen- mother, Maria de' Medici. A miserable time of court intrigues, factions, and internal disorders ensued until 1624, when the King gave himself up to the guidance of the great statesman who was for twenty years to be the leading politician of Europe and the virtual sovereign of France. This famous man, Armand Jean du Plessis, Cardinal de Richelieu, was born at Paris in 1585, and in 1616 became Secretary of State for war and foreign affairs. After a temporary loss of influence, Richelieu came to the head of affairs in France in 1624. Richelieu aimed at and effected three things. These were, firstly, absolute authority for the French sovereign over the aris- tocracy; secondly, the crushing of the political power of the Huguenots or Protestant party in the country; thirdly, the establishment of France as a leading Nation in Europe. The qualities which enabled him to achieve these ends were energy, perseverance, determination, coolness, and craft. In curtailing the power of the clergy and nobles at home, Richelieu was carrying out the plans of his great predeces- sor, Sully. In order to increase the influence of France abroad, he waged war both with Germany and Spain. The struggle of the French Protestants for religious freedom had often been made, by the nobles and royal princes of France, a cloak for ambitious designs in political affairs. Richelieu was well aware of this, and determined to end a state of things which acted as a continual check on 104 AGE OF LOUIS XIV 105 the despotic exercise of the royal power. The Edict 01 Nantes had greatly increased the influence of the Hugue- nots; and soon after Richelieu came into power they were in a state of revolt, aiming at independence, and maintain- ing themselves in their stronghold, La Rochelle, on the west coast of France. The resistance made against the royal forces was of the most determined character, and was helped by an Eng- lish fleet under the Duke of Buckingham, which brought supplies for a time to the defenders. Richelieu, ecclesi- astic as he was, commanded the attacking army in person, and his skill and patience reduced the town at last. By building a huge mole of stone across the harbor mouth he cut off the communication seaward, and forced a sur- render through famine in October, 1628. The attempts of the Huguenots to acquire distinct political power in the State were thus finally frustrated. It must not be sup- posed that the great Cardinal was intolerant in religious matters; here he was in advance of the ideas of his age, and left the vanquished Huguenots liberty of worship and equality of rights, employing them throughout his min- istry along with Catholics, in the army, the magistracy, and other capacities. In 1626 Richelieu caused the demolition of all the feudal castles which could not be used for the defense of the frontiers, and which were a perpetual menace to the crown, a means of overawing the neighboring towns and country districts, and a reminder to the nobles of their ancient power. He also abolished the offices of grand- admiral and constable, which had given to the holders an almost royal authority over the .fleet and the army. At various times the Cardinal used the utmost rigor against great nobles who disputed the King's preeminence or plotted his own power in the State. In 1632 the Duke 106 MODERN EUROPE of Montmorency, a leading noble, was executed for trea- son ; all attempts at resistance and all plots were put down or detected by Richelieu's vigor and vigilance, and in 1630 he had triumphed over the influence of the Queen- mother herself, and caused the King to banish her from the court. The policy of Richelieu during the Thirty Years' War was to aid, as occasion required, the Count of Mansfield and Gustavus Adolp'hus, in order to humble the German Emperor, and it was by his assistance that, in 1640, Portugal again becarne independent of Spain. This great administrator found time, amid all his political schemes, to encourage literature and science, being the founder of the famous French Academy and the Jardin des Plantes. He died in 1642, and early in 1643 Louis XIII followed him, leaving a son five years old, who suc- ceeded him as Louis XIV. Richelieu is the subject of a sketch in the volume "Foreign Statesmen." Louis XIV came to the throne of France in 1643, and reigned for seventy-two years, until 1715. His reign forms a period of great importance in the history both of France and of Europe one in which France rose to the height of power and was a standing menace to other States. The interest belonging to this age is of the high- est and most varied kind, including momentous contests on the field of battle, affecting the welfare of the leading Nations of Europe; grand scientific discoveries; the splen- dor of literary glory; the eloquence of great divines; the creation of public works in France roads, canals, ports, fortresses, and splendid buildings for the adornment of her capital; the development of French art, manufactures, commerce, and colonization; the founding of literary and scientific institutions; the spread of the renown of the "Grand Monarque," as the French styled their King, to the furthest regions of the globe. With this the historian AGE OF LOUIS XIV 107 of France must record the vanishing of the last vestiges of constitutional freedom in the land; the monstrous growth of luxury at the court; the drying up of the true sources of national prosperity through an evil system of finance, consisting mainly of a severe and unequal taxation which pressed heavily on the cultivators of the soil; the cor- ruption of national manners and morals through vicious indulgence in the highest ranks, veiled by courtly graces of demeanor, and gilded by the display of imposing mag- nificence in equipage and costume; the increase of pov- erty, deepening into penury and wretchedness, among the tillers of the soil; the utter defeat of French schemes of universal conquest; the passing of glory into gloom, of exultation into silence and shame; the final leaving of a legacy of incipient and ever-growing mischief to a suc- cessor on the throne who was to bring France near to the ruin and resurrection known as the First French Revolution. All this, and more than this, is involved in the narrative of the age of Louis XIV, of which we here .present the outline. The long Feign of Louis XIV may be divided into three parts: (i) The government of Cardinal Mazarin; (2) The development of ambitious policy of the King; (3) The general failure of those schemes of aggrandize- ment. While Louis XIV was a minor his mother, Anne of Austria, daughter of Philip III, King of Spain,, held the Regency. She made Cardinal Mazarin, an Italian and a friend of Richelieu's, her first Minister, and he ruled the country, with intervals of brief banishment and dis- grace, from 1643 to 1 66 1. He had great difficulties to contend with at first, as the jealous nobles plotted against him in the hope of recovering the power lost under Richelieu, and bad finance with heavy taxes io8 MODERN EUROPE caused an outbreak of civil war. The French Parlia- ment still tried to assert its rights in refusing to register royal decrees as to taxation, and the party opposed to the Queen-Regent and Mazarin was known as the Fronde. This term was one used derisively of the Par- liamentary party, as if they were like the schoolboys, who, each armed with a sling (fronde), did mischief in the streets of Paris, dispersing at the sight of a police- man and rallying when he disappeared. A wit of the time mocked by this word the spasmodic efforts of the Constitutional party, and they adopted it in earnest, wearing a hat-cord in the form of a sling, and calling themselves Frondeurs. The feeble doings of the sup- porters of freedom in France were in strong contrast to those of the Englishmen who had, shortly before this, dealt decisively with the tyranny of Charles I. The Fronde lasted from 1648 to 1654, and the selfishness of the leaders of the revolt, and the desultory aimless violence which they used, served only to strengthen the royal power. In 1659 Mazarin made peace with Spain, and Louis XIV married Maria Theresa, the Spanish King's daugh- ter, an alliance of importance in the future as regarded the affairs of France and Spain. In 1661 Mazarin died, and the King, at the age of twenty-three, took power at once into his own hands, and remained until the day of his death absolute master of his realm. The States- General of France, which body answered most nearly to a Parliament, had met, for the last time before the Revolution of 1789, in the year 1615. The French "Parliament" was the Parliament of Paris, the highest French court of law. The claim of this body to the right of refusing to register the royal decrees was now entirely disregarded by Louis XIV, and in 1673 he AGE OF LOUIS XIV 109 ordered that all his edicts should be registered within eight days without discussion a demand with which the Parliament henceforth complied. The French monarchy became more absolute than any, except that of Russia, which modern times have seen in Europe, The will of the King was, literally, the law of the land, and when Louis XIV said (as he often did) "L'Etat, c'est moi" "I am the State" he was not, as is often supposed, uttering a vainglorious and tyrannical boast, but reminding those around him of a simple and incon- trovertible fact. Louis XIV has been sarcastically styled by Lord Bolingbroke "the best actor of Majesty that ever filled a throne." Macaulay says: "He was not a great Gen- eral; he was not a great statesman; but he was, in one sense of the words, a great King. Never was there so consummate a master of what our James the First would have called King-craft of all those arts which most advantageously display the merits of a Prince, and most completely hide his defects." The truth is that there is much in the history of Louis XIV's reign which strikes the imagination and throws a glamor over the facts that his internal administration and foreign policy were in the end failures; that the best interests of the Nation were sacrificed to the magnificence of the court, the vanity of the monarch, and the intolerance of re- ligious bigotry; and that, in creating an unnatural and delusive splendor, the whole system was tending to inevitable gloom and decay. The King himself, who stood but five feet eight, was made to look majestically tall, as men thought, by being propped below on shoes with heels four inches deep, and crowned above with huge long-flowing wig. A swelling chest, and head reared well aloft, with strutting no MODERN EUROPE gait, and out-turned toes, complete the picture of the personal appearance and demeanor of the man whom Frenchmen of the Seventeenth Century delighted to honor and obey. It must, nevertheless, be admitted, that in some points the manners of the great Louis and his courtiers possessed a grace, however studied, an air and tone, however artificial, a polish, however assumed and insincere, which were to be preferred to the boorish roughness and simplicity that followed the decay of chivalry in many parts of Europe. Under Louis XIV French ways and fashions became the models for the higher circles of society in every other country, and some good, along with much evil, was the result to the civilization of the time. Louis XIV was a man who, with little or no education, had a keen eye for genius and ability in others, who could choose his instruments well, and who showed energy, promptness, and determi- nation in the use of means for the attainment of his ends. The power of France, when it was fully developed under Louis XIV, was indeed formidable. The terri- tory of the country was "large, compact, fertile, well- placed both for attack and for defense, situated in a happy climate, well inhabited by a brave, active, and ingenious people." The Government was absolute, so that all the resources of the Nation could be promptly wielded at the direction of a single will. The revenue of the crown far exceeded in amount that of any other European monarchy. The army, excellently disciplined, and commanded by the greatest Generals then living, consisted of more than 120,000 men. Such an array of regular troops had not been seen in ' Europe since the downfall of the Roman Empire. France was also becoming powerful at sea, and soon had no superior in maritime forces Such AGE OF LOUIS XIV in was her strength during- the last forty years of the Seven- teenth Century, that no enemy could singly withstand her, and that two great coalitions, in which half Chris- tendom was united against her, failed of success. A country thus strong and united in herself, and ruled by a warlike, ambitious, and high-spirited sovereign, could not but be an object of concern to the other Nations of Europe, when Louis XIV, in 1661, assumed the Gov- ernment of France. Nor was there in other Nations of Europe at this time anything that promised a stout resistance to the schemes of conquest cherished by the French King. England, by the return of the Stuarts, was reduced to a nullity. Whenever Charles II took any part in Eu- ropean politics, his conduct was almost always dishonor- able, wicked, and calculated to further the objects of Louis XIV's ambition. When England, until 1688, was not an idle spectator of what was passing abroad, she was either an active ally on the side of France, or only a faint-hearted and desultory ally against her. The weakness and disunion of Germany were accomplished by the Thirty Years' War. The power of Spain had greatly declined, and she had been recently beaten in war by France, notably at the great battle of Rocroi, in the northeast of France, in 1643, where the Due d'Eng- hien, afterward famous as the great Conde, had gained a signal victory toward the close of the Thirty Years' War. In 1646 the same General had taken Dunkirk from Spain. In 1656 and 1657 he had gained successes for his old foes, the Spaniards, whom he had joined through discontent at his treatment by Mazarin; but in 1658 Conde and the Spanish forces were beaten near Dunkirk, at the Battle of the Dunes, in which Crom- well's soldiers took a brave part on the French side, by ii2 MODERN EUROPE the famous General, Turenne, and this had brought about the Peace of the Pyrenees with Spain, in favor of France, in 1659. It was the small and stubborn new Republic of Holland that at this crisis proved an invalua- ble champion in the interests of European independence. She offered from the first a steady resistance to the ambi- tion of Louis XIV, sustained his fiercest attacks, and in the end baffled his utmost efforts to subdue her, until the time came when the genius of Marlborough, wield- ing the power of England, struck down the French tyrant on the battle ground of Blenheim. The man who did most for France in this age in the development of her resources was Jean Baptiste Colbert, the famous finance minister, of Scottish descent, who came into power in 1662 as head of the financial depart- ment; in 1664 as superintendent of public buildings, arts, and manufactures; and in 1669 as Minister of the Marine. In these capacities the ability and energy of Colbert did wonders for France. His single genius cre- ated the finances, commerce, manufactures, and naval power of France. In the revenue department Colbert did away with fraud, disorder, and corruption; he increased the revenue, and at the same time diminished taxation, as Sully had done under Henri Quatre. His measures greatly increased French trade and manufac- tures; French ships covered the seas; companies were formed for trading to the East and West Indies and the Coast of Africa; the colonies in Canada and the West Indies began to flourish; new settlements were made in Madagascar and Cayenne; a powerful navy was created, with fortified dockyards and arsenals at Brest, Roche- fort, and Toulon. Under Colbert's direction of affairs the civil and criminal legislation were improved and the arts and sciences were encouraged. In 1663 the AGE OF LOUIS XIV 113 Academy of Inscriptions was founded, in 1666 the Academy of Sciences, in 1671 the Academy of Architec- ture. Literature, astronomy, botany, and natural his- tory were all fostered by this great minister, who died in 1683. In military affairs, the highest service was rendered by Vauban, the greatest engineer ever produced by France, who became Commissioner-General of Fortifica- tions in 1677. He carried the art of fortifying, attack- ing, and defending towns to a degree of perfection be- fore unknown. Vauban's work for his country con- sisted in the fortification of over 300 ancient citadels, the erection of thirty-three new ones, and the principal man- agement and direction of fifty-three sieges. He became Marshal of France in 1703, and his fame has never been surpassed in his particular line of achievement. The frontiers of the east and north of France were ultimately defended by a triple line of fortresses, including the strong citadels of Strasburg, Lille, and Metz. Louis XIV did not make the best of the great resources of wealth, energy, and skill which were at his command when he found himself master of France and in a position to carry his arms beyond her already ample frontiers. In 1665 Philip IV (Louis' father-in-law) of Spain died, and then Louis, in the name of his wife, though, at his marriage, he had formally renounced such a pretention, advanced a claim to the possession of the Spanish Netherlands, partly what is now Belgium, and went to war in 1667. Turenne was the General in com- mand, and soon took Lille and other fortresses, conquer- ing in three weeks what was afterward known as French Flanders. In 1668 the designs of Louis were for a time checked by the conclusion of the treaty called the Triple Alliance between Sweden, Holland, and England, and in VOI,. 2 8 ii4 MODERN EUROPE the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle Louis gave up his claim to Flanders (the Spanish Netherlands), but was allowed to keep Lille, Tournai, Charleroi, Douai, and Courtrai, the fortresses which he had captured. The result of this first effort of the ambitious Louis had been a distinct and important gain to France. Louis XIV was actuated by a twofold ambition in the wars of conquest which he waged with the Nations around him. He desired, as a means to a greater end, to round off his frontier and increase his power by the annexation of such neighboring provinces and towns as lay conveniently for this purpose. The greater end which he kept always in view, in his diplomacy and his fighting, was the acquirement for the house of Bourbon of the whole Empire of Spain or, in other words, making France the one great irresistible power of Europe and the world. For this purpose, he lavished the treasure and blood of France without scruple or remorse; for this purpose, he never in any transaction of his whole reign showed the smallest respect for the most solemn obligations of public faith, but violated every treaty as soon as he found it convenient to do so. One of the favorite projects of Louis XIV was the annexation of the territory in the east of France then known as Franche-Comte (Upper Burgundy, now the depart- ments of Doubs, Haute Saone, and Jura), which had passed from France, under Charles VIII, to Germany, and came to Spain on the abdication of Charles V. The treaty of the Triple Alliance, compelling Louis XIV to surrender again Franche-Comte, which Conde had over- run early in 1668, was the one good act of foreign policy in which the Government of Charles II of England was concerned during the whole of his reign. Holland, now at the height of her maritime power AGE OF LOUIS XIV 115 and a rival of England on the seas, had aroused the wrath of Louis XIV, and he resolved on the destruction of her independence and the annexation of her territory. Charles II of England, against the will of his people, lent his aid to France. The French armies invaded Holland in 1672, and some of the provinces were soon overrun. The Dutch then made a desperate resistance, and were saved from utter ruin only by the determination of their youthful statesman, the Prince of Orange, afterward William III of England. He was then twenty-two years old, and declared that he would die in his country's last ditch rather than see her lost. The dikes were cut and the waters of the ocean were let in over the land; the flood kept back the French forces, and in the end caused their withdrawal from the country. In 1674 England gave up the French alliance, and a grand league was formed against Louis XIV, composed of the German Emperor Leopold, Spain, Denmark, Holland, and the Elector of Brandenburg (the nucleus of the modern Prussia). From 1674 to 1678 a great struggle raged in the Rhine Provinces of Germany, in Flanders, Alsace, and Franche-Comte. On the French side the chief commanders were Turenne and Conde; for the allies, the great Italian Montecucoli, one of the chief command- ers of modern times, Turenne's most redoubtable antag- onist, and the young William of Orange. Montecucoli greatly distinguished himself against the Swedish army in the Thirty Years' War, and elsewhere, and was now placed at the head of the Imperial troops in the war with France. Both he and Turenne, in 1675, showed the greatest skill and patience in their maneuvers against each other near the Rhine, until the great Frenchman was killed by a cannon ball as he was preparing to encounter Montecucoli; Conde then drove the Italian ii6 MODERN EUROPE out of Alsace, after having, in 1674, defeated William of Orange at the battle of Senef, between Mons and Water- loo, in Flanders. The military career of the great Conde ended with this war, which closed, after alterna- tions of success with the Peace of Nimeguen in 1678. By this war and treaty France had again secured an increase of territory, power, and renown. More strong fortresses and thriving towns in Flanders (what is now the north of France and the south of Belgium) were obtained, Franche-Comte was finally secured, and a part of Alsace annexed, enabling Louis shortly afterward to seize other portions, as he did with the free imperial city of Strasburg in 1681. The influence of France was now widespread in Europe, extending even to Turkey, with whom an alliance had been lately formed against the Empire. Holland recovered under the Treaty of Nimeguen all the territory which she had lost, so that the chief loser in the war was Spain. Louis XIV was at the height of his power and glory, purchased by sacri- fices in men and money which had an evil effect on the future of France. The evil genius of Louis XIV's career was his war- minister Louvois, who after 1666 had the whole manage- ment of military affairs. He was hostile to Colbert, and exercised a despotic control over the army and a con- siderable influence over Louis, even during Colbert's life. Louvois was an able and energetic minister, but his policy as a statesman, lavish of the blood and treas- ure of France, made his administration, though brilliant in successes largely gained through his reformed organ- ization of the army, disastrous in the end to the country which he served. His schemes of foreign policy were bold and grasping, and it was at his instigation that the wars with Spain and Holland were begun in 1667 and AGE OF LOUIS XIV 117 1672. On Colbert's death, in 1683, the influence of Louvois over the King 'became greater, and his advice had fatal effects, though he conducted with great ability the wars which ensued upon his counsels. He was in power until his death in 1691; his army system lasted until the Revolution of 1789, but he undid much of the work of Colbert, and greatly injured the commerce of France. Louis XIV, on the death of his wife, Maria Theresa of Spain, in 1683, privately married Madame de Mainte- non, who henceforth greatly ruled his policy, and who is described in the volume "World's Famous Women." It was she and Louvois who induced Louis to take one of the most impolitic steps of his reign in persecuting the Huguenots, with the idea of having only one form of faith and church government throughout France. The raids made by parties of dragoons upon the Calvinistic heretics are known as dragonnades. The Huguenots were forbidden to practice in professions and several important trades, or to hold public offices, and this was accompanied by still more decisive action. In 1685 the tolerant Edict of Nantes, promulgated by Henri Quatre in 1598, was revoked by Louis, and all the privileges granted to the Huguenots were swept away. Their churches were pulled down, their worship was sup- pressed, their ministers were banished, and the Protes- tant laity were forbidden to leave the country under severe penalties. Disobedience to the decree was fol- lowed by imprisonment, torture, and outrage, and the natural result followed. The Huguenots sought safety and freedom of conscience abroad, and in a short time France was permanently the poorer by the loss of over half a million of Protestant refugees, including many thousands of industrious and skillful artisans, who had nS MODERN EUROPE fled to England, Holland, Switzerland, and the Protes- tant parts of Germany. The growth of the silk manu- facture in England and elsewhere, and of many other profitable occupations, dates from this exile of the Huguenots. Louis XIV's old enemy, William of Orange, gained in 1689 a great accession of power in becoming King of England as William III. He was the most able and determined foe of the ambitious schemes of the French King, and made it the business of his life to thwart his policy at every turn. A general league was now formed against France, and included England, Spain, Holland, Sweden, the German Empire, Savoy, and other smaller States. Louis declared war, and another struggle began which lasted for eight years, 1689-1697. The armies of the allies in Flanders under William III were generally unsuccessful against the French under the Duke of Luxembourg, Marshal of France, but they occupied a great part of the French army, and encour- aged resistance in other quarters. The French Marshal Catinat, a pupil in war of the great Conde, fought bril- liantly against the Duke of Savoy, occupying Savoy and part of Piedmont. The war was ended by the Peace of Ryswick (a village in Holland) in 1697. The conquests on both sides were generally given up, but France was left in possession of Alsace, Strasburg, and Artois. The resources of the country were much diminished, and yet Louis XIV regarded the peace as a mere truce, to gain breathing-time and strength for a still greater struggle into which his ambitious policy was soon to plunge him. In 1698 there came up the complicated question of the succession to the Spanish throne, which displayed the grasping and formidable ambition of Louis XIV, and ultimately caused the great war which put an end to AGE OF LOUIS XIV 119 the predominance of France in Europe. Charles II of Spain had no children; and various claims to his domin- ions, or parts of them, were put forward in prospect of his speedy death. Louis XIV, whose aim was to make French power and influence supreme in Europe, demanded the Spanish throne for his son Louis, the Dauphin of France, as being son of his Queen Maria Theresa, elder daughter of Philip IV of ' Spain, and sister to Charles II. The Elector of Bavaria claimed it for his son on the ground of descent from Margaret Theresa, younger daughter of Philip IV of Spain. Both claims were unjust, because Maria Theresa had, on her marriage to Louis XIV, renounced for her descendants all claim to the Spanish succession, and a like renuncia- tion had been made by the daughter of Margaret Theresa when she married the Elector of Bavaria. The Emperor Leopold of Germany claimed the Spanish throne for his son Charles on the ground of his own lineal descent from Philip III of Spain, father of Philip IV. In October, 1698, William III of England and Louis XIV tried to arrange matters by the First Partition Treaty for dividing the Spanish dominions (which included Spain, a large part of Italy, the Spanish Netherlands, and East and West Indian possessions) be- tween the three claimants. Charles II of Spain, however, recovered from his illness, and, on hearing of the secret treaty, made a will leaving all his dominions to the elec- toral Prince of Bavaria. In February, 1699, the Bavar- ian Prince died, and all was unsettled again. In Febru- ary, 1700, the Second Partition Treaty was made for dividing the Spanish dominions between the remaining two claimants, namely, the Dauphin of France and Charles, the son of the Emperor Leopold. All was made vain on the death of Charles II of Spain in Octo- 120 MODERN EUROPE her, 1700, when by will he left the whole of his domin- ions to Philip Duke of Anjou, second son of the Dauphin of France, and so grandson of Louis XIV. This Prince was at once proclaimed as Philip V of Spain; and it was then that Louis XIV proudly declared that "the Pyrenees had ceased to exist," meaning that France and Spain were now virtually one dominion. The indigna- tion of Austria was at once roused against this settle- ment. The Emperor Leopold's son Charles assumed the title of "Charles III of Spain," and the Emperor pre- pared for war. William III took instant and energetic action. He made use of the urgent alarm which was felt throughout Europe to form the Grand Alliance against France, composed of England, Holland, and Austria (afterward joined by Portugal, the Elector of Brandenburg, Savoy, and Denmark), in support of the claim of Leopold's son Charles to be King of Spain. This arrangement was made in September, 1701. The aim of Louis XIV was made clear by his issue of letters- patent in favor of his grandson Philip V of Spain, pre- serving his rights to the throne of France. On the death of Louis XIV France and the Spanish dominions would thus form one preponderating Empire. Louis was already in possession of many strong fortresses on the frontier of the Spanish Netherlands, and the danger was great and immediate, the resources of the whole Spanish monarchy being now virtually at the French King's disposal. The Grand Alliance was concluded on September 7, 1701; and Louis further provoked Eng- land by recognizing the elder Pretender as claimant for the throne of England, when James II died at St. Germains on September i6th. While William III was making vigorous preparations for war, he died in Febru- o p 6 PH DC u w w o x o O Q < ill w 2 ^ * i SH ^ PS SQ i 1 o -S >PQ W P i i S Pi o H W AGE OF LOUIS XIV 121 ary, 1702, and Queen Anne declared war against France and Spain in May. The great struggle that followed, known as the War of the Spanish Succession, lasted for twelve years (1702-1714), and was carried on in Flanders, Germany, Italy, and Spain, in a series of campaigns. In Flanders the war was maintained for the allies with great success by the leading general of the age, one of the greatest in all history, the Duke of Marlborough. He there took many fortresses from the French, and defeated the French and Bavarians under Marshal Ville- roy at Ramillies in 1706. In 1708, in conjunction with his able and faithful supporter, Prince Eugene of Savoy, Marlborough beat the French under the Duke of Vendome at Oudenarde, and drove them completely out of Flanders. In 1709 Marlborough and Eugene won the desperate battle of Malplaquet against the French under Marshals Villars and Boufflers, and in 1710 Douai and other fortresses were taken. The decisive battle of the war, rightly viewed as to its ulti- mate result, was fought in Germany. The Elector of Bavaria had joined Louis XIV's cause, and the Emperor Leopold was soon brought into great straits by French successes. The Generals commanding Louis' forces in that quarter were Marshals Tallard and Marsin and the Due de Villars. Under Villars battles were gained by the French in 1702 and 1703, which opened to them the heart of Germany, and the important cities of Augsburg and Passau were captured. About the same time the French army on the Upper Rhine and Moselle was suc- cessful under Tallard, and Landau was taken at the end of 1703- An insurrection against Leopold had broken out in Hungary, and when the campaign of 1704 opened, 122 MODERN EUROPE the peril to the Empire was great. A bold plan was formed in the military councils of Louis XIV. In Flan- ders the French were instructed to act on the defensive, protected by their strong fortresses, and a part of the army was to march from Flanders, under Villeroy, and form a junction in Germany with the armies of Tallard, the Elector of Bavaria, and Marsin. The French army in Italy was to pass through the Tyrol into Austria, and the whole vast host was to unite upon the Danube. The insurrection in Hungary was to be helped, in order to distract the Emperor's forces, and it was believed that a march on Vienna would crush all resistance and end the war. At this great crisis for Europe the genius of the Duke of Marlborough, the able support given by Prince Eugene, and the gallantry of British soldiers, saved the Nations from conquest by Louis XIV. Marlborough divined the French plan, and in May, 1704, started from Flanders on his great march to the Danube, bewildered Villeroy and Tallard by his movements and demonstra- tions, paralyzed their action, prevented their combina- tion against him, and, to sum up all, routed Tallard and Marsin at the glorious battle of Blenheim on August I3th, thereby completely delivering Germany, and changing the future of Europe and the world. By this battle, says Creasy, "the military ascendency of the allies was completely established. Throughout the rest of the war Louis fought only in defense. Blenheim had dissipated for ever his once proud visions of almost uni- versal conquest." After Blenheim, Villars gained suc- cesses against the imperial forces in Germany in 1705- 1707; but the victories of Marlborough in Flanders caused him to be summoned thither, where he was defeated at Malplaquet. AGE OF LOUIS XIV 123 The hero of the war in Italy was the famous Prince Eugene, a son of a Duke of Savoy. He was able both as a General and diplomatist. Entering the Austrian service in 1683, he fought with distinction against the Turks, and in 1697, by a great victory over them, became renowned throughout Europe. In this war of the Span- ish Succession, Eugene forced his way through the Tyrol into Italy, against the French Marshal, Catinat, defeated Villeroy near Cremona in 1702, assisted Marlborough at Blenheim in 1704, and returned to Italy in 1705. His army was defeated by the French General, the Duke of Vendome, after a wound had compelled Prince Eugene to leave the field, but soon afterward, when Vendome was recalled, Eugene stormed the French lines at Turin, and in a month drove the enemy out of Italy. In Spain, the war was conducted for Philip V by the Dukes of Berwick and Vendome against the English and allies under the Earl of Peterborough, the Earl of Gal- way, and General Stanhope, and matters went generally well for France, so that by the end of 1710 Philip V was left firmly seated on the Spanish throne. In October, 1711, on the death of his brother, the Emperor Joseph, who had succeeded his father, Leopold, in 1705, the titular "Charles III" of Spain was elected Emperor as Charles VI, and all cause for war as regarded Spain was at an end. Philip V was the first of the Bourbon line that reigned in Spain. The Peace of Utrecht ( 1713) stipulated that the crowns of Spain and France should not be united on the death of Louis XIV, thus securing the main point fought for by the allies; that the Spanish Netherlands should come to the Emperor, along with Lombardy, Naples, and Sar- dinia; that the Duke of Savoy should have Sicily; and that Gibraltar, as captured by England, should remain 124 MODERN EUROPE in her possession. Thus was the Spanish monarchy dis- membered, and the ambition of Louis XIV finally frus- trated. The Treaty of Rastadt in 1714 ended the war as between France, with Bavaria, and the Emperor. In 1715 Louis XIV died. CONSTITUTIONAL STRUGGLE IN ENGLAND England played but a small part in the affairs of the world during the Seventeenth Century. Under Charles II the King was dominated by Louis XIV, who, through his gold and the mistresses with whom he sup- plied the degenerate King, kept England in subjection. During the rest of the period civil war or struggles with Parliament prevented England from interfering to any great extent in the affairs of the Continent, although Cromwell's formidable armies made Europe tremble lest a reunited people should interfere in their politics, as they did during the reigns of William III and Anne to Louis' regret. The period is, however, one of great importance in English history as the founding of the system of real rule by Parliament. James I (1603-1625) was the first of the Stuart race. He was the son of Mary of Scotland by Lord Darnley. His mother had been beheaded by Elizabeth in 1587, but when the virgin Queen died the crowns of Scotland and England were united in Mary's son, who was James VI of Scotland and First of England. He had been King in Scotland almost from his birth. On his acces- sion to the crown of the triple Kingdom, henceforth called Great Britain and Ireland, he was thirty-seven years old. His position in Scotland had been one of great difficulty, largely owing to the Presbyterian clergy, whose constant officious interference with him had grafted in his mind a stern 'belief in the merits of an Episcopal Church dependent upon the Crown. James was acute in his own limited way, learned and good- 135 iz6 MODERN EUROPE humored, but his character was fatally marred by con- ceit, obstinacy, and indecision. His uncouth manner and ungainly person rendered absurd his claim to be considered a supernaturally gifted King, the "British Solomon," as he loved to be called. An honest belief in his own abilities and good intentions is always a source of weakness to a man who has little power of work and less appreciation of difficulties. James was and remained without a policy though a policy was imperatively necessary for one who had to deal with the two great questions which Elizabeth had left unsolved, such as the sovereignty of the State and toleration in the Church. The first ten years of the reign were marked by constant little failures, which were hardly retrieved by the absence of any great mistakes. The King failed to keep in touch with his first Parlia- ment, which lasted from 1604 to 1610, as completely as he showed himself unable to solve the increasing religious difficulties caused by the rise of the Puritans. Roman Catholics and Puritans alike wished for a relaxa- tion of the laws which bore hardly on them. James at first relaxed the penalties under which the Roman Cath- olics suffered, then he grew frightened by the increase of their numbers and attempted to check it. The gun- powder plot (1605) was the result, followed by a sharper persecution than ever. The Puritans were invited to a conference with the King at Hampton Court, 1604. They no longer asked, as many of them had asked in the beginning of Elizabeth's reign, to substitute the Presby- terian for the Episcopal Government. All they de- manded was to be allowed permission, while remaining as Ministers in the Church, to dispense with certain cere- monies to which they objected. It was the opinion of Bacon that it would be wise o grant their request But CONSTITUTIONAL STRUGGLE 127 James thought otherwise, as he leaned toward the High Church party. Elizabeth had left him absolute power. But a strong and glorious hand is necessary to exert authority with- out control, and under a vain and weak Prince Parlia- ment was no longer docile. Trained in a different school of politics, and succeeding by what it is the fashion of the time to speak of as divine right, James failed entirely to understand the position of his predeces- sors. This misunderstanding of his historical position handed on to his descendants, was the cause of the dis- asters which attended the Stuart dynasty. The contest between personal monarchy and constitutional govern- ment was terminated only by the removal of the Stuarts from the throne. James was often in collision with Parliament, and for the first time since Richard II an attempt was made to levy duties on imports without the consent of Parliament. In vain he sent five members of Parliament to the Tower. The Commons refused him subsidies, and in order to find the money which his extravagances rendered necessary, he resorted to more shameful practices, and offered for sale the court offices; judicial functions were put up at auction, and he created and sold titles. These ill-gotten gains were squandered on his favorites, of whom the most notorious was George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham. When the Thirty Years' War broke out James prof- ited by the perils of Protestantism in Germany to call a new Parliament. But the Commons refused to vote him supplies unless he would accede to the demands of the Nation, dismiss his favorites, discontinue the grant- ing of monopolies, reverse his Spanish policy, and im- pose no import or export duties without consent of Parliament. The King dissolved Parliament (1623) 128 MODERN EUROPE and, tempted by the promise of a large dowry, asked the hand of the Spanish Infanta for his son. This was a new offense to the English people. The project failed, thanks to the follies of Buckingham, but the marriage of the Prince of Wales to Henrietta of France, sister of Louis XIII, was almost as unpopular, because it seated a Catholic Princess on the throne of England. James I died in 1625. The most important event of his reign was the new translation of the Bible, completed in 1611. Charles I (1625-1649) was a decorous, dignified, determined, and dangerous copy of his feebly tyranni- cal father. He could not rightly read the signs of the times. He failed to understand the people, and he raised a storm of feeling which could not be quelled or cajoled, and he paid the cruel penalty in defeat, deposi- tion, and death. The favor shown the Catholics by the King offended the Nation, and Buckingham remained the favorite of the son as he had been of the father. The struggle with Parliament recommenced immediately. This Assembly was composed of cadets of great families, and citizens of the middle class, who, having acquired wealth under the Elizabethan reign, filled all the liberal professions. The custom was to vote the right of tax for the duration of the reign. The lower House refused to grant it for more than a year, and Charles, exasper- ated, dissolved Parliament. The Parliament of 1626 went farther. They lodged an accusation against Buck- ingham. They were dissolved again. In the hope of acquiring some popularity, Buckingham persuaded Charles to support the Protestants of France and send a fleet to the succor of Rochelle. The expedition failed through the incapacity of its general (1627). This failure strengthened Parliament, who obliged the King to sanction the Petition of Rights, and then addressed CONSTITUTIONAL STRUGGLE 129 him two remonstrances, one against the illegal imposi- tion of imports, the other against his favorite, whom they blamed for the public misery. The King dissolved Parliament again, and a fanatic, John Felton, assassin- ated Buckingham. Charles then appointed Archbishop Laud and the Count of Strafford to the Ministry, and decided to govern without a Parliament in defiance of the British Constitution. But with no Parliament there were no supplies. Consequently, he had no means to interfere in the great events which agitated all Europe, and this abstinence lowered the English Government in the estimation of the King's subjects. Enormous fines were imposed on those who opposed his plans. The cruelty of Laud against the dissenters, as in torturing Leighton and Prynne, increased the public discontent, which manifested itself by the sympathy it showed the steadfast citizen Hampden when he opposed the impost of ship-money by illegal process (1635). Scotland attacked by Laud, in its Presbyterian faith, protested by an insurrection at Edinburgh (1637), and formed the association at once political and religious of the Cove- nant (1638), which the English army, led by Strafford, refused to fight in 1640. After eleven years without a Parliament the King confessed himself conquered, and called a fifth Parlia- ment, that which became famous under the name of the Long Parliament, and which, going to extremes, took away the right of taxation and judicial authority, abol- ished special tribunals, proclaimed its own periodicity, and brought a capital accusation against Count Straf- ford, who was beheaded in 1641. At the same time a formidable insurrection broke out among the Irish, who killed 40,000 Protestants. When the King asked for means to suppress the rebels, Parliament responded by Voi,, 29 130 MODERN EUROPE bitter remonstrances, and passed the militia bill, which put the army under its own control. Charles tried to arrest the leaders of the opposition in the midst of the Assembly, and failing, he quitted London in the midst of civil war. Parliament held the capital, the large cities, the sea- ports, and the fleet. The King had the support of most of the nobility, more accustomed to arms than the middle-class militia. In the shires of the north and west the royalists or the cavaliers prevailed, while the Parlia- mentary party or roundheads, were in the counties of the middle and southeast, the richest sections of the country, and which close together formed a belt around London. At first the advantage was with the King. From Not- tingham, where he had raised his standard, he marched on London. The Parliamentary force, beaten at Edge Hill and at Worcester (1642), redoubled its energy. Hampden raised a regiment of infantry among his ten- ants, friends, and neighbors. Oliver Cromwell, who then began to come out from his obscurity, formed in the counties of the east, from the sons of farmers and squires, regiments who opposed religious enthusiasm to the sentiments of honor which animated the Cavaliers and the Parliamentary troops conquering at Newbury, allied themselves with the Scotch by a solemn covenant. Parliament was a coalition of parties; the Presbyterians, though abolishing the hierarchy in the Church, wished to preserve it in the State, while the Independents, opposed nobles as they opposed Bishops, the political sovereignty of the King as well as his religious suprem- acy. The Puritans were divided into numerous sects, Levelers, Anabaptists, and Millenarians. Their leaders were able men, the greatest of which was Oliver Crom- well, a genius in statecraft and war, who forms the sub- CONSTITUTIONAL STRUGGLE 131 ject of a special article in the volume, "World's Great Warriors." With his squadrons, called Ironsides, Cromwell gained the victory in the battle of Marston Moor in 1644, and then that of Newbury, which saved the Revolution. This success helped the Independents, who, although a minority in Parliament, nevertheless succeeded in passing a bill of renunciation, by which the deputies agreed not to exercise any public function, and whose effect was to deliver the army to the control of the Independents. Cromwell then prosecuted the war with vigor. The last army of the King was crushed at Naseby (1645), while his lieutenant, Montrose, was beaten by the Scotch Covenanters. The King in despair, went to the camp of the Scotch, who sold him to Parliament for 400,000. The Presbyterians would willingly have treated with their captive. Supported by the army, Cromwell "purged" the Parliament, expelling all the Presbyterian members, and the Independents had the King cited before a court of justice, which sent him to the scaffold on January 30, 1649. Then began the only English Republic. The Gov- ernment set up was a Government by the committees of a Council of State, nominally supporting themselves in the House of Commons, although the members who still retained their places were so few that the Council of State was sufficiently numerous to form a majority of the House. Monarchy and the House of Peers were formally abolished. Ireland, being Catholic, protested against the revolution, and Scotland, remembering that the Stuarts came of a Scottish race, rebelled through feelings of National pride. Resistance in Ireland was suppressed by Cromwell in 1649. Scotland was con- quered at the battle of Dunbar, and the son of the late 132 MODERN EUROPE King, the future Charles II, was overthrown at Worces- ter (1651), and the country was forced to recognize the power of the Parliament at London. In 1653 Crom- well, realizing that the country was tired of the Long Parliament, now called the "Rump," drove out the mem- bers with the aid of his soldiers and fastened a sign with the words, "House to Let" on the door. Cromwell saw that it was necessary to have one controlling head for the State, and he assumed this position as Lord Protector. He did all that was in his power to do to prevent his authority from degenerating into tyranny. He summoned two Parliaments, of only one House, and with the consent of the second Parliament he erected a second House, so that he might have some means of checking the lower House without constantly coming to personal collision with it. In form his Government was better than that of the Stuarts, but it had one fatal defect, it rested on the rule of the sword. The National will was opposed to him. But during his administration of affairs he brought about order by the sword and com- merce thrived. England again became respected abroad, and Spain and France sought his alliance. But, like Elizabeth, he became the defender of Protestantism and threatened to punish the Pope if he did not cease the persecution of the Reformed Church. The Dutch and the Spanish were defeated by his great Admiral Blake, and England became mistress of the seas. Cromwell died in 1658 and his son, Richard, who succeeded him, retained power for only a few months. Tyranny or Anarchy seemed the only choice for the people of Eng- land, and when Monk dissolved the "Rump Parlia- ment," which had reassembled and formed a new Parlia- ment, every one knew that it would recall the Stuarts. CONSTITUTIONAL STRUGGLE 133 So by the choice of both Presbyterians and Cavaliers Charles II became King without conditions. Charles II (1649-1685) was one of the most worthless men that ever filled a throne. Defeat, exile, and pov- erty had wrought in him a fixed resolve not, as he said, "to go again upon his travels," through the exercise of such an open and unendurable tyranny as had caused his father's ruin. Having known both good and evil in mankind he rejected all belief in the one and deliberately made his choice companion of the other. Charles him- self was in his heart a Catholic, but prudence kept him from the course which proved his brother's ruin. His own experience in Scotland and his favorite vices made the Presbyterian form of worship and the rigid virtue of the Puritans alike distasteful. Apart from this he cared nothing for religious quarrels, and only valued the Epis- copalian system because its votaries were strong sup- porters of the royal prerogative. In fact he was thor- oughly selfish and cared only for himself. Frivolous and debauched, he soon found himself forced through need of money to make himself dependent upon the Commons for the sake of receiving money, or upon some foreign power for the sake of receiving a pension. First he sold Louis XIV Mardick and Dunkirk, two of the conquests made by Cromwell. After the triple alli- ance of The Hague, which his people imposed upon him in order to check France in the Netherlands, he sold himself to France, and Louis paid him a pension of 2,000,000 francs until his death. This was money well spent, for it kept England from playing a prominent part in international politics. Although Parliament forced Charles to join the Swedes and Dutch in 1668 to rescue the Spanish Netherlands, and in 1674 to oppose France 134 MODERN EUROPE and bring about the peace of Nimeguen, these profited England nothing. In fact during the war with the United Provinces from 1664 to 1667 (just at the time when the Plague of London happened in 1665, and the Great Fire of 1666), the Dutch fleet sailed up the Thames, a thing which no enemy's fleet had done since the time of the Danes. In domestic politics there are five well marked periods into which the twenty-five years of Charles' reign may be divided. The first lasted only about a year, and witnessed the attempt of the first Parliament to settle the outstanding question of religion and politics on a moderate basis. Its place was taken by the "Cav- alier" Parliament, which set to work to strengthen the revived monarchy, reestablish the Anglican Church, and persecute all other creeds. This was during the full tide of the reaction against the ideals of Puritanism. The second period, 1662-1672, finds this Parliament gradu- ally losing confidence in the King, whose schemes of toleration it hated and whose Minister it impeached. The King and his councilors, aided and abetted by his foreign mistresses, now trafficked with Louis, and there gradually appeared a fair possibility of a complete reac- tion against the restored monarchy. Two parties were formed; one that of Parliament, whose religious policy had been outraged, another the popular party, which hated the foreign intrigues and persecuting statutes to which the King had assented. The third period (1672- 1679) was the one in which this two-fold opposition failed to combine against the Crown, and Charles was able to play off one of his opponents against the other. It was in 1673 that Parliament, suspecting Charles of favoring Catholicism, voted the Test Act, which obliged officials to declare under oath that they did not believe CONSTITUTIONAL STRUGGLE 135 in transubstantiation, and which thus closed public em- ployment to Roman Catholics, and their exclusion lasted until 1829. The Popish plot, imagined by the wretched Titus Oates, and the memory of the Great Fire of 1666, which had been attributed to the Catholics, provoked extremely rigorous measures, and eight Jesuits were hanged. In the fourth period (1679-1681) a great opposition, the beginning of the future Whig party, was formed and the attempt made 1 to oust the King's brother, the Duke of York, an avowed Catholic, from the succes- sion to the Crown. This question divided the Nation and the popular party, and in the hands of immoderate men wrecked their own cause, but during this period the Whigs passed the famous habeas corpus act of 1679, which confirmed the law of personal security, written in the Magna Charta, but so often violated, and which pro- vided that every prisoner must be examined by the Judge within twenty-four hours after arrest, and released or set at liberty under bail if the proofs were insufficient. The last period (1681-1685) found the King secure and triumphant, free from Parliament and his other enemies. Charles died in 1685. James II (1685-1689) came to the throne as a hero of a victory which others had won. The Whigs were crushed. The attack on hereditary right was now but an episode in a discredited movement, the cry of a fallen party. The reaction in favor of monarchy was as com- plete at the end of Charles' reign as it had been in 1660. Indeed it was, in a sense, stronger, for it was the result of a double lesson; the threats of the "Exclusionists" who passed the Test Act, had reminded men of the Anarchy of the Rebellion. Yet this reaction was not at the bottom so much in favor of the Crown as for the cause of peace. Louis XIV was now paramount in i3 6 MODERN EUROPE Europe; all other nations saw a menace to their safety in his illimitable claims and his unscrupulous raids. James II was fifty-two years old. He was a hard worker, a man of business, an experienced soldier, sailor, and administrator. He was without the lazy hesitancy of his grandfather, and lacked the noble resignation of his father, while he possessed to the full the obstinate belief in the Stuart mission, which had clogged the one and ruined the other. He reigned barely four years. In that short time he managed to alienate the Church of England, which had preached divine right and non- resistance for nearly a Century; to restore the Whig party to a supremacy which lasted for upward of eighty years, and finally to uproot his dynasty from its firm hold in the hearts of the English people. Under James the fear of a Roman Catholic King vanquished the fear of a civil war. The reason is to be sought, like the clew to most of the Seventeenth Century problems, in reli- gion; James was a bigoted Roman Catholic, and while he persecuted to the death Presbyterians in Scotland, he determined to remove all restrictions on the political and religious position of the Roman Catholics in Eng- land. The laws which had been passed against Non- conformists of all sorts fell into two clear divisions. First, the penal laws, which forbade and punished the exercise of their religion; secondly, the Tests, which refused them all political and military office, unless they denied by word and deed their dearest beliefs. The former involved religious persecution, the latter political death. The penal laws might perhaps, in a short time, have been mitigated ; for they were cruel and bloody, and many enlightened men disliked them. Meanwhile there would have been little difficulty in using the "Preroga- tive of Dispensing" to pardon those who were threat- CONSTITUTIONAL STRUGGLE 137 ened with the more terrible punishments. Gradually men would have learned that punishment for religious opinion is no part of man's duty to man or God. But the Tests, on the other hand, were considered by the majority, in the case of the Roman Catholics, as neces- sary for the National safety; and, in the case of Protes- tant Dissenters, as a useful means of keeping enemies out of power. James' attempts to break down the bar- riers which divided his co-religionists from the best and highest places in the land are the main features of his reign. Like Charles, he relied on Louis' gold and on an army; but, unlike Charles, he had no idea what things were possible and what were not. James pursued his schemes till an exasperated Nation called and welcomed his nephew and son-in-law to deliver it. Then he fled. No doubt toleration was a good object, but Englishmen had reason to distrust Roman Catholics, who aimed at supremacy, and had perpetually endeavored since the Reformation to overthrow the Government by conspir- acy or by open force. When James found the Nation resolute against his plan he endeavored to carry it out against their will and their laws. Thus the revolution which ensued turned on the old question Is the King a personal ruler and above the law of the land? This question was at last to be answered in the negative. A rebellion occurred in Scotland during James' reign. Archibald, Earl of Argyle, son of the great Cov- enanter who had been beheaded in 1660, had landed in the Western Highlands early in 1685 to rouse his coun- trymen in defense of their religion; but the scheme was badly organized, and the rising was easily suppressed. A far more dangerous foe was now in arms in the South. The Duke of Monmouth, the natural son of the late King, had been living in Holland, where he was sur- 138 MODERN EUROPE rounded by many refugees of the old Exclusion and Whig party. Relying on his undoubted popularity in England he landed at Lyme Regis (June, 1685), and declared for a free Parliament and relief of Dissenters. He received no support from the Prince of Orange, who was not likely to compromise his future by such a scheme. At Taunton the invader was proclaimed as King, but after a brief moment of success his followers were cut to pieces on Sedgmoor (July 6). He was cap- tured and executed, after a piteous appeal to his uncle's mercy. His adherents, and all who had been concerned in the rising, were cruelly punished by the soldiers of Colonel Kirke and the judicial murders of Chief- Justice Jeffreys, who conducted the memorable "Bloody As- size" in the southwestern countries with reckless blood- thirstiness. In the year 1688 came the two events which strained the loyalty of the Nation beyond its limits. The King's order in Council (May, 1688) that the "declaration" should be publicly read in church nerved the Bishops to a memorable resistance. The birth of an heir to the throne in June led all classes of English to look over-sea to Holland for help, since a peaceful change upon James' death was no longer possible, after the appearance of a Popish heir. A letter was sent to William of Orange, inviting him to come and deliver the land from the gall- ing bonds of a "Popish" Prince. The Whig deliverer landed at Torbay, November 5, 1688. James had made some efforts at conciliation, but to little purpose. The Bishops refused to exhort the Nation not to resist their King. In a short while the invader was joined by the foremost Whigs; and a large part of the army, under the influence of Churchill, the future Duke of Marlborough, who had been sent to Salisbury to oppose William, CONSTITUTIONAL STRUGGLE 139 deserted the royal cause. As the invader drew nearer London, James, after sending his wife and child to France, endeavored to follow them; but he was cap- tured and brought back to the capital. William had not claimed the Kingdom, but had merely declared in favor of a free Parliament and Toleration, with a maintenance of the Tests and other bulwarks against Popery. Noth- ing was settled, though bloodshed had been avoided. The next step was critical. It was an anxious moment for all. James was told that he could not stay in Lon- don, and was allowed to select a place of refuge. He chose Rochester, and promptly fled thence to France. After much debate, Parliament declared that James, hav- ing broken "the original contract between King and people and withdrawn himself out of the Kingdom, has abdicated the Government, and the throne is thereby vacant." The scruples of the Tories had been removed by William's announcement that he would go home unless they made him King, and that he would not stay here as his wife's "gentleman usher." William and Mary were promptly declared King and Queen of Eng- land. William, Prince of Orange, and Stadholder of the United Provinces, was now King of England, not as Mary's husband, but together with her as the chosen successor of James. He was just forty years old, and had profited by his experience in a way that was to make him able to rule England and play the foremost part in European politics. It has been said that William was never young. He had been born and bred amid intrigues, revolutions, plots, and had grown to manhood with the roar of French guns in his ears. He was cold and hard in manner, had wretched health, and was per- sonally unattractive. His ambition had been to make HO MODERN EUROPE himself and his beloved Holland a power in Europe, and his chance had been so opportunely seized that he hoped to add the name and resources of England to that League of Augsburg, which the restless Louis XIV had roused against himself in 1686. The Pope, the num- erous German Princes, the Emperor, and the King of Spain had long been anxious to check the daring mon- arch who swooped down now on the Pyrenees, now on Italy, now on the Rhine or the Sambre. If William, backed by the English Nation and the English navy, could lead the way, there would be some chance of mak- ing headway even against so great a power as that wielded by Louis. The reign of William may be divided into five periods. The first two years (1689-1691) were occupied with the settlement of Scotland and Ireland, for James and Louis made a great attempt to keep William out of their path by giving him work in Ireland. This expedi- ent would, if successful, have tied the King's hands very effectually. But all fears of a Jacobite Ireland were allayed by the battle of Boyne. From 1692 to 1695 William struggled unsuccessfully with his greatest foe on the Continent, while he contrived to keep his Gov- ernment efficient at home by intrusting more and more power to the Whigs. The death of Mary marks the close of this second period. The third consists of two years (1695-1697), in which the power of France was successfully tired out, while the continued domination of the Whigs secured a strong war policy. With the Peace of Ryswick (1697) the Nation, led by the Tories, ceased to support William; and in the fourth period (1697-1701) his Parliaments became more and more unmanageable, while on the Continent the tardy death of the Spanish King raised the greatest political problem CONSTITUTIONAL STRUGGLE 141 of the age, and started the wars of the Spanish succes- sion. Just as the French King was about to sieze all those gains which the English jealousy against Wil- liam was pouring into his hands, the death of James II occurred. The recognition of his son as King of Eng- land, which Louis promptly made, once more stung the English into a warlike temper. The fifth period (1701- 1702), therefore, shows William and his adopted country again at one, but with the last and fiercest struggle still to come. At this moment William died. Anne (1702-1714), the younger daughter of James II by his first marriage, became Queen on William's death by the express terms of the act of settlement of 1701. She was likely to be popular, for she was a Stuart, and yet a sincere member of the Anglican Church. The Tories would see in her a representative of the family whose misdeeds they were so anxious to forgive. The Whigs would approve of a Queen suc- ceeding by laws framed against the enemies of England's liberties. She was a good woman, without much will of her own. Thus it was easy to influence her. And it was necessary for those who wished to secure power to do so, for she retained a good deal of the importance in politics which had belonged to her predecessors. She sat in the Council, and the Ministers were her nominees, or the nominees of those who worked upon her feelings. The Constitution was, as we have seen, changing. A time was coming when the sovereign would be obliged to chose Ministers trusted by the Commons and the country. The existence of parties had forced William to do so. This was becoming even more necessary in Anne's reign. Indeed, her greatest change of Ministers in 1710 was the result of a National and party agitation, which carried the Queen along with it. This presents a 143 MODERN EUROPE great contrast to the early days of the period, when the Stuart Kings had endeavored to maintain Ministers in opposition to the movement of the time. The extension of this system was destined in the end to solve the prob- lem of English Government. But meanwhile the fact remains that Anne was sufficiently her own mistress to be unwilling to make changes except under pressure. Thus her easily-led nature became a most important political matter. Her personal influence was perhaps heightened by the fact that her husband, Prince George of Denmark, was a man of no political weight. There was "nothing in him," according to Charles II, who pro- fessed to have "tried him drunk and tried him sober." The reign may be divided into three periods. In the first (1702-1708), the European was foremost. The National enthusiasm set the war going, and the genius of Marlborough, the hero of Blenheim, made it success- ful. The Queen was completely under the influence of the wife of her great commander; the Whigs secured a majority in Parliament, and the Ministers were chosen from among them. Louis was beaten on all sides and sued for peace, which was at first refused. The union of England and Scotland was made (1707) under the title of Great Britain. In the second period (1708-1710) the strife of the parties at home is all-important. Wearied by the long war, the Nation refused to support Marlborough, as they had refused to support William. The danger seemed over. The influence of the Duchess was undermined, and Queen Anne ceased to take pleasure in the society of a "brawling woman in a wide house." A Tory reaction occurred. Churchmen raised their voices against toleration, and the foolish prosecu- tion of one of them gave away the dignity of the Gov- ernment, who> their popularity being already gone, CONSTITUTIONAL STRUGGLE 143 could not long hope to retain office. The struggle ended in a victory for the Tories, and thus incidentally for the principle of party government. A Tory Ministry was soon appointed, and in the third period (1710-1714) the Revolution settlement trembled in the balance. Peace was made with France, a peace perhaps necessary, perhaps just, yet in terms far less glorious than Eng- land's victorious armies were considered to have earned. The Tory Ministers plotted for a Tory triumph, perhaps for a Stuart restoration. The death of Anne, however, found this Ministry divided by a quarrel between its leaders, and the Whigs were able to obtain sufficient influence in the Council to secure the succession of George I. SUPPRESSION OF THE OTTOMAN POWER During much of the Seventeenth Century the Ottoman power was at war with Venice, which at this time, though the Republic was in her decline, was the chief champion of Christendom against the Moslem. After a war of twenty-four years (1645-1669) the Turks succeeded in making themselves masters of the island of Candia or Crete, which they have kept ever since. The siege of the chief town, Candia, lasted for over twenty years, and is one of the longest in history. Volunteers came from all parts of Europe to aid the Venetians, the Pope sending troops and money, Malta supplying soldiers headed by her Knights of St. John, and Louis XIV and the Duke of Savoy also taking part with auxiliaries. It was, in fact, another crusade against the infidels, but the Christians were forced to surrender when they were thinned by slaughter and disease, and the Turkish cannon had laid the city in ruins and battered down the walls. On this, as on other occasions, the quarrels and jealousies of the Christian powers of Europe prevented a combination which would soon have crushed Turkish aggression. The Turks lost nearly 120,000 and the Christians over 30,000 men; fifty-six assaults and ninety-six sorties were made; 1,645 mines were sprung by the assailants and defenders; over half a million of cannon shot were fired by the for- tress; and 9,000 tons of lead were used for musket balls by the Christians. In 1684 the Venetians, aided by the Emperor Leopold, assailed the Turks in Greece, and conquered the whole of the Peloponnesus. During this war in Greece, in the 144 SUPPRESSION OF OTTOMAN POWER 145 Venetian attack upon Athens, the famous Parthenon, the glory of the city and of ancient Grecian architecture, was greatly damaged in 1687 by an explosion of gunpowder, the Turks having, on their capture of Athens in 1456, turned what was then a Christian church, first into a mosque, and then into a magazine. Before this the Turks had been encouraged, by the discontent of Hungary with Austrian rule and her rebel- ion against the Emperor Leopold, to attack Western Christendom in great force. In 1683 the Ottoman army, along with the Hungarian insurgents, marched in irre- sistible strength on Vienna. Columns of smoke from burning villages flanked the advance of the destroying Turks, and in July they encamped for the second time before the walls of Vienna. The Emperor Leopold and the court had fled, leaving a garrison of about 10,000 men, while the Duke of Lorraine, with a large cavalry force, kept watch outside on the movements of the enemy. A Turkish host of 200,000 men surrounded the city, and a fierce resistance was made by the Viennese to the assault- ing columns, when breaches had been made in the fortifi- cations. For over forty days the efforts of the Turks were vain, and their commander, the Grand Vizier, Kara Mus- tafa, resorted to the explosion of huge mines under the ramparts. The Turks slowly gained ground. By the first days of September, 1683, Vienna was in extremity, but relief was now at hand. During most of the Seventeenth Century Poland had been declining. She had lost territory to Sweden and to Russia, and been greatly weakened by internal dissensions and mismanagement, especially by the absurd system of veto in her Diet or political assembly, which allowed the vote of a single deputy to negative a proposal on which all the others were agreed. A parting gleam of glory for Voi,. 2 io H 6 MODERN EUROPE Poland came in the reign of her brave King, John Sobieski, who ruled from 1674 to 1696. To him Leopold had now appealed for help against the Moslem, and Sobieski, hurry- ing forward, had joined the German army under the Duke of Lorraine, with whom the young Prince Eugene was serving. The Turkish army had been much diminished and discouraged, but now faced round, with its back to the city, to meet the shock. The result was decisive. On September 12, 1683, Sobieski and his allies totally defeated the Turks, and raised the siege of Vienna. When the famous Janizaries gave way an utter rout of the Otto- man force ensued, and the last chance of a Turkish con- quest of Central Europe had passed away. A complete and disastrous overthrow had taught the Turks at last that in future it would be their task to maintain them- selves, if they could, in Europe against Christian aggres- sion and retaliation, and to abandon dreams of further permanent progress for their arms. The Florentine poet, Vincenzo da Filicaja, celebrated the exploit of John Sobieski and the deliverance of Christen- dom in verse. The forces of Austria, Poland, and Venice now assailed the Ottoman Empire on three sides, and the Turks, rallying from their defeat, resisted with their usual tenacity and valor. In 1686, however, a combined Christian force stormed Buda; in 1687 the Turks were routed in the second battle of Mohacs, on the very field of their Sultan Soliman II's great triumph, and Hungary's fatal defeat, in 1526. The fortresses between the Danube and the Drave were grad- ually taken by the Christian allies; and though the Turks managed to check Sobieski himself on the Moldavian bor- der, they needed their whole strength to hold their own on the Danube. In 1688 Belgrade was captured, after an assault in which Prince Eugene shared; in 1689 the Impe- SUPPRESSION OF OTTOMAN POWER 147 rialists drove the Turks before them, and then came alter- nations of success until Prince Eugene, now an experi- enced leader, gave the Turks a crushing defeat at Zenta, in the south of Hungary, on the Theiss, in 1697. In 1699 the Treaty of Carlowitz gave back Hungary and Transylvania permanently to Austria; Venice kept Dalmatia and the Morea, Poland recovered some lost ter- ritory. This was the first time that the Ottoman Govern- ment had met the plenipotentiaries of Christian Europe in congress, and the first treaty in which the Turkish frontier was made to recede. The Turks were now, once for all, compelled to take a responsible place in the system of Christendom, which they had so deeply injured, and had to the last insulted and endangered. The treaty of Carlo- witz proclaimed far and wide that the haughty pretensions and aggressive policy which had so long distinguished the Ottoman State had ceased to be endurable in the civilized world. MENTAL ACTIVITY AND PROGRESS Violence of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries led, among Protestants as well as among Catholics, to a reaction, which tended to the greater influence of Chris- tianity. The Protestants, divided as they were, at least agreed upon the necessity for personal devotion, for living faith, for obedience to the maxims of the Bible and the Gospel. Although less visible in its external demonstra- tions, religious sentiment was as deeply imprinted among the Puritans as among the Anglicans; among the Calvin- ists as strongly as among the Lutherans. Society in Eng- land, Germany, Holland, and Switzerland even assumed a religious tone, and affected a severity which has not yet disappeared, although greatly softened in our own days. Assiduous attendance at church, the taste for the perusal of the Bible, the passion for theological and moral discus- sions, the, at all events outward, rigidity of manners, the strict observance of the Sabbath rest, imposed by public opinion quite as much as by the civil authorities, distin- guished Protestant countries, where religion concentrated in the soul assumed an importance that heightened the earnestness and gravity of the populations of the North. Protestantism imprinted its seal upon the English, the Americans and the Dutch, the Swiss and the Germans. It became a national characteristic, it is a part of true patriot- ism, and rules society, which, in these nations more than others, glories in the name of Christian. Catholicism in the countries where it still predomi- nated devoted itself, without renouncing its external pomp, to returning to a more serious practice of the Christian 148 MENTAL ACTIVITY AND PROGRESS 149 virtues. New religious orders, founded in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth centuries, endeavored some, like the Capuchins and the Feuillants to reestablish the severe rules of the old mendicant orders; others like the Con- gregation of the Oratory and the Reformed Benedictines of Saint Maur to revive learning at the same time as piety among the clergy. But although the Seventeenth Century was remark- able for a spirit of charity, which contrasted with the still prevalent intolerance, it affected no improvement in the relations between the nations. The Thirty Years' war saw the formation of great armies, and the exploits of a num- ber of generals who rivaled each other in skill and cour- age. Gustavus Adolphus revived strategy and tactics. His bold and sudden marches, the way in which he mar- shaled his troops on an improved system while extending his lines, the use he made of his cavalry, which then formed the greater part of the armies, the topographical knowl- edge with which he placed his artillery, gave birth to mili- tary art. His reforms were adopted everywhere. The heavy horse soldiery was reformed and lances taken away ; it was separated from the arquebusiers, who formerly min- gled in its ranks and who became dragoons. Nearly all body armor was abandoned and the men retained only their open helmets and breastplates; they then became cuirassiers. The cavalry, posted on the wings, recon- noitered the front and scoured the country; it had found its true mission. The old bands of infantry were divided into regiments, the arquebus was replaced by the musket, the foot soldiers were relieved of the iron corselet, which hindered their march. The close order of four ranks deep was still retained, but it was a substantial improvement upon the old irregular masses that were so difficult to move. Discipline was established and uniforms were in- 150 MODERN EUROPE troduced. Louvois, the Secretary of State in the wars of Louis XIV, organized the French army, diminished with- out suppressing the pikemen, formed files of soldiers to throw grenades grenadiers substituted the rifle for the musket, and the rifle, completed by the bayonet, became the most used weapon of the modern times. He ordered that the men should walk in step, and forced the noble officers to serve before commanding; to study before directing. He furnished Louis XIV with admirable armies, numbering 400,000 men, provided with stores of provisions, ammunition, clothes, and all the necessary bag- gage for such large numbers. At the same time sieges became scientific. Fabert invented parallel trenches at the siege of Stenay (1654), and Vauban and Cohorn perfected the art of attack and defense of cities and positions. The old Roman and feudal walls became useless, since balls could form breaches in them, and bombs could be dropped even into the city. Vauban lowered the fortifications, making them level with the ground, and relied for protection upon a simple earthen wall preceded by a moat and interrupted by so many angles and zigzags that it was impossible to approach it from the front; the wall sheltered powerful batteries, which kept the assailants at a distance; citadels or forts, often designed in the form of stars, also defended important places. The science of military engineering was created. The Seventeenth Century continued and extended the movement which urged European Nations toward naviga- tion, industry, and commerce. But the chief actors had changed. The Spanish annexation of Portugal in 1580, by attaching the Portuguese colonies to a monarchy in decadence, led to their ruin. Spain, exhausted by the ambition of Philip II and the insensate despotism of his successors, in spite of its vast colonial Empire, through MENTAL ACTIVITY AND PROGRESS 151 bad administration had become, from the most influential, one of the weakest powers in Europe. The Dutch replaced the Portuguese in the markets of Hindustan; settled in Ceylon ; took possession of the Moluccas ; then of the mag- nificent islands of Sunda, Java, Sumatra, Celebes, Amboyna, and Timor. In the Island of Java they founded a city (1619), to which they proudly gave their old his- torical name Batavia, the city of the Batavians. From 1609 they traded with Japan, and to secure the road, did not neglect the necessary settlements on the coast of Africa, which led to the formation of the West India Com- pany (1621). This company also traded with America. The Dutch had occupied several points on the Western coast of North America, and founded (1614) New Amsterdam, on the site now occupied by New York. In the Seventeenth Century, they possessed a merchant fleet which surpassed all the combined fleets of other countries. Amsterdam replaced Antwerp, ruined by the closing of the Scheldt. She became the Northern Venice. The Dutch were now the only European importers of spice, cinnamon, sandal-wood, indigo, Chinese tea, lacquer, Japanese por- celain and silk. In the Baltic they had, through competi- tion, ruined the commerce of the Hanseatic cities. All the Continental peoples were their tributaries, and the Zealand fishers, so long obscure and poor, now exchanged their bar- rels of herrings for barrels of gold. The English were the chief rivals of the Dutch in these enterprises. In the Seventeenth Century the English col- onies were founded, and with extraordinary labor the set- tlers cleared the forests of New England, dug the soil, worked the mines, and replaced the solitude by admirably cultivated plantations and industrious towns. But how- ever inclined the English might be to imitate the Dutch, they were at first unable to rival them. Cromwell forced 152 MODERN EUROPE them to make the attempt. By the Navigation Act (1651), completed under Charles II in 1660, the coasting trade was reserved for English vessels, as was all trade with English colonies. By a single blow the Dutch found themselves excluded from the ports and colonies. They were still more injured by the clauses in the Navigation Act which provided that the produce of Asia, Africa, and America could be carried only in English ships. The European Nations could import only the produce of their own soil and labor to England. Now the Dutch had not sufficient agricultufe nor industries to nourish their com- merce. They were only commission merchants, the car- riers of the sea, as they were called. These provisos com- pletely ruined their trade with England, and they only submitted to them after two sanguinary and disastrous wars. England succeeded in depriving Holland of the empire of the seas, and after the Revolution of 1688 the momentary union of the two countries, under the rule of William III, was naturally unfavorable to Holland, the less important of the two States. The improvement of the material conditions of life, security, tranquillity protected by a power which no one dreamed of disputing, the luxury increasing with industry, all modified the aspects of society. The nobles, instead of fighting, visited each other. The court, peopled with noblemen, now rivals only in elegance and deportment, gave the tone to the city; women asserted their empire, enforced politeness, and the chivalric as it softened ended in gallantry. Chiefly in France, but also in Italy, from the reign of Louis XIII, the intercourse of society and art of conversation were sedulously cultivated, and the assemblies and drawing-rooms almost recalled the Acad- emy of Athens in the days of Greek literature and philo- sophy. The Hotel de Rambouillet became the model of MENTAL ACTIVITY AND PROGRESS 153 these learned but not pedantic assemblies, where French society became refined, displayed its gayety, and purified its language. Conversation became an important busi- ness, and woman's quick, delicate intelligence gave a lively fascination, a refined, agreeable tone to conversation, so that it won admiration for the French language and made it the fashionable tongue in almost every court of Europe. Pierre Corneille (1606-1684) rediscovered, we can truly say, the ancient tragedies. More restrained, more sober than Shakespeare, who never bound himself to any rules, more concentrated than the Spaniards, from whom he borrowed the subject of his first masterpiece, "The Cid" (1636), he arranged his plays in the triple unity of time, scene, and action, without too much injuring their prob- ability, and increased their interest by the rapid succession of the scenes. Though Corneille cannot compare with the Greek tragedians, nor with Shakespeare in the wide range of his power, nor even with the Spanish dramatists in the rich beauty of their verse, his plays are admirably adapted for the stage. He has real enthusiasm for the heroic vir- tues and for patriotism as then understood. As rhetorical declamation in verse his pieces have never been surpassed. They give a dignity to every worthy actor of them, and it is probably owing to them that the stage in France has had a greater influence, and exercised more power than in any other country, and that, too, even when actors were excommunicated by the Church. At the same time that tragedy was influencing and elevating the heart and soul, ancient philosophy reappeared to occupy the intellect. One year after Corneille had written the first masterpiece of dramatic art, Descartes (1596-1650) published the first book on philosophy. Racine, Moliere, Boileau, three friends and three of the writers most honored by Louis XIV, possessed very dif- i 5 4 MODERN EUROPE ferent styles. Racine (1639-1699) divides with Corneille the glory of French classical tragedy. Inferior in force and declamation, his verse is more flowing and harmoni- ous; he deals better with the softer passions. If we except the Spaniards, he alone has succeeded in making religious and Biblical themes acceptable on the modern stage. Moliere (1622-1673) may be regarded as the creator of French comedy, in spite of Corneille's "Menteur." Far higher than either Racine or Corneille, he is supreme in his own art and within his limits. For the only pure com- edy which has equaled that of Moliere we must go back to the Greeks. He is unrivaled in modern Europe. Although Boileau ( 1636-171 1 ) cannot be admitted to the same rank as his two friends, he was a laborious poet and a better critic. His influence over poetry ruled in Europe down to the beginning of the present Century. Through Pope it prevailed in England to the age of Byron and of Wordsworth, who mark a new school. He is the head of the Classic in opposition to the Romantic school. But the inspiration of Christianity was chiefly demon- strated in the orators of the pulpit : Bourdaloue, Bossuet, Fenelon. Bourdaloue (1632-1704) was only a sermon writer, and his reputation never attained the height of that of the two other preachers. He was too logical, too formal, and too special. Bossuet (1627-1704) and Fen- elon (1651-1711) were of wider genius. The former, orator, historian, philosopher, filled the pulpit with the most sublime eloquence, particularly in his funeral ora- tions. He threw a penetrating glance over the past in his "Discourse upon Universal History," and reconciled philosophy with the religion in his "Treatise on the Knowledge of God and One's Self." Fenelon also showed himself a philosopher in his treatise on the "Existence of God"; he was not an historian, but his romance of "Tele- MENTAL ACTIVITY AND PROGRESS 155 machus" revived the primitive ages of Greece, and his sermons were masterpieces of grace and unction. In addi- tion, in his ideas on education, Fenelon was in advance of his time. The Telemaque proves that its author, in a time of tyranny and toadyism, had discovered the great and now familiar truth that governments exist, and have a right to exist, only for the good of the people, and that the many are not made for the use and enjoyment of one. This glorious originality of spirit, contrasted with that which pervades the French literature of the age of Louis XIV, was in reality "the first faint dawn of a long and splendid day of intellectual light, the dim promise of a great deliverance" to be wrought out hereafter in the French Revolution of 1789. Telemaque is, in its kind, a masterpiece of literature, delivering the best morality in pleasing language. Women, who had contributed to the elegance of this society, could not fail also to find expression in a superior writer. This genius was Madam de Sevigne (1626- 1696), whose letters, lively, observant, and witty, still charm by their pictures of a past society, which there reap- pears as in a mirror. The first of feminine letter-writers, she raises, embellishes, animates and illumines all that she touches, and she touches every subject save the highest. English literature from the Seventeenth Century was still dominated by the great name of Shakespeare. But Ben Jonson (1574-1637) was honored by his side. He was classical, theoretically fascinated by the unities of Aristotle, imitating Juvenal as a satirist, but succeeding better in lyrical poetry, and in his tragedies drawing inspi- ration from Tacitus and Sallust. Francis Bacon,* a member of Parliament, Baron Veru- lam, Viscount St. Albans, Lord Chancellor of England *See volume "Great Philosophers." 156 MODERN EUROPE under James I, led men's ideas back to philosophy and science. Exerting himself to embrace both the intellectual and physical world, he formed the scheme of an immense work, the "Great Restoration of Science," of which he only completed three parts. The most important was the 'Novum Organum" (1620), by which he opened a method of investigation of nature by induction which had been too much neglected since the days of Aristotle. To deduction he opposed induction. Bacon mounted from the particular to the general, a method tried by Descartes in creating philosophy, and by men of science in discover- ing the laws of the physical world. Bacon placed the human mind on the right path. In England Bacon's prin- ciples were almost immediately applied to philosophy by Hobbes (1588-1680), whose philosophy has been lately revived, but whose writings in his own day had more influ- ence on politics than on philosophy. The two revolutions of 1640 and 1688 produced grave effects upon men's minds, and almost equal consequence on literature. That of 1640 was chiefly religious; it ruined the theater, and almost put secular poetry to flight. But it inspired the genius of John Milton (1608-1674), an independent in politics as in religion, an ardent reformer, who lost his sight through overwork; after the storm had calmed, he wrote his magnificent poem of "Par- adise Lost." In secular poetry he reached his highest marks in "Comus" and "Lycidas"; but the majestic organ roll of his blank verse in the "Paradise Lost" has influenced English literature in all departments. His "Samson Agonistes" is the one English tragedy successfully mod- eled on the old Greek drama, if we except Swinburne's "Atalanta in Calydon." John Bunyan (1628-1688), the son of a poor tinker, was also filled with religious inspiration. A courageous, JOHN MILTON MENTAL ACTIVITY AND PROGRESS 157 persecuted preacher, he wrote the "Pilgrim's Progress from this World to the Next"; not less original for being on an old theme, and the one allegory whose characters are flesh and blood, and which has thus become really popular. Samuel Butler (1612-1680) in his burlesque epic of "Hudibras," derided the savage zeal of the sectarians, and in his satires lashed the licentiousness of the court of Charles II. The English theater applied itself to the imi- tation of the French theater, but was unsuccessful both in tragedy and comedy. John Dryden (1631-1700), in the first rank, not through his tragedies and comedies, but in secondary style, excelled in political satire, as in "Absalom and Achitophel,'' and in the "Ode." His poetry, though it introduced the classical couplet, is far more vigorous than that of Pope, as are also his translations; his style, especially in prose, is full of mirth, and through it he is worthy to be called a classic. The revolution of 1688 was in its turn represented by Locke,* who was its theorist and apologist. In his "Essay upon Civil Government" he explained the new govern- ment, and already anticipated Rousseau's "Social Con- tract." In politics as in philosophy he was already most a man of the Eighteenth Century. In fact, if he adopted Descartes' method, he combated his doctrines. In his "Essay upon the Human Understanding," seeking for the origin of ideas, he imagined he had found it in reflection and sense; he was the father of the English idealists and, by reaction, of the Scotch empirical school. English lit- erature was never subjected to rules in the same way as French literature. It was the true expression of an ener- getic, active, varied society, which had grasped political *See volume "Great Philosophers." 158 MODERN EUROPE and religious liberty. Less polished and less elegant, it sought, not for beauty of form, but for strength of ideas, yet it almost reached perfection of expression in Milton's poems. The coffee-houses and clubs filled the office of the salons and academies of France. Holland, which was also a land of liberty, then afforded a refuge to a colony of skeptics, and French scholars, such as Bayle, Basnage, and Leclerc. The Jew Spinoza ( 1632-1677) formulated a philosophical doctrine, that contrasted with the French doctrines. Only seeing substance in the world, he declared that God cannot exist without nature, even as nature cannot exist without God. He thus tended to pantheism. Spinoza denied free will, and in politics supported the omnipotence of the State. His doctrines were afterward developed by disciples. The German Leibnitz (1646-1716), a mathematician and philosopher, protested against Descartes, whose books he called "the antechamber of truth." But he endeavored to reconcile his doctrine with Locke's theories. He com- bated innate ideas, and made an important restriction in the maxim of philosophers of the experimental school: "There is nothing in the mind that has not first been in the senses." Leibnitz added, "unless it is the mind itself." Spain, rapidly decaying in the Seventeenth Century, still retained a reflection of her literary glory of the pre- ceding Century. The school of Lope de Vega (1562- 1635) multiplied religious and secular dramas and com- edies. Montalvan and Tellez were of almost inexhausti- ble fertility. Guillem de Castro borrowed from the popular romances his magnificent drama of the "Cid," which inspired Corneille. Alarcon, by his comedies, furnished models that Corneille imitated in the "Menteur." Calderon de la Barca (1600-1681), first soldier, then priest, was perhaps the most fertile, and certainly the MENTAL ACTIVITY AND PROGRESS i$9 greatest dramatic poet of Spain. His secular dramas are animated with powerful and passionate interest, and in them he exalts the sentiment of honor, also dear to Span- iards. His comedies were full of complicated intrigues and surprises. He used considerable variety in the meters he employed; deficient in the study of character, and often trivial and ridiculous, no writer has lavished more brilliant poetry on his plays, which number more than five hundred. We quite forget who utters the sentiments in the dazzling beauty of the verses. Even scholastic abstractions can gain a hearing thus. Decadence had commenced in lit- erature as well as in politics. The Inquisition stifled thought by its increasing suspiciousness. Spain was then full of intolerance, and the butcheries of the autos-da-fe threw a sinister light over the popular rejoicings of which they formed a part. Poets therefore took refuge in affected conceits, and Luis de Gongora founded a school of bad taste; Gongorisms reigned without rival. Such a country could not develop philosophy and history. The Seventeenth Century, which in literature revived the glory of the ancients, had its peculiar distinction in its scientific progress. The human mind has attained real knowledge chiefly through combination of figures, num- bers and lines, and through the science of mathematics; thus freeing itself from the dreams of astrology, discov- ered through astronomy the true movements of the celes- tial bodies; lastly, observing physical phenomena, experi- menting with them, studying their laws, it has made them instruments which have increased the power of industry tenfold. Men of science are the most active pioneers of civilization, the most worthy of admiration and of the gratitude of all. They have really created the modern world. In the Sixteenth Century, Tycho-Brahe still mingled i6o MODERN EUROPE astrology with astronomy. One of his disciples, Kepler (1571-1630), born in Wurtemberg, calculated instead of dreaming. Striving to find unity and harmony in the apparent disorder of the world, he nearly touched the law of universal gravitation. He at least found three laws, which bear his name, which laid the foundation of true mathematical astronomy, and placed their author among the great thinkers of all time. They assert and prove that every planet describes an ellipse round the sun; that the rate of movement in the planets is, in a certain sense, uni- form; that the times occupied by the planets in revolution round the sun bear a certain proportion to their mean dis- tances from the sun. The laws of the attraction of gravita- tion were founded by Newton upon these discoveries of the illustrious man whose outward life was embittered by poverty of purse while his inward being was gladdened in the consciousness of priceless services rendered to the cause of truth and well-grounded discovery in the realm of nature's laws. Galileo (1564-1642), born in Pisa, constructed the first astronomical telescopes magnifying the diameter one hundred times, studied the moon, the stars and planets, and discovered Jupiter's four satellites, the spots on the sun, the revolution of the sun on its axis, and, reviving the system of Copernicus, he confirmed the rotary movement of the earth. Superstition was still so powerful that Gali- leo, although protected by the more enlightened Popes, was condemned to retract his works by the tribunal of the Inquisition; but this did not impede the earth's motion, and Galileo himself, rising after abjuring his pretended error, murmured, "And yet it moves!" Galileo had marked the earth's place in the solar system. Isaac Newton (1642-1727), the son of a Lincolnshire farmer, gifted with an extraordinary aptitude for mathe- MENTAL ACTIVITY AND PROGRESS 161 matics, discovered the law of gravitation that law which binds the earth to the celestial bodies. He proved that the sun acted upon the planets and the planets acted upon each other in proportion to their bulk, and formulated the uni- versal law in the simple words : "The force of attraction of a body is inversely proportional to the square of the distance." This principle, which became the starting point of all astronomical studies, was not well understood at first, and yet it is one of the most astonishing discoveries that have been made by man. Newton solved by it one great secret of the Universe. The heavens were opened to fruitful observations. Edmund Halley (1656-1742) calculated the orbit of a comet which appeared in 1681, and which has retained his name. John Flamsteed ( 1646-1719) made a catalogue of the stars, and was the first director of the Greenwich Observatory (1676). Observatories had already been established at Copenhagen (1632) by Longomontanus, at Dantzic (1641), founded by Hevetius, the Pole, and at Altorf, in Bavaria (1667). The one in Paris was com- menced in 1667, and completed in 1671, from Cassini's plans. Huyghens (1625-1695), a Dutchman, a universal savant, manufactured his own telescope, which surpassed all that had yet been attempted. He was the first to see Saturn surrounded by a luminous band which was the ring ( 1655) ; he afterward discovered one of the satellites, and Dominique Cassini, of France, discovered some of the others. A Dane, Olaus Roemer, brought to France by Picard in 1672, and lodged in the Observatory, had a large share in the astronomical labors of the French; then, recalled to Copenhagen, he continued his researches there. He succeeded (1700) in arranging a magnifying glass that, while remaining fixed in the plane of the meridian, VOI,. 2 II i6 2 MODERN EUROPE was movable on its axis. He calculated that the light was eight minutes coming from the sun to the earth. The labors of astronomers and mathematicians were valuable aids to physical science. Bacon estimated them at their true value; he kept them ever in view when exalt- ing the dignity of science. He advised savants to observe nature, to study and analyze phenomena, and to found laws on facts alone. "Man is the servant and interpreter of nature" was his motto. The recognition of this places the name of Bacon at the head of the list of natural philo- sophers, although personally he made no scientific discov- eries, and though, while an admirable moral essayist, his conduct fell far short of his teaching. His philosophy is discussed in the volume "Great Philosophers." A few men of great genius had not waited for Bacon's writings before devoting themselves to experiment. We are amazed when we think what simple daily facts have led men to their greatest discoveries. Galileo watched a lamp that oscillated in the cathedral of Pisa (1583). He observed that even when this oscillation diminished, the arcs, although smaller, were all traversed in the same space of time. He formulated hence the law of the isochronism of the oscillation of a pendulum that afterward deter- mined the law of gravity. A Florentine gardener, having constructed an unusually large pump, observed with sur- prise that the water never rose above thirty-two feet; Galileo vainly endeavored to explain the fact. His disci- ple, Tor ricelli (1608-1647), solved the difficulty, and his experiments on the weight of the atmosphere led him to construct the tubes which led to the invention of the barometer. Pascal (1623-1662) continued Torricelli's experi- ments, measured the height of a column of mercury at Clermont, and on the top of the Puy de Dome ( 1648) , and MENTAL ACTIVITY AND PROGRESS 163 found that the height was inversely proportionate to the elevation of the country. He verified this fact by fresh observations at Paris, on the tower of Saint Jacques-la- Boucherie. Descartes, although learned in physical sci- ence, was rather a mathematician, and followed a mistaken theory of vortices, which, however, may be noted from an historical point of view, for it, perhaps, directed Newton toward the road which led to his discoveries. Lastly, one of those discoveries which effect a revolu- tion in the world dates from this epoch; that of the power of steam. Denis Papin (1647-1714), born at Blois, but driven from France by the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, had from the year 1674 made various experiments upon water heated in the open air and overheated in a closed vase. His invention is attributed to the observa- tion of the effect produced upon the lid of a sauce-pan by the steam of the boiling water. However that may be, he succeeded in constructing, under the name of the "digester," an apparatus intended to extract, by steam at high pressure, the gelatinous portion of bone. He also- invented the first steam-engine with a piston, and launched on the Fulda, in Germany, a real steamboat, which ignor- ant and jealous sailors destroyed. Another Century passed before this new force, which Papin had discovered, could be turned to account by Watt; it has since changed the face of the world. In the Sixteenth Century, the progress of surgery had stirred the emulation of the physicians. The celebrated William Harvey (1578-1657) then commenced his labors, and he discovered the laws of the circulation of the blood, and thus in a measure the vital principle. Thomas Syden- ham (1625-1689) studied the laws of epidemics; there are also to be named the Dutchman Boerhaave (1668- 1738), one of the founders of clinical medicine; and the 1 64 MODERN EUROPE Frenchman Pecquet (1622-1674), whose name has been given to one of the canals in the human body which serves to distribute the chyle. The old a priori medicine vainly endeavored to contend against experimental science, and speedily succumbed under the ridicule Which Moliere directed against the pedantry of the doctors, who were formerly powerful enough to humiliate the surgeons, by causing their college to be amalgamated with the company of master barbers. Italy, although in decadence, still attracted and inspired painters. She awakened the genius of the Span- ish painter Ribera (1588-1656). Living like a vagabond in Rome, he studied the pictures of Caravaggio and Cor- reggio, then settling in Naples, he accumulated wealth, and became one of the most important personages of his time. But though he deserted his country, he never renounced it, and infused Spanish fire into Italian imi- tations. He preferred subjects in which he could intro- duce violent contrasts of light and shade. He was a real- ist, who reveled in the terrible, the savage, and the hid- eous, and we are forced to admire the power of his work. Zurbaran (1598-1662) has been surnamed with some exaggeration "the Spanish Caravaggio," probably because of the bluish tints which he preferred, but no one ever depicted the rigors of an ascetic life better than he. Her- rera (1576-1656) the elder, and Pacheco (1571-1654) are chiefly distinguished because they were the masters of Velasquez. Velasquez (1599-1660), painter and friend of Philip IV, the greatest painter of the Spanish school, succeeded in every style history portraits, landscapes, scenes of familiar life, animals, flowers, and fruit. Jean Jacques Rousseau called him "the man of nature and of truth." His portraits are masterpieces and seem almost able to speak. Velasquez was n$t so ascetically MENTAL ACTIVITY AND PROGRESS 165 or mystically religious as other Spanish painters, and his paintings have a wider range. He is the artist of the Court rather than of the Convent and Church. But in Catholic Spain religious painting could not be abandoned, and Murillo (1618-1682) rendered it glorious. A fol- lower of Velasquez, he also imitated the Italian masters. At Seville he painted innumerable works for the churches and convents, and many of them have now been collected in a convent, which has been converted into a picture gal- lery. His Virgins, the ecstasies of the saints, his Annun- ciations and Assumptions are distinguished by a nameless charm which reproduces the mystical inspiration of the artist, who is classed among the glories of Spain and of painting. But after Murillo and Juan Carreno, an imi- tator of Velasquez, the arts in Spain fell into the deca- dence that had already affected literature. The languor which had seized the nation spread to literature and art. In the Sixteenth Century the French had not only been instructed, but also supplanted in their own coun- try by Italians; in the Seventeenth they rivaled their teachers. Simon Vouet, after fourteen years' sojourn in Rome, brought back specimens of the Bolognese school, and himself deserved to be a model to the paint- ers who succeeded him. Nicholas Poussin (1594-1665) arrived at Rome, like Ribera, as a beggar, settled there, like him, remained true to his own country. The grave, austere tendency of his genius was blended with great knowledge of anatomy and philosophy and familiarity with history and poetry. Poussin shows how much science has done to raise and nourish art. In religious subjects, in secular pictures, and in landscapes, for he cultivated all styles with equal success, Poussin carried the arrangement and composition of his subjects, the expression of sentiment, and the always noble style of 1 66 MODERN EUROPE his personages to great perfection. He is one of the most brilliant disciples of the great Italian masters, and at the same time an original artist, who retained in his pictures the logic and good taste that belong to his native land. He is the Prince of the elder French school. The Flemish school was the most prolific and most brilliant in the Seventeenth Century. The Flemings, through their study of Italy, replaced the latter, and the Seventeenth Century was their golden age. Rubens (1577-1640), by his prodigious activity, his facility and powerful work, and also by his brilliant coloring, recalled the great artists of the Sixteenth Century, whom he surpassed by his wealth, his luxury, and the favor he enjoyed in his own country, in France, Spain, and Eng- land, where he was the guest and painter of sovereigns. Religious and mythological, historical and allegorical, portrait or landscape, he mastered every style. It was no longer the concentration of an artist striving to attain perfection in a few finished works, but the genius of an artist reveling in the somewhat coarse beauty of the flesh, delighting in difficulties, in love with his occupa- tion, throwing in the principal of his frequently happy compositions, and concealing all imperfections of draw- ing and unshapeliness of outline under a brilliancy of color that dazzles the eye, Rubens, admired and feted, had a large school, from which some pupils issued that rivaled their master. Van Dyck (1599-1641) traveled like him, and was also a favorite with Princes. He painted magnificent pictures for churches, but he was chiefly celebrated for his por- traits. He painted thirty-eight portraits of Charles I and Henrietta, without counting nobles or Princesses, who eagerly competed for the honor of seeing their MENTAL ACTIVITY AND PROGRESS 167 own features reproduced on canvas by a brush which gave them the expression and vitality of nature, whilst it flattered them by a distinction and grace peculiar to Van Dyck's work. Jordaens, another of Rubens' pupils, succeeded equally in portraiture, but he also touched every other subject, religious or popular, allegorical or historical. Gaspard de Grayer treated religious and historical subjects, and with Corneille de Vos deserves mention; nor must Franz Snyders, the painter of the chase, be forgotten among the contemporaries of Rubens. David Teniers (1610-1694), son of a painter, son-in- law of Velvet Breughel, raised himself to the first rank by the creation of genre painting. Teniers depicts life, and particularly Flemish life. Teniers saw with the eyes of genius the blustering sensual life of his fellow coun- trymen; he reproduced the smoky taverns, the card parties, the pots of beer, the abundant feasting, the ani- mated fairs of his country, and portrays initimably the coarse, shrewd humor of the peasants of the North. Teniers brings us down to earth; but better than any historian he has described for us one side of the spirit of his age. Nature awakened the Dutch genius; the green trees, the damp meadows, the herds of cattle, the sea and the ships, impressed and inspired the artists of the land that had been wrested from the water by the patient industry of its inhabitants. For a long time the Dutch, united to the Flemings under the Spanish rule, had only the Flemish artists. But art emancipated itself at the same time as the country, and in the Seventeeth Century a school appeared that rivaled the Flemish. Rembrandt (1607-1669) was the chief and most glorious of its masters. While Rubens sought for brilliant 168 MODERN EUROPE light and exaggerated coloring, Rembrandt found new poetry in the opposition of light and shade. He sought for night effects and contrasts of color. He loved to illuminate and brighten his figures on a dark back- ground. His work was considerable, and is distributed amongst the different museums of Europe. His mas- terpieces, "The Anatomy Lesson" (at The Hague), and "The Night Watch" (at Amsterdam), are popular clas- sics, continually reproduced by engravings. Rembrandt designed his pictures admirably. They at once seize the imagination, and by his cleverly graduated distribu- tion of colors, by his powerful contrasts, they leave a profound impression. He was also in the first rank of portrait painters. Art in the Seventeenth Century assumed the realistic tone it was to retain. In some degrees it descended to earth, although French art still tended toward the ideal- ism of the Italians. Thought, already freed, though the century was given up to intolerance, had opened the vast fields of natural science, where reason braced and strengthened herself, and by her speculations, more and more daring, approached nearer to the Infinite reason, whose laws she had vainly sought to understand by a priori argument. Modern languages had their classical authors, who again inspired others. Science made its appearance with discoveries that have produced marvelous results. Human society was transformed and polished. Kingdoms were estab- lished, and England offered a model of liberty. The march of ideas was accelerated in the Seventeenth Cen- tury. Already over Europe, still priest-ridden and still feudal, a breath of criticism was passing, which in the Eighteenth Century broke down the old barriers, pre- judices, and tyrannies. THE RISE OF RUSSIA The Russians, like the people of Bohemia, Croatia, Servia, Dalmatia, and Poland, are of the Slavonic race, numbering in all about one-third part of the whole popu- lation of Europe. Up to the beginning of the Eight- eenth Century, The Muscovites, or Russians, had made no figure in European history commensurate with their numbers and territory, and with the capacity for great- ness which they share with other members of the Aryan family of nations. The reason of this is to be found mainly in the position held by their country, which ex- posed them to the constant attacks of Tartar races from Central Asia, and rendered them incapable of coping with the Germanic nations in the center and north of Europe. Russia appears first as a Kingdom in the Ninth Cen- tury, when the Scandinavian chief, Rurik, conquered the country, and ruled, with Novgorod as his capital, from 865 to 879. At the end of the Tenth Century, King Vladimir, the Russian Charlemagne, embraced Chris- tianity on marrying a Princess of the Eastern Empire, promoted the conversion of his people, and introduced an alphabet along with the rudiments of Greek civiliza- tion. In the Thirteenth Century the Tartars from Asia, under successors of Genghis Khan, overran the whole country, and founded a state at Kazan, on the Volga, which long held Russia in virtual subjection and kept her from attaining any power or importance in Europe. Successive subdivisions of territory among the sons of the Sovereign prevented Russia from having any his- 169 170 MODERN EUROPE torical existence as a united state until the middle of the Fifteenth Century. During part of this period of confusion, an independent Republic existed at Novgo- rod, then the greatest center of commerce, and a rich and powerful city. The founder of Russian independence and unity was Ivan Vasilovitz (or Vassilivich), Ivan III of Russia, who, in the last half of the Fifteenth Century, attacked the Tartars, took Kazan, subdued Novgorod, freed his country from Tartar sway, and reunited the ancient dominions of Russia. The country thus became power- ful, but was cut off still from the Baltic by the Poles and the Swedes, and from the Black Sea by the Tartars of the Crimea. Ivan IV, surnamed "The Terrible," from the cruelties of the latter part of his reign, ruled from 1546 to 1584, and did much for Russian progress. He extended the Empire to the Caspian Sea; began the conquest of Siberia; fought with the Poles, the Swedes, and the Tartars, and ultimately maintained his position. He made a treaty of commerce with England, published a code of laws in 1550, introduced printing into Russia, and helped forward art and learning. The dynasty of Rurik ended in 1598, seven centuries after the founding of the Russian nationality. After a time of anarchy and civil war, caused by pretenders to the throne, Michael Feodorovich, of the house of Romanoff, became Czar, or Emperor, in 1613; from him is descended the ruling line of Russia. Under him much territory was yielded to Poland and to Sweden which latter nation had become an important element in European politics. Michael then devoted himself to the internal improve- ment of Russia, in the way of laws and trade, and died in 1645. Under his son Alexis (1645-1676), a code of common or fundamental laws was established, and the THE RISE OF RUSSIA 171 power of Russia continued to grow. It was a son of Alexis who founded the real modern importance of Russia, and first gave her a place among the chief powers of Europe. This man was the world-famous Peter the Great, the subject of an article in the volume, "Foreign Statesmen." Peter the Great ruled Russia from 1689 till 1725, and effected wonders of energy and wisdom. His genius and will triumphed over difficulties, disadvan- tages and dangers that nothing but the highest capacity and determination could have overcome. Consigned by his relatives, from ambitious motives, to a youth of ignorance and rude debauchery, he gave early proofs of ability in the study of military science under instruct- ors obtained by himself. To the end of his life his appearance, habits, and manners were those of a semi- savage, who had succeeded in civilizing a nation, but had never tamed and polished himself. Determined to make Russia truly great and formid- able, Peter gave his first thoughts to the acquirement of a seaboard and a navy. From Archangel he went cruises on board Dutch and English ships, in order to learn seamanship himself. He brought to Russia ship- builders from Venice and from Holland; he sent Rus- sians to learn shipbuilding abroad; he built a fleet which floated down the Don, and conquered (in 1696) the town of Azov from the Turks. This gave at once an open- ing for the future to the waters of the Black Sea. He paid no heed to the remonstrances against reform which came from his reactionary Boyars, or nobles, and in 1697 suppressed, with great severity, a revolt of the Strelitz or body-guard, the tumultuous Praetorians of Russia. In 1697 Peter set out for Western Europe to see for himself the wonders of her developed culture, 172 MODERN EUROPE and to obtain means and models for carrying out the vast designs which he had formed for the improvement of his people. Working as a shipbuilder in the yards of Saardam, Holland, taking his weekly wages, dressed as a common carpenter, he at the same time studied carefully every process of manufacture to which his eager eyes and active mind could find access. In 1698 he passed over to England, where he was made welcome by William III. But he would have none of princely state or entertainment, and passed his time chiefly in the dockyard at Deptford, smoking his pipe at night, and drinking beer and brandy with his companions at a tavern. On his way home Peter studied at Vienna the organization of the German army, and returned to his capital, Moscow, in September, 1698. His army was then developed on the German model, and Peter, serving first as a private soldier, worked his way up to an officer's commission, compelling the young nobles to follow his example. Peter started his social reforms with the introduction of the Dutch and German style of dress, instead of ori- ental robes, and the emancipation of the ladies of Rus- sia from Asiatic seclusion. He established a regular system in the revenue, made himself virtually head of the Church, and modified the power of the clergy. Schools of navigation and mathematics were founded; new breeds of cattle brought in from Poland; foreign artisans of all kinds introduced; manufactories of arms, tools, and fabrics established, and a beginning made in working the mineral treasures of the country. During the reign of this great sovereign every department of state was remodeled the army, the national religion, the system of education, the established laws, and the THE RISE OF RUSSIA 173 administration of justice. What Russia now is she owes largely to the persistent efforts of a most sagacious and enlightened man, who forced her, with tyrannical energy, from the jungle of barbarism into the paths of progress and civilization. It was on the ruins of Sweden that Russia rose to greatness in Europe. In 1696 Peter had conquered Azov from the Turks, giving Russia an outlet on the Black Sea. But Russia was still excluded from the Baltic, and a position on that coast could only be secured at the expense of Sweden, which was at that time one of the powerful Nations of Europe. Finland, Livonia, Esthonia, and other districts east of the Baltic were Swedish Provinces, and in Germany she held the Duchy of Bremen, part of Pomerania, and other territory. In 1697, at the age of fifteen, Charles XII became King of Sweden, and his youth and seeming helplessness encouraged his neighbors to attack him. In 1700, Peter of Russia, believing his army to be fit for the field, joined Denmark and Poland in war against Sweden. All three aggressors soon found that in the young Sovereign of the North they had grievously mis- taken their man Russia, indeed, with a glance at her early history, may be said to have "caught a Tartar." The Swedish King was a born soldier, heading one of the best armies in Europe. He turned first upon Den- mark, attacked Copenhagen by sea and land, and fairly frightened the Danes into peace. In November, 1700, Charles, with 10,000 men, totally defeated 80,000 Rus- sians at Narva, on the south coast of the Gulf of Finland. He then marched against Augustus of Poland, who was besieging Riga. Charles gained a decisive victory, pursued Augustus into Poland, defeated him again, and 174 MODERN EUROPE dethroned him in 1703, acquiring by these exploits a military renown which attracted to his camp in Germany Marlborough and other great generals. Peter had not been present at Narva, and received the news of his army's overthrow with a cool expres- sion of confidence that his men would learn from the Swedes in time how to beat them in their turn. He was willing to pay the price for a lesson in coming conquest. While Charles XII was in Poland and Germany, Peter gained some successes over the Swedish Generals, and in 1703 he laid, on the banks of the Neva, the founda- tions of his future capital, St. Petersburg. The suc- cesses of the Swedish King had made him believe him- self invincible, and when Charles left Saxony in Sep- tember, 1707, to invade Russia at the head of 40,000 well-appointed Swedes, a crisis had come for Peter, for Russia, and for the future history of Europe. The work of Peter's reforms in Russia was still incomplete, and with his fall the country would have gone back into the chaos of barbarism from which it was just emerging. If Moscow had been captured by Charles XII, the fate of Russia would have been sealed, and she would never have become, as she has, one of the most formidable and potent factors in the politics of Europe and of Asia. Fortunately for Russia, Charles proved himself, in his last campaign, to be as poor or as rash in strategy, as ignorant or as regardless of the real art of war, as he undoubtedly was an able tactician and daring soldier on the field of battle. The Czar Peter had assembled a force of 100,000 men to meet his antagonist, and the mistakes of Charles made his task an easy one. Instead of striking at the enemy's heart and marching straight on Moscow, the Swedish King turned southward to the Ukraine dis- THE RISE OF RUSSIA 175 trict, where Mazeppa, a revolted Cossack chief, had promised to join him. Peter avoided a decisive encounter, laid waste the country, and left his foe at the mercy of long marches, broken communications, want of supplies, and the Russian climate. In October, 1708, Peter attacked General Lewenhaupt, who was coming 1 from Livonia to join Charles with reinforce- ments and provisions. The Swedes were overwhelmed by numbers; after three days' desperate fighting the cannon, ammunition, and food wagons were lost, and Lewenhaupt reached Charles in the Ukraine with only a few thousand harrassed and starving survivors. The Russian winter of 1708-9 greatly reduced the Swedish force, and the crisis came in the summer of 1709. Early in 1709, Charles XII, at his wits' ends for supplies, re- solved to besiege Pultowa, a town in Southern Russia, between Kharkov and the River Dneiper, which was one of Peter's chief magazines of stores. The Czar marched to its relief with 60,000 men, and a decisive action was fought on July 8th. The forces of Charles numbered but 24,000, of whom one-half only were Swedes, and the Russians held a strong position defended by well- armed works. The Swedish King had been disabled by a wound, and could not lead his men on in person. The dreadful day of Pultowa, on which the Swedes fought with a valor worthy of their old renown, decided the fate of Sweden and of Russia. In their repeated attempts to storm the Russian redoubts the Swedish regiments perished under the bullets of renewed masses of defenders, and though Charles, carried in a litter into the hottest fire, did all that he could to repel the counter-attacks of the Russians, the result was a total rout for the Swedish force. A few hundreds of men only escaped with Charles across the Dneiper, into 176 MODERN EUROPE what was then Turkish territory. The Czar cried out, in the joy of complete success, that "the foundations of St. Petersburg at last stood firm." His port on the Baltic was secure; all fear from Sweden was at an end; the Russian army stood forth, in the face of Europe, as a disciplined, efficient, victorious, and self-reliant array. After a stay of some years in Turkey, and vain efforts to recover his position by the Sultan's aid, Charles XII returned to Sweden in 1714, and in 1718 was killed, during a war with Norway, at the siege of Frederiks- hall. It has always been believed that the cannon-ball which killed him as it grazed his head was murderously fired from the Swedish works. What is certain is that the brave, rash, obstinate, just, and chivalrous Charles of Sweden a man of great virtues and great faults, unduly elated by success, but not broken by misfortune was found leaning, dead, against the parapet, with his hand on his sword, and the portrait of the great Gustavus Adolphus, with a prayer-book, in his pocket. Since his return from Turkey, Charles had given signs of a chastened spirit and more enlightened aims. He was more gentle and moderate in demeanor, more ready to use policy than force, and was full of plans for improv- ing the navy and the commerce of his country. With his death died Sweden's hopes of ranking as a leading power in Europe. Sweden now yielded territory on all sides to her neighbors. The Duchy of Bremen was given up to George I of Hanover and England, lands on the South- ern Baltic coast to Prussia, and, after war with Russia, the treaty of Nystadt (a town on the Southwest coast of Finland, near the Aland Isles) was concluded with Peter in 1721. By this arrangement Sweden ceded to THE RISE OF RUSSIA 177 the new Northern Power, Livonia, Esthonia, and other territory southeast of the Baltic. In 1743, after more unsuccessful war with Russia, Sweden lost part of Fin- land under the Treaty of Abo, and much anarchy was endured at home from oligarchic rivalries which almost suppressed monarchical power. Gustavus III, who had restored the royal authority and established a consti- tution, was assassinated by a conspiracy of nobles in 1792. In 1809, after war with Russia, Sweden lost the rest of Finland, the Aland Isles, and other territory. In 1810 the present Swedish royal family came near to the throne in the election by the Swedish Parliament of Bernadotte, one of Napoleon's marshals, as Crown Prince, and he became King of Sweden as Charles XIV in 1818. Under him Sweden made great advances in trade and agriculture. Norway had been yielded by Denmark to Sweden under the treaty of Kiel in 1814, and Sweden thus became mistress of the whole Scandi- navian peninsula, having lost all other outlying posses- sions. The present King of Sweden (1899), Oscar II, is a grandson of Bernadotte. In 1721, after the Peace of Nystadt, Peter assumed the title of Emperor of all the Russias, and was styled by his Senate of nobles "the Great," and "Father of His Country." The title amounted to a claim over all the Russian Provinces held by Poland, and gave great offense to the German Emperors of the West. In 1723 Peter founded the Academy of Sciences at St. Peters- burg, and died in 1725, leaving the throne to his widow, Catharine I. Launched fairly on her new career, Rus- sia has henceforth a history of conquest and annexation to East, and South, and West of her already vast dominion. Her acquisitions from Sweden have been already named. VOI,. 213 178 MODERN EUROPE The greatest sovereign of Russia, next to Peter the Great, was the Empress Catharine II,who is the subject of a sketch in the volume, "World's Famous Women." She reigned with great ability, energy, and success from 1762 to 1796, assisted by her Minister and General, Potemkin (in power from 1776 to 1791), and her famous Field Marshal, Suwarof (or Suwarrow). War with Turkey from 1768 to 1774, ended by the Peace of Kain- ardji (in Bulgaria), opened to Russia the navigation of the Black Sea, and gave up the chief ports on the Sea of Azov, and Kinburn, on the open Euxine, at the mouth of the Dneiper. Catharine had already taken from the Tartars and Circassians the territory between the Don, the Volga, and the Caucasus, on the highway to Asia Minor, and she now acquired the great outlet into Asia by the Caucasus range the Pass of Darial. It is to be specially noted as to this important Treaty of Kainardji, which is a monument to Russian diplomatic skill, that to the Empress of Russia was hereby secured the right to protect the Greek religion and its Churches in Turkey. It is well known what is implied in, and has followed from, this crafty stipulation. The Tartars of the South were subdued in 1783, the Crimea was annexed, and the fortress of Kherson was built on the Dneiper to strengthen the position of Rus- sia on the Black Sea. In 1787 the war with Turkey was renewed, and Catharine made her entry into Kher- son under a triumphal arch, which bore, in Greek Characters, the threatening legend, "The way to Byzan- tium." Suwarof now displayed his bravery and skill in repeated defeats of the Turks, crowning his work in 1790 by the renowned and sanguinary storming of Ismail, on the northernmost of the three streams of the Danubian mouth. The Peace of Jassy, in 1792, THE RISE OF RUSSIA 179 strengthened the position of Russia by confirming pre- vious conquests, and by making the Dniester the bound- ary between the Russian and Turkish Empires. As results of this treaty, the fortresses oi Nicholaieff, Odessa, and Sebastopol afterward arose. The progress of Russia westward during the reign of Catharine was not less remarkable. Disunion and anarchy had reduced Poland to abject weakness, and in 1772 Catharine of Russia, Frederick the Great of Prus- sia, and the Empress of Austria joined in the first parti- tion of Poland, sharing certain provinces among them. In 1793 Russia again attacked Poland, Suwarof forced his way to Warsaw, and a second partition was made between Russia and Prussia. In 1795 Poland ceased to exist as an independent State, by the division of all her remaining territory between the above three Powers. It must be remembered, with reference to a matter on which much false sentiment and wasted wrath have been expended, that the conduct of the Polish Nation had made her continued existence as a separate State impos- sible, and her extinction necessary for the peace and comfort of her neighbors, and that, as regards Russia, most of her share in the partitions was territory inhab- ited by Russians who were members of the Greek Church, and had been conquered by Poland in the time of Russia's weakness. The close of the Eighteenth Cen- tury saw Russia brought, by the conquest of Poland, into the middle of the Continent, and into the thick of European affairs. PRUSSIA AND FREDERICK THE GREAT The Prussian monarchy, the youngest, and one of the greatest, of the chief European states, sprang from a humble origin. Her rise to first-rate importance in the European system, and her contest with Austria for a posi- tion of equality in Central Europe, are connected with some of the chief events of the Eighteenth Century. About the beginning of the Fifteenth Century the mar- graviate of Brandenburg was bestowed by the Emperor Sigismund on the noble family of Hohenzollern. In the Sixteenth Century that family embraced the Lutheran doctrines. It obtained from the King of Poland, early in the Seventeenth Century, the investiture of the Duchy of Prussia. Even after this accession of territory, the chiefs of the house of Hohenzollern hardly ranked with the electors of Saxony and Bavaria. . The soil of Bran- denburg was for the most part sterile. Even round Ber- lin, the capital of the province, and round Potsdam, the favorite residence of the Margraves, the country was a desert. In some places the deep sand could with diffi- culty be forced by assiduous tillage to yield thin crops of rye and oats. In other places the ancient forests, from which the conquerors of the Roman Empire had descended on the Danube, remained untouched by the hand of man. In 1657, under Frederick William I, who was called the Great Elector, the Duchy of Prussia became independent of Poland, and this was the beginning of Prussia's great- ness. The Peace of Westphalia gave him several valu- able possessions in Germany; and his son, in the year 1700, became the first King of Prussia, as Frederick I. Fred- 180 PRUSSIA AND FREDERICK 181 erick William, his successor, reigned from 1713 to 1740, and is notable for having- drilled and disciplined a large and powerful army, far superior in exactness of training and equipment to the best troops of England and France. This was the instrument which, in the hands of his son, Frederick the Great, made Prussia one of the chief mili- tary monarchies of Europe. Frederick II of Prussia was the greatest sovereign of the Eighteenth Century, and one of the most remarkable men of modern times. His military exploits are told in the volume, "Great Warriors." Born in 1713, he became King of Prussia in 1740, and ruled till his death in 1786. He soon drew to himself the eyes of all Europe, and remained till the last one of the great arbiters of all political questions disputed therein, in the cabinet or on the battlefield. The chief feature of his strongly marked, now stern, now mocking visage, was his wonderful bluish- gray eyes, which, says Mirabeau, a kindred spirit, "fas- cinated you, at the bidding of his great soul, with seduc- tion or with terror." His character was full of energy, sound sense, vigilance, penetration, force, and endurance; he was the greatest General of his age, placed by Napo- leon's own deliberate opinion "in the first rank among generals;" as a statesman in foreign affairs he was most sagacious; as an administrator in home affairs he was tol- erant, effective, and anxious to be just and wise, but spoiled much by the meddling spirit induced by a dicta- torial temper and a restlessly active mind. He received, on his accession, the rule of States with a population little exceeding 2,000,000; at his death he left a Kingdom increased by nearly 30,000 square miles of territory and 4,000,000 people. A great treasure was in the pub- lic coffers ; an army of 200,000 men was under the colors ; Prussia was distinguished in Europe for military skill and 1 82 MODERN EUROPE efficiency, for industry, wealth, and science. Agriculture, the arts, manufactures, commerce, and the laws had all been encouraged, extended, or reformed by the unwearied care of the creator of the greatness of Prussia. On the death of the Emperor Charles VI of Austria, in 1740, his hereditary dominions the Archduchy of Aus- tria, the Kingdoms of Hungary and Bohemia, and other territories passed to his daughter Maria Theresa, known then as the Queen of Hungary. While the election to the Empire was in dispute, the struggle known as the War of the Austrian Succession began in an attack of Prussia, Bavaria, France, and Spain on Austria, helped by Eng- land and Holland. The Prussian King seized Silesia, defeated the Austrians in several engagements, and ulti- mately retained Silesia, when peace was made in 1745, acknowledging Francis of Lorraine, husband of Maria Theresa, as the duly-elected Emperor of Germany. Maria Theresa thus became known as the Empress-Queen, through her husband's title and her own rank in Hungary. For eleven years of peace (1745-1756) Frederick devoted himself to the internal improvement of his King- dom, and to the perfecting of his army for the struggle which he knew to be coming, and which proved to be one for very life or death to the Prussian monarchy. This great struggle lasted from 1756 to 1763, and was the result of a combination against Prussia by Austria, France, Russia, Saxony, and Sweden, in which the confederates aimed at the dismemberment and destruction of the rising power. In Britain alone did Frederick find a friend, through George's desire to protect Hanover, which cost England the loss of Minorca, then thought more impor- tant than Gibraltar. The details of this exciting contest waged with consummate skill and heroic determination by the great Frederick are told in the volume, "Famous War- PRUSSIA AND FREDERICK 183 riors." Out of a war in which 1,000,000 men are reck- oned to have fallen, in which the Prussian capital had been more than once taken and plundered by the foe, and much of his territory had become a waste, Frederick emerged safe and glorious, having given an example unrivaled in history of what capacity and resolution can effect against the greatest superiority of power and the utmost spite of fortune. By the Peace of Hubertsburg, signed in February, 1763, between Prussia, the Emperor, and Saxony, Frederick was finally left in possession of the provinces of Glatz and Silesia, and the Prussian mon- archy thus took its place among the first powers of Europe. For many years after Hubertsburg Frederick was engaged in repairing the losses of the Seven Years' War, and he was concerned in no more great contests. In 1 772, he had a share in the first partition of Poland, receiving the whole of Polish Prussia (territory ceded by the Teu- tonic Order of Knights in the Fifteenth Century) and a part of Great Poland. In 1786 he died at his palace of Sans Souci, after a reign of more than forty-six years. He left the scene late enough to enable him to conclude a commercial treaty with the young United States of America, and just before the outbreak of the French Revo- lution. PARLIAMENT IN POWER IN ENGLAND The accession of the House of Hanover to the Brit- ish throne marks the end of the theory of the divine right of Kings so far as England is concerned. Anne had ruled by a better title than that of George I, and the Elec- tor of Hanover was not the heir to the throne by the law of primogeniture. His title rested merely upon the will of Parliament. All of the Georges were dull and stupid, and the first of them was the dullest. He knew neither a word of English nor a single article of the Constitution. When he landed the people welcomed him with enthusi- asm; not because they loved him, but because his acces- sion meant that a ruler dictated by the Nation's conven- ience had been placed upon the throne, by the mere force of a statute. George was content to become a figurehead, reigning, but not governing; no English ruler since Anne has exercised the veto. Without a soldier or a follower, he allowed Parliament and his ministers to have their own way. Thus, in his reign, government by Parliament became fully established. But Parliament did not repre- sent the Nation and under the first two Georges the gov- ernment of the Whigs has been compared to the rule of the Venetian oligarchy. For twenty years Sir Robert Walpole ruled by the cunning way in which 'he managed the Commons. Men then gained seats in Parliament in a different way from now. Mere villages sent members to Parliament and in large towns but few persons had the right to vote. Landlords controlled the villages, called "rotten boroughs," and the constituencies were bribed either directly or indirectly. The seaports were nearly 184 w H O X H co D W fc QO 2a ftJ H O < W X D Cfl 3 c 5 O H U tr. PARLIAMENT IN POWER 185 always with the ministry from commercial reasons. Such a Parliament was easily managed by Walpole, who not only gave places, pensions, and peerages in payment for votes, but resorted to direct bribery whenever necessary. He was not fhe first to use this means of gaining votes, but is said to have used it more than any other minister did. It was begun in Charles H's reign and first became com- mon in that of William III, when the good will of the Lower House was seen to be needful to the King's min- isters. It must not be supposed that the people were with- out influence, for they only had to speak out very strongly to get what they wished. They were seldom in earnest about anything, however, and cared little how things went in the State. England in Walpole's day was grow- ing rich. Englishmen were bluff and independent and in their ways coarse and unmannerly. Their life was the life depicted on the canvas of Hogarth and the pages of Fielding. During Walpole's time the English Constitution was shaped by him into what it is practically now. The cabi- net system became formed. By the Cabinet, a word which is technically unknown to any act of Parliament or in official proceedings, is meant a committee of the legislative body consisting of the ministers, nominally nominated by the crown but really responsible to Parliament, upon whose consent it owes its existence. While the ministry retains the confidence of the parliamentary majority, that major- ity supports them against opposition and rejects every motion which is likely to embarrass them. If the par- liamentary majority are dissatisfied with the way in which affairs are conducted they have merely to declare that they have ceased to trust the ministry and to ask for a minis- try whom they can trust. By the party system, which owes its development to this period, an organized body 186 MODERN EUROPE of men will always be found to succeed them. From the days of the Stuarts, when the Constitutional struggle began, there have been two parties. in Great Britain, which, whether under the name of Roundhead and Cavalier, Whig and Tory, or Liberal and Conservative, have usually stood for the same ideas. The Tories have striven to limit the authority of the people and the Whigs that of the, crown. This struggle has taken many forms, and often the parties may seem to change position on their great fundamental principle. George II succeeded to the throne in 1727 and Walpole continued to hold office. During his ministry England was prosperous, for he avoided foreign war and devoted himself to the strengthening of English industries. The popular demand for war against Spain in the struggle of the Austrian Succession brought about the downfall of Walpole' s ministry. Henry Pelham, who succeeded WaJ- pole, had no principles of government whatever, and he offered a place to every man of parliamentary skill or influ- ence. There was no opposition in Parliament because he was ready to do anything called for by any one who had sufficient power to make himself dangerous. As long as Walpole was in power and England at peace with foreign States the Stuarts saw no chance of winning a throne by invasion and revolt. The war with France and Spain seemed to afford an opening. The absence of British troops on the Continent seemed to give Charles Edward Stuart his chance, and, in 1745, the tall, handsome, blue-eyed and curly-haired adventurer landed in Scotland. The people were not ready for, nor wished a reversion to the doctrine of divine right of kings and abso- lute monarchy, although he was followed by many of the highland clans, always ready to draw the sword against the constituted authorities of the lowlands; and even in PARLIAMENT IN POWER 187 the lowlands, and especially in Edinburgh, he found adher- ents who still felt the sting inflicted by the suppression of the national independence of Scotland. The English army was in a chaotic condition and Charles Edward inflicted a complete defeat on the force which met him at Prestonpans. Before the end of the year the victor, at the head of 5,000 men, had advanced to Derby. But he found no support in England and the mere numbers brought against him compelled him to retreat, to find defeat at Culloden in the following year ( 1746) . The most important event of the early Georgian period was the famous religious revival called the Wesleyan movement, or Methodism. In this age of reason, as men had proudly called it, those who cared for religion or mor- ality, had forgotten that man was an imaginative and emotional being. Defenders of Christianity and of Deism alike appealed to the reason alone. Enthusiasm was treated as a folly or crime and earnestness of every kind was branded with the name of enthusiasm. The higher order of minds dwelt with preference upon the beneficent wisdom of the Creator. The lower order of minds treated religion as a kind of life assurance against the inconvenience of eternal death. Upon such a system as this human nature was certain to avenge itself. The preaching of John Wesley (1703-1791 ) and George Whit- field appealed direct to the emotions. They preached the old Puritan doctrine of conversion and called upon each other individual not to understand, or to admire or to act, but vividly to realize the love and mercy of God. In all this there was nothing new. What was new was that Wesley added an organization in which each of his fol- lowers unfolded to one another the secrets of their hearts and became accountable to his fellows. Large as the num- bers of the Wesleyans ultimately became their influence i88 MODERN EUROPE is not to be measured by their numbers. Wesleyanisra was a reaction against that decline of religious feeling and morality which was due in some measure to the policy of Walpole and the Whigs to the Church. Political appoint- ments to high ecclesiastical posts had resulted in non-resi- dent bishops, a careless and unspiritual clergy, and a low moral tone among the laity. Literature and the drama suffered, political corruption increased, the poor were neglected, atheism and agnosticism grew. The reaction, which John Wesley and George Whitfield headed, led to the development of spirituality among the clergy and pre- pared the way for that recognition of the need of high political morality which is associated with the name of William Pitt. Pitt was in some sense to the political life of England what Wesley was to its religious life. He brought no new political ideals to men's minds but he ruled them by force of character and the sense of his purity. His wea- pons were trust and confidence. He appealed to the pat- riotism of his fellow countrymen, to their imaginative love for the national greatness and did not appeal in vain. He perceived instinctively that a large number of those who took greedily the bribes of Walpole and Pelham took them not because they loved money any better than their country, but because they had no conception that their country had any need of them. It was a truth but not the whole truth. The great Whig families rallied under Newcastle and drove Pitt from office (1757). But New- castle could not govern without Pitt's energy. At last a compromise was effected and Newcastle undertook the work of bribing while Pitt undertook the work of govern- ing. It was Pitt who carried to a successful conclusion the war with France, which arose between the colonists of the two Nations in America, and which war got mixed PARLIAMENT IN POWER 189 up with the Seven Years' War in Germany. In India France and England were fighting for Asiatic wealth. England greatly enlarged her transatlantic possessions by the war with France, but lost them through the arrogant attitude of George III toward the colonists. There is no need to dwell on this war and its causes, which are described in the volume of American History in this series. But it was not a popular war in England and was opposed by the ablest English statesmen of that day, just as those of to-day admit the justice of the Americans' greivances. The struggle was one, for Great Britain, of very existence as a colonial and naval power. France, Spain, and Holland were combined against her and it was largely that she might devote herself entirely to them that the war in America was discontinued, without regret, after the surrender of Cornwallis. George III reigned sixty years, during the greater part of which he was insane. In 1760, at the age of 22 years, he came to the throne, and inaugurated a new epoch in the history of English monarchy. A born Englishman, and English in his tastes and habits, his virtues and his faults, he was welcome as a ruler to all classes of his subjects. George, unlike his father and grandfather, was attached to England, spoke English well, and prided him- self on being every inch an Englishman. It was to his mother that he owed his desire to govern as well as reign. "George, be king," was the phrase which she repeated, and the training which he received made him give heed to it. George had formed an exalted idea of his own prerogative and was determined to win back for the crown some of its former influence and authority in the govern- ment. He had been taught by Bolingbroke that a sov- ereign should, like Frederick the Great, take an active part in public affairs. He had been trained to regard the 190 MODERN EUROPE iWhigs as usurpers of his royal authority, and he hoped by abolishing party connections and party government to become the actual ruler in England. His schemes were directed to the establishment of a system of personal rule under which all the threads of the administration should center in the royal closet. He undertook the task of over- turning the great Whig party, by a lavish expenditure of public money, by the use of places and pensions, and by the creation of a band of men known as the "King's Friends," who were always at hand to do his bidding. For this task George, in spite of his ignorance, nar- row-mindedness and short-siglitedness, was not unfitted. His confidence in himself, his patience, his laborious atten- tion to details, his activity and devotion to business made him a formidable foe in his long struggle with the Whigs, and account for his victory. He set out with the inten- tion of securing certain objects the revival of the prerog- ative, the right to choose his own ministers, the destruc- tion of government by party and the overthrow of the Whig oligarchy. After ten years of desperate conflict George to a great extent obtained his desires. In Lord North he found a minister after his own heaft. He had for a time broken up parties and he had instituted depart- mental government in place of the cabinet system the growth of which Walpole 'had so carefully fostered. In 1770 "there was great danger," says Lecky in his History of England in the Eighteenth Century, "that the crown would regain all, or nearly all, the power it had lost dur- ing the revolution." A circumstance that aided George was that the House of Commons did not represent Eng- land and the Nation had little or no influence in the for- mation of a ministry. Parliament was amenable to cor- rupt influences and during the early years of George Ill's reign Parliamentary corruption was greater than under PARLIAMENT IN POWER 191 Walpole, while the Whig party was split into several small groups. It was during the administration of Lord North, when the King was at the height of his power, that the colonies won their independence. The determination of the King not to compromise with those whom he termed rebels, prevented compromise when compromise was pos- sible. The subserviency of Parliament and the acquies- ence of the country enabled the King to have his own way. . In December, 1783, William Pitt, son of the former minister and then in his twenty- fourth year, formed an ad- ministration in which he was Chancellor of the Exchequer as well as First Lord of the Treasury; and he remained in office for eighteen years. The crushing victory of his party at the general election in 1784 was a triumph for the King as much as for Pitt. From that time there was an end to government by the supremacy of the old Whig families. The Tory party had been consolidated and was prepared to give effect to the policy of George III. The struggle had been long and severe. John Wilkes had taken part in it and by his arrest he had led to the aboli- tion of general warrants. A writer, whose letters were signed "Junius," had denounced the ministers whom the King had trusted, and had warned the King himself that as his title to the crown "was acquired by one revolution it might be lost by another." Pitt felt himself the minis- ter of Commons rather than of the King, and like Wal- pole he remained sole and supreme minister. The Nation was with him because lie was honest and he was never accused of corruption, even when millions were passing through his hands. It is true that he had his vices which were an addiction to port wine and a way of running into debt. He ruled absolutely over the cabinet and was at once the favorite of King, Parliament, and people. With such a man at the helm, the King could no longer have i 9 2 MODERN EUROPE his way as before, and the power of the monarch declined. Finance, commerce, and parliamentary reform were the chief objects which he devoted himself to. In the late wars the debt had grown till it reached about 250,000,000. Taxes had been laid on at haphazard to meet the needs as they arose. Pitt set before himself the reduction of the debt as an important end of all financial measures. He saved much for the country and encouraged honest deal- ing by his plan of borrowing money by public contract, and so getting the lowest possible interest. By lowering the heavy duties on tea, wine, and spirits, which were fast handing over the trade of the country to smugglers, he lessened smuggling, improved trade and raised the reve- nue. The increase of revenue which followed his new scheme of duties soon allowed him to take off some of the worst taxes among others, those on retail shops and on women servants. His attempt to secure free trade between England and Ireland was unsuccessful as was his scheme for the abolition of "rotten boroughs." During the last eight years of his ministry Pitt's man- agement of foreign affairs raised England from the iso- lation and depression in which he found her in 1774. He was the first of English ministers to recognize the great influence which the Eastern question was likely to have to international politics. Owing to the firm and pacific policy of Pitt, the outbreak of the hostilities with France found England not exhausted by wars and in a position to take, abroad, a leading part in opposing revolutionary principles. The Nation which Pitt had behind him was one that had already become great in industry. In 1776 Adam Smith published the "Wealth of Nations." In 1761 the Bridgewater canal, the first of a system of internal waterways, was opened. In 1767 Hargreaves produced the spinning- jenny; Arkwright's spinning machine was PARLIAMENT IN POWER 193 exhibited in 1768; Crompton's mule was finished in 1779; Cartwright hit upon the idea of the power loom in 1784, though it was not brought into profitable use till 1801. The Staffordshire potteries had been flourishing under Wedgewood since 1763, and the improved steam engine was brought into shape by Watt in 1768. Coke of Hoik- ham, Robert Blakewell, and the Duke of Bedford were busy in the improvement of agriculture. The foundations were laid not only of England's future greatness in politics but in industry. Voi.. 213 DECADENCE OF SOUTHERN EUROPE The fall of the Ottoman power in Europe began with the Treaty of Carlowitz in 1699, and during the Eight- eenth Century Turkey continued to decline. A gleam of success came in 1715, when the Turkish arms recovered the Morea from Venice, but Austria assisted the republic, and Prince Eugene's victories at Peterwardein and Bel- grade in 1717 obliged the Sultan to give up Belgrade, with a part of Servia and Wallachia. The House of Aus- tria thus gained territory at Turkey's expense. The Peace of Passarowitz in 1718 confirmed Turkey in the possession of the Morea and all former Venetian territory in the East except the Ionian Islands, and the long contest between Venice and the Ottoman power thus came to an end. Another change came in 1739, when Turkey recov- ered Belgrade, Servia, and Wallachia from Austria. Great losses of Turkey were due to the success of Russian arms, and that the frontier of Russia was fixed at the Dniester by the Peace of Jassy in 1792. Internal disunion and misgovernment were at the same time weakening the fabric of the Ottoman Empire, and the rumblings of com- ing troubles began to be heard in Servia and Greece. The Peace of Utrecht in 1713 had deprived Spain of her outlying territories in Europe, giving Naples, Sardinia, Parma, Milan, and that part of the Netherlands now known as Belgium, to Austria, and Sicily to Savoy. Under the rule of the Bourbons the Spanish Nation finally lost its constitutional rights, the last sitting of the Cortes being held in Castile in 1713, and in Aragon in 1720. Under the reign of Charles III (1759-1788), much 194 advance was made in agriculture, trade, and manufactures, and the population rapidly increased. The power of the Inquisition was restricted, and the Jesuits were banished, with the confiscation of all their property, in 1767. Portugal was much injured during the Sixteenth Cen- tury through the influence of the Inquisition and the Jes- uits, and toward the close of that period was conquered by Philip II of Spain. In 1640 the Portuguese regained their independence, but their indolence in previous times had given over the carrying trade between Europe and the East to the Dutch, who also, during the Seventeenth Cen- tury, deprived Portugal of her valuable settlements in Guinea, the Moluccas, Malacca, and Ceylon. Portugal still held her colonial Empire in Brazil, and the discovery of gold mines there led to the conclusion of a treaty with England in 1703, since which time the countries have been on friendly and intimate terms. Under the rule of Joseph I (1750-1777), a vigorous reformer arose in the person of the able Marquis of Pombal. This celebrated states- man had four main objects in view the expulsion of the Jesuits, the humiliation of the greater nobles, the restora- tion of prosperity to Portugal, and the establishment of the royal authority in an absolute form. The country was without army, navy, commerce, or proper agriculture. The earthquake which destroyed Lisbon in 1755 was a terrible blow, but Pombal, becoming first minister in 1756, and being well backed by the King, set himself bravely to work. He swept aside all opponents, banished the Jesuits, and took away their lands in 1759, humbled the leading nobles, made laws which greatly increased the royal power, reorganized the army, improved the schools, and, though he lost his power on the King's death in 1777, effected permanent good in the introduction of enlightened views, and the rousing of a lethargic people. 196 MODERN EUROPE Italy remained, during the Eighteenth Century, as she had long been, subject to foreign domination, or split up into separate republics and principalities. Freedom was extinct and national feeling had well-nigh faded away. The Popes of the period had no importance as temporal rulers. The different States were bandied to and fro, by the chances and intrigues of war and diplomacy, between Austria, Spain, and Savoy. The day of Venice was gone; some national life lingered yet in Corsica and Genoa. The House of Savoy alone displayed a vigor worthy of her past, and destined, in a happier age, to bring about great results for her sovereigns and for the whole Italian penin- sula. Soon after the Peace of Utrecht (1713), Victor Amadeus II of Savoy became King of Sardinia, and his successor, Emmanuel III (1730-1773), received an acces- sion of territory on the mainland after the war of the Austrian Succession, and added greatly to the resources of his realm by his own wise administration. THE "AGE OF REASON" Art, so brilliant in the Seventeenth Century, under- went an eclipse in the Eighteenth. Painting, sculpture, and architecture were in a state of decay. Art seemed as though exhausted, and became second-rate, while society, which had acquired wealth, sought for and encouraged it more than ever. It failed through imita- tion, and was less earnest because society itself had be- come more frivolous, and, reacting upon art, made it the expression of social life. An age of transition the close of the movement commenced in the Fifteenth Century, the starting point of a new revolution the Eighteenth Century lived on the past, while preparing for the future, enjoyed the advantages already acquired and dreamed of greater; it still struggled in the midst of confusion produced by the conflict of modern ideas with the shackles of the Middle Ages. It was an age of discussion, of argument, not of senti- ment. Now art lives by sentiment. Skeptical or indif- ferent toward religious questions, the Eighteenth Cen- tury was no longer inspired by Christianity; middle class and worldly, it had lost the inspiration of nature; dry, mocking, and frivolous, it had not, even in spite of its humanitarian theories, the inspiration of the heart. The English at length profited by the lessons of the Italian and Flemish artists. In the Eighteenth Century they had, if not a school, at least some celebrated artists. William Hogarth (1697-1764), excellent as a painter of contemporary manners, and as a moralist in art; Rey- nolds (1723-1792), supreme in portraiture, and not less 197 198 MODERN EUROPE distinguished as a writer on art, is considered the first great English painter. Gainsborough (1727-1788), great as a portrait painter, was especially the founder of the English school of landscape painting, of which he is among the best representatives. Germany, sterile since Albert Diirer produced Denney (1685-1747). Art was developed on the Continent of Europe mainly in the department of music, at a time when other arts had fallen into a state of degeneracy and decay. Modern music owes its origin to religion and the Church, Pope Gregory the Great, about A. D. 1600, being the great musical reformer to whom a system of ecclesiastical chanting is due. Aretino, an Italian Bene- dictine monk of the Eleventh Century, is said to have invented the present musical notation by means of points distributed upon lines and spaces, and to have taken the names of the notes Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, etc from, the first syllables of words in an old Latin hymn. Successive improvements came from ingenious minds such as the descant (or combination of sounds of unequal lengths, two or more sounds succeeding one, while one equal to them all in length was sustained), afterward called (in the Fourteenth Century) counterpoint, with its many artistic developments. In the Sixteenth Century the Italian master, Palestrina, who died in 1594, proved himself to be the greatest composer the world had yet seen. It was he who, at a critical time, saved music from destruction in the hands of the theorists (who had divorced sound from sense), and showed that the art was worthy of the closest union with the inspirations of the poet. He produced three masses, one of which remains to this day a model of musical composition. The Italians were at this period the chief masters and interpreters of the art throughout Europe, except in THE "AGE OF REASON" . 199 England, which had a great school of her own, headed by Orlando Gibbons. The Eighteenth Century, during which the harpsichord became the pianoforte, saw Ger- many rise to the highest place, which she has since retained, in every department of the musical art, except singing. There Italy, producing the most beautiful alto and tenor voices, has kept the supremacy. German genius has so developed instrumental music, and given to its forms such extent and variety, that a new world has been thereby opened to musical Europe. Germany owes much, however, to her Southern rival. Much of the sweetness found, united with native strength, in the works of the best German composers, is due to their study of the Italian masters. To Gluck (1714-1784), the great German composer, opera is indebted for its splendor and dramatic perfec- tion. The first opera which he wrote was an improve- ment on the existing style. His fame soon became European, and in 1746 he went to London, where he met Handel, but soon afterward made his home at Vienna, and continued to write operas with great suc- cess. His "Orpheus and Eurydice," first performed in 1762, was a triumph of freshness and pathos. His "Iphigenia in Aulis," "Armida,"and"Iphigenia in Tauris" written for the Royal Opera of Paris, end a series of works which were a source of inspiration to those great masters, Cherubini, Mozart, and Beethoven. The com- positions of John Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), chiefly religious, consisted of cantatas and motets, with many pieces for the piano and organ. They have a truly grand and original inspiration. His own eleven sons were all distinguished musicians. Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) was a very prolific com- poser of symphonies for full orchestra, chamber music, 200 , MODERN EUROPE and opera. His beautiful oratorio, the "Creation," was produced in Vienna in March, 1799, and was at once successful. The soul of John Wolfgang Mozart (1756-1792) was filled with music, and his precocity was won- derful. In his fifth year he wrote a concerto for the harpsichord, in perfect accordance with musi- cal rules and of great difficulty. In his tenth year he had become famous all over Europe as a player on the harpsichord, and could execute the most difficult music at sight. At twelve years of age he led, in presence of the Imperial Court at Vienna, the performance of a mass from his own pen. In his four- teenth year he composed his first opera, "Mithridates," continued to pour forth masses, serenades, and sym- phonies, and settled at Vienna in 1780. His "Figaro" appeared in 1787, at Prague; then, shortly afterward, his immortal "Don Giovanni," his "Cosi Fan Tutte" in 1790, "II Flauto Magico" in 1791, and the "Clemenza di Tito" and "Requiem" in 1792, the year of his death. His instrumental music symphonies, quartettes, con- certos for the piano, sonatas, and masses is beautiful beyond the reach of praise. The works of this con- summate poet in musical expression charm alike the mere lover of melody and the accomplished musician; there was nothing he did not know and display in the resources of his art, and for richness, purity, ease, and depth all that belongs to perfection in the best and highest kind he remains, as he was esteemed by the best judges of his own day, the Raphael of the musical world. Another precocious genius was George Frederick Handel (1684-1759), who wrote operas soon after the age of twenty. He then studied in Italy, and settled THE "AGE OF REASON" 201 in England in 1710. His anthems and organ fugues would alone have given him lasting fame. In his ora- torios Handel is supreme, the choruses being unequaled for sublimity. Among the chief of these works, pro- duced between 1731 and 1753, are "Israel in Egypt," the "Messiah," "Samson," and "Judas Maccabaeus." Of his other compositions, the "Acis and Galatea," and the Det- tingen "Te Deum" (written to celebrate the victory of Dettingen in 1743), are famous. His style in general shows boldness, strength, spirit, and invention of the highest order. England and Germany were unequal to the task of reviving art, exhausted, as it was, in France, in Flanders, in Holland, as well as in Italy and Spain. But they had an important share in the scientific and literary move- ment, the most honorable characteristic of the Eight- eenth Century, and the first step toward future progress. A family of savants, natives of Switzerland, but set- tled in Italy, had, during the Eighteenth Century, con- tinued the mathematical work commenced in the preced- ing Century; these were the Bernouilli, who devoted themselves to the calculation of probabilities. England boasts of many distinguished mathematicians. Ger- many is particularly honored by Euler (1707-1783), who, although born at Basle, lived at St. Petersburg and Berlin. He wrote for a Princess of Anhalt-Dessau, "Letters Upon Some Subjects of Physics and Philos- ophy," which brought science within the range of all. He formulated the integral calculus, the inverse of the differential calculus. The small Republic of Geneva, afterward a literary center, had also its savants, among others Gabriel Cramer, author of an "Introduction to the Analysis of Curved Lines in Algebra," and the Trembleys, a family of savants like the Bernouilli. 202 MODERN EUROPE France produced brilliant mathematicians. D'Alem- bert, deserted as a child by his parents, was gifted with such extraordinary facility for calculations that at twenty-four he was a member of the Academy of Sci- ence. He wrote a "Treatise Upon the Integral Cal- culus," a "Treatise on the Equilibrium and Movement of Fluids." He also took part in all the great astronomical works. French, German, and English were seized with the noble emulation, all striving to formulate with precision the laws of astronomy that had been dimly seen during the preceding Century. In England, James Bradley (1692-1762), by the observation of a slight movement of the stars, was led to explain it by the mutation of the earth's axis, combined with that of the light of the stars. He thus discovered the cause of the aberration of light, and at the same time proved the truth of the systems of Copernicus and Galileo. Instruments for observation were then perfected, and William Herschell, (1738-1822), born at Hanover, first introduced reflecting telescopes. Herschell, who settled in England himself in 1774, constructed a reflect- ing telescope, with which he observed Saturn's rings and Jupiter's satellites. He afterward discovered the planet Uranus, thus further extending for us the limits of the celestial world. But one name stands out above all others : it is that of Laplace (1749-1827), who resumed Newton's calcu- lations. He explained the movements of the stars, the inequalities of the planets, and formulated, with regard to Jupiter's satellites, two theorems, known by the name of the Laws of Laplace. The penetrating genius of Newton had been baffled by certain variations, which to him seemed inexplicable. He thought that the world's THE "AGE OF REASON" 203 system at certain times required the intervention of the Creator, to restore its equilibrium. Laplace solved the problem of the acceleration of the mean motion of the moon, discovered the inequality in the motions of Jupi- ter and Saturn, and framed the true theory of Jupiter's satellites. His chief works are the "Mecanique Celeste" a book almost worthy of ranking with Newton's "Princip- ia" and his "Systeme du Monde," a resume of all mod- ern astronomy, written in the finest scientific language. The physical sciences, which had been backward until then, now seemed, by their activity, anxious to regain lost time. Experiments with the thermometer, commenced in the Seventeenth Century, were continued into the Eighteenth by Fahrenheit (1686-1736), then by Reaumur, and by the Swede, Celsius, who perfected the Centigrade thermometer in 1742. Toward the end of the century the brothers Montgolfier made (1783) their first experiments with air balloons in Annonay, before the States of the Province of Vivarias. Man essayed to take possession of the air; but although the science of air balloons has since made some progress, he has not yet succeeded. Man then learned to discipline the forces of nature in a wonderful way. An ironmonger and a glazier from Dartmouth, Devonshire (Newcomen and Cowley), taking advantage of the discoveries made in the preceding Century with regard to steam, constructed engines furnished with boilers, in which the steam was formed, and with them succeeded in pumping mines. But although this first attempt was of the greatest importance, it cannot be compared to the labors of James Watt (1736-1819). This poor work- man, an artisan of a town in Scotland, invented some improvements that almost formed the modern steam 204 MODERN EUROPE engine. Instead of condensing the steam in the same cylinder in which it worked the piston, he conducted it into a separate receptacle, where it returned to liquid. This was the condenser. He also invented the system by which steam acts upon both sides of the piston, and found means to transmit two successive movements to the beam of the machine, resulting from the raising and lowering of the piston. Finally, by the use of the crank, he transformed the reciprocating movement of the pro- peller of the machine into a rotary movement. A French engineer, Joseph Cugnot, constructed, in 1770, some steam carriages, which, although unservice- able, were the first attempts at locomotives. In Amer- ica, Oliver Evans, the inventor of the high-pressure machine, built, in 1790, some steam carriages that trav- eled on the usual roads. This was a complete revolu- tion, the importance of which was little suspected. In the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries men first suspected the existence of electricity. Hauksbee, an Englishman, succeeded, in 1709, in constructing an electric machine, by replacing the sulphur machine of Otto de Guericke by a glass globe rubbed by the hand. Stephen Gray and Wheeler, also Englishmen, continued (1729) these experiments in electricity, and discovered that there were conducting and non-conducting sub- stances. At Leyden, in Holland, Munschenbroek, while electrifying water in a phial, accidentally placed one hand upon the metallic conductor which led the electricity from the machine into the water; he instantly felt so violent a shock in the arms and chest that he thought he was killed. This accident led to the inven- tion of the Leyden jar (1745). In America, Franklin, at first printer and publisher, natural philosopher, statesman, and diplomatist, a uni- THE "AGE OF REASON" 205 versa! genius, by his daily experiment with a kite which he launched into the air near Philadelphia, during a storm (1752), established the identity of electricity and lightning. The principle of the lightning rod was found. Franklin erected the first at Philadelphia in 1760, but time was still required before this protective invention, enthusiastically adopted in America, was used in England in 1762, and it was not used in France before 1782. Sir W. Snow Harris applied it to ships in 1830. Galvani (1737-1798) a professor at Bologna, was led by experiments upon frogs, to affirm the existence of an electricity which he believed to be distinct from atmos- pheric electricity, and which he called animal electricity, but which is now called dynamic electricity (1789). Volta (1745-1827), disputing Galvani's theories, placed on the contrary, the source of electricity in metals, while the Boulognese professor placed it in the bodies of ani- mals. He constructed (1799) with pieces of copper or silver joined to pieces of zinc, yet separated by pieces of cardboard soaked in salt water, a pile which accumu- lated electricity at each extremity or pole, at the one positive electricity, at the other negative electricity. This pile formed a current, and its power was destined to produce marvels that daily became more astonishing. Chemistry really appeared in the Eighteenth Cen- tury, with Priestly, Scheele, and Lavoisier. The Eng- lishman, Priestley (1733-1804), experimented in nearly every science, made numerous experiments upon the gases, and investigated particularly the properties of car- bonic acid gas, oxygen, azote, oxide, of carbon, and bicarburated hydrogen. Scheele (1742-1786), who was born in Stralsund, but lived in Sweden, made new dis- coveries about oxygen and the analysis of the air, dis- ao6 MODERN EUROPE covered chlorine, arsenic acid, Prussian blue, prussic acid, oxalic acid, etc. In France, Lavoisier (1743-1794) solved the composition of the atmosphere, decomposed and recomposed water. In 1783 he made some admir- able experiments before Louis XVI, and several sa- vants; he really founded the school of modern chemistry. Berthollet, Fourcroy, Cavendish, Lavoisier's disciples, continued his labors; Guyton de Morveau of Dijon, Berthollet of Annecy, Fourcroy, born in Paris, by their instruction, aided greatly in diffusing a taste for chem- istry. In England, Cavendish distinguished himself by his experiments upon hydrogen, nitric acid, etc. To these names must be added the Irishman, Kirwan, and the German, Goettling, whose labors contributed to the genesis of the science destined to displace alchemy. The natural sciences were defined, enriched by care- ful observations, and at last reduced to accurate classi- fication. Buffon (1707-1788), an elegant writer as well as an illustrious student, deserves to be called father of natural history, and by his clear, interesting style has added greatly to men's knowledge of and taste for that science. Daubenton studied animals anatomically and was the first to reconstruct fossil animals. Linnaeus (1707-1778), of Sweden, formed an ingenious botanical classification, which was in use for a long time. The progress of natural sciences added greatly to the advance of medicine, which, freed in the preceding Cen- tury from the yoke of routine, made fresh steps forward with the Frenchmen, Bordeau (1722-1776) and Barthez (1734-1806). In Paris, the Royal Society of Medicine was founded in 1778. In Italy, Vallisneri (1661-1730) was both naturalist and doctor; Spallanzani (1729-1799) an anatomist, made important observations upon the cir- culation of the blood, the digestion, etc. Morgagni THE "AGE OF REASON" 207 (1682-1771) inaugurated pathological anatomy. In England Cheselden (1688-1752), a surgeon, attempted the first operation upon cataract, and restored sight to one that was born blind. Lastly, Jenner (1749-1823) remarked that inoculation with cowpox preserved from smallpox, that formidable scourge which, until then, no one had been able to combat. The highest ambition began to be devoted to the relief of suffering humanity. The Abbe de L'Eppe, following the principles taught in Spain by the Benedictine Pedro Ponce (1520-1584) and improved by Juan P. Bonnet (1620), enabled the deaf and dumb to share in life's duties and pleasures, by sub- stituting the movements of the hands for the sounds of the voice, and by creating a visible alphabet which replaced the ears by the eyes. On the other hand, for those who were deprived of sight, Valentine Hauy, brother to the mineralogist, invented an alphabet in relief, and replaced the lost sense by the sense of touch, developed to marvelous accuracy and delicacy. Lastly, Doctor Pinel, protesting against the barbarous methods of treating the insane, who were, at that time, kept in chains, treated them as invalids, who could be cured, or at least relieved, by kindness and attentive care. These are three great conquests of civili- zation, victorious over the infirmities of nature. Tragedy was attempted by the genius of Voltaire, a man of universal genius, poet, philosopher, and historian, whose name alone symbolizes the epoch. Voltaire filled the Eighteenth Century with his life and works. In taste a disciple of the writers of the preceding Century, an admirer of the ancients, whom he really never understood, he trod the road opened by Corneille and Racine; while a residence beyond the Channel had introduced him to Shakespeare. But Voltaire made his tragedies a medium of political, of philosophical, and even of anti-Christian 2o8 MODERN EUROPE propaganda. His ruling passion was a hatred of fanati- cism and superstition, which unhappily led him to assail with virulent wit and bitter sarcasms the Christianity which, rightly interpreted and practiced, has nothing to excite the enemity of keen intellects and philanthropic hearts, but should secure their support and esteem. His writing is full of wit, vivacity, gayety, ease, and grace of style, and Voltaire may be accounted one of the greatest men of letters that ever lived. Prose was his proper weapon. He wielded it as no one else had done before him, and moulded to the image of his intellect. He is the true father of modern French, clear, unambiguous, pleasant without pretention, noble without heaviness, grave without pedantry, lively without vulgarity. He applied this animated style to history, and gave admirable models of narrative in "Charles XII," and the "Century of Louis XIV." History in his hands was lacking in earn- estness, but he appreciated it as an art. But Voltaire was philosopher and philanthropist above all not a philoso- pher in the scientific, nor a philanthropist in the religious sense. His philosophy consisted in subjecting everything to the examination of reason, to argument, to a search for truth. His philanthropy consisted in hatred of intoler- ance of all kinds; he thus put an end to the persecution of Protestants in France, though he had no sympathy with their doctrine. He chiefly constituted himself the defender of the generous ideas of humanity, of tolerance and justice, and his influence, like his popularity, was immense, increasing with his age and the diffusion of his ideas. The other political writers were largely responsible for the state of public thought that led to the Revolution. Perhaps the deepest thinker of the age was Montesquieu, who passed twenty years in writing a single book (1712- THE "AGE OF REASON" 209 1778), the "Spirit of Laws," which analyzed the different forms of government and the various legislations which had succeeded and combated each other in the world. Montesquieu admired the English government more than any other and proposed to adopt it as a model. His work dealt a severe blow to the theory of absolute monarchy in France. More popular than Montesquieu and hence more effec- tive as a cause of the changes about to occur, were the writings of Jean Jacques Rousseiau (1712-1778). A vagabond at an early age he had led a life of extraor- dinary adventure and change. In his writings Rousseau attacked the accepted civilization of his age. He praised the life of "the noble savage," took feeling as the rule of conduct and rejecting the claims of dull duty, bade men and women follow their. own hearts' promptings. Yet his own fine feeling did not prevent him from sending all his children (five in succession, born of an ignorant maid- servant) to the Foundling Hospital, to be reared by the charity of strangers. His sentimental novel the "Nou- velle Heloise" shocked sound morality, but his political treatise,the famous"Contrat Social,"has been credited with a powerful influence on the course taken by the French Revolution. In this work the sovereignty of the people is asserted. Men are bidden to draw up their own articles of religion, "not as dogmas, but as sentiments of socia- bility," with banishment for those who should decline to accept them, and death for such as, after acceptance, should violate them. After all sorts of troubles, conflicts with the authorities at Paris, Geneva, and Berne, visits to Prus- sia and England, ill-behavior of his own, and ill-treatment by false friends, this strange compound of philanthropy and vice, sentiment and spleen, enthusiasm, eccentricity, vanity, and perverseness, died of apoplexy near Paris. Voi,. 2 14 210 MODERN EUROPE These three men were aided in the work by others who belonged to the group known as the "Encyclopedistes." They were more or less concerned in the production of the"French Encyclopedie/'awork which appeared bet ween 1751 and 1765, intended as a free review of all knowledge, produced by men who were in no field of it slaves to author- ity. It was projected and edited by Diderot D'Alem- bert, who had charge of its mathematical department, wrote the famous Preliminary Discourse to the work. The historical importance of the Encyclopedic arises from the free spirit of inquiry and criticism that marked its general tone and philosophy in religious and political mat- ters. It appeared in an age when men's minds were stir- ring with new thoughts, and every existing opinion and institution was eagerly brought to the bar of judges who cared nothing for mere assertion and authority. The writers gained a very extensive and powerful influence over the political and religious sentiment of the age, and were at once the consequence and the cause of a new epoch in their Nation's life. While they assailed the dogmas and the system of Christianity "with a rancor and an unfairness disgraceful to men Who called themselves philosophers," yet the sort of Christianity which they saw around them in France at the middle of the Eighteenth Century was not, in general, such as could inspire any one with respect. This it was which lent strength to the blows of men who, in the cause of justice and mercy, came between the powerful and the oppressed, and, in their pamphlets and satirical poems, attacked the gross abuses which prevailed "religious persecution, judicial torture, arbitrary imprisonment, the unnecessary multiplication of capital punishments, the delay and chicanery of tribunals, the exactions of farmers of the revenue." The assailants of the faith were encountered by the church, not with THE "AGE OF REASON" 211 effective argument, but with the feeble resources of a petty persecution burning of books, pronouncing of censures methods that could irritate but not destroy. At last unbelief became necessary to the character of an accom- plished and intellectual man, and the new doctrines spread from France abroad, welcomed by Frederick the Great of Prussia, by Catharine of Russia, and by Joseph of Aus- tria, and carrying heresy into Italy, Portugal, and Spain. The Encyclopedistes thus did much to further the revolu- tionary spirit which was to be carried hereafter by armed hosts into nearly every quarter of Europe, But a new science was now rising, destined eventually to overthrow the sentimental and unpractical political philosophy of the school of Rousseau and the Encyclo- pedistes. This wias political economy. Toward the end of Louis XIV's reign, Vauban and Bois-Guillebert had directed their attention toward the financial and commer- cial organization of the State. Vauban had displeased the King, and affected public opinion by his book on the "dime royale" (the royal tithes). Bois-Guillebert, a Royal Intendant, had protested against the abuses of the pro- tective system and the tyranny of the internal taxation. But the real founders of political economy belong to the Eighteenth Century Gournay and Smith. Gournay's (1712-1759) axiom was the celebrated motto applied to the Manchester school, "Laisser faire, laisser aller," that is to say : everybody has a right to make what he likes, and how he likes, to sell every kind of merchandise at the price that suits him best to any purchaser he can find. The theory of the Scotchman Adam Smith, who lived for some time in France,and was the comrade of the Encyclopedistes, was more general and more just. In his eyes wealth con- sisted in labor. He demanded liberty for labor. A visit to a pin manufactory taught him another principle, the 2i2 MODERN EUROPE division of labor. He was also the first to establish the law of supply and demand upon the rise and fall of prices. Lesage (1660-1747), in his amusing book of "Gil Bias," took up the picaresque or realistic style "Gil Bias" is perhaps the best description of the life of another country ever written by a foreigner. Spaniards long refused to believe that the tale had not been stolen from one of themselves. Bernardin de Saint-Pierre (1737-1814) has also survived with his charming idyll of "Paul and Virginia," which seemed already inspired by the truer sentiments of the succeeding Century, and acquired an immense popularity, not in France alone, but in all neighboring countries. Voltaire aimed chiefly at satire in his novels. The impulse given to literature in England in the Seventeenth Century continued. The appearance of periodical publications, the essayists, the press, has been one of the results of the Revolution of 1688. Daniel Defoe (1663-1731), the first of the political essayists or pamphleteers, but better known as the author of "Robin- son Crusoe," commenced in Newgate Prison the publica- tion of the "Review," which appeared three times a week, and which he edited without assistance during nine years. Richard Steele( 1671-1 729) then published the "Tatler" (1709) and the "Spectator" (1711), of which Addison was the chief editor, and which was considered the best among those periodicals. Joseph Addison (1672-1719), inferior as a poet, but noticeable as a critic, nourished on the study of the ancients, was above all an amiable, pleasant moralist, striving to extend the love of virtue. His polished and elegant style is, how- ever, a little tedious. Daniel Defoe (1663-1731), who created the review, also brought the novel into fashion, by fictions to which THE "AGE OF REASON" 213 he gave an air of complete veracity. He captivated his readers by the apparent truthfulness of his narrations, and the "Adventures of Robinson Crusoe" are still popular all over the world. Samuel Richardson (1689- 1761), in his novels followed rather the example in style, but not in morals, of the French school. His novels are written for women, Fielding's for men. Fielding did not shrink from painting vice, and in knowledge of human nature and sheer strength as a writer, stands high above his contemporaries. Oliver Goldsmith (1728-1774) touched all hearts by the natural pathos and grace of the "Vicar of Wakefield." As a poet, and also in comedy, he was above any of his contemporaries. Very different was the harsh, bitter genius of Swift (1667-1745), the most powerful prose writer of his day; his "Gulliver's Travels," like his other works, is a keen satire, on human nature and human life. Lawrence Sterne (1713-1768), an eccentric humorist, is at his best in "Tristram Shandy." In his "Sentimental Journey" he introduced into England the shallow sentimentalism of the School of Bernardin de Saint- Pierre. Poetry was still classical with Pope (1688-1744), whose personal deformity affected his whole character. At twenty years of age he published his "Essay upon Criticism"; then, exercising the variety of his wit in satire, he sought to reanimate philosophy in his moral epistles, above all in the "Essay on Man." An admirer and translator of the ancients, particularly of Homer, Pope attained remarkable elegance in sfyle; his works are a reflection of the great French literary Century. Pope became the chief of a school. Amongst his dis- ciples Young (1681-1765) had, curiously, a far greater influence and vogue abroad than in England. His "Night Thoughts" consist of sorrowful meditations on 214 MODERN EUROPE the nothingness of life. Gray and Collins are far supe- rior as classical poets. Thomson had more passion, and, in the "Seasons" he, first of the poets, sang the epic of nature; with him began the descriptive school. Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) is also named among the poets, but he was only a versifier. He succeeded better in criticism and wrote in a more sonorous and studied prose than anyone before him. He was the acknowledged master of his day; but is now best known by the memoirs of his faithful observer and admirer, Boswell. English poetry, at that time somewhat cold and for- mal, found life and truth to nature in the pious William Cowper (1731-1800), the precursor of a real Renaissance. Enthusiastic in his love of nature, Cowper painted it without affection, obeying only his inspiration and the intense sensitiveness of his own personality. Robert Burns (1759-1796), the son of a poor Scotch farmer, reached without effort the true lyrical note. He is the greatest poet Scotland has produced. He is the first true song writer in Great Britain since the Elizabethan age. George Crabbe (1755-1832) prolonged his career into the Nineteenth Century. He was both a preacher and a realistic poet. Chatterton (1752-1770), "the mar- velous boy," published some fictitious English poems of the Fifteenth Century, an imitation of the ancient bal- lads, and by an energy and literary inspiration unparal- leled in one so young, gave promise of great achieve- ments, the accomplishment of which was prevented by his untimely end. Macpherson (1738-1796) counted upon the growing taste for the past with marvelous skill and audacity. He forged a long poem, "Fingal," purporting to be a prose translation from the work of a Celtic bard, Ossian, and by his skillful imitation deceived the public, which believed in the genuineness THE "AGE OF REASON" 215 of the work. The poem must be closely studied before the fraud can be detected. This grandiose work, how- ever, had a great success and exercised considerable influence. Weary of the regular beauties of Latin and Greek, the English and French were seized with admira- tion for the songs of the Celts. It led finally to the regular study of the wild warlike poetry of the Northern countries. English philosophy, more serious than French phil- osophy, followed out to their extreme consequences the doctrines of Locke. Berkeley (1684-1753) denied the reality of all sensuous experience. David Hume (1711- 1776) denied the reality of all mental or spiritual expe- riences. His doctrines alarmed one of his fellow-coun- trymen, Thomas Reid (1710-1796), who recognized the existence of certain powers in the mind anterior to expe- rience, and the reaction that he directed against the empiricism of Locke's disciples was continued by his pupil, Dugald Stewart, and by T. Brown.* The philosopher Hume was also a historian, endeav- oring to imitate Livy by the clearness of his narration, but skeptical and prejudiced; in him, the philosopher injured the historian. William Robertson (1721-1793), on the contrary, a heavier and more conscientious writer, formed himself on the Greek historians. The scholarly Edward Gibbon (1737-1794), greatest of writ- ers of history, was the author of "The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire," a masterpiece, hardly superseded by modern works, but impressed with the prejudices of the Century, and hostile to Christianity. We must not omit, in this short summary of the literary activity of the English, some reference to the orators, who recall the glory of ancient Athens and Rome. * See Volume " Great Philosophers." 2i6 MODERN EUROPE A government by debate such as the English Gov- ernment demands of necessity political eloquence. The House of Commons, and afterward the House of Lords, reechoed with the powerful voice of William Pitt (1708- 1778), afterward Lord Chatham, whose speeches are placed among the classics. The Irishman Burke (1729- 1797), defender of the American colonies, appeared when Pitt was nearly dying. "It was," said Macaulay, "a splendid sunset, and a splendid dawn." But Burke had too much fire, too much impetuosity, and his eloquence, more philosophical but less practical, full as a torrent, flowed forth in floods of invective metaphor, and dazzl- ing imagery to almost empty benches. Fox (1749- 1806), no less ardent, no less impetuous, had far greater power in political debate. Sheridan (1751-1816) gained renown by his showy eloquence, and the second William Pitt (1759-1806), who inherited his father's oratorical power as well as his patriotism, ruled the House of Commons by his ardent speeches, his progres- sive arguments, his demonstrations, which impressed his hearers by the arrangement of the whole rather than by brilliancy of detail. As a politician he was far in advance of his time, but was hampered by ill health, and by the prejudices of the King and of his own party. Civilization in the Eighteenth Century had made no such progress that Germany was able, in her turn, to boast of a literature. German genius, aroused by Luther, had required another century fully before it awakened. The language which the great Reformer had, as it were, molded into form, by his translation of the Bible, had not yet been adopted for literary work. Leibnitz had thought and written in Latin. In the Eighteenth Century the German language was used by two critics and professors, who borrowed the system of THE "AGE OF REASON" 217 reviews from the English. It was also used for scholarly and philological works by Heyne( 1729-1812)011 "Virgil," and by August Wolf (1759-1824) on "Homer," for his- tory by Louis de Schloezer (1737-1789), and the Swiss Jean de Muller (1752-1809), who wrote a fine history of his native land. Lessing (1729-1781), born in Saxony, acquired a great reputation as a critic and author by his collections of "Letters on Contemporary Literature," and his "Hamburgische Dramaturgic," the best criticism upon the theater which had appeared in the Eighteenth Century. It was he who unfolded to his countrymen the beauty, vigor, and originality of Shakespeare, and he and Winckelmann brought back the spirit of art and poetry to the genuine and simple taste of the Greeks. Lessing was thus successful in the great aim of his criti- cism that of destroying in his country the influence of French literature, which at that time debased the Ger- man, and robbed it of all original power. His "Lao- coon" was a calm, philosophical composition a discus- sion on the general principles of art, an aesthetic work. Lessing opposed the ancients to the moderns. The scholar Winckelmann aided still further the diffusion of a taste for antiquity by works on art; he published the "Letters on the Discoveries of Herculaneum" and a "History of Art Amongst the Ancients." German poetry made its first attempt with De Haller (1708-1777), who sang of the Alps, then with Gessner (1730-1787), the author of some sentimental idyls, and of a narrative poem, "The Death of Abel." It brought forth also Klopstark (1724-1803), who cre- ated for his countrymen a new, strong, free, and genu- inely poetic language. He is one of the greatest lyrical writers, and has been called the Pindar of modern poetry. His chief work is "The Messiah." His ardent 2i8 MODERN EUROPE patriotism appears in the odes called forth by the French Revolution. The German tongue and music is also the theme of his musical verse. Greatest of German poets was John Wolfgang Goethe, the most illustrious of German writers. A uni- versal genius, poet and scholar, critic and artist, in love equally with nature and the ideal, versed in science and philosophy, matter-of-fact observer and dreamer, lover of the past and of the present, Goethe was already in advance of the Eighteenth Century, to which only half of his life belonged. Following by turns the ancient Greek poets, and the morbid sentimentality of the French, his excitable nature was early devoted to various forms of art and all objects of intellectual interest in science, religion, literature, law, and morals. His fa- mous romance, the "Sorrows of Werther," appeared in 1774, his plays "Iphigenia" in 1787, "Egmont" in 1788, and "Tasso" in 1790. They were received with delight and astonishment by the German people. His great work the dramatic poem "Dr. Faust" belongs, in its successive forms, to Goethe's whole maturity of life. It is a real world poem, containing the author's views on the problems of existence; embodying all that is highest and deepest, most touching and most beautiful, in man's life upon earth. In 1794 began his friendship with Schiller, which continued a close intimacy till the latter^s death in 1805. The result was beneficial to both; Goethe felt his youth renewed, as he said, and became active again in literature, and Schiller's dramatic genius produced at this period most of his masterpieces for the stage of the court theater at Weimar, of which Goethe was director. Goethe's novel "Wilhelm Meister," was published in 1794-96, and he wrote at this time some of his finest ballads. "Hermann and Dorothea," a narrative THE "AGE OF REASON" 219 poem in hexameters, appeared in 1797. Napoleon and Goethe met, with expressions of reciprocal admiration, during- the congress at Erfurt in 1808. In 1811 the great German's Autobiography was published, and at the very close of his long life, in 1831, comes the second part of the Faust much inferior to the first, but rich in beauty of poetical expression. The characteristic of Goethe's genius is its wonderful versatility, ranging over all branches of poetry, and cultivating with success botany and other scientific subjects. In literature he had the plastic imagination of an ancient Greek, the glowing fancy of the East, the melodic ear of an Italian, the feeling of a true German. Goethe is the ideal of the man of letters, bent on the improvement of his intellectual and imaginative powers to the utmost extent Unmoved by the deeper religious and political passions of his day, he strove to live in a lofty mental sphere, a region of supreme art far above all these. He is the greatest German poet, and one of the few of all time. Schiller was Goethe's friend. Less devoted to art but not less poetical, he was also one of the principal partisan's and leaders of the literary revolu- tion. He excelled in the drama and in history, which he looked upon as an art. His great play, "Wallenstein," is known to English readers by Coleridge's fine transla- tion. "William Tell" is his best tragedy; "Maria Stuart" and the "Maid of Orleans" are among his chief dramatic works. Economic interests had benefited by the mental impulse produced by literature and the progress of science. Men studied commerce as well as politics, and the Eighteenth Century revealed the power of credit. Among the ancients slaves manufactured all the articles required. If capital were wanted it could only be 320 MODERN EUROPE obtained by submitting to the exactions of the usurer. Among moderns the liberty of the workman has con- siderably developed industry, and it has been still more aided by the facility of credit. In the Middle Ages this new system faintly dawned in the letters of exchange, whose invention is traced to the Jews. Paper already played the part of money. The discovery of America threw an immense quantity of specie into> circulation, and increased commercial relations. Voyages became more frequent, bills of exchange, trading bills, and notes to order became general. Banks were established which advanced loans to merchants upon securities of value. The first real bank was that of Barcelona in 1401. The Bank of Stockholm (1668) was the first to issue bank notes. The banks of Amsterdam and Hamburg were in the Seventeenth Century remarkable for their large business. The Bank of England dates from 1694. It was the first to undertake to cash the bills of exchange before they came due, retaining a commission propor- tioned to the time that was yet to elapse what we are now so familiar with as discount. But if all these banks aided business, they did not yet constitute real credit. The extension of commerce followed hard on that of geographical discovery. The discoveries of the Six- teenth Century had been continued in the Seventeenth, when America had completely revealed her extent and internal wealth. The Dutch had discovered a portion of the innumerable islands which people the Pacific Ocean, and which were to form a fifth part of the world, Oceania. They also sighted the vast territory which they called New Holland, but which passed to the Eng- lish and was called Australia. It was chiefly in the Eighteenth Century that the THE "AGE OF REASON" 221 English and French navigators explored Oceania. Dampier, in 1688-90, visited the northwest coast of Australia, and discovered New Britain. Wallis, Car- teret, Bourgainville, and afterward the famous Captain Cook, revealed the existence of numerous archipelagoes. Cook sighted New Zealand, discovered New Caledonia, the Society Islands, the Friendly and the Sandwich Islands. He crossed the Antarctic Polar Circle three times. Afterward his course was followed by Lape- rouse, d'Entrecasteaux, Vancouver, and others. The Dane Behring left his name to the strait which bounds the eastern extremity of Asia. The entire globe was thus traced upon maps that became more and more exact, and man learned the utmost limits of his domain. The merchants advanced closely behind the explor- ers, and European commerce extended speedily and con- tinuously. England reaped the fruits of the Act of Navigation and of a policy which had been almost exclusively directed toward the conquest of the seas. In 1703, by the Methuen treaty, she had opened Portugal for herself, and inundated the country with her merchandise, thus killing the native industry. Spain even, although jealous of her colonial monopolies, con- ceded to England the monopoly of the slave trade, and the right of annually sending one ship to Porto-Bello laden with merchandise, a ship there was no need to replace, for her cargo was continually resupplied. It was a floating depot. The Austrian War of Succes- sion, and the Seven Years' War caused the decadence of the French navy. England threw herself upon the French colonies, which were badly protected, and com- menced to establish that immense Empire in Hindustan which Dupleix had dreamed of securing for France. 223 MODERN EUROPE She seized Canada and her maritime commerce, which, in 1700, amounted to 330,000 tons, rose in 1770 to 760,- ooo tons. The English, to supply their trade, developed their industry and exported Norwich cloths, Dublin and Exeter Linen, cotton stuffs from Manchester, and iron- mongery from Leeds. The invention of mechanical looms for spinning wool (1767-1787), and the applica- tion of Watt's steam engine (1769-1775), gave a new impulse to industry, and produced the rapid advance which has not paused since that time. England, who supplied Europe with exotic productions, intended also to furnish her with manufactured goods. She endeav- ored to become the sole manufacturer and the sole merchant. England failed in her attempted monopoly, and her own colonies were the first to turn against her. From the Fifteenth Century modern States retained the old principle that their colonies, daughters of the mother country, should trade only with her. The colonies were regarded merely as an easy market from whence to procure exotic produce, and an outlet for the industry of the mother country. The colonies could receive the goods they required from her alone, and cer- tain industries were even prohibited to them. If the Indian companies prospered it was in spite of the active opposition of the English manufacturers, who protested against the importation of the beautiful silken and cot- ton materials sent from India. The colonies and dis- tant trade were considered to be simply a source of raw materials, of productions foreign to the temperate zone. Industrial labor must remain the privilege of Europe. In a word, the consequence was to drain, not to enrich, the colonies. Holland, who had fallen from their past greatness, THE "AGE OF REASON" 223 chiefly devoted herself to profiting by the advantages which her still immense trade secured to her. She had fought against England during the American War, for she was more interested than any of the other powers in maintaining the rights of neutrals and the freedom of the seas. This war was, however, of no advantage to her, and England had a fresh opportunity of weakening a navy which inconvenienced her. Holland, however, remained a colonial power of the first order. The other northern powers, Sweden and Denmark, had also renounced ambition and retired to their penin- sulas, with the exception of Denmark, who still pos- sessed Norway. They almost exclusively devoted them- selves to their internal development, to industry and commerce. In contrast to the ancient civilization which had become immovable in the circle of the Roman Empire, modern civilization carried with it a germ of life, which stimulated it to expand in an ever-increasing circle. It now advanced in Europe toward the North and East. Slowly at first, under the German Emperors, the march forward had conducted Christianity and Latin civilization from the banks of the Elbe to the shores of the Oder and the marshes of the Spree, to the Vistula, then to the Niemen; whilst Greek civilization and Chris- tianity penetrated through the valley of the Dnieper to the center of the vast plains of Eastern Europe. The Slav family, which had for a long time bent beneath the weight of invasions, raised itself and entered the arena with its rare physical vigor, its open intelligence, its sup- pleness, its numbers and strength. Frederick II in Germany, as intelligent in adminis- tration as in war, devoted himself to the development of agriculture, industry, and commerce. He had to con- 224 MODERN EUROPE tend against a barren soil and a total ignorance of hus- bandry. In Upper Silesia he established colonies of Ger- mans and foreigners, giving to each colonist his house, stable, barn, garden, and twelve to twenty acres of land, beside some cattle. When Prussia took her share of Po- land, thousands of Polish families were transported into the sparsely inhabited districts of Pomerania. Berlin, with a population of only 6,000 inhabitants in the Seventeenth Century, owed, during the reign of the great Elector, her first manufactures to the French refugees, who were received there after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. Frederick II raised the city from the ruins to which the Seven Years' War had reduced it, and ren- dered it one of the most important cities in Germany, even while he retained its military appearance as its dominant characteristic. This great opponent of French politics appreciated the genius, literature, and art of France, and the patron of Voltaire peopled Berlin not only with barracks, but with colleges and academies. From that time a taste for science accompanied a taste for war, and they contributed in an almost equal degree to the prodigious success of Prussia. There was little improvement in the condition of the people. Their progress had gone so far that they knew of their misery, but they were unable to relieve it. Jus- tice was blind except to the giver of bribes. Nobles were privileged to commit crime, but for the smallest offenses the wretched masses were sentenced to capital punishment by laws which they had no share in making. Commerce was fettered by ridiculous laws. The poor were kept poor and the rich grew richer. The masses groaned and suffered, but greedily drank in the doctrines preached by those who were the pets of the monarchs at whom their thrusts were aimed. Perhaps the writ- THE "AGE OF REASON" 225 ers themselves did not dream of the havoc that would follow the doctrines they preached. The writers pre- pared the way for the men of blood. The people, weighed down by oppressive tyranny, thirsting for free- dom, took the only means they knew of securing it. And the storm broke. It broke in France first, not only because there the contrasts were perhaps the greatest, but because there the writings of the political theorists were most read. Voi,. 215 The French Revolution of 1789 is by far the most important event of modern history. It was a great political earthquake which overthrew in France the whole fabric of public and social order, shook and trans- formed most of Europe, caused the greatest war, or series of wars, that mankind has ever waged, and pro- duced effects that the world has not yet ceased to feel. The scenes displayed and the deeds done during this great convulsion, are unequaled in recent ages for thrill- ing interest, including all that can stir the soul of man to terror, pity, wrath, wonder, sympathy, abhorrence, and admiration. The basest and the most exalted ele- ments of human nature emerge to view in startling prominence of action on a stage which drew the eyes of all the world to what was passing; some of the great- est, and many of the vilest, of mankind showed forth, either in the outbreak itself, or in the European struggle which ensued, the highest achievements of ability and heroism, and the worst atrocities of depravity and crime. In the words of Thomas Carlyle, the most picturesque writer who has dealt with this great subject for the his- torian's utmost skill, we have in the French Revolution "the open violent rebellion, and victory, of disimpris- oned anarchy against corrupt worn-out authority." It was an outburst of destructive wrath, in which much of an old world disappeared, burnt up to ashes, while a new order of creation, here swiftly, and there slowly, was evolved out of a hurly-burly of confusion, despera- tion, and death. The French Revolution proved, once 226 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 227 for all, that man's political, as his social, life must be founded, if it is to endure in happiness and strength, on solidity and truth, and not on hollowness and shams, however comely and fair-seeming they may be. The chief cause of the French Revolution may be given in one word, misrule misrule obstinately con- tinued in defiance of solemn warnings, and of the visible signs of an approaching retribution. The government of France had long been lodged solely in the hands of the monarch, the nobles, and the clergy; and these men had never learnt, or did not chose to own, the elemen- tary truth of political morality for those who rule a peo- ple that rulers exist only for a Nation's good. This fundamental axiom of all government had never for a moment been recognized at the court of Versailles, and the result was the storming of the Bastille, the slaugh- ter and exile of the nobles and the clergy, the death of the King and Queen of France upon the scaffold, and the carnival of blood known as the Reign of Terror. The character of the age in which the effects of mis- rule came to a head must be considered to understand its results. The Eighteenth Century was a time of daring theory on matters of religion, society, and government. The freedom of thought which had been growing in expansiveness and audacity for ages past had led men to challenge and expect to find a principle of reason in the world around them. Experimental science had dis- covered law in the world of nature; the discovery of the laws of nature had swept away superstition. This free- dom of thought was then vigorously turned to the spirit- ual side of things, and the exposure of all false pretenses and all injustice in religion and politics was the inevi- table issue. Reverence for all that was not founded on something else than mere assertion or antiquated usage 228 MODERN EUROPE faded away; and in the teachings and the sarcasms of philosophers, economists, and wits, a Nation learnt that the common herd of men had rights of which they had too long been robbed by a small, selfish, privileged class. For nearly a Century in France "political servitude and intellectual freedom had existed together, ancient abuses and new theories had flourished in equal vigor side by side. The people, having no constitutional means of checking even the most flagitious misgovernment, were indemnified for oppression by being suffered to luxuriate in anarchical speculation, and to deny or ridicule every principle on which the institutions of the State reposed." It was the existence of heavy grievances along with the enunciation of bold doctrines that produced the French Revolution. The follies and vices of the viziers and sul- tanas who pillaged and disgraced the French Nation were to the writings of Voltaire and Rousseau precisely what gunpowder is to fire, and the result of contact was a ter- rible and desolating outburst. "Neither cause would have sufficed alone. Tyranny may last through ages where discussion is suppressed. Discussion may safely be left free by rulers who act on popular principles. But combine a press like that of London with a government like that of St. Petersburg, and the inevitable effect will be an explosion that will shake the world." One lasting effect of the wild and wrathful uprising of a Nation against the abuses of feudalism and the "divine right" of Kings has been the recognition accorded to the rights of the mass of the people in nearly every political system in Europe. The workers who create the wealth of nations have ever since been steadily advancing in political power, and have attained a degree ,of education, intelligence, and influence which have THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 229 made impossible the permanent enthrallment of the many by the few. The political and social state of France before the deluge which swept away existing institutions was truly portentous. The church of the country had become a creature of the court; its high places were wholly usurped by the aristocracy that glittered at Versailles. Retaining their lands and their wealth, their feudal state and their seigneurial rights, the higher clergy neglected their appointed work, and, while the village cures alone in some measure kept faith alive in the land, their supe- riors had become a frivolous and pampered caste. The nobles of France had never, in their best days, had liberal sympathies, and they had learned to acquiesce in regal tyranny, provided it did not touch themselves. They had at last degenerated from feudal leaders of society and wielders of local influence and authority into a mere set of courtiers, the complaisant instruments of a rigor- ous despotism, and regardless of the world outside it. An intense feeling of dislike was developed in the minds of the country people against absentee nobles who lived in profligacy and extravagance, utterly neglectful of local duties, and heartlessly indifferent to the wants of the humbler classes. In the person of Louis XV the royalty of France had become utterly degraded; and poor, stupid, awkward, well-meaning Louis XVI pro- voked little but contempt from all beholders. The system of taxation was grossly unjust and oppressive to the body of the people. The nobles and clergy paid scarcely any taxes; they had a complete monopoly of almost every office of honor and wealth. In every province, and in all departments of the State, in every palace and royal domain, an army of triflers, 230 MODERN EUROPE holding sinecures created for their benefit, sucked the life-blood of the Nation, while the peasant and the artisan starved in hopeless wretchedness. The state of the people, indeed of the millions of workers for daily bread was disgraceful and shocking. The taxes took half the produce of the peasant-proprietors' land; the poorest were often driven to feed on boiled nettles; insuf- ficient and unwholesome food caused strange and ter- rible diseases to break out; death from cold and starva- tion was common. The contrast between the luxury of the chateau and the want of the cottage was fearful; and amid the splendor of Versailles a round of unceas- ing etiquette, extravagant pomp, glittering idleness, sickly sentiment masking intense selfishness, and frivol- ity shining over foul corruption King and courtiers let the world wag on, as if no day of doom could ever come. When Louis XIV died in 1715 he left to his infant successor a famished and miserable people, a beaten and humble army, provinces turned into deserts by misgov- ernment and persecution, factions dividing the court, a schism raging in the church, an immense debt, an empty treasury. The highest statesmanship and the sternest devotion to a ruler's duty could alone have coped with difficulties like these, but the rulers of France for the next two generations were almost all destitute alike of high ability and of good intentions. Those who examine the history of France before the great Revolu- tion will cease to wonder at the fact and at the violence of the outbreak, and will be amazed only at the pro- tracted endurance of an oppressed and insulted people. Louis XV, a great-grandson of Louis XIV, reigned from 1715 to 1774. During his minority (1715-1723) the Duke of Orleans, an able, but indolent and unprin- cipled man, was regent of the Kingdom, and the wicked THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 231 Cardinal Dubois took a great part in the government. These men did nothing but mischief to the State by their reckless expenditure. Under Cardinal Fleury (in power from 1726 to 1743) affairs were more prosperous, the Government being conducted with comparative frugality and moderation. Then recommenced the downward progress of the monarchy. Profligacy in the court, extravagance in the finances, schism in the church, fac- tion in the Parliaments, unjust war terminated by igno- minious peace all that indicates and all that produces the ruin of great Empires, make up the history of that miser- able period. Abroad, the French were beaten and hum- bled everywhere, by land and by sea, on the Elbe and on the Rhine, in Asia and in America. In the Seven Years' War (1756-1763), especially, disasters came thick upon France. In November, 1757, the French army was utterly defeated by Frederick the Great at Rossbach (to tlhe west of Leipsic) ; between 1757 and 1760 the East Indian possessions of France, and the great Province of Canada, were acquired by England. At home, the life led by the King excited the contempt and the hatred of the people. He was ruled by two mistresses in succession, who did infinite harm to the country. The Marquise de Pompadour was favorite from 1745 till her death, in 1764, and the Comtesse Du Barry, a woman of still lower origin and viler character, succeeded her, and held sway at the licentious court till the death of Louis XV, in 1774. Dur- ing the reign, the expenses of war abroad and vicious extravagance at home had increased the already heavy burden of taxation for the townspeople and peasantry. In 1771 the last vestige of constitutional government van- ished, in the suppression of the Parliament of Paris, which was the highest court of law in the land. A good admin- istrator, the Due de Choiseul, was in power from 1758 232 MODERN EUROPE till 1770, and did much to improve the army and the navy, but he fell at last before the intrigues of Du Barry, and things went swiftly on toward ruin. Under Louis XV the Duchy of Lorraine was annexed to France, in 1766, and the Italian island of Corsica was subdued by her arms in 1769. The death of Louis XV left to his successor a hopeless prospect the government of a people that hated the monarchy and the aristocracy, the administration of a State whose treasury was empty and whose credit was gone, the control of a whirlwind whose approach was even now dimly seen and faintly heard on the horizon. Louis XVI, grandson of Louis XV, reigned from 1774 to 1792. He was a kindly, dull sort of man, whom fate had made Sovereign of France, and nature had intended for a clockmaker or locksmith in which trades he was an expert amateur. Destitute of brains to think, and of energy and spirit to act, in such a situation as he was rhiserably forced to fill, he was doomed to expiate in his own person the gross crimes and follies of his predecessors on the throne. His wife, Marie Antoinette, daughter of Maria Theresa, Empress-Queen of Austria and Hungary, was virtuous, bold, vivacious, and indiscreet, and all her efforts to avert evil were either useless or hurtful in the end. The chief difficulty was that of the finances. Two men of ability and integrity, Malesherbes and Turgot, were first in power as ministers, and the proposed reforms of the latter might possibly, if fully adopted, have averted the coming convulsion. Turgot was a true patriot, and when he proposed to abolish privileges, to introduce free trade(at home) ingrain,andto tax the nobles and the clergy like the other ranks of society, he was driven from power in 1776. The church and the aristocracy had thus rejected the counsel which might have saved them. "They would THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 233 not have reform; and they had revolution. They would not pay a small contribution in place of the odious eorvees (the obligation of the people in a certain district to do certain labor, without pay, for the feudal lord or for the sovereign), and they lived to see their castles demolished and their lands sold to strangers. They would not endure Turgot; and they were forced to endure Robespierre." Necker, a Swiss banker of Paris, was then called in to manage the finances. He reformed enough to irritate the privileged classes, but not enough to stop the continual deficit, and was dismissed from office in 1781. Down- ward ever went the country to perdition ; higher ever grew the Nation's debt, and wider still the gap between expendi- ture and income. When England's American colonies revolted, the rulers of France, with the wildest folly, plunged into the war against England. They were thus at once increasing the financial difficulty, and encouraging and spreading the principles and spirit of revolution. The success of the colonists, largely due to French aid, roused enthusiasm in the democrats of France, and the financial difficulties produced by the war carried to the height the discontent of that larger body of people who cared little about theories, and much about taxes. Calonne became financial minister from 1783 to 1787, by the influence of the Queen, whose intrigues in affairs of State on the side of the privileged orders made her greatly hated by the people. Calonne resorted to the won- derful expedient of a great expenditure, in order to raise the public credit, combined with heavy loans to meet the wants of the treasury. When this resource failed, Calonne convoked the Notables to sanction new plans resembling those of Turgot. The Assembly of the Notables was a meeting of the chief nobles, officials, and distinguished persons of every rank in the Kingdom. They sat, to the 234 MODERN EUROPE number of about 140, from February to May, 1787, and when Calonne proposed that the nobles and clergy should yield their privileges and pay a land tax, he was dismissed from office and banished to his country-seat. After other helpless efforts had been made, Necker was recalled to power in August, 1788, and with his concur- rence it was decided to summon a States-General, or National Parliament a body of deliberators which had not been convoked since the days of Richelieu, in 1614, more than a century and a half before. The elections were held; the representatives of the people (the Commons, or Tiers Etat i. e., the Third Estate, the clergy and the nobility being the First and the Second Estates) were chosen; and the States-General, to the number of nearly 1,200, assembled at Versailles on May 5, 1789. Of the clergy there were nearly 300 members; of the nobles, about 270; of the people, nearly 600. This meeting of the States-General is commonly considered the beginning of the "French Revolution." The revolutionary era, in its wider sense, includes a period of twenty-five years, from 1789-1815. This period may be well divided into four parts : ( I ) from the open- ing of the States-General, May 5, 1789, till the abolition of monarchy, August 10, 1792, and the death of Louis, Janu- ary 21, 1793. (2) The "Reign of Terror," till the dis- solution of the National Convention, October 26, 1795. (3) The Republic, under the Directory and Consulate, from October 26, 1795, till Napoleon's election as Emperor, May 1 8, 1804. (4) The French Empire under Napoleon I, till his final fall in July, 1815. Disputes soon arose between the Tiers Etat and the other two orders. The representatives of the people, headed by a determined, able, and eloquent man of the noble class, named Mirabeau, asserted themselves with THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 235 vigor, and insisted that all three orders should sit and vote as one assembly, in which case it was clear that the 600 popular deputies would swamp the clergy and the nobles. Matters came to a crisis when, on June 22, Mirabeau sent a direct message to the King that he and his fellows "are here by the will of the people, and no one shall drive us out except by the force of bayonets." Before this, the deputies had assumed the title of the National Assembly, and their power was shown when the clergy and the nobles yielded, and agreed to sit and vote conjointly. This body was called also Constituent Assembly, because the deputies had sworn in the "Tennis-court Oath" of June 2oth, which they took in the tennis-court of the palace of Ver- sailles, when the doors of the hall of assembly were locked against them that they would not separate till they had given a Constitution to France. Louis XVI now took a fatal step. Placed in a situation where safety could only be had in instant measures of reform, and in gaining the love and trust of the people at a time when starving mobs were besieging the bakers' shops in Paris, and, in the provinces, the peasantry were "living on meal-husks and boiled grass" Louis took counsel of Marie Antoinette and the reactionary party at court. Under their evil advice when the royal garrison in Paris had begun to fraternize with the populace an army of troops was gathered at Versailles, including many foreign regiments (Hungarian and German) and the Bridge of Sevres was armed with cannon pointed toward the capital. On July I2th the ominous news was whispered in Paris that Necker the people's friend and possible "savior of France," as he had been styled was dismissed from office. Terror, kindling into frenzy, spread fast among the citizens. A cry of "To arms !" was followed by instant action. On July 14, 1789, the hated fortress prison, the Bastille, was 236 MODERN EUROPE taken by the insurgents, and armed revolution was abroad beyond hope of suppression. Events now came, swift and terrible, on King and cowering nobles. A "National Guard" was formed by the municipality of Paris, and the command was given to Lafayette, a member of the National Assembly, a Marquis of France, who had fought victoriously in America for the revolted colonists. The famous "tri- color" of the French Republic had its origin now, when Lafayette, for the colors of the new national force, adopted the white, emblem of the French monarchy, placed between blue and red, the colors of the city of Paris. Necker was recalled to office, too late, by the panic-stricken King. The people rose thoughout France; the tax-gatherers were hunted; many of the chateaux of the nobles were plundered and burnt; the nobles, with their families, began to hurry abroad, in what was known as the first emigration the fugitives being henceforward called the Emigres leaving un- happy Louis to contend with raging revolution. Early in October a furious mob, mainly composed of women, rushed from Paris to Versailles, and brought the King and Queen, after some bloodshed in conflict with the guards, as virtual prisoners to the capital. The King's brother, the Comte d'Artois, fled with other reactionists to Germany, and began the intrigues at foreign courts which, leading to foreign interference with the Revolu- tion, aggravated its violence, and prepared the way for the great war which ensued. In a kind of enthusiasm, on August 4th, the clergy and nobles in the Assembly gave up for ever their feudal rights and dues tithes, seigneurial imposts, gabelle (or salt tax), game preserving all privileges and immuni- ties whatsoever. Too late again! The people knew THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 237 that fear, not patriotism, prompted the surrender, and trusted henceforth to their own right arms, and to the dread which those uplifted with clutched weapons, should inspire. On December 2d, the domains of the church were confiscated for the benefit of the Nation. On January 15, 1790, a redivision of the territory of France was made. The old partition into provinces was abolished, and the soil divided into eighty-three depart- ments, nearly equal in extent, named generally from the natural features, mountains and rivers, which mark each district. In June all titles of nobility were abolished, and the members proceeded with the "making of a constitution," which never got to work, because revolu- tionary violence at home and attacks on France from abroad swept on the Nation to other issues of her strug- gle to be free. The formal close of the labors of the National Assembly was on September 30, 1791, when, after having redeemed its "Tennis-court Oath" of June 20, 1789, it transferred its functions to a new body, the Legislative Assembly elected under the "constitution" which had been framed. Neither of these assemblies had, or could have had, any practical experience in affairs before meeting to deal with a crisis of fearful importance to the State, for it had been enacted that no member of the National Assembly should sit in the Legislative Assembly, and to this mischievous regula- tion some of the disasters which followed are due. Meanwhile, "anarchic souls from every quarter of the world" had begun flocking to Paris on the fall of the Bastille. A fierce and licentious press was ever goading on the people with new excitements, and revo- lutionary clubs assembled the bolder spirits, organized the armed ruffianism of the capital, and fanned the flame of democratic ardor. Of these clubs, by far the most 238 MODERN EUROPE famous was that of the Jacobins a name which became proverbial for holders of extreme views on the liberal side in matters of politics and religion. The Jacobin Club was so called because its meetings at Paris took place in the old convent of the Dominican friars or Jacobins in the Rue St. Honore. At this club every political question was debated before being laid before the National Assembly. Among the principal debaters, in its earlier days, were Mirabeau and Lafayette; but Danton, Robespierre, and extreme revolutionists soon gave the club its distinctive character, and the ability and unscrupulous energy of its members made it the great controlling power of the Revolution. Over 1,200 branch societies were organized throughout France, and, obeying orders from the headquarters in Paris, car- ried democratic violence, intrigue, and espionage to every corner of the country, so that no man or woman could feel safe from the far-reaching arms of the desper- ate democrats who, until July, 1794, wielded the powers of this formidable association, devoted to the spread of "Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity." Mirabeau was a man of great talents and strong passions, and master of a fiery eloquence dazzling, epigrammatic, overwhelm- ing which gave him a vast personal influence over stormy and divided assemblies. All common minds quailed before his haughty and vehement temper, his imperious, self-confident manner, and his fiercely pas- sionate tone. He, if anyone, acting as mediator be- tween King and people, might have controlled the grow- ing anarchy and disorganization, and guided the Revolu- tion to moderate and beneficent results. His death on April 2, 1791, took away the last chance of such an influ- ence as this being exerted for the good of France. In December, 1790, the King had already begun to THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 239 correspond secretly with foreign powers; and a conven- tion had been made with Austria and Prussia for the advance of their troops to the frontiers with a view to the occupation of French territory. On the death of Mirabeau, Louis still hoped to be able to control the Revolution with aid from outside, and determined, as a first step, to make his escape from what was really imprisonment in his capital. On June 20, 1791, the King, Queen, two children, and the King's sister, elud- ing Parisian vigilance, started northeastward for the frontier, to join the army there assembled. The "Flight to Varennes" ended at the town of that name, west of Verdun; the fugitives were there caught by the watch- ful and angry local patriots, and sent back in ignominy to Paris. The royal family were henceforward closely observed in all their movements. Louis' own impru- dence, and foreign interference, had given a great impulse to the democratic cause. In August, 1791, the Govern- ments of Austria and Prussia prepared for actual inter- position in the affairs of the French Nation. The "Convention of Pilnitz," concluded at a country house of that name near Dresden, between the Emperor of Austria (Leopold II), the King of Prussia (Frederick William II), and some minor German Princes, had an important effect in irritating the French people. It declared the intention of "interfering by effectual methods" on behalf of the French King; and thus, as the National (or Constituent) Assembly was on the point of concluding its labors and giving a constitution to the distracted country, democratic fury was made to blaze up higher than ever. The new Constitution was sworn to by the King orv September 14, 1791, and contained provisions for a free biennial Parliament, universal suffrage for tax payers of 2 4 o MODERN EUROPE a certain small amount, liberty of worship, freedom of the press, abolition of the laws of primogeniture and entail, equal subdivision of property among children, abolition of titles, and other democratic measures. The civil reforms thereby made were afterward incorporated in the famous Code Napoleon, and survived the political changes of the revolution. Under more favorable cir- cumstances this new arrangement might have been got to work, and coming calamities might have been averted. The action of foreign powers ruined all. The Legislative Assembly sat from October i, 1791, till September 21, 1792. It was more republican in charac- ter than its predecessor, but the members had less ability and were destitute of parliamentary experience. Public opinion at once compelled them to make a decisive course against foreign intermeddling. In reply to the League of Pilnitz, severe measures were passed against the emigres and the nonjuring priests, who had refused to take the oath of obedience to the Constitution, and on April 20, 1792, war was declared against Austria. Louis was all this time keeping up a treasonable correspond- ence with the allies, and he refused to sanction the decrees of the Assembly. The people were growing ever more violent and desperate under the influence of the revolutionary clubs and journalists; and on June 20 the Tuileries Palace was invaded by them, and the King forced to put on the red cap (bonnet rouge), the symbol of the advanced repub- lican agitators. On July 24, Prussia declared war against France; and the Duke of Brunswick, command- ing the allied Prussian and Austrian forces, issued his famous Manifesto, threatening France "with military execution" if King Louis were personally insulted. This proclamation filled France and Paris with fury, and h < & < 2 S v X .5 D c 5 .i. W ffi H THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 241 the crisis came in August. On that terrible day of revolutionary renown, the Tenth of August, 1792, the "Sections" (armed revolutionary bands, organized and held ready by the Jacobin Club) of Paris rose. The Tuileries Palace was stormed; the gallant Swiss Guard was cut to pieces; the King sought refuge, with the Queen and children, in the hall of the Assembly. The King was then suspended from his powers, and he and his family were taken as close prisoners to the Temple prison, whence he and the Queen never emerged except to die. The Legislative Assembly then came to an end, and its functions were transferred to a new National Convention, or Parliament, with absolute powers, to meet the fact of a foreign war. There were 749 mem- bers, nearly all Republicans. The Convention met on September 21, 1792. Roy- alty in France was at once formally abolished, and it was resolved to prosecute the war vigorously against Austria and Prussia. The new revolutionary chamber con- tained two great parties. These were the Girondists (called also Girondins, and Brissotins, from one of their leaders), so named because their leaders were the depu- ties from the Gironde, a new department in the south- west of France, whose chief town is Bordeaux; and the Jacobins, called also the Montagnards, or the Mountain, because its members occupied in the Assembly hall a range of elevated seats. The Girondists were moderate Republicans, and included many men of ability and elo- quence, the chief being Brissot, Gensonne, Vergniaud, Guadet, Petion, Roland, Barbaroux, Condorcet, Isnard, Ducos, Valaze, and Buzot. Vergniaud, especially, was able in parliamentary eloquence; Condorcet was an eminent mathematician and philosopher. The Jacobins or Mountain were extreme Democrats, and included Vol.. 2 16 *42 MODERN EUROPE some sincere and public-spirited men, such as Carnot. But the party was largely composed of violent and fanatical revolutionists, and, apart from them, of self- seeking wretches, whose deeds became the wonder and the execration of the whole civilized world. Among the former were Marat, Robespierre, Danton, Saint Just, Camille Desmoulins, Fouche, Tallien, and Couthon; among the latter, Collot, Billaud, Hebert, Fouquier Tin- ville, Carrier, Lebon, and that prodigy of all wickedness, Barere. The war was now of pressing importance for the safety, the very existence, of the new French Repub- lic. The Austrian and Prussian armies, under the Duke of Brunswick, along with the bands of the French emigres (fugitive nobles and their partisans) under the Prince de Conde, had invaded France in great force by her northeastern frontier, and a small army of national volunteers, under General Dumouriez, had been sent to encounter them. On August 23 the enemy had cap- tured Longwy, and they were preparing to attack Ver- dun. Great agitation existed in Paris, and terror of the enemy without, and real or supposed royalist plottings within, caused the perpetration of a great crime by the mob of Paris. Many hundreds of royalists, including numerous priests, were in the prisons of the capital, and, in a frenzy of rage and panic, these unhappy persons were murdered in a four-days' massacre, September 2-6, 1792. A turning point in the history of the Revolution of France, and of Europe, came in the "cannonade of Valmy," a village among the hills a few miles from St. Menehould, in the northeast of France. It was a con- test between the New World and the Old the Republic and royalty the rising Democracy and the ancient THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 243 feudalisms and victory rested with the new element which had risen in Europe and was threatening to trans- form its political and social condition. At Valmy was decided the warlike character of the French Democracy; the raw Republican troops gained confidence and cour- age; the nucleus was created of the great military force which carried Napoleon to the height of power and fame. The vigorous Republicanism of modern France had its future assured to it on September 20, 1792. Verdun had been taken by the Prussians on September 2, and, as his only means of preventing the allies from marching on Paris, Dumouriez, the commander of the Republican levies, threw himself into the then thickly- wooded and marshy and hilly district called Argonne, extending many miles southwest from Sedan, and from ten to twelve miles in breadth. The passes of this diffi- cult region were seized by the French and fortified, but the Austrians turned the position, and after a retreat, Dumouriez was brought to bay at Valmy by the Prus- sians under the Duke of Brunswick. Hitherto, the French Republicans had been always defeated, and had often fled in panic before allied troops. The French force now engaged was commanded by the elder Keller- man, father of Napoleon's great cavalry officer, and the late King of the French, Louis Philippe (then known as the Due de Chartres), led the right wing of the Repub- licans. Both friends and foes expected the French regi- ments to disperse under the fire of the Prussian guns, but it was not so. They kept their ground firmly; the French artillery replied with spirit and effect; and, after the repulse of a French attack, the advancing Prussian columns shrank from a close encounter with the deter- mined-looking, cheering French battalions, and re- treated. Led on again by the King of Prussia in person, 244 MODERN EUROPE they were repelled by the French artillery and the firm attitude of the infantry, and the battle of Valmy was won. The allied forces wasted away under sickness, and but few recrossed the frontier. The great German poet Goethe, who was present as a spectator, said to his friends that evening, "From this place, and from this day forth, commences a new era in the world's history; and you can all say that you were present at its birth." Dumouriez, with his victorious Republicans, pursued the retreating Austrians, and, invading the Austrian Netherlands, now Belgium, gained the battle of Jem- appes, west of Mons, on November 6, 1792; within a month the country was overrun and conquered. The fate of Louis XVI had been already decided in the minds of the Jacobins. The King was brought to trial, sen- tenced to death as an enemy of France, and executed on January 21, 1793. On February i, France declared war against Eng- land and Holland, and the French troops invaded Hol- land, but were soon driven out by the help of English forces. Dumouriez then turned against the Revolution, fled to the allied army, and took refuge at last in Eng- land, where he died in 1823. In the contests of the Convention, the Girondists had with them a majority of the deputies and of the French Nation at large, and the Jacobins the Mountain besides their own determina- tion, daring, and energy, had the mob of Paris, the municipal government, and the Democratic clubs. On January 21, the day of the King's execution, the formi- dable body called the Committee of 'Public Safety was instituted as the chief administrative power at Paris, and on March 10, under the influence of Danton, one of the leading Jacobins, the Revolutionary Tribunal was appointed to try offenses against the State. Its real THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 245 object was to assail with deadly effect the Girondists and all moderate Republicans. The struggle between the Girondists and the Jacobins became violent in the debates, and the extreme party, defeated in the Conven- tion, armed the "Sections" of Paris, arrested about thirty leading Girondists on June 2, and thus put an end to the policy of the only real friends of liberty in France. Some of the Girondists managed to escape from Paris, but nearly all died either as Vergniaud, Gensonne, Brissot, and Madame Roland did by the guillotine, in Paris or at Bordeaux, or by self-inflicted death with poison or the steel. The horrible period called "The Reign of Terror" had begun. The Jacobins had prevailed. This was their hour, and the power of darkness. The Convention was subjugated. The sovereignty passed to the Com- mittee of Public Safety. Six persons held the chief power in the small Cabinet which now domineered over France Robespierre, Saint Just, Couthon, Collot, Bil- laud, and Barere. Marat, one of the most bloodthirsty of the Jacobins, fell at Paris by the dagger of Charlotte Corday, the "angel of assassination," on July 13. The majority of the southern towns of France de- clared against the Convention; in all other parts of the country there were numerous supporters of the Giron- dist shade of Republicanism; and in the west, especially, there was a powerful Royalist party. The Civil War in La Vendee was due to the efforts of the last. Vendee, one of the modern departments of France, lies on the west coast, between the Loire and the Charente, and includes a hilly and wooded district called the Bocage, very difficult for military operations. The inhabitants of this district are still remarkable for their attachment to old usages, and to the nobility and clergy. Under 246 MODERN EUROPE their gallant leaders La Rochejaquelein, Cathelineau, D'Elbee, Charette, Stofflet, and Lescure, the Vendeans carried on from 1793 to 1796 a war in the Royalist cause, which gave much trouble to the Republic. In the north of France an English army under the Duke of York invaded the country along with German forces, defeated the Republican troops, and took Valenciennes, July, 1793. Lyons revolted against the Convention, Toulon was taken by the English, and held by French Royalists, and the whole country was in commotion. The Repub- lican Government made gigantic efforts to meet the crisis. An army of 300,000 men had been raised before this, but now a levy of over a million of men was ordered, and the able Carnot organized fourteen armies of Repub- licans. The revolt in La Vendee was vigorously met, the insurgent forces were routed in December, 1793, and in 1795 and 1796 other risings in the west were sup- pressed by General Hoche, the ablest and purest in char- acter of all the Revolutionists. In the north, General Jourdan (afterward one of Napoleon's marshals) drove the Austrians back over the Sambre (October, 1793), and in June, 1794, gained the great battle of Fleurus, northeast of Charleroi. Lyons was attacked by the Revolutionary forces, and taken, after a siege entailing frightful suffering, in October, 1793. The Duke of York was repulsed from Dunkirk with the English army, and, after some successes over the Republicans in north- east France in 1794, the English were driven from Hol- land in 1795. The conquest of that country was effected by the forces of the Convention, under General Pichegru, and the Batavian Republic was established. Jourdan drove the Austrians beyond the Rhine; Prussia made peace, and in April, 1795, acknowledged the French Republic. France was saved (in spite of the THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 247 crimes committed at home, which aroused the horror of all Europe) by the valor, energy, and patriotism of the French people, enjoying a new freedom, and determined to be masters of their own soil. In giving this result of the Revolutionary war against the European coalition, we have traveled away from the proceedings taken against internal real and suspected foes of the Conven- tion. The siege of Toulon by the forces of the Revolution introduces us to the greatest man, in intellectual power and wonderful achievement, of modern times. It was the skill of a young officer of artillery, named Napoleon Bonaparte, that enabled the Republicans to capture Toulon in December, 1793. This marvelous man was born at Ajaccio, in Corsica, on August 15, 1769, the son of a barrister; he was educated at the military school of Brienne (a small town in the department of Aube, southeast from Paris), and, at the Revolution, became a Republican of a moderate type, and was employed by the Convention. His first success in life was at Toulon. His career is dealt with in the volume, "Famous Warriors." After the downfall of the Girondists, the victorious "Mountain" adopted, in home affairs, the severe sum- mary measures of vengeance and intimidation, which have made this period a byword in the history of man- kind. The extreme party was supported, in various parts of France, by over forty thousand Jacobin clubs and municipalities. The armed ruffians of the "Sec- tions" of Paris were paid a regular sum for attending meetings, and were held always ready to overawe opposition with their pikes. On September 17, 1793, the frightful "Law of the Suspected" was passed, which was really a proscription of whole classes of persons, and included within its destructive sweep any one whom 248 MODERN EUROPE the emissaries of power chose to suspect. The prisons were rilled with victims sent thither by the Revolutionary Tribunal, and beheading by the guillotine daily cleared the way for new occupants of the cells. On October 16, 1793, Queen Marie Antoinette was executed, and her murder on the scaffold was followed by that of twenty- two of the Girondists, as mentioned above, of the Duke of Orleans, surnamed Philippe Egalite, as having accepted the Revolution, and voted for the death of the King, and of Madame Roland. The most childish absurdities accompanied the most revolting excesses in this unexampled saturnalia of ferocity and folly. It is impossible here to give the details at any length. They must be sought in the picturesque pages of such works as Carlyle's "French Revolution" and Dickens' "Tale of Two Cities." Macaulay writes of the time as "the days when the most barbarous of all codes was administered by the most barbarous of all tribunals; when no man could greet his neighbors, or say his prayers, or dress his hair, without danger of committing a capital crime; when spies lurked in every corner; when the guillotine was long and hard at work every morning; when the jails were filled as close as the hold of a slave ship; when the gutters ran foaming with blood into the Seine; when it was death to be great-niece of a captain of the Royal Guards, or half-brother of a doctor of the Sorbonne." The old religious worship was swept away; a "Goddess of Reason," in the person of a woman of the vilest charac- ter, was enthroned at the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris; the churches were plundered and defiled; the madness of atheism and cruelty was everywhere rampant. Against the moderate Republicans and the suspected Royalists and reactionaries in the provinces the Com- 249 mittee of Public Safety sent forth its agents from Paris, armed with full powers to slay at discretion. Nantes, Lyons, Toulon, Arras, and other towns were thus handed over to the cruelties of Carrier, Couthon, Lebon, and other tyrants. While the daily wagon-loads of victims were carried to their doom through the streets of Paris, the proconsuls whom the sovereign committee had sent forth to the departments reveled in an extrava- gance of cruelty unknown even in the capital. The knife of the deadly machine rose and fell too slow for their work of slaughter. Long rows of captives were mowed down with grapeshot. Holes were made in the bottom of crowded barges. Carrier, at Nantes, earned an immortality of infamy by his conduct. It was he who invented the noyades, or drownings in barges, and the "republican marriages," in which man and woman, or youth and girl, were tied hand and foot together, and flung into the river to drown. "All down the Loire, from Saumur to the sea, great flocks of crows and kites feasted on naked corpses, twined together in hideous embraces. No mercy was shown to sex or age. The number of young lads and of girls of seventeen who were mur- dered by that execrable government is to be reckoned by hundreds. Babies torn from the breast were tossed from pike to pike along the Jacobin ranks. One cham- pion of liberty had his pockets well stuffed with ears. Another swaggered about with the finger of a little child in his hat." The amount of murder done in the Reign of Terror may be judged by the facts that, at Nantes, 15,000 persons perished in a month; at Toulon 14,000 died by the guillotine, shooting, or drowning; at Paris, from June 10 to July 17, 1794, when the "Terror" there was at its worst, nearly 1,300 persons were guillo- tined after so-called trial by the Revolutionary Tribunal, 250 MODERN EUROPE where Fouquier Tinville and the infamous Hebert acted as chief prosecutors for the committee. The head of the Committee of Public Safety was Robespierre, whose ferocious fanaticism aimed at the extermination of all opponents and possible or suspected dissentients. Before him the party of the Anarchists, headed by Hebert, Anacharsis Clootz, Momoro, and others, fell and were guillotined in March, 1794; the bold Danton and his friend Camille Desmoulins, one of the most zealous and able Republicans, who pleaded for mercy and denounced the cruelty of Robespierre, were executed on April 5. A feeling of desperation was engendered in the minds of men in Paris by incessant slaughter and ever-present danger. "Human nature, hunted and worried to the utmost, turned furiously to bay. Fouquier Tinville was afraid to walk the streets; a pistol was snapped at Collot D'Herbois; a young girl, animated apparently by the spirit of Charlotte Corday, attempted to obtain an interview with Robespierre. Suspicions arose; she was searched, and two knives were found about her. She was questioned, and spoke of the Jacobin domination with resolute scorn and aversion." The men of comparative moderation found bold leaders at last against Robespierre and the extreme fac- tion. A schism had arisen in the despotic Committee of Safety. Robespierre, Saint Just, and Couthon were against Collot, Billaud, and Barere. The leaders of the attack against Robespierre in the Convention were Tal- ' ien, Billaud, and Fouche. On July 28, 1794, the Reign of Terror virtually came to an end in tire execution of Robespierre, Couthon, and Saint Just. This was fol- lowed by the fall and banishment to distant prisons of Collot, Billaud, and Barere, purging the Republic of its worst wickedness. The infamous Committee of P.ublic THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 251 Safety was at an end; the Revolutionary Tribunal was no more; the prisoners came forth by hundreds from the dungeons, to life and not to death; the Jacobin Club was suppressed November, 1794; humanity took the place of death and terror; ''that happiest and most genial of revolutions" was accomplished. Early in 1795 attempts were made to excite further trouble, both by the Royalists and by the extreme Republicans, but they were suppressed; the armies of the Republic, as we have seen, were successful against foreign foes; Carrier and Fouquier Tinville, to the joy of all good men and women, were guillotined; happier days for France had come at last. In 1795 the Convention gave the Republic a new Constitution. A chamber or council of five hundred proposed laws; a Senate, called the Chamber of Ancients (or Council of Elders) approved or rejected them; an executive of five members, the famous Directory, admin- istered affairs. The chief members of the Directory were Carnot and Barras. The revolutionary "Sections" of Paris, combined with the Royalists, made a last attempt to hinder the march of the Republic. On October 5, 1795, the insurrection was decisively crushed, with his "whiff of grapeshot," by Bonaparte, the artillery officer wisely set to the work by Barras. The cannon, skillfully placed and boldly handled, blew the French Revolution, in its narrower sense, away. THE NAPOLEONIC WARS One man filled the eyes of all Europe during the closing days of the Eighteenth and the beginning of the Nineteenth Centuries. Napoleon's star began to rise, shone brilliantly and faded. During his struggle the occasion furnished opportunity to two other great men, Wellington and Nelson, to distinguish themselves. The careers of the three men are told in the articles bear- ing their names in the volume, "Famous Warriors." The plan of this "History of the World" is such that many details of the Napoleonic wars there given are omitted here to prevent repetition. But the period in which these three men lived was one of the most important in history and far-reaching in its effects. So here will be given an outline of the wars which resulted from the vaulting ambition of this would-be conqueror of the world, who so nearly achieved his ambition. When the Government called the Directory was established in France (1795), the French Republic was still at war with Austria, and in 1796 (a week after his marriage with the graceful and amiable widow, Jose- phine Beauharnais), Bonaparte went to assume the com- mand of the army of Italy against the Sardinian and Austrian forces. His brilliant strategy and rapid move- ments gave him wonderful success, and soon placed him before the world as the greatest General of the age. In battle after battle (April, 1796) he routed the Sardinians, and forced them to sue for peace. In May he defeated the Austrians at Lodi, took Milan, where he seized the chief works of art and sent them to Paris, and frightened 252 THE NAPOLEONIC WARS 253 the Pope, and the governments of Naples, Modena, and Parma into making terms. He then turned upon the Austrians, under General Wurmser, beat them at Castig- lione in August, and drove them into Mantua. In November, 1796, he defeated the Austrians under Alvinzy, at Arcola, and again, January, 1797, at Rivoli. Wurmser, pressed by famine, then surrendered Mantua. After an invasion of the Pope's dominions, and forcing him to surrender Avignon and much Italian territory to France, Bonaparte crossed the Alps northward into the Tyrol, meeting the Austrian Archduke Charles, one of the best commanders of the age, who was preparing to invade Italy. Bonaparte defeated the Archduke in several battles, and, rapidly marching on Vienna, forced Austria to make terms. By the Treaty of Campo Formio (October, 1797) the Austrian Netherlands (now Belgium) and Lombardy were ceded to France, and Venetia was given to Austria an arrangement which put an end to the Republic of Venice after her many centuries of freedom. Savoy and Nice had been already given up by Sardinia, and the conquering Republic had become a terror to the monarchies of Europe. The young General was received with boundless enthusiasm in Paris on his return in December, 1797. The career of Bonaparte in the East was a failure. Aiming at the English Empire in India, the Directory, in May, 1798, sent a powerful expedition, under Bona- parte's command, to conquer Egypt. The Mamelukes were defeated near Cairo, in the battle of the Pyramids, and the country was occupied. Nelson's victory at the Nile (August, 1798), described in the article on Nel- son in the volume, "Famous Warriors," shut up the French army in their conquest, and in February, 1799, Napoleon marched to meet the Turkish forces in Syria. He gained 254 MODERN EUROPE some victories, but failed to take St. Jean d'Acre, after a siege of sixty days, and his designs of Eastern conquest were thus frustrated. Bad news from France brought him back to Paris in October, 1799. In Italy, in 1798 (after the establishment of a Cisalpine Republic in the north, and a Ligurian Republic at Genoa, in 1797), Gen- erals Berthier and Massena had taken and plundered Rome, stripping the palaces, churches, and convents of every work of art, and every object of value. Pope Pius VI was taken prisoner to France, where he soon after- ward died, and a Roman Republic was set up. The second coalition against France was now formed by England, Russia, Austria, Turkey, and the King of Naples and Sicily. Early in 1799 the Kingdom of Naples was conquered by the French, and a Republic (the Parthenopaean, from the ancient Parthenope, a town on the site of Naples) was established. Then came a change of fortune for the French. In Germany, their forces under Jourdan were driven beyond the Rhine by the Archduke Charles. In Italy, the same great com- mander, with the Russians under Suwarof, whom we have seen as the captor of Ismail from Turkey in 1790), defeated the French troops under Moreau, Mas- sena, Jourdan, Macdonald, and Joubert, in several im- portant battles, and recovered nearly all the country for a time. In France, the Directory, after four years' administration, had broken down. Corruption and dis- order were rife, a change of Directors had taken place, and all was in confusion when Napoleon returned from Egypt in October, 1799. In November, 1799, a month after Bonaparte's return, the French Republic virtually came to an end, and Napoleon was henceforward master of France. At the head of the troops he abolished the THE NAPOLEONIC WARS 255 Directory, and became absolute ruler as First Consul. with two colleagues of nominal power. There was a Council of State (named by the Consuls) to prepare laws; a Legislative Body (not allowed to debate) to approve or reject them; and a prefect in every territorial department, with full executive powers, responsible directly, and solely, to the Minister of the Interior. This last centralized form of government has survived all revolutions, and exists at the present moment in France. Napoleon's objects in France were the establishment of order and the reform of civil affairs. He was at once a revolutionist and a reactionist an adventurer who had become a virtual sovereign and he was prepared to receive as friends all, either Jacobins or Royalists, who would support his Government, while he was equally determined and able to put down all who should oppose him. He took measures to recruit the Nation's finances, repealed the violent laws of the Revolution, reopened the churches for worship, set up a censorship of the press, and a complete system of political spies, and was thus armed at all points against royalist or revolu- tionary efforts. When matters were arranged at home, Napoleon again took the field. Crossing the Great St. Bernard, in May, 1800, he took Melas, the Austrian General, by surprise and entered Milan. On June 14 his brilliant victory of Marengo gave Piedmont again to France. In December of that year, Moreau, in Germany, gained his great battle of Hohen- linden over the Austrian Archduke John. The French armies introduced and continued the system of plunder by which war was made to support itself in a hostile or neutral scene of action. Everything wanted by the sol- diers of France was taken at the bayonet's point from the wretched inhabitants, and though this method answered 256 MODERN EUROPE well for a time, it caused the French to be justly regarded as little better than brigands, and in the end contributed to the downfall of Napoleon's power. At first, indeed, the plan adopted was a sheer necessity, because the Republican Government was destitute of funds, but the French sol- diers, thus taught to plunder, acquired habits which had fatal results in the general enmity aroused throughout Europe by this ruthless way of proceeding. In February, 1 80 1, the Peace of Luneville with Austria made the Rhine the boundary between France and Germany, and treaties were also made with the other countries at war with France. The English forces had subdued the French army in Egypt in 1801, and the Peace of Amiens was con- cluded with England, Spain and Holland in 1802. Napoleon at this time was greatly occupied with the reestablishment of social institutions and the improvement of civil affairs. A general amnesty allowed all the emigres to return to France; the famous new order of chivalry, the Legion of Honor, was established; there were again a court and a brilliant social circle in the capital of France. The Catholic religion was fully restored: the higher education especially in mathematics and physical science was promoted; great public works were under- taken, and agriculture, manufactures, and commerce were encouraged. In August, 1802, Napoleon was proclaimed Consul for life by his obsequious Senate, and this was con- firmed by a plebiscite, or popular vote under manhood suf- frage, to the number of three million. Now came the greatest of his services to France. The chief jurists of the Nation, under Napoleon's own supervision, drew up the famous Code Napoleon a body of laws for civil, penal, commercial, and military matters still used in France and several other countries of Europe, including Belgium and Italy. The gallery of the Louvre in Paris H PH > I o e w - R w W c J '^ O .S PL, * < * THE NAPOLEONIC WARS 257 was formed with the works of art stolen from Italy, and France was started, as it seemed, on a peaceful and pros- perous career. But Napoleon could not prevent all opposition, and he took severe measures to put an end to all plots. In 1804 a conspiracy was alleged to have been discovered in Paris, having for its object the overthrow of Bonaparte and the restoration of the Bourbon line of Kings, then represented by the Count of Provence, brother of Louis XVI. The truth as to this affair will probably never be known. The friends of Napoleon assert that the British Government was engaged in the plot; his enemies declare that his own Minister of Police, Fouche, formerly a revolutionist and member of the Convention, enticed the royalist partisans into France with a view- to their destruction. What is certain is that General Pichegru, the conqueror of Holland in 1795, George Cadoudal, a Breton leader, head of the royalist party known as the Chouans, and General Moreau, the victor of Hohenlinden, were arrested as conspirators. Cadoudal was executed, Pichegru was found dead in prison, and Moreau was banished for life. Of Pichegru, Napoleon's friends assert that he committed suicide; Napoleon's enemies declare that he was murdered by the tyrant's orders. No doubt, however, exists as to Napo- leon's treatment of the Due d'Enghien. This young Prince, son of Conde, Duke of Bourbon, had fought against the Revolution on the side of the allies in 1792, and from 1796 to 1799. In March, 1804, at the time of the alleged conspiracy, he was living with his wife at Etten- heim. on Baden territory, and the fact of his Bourbon blood was the sole ground for suspicion against him. In order to strike terror into the Royalists, Napoleon now grossly violated humanity and the law of nations. D'En- ghien was seized by an armed force at Ettenheim, sent by VOL. 2 17 258 MODERN EUROPE Napoleon's orders, in violation of the Duke of Baden's ter- ritory. He was at once brought to the fortress of Vin- cennes, outside Paris, tried and sentenced by a court-mar- tial on a charge of treason, without examination of wit- nesses or means of defense. Terrorized by these proceedings, an Imperial Crown was offered Napoleon in 1804 by the subservient legisla- tive bodies, and his acceptance of the dignity was con- firmed by an immense popular vote. The Empire was made hereditary in the male issue of Napoleon, his brothers Joseph and Louis following in the order of suc- cession. A new aristocracy was created, and an imperial court was started with full splendor of equipment and ceremony. The coronation took place on December 2, at the Cathedral of Notre Dame, Pope Pius VII anoint- ing the usurper; while Napoleon, snatching the crown from the Pontiff's hands, crowned first himself and then the Empress Josephine. In May, 1805, he was crowned King of Italy in the Cathedral of Milan. Fourteen of the chief Generals were made Marshals of France, the most distinguished being Bernadotte, Jourdan, Davoust, Lan- nes, Massena, Murat, Ney, Soult, and Kellermann. If Napoleon had possessed, along with his other high qualities, the supreme virtues of moderation and self- restraint, he would have died ruler of France and arbiter of the whole civilized world. The crimes of his career sprang, not from innate cruelty or vice, but from unscru- pulous devotion to self-aggrandizement, and from a cer- tain sordid lack of chivalrous feeling and of high morai tone commensurate with his glorious mental endowments. He was the victim, again and again, of a spirit of pre- sumptuous fatalism, and of an intoxication of soul bred by success and prosperity, which urged him onward in a course of aggression that armed all Europe against his THE NAPOLEONIC WARS 259 power. Bonaparte, in 1802, seized Elba, annexed Pied- mont and the Duchy of Parma, kept military possession of Holland, made an armed "mediation" in the affairs of Switzerland, assumed the mastery of Northern Italy as head of the "Italian (formerly 'Cisalpine') Republic," and interfered with a high hand in German affairs. Finally he aroused England, who had refused to withdraw from Malta in accordance with the terms of the Peace of Amiens. He was ready for a war, as by the ruin of British maritime power he could alone hope to secure mas- tery of Europe and its colonial Empires. The retention of Malta gave Napoleon his pretext to conduct reprisals against Great Britain. He called attention to the fact that without declaring war the British had seized 1,200 French and Dutch ships in the colonies. Napoleon invaded Han- over, then still in the possession of the British royal house. He seized 10,000 English travelers in France and Holland and sentenced them to an imprisonment in which they were kept for ten years. This led to a unanimous demand in England for war, which Napoleon answered by imme- diately setting on foot preparations to cross the Straits of Dover with an army. England was alarmed. Before the end of 1803 nearly 400,000 volunteers had enrolled themselves for the defense of the British Isles against the threatened invasion, which never came. It was then, while a naval force was being gathered at Boulogne for the inva- sion, that in May, 1804, William Pitt formed the third coalition against Napoleon, including Russia, Austria, and Sweden. Spain joined France, and Prussia remained neu- tral, tempted by Napoleon's promise of Hanover. The invasion of England failed, not through the fault of Napoleon, but through that of his commander, Villeneuve. In the summer and autumn of 1805 he had the whole fleets of Spain and Holland behind him and an 260 MODERN EUROPE armada of seventy sail were at Napoleon's disposal. On shore were troops to the number of 100,000 under three of his ablest Generals, Ney, Soult, and Devoust, and this enor- mous army had been trained to embark on the vessels in forty minutes. Treville, his Admiral at Toulon, who knew his plans, died, and his death caused a serious delay. It was then Napoleon made the fatal, for him, mistake of choosing Villeneuve as his successor. Napoleon schemed to decoy the English ships into distant seas, so that the passage of his troops might be unobstructed. His own fleets were ordered to the West Indies with instructions to return immediately to Europe. Nelson fell into the snare and gave chase across the Atlantic, but thirty days in the rear. When he discovered the stratagem he sent his swiftest ship to England to intimate the danger which impended. His warning was received in time and a strong squadron under Sir Robert Calder was ready to meet the returning allies. A battle ensued, not memorable other- wise than by its results, which were in the highest degree momentous. French fleets were at Rochefort and Brest, while a powerful Spanish squadron was at Ferrol. Vil- leneuve had positive orders to sail to Brest, and, uniting the fleet there with his own, hasten to Boulogne. The road was really open, as Calder was on his way to Plymouth, and Nelson was cruising off St. Vincent, in ignorance of Villeneuve' s real position. But Villeneuve, in dread of Nelson, took shelter in Ferrol. Had he dared all and sailed onward a French army would probably have landed in England. The retreat made invasion impossible, at once and forever. Three months later Nelson met the combined fleets off Cape Trafalgar, and inflicted upon them a defeat which was well-nigh annihilating. This great triumph placed beyond challenge the naval supremacy of Great THE NAPOLEONIC WARS 261 Britain, for it did not leave afloat any power fit to encoun- ter her in battle. Napoleon knew, so soon as he heard oi the retreat of his fleet, that all his combinations were baffled, and that England was now beyond his reach. He indulged him- self in a free expression of boundless rage, which the feeble conduct of his Admiral inspired, and then, without delay even of an hour, he turned to a field where the most brilliant success of his life awaited him. On the instant he devised the campaign of Austerlitz. With a prompti- tude unexampled in the movements of so large bodies of men, his armies moved from the shores of the Channel, to confront his enemies on the Rhine. In September, 1805, he marched his great army from Boulogne to Bavaria, fell upon the Austrians, forced the incapable Gen- eral Mack to surrender at Ulm with thirty thousand men, and by the middle of November had reached Schonbrunn, near Vienna. Entering Vienna as a conqueror, he pre- pared to encounter the Russian and Austrian armies under their respective emperors. On December 2 he completely routed them at the great battle of Austerlitz, in Moravia, north of Vienna. Austria instantly sued for peace, and gave up to France Venetia, Dalmatia, and other Adriatic territory. The Russians retreated to their own country, and Hanover was handed over to Prussia. The Conqueror then turned against southern Italy, picked a quarrel with the King of Naples, dethroned him, and made his brother Joseph King in his room. Another brother, Louis, was made King of Holland on the extinc- tion of the Batavian Republic. Various minor sovereign- ties or dukedoms were created in Italy and Germany as rewards for successful marshals. The most important effect of Napoleon's military success was his formation of the Confederation of the Rhine, in place of the now 262 MODERN EUROPE dissolved old German Empire. By the Peace of Presburg (December 26, 1805) the Electors of Bavaria and Wiir- temberg became Kings, a first step in the dissolution of the Empire, and in July, 1806, they and many other Ger- man Princes formally seceded from the old constitution of Germany. Napoleon took the title of Protector of the Confederation of the Rhine; other German Princes after- ward joined the new body; the Elector of Saxony be- came King; in 1807 a Kingdom of Westphalia was made out of provinces conquered from Prussia and other states, and was given to Jerome Bonaparte, youngest brother of Napoleon. These arrangements lasted until 1813, when, after Napoleon's Russian disaster, the Confederation of the Rhine fell to pieces. Prussia was driven to war with France in October, 1806, by Napoleon's proposal to restore Hanover to Eng- land as a basis of peace, and she now found herself, with- out an effective ally, engaged with the greatest military power of Europe. On October 14, Napoleon's victory at Jena, and his General Davoust's at Auerstadt, laid the Prussian monarchy prostrate: Berlin was occupied, the whole country conquered, and most humiliating terms im- posed, including a limitation of the military force which Prussia was allowed to maintain, and the cession of nearly half her territory Saxony, Westphalia, and Prussian Poland. Russia had joined the Fourth Coalition against France, with England, Prussia, Saxony, and Sweden. Of these England was triumphant on the seas, and had closed them -to Napoleon's power for the rest of his career; Saxony had shared Prussia's fate after Jena; Russia remained in the field for Napoleon to deal with. The Emperor of Rus- sia at this time was Alexander I, grandson of the great Catharine, the partitioner of Poland. Napoleon was at THE NAPOLEONIC WARS 263 first unsuccessful against the Russian army. At the bat- tle of Eylau (February, 1807), fought amid ice and snow with the most dreadful carnage, he received a decided check. In June, however, after reinforcements had come up, he totally defeated Alexander's troops at Friedland, and brought him to terms. By the Peace of Tilsit (July, 1807) Russia withdrew from the contest, undertaking to close her ports against British vessels, and, by a secret article, was allowed to take Finland from Sweden. Russia also recognized the new Kingdoms created by Napoleon. The arrangement between Alexander and Napoleon seems really to have been that they should divide between them the mastery of all Europe. Russia and France were hence- forward at peace for five years, and Russia was hostile to England. Napoleon was now supreme in Europe. Nothing in romance approaches the facts of his amazing career. He was yet only 39 years of age; twelve years before he was an unemployed officer of artillery, without influence or friends ; now he made or unmade kings, and regulated at pleasure the destiny of nations, no man daring to question what he did. His ascendancy over the Emperor of Russia was absolute. Austria was silently restoring her shattered strength, but as yet was too much broken to oppose her will to that of her conqueror. Prussia, shorn of nearly half of her population and territory and laid under crush- ing exactions, could only nurse in secret her purposes of revenge. Many of the smaller German States, Italy, and Holland were, for all warlike purposes, virtually French territory. The fleets of Denmark, Spain, and Portugal, were at his command. England alone maintained hostility against the despotism which had overspread Europe. During this time much was done for the internal ma- terial improvement of France. Numerous fine buildings 264 MODERN EUROPE were erected in Paris; the country was covered with well- made roads; the great excavations were begun at the port of Cherbourg; canals were dug from Nantes to Brest, and from the Rhine to the Rhone; industry and trade were encouraged. But the free spirit of the Nation was at the same time repressed by a rigorous system of censorship and police; government was a pure despotism; and the strength of the country was being swiftly undermined by the constant drain upon its manhood through conscription for service in the armies. The three chief causes of Napoleon's downfall were his deadly enmity to England, his attack upon Spain and Portugal, and his invasion of Russia in 1812. By the first he aroused the determined hostility of the one Nation in Europe that was sure to oppose him with invincible tenacity until she had effected his overthrow; by the second he caused the Peninsular War, which sapped the warlike strength of France; by the third he shook his own military position, and left himself helpless against com- bined Europe. It was by his famous "Continental System" that Na- poleon tried to ruin the commerce of England. In the Berlin Decree (November, 1806), issued after the battle of Jena, Napoleon declared the British Islands in a state of blockade; all correspondence or trade with them was forbidden; all their productions and manufactures were pronounced contraband; British subjects on the Continent were to be treated as prisoners of war, and their goods as lawful prize. The effect of this step was to increase the prosperity of England. Her fleets and cruisers swept the seas ; nothing could be obtained from her colonies save through her, and the Continental merchants organized and kept up with the British an extensive system of smuggling which it was impossible to prevent. w ffi H O e c THE NAPOLEONIC WARS 265 Spain and Portugal had been his allies in his wars, but he wished to make them part of France. Napoleon attacked Portugal in 1807, and sent an army under Junot to occupy Lisbon, because the Portuguese had refused to act on the Berlin Decrees against her ally, England. In 1808 his troops invaded Spain, and Joseph Bonaparte was transferred from the throne of Naples to that of Spain, Marshal Murat becoming King of Naples. The details of the Peninsular War are told in the life of Wellington in the volume "Famous Warriors." In a contest of nearly six years' duration, Wellington drove the French by degrees out of Portugal and Spain, entering France early in 1814. The effect of this struggle upon Europe was that it con- vinced the nations that the French armies were not invin- cible, and encouraged them to rise and throw off the yoke. The Fifth Coalition against France was formed in 1809 by England, Austria, Portugal, and Spain. Early in the year, during Napoleon's absence in Spain, Austria declared war and invaded Bavaria. Napoleon hurried to the scene of action, defeated the Archduke Charles at Eck- muhl in April, and again entered Vienna as a conqueror on May 13. The Archduke Charles, with great ability and energy, reorganized his country's forces, marched on Vienna, and, being attacked by Napoleon, defeated him at Aspern on May 21, and fought a hard battle again- the next day at Essling, driving the French back to the Island of Lobau, on the Danube. On July 6, however, the Austrians were utterly defeated at the great battle of Wagram, and Napoleon dictated terms at Schonbrunn in October. The Peace of Vienna ended the war with further loss of terri- tory in the southwest by Austria. Napoleon had determined to divorce his wife Jose- phine, because he had no children to carry on the line of Emperors which he seemed to have securely founded, and 266 MODERN EUROPE also in order to strengthen his position in Europe by mar- riage-alliance with one of the old dynasties. On Decem- ber 1 6, 1809, the act of divorce was passed, and in April, 1810, Napoleon married the Emperor of Austria's daugh- ter, the Archduchess Maria Louisa. A son was born in 1811, who was styled "King of Rome"; but he never reigned, and died, under his Austrian title of Duke of Reichstadt, in 1832. In 1809 he had annexed Tuscany and the Papal States in Italy; in 1810 he united Holland to France, on his brother Louis' resignation of the throne, and took to himself the Hanseatic towns, Bremen, Lubeck, and Hamburg. His Empire extended from Denmark to Naples, with capitals at Paris, Rome, and Amsterdam, and had a total population of over forty millions. His influence was also supreme at this time in most of Spain, in Switzefland, and over all Germany. It was Napoleon's "Continental System" that caused the quarrel with Russia which had so fatal an influence on his power and position in Europe. Russia, suffering under the blockade of her ports against English trade, had par- tially relaxed the system, and Napoleon insisted on Alex- ander's compliance with his orders. The Russian Emperor resisted this dictation, and the result was war, Austria and Prussia being compelled to aid France with a part of their armies. In June, 1812, Napoleon invaded Russia by crossing the Niemen with over half a million of men, about two hundred thousand being French, and the rest Germans, Poles, Italians, and Swiss. The Russians encountered him with great skill and determination, under their Generals Kutusoff, Barclay de Tolly, Bagration, and Wittgenstein; Napoleon gained some victories, but paid dearly for them. Smolensk was taken in August, and the French marched on Moscow, gaining the desperate battle of Borodino with a loss of 40,000 men to each side. THE NAPOLEONIC WARS 267 Moscow was entered on September 15, but was fired and almost destroyed by the Russians. Alexander would not negotiate; supplies were wanting; the Russians were not cowed, as Napoleon had hoped, by the loss of their ancient capital ; and in the face of the coming winter, the French retreated towarcj Germany on October 19, numbering now 80,000 men. The Russian attacks and the cold almost destroyed the remains of the "grand army," and but a few thousands recrossed the Niemen on December 20. The expedition had ended in one of the greatest military dis- asters recorded in all history. The political results of the Moscow campaign were necessarily of extreme importance. Napoleon was the abhorred oppressor of Germany, but his power had been such that resistance was hopeless, and Germany had to suffer the humiliation of sending troops to fight under the banner of the tyrant. But with the destruction of the French army hope dawned upon the suffering and degra- dation of years. Prussia, without loss of time and under the influence of a vehement popular impulse, entered into an engagement with Russia to aid her in a war with France. Austria followed not inconsiderably strength- ened in her disposition by an offer of 10,000,000 from England. Sweden sent an army under Napoleon's old Marshal, Bernadotte, to join the allies. The Emperor was not yet wholly without friends. Denmark adhered to him in the days of adversity, as did several of the- smaller States. But the balance was hopelessly against him. The Sixth Coalition of Nations was formed against France (in 1813), and consisted, in the end, of Russia, Prussia, England, Austria, Sweden, and some smaller German States. With wonderful energy Napoleon had raised a new force of 200,000 men in France, and headed in all nearly double that number. In May he defeated the allies 268 MODERN EUROPE at Liitzen and Bautzen, but made another fatal mistake in trying to negotiate when his only chance of safety lay in swift strokes, such as he well knew how to deal. He made an armistice for six weeks in June, 1813, and the allies had time given to rally against him just when he was ready for instant action. When the campaign reopened in August the allies had nearly 600,000 men at command, headed by Prince Schwarzenberg, the brave Prussian, Marshal Bliicher, Biilow, and Bernadotte. Napoleon gained a victory at Dresden on August 26-27, but after this his Marshals were again and again defeated in different quarters; the German troops deserted daily to the allies; and in the great two- days' battle of Leipsic (October 18 and 19, 1813), fought by over half a million of men (330,000 allies against 190,- ooo under Napoleon), the French Emperor was entirely defeated. He retired over the Rhine into France, and was henceforth on his defense against enraged and victorious Europe. At the end of 1813 France was invaded from the south by Wellington, and on the east by the vast armies of the allies. In the campaign of 1814, on the soil of France, Napoleon displayed the most wonderful energy and skill, striking well-aimed blows this way and that against thronging assailants, and fighting them off from approach to his capital with a strategy that has never been surpassed. All his efforts were vain against overwhelming numbers of soldiers who had ceased to dread the French, and against Generals to whom Napoleon had himself taught the art of war in his successes won over them. His vic- tories at Montmirail, Nangis, Montereau, and elsewhere at first made the grand allied army retreat, and the Sov- ereigns began to negotiate, but fighting was soon renewed. A defeat of Napoleon by Bliicher at Laon, and indecisive THE NAPOLEONIC WARS 269 battles Craon and Arcis-sur-Aube wore out his means of resistance, and Paris was forced to surrender on March 31. Napoleon's abdication sent him an exile to the Island of Elba, on the Italian coast; and the Bourbon line was restored to the throne of France in the person of Louis XVTs brother, who took the title of Louis XVIII. The young Dauphin, son of Louis XVI, died in prison during the Revolution, and is reckoned as Louis XVII. While the First Congress of Vienna was discussing the rearrangement of the States oi Europe, Napoleon escaped from Elba, landed at Frejus, southwest of Cannes, on March I, 1815, and was welcomed by his old army and many of his Marshals. He entered Paris on March 20, Louis XVIII having already fled to Ghent. The Allied Powers at once declared him an outlaw, and prepared immense armies for his overthrow. Only one of these was needed that of the English, Prussians, Belgians, and Hanoverians, under the Duke of Wellington and Marshal Bliicher. A short, sharp, and decisive campaign, described in the biography o>f Wellington in the Volume "Famous War- riors," ended at Waterloo on June 18. Napoleon was cap- tured in his endeavor to escape to America, and sent to St. Helena, where he died on May 5, 1821, after the most wonderful career, considered in all points, recorded in the history of the world. His remains lie under the dome of the military hospital at Paris the Hotel des Invalides to which they were removed in 1840. Those interested in the career o 1-1 f France had been exerted in 1849 to crtish the heroic defense of Garibaldi, but at that time Napoleon was merely President and he afterward asserted that the NAPOLEON III AND ITALIAN UNITY 319 expedition had been urged upon him by a force of public opinion which he could not resist. To Cavour was due the enlisting of Louis Napoleon's aid for Italy. Even in 1849 when all hope seemed gone and Italy had measured her strength with that of her oppressors and had been beaten to the ground Cavour did not despair. In the gloomy years that followed 1849, the. Kingdom of Sardinia stood out in bright relief as a State which, though crushed upon the battlefield, had remained true to the cause of liberty while all around it the force of reaction gained triumph after triumph. It was the only free and independent and constitutional State of Italy. Cavour, one of the greatest statesmen of the world, was its prime minister.* King Victor Emman- uel, its King, recognized his ability and allowed him full sway for his diplomatic powers. It was by the advice of Cavour that Sardinia interfered in the Crimean war; not so much because Sardinia had just causes of complaint against the Czar, but that Victor Emmanuel's soldiers, under La Marmoth, might fight bravely side by side with those of France and England, and that the Sardinian premier might take his place by the side of the representa- tives of the great powers, and when the main business of the conference was concluded, Count Buol, the Austrian Minister, was forced to listen to a vigorous denunciation by Cavour of the misgovernment that reigned in Central and Southern Italy and of the Austrian occupation which rendered this possible. Although Cavour returned to Italy without any territorial reward for the services that Peidmont had rendered to the allies, his object Was gained. He had exhibited Austria isolated and discredited before Europe; he had given to his country a voice that it had never held before in the councils of the powers; and he *See volume "Foreign Statesmen." 320 MODERN EUROPE had produced a deep conviction throughout Italy that Piedmont not only could and would act with vigor against the national enemy, but that in its action it would have the help of allies. The Austrians immediately realized this and Franz Joseph showed less violence toward the Italians. Cavour now endeavored to win an ally for the quarrel with Austria, which was inevitable. Sardinia ruled a population of only 4,000,000, while 20,000,000 owned the sway of Austria, Naples, the Pope, and the Dukes, who stood for the reactionary forces. The brave little Kingdom, which alone upheld liberty in the peninsula, was surrounded by despotic powers of overwhelming strength. Cavour would have preferred an alliance with Great Britain, which had no objects of its own to seek in Italy, but when he found that the government o>f Lon- don would not assist him he drew closer to the Emperor Napoleon. It was to France's advantage to strengthen Sardinia as it would create a troublesome neighbor for Austria. An agreement was made between France and Sardinia. France was to drive the Austrians out of Italy and procure the union of Lombardy and Venetia with Sar- dinia. In the event of success France was to be recom- pensed by the cession of Savoy and Nice. On New Year's Day, 1859, the foreign ambassadors went, according to their custom, to make a visit of compli- ment to the Emperor at the Tuileries. When his majesty approached the Austrian Ambassador, he said to him, in a tone of well-assumed anger, that although the relations of the two countries were not such as he could desire, his personal feelings toward the Emperor of Austria were unchanged. This was justly regarded as an intimation of hostile purposes. And so it proved. The three pow- ers had been arming as for an inevitable conflict and they were now ready. After some fruitless attempts at NAPOLEON III AND ITALIAN UNITY 321 mediation by England, the Austrians entered Sardinian territory and a French army hastened to the rescue. The Emperor himself took command in chief and Victor Emmanuel placed himself under his orders. The war was disastrous for Austria. In some engage- ments of inferior importance, her troops were unable to keep the field and in the battles of Magenta, June 4, and Solferino, June 25, she suffered crushing defeat. At Solferino her losses in killed, wounded, and prisoners were nearly 30,000. The troops were much demoralized by continued defeat and it was not doubted that decisive suc- cess was now within easy grasp of the allies. But during a period of two weeks France lay inexplicably idle. Then it became known that the Emperor Napoleon had sepa- rately offered an armistice to Austria and that peace would follow. The Italians were indignant and, forgetting the service that France had rendered them, denounced the desertion of their cause. Peace was quickly concluded. Austria acknowledged defeat by yielding Lombardy, with a population of nearly 3,000,000; but she was allowed to retain Venetia, with a population of 3,500,000. The Duchies of Tuscany, Parma, and Modena had driven out their rulers and a portion of the subjects of the Pope had rejected the temporal authority of his Holiness. The treaty provided that the people of these States should return to their allegiance; but it was found that this resto- ration could not be accomplished otherwise than by mili- tary force, which neither France nor Sardinia would apply. The wise resolution was adopted to leave the people themselves to fix their destiny. Almost unani- mously (March, 1860,) the people elected to join them- selves to Sardinia. By a war which lasted not quite three months, Sar- dinia had just been able to add 9,000,000 to the popu- VOI.. 221 $22 MODERN EUROPE iation over which she ruled. She owed this great acces- sion wholly to the help of France. But the Italians thought less of the advantages which they had gained than of those in regard to which they suffered disappoint- ment. General Garibaldi told them it was foolish to have put their trust in the man who had overthrown liberty in France. Especially was the Emperor hated when it was known that Savoy and Nice, the earliest possessions of the royal house of Sardinia, were now to be surrendered to France. Garibaldi, himself a native of Nice, indignantly denounced an arrangement which made him a foreigner in his own country. The great events which had come to pass in Northern and Central Italy sent their thrilling influences among the people in the South. At the close of the war Naples, containing a population of 9,000,000, was still ruled by a Bourbon who maintained over the unhappy people a shameful despotism. The Neapolitans were quick, intel- ligent and good natured a people capable of high civili- zation but cruelly debased by Centuries of wicked gov- ernment. They were ignorant, idle, superstitious, and without just ideas of right and wrong. The town swarmed with beggars. Ferdinand II was then King, the last of a line of bigoted tyrants. His government was regarded with abhorrence by his subjects and with strong disapproval by Europe. Remonstrances from foreign powers had no effect with the man who had won the nick- name of King Bomba and who had caused his own people to be shot down in the streets and had denied them any liberty. An insurrection broke out in Sicily, May 5, 1860. With 2,000 men, old soldiers of liberty, Garibaldi sailed from Genoa and landed at Marsalla to direct the move- ment. His battle cry was "Italy and Victor Emmanuel." This invasion, in the King's name, of the territory of a NAPOLEON III AND ITALIAN UNITY 323 friendly power embarrassed Sardinia not a little espe- cially since without the sanction of France encouragement could hardly be given to the conquest of Naples. And so Cavour officially disapproved of Garibaldi's expedition, but stood ready to accept the advantages which its suc- cess offered. Victor Emmanuel wrote to Garibaldi and asked him to desist; but Garibaldi, with many loyal and dutiful assurances, declared that he was called for and urged on by the people of Naples and said that he must disobey as he dared not endanger the cause of Italy. Ferdinand fled and Garibaldi defeated the Neapolitan troops at Regio and San Giovanni and entered Naples September 8, where he was hailed as a deliverer. The people received him with enthusiasm and, with Italian demonstrativeness, embraced the rugged and travel-stained soldiers. For a time Garibaldi became dictator and gov- erned Naples. The people were asked to elect their polit- ical future. They voted by vast majorities in favor of union with Sardinia, and in 1861 the first Italian Parlia- ment met at Turin, when Victor Emmanuel became King of a united Italy united by the genius and daring of Garibaldi as well as by the statesmanship of Count Cavour. For a time there was a good deal of friction between the various incorporated States, just as a good deal of sus- picion existed between Cavour and Garibaldi, but at last all differences were dispelled by vigorous and wise policy. Garibaldi retired to his mountain isle of jCaprera and Italy lost Cavour ( 1861) who was not destined to see the com- pletion of the work to which he had devoted his life. The foundations of Italian unity had been laid by the judicious interference of Sardinia in the strife of great European powers. A judicious repetition of the same strategy won Venetia for Italy. When, in 1866, war broke out between Prussia and Austria, Italy made an. 324 MODERN EUROPE alliance with Prussia and Garibaldi came from Caprera once more. In June war began, but the royal troops were defeated at Custozza and the Garibaldian volunteers at Monte Suello. The victories of Prussia, however, were so overwhelming that Austria could no longer hold Venice, and that city, with the great Northern fortresses, passed over to Italy. During the war the Italian fleet was badly defeated in an engagement off Lissa. Two days after Sadowa Austria ceded Venetia to France, and Emperor Napoleon gracefully handed his acquisition to the Italian government. Now Italy was free from the Alps to the Adriatic the sole remaining obstacle being the Papal States, a con- siderable territory surrounding Rome, which the Church claimed to possess as the patrimony of St. Peter. The rest of Italy coveted it; for Rome was the natural capital of Italy. The tottering throne of the Pope was upheld by French bayonets and the King of Italy was firmly bound by a convention not only to abstain from making any attack upon the territory of the Holy Father, but also to resist such attack by others. But the impatience of the Italian people became irrepressible. Insurrections broke out in Rome. Garibaldi gathered around him a band of unlicensed liberators, most of whom fell into the hands of the French and Papal troops. The King declared against him as his attempt had failed. But the opportunity came to Italy three years later when war broke out between France and Prussia. When the French armies had been shamefully defeated, undutiful Italy forced an entrance into Rome, and the unification of Italy was achieved. Rome became the capital of Italy. Victor Emmanuel made it his capital and lived there until his death in 1878. He was succeeded by his son Humbert. The most important internal measure since was the wide NAPOLEON III AND ITALIAN UNITY 3^5 extension of franchise in 1882. But there have been con- stant troubles with France, and Italy's rise to a great power has led to an enormous increase in taxation which has borne heavily on the people and led to serious riots in the chief cities in 1898. Jealousy of France induced Italy to join the triple alliance with Germany and Austria and the increased armament necessary has been a great burden for the people. Italy lost some prestige by her defeat in the wars with Emperor Menelik of Abyssinia (1896) when she was compelled to relinquish the protec- torate which she had claimed over that African region. FALL OF THE SECOND EMPIRE FRANCO- GERMAN WAR Meanwhile Napoleon III, in spite of his declaration that "the Empire is peace," continued to interfere in for- eign affairs in a way that insured the downfall of the polit- ical edifice he had reared. A few months after he had deserted the Italians, disorders of an aggravated character broke out in Syria and hundreds of Christians were mas- sacred and the French consulate destroyed. The Emperor sent an expedition into Syria and order was restored, but the troops remained until their recall was demanded by Lord Palmerston. Europe and Asia not affording ade- quate scope for the scheming and restless Emperor, he interfered in America. Mexico had always been a wild chaos of misrule and disorder, but his intervention only led to greater bloodshed and ended ignominiously for his arms and fatally for the cause and life of his protege, the Austrian Prince Maximilian (See volume "American History" ) . Again the Emperor ardently desired to recog- nize the independence of the Confederate States in the American Civil War, but was persuaded not to by the English. There were a few years of quiet, but although the bril- liant success of the Paris exposition of 1867 seemed to afford evidence of personal and national consideration in which the Emperor was held, his political credit had already then lost its importance. At home the great finan- cial embarrassments of his government were rousing the discontent of his people, and to avert the growing dis- affection Napoleon offered (1869) to adopt a constitu- 326 FALL OF THE SECOND EMPIRE 3-7 tional form of government, and to make some concessions in regard to freedom of the press. It was soon found that the responsibility of the ministry was fictitious and that the Emperor availed himself of its protection to cloak his own acts of personal government. The result of the appeal made to the Nation (in 1870) on the plea of secur- ing their sanction for his policy was not what he had anticipated, and the 50,000 dissentient votes given by the troops in this plebiscite revealed a hitherto unsuspected course of danger. Confident in the efficiency of the army and anxious to rekindle its ardor, he availed himself of the pretext to declare war against Prussia. For Centuries France had been to Germany a most undesirable neighbor. It had been her hereditary policy to repress and weaken to the utmost the multitudinous States which lay beyond the Rhine to maintain their paralyzing divisions, to foster every antipathy, to exer- cise a destructive predominance in the internal affairs of a race which might become a formidable rival. France, united, aggressive, and swift in movement, found an easy prey in Germany divided, discordant, unwieldy. Louis XI frustrated Burgundy in her natural desire to unite with Germany, and held her as his own. Francis I intrigued to gain the dignity of Emperor, as Louis XIV did after him. Louis XIV took Alsace and Lorraine, and would have taken much more unless he had been prevented. Louis XV devised the erection of four German kingdoms whose pol- icy France would direct. Napoleon stole German terri- tory, and gave it away or kept it in his own family as inclination dictated. He assumed the subserviency of Prussia as his right, and chastised her hesitating assertion of independence by blows which were almost annihilat- ing. For fifty years after his fall, Prussia had rest from French aggression, and grew in power by the wisdom 328 MODERN EUROPE of her government and the peaceful industry of her people. Her rise was regarded with unfriendly eye, and with a jealousy which became, year by year, more intense. In process of .time there occurred the war in which Prussia was signally victorious over Austria (1866). She was now the head of united Northern Germany, and all men foresaw the early adhesion of the Southern States also. France resented, as an affront to her majesty, this unpar- alleled increase of power. A cry arose for immediate war. But the army had been lately reduced, and it was not yet furnished with the new musket which in Prussia's hands had proved so deadly. The Emperor perceived that he was not ready and he "resisted with all his strength," as he himself tells, "the bellicose ideas which had taken possession of a portion of the public." He restrained the untimely zeal of his followers, but he addressed himself with diligence to the work of preparing to abate the audacious strength of Germany. The law of 1868 increased largely the number of his recruits; breech- loading muskets were served out as rapidly as they could be produced ; vast stores were accumulated or appeared to be so; the Emperor himself gave much thought to the organization of the army and wrote voluminous memo- randa regarding its minutest details. In a short while it seemed to her chiefs that France was now ready to set about reducing the intolerable strength of her neighbor. The minister of war asserted his possession of an army which, after all needful deduc- tions, would enable him to place 400,000 men on the fron- tier. Organization was faultless. The stores of cloth- ing were inexhaustible; "not even a gaiter button" was wanting. There were cartridges enough to maintain for years the slaughter of offending Germans. Elaborated in secret, and known to the world only by dark whispers, FALL OF THE SECOND EMPIRE 329 was the terrible mitrailleuse, whose power was now to be revealed in destruction hitherto unexampled. The Emperor satisfied himself that Northern Germany could place on the Rhine no more than 330,000 men. Even should the Southern States cast in their lot with their Northern brethren a contingency which he scarcely apprehended this number would be raised only to 420,- ooo. He might thus outnumber his enemies; he could not be appreciably outnumbered by them. With a natural confidence in the fortune of his house, in his own military skill and the high fighting qualities of his people, the expectation that his march would lead him to Berlin did not appear wholly unwarranted. There was only required now some pretext of quar- rel not necessarily credible, but at least susceptible of being expressed in the decorous phrases of diplomacy. This was opportunely found. The distracted Spaniards, searching among the royal families of Europe for a king, chanced upon a certain Prince Leopold of Hohenzollern, to whom they addressed the prayer that he would rule over them. The potentate was a kinsman of the King of Prussia. He stood in a closer degree of relationship to the Emperor himself, but the King might be regarded as the head of the family of which he was a member, and might be therefore plausibly held responsible for his actions. It was intimated that France would not approve of the occupancy of the throne of Spain by any member of the house of Hohenzollern. (July 4, 1870.) The King, caring little a'bout the affairs of the Peninsula, dis- claimed all knowledge of responsibility in regard to the proceedings of his relative. What was still more to the purpose, that relative himself, who at first inclined a fav- orable ear to the petition of Spain, announced decisively his refusal of the vacant throne. It seemed that France 330 MODERN EUROPE had lost her pretext for declaring that war upon which she was resolved. But the Emperor was equal even to this emergency. He demanded, with premeditated rude- ness, a pledge that the King would never, in any future time permit his kinsman to accept the overtures of Spain. The desired refusal was promptly given on July n. Prussia said the King was in no way concerned in the transactions of Prince Leopold and the Spanish Govern- ment, and would not mix herself up with them. Eight days later, July 19, 1870, the formal declaration of war was delivered at Berlin. There is no room for doubt that in the visible decline of the second Empire a successful war had become, for personal and dynastic reasons, necessary to the Emperor. In truth the country was becoming tired of his govern- ment. It was said that he had grown old and ineffective. His rule was very expensive more so than any republic, or monarchy, or empire which France had ever known. His foreign policy had brought mainly disgrace ; his plots had all been found out, his intrigues had all been baffled. Even the good which he had done became a fault. Thiers and the liberals reproached him that he had helped to make Italy great. France now demanded that he should mar the threatening greatness of Germany, and perpetuate her enfeebling divisions. Probably he would not have under- taken the task if he dared shun it. But the voice of France was for war. The Chambers were unanimous; Paris was enthusiastic; the provinces blindly acquiesced. France, with unanimity, sanctioned the great crime which the Emperor, not without reluctance consented to commit. Six weeks later, when his career had closed, and he was a prisoner in the hands of the Germans, he assured Count Bismarck that he himself had not wished for war, but FALL OF THE SECOND EMPIRE 33 1 had been compelled to wage it by the pressure of public opinion. The Emperor joined the army at Metz, prepared to lead his eager troops across the Rhine and on to Berlin. (July 25, 1870). Expressions loud, if not deep, of devo- tion to his person and enthusiastic approbation of the war were showered upon him at every stage of the journey. But there met him at the very outset discoveries fitted not merely to disappoint, but also to alarm. He should have found himself at the head of 400,000 men, perfectly dis- ciplined and equipped. To his dismay, there were no more than 220,000. The men of the reserve, not breath- ing the general enthusiasm, "took an infinite time," as the Emperor mourns, "to rejoin their corps." Moreover, it quickly appeared, when they came, that many of them had not been drilled in the use of the breech-loading musket, and their education had now to be commenced in this peril- ous hour when the highest accomplishment in the use of weapons was indispensable. The officers, who were famil- iar with the mitrailleuse, had been carelessly drafted off to other duties, and this formidable weapon was of neces- sity entrusted to men who were strangers to its qualities. Supplies of every description, even of money and food, were wanting. Vast accumulations were piled up in two or three grand depots whence they could not be rapidly delivered. The transport wagons were stored at one point; their wheels lay elsewhere at a distance, and weeks elapsed before the inopportunely scattered members of those wagons could be recombined. The artillery were without horses until they borrowed from the cavalry. The only maps which were provided were of Germany. It was the intention of the Emperor to cross the Rhine before the Germans could gather strength to prevent him. 332 MODERN EUROPE But he quickly perceived the incompleteness of his own.- preparations rendered this impossible. He concentrated his troops for an advance into the valley of the Saar. At Saarbrikk there lay a small force of Germans, who, . adventurously, disputed with him the passage of the river. But they were driven away and the river secured (August 2, 1870). But no use could be made of the success. The Emperor was not to enter German territory till four or five weeks had passed; and then he was to enter it as a prisoner. His army lay inactive for two days, and then fell back toward Metz. Already the idea of invasion was- seen to be hopeless. For, almost from the day that war was declared the armed manhood of Germany had been hurrying to the frontier admirable in discipline, mar- velously complete in organization, guided by the highest military genius of the age. Internal divisions yielded to the first pressure of a common danger, and the States of the South marched with their countrymen of the North. By day and night railway trains followed each other at brief intervals, laden with soldiers, horses, and artillery. Fourteen days sufficed to place 450,000 perfectly equipped Germans face to face with the rash and ill-prepared arma- ment of France. The Germans lost no time in beginning the invasion of French territory. The Crown Prince crossed the' Lauter at that point is the boundary which divided the two countries and at Weissenburg, with an overwhelm- ing force, fell upon the French and defeated them (Aug- ust 4, 1870). The victorious Germans passed immedi- ately southwards toward the Worth, where Marshal Mac- Mahon was striving to draw his scattered forces together. The French kept careless watch, and it was a painful sur- prise to the Marshal to be attacked in the early morning by a force which here, as well as elsewhere, largely out FALL OF THE SECOND EMPIRE 333 -numbered his own. MacMahon had every advantage of position, and his troops fought with desperate courage. But they failed to hold their ground against their assail- ants. Both sides endured heavy loss, and the French, beaten and disordered, fled from the field on August 6. Nor was this the only calamity which befell the French on that unhappy day. At Speichern the French, under General Frossard, occupied heights which were deemed almost impregnable. But the Germans, after hours of heavy fighting, scaled the heights and drove the French army away with lamentable slaughter on both sides. This accumulation of disaster filled the Emperor with dismay. He was at Metz, vainly endeavoring to hasten the concentration of the whole force, but frustrated at every point by this terrible flood of armed Germans who overran his country and dashed all his combinations into hopeless ruin. He already thought of returning to Paris to resume the reins of government. But the Empress counseled him to delay his return until he should have gained an important success, and he remained. His mili- tary reputation, as he himself states, was not sufficiently established to resist evil fortune and the confidence of his troops diminished. On August 13 he made over the com- mand of the army at Metz to Marshal Bazaine. Hence- forth he was borne helplessly along, scarcely regarded either by his Government or his soldiers "condemned to impotence while he saw his armies and his government on the road to destruction." To the evils of this sad posi- tion it has to be added that he was suffering physical pain, constant and often intense, from the disease which ulti- mately proved fatal. It was yet only eleven days since the first blow had been struck, and already the war was lost beyond hope of recovery. During the first week of August the cry 334 MODERN EUROPE of Paris was still "On to Berlin." So sudden was the col- lapse of these vain hopes, that during the second week the concern of Paris was for her own defense. The Pari- sians, who so lately urged their Government into war, now assailed those in its direction, overthrew a ministry, and assumed an attitude threateningly hostile to the throne. It was determined that MacMahon, who had withdrawn to Chalons, where the Emperor had joined him, should retreat in the direction of Paris, for the protection oi the capital. But the next day brought a new policy. Bazaine had been left at Metz surrounded by the enemy, and the Government "feared the worst" in Paris if he should be abandoned to his fate (August 21, 1870). MacMa- hon must, therefore, hasten to his relief. The Marshal hesitated, for he knew the enterprise to be impossible. His troops 140,000 in number were not all of the best quality; they were exhausted by toilsome marches, dis- couraged by defeat, and insufficiently provided with the most indispensable supplies. Their flank must be exposed during their long march of no miles to the attack of an enemy of unknown strength, of whose energy they had already had terrible experience. Confidence in their lead- ers was gone; and the gloom which forebodes and invites disaster was in every heart and on every face. But the fear of revolution in Paris overruled all other considera- tions and on the 23d of August the Marshal set out on a march which he scarcely hoped could end otherwise than in ruin. Meanwhile Bazaine had suffered fierce attack from the Germans. He vainly attempted to escape from Metz. He fought two bloody and indecisive battles at Rezon- ville (August 1 6) and Gravelotte (August 18). He found it impossible to break through the German lines, FALL OF THE SECOND EMPIRE 335 and he drew back his disheartened troops to the shelter of the forts. Tidings of MacMahon's movements were immedi- ately carried to the Prussian camp. His purpose could at first only be guessed, but it was rightly guessed, and prompt measures were taken for its frustration. Two German armies, numbering 160,000 men, were suffi- ciently strong to shut in Bazaine till hunger forced his surrender. The other two armies the third and the fourth with a strength of 230,000, were available for service elsewhere. It was possible for this great force to fall upon MacMahon, while still on his march, and before he could receive help from Bazaine. The two armies immediately .turned northward. As the French drew near the little town of Stenay, where they proposed to cross the River Meuse, the Ger- mans approached them closely, and in overwhelming numbers were concentrating on their flank (August 26). The country was densely wooded; the watch of the French was, as usual, careless. At Beaumont a German force, issuing from forest roads, burst upon the unex- pectant French occupied in cooking. In the engage- ment which followed the French were forced aside from the advance which would have led them to Metz, and driven northward toward Sedan. About midnight the wearied men set out on this dismal journey. The night was dark; heavy rains had made the roads difficult; the confusion which prevailed was extreme. All night the men toiled forward, and reached Sedan at nine next morning. The Emperor had gone to the little town of Carignan to rest for the night. A message from Mac- Mahon told him of the enforced change of route, and required him to repair to Sedan. He arrived there late at night, without baggage or escort, and walked almost 33<5 MODERN EUROPE alone from the little railway station into the town where the crowning agony of his career was to be endured. His advisers urged him to go further and save himself, but he refused. Life was little worth saving then. He would stay with his army and share the fate which no power could now avert. The next day the French busied themselves in restor- ing some measure of order in their ranks, and in making such preparations as they found possible for the approaching conflict. All that day the German advance continued. When night fell their two armies had gath- ered themselves around the French so closely and in such strength that resistance was hopeless, and escape, in the event of defeat, impossible. The French occupied a range of heights which overlook Sedan and the Valley of the Meuse. Before daybreak (September i) the indefatigable Germans advanced to the attack. Their coming was not expected at so early an hour, but the French stood their ground. The Marshal, hastening to the front, was struck down and disabled by a fragment of a bursting shell. As they bore him from the field he was met by the Emperor, who spoke some kind words and rode onward to the battle. It was their final parting tragical and mourn- ful as few partings have been. No one understood the position of the two armies, or knew anything of the Marshal's plans if, indeed, he had any plan beyond a resolution to fight stubbornly to the last. He made over the command to General Ducrot, who began to order certain new dispositions. But an hour or two later the command was claimed by General Wimpffen, who had just arrived from Africa, and who bore a commission from the Minister of War. This new leader at once reversed the arrangements * W Z c W 'S FALL OF THE SECOND EMPIRE 337 of Ducrot. The manifest vacillation in command destroyed confidence among the troops and accelerated the now inevitable ruin. For many hours, however, they maintained with heroic courage the hopeless strug- gle enduring and inflicting lamentable slaughter of brave men. The fortune of war was so decisively adverse, that the utmost hope of the General was to hold his ground till nightfall, and then to break through and escape. The Germans attacked the French positions and car- ried them one by one, along the whole line, four or five miles in length. They established artillery on the heights, until at the close there were 500 pieces whose fire commanded every foot of ground upon which a Frenchman stood. By four o'clock resistance ceased. The French had been driven into Sedan or scattered or captured. Sedan was a prey to the wildest confusion. The streets were crowded with soldiers, many of whom riad cast away their arms, and now, regardless of author- ity, sought only for food and for shelter from the with- ering fire of the German guns. Through these crowds mounted men and panic-stricken wagoners forced their desperate way, heedless of the wretches whom they trampled down. Loud imprecations rose on every side against the leaders who were responsible for these disas- trous results. And over all rose the thunder of the German guns, which, converging their fire upon Sedan, sent an incessant storm of shell among the discomfited troops. The miserable Emperor, worn by fatigue and sorrow and physical pain, had vainly exposed himself, seeking death in the midst of his soldiers. Now he ordered a flag of truce to be hung out; he surrendered himself to the King, and sent General Wimpffen to make what terms he could for the army. Voi,. 2 22 33S MODERN EUROPE The German chiefs were all before Sedan. The King, his son, the Crown Prince, Count Bismarck, Count von Moltke, Von Roon, the Minister of War, were present to drink the delight of this marvelous triumph. Late at night the General of the defeated French met at Donchery with the officers empowered by the King to negotiate. He plead earnestly that his beaten sol- diers should be allowed to pass the Belgian frontier only seven miles away and there be disarmed. Gen- erous terms, he said, would awaken the gratitude of France. Rather than submit to the disgrace, he would renew the fight, and Germany would be guilty of blood which would be vainly shed. Count Moltke showed him that 80,000 Frenchmen, with food for only twenty- four hours, were surrounded by 240,000 Germans, and under fire of 500 guns, which would utterly destroy them in a few hours; and that the suggestion of renewing the fight need not, therefore, be discussed. Bismarck treated contemptuously the idea of National gratitude, and intimated, with perfect frankness, that, having France now in their power, they intended to provide for their future security. With much reluctance Gen- eral Wimpffen consented to an unconditional surrender, and 83,000 Frenchmen laid down their arms. No such shame had ever before fallen on the arms of France. The King of Prussia, accompanied by his son, came to visit the fallen and captive Emperor. The two mon- archs met last in Paris three years before. The King came then as the Emperor's guest during the Paris Exhi- bition, when Napoleon, at the pinnacle of human great- ness, received all the crowned and otherwise illustrious persons of Europe. The altered circumstances were re- ferred to in sympathizing terms by the conqueror, and good-naturedly attributed to imprudent advice. A cas- FALL OF THE SECOND EMPIRE 339 tie in Germany was assigned as a place of residence for the Emperor who now finally disappears from history. And now the way to Paris was cleared of every obstacle, and the Germans without loss of time began their march on the capital. So soon as the disaster of Sedan was known there the Parisians deposed the Emperor and erected a Republic (September 4, 1870). The new Government determined upon a strenuous defense. The Germans completely surrounded the city, and effectively cut off communication with the world outside. They did not .inflict the horrors of bombard- ment, and were contented to wait till famine compelled surrender. During four months, from September 19, 1870, to January 30, 1871, the Parisians endured the miseries of partial starvation consuming animals whose flesh they loathed; maintaining postal communication with the world by the aid of the balloons. At length endurance reached its limit; Paris was given over to the enemies of France; the humbled Parisians looked on while the countless hosts of Germany, entering by the Arc de Triomphe, marched in triumph down the mag- nificent avenue which leads to the Tuileries, and pos- sessed themselves of the city. During the siege the King had occupied the palace of Versailles. The divisions of Germany were now healed; the last obstacle to the long-desired unity of the race was now overcome. For ages it had been the policy of France to maintain the divisions which kept her neighbors weak. So complete was her discomfiture that the union of all the German States was consum- mated in a French palace by the coronation of King William as the first Emperor of united Germany (January 18, 1871). The terms exacted by the conquerors expressed with 340 MODERN EUROPE terrible although not unreasonable severity the woe which waits upon the vanquished. Germany took back Alsace and Lorraine, once her own, and still, after the Centuries of separation retaining their use of her lan- guage. She demanded an indemnity of $1,000,000,000 in reimbursement of the charges to which France had unjustifiably put her. A German army would remain on French territory, upheld at French expense, till this huge claim was fully met. The entire cost of the war to France, apart from the destruction to property and injury to commerce, was nearly $2,000,000,000, and in loss of men, 350,000. THE GERMAN EMPIRE France had made war in order to undo the work of partial union of Germany effected by Prussia in 1866. It achieved the opposite result, for King William returned from the war Emperor of a united and satisfied Germany. The German Empire had been formed, realizing Bismarck's long cherished dream. The troops of South Germany (Bavaria, Wurtemberg, and Baden, and those of the semi-independent Kingdom of Saxony) had fought side by side with those of Prussia, and the States confederated with her in a contest of triumphant success against her ancient foe. By the genius of Von Moltke and Bismarck, the long deferred vengeance due for Centuries of French aggression had been exacted with terrible completeness. Even during the progress of the war the German States awoke to a realization of the genius of Prussia and the dependence which must be placed upon that Kingdom for the maintenance of Ger- man integrity. Immediately after the victory of Worth the crown Prince had seen that the time had come for abolishing the line of division that severed southern Ger- many from the Federation of the North. A strong de- sire for a closer union had arisen, and after the battle of Sedan (September 2, 1870) negotiations were opened with each of the southern States for its entry into the northern confederation. Bavaria alone raised serious objection and demanded terms to which the Prussian Government would not consent. Bismarck refrained from exercising pressure at Munich, but invited the sev- eral Governments to send representatives to Versailles 341 34 2 MODERN EUROPE for the purpose of arriving at a settlement. For a moment the court of Munich drew the Sovereign of Wurtemburg to its side, and orders were sent to the envoys of Wurtemburg to act with the Bavarians in refusing to sign the treaty projected by Bismarck. The Wurtemburg Ministers thereupon tendered their resig- nations; Baden and Hesse-Darmstadt signed the treaty and the two dissentient Kings saw themselves on the point of being excluded from united Germany. They withdrew their opposition and at the end of November the treaties uniting all of the southern States with the existing confederation were executed, Bavaria retaining larger separate rights than were accorded to any other member of the union. In the acts which thus gave to Germany political .cohesion there was nothing that altered the title of its chief. Bismarck insisted that William should be given imperial dignity, and, early in 1871,. when the complete victory of Germany seemed assured, it was resolved to signalize the triumphant Commander-in-Chief of the German forces in a way that should declare him to the world and record him in history as the head of an amal- gamated German Nation. On the i8th of January, amid the cheers of the assembled German chiefs and the repre- sentatives of its army assembled in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles, King William was proclaimed and hailed as German Emperor. Thus the divisions which had enfeebled and wasted the German Nation were can- celed. Germany, which had been little more than a geographical expression, was raised to the position which her strength and intelligence entitled her to claim. She was supreme in Central Europe, and dis- cerning men everywhere recognized in the greatness of this peace-loving and industrious people a new guar- THE GERMAN EMPIRE 343 antee that the tranquillity of Europe would not in the future be so lightly disturbed as in the past. The Emperor came back to Berlin and the first Diet of the restored Empire tnat symbol of United Nation- hood was opened. Bismarck naturally became the Imperial Chancellor and was created a Prince on the conclusion of the war. The new German Empire repre- sented in this Diet was composed of twenty-five States and one Reichsland ("imperial territory" or "district") Alsace-Lorraine. The States include four Kingdoms (Prussia, Bavaria, Wiirtemburg, Saxony); six Grand- Duchies, five Duchies, seven Principalities, and three free towns (Hamburg, Liibeck, Bremen). The legislative functions are vested in a Bundesrath (Federal Council) of fifty-nine members appointed for each session by the Governments of the individual States, and a Reichstag (Parliament or Diet of the Realm) of 397 members, elected by universal suffrage and by ballot for three years, representing the German Nation. Under Prince Bismarck's energetic and skillful leadership, the attention of the new* German Empire was mainly devoted to the settlement of internal ques- tions. Almost at once it found itself involved in the ecclesiastical contest with the Church of Rome, known as the Kultur-Kampf, which had previously begun in Prussia. The origin of the struggle was an effort to vindicate the right of the State to interfere somewhat intimately, with the behavior, appointments and even educational affairs of all the religions societies in the country. The Jesuits were expelled in 1872 and Pope Pius IX retorted by declining to receive the German Ambassador. In 1873, in the month of May, Herr Falk, at Bismarck's dictation, brought forward and car- ried in the Reichstag, what are known as the May Laws, 344 MODERN EUROPE the repeal of which was the one task of the Center party in the Reichstag, from that time forth. These May Laws made the discharge and exile of bishops legal, when they acted against the decrees of the existing Gov- ernment. They made it obligatory that every bishop be educated in a gymnasium, according to the regular German system, and they established an imperial court for the settlement of ecclesiastical difficulties. This last virtually took the decision in religious matters away from the Church into the hands of the State. In 1874 a sup- plementary law making it criminal for bishops who had been dismissed to persist in exercising their former prerogatives was added to the list. After the laws of 1873 the Catholic clergy, at the decree of the Pope, had gone on with their work as before. Finally, in 1875 (January 25), a law was carried through the Reichstag establishing civil as well as religious marriage. The Pope issued an encyclical declaring the Falk laws invalid and matters seemed for a time to be at a dead- lock. On the election of the new Pope, Leo XIII (in 1878), attempts were made to arrange a compromise between the Empire and the Papal See. Falk, the Prus- sian Kultus Minister, resigned in 1879, and certain modi- fications were made in the obnoxious laws in 1881 and 1883. Bismarck took a firmer step toward concilia- tion when he proposed the Pope as arbiter between Ger- many and Spain in the dispute as to the possession of the Caroline Islands, and he practically owned himself beaten in the concessions which he granted in revisions of the politico-ecclesiastical legislation in 1886 and 1887. In 1893 the decree of expulsion against the Jesuits was repealed. Another semi-religious difficulty which de- manded Government interference was the social perse- cution of the Jews, which reached a climax in 1881. THE GERMAN EMPIRE 345 These concessions to the clericals were due largely to the political sagacity of Windhorst, their leader, who cleverly maintained a balance of power between the Con- servatives, or supporters of the Government party, and the Socialists, whose aid had at first been evoked by Bis- marck to secure the passage of the Falk laws. Bismarck had been a friend of La Salle, and himself carried out State Socialistic theories. The doctrines preached by the Socialists found good soil in the students of the universities, and the party increased rapidly in power. Two attempts on the Emperor's life in May and June, 1878, were attributed more or less directly (probably unjustly) to the social democratic organization, and gave the signal for legislative measures conferring very ex- tensive powers upon the administration to be used in suppressing the influence of Socialism. These Socialist laws, though limited in duration, have invariably been renewed, sometimes with additional severity, before their validity expired. In 1889 several of the most important towns in the Empire were in what is called the "minor state of seige," for police purposes, and a new Socialist law was carried which remained in force until October, 1890. A plot, happily futile, to blow up the Emperor and other German rulers in the Niederwald in 1883 was considered by the Government to justify its repressive measures. Prince Bismarck, however, was not content with repressive measures, he endeavored, by improving the condition of the working-classes, to cut the ground from beneath the feet of the Socialistic propagandists. The acknowledgment in the Emperor's message to the Reichstag in 1881, that the working classes have a right to be considered by the State was followed by laws compelling employers to insure their workmen in case of sickness, and by the establishment 346 MODERN EUROPE (1888) of compulsory insurance for workmen against death and old age. Yet in spite of these measures Socialism has constantly increased in Germany, and the Socialists in 1898 polled 2,200,000 votes in a total vote of 7,600,000, being by far a larger vote than that of any other of the numerous political parties. The Emperor, William I, died March 9, 1888. His son Frederick, at that time suffering from a cancerous throat, was expected to begin a liberal policy, but he died on June I5th of the same year, being succeeded by his son William II. The new Emperor was trained in the school of divine right, and has endeavored to enforce these ideas on Germany. At the very outset of his reign he had a difference with Bismarck on proposed schemes for the extension of State Socialism as conces- sions to the working classes, and (March 20, 1890) Bis- marck was forced to retire. Since then the young Kaiser has ruled with an iron hand and has shown him- self reactionary in spirit. Repressive measures have been enforced to a greater extent than ever. Recalci- trant members of the Reichstag have been imprisoned, and by means of inducements of various sorts, with the support of the clerical party which has thus increased its influence, he has subordinated the position of the Parliament, which has been forced to give way whenever in opposition to his measures as in the case of the in- crease of the army in 1893 and of the navy in 1898. At the opening of Parliament in 1899 it was found that the Emperor was supreme and the Reichstag had been tamed. Emperor William, during his reign, has embarked with energy in the colonial policy which was inaugurated by Bismarck in 1884. Important extensions of Ger- THE GERMAN EMPIRE 347 man colonies in East Africa have been made and the Emperor (in 1898) gained Kiao-Chou in China. No foreign wars have been engaged in by Germany since 1871. But the army has been maintained to great strength, by the system of compulsory military service and a navy has been built. Yet in foreign politics Ger- many has played a leading part. It was Bismarck who formed the League of the Three Emperors in 1871 by which the Czar, Franz Joseph, and Emperor William. I made an alliance. When this fell in 1877, upon Russia's engaging in war in behalf of the Bulgarians, Bismarck formed the triple alliance (1879), about which only the principal facts and not all the details are known. It .is an agreement for mutual defense in case of attack, and the parties to it are Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy. Bismarck's revelations in 1896 betrayed the fact that from 1887 to 1890 Germany had .a secret agreement with Russia along the same lines, the result of which would have been disastrous to Austria had there been war in the interval. THE THIRD FRENCH REPUBLIC. The history of France has been stormy since the Ger- mans captured Paris. Her misfortunes did not end with the fall of the capital, and the loss of her border prov- inces. It is part of the normal order of French history that when an established government is overthrown and another is set in its place, this second government is in its turn attacked by insurrection in Paris, and an effort is made to establish the rule of the democracy of the capital itself, or of those who for the moment pass for its leaders. It was so in 1793, in 1831, in 1848; and it was so again in 1870. Favre, Trochet, and the other members of the Government of Vincennes assumed power on the downfall of Napoleon III, because they considered themselves the individuals best fitted to serve the State. There were hundreds of other persons in Paris who had exactly the same opinion of themselves. And when, with the progress of the seige, the Govern- ment of defense lost its popularity and service, it was natural that ambitious and impatient men of a lower political rank should consider it time to try whether Paris could not make a better defense under their own auspices. Attempts were made before the end of Octo- ber, 1871, to overthrow the Government. They were repeated at intervals, but without success. The agita- tion, however, continued with the ranks of the National Guard, which, unlike the National Guard in the time of Louis XV, now included the masses of the working class, and was the most dangerous enemy, instead of the support of Government. 348 THIRD FRENCH REPUBLIC 349 The capitulation of Paris brought things to a crisis. Favre had declared that it would be impossible to dis- arm the National Guard without a battle in the streets. At his instance Bismarck allowed the National Guard to retain their weapons and the fears of the Government itself thus prepared the way for successful insurrection. When the Germans were about to occupy western Paris, the National Guard drew off its artillery to Montmartre and there erected intrenchments. During the next fortnight, while the Germans were withdrawing from the western forts in accordance with the conditions of peace, the Government and the National Guard stood facing one another in inaction. On the i8th of March General Lecomte was ordered to seize the artillery parked at Montmartre. His troops, surrounded and solicited by the National Guard, abandoned their Com- mander. Lecomte was seized and with General Cle- ment Thomas was put to death. A revolutionary cen- tral committee took possession of the Hotel de Ville. The troops still remaining faithful to the Government were withdrawn to Versailles, where Thiers had assembled the Chamber of Deputies, Not only Paris itself, but the western forts, with the exception of Mont Valerien, fell into the hands of the insurgents. On the 26th of March elections were held for the Commune. The majority of peaceful citizen's abstained from voting. A council was elected which, by the side of certain harmless and well-meaning men, contained a troop of revolutionists by profession; and after the failure of all attempts at conciliation, hostilities begun between Paris and Versailles. There were in the ranks of those who fought for the Commune some who fought in the sincere belief that their cause was that of municipal freedom. There were 350 MODERN EUROPE others who believed, and with good reason, that the existence of the Republic was threatened by a reaction- ary assembly at Versailles. But the movement was on the whole the work of fanatics who sought to subvert every authority but their own. And the unfortunate mob which followed them in so far as they fought for anything beyond the daily pay which had been their only means of sustenance since the siege began fought for they knew not what. As the conflict was prolonged it took on both sides a character of atrocious violence and cruelty. The Murder of Generals Lecomte and Thomas at the outset was avenged by the execution of some of the first prisoners taken by the troops at Versailles. Then hostages were seized by the Commune. The slaughter in cold blood of 300 National Guards, sur- prised at Clermont by the besiegers, gave to the Pari- sians an example of massacre. When, after a siege of six weeks in which Paris suffered far more severely than it had suffered from the cannonade of the Germans, the troops at Versailles at length made their way into the capital humanity and civilization seemed to have van- ished in the orgies of devils. The defenders of the city, as they fell back, murdered their hostages and left behind them palaces, museums the entire public inheritance of the Nation in its capital in flames. The conquerors during several days shot down all whom they took fighting, and in many cases put to death whole bands of prisoners without distinction. The temper of the army was such that the Government, even if it had desired, could not have mitigated the terrors of this vengeance; but there was little sign anywhere of an inclination to mercy. Court martials and executions continued long after the heat of combat was over. A year passed and the tribunals were still busy with their THIRD FRENCH REPUBLIC 351 work. Above ten thousand persons were sentenced to transportation or imprisonment before justice was sat- isfied. Since 1790 France has had seventeen constitutions of almost every imaginable variety. But the Third Repub- lic (proclaimed in Paris by Gambetta, September 4, 1870) has had the longest life of any Government during that period. As long as the war lasted the country was ruled by the self-elected Government of the National Defense. When the war was over a National Assembly with indefinite powers was chosen by universal suffrage. Thiers, the historian and former Minister of this body, was the member of this body who commanded the most general public confidence, and the assembly intrusted the executive to him without, however, fixing any term for the duration of the office. It was as the agent of this assembly that Thiers acted. He had great difficulty in persuading his colleagues of the Assembly, and his coun- trymen generally, to agree to peace on terms that were practically dictated by Germany. But he succeeded; peace was voted March I, 1871. No sooner had he accomplished his task than he was face to face with the sanguinary madness of the Commune. But this diffi- culty, also, he set himself to surmount. With charac- teristic energy he succeeded, and the seat of Govern- ment was once more removed from Versailles to Paris. Thiers was formally elected (August 31) President of the French Republic. He held office only until 1873, but during this period probably he was mainly instrumental in securing the withdrawal of the Germans from France and the payment of the war indemnity and in placing both the army and the civil service on a more satisfac- tory footing. But in course of time the gratitude of the country exhausted itself and Thiers, who was old-fash- 352 MODERN EUROPE ioned in many of his opinions and as opinionated as he was old-fashioned, did not make any new friends. He was especially detested by the Extreme Left, whose chief, Gambetta, he styled Fou-furieux (furious fool). As a result a coalition of reactionaries and radicals under the leadership of MacMahon was formed expressly, as it seemed, to harass him; and even in the beginning of 1872 he tendered his resignation. It was not accepted, and his opponents for a time suspended their intrigues. They were revived, however, in 1873, and resolved them- selves into a resolute effort to limit the powers of the President. This Thiers stoutly resisted, and he made an appeal to the electors, but this course did not increase the strength of his following. Finally, what he inter- preted as a vote of no confidence was carried (May 24, 1873) by a majority of sixteen. He resigned and his place was taken by Marshal MacMahon. MacMahon was a general rather than a statesman, and unlike Thiers, he was not a member of the Assembly. He was elected by the support of the Monarchists Orleanists, Bonapartists and Bourbons, who were in a majority in the assembly; and there is good reason for the popular belief that he was preparing for a time when by a coup d'etat the monarchy might be restored. But the rival Monarchists strove against each other. Although at one time it seemed not impossible that the Comte de Chambord, the Bourbon, might become King, and negotiations were opened for the purpose on a basis of agreement by which the Orleanists were to succeed him on the throne, the negotiations came to naught because of the obstinacy of the Comte, who, true scion of h'is race, refused to yield one jot of his pretensions. He refused to accept the tri-color as his flag, and the royalists abandoned hope. Then they set themselves to THIRD FRENCH REPUBLIC 353 the work of forming- a constitution which was purposely formed so that it might be the basis of a constitutional monarchy and make easy a coup d'etat. It was only by a majority of one (January 30, 1875) that the Repub- lic was finally recognized as the definite government of France. MacMahon's term had been fixed at seven years (November 19, 1873), but he did not serve the full term. The general election held (1877) in virtue of the con- stitution showed that France was now in favor of a parliamentary republic. The Republican majority refused to vote supplies, and, after a brief period of con- test in which he tried repression and then conciliation, the Marshal decided that as a choice in Gambetta's famous alternative, "Submit or resign," he would take the latter, and he resigned (January 30, 1879), Jules Grevy, an out and out Republican, succeeding to his place. Grevy was succeeded by Gambetta as President of the Chamber of Deputies, and the ardent Republican was the real ruler of the Republic. Under his leadership various measures of doubtful expediency were instituted. The Communards were amnestied. The schools and convents of the Jesuits were suppressed while public education was removed from control of the Catholics, thus arousing the enmity of the ultramontanists. The fourteenth of July, the anniversary of the fall of the Bas- tille, was made a National holiday. These measures, together with the war with the Tunis which did little to add to the glory of France and consumed an enor- mous amount of money caused the fall of several Minis- ters in quick succession, one of the Premiers being Gambetta himself. His death (1882), together with the distrust of the peasant proprietors, (the true conserva- VOI,. 2 23 354 MODERN EUROPE tive power in France), made the Monarchists believe that the time had come for a restoration. Divided as before between three dynasties, they were unable to bring about a revolution, although they succeeded in defeating a bill to banish all heirs and pretenders to the throne. The Chinese war (1884) and the Madagascar Expedition gained territory, but at a frightful loss of blood and treasure, Ministries rose and fell. Although Grevy had been reflected on the expiration of his term, a nasty scandal involving his son-in-law, Wilson, who sold deco- rations and appointments in the army, was the direct cause of his resignation (December 2, 1887). There had been no suspicion of Grevy's personal probity until his interference to protect his son-in-law from justice aroused France. Marie Frangois Sadi Carnot became President of the Republic. It was about this time that republican institutions seemed to be in danger by the extraordinary popular support which General Boulanger secured for a moment and which seemed to be along the pathway which in France led to a dictatorship. Until 1886 Boulanger was a man without national reputation other than that of any able General of the French Army. Appointed Minister of War in Brisson's Cabinet, he won great personal popularity by his patriotic utterances and the reforms he introduced in the treatment of the privates and non-commissioned officers. Too powerful for the Government's safety, he was placed on the retired list for insubordination. This still further increased his popularity, and he was elected to the Chamber of Depu- ties from several departments in by-elections, the depart- ment of du Nord giving him 100,000 majority. He at once became the leader of the opposition to the Gov- ernment, and moved a dissolution of the Chamber; this THIRD FRENCH REPUBLIC 355 resolution being rejected and a vote of censure being passed upon him, he resigned. Then he was reflected, securing 500,000 votes by letting his name be presented in a large number of districts. There was no doubt that Boulanger was conspiring for the overthrow of the Republic, and by a resolution adopted April 4, 1889, the French Chamber decided to prosecute him. After a trial in which Quesnay de Beaurepaire acted as prosecut- ing attorney, Boulanger, with Count Dillon and Henri Rochefort, were convicted of conspiracy and attempted treason. They were condemned to transportation and imprisonment in a fortified place, but Boulanger escaped to England. His flight, and the revelation that he had received 3,000,000 francs from the Orleanists, shattered his popularity. Paris laughed at its former idol who, unable to stand the ridicule and ignominy he had earned, committed suicide September 30, 1891. Six months before the expiration of the term for which Sadi Carnot had been elected President he was assassinated (June 24, 1894). An Italian anarchist stabbed him at Lyons while he was driving in a carriage through the streets. During his administration evi- dences of the corruption prevalent in French official life multiplied. The failure of the Panama scheme led to the prosecution of Count de Lesseps and his son and of- Gustave Eiffel, and of many politicians and ex-Ministers, some of whom were convicted of bribery and corruption (January, 1893). M. Baihut, Minister of Public Works in 1886, was proved to have received a bribe of 375,000 francs. Casmir Perier succeeded Carnot as President (1894), but after being a little more than six months in office he was forced to resign, corruption in connection with some railway franchises having been proved against some of his friends, whom he attempted to shield. 356 MODERN EUROPE Felix Faure (elected President January 15, 1895; died of apoplexy February 16, 1899), who succeeded him, was the first French ruler since 1824 who had not been driven from his place by revolution, assassination or* public opinion. Yet revolution seemed near during his whole term of office, although it was prevented after his death by the prompt election (February 17, 1899) of Emile Loubet as his successor. The pretenders had been gathering strength and preparing to overthrow the Republic, but Faure's death was too sudden for them to devise a coup d'etat and effective 'guards on the fron- tiers would have prevented the arrival of any one of the pretenders in Paris. During the administration of President Faure, the world learned of the rottenness of the French army, and evidence multiplied to show that not only were worthless supplies furnished the army and navy at exorbitant prices, but that French officers trafficked in State secrets, which they sold to the enemy. These revelations were due to the Dreyfus case, which was a legacy left by Faure to his suc- cessor. Captain Dreyfus, a Jewish officer, was accused of selling army secrets and convicted by secret court- martial on what later seemed to be insufficient evidence. The revelations of the investigations showed that while Dreyfus had not sold the secrets some one had, and that efforts had been made to protect the perpetrators. The chief of the intelligence bureau committed suicide when it became known that he was concerned in forging at least a part of the papers for the conviction of Dreyfus. Thus the French Republic has had a stormy time at home. Abroad it has gained no victories, and France has ceased to be a great power. The vanity of the French was flattered by the Franco- Russian alliance in 1895, when France loaned money to the Czar, but, in 1898, when THIRD FRENCH REPUBLIC 357 France was on the point of war with Great Britain, over her claim to ownership of territory in the Soudan, she found that her ally would not help her. Her colonial policy has been costly, and productive of more scandals than glory. She has gradually been excluded from a place among the great Nations, and her influence at European conferences is but slight. THE EASTERN QUESTION The present condition of Turkey within the last hundred years stripped of some of her fairest possessions, and the seat of her Empire in the possession of the great powers, and dependent upon the great powers for her very existence is a conspicuous example O'f the mutability of human affairs. It seems to be the inevitable course of history that from the highest point of elevation Empires, sometimes with rapid strides and again with steps linger- ing and slow, shall touch the lowest point of depression. Greece and Rome fell. So did Chaldea, Assyria, Carthage, and Persia. The close of the Nineteenth Century finds Turkey the most conspicuous example of a great power, once the terror of the world, now in its presence tottering to its fall. Her feebleness is abject and she is kept alive only by the jealousy of her neighbors. First by the influ- ence of England and France, who fought a costly war to preserve her European dominions for her, and later by Germany and Russia. Yet five Centuries ago the Otto- man Empire's conquering hosts shook the earth with their martial tread. Not content with Asia, they essayed to conquer Europe, and Southern Europe fell into* their hands. The Turks made themselves masters of a lordly heritage in Europe more than three times the extent of France, with a delicious climate and a soil of wondrous fertility, and with a vast seaboard. But the system of organized robbery, known in Europe by the name of Turk- ish Government, changed all this and converted into a wilderness one of the fairest regions of the world. Though each Century since the Middle Ages has seen a 358 THE EASTERN QUESTION 359 decrease in the extent of the Ottoman Empire, yet the persecution of Christians, in accordance with the doctrines of the Koran, has continued ever since, and these persecu- tions have been declared an affair of no concern to anyone but the Sultan by the great powers in turn, and the Sultan has been free to butcher as many Christians as he chooses. This state of affairs has been due to the effort to main- tain what is known as the balance of power in Europe. The doctrine of the diplomats has been that it is better that a weak power should occupy the Mediterranean coasts than that they should fall into the hands of some great power, to whom they would be of great strategetical importance. The power which has- seemed most danger- ous in this respect is Russia, whose unparalleled rise to importance has been watched with jealous eyes by the Western Nations. Russia has for ages looked with eyes of desire upon Constantinople and the Turkish seaboard. A prophecy of extreme antiquity foretells the ultimate accomplishment of her purposes. When or by whom it was first uttered no man knows, but eight Centuries ago it might be read upon an equestrian statue, then very old, which had been brought to Constantinople from Antioch. It was believed for Centuries before the invasion of the Turks; and the Turks themselves soon learned to look for- ward to its fulfillment. In Russia a powerful national and religious sentiment regards the possession of Constanti- nople, the ancient site of the head of the Eastern Church, as a manifest destiny and urges forward every measure which tends to accomplish it. The Emperor Alexander claimed that he himself did not wish Russia to possess Constantinople, but it was inevitable; as well, he said, try to arrest a stream in its descent from the mountains. Rus- sia has omitted no opportunity of aggravating the dis- 360 MODERN EUROPE orders of the Turkish Empire and thus hastening its over- throw. During a greater part of the Eighteenth Century she contrived to involve the Turks in perpetual quarrel and waged against them frequent and destructive wars. And she would long ago, by open violence, have fulfilled the ancient prediction had not the jealousies of the other European powers peremptorily forbidden this aggrandize- ment. In this policy the English Government has been the leader, under Conservative ministries. England has labored, often by diplomacy and sometimes by arms, to uphold the most unjustifiable despotism which modern Europe ever endured. Yet in spite of these efforts to pre- serve the integrity of the Ottoman Empire, it has dwindled in extent during the Nineteenth Century. The Sultan's dominions have been successively curtailed. The cruel warfare of extermination waged against the Greeks in their contest for independence forced a reluctant English ministry to depart from its traditional policy and by the aid of Russia, France, and England, the independence of Greece was secured (1827). It was after this war, and as early as 1844, that the Emperor Nicholas I, proposed to divide with Britain and France the inheritance of the "Sick Man," as he called Turkey. Nicholas, whether from policy or from a sense of Kingly honor, which at times powerfully influenced him, did not avail himself of the prostration of the con- tinental powers in 1848 to attack Turkey. He detested revolution, as a crime against the divinely ordered subjec- tion of Nations to their rulers and probably would have felt himself degraded had he, in the spirit of his predeces- sor, Catharine, turned the calamities of his brother mon- archs to his separate advantage. It accorded better with his proud nature, possibly also with his schemes of far- reaching policy, for Russia to enter the field as the pro- THE EASTERN QUESTION 361 tector of the Hapsburgs against the rebel Hungarians than for his armies to snatch from the Porte what he believed the lapse of time would give to Russia, at no far distant date. But war over Turkey was inevitable. It came and had a trivial pretext; ostensibly about the guardianship of the Holy Places in Jerusalem. The earliest Christian legends had been localized in various spots around Jeru- salem. These had been, in the ages of faith, the goal of constant pilgrimages and in more recent times they had formed the object of treaties between Turkey and France- Greek monks, however, disputed with Latin monks for the guardianship of the Holy Places and as the power of Russia grew the privileges of the Greek monks had increased. Practically their differences were no more than this : that the Latin monks should have a key to the great door of the church of Bethlehem and not be asked to content themselves with a key to the inferior door; that they should have a key to each of the doors giving entrance to the cave in which the Nativity was supposed to have taken place ; that they should have the privilege of setting up in the same locality a silver star bearing the arms of France. In the hands of diplomats, bent on obtaining triumphs over one another, these disputes assumed dimen- sions that overshadowed the peace of Europe. Russia was not only deeply interested in protecting the Slavonic races under the Turkish rule who were of the same blood as herself but she wished to extend her power beyond the Dardanelles. A war was necessary to the Emperor of the French for the consolidation of his throne. The French and the Russian ministers at Constantinople alter- nately tormented the Sultan in the character of aggrieved sacristans until, at the beginning of 1852, the Porte com- promised itself with both parties by adjudging to each 362 MODERN EUROPE rights which it professed also to secure to the other. A year more spent in prevarications, in excuses, and in men- aces ended with the triumph of the French, with the eva- sion of the promises made by the Sultan to the Czar, and with the discomfiture of the Greek Church in the person of the monks who officiated at the Holy Sepulchre and the Shrine of the Nativity. Nicholas treated the conduct of the Porte as an out- rage upon himself. He insisted that the rights conceded to the Christian population of Turkey should be secured by treaty with himself. Such an arrangement was vir- tually a Russian protectorate over three-fourths of the Turkish people and would have ended the independence of Turkey. The Sultan, acting under the advice of the English Ambassador, steadfastly refused the Russian de- mands. France, Austria, and Prussia bestowed, upon the action of the Turkish Government, the support of their approval. The passionate Czar, unable to effect his purposes by diplomacy, moved an army across the Pruth (July 2, 1853) an d possessed himself of the Danu'bian principal- ities. This invasion imparted to the question a graver aspect than it had heretofore presented, and diplomacy hastened to interpose its good offices. The four powers, at a conference at Vienna, framed a note embodying pro- posals which, as it was deemed, the estranged Govern- ments might honorably accept. This note conveyed to the Czar assurances that the ancient privileges of the Greek Church in the Ottoman Empire would be held sacred, but it conferred upon him no new right to enforce the fulfill- ment of the pledge. The Czar was willing to accept this compromise, and the mediators recommended it as one which ought to be satisfactory to Turkey. It was deemed that the difficulty was at length overcome, but to the 3 6 3 amazement of Europe, Turkey refused to be guided by the advice of her friends. She would not accept the Vienna note unless certain verbal alterations were adopted. These were insignificant; but Russia, having consented to the note in the original form, was too proud to have it changed at the caprice of a power which she despised. The mediators stood aside. The Turks, after vainly summoning the Czar to withdraw his armies from their territory, declared war (October 23, 1853) against him, with all the gravity and dignity of a power able to give effect to the hostile purposes which it announced. The final differences between Russia and Turkey are scarcely appreciable by the most searching examination. Europe was led into a bloody war because Turkey de- manded, and Russia was too proud and too angry to con- cede certain immaterial variations in the phraseology of a settlement which was substantially agreeable to both. Turkey and Russia began the war by themselves, and although at first the Turks succeeded in repulsing the Rus- sians at every point of attack along the Danube, the war, if left to run its course, could have had but one outcome. After more fruitless diplomacy, Great Britain and France agreed to support Turkey by armed intervention. The war thus undertaken lasted two years. At first England and France stood alone in their support of Turkey, but early in 1855 Sardinia boldly joined the alliance and sent a contingent to the seat of war. The other powers remained neutral throughout the contest. The plan of operations was very simple. Russia could only be attacked in her extremities and England could only act on a sea base. The chief scenes of operation were the Black Sea and the Baltic. In the spring of 1854 a power- ful British and French fleet appeared in the Gulf of Fin- land. But the Russian fleet kept safe behind the granite 364 MODERN EUROPE fortresses of Kronstadt and Sveaborg; which, owing to shallow water and difficult navigation, could not be attacked by the large vessels comprising the allied fleets. Beyond the blockade the only thing of importance effected was the destruction of the fortress of Bomarsund, and the capture of the island on which it was situated. The sec- ond Baltic campaign in 1855 was a repetition of the first. Sveaborg was bombarded, but, having no gunboats, the fleet could only blockade the Russian coast. The Russian fleet in the Black Sea took refuge in the fortified harbor of Sebastopol, sinking vessels across the entrance. On land the Turkish forces, under Omar Pasha, had maintained a heroic contest on the Danube against the Russians during the winter of 1853-54. The French and British troops sent to the aid of the Sultan were landed chiefly at Varna (April and May, 1855 ) . The Turkish defense of Silestria rendered the advance of the allies in that direction unneces- sary. After six weeks' siege the Russians were obliged to retire. The allies, having suffered great loss from the cholera at Varna, it was resolved to carry the war into the Crimea and (September 14) an army of 25,000 British, under Lord Raglan; 25,000 French, under Marshal St. Arnaud, and 8,000 Turks were landed on the west coast, thirty miles north of Sebastopol. They attacked and de- feated a Russian army strongly posted on the steep heights above the river Alma (September 2Oth). Then, taking position near Balaklava, to the south of Sebastopol, they began the siege of that place. The Russians made repeated attempts to force the allies' position, which led to the bloody battles of Balaklava (October 25th), and Inkermann (November 5th). Balaklava was mainly a cavalry action and did much more credit to the gallantry of the soldiers than to their commander's generalship. It was memorable for the glorious "Charge of the Light THE EASTERN QUESTION 365 Brigade," who, in obedience to a bungled order, rode a mile and a half under a murderous fire. Faster and faster grew the pace until, with a cheer, they broke into the bat- tery, sabered the gunners and burst through a column of infantry. Then they turned and cut their way back. But out of the six hundred not two hundred returned. "It is magnificent, but it is not war," was the comment of St. Arnaud. At Inkermann 8,000 British sustained for sev- eral hours a hand-to-hand fight against 50,000 Russians until 6,000 French came to their aid and completed the rout of the enemy. "I have two generals who will not fail me," said the Czar, "General January and General February." The allied armies suffered terribly during the following win- ter, not alone from the severity of the climate, but from the mismanagement and the shameful breakdown of the commissariat. The supplies of food, clothing, and other necessaries were often sent where they were not wanted. The men were often half-fed, they were clothed in rags utterly inadequate for their protection; for any benefits which their boots afforded they might almost as well have been barefooted. They slept on the wet ground, badly shel- tered by tents. They toiled for many hours every day in the trenches ankle deep in mud. They had no fuel and often could not cook their food. They sickened and died by hundreds. The British army was moldering swiftly away under the neglect and mismanagement of its own leaders. Several regiments became literally extinct. One had but seven men left for duty, another had thirty. When the sick were put on board transports to be conveyed to hospitals the mortality was shocking. In some ships one man in every four died in a voyage of seven days. In some of the hospitals recovery was a rare exception. At one time four-fifths of the poor fellows who underwent 366 MODERN EUROPE amputation died of gangrene. During the first seven months of the siege of Sebasto>pol the men perished by dis- ease at a rate which would have extinguished the entire force in a little more than a year and a half. The total British loss in this war was 20,656, and of these only 2,598 were slain in battle. To Florence Nightingale, the daughter of an English clergyman, was due the establish- ment of proper nursing in the military hospitals; not merely then, but thereafter. The prodigous strength of the fortifications of Sebasto- pol, together with the skill of its defense, protracted the siege for nearly a year and rendered it one O'f the greatest in history. The Czar Nicholas died (March, 1855), but Alexander II, his son and successor, kept up the enormous drain on the population and resources of Russia. Trenches of the allies drew closer and closer to the Russian redoubts, till the foes were within speaking distance. September 8, 1855, after three days' continuous cannonading, the French stormed and carried the Malakoff, the key of Sebastopol. That night the Russians evacuated the city, leaving it in blazing ruins. Except for the surrender of Kars in Cau- casia to the Russians, the war ended with the fall of Sebas- topol. A treaty of peace was signed at Paris March, 1856, by which Russia lost all she had attempted to gain, but the article prohibiting Russia from building arsenals or hav- ing warships on the Black Sea was abrogated in 1871. . As a result of the war the powers persuaded the Sultan to proclaim equal rights to all his citizens. But he was either powerless or unwilling to enforce it, and massacres of Christians went on as before. In 1860 thousands of them were killed in Lebanon and Damascus. In the fol- lowing year Abdul-Medjid died and his brother Abdul- Aziz succeeded. Then the people of Moldavia and Wal- lachia united into one State of Roumania, and in 1866 THE EASTERN QUESTION 367 chose Prince Charles of Hohenzollern as hereditary Prince, while the Porte was powerless through weakness and corruption to interfere. A Cretan rebellion was sup- pressed in 1868, but Servia already autonomous in her own territory demanded the removal of the Turkish garrison from her fortresses, and the concession had to be made. The Sultan was now also obliged to confer the title of Khedive on his vassal in Egypt, who had become a pow- erful monarch, and gradual concessions soon made the latter an independent ruler. When the Franco-German War of 1870 commenced, Russia seized the opportunity of repudiating the Black Sea clauses of the Treaty of Paris. Meanwhile Turkey was drifting into ruin through the mis- management which prevailed. An insurrection com- menced in Herzegovina in 1875 and smouldered for some time, exciting the feelings of all the Slavonic peoples in Southeast Europe. It soon spread to Bulgaria and was repressed with much cruelty. In 1876 Abdul- Aziz was deposed and his nephew, Amurath V, succeeded, to be replaced in three months by Abdul-Hamid II. Toward the end of June reports reached Western Europe of the sup- pression of an insurrection in Bulgaria with measures of atrocious violence. Servia and Montenegro declared war. The vague reports from Bulgaria took more definite form, and the correspondents of German and English news- papers, making their way to the district south of the Balkans, found in villages still strewn with skeletons and human remains, the terrible evidences of what had passed. Deeds worse than murder were committed by these bar- barians in Turkish pay. Gladstone left his retirement to denounce these horrors; but Disraeli, then prime minister of England, declared that Turkey must be preserved at all hazards, and that if the Czar gave aid to the Christians be would be in danger of war with Great Britain, as at the 368 MODERN EUROPE time of the Crimean War. The powers tried to prevent Russia's interference and the Government itself was afraid to undertake it. But the pressure of public opinion in Russia was too strong. Even in despotic Russia public opinion can make itself felt. The massacre of thousands of Greek Christians, merely because they were Greek Christians, aroused those of the same faith in Russia. Forced by his people to make war, the Czar sent Russian armies across the Danube (June, 1877), and in spite of the hard defense of Plevna by the Turks, they were soon almost within sight of the towers of St. Sophia. Guorko, in command of an army that had gathered to the southwest of Plevna, made his way through the moun- tains above Etropol in the last days of December, and driv- ing the Turks from Sophia, pressed on to Philippopolis and Adrianople. Farther east two columns crossed the Balkans by by-paths right and left of the Shipka Pass, and then, converging on Shipka itself, fell on the rear of the Turkish army, which still blocked the southern outlet. Simultane- ously a third corps marched down the pass from the north and assailed the Turks in front. After a fierce struggle the entire Turkish army, 35,000 strong, laid down its arms.. There now remained only one considerable force between the invaders and Constantinople. This body, which was commanded by Souleiman, held the road which runs along the valley of the Maritza at a point somewhat east of the east of Philippopolis. Against it Gourko advanced from the west, while the victors of Shipka, descending due south through Kesanlik, barred the line of retreat toward Adrianople. The last encounter of the war took place January 17, 1878. Souleiman's army, routed and demoralized, succeeded in making its escape to the ^gean coast. Pursuit was unnecessary, for the war was now practically over. On January 20 the Russians made < 3 u < _] < n H < g bo o u THE EASTERN QUESTION 369 their entry in Adrianople. In the next few days their advance guard touched the Sea of Marmora at Rodosto. Immediately after the fall of Plevna the Porte had applied to the European powers for their mediation. Dis- asters in Asia had already warned it not to delay submis- sion too long; for in the middle of October Mukhtar Pasha had been driven from his positions, and a month later Kars had been taken by storm. The Russians had subse- quently penetrated into Armenia and had captured the outworks of Erzeroum. Each day that now passed brought the Ottoman Empire nearer to destruction. Ser- via declared war; the Montenegrins made themselves mas- ters of the coast towns and of border territory north and south; Greece seemed likely to enter into the struggle. Baffled in an attempt to gain the common mediation of the powers, the Sultan for a second time appealed to the Queen of England personally for her good offices in bring- ing the conflict to a close. In reply to a telegram from London, the Czar declared himself willing to treat for peace as soon as direct communications should be addressed to his representatives by the Porte. On the 1 4th of January commissioners were sent to the head- quarters of the Grand Duke Nicholas at Kesanlik to treat for an armistice and for preliminaries of peace. The Rus- sians, now in the full tide of victory, were in no hurry to agree with their adversary. Nicholas bade the Turkish envoys accompany him to Adrianople, and it was not until the 3ist of January that the armistice was granted and the preliminaries of peace signed. The bases of the peace which were made the condi- tions of the armistice granted at Adrianople formed with little alteration the substance of the treaty signed by Rus- sia and Turkey at San Stefano, a village on the Sea of Marmora, on the 3d of March. By this treaty the Porte VOI,. 2 2^ 370 MODERN EUROPE recognized the independence of Servia, Montenegro, and Roumania, and made considerable concessions of territory to the two former States. Bulgaria was constituted an autonomous tributary Principality, with a Christian Gov- ernment and a national militia. Its frontier, which was made so extensive as to include the greater part of Euro- pean Turkey, was defined as beginning near Midia on the Black Sea, not sixty miles from the Bosphorus; passing thence westward just to the north of Adrianople; descend- ing to the ^Egean Sea, and following the coast as far as the Thracian Chersonese; then passing inland westward, so as barely to exclude Salonika; running on to the border of Albania within fifty miles of the Adriatic, and from this point following the Albanian border up to the new Servian frontier. The Prince of Bulgaria was to be freely elected by the population, and confirmed by the Porte, with the assent of the powers; a system of administration was to be drawn up by an assembly of Bulgarian notables ; and the introduction of the new system into Bulgaria with superintendence of its working was to be entrusted for two years to a Russian Commissioner. Until the native militia was organized, Russian troops, not exceeding 50,000 in number, were to occupy the country; this occu- pation, however, was to be limited to a term approximat- ing to two years. In Bosnia and Herzegovina the pro- posals laid before the Porte at the first sitting of the Con- ference of 1876 were to be immediately introduced, sub- ject to such modifications as might be agreed upon between Turkey, Russia, and Austria. The Porte undertook to apply scrupulously in Crete the Organic Law, which had been drawn up in 1868, taking into account the previously expressed wishes of the native population. An analogous law, adapted to local requirements, was, after being com- municated to the Czar, to be introduced into Epirus, Thes- THE EASTERN QUESTION 371 saly, and other parts of Turkey in Europe, for which a special constitution was not provided by the treaty. Com- missions, in which the native population was to be largely represented, were in each province to be entrusted with the task of elaborating the details of the new organization. In Armenia the Sultan undertook to carry into effect with- out further delay the improvements and reforms demanded by local requirements, and to guarantee the security of the Armenians from Kurds and Circassians. As an indemnity for the losses and expenses of the war the Porte admitted itself to be indebted to Russia in the sum of 1,400,000,000 roubles; but in accordance with the wishes of the Sultan, and in consideration of the finan- cial embarrassments of Turkey, the Czar consented to accept in substitution for the greater part of this sum the cession of Dobrudscha in Europe and of the districts of Ardahan, Kars, Batoum, Bayazid in Asia. As to the bal- ance of 300,000,000 roubles left due to Russia, the mode of payment or guarantee was to be settled by an under- standing between the two Governments. Dobrudscha was to be given by the Czar to Roumania in exchange for Bessarabia, which this State was to transfer to Russia. The complete evacuation of Turkey in Europe was to take place within three months, that of Turkey in Asia within six months from the conclusion of peace. The Congress of Berlin, at which Disraeli himself and Lord Salisbury represented Great Britain, opened on the 1 3th of June. Though the compromise between England and Russia had been settled in general terms, the arrange- ment of details opened such a series of difficulties that the Congress seemed more than once on the point of breaking up. It was mainly due to the perseverance and wisdom of Prince Bismarck, who transferred the discussion of the most crucial points from the Congress to private meetings 372 MODERN EUROPE of his guests, and who himself acted as conciliator when Gortschakoff folded up his maps or Lord Beaconsfield ordered a special train, that the work was at length achieved. The Treaty of Berlin, signed on the I3th of July, confined Bulgaria, as an autonomous Principality, to the country north of the Balkans, and diminished the authority which, pending the establishment of its definite system of government, would by the Treaty of San Stef- ano, have belonged to a Russian Commissioner. The por- tion of Bulgaria south of the Balkans, but extending no farther west than the valley of the Maritza, and no farther south than Mount Rhodope, was formed into a Province of East Roumelia, to remain subject to the direct political and military authority of the Sultan, under conditions of administrative autonomy. The Sultan was declared to possess the right of erecting fortifications both on the coast and on the land frontier of this province, and of maintaining troops there. Alike in Bulgaria and in Eastern Roumelia, the period of occupation by Russian troops was limited to nine months. Bosnia and Herze- govina were handed over to Austria, to be occupied and administered by that power. The concessions of territory made to Servia and Montenegro in the Treaty of San Stefano were modified with the object of interposing a broader strip between these two States; Bayazid was omitted from the ceded districts in Asia, and the Czar declared it his intention to erect Batoum into a free port, essentially commercial. At the instance of France, the provisions relating to the Greek provinces of Turkey were superseded by a vote in favor of the cession of part of these provinces to the Hellenic Kingdom. The Sultan was recommended to cede Thessaly and part of Epirus to Greece, the powers reserving to themselves the right of offering their mediation to facilitate the negotiations. In THE EASTERN QUESTION 373 other respects the provisions of the Treaty of San Stefano were confirmed without substantial change. The Treaty of Berlin settled the Eastern Question no more than did the Crimean War. It has only postponed the inevitable dissolution of the Turkish Empire. The French invaded Tunis in 1881. Soon afterward it passed under the protection of France. In 1881 there was a revolution in Eastern Roumelia, which was united to Bul- garia. The Moslems have persisted in their traditional policy of oppression of the Christians resident in their ter- ritories, and have escaped the penalties of their crimes by the skillful diplomacy of Abdul-Hamid, who became Sul- tan in 1876. There have been constant troubles with the Arabians, and the Macedonians have striven for independ- ence in an ineffectual fashion that has not diminished the constant massacres that are laying waste the country that gave birth to Alexander the Great, Aristotle, and Philip of Macedon. But the powers have used their influence to prevent insurrections, and refused to interfere at the time of the Armenian massacres (1894-96), which seem to have exceeded in their atrocity those that led to the Russo- Turkish War. Insurrections in Crete broke out in 1877, 1885, 1887, and 1889, but finally became more serious in 1895 and 1896. The Greek Government was forced to war against its will, by the pressure of public opinion, to protect the Cretans. The powers forbade them to fight, and prevented a rising in the Balkans by diplomatic pres- sure. The Turks easily defeated the Greeks, who lost heavily during the brief war. Meanwhile the warships of Great Britain, France, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Rus- sia, and Italy blockaded Crete and defeated the insurgents. When peace was restored between Greece and Turkey, the powers made Crete a tributary State, with Prince George of Greece as Governor ( 1898). 374 MODERN EUROPE Diplomats believed that as autonomous States Rou- mania, Greece, Montenegro, Servia, and Bulgaria, the five States created by the wars of the Nineteenth Century, were in danger of becoming Russian dependencies in fact if not in name. No such fate has befallen them. They have shown signs of strong national life, and although their internal administration has been wholly quiet, Russian intrigues have failed. They have prospered since they were released from the Turkish yoke, and show no desire for union with Russia, although all are adherents of the Eastern Orthodox or Greek Church. But there has never been a time when they did not dream of bringing the same blessings of liberty to their fellow Christians who are being massacred, or condemned to worse fates, by their Ottoman masters. In this sense they have been disturbers of the tranquillity of the great powers, but pressure from the latter has been sufficient to preserve any serious breach of the peace, with the sole exception of the Cretan insur- rection. DECADENCE OF SPAIN There is a pathetic side to the vanishing from the list of great powers of the Nation that at one time was the most powerful in the world. Time was when Spain's flag waved from every Continent, and Philip II was the most famous conqueror of his day. It was the Emperor Charles V who first made the proud boast that on his dominions the sun never set, nor was it an idle word, but a plain statement of fact. At its greatest extent the Spanish Empire spread so far beyond the limits of the peninsula that the original boundaries of the Spanish State inclosed its smallest possession. The sway of Charles was acknowl- edged, not only over Spain, of which he was the hereditary monarch, but in a large part of Southern Italy, in Sicily, in Portugal and in the Netherlands, while as Emperor he ruled over a considerable portion of the present possessions of Austria and all the small States, which, almost from the dawn of authentic history, have been grouped under the general name of Germany. In America the Spanish power was acknowledged over a territory so vast as to make the mightiest Empires of antiquity seem contempti- ble by comparison. Charles claimed for his own the 8,000,000 square miles of North America and the 7,000,- ooo of South America, a grand total of 15,000,000 square miles on this side of the Atlantic, while his possessions in Africa, Asia, and the innumerable islands that, in every sea, acknowledged allegiance to the Spanish throne, brought up, with the European States, the area of the Empire to a grand total of not fewer and perhaps more than 17,000,000 square miles. Never before 375 3 y6 MODERN EUROPE nor since has so vast a territory been governed by one man. The Czar of Russia rules a territory a little more than half the size of that which owned the sway of Charles; the British flag floats over much less than two-thirds that area; the Roman eagles, in the golden days of Trajan, were honored over a territory only one- sixth as large as the dominions of Charles, while the Empires of Greece, and Assyria, and Babylon, and the great States founded by the Moguls and Genghis Khan, were petty by comparison with the Spanish dominions. Over 100 different political commonwealths have been carved out of the Spanish Empire, and still the process is going on. Yet the Nineteenth Century has seen the completion of the story of the loss of this great Empire. No country was probably ever so cursed with fanatical and imbecile Kings as Spain was during the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries. Each seemed, if possible, a little worse than his predecessors, a little more stupid, a little more bigoted, and a little less able to see facts that were obvious to all others. Provinces and dependent States were in constant insurrection, many of which were successful, and Spain's possessions fell a prey to her more wisely ruled neighbors. The Eighteenth Century was a period of almost uninter- rupted disaster. Two unsuccessful wars were waged with England; during one, Gibraltar became an English pos- session; during the other, when Spain took sides with France after the Revolution, the Spanish fleet was destroyed, all the ports of Spain were blockaded, and the country reduced to abject misery. But these great mis- fortunes were small when compared to those which canie in the first quarter of this Century. The attempt of Napo- leon to force a French King upon the Spanish people led DECADENCE OF SPAIN 377 to a guerrilla war against the invaders which raged for years in every nook and corner of the peninsula, and, though successful, left the country a barren waste. The officers of Wellington's army have left accounts of the pitiable condition of Spain and its inhabitants as witnessed during their campaigns against the French. Throughout whole Provinces not a farm was under cultivation; heaps of ashes and standing chimneys marked the sites of towns and villages, and a few ragged, starving wretches, pick- ing up acorns in the forests, represented the population. Such was the state of Spain at the end of Napoleon's wars, and worse was to come, for three years after Napo- leon had been sent to St. Helena, mutterings of revolt were heard in the American colonies. By 1820 the whole of Spanish America was in open insurrection.* Heroic attempts were made by the Government to put down the rebellions that had sprung up all over the Spanish colonies, but from Mexico to Chili the whole country was up and armed, and the few troops that could be sent from Spain accomplished nothing. The same policy afterward was pros- ecuted in Cuba that of extermination was attempted in America, but the Spaniards were too few to exterminate whole Nations, and, though the war was prosecuted with as much vigor as could be shown by a degenerate race, before the close of 1826 the Spaniards had been driven from every position on the mainland of America and their splendid Empire was gone. Since then the decline of Spain has been still more marked than before. Revolution has succeeded revolution; a war with France in 1823, civil wars in the Basque country, the Carlist war and other struggles have tended to weaken the Nation, while indus- tries are paralyzed, agriculture is at a standstill, and, after * See Volume " American History." 37S MODERN EUROPE the war with America banished the Spaniards from Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philippines, of its former greatness Spain retained only the pride of recollection. So rapid a decline and a fall so great have not taken place without attracting the attention of philosophical minds, which have exerted themselves to discover and explain the causes of the decay of an Empire that com- prised more territory within its limits than any other known to the historian. It is interesting to observe that, in general, the historians have explained the phenomenon according to their own prejudices. The Protestant uses the decline as an object lesson against the prevalent reli- gion of Spain, finding a full and satisfactory explanation in the Inquisition and the suppression of the freedom of religious opinion; one Catholic historian, on the contrary, attributes the decadence to the leniency in dealing with heresy in its early stages, affirming that had Charles V exerted due diligence in stamping out the Reformation in Germany, Spain would be to-day what she was then, the greatest power on the earth. The political economist teaches that the enormous wealth brought from America, instead of enriching, really impoverished Spain, since it induced neglect of home industries and generated an extravagance which became the ruin of the Nation. Pride of character and an arrogance that excited the hatred of all foreigners and the antagonism of all foreign States ; the warlike habits of the Spanish people, confirmed by eight Centuries of constant conflict with the Moors, drain- ing the country of its best men and leaving only the weakly and infirm, each and every one of these causes, together with innumerable others, have been upheld by able advo- cates. Explain it as we may, the fact remains, that from whatever cause or causes, the Spain of to-day is but a phan- tom of the Spain of three Centuries ago; the splendid DECADENCE OF SPAIN 379 Empire of Charles V and Philip II has not melted away. It has been violently rent in pieces, and not a leading power in the world but has grown great, in some degree, at the expense of Spain. The history of Spain in the Nineteenth Century has had but slight connection with that of the rest of Europe. It has been a story of civil wars, usually brought about by the wickedness of the Bourbon rulers. An absolute monarchy, reestablished in 1814, broken only by an interval of two years, 1821-23, lasted until the death of Ferdinand VII, in 1833. Then followed a long period of disturbance, during which the followers of Don Carlos, the brother of Ferdinand, fought against the succession of his infant daughter. Modern ideas and the old monarchical rights were in continual opposi- tion until the Regent, Christina, succeeded in binding the Liberal party to her daughter Isabella's cause by granting a constitution in 1837. The very doubtfulness of Queen Isabella's title to the throne afforded, or seemed to afford, a guarantee of her fidelity to the con- stitution. The Spanish Generals, in consequence, es- poused her cause with enthusiasm. Both France and England sided with the dynasty which supported the principles of constitutional monarchy, and at last, after a warfare waged with varying fortunes and unvarying ferocity, Don Carlos quitted Spain in despair in 1839, and the question of his succession was considered to be finally settled in favor of Isabella II, a child not yet in her teens. The new dynasty was not conducted with prudence. Three months after the death of her husband, Christina remarried they called it that although it was not recognized for eleven years. Her spouse was a young and handsome dragoon, named Munoz, who was made 3So MODERN EUROPE Duke de Rianzares because of his connection with roy- alty. But Christina did not confine her affections to the man she made Duke. There were other men equally favored, and it was amid such influences that Isabella reached her majority, which, as she was Queen, was when she was thirteen years of age. One of her first acts was to ratify the marriage of her mother, made eleven years before. Isabella II had been educated in a school of vice, and she did credit to her bringing up. From the first, even at the tender age of thirteen, she began the series of gallantries, as they are called in the case of Queens, which have made her notorious, and which finally forced her from the throne. Absolutism drept into the Govern- ment, the constitution was abolished, and the press was restricted. It was thought that it was time for Isabella to marry and Louis Philippe proposed that his son should marry Isabella's sister, while Isabella should be given to her cousin on her father's side, Francisco d'Assizi, who could never be a father. He thus hoped to secure the successor for his own son, and finally suc- ceeded in overcoming the opposition to the marriage, after a long diplomatic conference, known as the ques- tion of the "Spanish Marriages," in which all Europe took part. Isabella almost immediately proceeded to compensate herself for the manage de convenance, and Marshal Serrano was the most conspicuous of her favorites. While yet a bride she used to address him as her "bonita Francisco," and the court generally believed he stood in the place of her husband. Meanwhile her mother, Christina, while nominally no longer Regent, really ruled the country. Isabella bore a son in 1851, and, in spite of her husband's impotence and the general belief that Serrano was the boy's father, as the child was DECADENCE OF SPAIN 381 born in wedlock he ascended to the throne in due time. That son was Alfonso XII, the late King of Spain, and father of Alfonso XIII, the child who has nominally ruled since his birth, six months after the death of his sire. To the amazement of Europe, and the disgust of her own subjects, Isabella ruled and reveled for thirty- five years. Her throne even withstood the revolutions of 1848, the effects of which were scarcely felt in Spain. Yet the liberal spirit grew, while the smouldering dis- content gave rise to another Carlist insurrection. Don Carlos, the first pretender, died in 1855. But a second pretender rose in his son, Don Carlos, Count de Montemolin. In 1860 an attempt was made at Va- lencia to stir up another Carlist insurrection, in conse- quence of which the pretender and his brother, Fer- dinand, were arrested, but liberated after they had signed a renunciation of their claims to the Spanish throne. At last the scandals and absolutism of Isabella's reign were too much for her subjects, and revolution broke out. The war with Morocco accomplished little, while the Spanish expedition against Mexico in 1861 'failed, and the war with Chili, Peru, and Ecuador (1864 and 1865) proved Spain's weakness. General Prim and Marshal Serrano the former favorite, succeeded by innumerable lovers, had been exiled placed themselves at the head of the revolutionists. Isabella fled, as all Spain was demanding her dethronement, and Madrid opened its gates to the victorious Generals. Isabella fled to Paris, where she has lived since the same life, and although now (1899) sixty-six years of age, she still has her lovers. In 1868 began one of the most stormy periods in the history of Spain, which, was torn with civil war, 32 MODERN EUROPE resulting from the claims of the factions of the revolu- tionists. It was in this year, too, that the Ten Years' War in Cuba began. The men at the head of affairs proclaimed a constitu- tion and then tried to find a ruler for Spain. The nephew of the former Don Carlos and the present pre- tender hastened to offer himself; not finding his offer welcomed, he incited uprisings in 1869, 1870, and 1872, which were speedily repressed. The constitution of February 18, 1869, provided for a monarch, but there was none. In the meantime the real ruler of the country was the Minister-President and Minister of War, Count Prim. Espareto, Don Fernando (father of the King of Portugal), King Louis of Portugal himself, the Duke of Aosta (son of Victor Emmanuel), Prince Thomas of Genoa, all in turn refused. The Duke of Montpensier, brother-in-law to the ex-Queen, would have accepted, but the temper of the country was against Bourbons. One of those offered the throne was Prince Leopold of Hohenzollern, who at first accepted, but then refused, and the tender of the throne to whom furnished Na- poleon III with the pretext for the Frana>German War, that ended so disastrously for France. Finally, after two years without a ruler, Marshal Prim succeeded in inducing Duke Amadeo, second son of the King of Italy, to accept the crown, and the Cortes elected him (November 16, 1870) by a vote of 191 to> 98. Before the new King took the oath of office (January 2, 1871) Marshal Prim had been assassinated, and he lost his strongest support. Amadeo> was unable to secure a Ministry because of the division of the parties in the Cortes, and after three years of insults, he resigned (February 8, 1873). The Carlists then again appeared on the scene, while, seeing that some government was DECADENCE OF SPAIN 383 necessary, a Republic was established immediately, with Fogueras as President of a Council of Ministers, in which Castelar was Minister of Foreign Affairs. When the Spanish Republic of 1873 came into being it found itself face to face with this issue : What sort of a shape, centralized or Federal, shall the Government take? Shall it follow the model of France or shall it adopt that of the United States? The third French Republic, the one which is still in existence, had just been created, and its establishment was one of the forces which gave direction and impulse to republican sentiment in Spain. The question of the shape which the Gov- ernment should take had not presented itself to the Spanish Republicans until the moment when the actual- work, of building the Government's framework had arrived. This unreadiness was due in part to the sud- denness of Amadeo's abdication. But it was also due to an absence of practical statesmen among the Repub- lican chieftains. To use an American illustration, the Spanish Republicans of 1873 had many Samuel Adamses and Patrick Henrys, but they had no George Washing- tons, Alexander Hamiltons, or Thomas Jeffersons. Most of the rank and file of the Republicans wanted a government on the United States model. Practically the whole of their best-known leaders favored the French form. The Federal plan, of course, would give more local liberty, and this is why the Republican masses desired it. The centralized system would furnish greater stability and security to the Nation, and for this reason the Republican chieftains advocated it. If a Federal system was formed, with autonomy for each province, its friends believed that conscription could be evaded and some of the National taxes dodged or at least they could be reduced. These were among the reasons why 384 MODERN EUROPE the more intelligent and experienced Republicans op- posed federation. They said that if local home rule were granted, the army and navy would soon fall to pieces, the latter through the refusal of some or many of the prov- inces to make appropriations for its support, and the former through the failure to furnish it either money or men. Moreover, the opponents of federation contended that under a Federal system some of the provinces near the Pyrenees might secede and join France, the Basque Provinces in the same quarter would be likely to choose Don Carlos as a ruler, while some of the states border- ing on the Mediterranean might set up a republic for themselves. These were the ideas and arguments of the two great factions into which the Spanish Republicans were thrown when Amadeo's sudden abandonment of the throne brought the Republic to the front. The Con- servative faction the centralizers as distinguished from the Federationists, the advocates of the French Govern- mental plan as against the United States system beat the Radical element. That is, the programme of the Intransigente party, or the ultras, for a Federal Republic with home rule on the American plan for the different provinces, was defeated. In defeating it, however, the "red demagogy of socialism" united with the "white demagogy of Carlism" in making the seven months' life of the so-called Republic of 1873-4 one of the most turbulent periods in Spain's history in the present Cen- tury. Margall, Salmeron, and Castelar followed each other quickly as heads of the Republic between June 8, J 873, when Margall was chosen, and January 3, 1874, when General Pavia dispersed the Cortes, Castelar re- signed and the Republic collapsed. "Glass, handle with care !" was the label which Castelar, at the beginning of DECADENCE OF SPAIN 385 Amadeo's reign, in 1871, placed upon the young- im- ported Italian monarch's regime. This inscription would do for an epitaph for Castelar's Republic. After the Cortes had been dispersed by Pavia, a mili- tary dictatorship was set up under Marshal Serrano, and another Carlist war began. Serrano took the field in person, but was unable to break through the strong lines of the Carlists at Sommorostro in the battles of March 25 and 26, but receiving reinforcements, he renewed the attack and forced the pretender's forces to abandon all their positions, raise the siege of Bilboa and evacuate Portugalete (May i). Concha, in command of the army of the North, was defeated in a three days' battle (July), and fell fighting on the field. But the Carlists neglected to make proper strategetical use of their victory, and were barbarous enough to shoot a number of their pris- oners. Don Alonzo, brother of Don Carlos, on cap- turing Cuenca (July 15) gave it over to plunder, fire, and sword. Meanwhile Serrano had been unable to col- lect a sufficient force to drive the enemy back to the French frontier. Unexpected allies were raised for Marshal Serrano by the Carlists' disregard of the laws of civilized warfare. The pretender had caused (June 30, 1874) Schmidt, a former Prussian captain, while acting as correspondent of German papers in Concha's head- quarters at Estella, to be shot, upon his falling into his hands, although he was a non-combatant. This action, and the generally barbarous methods by which the Carlists waged war, led Bismarck to take diplomatic steps against them. The legitimists in France had been aiding the pretender and he had also been supplied with funds by ultramontanists in Austria and Rome. Bis- marck induced the other powers to give Serrano official VOX,. 2 25 386 MODERN EUROPE recognition, and the French Government enforced a real neutrality. Germany, by sending ships of war to the Bay of Biscay, took active steps to prevent the smug- gling in of contraband of war. Meanwhile, the Nation was without a real head, while the Carlists still won scattering successes, which were due in no small part to the fact that many people would have welcomed any King. So in Murviedro (December 29, 1874) General Martinez Campos, who, like most of the officers, was an adherent of the deposed Bourbon dynasty, proclaimed the son of the ex-Queen Isabella King with the title Alphonso XII. The proclamation was received with joy. The army accepted him immediately and the politicians, seeing that resist' ance was useless, acquiesced. Serrano resigned the Presi dency and a Regency was formed with Canovas del Cas- tillos as its chief (December 31). Alphonso accepted, and, on January 15, 1875, when not quite eighteen years of age, entered Madrid to assume the monarchy. The Carlist revolt was finally suppressed in 1876. The Spanish Government had 100,000 soldiers in the field, while the pretender, who had retreated to the Val- ley of Roncesvalles, could muster scarcely 2,000 men. Resistance was hopeless under such circumstances, and February 28 Don Carlos crossed the French frontier, his followers were disarmed, he himself was invited by the French Government to take up his residence in some other country, and the insurrection was at an end. The several constitutions which Spain has had influ- enced the formation of the one which was promulgated in June 30, 1876. It was prepared by the Government and adopted, after discussion by an Assembly chosen under limited suffrage, a year after the accession of Al- phonso XII. The rights of individuals and the sacredness DECADENCE OF SPAIN 387 of private property were insured and the right of free speech and of Assembly were guaranteed to all. The Kingdom was made a constitutional monarchy. This is largely in theory, however, as ambiguous or qualifying clauses place the real power in the hands of the Sover- eign, although all his decrees must be countersigned by at least one of his Ministers, and he is dependent upon his Ministry. Worn out by civil war, Spain took a respite from disorder during the rule of Alphonso XII. When he died his daughter succeeded him until the birth of a posthumous son, who was born (May 17, 1886) after the Queen Dowager Maria Christina had been declared Regent. A devoted mother, she has done her best to secure her throne for her son, and has favored the Lib- eral party, which has seemed to afford the best guarantee of his retention occupying the throne. Confidence in the wisdom of the Queen-Regent and her Ministers led to the raising in rank of the diplomatic representatives of Germany, Austria, Italy, and England from that of Min- ister to that of Ambassador, thus placing Spain nomi- nally among first-class powers. Trial by jury was intro- duced by the Senate and put in force in Madrid, May 29, 1889. Yet the reign has been marked by many internal disorders. Don Carlos protested against the recogni- tion of the baby King, and (September 19, 1886) there was an insurrection in Madrid. Inundations through- out the central and southern parts of the peninsula (September, 1891) rendered over 100,000 persons home- less. Widespread rioting was excited by the Octrois duties (July 17, 1892). A cargo of dynamite, exploding in the harbor of Santander (November 4, 1893), killed about 1,000 people, and wrecked part of the town. This led to the proclaiming of martial law, with Captain- 388 MODERN EUROPE General Campos in charge of the military forces, but before the Anarchists were punished, the explosion of a bomb in a theater at Barcelona (November 7) killed thirty and injured eighty persons, while another explo- sion in the harbor of Santander (March 22, 1894) sac- rificed thirty lives. Meanwhile the Kingdom has been harassed by financial difficulties. The series of insurrections in Cuba culminated in the war beginning in 1895, which sacrificed so many lives, and cost Spain so much treas- ure. The war with America, which grew out of the Cuban dispute (1898), led to a further expenditure of blood and treasure, and the destruction of the best ships in the Spanish navy. The close of the Nineteenth Cen- tury finds Spain bankrupt, and stripped of its colonies, staggering under a heavy debt, which it seems impossible to pay. RUSSIA'S INCREASE IN POWER AND INFLUENCE While the Nineteenth Century has seen the decad- ence of the Latin race as represented by France and Spain, it has seen the rise to power and influence of a new rival, the Slav, to dispute with the Anglo-Saxon for the supremacy of the world. In spite of reverses toward the middle of the century, there has been a startling in- crease of Russian power during the last 100 years. The acquisitions of the Russian Empire during the Nine- teenth Century are greater in extent and importance than the whole of European Russia before that time. Her frontier has been advanced toward Stockholm 630 miles, toward Berlin 700 miles, toward Constantinople 500 miles, toward India 1,300 miles. Her territory in Europe comprises more than one-half that Continent. It stretches across Asia to the Pacific Ocean. A well- known traveler gives a graphic illustration of the extent of the Empire of the Cossacks in Asia. He says : "You could take the whole of the United States from Maine to California, from Lake Superior to the Gulf of Mexico, and set it down in the middle of Siberia without touch- ing its borders. You could then take Alaska and all the countries of Europe except Russia and fit them in little pieces of a dessicated map round the edges of the United States as it lay in the middle of Siberia, and you would still have left more than 300,000 square miles of Siberian territory." "In this vast region," says Elizabeth Worm- ley Larimer in her history of "Russia and Turkey in the 389 390 MODERN EUROPE Nineteenth Century," "is every variety of climate, from arctic to tropical." It was held by many persons of political sagacity that the fall of Napoleon transferred the Empire of the world to Russia. Her magnificent success had raised her to a place of commanding authority in the direction of European affairs. A century before, Russia was un- known to the politics of Europe; now, through the Holy Alliance, she was their supreme arbitress. Soon the belief was widely entertained that power so vast, guided by ambition, unbounded and unscrupulous, involved peril to all other European nations. Nowhere, perhaps, was this impression more firmly held than by the Rus- sians themselves, who now indulged in arrogant con- tempt of the institutions and customs of their neighbors, and claimed for their own arms a supremacy which was wholly irresistible. For forty years the National vanity suffered no abatement. The influence of Russia continued to in- crease, and it was centered more exclusively in the per- son of the Emperor. During the latter years of the reign of Nicholas his despotism was absolute almost beyond example. There was no will in the State but his. He could brook no contradiction; toward the close his most trusted counselors dared not offer any so ter- rible became the wrath of the aged tyrant. Mute sub- mission was the attitude of the people. Education was discouraged because the universities might be nurseries of liberal tendencies. The slightest breath of political criticism in a newspaper was instantly punished by the ruin of the too daring journalist. All the interests, ma- terial and intellectual, of a great Nation were fashioned according to the unrestrained pleasure of an honest but narrow and obstinate man. Nicholas learned to dislike RUSSIA'S INCREASE IN POWER 391 Western ideas. Progress and culture were distasteful to him. He wished to shut out all foreign influences, and to that end he put a stop to the extension of railways. He avowed his contempt for the arts of peace, and deemed it the grand work of his life to enhance the mili- tary greatness of Russia, The Peace of Jassy, in 1792, extended the Russian frontier to the Dniester; and after further war the Treaty of Bucharest, in 1812, gave Russia the possession of Bessarabia, and brought her border to the Pruth. Mah- moud II, a man of great ability and vigor, ruled Turkey from 1808 to 1839. In pursuit of internal reform he resolved to get rid of the turbulent Janizaries, and, hav- ing formed an army upon the European system, Mah- moud destroyed the dangerous Prsetorians by massacre in June, 1826. The Turks lost Greece. In 1828 war with Russia began again, and, after alternations of suc- cess the Russian General Diebitsch, in 1829, captured Salistra, crossed the Balkans, and reached Adrianople, and the war ended in terms that further weakened the Ottomans. Turkey gave up to Russia much of the eastern coast of the Black Sea, and the virtual possession af Wallachia and Moldavia. About the same time Rus- sia gained, by successes over Persia, increased command over the Caspian and the Caucasus. Mehemet Ali, Pasha of Egypt, and really master of both Egypt and Syria, rebelled against the Sultan, in 1833, and marched through Asia Minor to within 120 miles of Constan- tinople. The Porte, in distress, accepted Russian aid and Russian soldiers were encamped on the heights of Scutari, with the dome of St. Sophia before them, and the waters of the Golden Horn at their feet. After forc- ing Mehemet Ali to retreat, Russia withdrew her troops, but made a secret arrangement with Turkey (in the 392 MODERN EUROPE Treaty of Hunkiar-Skelessi) that the Dardanelles should be closed against the armed vessels of all nations except Russia. The other powers of Europe took alarm at Russian encroachment, and in 1841 the Treaty of Lon- don, signed by Turkey, Russia, Austria, England, and France, provided that the Dardanelles should be closed against all ships of war whatsoever, so long as Turkey should remain at peace. In 1849 Russia obtained an- other agreement from, Turkey, which allowed the Czar to "protect" Moldavia and Wallachia whenever he pleased. The Russians entered upon the contest with Eng- land and France in the Crimean War convinced that their Emperor and his army were invincible. It was impossible to believe that the power which for forty years had wielded unlimited authority was now to stoop to defeat and humiliation. The Nation took up arms in the fullest confidence that their Emperor would lead them to victory. Nicholas periled upon the issue of the war not only his military greatness, but the whole enor- mous fabric of despotism which he had builded so labori- ously. The triumph of the Western powers during the Crimean War produced a vast change on Russian opinion. Not only was the believing devotion of the people to their Emperor overthrown, but the policy which he had established was utterly discredited. The ruthlessness of his despotism was lightly regarded in the days of success; now that the blight of defeat had fallen upon him, its enormous evils became at once the subject of deep and universal reprobation. And when the ancient monarch had passed away from the ruins of his political system (1855) a sense of relief was experienced. It was deemed better that Nicholas should die; for he RUSSIA'S INCREASE IN POWER 393 could never have adapted himself to the changes which his own blind obstinacy had rendered inevitable. Under the rule of his successor, Alexander II (1855- 1881), the despotic system of Nicholas was to an im- portant extent departed from. The newspaper press experienced sudden enlargement. So urgent was the demand for political discussion, that within a year or two from the close of the war seventy new journals were founded in St. Petersburg and Moscow alone. The Government censors discharged their functions with the mildness which the liberal impulses of the time de- manded. For a brief space the press enjoyed a virtual freedom from restraint, and availed itself boldly of the unprecedented opportunity. Western Europe had been shut out by the Emperor Nicholas. Its liberal ideas, the history of its recent political revolutions, its marvelous progress in science and the arts all were unknown to the Russian people. Educated Russians were eager to acquaint themselves with this long-forbidden knowl- edge, and a crowd of journalists, burning with a love of liberal ideas, hastened to gratify the desire. An en- franchised press began to call loudly for the education of the people, for their participation in political power; for many other needful reforms. Chief among these, not merely in its urgency, but also in its popularity, was the emancipation of the serfs. Forty-eight million Russian peasants were in bond- age subject to the arbitrary will of an owner bought and sold with the properties on which they labored. This unhappy system was of no great antiquity, for it was not till the close of the Sixteenth Century that the Russian peasant became a serf. The evil institution had begun to die out in the West before it was legalized in 394 MODERN EUROPE Russia. Its abolition had long been looked forward to. Catherine II had contemplated this great reform, and so had her grandson, Alexander I; but the wars in which they spent their days forbade progress in any useful direction. Nicholas very early in his reign appointed a secret commission to consider the question; but the Polish insurrection of 1830 marred his design. Another fruitless effort was made in 1836. In 1838 a third com- mittee was appointed, but its work was suspended by "a bad harvest," and never resumed. Finally, it was asserted that the dying Emperor bequeathed to his son the task which he himself had not been permitted to accomplish. Thus when Alexander ascended the throne the gen- eral expectation of his people pointed to the emancipa- tion of the serfs. The Emperor shared in the National desire. At his coronation he prepared the somewhat reluctant nobles for the change which to so many of them was unwelcome. A little later he nominated a committee chosen from the proprietors, whose duty it was to frame, in accordance with certain principles laid down for their guidance, the details of this great revolu- tion. Three years followed of discussion, adjustment, revision, and then the decree was published (February 19, 1861), which conferred freedom upon nearly 50,000,- ooo Russian peasants. The position of the Russian serf, although it had much to degrade, was without the repul- sive features of ordinary slavery. The estate of the Rus- sian land-owner was divided into two portions. The smaller of the two usually not more than one-third was retained for the use of the proprietor. The larger was made over to the village community, by whom it was cultivated, and to whom its fruits belonged. The members of that community were all serfs, owned by the 395 great lord and subject to his will. He could punish them by stripes when they displeased him; when he sold his lands he sold also the population. He could make or enforce such claims upon their labor as seemed good to him. Custom, however, had imposed reasona- ble limitations upon such claims. He selected a por- tion of his serfs to cultivate his fields and form his ret- inue. The remainder divided their time equally between his fields and their own; three days in each week belonged to their master, and three days belonged to themselves. Many of them purchased for a moderate pay- ment the privilege of entire exemption from the work of their owner. It was customary for these enterprising bondmen to settle in the nearest city, where occasionally they attained to wealth and consideration. Instances have occurred of wealthy bankers and merchants who still remained the property of a master, to whom a humiliating recognition of their servile estate was peri- odically offered. The lands which were in possession of the villagers were divided by lot among the separate families. As the number of claimants fluctuated, a fresh division was made every ninth year. A villager never lost sight of his right to participate in the common inheritance. He might be absent for years, seeking his fortune in the city, but when it pleased him to return and claim his interest in the lands of his native village, the claim could not be resisted. The law of emancipation bestowed personal freedom on the serfs. For two years those who were household servants must abide in their service, receiv- ing, however, wages for their work. Those who had purchased exemption from the obligation to labor for their lord were to continue for two years the annual pay- ment. At the end of that time all serfs entered on pos- 396 MODERN EUROPE session of unqualified freedom. The villagers con- tinued in occupation of the lands they had heretofore possessed; but they became bound to pay a purchase price or a sufficient equivalent in rent or in labor. In 1862 Russia completed a thousand years of Na- tional existence, and Alexander honored the great anni- versary by enacting certain further reforms. Hitherto the administration of justice had been incredibly cor- rupt. All judicial proceedings were secret. Govern- ment officers could at pleasure arrest or modify the course of justice. A favorable judgment could almost always be obtained by purchase. Appeals were so numer- ous that a wealthy litigant could avert almost indefi- nitely a judgment which was not acceptable to> him. The judges were ignorant; the forms and precedents by which they ought to be guided were cumbrous and in- accessible. The people had, with reason, utterly lost confidence in the courts of justice. Suddenly the Em- peror applied a remedy to these disorders (September, 1862). In future competent judges were to be appointed by the State; all judicial transactions were to be public; Government interposition was excluded; trial by jury in criminal cases was established, and a wholesome limit to the right of appeal was imposed. These reforms have proved to be of the highest value; and the newly appointed tribunals soon began to gain the confidence of the people. Hitherto there had been no shadow of self-govern- ment even in municipal or provincial affairs. All de- pended on the arbitrary pleasure of the Sovereign and his Ministers. Outside the circle of individual interests there was no will but that of the executive. The peasant ploughed his field, the merchant directed his commercial affairs; but all beyond, whether local or imperial, was RUSSIA'S INCREASE IN POWER 397 under the irresponsible control of the Government. This unhappy condition of affairs was now to experience a certain measure of amelioration. A system of district and provincial assemblies (Zemstvos) was organized. The district Assembly was chosen by all classes of the community proprietors, citizens, and peasants. These assemblies elected certain of their own members to form the provincial assemblies. The interests confided to the new organizations were wholly local. They were em- powered to maintain highways, to make arrangements for the welfare of local trade and industry, to levy those taxes which government had imposed. With politics they might not intermeddle, and the Government watched jealously any disposition to stray into this for- bidden field. The ignorant peasant class preponderates in these assemblies, and their action thus far has not been attended with any notable advantage to the com- munity. The Russian peasant manifests little desire for the possession of self-government and no aptitude for its exercise. His performance of public duty does not therefore tend to educate and elevate his character. He seems to be contented with autocratic rule rather than those popular institutions which are the glory of the enlightened Western nations. Nor were these the only reforms which Alexander bestowed on his people. Flogging in the army was discontinued. Some measure of toleration was extended to the strange and fanatical sects, who, by their irrepres- sible dissent, had long troubled the Orthodox Church. Considerable pains have been taken to improve the church herself and raise the standard of intelligence in the priesthood. An amnesty permitted the return of many of those who had suffered banishment under the savage rule of Nicholas. The construction of railways 398 MODERN EUROPE was promoted. The cost of a passport hitherto eighty pounds, four hundred dollars was reduced to a trifle which no longer restrained persons of moderate income from traveling. A milder and more liberal spirit per- vaded all departments of administration. The progress of Russian reform was, however, seri- ously interrupted by the Polish revolt of 1863. The Liberal party befriended the discontented Poles, but a powerful . sentiment sprang up in favor of maintaining unimpaired the National unity and dignity. Under its influence the Poles were ruthlessly suppressed, and Lib- eralism was discredited. During the reign of Alexander II the Russian Em- pire was widely extended in the Caucasus and in Central Asia. The capture of Schmal, the famous Lesghian chief, in 1859 by Prince Bariatinski, closed the long struggle with the tribes of that country. The Caucasus was pacified, many of the Circassians, unable to endure the peaceful life of cultivators of the soil under the new regime, migrated to Turkey, where they have formed one of the most turbulent elements of the population. Russian supremacy was established gradually over all the states of Turkestan. In 1865 the city of Tashkend was taken, and (1867) Alexander II created the Govern- ment of Turkestan. In 1858 General Muravieff signed a treaty with the Chinese by which Russia acquired all the left bank of the River Amur. A new port was created in Eastern Asia (Vladivostok). During the Franco-German War of 1870-1871, Alexander main- tained a sympathetic attitude toward Germany; a policy which was continued and extended in subsequent alli- ances, both with that country and with Austria. The misgovernment of her Christian subjects by Turkey and her cruel suppression of incipient rebellion in 1876 led RUSSIA'S INCREASE IN POWER 399 to a conference of the European powers at Constan- tinople. Turkey rejected proposals made to her by the conference with a view to the better administration of the subject provinces; and Russia to enforce these con- cessions on Turkey, declared war in April, 1877. In 1876 the administration of the Baltic provinces was merged into that of the central Government; but the autonomy of Finland was respected and even extended. The latter part of the reign of Alexander II was a period of great internal commotion, on account of the spread of Nihilism, and the attempts upon the Emperor's life, which were at last successful. In the cities in which his despotic father had walked about fearless, without a single attendant, the mild and amiable Alexander was in daily peril of his life. On April 16, 1866, Karakozoff shot at the Emperor at St. Petersburg; in the following year another attempt was made by a Pole, Berezowski, while Alexander was at Paris on a visit to Napoleon III; on April 14, 1879, Solovioff shot at him. The same year a train in which he was supposed to be traveling was blown up by an elaborate mine beneath the railway, and in 1880 a destructive explosion was effected by dynamite placed beneath the imperial apartments in the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg. This explosion killed sixty soldiers and wounded forty; but the Czar escaped. On March 13, 1881, however, he was injured by a bomb thrown at him while riding in a sleigh near his palace, and died within two hours. Five of the conspirators, including a woman, Sophia Perovskaia, were publicly executed. Thus terminated the reign of Alexander II, which had lasted nearly twenty-six years. He died leav- ing Russia exhausted by foreign wars and honeycombed by plots. For some time after the elevation of Alexander III 400 MODERN EUROPE to the throne he lived in close retirement at Gatschina, being in dread of Nihilists. At length his coronation took place at Moscow, May 27, 1883. His reign was characterized, in contrast to the Liberal reforms of the last reign, by numerous reactionary steps; though stren- uous efforts were made to put an end to the colossal plundering of State money and appropriation of State lands, common in the last half of the reign of Alexander II. The self-government of the Zemstvos was limited and put under the authority of the nobility; the justices of the peace were abolished, and an attempt at reintro- ducing manorial rights was made. The redemption taxes imposed upon the liberated serfs were slightly reduced, and banks for facilitating the purchase of land by the richer peasants were created; a special bank for simplifying mortgages by the nobles was created with the support of the State. Literature was submitted to a most rigorous censorship, and education to a still closer supervision; public expressions of sympathy with the last reign's reforms were severely repressed. Rigor- ous measures were taken against the Jewish population of the Empire, leading to wholesale and compulsory emigration, and the autonomy of Finland was curtailed the idea of the reign being a return to Nicholas I's idea of the centralization of the State. The external policy of the reign was that of armed peace. During it the Dreikaiserbund (Austria, Germany, and Russia) was perfected. Alexander III was known to be truly de- voted to peace, and only his strong purpose held Russia back from war in more than one international conten- tion. Attempts to take his life were made in 1887 by the Nihilistic societies, and in October, 1888, he and his family narrowly escaped death in an accident upon the Transcaspian Railway. Alexander III died at RUSSIA'S INCREASE IN POWER 401 Livadia, in the Crimea, November i, 1894, his eldest son becoming Czar as Nicholas II. The Czar of Russia is master of the destinies of his people, or at least he shapes them during his life- time. So when Alexander III died, the world watched to see what would be his son's policy. Large adminis- trative reforms of a liberal nature were expected when he ascended the throne, for he had been educated in modern history, sociology, political and economic sci- ence, and during the famine of 1891, at his own request, had been in charge of the work of succoring the starving. These hopes seemed dashed to the ground when, on January 29, he announced, in a public address: "Let all know that in devoting my strength to the welfare of the people, I intend to protect the principle of autoc- racy as firmly and unswervingly as did my late and never-to-be-forgotten father." Yet the new Czar has been better than his promise. When he wedded Princess Alix of Hesse, grand-daughter of Queen Vic- toria, he withdrew all police guards, and allowed the people to see his progress through the streets. He and the Czarina have mixed more freely with the people than have any other rulers of the Nation. There has been no prospect of his beginning the introduction of Parliamentary institutions, but he has given indication that he intends to improve the condition of the people. Jn 1897 he promulgated a ukase prohibiting, under severe penalty, the employment of any form of labor on Sunday, or on the fourteen chief feast-days of the orthodox calendar. He decreed that eleven hours are to constitute the maximum working day for adults, and eight hours for children. The Czar has also showed himself tolerant to other religions, and canceled his father's decree that every non-orthodox person in Russia Voi,. 226 402 MODERN EUROPE who married an orthodox person should sign a docu- ment declaring that the children of such a union would be baptized and educated in the orthodox faith. Restrictions against the Roman Catholic faith in Poland have been removed, and furthermore, Nicholas II has contended that the Polish rebellion of 1863 has been fully atoned for, and that the time has come when Poland's rights and privileges, then forfeited, should be restored. The appointment of his intimate friend, Prince Imere- tinski, as Governor-General of Warsaw, was an indica- tion of that policy, and instructions were issued that an official who interfered with the work of reconciliat- ing Poland would be removed. Zemstvos, or County Councils, have been established in Poland, the press censorship has been made less rigid, and Sienkiewicz, the author of "Quo Vadis," was made censor. As a result of these and other reforms, when Nicholas visited Warsaw he was received with a spontaneous burst of popular enthusiasm. It is probable that Nicholas believes that the autocracy of the Czar is best suited for the promotion of reforms and the improvement of the condition of the peo- ple. A ukase by the Czar had liberated the serfs of Rus- sia at the moment when America plunged into a long and costly war to settle the same subject, and the Gov- ernment paid $520,000,000 as indemnity on account of the serfs, while the American war cost $6,844,000,000. In 1897, by a ukase, Russia settled the financial question by the adoption of the gold standard. So easy is it for a Czar to make a law in Russia. He wills it; it is done. The autocracy of the Czar has aided in the great industrial development of Russia, which has been the most marked phase of the Nation's recent history, and which has been so great as to disturb the statesmen of RUSSIA'S INCREASE IN POWER 403 Europe and America. The Czar's fostering influence on industries has been irresistible. In 1881 the United States produced four times as much petroleum. In 1898 the production of the two countries were about equal. Before the Crimean war (1853) agriculture was of the rudest kind, and machinery was unknown. Since 1850 the agricultural capital has quintupled. The value of the output of the factories has tripled since 1864. The increase has been especially marked since the acces- sion of Nicholas II. Within the last few years mills and factories have sprung up in all parts of the Empire. English machinery was imported, and English foremen placed in control. The English engineer was supplanted by German, and later American machinery followed. By this time Russia had started schools for the training of a special class of engineers, and they are said to be making as good machinery as can be made in America, England, or Germany. Whereas, during the past quarter of a Century, the French Parliament has been discussing, without reach- ing any definite solution, the question of the Paris Met- ropolitan Railroad, the Inter-Oceanic Canal, and of the proposed harbor for Paris, Russia during this time has been transformed. New railways have been built, others extended, harbors built, and new cities have arisen much in the same manner as in Western American States. In 1895, Russia, not including Finland and Siberia, had 36,585 kilometers of line, while France had 36,337 kilo- meters. On January I, 1898, Russia had 40,300 kilo- meters, including Siberia. The great Trans-Siberian line, from the foot of the Ural to Vladivostock, on the Pacific, will have a length of 6,613 kilometers, or about 4,200 miles, and will be by far the shortest route from Europe to the Orient. 404 MODERN EUROPE It is this desire to peacefully develop her enormous resources that led to the proposal of the Czar (August 28, 1898) that a limit be put upon the increase in arma- ment of the great Nations of the world. The Czar called attention to the financial drains they entail upon Europe, and he invited all Nations to send representa- tives to a conference which should discuss the terms of the limitation of increase. The Czar, however, has found a better weapon than war in diplomacy of an underground nature. The firmness and audacity of Russia's methods in China have made her the master of the Orient, at least for the present. The Czar's influ- ence was shown at the time of the Cretan insurrection, and the Armenian affair, when he interfered to protect Turkey; far the present policy is to pre- vent Turkey's dissolution until it can become the prey of Russia. The details of the treaties made by the Czar are secret, but his predominating influ- ence in most of Europe is recognized, and Russia's voice is a power in European conferences. In that realm of darkness and silence over which the Czar rules he can plot and work without making any sign. No Parlia- ment is there to ask embarrassing questions, or press to print dangerous secrets. He is the State, and he does not tell its aspirations and purposes. But that Russia's aim is the domination of the world is unquestioned. Already the Russians boast of their ultimate success, while in England and America the question is asked: "Slav or Saxon which shall rule the world?" GREAT BRITAIN DURING VICTORIA'S REIGN In many respects the reign of Queen Victoria* has been the most remarkable in English history. In the mere matter of length it is unique, for she has overtaken and passed the record of her grandfather, and reigned over her people for the longest period ever known in English his- tory, if not indeed in that of the world, for Louis XIV, the champion in this respect, was for years in nonage and afterwards under a regency. She has outlived all the Sov- ereigns who were in existence at the time of her accession, as well as many who succeeded to royal robes at a later date. Two Emperors of Germany, three rulers of Russia, Denmark, and Portugal, not to mention others, have dur- ing sixty years played their little part upon the European stage and departed hence, but the "Grand Old Lady of England" is as secure in the affection of her people as she was half a Century ago. Few persons are in a position to speak from personal experience of the actual condition of England at the time when the sailor Prince shuffled off this mortal coil. All the members of the Privy Council which existed in 1837 have departed hence; every peer who sat in the Gilded Chamber, but two, has gone where titles are unknown; and of the faithful Commons less than half a dozen remain. And what a contrast does the England of to-day present to the England of the thirties ! Elizabeth, who stands head and shoulders above all those who have governed England in the past, worked many changes, and her reign was a memorable one; but beside that of Victoria it must pale *See Volume "Famous Women." 405 406 MODERN EUROPE its ineffectual fires. All around there has been disquiet and unrest. War and revolution have played sad pranks with the map of Europe, and the record of its ruling houses; Sovereigns have come and Sovereigns have gone; States have been formed only to disappear; the balance of power has veered round from one to another; but amid all the changing scenes of time, England has enjoyed a splendid isolation of progress upon progress. To say that all this is due to the simple fact that Victoria has held for so many years the position of Queen would perhaps be going too far; but there is not the shadow of a doubt that the absence of all anxiety as to dynastic complications and the form of government, together with the immense personal popu- larity of every member of the Royal Family, has con- tributed largely to the result. No monarch ever came to the throne more popular than Queen Victoria, the daughter of the Duke of Kent, just eighteen years old (1837). Her youth secured sym- pathy; her conduct soon won for her affection and respect. Consideration for her feelings kept the ministers in power, as the Nation did not wish to deprive her of advisers whom she was understood to like. To the joy of Englishmen Hanover was separated from the crown by passing to a male heir. An outbreak in Canada threatened to become serious, and the first measures of the new Sovereign were directed to suppression of the rebellion there. The min- istry continued to exist on sufferance. They had no power to use and carry their measures or to support their serv- ants. In May, 1839, they were defeated in a question about Jamaica. They resigned; but Sir Robert Peel made it a condition of taking office that a change should be made in the ladies of the Queen's bedchamber. The Queen objected, and the ministry remained in their posts; but it has since been held that the chief officers who surround VICTORIA'S REIGN 407 the person of the Sovereign are changed with a change of ministry. The same year saw the introduction of penny postage, the invention of Rowland Hill. Statesmen had long been occupied with the question of the Queen's marriage; none more so than the King of the Belgians, uncle of the Queen, himself a widower of a Princess who was heir to the English throne. Prince Albert of Saxe Coburg Gotha, the Queen's first cousin, had been silently educated for his destinies. The mar- riage, which took place in February, 1840, was happily one of love. The Prince's virtues formed the real founda- tion of the prosperity of the reign; and it w r ill be recognized by posterity that his many-sided culture and intellectual activity have left an indelible stamp on the minds and character of Englishmen. The best results of German thought were transfused into English manliness, an effect which the union with Hanover had never been able to accomplish. The Government regained some little strength by its activity in crushing the attempt of Egypt to revolt from the Porte. But they were not able to pass measures of importance, and the debates on the budget overthrew them. They were defeated in a measure which anticipated the repeal of the corn laws. The coming of the Conservatives into office was felt as the beginning of a new era. The prospect of war abroad and of distresses at home gilded any change with the radi- ance of hope. Sir R. Peel, at the outset of his ministry, found himself compelled to provide for a deficiency of revenue of two millions and a half, and to take at least some steps in the direction of free trade in grain. At this time the poor were paying a large price for their daily bread in order that the farmers of England might derive a supposed advantage of profit, while quantities of grain 4 o8 MODERN EUROPE from the Baltic and Black Sea were kept out of England by an unreasonable duty. The prime minister proposed an alteration of what was called the sliding scale that is, a set O'f duties varying with the price of grain in the Eng- lish market his object being to maintain the price of wheat as nearly as possible at sixty shillings. A motion for the repeal of the corn laws was made by the leaders of the Anti-Corn-Law League, Cobden and Villiers. It was lost by a large majority, and the Government pro- posals were easily carried. The deficiency in the revenue was made worse by the outbreak of a war in China and the possibility of troubles on the Indian frontier. Sir R. Peel determined to deal with the whole matter comprehensively, and began that series of financial reforms which, continued by his pupil, Gladstone,* have done much to raise England to her pres- ent height of prosperity. The chief source of proposed revenue was the income tax, at that time new and violently opposed, but which has since been a powerful engine in times of difficulty. Besides this, he revised the whole tariff of imports, simplifying them wherever it was possi- ble, and preparing the way for free trade. Meanwhile (1841) Afghanistan had been punished for the murder of the British envoy, but the English did not care to retain so useless and so costly a possession. The next three years in England were chiefly occupied with the struggle between protection and free trade, but little progress was made with this question in the session of 1843. The year was taken up with discussions on fac- tory labor, on education, on church rates, with the visit of the Queen to the King of the French, and the excitement at Oxford caused by the defection of some prominent high churchmen to the Church of Rome. It was found that the *See Volume "Foreign Statesmen." VICTORIA'S REIGN 409 financial reforms of the previous session had been a bril- liant success. Instead of two millions and a half deficit, there was a million and a half surplus after all debts had been paid, and an anticipation of a still larger balance for next year. The emancipation of the Catholics had not succeeded in quieting Ireland. The movement for the repeal of the Union was still in full vigor; and O'Connell told a large meeting, at Tara, that within a year a Parliament would be sitting at College Green, in Dublin. Another meeting, summoned with all the parade of military organization, was prohibited by proclamation, and prevented by O'Con- nell. He was, nevertheless, tried for sedition and con- demned by a Protestant jury to imprisonment and fine. The judgment was reversed after a tempestuous scene in the House of Lords, and the acquittal of the great agitator was received with joy throughout Ireland. In the next year the Government did an act of justice by endowing the Catholic College of Maynooth. In the meantime events were rapidly moving toward free trade. Sir R. Peel, assisted by Gladstone, went on with his financial reforms. He proposed to use the surplus produced by the income tax in reducing the taxes on com- modities. A great change was proposed in the sugar duties. The agricultural distress of the year gave the free traders an opportunity of enforcing their views, while a new party of "Young Englanders," led by Disraeli* and Lord John Manners, thought that the landed interests were too heavily taxed already, and ought to be relieved. The session of 1845 closed quietly enough. The increased Maynooth Grant had been passed, the Jews admitted to municipal offices, the Oregon dispute with the United States arranged, New Zealand pacified. Suddenly *See Volume "Great Statesmen." 410 MODERN EUROPE an unexpected crisis arose. A disease which entirely destroyed the potato plant appeared, first in England and then in Ireland. The whole subsistence of the Irish peas- antry was destroyed. Pressure was put upon the Ministry to admit foreign corn free of duty. The country was deluged with the free trade tracts of the Anti- Corn-Law League. Sir R. Peel was convinced that protection was no longer tenable, but his Cabinet would not follow him. Lord Stanley resigned, and the Ministry broke up. Lord J. Russell was unable to form a cabinet, and Sir R. Peel was induced to take office again. It was known that he would meet Parliament in 1846, pledged to support the cause of free trade. The agitation for the repeal of the Corn Laws began in Manchester toward the end of 1836. In a season of dis- tress it appeared to some of the most influential members of this rising town that the only remedy lay in free trade, and that by artificially keeping up the price of wheat, the manufacturing interests of the country were sacrificed to the agricultural interests. Three years later the Anti- Corn-Law League was formed. Its most prominent mem- bers from the first were Richard Cobden and John Bright, who sacrificed their worldly prosperity in a great measure to the work of converting their countrymen to the princi- ples of true economy. Very large sums of money were collected for the purposes of the League. A free trade hall was built in Manchester. In 1843 the Times acknowl- edged that the League was a great fact, and compared it to the wooden horse by which the Greeks were secretly brought within the walls of Troy. At the end of 1845 it was stronger than ever in men, money, and enthusiasm. On the assembling of Parliament in 1846, Sir R. Peel honestly confessed his alteration of opinion. In Feb- ruary he announced a fixed duty on corn for three years VICTORIA'S REIGN 411 and afterward its entire abolition. The free traders attempted to dispense with this delay, but they were beaten by a large majority, and the bill passed easily. The Protectionists determined on their revenge. A bill for the suppression of crime in Ireland gave the oppor- tunity. Lord George Bentinck assailed the Ministers with violence, and they were defeated by a majority of seventy- three on the very evening that the Corn Bill passed the House of Lords. The Whigs, who had assisted Sir R. Peel in carrying free trade, now joined the Protectionists in turning him out. The Ministers had nothing left them but to resign, and Lord John Russell was ordered to form a cabinet The new Ministry did not do much in the ses- sion of 1847. They were obliged to propose a second time the measure for the pacification of Ireland, which had brought about the defeat of their opponents. A bill for shortening the hours of labor in factories passed without difficulty. This year was also marked by the death of O'Connell at Genoa, on his way to Rome, and by the vol- untary dissolution of the Anti-Corn-Law League. Although no great question was before the Nation, Parliament had been dissolved. The result of the new elections was a slight increase of strength to the Govern- ment. It was proceeding to consider simple measures of practical reform, when a new and unexpected danger demanded its attention. A revolution which broke out in France in 1848 overthrew the monarchy of Louis Philippe, and established a republic in its place. The contagion spread throughout Europe. In every country thrones were tottering, and England was not exempt from the general disorder. The discontent of the Irish increased, and Smith O'Brien took the place of O'Connell. In England the excitement was shown by the excitement of the Chartists. The Chartists derived their name from the sketch of a new 4i2 MODERN EUROPE Reform Bill, which had obtained the title of the People's Charter. It contained six principal points: I. Universal suffrage. 2. Annual Parliaments. 3. Vote by ballot. 4. Abolition of property qualification for members of Parlia- ment. 5. The payment of members. 6. Equal electoral districts. This had been finally drawn up in 1838, but for many years the agitation for it was obscured by other matters. In 1839 a petition containing a million and a quarter names was presented to Parliament. In 1840 an attack, made by the Chartists on Newport, was crushed by the firmness of the mayor. In 1847 the Chartists put out their full strength and gained several seats in Parliament, and especially the election of their leader Feargus O'Con- nor for Nottingham. Inspired by their successes, the Chartists determined to hold a monster meeting on the tenth o>f April on Kennington Common; from this place they were to march and present a huge petition to the House of Commons. They even talked of imitating France in the establishment of a republic. The Govern- ment determined to prevent the march. Soldiers were posted in all parts of London by the Duke of Wellington; 170,000 special constables were sworn in; the public of- fices, the Bank of England and post office were armed to the teeth. All their designs ended in failure. The meet- ing was far smaller than had been expected, the march was given up, and the petition of five million and a half of names was found to contain only a third of this number, and those mainly fictitious. The movement could not sur- vive the ridicule of exposure. The chief subjects of discontent which existed at the accession had now been removed. The disabilities of Catholics had been taken away, the corn laws had been re- pealed, the Irish had been pacified, rebellion in England had been crushed. The country entered upon a career of VICTORIA'S REIGN 413 peaceful progress. In 1849 th e navigation laws, which had been passed by Cromwell's Government in 1651, and which had first transferred the carrying trade from Hol- land to Great Britain, were repealed. This was a legiti- mate extension of the principles of free trade. Party spirit was hushed for a time by the death of Sir Robert Peel (July 2, 1850). Some slight excitement was caused by the appointment by the Pope of Roman Catholic bishops, under an Archbishop of Westminster, and the division of England into dioceses. It produced, however, much less effect than was anticipated. All thoughts were concentrated on the Great Exhibition, to be held in Hyde Park in 1851. The design and execution were entirely the work of Prince Albert. The enterprise was a brilliant success. Lord John Russell was succeeded as minister by Lord Derby. But a dissolution of Parliament brought back the old ministry with Lord Aberdeen at its head and William E. Gladstone as Chancellor of Exchequer. His budget inaugurated a new series of financial reforms. He formed a plan of reducing the national debt, while he retained the income tax in order to make it easier to tax more equally the chief articles of daily consumption. During the Crimean war between Russia and Turkey (1854), in which England and France gave support to the latter, the want of supplies and hospitals roused indig- nation in England. Discontent ripened into suspicion. Mr. Roebuck proposed an inquiry into the conduct of the Ministry. Unable to meet it the cabinet of Lord Aberdeen resigned and, after a short delay, Lord Palmerston formed a Government not very different from the previous one. It soon lost the services of Gladstone and two others, but it was able to carry on the war with undiminished vigor. In the spring of 1857 tne Government were defeated 4H MODERN EUROPE on a motion of Cobden's condemning their action with re- gard to a war which had broken out in China. Ministers determined to dissolve Parliament rather than to resign, and the issue placed before the country was that of confi- dence in Lord Palmerston. In the election Cobden and Bright were rejected as members of the peace party. The liberal cause on the whole was supported by a triumphant majority. The elections were followed by the Indian mutiny. Although the French alliance was popular throughout the country, it was not so with the personal character of the French Emperor. Men felt that they did not under- stand and could not trust him, and it weakened the posi- tion of the Prime Minister that he was believed to be the Emperor's intimate friend. An unexpected occurrence made this suddenly manifest. An attack made by Italian refugees on the life of the Emperor Napoleon in January, 1858, was the occasion of a demand from the French Gov- ernment that England should cease to offer facilities for the conspiracies of political exiles. Lord Palmerston, in deference to this request, proposed to alter the English law of conspiracy to murder. When this was rejected by a ma- jority of nineteen, he immediately resigned, and was suc- ceeded by Lord Derby at the head of a Conservative Min- istry. The year was occupied by various internal reforms ; the choice of Indian civil servants by competitive examina- tion was extended, the Thames was purified, a telegraphic cable was laid between England and America. It appeared that the question of Parliamentary Reform, which had been stopped by the Crimean War, but had never sunk into oblivion, had now to be faced, and Lord Derby and Dis- raeli braced themselves to deal with a problem which they' acknowledged to be unwelcome. The Reform Bill introduced by Disraeli was not sat- VICTORIA'S REIGN 415 isfactory. It gave the franchise to a number of different classes, without resting it on any broad or comprehensive basis. A resolution, proposed by Lord John Russell, which expressed this feeling, was carried against the Gov- ernment by a majority of thirty-nine. Ministers deter- mined to dissolve. The issue before the country was not entirely of a domestic character. War had broken out between France and Austria for the liberation of Italy, and the feeling of England was strongly with Italian unity. The Liberals, who were known to have this cause at heart, were returned in a majority of fifty, and imme- diately after Parliament met Ministers were compelled to resign, defeated in a vote of confidence. This was the sixth change of Ministry which had taken place in fifteen years. Lord Palmerston now became Prime Minister, with Lord J. Russell as Foreign Secretary, Gladstone Chan- cellor of the Exchequer, and Lord Granville President of the Council (June, 1859). The first step of the Govern- ment was the conclusion of a commercial treaty with France, based on the principles of free trade. Cobden had been the negotiator; and Gladstone, in a speech which announced a new era of financial policy, expressed the long services of the Free Trader in language of universally accepted praise. The Ministry attempted to satisfy the expectations of the country by bringing forward a Reform Bill. It was as simple as its forerunner had been com- plicated. It proposed a franchise of 10 in counties, 6 in boroughs, and a redistribution of seats. The languid interest felt in it by the Premier was a sign of the indiffer- ence of the country, and the bill was withdrawn. In 1 86 1 the Civil War broke out in America* between the Northern and Southern States of the Union. The *See Volume "American History." 416 MODERN EUROPE matters in dispute between them were many and various, but the most important point at issue was the question of slavery. The English people generally took the side of the South, partly from a supposed community of feeling, and partly from a jealousy of the United States and a wish to see her dismembered. This feeling was intensified by the capture of two Southern envoys while under the pro- tection of the British flag. There was danger of war breaking out, but the Northern States submitted to an ultimatum and returned the prisoners. The affair of the "Trent," as this dispute was called from the name of the ship in which the envoys were sail- ing, was the last public question in which Prince Albert, now for some time called the Prince Consort, was engaged. After a few days' illness, he died at Windsor, in Decem- ber, 1 86 1, at the age of forty-two. The grief of the Eng- lish Nation was universal and spontaneous. Only grad- ually did the country come to learn that he had been King of England for twenty years, while no one knew it. The American war affected England in two ways. First, the ordinary supply of cotton to her manufacturing districts was cut off, and the great distress, known as the "cotton famine" was felt in Lancashire. The operatives displayed the utmost patience and self-control under their afflictions, and large subscriptions were contributed for their support. Lord Derby gave the services of his genius to the organization of relief, and cotton, the threads of which were of a shorter length, was provided from India. Before the American war was over the worst pressure of distress was passed. The other trouble was of longer duration. A ship called the "Alabama"* was fitted out from an English dockyard, notwithstanding the protest * See Volume " American History." VICTORIA'S REIGN 417 of the American Ambassador, with the object of making war on American commerce, in the interests of the South- ern States. Americans felt that the negligence shown in not stopping this vessel expressed only too clearly the sympathies of England. They could not at this time do anything to prevent or to avenge the wrong, but when the war was over a feeling of bitterness was left, which nearly led to an open rupture, and was with difficulty appeased. Lord Palmerston died in October, 1865. The condi- tion of parties during these closing years was remarkable. Popular throughout the country, the Premier was trusted equally by the Conservatives and Liberals. The policy of a long life was the earnest of his liberalism; and, at the same time, he was known to be opposed to organic reform. The great questions which were agitated in later years now slumbered, and the reform of the representation, which lay at the root of all other measures, was deferred with the admonition that the Nation should rest and be thankful for what it had already achieved. A new elec- tion in the spring of 1865 returned a solid Liberal majority with a few Liberal losses. No loss, however, was so great as the premature death of Richard Cobclen. Earl Russell succeeded Lord Palmerston as Premier; Gladstone became leader of the House of Commons ; the Ministry in other respects remained unchanged. The his- tory of this administration is the history of the Liberal Reform Bill. The bill, introduced by Gladstone in March, 1866, gave the franchise to householders of the value of 14 in counties and 7 in boroughs. It was evidently a compromise, and was not heartily supported either by the cabinet or by the party. A section of the Liberals, called by Bright the "Cave of Adullam," joined the opposition in resisting it, and in June the Ministry were defeated and VOL. 2 27 418 MODERN EUROPE resigned. They were succeeded by a Conservative Gov- ernment, the principal members of which were Lord Derby and Disraeli. Lord Derby promised a safe and moderate measure of reform. But the agitation throughout the country was very great. The war in Germany, which in six weeks made Prussia instead of Austria the dominant power in that country, passed almost unheeded. The somewhat cruel suppression of the rebellion in Jamaica by Governor Eyre was condemned by advanced Liberals. The laying of a telegraph cable between Ireland and Newfoundland gave hope to those who wished for a union of affection between the two mighty continents. In July the Reform League was forbidden to hold a meeting in Hyde Park, but the masses who had accompanied them threw down the railings and pushed back the police who would have barred their passage. The Reform addresses of Gladstone and Bright were received with enthusiasm. At the beginning of the session of 1867, Disraeli pro- posed resolutions which were to be the basis of a reform bill. A considerable extension of the franchise was con- templated, limited by a system of plurality of votes. Par- liament objected to this method, and it became necessary for the Ministers to agree in a definite measure; of two alternative courses, Disraeli expounded his measure in March. The proposed franchise was founded on real estate taxes paid, and not on rental. The franchise in boroughs was given to all householders paying taxes; in counties it was given to occupiers of property taxed at 15 a year. Besides this, the franchise was given to all men of a certain education, or who had saved a certain sum of money. In some cases voters were allowed a double vote in respect of possessing a double qualification. The bill was violently opposed by Gladstone, who VICTORIA'S REIGN 419 objected to its provisions in almost every particular, but the section of his party, who formed the "Cave of Adul- lum" declined to follow him in procuring the defeat of the Government. Notwithstanding this, the measure was gradually changed piece by piece until it was entirely altered. The abolition of compound householders, that is of those whose taxes were paid for them in the lump by their landlords, nearly quadrupled the number of voters; lodgers were admitted to the franchise, the county fran- chise was reduced, and the distribution of seats was changed. The bill, as it was passed by both Houses, weary with argument, at the end of July, almost reached the limit of manhood suffrage. It had been passed by a Conservative ministry and Lord Derby described it as a leap in the dark. It was necessary that Parliament should meet again in the autumn of 1867 to vote supplies for an expedition to Abyssinia, undertaken to release some Englishmen who were kept in prison by the King. The prisoners were released, and Magdala, the King's capital, destroyed. Early in the session of 1868 Lord Derby resigned the Pre- miership from bad health, and was succeeded by Disraeli. It soon became obvious that the main point of struggle between the two parties would be the disestablishment of the Irish Church. At the end of March, Gladstone moved resolutions to that effect. The Government had been defeated by small majorities before the Easter recess. In April it was beaten on the Irish Church question by a majority of eighty-five. Parliament was dissolved, and the result of the elections was a signal victory for the Liberals. The Government did not wait for the opening of the session, but resigned their offices, and just before the close of 1868, William E. Gladstone became Prime Minister. 420 MODERN EUROPE It is natural that in England Constitutional changes should be followed by great activity in administrative reform. The ministries which succeeded the Reform Bills of 1832 and 1867 carried a number of measures which could only have been carried when the tide of public spirit was in the flood. Both ministries soon exhausted the popularity which had enabled these measures to be passed. The chief members of Gladstone's cabinet were Lord Hatherley, Lowe, Bruce, Lord Granville, Bright, and Childers. During its five years' tenure of office it showed a great activity in every branch of administrative reform. This could only be maintained by a large majority in Par- liament, directed by a chief of exceptional ability, at a time when the feeling of the country was wrought to an unusual strain. The first efforts of the Government were directed to the removal of Irish grievances by the dises- tablishment of the Irish Church and the regulation of Irish land. The country had determined, by the elections, that the Irish branch of the Church of England should cease to exist under State protection. The working out of that change was difficult and complicated. The arrangements proposed by Gladstone were passed by large majorities in the House of Commons, and met with no serious oppo- sition in the House of Lords. The Irish Land Act passed in the session of 1870 was a matter of greater difficulty. Its object was to give such security to the tenant as might induce him to spend money in improving his holding, to lend money to landlords to be spent in improvements, to put a restraint on hasty and unjust evictions, and to establish a ready means of arbi- tration between landlord and tenant. The bill, though full of complicated provisions met with little opposition in either House, and became law on the ist of August. The same session was occupied with another measure VICTORIA'S REIGN 421 of first-rate importance. W. E. Forster produced a com- prehensive Education Act to deal with primary education, namely, that of the poorer classes. Time was given for different religious denominations to supply deficiencies in existing schools, but if this were not done schools boards were to be created, who should provide, at the cost of the ratepayer, a cheap, universal and unsectarian education. The result has surpassed the most sanguine hopes. Every year since the passing of the Act the number of ignorant children has diminished. The session of 1871 was not idle. Purchase in the army was abolished, the English civil service was made attainable by competition, the universities were thrown open to the whole country without regard to religious denominations, trades unions were recognized by law, and the powers of local government were extended to country districts. In 1872 a system was adopted of electing members of Parliament by ballot or secret voting. This measure had long been urged by the Liberals and opposed by the Con- servatives. The session of 1873 was intended by the Government to remove another Irish grievance by establishing a system of Catholic university education. The measure had been carefully prepared by Gladstone, and it was introduced with good hope of its success. But it was soon found that it satisfied neither party. The Government was defeated, and the Ministry resigned. Disraeli, however, refused to take office and the seals were resumed by their former holders. A few changes were made in the Cabinet and a Judicature Bill was passed, remodeling the whole sys- tem of English judicial procedure. The Government was weakened and discredited. Seat after seat was won by the Conservatives, The Lib- 422 MODERN EUROPE eral majority became every day smaller and less compact. At last, in the beginning of 1874, Gladstone determined to appeal to the country, and, to the surprise of everybody, in January Parliament was dissolved. In five years the majority of Liberal supporters had dwindled from 116 to 66. The result of the elections was a triumph for the Conservatives. The Cabinet did not wait for the meeting of Parliament. Disraeli accepted office as Premier, sup- ported by Lord Derby, Lord Salisbury, Lord Carnarvon, Sir S. Northcote, Cross, and Hardy. Shortly after this Gladstone announced that he had retired forever from the leadership of the Liberal party. The session of 1874 passed quietly under the new Gov- ernment. Its principal work was the Public Worship Regulation Act, introduced by the Archbishop of Canter- bury. The object of this Act was to restrain the extreme High Church clergy from using ritual which imitated the ceremonies of the Roman Church against the wishes of their parishioners. It was strongly opposed by Lord Sal- isbury and Gladstone, but Disraeli came forward in defense of it at the call of Sir William Harcourt. Experi- ence has shown that the Act has effected less good and done less mischief than its friends and enemies expected from it. The choice of a successor to Gladstone, who announced his retirement in January, 1874, was not made without difficulty. The two candidates were Lord Harr- ington and Forster. The different characters of the men offered different qualifications for the post, but Lord Hart- ington was eventually preferred to Forster chiefly because he could more easily make way for the return of his former leader. The new Prime Minister cared more for foreign than for domestic politics. The next five years of his govern- ment were filled with events which brought home to Eng- VICTORIA'S REIGN 423 lishmen the imperial position of their country but also made them realize the burden of responsibility which attaches to it. On November 8, 1875, tne Prince of Wales landed at Bombay, the first step of a royal progress through India. In the same month the Government pur- chased 4,000,000 worth of shares in the Suez Canal. Thecontrolof the India officeover England's great depend- ency was made more complete, and, on the resignation of Lord Northbrook, Lord Lytton was sent as Governor- General to carry out the new policy. Early in the follow- ing year the Queen assumed the title of Empress of India, with a proviso that it should not be used in England. These events showed the presence of a new spirit in the Government, which was regarded by some with enthus- iasm, by some with ridicule, by others with dismay. Then followed the Russian-Turkish war in the settlement of which England played a prominent part. The cost of wars in Afghanistan and South Africa made the Government unpopular. The people believed that the Imperial policy had nowhere been a success. Its brilliancy did not compensate for its burdens. A series of bad harvests had made money scarce. Attacks on for- eign policy were coupled with demands for an extended suffrage. The popularity of the Government was on the wane. The distress fell with a special heaviness on Ire- land, where large rents had in many cases to be paid to absentee landlords for property which the tenants had improved. A cry was raised "Get rid of the landlords," and Charles S. Parnell founded a Land League for the pur- pose of buying them out. Constitutional agitation was unfortunately accompanied by dishonesty and outrage, which were met by the Government with severe methods of repression. Parliament was now approaching its close, and in the 424 MODERN EUROPE autumn recess platforms resounded with the war cries of the coming fray. Gladstone led the attack by standing for Midlothian, and conducted a fortnight's campaign of incessant speaking. The Queen opened Parliament in person on February 15, 1880. The Royal Speech told of peace in Afghanistan and South Africa, and of the suc- cess of the treaty of Berlin. It announced no measures of importance, but the dissolution which followed in March was unexpected. In the issue before the country Lord Beaconsfield (Disraeli) took his stand on the necessity of an Imperial policy and denunciation of Home Rule. Lord Hartington put forward the stability of Liberal tradition, and Gladstone vigorously foiled the policy of his rival. The elections were a surprise to both parties but they spoke with no uncertain voice. The new Parliament contained 349 Liberals, as against 351 Conservatives in the old. The Conservative opposition was now 243, while the Lib- erals' opposition in the late House had been 250. The members of the Home Rule party had risen from 51 to 60. Lord Beaconsfield determined not to meet the new Parliament and only delayed his resignation until the Queen had returned from the Continent. She first sent for Lord Hartington, as leader of the opposition in the Commons, but on the representation of him and Lord Granville summoned Gladstone. He consented to form a Government, taking for himself the offices of First Lord of the Treasury and Chancellor of the Exchequer. The principal members of his former Cabinet returned with him to power. Seldom has one British Government succeeded another with a stronger contrast of principles and practice, or a wider distinction between the sources from which they drew their confidence. The foreign policy of Lord Bea- consfield had been essentially of a forward, perhaps even VICTORIA'S REIGN 425 of an aggressive character. The party which had come into office by attacking this policy was bound to move in a different direction. Gladstone inherited a legacy of complications in Eastern Europe, in Asia, and in South Africa which needed skill and patience to unravel. The changed spirit of the new Ministry was soon apparent. A declaration was elicited from Austria to the effect that she had no intention of extending her authority any fur- ther than the Balkan peninsula. By a combined demon- stration of European fleets the harbor of Dulcigno was ceded to Montenegro in accordance with the treaty of Berlin. A similar influence was used to keep Greece at peace until she obtained all the extension of territory which she could get, but not all that she had been led to hope for. In Afghanistan the battle of Maiwand was fought by 2,500 troops, of whom only 500 were British, against 12,000 of the enemy. It was followed by the disastrous retreat to Candahar, where the English army was shut up until General Roberts relieved them from Cabul. In South Africa the Boers of the Transvaal, encouraged by the opposition of the Liberal party to their annexation, and finding the colonists occupied with a war against the Basuto, proclaimed the revival of their Republic. The English generals underrated the strength of the Boers, and their skill as marksmen, and the reverses of a short cam- paign culminated in the disasters of Majuba Hill on Feb- ruary 26, 1 88 1. After three years' negotiations the Transvaal Republic was restored under conditions which secured the rights of the native races. A different policy was also adopted toward Ireland. The Queen's Speech announced that the existing Coercion Act would not be renewed. A Bill was passed in the Com- mons to put a stop to unjust evictions, but it was rejected by a large majority in the House of Lords. Excitement 426 MODERN EUROPE and agitation in Ireland increased. A system of "boy- cotting" grew up, by which landlords and agents who violated the principles of the Land League were cut off from all communication with their fellowmen. Crimes and outrages increased. A Coercion Act was introduced, which was opposed by the Irish members with every device of obstruction. One sitting continued almost without interruption for fifty hours. The next day the whole of the Irish party was suspended from the service of the House. The Coercion Act was finally passed on March 2. The Government had determined that repressive and remedial measures should proceed together, and on April 7, 1 88 1, Gladstone produced his Land Bill. It established a special court to decide upon the conflicting claims between landlord and tenant. It accepted what was called the principle of the "F. F. F." fair rent, free sale, and fixity of tenure. Before it was read a second time, Lord Beaconsfield* had died, after a short illness. The scope of the Bill was extended by the Irish party. It was vio- lently attacked in the House of Lords. A collision between the two Houses was with much difficulty avoided, and the Bill became law in the middle of August. The Coercion Act, however, was not to remain a dead letter. On October 13, Parnell, Dillon, Sexton, and other leaders of the Land League, were arrested in Dublin and sent to Kilmainham Jail. They replied by calling on the Irish people to pay no rent while their leaders were in prison. Secret societies began to take the place of open communi- cation. During the spring of 1882 neither branch of the Gov- ernment policy toward Ireland seemed to be successful. The Lords attacked the working of the Land Act, and impeded its active operation; while Forster did not sue- *See Volume " Great Statesmen." VICTORIA'S REIGN 427 ceed in repressing disorder even by the full use of the Coercion Act Up to April 18 there had been 918 arrests, and over 600 men were in prison. Parnell, while still in Kilmainham, drafted a Bill to relieve distressed tenants of all arrears of rent up to the passing of the Land Act in 1 88 1. It was introduced into the House and the Gov- ernment appeared to approve of the principles on which it was based. At the beginning of May the Irish mem- bers were released from prison, and at the same time Lord Cowper was succeeded as Lord-Lieutenant by Lord Spen- cer, while Forster resigned the Irish Secretaryship. These events formed what is known as the "Kilmainham Treaty," an arrangement which provided that the Govern- ment should take steps to remit arrears and establish peas- ant proprietors and that the leaders of the Irish party should do their best to pacify the country. Forster strongly opposed this new policy, and his arguments were enforced by a terrible catastrophe. On May 6, Lord Fred- erick Cavendish arrived in Dublin as the new Chief Secre- tary. In the bright summer evening as he was walking through Phoenix Park to his new home, he was murdered, together with Burke, whowas his companion. The assassins drove off and disappeared. It was afterward ascertained that Burke was the victim aimed at, and that the murder of the Chief Secretary was unpremeditated. The next morning, which was Sunday, the news fell with startling horror on the three Kingdoms. George Trevelyan stepped gallantly into the breach. A new Coercion Act of extreme severity was passed, with little opposition except from the Irish members. At the same time an Arrears Act was passed in the teeth of the House of Lords. Little amelioration was experienced; the year closed amid outrages and murders. In January, 1883, twenty men were arrested in Dub- 428 MODERN EUROPE lin, one of whom was James Carey, a member of the Dublin Town Council. During the trial of the prisoners he turned Queen's evidence, and confessed that he had planned the murders in Phoenix Park and had given the signal for the crime. He had also organized plans for assas- sinating Forster and had been the mainspring of the attack upon Field. Five of the prisoners were hanged, and Carey was sent by the Government to South Africa, where he was shot by a man who followed his track for vengeance. There were other signs that the spirit of rebellion was not at rest. Explosions of dynamite organ- ized by American sympathizers with Ireland took place at the public offices and at railway stations. This scare continued at intervals throughout two years', and culmi- nated with the wrecking of the House of Commons by an explosion in the beginning of 1885. It remained for the Ministry to redeem a pledge which they had given on their accession to office, of reforming the representation of the people in Parliament by admit- ting the country laborers to suffrage. Trevelyan had year after year brought forward a motion for assimilating the franchise in counties to that in boroughs. The new Bill added to the householder and lodger franchise already existing in boroughs a service franchise in favor of per- sons who occupied buildings without being either the own- ers or tenants. These three classes of franchises were now introduced into the counties, the standard of the occu- pation franchise was reduced, and faggot votes were abol- ished. Scotland and Ireland were placed upon the same footing as England, although with respect to the latter country the step was strongly resisted by the Conserva- tives. In the Lords an amendment was proposed by Lord Cairns that the Bill should not come into operation until the scheme of redistribution which was to accompany it VICTORIA'S REIGN 429 had been agreed upon. This was accepted, and the Bill, which had been introduced on February 29, 1884, finally passed on December 5 It added about 2,000,000 voters to the register. After much discussion in the press and in the coun- try, Gladstone produced his scheme of redistribution at the end of November. It had been drawn up in concert with Lord Salisbury, and its principal features were that it disenfranchised a large number of small boroughs, estab- lished an almost uniform system of one-member constit- uencies, and slightly increased the numbers of the House of Commons, It was read a second time the day before the Franchise Bill became law, and its further considera- tion was adjourned to the following 1 year. It was dis- cussed in detail from March to June, 1885, and did not become law until the Government which had introduced it had ceased to exist. This catastrophe was the result of an accident. The wear and tear of five eventful years had produced dissensions in the Liberal party, and an amendment on the budget proposals of Childers was car- ried against the Government by a majority of twelve. Many Liberals were absent from the division, and thirty- nine Home Rulers voted for the opposition, Gladstone resigned office. Lord Salisbury was Premier of the new Conservative administration, in which Lord Randolph Churchill appeared as Secretary for India. In the November elec- tions the Liberals won 335 seats against 249 Conservatives and 86 Home Rulers. The Irish holding the balance of power, rumors became current that Gladstone had been converted to Home Rule. When Gladstone came to power it was declared that Home Rule would be the watch- word of the new administration. But defections followed, Chamberlain, Trevelyan, Bright, and other Whigs formed 430 MODERN EUROPE the Liberal-Unionist party and Home Rule was defeated on the second reading of the bill. The Conservatives came to power with 316 members, supported by 78 Liberal-Unionists. As against these there were 191 Home Rule Liberals and 85 Irish Home Rulers. Limited local government was announced as Lord Salisbury's panacea for Ireland's ills, and Parnell's Tenant Relief Bill was voted down. The plan of cam- paign was inaugurated, while the Round Table Confer- ence failed to win the Liberal-Unionists back to the deserted Gladstonian fold. More closure rules in the House of Commons were passed and coercion was drasti- cally applied to Irish agitation and lawlessness. But all politics paled in June before the celebration of the Queen's Jubilee. The Nation expressed its enthusiasm in bunting and beacon fires, while a procession of Europe's rulers, or their representatives, marched in all stateliness around Victoria, while she rode to Westminster Abbey to return thanks for her long and beneficent fifty years' reign. The Mitchelstown riot and Mr. O'Brien's undergar- ments kept Ireland indignant and amused by turns. The year 1888 was one pervaded by the Irish question. A Local Government Bill for England did much to abate the rule of Dogberry, the justice of the peace and his cor- rupt or fossil henchman, Bumble, the Beadle. The spe- cial commission on "Parnellism and Crime" met, and $50,- 000,000 was voted in Parliament for the purposes of the Irish Land Purchase Bill. The tercentenary of the Armada lit the beacons again throughout the land as it did when the Spaniards menaced the realm of the Virgin Queen. The beginning of 1889 was marked by Pigott's con- fession of the "Parnell letter" forgery. The dock-labor- ers' strike paralyzed London's shipping interest for a time, VICTORIA'S REIGN 431 and gave John Burns the opportunity to pose as a "docker" and to win some fame for the men's victory. A charter was granted to the British South African Company, fated to become a powerful factor in the affairs of Africa in the hands of Cecil J. Rhodes. With the advent of 1890, Par- liament was mainly concerned with Irish and domestic affairs. In August the island of Heligoland was ceded to Germany in return for African concessions, and the close of the year marked Parnell's fall from power, owing to the disclosures of the O'Shea divorce case. The year .1891 was remarkable for the cessation of Irish crime and for the acute dissensions in the ranks of the Home Rule party. Peace pervaded Ireland, and the Government essayed a mild Irish local government measure. Its appointive officers were objectionable to the Nationalists, and though carried by a majority of 92, it died with its second reading. (1892.) Dissolution of Parliament drew near, and the Ulstermen held monster mass meetings to protest against the tender mercies of Home Rule in the hands of their opponents. The elections passed and Glad- stone came to power with 355 supporters (270 Gladston- ians, 4 Labor members, 72 anti-Parnellites and 9 Parnell- ites), as against 268 Conservatives and 47 Liberal-Union- ists. Not until an actual division did the Conservative Ministry formally resign. The numbers showed a ma- jority of 40 for the venerable statesman. In Egypt (1893) the arrogance of the young Khedive received a salutary check in an ultimatum dispatched by Lord Rosebery, warning him of deposition if he resisted British policy and dismissed his Cabinet with- out consulting his English financial adviser. The Afghan boundary witnessed the Chitral campaign, which resulted in a further strengthening of India's scientific frontier. In February Gladstone introduced 432 MODERN EUROPE his second Home Rule Bill. Welsh disestablishment and local option movements were placated by measures embodying the theories held by advanced Radicals. Parliament considered the Home Rule Bill, which antagonized the Unionists and failed to satisfy the Irish party. The loss of the battleship Victoria, with twenty- two officers and 336 men, was one of the most appalling disasters of recent times in the history of the British navy. In August the Bering Sea award* was made public. While a technical victory for England on each of the five points submitted, the award established lib- eral regulations for the future preservation of the seal herd. Debate on the Home Rule Bill occupied eighty- two days in the House of Commons. It ended with a disorderly melee, and the measure passed its second read- ing by a majority of 34 in a House of 572. The bill went to the Upper House, and met its fate in a rejec- tion of 419 to 41. The year 1894 was made memorable by the retire- ment of Gladstone* from the leadership of his party. Vexed by the rejection of his Home Rule measure by the Lords, disgusted with the quarrels and dissensions among his Irish allies, the veteran statesman laid the mantle of leadership on Lord Rosebery, and turned to his books with an ardor which belied his years. Home Rule for Scotland was essayed in April, and a vigorous campaign against the Lords inaugurated. The formal opening of the Manchester Ship Canal by the Queen, and the opening of the vast Tower Bridge by the Prince of Wales, were events of national and local significance. Troubles in the Transvaal between the Boers and the English began to grow serious, while the * See Volume Foreign Statesmen," VICTORIA'S REIGN 433 Venezuelan boundary took an acute phase, owing to Venezuela's invasion of the disputed strip. A brief cam- paign in Waziristan ended in favor of the Indian troops. Welsh disestablishment was again essayed in 1895, an Irish Land Bill introduced, and Home Secretary Asquith introduced a stringent Factories and Work- shop Bill into Parliament. The fall of the Rosebery Ministry was precipitated by a catch-vote on the army estimates. Lord Salisbury came to power at the head of a distinctly Unionist Ministry, with a general elec- tion impending, and a well-defined sentiment against Home Rule prevalent. Parliament convened after the general election, with 411 Conservatives and Liberal- Unionists, as against 259 Gladstone Liberals, Labor members, and Home Rulers. The leaders in Lord Salis- bury's Cabinet were Joseph Chamberlain, the Duke of Devonshire, and A. J. Balfour. The Ministry had hardly settled to work when President Cleveland's Vene- zuelan message* was in its hands. Much diplomatic correspondence ensued, but the whole matter resolved itself into a cause for arbitration, and preparations of evidence at once began. The year 1896 was memorable as marking the Queen's reign as the longest of any ruler of the British Isles, and remarkable for the disturbances in South Africa which ended with the Jameson raid. The early months were occupied with the Venezuelan question, Armenian affairs, and naval defense. John Dillon was chosen as leader of the anti-Parnellite faction of Home Rulers, and a military expedition to Ashantee cost the life of Prince Henry of Battenburg and plunged the royal household into grief. In October Lord Rosebery astonished many by his resignation of the Liberal leader- * See Volume " American History. Vol.. 2 28 . 434 MODERN EUROPE ship. At home and abroad all was peace, with the exception of the Anglo-Egyptian successful operations in Egypt, and the Nation rejoiced with the Queen on the attainment of the sixtieth year of her reign. Diplomatic relations with Venezuela were resumed in March, 1897. Four Irish members were suspended from Parliament for persisting in an irregular discussion of the financial relations between England and Ireland. The celebration of the Queen's Diamond jubilee was begun (June 20), and the British Naval Review was the greatest demonstration of the kind ever made. In October the Government of India notified the British Cabinet that it would not consent to the opening of the mints of that country to the free coinage of silver. During the Parliamentary session of 1898 the most important measure was the Irish Local Government Bill, elections under which, held in 1899, gave promise that a new era of partial self-government had begun in Ireland. Liberals and Conservatives alike mourned the death of Gladstone, May 12, 1898. The Nation awoke to a new appreciation of his greatness. During the Victorian Era it will be noted that there has been a great change both in the position of Eng- land and in the character of the questions which have excited public interest. Still mistress of the sea, and possessed, through its colonies, of an Empire distrib- uted in every corner of the globe, England has found enough to do in the preservation and improvement of this gigantic domain, and has, as far as possible, abstained from interference in Continental quarrels. Once and again has it shown its influence. In 1848, the year of revolutions, and in the subsequent consoli- dation of Italy, its sympathies were not hidden, but there was no thought of active interference. It allowed VICTORIA'S REIGN 435 the United States to settle its disputes uninterrupted. It adopted the same attitude of non-intervention in the Prussian wars against Denmark, against Austria, and against France. It has only been in questions which seemed to touch the safety of its Eastern Empire that it has drawn the sword. The Crimean war was avowedly for the maintenance of Turkey as a check upon Russia, which was threatening the road to India. Of the same class have been the wars in Egypt and Afghanistan. Still more directly, when India itself burst into insurrection, was England called upon to inter- fere and engage in the victorious but terrible campaigns which marked the suppression of the mutiny. The other wars and they are not few, though petty have all been connected with mercantile and colonial inter- ests. The questions which have chiefly moved men's minds have been of a social or mercantile character. The extension of the electoral franchise, the reform of municipalities, the repeal of the Corn Laws, the estab- lishment of free trade, the improvements of the condi- tion of the working classes, the regulation of strikes and trade unions, a National system of education, and, of late years, the question of the management of Ireland, have been the points around which political interests have centered. They are fitting questions to occupy a democracy. To that phase of political life, in one way or other, England is fast hastening. There can be little doubt that posterity will look back upon the Victorian age as one of the richest in the history of England. Indeed, though it is not so bright as some with military glories, its sky is adorned with a most significant and expanding rainbow of popu- lar and reforming legislation. It is splendid with the triumphs of all the arts of peace, and it can fairly boast 436 MODERN EUROPE in literature not only an unexampled abundance of bril- liant ability, but some things worthy of the best days. This period, above all, has seen the completion of the English constitutional system. For more than half a Century the subjects of the British Empire have at home lived under a Sovereign who has never, in the smallest degree, sought to interfere with the principle of self-government involved in Parliamentary rule. Her Prime Ministers have been chosen and retained in office in subjection to the will of a majority of the House of Commons, and the English system of party government has thus brought to the head of affairs the men who were in succession indicated by the votes of the people. EUROPEAN ART IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY Science has changed the conditions of agriculture, industry, and trade during the Nineteenth Century, working wonderful reforms in the social condition of the people. The "Achievements of the Nineteenth Century in Science and Industry" are told in another volume of this series, those in literature are set forth in still another, while the work of the philosophers whose thought has revolutionized the world will be found in the volume, "Great Philosophers." The fact that a statement of the results in these departments have been thought worthy of two separate volumes in this "His- tory of the World," and a large portion in another, are in themselves evidences of the progress which has been made in this direction. The improvement in the con- dition of the people which has followed scarcely needs mention when its evidences are so abundant at every hand. It remains, then, for the present historian to give here some details of the progress in European art, especially music, which is necessary to the completion of the general scheme of this work. Music, which made rapid strides in the Eighteenth Century, became one of the principal arts during the Nineteenth, and has attained a supremacy which has tempted its votaries to subordinate all other arts to it. German music has maintained its supremacy in almost all Nations. Louis von Beethoven (1770-1827) is held by most critics to be one of the greatest of all musicians. He 437 43S MODERN EUROPE was a prodigy of precocious ability, playing the violin excellently at eight years of age, and composing sonatas at thirteen. He was instructed in composition at Vienna by Haydn, and began to write his great works in 1 80 1. In his later years he was perfectly deaf. Beethoven gave a new character to instrumental music, improving even Mozart, and displaying the utmost bold- ness and richness of imagination in his symphonies, overtures, quartettes, sonatas, and other compositions. He wrote also a splendid opera, "Fidelio," an oratorio, "The Mount of Olives," and the exquisite song, "Ade- laide." Karl Maria von Weber (1786-1826) wrote operas, overtures, sonatas, and pianoforte symphonies, and .became Director of the German Opera at Dresden in 1816. His great opera, "Der Freischiitz," appeared in Berlin in 1821, and "Euryanthe" at Vienna in 1823. "Oberon," written for Covent Garden Theater at Charles Kemble's request, was produced, under the composer's direction, in April, 1826. The gifted and famous master's health had been declining under lung disease, and he died soon afterward in London, where he was buried, in the Moorfields Catholic Chapel. Franz Peter Schubert (1797-1828), one of the greatest modern com- posers, was born at Vienna. His ballads and songs be- ing among the best things extant. In his symphonies and other compositions for stringed instruments and for the piano he worked in the vein of Beethoven, and is remark- able for poetic feeling, originality, pure melody, and rich- ness of fancy. Schumann's (1810-1856) intense applica- tion to work overcame his brain, and he died in an asylum. His compositions are very highly esteemed in Germany, where he is looked upon as the founder of a new school which disregards the older masters. He EUROPEAN ART 439 wrote the cantata, "Paradise and the Peri," several symphonies, and smaller pieces. Richard Wagner, who died in 1883, was the chief representative of the new musical lights in Germany. Aiming at intense realism, he is held by many to be simply grotesque, but regarded by his admirers as a genius of the highest order. His operas, "Tannhaiiser" and "Lohengrin," are among his chief works. Louis Spohr (1784-1859) is famous as a composer for the violin in solos and concertos; he wrote operas ("Faust," "Jessonda," and others) of high merit; his oratorio-, "The Last Judgment," is a grand and elab- orate work. His music, from its want of melody, is not popular, and derives its renown from the taste of the scientific musicians and critics. He is the author of an admirable and complete work on violin playing. One of the greatest of modern composers was Giacomo Meyerbeer (1791-1864). He was a precocious genius, and played on the piano like a master when he was nine years old. His first operas failed, as the public taste ran in the direction of Italian music. Meyerbeer then went to Italy, and wrote many operas there, which were well received, as he had rapidly acquired the new style, between 1818 and 1824. He then settled in Paris, where his famous "Robert le Diable" was produced, with triumphant success, in 1831. It was found that the new composer had in himself the gifts of all schools the strength and massiveness of the German, the liveliness of the French, the brilliancy of the Italian. Meyerbeer's subsequent works confirmed this exalted estimate of his powers. His splendid "Les Huguenots" created an unparalleled excitement on its production at Paris in 1836. "Le Prophete" appeared in 1849, "L'Etoile du Nord" in 1854, "Dinorah" in 1858, and "L'Africaine" in 1865, alter the composer's death. 440 MODERN EUROPE Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847), grandson of the famous Jewish philosopher, Moses Mendelssohn, the friend of Lessing, played well on the piano and composed ably before his tenth year. He was known soon to the world by his overture to the "Midsummer Night's Dream/' and had a great reception when he came to England in 1829. He visited Paris and Italy, and began his famous "Songs Without Words" before 1832. He then took the highest position as an orchestral con- ductor at great musical festivals, and his band at Leipsic was the finest in Germany. His great oratorio, "St. Paul," was first produced at Diisseldorf in 1836, and then came the "Lobgesang," or "Hymn of Praise," composed in celebration of the 4ooth anniversary of the invention of printing. In 1843 his music to the "Mid- summer Night's Dream" appeared at Leipsic. Men- delssohn's oratorio, "Elijah," was first performed at Birmingham in 1846, under his direction. Italy has been the birthplace of many famous com- posers. Luigi Cherubim (1760-1842), in early life, acquired fame as a composer of operas, and devoted himself later to sacred music, in which he produced his splendid "Coronation Mass," and an equally grand "Requiem." Vincenzo Bellini (1802-1835) is univer- sally known by his beautiful melodies taken from his most popular works, "Norma," "I Puritani," and "La Sonnambula." Many of the greatest singers of Italian opera rose to fame in the performance of these sweet strains of music from the sunny south, the outpourings of a pure and gifted soul. Antonio Rossini (1792-1868), one of the greatest writers of Italian opera, began his musical career as a choir-boy at Bologna. For the pur- pose of writing operas he specially studied Haydn and Mozart, and his first success was "Tancredi," produced EUROPEAN ART 441 at Venice in 1813, and received with enthusiasm all over Europe. He now poured forth operas in rapid succes- sion. His exquisite "II Barbiere di Siviglia" appeared at Rome in 1816. Rossini's rapidity of composition was marvelous, and he produced several operas in a year. One of his finest productions "Semiramide," came out at Venice in 1823. In 1824 he settled at Paris, and in 1829 produced his masterpiece, "William Tell." This great work is graceful in melody, rich in its harmony, and varied in its instrumental scoring. But it was coldy received at Paris, and he made a vow (which he kept) that he would never write another opera. His "Stabat Mater," a religious piece, appeared in 1832. Gaetano Donizetti (1798-1848) gained European fame by "Anna Bolena," produced at Milan in 1830, and soon followed by the charming "Elisir d' Amore." Then came "Lucrezia Borgia," and the equally famous "Lucia di Lammermoor," produced at Naples in 1835. In 1840 "La Favorita" appeared, and was badly received in Paris, but its merits have been since fully recognized. "Don Pasquale" appeared at Paris in 1843, and is a charming work. Giuseppe Verdi, a still (1899) living Italian composer, is famous for his popular operas, "La Traviata" and "II Trovatore." Auber, the charming French opera writer, was born at Caen in 1782, and died at Paris in 1871. The famous Scribe was the skillful composer of plots and dialogues for Auber's lively music, which is thoroughly French in character, full of graceful and piquant expression. "Masaniello" is a well-known serious opera of Auber's, but his greatest talent lay in such comic operas as "Fra Diavolo" a universal favorite. Gounod, the French composer, is famous for his opera, "Faust," the favorite with most prima donnas, and several sacred works. The 442 MODERN EUROPE Hungarian, Liszt (1811-1886), and the Pole, Chopin (1810-1849), were composers of magnificent music of a serious nature, though the latter won fame by his waltzes. In painting and sculpture much good work has been done under the inspiration of the great masters, although there have been no names to place alongside Michael Angelo, Raphael, and Leonardo da Vinci. A revival of French painting came with the style of Louis David, who was at the height of his power during the great Revolution, and died in 1825. Among the greatest of his pupils were the historical painter, Baron Gros (1771-1835), Ingres (1781-1867), and the portrait painter, Baron Gerard (17701837). This classic school was rivaled by the artists of the new romantic style, Delacroix (1799-1863), Delaroche (1797-1856), and the battle painter, Horace Vernet (1789-1863). That pro- lific genius, Gustave Dore, was remarkable for brilliant conception and facile execution. Meissonier and Gerome are eminent as genre painters. Rosa Bonheur is renowned for her animals. Corot's landscapes have few rivals. Germany, in William von Kaulbach (1805-1874), has had one of the greatest mural painters of modern times. A pupil, at Diisseldorf, of Cornelius, and attained fame as a painter of frescoes, or pictures executed in water- colors upon a freshly plastered wall. Fresco painting is a field for the true poet painter, and Kaulbach, in this department, revived some of the glories of Raphael and Michael Angelo. 1837 he painted, in sepia, his famous "Battle of the Huns," in which spirits of the warriors whose corpses lie under the walls of Rome are repre- sented as continuing the combat in the air. In 1846 he completed in the Pinaeothek, the famous picture EUROPEAN ART 443 gallery formed by Louis I of Bavaria, at Munich his colossal oil painting, the "Fall of Jerusalem." At Berlin and at Munich Kaulbach produced many other works in the noblest style of art. Peter von Cornelius was born at Diisseldorf in 1783, and lived till 1867. He displayed his grandeur of conception in some of his earliest work, was the reviver of fresco painting, and the founder of a new school of German art. In 1819 he became Director of the Academy of Painting at Diis- seldorf, and was then intrusted with the painting of the walls of the Glyptothek the great sculpture gallery at Munich. In 1825 he became head of the Academy at Munich. In one of the great halls of the Glyptothek the Hall of Heroes the frescoes represent, on a colos- sal scale, the leading events of the "Iliad." In the Hall of the Gods, the Grecian mythology is symbolized. The "Last Judgment," in one of the churches at Munich, is magnificent. Belgium produced two great historical painters in Hendrik Leys and Louis Gallait. Holland has given to the world Alma Tadema, remarkable for his skill in treat- ing subjects which illustrate the old civilization of Greece, Rome, and Egypt. Thorwaldsen, the great Danish sculptor (1770-1844), studied at Rome under Canova, and was recognized as one of the greatest sculptors of modern times, and executed works for all parts of Europe. The latter part of his life was spent at Copenhagen, where the Thorwaldsen Museum contains about three hundred of his works. His chief success was with subjects from Greek mythology. Among his best known works are the bas-reliefs "Day" and "Night," and the colossal lion near Lucerne, in mem- ory of the Swiss guards who fell in defense of the Tuileries in the great French Revolution. 441 MODERN EUROPE In England among the most notable artists must be named Turner (1775-1851), the number of whose land- scapes is immense, Edward Matthew Ward, Mulready, Maclise, Webster, Rossetti, Millais, and M. Holman Hunt, who were formerly called pre-Raphaelites, because they endeavored under the influence of John Ruskin to lead painting back to the traditions that existed before Raphael; Leighton, Cole, Long, Burne-Jones, and many others whose work is not inferior to that of any of the other schools of Europe. Art has even penetrated to Russia, where a school has been founded that portrays Russian life in a natural manner. The names of Verestchagin and Gay are known for peculiarly Russian art by all lovers of art. AWAKENING OF ASIA The largest of the continents is Asia. Its area is greater than that of both North and South America com- bined. Its population exceeds that of all the rest of the globe. There civilization had its earliest development, so far as investigation has been able to ascertain. The close of the Nineteenth Century sees it the scene of a conflict of the great powers a conflict at present peaceful but which may at any moment become warlike and Europe waits for Asia's complete subjection to its political control. Europe already dominates Asia by virtue of the superior intelligence of the Occident to that of the Orient. From the ancient history of Asia to the modern is a great gap. The ancient history of the great Oriental peo- ples who there laid the foundations of the system that now threatens the political extermination of their descend- ants, has been sketched in the volume, "Ancient and Mediaeval History." A new epoch in Asia's history began after the develop- ment of European navigation, when Portuguese ships, rounding the Cape, founded the first European colonies in India. They were soon followed by the Spaniard, the Dutch, the French, the Danes, and the British, all endeav- oring to seize the richest colonies in Asia, and all involved in interminable struggles for preponderance in her lands and on her seas; while Russia, in the course of a few Cen- turies, conquered and partly colonized the best parts of the immense cold prairies and forest lands on the north- western slope of the high plateau, and crossing its narrow extremity in the northeast, reached the Pacific. Great 445 446 MODERN EUROPE Britain established herself in India, and expelling thence her competitors from all but a few spots on the sea-coast, she took possession of the whole of the peninsula, and extended her powers over the western parts of the Indo- Chinese peninsula. The Portuguese retain in India only Din, Daman, and Goa; and the French keep Chander- nagore, Yanaon, Pondicherry, Carical, and Mahe. The next colonial power in Asia is the Dutch, who have under their dominion most of Borneo, Sumatra, Java, Celebes, the Moluccas, and the small Sunda Islands. British and French interests are rivals in the Indo-Chinese peninsula, and while Burmah has become English, the annexation by France of Tonquin and of Siamese territory east of the Mekhong has consolidated French power in Indo-China. The joint intervention by Russia and France in Chinese affairs, after the Japanese war of 1894-95, has further extended both French and Russian influence in Asia. China, till then regarded as forming with Britain and Russia, the third great power in Asia, has assumed tem- porarily at least, a quite subordinate place; while Japan has become the foremost native Asiatic power. The chief political divisions of Asia with their approxi- mate areas and population (mostly estimated) appear as follows. The territories belonging to European powers or protected by them, are distinguished by parenthesis: Area in RUSSIAN ASIA sq. m. Population. Caucasus (Russian) 182,500 6,534-850 Siberia (Russian) 4,824,570 4,093,500 Transcaspian Region (Russian) 230,400 206,000 Caspian Sea 169,670 Turkestan (Russian) 1,541,500 5,245,000 6,948,640 16,079,350 AWAKENING OF ASIA 447 WESTERN ASIA Asiatic Turkey Samos (trib. to Turkey) Cyprus (British) Independent Arabia 968,200 Aden and Perim (British) 70 Area in sq. m. Population. 729,200 16,133,000 210 3o8o 41,200 209,200 3,700,000 34.900 1,701,260 20,118,300 IRAN AND TURAN Persia (Russian and British protectorate).. 636,400 7,653,600 Afghanistan (British and Russian influence) 240,000 4,000,000 Kafiristan (Russian and Brit, protectorate) 20,000 1,000,000 Beluchistan (British protectorate) ,. 106,800 350,000 Khiva (Russian protectorate) 22,300 70,000 Bokhara and Karategin (Russian prot.)... 92,300 2,130,000 1,117,800 15,203,600 INDIA British territory 787,000 213,567,200 Feudatory States (British) 50973O 66,050,000 Ceylon (British) 25,360 3,008,000 French Possessions 195 282,700 Portuguese Possessions 1,605 475.2OO Himalaya States (British) 89,600 3.300,000 1,413,490 286,683,100 INDO-CHINESE PENINSULA Wild tribes of Assam (British prot.) 25,290 200,000 Lower Burmah (British) ) Upper Burmah (British) J Straits Settlements (British) 1,450 540,000 Siam 280,650 6,000,000 Malacca States 31,500 300,000 Cochin-China (French) j Tonquin (French) J. 225,620 24,100,000 Cambodia (French protectorate) I Annam (French protectorate) J 1,042,320 38,745,800 448 MODERN EUROPE Area in CHINA AND JAPAN sq. m. Population. China Proper and Manchuria 1,660,300 395,000,000 Vassal States (Mongolia, Tibet, Zungaria, Eastern Turkestan) 2,519,300 9,200,000 Corea (Japan and Russia protectorate) .... 84,250 10,500,000 Hongkong (British) 32 160,400 Macao (Portuguese) 28 68,100 Japan 148,500 37,869,000 4,412,410 452,797,500 SOUTH-EASTERN ASIA Dutch East Indies 568,900 28,468,000 Philippines (United States) 114,400 5,600,000 Mariannes, Sulu and Carolines (Spain)... 1,860 181,000 East Timor, etc. (Portuguese) 6,290 300,000 North Borneo and Labuan (British) 27,530 181,300 Boreno States (Sarawak and Brunei) 62,940 450,000 17,417,750 864,707,950 It will be seen that Asia is gradually coming under European influence. This influence has reached its high- est development in the British dependency of India of which Queen Victoria is Empress. India has been easy prey for many conquerors. The influence of the Greek conquest (see volume "Ancient History") was swept away by the Scythians, who poured in many waves from 126 B. C. and 544 A. D. over Northern India. Their inroads, as well as the existence of ancient aboriginal tribes in India, left a lasting influence on the character of the population, and profoundly modified the religious beliefs and domestic institutions of the Hindus. So early as A. D. 664 Arabs began to make preda- tory expeditions against Guzerat and Sind. The conquest of Persia, toward the middle of the Seventh Century, at length brought the successors of Mohammed to the Indus, and in the Northwest of India they -nade some temporary w V5 CT; < |J cu u. o AWAKENING OF ASIA 449 acquisitions during- the ensuing 100 years. How- ever 200 years more were to pass before the foundations of a durable Mohammedan Empire were laid. It was in the year 999 that Mahmud declared the inde- pendence of the Kingdom of Ghazni in Afghanistan a proceeding which he followed with at least twelve expedi- tions into India, one of which carried him beyond the Jumna, and another ended in the occupation of Guzerat. Later, in 1024, he conquered and annexed to his King- dom, the provinces of Lahorea and Mooltan. The suc- ceeding dynasties of Afghan Kings held power in India for 500 years; but the advance of their power was gradual, for it was not until 1206 that Delhi was taken, and the greater part of Hindustan was annexed by Kubt-ub-din, with whose memory is connected the Kubt-minar, near Delhi; and the first Mohammedan invasion of the Dec- can took place in 1294. From this time onward the history of India is the his- tory of invasion, dynasty following dynasty, while the Mongol hordes again and again swept into the country. At length, during the reign of the last monarch of the Toghlak line, the famous Tamerlane burst into India at the head of a mighty host and captured and sacked Delhi in 1398: he left behind him Khizr Khan, who thencefor- ward held the reins of power. A period of misrule, tyranny, and anarchy ensued, and fittingly paved the way for the total conquest of the country by the Mogul Emper- ors. Under Shah Jehan (1628-58), the Mogul Empire reached its zenith. Many public works and grand build- ings testify to his magnificence and taste, among others the Taj Mahal at Agra, which is said to have been the work of a French architect Austin of Bordeaux. The close of Shah Jehan's reign was embittered by the rivalries of his four sons. Aurangzeb (1658-1707) defeated his VOL. 2 29 450 MODERN EUROPE brothers and put them to death; his father he kept a pris- oner for the rest of his life. Aurangzeb had great ability and courage, and was a master of dissimulation; but big- otry and distrust were the bane of his policy, and the decline of the Mogul Empire dates from his reign. Four sons disputed the right of succession; at last Bahadur Shah gained the coveted crown, but only for five years. Dying in 1712 he was succeeded by his son, Jehundar Shah, who was cruelly murdered by one Farokshir, a great-grandson of the famous Aurangzeb, who seized on the crown. He in turn was himself put to death six years later, and Muhammed Shah, grandson of Bahadur, came to the throne. The viceroys of his own appointment grew uneasy and rebellious, and all unconsciously aided in the growth of the Mahratta power. One of them refused his aid to his Sovereign, and the Mahrattas in consequence subdued the Deccan. In 1738, to avenge an alleged insult, Nadir Shah of Persia invaded India, captured Delhi, and gave the city over to the mercy of his terrible followers, who are said to have slain more than 100,000 of the inhab- itants, and to have levied as contribution and carried off as plunder treasure equal to more than $250,000,000. In spite of this enormous sacrifice, peace was only obtained by giving up to the conqueror all the country west of the Indus. On the death of Muhammad (1748), the country was fast going to decay it was in fact only waiting for a fresh conqueror. The Mahrattas were there ready for the work to be done. About 1724, the Deccan, Oudh, and Bengal became practically independent under Nizam-ul- Mulk (ancestor of the present Nizam), Sadat Khan, and Aliverdi Khan respectively. Simultaneously with the decline of the Moguls rose the power of the Mahrattas. They were Hindus, and the country from which they came may be roughly described AWAKENING OF ASIA 451 by drawing two lines from Nagpur to Surat and Goa on the west coast. The founder of their power was Sivaji ( 1627-1680) , a chieftain of the family of Bhonslah. The Mahratta Empire, containing within itself the seeds of disintegration, was fated to bend before the superior sway of European adventurers, who, either from love of adven- ture or thoughts of gain, had been attracted in increasing numbers to the shores of India. From time immemorial the trade of Europe with India, the farther East, has been the most lucrative branch of the world's commerce, and has enormously enriched in turn each Nation that has carried it on. In the Fifteenth Century it was mainly possessed by the Venetians at its European end, and by the Arabs, the successors of the old Phoenicians, in its Eastern portion ; the chief centers of the trade of the Arabs were Calicut, Ormuz, Aden, and Malacca. Seing the large profits to be derived from, this trade, the rising Nations of Europe in the Fifteenth Century sought to obtain a share. Hence the ardor of the navigators who set out to discover an ocean route to India. The sea route round the Cape of Good Hope was discovered by Vasco da Gama, who anchored before Calicut on the 2Oth of May, 1498. From that time until they lost their naval supremacy the Portuguese may be considered to have enjoyed the monopoly of Indian trade. The first Portu- guese Viceroy, Francis of Almeida (1505-1509), estab- lished numerous factories and fortresses, and took pos- session of Ceylon and the Maldive Islands; while his suc- cessor Alfonso de Albuquerque, captured Goa (1510), and extended the Portuguese dominion in various places, but notably on the Malabar and Malacca coasts. This dominion had in 1542 practically amounted to an entire regulation of the Asiatic Coast trade with Europe 45 2 MODERN EUROPE from the Persian Gulf to Japan, and for nearly sixty years afterward the King of Portugal was the virtual Suzerain of the southern coast of Asia. When the Por- tuguese crown fell into weak hands its power in the Eastern seas began to decline; and it was almost annulled in 1580 when the crowns of Spain and Portugal were united under Philip II, and the Asiatic interests of Portugal were subordinated to the European interests of Spain. The Portuguese were content to bring the exports of India to Lisbon; they left it to the Dutch to carry them thence to the other ports of Europe. When Phillip II, on account of the revolt of the United Provinces, shut the harbor of Lisbon against them, the Dutch (1580) were driven either to forego the trade or seek it in the East themselves. The enterprise of the Nation decided the question, especially as the Spanish naval supremacy had been shattered by the defeat of the "Invincible Armada" in 1588. In 1602 "The Dutch East India Company" was formed by th.e amalgamation of the previously existing trading societies, and between 1602 and 1620 the principal Portuguese settlements in the East were captured. In 1661 the Portuguese pos- sessed only those remnants of their Indian possessions which they still hold. The Dutch Eastern Empire, situ- ated mainly in the Malayan Peninsula, and contiguous islands passed with the Mother Country under the dominion of France in 1810. Attacked in consequence and conquered by the English in 1812, it was surrend- ered again to the Dutch in 1816, since which date it has remained in Dutch hands. At the close of the Sixteenth Century the English also began to feel the necessity of freeing themselves from dependence on others for the supply of Indian produce, and to desire a share in the profits of Indian AWAKENING OF ASIA 453 commerce. After the success of some smaller ventures, the English East India Company was incorporated by Queen Elizabeth by royal charter on the 3ist of Decem- ber, 1600. Quarrels with the Portuguese ensued, and no footing of any kind was obtained until the year 1615, when Captain Best, with 400 English ships, won a great victory over the Portuguese squadron off Surat, where a settlement was established, and a satisfactory treaty concluded with the Emperor Jehangir. England hav- ing entered upon the war of the Austrian succession in 1744, the rival companies of England and France came in collision in 1746, the immediate result being the cap- ture of Madras in that year. Had Dupleix received continuous support from home, he might have suc- ceeded in founding a French Empire in India. The first reverses of the English were retrieved by Give, whose gallant defense of Arcot (1751) was followed by a series of brilliant movements culminating in the utter defeat of the French army at Wandewash in 1760, and in the capture of Pondicherry in 1761, which completed the ruin of the French. The territory retained by the French in India since that date is insignificant, and in these possessions they are forbidden by treaty to hold any considerable military force. The tragedy of the Black Hole of Calcutta (1756) summoned Give from Madras, and the victory of Plassey in the following year made British influence predominant in Bengal. Give was appointed first Governor of Bengal in 1758. In 1763, in his absence, the English were again embroiled in Bengal, but completely defeated their opponents at Buzar (1764). As a result of this battle they received from the Emperor at Delhi the diwani or fiscal adminis- tration of Bengal, Behar, and Orissa, and the jurisdiction over the Northern Circars. Give returned a second time 454 MODERN EUROPE to Bengal as Governor, and before he left finally in 1767, he succeeded in reforming the services, in which great abuses existed. After an interval of misrule Warren Hastings (1772-85) was appointed President of Calcutta, and then Governor-General in 1774, on the creation of that office under the Regulating Act of 1773. He not only greatly increased the power and territory of the Company notwithstanding the opposition of a hostile Council, of which Sir Philip Francis, the reputed author of Junius, was a member, but was also the first great administrative organizer of the British possessions in India. He repelled Hyder Ali's memorable invasion of the Carnatic (1780) and defeated the triple alliance of the Nizam, the Mahrattas, and Hyder Ali. In doing so he probably saved British India. In 1790 Lord Cornwallis, being British Governor- General, and Commander-in-Chief, was obliged to make war on Tippoo, Sultan of Mysore, who had invaded Travancore, then under British protection. Half the dominions of Tippoo passed to the East India Company by a treaty dictated to the defeated Sultan at Seringa- patam. In 1798 Lord Mornington (afterward Marquis Wellesley) became Governor. Tippoo intrigued now both with the French and with native Princes with Eng- land, and in 1799 Seringapatam was captured, and Tippoo slain. In the famous battle of Assaye,* Colonel Wellesley (afterward the Duke of Wellington) defeated the Mahrattas under Scindia, while the victories of Gen- eral Lake in Northern India extended the dominion of the Company. When the Earl of Moira (afterward the Marquis of Hastings) became Governor-General (1813) the Pindaris and Ghourkas were suppressed, and British rule became supreme in India. Earl Amherst's admin- *See Life of Wellington in " Great Warriors." AWAKENING OF ASIA 455 istration (1823-28) was marked by a Burmese war, and that of Lord William Bentinck (1828-35) by the sup- pression of the custom of Sutti (widow-burning) and of the Thugs. In 1836 the Earl of Auckland became Gov- ernor-General. In 1842 the terrible massacre of British troops at Khyber Pass took place, for which retribution was exacted when Kabul was sacked, during the admin- istration of Lord Ellenborough. Sir Charles Napier conquered and annexed Scindia under the last named Governor. In 1844 Sir Henry Hardinge was sent out, and then followed the first Sikh war, when the desperate battles of Moodkee, Ferozeshah, Aliwal, and Sobraon resulted in the subjugation of the Sikhs. In 1848 Earl Dalhousie commenced an administration marked by great improvements in government and vast social prog- ress. A second Sikh war terminating in the victory won at Guzerat by Sir Hugh Gough (1849), tnen occurred, while the four Kingdoms of Pegu, Nagpur, Oude, and Punjab were annexed. Viscount Canning was Governor-General when the great storm of 1857 broke forth. The Indian Mutiny had its commence- ment in a massacre at Meerut, and it quickly spread to Delhi, where there were no European troops. At Cawnpore, which fell into the hands of Nana Sahib, Maharajah of Bithur, a terrible massacre of Europeans, both men and women, took place, and a similar fate seemed to await those who were besieged in the Resi- dency at Lucknow. After a heroic defense of eighty- seven days, the city was relieved by Havelock and Out- ram. In 1859 Oude was entirely reduced. During the Mutiny much assistance was gained from native chiefs, such as Scindia, Holkar, and the Nizam, who were rewarded with honors, but the last of the great Moguls, the King of Delhi, was transported as a 456 MODERN EUROPE felon, and died in 1862 in Pegu. The result of the Mutiny was the transfer of the Government of India from, the Company to the crown. Since that event the most memorable incidents in the history of India have been the assassination of Lord Mayo, Gov- ernor-General, in the Andaman Islands in 1872, .and the second Afghan war in 1878. In 1882 a detachment of Indian troops did excellent service for England in Egypt, and in November, 1885, Upper Burmah was annexed to the British Empire. Lord Lansdowne's administration was responsible for a change in the currency law by which the Mints were closed to free coinage of silver, and the rupee cur- rency cut away from its silver basis to be eventually, it was intended, attached to a gold standard. The recon- struction of the Legislative Councils introduced a more popular element in the government of India, while the opening of the public service more widely to the natives of India gave them a larger share in the work of admin- istration. With the years 1894 began the Viceroyalty of the Earl of Elgin and Kincardine, which was full of events, particularly in 1897; frontier wars, famine, earth- quakes, plague, seditious agitations, boundary settle- ments, financial embarrassments, and peaceful reforms. In 1895 a rising in Chitral and the danger to a beleag- ured British garrison made necessary a formidable mili- tary expedition which was conducted with rapidity, precision, gallantry, and success. In 1897 Lord Elgin had to face, in addition to troubles on the frontier, the internal calamities of famine, earthquake, and plague. The rains of 1896 failed after the middle of August over a large area in India. Grain riots occurred at the end of September, and before the end of October, 1896, 50,- ooo persons were receiving State relief, the numbers AWAKENING OF ASIA 457 rapidly increasing until they reached nearly three and a quarter millions in the beginning of March, 1897. In September, 1896, came the first reports of the bubonic plague in Bombay. The total number of deaths re- ported up to October, 1897, was 11,000 in Bombay, and about 36,000 in the rest of the Presidency. About 70 per cent of the cases reported resulted fatally. Lord Curzon, whose wife is an American woman, became Viceroy in 1899. Contiguous to British India and Russian Asia are the States of Afghanistan and Persia, whose Sovereigns have been a constant source of contention between Russia and England both in war and diplomacy. By agreement with the Amir, Afghanistan has no relation with other powers except the Government of India. In all other respects Afghanistan is independent, and the rule of the Amir despotic. In the Eleventh and Thirteenth Cen- turies the Afghan Empires of the Sultans Ghazni and Ghor, and in the last Century that of Ahmed Shah, extended over the Punjab. In 1838 the country was occupied by British troops, but three years later a national revolt broke out at Kabul, which resulted in the destruction of an English army and the abandon- ment of the country to its native rulers. A second inva- sion by the English in 1879 led to the temporary occu- pation of Kabul and Kandahar, and to the annexation to the Indian Empire of the chief passes between Afghanistan and India, Something of an ancient and mediaeval history of Persia has been told in the first volume of this work. The Sassanian Kings raised Persia to a height of power and prosperity such as it never before attained, and more than once imperiled the existence of the eastern Empire. The most notable Kings of the dynasty were Shahpur I, 458 MODERN EUROPE or Sapor (240-273), who routed the Romans, and took the Emperor Valerian captive at Edessa; his grandson, Shahpur II, who also maintained an equal conflict with the Romans, and Chosroes I and II, the latter of whom was ultimately crushed by Heraclius in 628. The last Sassanian King, Yazdigerd (Yazdajird), was driven from the throne, after a great battle at Nahavend (639), by the Arabs, who now began to extend their dominion in all directions, and from this period may be dated the gradual change of character in the native Persian race, for they have been from this time constantly subject to alien races. During the reigns of Omar (the first of the Arab rulers of Persia) Othman AH, and the Ommiades (634-750) Bagdad became the capital, and Khorassan the favorite province of the early and more energetic rulers of this race, and Persia consequently came to be considered as the center and nucleus of the calif ate. But the rule of the Califs soon became merely nominal, and ambitious Governors, or other aspiring individuals, established independent principalities, in various parts of the country. Many of these dynasties were transitory, others lasted for Centuries, and created extensive and powerful Empires. The Moguls under Genghis Khan swept them away. Afterward they fell prey to the Turks in the Fifteenth Century. The Turks were expelled in 1605 by Shah Abbas the Great. Afghanistan and Beluchistan finally separated from Per- sia, and the country was split up into a number of small independent States till 1755, when Kerim Khan, the Kurd, reestablished peace and unity in Western Persia, and by his wisdom, justice, and warlike talents acquired the esteem of his subjects and the respect of neighboring States. The history of Persia from 1789 to 1830 is mainly a AWAKENING OF ASIA 459 struggle against Russia. Aga Mahommed, who founded the present royal dynasty, became King in 1795, and subdued Khorassan and Georgia, but his successor, Futteh Ali, was drawn into war with Russia and com- pelled to cede Georgia to that power. Another war was followed by the treaty of Gulistan (1813), which gave away further territory and allowed the Russians to navi- gate the Caspian. In 1826-29 a third war cost Persia Armenia. In 1834 Mahommed Shah obtained the throne, and tried to assert the old Persian supremacy over the Afghans and the Beloochees. He accordingly proceeded to annex Herat, but was prevented by Eng- land. In 1848 Nazir-ed-Din (assassinated in 1898) pur- sued a similar course, and finally, in 1856, the Persians took the city. A British army was forthwith sent against them, under Outram and Havelock, who gained repeated victories and compelled the restoration of Herat. Since then Persian aggression has left Herat alone, and developed itself in other places, causing fre- quent disputes with the Amir of Afghanistan and the Khan of Khelat, from the latter of whom a large slice of territory was obtained in 1872. The Caspian Sea, which bounds Persia on the north, is wholly under Russian in- fluence, the Persian Gulf on the south is dominated and policed by the British Government. The northern fron- tiers of Persia are in contact with the Russian provinces, its eastern with Afghanistan and Beluchistan, which are within the sphere of British influence, and its western with Turkey. Railways are practically non-existent, and the Shah has bound himself not to allow the con- struction of railways in Persia before the end of the Century. The Kingdom of Siam lies between the British Indian province of Burmah and its dependencies on one 460 MODERN EUROPE side, and the territory of French Indo-China on the other. By the Anglo-French agreement of May, 1896, the main central part of Siam, including the basins of the rivers Menam, Petcha Bouri, and Petriou, was neutral- ized, the two Governments agreeing not to send troops into it, or to obtain an exclusive advantage in it. The French Indo-China consists of Cochin-China, Tonquin, Annam, and Cambodia. Since the union cre- ated in 1887 they have been under a single Governor- General, with a Lieutenant-Governor for Cochin-China, and Residents-General for the other three divisions. The first cession of Cochin-China was in 1862; its west- ern provinces were occupied in 1867. Cambodia recog- nized the French protectorate in 1863; its present status is, however, regulated by a convention of June 17, 1884; the effective protectorate over Annam dates from 1874, but present relations are determined by a convention of June 6, 1884. Tonquin may be said to have been finally conquered when peace had been concluded with China in 1885. The Lao country up to the Mekong was added to the French protectorate as a result of a dispute with Siam in 1893, and the Mekong was finally fixed as a boundary between French and British dominions in 1896. Cochin-China is wholly annexed and directly administered by French officials. Annam is governed by a King, with his court at Hue. Subject to the con- trol of the French Resident, the Annamese Kingdom is an absolute despotism, after the Chinese type, and the administration is in the hands of the King's officials. In Cambodia the French Resident presides over the State Council, and French interference in internal administra- tion is greater than it is in Annam; but Government is carried on in the name of the King of Cambodia. In Tonquin there is a native Regent, who is head of the AWAKENING OF ASIA 461 native administration. But he does not rule. The direc- tion of affairs is in the hands of the French Resident and his subordinate officials. The most important English Asiatic possession out- side of India is the Island of Ceylon. In 1507 the Portuguese landed in Ceylon and formed settlements along the coast; but about 150 years later they were deposed by the Dutch. In 1796 the British took posses- sion of the Dutch settlements on the island, and annexed them to the Presidency of Madras; but six years after, in 1 80 1, Ceylon was erected into a separate crown colony. In 1815 the King of Kandy was deposed and banished, and his dominions, which had up to that time maintained their independence of European rule, were annexed to the British crown. In 1602 the Dutch created their East India Com- pany. This Company conquered successively the Dutch East Indies, and ruled them during nearly two Cen- turies. After the dissolution of the Company in 1798 the Dutch possessions were governed by the mother- country. Java, the most important of the colonial pos- sessions of the Netherlands, was formerly administered, politically and socially, on a system established by Gen- eral Johannes Graaf Van den Bosch in 1832, and known as the "culture system." It was based in principle on the officially superintended labor of the natives, directed so as to produce not only a sufficiency of food for them- selves, but a large quantity of colonial produce best suited for the European market. The "culture system" comprised the forced labor of the natives employed in the cultivation of coffee, sugar, indigo, pepper, tea, tobacco, and other articles. At present, the labor of the natives is only required for the produce of coffee, which is sold by the Government partly in the colonies, but 462 MODERN EUROPE mostly in the Netherlands. By the terms of a bill which passed the Legislature of the Netherlands in 1870, the forced cultivation of the sugar-cane is now totally abolished. The most important native power of the East and, in fact, the only one that is independent of Europe, is Japan, whose wonderful progress in the arts of peace and war during the last generation has amazed all the world. At international expositions Japan has shown the skill of her workmen, while during the war with China she proved that in future she was to be reckoned with in the division of Asia. Though the newest of the powers, Japan is one of the oldest in history. The Japanese claim a written history extending over 2,500 years, and its Sovereigns claim to have formed an unbroken dynasty since 660 B. C, the present Emperor being the 121 st of his race. But the early history of the Nation is of slight importance in a history of the world. The Generalissimo, or Shogun, seized the supreme authority in 1192, although the Mikado continued, as always, the nominal ruler. The next four Centuries, until 1603, were a period of bloodshed during which the feudal system became well established. Japan became first known to Europe under the name of Zipangu, through Marco Polo. The Portuguese, in 1542, established a lucrative trade, which continued until their final expulsion in 1640. From this date the Japanese government maintained the most rigid policy of isolation. No foreign vessels might touch at Japan- ese ports under any pretense. Japanese sailors wrecked on any foreign shore were with difficulty permitted to return home; while the Dutch, locked up in their factory at Deshima, were allowed to hold no communication with the mainland; and the people lived like "frogs in a AWAKENING OF ASIA 463 well," as the Japanese proverb has it, till 1853, when they were rudely awakened from their dream of peace and security by Commodore Perry's steaming into the har- bor of Uraga with a squadron of United States war vessels. He extorted a treaty from the frightened Shogun, 3 ist March, 1854, and Japan, after a with- drawal of 216 years, entered once more the family of Nations. Other countries slowly followed the example of the United States, until sixteen in all had obtained the same privileges. By signing the treaty, however, the Shogun gave offense to the daimyos, or the territorial Princes, and a long period of confusion ensued. In 1868 he was completely overthrown, and the Mikado left his enforced seclusion. The diamyos, very few of whom were more than mere weaklings under the direction of strong-willed retainers, resigned their fiefs, and were pensioned by the Government. Since 1868 the leading men of Satsuma and Chosho, forming what is called the Sat-cho combination, have held the important portfolios of State. The new period, commencing with the Emperor Mutsuhito's accession, has been named Meiji, "enlightened peace." Japan, during the Meiji period, has striven to make her influence felt as a powerful factor in Asiatic politics. Her expedition to Formosa in 1874 to punish piracy, her annexation in 1879 of the Loo Choo Islands, not- withstanding China's remonstrances and threats, her spirited policy in Corea in 1873, 1882, 1894, and 1895, her conscription law of 1883, and subsequent army reor- ganization, her development of a strong navy, her coast- defense scheme of 1887, subscribed to- liberally by wealthy private individuals, proved her assertive spirit A rebellion in 1877 of the fiercer Satsuma men under General Saigo was promptly crushed. 464 MODERN EUROPE During the last few years, especially since the recon- struction of the cabinet and the administration in 1886, the court has emerged entirely from its seclusion. The Emperor and Empress have visited all the chief institu- tions, and are present at public spectacles. The crown Prince, Haru, was the first in the long dynasty to be edu- cated at a public school. A new nobility was created in 1884, drawn partly from the old feudal baronage and partly from the new one of 1868. By the constitution of 1889, February nth, voluntarily granted by the Mikado, the succession to the throne was definitely fixed in the main line. The Emperor appoints his cabinet, whose members are responsible to him; there is also a Privy Council whom the Emperor may consult. The Emperor declares war, makes peace, and concludes treaties. The Imperial Diet, formed on the German sys- tem, consists of two houses, one of nobles, and one of representatives. The house of nobles contains about three hundred members, and the house of representa- tives the same, or about one member to 128,000 popula- tion. Voting is by scrutin de liste and secret ballot. The Diet must assemble every year. Japan enjoys also an admirable system of local home rule, provinces, dis- tricts, cities, and villages having their local Governors, and councils. As has been shown, the progress which has been made by the Japanese is remarkable. Young men of exceptional promise have been sent to the great universities of Europe and America, to return, upon the completion of their education, and mingle with the peo- ple as a leavening factor of the most potent quality. The hasty assimilation of Western ideas due to Japan's previous entire isolation from the rest of the world occasioned many small extravagances and imprudences, still the patriotic spirit of the Nation has triumphed in AWAKENING OF ASIA 465 spite of these, and. her administration is now (1899) in a highly satisfactory condition. By the new constitu- tion, absolute freedom of religious belief and practice is secured, so long as it is not prejudicial to peace and order. Education is general and compulsory. There is a complete system of local elementary, middle, and normal schools, and a central university in the Capital, with five higher middle schools as feeders. There is also a higher normal school at Tokio. Education is per- fectly free from class restriction. The printing press is active. Newspapers are comparatively dearer than in the United States. The Japanese police is a most efficient force. The convict system is an excellent one, and the establishments are so conducted as to be a source of revenue to the Government. Penal and civil codes have been drafted on a European basis. Taxation mostly falls upon the land and upon the wine, which is called sake. The one thing needed to prove Japan's power was a war, and the opportunity came in 1894. Open hostilities between Japan and China com- menced in July, 1894, at Corea, before war between the two countries had been declared, and were continued until the signing of the treaty of peace in April 17, 1895. Corea for many years had acknowledged the suzerainty of China. Japan, for commercial reasons, desired Corean independence. The war arose because of the desire of Japan for supremacy in Corea. During an insurrection in Corea, China and Japan each sent troops to the seat of trouble. This precipitated matters and a declaration of war soon followed. The Japanese were uniformly successful, both on land and at sea. Their armies were finely trained, and their ships and soldiers were armed with the latest improved guns. The Chinese knew practically nothing about modern warfare. VOI,. 2 JO 466 MODERN EUROPE Many American and European naval officers were in command of the war vessels of the Japanese. The prin- cipal engagements were at Ping-Yang, and at the mouth of the Yalu River, where the Chinese fleet was almost totally destroyed. Japan soon had possession of all of Corea, and later captured Moukden and Port Arthur. From the most authentic reports obtainable, the Japan- ese fighting force taking part in the campaign numbered a little over 600,000. This does not include large reserves at various points. The same report gives the Japanese loss as 4,113, of which 734 were killed in battle, 231 died of wounds, and 3,138 died of disease. The Chinese losses cannot be accurately ascertained, but they are variously estimated at from eight to twelve times that of the Japanese. The unquestioned superiority of the Japanese in war caused the Chinese to sue for peace, and by a treaty made April 17, 1895, Formosa and the adjacent Pesca- dores Islands were ceded to Japan. The treaty also provided for the temporary occupation of Port Arthur and Wei-Hai-Wei on the Chinese Coast, and for the independence of Corea, which was to be virtually under Japanese protection. Alarmed at the success of the Japanese, and fearing to have so powerful a neighbor in control of the Yellow Sea near the Siberian ports, Russia interfered and brought the powers to insist upon the evacuation of the ports by the Japanese. By treaty of March 23, 1898, Port Arthur passed into the hands of the Russians, while Wei-Hai-Wei was occupied by the British May 20, 1898. Meanwhile Germany, to secure its share of the spoil, obtained a lease of Kia-Chou Bay on the Shang-Tung peninsula from China, December 3, 1897. These arrangements have aroused great animosity in AWAKENING OF ASIA 467 Japan, where the people are indignant that they have been defrauded of the fruits of their victory. There have been constant cabinet changes, which seem full of peril for the political future of the islands, and insurrections have continued in Formosa while Japan has been forced to allow Russia to share in the protectorate of Corea. The aim of Japanese statesmanship to-day is to pre- vent the partition of China. In 1898 Marshal Yamagata visited Pekin and tried to secure the cooperation of the Chinese Government, but met with no success. The European powers in the meantime are slowly absorbing Chinese territory Manchuria is under Russian influ- ence, while each of the powers have more or less well defined "spheres of influence." The Chinese Govern- ment has lost whatever independence it had in the past, while the close of the Nineteenth Century sees its total dismemberment near. It is an enormous territory the most populous, and, excluding Siberia, the largest Empire in Asia. China proper is remarkable as the most compact nationality in the world, having an area of 1,336,841 square miles, with a population of 386,- 000,000. The rest of the Empire includes Manchuria, Mongolia, Thibet, Zungaria, and East Turkestan, which cover an area of about 2,881,560 square miles, and con- tain about 18,000,000 souls. China has strong claims to rank high in the family of Nations in the extent of her territory, the multitude of her people, their industry, and the antiquity of her history. The Government of the country is in theory most carefully organized, although in practice it is to be feared it is far otherwise. At its head is the Emperor, Supreme Priest and King, whose name is Kuang Hsu. The Nei-ko, or Cabinet, which includes two Manchu members, two Chinese, and two assistants from the Han-lin, or Great College, adminis- 468 MODERN EUROPE ters the Empire under the supreme direction of the Privy Council. Seven boards, or councils, each presided over by a Manchu and a Chinese, are entrusted in subordina- tion to the Nei-ko, with all civil appointments, with all financial matters, with the direction of rites and cere- monies, with military affairs, with public works, with criminal jurisdiction, and with the conduct of naval affairs. The board of Censors is theoretically superior to the central administration, and in practice possesses considerable power, through its right of access to the Sovereign. But the real rule is in the hands of the Dowager Empress and Li Hung Chang. The eighteen provinces are divided among a certain number of Gov- ernor-Generals, who are assisted by Governors of dis- tricts, and by the "taotais" of the cities. Agricultural pursuits occupy the majority of the people, the chief products being tea, silk, cereals, and sugar. There is also much coal in all the provinces. The greater part of the country is only very partially developed, and much benefit would accrue to native and foreign trade if a proper system of railways could be established. Very little has been done in this direction at present, although Russia is making beginnings which are jealously watched by the powers. Various ports, called the treaty ports, which number twenty-four in all, have been thrown open to European trade, and about 10,000 Eu- ropeans reside in these ports, of whom about 4,000 are British subjects. Shanghai is the great foreign center, more than half of the Europeans residing here. The ancient history of China has been dealt with in the first volume of this work. From that period until the opening of European intercourse there is nothing of interest and, in fact, China has made no real progress from that day to this. It was not till after the Cape of AWAKENING OF ASIA 469 Good Hope was doubled, and the passage to India dis- covered by Vasco da Gama in 1497, that intercourse between any of the European nations and China was possible by sea. It was in 1516 that the Portuguese first made their appearance at Canton; and they were followed at intervals by the Spaniard, the Dutch, and the English in 1635. The Chinese received none of them cordially; and their dislike of them was increased by their international jealousies and collisions with one another. The Manchu Sovereignty of the Empire, moreover, was then in the throes of its birth, and its rulers were the more disposed to assert their own superiority to all other potentates. They would not acknowledge them as their equals, but only as their vassals. They felt the power of the foreigners whenever they made an attempt to restrict their operations by force, and began to fear them. As they became aware of their conquests in the Philip- pines, Java, and India, they would gladly have prohibited their approach to their territories altogether. In the meantime trade gradually increased, and there grew up the importation of opium from India and the wonderful eagerness of the multitude to purchase and smoke it. Before 1767 the import rarely exceeded 200 chests, but that year it amounted to 1,000. In 1792 the British Government wisely sent an Embassy under Lord Macartney to Peking with presents to the Emperor, to place the relations between the two countries on a secure and proper footing; but, though the Ambassador and members of his suite were courteously treated, the main objects were not accomplished. In 1800 an imperial edict expressly prohibited the importation of opium, and threatened all Chinese who smoked it with condign pun- ishment. It had been before a smuggling traffic, and henceforth there could be no doubt of its real character. 470 MODERN EUROPE Still it went on and increased from year to year. A second Embassy from Great Britain in 1816 was dis- missed from Peking suddenly and contumeliously be- cause the Ambassador would not perform the ceremony of San kwet chiu. k'au ("the repeated prostrations"), and thereby acknowledge his own Sovereign to be but a vassal of the Empire. So things went on till the charter of the East India Company expired in 1834, and the head of its factory was superseded by a representative of the Sovereign of Great Britain, who could not conduct intercourse with the Hongkong merchants as the others had done. The two Nations were brought defiantly face to face. On the one side was a resistless force, determined to prose- cute its enterprise for the enlargement of its trade, and the conduct of it as with an equal Nation; on the other side was the old Empire seeming to be unconscious of its weakness, determined not to acknowledge the claim of equality, and confident of its power to suppress the import of opium. The Government of China made its grand and final effort in 1839, and in the spring of that year the famous Lin Tseh-shii was appointed to the Governor-Generalship of the Kwang provinces, and to bring the barbarians to reason. Out of his measures came the first war, which was declared by Great Britain against China in 1840. There could be no doubt as to the result in so unequal a contest; and we hurry to its close at Nanking, the old capital of the Empire, where a treaty of peace was signed August 29, 1842, on board Her Majesty's Ship Cornwallis, The principal articles were that the Island of Hongkong should be ceded to Great Britain; that the ports of Canton, Amoy, Fu-Chau (in Fu-Chien), Ning-po (in Cheh-chiang), and Shang- hai (in Chiang-su), should be opened to British trade AWAKENING OF ASIA 471 and residence; and that thereafter official correspond- ence should be conducted on terms of equality accord- ing to the standing of the parties. Nothing was said in the treaty on the subject of opium, but the smuggling traffic in it went on as before. Before fifteen years had passed away, because of troubles at Canton, not at all creditable to Great Britain, and the obstinacy of the Governor-General Yeh Ming-chin, in refusing to meet Sir John Bowring, it was thought necessary by the British Government that war should be commenced against China again. In this undertaking France joined. Canton was taken December 29, 1857, when Yeh was captured and sent a prisoner to Calcutta. Canton being now in the possession of the allies, arrange- ments were made for its government by a joint commis- sion, and in February, 1858, the allied plenipotentiaries, accompanied by the commissioners of the United States and Russia as non-combatants, proceeded to the north to lay their demands before the Emperor at Peking. There was not so much fighting as there had been in 1842, and (June 26th) a second treaty was concluded at Tien-tsin, renewing and confirming the former, but with many important additional stipulations, the most important of which were that the Sovereigns of Great Britain and China might, if they saw fit, appoint ambassadors, ministers, or other diplomatic agents to their respective courts; and that the British representative should not be required to per- form any ceremony derogatory to him as representing the Sovereign of an independent Nation on an equality with China. Other stipulations provided for the protection of Christian missionaries and their converts; for liberty for British subjects to travel, for their pleasure or for purposes of trade, under passports, into all parts of the interior of the country; for the opening of five additional ports for 472 MODERN EUROPE commerce Niu-chwang (in Shing-king, the chief prov- ince of Manchuria), Tang-chau (with port of Che-foo in Shan-tung), Tai-wan (Formosa), several ports of Ch'ao- chau (with port of Swa-tau, in Kwang-tung), and Chi'ung (Kiung-chan in Hai-nan) and for authority for mer- chant ships to trade on the Yang-tsze river, ports on which would be opened when the rebellion should have been put down and peace and order restored. (The river was not opened to steamer traffic until 1888.) Treaties on the same lines were concluded with the United States, France, and Russia. A revision of the tariff regulations of 1842 was to take place subsequently in the year at Shanghai. This was done in October, and then opium was entered among the legitimate articles of import, and the arrange- ment confirmed that the Government should employ a foreign official in the collection of all maritime duties. It might seem that these treaties secured everything which foreign Nations could require, and that the humilia- tion of the Chinese Government was complete. But they were nearly wrecked by one concluding stipulation in all of them but that of the United States, that the ratifica- tions of them should be exchanged at Peking within a year. The Emperor and his advisors, when the pressure of the force at Tien-tsin was removed, could not bear the thought of the embassies entering the sacred capital, and foolishly cast about to escape from the condition. The fort at Ta-ku, guarding the entrance to the Pei-ho, and the approach to Tien-tsin and thence to Peking were rebuilt and strongly fortified. When the English, French, and American ministers returned to Shanghai with the ratified treaties, in 1859, the Chinese commissioners who had signed them at Tien-tsin were awaiting them and urged that the ratification should be exchanged there. The French and English ministers then insisted on pro- AWAKENING OF ASIA 473 ceeding to Peking as the place nominated for the exchange. But when they arrived at the mouth of the river, with the gunboats under their command, they were unable to force the defenses. A severe engagement ensued, and the allied forces sustained a repulse with a heavy loss. It was the one victory gained by the Chinese. The British and French Governments took immediate action. A third expedition under the same plenipotentiaries as before, with a force of nearly 20,000 men, was at the same place in little more than a year. The forts were taken on August 2ist, and on the 25th the plenipotentiaries were again established in Tien- tsin. We can only refer to their march in September on Peking, with all its exciting details. The Emperor, Hsien-fung, fled to Jeh-ho, in the north of Chih-li, the imperial summer retreat; and his brother, Prince Kung, whose name is well known, came to the front in the man- agement of affairs. On October I3th he surrendered the northeast gate of the city; and the 24th the treaties were exchanged, and an additional convention signed, by which, of course, an additional indemnity was exacted from the Chinese, and an arrangement made about the emigra- tion of coolies, which had become a crying scandal, while a small piece of the continent of the Empire opposite to Hongkong was ceded to that colony. So it was that the attempt of China to keep itself aloof from the rest of the world came to an end, and a new era in the history of the Empire was initiated. Hsien-fung died at Jeh-ho in August, 1861, leaving the Empire to his young son, only six years old. A cabal at Jeh-ho tried to keep the boy in their possession, but his uncle, Prince Kung, succeeded in getting him to Peking, and along with the young Emperor's mother and the Empress Dowager, by whom Hsien-fung had had no child, loyally and successfully administered a regency in accord- 474 MODERN EUROPE ance with the new conditions of the Government. The style of the reign was Tung-chi, or Government in Union; February 23, 1873, the Emperor announced publicly, and specially to the foreign ministers, that he had taken the Government into his own hands. This brought up a question of an audience, but, after a good deal of protocol- ing and negotiating, it was finally settled, on June 29th, by the Emperor's receiving all the ministers then in Peking without the ceremony of prostration. His reign did not last long, for he died in January, 1875. As he left no son, and had designated no successor, the members of the imperial house, according to the rules in such a case, appointed as his successor Tsai-Tien, the son of Prince Shun, a younger brother of Prince Kung. The new sov- ereign was a child of four years old, and began to reign under the style of Kwang Hsu, or "The Illustrious Suc- cession." He assumed the government in March, 1887. Affairs in China proceeded peaceably under the domina- tion of Li Hung Chang,* who was wise enough to realize the foolishness of a war with a European power, until the war with Japan over Corea. That war was a rude awak- ening for China and its results seemed to have threatened the dynasty. But of the later developments, aside from the cessions of territory which have been mentioned, it is not possible to speak historically at present, as the informa- tion, aside from the cessions, which have been mentioned, is meager and comes from biased sources, whether British, German, Russian, or French. *See Volume "Foreign Statesmen." PARTITION OF AFRICA There is no more interesting page in the recent his- tory of the world than that which tells of the marvelous development of Africa. Each successive map of the con- tinent shows more of the country opened up and colonized by Europeans. How rapid this progress has been and how different is a map of Africa now from those which called forth those skeptical lines of Swift's: So geographers, Afric maps With savage pictures fill their gaps, And o'er uninhabitable downs Place elephants for want of towns. To-day out of eleven and a half million square miles that Africa contains, there are only about one and a half still unappropriated by Europeans. It will be of interest to trace briefly the history of the colonization of Africa. Passing over the invasion of the Phoenicians, Carthagin- ians, Greeks, and Romans, and later on the Arabs (see Ancient History), we find that the Portuguese were the first to institute the European colonization of the continent. Cape after cape was rounded by the Portuguese on the west coast until Diaz discovered the Cape of Good Hope in 1487. Ten years later Vasco da Gama doubled the Cape and landed at and named Natal, and proceeded up the coast to Mombasa. The Portuguese founded settlements in various parts and made several discoveries in the inter- ior. It was not until 1553 that the first British ships were fitted out for an expedition to Africa. France also, about this time, began to send vessels to Guinea, and by the middle of the Fifteenth Century there was quite a busy trade going on with Africa. 475 476 MODERN EUROPE In 1588 Queen Elizabeth granted a patent for the first English chartered African Company. It is singular to note how large a part chartered companies have played in English colonization. Then in 1581 the Dutch began to look for new fields for commerce, and turned their eyes toward Africa. They rapidly drove out Spain and Portu- gal for by this time Spain had dispossessed Portu- gal and France and England, too, from the coast of Guinea. Fort Elmina was taken by the Dutch in 1637. An effort was made to arrest the advance of the Dutch in 1662, when another British company was chartered by Charles II. This caused a war, and the English captured Fort Seconda, and Cape Coast Castle. Then we find other countries founding settlements, but France was the only one to make headway. Late in the Seventeenth Cen- tury France was undoubtedly the most powerful European power in Africa. Not much was done during the Eight- eenth Century, possibly because of war in Europe, but it must not be forgotten that in 1795 the English took the Cape of Good Hope from the Dutch. The beginning of the Nineteenth Century saw a great struggle between France and England in Africa as well as in Europe. In 1815 Cape Colony was finally made over to England. The French in 1830 seized Algeria, and both Nations steadily increased their possessions. For the last thirty years vari- ous European explorers, and the American Stanley, have been penetrating deep into the heart of Africa. ( See vol- ume "Achievements of the Nineteenth Century.") It was after Germany had become a United Empire that she, too, began to cast longing eyes on all possible colonies in Africa. In 1876 the famous Brussels Conference was held to discuss the question of exploring and civilizing the continent. The action of the King of the Belgians in his desire to form an African state on the Congo excited the PARTITION OF AFRICA 477 ambition of other European powers and soon there began early in the eighties, the first signs of what has been termed "the scramble for Africa." So the struggle, which seemed to reach a climax about five or six years ago, has gone on until now, when there is but little worth fighting for left, though that little is sometimes a source of trouble, as, for instance, the Fashoda incident between France and Eng- land in 1898. Out of the scramble France has come with a larger slice of territory than any other power. She pos- sesses all- the country from Algeria and Tunis to the Guinea coast, the bulk of the Sahara, the territory watered by the Senegal, and the best of that watered by the upper Niger. Then she also owns a great block between the Cameroons and the Congo. She has besides, Madagascar and Obok. Germany has fared badly, her possessions being of no great value. Portugal, the pioneer, has only 900,000 miles left. Italy, after a war with Abysinnia, now possesses a long stretch of territory in the Red Sea. Spain possesses a large tract of desert in the Western Sahara, Fernando Po, and about 800 square miles in Guinea. The Congo Free State, an appanage of Bel- gium, covers 900,000 square miles and is a country capable of development. Great Britain holds the second largest share of territory in Africa. Her possessions in the South have proved more and more valuable, and British South Africa seems likely easily to surpass the rest of the con- tinent in proportion to population and products. Thus Africa has played a large part in the politics of Europe in recent years. The following statistics, compiled by E. G. Ravenstein, and published in 1893, in Scot Keltic's admirable work, "The Partition of Africa," will convey a good idea of the progress made by European countries in Africa of late years : 478 MODERN EUROPE GREAT BRITAIN. Area, sq. m. Population. Gambia , 2,700 50,000 Sierra Leone 15,000 275,000 Gold Coast 46,600 1,905,0-0 Lagos and Yoruba 21,100 3,000,000 Niger Territories and Oil River , 269,500 17,500,000 British Guinea 354,9OO 22,730,000 Cape Colony (with Pondoland and Walvisch Bay) , 225,940 1,728,000 Basutoland 10,300 219,000 Natal 20,460 544,ooo Zulu and Tonga Lands 9,79 173,000 British Bechuanaland 71,43 50,000 Bechuanaland (Protectorate) , 99,5oo 80,000 Matabele, Mashona, and Nyasa Lands, etc. . . 524,000 1,600,000 British South Africa 961,420 4,394,000 Zanzibar (Protectorate with Northern Ports). 1,040 200,000 Ibea to 6 deg. N. Lat 468,000 6,500,000 Rest to Egyptian Frontier 745,000 6,000,000 Northern Somali Coast 40,000 200,000 Sokotra 1,380 10,000 British East Africa 1,255,420 12,910,000 Mauritius and Dependencies 1,030 393,000 St. Helena, Ascension, and Tristan da Cunha. 130 6,500 Total British Africa 2,572,900 40,433,500 FRANCE. Tunis Algeria 257,600 Sahara 1,550,000 Senegambia 15,000 Area, sq. m. Population. 44,800 1,500,000 3,900,000 1,100,000 180,000 PARTITION OF AFRICA 479 Gold and Benin Coasts 50,000 600,000 Soudan and Guinea 525,000 10,000,000 French Congo and Gaboon 320,000 6,000,000 Tajura Bay (Obok and Sibati) 7,700 70,000 Madagascar and Dependencies 228,000 3,520,000 Comoros i 760 64,000 Reunion 770 165,000 Total French Africa 2,999,630 27,099.000 GERMANY. Area, sq. m. Population. Togoland 16,000 1,150,000 Cameroons 130,000 2,600,000 South- West Africa 322,450 1 17,000 East Africa (Mafia) 353, 500 2,000,000 Total German Africa 821,950 5,867,000 ITALY. Area, sq. m. Population. Eritrea 52,000 300,000 Abyssinia 195,000 4,500,000 Somal, Galla, etc 355,ooo 1,500,000 Total Italian Africa 602,000 6.300,000 PORTUGAL. Area, sq. m. Population. Portuguese Guinea 11,600 150,000 Angola 517,200 3,500,000 Mozambique 310,000 1,500,000 Maderia 320 I34,ooo Cape Verde Islands i,49O m.ooo St. Thome and Principe 460 21,000 Total Portuguese Africa 841,070 5,416.000 480 MODERN EUROPE SPAIN. Area, sq. m. Population. Tetuan, etc 3O 16,000 Sahara (Rio de Oro, etc) 210,000 100,000 Canaries 2,940 288,000 Gulf of Guinea, etc 800 33,000 Total Spanish Africa 213,770 437,ooo SUMMARY. Area, sq. m. Population. Great Britain 2,572,900 4O,433,5oo France -.. 2,999,630 27,099,000 Germany . . .'. 821,950 5,867,000 Italy 602,000 6,300,000 Portugal 841,070 5,416,000 Spain 213,770 437,000 Congo State (Belgium) 864,000 15,600,000 Boer Republic and Swaziland 168,120 948,000 Liberia 37,ooo 1,000,000 Turkey (Egypt and Tripoli) 836,000 7,980,000 Unappropriated 1,486,710 23,919,500 Lakes Chad, Victoria, Tanganyika, Nyassa, etc 67,850 Total Africa 11,511,000 135,000,000 The story of the acquisition of these colonies is one of constant little wars which are not at present worth a place in history except in connection with the history of the mother country, where mention has been made of them when essential. More interesting is the story of the efforts of the independent states to preserve their integrity. The position and condition of Egypt are unparalleled. Nominally a province of the Ottoman Empire, it is also autonomous, and under the rule of the Khedive by Fir- mans of the Sultan in 1841, 1866, 1867, 1879, and 1892, subject to the annual payment of a tribute of 682,092. PARTITION OF AFRICA 481 It is at the same time entirely dependent for its existence as a sovereign state upon the will of stronger powers, England at the present moment being dominant. The title of Khedive was given by Firman of May 14, 1867, and is hereditary. In consequence of a military revolt, headed by Arabi Pasha, which the Khedive was powerless to subdue, England was most unwillingly compelled to interfere, and is now in occupation of Egypt, and for many years must continue to exercise a very powerful in- fluence over the fortunes of the country. While British troops were reestablishing the authority of the Khedive in Egypt, a revolution, headed by Mohammed Ahmed, proclaimed himself a Mahdi, broke out in the Egyptian territories in the Soudan. The Egyptian troops having been beaten in the field, General Gordon volunteered to proceed to Khartoum to withdraw the garrisons. He fell, dying nobly at his post January 26, 1885, before an Eng- lish expedition, sent somewhat tardily to his relief, could reach him. Since then the whole of the upper valley of the Nile and the vast territory which had been brought under Egyptian rule, almost as far as the equator, had been abandoned until the year 1896, when a military ex- pedition, under the Sirdar, started for the south. The province of Dongola was recovered in that year, and Ber- ber, in 1897, and Khartoum, in 1898 a series of brilliant victories that covered General Kitchner with glory. There is a railroad from Cairo to Dongola, which is now being extended to Berber. The most powerful state in Africa is Abyssinia, which has been able to resist all efforts for its annexation. The Abyssinians are Christians, and their Kings claim descent from Menelek, the son of Solomon, by the Queen of Sheba. They themselves were converted to Christianity probably about 600 A. D. by monks from Egypt, but Voi.. 2 31 482 MODERN EUROPE have long been isolated from the rest of the Christian world. At the end of the Fifteenth Century, an attempt was made by the Jesuits, under the Portuguese power, to bring the Abyssinian church under the papacy. For a time this event seemed likely; but, before the middle of the Seventeenth Century, the Jesuit influence was over- thrown and expelled, and the Abyssinian church reverted to its eastern forms, and .no trace of Jesuit influence re- mained. There is no popular literature, and no educa- tion; there is a legal code said to be derived from Con- stantine, but practically government is autocratic, quali- fied by the power of revolt. There is no standing army, but all are soldiers, and in the struggle against Italy, the Emperor's army probably numbered 100,000, there being certainly that number of modern rifles in the country, England came into conflict with Abyssinia in 1867-68, when the then capital, Magala, was occupied by a British army under General Napier (Lord Napier, of Magdala). In 1889 the Italians made a treaty with King Menelek, tinder which they claimed a protectorate over Abyssinia; this was repudiated by Menelek in 1893, and finally given up after the Italian defeat at Adowa (March, 1896). The subsequent treaty with Italy confined the Italian protec- torate to a mere strip along the coast. Since that date, Russian, French, and English missions have visited King Menelek at his new capital, Abdis Abba; the French mission, under Lagarde, and the English mission, under Rennell Rodd. The Transvaal, or South African Republic, was founded in 1840 by Boers, who, dissatisfied with British rule, had migrated from Cape Colony, and its independ- ence was recognized by the British crown in 1852. In 1877, when Sekukuni had defeated the Boers, and it was feared that the whole of South Africa might become in- PARTITION OF AFRICA 483 volved in a disastrous native war, Sir Theophilus Shep- stone was dispatched to the Transvaal. He found the public treasury empty, and the country in a state of an- archy; to save it from further disaster, he proclaimed it British territory. Protests against this usurpation were unheeded, and on December 16, 1880, at Heidelberg, the flag of the Republic was once more hoisted, and after the battle of Majuba Hill (February 27. 1881), Britain once more recognized its independence. By the Convention of February 27, 1884, Britain merely retains the power of vetoing any treaty which the Republic may make with all foreign powers, except the Orange Free State. Swazi- land was placed under the administration of the Republic in 1894, the rights of the natives (who retain their king) being safeguarded. Dr. Jameson's invasion of the Re- public, in support of an expected rising of a portion of the foreign population at Johannesburg speedily came to an end with a surrender of the invaders on January i, 1896. South of the Transvaal is the Orange Free State, which was founded by Dutch emigrants from Cape Col- ony. The country was proclaimed British territory by Sir Henry Smith, in 1848, but, by the convention entered into on the 23d of February, 1854, between the British commissioner and the representatives of the people, the inhabitants were declared a free and independent people. They immediately formed a republic, which has led a quiet existence free from the internal disorders that have marked the history of its northern neighbor. Liberia was founded by the American Colonization Society in 1820, and has been recognized by the Euro- pean powers as an independent state since 1847. During the last fifty years it has, however, lost much territory to the adjacent British and French colonies. 484 MODERN EUROPE One absolute monarchy survives in Africa Morocco, ruled by a Sultan, who is, however, in constant conflict with his warrior chiefs. The ancient home of the Moors, whose exploits have been told in the first volume of this work, has sunk into a state of barbarism and its 314,000 square miles of territory will sooner or later fall prey to a European Nation. Constant intrigues with that end in view are conducted by the French and the English. AUSTRALIA The insular region, of continental size, once known as New Holland, probably was first discovered by a Por- tuguese navigator in 1601, though certain French maps of 1542 claim to contain the country under the name of Jave la Grande, the discovery at that date, if true, being still due to the Portuguese. In 1606, Torres, a Spaniard, passed through the strait that now bears his name, between Australia and New Guinea. The early presence of the Dutch explorers is proved by such names as Dirk Hertog Island, De Witt Land, and many others, since changed, which show that they visited nearly all the northern and western, with much of the southern coast line. In 1642 Jan Abel Tasman sailed from Batavia with an expedition which reached the island now called by the name of its discoverer, but which he styled Van Diemen's Land, in honor of the Dutch Governor of the East Indian Colony. He sailed round its southern coast and for nearly a Century and a half the country was believed to form a part of the great Southern Continent. In his eastward course, Tasman came upon New Zealand and then returned to Batavia by the north of New Guinea. In 1664 the States General gave the name of New Holland to the western part of the region of which their countrymen had at that time seen more than any other navigators. The land was then almost forgotten in Europe, save for the visit of the enterprising and skillful mariner, William Dampier, who is the first Englishman known to have landed on the Australian shore. This adventurous man, who had fought in the Dutch wars of Charles II, had cut 485 486 MODERN EUROPE logwood on the coast of Campeachy Bay, commanded a privateer against the Spaniards in American waters, and sailed round the world, was appointed, in 1698, to the com- mand of a sloop of war in the British navy. In this vessel he was dispatched by William III on a voyage of discov- ery to the Australian seas, where he visited the western coast, caught sight of kangaroos, and of some of the ill- looking natives, and bestowed the name of Shark's Bay on an inlet then and now infested by the sailor's foe. The first British occupation of any part of the Southern Con- tinent dates from the closing years of the Eighteenth Century. In October, 1769, Cook arrived at New Zealand and spent six months in examining the shores. The east- ern coast of Australia was then attentively surveyed, and possession of the land under the name of New South Wales was formally claimed for the Sovereign of Britain. An inlet on the southeast shore received the name of Botany Bay, because of new plants there observed. The first settlement made on Australian soil was due to the want of a place of banishment for criminals from the British Isles. The loss of the American Colonies, whither convicts had been sent to compulsory work in the plantations, had caused the Government to place prisoners on board hulks or dismantled men-of-war. An outlet was sought for these seething and unwholesome communities of crime, and Botany Bay occurred to mind as a spot fitted to a penal colony. In May, 1787, a fleet of eleven sail, commanded by Captain Phillip, bore from Ports- mouth nearly 800 convicts, with two or three hundred offi- cials, guards, and other free settlers. In January, 1788, the expedition arrived at Botany Bay, but Phillip, as Gov- ernor of New South Wales, did not approve of the site and, entering the splendid harbor of Port Jackson to the north, he laid on the shore of one of its many inlets, the founda- AUSTRALIA 487 tions of the town of Sydney, named after the peer who was then in charge of colonial affairs. It was only by slovr degrees that the new colony received any large number of free emigrants and began to emerge from the state of a mere convict settlement. For more than thirty years the chief work done lay in the forced labor of criminals employed in constructing public buildings, in making roads, and in clearing the land. The system of "assign- ment," by which convicts were allotted as servants to free settlers was introduced after the year 1821, when a tide of emigration began to set in from the mother country. The crossing of the Blue Mountains in 1813 laid open to newcomers a great territory which tempted further advance. The future prosperity of New South Wales was to lie in sheep farming, for which the land was soon found to be admirably suited. In 1797, Captain Mac Arthur introduced, from the Cape of Good Hope, some rams and ewes of the pure Spanish Merino breed, and excellent results were gained from the crossing of this stock with the coarse wooled sheep already in the colony. From this source the whole country was in time supplied with the sheep, which have produced wealth so vast in wool and tallow. The criminal element of population became, in the course of sixty years from the first settlement, greatly outnumbered by the free immigrants, and in 1841 the reception of convicts ceased. A great impulse was given ten years later to the increase in population in this part of Australia by the discovery of very rich deposits of gold. The production of California was surpassed, and the event was an epoch in the history of Australia. In 1843 the principle of representative government was intro- duced, and in 1855 "responsible rule" was fully estab- lished, with a Parliament of two houses, elected by voters without any Dropertv qualification. Education is under 4 88 MODERN EUROPE State control, and the flourishing University of Sydney forms the apex of the system. The great Colony of Victoria, formerly the Port Phil- lip District of New South Wales, was made a separate State in 1861. First settled in 1835, this territory owed its rapid growth in population and wealth to sheep farm- ing on the rich pastures near the River Murray on the southeast coast. A rush of immigration came with the discovery of gold, and Melbourne, the capital, increased within a few years from a population little exceeding 20,000 to five times the number. From 1851 to the end of 1888 the value of the gold obtained in this region exceeded 220,000 sterling. In 1888 the value of the wool exports was above 5,000,000. In 1854 the Colony received full representative government, with two legis- lative chambers, chosen by universal suffrage. Education is free, and compulsory between the ages of six and fifteen. The settlement of South Australia had its origin in a body of immigrants sent out from England in 1836 by an association formed for the purpose under royal charter, with a grant of land from the Imperial Government. The site for the capital, named Adelaide, from the Queen, was ohosen on the River Torrens, near the Gulf of St. Vincent. After a period of early struggle, the Colony was helped by the discovery of rich copper mines, and then checked for a time by the outrush to the tempting gold-fields of Victoria and New South Wales. Under financial diffi- culties the settlement in 1841 was transferred to the crown, and two years later the Governor was assisted by a legis- lative Council, the members of which in 1850 began to be chosen by the colonists. A regular Parliament of two houses was granted in 1853. Education is compulsory up to a certain standard. In 1863 the Colony received from the Imperial Government the provisional cession of AUSTRALIA 489 the vast region extending northward to the Indian Ocean, once called Alexanderland and now known as the Northern Territory. The first settlement of Western Australia took place in 1829, soon after Captain Fremantle had claimed pos- session of the territory in the name of George IV. The Colony was known then as the Swan River Settlement, and for a long period its progress was very slow. The population is mainly found in the Southwest, near the Swan River and King George Sound. Owing to the scar- city of labor, the colonists petitioned for convicts to be sent to them, and in 1850 Western Australia became a penal settlement, but in 1868 transportation was abolished. The Colony is provided with a responsible government in the shape of a legislative council. Education is com- pulsory. Until December, 1859, the most northern portion of New South Wales was known as the Moreton Bay Dis- trict. In that year the territory became a separate Colony, Queensland, provided with a Parliament of two houses. This flourishing Colony, with rich gold-fields (discovered in 1858), immense numbers of sheep and cattle, coal mines and large crops of sugar cane, possesses more than 2,000 miles of railway, and nearly 10,000 miles of telegraph, all in the hands of the Government. Tasmania, the best watered and most healthy of all these great Colonies, was first settled in 1803 as a penal offshoot of New South Wales. For fifty years the country was a convict settlement, becoming a distinct Colony in 1824. In the earlier days of its history progress was much retarded by the hostility of the natives, a race now extinct, and by the evil doings of convicts who escaped from con- trol and became harassing depredators known as bush- rangers. Two houses form the Parliament. 490 MODERN EUROPE The group of rising States under the brilliant south- ern cross is completed by the antipodean isles known as New Zealand. They were first seen by the Dutch navi- gator, Tasman, in 1642, when a boat's crew of his sailors were massacred by the natives. After the visits made by Captain Cook the coasts were sometimes resorted to by sailors, escaped convicts, and maritime adventurers. The first permanent settlement was made in 1815 by mission- aries whose labor by degrees won the Maoris from their practice of cannibalism. In 1833 a British resident was appointed subject to control from New South Wales; and, in 1840, under the New Zealand Company, a regular Col- ony was established. In 1841 New Zealand, with a seat of Government at Auckland, was formally separated from New South Wales, and in 1852 a system of constitutional government was established. In 1861 a great impulse was given to immigration by the discovery of the gold-fields of Otago, and the generation which has since elapsed has brought remarkable and rapid progress. Two thousand miles of railway and 5,000 miles of telegraph, made and owned by the Government, aid the business of the wealthy State, which possesses 17,000,000 sheep and has supplied nearly 50,000,000 value of gold, annually exports wool worth more than 3,000,000. From time to time disputes have arisen with the Maoris, who have been rapidly dying out. During the closing years of the Century efforts have been made to combine the Australian Colonies in a Con- federation, plans for which were under way in 1899. UC SOUTHBWIREGIONAI. UBRAflY MQUTY A 000074416 9