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 University of California. 
 
 FiU'>M 1 HV ],UiK.\KV OF 
 
 I)R^. FRANCIS L]K1U::R, 
 Profc?j()r (if History and Law in Columbia College, Now York. 
 
 THK OII'T OF 
 
 MICHAEL REESE, 
 
 1 S 7 3 . ■ . 
 
 t>j* 
 
/ 
 
 ^Si^i^SiiiiV 
 

 
OUTLINES 
 
 OF 
 
 UNIYERSAL HISTORY, 
 
 FROM THK 
 
 CREATION OF THE WOELD 
 
 THE PRESENT TIME. 
 
 TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN OF 
 
 Dr. GEORGE WEBER, 
 
 FROFESSOR AND DIRECTOR OkP THE HIGH SCHOOL OP HEIDELBERO, 
 
 BY 
 
 Dr. M. BEHR, 
 professor op german literature in winchester college. 
 
 REVISED 4iND CORRECTED, WITH THE ADDITION 
 OP 
 
 A HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 
 
 BT 
 
 FRANCIS BO^VEN, A.M., 
 
 ALFORD PROFESSOR OF NATURAL RELIGIOX, MORAL PHILOSOPHY 
 AND CIVIL POLITY, IN HARVARD COLLEGE. 
 
 SIXTH EDITION. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 HICKLING, SWAN AND BREWER. 
 
 1857. 
 

 Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1853, 
 
 By Jenks, IIickling, and Swan, 
 
 In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusettffl. 
 
fp^ 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 The Translator of this work makes the following extract 
 from the Author's preface to the German edition. 
 
 " Believing that a Guide to History can answer its object 
 only when it awakens the interest of the pupil, stimulates 
 his desire fot information, and excites his zeal for inquiry, 
 I have everywhere arrayed the historical material in a narra- 
 tive form, and have endeavored to give clearness, consistency, 
 and animation to that form. My effort has been so to bring 
 together the events of the world's history in their more 
 prominent aspects and decisive moments, that the reader may 
 obtain a clear idea of them ; that the important facts may be 
 exhibited together with their causes and consequences, and 
 thus be more strongly impressed upon the imagination, and 
 consequently upon the memory ; and that the course of the 
 narrative may not be disturbed or broken by interpolations 
 or remarks which might require a further explanation. Instead 
 of following the usual course of compendiums, textbooks, and 
 outlines, by heaping up a mass of materials in the smallest 
 possible space, and thus forming a kind of skeleton register 
 of the events of history, I have rather endeavored to limit 
 my materials, giving place only to the most important and 
 influential, and arranging these in historical succession. . . 
 . . Mere historical events, with names and dates, are not 
 easily retained by the memory, and do not possess any in- 
 structive or educative power. It is only when the historical 
 fact is presented in combination with other objects, so that 
 
IV PREFACE. 
 
 the imagination and thinking faculty are both employed upon 
 it, that it permanently impresses itself upon the mind of 
 youth." 
 
 The Translator justly /idds, that " the book is written 
 throughout in the spirit of orthodox Protestantism, and is 
 entirely untinctured with the neology and infidelity at this 
 time so prevalent in Germany." 
 
 Believing that the method here explained is the right one, 
 and that the scheme is, in the main, carried out with fidelity 
 and spirit, I have subjected the work to a thorough revision, 
 in the hope of making it still more suitable for use as a 
 textbook of instruction in American colleges and schools. 
 Errors of the press and the pen had been multiplied by the 
 translation and republication of the book in England ; and 
 the translation itself, though generally correct and elegant, 
 was sometimes obscure and inadequate. Accuracy being an 
 essential qualification of a school-book, every paragraph in 
 these Outlines has been laboriously examined, and almost 
 every name and date tested by reference to trustworthy 
 sources of information. It would be rash to assert that it is 
 now free from blemish ; but it is certain that hundreds of 
 small errors have been weeded out by this scrutinizing pro- 
 cess. If any remain, it is hoped that they may be discovered 
 and removed in a subsequent edition. A few notes have 
 been added, sometimes to explain, and sometimes to qualify, 
 statements in the text. 
 
 One very important defect was to be supplied before Dr. 
 Weber's work could be considered worthy of republication 
 in America. Except an imperfect sketch of the Revolutionary 
 war, contained in four or five pages, the history of this 
 country was entirely omitted. The gap thus left might have 
 been cheaply filled by transcription and a judicious use of 
 the scissors ; but as the book would then have lacked unity 
 of execution, I preferred to write out anew a sketch of the 
 history of the United States, from the period of the first set- 
 tlements at Jamestown and Plymouth, down to the peace of 
 
PREFACE. V 
 
 1815. The addition thus made is considerable, as it occupies 
 nearly one hundred pages, thus enlarging the bulk of the 
 original about one fifth. It consists of three parts; — 1. a 
 brief history of the Colonization of North America (pp. 291 
 — 314) ; 2. a sketch of the French and Indian wars during 
 the first sixty years of the eighteenth century, followed by a 
 history of the War of Independence and the formation of 
 the Federal Constitution (pp. 342 - 388) ; and, 3. a summary 
 of political events from 1789 to 1815 (pp. 468 — 491). In 
 preparing these historical sketches, I have sedulously endea- 
 vored to follow Dr. Weber's original conception of his work, 
 by passing lightly over all the details, and grouping together 
 the leading events with a view to their causes and conse- 
 quences. Only in this manner is it possible to preserve the 
 interest of a continuous narrative, a • proper distribution of 
 light and shade, and a correct appreciation of personages and 
 events, in a mere compend of history. The pages that are 
 burdened with details are wearisome to read and difficult to 
 remember. A compend of history must be a true compend, 
 and not merely a complete history viewed through the wrong 
 end of a telescope. The general plan, therefore, upon which 
 these Outlines of History have been prepared, I am convinced, 
 is a good one ; time and use will bring to light the defects 
 in its execution. 
 
 THE AMERICAN EDITOR. 
 Cambridge, February, 1853. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 FIRST BOOK. 
 HISTORY OF THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 pp. 1—4. 
 
 I. § 1. The first race of men, p. 1. 11. § 2. The manner of living among the earliest 
 races, p. 2. III. § 3. Forms of government ; distinction of castes, p. 2. IV. § 4. The 
 religion of the heathen world, p. 3. 
 
 A. THE EASTERN RACES, pp. 5 — 23. 
 
 I. § 5. The Asiatics, p. 5. II. ^ 6. The Chinese, p. 6. III. § 7. The Indians, p. 7. § 8. 
 Their religion, literature, art, p. 8. IV. Babylonians and Assyrians, p. 10. § 9. Nimrod, 
 Semiramis, Salmanasser. § 10. The Chaldeans in Babylon ; Nebuchadnezzar. V. 
 Egyptians, p. 11. § 11. Division of Egypt. § 12. Religion and arts. § 13. History. 
 VI. Phoenicians, p. 13. § 14. Navigation, commerce, discoveries. § 15. History of Tyre 
 and Sidon. VII. The people of Israel, pp. 15 — 20. § 16. The Patriarchs. § 17. Exodus. 
 § 18. Moses as lawgiver. § 19. Division of the promised land. § 20. The Judges. § 21. 
 Samuel and Saul. § 22. David ; Solomon ; division of the kingdom. § 23. Worship of 
 idols ; the prophets. § 24. The Assyrian and Babylonian captivities. VIII. Medes and 
 Persians, pp. 20 — 23. § 25. Zoroaster's religious system. ^26. Astyages and Cyrus. 
 § 27. Croesus of Lydia. § 28. Death of Cyrus. § 29. Cambyses ; Ammonium. ^ 30. 
 Darius. § 31. Manners and customs of the Persians. 
 
 B. HISTORY OF GREECE, pp. 23—67. 
 
 I. Geographical Survey, pp. 23 — 26. § 32. a. The Greek Continent, p. 23. § 33. b. The 
 Greek Islands, p. 24. II. § 34. The religion of the Greeks, p. 25. 
 
 I. GREECE BEFORE THE PERSIAN WAR, pp. 26 — 38. 
 
 I. The time of the Trojan war, p. 26. § 35. Pelasgi ; eastern immigration. § 36. Helle- 
 nic races ; expedition of the Argonauts. § 37. Trojan war. ^ 38. Homer ; epic poetry. 
 ^ 39. Immigration of the Dorians ; Codrus. § 40. Colonies. 2. The period of the wise 
 men and laAvgivers, p. 31. a. General view. § 41. Greeks and barbarians. § 42. Am- 
 
CONTENTS. VU 
 
 phictjonic council ; Delphic oracle ; Olympic games, b. Lycurgus the Spartan lawgiver, 
 p. 82. § 43. Laws of Lycurgus. a. Institutions of state, b. Mode of life. § 44. War 
 with the Messenians. c. Solon, the lawgiver of the Athenians, p. 34. § 45. Draco ; laws 
 of Solon, d. The tyrants, p. 85. § 46. Their origin. § 47. Periander of Corinth ; Poly- 
 crates of Samos ; Pisistratus of Athens. ^ 48. The seven wise men ; Pythagoras. § 49. 
 e. LjTic poetry. 
 
 II. THE FLOURISHING PERIOD OF GREECE, p. 39. 
 
 1. The Persian war. § 50. Insurrection of the Greeks of Asia Minor. § 51. Battle of 
 JIarathon 4 ^2. Aristides and Themistocles. § 53. Thermopylae. § 54. Salamis. ^ 55. 
 Platasa ; Mycale ; Eurym6don. 2. The supremacy of Athens, and the age of Pericles, 
 p. 43. § 5G. Pausanias, the traitor. ^ 57. Deaths of Themistocles and Aristides. § 58. 
 Cimon; Pericles. 3. The Peloponnesian war (b. c. 431 — 404), p. 45. § 59. Origin of the 
 war. fj 60. The war to the peace of Nicias. § 61. Alcibiades ; battle of Slantinaea. 
 4 62. Disasters of the Athenians in Sicily. § 63. Death of Alcibiades. ^ 64. The fall of 
 Athens; the thirty t\Tants. 4. Socrates, p. 48. ^ 65. Sophists; Socrates; Plato; Xeno- 
 phon. 5. § 66. The retreat of the ten thousand (b. c. 400), p. 49. 6. The time of Agesi- 
 laus and Epamlnondas. § 67. The Corinthian war and the peace of Antalcidas. § 68. 
 Expedition against Olynthus and siege of Thebes. ^ 69. The Theban war and the battle 
 of Leuctra. ^ 70. Epaminondas in Peloponnesus; battle of Mantinaea. 7. The most 
 flourishing period of Greece in literature and the arts. § 71. Dramatic poetry; ^schylus; 
 Sophocles; Euripides; Ainstophanes. ^ 72. Prose literature; Plato; Herodotus; Thucy- 
 dides; Xenophon. ^ 73. Rhetoric; Isocrates; Demosthenes; Jlschines. ^ 74. The fine 
 arts of the Greeks. 
 
 m. THE MACEDONIAN PERIOD, p. 56. 
 
 1. Philip of Macedon (b. c. 361 — 336). § 75. Character of Philip. § 76. The Sacred 
 "war. § 77. Battle of Chaeronea; Philip's death. 2. Alexander the Great, p. 58. § 78. 
 Fall of Thebes. ^ 79. Battle of Granicus. ^ 80. Battle of Issus. § 81. T^tc and Alex- 
 andria. 82. Arbela and Gaugemala. § 83. Expedition into Bactria. § 84. March to 
 India. § 85. Last years of Alexander. 
 
 THE ALEXANDRIAN PERIOD, p. 62. 
 
 4 86. a. Alexander's successors, b. Greece's last struggle; the Achaian league, p. 63. 
 4 87. Athens ; Phocion ; Demosthenes ; Demetrius. § 88. Sparta and the Achaian league. 
 4 89. c. The Ptolemies and the Seleucidae, p. 64. ^ 90. d. The Jews under the Maccabees, 
 p. 65. e. State of civiUzation during the Alexandrian period, p. 66. § 91. Theocritus; 
 Stoics and Epicureans. 
 
 C. THE HISTORY OF ROME, p. 68, 
 
 § 92. The races and institutions of ancient Italy. 
 
 L ROME UNDER THE GOVERNIMENT OF KINGS AND 
 PATRICIANS, p. 69. 
 1. Rome under the kings (b. c. 753 — 509). § 93. Rome built. § 94. Rome under Ro- 
 mulus. § 95. Xuma Pompilius. § 96. Tullus Hostilius and Ancus Marcius; origin of the 
 plebeians. ^ 97. Tarquinius Priscus and Servius Tullius. § 98. Tarquinius Superbus. 2. 
 Rome as a republic under the patricians, p. 72. a. Horatius Codes ; the tribunes ; Corio- 
 lanus. ^ 99. Contest between the republicans and Porsenna and Tarquin. § 100. Emi- 
 gration to the sacred hill; Coriolanus. b. The Fabii; Cincinnatus; the decemvirs, p. 74. 
 4 101. War with the Veians and ^Equi. ^ 102. Agrarian law; Sp. Cassius. § 103. The 
 decemvirs. § 104. Slilitaiy tribunes and censors, c. Sack of Rome by the Gauls (b. c. 
 889), and the laws of Lincinius Stolo (b. c. 366), p. 76. § 105. Taking of Veil by Camil- 
 lus. § 106. Brennus in Rome. § 107. M. Manlius and the laws of L. Stolo. 
 
 IL ROME'S HEROIC PERIOD, p. 78. 
 
 1. The time of the war with the Samnites, and the battles with Pyrrhus. § 108. First 
 
Vm CONTENTS. 
 
 Samnite war. § 109. War with the Latins. § 110. Second Samnite war; Caudinian 
 passes ; Sentinum. § 111. War with Tarentum and Pyrrhiis. 2. The time of the Punic 
 wars, p. 80. a. The first Punic war (b. c. 263 — 241). § 112. Carthage; Agathocles; the 
 Mamertines. § 113. Regulus. § 114. Hamiicar Barcas; termination of the first Punic 
 war. h. The second Punic war (b. c. 218 — 202), p. 82. § 115. Sicily and Galha Cisal- 
 pina Roman Provinces. § 116. Saguntum. § 117. Hannibal's passage over the Alps and 
 thi-ough Italy. §118. Fabius Maximus and the battle of Cannse. § 119. Capua; Syra- 
 cuse; Tarentum. § 120. Hasdrubal's defeat on the Metaurus. § 121. Zama. c. Mace- 
 donia conquered ; Corinth and Carthage destroyed, p. 86. § 122. Philip II, and Antiochus 
 III. subdued by the Romans. § 123. Battle of Pydna and destruction of Corinth. § 124. 
 Destruction of Carthage in the third Punic war. d. The manners and culture of the 
 Romans, p. 89. § 125. Contest between Conservatism and progress ; Plautus ; Terence ; 
 Cato. 
 
 in.. ROME'S DEGENERACY, p. 90. 
 
 1. Numantia; Tiberius; Caius Gracchus. § 126. Rome's government of her provinces; 
 Numantia's insurrection and fall. § 127. Tiberius Gracchus. § 128. Caius Gracchus. 
 2. The times of Marius and Sylla, p. 92. § 129. The Jugurthine war. § 130. Cimbri and 
 Teutones. § 131. The Social war. § 132. The first Mithridatic war. § 133. The first 
 civil war; death of Marius. § 134. The Coi*nelian law and Sylla's death. 3. The times 
 of Cneius Pompey and M. Tullius Cicero, p. 96. § 135. Sertorius. § 136. The Servile 
 war. § 137. War against the pirates. § 138. The second Mithridatic war. § 139. Cata- 
 line's conspiracy. 4. The times of Caius Julius Caesar, p. 98. § 140. The triumvirate. 
 § 141. Caesar's wars in Gaul. § 142. The second civil war. § 143. Caesar's victories. 
 § 144. Cassar's death. 5. The last years of the republic, p. 101. § 145. The second tri- 
 umvirate; Cicero's death. § 146. Philippi. § 147. Actium. 
 
 lY. THE ROMAN EMPIRE, p. 102. 
 
 1. The times of Caesar Octavianus Augustus, p. 102. § 148. Rome's golden age. § 149. 
 Roman literature. 2. The struggles of the Germans for liberty, p. 103. § 150. Hermann's 
 victory in the Teutoburger forest. § 151. Germanicus. § 152. Tacitus on the manners 
 and institutions of the Germans. 3. The Caesars of the Augustine race, p. 105. § 153. 
 Tiberius. § 154. Caligula; Claudius. § 155. Nero. § 156. Galba; Otho; Vitellius. 4. 
 The riavii and Antonines, p. 107. § 157. Vespasian. § 158. The destruction of Jenisa- 
 I?m ; destruction of the Jewish state. § 159. Britain conquered by Agricola. § 160. 
 Titus. § 161. Domitian; Nerva; Trajan. § 162. Adrian; Plutarch. § 163. Antoninus 
 Pius ; Marcus Aurelius. § 164. Cultivation and morals. 5. Rome under military govern 
 ment, p. 111. § 165. Commodus; Pertinax; Septimius Severus. § 166. Caracalla; Helio- 
 gabalus; Alexander Severus. § 167. Philip the Arab ; Decius; Gallienus. § 168. Aure 
 Kan. § 169. Tacitus; Probus; Carus. § 170. Time of Diocletian. § 171. Constantine's 
 victory at the Milvian bridge and sole empire. 
 
 SECOND BOOK. 
 
 MIGRATION OF NATIONS AND THE MIDDLE AGE. 
 
 A. MIGRATION OF NATIONS AND ESTABLISHMENT OF 
 MONOTHEISM. 
 
 1. THE TRIUMPH OF CHRISTIANITY OVER PAGANISM, p. 114. 
 
 1. The Christian Church of the first century. § 172. Persecutions of the Christians. 
 
 2. Constantino the Great and Julian the Apostate. § 173. Constantine's proceedings iij 
 Church and state. § 174. Arianism; Augustine; the fathers of the Church. § 176 
 Julian the Apostate. 
 
CONTENTS. ix 
 
 n. THE mGRATION OF NATIONS, pp. 117 — 125. 
 
 1. Tlieodosius the Great. § 176. Huns and "West Goths. 2. West Goths; Burgundiana 
 and Vandals, p. 118. § 177. Alaric; Stilicho; Radagais. § 178. Alaric in Italy. § 179. 
 The Vandals in Africa. 3. Attila king of the Huns (a. d. 450), p. 120. § 180. Battle 
 vath the Huns ; Aquileja. 4. § 181. Destruction of the Western Roman Empire (a. d. 
 476), p. 120. 5. ^ 182. Theodoric the Ostrogoth (a. d. 500), p. 121. 6. Clovis, king of the 
 Franks and the Merovingians, p. 121. § 183. Battle of Ziilpich. § 184. The Merovingians 
 and their Mayor of the palace. 7. ^ 185. The Anglo-Saxons, p. 122. 8. The Byzantine 
 empire and the Longobards, p. 123. § 186. The court; Justinian. § 187. Subjection of 
 the Vandals and the Ostrogoths. ^ 188. Alboin. § 189. The Iconoclasts and the Iconoduli. 
 
 m. MOHA^SBIED AND THE ARABIANS, pp. 125 — 128. 
 
 § 190. Arabia. ^ 191. Mohammed the prophet. § 192. The Mohammedans in Persia 
 Rnd Egypt. § 193. All and the Ommiades. § 194. The Arabs in Spain and France. 
 ^ 195. The Abbassides in Bagdad ; the battles between Christians and Mohammedans in 
 Spain. § 196. Arab cultivation and literature. 
 
 B. THE MIDDLE AGE. 
 
 I. THE PERIOD OF THE CARLOVINGI, pp. 129—133. 
 
 I. P«pin the Little (a. d. 752 — 768); Charlemagne (768 — 814). § 197. Pepin the 
 Little and Bonifacius. ^ 198. Saxons and Longobards. ^ 199. War with the Saxons, and 
 defeat at Roncesvalles. ^ 200. Charlemagne, Roman emperor. § 201. His internal 
 government. 2. Dissolution of the Frank empire, pp. 132, 133. § 202. Louis the Debon- 
 naire ; Treaty of Verdun. § 203. Charles the Fat and Aniulf. § 204. Charles the Simple 
 and Hugh Capet. 
 
 n. NORMANS AND DANES, p. 133. 
 
 ^205. Scandinavia; Iceland, Russia. § 206. England; Alfred; Canute; William the 
 Conqueror. ^207. Lower Italy; Robert Guise ard. 
 
 IH. THE SUPREMACY OF THE GERJVIANO-ROMAN 
 EMPIRE, p. 135. 
 
 1. The House of Saxony (919 —1024.) §208. Henry the Fowler, fj 209. Otho the 
 Great.* § 210. Otho U. and III. § 211. Henry II.; German cultivation under the Othos. 
 2. The House of Franconia, pp. 137 — 140. \ 212. Conrad II. and Henry IIL §213. 
 Henry IV. and the Saxons. § 214. Henry IV. and pope Gregory VH. § 215. Henry 
 IV.'s death. § 216. Henry V. and Lothaire of Saxony. 
 
 IV. THE ASCENDANCY OF THE CHURCH IN THE TBIE OF 
 THE CRUSADES, p. 140. 
 
 1. The Crusades. § 217. The assembly of the Church at Clermont. § 218. Peter of 
 Amiens and Walter the Penniless. § 219. The first crasade under Godfrey of Bouillon. 
 § 220. Conquest of Jerusalem. § 221. The first king of Jerusalem. § 222. The second 
 crusade. § 223. The third crusade. § 224. The fourth crusade; the Latin empire in Con- 
 stantinople. § 225. The fifth crusade ; the emperor Frederick IL § 226. The sixth cru- 
 sade, under Louis IX. § 227. The consequences of the crusades ; orders of knights. 
 § 228. War against the 'Albigenses. 2. The Hohenstaufens (a. d. 1138—1154), pp. 149 — 
 156. § 229. Welfs and Waiblings. § 230. Frederick Barbarossa in Italy; Arnold of 
 Brescia. § 231. Milan destroyed; Alexandria founded. § 232. Battle of Legnano; Peaca 
 of Constance. § 233. Frederick Barbarossa and Henry the Lion. § 234. Henry VI. and 
 Philip of Swabia. § 235. Pope Innocent III. and the Emperor Otho IV. § 236. Frede- 
 rick U.'s contest with the papacy. § 237. Rival emperor in Germany. § 238. Frederick 
 
X CONTENTS. 
 
 IT.'s death. § 239. Death of Manfred at Beneventum. ^ 240. Conradine's death; the 
 Sicilian vespers. 3. General view of the Middle Ages, p. 156. § 241. The feudal system. 
 4 242. Chivaliy. § 243. Hierarchy. § 244. Monachism. § 245. Mendicant orders ; Fran 
 ciscans and Dominicans. § 246. State of the towns. § 247. Literature (1), Scholastics 
 and Mystics. § 248. (2) Science and the writing of history. ^ 249. (8) Poetry. 
 
 V DECAY OF CHIVALRY AND CORRUPTION OF THE 
 CHURCH, p. 163. 
 
 1. The Interregnum (a. D. 1250 — 1273). § 250. Club law; confederations of towns. 
 ?. Origin of the House of Hapsburg and the Helvetic confederation, pp. 164 — 166. § 251. 
 Rudolf of Hapsburg. § 252. Rudolf's proceedings in the empire. § 253. Adolf of Nassau 
 and Albert of Austria. § 254. The confederation of the Rutli; William Tell; Morgarten. 
 3. Philip the Fair of France and the emperor Louis the Bavarian, pp. 166 — 169. § 255. 
 Philip IV. and pope Bonifacius VIH. ; the popes at Avignon. ^ 256. Dissolution of the 
 order of the Temple. § 257. Henry of Luxemburg. § 258. Louis the Bavarian and Frede 
 rick the Fair. § 259. Diet at Reuse; Louis's death. 4. The emperors of the House of Lux- 
 emburg, pp. 169 — 171. § 260. Charles IV. § 261. Wenceslaus; the German town war. 
 § 262. Rupert of the Palatinate and Sigismund. 5. The division in the Church and the 
 great councils, p. 171. § 263. The division in the Church; Wickliffand Huss. § 264. The 
 council of Constance. \ 265. The Hussite war. ^ 266. The council of Basle. 6. Ger- 
 many under Frederick Tit. and Maximilian I., p. 175. § 267. Albert II. and Frederic HI. 
 § 268. Maximilian I. ; change in the German constitution. § 269. End of the middle age. 
 
 VI. HISTORY OF THE REMAINING EUROPEAN STATES 
 DURING THE MIDDLE AGE, p. 176. 
 
 1. France. § 270. a. France under the House of Capet (A. D. 987—1328). b. France 
 under the House of Valois (A. D. 1328 — 1529), p. 177. ^ 271. Philip VL and John the 
 Good ; Crecy and Poictiers. ^ 272. Charles V. and VL ; civil war. § 273. Battle of 
 Agincourt. § 274. Maid of Orleans; Louis XL 2. England, pp. 180—183. ^ 275. Henry 
 Plantagenet and Thomas k Becket. § 276. Richard Lion-heart and John Lackland. § 277. 
 Edward I. and the war of hberty in Scotland. § 278. Edward HI. ; the House of Lan 
 caster. § 279. The wars of the red and white roses. 3. Spain, pp. 183 — 186. ^ 280. State 
 of Spain in the middle age. ^ 281. Aragon and Castile. § 282. Ferdinand and Isabella; 
 the Inquisition. § 283. Expulsion of the Moors. 4. Italy, pp.186. — 188. a. Upper 
 Italy. § 284. Venice. § 285. Genoa. § 286. Milan. § 287. Savoy and Piedmont. 
 b. Middle and Lower Italy, p. 188. §288. Florence; Cosmo de Medici. § 289. Lorenzo 
 the Magnificent; Savonarola; fine arts. § 290. State of the Church ; Ferrara. § 291. 
 Naples and Sicily. 5. The new Burgundian territory, p. 190. § 292. Condition of the 
 kingdom under the first dukes. § 293. Charles the Bold. § 294. The new Burgundian 
 territory after the death of Charles. 6. Scandinavia, p. 192. § 295. Establishment 
 of Christianty in the three Scandinavian kingdoms. § 296. Denmark before the 
 union of Calmar. § 297. Sweden before and after the union of Calmar. 7. Hungary, p. 
 194. §298. Stephen the Pious; the Saxons in Transylvania; the " Golden Privilege." 
 § 299. Louis the Great and Matthias Corvinus. 8. Poland, p. 196. § 300. State of 
 Poland; Casimir the Great. § 301. The Jagellons; fonnation of the power of the nobles. 
 
 9. The Russian Empire, p. 197. § 302. The imperial House of Ruric ; Ivan Vasilyevitsch. 
 
 10. Mog-uls and Turks, pp. 198 — 201. § 303. Zengis-Khan and his sons. § 304. The 
 Ottoman Turks in Asia Minor. § 305. Bajazet and Timur. § 306. Murad 11. ; the Chris- 
 tian army defeated at Wania. § 307. Taking of Constantinople ; greatness and decaj^ 
 of the Ottoman empire 
 
CONTENTS. Xt 
 
 THIRD BOOK. 
 
 THE MODERN EPOCH. 
 
 I. THE FORERUNNERS OF THE MODERN EPOCH, p. 202. 
 
 1. The sea passage to the East Indies, and the discovery of America, p. 202. ^ 308. In 
 mention of the compass; gmipowder; printing. § 309. The Portuguese in the East Indies, 
 f 810. Christopher Columbus. §311. Balboa; Cortez; Pizarro. § 312. Consequences of 
 the discovery of Arryjrica. 2. The revival of the arts and sciences, p. 206. § 813. 
 Italy; Germany (Reuchlin, Erasmus, Hutten); Humanists and Obscurantists. 
 
 n. THE TIME OF THE REFORMATION, p. 208. 
 
 1. The German Reformation, pp. 208 — 212. a. Dr. Martin Luther. § 314. The sale of 
 indulgences and the ninety-five theses. §315. Luther. § 316. Cajetan; Frederick the 
 Wise ; Miltit*. § 817. His disputation at Leipsic ; burning of the pope's bull. § 318. 
 Diet of Worms. § 319. Dr. Carlstadt and the Anabaptists; PhUip Melancthon. § 320. 
 Extension of the Reformation, b. The peasant war, p. 212. § 321. Thomas Munzer. 
 § 322. Subjection of the peasants, c. The Augsburg confession, p. 214. § 323. Activity 
 of Luther and Melancthon; Diet of Spire. § 324. Diet of Augsburg, d. IJlric Zwingle, 
 p. 215. § 325. Reformation in Switzerland. § 826. Religious war; battle of Kappel. 
 2. Wars of the House of Hapsburg against France, p. 217. § 327. Charles V. and Francis 
 I. ; wars respecting Milan. § 328. Battle of Pavia ; taking of Rome ; Ladies' Peace of 
 Cambray. §329. Campaign against Tunis; second and third war between Charles and 
 Francis. 3. The war of religion in Germany, p. 220. § 330. The league of Smalcald; 
 the gospel in Wirtemberg. § 331. The Anabaptists in Munster. § 332. Extension of the 
 Refonnation in Saxony, Brandenburg, the Palatinate, &c. § 333. The war of Smalcald; 
 campaign on tli« Danube. § 334. Charles V.'s triumphant expedition into Southern Ger- 
 many, § 835. Battle near MUhlberg; the elector of Saxony and the landgrave of Hesso 
 taken prisoners. § 336. The Augsburg interim[. § 337. Maurice of Saxony; the treaty 
 of Passau. § 338. The religious war of Augsburg. § 839. Charles V. dies> 4. Progress of 
 the Refonnation through Europe, p. 229. o. Lutheranism and Calvinism, § 840. Ger- 
 many; the Lutheran and Reformed Churches. § 841. Switzerland; Calvinism. § 342. 
 Calvinism in France, in the Netherlands, in Scotland, b. Establishment of the Anglican 
 Church, p. 232, § 348. England ; Henry VIH.'s ecclesiastical innovations. § 344. Henry 
 VHI. and his wives. § 345". Establishment of the Episcopal Church under Edward VI. 
 f 346. The English Church uKier Maria and Elizabeth, c. The Reformation in the three 
 Scandinavian kingdoms, p. 235. § 347. Scandinavia; Sweden under Gusta\Tis Vasa. 
 § 348. The Reformation in Denmark. § 349. Sweden under the sons of Gustavus Vasa. 
 § 350, Poland. cL Tlie Catholic Church, p. 238. § 351. Inquisition; papacy; Council of 
 Trent, § 852, Order of the Jesuits, 5, The times of Philip II. <a. d. 1556 — 1598) and 
 Ehzabeth (A. D. 1558 — 1603), p. 240. § 353. Philip H.; character and mode of govern- 
 ment, a. Portugal united with Spain, p. 241. § 354. King Sebastian, b. Struggle for 
 liberty in the Netherlands, p. 242. § 355. Philip's attacks on the privileges of the Nether- 
 landers, § 356. Compromise; the Gueses; sacrilege. § 357. Alba in the Netherlands. 
 §358. Don Juan; Alexander Farnese; William of Orange. § 359. The Armada; termi- 
 nation of the war. § 360. Trade; government synod of Dort. c. France during the war 
 of religion, p. 246. § 3<31. Position of parties. § 362, The first three wars of religion. 
 § 363. The Bartholomew night. § 364, Henry HI. and the holy league, § 365, Henry 
 IV. d. Elizabeth and Mary Stuart, p. 251. § 366. Difierence in the characters of the 
 the two queens; Knox. § 367. Marj- Stuart in Scotland. § 368. Mary Stuart in England. 
 § 369. Rise of England, and death of Elizabeth ; Essex, e. Culture and literature in the 
 century of the Reformation. § 370, 1, Germany; 2, Italy ; 3, Spain and Portugal^ 
 1. England, p, 254. 
 
XU CONTENTS. 
 
 m. THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY, p. 256. 
 
 1. The thirty years' war (a. d. 1618 — 1648). a. Bohemia; Palatinate; Lower Germany; 
 Tilly; appearance of Wallenstein. ^371. Union and league. § 372. The letters patent, 
 B.nd the proceedings in Prague. § 373. Frederick V. and the battle of the White Hill. 
 § 374. Tilly in the Palatinate. § 375. Wallenstein in the North of Germany. § 376. Edict 
 of restitution; Diet of Eegensburg; Wallenstein's deposition, b. Interference of Sweden 
 Gustavus Adolphus and Wallenstein, p. 262. § 377. Gustavus Adolphus in Pomerania 
 destruction of Magdeburg. § 378. Battle of Breitenfield and Leipsic ; triumphant courso 
 of GustaA-us Adolphus. § 379. Nuremberg; Lutzen. § 380. Alliance of Heilbron; Wal- 
 lenstein's death, c. Termination of the war; peace of Westph alia, p. 264. § 381. Ber- 
 nard of Weimar; Ban^r. § 382. Torstenson; Wrangel; termination of the war. §383. 
 Peace of Westphalia, d. Sweden under Christina and Charles X. ; change in the Consti- 
 tution of Denmark, p. 266. § 354. Sweden under Christina. § 385. Charles X., and the 
 change in the constitution of Denmark. 2. The revolution in England, and the expulsion 
 of the Stuarts, p. 268. a. The first two Stuarts (James I. 1603 — 1625, Charies I. 1625 — 
 1649). § 386. James's character and principles. § 387. The gunpowder-plot; nuptial expe- 
 dition of the prince of Wales ; position in relation to parliament. § 388. Petition of right ; 
 Strafford; Laud. § 389. Hampden and the Scottish covenant. §390. The long parlia- 
 ment; Strafford's fall. §391. Civil war; Cromwell's appearance. §392. Victoiy of the. 
 Independents ; Charles with the Scots. § 393. Death of Charles, b. Oliver Cromwell p. 
 275. § 394. Cromwell's victories at Dunbar and Worcester. § 395. Cromwell as Lord- 
 Protector; the parliament. § 396. Restoration, c. The last two Stuarts (Charles II. 1660 
 — 1685, and James U. 1685 — 1688), p. 275. § 397. Government of Charles H. ; Test Act; 
 Habeas Corpus Act ; Whigs and Tories. § 398. Government and fall of James II. § 399. 
 William and Mary; Bill of Rights; union with Scotland. 3. The age of Louis XIV., p. 
 281. a. Richelieu and Mazarin. § 400. Louis XIH. ; government and activity of Riche- 
 lieu. §401. Anne of Austria and Mazarin ; war of the Fronde, b. Government and con- 
 quests of Louis XIV., p. 283. § 402. Louis XIV. and his ministers and generals. § 403. 
 The Spanish and Dutch war; peace of Aix. § 404. Sasbach; Fehrbellin; peace of Nime- 
 guen. § 405. Reuiiions ; Strasburg wrested from the empire, c. Austria's distress an^ 
 triumph, p. 286. § 406. The Turks before Vienna; peace of Carlowitz. d. The war o| 
 Orleans, p. 287. § 407. Desolation of the Palatinate; peace of Ryswick. e. Life at thv 
 court; literature; Church, p. 288. § 408.. Industry; court of Versailles ; art and literature 
 § 409. Jansenists ; persecution of the Huguenots. 
 
 lY. THE COLONIZATION OF NORTH AJVIERICA, p. 291. 
 
 [A. D. 1606 — 1732.] 
 
 § 410. Early explorations of North America, and attempt to colonize it. § 411. Settle 
 ment of Virginia, p. 292. § 412. Wars with the Indians ; loyalty of the settlers. § 413. 
 Bacon's rebellion. § 414. Colony of Plymouth, p. 296. § 415. Settlement of MassachitsetiSf 
 p. 298. § 416. Form of government; religious faith and practice. § 417. Manners and 
 laws; republicanism of the people. § 418. Care for education. § 419. Wars with the 
 Indians. § 420. Dissension with the mother country; Andros governor; new charter. 
 § 421. Salem Witchcraft. § 422. OUier New England Colonies, p. 305. § 423. New York, 
 p. 306. § 424. Maryland. § 425. The Carolinas. § 426. New Jersey. § 427. Pennsyl 
 vania. § 428. Georgia. § 429. Character of the American Colonists. 
 
 V. THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY, p. 314. 
 
 1. The Spanish war of succession (1702 — 1714). § 430. Origin of the war; position of 
 parties. § 431. Hochstadt; Prince Eugene and Marlborough. § 432. Ramilies; Turin; 
 Spain. § 433. Humiliation of France ; Malplaquet. § 434. Change in affairs ; peace of 
 Utrecht. § 435. France; Orleans; duke-regent. § 436. Spain; Philip V.; Ferdinand 
 VI. § 437. England under the House of Hanover; attempts of the Stuarts frustrated. 
 
CONTENTS. Xiii 
 
 t. Charles XTT. of Sweden and Peter the Great of Russia in the Northern war (1700 — 1718). 
 4 438. Sweden and Russia under the House of Romanoff. § 439. Peter's reforms. § 440. 
 Poland under Frederick Augustus the Strong. § 441. Charles XII. in Denmark and 
 Poland; Stanislaus Leczinski. 4 442. Charles XII. in Saxony; his character. § 443. 
 Peter on the Baltic; battle of Pultowa. ^ 444. Charles XII. in Turkey. ^ 445. Death of 
 Charles XII. ^ 446. Reformation in Russia. § 447. Alexis ; Menzikoff ; Elizabeth. 
 4 448. The Polish wjir of succession. 3. The rise of Prussia, p. 327. § 449. Frederick L 
 4 450. Frederick William I. § 451. Youth oT Frederick U. 4 . The times of Frederick 
 II. and Maria Theresa, p. 329. a. The Austrian war of succession (a. d. 1740 — 1748). 
 §452. Cause of the war; Pragmatic sanction; Charles Albert. §453. The first Silesian 
 war; Charles's coronation. § 454. The Hungarians; difiicultiea of Bavaria. § 455. 
 Prague; Dettingen. § 456. The second Silesian war. § 457. Close of the war; peace of 
 Aix. b. The seven years' war (a. d. 1756 — 1763), p. 332. § 458. Austria's alliance 
 with Russia, France, and Saxony. §459. Dresden and Pirna. § 460. Prague; Collin; 
 Rosbach; Leuthen. § 461. Zorndorf; Hochkirch. § 462. Kunersdorf; Bergen; Minden. 
 § 463. Leignitz; Torgau. § 464. Peter III. and Catharine U. of Russia. § 465. Close of 
 war; Peace of Hubertsburg. c. The Gennan empire and the age of Frederick, p. 337. 
 § 466. Condition of the Gentian empire. § 467. Frederick's internal government. § 468. 
 The Bavarian war of succession and the alliance of princes, d. The intellectual popular 
 life in Germany, p. 340. § 469. Poetry. § 470. Religion; historical writing; philosophy; 
 education- 
 
 VI. THE PROGRESS OF THE NEW WORLD. 
 
 1. CONTEST OF THE EKGLISII WITH THE FRENCH FOR THE POSSESSION 
 OF NORTH AMERICA, [A. D. 1700 — 1763,] p. 342. 
 
 § 471. Character of the French in America; their explorations of the country. § 472. 
 Settlement of Louisiana. § 473. Rival claims of the French and English. 474. First 
 colonial war between tliem. § 475, Second colonial war. ^ 476. Third colonial war; 
 capture of Louisburg. § 477. Fourth colonial war; George Washington. § 478. Brad' 
 dock's defeat; expatriation of the Acadians; Johnson and Dieskau. ^ 479. Abortive 
 attempt to form a union of the Colonies. § 480. Capture of Oswego and Fort William 
 Henry. 4 481. Campaign of 1758; repulse at Ticonderoga. § 462. Battle of Quebec 
 and death of Wolfe; cession of all French America to England. § 483. Indian war; 
 Pontiac. ^ 454. Prosperity of the American Colonies. 
 
 2. THE WAR OF AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE, AND THE ESTABLISHMENT OF 
 THE AMERICAN CONSTITUTION, p. 354. 
 
 4 485. Question of taxation between England and the Colonies. ^ 486. Attempt to enforce 
 the revenue laws; Writs of Assistance. § 487. Passage of the Stamp Act; great agitation 
 in America; Colonial Congress. §488. English advocates of American rights; repeal of the 
 Stamp Act. § 489. Duties on tea, &c. ; renewal of the agitation. § 490. Tumults at Boston ; 
 affray with the soldiers. 4 491. The tea sent back or destroyed ; Boston Port Bill ; Quebec 
 Act; Dr. Franklin. § 492. Congress at Philadelphia. § 493. Preparations for war m Mas- 
 Bachusetts. § 494. Unanimity of feeling; quiet but resolute conduct of the patriots. § 495. 
 Battle of Lexington. i496. Punctilious regard for law; siege of Boston. § 497. Capture 
 of Ticonderoga; battle* f Bunker Hill. § 498. Action of Congress; the Colonies form 
 new constitutions of government. § 499. Washington, commander-in-chief. § 500. Expe- 
 dition to Canada; repulse at Quebec. § 501. Evacuation of Boston. 502. Declaration 
 of Independence. § 503. European sympathy with America ; mission to France ; Dr. 
 Franklin. ^ 504. Campaign of '76; defeats and losses of the Americans. § 505. Battles 
 of Trenton and Princeton. § 506. Brandywine ; Germantown ; Red Bank and Fort 
 Mifflin. § 507. Progress of Burgoyne ; surrender of his armv. § 508. Alliance with 
 b 
 
XlY CONTENTS. 
 
 France; difficulties of the Americans. § 509. Monmouth ; the Freiich at Newport', 
 Wyoming. § 510. War at the south; punishment of the Indians. § 511. The Armed 
 Neutrality. § 512. Surrender of Lincoln ; Camden and King's Mountain ; treason of 
 Arnold. § 513. The war in Virginia; Greene's campaign. § 514. Surrender of Comwallis. 
 § 515. Conclusion of the war. § 516. Exhaustion of the country; patriotism of Wash- 
 ington. § 517. Evils from the want of union and a central government. § 518. Insubor- 
 dination, anxiety, and gloom. § 519. A rebellion in Massachusetts. § 520. Formation 
 of the Federal Constitution. § 521. Its ratification by the States; the government 
 organized. 
 
 FOURTH BOOK. 
 
 THE LATEST PERIOD. 
 
 A. THE FORERUNNERS OF THE REVOLUTION, p. 388. 
 
 1. The literature of illumination. § 522. Character of French literature. § 523. Vol- 
 taire; Montesquieu; Rousseau. § 524. Effects of the literature of illumination; dissolution 
 of the Jesuits ; society of illuminati. ^ 525. Disorder and contests in Holland. 2. Inno- 
 vations of princes and ministers, p. 392. § 526. Character of political and ecclesiastical 
 reforms. \ 527. Portugal under Pombal ; Spain under Charles in. and Aranda ; France ; 
 Choiseul; Turgot and Malasherbes. §528. Struensee in Denmark. §529. Gustavuslll. 
 of Sweden. § 530. Reforms of Joseph II. in Austria. § 531. Latemal government of Catha- 
 rine II. in Russia. 3. The partition of Poland, p. 397. § 532. State of Poland ; king 
 Stanislaus Poniatowski. § 533. The contest with the Dissidents ; Confederation of Ra- 
 dom and Bar. § 534. First Turkish war; first partition of Poland. § 535. Tauris; 
 second Turkish war; Poland's new constitution. § 536. Confederation of Targowicz; 
 second partition of Poland. § 537. Poland's end. 
 
 B. THE FRENCH REVOLUTION, p. 403. 
 
 1. The last days of absolute monarchy, pp. 403 — 433. § 538. Louis XV. and the 
 empire of the passions. § 539. Taxation; parliament. § 540. Louis XVI. and his 
 court ; increasing financial difficulties ; Necker ; Calonne. § 541. Contest with the parlia- 
 ment; summoning of the estates-general. 2. The period of the national assembly, p. 406. 
 § 542. The third estate declares itself a national assembly. § 543. Storm of the Bastille. 
 § 544. The new system. § 545. The king and the national assembly at Paris. § 546. 
 Ceremony of the federation ; death of Mirabeau ; flight of the king. 3. The legislative 
 assembly and the fall of the monarchy, p. 410. § 547. Position of parties ; Girondist 
 minister. § 548. The tenth of August. § 549. The days of September. 4. Republican 
 France under the government of the National Convention, p. 414. § 550. Execution of 
 the king. § 551. The war; Dumourier. § 552. Fall of the Girondists. § 553. Rula 
 of the Jacobins. § 554. 1. Persecutions of the aristocrats. § 565. 2. Horrors in the 
 south., § 556. Bloody scenes in La Vendue. § 557. Fall of the Dantonists. ^ 558. 3. 
 Wars of the republic ; first coalition. ^ 559. Peace of Basle. § 560. Robespierre's fall. 
 § 561. The last days of the convention. 5. France under the Directory, p. 425. § 562, 
 Bonaparte in Italy. ^ 563. Internal state of France; Babeuf; royalists. § 564. The 
 republicans in Italy ; revolution in Switzerland. § 565. War W the second coalitioai 
 § 566. Bonaparte in Egypt and Syria. ^ 567. The eighteenth of Braraaire. 
 
 C. GOVERNMENT OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE, p. 434. 
 
 I. The consulate (1800 — 1804). ^ 568. The consular constitution. §569. Mareng* 
 and Hohenlinden. § 570. Egypt ; the peace of Amiens ; murder of the emperor Paul. 
 
CONTENTS. XV 
 
 ) 571. The new court and the concordat. ^ 572. Conspiracies, n. Napoleon emperof 
 (1804 — 1814), p. 439. 1. ^ 573. The empire. 2. Austerlitz; Presburg; Confederation 
 of the Rhine, p. 440. 4^74. Hanover; Italy; Prussia. § 575. Ulra; Trafalgar. § 576. 
 Austerlitz; peace of Presburg. § 577. Establishment of the Rhenish Confederation. 
 8. Jena; Tilsit; Erfurt, p. 444. § 578. Occasions of the Prussian war. ^579. Battle 
 of Jena, and its immediate consequences. § 580. Preuss Eylau ; Friedland ; peace of 
 Tilsit. ^ 581. Proceedings in Sweden and Denmark; Napoleon and Alexander in Erfui-t. 
 4. The events in the Pyreneau peninsula, p. 448. ^ 682. Jiuiot in Lisbon ; intrigues in 
 Bayonne; Joseph Bonaparte king of Spaui. ^ 583. Insurgent war in Spain; Dupont's 
 capitulation. §584. Guerilla war; La Bomana; constitution of the year '12. j 585. End 
 of the Peninsular war. § 586. Imprisonment of the pope. 5. The second Austrian war; 
 Hofer; Schill (1809), p. 452. § 587. Aspem and Wagrara. § 588. Popular war in 
 the Tyrol; the peace of Vienna. § 589. Schill; William of Brunswick; Stein; Scham- 
 horst. § 590. The French Empire at its height. 6. The war against Russia (1812), 
 p. 456. § 591. Origin of the war. \ 592. Napoleon in Poland. § 593. March to Moscow. 
 \ 694. Retreat of the grand army. 
 
 D. DISSOLUTION OF THE FRENCH EMPIRE, AND ESTA- 
 BLISHMENT OF A FRESH SYSTEM, p. 459. 
 
 1. The German war of liberation, and the fall of Napoleon, p. 459. § 595. Rise of 
 Germany. § 596. German war of liberty from the year 1813. § 597. Battle of Lelpsic, 
 and its results. § 598. Napoleon's last struggle. 2. The restoration and the Hundred 
 Days, p. 463. § 599. Napoleon's abdication ; the first peace of Paris. § 600. Congress 
 of Vienna, and the first period of the restoration. § 601. Napoleon's return, and the 
 government of the hundred days. \ 602. Triumph of legitimacy, and Murat's death. 
 § 603. Waterloo. § 604. St. Helena. § 606. Second peace of Paris ; second restoration. 
 
 E. THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, p. 468. 
 
 Washington's administration, p. 468. § 606. Character and policy of Washington 
 §607. The finances ; funding the public debt; growing prosperity of the people. § 608. 
 Indian war at the northwest. § 609. Insurrection in Pennsylvania. § 610. Jay's treaty. 
 § 611. Effect of tlie French Revolution in America; state of parties. § 612. Washington's 
 retirement and Farewell Address. Adams's administration, p. 474. § 613. State of 
 parties; quarrel with France. § 614. Naval actions; convention with Bonaparte. § 615. 
 Defeat of the Federalists; choice of a President. Jefferson's Administration, p. 477. 
 § 616. Prosperity of the country ; purchase of Louisiana. § 617. War with the Barbary 
 powers; the navj'. 618. Peace and war parties. § 619. Aggressions on neutral trade; 
 the embargo. Madison's administration, p. 480. § 620. Negotiation with England ; affair 
 of the Chesapeake. § 621. Progress of the quarrel with France and England; affair of 
 the Little Belt. § 622. Battle of Tippecanoe with the Indians. § 623. War with England. 
 § 624. Want of preparation ; character of the contest. § 626. Surrender of General Hull; 
 disasters on the Niagara frontier. § 626. Triumphs at sea ; the finances. § 627. Win- 
 chester's defeat; operations on the northern frontier; Perry's victory; battle of the Thames. 
 § 628. Naval actions. § 629. War with the Creeks and Cherokees. § 630. Campaign 
 of 1814. § 631. Battles of Chippewa and Bridgewater; siege of fort Erie. § 632. Pro- 
 vost's defeat; McDonough's victory. § 633. Attack on Wasliington and Baltimore. 
 § 634. Battle of New Orleans. § 635. Conclusion of the war. 
 
 F. THE PEOPLE AND STATES OF EUROPE FROM THE 
 HOLY ALLIANCE TO THE PRESENT TIME, p. 491. 
 
 1. The Holy Alliance and the position of parties, p. 491. § 636. The Holy Alliance. 
 \ 637. Liberals and conservatives. 2. France, p. 492. ^ 638. Louis XVIH. § 639. 
 Keign of Charles X. 3. The constitutional struggles in the Pyrenean peninsula and in 
 Italy, p. 494. § 640. Ferdinand VU. and the Camarilla. § 641.. Victory of the constitu- 
 
XVI CONTENTS. 
 
 tionalists. § 642. Intervention of the Holy Alliance in Italy. ^ 643. Destruction of the 
 Cortes' government in Spain. § 644. Constitutional struggles in Portugal. 4. Great 
 Britain, p. 497. § 645. State of England; increasing poverty. § 646. Court and gf^vem- 
 ment. § 64T. Ireland. 5. Germany, p. 500. § 648. Struggle of opi^iions and position of 
 parties. § 649. Feast of the Wartburg; Sand; decrees of Carlsbad. 6. Greece's struggle 
 for liberty, p. 503. § 650. Ypsilanti and the sacred band. § 651. Greece's struggle till the 
 fall of Missolonghi ; the PhilheLlenists. § 652. Navarino ; Adrianople ; conclusion. ^ 653. 7. 
 The new romantic literature, p. 505. § 654. 8. The July revolution of Paris and its ccHise- 
 quences, p. 507. § 654. The July revglution. § 655. General consequences. § 656. The revo- 
 lution in Belgium. § 657. Rise and fall of Poland. § 658. Liberal movements in Germany. 
 § 659. Insurrections in Italy; struggles between throne and constitution in Spain. 9. Over- 
 throw of the throne of July, and the latest revolutionary tempests, p. 514. a. The years 
 of political and social agitation. § 660. Internal state of France. § 661. Italy ; Germany ; 
 Switzerland, h. The Paris revolution of February and its consequences, p. 518. § 662. The 
 revolution of February and the French republic. § 663. The March days in Vienna and 
 Berlin, and commotions in Gei-many. § 664. Preliminary parliament; committee of fifty; 
 national assembly. § 665. Italy's rise and fall. § 666. The truce of Malmo, and the 
 Frankfui-t September horrors. § 667. The Vienna October days. § 668. Programme of 
 Gagern; dissolution of the Berlin National Assembly. § 669. Kremsier; Hungary's rise and 
 fall. § 670. The imperial constitution, and deputation to the emperor. § 671. Eevolu- 
 tionaiy movements in Saxony, Palatinate, and Baden, and the rump parliament. § 672. 
 Schleswic-Holstein ; conclusion. 
 
 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE, p. 631. 
 
BOOK FIRST 
 
 HISTORY OF THE ANCIENT WORLD, 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 I. THE FIRST RACE OF MEN. 
 
 § 1. After God in the be";innin"j had created the heavens and the 
 earth, had adorned the heavens ^vith the sun, moon, and stars, had 
 clothed the earth with plants, and animated it with living animals ; he 
 made man in his own image, the crown of creation, and designed him by 
 the gifts of speech and reason for the ruler of the world. The first pair 
 came forth pure and spotless from the hands of their Creator, and lived 
 in childlike innocence in their native dwelling-place. Paradise, until 
 seduced by the tempter, the serpent, they ate of the forbidden tree of 
 knowledge, and, by this violation of the commands of God, lost their un- 
 conscious innocence and the possession of their first dwelling-place. 
 
 After this, they and their posterity were obliged to spend their lives 
 in labor and trouble, and to eat their bread in the sweat of their face. 
 Evil passions and desires were awakened, and disturbed the peace of 
 society ; the violent impulses of a savage and unrestrained nature plunged 
 the later genemtions deeper and deeper into the disorders of vice and 
 crime, till at length a great flood, called the deluge, destroyed the whole 
 race, with the exception of Noah and his descendants, from the flice of 
 the earth. Noah's posterity, however, increased again so rapidly, that 
 the later generations, descended from his three sons, Shem, Ham, and 
 Japheth, were compelled to spread themselves abroad over the neighbor- 
 ing countries, on account of their home being no longer large enough to 
 contain them. It then entered into their minds to erect the Tower of 
 Babel, " whose top was to reach unto heaven," * and to be a p^petual 
 memorial to them. God frustrated this presumptuous attempt by con- 
 fusing their language, and by this diversity of speech brought about their 
 
 ♦ Gen. xi. 4. 
 
(T 
 
 a THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 Beparation. They dispersed themselves to all the four quarters of the 
 earth, and colonized the three oldest divisions of the globe, Asia, Africa, 
 and Europe, forming themselves into different peoples and nations, 
 according to the varieties of their language. 
 
 II. THE MANNER OF LIVING AMONG THE EARLIEST RACES. 
 
 § 2. Men chose different occupations and manners of living, according 
 to the diversities in their places of residence. The inhabitants of steppes 
 and deserts, interspersed only here and there with fruitful pasture grounds, 
 chose the life of shepherds, and roved as wandering tribes from place to 
 place, with their tents and herds. These are called nomads (wanderers), 
 and their principal occupation is the breeding of cattle. Those who settled 
 upon favorably situated parts of the sea-coast soon discovered, with 
 increasing population and development, the advantages of their position. 
 They practised navigation and commerce, and sought after wealth and 
 comfort, and, in furtherance of these objects, were incited to lay out towns 
 and erect elegant dwelling-houses ; whilst the inhabitants of inhospitable 
 shores supported a joyless existence by means of fisheries. Those who 
 lived on plains devoted themselves to agriculture and the arts of peace ; 
 whilst the rude and hardy mountaineer gave himself up to the chase, 
 and, urged on by a violent impulse for freedom, sought his delight in wars 
 and battles. 
 
 By the taming of wild cattle, man procured for himself at an early 
 period those indispensable assistants of labor, domesticated animals. 
 
 A mighty instrument in the civilization of the human race was com- 
 merce, and the intercourse among different nations that sprang out of it. 
 Those who lived on fruitful plains, or on the banks of suitable rivers, 
 carried on an inland trade ; the dwellers on the shores, on the contrary, 
 a coasting trade. At first, men exchanged one article for another (bar- 
 ter), and it was not till a later period Ahat it occurred to them to fix a 
 certain value upon the precious metals, and to employ coined money as 
 an artificial and more convenient means of exchange. The inhabitants 
 of towns addicted themselves to trade and inventions, and cultivated arts 
 and sciences for the enriching and embellishment of life and the develop- 
 ment of the human understanding. 
 
 III. FORMS OF GOVERNMENT. DISTINCTION OF CASTES. 
 
 § 3. "With the process of time, nations were divided into the civilized 
 and uncivilized, according as the development of their intellectual powers 
 was furthered by talents and commerce, or cramped by dulness and isola- 
 tion. Uncivilized nations are either wild hordes, under the command of 
 a chief who possesses uncontrolled power over life and death, or wander- 
 ing nomadic tribes, guided by a leader, who, as father of the family, 
 exercises the functions of prince, judge, and high priest. Neither these 
 
INTRODUCTION?. 3 
 
 nomadic races with their patriarchal government, nor the wild hordes that 
 dwell in the unknown deserts of Africa (Negroes), in the steppes and lofty 
 mountain rang|s of Asia, or in the primeval forests of America, find any- 
 place in history. This concerns itself only with those civilized nations, 
 who, from similarity of manners and for mutual convenience, have united 
 themselves in peaceful intercourse and fellowship. 
 
 States are divided into republican and monarchical, according to the 
 form of their government or constitution. A state is called a monarchy, 
 when a single person stands at the head and manages its affairs. This 
 single person is called Emperor, or King, Duke, or Prince, according to 
 the extent of his dominions. The term. Free State, or Republic, is given 
 to that form of government in which the supreme power is placed in the 
 hands of an elective body, composed of numerous members. The repub- 
 lican form of government is sometimes aristocratic, that is, when only a 
 few families, distinguished by birth or wealth, govern the community ; 
 sometimes democratic, when the whole body of the people make the laws 
 and select the responsible officers of government. 
 
 The most ancient states were simple and uniform in their forms of 
 government, and possessed for the most part that great hinderance to free- 
 dom, the system of castes. By this is to be understood, a strict separation 
 of men according to their states and callings, which descended in unalter- 
 able succession from father to son ; by which means, all interchange of 
 conditions, or passing from one state to another, was rendered impracti- 
 cable. The priests, who alone possessed a knowledge of the religious 
 customs and institutions, and who bequeathed their knowledge to their 
 descendants, constituted the first caste. The second caste comprehended 
 the soldiers, who were afterwards successful in raising themselves to an 
 equality with the priestly condition. These two castes divided the govern- 
 ment between them. The third caste were the cultivators of the soil. 
 The fourth, the artisans. If shepherds constituted a distinct caste, they 
 were the lowest and most despised. The institution of castes was pre- 
 lerved for the longest time, and in the greatest purity, in India and Egypt. 
 
 9 lY. THE RELIOION OF THE HEATHEN "WORLD. 
 
 § 4. As men dispersed themselves over the earth, the original belief in 
 the one true God (Monotheism) was lost, and people fell into the worship 
 of many deities (Polytheism), adoring the visible works of creation, more 
 particularly the sun and the stars of heaven, instead of their Creator, or 
 else reverencing the operative powers of nature as divine beings. The 
 faith in a single divinity was preserved among the Jewish people alone, 
 in the worship of their hereditary God, Jehovah. The religions of all 
 other nations, diversified as they may be, are included under the term 
 Paganism. Instead of regarding the Supreme Being, the Creator and 
 Preserver of the universe, as a Spirit, and worshipping him in spirit and 
 
4 THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 in truth, the ancient nations gave him the figure of a man, deified his dif- 
 ferent powers and attributes, and then represented them under the greatest 
 variety of forms. Idols were fashioned from stone and ntetal, wood and 
 clay; temples and altars were erected, and sacrifices offered to them; 
 partly to appease their wrath, and partly to obtain their favor. The sacri- 
 fices varied in character with the civilization of the people who offered 
 them. The Greeks and Romans instituted joyous festivals to their gods, 
 in which the fruits that were presented, and the animals that were slain, 
 from the modest gift of a firstling of the flock to the solemn sacrifice ot 
 a hundred oxen, (hecatomb), were socially consumed ; whilst savage 
 tribes slaughtered human beings upon their altars, fbr the purpose of ap- 
 peasing by blood the wrath of hostile powers, for such they considered 
 their divinities to be. The Phosnician and Syrian tribes actually placed 
 their own children in the arms of a red-hot idol, Moloch. If, at first, the 
 image of the idol was only a visible symbol of a spiritual conception, or 
 of an invisible power, this higher meaning was lost in the progress of time, 
 in the minds of most nations, and they came at length to pay worship to the 
 lifeless image itself. The priests alone were acquainted with any deeper 
 meaning, but refused to share it with the people ; they reserved it under 
 the veil of esoteric (secret) doctrine, as the peculiar appanage of their 
 own class. With the same object, they invented legends, stories, and fa- 
 bles about the gods whom they worshipped, clothed these in poetical 
 forms, and thus gave origin to mythology, or the science of the gods. In 
 these stories, the actions and histories of the different deities, and the re- 
 lations of men in regard to them, are described, not in clear and intelli- 
 gible language, but veiled in enigmatical allusions, allegorical histories, 
 and figurative forms of expression. The greater the amount of creative 
 imagination and religious impulse possessed by a nation, the richer is its 
 mythology. If these legends of the gods served to excite the people to 
 superstition, the solemn worship in the sacred spaces of the temple, with 
 its mysterious ceremonies and symbolical usages, was no less calculated 
 to maintain in them a feeling of veneration and religious awe ; and, for 
 the purpose of establishing a belief in the presence of God, and hii^n- 
 terference in human affairs, more firmly, sacred places and temples of 
 note were provided with oracles, from which the credulous multitude 
 might gain information of the future, in obscure, and oftentimes am- 
 biguous, language. In this v/ay, the mind of man was led away from 
 Divine Truth, and ensnared in lifeless ceremonies ; the simple relations 
 and Inward tendency of the creature to the Creator were disturbed and 
 torn asunder ; the priesthood ruled the people by the might of supersti- 
 tion, and acquired wealth, honor, and power for themselves. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 A.. THE EASTERN RACES. 
 
 I. THE ASIATICS. 
 
 § 5. Asia, called from its situation the Eastern land, was the cradle 
 of the human race. The situation of Paradise must be sought for in the 
 attractive neighborhood of the Himahija mountains, the tops of which 
 lose themselves in the clouds. In the East arose those great nations and 
 cities whence other lands have derived a part of their civil institutions, 
 their religion, and their culture, and which have consequently received 
 the name of centres of civiHzation. In the East, the land of the camel, 
 " the ship of the desert," first originated the splendid inland traffic called 
 the caravan trade, which exercised so important an influence on the pro- /j/ 
 gress of human culture. For the purpose of more easily undergoing the 
 difficulties and perils of lengthened journeys through regions but little 
 known, and thickly inhabited by predatory tribes, the Eastern merchants 
 assembled themselves in companies, and escorted their wares, packed 
 upon camels, from one place to another, in large, and frequently armed, 
 bands. These commercial journeys were the occasion for building towns 
 and places for traffic, and for the erection of storehouses and caravan- 
 saries. They brought about intercourse between the inhabitants of dis- 
 tant places, and were the means of communicating not only the produc- 
 tions, but also the religious institutions and the social policy, of one land 
 to another. Temples and oracles of celebrity frequently served for mar- 
 kets and warehouses. It was in the East that nearly all the varieties of 
 religion took their origin, and gained their perfect development ; not only 
 the belief in one God, which prevailed among the Jews, and which after- 
 wards reappeared with renewed strength and purity in Christianity, 
 but the pagan worship of idols, in all its multiplied varieties, with its 
 priestly power, its sacrifices, and its ceremonial worship. For upon 
 evqry thing that concerns the relation of the creature to its Maker, the 
 people of the East have thought most deeply and zealously, and have 
 attained results at which no other nations have arrived. 
 
 The forms of Eastern governments and constitutions were less nume- 
 rous than the religions. Among the nomadic races, the heads of the 
 tribes ruled with jmtriarchal authority ; in countries where the distinc- 
 tion of castes prevailed, the privileged classes were priests and soldiers ; 
 from both arose, in the course of time, the unlimited kingly power, (des- 
 potism), which gave to the ruler the uncontrolled sovereignty of the 
 nomadic chief, and the religious sanctity of the priestly king. In this 
 manner, the kingly authority gradually grew to such a height in the East, 
 that the possessor shared a respect almost equal to that which was paid 
 
6 THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 the Divinity. In relation to the ruler, all the officers of state were re» 
 garded as slaves and menials, without either personal rights or property 
 The king disposed at will of the lives and possessions of his subjects ; he 
 gave or took away at his pleasure ; and no one dared to appear in his 
 presence, except with his body prostrated on the ground. He lived like a 
 god, in the midst of pleasure and enjoyment, surrounded by slaves, who 
 complied with his wishes, executed his commands, and submitted them- 
 selves to his pleasures ; and he was encircled by all the riches and pos- 
 sessions, by all the pomp and magnificence, of the earth. Such govern- 
 ments as these, in which law and human rights go for nothing, where 
 despotism and slavery are alone to be met with, possess no vital energy 
 and no capability of permanent civilization ; and for this reason, all ori- 
 ental states have become the prey of foreign conquerors, and their early 
 civilization has either been destroyed, or prevented from making farther 
 advances. 
 
 By original disposition, the Orientals are more inclined to contempla- 
 tive ease and enjoyment than to active exertion ; hence it has come to 
 pass, that the Eastern nations have never attained to freedom or sponta- 
 neous activity, but have either silently submitted themselves to their na- 
 tive rulers, or groaned under the yoke of foreign oppressors. 
 
 By dint of their intellectual capacity, they quickly attained to a certain 
 grade of civilization, but afterwards gave themselves up to an unenter- 
 prising pursuit of pleasure, until they gradually sunk into sloth and 
 effeminacy. This effeminacy was further promoted by the practice of 
 polygamy, a custom peculiar to the East, which is subversive of the 
 family affections, and of the domestic purity and morality which are their 
 attendants. 
 
 As regards the art of the Orientals, the gigantic designs of their build- 
 ings, and their incredible patience and perseverance in erecting and 
 completing them, are most worthy of admiration ; but their architecture 
 never displays the symmetry, the harmonious beauty, or the adaptation 
 of means to ends, which characterize the architecture of a free people. 
 The productions of their arts and industry afford evidence rather of man- 
 ual dexterity, attained by long practice, and rendered inalienable by the 
 tyranny of castes and guilds, than of inventive genius or active handi- 
 craft. Slavery hupg like a leaden weight on every outward manifesta- 
 tion of life in the East. 
 
 II. THE CHINESE, 
 
 § 6. As the progress of the human race has in general followed the 
 course of the sun, it will be most advisable to commence its history with 
 the tribes of the extreme East. In the vast empire of China has lived, 
 since the earliest period, a race of Mongolian origin, which has preserved 
 unchanged for ages the same culture and the same institutions. Every 
 
IXIRODUCTION. 7 
 
 thing is there regulated by hereditary laws and customs, and freedom ig 
 entirely banished. This want of progressive development is occasioned 
 partly by the tenacious character of the people, which induces them to 
 cling fast to Ihe customary and traditionary modes of living ; partly by 
 the empire being cut off, by mountains, seas, and the lofty and extensive 
 wall of China, from all intercourse with foreign nations, and from all 
 strangers being strictly prohibited from entering the kingdom ; and is 
 partly produced by political institutions. The emperor, who is possessed 
 of absolute power, and regarded with almost religious veneration, and the 
 numerous and privileged aristocratic class (mandarins), alike compel the 
 slavish and despised people to a strict observance of their traditionary 
 customs and usages, and deprive them of every thing new. As the Chi- 
 nese are thus prevented from profiting by the experience of foreign na- 
 tions, they remain inferior to other people in civilization ; though they 
 have been acquainted from the earliest ages with gunpowder, the art of 
 printing, and the mariner's compass. Notwithstanding they have long 
 been celebrated for their skill in the manufacture of silk, and in the pre- 
 paration of porcelain, writing materials, carved work, and similar produc- 
 tions, their industry cannot be compared with the commercial activity and 
 diligence in the arts of the cultivated states of the West. The object of 
 their education is not such a development of the intellectual powers as 
 would lead to the cultivation of the whole of the human faculties, but 
 rather the teaching of that which their predecessors have known and 
 practised before them. This education, this mode of life, and form of 
 government, render the Chinese weak and cowardly ; they entertain, nev- 
 ertheless, the highest opinion of their own excellence, and regard all 
 other nations with lofty contempt. Their language is so clumsy and difli- 
 cult, that it requires several years to learn even to read it. The Chinese 
 
 P'^^y S^^i^t respect to Confucius (Ilonf'-fu-tse) as the founder 
 a c. 550. ,.,.,.! ^9 ^ 
 
 01 their religion. 
 
 III. THE INDIANS. 
 
 § 7. To the south of the snow-covered heights of the lofty Himaldya, 
 extends a fertile and prosperous region, blessed with a healthy and vary- 
 ing climate, and rich in productions of the most diversified character. In 
 this land, watered by the Indus, the Ganges, and other large rivers, lived, 
 ages ago, a remarkable people, called Hindoos, or Indians, whose former 
 greatness is still attested by numerous buildings, ruins of towns and 
 temples, surprising memorials in inscriptions on stone, and innumerable 
 historical recollections. 
 
 The Indians are descended from the Aryans, who at one time under- 
 took an expedition from their native highlands, and subjected the less 
 powerful aborigines of India. They soon changed their native nomadia 
 customs for the system of castes, which they adopted in its severest form. 
 
8 THE ANCIENT \TORLD. 
 
 The most important caste were the priests, a wealthy, honorable, and pri- 
 vileged class, who were called Brahmans, or Brahmins. This caste wa3 
 considered sacred and inviolable ; they could not be subjected to corporal 
 punishment for any crime, they were exempt from taxati^^, formed the 
 chief council of the king, and filled all offices. Next to the Brahmins 
 came the warriors, who, in return for their pay and certain privileges, 
 were responsible for the security and defence of the kingdom. As, how* 
 ever, the frequent necessity for waging war or encountering enemies was 
 precluded by the remote situation of the country and the peaceful charac- 
 ter of its inhabitants, these soldiers soon became slothful and degenerate, 
 and thus rendered it easy for the priests to retain their political ascend- 
 ancy. The kings belonged to the caste of soldiers. The farmers and 
 artisans were heavily impressed with imposts, and held their land only 
 in fee.* The Pariahs, from whom the Gipsies are said to be descended, 
 ai*e the dark-colored descendants of the wild aborigines, and are regarded 
 by the other Indians as the refuse of mankind, and treated with the deepest 
 contempt. " They do not venture to dwell in the towns, cities, or villages, 
 or even in their neighborhood ; every thing they touch is looked upon 
 as unclean, and it is pollution even to have seen them." Any intermix 
 ture of castes, by means of marriage, was severely prohibited. Persons 
 who were guilty of an infringement of this law, were cast out of society, 
 and exposed to contempt. This rigorous division into castes, which the 
 priests laid down as a divine ordinance, checked the progress of civil- 
 ization, and was the occasion that it never passed beyond a certain point, 
 and then lapsed into a state of repose and stagnation. 
 
 RELIGION, LITERATURE, ART. 
 
 § 8. The Indians reverenced in Brahma a divine first principle, which 
 appears under three forms, as Creator, Preserver, and Destroyer ; and 
 besides him, a crowd of spirits and inferior divinities. The central point 
 of their religion is the doctrine of the transmigration of the soul (me- 
 tempsychosis). According to this doctrine, the human soul is only joined 
 to earthly bodies for the purposes of punishment, and its aim and elibrt are 
 to again unite itself with the Divine Spirit of the universe. The Indian, 
 therefore, regards existence in this world as a time of trial aiid punish- 
 ment, which can only be abridged by a holy life, by prayer and sacrifice, 
 by penance and purification. If man neglects tiiis, and sinks liimself 
 still deeper into vice by departure fi-om God, his soul after death will be 
 joined to the body of a different and inferior animal, and will have to 
 commence its wanderings afresh. On the other hand, the souls of the 
 wise, of heroes and penitents, enter upon their upward path through shin- 
 
 * The phraseology here is ambiguous and not strictly correct. The actual cultiTUtors 
 of the soil had only a right of occupancy, not of ownership. A7n. FA. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 9 
 
 ing stars, and are finally united with the spiritual first princip le whence 
 they proceeded. This doctrine was interpreted by the Brahmins to sig- 
 nifytthat man could attain the end of his being only by the uninterrupted 
 contemplation of divine things, and by abstraction from earthly concerns. 
 They placed, therefore, a higher value upon silent meditation and ab- 
 straction, than upon an active life ; withdrew from the inferior castes, and 
 believed, that, by acts of penance and self-inflicted tortures, by alms-giv- 
 ing and acts of outward holiness, and by the strict observance of innu- 
 merable laws, rules, and precepts, they brought themselves into closer 
 union with the Deity. Since it followed from the doctrine of transmi- 
 gration, that the souls of men might inhabit the bodies of animals, the 
 Brahmins dared not kill or injure anything endowed with hfe, or eat any 
 flesh unless it had been offered in sacrifice. 
 
 The Indians possessed sensibility and a creative imagination. This is 
 particularly apparent in their copious literature. Many of their works 
 and poems, the whole of which are composed in the sacred and now ob- 
 solete Sanscrit language, and are intimately related to their religion and 
 theology, are already three thousand years old. The most important 
 works are the four books of the Vedas, which are held in the most pro- 
 found respect, as the sources of the Brahminical religion. They contain 
 religious hymns and prayers, directions respecting sacrificial offerings, 
 and moral precepts and proverbs. Next to the Vedas, the code of Menu 
 is held in the greatest estimation. Besides these, the Indians possess a 
 great multitude of poetical works of all descriptions, distinguished by, 
 highly figurative language, as well as deep sensibility and religious feel- 
 ing. Many of these works were brought to Europe by the English who 
 conquered the country, and were afterwards translated by learned men 
 into German and other European languages. Indian art, as well as lite- 
 rature, is intimately connected with religion. More particularly worthy 
 of remark are the rock-hewn temples and grottos, of which the most cele- 
 brated are to be found at Ellora in the middle of Lower India, at Salsette 
 near Bombay, and at the island of Elephanta in the bay of Bombay. In 
 these places, we meet with temples, grottos, dwelling-houses, and passages, 
 covered with images and inscriptions hewn one above another in the rock, 
 and extending for miles. These grottos contain an incredible quantity 
 of works artistically and elaborately executed, which must hajre required 
 the labor of many thousand hands for numberless ages, and the greatest 
 patience and perseverance for their completion. 
 
 The abundance of the productions of nature and art, pearls, precious 
 stones, ivory, spice, frankincense, and silks, made India, from an early 
 period, the great centre and emporium of the maritime and caravan trade ; 
 but it also proved a lure to foreign invaders. Disunited and dismembered, 
 as well by the system of castes as by their political institutions, and ener- 
 vated and stupefied by their want of freedom, the Indians fell an easy 
 prey to their warlike enemies. 
 
10 THE ANCIE:JfT WORLD. 
 
 IV. BABYLONIANS AND ASSYRIANS. 
 
 § 9. The fertile regions watered by the Euphrates and Tigris, an€ th« 
 
 grassy uplands of Mesopotamia, were formerly inhabited by Semitic 
 
 Niorod, tribes, including the Babylonians and Assyrians. Nimrod, 
 
 B. c. 2100. « a mighty hunter before the Lord," is named as the founder 
 
 of the Babylonian empire, and its chief city Babylon. This city was 
 
 built in form of a square, and washed by the waters of the Euphrates, 
 
 Kinus, which flowed through it. A hundred years later, Ninus is said 
 
 B. c. 2000. to have built the great city of Nineveh, on the banks of the 
 
 Tigris, and to have subjected the Babylonians to his rule. The wife and 
 
 successor of Ninus, the legendary Semiramis, is described as 
 Semiramis. i • i • . • i -it 
 
 an heroic and victorious woman, who carried her conquests 
 
 as far as India, embellished Babylon with magnificent works, (the hang- 
 ing gardens, raised upon terraces,) and provided her land with skilfully 
 constructed roads, canals, and buildings of every description. Beneath 
 the rule of her incapable and effeminate successors, the Assyrian empire 
 fell gradually into decay, till at length the warlike governor of the Medes 
 rose against the unworthy sovereign, took possession of Nineveh, and 
 Sardanapalus. reduced the last king, Sardanapalus, who was notorious for 
 B. c. 888. his luxury, intemperance, and voluptuousness, to such straits, 
 that he burnt himself in his palace, together with his wives and trea- 
 sures. Nevertheless, in the following century, a few warlike sovereigns, 
 S'llmanasser (^"f^ong whom were Salmanasser and Sanherib, who were dis- 
 B. c. 730. tinguished by their deeds and fortunes in Palestine,) were suc- 
 Sanherib, cessful in again restoring the Assyrian empire, and increasing 
 B. c. 720. it |3y fi-esh conquests. But the new Assyrian monarchy was, 
 like the old, but of short duration. A hundred and twenty-five years 
 Nineveh ^^^^^ *^^® reign of Salmanasser, Nineveh was taken and 
 
 destroyed, destroyed by the Medes and Chaldeans, and the victors 
 B. c. 605. divided the land among themselves. Babylon fell to the lot 
 of the Chaldeans. Antiquities and works of art are still dug from the 
 ground where Nineveh once stood. 
 
 § 10. From this period, the Chaldeans or Babylonians possessed the 
 ascendancy, particularly during the reign of the warlike and powerful 
 Nebudiad- * Nebuchadnezzar, who laid Judah under tribute. But the 
 nezzar, splendor of Babylon soon passed away. A generation later, 
 
 B. c. 600. ij^g Medes were the dominant race, and after them came the 
 Persians. Babylon was provided with wonderful architectural works by 
 the Chaldees. A broad and lofty wall surrounded the whole city, which is 
 said to have had a circumference of nearly sixty miles. The two impe- 
 rial palaces on the banks of the Euphrates, the square and lofty temple 
 of Baal, the god of the sun, which was magnificently adorned with sta- 
 tues and ornaments of gold, and served the purposes of an observatory, 
 were, together with the hanging gardens, the most remarkable objects 
 
INTRODUCTION. 11 
 
 Ii: building, the Chaldeans made use of burnt bricks. Their watei 
 buildings, bridges, canals, dams, dikes, and so forth, were the most re- 
 markable of their works. The worship of the heavenly bodies led tha 
 Babylonian priests (who were more especially called Chaldeans) to make 
 astronomical observations ; they reckoned the course of the sun, and di- 
 vided the year : but as they mingled astrological speculations with their 
 science, they fell into errors, and wandered about the world at a later 
 period as diviners, interpreters of dreams, and magicians. We are also 
 indebted to the Chaldeans for the divisions of weights and measures, and 
 for the elements of geometry and medicine. The fertility of the land, 
 and their extensive commerce, brought wealth and its necessary attend- 
 ants, splendor and luxury. The Babylonians were, in consequence, not 
 less celebrated for their luxurious productions, their fine linen, their 
 sumptuous carpets, &c., than they were renowned and infamous for their 
 sensuality, their luxury, and their voluptuousness. Masses of ruins,* and 
 heaps of rubbish, and a few monuments with inscriptions, mark the spot 
 where once stood the world-renowned Babylon. 
 
 V. THE EGYPTIANS. 
 
 § 11. The Greeks called Egypt a gift of the Nile ; for it is from the 
 regular annual overflow of the river, occasioned by rains in the high lands 
 of Abyssinia, the waters of which are drawn off by all sorts of means, 
 canals, dams, and cisterns, that the land preserves its remarkable fertility. 
 The valley of the Nile was divided, even at a remote period, into three 
 parts. First, Upper Egypt, where the vast and striking ruins of Thebes, 
 witli their gigantic fragments of statues and columns, their colossal 
 sphinxes, (lions with women's heads), the tombs of kings hewn in the 
 bare rock, the subterranean catacombs, and the colossal statue of Memnon, 
 which is reported to have uttered musical sounds at the rising of the 
 sun, yet testify to the former splendor and magnificence of the priestly 
 oity. Secondly, Middle Egypt, with its capital, Memphis, the vicin- 
 ity of which is also distinguished by the magnificent remains of an 
 historical antiquity. Among these are the ruins of the Labyrinth, a 
 building consisting of a number of intricate passages communicating with 
 each other, and the group of pyramids, which to this day are gazed upoa 
 with amazement, as the miracles of architectural science. These pyra- 
 mids are built of hard freestone, rise from a square base, and terminate 
 at an immense height, in a point, or small flat surface ; they appear to 
 have served as the sepulchral memorials of kings. Thirdly, Lower 
 Egypt, with its ancient metropolis, Heliopolis, which was, however, after- 
 wards eclipsed by Alexandria, and the historically remarkable places, 
 Sais, Naiicratis, &c. Two branches of the Nile inclose Lower Egypt, 
 and, together with the sea, give it the triangular form whence it derives 
 its name. Delta. 
 
12 THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 § 12. Egypt possessed, at an inconceivably early period, numberless 
 towns and villages, and a liigli amount of civilization. Arts, sciences, 
 and civil professions were cherished there, so that the Nile-land has always 
 been regarded as the mysterious cradle of human culture ; but the system 
 of castes checked free development and continuous improvement. Every 
 thing subserved a gloomy religion and. a powerful priesthood, who held 
 the people in terror and superstition. The doctrine, that, after the death 
 of man, the soul could not enter into her everlasting repose unless the 
 body were preserved, occasioned the singular custom of embalming the 
 cor})ses of the departed to preserve them from decay, and of treasuring 
 them up, in the shape of mummies, in shaft-like passages and mortuary 
 chambers. Through this belief, the priests, who, as judges of the dead, 
 possessed the power of giving up the bodies of the sinful to corruption, 
 and by this means occasioning the transmigration of their souls into the 
 bodies of animals, obtained immense authority. The religion of the 
 Egyptians consisted partly in the worship of the heavenly bodies, but 
 also bore relation to the Nile and the natural qualities of the country. 
 Their principal deities were Osiris, Serapis, and Isis; but as, besides 
 these gods, the animals sacred to them were objects of veneration, the 
 Egyptian religion gradually degenerated into the most monstrous animal 
 worship. This degeneracy became apparent in their art. At first, the 
 statues of their gods were represented with the human figure, although 
 in stiff attitudes and in stern and solemn repose ; but they appeared, at a 
 later period, with the heads of beasts, and soon after, under an exclusively 
 animal form. Notwithstanding the magnificence of their architectural 
 productions, and the vast technical skill and dexterity in sculpture and 
 mechanical appliances which they display, the Egyptians have produced 
 but little in literature or the sciences ; and even this little was locked up 
 from the people in the mysterious hieroglyphical writing, which w^as 
 understood by the priests alone. There were three kinds of these hiero- 
 glyphics, which are met with on the writing-rolls which the Egyptians 
 prepared out of an aquatic plant called papyrus, and on the obelisks, — 
 pointed, four-cornered columns, hewn from a single block of granite, and 
 erected before the porticos of the temples. 
 
 Egypt was already an object of wonder and curiosity, in the time of 
 the Romans ; and such she remains, even to the present day. The fact 
 is attested by the eleven obelisks and the innumerable Egyptian carvings 
 in the hardest stone, at present in Rome, and by the multitude of mum- 
 mies, ancient utensils, trinkets and ornaments, rolls of papyrus, and so 
 forth, that are to be met with in all the museums and cabinets of natural 
 history in Europe. But much as we may admire the patience of the 
 Egyptians, and their skill and dexterity in the practice of their arts, we 
 are '^veryArhere struck with a want of free development, creative industry, 
 smJ r^'t-sonal freedom. The curse of the caste-system lay upon every 
 
INTRODUCTION^. 13 
 
 « 
 external manifestation of life, whilst superstition and religious oppression 
 
 gave a gloomj coloring to existence, and disturbed every cheerful and 
 pleasurable feeling. 
 
 § 13. So long as the priestly class possessed the government and 
 elected the king, the " hundred-gated " Thebes may have remained the 
 principal city ; but when the Egyptians were subjected to hostile attacks 
 from neigliboring nations, and the military caste attained in consequence 
 to greater importance, Memphis appears to have been chosen as the me- 
 tropolis of Middle Egypt. Warlike sovereigns were about this time suc- 
 cessful in raising the military caste to an equality with the priestly, so 
 that they divided their privileges between them, and were both subjected 
 Sesostris, to the kingly power. Sesdstris, who reduced the Ethiopians 
 B. c. 1500. to tribute, and who is said to have reigned over a consider- 
 able portion of Asia and Africa, is particularly mentioned as one of these 
 lloeris and victorious monarchs. After him, Mceris and Cheops are thp 
 CWops, 1080. most renowned kingly names. The first, on account of the lake 
 which he constructed, and which was named after him, and which appears 
 to have served the purpose of regulating the inundations of the Nile ; the 
 second, as the builder of the largest of the pyramids, which is 450 French 
 feet in height, and on which 100,000 men are said to have been employed 
 for 40 years. The lives and actions of these ancient kings are shrouded in 
 darkness. The gfoom begins to disappear about the middle of the seventh 
 century, when the royal house of Sais, in Lower Egypt, assumed the 
 sovereignty, in the person of Psammeticus. For the purpose of weakening 
 the power of the priests, Psamm(5ticus entered into alliance with the 
 Greeks, and received Greek soldiers and colonists into Egypt. Disgusted 
 at this proceeding, 240,000 Egyptians migrated into Nubia, and there 
 founded a state of their own. Among the successors of Psammeticus, 
 Necho, Necho, the founder of the Egyptian naval and maritime 
 
 ^B. c. coo. power, and the warlike Amasis, are particularly to be men- 
 tioned. The son of the latter, Psammenitus, lost both kingdom and vic- 
 tory to the Persians, in the bloody battle of Pelusium (Suez). The 
 Persians afterwaixls reigned over Egypt for a period of 200 years. But 
 the Egyptians did not unite themselves with their conquerors ; they re- 
 tained their own manners, institutions, and religious customs, together 
 with their aversion to every thing foreign. 
 
 yi. THE PnCEXICIANS 
 
 § 14. On the narrow strip of coast between the Mediterranean and 
 Lebanon, dwelt the maritime and commercial people of Phoenicia, in 
 many populous towns, among which Tyre and Sidon were the most 
 remarkable. The Phoenicians, an active and energetic race, would not 
 subject themselves to the restraints imposed by the caste-system. On the 
 contrary, every city, with the territory adjacent to it, constituted an inde 
 2 
 
14 THE ANCIEXT WORLD. 
 
 pendent commonwealth, at the head of which stood an hereditary sove- 
 reign, whose power, however, was greatly restricted by the priests and 
 nobles. Collectively they formed a league of towns, of which, at first 
 Sidon, and afterwards Tyre, was the chief. Intellectual activity and dili- 
 gence in business led this people to many discoveries ; among them were 
 glass, the art of dyeing purple, and of writing by means of letters. They 
 were also distinguished by their skill in casting metals, weaving, archi- 
 tecture, and various other matters. Sidonian garments, Tyrian purple, 
 Phoenician glass, and articles of ivory, gold, and other metals, were pre- 
 cious and coveted wares in all antiquity. The favorable situation of their 
 country made them sailors, and the cedars of Lebanon supplied the mate- 
 rials for ship-building. Not only did the Phoenicians navigate the coasts 
 and islands of the Mediterranean in their splendid ships, for the purpose 
 of trafficking both in their own productions and in those of the distant East, 
 spices, frankincense, oil, wine, corn, and slaves, but they even ventured 
 beyond the Pillars of Hercules, (Straits of Gibraltar), purchased tin from 
 ihe inhabitants of the British Isles, and amber from the people of the 
 Baltic, and undertook venturous expeditions to India (Ophir) and the 
 southern parts of Arabia. They are even said to have doubled the Cape 
 of Good Hope, in a voyage of three years' duration, undertaken at the 
 instigation of Necho, King of Egypt. They established colonies on Crete 
 and Cyprus, at Sicily and Sardinia, in the south of Spain (Tartessus and 
 Gades, now called Cadiz), and in northern Africa. The commercial 
 city, Carthage, founded there by the Tyrians, under the con- 
 duct of Queen Dido, soon eclipsed the renown of the mother 
 country. The Phoenicians paid less attention than the other Oriental 
 nations to the cultivation of religion. Their worship of Moloch was 
 accompanied with frightful human sacrifices, that of Baal with obscene 
 rites. 
 
 § 15. In their contests with the warlike nations of Asia, the Phoeni- 
 cians displayed both courage and patriotism. When the Assyrian Sal- 
 manasser subjected Phoenicia to his sceptre, and compelled 
 the inhabitants to pay tribute, the Tyrians built New Tyre 
 upon a neighboring island, and defended it with success, for five years, 
 against the superior power of the enemy. The merchant fleet of Tyre 
 soon again ruled the sea. Even the Babylonian Nebuchad- 
 nezzar, who had subdued the mainland of Phoenicia, and had 
 transplanted the inhabitants of Old Tyre, along with the Jews, into the 
 interior of his kingdom, was unable to shake the courage of the New 
 Tyrians. But these repeated attacks seem to have broken their power ; 
 for when, shortly after, the Persians subjected the countries of western 
 Asia, Tyre also lost its freedom and independence. Phoenicia became a 
 Persian province. In the middle of the fourth century, the 
 oppression of the foreign governor produced a rebellion, a 
 
INTRODUCTION. 15 
 
 the head of which stood Sidon. It was unsuccessful. Sidon fell into the 
 hands of the Persian king ; and when this prince gave orders for the 
 execution of the principal citizens, the inhabitants themselves set fire to 
 the town, and consumed themselves and their treasures. Tyre existed 
 eome time longer ; but when Alexander the Macedonian overthrew the 
 Persian empire, and Tyre, proud of its former glory, ventured to oppose 
 the conqueror, it was taken and destroyed after a seven 
 months' siege. It never recovered from this stroke ; and its 
 trade and maritime power were transferred to Alexandria. 
 
 • VII. THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. 
 
 § 16. "Whilst the whole world was sunk into idolatry, a people of shep- 
 herds, of Semitic origin, dwelling in Mesopotamia, preserved the ori- 
 Abraham ginal belief in a single God. Abram (Abraham), one of the 
 B. c. 2000. ancestors of this nomadic race, left his native pastures at the 
 command of Jehovah, and settled himself, with his cattle, his men-ser- 
 vants and maidens, and his brother's son. Lot, in " the promised land '* 
 Canaan (Palestine), where they continued their pastoral life, and received 
 from the inhabitants the name of the "Strangers from the other side" 
 (Hebrews). Isaac, who was born to Abraham by Sarah at an advanced 
 period of life, continued tlie race ; whilst Ishmael, Abraham's son by his 
 coi\cubine Hagar, is regarded as the progenitor of the Arabs. Isaac took 
 to wife Rebekah, one of his own relatives acknowledging the true faith, 
 who brought him two sons, Esau and Jacob. By the cunning of his 
 mother, Jacob, the younger son, contrary to the usage that had hitherto 
 obtained, was declared to be the chief of his race, but could only gain pos- 
 Jacob. session of his inheritance after a long period of probation. 
 
 - B. c. 1836. Jacob had twelve sons ; but as he distinguished Joseph, the 
 gift of his beloved Rachel, by his peculiar affection, the others, moved 
 Joseph, hy envy, entertained the purpose of getting rid of their 
 
 B. c. 1750. brother, and sold him to some travelling merchants, who 
 took him with them into Egypt. As Joseph held fast his integrity, God 
 rewarded him with prosperity and wisdom. By his skill in the inter- 
 pretation of dreams, he obtained the favor of the Egyptian king, and 
 arrived at high dignity and honors. He saved the land from famine, and 
 by this means attained such credit, that he was permitted to invite his 
 father and brethren into Egypt, and to bestow upon them the fertile pas- 
 ture-lands of Goshen. The Hebrews were generally called Israelites, 
 from Jacob's surname of Israel. 
 
 § 17. At first, the Israelites were prosperous in the rich meadows 
 of Goshen. But when Joseph was dead, and fresh rulers, who knew 
 nothing of his services, assumed the governmer"^, dislike to strangers, and 
 contempt for the pastoral state, incited the Kgyptians to cruelty and 
 Beverity against the foreigners. They commenced by imposing sever© 
 
16 THE AXCIENT WOULD. 
 
 socage duties upon them ; and when it was found that, despite this op- 
 pression, they increased so rapidly that the Egyptians at length became 
 alarmed at their superior numbers, Pharaoh gave commandment to drown 
 all their newly-born male children in the Nile. 
 
 Moses, Moses would have experienced this fate, had not the 
 
 B. c. 1500. daughter of Pharaoh, who chanced to be walking on the 
 banks of the river just as he was about to be drowned, taken pity on the 
 infant, and saved him. Moses came to the Egyptian court, where he was 
 carefully brought up, and instructed in all wisdom. The slaughter of an 
 Egyptian, w^hom he saw misusing one of the Israelites, compelled him, 
 when he was forty years old, to fly to the deserts of Arabia. It was here 
 that he w^as inspired with the lofty purpose of becoming the deliverer of 
 his people from their Egyptian bondage. At^first, Pharaoh refused to 
 let the Israelites depart; but after terror and distress had been spread 
 over the land by the ten plagues which were sent upon it, he at length 
 consented to the retreat required by Moses and his brother Aaron. The 
 attempt to bring them back again by force, after their passage over the 
 Red Sea, was attended with the destruction of the j^ursuers. 
 
 § 18. For a period of forty years, Moses led a discontented people, 
 who were often pining for the fleshpots of Egypt, wandering in the desert, 
 for the purpose of strengthening their bodies, restoring virtue and a love 
 of freedom to their minds, and of rearing up a young and hardy race, 
 who should possess strength and courage for the conquest of the pi-omised 
 land. It was during this period that the Ten Commandments, and other 
 laws relative to the religion and policy of the Israelites, v/ere delivered 
 to Moses on Mount Sinai. These laws were preserved in the ark of the 
 covenant, the most sacred of tabernacles. Their interpreters wei-e the 
 high priests, to whose office Aaron and his posterity were appointed. By • 
 their side stood the Levites, as sacrificing priests, teachers, lawyers, and 
 physicians. According to the system of Moses, Jehovah himself was king 
 and ruler ; it was in his name that the elders of the tribes conducted tlie 
 temporal government, whilst the chief priest and Levites superintended 
 the affairs of religion. Sacrifices and feasts (those of the Passover, Pen- 
 tecost, and Tabernacles) formed the pleasant bond between Jehovah and 
 the " chosen" people. In the sabbath-year, the lands were left unfilled, 
 * and that which grew spontaneously was given up to the poor. In (nxry 
 fiftieth year (year of Jubilee), lands that had been alienated were retni-ned 
 to their original possessors, tjiat property might not be too uneqnally 
 divided. Moses determined upon agriculture in preference to the pastoral 
 life, as the principal occupation of his people. 
 
 § 19. It was not permitted to the great lawgiver to lead his people 
 into the promised land. He gazed from the top of Mount Nebo on the 
 Joshua beautiful plains of the Jordan, and then departed from among 
 
 B. c. 1450. the living, after having chosen Joshua as his successor, 
 
THE EASTERN RACES. 17 
 
 and exhorted the assembled people to hold fast upon the God of their 
 fathers, and to root out the Canaanites. Scarcely, however, had the peo- 
 ple, under the command of the vahant Joshua, conquered the Amoritea 
 and the other tribes, than they gave up war, and demanded the distribu- 
 tion of the vanquished lands. This distribution took place by lot (in 
 accordance with the regulation of Moses) among the twelve sons of Jacob, 
 in such a way that Ephraim and Manasseh succeeded to equal shares; 
 "while, on the other hand, the descendants of Levi had no distinct inherit- 
 ance, and received only a few towns and a tenth part of the productions 
 of the earth. Reuben, Gad, and half Manasseh, chose the pasture- 
 land on the east of Jordan ; the others settled on the western side of 
 the river. 
 
 § 20. Buf many powerful tribes, as the Ammonites and Philistines, 
 were still left unsubdued, and disturbed the Israelites in the enjoyment 
 of their possessions. Bloody and destructive wars induced a rude and 
 barbarous condition of society ; and the Israelites not unfrequently forgot 
 the living God, who had brought them out of bondage, and fell into the 
 practice of idolatry, until misfortunes and defeats again brought them 
 back to a better understanding. At these times, men of heroic courage 
 would arise, defeat the enemy in victorious fields, and restore the ancient 
 manners and the faith of their ancestors. These men are called Judges, 
 in the sacred writings. . . . The most renowned among them are Gideon, 
 Samuel, Jcidithah, Samson the strong, and the heroic Deborah. But 
 
 B. c. 1150. the .high priest Samuel, a pious and patriotically disposed 
 man, was the first Who was successful in reuniting the aycient ties which 
 bound the people of Israel to their God, and in restoring to the laws of 
 Moses tlieir former ascendancy. lie overthrew the Philistines, and 
 ■'founded the schools whence proceeded those inspired oracles of the peo 
 pie, distinguished in the Bible by the name of Prophets. 
 
 § 21. The sons of Samuel did not walk in the steps of their father, but 
 perverted the right. At this period, the Israelites, in imitation of the 
 surrounding natfons, desired a king, who, as perpetual cliief, might lead 
 them forth to battle and victory. It was in vain that the gray-headed 
 high priest sought to dissuade them from this request, whilst he portrayed 
 in the strongest colors the misery and oppression that awaited them under 
 a kingly rule. The Israelites persisted in their intention, and Samuel 
 Suul, anointed Saul, of the tribe of Benjamin, to be king. Saul 
 
 B. c. 1095. was a man of majestic person, brave, experienced in military 
 affairs, and successful in the field ; but as he placed his trust in his army, 
 and did not hold fast the commandments of Jehovah, he was rejected, and 
 Samuel anointed the shepherd lad, David, of the tribe of Judah. Saul at 
 this time was attacked with a spirit of melancholy, which nothing but the 
 harp of David could alleviate. But envy of the renown acquired by 
 David in the wars against the Philistines, and a secret presentiment of 
 2* 
 
IH THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 the destiny that awaited him, urged Saul to hate and persecute the young 
 shepherd ; Saul's son, Jonathan, on the other hand, was devoted to him 
 with true affection. David, nevertheless, in the midst of dangers and 
 distresses, escaped the attempts of his enemy ; and at length, when Saul, 
 after having sustained a defeat, threw himself in despair upon his sword. 
 David was gradually recognized as king by the whole of the tribes. 
 David, § -2. The reign of David is the glorious period of Jewish 
 
 B. c. 1060. history. By means of successful wars, he enlarged his king- 
 dom to the South and East; he made the Syrian town, Damascus, his 
 footstool, and broke forever the power of the Philistines ; he conquered 
 Jerusalem, the chief city of the Jebusites, together with the strong for- 
 tress Zion, and selected it for a residence, and the central point of a 
 solemn religious worship ; and with this view, commanded the ark of the 
 covenant to be brought thither. David was also a great poet, as is abun- 
 dantly shown by his admirable religious hymns (Psalms); and despite 
 many grievous transgressions, he still remained the "man after God's 
 own heart," since by sorrow and repentance he always regained the for- 
 giveness of Jehovah. The end of his reign was disturbed by the rebel- 
 Solomon, lion of his beloved son, Absalom, who was led astray by evil 
 B. c. 1000. counsellors. The wise Solomon completed the work of his 
 father. As David had been great in war, so his son was illustrious in 
 the arts of peace. lie adorned his capital with splendid buildings, and 
 erected on the hill of Mori'ah, by the aid of Tyrian artists and masons, 
 the magnificent temple which bore his own name, and .which, on account 
 of the richness of its gilding and ornaments, was the object of universal 
 admiration. But Solomon departed in many things from the laws of 
 Moses. He traded with the neighboring nations, and thereby acquired 
 incalculable v/ealth, which stimulated his love of luxury, pleasure, and 
 magnificence ; he took to himself wives from a foreign people, permitted 
 them the exercise of their idolatrous worship, and even took part in it 
 himself. His lofty mind and admired wisdom did not secure hini from 
 folly. His love of magnificence and extravagance was the occasion of 
 
 ^ , oppressive taxes ; and even durinj^j his own life, an insurrec- 
 
 Jeroboam. . , , -, ^ t 
 
 tion broke out under the guidance of Jeroboam. This was 
 
 indeed suppressed, and the originator, compelled to take flight ; but when 
 Kelioboam, Solomon's son, Rehoboam, pursued the same course his father 
 B. c. 975. had taken, and repelled with threats the prayers of the peo- 
 ple for relief, many of the tribes fell from him, and chose Jeroboam for 
 king. Judah and Benjamin alone remained faithful to the legitimate 
 royal race. 
 
 § 23. From this division there arose two states of uneqvial magnitude, 
 the kingdom of Israel, or Ephraim, formed of ten of the tribes, with its 
 capitals, Shechem and Samaria, and the kingdom of Judah, consisting of 
 tiro tribes, with its chief city, Jerusalem. As Jerusalem preserved the 
 
THE EASTERN EACES. 19 
 
 ark of the covenant, and was in consequence regarded by the Levitea 
 and many pious Israelites as the true chief city, Jeroboam set up the 
 worship of idols in the southern and northern parts of his kingdom, a sin 
 "which was shared by the whole of his successors. One of the most im- 
 pious among these was Ahab, whose wife, Jezebel, a Tyrian, introduced 
 the blasphemous Phoenician worship of Baal, and raged violently against 
 those who would not do him homage. By means of her daughter, Atha- 
 li'ah, who was married to a king of Judah, the same worship was intro- 
 duced into Judah, and favored ]fy the court. The consequences were, 
 intense hatred and contention, and at length, civil wars between the two 
 kingdoms, by which they were mutually weakened ; they then entered 
 into alliances with other nations. The voices of the prophets, who boldly 
 foretold the destruction of the state if the worship of Jehovah were thrust 
 aside for the worship of idols, died away unheeded. When the land was 
 threatened by the Babylonians and Assyrians, Isaiah referred to the 
 coming Messiah as the only Savior; and •Jeremiah lived to see that 
 destruction of the state, concerning which he had in vain warned the 
 blinded people. 
 
 § 24. The Ephraimitic kingdom of Israel was first subjected to tribute 
 by the Assyrians. But when the king, Iloshea, entered into an alliance 
 with the Egyptians for the purpose of escaping from this impost, the 
 Assyrian king marched an army into the land, subdued Samaria, and led 
 away the king, with the greater portion of his subjects, into 
 the Assyrian captivity. Foreigners entered into the land, 
 and the intermixture of these with the remaining Israelites gave rise to 
 the Samaritans. Judah survived 130 years longer. After the fall of 
 Israel, it became tributary to Assyria. But when this nation went to 
 war with Egypt, the king of Judah sided with the latter, and refused the 
 tribute to the Assyrians. .The Assyrian king, Sanherib, (Sennacherib,) 
 came up against Jerusalem and laid siege to it. But Judah's hour was 
 not yet come, whilst the "pious Hezekiah sat upon the throne. The host 
 of the Assyrians was almost entirely destroyed in a single night, and San- 
 herib (Sennacherib) retreated from the land in horror. It was to the 
 victorious Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, that it was first allotted to make 
 
 an end of the nation polluted with new idolatries. He took 
 B. c. 600. ^ 
 
 Jerusalem, plundered the temple, carried away the king and 
 
 the chief inhabitants into the interior of his dominions, and oppressed with 
 
 a heavy hand those whom he suffered to remain. This induced the last 
 
 king, Zedekiah, to try once more the chances of war; but he 
 
 B. C. 588. , , 
 
 met with little success. Nebuchadnezzar burnt the city and 
 temple, slaughtered the citizens, and at length carried away the deluded 
 king and the greater part of his people into the seventy years' Babylonian 
 captivity. In their necessit}-, the Jews again sought the God of their 
 fathers, and found grace in hi sight. One of the prisoners, the prophet 
 
20 THE ANCIENT WOKLD. 
 
 Daniel, arrived at high honors, and alleviated the fate of his brethren. 
 After some years, Babylon was conquered by the Persians, 
 upon which Cyrus suffered the Jews to return to their 
 homes. Only a small portion returned at first, under the conduct of 
 Zerubbabel ; these commenced the rebuilding of the temple. But as 
 they avoided all intercourse with the Samaritans, this people, moved by 
 hatred, endeavored in every possible way to disturb their purpose. They 
 procured a prohibition of the building, which was already commenced, 
 B c 515 ^"^ which, in consequence; was not completed till the. reign 
 
 of Darius. During the reign of Artaxerxes in Persia, fresh 
 B. c. 460. troops, led by Ezra and Nehemiah, returned to their homes, 
 rebuilt the city, and reestablished the laws of Moses. They had been 
 taught by suffering, that salvation and deliverance were only to be found 
 in a steadfast adherence to the faith of their ancestors ; and from this 
 time forth, they were more careful in shunning idolatry, and all contact 
 with idolatrous nations. • 
 
 VIII. MEDES AND PERSIANS. 
 
 § 25. Media and Persia, two countries where savage and occasionally 
 attractive mountainous regions alternate with rich pasture grounds and 
 fertile arable lands, were formerly inhabited by tribes who drew their 
 origin from the ancient Zend races dwelling farther to the eastward. 
 They possessed a remarkable religion, which was founded by the ancient 
 .sage, Zoroaster, and had been delineated by him in the sacred books of 
 the Zend-Avesta. According to this system, there are two first princi- 
 ples ; a spirit of light, Ormuzd, and an evil spirit of darkness, Ahriman. 
 Both of these have armies of similar spirits under them, and are to wage 
 perpetual war with each other till the end of the world, when the spirit 
 of light will become victorious; upon this, the evil spirit is to disappear, 
 and the human race to be rendered happy. This doctrine was repre- 
 sented by a powerful hierarchy of priests, the Magi, in a solemn religious 
 ceremonial. The god of light was worshipped under the form of the 
 sun and of fire, the spirit of darkness was propitiated by sacrifices and 
 prayers. 
 
 § 26. The Medes remained for a long time under the dominion of foreign 
 nations ; at length, they roused their courage and fought valiantly for 
 their freedom. But a few warlike kings soon after succeeded in suppress- 
 ing the newly-acquired liberties of the people, and in establishing a mili- 
 tary despotism. They at the same time subdued some of the neighboring 
 people, and among others, the cognate tribe of the Persians. But their 
 Astyages, rule was but of short duration ; Astyages, the last of the Me- 
 B. c. 575. dian kings, had a vision, which the diviners interpreted to 
 signify, that the son of his daughter should, at some time, rule over 
 Media and western Asia. Alarmed at this, he gave his daughter in mar 
 
THE EASTERN RACES. 2% 
 
 riage to a petty prince of the subjected tribe of Persians, and when she 
 brought forth, a son named Cyrus, he commanded him to be put to death 
 in the obscurity of a remote forest. Cyrus only escaped the fate designed 
 for him, through the compassion of the shepherd to whom the execution 
 of the murder was intrusted. He was brought up as the son of the shep- 
 herd, but whilst yet a youth, gave such evidence in his pastimes of an in- 
 nate spirit of command, as led to his being brought before the king and 
 recognized. Astyages, pacified by the diviners, now allowed Cyrus to be 
 brought up in a manner suitable to his rank, and sent him back, when he 
 had arrived at maturity, to his parents in Persia. It was here that the 
 project of freeing his brave but subjected countrymen from the yoke of 
 the Medes, and leading them forth to victory and conquest, first arose in 
 his mind. His mighty spirit and commanding person compelled the Per- 
 sians to admiration and obedience. He marched against the Medes ; 
 Astyages, betrayed and overcome, relinquished the throne to his success- 
 Cyrus, ful grandson, who now became the founder of an empire that 
 B. c. 660. embraced almost all the civilized nations of Asia. 
 
 § 27. At this time. King Croesus, who possessed such enor- 
 mous wealth tliat his name is become proverbial, reigned in 
 Sardis, the principal city of Lydia. Cyrus declared war against him. 
 Croesus, deceived by an ambiguous oracle, passed over the boundary stream 
 of the Halys to attack the Persians, but suffered a defeat, and was obliged 
 to fly in haste to his capital. Cyrus pursued him, took Sardis, and com- 
 manded the captured king to be cast into the flames. Croesus already 
 sat bound upon the funeral pile, when his recollection of Solon, the wise 
 man of Athens, saved him from destruction. Solon had once visited Sar- 
 dis, and been hospitably entertained by the king. Proud of his prosperity, 
 Croesus had the sage led through his treasure-chambers, and displayed 
 before him the whole of his riches. ^ He then asked him who it was that 
 be considered to be the liappiest of mortals, nothing doubting that Solon 
 would name Croesus. The sage, however, mentioned a few persons, 
 who, after leading a virtuous life, had met with a becoming death: when 
 Croesus again asked him whether he did not look upon himself as a 
 happy man, Solon made the significant reply, " that no man could be con- 
 sidered happy before death." These words occurred at this moment to 
 the captive king, and he exclaimed bitterly, " Oh ! Solon, Solon ! " The 
 exclamation awakened the curiosity of Cyrus ; he had the story related 
 to him, and struck by the truth of the words of Solon, set Crcesus at 
 liberty, held him in high estimation, and consulted him in all his under- 
 takings. 
 
 § 28. With the same good fortune did Cyrus overthrow the empire of 
 Babylon. As the Babylonians, in fi'ill security of the impregnability of 
 their city, were celebrating a festival, and th§ir luxurious king, Nabon* 
 nddus, (Belshazzar), was contemptud :sly defiling the sacred vessels of 
 
22 THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 the Jews, the Persians penetrated into the town by an arm of the 
 
 Euphrates, the waters of which they had drained off, killed the king, and 
 
 subdued the country. By this conquest, Syria, Palestine, 
 
 and Phoenicia also fell under the dominion of the Persians, 
 
 and the captive Jews received permission to return to their country. 
 
 Soon after this, Cyrus undertook an expedition against the Massaget^e, 
 a wild nomadic race, living near the borders of the Caspian Sea. He 
 was succcssfiil at first, by means of a military stratagem, ^nd destroyed 
 many of the enemy, among them a son of their queen, Thomyris. But 
 shortly after this, he and a great part of his army fell into the hands of 
 the Massdgetse ; and the queen, thirsting for revenge, cast the severed 
 head of the mighty Persian king, with an expression of contempt, into a 
 vessel filled with blood. 
 
 Cambyses, § 29. Cambyses, the victorious and tyrannical son of Cyrus, 
 
 B. c. 629. enlarged the Persian empire by the conquest of Egypt. The 
 fate of the dwellers on the Nile was frightful. The unfortunate king, 
 Psammem'tus, after witnessing the oppression of his subjects, 
 and the dishonor of his family, was put to a violent death ; 
 the Egyptian temples and sanctuaries were profaned, the treasures plun- 
 dered, and the inhabitants abused. But the Persians also encountered a 
 heavy doom. Two armies, that Cambyses despatched for the conquest of 
 the priestly state of Ammdnium, found their graves in the sandy deserts 
 of Libya.. This state had its central point in the temple and oracle of the 
 ram-horned Jupiter- Ammon, in the oasis of Siwah, and was, like Thebes, 
 a colony of the original pontifical state, Meroe, which had once subsisted 
 in Nubia, in the midst of a savage negro population. Cambyses died 
 after a violent reign of seven years, in consequence of an injury he acci- 
 dentally inflicted on himself with his own sword. The Egyptians ascribed 
 his sudden death to the vengeance of the gods for the slaughter of the 
 sacred ox, Api5. 
 
 Darius § ^^* S^"^® ^i"^6 ^^^^^ *^^^j seven illustrious Persians 
 
 Hystaspes, agreed together, that they would ride in the direction of the 
 B. c. 521. rising sun, and that the man whose horse neighed first should 
 be made king. In this manner, Darius, the son of Hystaspes, and the son- 
 in-law of Cyrus, gained the throne, which he occupied, not without re- 
 nown, for the space of thirty-six years. He divided the kingdom into 
 satrapies, regulated the imposts, and conducted great wars. But his arms 
 were not always successful. When he invaded the nomadic tribes, called 
 Scythians, dwelling on the steppes of the lower Danube, this people 
 retreated with their tents and herds, and surrendered their naked fields 
 to the enemy, who were soon reduced by want to the brink of destruction ; 
 and when at length attacked by the Scythians, were compelled to make a 
 most disastrous retreat over the Danube. 
 
 § 31. The simple manners and military virtue of the Persians soon 
 
HISTORY OF GREECE. 23 
 
 degenerated. The magnificence of the court, where crowds of officials 
 and priestly counsellors, of servants and guards, battened on the pros- 
 perity of the country, destroyed the well-being of the provinces. The 
 royal table was furnished with dishes and liquors of the rarest quality, 
 brought from the most distant regions. A harem of ostentatious and 
 intriguing women, who frequently had the revenues of whole towns and 
 provinces allotted to them to defray the expenses of their trinkets and 
 wardrobes, increased this luxury and profuseness. The court moved 
 with the seasons. The winter was passed in the genial climate of Baby- 
 lon ; the spring in Susa ; the summer in the cool Ecbatana. Numerous 
 gardens arranged for the production of fruit, and inclosures where wild 
 animals were preserved, contributed to the more refined pleasures of the 
 Persian monarchs when on their travels. The governors of the pro- 
 vinces imitated the luxury and extravagance of the royal court, to the 
 detriment of their lands, which were protected neither by laws nor the 
 regular administration of justice from arbitrary and despotic authority. 
 For the rest, the vast empire of Persia was but a conglomeration of 
 heterogeneous elements, where the most diversified manners, institutions, 
 and nationalities wera approximated to each other without internal union, 
 without strength, and without support. 
 
 » B. HISTORY OF GREECE. 
 
 I. GEOGRAPniCAL SURVEY. a, THE GREEK CONTINENT. 
 
 § 32. Greece is the southern portion of a large half-insular piece of 
 land, which appears broad and unbroken in its northern part, narrow, 
 irregular, and perforated by bays and inlets on its southern coast. It is 
 traversed by numerous ranges of mountains, and consists of rocky and 
 hilly tracts, which divide the country into a multitude of small, secluded, 
 and isolated regions, and favor the production of numerous and separate 
 etates. Greece is divided into — Northern Greece, Central Greece, and 
 Peloponnesus. Northern Greece consists of the rude mountain region 
 of Epi'rus and Thessaly. Between these . two lands extends, from north 
 to south, the wild afid ruo-fred mountain ranrire of Pindus, the summit of 
 which hi almost always covered with snow. Thessaly, with its fruitful 
 plains and luxuriant pasture grounds, admirably fitted for the breeding of 
 horses, is inclosed by another branch of the same range. The vale of 
 Tempe, near Olympus, the hill of the gods, was celebrated in antiquity 
 for its natural beauties. Among the cities may bo mentioned Larissa, 
 on the Peneus, and Pharsalus, with its battle-field. The southern range 
 of hills is called CEta. Between the foot of these mountains and the bay, 
 
24 THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 Is a narrow defile, that forms the only natural communication between 
 Thessaly and central Greece. This is the celebrated pass of Ther- 
 mopylaj. Central Greece, or Hellas, traversed by branches of the CEtian 
 range, is divided into eight small and independent states. The most im- 
 portant among them are, Attica, a hilly country, rich in olives, figs, and 
 honey, with its chief city, Athens, its seaport, Piree^us, and the battle-field 
 of Marathon. Opposite Athens lie the two islands, ^gina and Salamis ; 
 the first renowned for its early cultivation, its trade and navigation ; the 
 latter, for the naval engagement during the Persian war. Boeotia, a fer- 
 tile corn-producing country, with its seven-gated capital, Thebes; the - 
 heroic Platoe'a, and the renowned battle-fields of Leuctra and Chaeronea. 
 Phocis, with the hills of Helicon and: Parnassus, renowned as the seats 
 of the Muses. At the foot of the latter, in a spot that was looked upon 
 as the centre of the earth, lay the sacred temple city of Delphi, with its 
 celebrated oracle, and numerous magnificent buildings. 
 
 Peloponnesus (at present jNIorea) is connected with Central Greece 
 by the isthmus of Corinth. This peninsula is surrounded on four of its 
 sides by the sea, and is an entirely mountainous country. In its centre 
 is situated the rude region of Arcadia, with its beautiful valleys and fer- 
 tile pastures inhabited by a hardy race of shepherds. Mantinea, and the 
 Megalopolis founded by Epaminondas, are among the most celebrated 
 of its towns. In the north of the peninsula, on the shores of the Cor- 
 inthian gulf, lies Achaia, with its twelve cities, which were united together 
 in the third century by the celebrated Achaian league. Sicyon, and the 
 rich and art-loving Corinth, were also joined in this confederation. To 
 the East was Argolis, a rocky region abounding in bays and creeks, with 
 its chief city, Argos ; '}ilyc6n£e, the ancient royal seat of Agamemnon and 
 Tirynthus, in tlie neighborhood of which were to be found the remains 
 of gigantic buildings (Cyclopean walls). To the south lay the rugged 
 Laconia, or Laceda^monia, with the mountain of Taygetus, and a few fer- 
 tile plains in the valley of the Eurotas ; near this was the renowned city 
 of Sparta, with about 60,000 inhabitants. Westward from Lacedas'mon 
 extended to the sea-coast the fruitful region of Messenia, with the for- 
 tress Ithome, and the maritime city Pylos : northward from this lay Elis, 
 the territory of which was regarded as sacred, and, in consequence, was 
 never visited with war, together with the city and plain of Olympia, ren^ 
 dered famous by the Olympian games. • 
 
 h. the" greek islands. 
 
 § 33. To the east and west of Greece lay a multitude of large and 
 small islands, which are of the greatest importance in Greek history. 
 They were almost all remarkable for their fertility in wine, oil, fruits, 
 and similar productions; carried on an extensive trade, and possessed 
 even at an early period a high amount of civilization. The most remark 
 
HISTORY OF GREECE. 25 
 
 able among them are, on the west, Corey ra, (at present Corfu), renowned 
 even' in the earliest ages for its wealth and culture, and where, at a later 
 period, the Corinthians founded a colony ; and the stony Ithaca, the' 
 dwelling-place of Ulysses. In the southern sea, the large island of Crete, 
 which in the, time of Homer, numbered a hundred cities, but which was 
 dreaded and infamous on account of its piracy ; Cyprus and Cythera, 
 celebrated for the worship of Venus ; and Rhodes, renowned lor the 
 casting of metals, and for its statue of the god of the sun (Colpssus), 
 seventy cubits in height. But the sea the most rich in large and small 
 islands is the iEgean on the east, which for this reason has given its 
 name — Archipelago — »to every sea abounding in islands. Oil' the east- 
 ern coast of Greece, and only divided from it by the narrow channel 
 Euripus, lies the long and fertile island Eubce'a (xSegropont), with the 
 maritime and commercial cities Eretria and Chalcis. Farther eastward, 
 we meet with Lemnos, Thasos, Imbros, and Samothiace, the anciently 
 renowned localities of mysterious religious customs. The group of islands 
 lying nearest th6 east coast of Peloponnesus, are called Cyclades, because 
 they lie in a circle (Cyclos). Among them are Delos, the sacred birth- 
 place of Apollo and Diana; Paros, celebrated' for its marble;, and Naxos, 
 for its wine. Eastward from these we encounter a number of scattered 
 islands, the Sp(5rades. The most important", both on account of their size 
 and fertihty, and the wealth and civilization of their inhabitants, are the 
 islands lying off the coast of Asia Minor, — Lesbos, with its Nourishing 
 town MityMne, Chios, Samos, Cos, and otliers. Lastly, the rocky island 
 of Patmos, celebrated as the residence of the Evangelist, St. John. 
 
 II. RELIGIOX OF THE GREEKS. 
 
 § 34. ]N'owhere did the heathen worship of idols assume a more cheer- 
 ful aspect than among the Greeks, a great part of whose mythology was 
 afterwards adopted by the Romans and incorporated with their own 
 religious system. According to the religious views taken by the Greeks, 
 the world was originally a rude and formless mass (chaos), from which 
 the heaven and earth separated themselves as independent- divinities. 
 The earth, after this, produced beings of superhuman stature and strength, 
 the Titans, who were possessed of the supreme authority, until a more spirit- 
 ual race arose, who gathered themselves around the king of heaven, Zeus^ 
 or Jupiter, deprived them of their power, overcame the giants and Titans 
 who attempted to storm the skies, and buried them in the abysses of the 
 earth. After the unruly forces of nature and the power of the elements 
 had been thus subdued, Zeus erected his throne upon Olympus, whilst 
 Pluto governed the gloomy regions of the subterranean world, (Hades, . 
 Tartarus, Orcus), and Poseidon (Neptune), with his trident, ruled the 
 Bea. Hera or Juno, the queen of heaven, the virgin Pallas Athene 
 (Minerva), armed with helm and shield, the protectress of the hberal arts, 
 3 
 
26 THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 and of all intellectual employment, Apollo, the glorious god cf liglitj 
 and some others, were the objects of similar veneration. Besides these, 
 woods and mountains, fields and meadows, rivers and lakes, were inha- 
 bited by an innumerable multitude of divine beings, — nymphs, nereids, 
 tritons, sirens who with their magic songs allured men to destruction, and 
 many others that frequently interfered in human affairs. An heroic race, 
 that derived its origin from Zeus, was the connecting link between gods 
 and men ; whilst the interval between men and the animal tribes was 
 filled up by an inferior race of fauns and satyrs, who united together 
 human and bestial qualities. Pluman life and this world of divinities 
 were supposed to be most intimately related with each other. From the 
 moment of his birth, a guardian spirit (genius, demon) stood by the side 
 of every man for his whole life, and exercised an influence upon his 
 resolutions and actions, without however interfering with the freedom of 
 his will. The household hearth was the residence of sacred domestic and 
 family deities (Lares, Penates), who preserved the dwelling from evil; 
 and every important event of life was under the guardianship of a sepa- 
 rate divinity. In opposition to the Christian view, which looks upon the 
 life of this world as a state of probation, and of transition to a higher 
 form of existence, the joyous Greeks referred all their pleasures to the 
 earthly life, and looked upon the shadowy existence of the subterranean 
 world as but its melancholy continuation. They nevertheless believed in 
 rewards and punishments, and in a state of immortal existence. The 
 departed were brought by Hermes (Mercury), the conductor of the dead, 
 before the three judges of the lower world, and, according to their deci 
 sion, they were either sent to the residence of the righteous (Elysium, the 
 happy islands), or to the place of condemnation (Tartarus). Many 
 sacrifices were offered on the graves by the survivors to the souls or 
 shadows (manes) of the departed. This free and beautiful system of 
 mythology is displayed in the most perfect productions of Greek art and 
 poetry. 
 
 I. GREECE BEFORE THE PERSIAN WAR. 
 
 I. THE TIME OF THE TROJAN WAR. 
 
 § 35. The Pelasgi are believed to have been the most ancient inhabit- 
 ants of Greece. They were an agricultural and peaceful people, with a 
 religion that was founded upon the veneration of nature, and in which 
 the earth -mother Demeter (Ceres), the wine-producer Dionysus (Bac- 
 chus), and the oracle-giving nature-god, Zeus of Dodonain Epirus, were 
 the divinities that enjoyed the greatest reverence. This religion of 
 
HISTORY OF GREECE. 27 
 
 nature, together with the remains of a primeval arphitecture, towns and 
 royal cities, and especially the imperishable' Cyclopean walls in Pelo- 
 ponnesus, which are built of huge stones fitted together without cement, 
 leads to the opinion that the Pelasgi bore a resemblance, in their culture 
 and religious institutions, to the people of the East ; and that, conse- 
 quently, intercourse must have existed at an early period between 
 Greece, Asia, and Egypt. This view receives corroboration from the 
 legends respecting oriental colonists, who settled in Greece and diffused 
 the seeds of civilization at an inconceivably remote period. In the same 
 way, Cecrops the Egyptian came to Attica, the Phoenician Cadmus to 
 Boeotia, the Phrygian Pelops to the peninsula, named after him, Pelo- 
 ponnesus. 
 
 . § 36. The Pelasgi were either driven out or subjugated by the war- 
 like Hellenes, who gradually subjected the whole of Greece to their 
 power. These Hellenes are divided into three tribes: the Dorians, in 
 Peloponnesus ; the lonians, in Attica and the islanfls ; and the ^dlians, 
 in Boeotia and the other states. They distinguished themselves at an 
 early period by great warlike achievements, and by founding cities and 
 foreign colonies. It is in the poetical legends of the twelve labors of 
 Hercules, <# the voyage of the Athenian hero Theseus to the sea-ruling 
 Crete, and of the daring Argonautic expedition, that the first traces of 
 historical facts are preserved, distorted and obscured, as they may be, by 
 a mass of fables. The Thessalian Jason, with the most renowned Ijeroes 
 of his time, (Hercules, Theseus^ Castor and Pollux from Lacedai'mon 
 and the Thracian musician Orpheus), undertook the Argonautic expedi- 
 tion, in the ship Argo, to the distant land of Colchis, on the east coast of 
 the Black Sea, for the purpose of obtaining the golden fleece, which, as 
 the legend reported, Phryxus, the son of the Thessalian king, had yearg 
 before suspended there, and which was watched over by a sleepless 
 dragon. This Phryxus and his sister Helle had a wicked step-mother, 
 who entertained designs against the lives of the two children. Their 
 departed mother, Nephele, the goddess of clouds, appeared to her two 
 children, and presented them with a wonderful ram, which conveyed 
 them across the sea ; Helle, however, fell off, and was drowned at the spot 
 which has received from her the name of the Hellespont. Phryxus 
 reached the land and sacrificed the ram. Jason and his ccmpanicns 
 reached Colchis after a difficult voyage, completed their undertaking by 
 the aid of the sorceress Medea, daughter of the king of the country, and 
 returned home with their spoil. But the Argonauts had many wonder- 
 ful adventures and perils to encounter on their return through the ocean 
 and the mysterious river Eridanus, which formed the materials of many 
 a poetical legend. The early commercial intercourse between the Edlic 
 race and the inhabitants of the distant Asiatic coast, appes rs to be sym- 
 bolized by this history of the Argonautic expedition. 
 
28 THE ANCIEXT WORLD. 
 
 § 37. The greatest event of the Greek heroic age is the celebrated 
 Troian war. In Ilium, or Troy, on the north-west coast of 
 
 B.C. 1184. 4 . Tir- . 1 Tr' -o / -7 1 1. . 1 
 
 Asia Mnior, reigned King i'namus over a rich and cultivated 
 'people. His youngest son, Paris, carried off Helen, wife of the Lacedae- 
 monian king, Menelaus, who had hospitably received him. The injured 
 husband summoned the princes of Greece to undertake an expedition to 
 revenge the affront. This expedition shortly after took place under the 
 command of Agamemnon of Mycena3, brother of Menelaus, and with the 
 assistance of the most renowned warriors of Greece. Acliilles and his 
 friend Patroclus from Thessaly, the subtle Ulysses from Ithaoa, Dio- 
 medes from Argos, the sage Nestor from Pylos, Ajax, and many others 
 were among the number. The army, having embarked in a vast fleet, 
 sailed for the Asiatic coast from the seaport town of Aulis, where, 
 Agamemnon had devoted his daughter as a sacrifice to Diana. They 
 found, however, the Trojans, especially Hector, son of Priam, and iEneas, 
 such valiant opponen-ts, that it was only after a ten years' struggle that 
 the city was at length taken and destroyed, by an artifice of Ulysses (a 
 wooden horse filled wfth armed men). Priam and most of his subjects 
 fell either in battle or at the destruction of the city ; the rest were car- 
 ried away as slaves. But the victors also suffered many misfortunes. 
 Achilles, Patroclus, and many others found an early grave in Ilium. 
 Agamemnon, after a troublesome voyage home, was murdered at the 
 instigation of his faithless wife Clytemnestra; and Ulysses, tossed by 
 tempests, wandered for ten years to inhospitable shores, over islands and 
 seas, before it was permitted him again to see his faithful wife Penelope 
 and his son Telemachus, and to purge his house of the audacious suitors 
 who were contending for the hand of his spouse, and v/ho in the mean 
 while were feasting themselves upon his property. 
 
 § 38. Hosier. — The Trojan war is of more importance to poetry and 
 art than to history, since the combats of the heroes, and their adventures 
 and wanderings oh their return home, formed two legendary cycles, 
 from which the materials of heroic or epic poetry have usually been 
 selected. The first and greatest poet,- who has employed these legends 
 in the construction of an immortal work, was Homer, who, according to 
 tradition, was a blind singer, whose life was so obscure that, even in 
 ancient times, seven cities contended for the honor of having given him 
 birth. The two great heroic poenis, that pass under his name, are 
 the Iliad, in which the battles that took place before' Troy in the 
 last year of the siege are described, and the Odyssea, in which are 
 sung the fate and adventures of Ulysses and his companions, on and 
 around Sicily in the western sea. Even a mock heroic poem, Batra- 
 chomyomtichia, in which the combats of frogs and mice are described in 
 the same manner as those of the Grecian and Trojan heroes, has been 
 attributed X^. him. But as, at that time, the art of writing was unknown 
 
HISTORY OF GREECE. 29 
 
 in Greece,* tliese poems were at first circulated from moutli to movitli. 
 and portions of them were committed to memory and recited by wander- 
 ing singers (Rhapsodists). Even at a later period, when they had been 
 collected and reduced to writing, they were still impressed upon the 
 memory of young people, and employed as a means of exciting patriot- 
 ism, religion, and a feeling for the beautiful. As Homer was the chief 
 of a school of poets in Asia Minor, who, under the name of Home rides, 
 continued for some centuries to compost poetry in a similar spirit to their 
 master, so Ilesiod, about a hundred years later, became the founder of 
 an JEoViG school of poetry, that flourished more especially in Bceotia. 
 AVe still possess an epic poem of Hesiod on the origin and fate of the 
 Grecian deities (Theogony), and a didactic poem, the "Works and 
 Days." The hexameter measure derived from Homer was, iVam this 
 time, made use of in epic poetry. 
 
 § 39. Shortly after the Trojan war, great disturbances and political 
 revolutions took place in Greece. New races of men drove the old ones 
 from the possessions tii' y hiid hitherto occupied; these, in their turn, 
 attacked other tribes, till at length the weaker resolved to ex})atriato 
 themselves, and to found transmarine colonies. The most impoiiant in 
 its consequences of these emigrations, was that undertaken 
 'by the Ddrians to Peloponnesus, under the conduct of the 
 descendants of Hercules (hence called the return of the Ileraclidro). 
 This event entirely changed the fate of Peloponnesus, by giving the com- 
 mand of the peninsula to the hardy nwuntaineers of Doris, instead of the 
 Ionic population that had liitlierto possessed it. The Doriai: 'y 
 
 subdued Argolis, Laconia, ]Messenia, Sicyon, Corinth, and Meguii> (m o.id 
 
 the isthmus. The}' even made an irruption into Attica, and 
 B. c. 10G8. , T » , , „ -, , r> 
 
 threatened xithens, but were compelled to a retreat by Co- 
 
 drus, the Atlienian king, offerinL' his life in sacrifice for his country. An 
 oracle had dc/larcd that victory v.oiild incline to the side of those whoso 
 king fihould fall. When the Dorians heard this, they gave the siric'to.-;t 
 commands that no injury should be done to Codrus. But this kin.::, dis- 
 guising himself as a i)easant, commenced a quarrel before the gates with 
 the outposts, and was killed witliout being recognized. The Dorians, 
 despairing of victory, immediately retreated from Athens. 
 
 The old inhabitants of Peloponnesus experienced a triple fate. The 
 boldest and strongest quitted their country, and established tlie Ionian 
 colonies on the western shores of Asia Minor, and the islands of Chios, 
 Lesbos, Samos, &c. These colonies, by the fruitfulness of their soil, their 
 navigation, their trade, and their diligence -in business, soon attained a 
 
 * This is too sweeping an assertion. The art of writing \^as certainl;' practisecHn 
 Egypt long before Homer's day; and the Greeks could hardly have been rjjnorant of it, 
 though the Homeric poems may not have been reduced to writing for a c {utuvy or tv/o 
 after they were composed. Am. Ed. 
 3* 
 
30 THE AXCIEXT WORLD. 
 
 degree of prosperity and civilization that far surpassed that of the mother 
 country. Those that remained behind either submitted freely to the 
 Dorians, in which case they were compelled to pay tribute, and were 
 excluded from all participation in the government, but were permitted to 
 retain their possessions, or they were subdued with weapons in their 
 hands, by force of arms ; in the latter case,' they were reduced to the con- 
 dition of serfs or slaves. The first class were called Peria^'ci, or Lacedge- 
 monians, to distinguish them from the Doric Spartans ; the second class 
 were styled Helots. 
 
 § 40. Colonies. — In process of time, the Ionian colonies united 
 tlicmselves into a confederacy, con'sisting of twelve commonwealths, 
 among which Miletus, Ephesus with the celebrated temple of Diana, and 
 Smyriia, were the most powerful. The affairs of the union were debated 
 in a temple on the promontory of Mycale. The twelve colonial towns of 
 the JEolians to the north of Ionia, and the six Dorian towns on the south, 
 possessed similar arrangements.* Among the latter, the town of Ilalicar- 
 nassus, the birthplace of the historian Herodotus, is the most remarkable. 
 The island of Rhodes also belonged to the latter union. The shores of 
 the Hellespont (Dardanelles), of the Propontis (sea of Marmora), of the 
 Pontus Euxinus (Black Sea), were covered in a similar manner with 
 Greek colonies. The most important were Byzantium (Constantinople), 
 Sinope, Cerasus (the native land of cherries), and Trapezus. Flourishing 
 colonies were also to be found on the coasts of Thrace and Macedonia ; 
 viz. Abdera, Amphipolis, Olynthus, &c. In Lower Italy, the number of 
 Greek colonial towns was so great, that the inhabitants of the interior 
 spoke Greek, and the whole country was known by the name of Great 
 Greece. The most celebrated of these towns were Tarentum, the wealthy 
 and luxurious Sybaris, and the ancient Cuma3, the parent city of Naples. 
 The greater part of the beautiful island of Sicily was in possession of 
 the Greeks, who founded numerous opulent cities there, but none of 
 which, in point of size, power, and civilization, could compare witli Syra- 
 cuse. On the north coast of Africa, Cyrene rivalled Carthage in wealth 
 and commerce ; and in South Gaul, Massilia was a model of civil order, 
 and a seminary of cultivation to the rude population in its neighborhood. 
 All these towns carried on a flourishing trade in the productions of art and 
 the produce of the soil. Their vicinities were covered with beautiful 
 buildings, and adorned for miles with villas and summer-houses. They 
 exercised a salutary influence on the manners and culture of the natives, 
 but degenerated in course of time, when wealth and refinement intro- 
 duced luxury, sensuality, and effeminacy. The colonial cities occupied 
 the position of blood relations to the mother state, but vrere entirely 
 free and independent. They retained the manners and religious customs 
 of the parent city, and honored it with filial piety ; but they entered 
 into no dependent relations with it, like the colonies of the Romans, 
 or those of modern times. 
 
HISTORY OF GREECE. 31 
 
 II. THE PERIOD OF THE WISE MEN AND LAWGIVERS. 
 a. GENERAL VIEW. 
 
 § 41. Greece never formed a united state, but was separated into a 
 number of independent communities, among which the most powerful 
 exercised from time to time a predominant influence. Sparta, Athens, 
 and Thebes, ruled for the most part. But language, manners, and reli- 
 gious institutions united the diiferent tribes into a single nation. They 
 called themselves Hellenes, — all other people they included under the 
 general term of barbarians. The Greeks, a people full of talent, and 
 eminently capable of civilization, arrived at a degree of culture that has 
 never since been equalled. Love of freedom, and a masculine energy, 
 led them to establish a number of independent republics, to which, at 
 first, they attached themselves with enthusiastic patriotism, and in defence 
 of which they poured forth their heart's blood, till the rage of faction had 
 choked the more generous feelings. Activity and diligence produced 
 general prosperity, and a beautiful land under a sky of unvarying bright- 
 ness, with a healthy and happy climate, engendered cheerfulness of mind, 
 and made existence a pleasure. Simplicity of life lessened the number 
 of the wants, and the frugal use of what a fruitful soil and a happily 
 situated country produced with but little labor, banished the cares and 
 anxieties of life, and permitted every one to enjoy the pleasures afforded 
 by poetry, art, and the sciences. 
 
 § 42. Certain institutions and establishments connected with religion 
 were common to all the Greek races. The first among these was the 
 ancient Amphictyonic Council, a court of arbitration to which twelve 
 states sent their deputies, and the office of which was to defend the 
 national sanctuary at Delphi, and to prevent the wars that broke out be- 
 tween single states from becoming too cruel and destructive. It was 
 also the defender of the Delphic oracle, with its rich temple. In all im- 
 portant undertakings, the Delphic Apollo was consulted ; the response 
 was given by the inspired priestess, Pythia, from her golden tripod, in 
 obscure, and frequently ambiguous and enigmatical expressions. The 
 temple of Delphi possessed extensive territories, and rich treasures in 
 gifts and offerings. The celebration of numerous games, as the Pythian 
 (at Delphi), the Isthmian, Nemean, &c., was a third bond to connect 
 together the various states and families of Greece. None of these games, 
 , however, were so renowned as the Olympic, which, from the time 776 
 B. c, were celebrated every fourth year, in the plain of Olympla, in Elis. 
 They principally consisted in running, boxing, wrestling, throwing the 
 discus or spear, and in chariot racing ; and the crown of olive branches, 
 that was presented to the victor, was regarded as an enviable distinction 
 that rendfTcd illustrious, not the receiver only, but his whole family and 
 
32 THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 his native dwelling-place. The works of artists, poets, and literary men 
 "were also objects of attention. There is even a tradition that Herodotus, 
 the father of history, read the first book of his works at these games, and 
 by so doing excited the emulation of Thucydides, the greatest of historical 
 writers. The temple of the Olympian Jupiter, and the colossal sitting 
 statue of this deity, which was overlaid with ivory and gold, were among 
 the most splendid examples of Greek art. Pindar, of Thebes, the great 
 lyric poet, celebrated the victors in these games in his immortal odes. 
 
 h. LYCURGUS THE SPAKTAX LAAYGIVEE. 
 
 § 43. The manners of the Dorians gradually degenerated in their new 
 possessions; the affairs of the state fell into disorder, and an unwarlike 
 spirit threatened to diffuse itself. To remedy these evils, 
 Lyciirgus, a patriotic Spartan of royal descent, determined 
 to give his native city the preeminence over the other states, b}'- re- 
 storing and establishing the ancient institutions, of the Dorians. With 
 this purpose, he- visited the island of Crete, which was at this time cele- 
 brated for its excellent laws ; made himself acquainted with the systems 
 that prevailed there, and, on his return, gave the Spartans the remark- 
 able constitution, of which the following are the chief outlines : — 
 
 a. Institutions of State. — The whole power of government was 
 in the hands of the Dorians, who, without engaging in any other occupa- 
 tion, devoted themselves entirely to the exercise of arms, the conduct of 
 war, and the affairs of the state. In the assemblies of the people, they 
 elected the senators, or council of ancients, whose duty it was to conduct 
 the government and protect the laws ; and the five Ephori, who at first 
 superintended tlie regulations of the city, but who afterwards obtained 
 the greatest power of control over the public life and actions of those who 
 were in office, and by this means gained such an authority for themselves, 
 that even kings were subject to their tribunal. The senate consisted of 
 twenty-eight members, of at least sixty years of age; the presidency of 
 this assembly devolved upon the two kings of Sparta, who were chosen 
 from the race of the Heraclida?, and whose office was consequently hev-di- 
 tary. At home, they possessed more honor than power ; but in war, they 
 were always the leaders, and had an unlimited command. The funda- 
 mental principle of the whole constitution was the equality of propert3\ 
 In furtherance of this, the- whole lands of Laconia were divided in such 
 a way, that each of the 9,000 Spartan families received an equal portion. 
 These estates were indivisible, and descended to the eldest born by the 
 law of primogeniture. The 30,000 families of Perice'ci Avere in a similar 
 manner provided with lands of less extent, whilst the Helots were left 
 uncared for, and were obliged, in their capacity of serfs, or day-laborers, 
 to till the ground of the Dorians, and to deliver a certain proportion of 
 the productions of the soil, in corn, wine, oil, and similar matters, to the 
 Spartan magazines. 
 
HISTORY OF GREECE. 33 
 
 h. Mode of Life. — The rights of the Dorian depended less upon 
 his birth than upon his educatien ; this, therefore, was entirely under- 
 taken by the state. Weak and deformed children were cast into a gulf 
 immediately upon their birth ; the vigorous were removed from their 
 parents at the age of six years, and educated in public. The great ob- 
 ject of this education was to produce bodily hardihood; the gymnastic 
 exercises of the palestra were, for this reason, one of its most important 
 branches. But the understanding was also cultivated, and the Spartan 
 was not less celebrated for Ins*craft and shrewdness, than for the terse 
 brevity of his speech, which was afterwards distinguished by the terra 
 " laconic." Tlie feelings and imagination were alone neglected, and con- 
 eequently, science and poetry were neither esteemed nor cultivated in 
 Sparta. Doric art was merely distinguished by vast strength ; not, like 
 the Ionic, by grace and beauty. The male part of the population were 
 dinded, according to their ages, into companies, who dined together at 
 public meals, (syssitia), fifteen usually sitting at one table. These meals 
 were extremely temperate and simple, and were furnished from the sup- 
 plies of the Helots. The so-called black broth and a vessel of wine were 
 the chief features of the entertainment. The kings sat at the heads of 
 their tables, and received a double portion. Luxury and effeminacy 
 were by all means to be avoided ; for this reason, the houses were rude 
 and devoid of convenience ; no instrument but the axe was permitted to 
 be employed in their construction. IMoney was banished in ordinary 
 intercourse, to the end that no one should possess the means of procuring 
 unnecessary pleasures ; and that the Spartans should not learn and accus- 
 tom themselves to these pleasures, they were not permitted to travel into 
 foreign countries, nor were strangers allowed to make a long residence 
 in Sparta. The chase, and the exercise of arms were the chief employ- 
 ments of those who were grown up ; the cultivation of the ground was 
 left to the Ilelots ; trade and business to the Perice'ci. The whole life of 
 the Spartan was a preparation for war. In the city, he lived as though 
 lie were in the camp, and the time of war was his time of joy and rejoic- 
 ing. The Spartans marched into the field with purple mantles and long 
 Lair, and adorned themselves before battle as if for a festival. The 
 strength of the army lay in the heavy-armed infantry (hoplites), which 
 consisted of numerous divisions, and which was, in consequence, enabled 
 to execute without confusion many movements and evolutions. The 
 Spartan never retreated from his ranks; he conquered or died in his 
 place. Strict obedience, and subordination of the young to their elders, 
 was the soul of the military education and discipline in Sparta, v»hich 
 was the true temple of honor of the age. 
 
 § 44. After these laws had been confirmed by the oracle of Delphi, 
 Lycurgus caused the Spartans to take an oath that they would never 
 alter any thing contained in them, till he came back from the journey he 
 
34 THE AXCIENT WORLD. 
 
 was about to undertake. Upon this, lie is smd to have gone to Crete, 
 and there to have died. The consequences of the laws of Lycurgus soon 
 became apparent. Not only did the hardy Spartans overcome the kin- 
 B. c. 743. dred race of the Messenians in two lengthened wars, but 
 B. c. 724. they soon established their power over the whole Pelopon- 
 nesus. The Messenians were reduced to pay tribute in the first of these 
 wars, after their citadel, Ithome, had been destroyed, and their hero, 
 Aristodemus, had slain himself on the grave of his daughter whom he 
 had sacrificed. The tyramiy of the Spartans in a short time 
 provoked the Messenians to a second war. In this, they at 
 first obtained some advantages, by the heroic deeds of the brave and 
 cunning Aristomenes ; but the Spartans, inflamed by the war-songs of 
 the Athenian poet, Tyrta^us, finally proved the victors. A part of the 
 Messenians quitted their country, and founded Messina in the island of 
 Sicily : those who remained were led into slavery, and condemned to the 
 miserable fate of the Helots. 
 
 C. SOLOX, THE LAWGIVER OF THE ATHENIAXS, B. C. 600. 
 
 § 45. Whilst the Spartans, a race of steady and inflexible character, 
 
 held fast for centuries the laws of Lycurgus, the lively and fickle Atlie- 
 
 nians introduced among themselves every possible form of government. 
 
 After the erlorious death of Codrus, (§ 39) the Athenians 
 
 B. c. 1068. T T -, , .1 ; 1 1 • 1 
 
 declared that no one was worthy to be his successor, and 
 
 abolished the monarchy. Some one of the nobles (eupatridtc), chosen 
 for life to the office of archon, received the supreme power. At first, the 
 family of Codrus had the preference in this election; but as the govern- 
 ment with time assumed more and more the form of an aristocratic 
 republic, the office of archon was throv/n open to the whole body of 
 B. c. 752. nobles, and the period of its existence reduced to ten years. 
 B. c. 682. For the purpose of admitting a greater number to this honor, 
 they at length adopted the expedient of electing nine archons every year, 
 wdio were to superintend the government, the affiiirs of religion, military 
 matters, legislation, and the administration of justice. The nobles now 
 held the power in their own hands, and excluded the people (demos) 
 from all share in the government, or in the administration of the laws. 
 They alone gave judgment, because they only were acquainted with the 
 unwritten and traditionary statutes ; in this way, arbitrary decisions, par-* 
 tiality, and injustice, w^ere of no unfrequent occurrence. This induced 
 the citizens, in the assemblies of the people, to insist upon the framing of 
 written laws. The nobles for a long time refused to accede to the 
 demands of the people; but when at length they found that further 
 resistance was impossible, they determined upon a different method of 
 Draco, oppressing the commons. They commissioned one of their 
 
 B. c. 624. own number, Draco, surnamcd the Cruel, to draw up a code 
 
HISTORY OF GREECE. • 35 
 
 of laws. These proved so severe, that they were said to be written in 
 blood. Every oflfence was punished with death. By this means, the 
 nobles hoped again to reduce the discontented people to their former state 
 of dependence. Desperate struggles followed, and contention and party 
 spirit ros^ to such a height, that the state was reduced to the verge of 
 destruction. At this juncture, Solon, one of the seven wise men, and 
 greatly esteemed both as a poet and a friend of the people, proved the 
 savior of his country. He gave the state a new and republican form of 
 government, in which the principal authority was vested in the assem- 
 blies of the people. These assembhes made the laws, named the judges 
 and officers of state, and elected the council of the four hundred ; that the 
 nobility, however, might not be deprived of the whole of their power, he 
 secured to them certain privileges: they alone could fill the office of 
 archon, or sit in the high court of the Areopagus, which Solon had 
 established to preserve the laws, the government, and public morals. 
 This court consisted of the most respected citizens ; it superintended the 
 education of youth, and kept an eye upon the livfes of the burghers, to the 
 end that morality and discipline might be preserved, and an honorable 
 and industrious course of life be maintained; and that luxury, riot, 
 and extravagance in dress, might be banished. Solon, at the same time, 
 relieved the necessities of the people by the so-called remission of bur- 
 dens, by which the poorer citizens were freed from a portion of their 
 debts, and restored to the unfettered enjoyment of their mortgaged 
 estates. After Solon had completed these measures, he caused the 
 Athenians to swear that they would make no alterations in them for the 
 space of ten years : he tlfen set forth on his travels to Asia and Egypt, 
 in the course of which he held the before-mentioned conversation (§ 27) 
 with Croesus at Sardis. 
 
 d. THE TYRANTS. 
 
 § 4G. All the Grecian states had at first been governed by kings, who, 
 as high priests, judges, and leaujrs of the army, exercised a patriarchal 
 power. But the rich and distinguished class, who had hitherto stood by 
 the side of the king as his councillors, gradually attained the upper hand, 
 and seized the first favorable opportunity of ridding themselves of the 
 monarch, and of establishing an aristocratic republic, in which they exer- 
 cised the supreme power. This institution became, in time, extremely 
 oppressive to the people. But as the nobles were in the exclusive pos- 
 session of arms, and of the practice of war, it was no easy matter tc 
 deprive them of the government. This took place for the first time, 
 when an ambitious noble separated himself from his order, and placed 
 himself dt the head of the people. But the rule of the aristocracy was 
 not at once succeeded by a democratic government ; on the contrary, the 
 leaders of the people (demagogues) seized in most of the states upon the 
 
36 THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 supreme power. They were distinguished by the name of " tyrants ; ** 
 by which term, however, we are not always to understand a violent and 
 arbitrary ruler, but merely one who unites in his own person all the 
 functions of government, in a state that had previously been a republic. 
 Many of these tyrants possessed great talents for their office, and ruled 
 with splendid success. For the purpose of giving employment .to the 
 people to whom they were indebted for their rise, they erected magnifi- 
 cent buildings ; their wealth gave them the means of attracting artists 
 and poets, whilst their splendid courts contributed to the magnificenc*e of 
 the cities. But the government of the tyrants was not of long duration. 
 The nobles neglected no means to effect their overthrow ; and in this 
 they were supported by the Spartans, who were everywhere favorable 
 to aristocratic institutions. Their sons, who had grown up in the en- 
 joyment of power, frequently forgot the consideration they owed to 
 the people, and hastened their own destruction by cruelty and des- 
 potism. 
 
 Periander § 47. The most celebrated of the tyrants were Periander 
 
 B. c. 600. of Corinth, Polycrates of Samos, and Pisistratus of Athens. 
 The first two are well known by poetical legends. Periander's friend, 
 the singer Ari'on, once wished to return to Corinth by ship, from Lower 
 Italy. The sailors, who were greedy after the treasures he had acquired 
 in Tarentum, made attempts upon his life. When every hope of deliver- 
 ance had vanished, Arion sang, and played some notes upon his harp, and 
 then leaped into the waves. The dolphins, who had followed the ship, 
 bore the singer to the shore. He hastened to Periander, at Corinth, who 
 easily discovered and punished the offenders. Not less celebrated is the 
 Polycrates, story of the ring of Polycrates. The rich and powerful 
 B. c. 550. ruler of Samos was successful in every thing he undertook. 
 At one time, when the king of Egypt was paying him a visit, messenger 
 after messenger came to announce some fortunate event. Psammetichus 
 appeared thoughtful, and warned his friend of the instability of fortune 
 and the envy of the gods, and advised him to inflict some vexation upon 
 himself to appease the irritated divinities. Upon this, Polycrates cast a 
 costly and exquisitely wrought ring, upon which he placed a great value, 
 from the roof of his house into the sea. But the gods despised the gift. 
 On the following day, some fishermen brought a large fish to the palace, 
 and, as the servants were preparing it for the table, they discovered the 
 ring in its entrails. They presented it with joy to the tyrant ; but Psam- 
 metichus saw in this the omen of approaching misfortune, and took a 
 melancholy leave. Shortly after, Polycrates was taken prisoner by the 
 Persians, and crucified. 
 
 Pisistratus The most celebrated of all the tyrants was Pisistratus, of 
 
 B. c. 560. Athens, who succeeded, even during the lifetime of Solon, in 
 grasping the sole power. He contrived by dint of cunning, having first 
 
mSTORT OF GREECE. 37 
 
 wounded liimself, and then giving out that his life had been attempted, to 
 procure a bo^j-guard, and to obtain possession of the citadel. His ene- 
 mies were indeed twice successful in banishing him from the city ; but he 
 again returned, succeeded in establishing himself in the government, and 
 bequeathed it at his death to his two sons, Ilippias and Hipparchus. 
 Pisi'stratus, and, at first, his son Ilippias, ruled with much 
 glory. Agriculture, trade, and commerce received a great 
 impulse. The poems of Homer, that had hitherto only been delivered 
 orally by the wandering singers (rhapsodists), were now reduced to 
 writing, and by this means preserved to posterity. Artists of every kind 
 found in them liberal patrons. Athens was embellished with temples 
 and public buildings, and the lyric poet, Anacreon, was a resident at 
 Hippias's court. But when Hipparchus, who was a man devoted to riot 
 and the pleasures of the senses, had been killed at the panathenaic fes- 
 tival, by two Athenians, Ilarmodius and Aristogiton, in revenge of some 
 injury they had suffered from him, Hi'ppias gave free scope to his violent 
 disposition. By his severity and cruelty, he alienated tlie affections of 
 the popular party, and by this means prepared the way for his own 
 expulsion. He took refuge with the Persian king, Darius, and en- 
 couraged him in his design of making war upon the Athenians. 
 Shortly after his departure, the democratic republic was established in 
 Athens. * 
 
 THE SEVEN WISE MEN. PYTHAGORAS. 
 
 § 48. Periander of Corinth, and Solon of Athens, were numbered 
 among the seven wise men ; of the remainder, Thales of Miletus, the 
 founder of the Ionic school of philosophy, was the most renowned. Their 
 principles and practical rules of life were embodied in short mottoes, as 
 " Know thyself," "Avoid excess," " Consider the end," " Be watchful for 
 opportunities," and numerous others. 
 
 One of the most distinguished men of this period, who did not however 
 call himself a wise man (sophos), but only a lover of wisdom (philosophos), 
 was Pythagoras of Samos, the founder of the sect of the Pythagoreans, 
 which had many adherents in Crotdna and other towns of Lower Italy, 
 and enjoyed great respect. The members of his sect led a life of tem- 
 perance and severe morality, had their meals and exercises in common, 
 and were devoted with the greatest veneration to their master. They 
 practised themselves in mathematics, geometry, and music ; for Pytha- 
 goras is known as the inventor of the theorem, which is named after 
 him, the Pythagorean. 
 
 e. LYRIC POETRY. 
 
 § 49. A cheerful mode of life prevailed at the courts of the tyrants, 
 where singers and poets were welcome guests. The severe heroic poetry 
 4 
 
38 THE ANCIE^^T WORLD. 
 
 was not suited to the pleasures and amusements that were there prin- 
 cipallj sought after, and its place was in consequence §upplied by a 
 lighter and less prolix kind, which was distinguished hy the term lyric, 
 because it was intended to be sung to the lute (lyra). All lyric poetry, 
 therefore, originally consisted in cheerful songs, M'hich exhorted to the 
 enjoyment of life on account of the shortness of its duration, and were 
 filled with the praises of love and wine, because they drove away care 
 and trouble. In this style, Anacreon of Teos, in Ionia, who passed his 
 life at different courts, and died in his eighty-fifth year, 
 was the most celebrated ; and for this reason, this kind of 
 song is called Anacreontic. 
 
 If the shortness of life, and the transitory character of every thing 
 earthly, gave occasion to Anacreon to exhort to the enjoyment of exist- 
 ence, there were not wanting others to whom these considerations were a 
 source of melancholy and sorrow, and who poured forth their complaints 
 over the instability and uncertainty of human happiness. This style was 
 called the " elegiac," and was usually composed in a measure consisting 
 of hexameters and pentameters united (disticha). The best known 
 elegiac poets are Mimnermus of Colophon, and Simonides of Ceos. Those 
 lyrical compositions that are distinguished by a more lofty feeling, and in 
 which the poet sings with enthusiasm or passion of some sublime object, 
 are, called " odes." Sappho, of Lesbos, a poetess celebrated 
 for her amatory songs, and her voluntary death, distinguished 
 herself in this style of composition. But the Theban, Pindar, was the 
 first who gave to the ode its full perfection. At a later period, the term 
 " lyric " was applied to all the shorter specimens of poetry, even though 
 they were not fitted to be sung to music. Thus satire, the object of which 
 is to punish the vices and failings of men by ridicule, and by this means 
 to bring about their instruction and improvement, is called " lyric 
 poetry." 
 
 B. c. TOO. Archilochos, of Paros, the discoverer of iambics, is named 
 
 B. c. 600. as the first satiric poet ; at whose side, Alcee'us of Mitylene, 
 the freedom-inspired opponent of the tyrants, occupies no unworthy 
 place. In like manner, the short stories where animals are introduced 
 acting and speaking (fables), and the object of which is the inculcation 
 of some useful maxim or rule of life, are distinguished by the same term, 
 w3iJsop, a Phrygian slave, whose history is involved in obscurity, and dis« 
 figured by many fabulous stories, acquired a great renown in this sort of 
 composition 
 
HISTORY OF GREECE. 39 
 
 11. THE FLOURISHING PERIOD OF GREECE. 
 
 I. THE PERSIAN T7AR. 
 
 § 50. The Greek colonial cities, on the coasts of Asia Minor, had been 
 brought by Cyrus under the Persian dominion. Accustomed to freedom, 
 they bore this foreign yoke with the greatest reluctanc^; but were unable 
 to free themselves from it, because the principal Greeks, who were ap- 
 pointed by the Persians to the office of prince, or tyrant, of the different 
 towns, and who we<-e consequently devoted to the court of Susa, knew 
 'well how to keep their countrymen in subjection. One of the most 
 powerful of these was Histiae'us, prince of Miletus. He had accom- 
 panied Darius in his expedition against the Scythians, (§ 30), and had 
 received, together with some other Greeks, the charge of guarding the 
 bridges that liad been thrown over the Danube. When the news of the 
 disasters of the' Persians became known, Milti'ades, the Athenian, advised 
 that these bridires should be destroyed, and the king and his whole army 
 givcM up {() (Km ruction. But Histiaj'us opposed this project, and vras 
 afterwards rewarded by being invited to the Persian capital, and passing 
 liis life there in splendor and luxury. But no pleasures could extinguish 
 his longing after his native country ; and when he found that he was so 
 much mistrusted as not to be permitted to depart, he secretly instigated 
 his relative, Aristilgoras of Miletus, to stir up tlie discontented Greeks to 
 rebellion, hoping by this means to gain an opportunity of returning. In a 
 short time, Miletus and the other Greek towns were in arms. Sparta, 
 and tli;' other st;it( s of tlie motl)er country, were appHed to for assistance ; 
 but Alliens oidy, who was afraid that Darius miglit again restore Hippias,' 
 who was residing at his court, and th^ small town of Krctria, in Euboe'a, 
 sent a few ships. At first, the insurrection appeared successfuk The 
 Greeks took and burnt Sardis, the chief city of Asia Minor, upon which 
 the revolt spread over the whole of Ionia. But fortune soon changed 
 Divisions among themselves, and the superior force of the enemy, occa- 
 sioned the loss of a maritime engagement, and the capture and destruction 
 of Miletus. Man}^ of the Milesians were led into slavery : 
 
 B. C. 494. 
 
 Aristanoras fled to the Thracians, where he met with his 
 death ; IIi,-:ticr"'us v\as taken prisoner and crucified. Ionia again fell 
 under the dominion of the Persians, and Darius 'vowed a bloody ven- 
 geance against the Athenians and Eretrians, for the assistance they had 
 afforded the rebels. 
 
 § 51. Mardonius, the son-in-law of Darius, sailed w^ith a fleet and army 
 along the coast of Thrace, towards Greece, whilst the Persian heralds 
 demanded earth and water, the symbols of submission from the whole of 
 
40 THE ancie:s"t world. 
 
 the Greek cities. But the fleet was driven against the promontory of 
 Athos by a storm, and the Tliracians destroyed a part of the land force, 
 BO that Mardonius Avas compelletl to lead Lack the remains of his army 
 into Asia, without eifecting his purpose. It fared no better with the 
 heralds. iEgi'na, and the greater number of the islands indeed, presented 
 the earth and water ; but when they made the same demands at Athens 
 and Sparta, they were put to death by the inhabitants, in defiance of all 
 the laws of nations. Darius, enraged at this insult, despatched a second 
 fleet, under the command of Datis and Artaphernes. They sailed through 
 the Archipelago, and reduced the islands of the Cyclades to submission, 
 and afterwards landed at Euboj'a. Eretria, aftQr a gallant resistance, fell 
 by treachery into the hands of the enemy, who razed the city to the 
 ground, and sent away the inhabitants into Asia. The Persians marched 
 through the island, burning and destroying; and at length, under the 
 command of Ilippias, landed on the coast of Attica, and encamped on the 
 plain of Marathon. The Athenians sent in haste to the Spartans for 
 assistance ; but these not appearing at the proper time, in consequence of 
 an ancient law of their religion, which forbade them to march to battle 
 before a full moon, the Athenians, under the command of ten leaders, 
 advanced upon the enemy. The most esteemed among these leaders was 
 Miltiades, who had formerly served in the Persian army, and was 
 thoroughly acquainted with its qualities and tactics. By his direction, 
 10,000 Athenians, and 1,000 Plata3^ans, attacked the army of Persians, 
 of ten times their number, in a place unfavorable for cavalry, and gave 
 them a complete overthrow in the battle of JMarathon. The 
 
 B. C. 490. . . 
 
 victors gained a rich booty, and placed the fetters they dis- 
 covered, and which were intended for themselves, on the bodies of their 
 enemies. Great was the renown acquired by the Athenians, who here 
 for the first time proved that they were worthy of the democratic free- 
 dom they had lately introduced among themselves ; and centuries later, 
 patriotic orators would excite the enth.usiasm of the people, by calling 
 to their remembrance the victory of Marathon. Hippias was one of the 
 slain. 
 
 § 52. Miltiades, the savior of Greece, did not long enjoy his honors. 
 He persuaded the Athenians to equip a fleet for the purpose of subduing 
 the islands of the JEgcan Sea, which had submitted to the Persians. 
 But when the attempt upon the island of Pares miscarried, the people 
 condemned him to pay the cost of the expedition, and to be cast into 
 prison till the debt should be discharged. The sentence was carried into 
 execution, and Miltiades died in prison of his wounds. Cimon, his son, 
 paid the debt, and conferred an honorable burial upon his father. 
 
 At that time, there lived in Athens two men of remarkable character, 
 Aristi'des, surnamed the Just, and Themistocles. Both sought to render 
 their country illustrious, but by different methods. Aristi'des would 
 
HISTORY OF GREECE. 41 
 
 • ■ 
 
 make use of no means that were not strictly just and honorable, nor con- 
 Bent to any measure that excited the scruples of his conscience. Themi's- 
 tocles was less scrupulous : he would regard nothing but the greatness 
 and advantage of his native city, and not unfrequently had recourse to 
 artifice and deceit. Shrewder and more talented than his rival, Themi's- 
 tocles soon won a greater share of the popular esteem ; and to free him- 
 self from a hinderance to his plans, he urged the banishment of the more 
 honest Aristi'des by ostracism.* 
 
 By this means, Themistocles became the sole leader of the Athenian 
 republic, and he exerted the whole of his influence to obtain an increase 
 of the fleet ; for it was only by this means that the Athenians could 
 attain a superiority to the other states. A declaration of the Delphic 
 oracle, that the safety of Athens depended upon its " wooden walls,'* was 
 of great service to him in the execution of this project. 
 
 § 53. Darius died in the midst of vast preparations for a fresh inva- 
 sion of Greece. But his successor, Xerxes, a man puffed up with pride 
 and arrogance, pursued his father's designs of vengeance, and carried on 
 liis preparations on such a scale, that he collected an army of a million 
 and a lialf of men, and more than 1,200 triremes and 3,000 smaller ves- 
 sels. But this immense crowd of people of all nations and tongues, with 
 habits and weapons of the most diversified character, and accustomed each 
 to its own method of warfare, was rather a hinderance than an assistance to 
 the enterprise. When Xerxes had completed his preparations, and with 
 wonderful good fortune had quelled a revolt that broke out in Egypt, (a 
 circumstance that contributed not a little to swell his confidence), he 
 ordered his troops, with an enormous crowd of sutlers, beasts of burden, 
 wagons, and dogs of chase, to defile for seven days and nights across the 
 Hellespont, on two bridges of boats, and then to march through Thrace 
 and Macedonia towards Tiiessaly, whilst his fleet coasted along the shore 
 to supply the army with whatever it needed. To prevent his ships being 
 wrecked on the promontory of Athos, as in the first expedition, Xerxes 
 separated the mountain fr<5m the mainland, by cutting a canal. Thessaly 
 ' submitted without a blow. Boedtia, and a few of the smaller states, 
 pusillanimously yielded earth and water; and the threatening foe still 
 marched on. At this juncture, Greece showed what union, courage, 
 and patriotism are capable of effecting. The greater number of the 
 states united in a confederacy, and placed themselves under the guid- 
 ance of Sparta. 
 • 
 
 * Ostracism was an arrangement by which any citizen who was so superior to his fel- 
 lows ill power, influence, authority, or other quahties, as to endanger the civic equality, 
 or the democratic constitution of tlie state, might be banished for a term (usually ten) 
 of years. 
 
 The term was derived from the Greek word for the shell (ostracon) on which the name 
 of the accused citizen was written. — T7-an8. 
 4* 
 
42 THE ANCIEXT WORLD. 
 
 It was In July, just at tlie time of the celebration of the Olympic 
 ffames, that Xerxes arrived at the narrow pass of Ther- 
 
 B. C. 480. 
 
 mopyloe, which Leonidas had occupied with three hundred 
 Spartans and a few thousands of the alhes. It was in vain that the Per- 
 sian king attempted for several days to force a passage ; thousands of his 
 troops fell beneath the swords of the brave Greeks ; even the 10,000 Im- 
 mortals, as they were called, the flower of the Persian army, were com- 
 pelled to yield to the Spartan valor. At length, a traitorous Greek 
 CGRductfed a part of the Persians by a footpath over the summit of the 
 mountain CEta, who attacked the rear of the Greeks. Upon receiving 
 intelligence of this, Leonidas dismissed the troops of the allies. He 
 himself, with his 300 Spartans, and about 700 of the citizens of Thespia, 
 who united themselves to him, devoted themselves to an heroic death for 
 their country. Surrounded on all sides, they fought like lions, till, over- 
 powered by numbers, and wearied with slaughter and contest, they sunk 
 to the earth. Leonidas and his heroic band lived long in song, and a monu- 
 ment pointed out to the traveller the spot where they fell. The Persians 
 now subjected Bceotia without opposition, pursued their devastating 
 course into Attica, and reduced Athens to ashes. The old warriors who 
 defended the Acropolis were slaughtered. The citizens who were fit to 
 bear arms were serving in the fleet. The women and children, together 
 with their effects, had been sent, by the advice of Themistocles, to j^d^gina*, 
 Salamis, and Trazoe ne. 
 
 ^ 54. Themistocles now became the saviour of Greece. The united 
 fleet of the Greeks had sailed from the promontory of Artemisium, where 
 it had been for some days successfully engaged, into the Saronic gulf, 
 whither it was followed by the Persians. It was here that Themistocles, 
 by his prudence, rendered abortive the ruinous design of ^he Spartan 
 admiral, Eurybiades, of removing the Peloponnesian fleet from Salamis, 
 and deciding the battle at the isthmus of Corinth, by craftily provoking the 
 Persian king to a sudden attack in the narrow channel, where the enemy's 
 fleet was embarrassed by its own magnitude. Thus originated the sea- 
 fight of Salamis, in which the Greeks obtained a complete 
 
 B. C. 480. o 7 r 
 
 victory. Xerxes gazed in despair from a neighboring emi- 
 nence on the destruction of his fleet, and then commenced a hasty retreat, 
 with a portion of his army, through Thessaly, Macedon, and Thrace, 
 during which he lost some thousands of his soldiers from cold, hunger, 
 and fatigue. 
 
 § 55. Xerxes on his retreat left 300,000 of his best troops behind him 
 in Thessaly. These marched again into Attica, in the following spring, 
 and compelled the Athenians, who had returned home, once more to dis- 
 perse themselves. But the Greeks, under the conduct of the Spartan 
 Pausanias, assisted by the Athenian general, Aristides, obtained so 
 signal a victory in the great battle of Platae'a, over a force of three times 
 
HISTORY OF GREECE. 43 
 
 their number, that only 40,000 of the Persians saved themselves acrosg 
 the Hellespont. The remainder, with their leader, were slain, either in 
 battle, in the storming of their, camp, or in the flight. The booty was 
 enormous. On the same day, the Persians suffered a decisive defeat at 
 the promontory of Mycale, in Asia Minor, from the Greeks on board the 
 fleet. In this case, also, a Spartan was the leader ; but it was the Athe- 
 nians and Milesians who bore off the prize of valor. The fleet and camp 
 of the enemy were taken and destroyed. The slaughter among the 
 broken and flying crowd was frightful. Valor triumphed over strength, 
 and the truth, that patriotism and love of freedom can bear away the 
 victory from superior numbers, received a splendid confirmation in the 
 glorious triumph of the Greeks over the Persians. Ten years after- 
 wards, the double victory of Cimon on the river Eurymedon, 
 over the fleet and army of the Persians, brought the war to 
 a temporary conclusion. A peace concluded soon after the death of Cimoa 
 freed all the Greek cities in Asia Minor from the Persian yoke. 
 
 THE SUPREMACY OF ATHENS, AND THE AGE OF PERICLES. 
 
 § 5G. After the battle of Platae'a, the ^^ar was principally carried on 
 at sea. As the Spartans possessed but few ships, the command had 
 gradually fallen into the hands of the Athenians, who, moreover, during 
 the whole war, had displayed the greatest courage and magnanimity. 
 The supremacy of the Athenians was also forwarded by the treachery 
 of the Spartan general Pausanias. Pausdnias, at the taking of Byzan- 
 tium, had made prisoners of some illustrious Persians. He sent these 
 without any ransom to Xerxes, with the message, that " He would assist 
 him in subduing the Greeks, if Xerxes would give him his daughter in 
 marriage, and make him governor of Peloponnesus." When the Persian 
 king acceded to these terms, the vain and ambitious man became so inso- 
 lent, as entirely to neglect the Spartan laws and manner of living ; he 
 clothed himself in costly garments, maintained a luxurious table, and was 
 waited on and accompanied by a band of Persian guards. At the same 
 time, he rendered the Lacedaemonian rule universally odious by his im- 
 perious behavior. The Spartans, when made acquainted with this con- 
 duct, recalled their faithless general ; but their authority in maritime 
 affairs was already so much weakened, that they voluntarily renounced 
 the command. Pausanias, even in Sparta, kept up a private correspond- 
 ence with the king of Persia. But this treachery being exposed by 
 means of a slave, he perished of hunger in a temple in which he had 
 taken refuge. 
 
 § 57. Whilst Pausdnias was thus weakeiling the power of his native 
 city, the three Athenian generals, hj their various capacities and talents, 
 were instrumental in raising that of their own. Themistocles, by dint 
 of wisdom and cunning, succeeded in getting Athens surrounded by a 
 
44 THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 strong wall, and in founding tlie admirable harbor of Pira3'us, which 
 Cimon and Pericles afterwards connected with Athens, by means of a 
 long double wall. By this undertaking, Themistocles incurred the impla- 
 cable hate of the Spartans, who were very averse to the fortification of 
 Athens, and who, for this reason, attempted at a later period to implicate 
 him in the treachery of Pausanias. This happened at a time when his 
 enemies in Athens had succeeded in ffettin"; the ambitious man 
 
 B. c. 471. 
 
 banished by ostracism, for a term of ten years. Persecuted 
 in this way, the great general fled, in the midst of innumerable dangers, 
 to Asia, where he was honorably received by the Persian king, and had 
 the revenues of three cities of Asia Minor allotted to him for his support. 
 But when the king wanted his assistance in the subjection of Greece, 
 he is said to have swallowed poison rather than prove a traitor to his 
 country. 
 
 As Themistocles by prudence, so Aristides by justice, aided the inte- 
 rests of his native city. The perfect confidence that was placed in his 
 cliaracter and opinions, induced the islands and maritime cities to enter 
 into alliance with the Athenians, and to pledge themselves to a supply 
 of ships and money for the ccfntinuation of the war. The treasury of 
 the confederacy, which waa established in Delos for this purpose, was 
 intrusted to the management of Aristides, and the command of the united 
 fleet was also given to an Athenian. The supply of ships soon became 
 burdensome to the smaller states, and they were glad to compromise for 
 their delivery, by the payment of an additional sum of money. This 
 gave the Athenians the opportunity they so much wished for, of increas- 
 ing their fleet, of subjecting the smaller maritime states, and treating 
 them as tributary vassals. Aristides died so poor, that the state was 
 obliged to defray the expenses of his burial, and to provide for the 
 establishing of his children. 
 
 § 58. Cimon, the son of Miltiades, and Pericles, were not less instru- 
 mental in the aggrandizement of Athens. The first rendered many 
 services to his country by successful expeditions at sea, and gained 
 the people by his affability and generosity. He enlarged the terri- 
 tory of Athens, and employed his vast wealth in the embellishment 
 of the city, where he established the beautiful gardens called the 
 Academy. 
 
 During his time, Sparta was visited by a fearful earthquake. The 
 
 greater part of the principal city was destroyed, and, to increase the 
 
 calamity, the Helots and Messenians seized their arms for 
 
 B c 465 
 
 the purpose of regaining their freedom. In their distress, 
 the Spartans turned to Athens for assistance, and by the influence of 
 Cimon, an army wa^ despatched to their aid. But the suspicious Spar- 
 tans sent it back again, a proceeding which so offended the Athenians, 
 that they banished Cimon by the ostracism ; and when the Messenians, 
 
HISTORY OF GREECE. 45 
 
 after a contest of ten years, were compelled to surrender their citadel, 
 Ithome, they gave up the seaport town, Naupactus, to them for a resi- 
 dence. Cimon died, much respected, in Cyprus, b. c. 449. 
 
 Pericles, a soldier and statesman, distinguished by great talents, culti- 
 vation, and eloquence, exercised during his life such an influence on the 
 state and people of Athens, that the years of his rule were distinguished 
 as *' the age of Pericles." This period includes the time when Athens 
 had attained its highest point of refinement at home, and possessed the 
 greatest power abroad. Pericles adorned Athens by the erection of tem- 
 ples and magnificent buildings ; he encouraged the arts and sciences, he 
 invited men of genius, and iu particular the great artist, Phidias, to his 
 hospitable home. He gave to every one the means and opportunity of 
 educating and distinguishing himself, and produced by these means a 
 taste for aVt, literature, and poetry, even among the lowest classes of the 
 people. Tliough descended from a rich and illustrious family, he was 
 nevertheless a man of the people, and devoted to democratic principles. 
 He procured a law, by which every Athenian citizen who sat in judgment, 
 or was present at an assembly of the people, or served in the fleet or 
 army, was entitled to a stipend. He distributed large alms to the neces- 
 sitous, he instituted magnificent festivals, plays, and processions, for the 
 gratification of the sight-loving people. By his exertions, the Athenian 
 state attained such an exalted state of cultivation, that the citizens were 
 almost all equally well fitted to fill offices or discharge business ; so that 
 the regulation, that the greater part of the public oflSces should be filled 
 by lot, was attended with less inconvenience at Athens, than such arrange- 
 inent would have produced at any other place. At the same time, Athens, 
 ^y means of Pericles, attained the greatest renown abroad. Her ships 
 ruled over the -^gean sea, and compelled the islanders to pay tribute, 
 by which means enormous sums of money flowed into her treasury. The 
 statue of Minerva was covered with a robe of solid gold ; the Athenian 
 armies enpi^ajTed in successful conflicts with the Thebans and 
 
 B. C. 447. 
 
 Spartans, till the unfortunate battle of Coronea put an end 
 to their military glory. After this engagement, in which the Athenians 
 were either killed or taken prisoners, Pericles was obliged to save Athens 
 from the destruction by which it was threatened, by concluding the peace, 
 named after him "the peace of Pericles." 
 
 THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR, B. C. 431-404. 
 
 § 59. The peace of Pericles was of short duration. The prosperity 
 of the Athenians filled the Spartan! with envy and malevolence ; ajid 
 the insolence and severity with which they treated their subjected allies, 
 more particularly the inhabitants of jEgina, who. had only submitted 
 after a long struggle, excited hatred and disgust. In a short time, 
 two armed and hostile powers stood opposed to each other : the Athenian 
 
46 THE ANHIENT WOELD. 
 
 confederation, wliicli included most of the islands and maritime towns, 
 and which was favored by the democratic party in all the states, and the 
 chief strength of which lay in its fleet ; and the Peloponn'esian alliance, 
 with Sparta at its head, to which the Doric and the greater part of the 
 JEolian states (Bocotia and others) attached themselves, and which 
 reposed its confidence on a gallant army. The Spartans declined for 
 a long time to commence hostilities. But when the Corinthians com- 
 plained that Athens had violated the peace by assisting the island of 
 Corcyra in its war against the mother country, Corinth, and had laid 
 siege to the Corinthian colony, Potidai^'a, in Macedon, the Peloponnesian 
 war, which, for a period of twenty-seven years, ravaged Greece in the 
 most frightful manner, at length broke out. 
 
 § 60. As soon as war was declared, a Spartan army marched into 
 Attica, and devastated the country. Upon this, Pericles summoned the 
 inhabitants of the country into the town, fitted out a fleet, and, landing 
 on the coast of Peloponnesus, commenced reprisals. These were con- 
 tinned for some time, till at length a plague broke out in 
 Athens, in consequence of the overcrowded state of the city, 
 swept away many thousands of the inhabitants, and finally carried Peri- 
 cles himself to the grave, after he had witnessed the death of his two 
 sons. The death of this great man was a heavy loss to Athens : for now 
 a crowd of selfish demagogues, and among them, Cleon, a tanner, obtained 
 great influence, seduced the people by flattery, and strove to prolong the 
 war. Weakened by their own divisions, the Athenians were compelled 
 to look on, whilst the Platce'ans, their most faithful allies, were subdued, 
 after an heroic struggle, by the Lacedaemonians and Bosotians : Platte'a 
 itself was levelled with the earth, the citizens who were capable of^- 
 bearing arms were put to the sword, and their wives and children led 
 into slavery. 
 
 The Athenian general, Demosthenes, shortly after suc- 
 ceeded in gaining possession of the Messenian town of Pylos, 
 whence he harassed the Spartan territories with devastating inroads. 
 It was in vain that the Spartans endeavored to drive him from his posi 
 tion ; their attacks were repulsed, and more than four hundred heavy- 
 armed Spartan troops were shut up in the barren island of Sphacteria, 
 where they were reduced to great extremities. They only obtained the 
 means of subsistence by the desperate landing effected by some Helots, to 
 v;hom the Spartans had promised freedom if they were successful in the 
 attempt. At last, to escape starvation, they were compelled to surrender 
 themselves to Cleon, who had arrivffd with reinforcements. This success 
 inflamed the insolence of the democratic leader. He fancied himself a hero, 
 und obtained the command of an army that was intended to subdue the 
 Spartan general, Brasidas, in Thrace. But Cleon suffered a defeat before 
 the city of Amphipolis, and was afterwards killed in the flight ; whereupon 
 
HISTORY OF GREECE. 47 
 
 the opposite party gained the upper hand in Athens, and 
 concluded the peace of Ni'cias. In the mean time, a despe- 
 rate struggle was going on between the aristocratic and democratic fac- 
 tions, in the greater number of the Greek cities ; but nowhere was the 
 strife more sanguinary than in the island of Corcyra, where the most 
 illustrious families were completely destroyed. By the help of the Athe- 
 nians, the democrats got their adversaries in their power, shut them up 
 in a building, and killed them by casting down stones upon their heads. 
 Where the Spartans gained the upper hand, the aristocratic party became 
 predominant, and punished their enemies by death and banishment ; if 
 the Athenians prevailed, the democrats assumed tflb direction of affairs, 
 and treated their opponents with similar severity. 
 
 ^ 61. The conclusion of peace separated the Spartans and Corinthians. 
 The latter, in consequence, united themselves with Argos, Elis, and Man- 
 tinea in Arcadia, for the purpose of depriving the Spartans of their 
 superiority (hegemony) in Peloponnesus. In this attempt, they received 
 the assistance of Alcibiades, who was then about thirty years old, and 
 sister's son to Pericles, and who here displayed for the first time his 
 address and powers of persuasion. Alcibiades was endowed with the 
 greatest advantages both of mind and person. He was rich, handsome, 
 accomplished, and a most admirable orator ; so that he was exactly fitted to 
 supply the place of Pericles, had he only possessed more stability and pru- 
 dence. The war, which the Spartans now had to sustain with the Corinthi- 
 ans and allies, would have been fatal to their authority, had not fortune 
 
 declared for the Lacedoemdnian arms in the battle of Man- 
 B. c. 418. . , 
 
 tmea. 
 
 § 62. Not long afterwards, the Athenians despatched the finest fleet 
 
 and the most admirable army that had ever sailed from the 
 B. c. 415. 
 
 Piraj'us, to Sicily, under the command of Alcibiades, Nicias, 
 
 and Lamachus, for the purpose of attacking the Dorian city, Syracuse. 
 This undertaking failed. Alcibiades, during his absence, was accused by 
 his enemies of many crimes against religion and the government, and 
 was in consequence hastily recalled by the Athenian magistrates. Thirst- 
 ing for vengeance, he fled to Sparta, and endeavored to stir up that state 
 to make war upon Athens. The brave Lamachus fell in the siege of 
 Syracuse ; the Athenian fleet was destroyed in the harbor ; and when 
 Nicias attempted to escape by land with the remains of the army to a 
 friendly city, he was attacked during a night march, and, after a bloody 
 fight, taken prisoner with the whole of his troops. Those who did not 
 fall in the engagement, were employed as slaves in the stone-quarries. 
 The valiant generals, Nicias and Demosthenes, died in the market-place 
 by the hands of the executioner. 
 
 § C3. Dark reports conveyed to Athens the first news of this dreadful 
 blow ; when the frightful intelligence vras confirmed, there was scarcely 
 
48 THE a:n'cient world. 
 
 a family that had not occasion to mourn. The Athenian allies fell off 
 and joined the Lacedaemonians ; the Spartans renewed the war by sea 
 and land, and were assisted by the Persian governor of Asia Minor. 
 "Within the city, the aristocratic party were attempting to overturn the 
 constitution, and entered secretly into a traitorous alliance with the Spar- 
 tans. Athens nevertheless defended herself for eight years against the 
 superior force of the enemy, and was victor in tw^o important engage- 
 ments at sea. But no exertions could restore the crippled state to its 
 former greatness. It was in vain that the Athenians recalled Aleibiades, 
 gave him the command of the fleet and army, and cast the column, on 
 which his crimes were inscribed, into the sea; — even he could not brinsc 
 back its ancient glories to the Athenian navy. A few months after he 
 had entered Athens amidst the exulting shouts of the populace, he was 
 again deprived of his command, because his lieutenant in his absence had 
 lost a sea-fight near Ephesus. 
 
 § 64. About this time, the Spartans gained an excellent leader in the 
 
 artful and adventurous Lysander, who obtained the favor of the new 
 
 governor of Asia Minor, Cyrus the younger, for the purpose of increasing 
 
 the Lacedasmonian fleet by the assistance of the Persians. This Lysander 
 
 took advantage of the carelessness of the Athenian commanders, who had 
 
 suffered their men to go on shore, by making an unexpected attack upon 
 
 their ships at the Goat's River (iEgos-po tamos), on the 
 
 Hellespont, and capturing the whole of them, except nine. 
 
 The power of Athens was now vanished. After Lysander had reduced 
 
 to submission the islands and towns that were friendly to the 
 
 B. C. 404. 
 
 Athenians, he blockaded Athens itself by land and sea, and 
 the overcrowded city w^as soon reduced by hunger to surrender. The 
 long walls and fortifications were pulled down to the sound of flutes ; the 
 ships, with the exception of tw^elve, delivered to the Spartans, and all 
 fugitives and outlaws recalled. iLysander then annulled the democratic 
 constitution, and placed the government in the hands of thirty illustrious 
 Athenians, who were the allies of Sparta. These aristocrats, distin- 
 guished by the name of the Thirty Tyrants, with the clever but violent 
 Critias at their head, breathed nothing but death and banishment agamst 
 the democratic party. But this reign of terror was but of short duration. 
 Thrasybiilus, a patriotic man, collected around him the fugitives and those 
 who had been banished, and marched upon Athens. Critias was slain in 
 battle ; the rest fell by treachery into the hands of the conqueror, who put 
 them to death, reestablished the democratic constitution, and, by the as- 
 surance that the past should be forgotten and forgiven, succeeded in 
 again restoring tranquillity and order. 
 
 4. SOCRATES. 
 
 § 65. During the Peloponnesian war, the morals of the Athenians had 
 
HISTORY OF GREECE. 49 
 
 deteriorated, and honesty and civil virtue came to be less esteemed than 
 wit and intelligence. This state of things was in a great degree brought 
 about by the sophists, — false teachers, who paraded a factitious kind of 
 wisdom founded upon fallacies and sophisms, and who presumed, by ora- 
 torical arts and tricks of disputation, to put lies in the place of truth, and 
 to convert truth into error. They enticed to themselves wealthy young 
 men, and for great rewards instructed them in these arts, by which means 
 domestic and public life were poisoned in their very sources. At this 
 juncture arose Socrates, an* Athenian citizen, who unmasked these so- 
 phistical mountebanks, and awakened the sentiments of religion, justice, 
 and virtue in the bosoms of his pupils. Sdcrates taught his practical 
 philosophy, the end of which was " Know thyself," not in elaborate dis- 
 courses from the lecturer's chair, but by questions and answers in the 
 public streets, under the open sky, or in the workshops of mechanics. 
 The sophists were reduced to silence by his clear intellect, his simple 
 and upright life, and his moral worth ; whilst the richest and most 
 talented young men united themselves to him. This exasperated the 
 vain and greedy sophists, and they accused him c£ seducing the youth, 
 and introducing false gods. Socrates, in a simple defence, disproved 
 before the judges the truth of this accusation. But instead, as was 
 then the custom, of imploring his acquittal with prayers and lamenta- 
 tions, he concluded his discourse by asserting that he was entitled to be 
 received into the number of those illustrious men, who, on account 
 of their services to the commonwealth, were maintained at the public 
 expense. This offended the judges, and S6crates was condemned to 
 death by a small majority. It was in vain that his friends, particularly 
 the rich citizen Crito, urged him to fly ; he rejected their counsels, 
 and in the midst of elevating discourses on the immortal nature of the 
 soul, (Plato's Phaido), he drank the cup of poison, and died with the 
 cheerfulness and composure of mind of a philosopher. He has left 
 nothing in writing : but his illustrious disciple, Plato, has placed his own 
 philosophy in the mouth of Socrates. This Plato was so distinguished 
 as a writer and thinker that he was named the " Divine," as well on 
 account of his splendid and exalted ideas and poetical images, as of the 
 perfect art of representation which is displayed by his works, written in 
 the form of dialogues. Next to him, Xenophon the Athenian, at once a 
 soldier and a writfer, was the most distinguished of the disciples of So- 
 crates. He has made the world acquainted with the life and doctrines 
 of his master, in the philosophical work, entitled " Memorabilia of 
 Socrates." 
 
 5. THE RETREAT OF THE TEX THOUSAND. B. C. 400. 
 
 § 66. Xenophon's most admirable historical work is the " Anabasis," 
 or the description of the campaign of the younger Cyrus in Persia, and 
 
50 THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 cf the retreat of the Greek troops under the command of Xenophon him- 
 self. After its contest with Greece, the Persian empire had grown gra- 
 dually weaker. The governors ruled the provinces in an arbitrary manner, 
 and excited insurrections by their oppression. The court was swayed 
 by selfish and effeminate men and intriguing women, who practised the 
 most frightful crimes, gave themselves up to every lust and excess, and 
 perplexed the affairs of the kingdom by their contests for the crown. It 
 was under these circumstances, that the younger Cyrus, governor of Asia 
 Minor, entertained the project of depriving his elder brother, Artaxerxes, 
 of the crown. He assembled a considerable army of mercenaries, the 
 flower of which was composed of Spartan and other Greek troops, and 
 marched with them into Persia. A battle was fought in the plain of 
 Cunaxa, a few miles from Babylon, in which the Greeks indeed proved 
 victorious, but Cyrus fell by the hand of his brother. The Greeks were 
 summoned to surrender, and when they refused, the Persians invited 
 Clearchus and the other captains to an interview, in which they were 
 treacherously murdered. The Athenian, Xenophon, then placed himself 
 at the head of the helpless host, and led them, under the most incredible 
 hardships, through Armenia to the Black Sea, and thence to Byzantium. 
 Without any knowledge of the land or of the language, without guides on 
 whom they could depend, they were compelled to climb pathless mount- 
 ains, to wade through rivers, to march through inhospitable and snow- 
 covered deserts, pursued by the Persians, and attacked by the inhabitants. 
 When they caught the first glimpse of the Black Sea from an eminence, 
 they fell upon their knees and saluted it with a shout of joy, as the ter- 
 mination of their miseries. 
 
 6. THE TIME OF AGESILAUS AND EPA3[IN0NDAS. 
 
 § 67. Sparta, by the Peloponnesian war, had become the first power 
 in Greece. She abused her authority, however, by tyrannizing over the 
 other states, and by this means brought upon herself the hatred of her 
 allies, in the same way that Athens had formerly done. Her inhabitants 
 had long degenerated from the simplicity and severity of manners en- 
 joined by Lycurgus. Foreign wars had brought riches, these produced 
 avarice and love of pleasure, and from these again proceeded a host of 
 vices. Kings and generals suffered themselves to be bought by sums of 
 money, and disgraced themselves by corruption. A few families acquired 
 enormous wealth and possessions, and plunged into luxury and intemper- 
 ance, whilst the poorer classes starved. Even the powerful king, Agesi- 
 laus, a strenuous advocate for the old Spartan virtue and simplicity, was 
 unable to restrain these vices. 
 
 The other states had also long equally degenerated from the virtues and 
 patriotism of an earlier period. Their citizens disaccustomed themselves 
 from the use of arms, and reUnquished the practice of war to hired mer- 
 
HISTORY OF GREECE. 51 
 
 cenaries ; and when king Agesilaus declared war against the crumbling 
 empire of Persia, and penetrated with his victorious banners into Asia 
 Minor, the Athenians, Corinthians, Boeotians, and some others, were so 
 forgetful of their honor and national feelings, that they suffered them- 
 selves to be persuaded by the Persian monarch to take the field against 
 Sparta; so that Agesilaus was compelled to retreat, and to turn his arms, 
 in the so-called Corinthian war, against the Greeks themselves. Dis- 
 union, enervation, and jealousy at length produced such an indifference 
 to national honor, that the Greek states rivalled each other to secure the 
 favor of Persia, and consented to the shameful peace of An- 
 talcidas, by which the west coast of Asia Minor was given 
 up to the Persians, and in consequence lost forever to liberty and 
 Greece. 
 
 § G8. The peace of Antdlcidas contained the farther condition, that all 
 the Grecian states should be free. The Spartans, who were appointed 
 the guardians and executors of the treaty, took this opportunity to dis- 
 solve all alliances between the states, and to increase their own power. 
 But their arrogance was soon punished. The Greek town Olynthus, in 
 Macedonia, had united several neighboring cities in a confederation, over 
 which, as the principal city, it exercised authority. The Spartans ob- 
 jected to this, as contrary to the conditions of the peace of Antalcidas, 
 and on the Olynthians refusing to dissolve the confederacy, marched an 
 army into the country, besieged their town, and compelled them to sub- 
 mission. During the march through Bocotia, the Spartan general allowed 
 himself to be persuaded by the aristocratic party in Thebes to invest the 
 town and overturn the democratic constitution. The undertaking was 
 successful. The chiefs of the popular party were either executed, ba- 
 nished, or imprisoned ; the aristocrats seized upon the government, and, 
 confident of tlie support of the Spartans, ruled with insolence and vio- 
 lence. 
 
 § G9. But the hour of retribution was approaching. The banished 
 democrats united themselves in Athens, whence they commenced a cor- 
 respondence with their friends in Thebes. At their instigation, they in 
 a short time returned in secret, in the disguise of clowns, assembled 
 themselves in the house of one of the party, and, issuing forth at mid- 
 night, fell upon the aristocrats who were collected together at a luxurious 
 repast. After these had been despatched, they summoned the citizens to 
 liberty, reestablished the deraocratical government, and forced the Spar- 
 tan garrison to retreat from the citadel. This occasioned a war between 
 the Thebans and Lacedaemonians. The commonwealth of Thebes was 
 at tifht time conducted by two men, who joined patriotism and virtue to 
 courage and military talents, and who were united together by the bonds 
 of friendship, — Epamindndas and Peldpidas. They united their efforts 
 in the attempt to elevate their country. Epamindndas introduced a new 
 
52 THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 system of tactics, " the oblique order of battle," and Pelopidas was the 
 originator of the sacred band, which, composed of a number of youths 
 united together by friendship, and inspired by a love of honor and free- 
 dom, offered a successful resistance to the Spartans. At first, the Athe- 
 nians sided with the Thebans, and by means of their generals, Iphicrates, 
 Chabrias, and Timdtheus, did much mischief to the Lacedaemonians, 
 both by sea and land. But when Thebes subjected the lesser cities of 
 Boedtia to its authority, and destroyed Plata3'a, a town that was on 
 friendly terms with Athens, the old jealousy again awoke, Athens con- 
 cluded a peace with Sparta, and when the Thebans refused to accede to 
 its conditions, the Lacedgemonian troops again marched into 
 their territory, but suffered so terrible a defeat from Epami- 
 nondas and Pelopidas, in the battle of Leuctra, that Sparta never re- 
 covered from its effects. For the first time, the Laceda3m6nian troops 
 fled from the field of battle, so that the old Spartan law, which declared 
 fugitives to be infamous, could not be put in force. 
 
 § 70. Epaminondas shortly afler marched into Peloponnesus, and ap- 
 proached the unwalled capital of Laconia, that for five centuries had 
 never seen an enemy in its neighborhood. But the preparations for de- 
 fence made by the old king, Agesilaus, and the determined attitude 
 assumed by the Spartans, whose wives and children prepared to aid in 
 the struggle, preserved it from attack. But Epaminondas expiated an 
 old act of injustice. He called the Messenians to liberty, and restored to 
 the exiles who returned from abroad the land of their fathers, with the 
 newly-built town of Messene. Some years later, Epaminondas again 
 appeared in Peloponnesus. The Spartans and their allies, under the 
 command of Aojesilaus, presented themselves, and fought 
 
 B C 362. o V i y o 
 
 with him the battle of Mantinea. In this battle, the The- 
 bans indeed proved victorious, but conquest was dearly bought by the 
 death of Epaminondas. A javelin had pierced his breast, but it was not 
 till he heard that the enemy were defeated, that he allowed the weapon to 
 be withdrawn, and breathed forth his heroic spirit. Two years before, the 
 brave Pelopidas had lost his life in Thessaly, and in the following year, at 
 the age of eighty, died Agesilaus, after witnessing Sparta's highest glory 
 and her deepest fall. Epaminondas was magnanimous, experienced in 
 w^ar, and as just, unselfish, and poor as Aristides himself; the loftiness of 
 his aims, and the sense of his own personal worth, elevated him above 
 avarice and the pursuit of pleasure, and the single cloak which he pos- 
 sessed was a greater ornament to him than any wealth could have been. 
 His death was followed by a general flagging in the energies ^f the 
 Greeks. 
 
HISTORY OF GREECE. 53 
 
 7. THE MOST FLOURISHING PERIOD OF GREECE IX LITERATURE 
 AND THE ARTS. 
 
 § 71. "Whilst the Greeks were destroying their own power and dis- 
 turbing the public tranquillity by their internal contests, literature and 
 the plastic arts attained their highest perfection. Dramatic poetry, that 
 in its origin had been connected with the festivals of the wine-god, 
 Dionysus, was raised to a wonderful height by the three great poets, So- 
 phocles, Euripides, and iE'schylus. The lives of these three men, who 
 were the perfecters of the serious drama (tragedy), may be connected 
 with the battle of Salamis, since iE'schylus, who was then in his forty- 
 fifth year, fought in the ranks of the combatants ; Sophocles, at fifteen, 
 idtk a part in the chorus of youths in the festival held after the battle 
 for the celebration of the victory, and Euripides was born on the day of 
 the engagement. In the seven pieces of -^'schylus, (the Prometheus 
 vinctus, Persas, Agamemnon, &c.), we may recognize the great period of 
 the Persian war, when the souls of the Greeks were inspired by a noble 
 enthusiavsm for freedom and their fatherland. His compositions, which 
 breathe a reverence for the gods, a respect for ancient institutions, and 
 the self-consciousness of a lofty mind, are occasionally rendered obscure 
 by the bold flight of the ideas, and the solemn energy of the language. 
 
 In the tragedies of Sophocles, of which also seven are preserved (An- 
 tigone, CE'dipus, Electra, &c.), we see the age of Pericles, with its cul- 
 tivation and intellectual sociality ; and hence these compositions remain 
 unapproachable models of beauty and harmonious perfection of style. 
 Euripides, of whom we possess nineteen pieces (Medea, Hecuba, Iphi- 
 geni'a, &c.), belongs to a less energetic period. He prefers to linger 
 amidst scenes of justice, in which the Athenians took especial delight ; 
 he makes abundant use of the artfully-constructed speeches, sentences, 
 and common-places then in vogue among philosophers, and seeks to affect 
 his auditors by scenes of sorrow and distress. He replaces the creative 
 power and genuine feeling of his predecessors, by sensibility and elegant 
 and polished language. Euripides's contemporary, Aristophanes, brought 
 comedy to perfection. His pieced, in which he contrasts the vices of his 
 own age with the virtues of an earlier period, were often rendered more 
 effective by living characters, who were introduced by name, and por- 
 trayed so accurately, that it was impossible to mistake them. Thus, in 
 his " Frogs," and in another of his pieces, he ridiculed Euripides and his 
 flat and lachrymose tragedies ; in his " Clouds," he held up to derision 
 the. sophists (under the name of Socrates*) who attempted to undermine 
 
 * This is an ingenious plea to save Aristophanes from the serrous charge of intending 
 to ridicule, and hold up to public contempt, the greatest and purest character of his age, 
 and indeed of all antiquity. But the excuse cannot be maintained ; there can be no doubt 
 that the satirist, who was as licentious as he was witty, actually intended to injure the re- 
 putation of Socrates, whom for the tune he much disliked. Am. Jul. 
 
 5* 
 
54 THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 the faith of the people ; and he was even bold enough to attack the power< 
 ful Cleon, and the selfish demagogues, in his " Knights." 
 
 The chorus, which was a feature peculiar to the Greek drama, uttered 
 in impassioned and lyrical poetry the sentiments and reflections of the 
 audience upon what was going on upon the stage. The splendid theatres 
 which were everywhere erected, and which were magnificent specimens 
 of architecture, contributed not a little to the elevation of the dramatic 
 art. A rich citizen could find no better way to the favor of the people 
 than exhibiting a dramatic performance at his own expense. 
 
 § 72. It was at this same period that the prose literature of the Greeks 
 Plato B. c. i"ose to its highest point of cultivation. In the dialogues of 
 429-348. Plato, (§ 65,) the lofty thoughts of a rich and creative mind 
 are clothed in the finest language, and presented in the most attractive 
 Herodotus form. Herodotus, of Halicarnassus, is looked upon as the 
 B. c. 450. father of history. He described the contests of the Greeks 
 and Persians in simple and copious language, but occasionally introduced 
 portions of the earlier history of the oriental and Greek tribes, so that 
 his account contains a great deal that is fabulous, which he copied from 
 the narrations of the priests. During his extensive travels, he made 
 himself acquainted by personal observation with most of the countries of 
 which he relates the history. His work was written for the people, and 
 therefore its language is simple and cordial. He shows how the love of 
 freedom, the discipline, and the moderation of the Greeks, bore off the 
 victory from the servility, the disorderly masses, and the pomp of the 
 Thucydides Asiatics. The historical works of Herodotus kindled the 
 B. c. 430. emulation of the patriotic Athenian, Thucydides. He had 
 been banished at the time of the battle of Amphipolis, ( § 60), and de- 
 voted the years of his absence to the composition of his " History of the 
 Peloponnesian war." His " thought-weighted " language, and the pro- 
 fundity of his reflections, render this work unintelligible, except to the 
 learned. The history of Thucydides ends with the twenty-first year of 
 the Peloponnesian war. 
 
 Xenophon Xenophon, his continuator, takes up the historical thread 
 
 B. c. 400. where Thucydides relinquished it. He is distinguished by the 
 clearness, ease, and beauty of his style, but is far inferior to Thucydides in 
 depth and historical accuracy. Although an Athenian, Xenophon respects 
 and praises the Spartans, especially their king, Agesilaus, of whose life 
 he had also written a description. For this reason, his Greek history is 
 composed wdth a conscious partiality ; the illustrious Thebans, Pelopidas 
 and Epaminondas in particular, are thrown entirely into the shade. His 
 history concludes with the battle of Mantinge'a. Another work of Xeno- 
 phon's was a history of the elder Cyrus (Cyropa^dia), a sort of romance, 
 in which he displays the founder of the Persian empire as the model of a 
 re«rent. 
 
HISTORY OP GREECE. 55 
 
 § 73. Rhetoric, also, about this time, rose in Athens to its highest point. 
 of perfection. If eloquence had originally been a gift of nature, an in- 
 born talent, it began, after the Peloponnesian war, to be treated as an art, 
 and rules and theories were established respecting it. Schools of oratory- 
 were opened, where the Athenian youth who wished to devote themselves 
 to public life, or to the affairs of government or the law, received in- 
 struction. For in a democratic republic like Athens, he alone could hope 
 to exert himself with success, who was capable of speaking well. Among 
 the ten Athenian orators who have left written discourses behind them, 
 j^ c. Isocrates takes a high rank, both on account of the artistic 
 
 43G — 338. skill and perfection of style displayed by his discourses, and 
 more particularly, from the great success of his oratorical school. IsaJU3, 
 Demosthenes ^ pupil of Isocrates, was the instructor of Demosthenes, who, 
 B. c. from his youth upwards, kept his purpose so steadily before his 
 
 385 — 322. eyes that he made incredible efforts to overcome his natural 
 impediments, so that he might render himself an orator. No one pos- 
 sessed to an equal degree with himself the gift of exciting, enchaining, 
 and inspiring his auditors. Animation of delivery, alternations from se- 
 verity to ridicule, bitter outbursts, and happy turns of expression, all 
 served him as weapons. The most remarkable of his productions are the 
 twelve political orations against Philip of Macedon (Philippics), in which 
 he endeavors t||^excite the Athenians to make war upon this enterprising 
 monarch, who was at that time meditating the subjection of Greece. 
 The rival of Dem<5sthenes was -ZE'schines, an orator like himself, who 
 sided with the king of Macedon and his party. When the Athenian 
 senate awarded a golden crown to Demosthenes, ^'schines attempted, in 
 a brilliant speech, to procure a revocation of the vote by calling in ques- 
 tion the merits of him to whom the crown had been presented. This gave 
 Demosthenes the opportunity of so overwhelming his opponent, in his in- 
 comparable oration " de Corona," that ^'schines was sentenced to pun- 
 ishment, and experienced so much annoyance, that he betook himself to 
 llhoiles, where he established a school of oratory. 
 
 § 74. The most flourishing period of the fine arts, under which term 
 are inchided architecture, sculpture, and painting, was from the time of 
 Pericles to the death of Alexander. The feeling for art that was inhe- 
 rent in the Greeks, was the chief cause of this perfecfion. Grecian archi- 
 tecture w^as particularly distinguished by symmetry and harmony, so that 
 every building formed a beautiful whole. The principal feature in a 
 Greek edifice are the pillars, which are divided into three orders by the 
 differences in their capitals. The plain and massive Doric, the slendei 
 Ionic with its voluted capital, and the highly-decorated Corinthian* 
 They were particularly employed in the entrances of the temples, an(3 
 in halls and porticos. The dwelling-houses of the ancients were 
 Email and insignificant, so that their architectural skill could only be 
 
56 THE AKCIENT WORLD. 
 
 displayed in tlieir public buildings, temples, theatres, senate-houses, mo 
 numents, &;c. 
 
 The art of sculpture was carried to its highest perfection by the 
 Greeks, and the masterpieces of antiquity that have been preserved to 
 us are even now regarded as unapproachable examples of beauty. 
 Amongst the artists, the next in celebrity to Phidias (§ 58) are Scopas 
 of Pares, Praxiteles of Athens, and Lysippus of Sicyon. Since the best 
 way of showing respect to a celebrated or deserving man, in Greece, was 
 to erect his statue, or set up his bust or " herm^es " (bust placed on a 
 pedestal), artists everywhere found employment and encouragement. 
 Every city made it a point of honor to possess a multitude of statues in 
 its streets and public places. The splendid physical conformation of the 
 Greeks, which was disfigured by no ugly habiliments, and the oppor- 
 tunity, afforded by the exercises of the gymnasium, of seeing the naked 
 figure in every variety of attitude, tended materially to the perfection 
 of the art of sculpture. The statue of the Belvidere Apollo, the group 
 of the La6coon, and innumerable figures and works in bas-relief, afford 
 splendid evidence of the high artistic capabilities of the Greeks. 
 
 In painting, the names of Parrhasius, Zeuxis, and Apelles are particu- 
 larly celebrated. We possess no specimen of ancient painting except the 
 figures on the Grecian vases of burnt earth, and a few pictures on the 
 walls of old buildings. Music, dancing, and the histrioim? art were also 
 cultivated by the Greeks with enthusiasm. 
 
 III. THE MACEDONIAN PERIOD. 
 
 1. PHILIP OF MACEDOX, B. C. 361-336. 
 
 § 75. Northward from Greece lies the rude and mountainous tract 
 of Maceddnia, the inhabitants of which were not looked upon as belong- 
 ing to the Hellenes, though they had adopted the military system and 
 many institutions of the Greeks. They were a military race, dehghting 
 in war and the chase, and in chivalrous exercises and entertainments. 
 A year after the de^th of Epaminondas, Philip assumed the government 
 of this people. He was a man who united the shrewdness and dexterity 
 of a statesman, the talents of a general, and the generosity and magna- 
 nimity of a prince. He both loved and respected the cultivation, and the 
 artists and poets, of Greece, but held fast, nevertheless, to the manners 
 of his own people, and even shared the disposition to intemperance 
 indulged in by his nobles. He possessed a well-appointed and efficient 
 army, which was rendered particularly formidable by a newly-invented 
 order of battle, called the phalanx. 
 
HISTORY OF GREECE. 57 
 
 § 76. Philip's great aim was the subjugation of the disunited Greek 
 Itates. The sacred war afforded him the wished for opportunity for this 
 purpose. The Thebans wanted to reduce the neighboring state, Phocis, 
 under their own dominion, and had cited the inhabitants before the coun- 
 cil of Amphictyons, on a charge of having taken possession of, and 
 brought into cultivation, some of the lands belonging to the temple of 
 Delphi. The council inflicted a heavy fine upon the Phdcians, and upon 
 their refusing to pay it, they were placed under a ban, and the Thebans 
 were directed to carry the punishment into execution. Upon this, the 
 Phdcians took possession of the temple -of Delphi, and employed the 
 treasures deposited there in hiring an army of mercenaries, by whose 
 assistance they succeeded in defending themselves for ten years against 
 all the attacks of their enemies. The Thebans addressed themselves to 
 Philip for assistance. Philip yielded to their request, first subjected ths 
 Thessalians, and then penetrated by the pass of Thermopylae into Phocis. 
 After a gallant resistance, the Phdcians were compelled to submit. They 
 v/ere tlirust out of the council of the Amphictyons, as a people accursed, 
 and Philip was admitted in their place ; their cities were razed to the 
 ground, some of the inhabitants quitted their country, others were 
 carried into slavery, and those that remained were compelled to pay 
 tribute. 
 
 § 77. Previous to this, Philip had taken possession of the Greek colonial 
 cities, Araphipolis in Thrace, and Potidao'a in Macedonia, and founded the 
 strong town of Philippi in the neighborhood of the former, in a region 
 abounding in gold mines; after this, he had subjected the haughty city 
 Olynthus, and punished it severely in its possessions and liberties. But it 
 was only by the breaking out of a second sacred war, that he was enabled 
 to attain his object. The Locrians were now accused in the same way the 
 Phdcians had formerly been, of having appropriated and brought under 
 cu'.ivation a portion of the lands belonging to the temple of Delphi; and 
 for this crime, they were visited with a heavy fine by the council of Am- 
 phictyons. As this fine was not paid, the Amphictyons, at the suggestion of 
 the orator, jiE'schines, who, in his capacity of Athenian deputy, was pres- 
 ent at their council, commuted the punishment of the Locrians. The 
 Macedonian king, Philip, hastened southward with his army, but instead 
 of subduing the Locrians, he seized and fortified the importantly situated 
 town of Elatea. This arbitrary proceeding roused the Athenians from 
 their indifi"erence, and induced them to give a hearing to the exhortations 
 of Demosthenes. The orator himself arranged an alliance with the The- 
 bans, and effected the equipment of a considerable army. But these troops, 
 collected together in haste, and placed under the command of incompetent 
 leaders, were unable Jo sustain the shock of the Macedonian phalanx. 
 Despite the valor of the sacred band of the Thebans, who fell to a man on 
 the field, Philip gained the battle of Chaeronea, which put an end forever 
 
58 THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 to tlie liberties of Greece. Demosthenes pronounced the funeral 
 oration over the bodies of those who had fallen, and Isocrates, 
 who was then nearly a hundred years old, put himself to death rather than 
 gurvive the liberties of his country. For the rest, Philip treated the 
 Greeks with kindness and affability, to accustom them more readily to 
 the Macedonian yoke. He cherished the purpose of attacking the crum- 
 bling empire of Persia, at the head of the united states of Greece, 
 and summoned an assembly of the whole nation at Corinth, to make 
 the necessary preparations. He was already named generalissimo of the 
 forces, with unlimited powers, and every state was directed to furnish him 
 with its contingent of troops, when he was killed, from motives of private 
 vengeance, by one of his body guard, at the nuptials of his daughter JEgsQ, 
 in Macedonia. 
 
 2. ALEXANDER THE GREAT. 
 
 "i> 78. After the death of Philip, the Macedonian throne was ascended by 
 his son Alexander, then in his twentieth year ; a high-spirited prince, and 
 susceptible of all that is great and honorable. He was brought up and 
 instructed in the culture of the Greeks by Aristotle, the great philosopher, 
 thinker, and inquirer; and in consequence, remained through his whole 
 life a friend and admirer of the Grecian art and literature. As soon 
 as Alexander had established himself upon the throne, he was ac- 
 knowledged by the Greeks as the successor of his father in the office 
 of generalissimo against the Persians. Before, however, he could under- 
 take the campaign to Asia Minor, he had to sustain a severe encounter 
 with some wild tribes, who had made an irruption into Macedonia. A 
 false report of his death was suddenly !5pread abroad in Greece, and 
 filled the Greeks with the hope of again regaining their independence. 
 The Thebans killed a part of the Macedonian garrison in their citadel, 
 and the Athenians and Peloponnesians made preparations for war. But 
 Alexander came upon them with the raj)idity of lightning, Thebes ^vas 
 taken, its walls and houses levelled with the ground, and the inhabitants 
 reduced to slavery. Only the temple and the house of the poet Pindar 
 were spared. The rest of the Greeks were terrified, and the victor, who 
 soon repented of his severity, forgave them. 
 
 § 79. It was in the spring of the year 334 b. c, that Alexander com- 
 menced his expedition against the Persians, with a small but valiant 
 army, commanded by admirable officers, Clitus, Parm^nio, Ptolema^^us, 
 and Antigonus. The army arrived at the Hellespont by the same path 
 that Xerxes had taken, but in the contrary direction. At the passage, 
 Alexander was the first who sprang upon the Asiatic continent, where, 
 upon the plain of Troy, he instituted solemn games and sacrifices in 
 honor of the ancient heroes who had fallen there. Achilles was hia 
 model ; for this reason, he always carried the compositions of Homer 
 
HISTORY OF GREECE. 59 
 
 about Tvith him. Shortly after, the battle at the stream 
 Granicus took place, where Alexander carried off the victory 
 from the far superior force of the Persians. His courage and chivalrous 
 spirit here plunged him into imminent hazard of his life, from which he 
 was only rescued by the timely assistance of his general, Clitus. The 
 conquest of Asia Minor was the consequence of this victory. The Greek 
 cities submitted themselves voluntarily, and hailed with joyful enthusiasm 
 the kingly hero who had sprung from their own race. In the city of G6r- 
 dium, there existed a very ancient royal chariot, with a knot twisted in the 
 most intricate manner, respecting which an oracle had declared, that who- 
 ever should unfasten this knot should gain the empire of Asia. Alex- 
 ander accomplished the prophecy by cutting the Gordian knot with his 
 sword. After this, he crossed by perilous marches the Cilician moun- 
 tains, where he got a dangerous illness by bathing in the cold waters of 
 the Cydnus, from which he was only restored by the skill of the Greek 
 physician, Philippus, and his own confidence in human virtue. 
 
 § 80. Darius Codomannus himself now opposed him with a much 
 stronger force, but suffered a complete overthrow in the battle of the 
 Issus. This unfortunate king, who was worthy of a better fate, fled with 
 the remains of his army into the interior of his dominions, whilst Alex- 
 ander prepared to attack Phoenicia and Palestine, so as not to leave these 
 lands unsubdued in bis rear. The booty, after the battle of the Issus, 
 was immense ; and the number of the prisoners, amongst whom were the 
 mother, wife, and daughter of Darius, who, contrary to the customs of 
 antiquity, were generously treated by the conqueror, not at all inferior. 
 
 § 81. Palestine and Phoenicia submitted without resistance; but Tyre, 
 confident in the strength of its position, rejected the summons to surren- 
 der with defiance. Upon this, Alexander undertook the celebrated siege 
 of Tyre, which lasted seven months. He commanded a mole, with 
 towers, to be erected from the main land to the island on which the city 
 was built; and from this mole his soldiers attempted the conquest of the 
 town by machines for casting stones, and by every means that art could 
 supply, whilst his ships blockaded the place by sea. But the Tyriana 
 defeated his attempts by ingenious methods of defence, and maintained a 
 desperate resistance. For this, Tyre had to make a heavy 
 expiation when it was at length taken. Those of the in- 
 habitants who had not escaped or perished in the siege, were reduced to 
 slavery, and. the city itself was levelled to the ground. For the purpose 
 of directing the commerce of the world into a different channel, Alex- 
 ander, after he had conquered Egypt, built Alexandria on an arm of the 
 Nile, and this city soon became the central point of trade and civiliza- 
 tion. From Egypt he marched to the widely-renowned temple of Jupi- 
 ter Ammon in the oasis of Sivah, where the priests declared him to be 
 the son of Jupiter, a distinction that gained him no little respect in the 
 eyes of the superstitious orientals. 
 
60 THE AIs^CIENT WORLD. 
 
 § 82. After Alexander had established a new government in Egypt, 
 he marched against Darius, who, in the mean time, had collected a large 
 annj. lie crossed the Euphrates and Tigris, and with a 
 force only the twentieth part of that of the enemy, he de- 
 feated the enormous host of the Persians which had been assembled 
 together from all the East in the plains of Babylon, in the battle of 
 Arbela and Gaugamcla. The conquest of Babylon, and the capture of 
 the two ancient capitals, Susa and Persepolis, with an enormous treasure, 
 were tlie fruits of this splendid victory. Darius fled from Ecbatana, the 
 beautiful summer residence of the Persian kings, to the mountainous 
 region of Bactria, where he received his death from the hand of his 
 treacherous governor, Bessus. Alexander shed tears over the fate of his 
 unfortunate rival, and caused his murderer, who had assumed the title of 
 king, but who was soon overcome and taken prisoner by the Macedoni- 
 ans, to be crucified in conformity with the Persian custom. 
 
 § 83. The enterprising conqueror succeeded, by dint of a daring 
 march across the snow-covered Indian Caucasus, during which his sol- 
 diers narrowly escaped perishing by hunger and fatigue, in making 
 himself master of the mountain region to the south-east of the Caspian 
 Sea, and rendering it approachable by the roads he caused to be con- 
 structed. His lofty spirit was not entirely absorbed by scenes of war 
 and conquest, but could attend to the civilization of the savage inhabit- 
 ants. Four newly-erected towns, named after him, Alexandria, becamo 
 the centre of the caravan trade, and diffused the Greek cultivation among 
 the farthest nations of the East. At the storming of a strong fortress, 
 he took prisoner the beautiful princess, lloxana, " the Pearl of the East," 
 and made her his wife. 
 
 § 84. Although the Macedonians repeatedly expressed their discontent 
 at their leader's unbounded love of conquest, Alexander nevertheless 
 proceeded onwards, to subjugate the lands on the banks of the Indus. 
 But the warlike inhabitants of northern India, urged on by their priests, 
 offered hira a far more vigorous resistance than the dastardly subjects of 
 the Persian king. Alexander's life was exposed more than once to the 
 greatest peril in the storming of their strong-holds. The quarrels of the 
 native princes facilitated the conquest of the Land of the Five Rivers 
 (Puiijaub) by the Macedonians. Some of them leagued themselves with 
 Alexander against Porus, the most powerful of these princes on the 
 farther side of the Hydaspes (Dschelum). The passage of this river in 
 the face of the enemy, and the action that followed, in which the galknt 
 Porus was wounded and tak^n prisoner, are among the greatest military 
 achievements of antiquity. Two new cities, Bucephala (so named in 
 honor of Alexander's charger, Bucephalus), and Nicoe'a (city of Vic- 
 tory), were to diffuse Grecian civilization among these lands also. 
 Alexander continued his course by difficult marches, still farther east 
 
HISTORY OF GREECE. 61 
 
 ward, to Ilypliasis, and was already making preparations to add the rich 
 lands of the Ganges to his dominions, when the murmurs of the Mace- 
 donians became so loud that he was compelled, though with inward 
 reluctance, to retreat. Twelve stone altars on the banks of the river 
 mark the eastern termination of his conquests. After restoring their 
 lands to Porus and the other Indian princes under Macedonian supremacy, 
 he sailed do^vn the Indus to discover another way of returning. 
 
 This undertaking proved most fatal. In two months, he lost three 
 fourths of his army in the frightful deserts of Gedrosia, The heroic 
 warriors, who bad bidden defiance to sword and lance in so many battles, 
 fell victims in the barren and waterless desert to want and fatigue, to the 
 miseries of the climate, the fervid sun, the heated sand, and the nightly 
 frosts. Alexander magnanimously shared all the dangers and difficulties 
 with the meanest of his troops, and rewarded those who escaped with 
 entertainments and presents; by this means, the feasting became as 
 excessive as the previous want. 
 
 § 85. Upon his return, Alexander dismissed his veteran soldiers to 
 their homes, after having laden them with presents ; inflicted punish- 
 ments upon the faithless governors and officers, who, during his absence, 
 had committed acts of violence and oppression, and then devoted himself 
 zealously to the plan of assimilating the conquered people with their 
 victors, and uniting them together in one nation possessed of the arts and 
 cultivation of Greece. He treated the Persians with kindness, for the 
 purpose of attaching them to his person and his rule. He surrounded 
 himself with a court after the fashion of their kings, assumed the royal 
 habit and diadem, and employed Persian guards and attendants. Ho 
 encouraged marriages between his generals and soldiers and the maidens 
 of the country, by present^?, and he himself espoused one of the daughters 
 of Darius. By this conduct, Alexander offended the Macedonians and 
 Greeks, who wished to rule over the conquered people. Already, during 
 the Indian campaign, the soldiers had displayed their discontent and ill 
 humor in dissatisfied murmurs. This induced Alexander to have Phi- 
 16tas, the playfellow of his youth, and who was now the head of the 
 malcontents, stoned by the army, and to put to death his aged father 
 Parmenio, who had remained behind in Media. 
 
 Alexander had at first imitated the customs of the Persian monarchs 
 for the purpose of conciliating the conquered people ; but he soon began 
 to take delight in this oriental magnificence. His court at Babylon, 
 which he intended to make the seat of the government of his empire, 
 shone with the highest splendor; riotous feasts and banquets* crowded 
 upon each other, and in the intoxication of sensual indulgence, he com- 
 mitted deeds that afterwards cost him bitter repentance. On his march to 
 the Indus, he had slain his deserving general, Clitus, who saved his life at 
 the GMinicus, but who afterwards excited his anger by some sarcastic 
 6 
 
62 THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 speeches as they were drinking. His heart was corrupted by flatterers, who 
 thrust his honest and well-meaning advisers from his side. The intem- 
 perate indulgence in strong wines undermined his health, and brought him 
 to an early grave. One of the last acts of the hero was instituting mag- 
 nificent funeral solemnities in honor of his prematurely departed friend, 
 Hepha3'stion. His grief for this friend of his youth had not yet passed 
 away, when an illness carried him to the grave in the midst 
 B. c. - . ^^ fresh schemes of conquest, and before he had determined 
 upon a successor. When he was asked to whom he left his kingdom, he is 
 gaid to have replied, " To the worthiest." His dead body was brought 
 from Babylon to Alexandria, and there interred. 
 
 THE ALEXANDRIAN PERIOD. 
 
 a. ALEXANDERS SUCCESSORS. 
 
 § 86. As Alexander left no heir behind him who was capable of 
 assuming the government, — only a brother, who was imbecile, and two 
 children who were minors, — his empire fell to pieces as rapidly as it had 
 been constructed. After many fierce and bloody ways, in which the 
 house of Alexander w^as totally destroyed, his generals succeeded in 
 grasping separate portions of his territories, and erecting them into inde- 
 pendent kingdoms. At first, Perdiccas, to w^hom Alexander had given 
 his signet ring, received the greatest respect, and took upon 
 himself the ofRce of regent. But when he made war upon 
 Ptolemy, the governor of Egypt, he w^as killed by his own soldiers ; 
 whereupon Antigonus assumed the chief power. Antigonus 
 made himself master of the treasury in Susa, and hired such 
 a number of mercenary troops, that he was enabled to bid defiance to the 
 rest of the generals, and compel them to acknowledge him as commander 
 and regent of the empire. As he allowed it, however, to be pretty 
 plainly seen that he aimed at nothing less than the sovereignty of the 
 whole of the Alexandrian dominions, the other generals, Sel^ucus of 
 Syria, Ptolemy of Egypt, and Cassander of Macedon, leagued them- 
 selves together against him and his son Demetrius, who afterwards 
 obtained the surname of Poliorcetes (Taker of Cities). From this 
 originated a long contest, that w^as carried on at the same time both in 
 Greece and Asia, with various success, and which was only terminated 
 by the great battle of Ipsus, in Asia Minor, where the hero Antigonus, 
 who was then eighty years old, lost his life, and his son Demetrius wag 
 obliged to fly. After many partitions and interchanges, Alexander's 
 
HISTORY OF GREECE. 65 
 
 empire (a few smaller states excepted) was finally divided into the three 
 following kingdoms : — 
 
 I. Macedonia and Greece. 
 II. The Syrian empire of the Seleucidae. 
 III. Egypt under the Ptolemies. 
 
 h. Greece's last struggle, the achaian league. 
 
 § 87. From the time of the battle of Cha3ronea, Greece had remain- 
 ed under the government or influence of the Maceddnian kings, and all 
 attempts made by individual states to shake off this yoke had proved 
 ineffectual. Thus the attempt of the brave Spartan king, Agis II., who, 
 with 5000 of his followers, died the death of heroes in the 
 bloody field of Megaldpolis, was productive of no result. 
 The contests between the aristocratic and democratic parties still con- 
 tinued in Athens during the Maceddnian period. When the aristocrats, 
 with the noble Phocion at their head, obtained the governmetit by the 
 aid of the Maceddnians, many of the popular party, and among others, 
 Demdsthenes, the vehement opposer of the royal house of Macedon, 
 quitted the city. Threatened with being given up, the great 
 orator fled to a temple of Neptune, where he destroyed 
 himself by poison, to save himself from falling into the hands of his 
 enemies. Some years afterwards, the democrats again gained the upper 
 hand, when they compelled Phocion, in his turn, to drink the cup of 
 poison. From this time, party violence diminished in Athens, but the 
 love of freedom, patriotism, and civic virtue decayed with it. Effeminacy 
 and the pursuit of pleasure choked the nobler feelings, and although the 
 arts and sciences still continued to flourish, and Athens still remained the 
 centre of civilization, the greatness of the people was gone forever. 
 The citizens disgraced themselves by servility and flattery, particularly 
 at the time when the two Demetrii, Phalereus and Poliorcetes, were 
 resident in their city, and destroyed all morality by their sensuality and 
 debauchery. 
 
 § 88. About the middle of the third century, Greece made a final 
 effort in the Achaian league, to which Aratus of Sicyon 
 
 B. C. 250 o ' J 
 
 gave such power and consequence, especially after the strong 
 city of Corinth had placed itself at the head of the confederation, that 
 he was enabled to assume the supreme power over Peloponnesus, and 
 even over the whole of Greece. This excited the jealousy of Sparta, 
 where, just at that time, two high-spirited kings, Agis III. and Cleomenes, 
 were endeavoring to restore the ancient strength and military virtue. 
 For since the Spartans had decided that one person might become the 
 proprietor of numerous estates, the whole of the land had gradually got 
 into the possession of a few rich families, who governed the state by 
 choosing the ephori from among themselves. The remainder of the citi- 
 
64 THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 zens possessed neither rights nor property, and were in debt to the rich. 
 The two kings sought to remedy these evils by abolishing the office of 
 the ephori, by destroying the bonds of the debtors, and by reestablishing 
 the laws and customs of Lycurgus. But Agis was dethroned and cruelly 
 murdered by his enemies ; and Cledmenes, who by dint of resolution 
 succeeded in carrying his objects in Sparta, and then endeavored to 
 compel the rest of the Peloponnesian states to acknowledge the Spartan 
 supremacy, was defeated in the battle of Sellasia in Laconia 
 by the Achaian league, supported by the Macedonians, and 
 found himself compelled to fly to Alexandria; where he and his faithful 
 followers, after being baffled in attempting an insurrection, perished by 
 their own daggers. In the same year in which Cledmenes met with his 
 death, Sparta was subdued by the valiant PhilopcB'men (who had been 
 chosen head of the Achaian league after Aratus), and compelled a short 
 time after to join the league and abolish entirely the laws of Lycurgus. 
 Philopoe'men afterwards fell into the hands of his enemies, during a war 
 with the Messenians, and was obliged to drink the cup of poison. After 
 the death of this "last of the Greeks," the power of the Achaian league 
 declined, so that the Romans were enabled to take possession of the 
 whole country without any great effort. 
 
 C. THE PTOLEMIES AND SELEUCID^. 
 
 § 89. Seleiicus and Ptdlemy were the most fortunate of Alexander's 
 successors. The former, after many wars which were attended with 
 important results, succeeded in reducing all the countries between the 
 Hellespont and the Indus, and founding the Syrian empire of the Seleii- 
 cidae. He built the magnificent city of Antioch on the Orontes, and 
 Seleucia on the Tigris. By means of these cities, and forty others, 
 erected by himself and his successors, the Greek language and culture 
 became more and more predominant in the East ; and from this period, 
 Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt, were the chief seats of civilization and 
 commerce. But this condition of extreme refinement afibrded little 
 matter for rejoicing. The enormous wealth that flowed into these states 
 produced luxury, effeminacy, and sensuality ; indolence enervated the 
 people, and produced a servile spirit, which displayed itself by the most 
 abject adulation of oppressive rulers. Sanguinary crimes, the empire of 
 women and favorites, universal reprobation and corruption of morals, are 
 the prominent features in the history of the Seleiicidae, of whom Anti'o- 
 chus III., surnamed the Great, is the best known, as well by his expedi- 
 tion into India, as from his unfortunate contest with the Romans. Under 
 monarchs so weak and abandoned as these, it was no difficult matter for 
 enterprising men to establish small independent states. The most cele- 
 brated of these were the kingdom of Pergamus in Asia Minor, and that 
 of the Parthians on the north-east o*f the Euphrates. 
 
HISTORY OF GREECE. 64 
 
 The Egyptians under the Ptolemies were in a similar position. The 
 three first kings established a large naml and military force, by means 
 of which they enlarged their empire on an sides. Trade and commerce 
 produced Avealth ; the science of government and taxation was brought 
 to a high degree of perfection:^ Alexandria became the seat of the com- 
 merce of the world, and the centre of Greek art, literature, and civiliza- 
 tion ; the world-renowned museum, with its extensive library and 
 resiiences for poets and men of learning, was connected with the royal 
 palace. But the men who were the producers of all this prosperity were, 
 like tlic royal family itself, aliens — Greeks and Jews. The glory of 
 the Ptolemaic dynasty was of short duration, for the civilization of Alex- 
 andria had no root among the people. It was an exotic plant that em- 
 bellished the surface, but left the soil unchanged. The court of Alexan- 
 dria was not less distinguished by cruelty, debauchery, and corruption of 
 morals, than by its splendor, wealth, and refinement. 
 
 d. THE JEAVS UNDER THE MACCABEES. 
 
 § 90. Judaa'a was for a long time an object of contention between the 
 Seleucidae and the Ptolemies. The latter were the first to take posses- 
 sion of the land and to render it tributary ; but they suflfered the old 
 institutions to remain, and allowed the high priest, with the council of 
 seventy (Sanhexlrim), to manage the affairs of religion and the internal 
 government. Many of the Jews settled. in Alexandria, where they ac- 
 quired wealth and power, but gradually lost the language, manners, and 
 r^iglou of their own country, or mingled them with those of the Greeks. 
 The translation of the Hebrew text of the Bible into Greek, 
 
 B. C. 284. . . 
 
 which was executed at the instigation of the second of the 
 Ptolemies, by seventy-two Alexandrian Jews (hence called the Septua- 
 gint), was afterwards extremely serviceable to the propagation of Chris- 
 tianity. 
 
 Judaj'a was subjected to the Seleucidae by the Syrian king Antiochns 
 III. (the Great), and grievously oppressed with taxes. His second suc- 
 cessDr, Antiochus Epiphanes, plundered the temple in Jerusalem of its 
 treasures, and even entertained the purpose of destroying the Jewish 
 institutions and the worship of Jehovah, and substituting the Greek 
 idolatry in its place. To this project the Jews offered an obstinate resist- 
 ance, and by this means drew a severe persecution on themselves. Whcft 
 this persecution was carried beyond all endurable limits, the people rose 
 in desperation against their oppressors, and under the command of the 
 ^ high priest, Mattathi'as, and bis five heroic sons (Maccabees), 
 
 encountered the Syrians with courage and success. The 
 eldest son, Judas Maccabae'us, enforced a peace, which granted the 
 
 reestablishment of the Jewish worship. His brother Simon 
 
 B C 135 ' 
 
 freed Judoe'a from the Syrian yoke, and reigned wisely and 
 6* 
 
66 THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 righteously as prince and high priest. Under his successors, the limits of 
 the kingdom were enlarged, j|,nd the Idumoe'ans (Edomites) induced to 
 accept the Jewish law. But internal dissensions, and the hatred of sects, 
 Boon again impaired the strength of the people. The Pharisees, who 
 held firmly to the prophets and the law of Moses, attributed great merit 
 to the accurate observance of trifling precepts and outward ceremonies, 
 and fell by this means into hypocrisy and false righteousness ; the Saddu- 
 cees were less severe in their interpretation of the Mosaic laws, and 
 attempted to bring them into accordance with the morals, doctrine, and 
 way of thinking of the Greeks ; the Essenes lived together in brother- 
 hoods, who had all their possessions in common, and served God by acts 
 of penance and works of charity. The weakness produced by the mutual 
 hostility of these sects at length brought the Jewish race under the domi- 
 nion of the Romans. The last of the Maccabees was slain by Herod the 
 Iduma^'an, who thereupon ascended the throne of David by the assistance 
 of the Romans, and ruled over Judce'a as tributary king (Tetrarch). For 
 the purpose of conciliating the Jews, who hated him as a foreigner, he 
 enlarged and beautified the temple of Solomon ; but towards the end of 
 his reign, suspicion caused him to degenerate into a bloodthirsty tyrant, 
 who even attempted the life of that Jesus of Nazareth who was sent into 
 the world to redeem the lost race of man. 
 
 C. THE STATE OF CIVILIZATION DURING THE ALEXANDRIAN PERIOD. 
 
 § 91. By the conquests of Alexander and his successors, the Grecian 
 arts and refinements were diffused over the greatest part of the old wdl'ld, 
 and a high amount of civilization in consequence produced. The great 
 increase of commerce and intercourse among all nations was favorable to 
 the spread of this civilization. But the inward strength was weakened 
 by the outward diffusion. Nothing worthy of notice was produced in 
 poetry, except the Idyls, in which Theocritus the Sicilian 
 describes a pastoral life full of innocence and simplicity, and 
 a few dramatic compositions which are now lost. History and oratory 
 were far behind the splendid examples of an earlier period. Learning, 
 and the practical sciences, which are based on experience and inquiry, 
 attained, on the other hand, to a great degree of perfection. Learned 
 critics and grammarians arranged and illustrated the works of the older 
 Greek writers ; natural history and mathematics, geography and astro- 
 nomy, of which the elements alone had previously existed, were now 
 Euclid, greatly advanced. Euclid, a contemporary of the first 
 
 B. c. 280. Ptolemy, composed a text-book of geometry that was em- 
 Archimedes, ployed in education for centuries; Archimedes of Syracuse 
 B. c. 212. gained imperishable renown by his discoveries in mechani- 
 cal and physical science ; and the art of medicine, that had been first 
 established on a scientific basis by Hippocrates, was considerably extended 
 
HISTORY OF GREECE. 67 
 
 by the Alexandrian physicians. But philosophy was the subject that 
 received the greatest attention. As Paganism in its corruption afforded 
 no rest to the soul, and no support in life, men sought for refuge in the 
 pursuit of wisdom. The precepts of the philosophers of an earlier period 
 were expanded and applied to the regulation of life. In this way arose 
 the schools of philosophy, some of which reposed on the doctrines of Plato 
 and Aristotle, and others were originated by the disciples of Socrates and 
 other wise men. The Stoics and the Epicureans became the most dis- 
 tinguished of these philosophical sects. Socrates had especially taught, 
 that happiness was the end of existence. His scholar Antisthenes be- 
 lieved that the surest way of attaining this happiness was to renounce all 
 pleasures, and taught that moderation, abstinence, and a freedom from 
 
 ^. wants, were the hidiest objects of human exertion. His 
 
 Diotrenes. . 
 
 " disciple Diogenes carried these doctrines to the greatest 
 
 excess : he lived in a tub, deprived himself voluntarily of property and 
 all the pleasures of life, and by this " heroism of abstinence," excited the 
 admiration of the great Alexander. This school was called the Cynic, 
 from the place in which Antisthenes taught; and in allusion to this, Di6- 
 genes received the surname of kuon (hound), because the wretched and 
 joyless life he led seemed fitter for a dog than a human being. This 
 doctrine in a more noble form constitutes the basis of the Stoic philoso- 
 phy, which was taught by Zeno, a contemporary of Alexan- 
 der, in the porticoes (stoa) of Athens. According to his 
 teaching, man only attains felicity by bearing with invincible indifference 
 all the changes and chances of life, — joy and grief, misfortune or happi- 
 ness : this is his duty the rather, that every thing is determined on before- 
 hand by an eternal natural necessity or fate. In opposition to this view, 
 another disciple of Sdcratcs, Aristippus of Cyrene, main- 
 tained the enjoyment of life as his chief principle, and taught 
 the art of wisely mingling together sensual and intellectual pleasures. 
 This art of enjoyment was erected by one of his scholars, Epicurus, into 
 a system that numbered many adherents. Whilst, however, Epicurus 
 made happiness to consist in a freedom from all painful and distressing 
 emotions, his followers overstepped the bounds of moderation, placed 
 luxury and the gratification of the appetites as the ends of existence, and 
 rendered Epicurism the philosophy of effeminacy and excess. 
 
68 THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 C. HISTORY OF ROME. 
 
 THE EACES AND INSTITUTIONS OP ANCIENT ITALY. 
 
 § 92. The beautiful peninsula which is bounded on the north by the 
 Alps, surrounded on the east, west, and south by the Mediterranean, and 
 traversed throughout its whole length by the Appenines, was formerly 
 inhabited by numerous races of men of different origin. Upper Italy, 
 on either bank of the Po (Padus), was the dwelling-place of the Gallic 
 race, who were divided into many tribes and states, and possessed numer- 
 ous cities, both in the fertile plains and on the sea-coast. Central Italy 
 was inhabited by many small tribes, a part of which had dwelt in the 
 land from time immemorial, and might be looked upon as the aborigines 
 of the country ; whilst others had wandered thither from abroad. To the 
 latter class belonged the remarkable family of the Etruscans, to the for- 
 mer the sturdy race of the Sabelli, who were again divided into numer- 
 ous warlike and freedom-loving tribes, among whom the Samnites, the 
 Sabines, and the ^qui, w'ere the most distinguished. The Latins, a 
 powerful rustic tribe on the south of the Tiber, were a mixed race, com- 
 posed of natives and immigrants, to which, after the conquest of Troy, a 
 Trojan race, under the conduct of ^neas, is said to have united itself. 
 The coast of Lower Italy was covered with Greek colonies ; the inland 
 parts were the seat of warlike tribes of Sabelline origin, Samnites, Cam- 
 panians, Lucani. Campania, with its vineyards and cornfields, is one 
 of the most beautiful and fertile spots on the globe, and was chosen 
 accordingly by the Romans for the erection of their magnificent villas. 
 Of all these races, that of the Etruscans is the most worthy of remark. 
 They formed a confederation of twelve independent cities, of which Caere, 
 Tarqumii, and Perusia, in the neighborhood of the Trasimenian lake, 
 Clusium, and Veii, are the best known. The separate cities were 
 governed by an aristocratic priesthood. These nobles (Lucumos) 
 elected the head of the confederation, the insignia of whose office were 
 an ivory chair, a purple mantle, and axes inclosed in bundles of rods 
 (fasces), such as were afterwards borne before the Roman consuls. The 
 Etruscans were a religious people, and paid great observance to predic- 
 tions derived from the sacrifice of anima';s (auspices), and the flight of 
 birds (auguries). They were proficient i i ihe art of founding, and in 
 working earth and metals, and their skill in architecture is attested by 
 the existing remains of gigantic walls, and the ruins of temples, dykes, 
 roads, &c. The innumerable vessels of clay and cinerary urns (Etruscan 
 vases), ornamented with paintings, which are dug out of the earth, ara 
 evidence of the diligence of the Etruscans in arts and manufactures. 
 
HISTORY OF ROME. 69 
 
 But the oppressive power of the aristocracy, which proved destructive to 
 the freedom and energy of the middle and lower classes, was the occasion 
 of the early decay and extinction of the arts of culture among the people. 
 The Sabines, Samnites, and other tribes of Sabelline origin, led a simple 
 and temperate life in open or only slightly-fortified towns. They loved 
 the pastoral life, agriculture, and war, and looked upon their freedom as 
 their greatest blessing. From time to time, they celebrated a sacred 
 spring, during which the newly-born cattle were otfered in sacrifice ; and 
 the children who came into the world in the course of the year, left their 
 country as colonists, on arriving at the age of twenty. 
 
 The Latins dwelt in thirty cities, which were united together in a con- 
 federation, of which Alba Longa was the head. Agiiculture and civil 
 freedom flourished among them ; their religion was founded upon the 
 worship of nature, and bore a relation to the cultivation of the soil. The 
 seed-god Saturn, and his spouse Ops (the abundance flowing from the 
 earth), were among their deitjes. The venerable goddess Vesta, whose 
 sacred and perpetual fire was watched by twelve virgins (Vestals), was 
 also one of the native deities of the Latins. The representatives of the 
 union held their meetings in a wood on the Albanian hill. 
 
 I. ROME UNDER TPIE GOVERNMENT OF KINGS AND 
 
 PATRICIANS. 
 
 I. ROME UNDER THE KINGS. 
 
 § 93. We are told by an old legend, that king Numitor of Alba Longa, 
 a successor of the Trojan ^neas, (§ 37), was deprived of his crown by 
 his brother Amulius, and his daughter Rhfea Silvia placed among the 
 sacred virgins of Vesta, that she might remain unmarried and without 
 offspring. But when she bore the twins lldmulus and Remus, to the god 
 Mars, her cruel uncle commanded the children to be exposed on the 
 banks of the Tiber, where, however, they were discovered and brought 
 up by shepherds. Informed by an accident of the mystery of their birth 
 
 B c 753 ^^^ ^^^ ^^^^ ^^ *^^^"' g^'^^^^'^^^^^^^j they restored the throne of 
 
 Alba Longa to Numitor, and then founded Rome on the 
 Palatine hill, on the left bank of the Tiber. The rising walls of the city 
 are said to have been stained by the blood of Remus, who was slain in a 
 quarrel, by his brother. 
 
 Bomulus, § 94. When the little town was built, Romulus attracted 
 
 B. c. 730. inhabitants, by declaring it a place of refuge for fugitives. 
 But as the fugitives had no wives, and the neighboring people hesitated 
 to give them their daughters in marriage, Romulus arranged some mili- 
 
/U THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 tary games, and invited the neighbors as spectators. At a given signal, 
 every Roman seized upon a Sabine virgin, and carried her off into the 
 city. This outrage gave rise to a war between the Sabines and the new 
 colony. The two armies were already opposed to each other, w^hen the 
 abducted virgins rushed between the combatants, and put an end to the 
 strife, by declaring that they would share the fate of the Romans. A 
 treaty was arranged, in consequence of which the Sabines, who dwelt on 
 the Capitoline hill, agreed to unite themselves in a single community with 
 the Latins, who lived on the Palatine, and the Etruscans, who inhabited 
 the Caalian hill: it was decided further, that the Sabine king, Titus 
 Tatius, should share the government with Romulus ; and that a Latin 
 and a Sabine should be elected alternately from the senate to the office 
 of king. Romulus disappeared from the earth in an unknown manner, 
 and received divine honors under the name of Quiri'nus. The citi- 
 zens from this time bore the name of Quirites, conjointly with that of 
 Romans. 
 
 ]s[:mna § ^^' "^^^ warlike Romulus was succeeded by the wise 
 
 Pompilius, Sabine, Numa Pompilius, who reduced the rising state to or- 
 B. c. 700. ^gj. 1^^ j^jg jjj^yg ^j^j religious institutions, and improved and 
 civilized the inhabitants. "He built temples, and established a form of 
 religious worship, increased the number of priests, and made regulations 
 respecting sacriifices and divinations. He dediccated a temple at the en- 
 trance of the forum to Janus Bifrons, the god who presides over the 
 beginning of every thing, both in time and space: the doors of this 
 temple were open in time of war, and closed during peace. As the 
 Greeks confirmed their laws by the means of oracles, so Numa main- 
 tained that he had derived his system of religion from conversations with 
 the nymph Eg(5ria, who had a M^ood sacred to her on the south of Rome. 
 B. c. 650. § 96. The two following kings, Tullus HostiHus the Latin, 
 
 B. c. 625. and Ancus Martius the Sabine, enlarged the territory of the 
 little state by successful wars ; so that four other hills were added to the 
 three before mentioned, and gradually supplied with inhabitants. For 
 this reason, Rome is called the seven-hilled city. Under Tullus Hostilius 
 the Romans engaged in a war with Alba Longa. Just as the armies 
 were about to engage, it was agreed to decide the fate of the two cities 
 by a combat between three brothers, the Iloratii and the Curiatii, chosen- 
 from each of the parties. Two of the champions of the Romans had 
 already fallen, when the victory was decided in their favor by the cunning 
 and bravery of the third, and the possession of Alba Longa fell at once 
 into their hands. The city was destroyed, and the inhabitants trans- 
 planted to Rome. The same fortune happened to many other cities in 
 the neighborhood, during the reign of Ancus Martius. The conquered 
 citizens settled in Rome, where they received houses and small estates, 
 but were not admitted to the privileges of the elder citizens. The latter 
 
HISTORY OF R02IE. 71 
 
 from this time, were called " patricians," the new-comers bore the name 
 of " plebeians." Ancus Mdrtius founded the sea-port of Ostia, at the 
 mouth of the Tiber. 
 
 § 97. The last three kings, Tarquinius Priscus, Servius TuUius, and 
 Tarquinius Superbus, belonged to the Etruscan race, as is evident from 
 the buil lings they erected, and the Etruscan institutions they introduced 
 into Home. The elder Tarquin laid the foundation of the 
 vast structure of the Capitol, which was completed by his 
 son Tarquinius Superbus, iti accordance with his father's design. It con- 
 sisted of a citadel and a magnificent temple. He constructed, in addition, 
 the enormous cloacae (sewers), built of freestone, for the draining of the 
 city, the Circus Maxim us, and the Forum. 
 
 After thajMurder of Tarquin by the sons of his predecessor, his son- 
 HFiaw Servius Tullius ascended the throne. He originated 
 
 B. C. 550. , />,,,,. 
 
 two measures that were tollowed by miportant consequences. 
 First, he divided the plebeians in the city and its vicinity into thirty 
 tribes, with their own overseers and assemblies ; he then divided the en- 
 tire population of the state, according to their property, into five classes, 
 and these again into hundreds, in order to facilitate the collection of im- 
 posts and the arrangement of military service. By these means, the 
 rich obtained greater privileges, coupled however with the condition of 
 serving as heavy-armed troops without pay, and at their own expense. 
 A sixth class, which included tlie proletaries (persons without property), 
 were exempt from taxes and military service, but were also excluded 
 from all political rights. By these measures, Servius Tullius brought 
 upon himself the hate of the patricians, and was in consequence murdered 
 by his son-in-law, Tarquinius Superbus, with their assistance. 
 
 § 98. Tarquinius Superbus enlarged the boundaries of the 
 state by successful wars with the Latins, whom he united in 
 a confederacy under the direction of Rome ; he completed 
 the Capitol, and ordered the collection of ancient oracles, 
 call 2d the Sibylline books, to be preserved there ; he founded the first 
 colony in the neighboring country of the Volscians, for the purpose of ex- 
 tending the power of Rome. But despite all these services, he rendered 
 himself odious to the patrician party by attempting to extend the limited 
 kingly authority. His acts of violence against the senate and the patri- 
 cians, and the severe imposts and soccage duties with which he visited 
 the plebeians, produced general discontent, which finally burst into rebel- 
 lion nJien it became known in Rome that the outrage which one of the 
 king's sons had offered to the virtuous Lucretia had driven her to self- 
 destruction. Two relatives of the royal house, Lucius Tarquinius Colla- 
 tinus, the husband of Lucretia, and Junius Brutus, were the leaders of 
 the insurrection. Upon receiving information of what was taking place^ 
 the king, who was just then occupied in the siege of the ancient seaport 
 
3 THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 of Ardea, Imstened to Rome with liis army, for the purpose of suppress- 
 ing the tumult ; but he found the gates closed against him, and being 
 deposed from the throne by a vote of the popular assembly, and finding 
 himself deserted by his army, he and his sons were obliged to retire into 
 banishment. 
 
 2. ROME AS A REPUBLIC UNDER THE PATRICIANS. 
 C. HORATIUS COCLES. THE TRIBUNES. CORIOLANUS. 
 
 § 99. After the banishment of the royal family, the sup^gpie power in 
 Rome fell into the hands of the senate. They confirmed™e laws that 
 were passed in the assemblies of the people, and proposed the officers 
 that it was the province of the commons to elect. Instead of a king, two 
 consuls were chosen every year, who ruled the state, superintended the 
 administration of justice, and, in time of war, led the army to the field. 
 The patricians alone could be chosen to these or any other offices. 
 
 The young republic had severe conflicts to sustain both within and 
 from without. Under the first consuls, a number of young Romans of 
 patrician family entered into a conspiracy, for the purpose of bringing 
 back the banished royal family. When this was discovered, the inflexible 
 Brutus punished the offenders, among wliom were two of his own sons, 
 with death. From without, the Romans were threatened with the most 
 imminent danger, by the Etruscan king Porsenna, to whom Tarquin had 
 applied for help, and who had taken possession of the hill Janiculum, on 
 the right bank of the Tiber. The Romans were repulsed in an attempt 
 to drive him from this position, and were only saved by the valor of 
 Iloratius Codes, who defended the wooden bridge that crossed the river. 
 After the Romans had secured themselves and destroyed the bridge, 
 Codes sprang into the stream, armed and weaponed as he was, and swam 
 safely to the opposite shore. Another Roman, Miitius Scai'vola, pene- 
 trated into the Etruscan camp for the purpose of killing the king. lie 
 made a mistake, however, and stabbed the royal secretary. When Por- 
 senna, upon this, endeavored by threats to terrify him into a confession, 
 JMutius, to show that he feared neither pain nor death, laid his right hand 
 in the midst of a fire that was burning on an altar. It was from this cir- 
 cumstance that he received the name of Scoe'vola (left hand). Astonished 
 at such a proof of courage and patriotism, Porsenna made a peace with 
 the Romans, and withdrew his forces. The Romans were however 
 obliged to relinquish a third part of their lands, and to give hostages. The 
 Veians also, and the confederation of the Latins, took the field in support 
 of the Tarquins. Brutus, the founder of the republic, and Aruns Tar- 
 
HISTORY OF ROME. 73 
 
 qiiiniugffcncountered in the battle, and fell by the hands of each other. 
 It was in the war against the Latins that the Romans for the first time 
 appointed a dictator, an officer who was superior to the consuls, and who 
 possessed unlimited power both in the city and the field. It was only in 
 times of the greatest distress and danger that such a dictator was ap- 
 pointed, and he relinquished liis extraordinary office as soon as the neces- 
 sity for it ceased to exist. 
 
 § 100. When Tarquin found that all the attempts to regain possession 
 of his throne had miscarried, he retired to Cuma3, in Lower Italy, where 
 he died. • The patricians now goveraed the state, and op- 
 pressed the plebeians by their severe laws of debtor and 
 creditor. They (the plebeians) were obliged to pay ground-rent for 
 their small properties, to perform military service without pay, and to 
 provide their own arms and accoutrements. When they were engaged 
 in war, their lands were left untilled at home : bad harvests brought 
 poverty, and for the sake of escaping from the temporary pressure, they 
 incurred debts with the wealthy patricians. If the plebeian failed in pay- 
 ing the large interest (10 or 12 per cent.) the moment it became due, his 
 person and estate were seized upon by his creditor, he was reduced to 
 the condition of a serf, and his family were left to starve. When this 
 state of things became intolerable, and there was no law to protect the 
 unfortunate debtor a^jainst his merciless creditor, the ple- 
 
 B. C. 494. ' r 
 
 beians resolved upon quitting Rome, and building a new 
 town upon the sacred hill, about a league and a half from the city. The 
 patricians sent Menenius Agrippa after them, to induce them to return. 
 He explained to them the disadvantages that were likely to arise from 
 their dissensions, by relating the fable of the quarrel between the stomach 
 and the limbs, and the danger the whole body was reduced to in conse- 
 quence, and promised them a redress of their grievances. The plebeians 
 allowed themselves to be persuaded, and obtained on their return at first 
 five, and afterwards ten, tribunes. These were accounted sacred and in- 
 violable M'hilst they were in office : they possessed the power of placing 
 their veto upon any resolution of the senate or decree of the consuls, 
 which appeared injurious to the interests of the people ; and if this was 
 not sufficient, they could prevent the levies of troops and the collection 
 of taxes. 
 
 Shortly after this, a famine broke out in Rome ; and when at last ships 
 arrived from Sicily with corn, the haughty patrician, Marcius Corioliinus, 
 proposed that none should be yielded to the people till they had consented 
 to the dismissal of their tribunes. Upon this the people, in their as- 
 sembly, passed a sentence of banishment upon Coriohinus. 
 and compelled him to fly. Thirsting for vengeance, he be- 
 took himself to the Volscians, and persuaded them to make an inroad 
 under his command upon the Roman territories. They had already pene- 
 7 
 
74, THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 trated in their destructive course to within five miles of Eonro, when 
 their general was prevailed upon to retreat by the united prayers of hia 
 wife and mother. Coriolanus is said to have fallen a victim to the rage 
 of the Volscians, who nevertheless retained possession of the towns they 
 had conquered. 
 
 h. THE FABII. CINCINNATUS. THE DECEMVIRS. 
 
 § 101. Rome was so weakened by the dissensions between the diffe- 
 rent classes, that her foreign foes were able to possess themselves of one 
 provincial town after another, and gradually to diminish her territory. 
 The plebeians, whose arms were to win the battle, had little pleasure in 
 shedding their blood to increase the wealth and power of their oppres- 
 sors ; they even Avillingly allowed themselves to be defeated, when they 
 were under the command of one of the rigorous patvicians. Such an 
 event took place in a war against the people of Veii, when one of the 
 Fabii was general. The disgrace was so severely felt by the high-spirit- 
 ed fiimily of Fabius, that they deserted their own party, and making 
 common cause with the plebeians, proceeded together to attack the Vei- 
 ans, but were all ensnared in an ambuscade, and died like heroes. One 
 only, who had not arrived at years of maturity, survived the destruction 
 of his race. Whilst the Veians were attacking the Roman territory on 
 the north, the Volsci and TEqui made inroads no less destructive on the 
 south. The latter of these tribes, whose possessions extended as far as 
 Pra^neste, but a few miles from Rome, once attacked the Romans at 
 
 mount Algidus, with such success, that the latter were 
 B. c. 458. T 1 • 1 . 1 , , 1 
 
 surrounded in their camp, and must have been taken prison- 
 ers if Cincinnatus had not come to their rescue. When the senate were 
 informed of the danger the army was in, they appointed the patrician 
 Cincinnatus dictator. Cincinnatus was so reduced in his circumstances 
 by misfortunes, that he possessed nothing but a small estate on the right 
 bank of the Tiber, which he was tilling with his own hands, when the 
 summons of the senate was brought to him. He at once quitted the 
 ploigh, hastened to the place of danger with the Roman youth that 
 assembled themselves about him, and surrounded the ^qui in the night. 
 When these, awakened in the following morning by a great shout, saw 
 the situation they were in, they were compelled to surrender themselves 
 prisoners of war, and, after giving up their arms, to pass under a yoke 
 formed of three spears. 
 
 § 102. The plebeians waged a hot contest with the patricians for an 
 equality of rights. They demanded, above all, an agrarian law, a writ- 
 ten code, and a share of the public offices. 
 
 The Roman state was in possession of large tracts of land, which 
 were not the exclusive property of any one, but the use of which had 
 been granted to the patricians, upon condition that a tenth part of tha 
 
HISTORY OF ROME. 75 
 
 produce should be paid to the state. This common lan4 {ager puUicus) 
 the patricians looked upon as their own, had it cultivated by their clients, 
 and mutually overlooked each other's remissness when the stipulated 
 duty did not find its way to the treasury. The plebeians demanded from 
 time to time an agrarian law, by which a portion of these common 
 lands should be surrendered to them. But as often as the application 
 was made, it was encountered by a most decided resistance. The consul 
 Sp. Cassius, who moved the first agrarian law, was thrown from the 
 Tarpeian rock of the capitol, and the place where his house had stood 
 remained empty and desolate. 
 
 § 103. The administration of the law was exclusively in the hands 
 of the patricians, who gave judgment and pronounced decisions according 
 to custom and unwritten traditionary rules, and were thus frequently 
 guilty of arbitrariness and partiality. . The plebeians, to escape from 
 these evils, demanded a fixed and written code, but experienced a violent 
 resistance from the patricians. After many stormy debates, the tribunes 
 of the people were at last successful in having envoys sent to Graecia 
 Ma^na and Athens, to examine the laws, and to select those 
 
 B. c. 452. 
 
 that should appear suitable. When these envoys returned, 
 both parties agreed that all the officers of government (consuls, tribunes, 
 &c.) should give up their places; and that ten patricians should be 
 appointed with absolute power, and commissioned to draw up fresh laws. 
 At first, the new officers, who, from their number, were called " decemvirs,'* 
 performed the task committed to them in an exemplary manner, and at 
 the end of the year, their laws gave so much satisfaction to the assembly 
 of the people, that the decemvirate was allowed to continue another 
 year, for the completion of its work. But now the ten patricians abused 
 tlieir authority by violent and arbitrary measures; they proceeded 
 against their plebeian opponents by fine, imprisonment, banishment, and 
 the axe of the executioner ; when a war broke out with the JEqui and 
 Volscians, they put to death an ancient plebeian hero in the field ; and 
 continued themselves in office by their own power, after the second year 
 had passed, and the compilation of the laws of the Twelve Tables had 
 been completed. The general discontent was fanned into revolt by a 
 licentious outrage of Appius Claudius, the most illustrious of the decem- 
 virs. This man had conceived a passion for the beautiful Virginia, 
 daughter of one of the plebeian leaders, and the betrothed of another. 
 In order to gain possession of her, he instructed one of his adherents to 
 declare the maiden to be one of his runaway slaves, and to claim her as 
 his property before the judgment-seat of the decemvirs. Appius Clau- 
 dius heaixi the claim in the forum, in the presence of a great multitude of 
 the people ; but scarcely had he, by his decision, put Virginia into the 
 power of the appellant, when her father hastened to the spot and plung- 
 ed a knife into her heart. The plebeians now seized upon the Aventina 
 
76 THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 hill, and insisted with threats upon the expulsion of the decemvirs and 
 the restoration of the old system. They obtained both : Appius Claudius 
 destroyed himself in prison, another of the decemvirs was executed, and 
 the rest expiated their crimes by perpetual exile. The laws of the 
 Twelve Tables, however, remained in operation, and became the basis of 
 the Roman code. 
 
 § 104. Shortly after this, the plebeians succeeded in having it 
 enacted, that the two classes midit contract lawful marriages 
 
 B. C. 444. . 
 
 witli each other, without the children of such unions forfeit- 
 ing any of the privileges of their class ; and they at length proceeded to 
 claim a participation in the consulate. But this demand was resisted by 
 the patricians with their whole strength ; and when, at last, the plebeians 
 prevented the raising of levies for military service, they declared that 
 they would rather have no more consuls than agree to the admission of 
 the plebeians to the office. At length it was arranged, that three or four 
 
 military tribunes, with the authority of consuls, should be 
 
 B. C. 442. >/ ' J ■) 
 
 chosen every year from both classes, as leaders of the army 
 and chief magistrates. This arrangement lasted nearly eighty years. But 
 it occasionally happened that the patrician party gained the upper hand, 
 and then consuls would be again elected for a few years, or the office of 
 military tribune would remain unfilled. To make amends for their loss, the 
 patricians instituted the office of censors. These, two in number, had the 
 keeping of the lists in which every Boman was entered, according to his 
 property, as senator, knight, or citizen ; they superintended the building of 
 temples, streets, and bridges, and exercised a censorial supervision, by virtue 
 of which they might deprive men of vicious lives of the privileges of their 
 class. The office of military tribune with consular power was abolished by 
 the Licinian laws. (^ 107.) 
 
 C. THE TAKING OF ROME BY THE GAULS (b. C. 389), AND THE 
 LAWS OF LICINIUS STOLO (b. C. 366). 
 
 § 105. Whilst these struggles were going on within the city, the 
 Eoman army was successfully engaged against the enemy. Since the 
 regulation that the citizens should receive pay during war, the troops 
 could continue longer in the field. After extending their territories on 
 the south, they turned their whole force against the Etruscans, and, under 
 the command of Camillus, subdued, after a siege of ten 
 years, the hostile city of Veil, the inhabitants of which were 
 either killed or reduced to slavery. The haughty general, who had drawn 
 upon himself the hatred of the plebeians by his splendid triumph and une- 
 qual distribution of the booty, withdrew voluntarily into exile when sum- 
 moned by the tribunes of the people to answer for his conduct, and by 
 this means deprived the state of his aid at the very moment it was most 
 required. 
 
 § 106. For it was about this time that the Gauls, in the neighborhood 
 
HISTORY OF ROME. 77 
 
 of the Po, crossed the Apennines and laid siege to the Etruscan ^ty of 
 Cliisium. The inhabitants turned for assistance to the Romans, who, 
 however, contented themselves with sending an embassy to etfect a re- 
 conciliation. When this failed of success, the ambassadors took part in the 
 contest, and killed one of the leaders of the Gallic army. This outrage 
 upon the rights of nations inflamed the anger of the Gauls. They left 
 Cliisium, advanced by rapid marches upon Rome, and gave the force 
 sent to oppose them so complete an overthrow at the river Allia, that 
 only a few fugitives saved themselves across the Tiber in Veil ; and the 
 day of the battle was ever after distinguished by a black mark in the 
 Roman Calendar, and observed as a time of fasting and prayer. Rome 
 itself, after being deserted by the women and children, fell without 
 resistance into the hands of the enemy. The Gauls burnt the empty 
 city to the ground, slaughtered about eighty old men in the forum, who 
 were desirous of devoting themselves as expiatory sacrifices, and then 
 laid siege to the Capitol, whither those who were capable of bearing 
 arms had withdrawn themselves. The garrison, however, under the 
 command of the heroic Marcus Manlius, making a gallant resistance, and 
 the ranks of the Gauls being thinned by sickness and hunger, a treaty 
 was entered into, after the siege had continued seven months, by which 
 the Gauls consented to withdraw themselves upon being paid a ransom 
 of a thousand pounds weight of gold. It is well known how their inso- 
 lent leader, Brennus, increased the stipulated amount by the • weight of 
 his swoixi, which he cast into the scale. The story of tlie banished 
 Camillus pursuing the retreating enemy with a troop of fugitive Romans, 
 and again recovering the spoil from them, is doubted, and may be 
 attributed, not without reason, to Roman vanity. 
 
 § 107. After the retreat of the enemy, the Romans were so, dispirited 
 that th^ had not courage to rebuild their city, but wished to settle them- 
 selves in the empty town of Veii. It was only with difficulty that the 
 patricians prevented the execution of this project, and that no similar 
 purpose might again be entertained, the houses in Veii were given up to 
 the people to be pulled down. Scarcely had Rome been hastily rebuilt 
 with narrow and crooked streets, and small dwelling-houses, when the 
 patricians again asserted the whole of their claims, and in particular re- 
 vived the ancient laws of debtor and creditor in all their ancient severity. 
 The preserver of the capitol, M. Manlius (Capitolinus), took the part of 
 the oppressed and impoverished plebeians ; but incurred the enmity of 
 those of his own order to such an extent by doing so, that, under the 
 frivolous pretext that he was attempting to gain the kingly power, he 
 was condemned to death, and thereupon cast from the Tarpeian rock, his 
 house levelled with the ground, and his memory declared 
 infamous. But this severity against the friend of the peojile 
 roused the plebeians from their apathy. Two bold and able tribunes, 
 7* 
 
78 THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 Liciiiius Stolo and Sextiiis Lateranus, proposed the following laws : — 
 1. Consuls shall be again chosen, but one of them shall always be a ple- 
 beian. 2. No citizen shall hold more than 500 jugera of public land in 
 lease; the remainder shall be distributed in small portions, among the ple- 
 beians as their own property. 3. The interest already paid upon debts 
 shall be deducted from the capital sum, and the residue shall be paid in 
 the course of three years. 
 
 These proposals were resisted to the utmost by the patricians, for the 
 space of ten years ; but all their efforts proved unavailing against the 
 firmness of the tribunes, who prevented the election of officers and the 
 military levies. The proposals became laws, and the privileges of the 
 patricians received a severe shock. Ic is true that they still retained 
 exclusive possession of the priesthood and certain other dignities; but in 
 the course of a few decades, the plebeians were admitted to these offices 
 also, so that a perfect equality between the two classes shortly followed. 
 This civil concord, to wdiich Camillus a short time before his death 
 dedicated a temple, brought w^ith it a period of civic virtue and heroic 
 greatness. 
 
 11. HOME'S HEKOIC PERIOD. 
 
 1. THE TIME OF THE WAR WITH THE SAMNITES, AND THE BATTLES 
 
 WITH PYRRHUS. 
 
 § 108. After the Eomans had exercised their military pro w^ess in some 
 successful engagements with the wandering hordes of the Gauls, they 
 attempted to subdue the neighboring tribes. Among these the ^warlike 
 and freedom-loving Samnltes, who dwelt amidst the lofty ridges of the 
 Apennines, gave them the greatest trouble, and they were forced to carry 
 on the war against them, almost without intermission, for more than 
 seventy years. The inhabitants of Capua and the Campanian plain, who 
 were unable to withstand the hostile attacks of the w^arlike Samnltes, and 
 who turned to the Romans for assistance, were the occasion of the war. 
 At first, the Romans refused them assistance ; but the Capuans having 
 recognized their authority, and placed themselves entirely under their 
 protection, they marched into the field and defeated the enemy with 
 great courage, at Cumoe, near Mount Gaurus. 
 
 § 109. Shortly after this, the Romans found themselves 
 
 B. C. 342. . 
 
 menaced wath a w^ar by the Latins, who had hitherto been 
 their allies. These w^ere no longer disposed to recognize Rome as the 
 head of the confederation, but required a share in the senate, the consul- 
 ate, and all offices. Upon this, the Romans, who were not inclined to 
 
HISTORY OF ROME. 79 
 
 yield to these demands, concluded a hasty peace and alliance with the 
 
 SamnTtes, that they might turn .their arms against the nearer 
 
 enemy. When the army was at the foot of Vesuvius, the 
 
 consul Manllus Torquutus forbade any skirmishing. In defiance of this 
 
 command, his valiant son engaged one of the enemy In single combat, and 
 
 slew him, but was condemned to death for disobedience by his inflexible 
 
 father. The battle of Vesuvius was determined In favor of 
 
 B c 338 
 
 the Romans by the patriotism of the plebeian consul, Decius 
 JIus, who, having had himself devoted to death by a priest, enveloped 
 himself in a white robe, and, mounting on horseback, plunged among 
 the thickest of the enemy; whereupon the Latins, together with their 
 neighbors, the Volsci, ^qul, and Ht'rnlcl, submitted themselves, and were 
 received, with different privileges, as the allies of the Romans. In this 
 capacity, they were obliged to perform military service in the Roman 
 army. ' 
 
 § 110. The success of the Romans awakened the jealousy of the Sdm- 
 
 nltes. Quarrels respecting boundaries led to a renewal of 
 
 hostilities, In which the Romans at first had the advantage, 
 till the imprudent advance of the consuls, Vetiirius and Posthumius, into 
 the Caudine passes, brought the army into such a desperate position, 
 that it was obliged to surrender to the hostile general, Pontius, who had 
 surrounded it on every side, and after giving up its weapons, to pass 
 ignominiously under the yoke. The senate, however, with an unworthy 
 equivocation, declared the treaty that their generals had concluded in 
 their necessity with Pontius to be invalid, and delivered up the consuls, 
 at their own request, in chains to the Samnites. The generals who suc- 
 ceeded them, especially the vigorous Papirius Cursor and Fabius Maxi- 
 mus, strained every nerve to wipe away the disgrace ; and their endeavors 
 were crowned wuth such success, that, after a few years, the Stimnltes, 
 being no longer able to resist the attacks of the Romans, were obliged to 
 look around them for assistance. They united themselves with the Um- 
 brians, the Gauls, and Etruscans, who were also threatened by Rome's 
 love of conquest ; and, for the sake of being closer to their new allies, 
 
 they quitted their own country and marched into Umbria. 
 
 But the battle of Sentinum, which was decided in favor of 
 the Romans by the self-oblation of the younger Decius Mus, destroyed 
 the last hopes of the allies. Their great general, Pontius, fell shortly 
 afterwards into the hands of the Romans, and was put to a violent death. 
 It was in vain that the sacred band of the Samnites once more tried 
 their strength and their swords against the Romans ; Curius Dentatus 
 gave them a second overthrow, in which the Samnite youth, the pride of 
 the nation, moistened the field of battle with their blood. The Samnites 
 
 and their confederates, the Umbrlans, Etruscans, and the Se- 
 
 B. C. 290. 
 
 ndnlan Gauls, were compelled to acknowledge the supremacy 
 of Rome, and to serve as allies in her army. 
 
80 THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 
 § 111. During the war with the Samnltes, the rich, effeminjite, and 
 cowardly Tarentines had behaved in an equivocal manner, and insulted 
 a Roman ambassador. Scarcely therefore had the Eomans completely 
 mastered their enemies, than they turned their arms against Lower Italy. 
 Hereupon, the Tarentines called the warlike Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, to 
 their assistance, who eagerly seized this opportunity for conquest and 
 military renown, and embarked with his forces for Italy. Pyrrhus was 
 victorious in two engagements, partly from the admirable 
 disposition he made of his army, and partly by means of his 
 elephants, an animal with which the Romans were unacquainted ; and 
 the senate seemed not unwilling to conclude a disadvantageous peace 
 with the conqueror, who was marching upon Rome. But the blind Ap- 
 pius Claudius opposed this design, and induced the assembly to reply, 
 that no proposals for peace could be entertained till Pyrrhus had quitted 
 Italy. The admiration of the king, who had hitherto only been acquainted 
 with the degenerate manners of the Greeks, was not less excited by the 
 wisdom and dignified demeanor of the senate, and the civic virtues, 
 honesty, and simplicity of the Roman generals, Fabricius and Curius 
 Dentatus, than by the heroism, the bravery, and the warlike skill of the 
 legions. 
 
 A short time after, Pyrrhus was called into Sicily by the Syracusans, 
 to assist them against the Carthaginians. A love of adventure and con- 
 quest induced him to accept the invitation ; but he failed in his plan of 
 making himself master of the beautiful island, and was compelled by 
 the Sicilian Greeks to return. He again marched towards Tarentum, 
 but suffered such a defeat at Maleventum (afterwards called 
 Beneventum), from Curius Dentatus, that he found himself 
 obliged to make a hasty retreat. Pyrrhus fell, a few years afterwards, 
 before Argos, a city of Peloponnesus ; and about the same 
 B. c. w u. time, the Tarentines lost their fleet, and a portion of their 
 treasures of art, and were made tributaries by the Romans. The fall of 
 Tarentum was followed by the subjugation of the whole of Lower Italy, 
 in the course of which the Greek states were treated with peculiar 
 severity. 
 
 2. THE TIME OF THE PUNIC WARS. 
 a. THE FIRST PUNIC WAR. (b. C. 263-241.) 
 
 § 112. Many centuries before, some Phoenician emigrants had founded 
 the trading city of Carthage, on the north coast of Africa (§ 14), which 
 soon attained to power and opulence by the skill and enterprising spirit 
 of its inhabitants. The Carthaginians carried on an extensive traffic 
 with all the lands on the coast of the Mediterranean, established tributary 
 
HISTORY OF ROME. 81 
 
 colonial cities in Sicily and the south of Spain, and acquired such 
 wealth, that they laid out the land in the vicinity of their own city 
 after the manner of a garden, and embellished it with innumerable mag- 
 nificent villas. But civic freedom, mental cultivation, and nobility of 
 mind were possessions foreign to the Carthaginians. The government 
 was in the hands of a purse-proud aristocracy, art and literature were 
 little esteemed, their religious system was so barbarous as to permit the 
 eacrifice of human victims, and their cunning and falsehood so notorious, 
 (hat the " Punic faith " was proverbial.* Long was the contest between 
 the Carthaginians and Syracusans, for the possession of the. island of 
 Sicily. At the time that the gallant adventurer Agathocles had raised 
 himself from the humble condition of a potter to the empire of Syra- 
 cuse, this contest was carried on wi\h such changes of fortune, 
 B. c. 317. . . 
 
 that Syracuse was besieged by the Carthaginians, and Car- 
 thage by the army of Agdthocles, at the same time. The latter made 
 himself master of the north coast of Africa, and assumed the title of king. 
 But a change soon took place : his army was destroyed, and he himself 
 obliged to fly secretly to Syracuse, where his vital powers were so wasted 
 by a poison that was administered to him, that the hoary tyrant consented 
 to his own death by fire. His death gave rise to a state of lawless vio- 
 lence in Sicily, owing to his Campanian soldiers (Mamer- 
 tlnes) having seized upon the town of Messina on their way 
 home, slaughtered or driven away the male part of the inhabitants, and 
 then filled the island "with robbery and devastation. In this distress, the 
 Syracusans elected the valiant Iliero for their king. He marched, in con- 
 junction with the Carthaginians, against the Miimertines, defeated them, 
 and laid siege to their city Messina. The Mamertines were shortly re- 
 duced to such extremities that they applied to the Romans for assist- 
 ance. 
 
 § 113. The Romans did not long hesitate to enter into a defensive 
 alliance with the rapacious Mamertines, and to gain by this means an op- 
 portunity of subjecting the rich and*beautiful island, although they saw 
 plainly that the jealous Carthaginians, who were already in possession of 
 the citadel of Messina, would oppose them with all their strength. A 
 Roman army shortly after succeeded in driving back the disunited enemy 
 from the walls of the city, in bringing Iliero into an alliance with Rome, 
 and depriving the Carthaginians of the important town of Agrig^ntum. 
 Upon this, the Romans built a fleet after the model of a shipwrecked 
 Punic vessel, and won the first naval eno;anjement, by means 
 
 B. C. 261. o o ' ./ 
 
 of the consul Duillius, at Mylae, near the Liparian islands. 
 Encouraged by this success, they now determined to deprive the Cartha* 
 
 * It should be remembered, however, especially in reference to this charge of bad faith, 
 that most of our knowledge of the Carthaginians is derived froii their ancient and invete- 
 rate enemies, the Eomans. Am. Ed. 
 
82 THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 ginians of their supremacy at sea, and passed over to Africa with a fleet 
 and a large army, under the command of the heroic consul Regulus. 
 Regulus gradually approached, conquering and devastating, to the gates 
 of Carthage. The terrified Carthaginians sued for peace, but when they 
 found the conditions offered them by the haughty conqueror too severe, 
 they prepared for resistance, increased the number of their mercenary 
 troops, and committed the conduct of the defence to an experienced gene- 
 ral, the Spartan Xantippus. This leader gave the Romans so severe a 
 defeat at the seaport town of Tunes, that only 2,000 of their splendid 
 army escaped ; the others were either killed or made prisoners of war, 
 together with the consul Regulus. 
 
 § 114. This blow was followed by a succession of misfortunes: two 
 fleets were destroyed by tempests, so that, for some years, the Romans 
 renounced all thoughts of success by sea ; on land, they only ventured 
 upon trifling engagements, from fear of the elephants, of which they 
 themselves never made use, though the battle at Tunes had been decided 
 by them. In a few years, however, they recovered themselves ; they 
 made a successful sally from Panormus (Palermo), drove 
 back the Carthaginians, and took possession of all their ele- 
 phants. Hereupon the Carthaginians sent Regulus to Rome to negotiate 
 an exchange of prisoners, after they had obtained from him an oath, that, 
 if not successful, he would return to captivity. Regulus advised the 
 senate not to consent to the exchange, on the ground that it would be 
 disadvantageous to their country ; and then, true to his oath, returned to 
 Carthage. Upon this, the Carthaginians were greatly enraged, and put 
 Regulus to death in a most barbarous manner. 
 
 Victory remained for some years dubious. ' At length, the admirable 
 Carthaginian general, Hamilcar Barcas, made himself master of the cita- 
 del Eryx, and overlooked from a lofty rock all the movements of the 
 Romans. But this was only possible so long as there was no Roman 
 fleet to prevent the communication with the sea. As soon as 200 ships 
 had been fitted out at Rome, by private contributions, and by employing 
 the treasures in the temples, and the consul Lutatius Catulus 
 
 B C 242. 
 
 had defeated the enemy's fleet at the ^gatian islands, the 
 Carthaginians were compelled to cc^sent to a peace, in which they 
 renounced their claims upon Sicily, and promised to pay a large sum to 
 defray the expenses of the war. 
 
 h. THE SECOND PUNIC WAR. (b. C. 218-202.) 
 
 § 115. Whilst the Carthaginians, after the peace, were engaged for 
 three years in a frightful war with their rebellious mercenaries, the 
 
 Romans were enlarging their territory in every direction. 
 
 They transformed Sicily into the first Roman province ; took 
 possession of Corsica and Sardinia after a severe struggle with the semi 
 
HISTORY OF ROME. 83 
 
 barbarous inhabitants ; and wrested the island of Corcyra (Corfu) and a 
 few maritime towns from the piratical Illyrians. But the hardest con- 
 flict they had to sustain was with the Cisalpine Gauls, who, supported by 
 their brethren in the Alps, had made a destructive inroad 
 
 B C. 222. 
 
 upon Etruria. After the Romans had overthrown their 
 brave, but badly-armed enemies, in two bloody engagements, the fertile 
 regions on either side of the Po were erected into a Roman province, 
 under the name of Gallia Cisalpi'na, and connected with Rome by two 
 military roads. 
 
 § 1 1 6. In the mean while, the Carthaginians, at first under the com- 
 mand of the brave Ilamilcar Barcas, and after his death under that of 
 the prudent Hdsdrubal, extended their conquests into the richly metal- 
 liferous region of South Spain, and established an admirable military sta- 
 tion in New Carthage (Carthagena). This aroused the fear and envy of 
 the Romans, and induced them to enter into a defensive alliance with the 
 Greek colony of Saguntum, on the eastern coast of Spain. Ililsdrubal 
 eoon died, and his place was supplied by Hamilcar's son, Hannibal, who 
 was then twenty -five years of age, and who joined the courage and mili- 
 tary talents of his father to the prudence of his predecessor, and who, 
 whilst yet a boy, had sworn eternal hatred against the Romans upon the 
 paternal altar. Eager to measure himself against the Romans, he laid 
 siege to the confederate town of Saguntum. It was in vain that the 
 Roman envoys warned him to desist ; he referred them to the Cartha- 
 ginian senate, but in the mean while pressed the town so closely, that he 
 took it in eight months. The most resolute of the inhabitants collected 
 their goods together in the market-place, set them on fire, and threw 
 themselves into the flames ; the others died by the sword of the enemy, 
 or beneath the ruins of their houses. Saguntum was reduced to a 
 heap of rubbish. The Roman embassy, when too late, declared war in 
 Carthage. 
 
 § 117. It was in the spring of the year 218 b. c. that Hannibal crossed 
 the Ebro, subjected the tribes in that neighborhood ; and then, with an 
 army of 60,000 men, and thirty-seven elephants, penetrated across the 
 Pyrenees into Gaul, Avhilst his brother Ilasdrubal, with an equal number 
 of troops, held Spain in subjection. After Hannibal had forced a passage 
 through South Gaul and over the Rhone, he commenced his ever-memo- 
 rable passage of the Alps (probably by the way of Mount Cenis.) In the 
 midst of perpetual contests with the savage inhabitants, the soldiers 
 climbed over lofty mountains covered with snow and ice, without road 
 and without shelter, — over precipices and gulfs. Nearly half the troops 
 and the whole of the beasts of burden were destroyed. But these losses 
 were soon replaced, when, after a march of fourteen days, Hannibal 
 arrived in Upper Italy. For no sooner was the consul Cornelius Scipio 
 defeated and severely wounded, in an affair of cavalry on the Tici'nus, and 
 
84 THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 his fellow-consul, the imprudent Sempronius, completely routed at the 
 
 rashly-undertaken battle of the Trebia, than the Cisalpine Gauls joined 
 
 Hannibal's standard. After a short rest in Li"ruria, he 
 B. c. 217. ° 
 
 crossed the rugged Apennines, a most toilsome march, (in 
 
 the course of which he lost an eye from inflammation), and continued 
 his devastating course into Etruria. The consul Flammius encountered 
 him at the Lake Trasimenus, but by his inconsiderate rashness sustained 
 a total defeat, in which he himself lost his life, and his soldiers were either 
 killed or drowned in the waters of the lake. The road to Rome was 
 now open to the victor ; but he determined upon marching into Apulia, 
 for the purpose of inducing the inhabitants of Lower Italy to revolt. 
 
 § 118. It was at this time, that a man opposed himself to the Cartha- 
 ginian general, who, by his prudence and circumspection, occasioned him 
 many difficulties, — the dictator Fabius Maximus, the Delayer. He 
 avoi(Jed an open engagement, but followed the hostile army foot by foot, 
 and turned every unfortunate movement to his own advantage. He 
 reduced it to such a perilous position in Campania, by taking possession 
 of the mountain heights, that Hannibal was only able to save himself by 
 an artifice, — driving oxen, with bundles of lighted brushwood tied to 
 their horns, up the hill, by which means he deceived the enemy. But 
 the discontent of the imprudent people at this lingering mode of warfare, 
 induced the consul Terentius Varro, in the following year, again to 
 hazard an engagement, against the advice of his colleague, Paulus 
 ^milius. Hereupon followed the dreadful defeat of the 
 Romans at Cann^, where the number of the slain was so 
 great, that Hannibal is said to have sent three bushels of rings to Car- 
 thage, which were stripped from the hands of the Roman knights. The 
 high-minded Paulus JEmi'lius was found among the slain. The day of 
 the battle of Cannae, like that of the defeat at the AUia, (§ 105,) was 
 marked in the Roman calendar as a time of prayer and fasting. The 
 immovable senate, however, preserved its courage and composure ; all 
 who fled at Cannae were declared infamous, and expelled from the 
 army. 
 
 § 119. Hannibal did not consider it advisable to advance at once upon 
 Rome with his shattered forces, but established his winter quarters in 
 the rich and luxurious city of Capua. But it was here that his rugged 
 warriors were rendered effeminate and lost their love of war. The 
 Romans, on the other hand, made new preparations with extraordinary 
 rapidity, so that, in the spring, they were able to send fresh troops into 
 the field, whilst in the mean time Hannibal's army had received no re- 
 inforcements from Carthage. Two successful engagements 
 restored the courage of the Romans, and put them in a posi- 
 tion to chastise the towns of Sicily and Lower Italy, which, after the 
 battle of Cannae, had revolted to Hannibal. Marcellus went over to 
 
% 
 
 HISTORY OF ROME. 85 
 
 Gicily and laid siege to Syracuse ; which defended itself with so much 
 
 coura^re and success, by the aid of the in;;enious mathema- 
 b. C. 214. . r 
 
 tician and philosopher, Archimedes, that it was only by the 
 
 greatest efforts, and after a siege of three years, that Mar- 
 cellus could make himself master of the place. The revenge 
 of the Romans was fearful : the soldiers plundered and slaughtered ; 
 Archimedes was slain at his studies, the finest works of art were sent to 
 Rome, and the glory of Syracuse was gone forever. Capua experienced 
 a similar fate. The place was closely besieged by two Roman legions ; 
 the terrified inhabitants implored the assistance of Hannibal, who ad- 
 vanced upon Rome, in the hope that the Romans would hasten to the 
 relief of their capital, and relinquish the siege. But one legion, in con- 
 junction with a few other troops, was sufficient to compel 
 Hannibal to retreat, and the Capuans, reduced by hunger, 
 were obliged to surrender to the other. Twenty-seven senators died 1 7 
 their own hands, and fifty -three by the axe of the executioner ; the citi- 
 zens were reduced to slavery, and their property bestowed upon foreign 
 colonists. The treasures of Capua were sent to Rome, all her privileges 
 were destroyed, and from henceforth the city was governed by a Roman 
 prefect. Two years later, Tarentum fell again into the hands of the 
 Romans. Fabius Maximus reduced the inhabitants to slavery, and took 
 possession of the treasures, but suffered the statues of the "Angry Gods " 
 to remain. Fear soon brought all the revolted states back to the 
 Romans, and Hannibal's position, without money, without reinforce- 
 ments, and without supplies, became every day more precarious. 
 
 § 120. Spain was now Hannibal's only hope, since he was deserted by 
 his ungrateful country. It was there, that Hannibal's brother, Hasdru- 
 bal, after having opposed the Romans for a long time with success, was 
 at length reduced to such straits by the young and high-spirited Cornelius 
 Scipio, that he was unable to remain in the country any longer, and con- 
 sequently resolved upon uniting himself with his brother, who had sum- 
 moned him into Italy. Following Hannibal's passage across the Alps, 
 he marched into Upper Italy, and then directed his co^Btee 
 * ^ towards the coast of the Adriatic Sea, with the purpose of 
 
 joining his brother, who was encamped in Lower Italy, opposite the con- 
 sul Claudius Nero. But the daring resolution of this consul to effect a 
 secret junction with his colleague, Livius Salinator, by a rapid march 
 
 upon Umbria, led to the death of Ilasdrubal and the destruc- 
 B. C. 207. . 
 
 tion of his army, at the river Metaurus, before Hannibal had 
 
 received notice of his approach. In the bloody head of Ilasdrubal, which 
 
 the consul, on his return, threw into the enemy's camp, the dispirited 
 
 general recognized the " fearful fate of Carthage." 
 
 § 121. It was in misfortune that Hannibal displayed the real greq^tnesa 
 
 of his military talents. Without help from without, and without allies 
 
 8 
 
86 ^ THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 in Italy, he still maintained himself, with the remains of his army, for 
 some years, in the extreme south, against the superior force of the ene- 
 my. But when the victorious Scipio returned, after the subjugation of 
 Spain, passed over from Sicily into Africa, with some fugitives and 
 volunteers, and, setting fire in the neighborhood of Utica to 
 the enemy's camp, which consisted of tents made of straw 
 and reeds, attacked them during the confusion, Hannibal was recalled to 
 defend his country. Sorrowful and angry he quitted the land of his 
 renown. It was in vain that he endeavored, during a conference, to 
 persuade his opponent to conclude a treaty, by representing the instability 
 of fortune. Scipio would not listen to the proposal ; where- 
 upon the battle of Zama followed, and ended in the defeat 
 of the Carthaginians. Hannibal himself now advised a peace, hard as 
 the conditions were. The Carthaginians were obliged to take an oath 
 never to commence war without the consent of the Romans, they were 
 compelled to renounce their claims upon Spain, to give up their ships of 
 w^ar, and to pledge themselves to pay an enormous sum to defray the 
 expenses of the contest. After burning the Carthaginian fleet, and 
 investing Masinissa, a friend of the Romans, with the kingdom of 
 Numidia, Scipio, (afterwards called Africanus), returned to Rome, where 
 a splendid triumph awaited him. Hannibal, on the other hand, was 
 obliged, a short time after, to leave his home, a persecuted refugee, and 
 carried his hatred of the Romans to the court of the Syrian king, 
 Antiochus. 
 
 C. MACEDONIA CONQUERED ; CORINTH AND CARTHAGE DESTROYED. 
 
 § 122. About this time. King Philip II. reigned over Macedonia and a 
 part of Greece. He had entered into an alliance with Hannibal, and 
 made war on the Romans and their confederates in Greece and Asia 
 Minor. It was for this reason that the Romans now turned their arms 
 against him. They sent their general, Flamininus, a clever man, and one 
 who took an interest in Greek art and literature, into Greece ; he sum- 
 molied the states to freedom, and then gave the Macedonians an over- 
 throw at the Dogsheads (Cynoscephalae) a range of hills in 
 Thessaly. By this, Philip saw himself compelled to a 
 peace, by which he acknowledged the independence of Greece, gave up 
 liis fleet and a great sum of money, and renounced the right of making 
 Avar on his own account. To gratify the vanity of the Greeks, the 
 subtle Flamininus caused the deliverance of Greece from the Macedonian 
 yoke to be proclaimed with magnificent ceremonies at the Isthmian 
 games. But it was soon evident that the Romans were quite as eager 
 to assume the government of Greece as ever the Macedonians had been. 
 It was for this reason that many of the Greek tribes, and in particular 
 the warlike iEtolians, who had united themselves in a confederation 
 
HISTORY OF ROME. 87 
 
 Bimilar to that of the Achaians, applied to the Syrian king, Antiochus III. 
 for aid, (§ 90). Antiochus, at whose court Hannibal was living, yielded 
 to the demand ; but instead of joining Philip II. and attacking the Romans 
 with united forces, he squandered his time idly in feasting and luxury, 
 and gave offence to the Macedonian king ; whilst the Romans marched 
 rapidly into Thessaly, and after storming the pass of Thermdpyloe under 
 Porcius Cato, compelled the Syrian king to retreat into Asia. But he was 
 immediately followed thither by a Roman army, under the command of 
 Cornelius Scipio, with his brother Africanus at his side, for counsellor. 
 
 A murderous engagement took place at Magnesia, near mount 
 Sipj^lus, which terminated to the disadvantage of Antiochus, who was 
 compelled to purchase a peace by the cession of Western Asia, this side 
 of the Taurus, and by the payment of an enormous sum for the expenses 
 of the war. The rapacious JFAdlmns were also subdued and punished 
 in their purses and their treasures of art. 
 
 Hannibal, threatened with being delivered up to the Romans, fled to 
 Prusias, king of Bithynia ; but when this prince could no longer venture 
 to defend him, he swallowed poison on a lonely hill, to escape 
 falling into the hands of his mortal enemies. At the same 
 time, his great antagonist, Scipio, died at his estate in Lower Italy, far 
 away from Rome, whence he had been driven by the malice of his 
 enemies. To make this year thoroughly fatal, Philopoc'men was also 
 compelled to drink the cup of poison (§ 88). 
 
 § 123. Perseus, the wicked son of Philip II., made his way to the 
 Macedonian throne by crimes, inasmuch as he provoked the suspicious 
 father to murder his younger son Demetrius, a noble prince, and well 
 disposed to the Romans. Perseus was scarcely in possession, of his 
 crown, before his hatred to the Romans induced him to begin a new war. 
 Ilis enormous wealth enabled him to make vast preparations, but avarice 
 and perverse measures soon occasioned his fall. After the victory 
 obtained by the expert tactician and accomplished man, 
 Paulus JEmilius, at Pydna, Perseus fell into the power of 
 the Remans, was led in triumph, together with his treasures tind his cap- 
 tive children and friends, through the streets of the mistress of the 
 world ; and shortly after, ended his life in solitary confinement. Mace- 
 donia was divided into four provinces, and placed under a republican 
 form of government ; 1000 noble Achaians, among whom was the great 
 historical writer, Polybius, were conveyed to Rome as hostages, on the 
 plea of a secret understanding with Perseus. Twenty years later, a 
 pretended son of Perseus raised the standard of rebellion. This gave the 
 Romans the wished-for opportunity of converting Macedonia 
 into a Roman province, after the subjection of the impostor 
 by Metellus. Metellus had not yet quitted the conquered territory^ 
 when the AcMian league also took up arms to rid themselves of Rome's 
 
88 THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 oppressive authority. iMetellus overtiirew tlie Acliaians who marched 
 against him in two engagements ; but was obliged to leave the termina- 
 tion of the war to his rude successor, Miimmius, who 
 stormed Corinth, and burnt it to the ground. The inhabit- 
 ants were either slain or reduced to slavery, the treasures of art destroyed 
 or sent to Rome, and Greece was converted into a Roman province, 
 under the name of Achaia. The prosperity of the once flourishing states 
 disappeared beneath the pressure of Roman taxation, and every spark 
 of the patriotism and love of liberty of a former age was extinguished. 
 The Spartans continued their rude trade of war as mercenaries, whilst 
 the Athenians sought a subsistence among the Romans, as artists and 
 men of learning, as players and dancers, as poets and heaux esprits,\ but 
 they were treated with little respect. 
 
 § 124. In the mean while, Carthage had again recovered a portion of 
 her prosperity. This reawakened the envy of the Romans, and gave 
 emphasis to Cato's expression, "that Carthage must be destroyed." 
 Masim'ssa, king of Numidia, relying upon Roman protection, enlarged 
 his own territories at the expense of those of the Carthaginians ; and at 
 last, irritated them so much by perpetual quarrels about boundaries, that 
 they took up arms to defend their own possessions. This was looked 
 upon in Rome as an infringement of the peace, and occasioned a declara- 
 tion of war. The Carthaginians implored indulgence, and delivered up, 
 at the demand of the Romans, first, 300 respectable hostages, and after- 
 wards, their ships and weapons. But wdien this was followed by a de- 
 cree that Carthage should be burnt to the ground, and a new city erected 
 farther from the coast, the inhabitants determined rather to perish 
 beneath the ruins of their houses than submit to such a disgrace. A 
 spirit of courage and patriotism took possession of all sexes and condi- 
 tions. The town presented the appearance of a camp ; the temples were 
 converted into smithies for forging arms, and every thing was made sub- 
 servient to the lofty purpose of saving the state. Even the veteran 
 legions of Rome were unable to withstand such enthusiasm as this. 
 They were fepeatedly repulsed and reduced to a precarious condition, 
 until the younger Seipio, the able son of Paulus iEmiHus, who had been 
 adopted into the family of Seipio during childhood, was appointed to the 
 consulate before the lawful age, with dictatorial power. After a most 
 desperate resistance, and a murderous conflict for six days in the streets, 
 it was he who at length succeeded in reducing the city, after it had 
 suflered all the extremities of famine. The rage of the soldiers, and a 
 conflagration that lasted for seventeen days, converted Carthage, the once 
 proud mistress of the Mediterranean, into a heap of ruins; 50,00^ 
 inhabitants, whom the sword had spared, were carried into slavery by 
 the conqueror, who from this time bore the name of the younger 
 /Ifricanus. The territory of Carthage was turned into a Roman 
 
HISTORY OF ROME. 89 
 
 province, called Africa, and the rebuilding of the city denounced witli a 
 curse. 
 
 d. THE MANNERS AND CULTURE OP THE ROMANS. 
 
 § 125. The acquaintance of the Romans with Greece was attended 
 with the most important consequences to their civilization, manners, and 
 mode of living. The works of Greek art and literature that had been 
 taken from the conquered towns, produced, in the more susceptible part 
 of the nation, a taste for cultivation, and awakened* a fresh class of feel- 
 ings. A powerful party, at the head of which stood the Scipios, Mar- 
 cellus, Flamininus, and many others, patronized the Greek philosophy, 
 poetry, and art ; cherished and supported the learned men, philosophers, 
 and poets, of that nation ; and sought to transport the spirit and language 
 of the conquered people to Rome, together with their works of art. 
 Under the protection of the Scipios, Roman poets wrote verses in imita- 
 tion of their Greek prototypes. This was the case with their writers of 
 comedy, Plautus and Terence, the latter of whom is said to have been 
 assisted in his compositions by the younger Scipio and his friend Lcelius. 
 Since, however, the minds of the Romans were directed entirely to the 
 practical, to the conduct of war, the government of the state, and the 
 administration of justice, intellectual culture never could attain to the 
 same height among them as with the Greeks : the people found more 
 pleasure in spectacles addressed to the senses, rough gladiatorial com- 
 bats, and the contests of wild animals, than in the productions of the 
 mind. 
 
 But literature and the arts were not the only things that were borrow- 
 ed ; elegance and refinement in the arrangement of dwellings, luxury 
 and extravagance in meals and dress, politeness and suavity in social 
 intercourse, sensual enjoyment^ind luxurious pleasures, were copied by 
 the Romans from the Greeks Sd Orientals. The victors inherited the 
 vices and excesses of the conquered people, along with their wealth and 
 civilization. An opposite party, with Porcius Cato at its head, earnestly 
 combated the new system that threatened to destroy the ancient manners, 
 discipline, simplicity, moderation, and hardihood. The severity with 
 which this remarkable man, in his office of censor, opposed the new 
 direction of things, has made his name proverbial. By his aid, the 
 Greek philosophers were banished from Rome ; the schools of oratory 
 closed ; the dissolute festivals of Bacchus, and other religious customs 
 derived from abroad, interdicted ; the Scipios punished as corrupters of 
 morals ; and laws proclaimed against luxury and excess. For the pur- 
 pose of counteracting the influence of the new literature, he himself 
 WTote works upon agriculture, the basis of Rome's former greatness, and 
 upon the people of ancient Italy, whose simplicity and purity of morals 
 he wished to contrast with the commencing degeneracy of his time. But 
 
 8* 
 
90 THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 the example of Cato, who learned Greek in his old age, shows that the 
 rigid attachment to the ancient and traditional invariably gives way be- 
 fore new efforts at progress. 
 
 III. ROME'S DEGENERACY. 
 1. NUMANTIA, TIBERIUS, AND CAIUS GRACCHUS. 
 
 § 126. In proportion as the Roman territory increased in extent, the 
 heroism, the civic A^rtues, and the patriotic feelings on which Rome's 
 greatness had been built, disappeared. Fresh aristocratic families were 
 formed from the rich and the illustrious, who, like the patricians of old, 
 monopolized all honors and offices. They sought perpetually for new 
 wars, the conduct of which was given to them alone, for the purpose of 
 increasing, by victories and triumphs, the renown they had inherited from 
 their ancestors ; and the provinces were exhausted to the end that they 
 might give themselves up to all kinds of pleasure and enjoyment, with- 
 out lessening the wealth on which the power and splendor of their fami- 
 lies were founded. As proconsuls and propraetors, they conducted the 
 government and the administration of justice in the conquered provinces, 
 with a host of writers and subordinates, and kept their own interest more 
 in view than the welfare of the governed. The wealthy members of the 
 knightly class undertook, as farmers-general of the revenue, for a certain 
 sum they paid into the exchequer, to collect all taxes, imposts, and tolls, 
 and then sought, by the most shameless exactions practised by their toll- 
 collectors, receivers, and under-farmers, to indemnify themselves for their 
 outlay by an enormous profit. Whatitie officials and revenue-farmers 
 left, was appropriated by a tribe of hungry merchants and usurers, so 
 that a few decades sufficed to ruin the prosperity of a Roman colony. 
 It is very true, that there existed a law which gave the abused provin- 
 cials the right of impeaching their oppressors on the expiration of their 
 term of office ; but as the judges all belonged to the same wealthy and 
 noble families, the criminal generally escaped free, or was fined in a 
 small amount, for the sake of appearances. 
 
 Single provinces would occasionally attempt to shake off this oppres- 
 sive }oke, and to regain their freedom by dint of arms. The first ex- 
 ample of such a revolt was given by the inhabitants of the Pyrenean 
 peninsula, and above all others, by the heroic race of Spain, whose chief 
 city was Numantia. For five years, they set all the efforts of the Ro- 
 mans at defiance, and extorted a treaty of peace and an acknowledgment 
 of their independence, from a consul whom they had inclosed in the hol- 
 lows of their mountains. But the senate did not confirm the treaty, and 
 
HISTORY OF ROME. 91 
 
 behaved aa they had done in the affair of the Caudinian passes (§ 110). 
 It was only when the younger Scipio, the conqueror of Carthage, put 
 himself at the head of the army, and restored the abandoned energy and 
 discipline of the camp, that Numantia, after a desperate de- 
 fence, was compelled by hunger to surrender. The citizens 
 escaped from the insults of the victors, by heroically killing themselves. 
 Scipio destroyed the empty town, the ruins of which still look admonish- 
 ingly down upon posterity, a memorial of a magnanimous struggle for 
 freedom. 
 
 § 127. The new family aristocracy not only filled all the offices, and 
 excluded men of inferior birth from posts of honor, but they also pos- 
 sessed the whole of the arable land, inasmuch as they again claimed an 
 exclusive right to the common lands, and got the smaller farms into their 
 hands by purchase, usury, chicanery, and sometimes even by violence. 
 By these means, the greatest inequality of property was produced. The 
 class of free husbandmen, upon which the ancient strength, honesty, and 
 military virtue of Rome was established, disappeared entirely; whilst 
 the nobles got possession of immense estates, which they had cultivated 
 by hosts of slaves, who bad been made prisoners in war. Numbers of 
 impoverished tenants, who had been driven from their houses and farms 
 by hard-hearted landlords, wandered through the land, a picture of misery 
 and distress. 
 
 In the midst of this state of things, the noble tribune of the people, 
 Tiberius Gracchus, (son of Cornelia, daughter of the great 
 Scipio Africdnus,) presented himself as the defender of op- 
 pressed poverty, by proposing a renewal of the agrarian law of Lici'nius 
 Stolo (§ 107), which enacted that no one should possess more than 500 
 acres of tlie public land, and that the remainder should be distributed to 
 necessitous families in small lots, as their own propety. Upon this, the 
 nobles raised a dreadful storm, and prevailed upon another tribune to op- 
 pose the measure. According to the Roman code, no proposal could 
 become law unless all the ten tribunes were unanimous. It was owing to 
 this, that Gracchus allowed himself to be seduced into the illegal course 
 of getting his refractory colleague deposed by the people, and thus vio- 
 lating the sanctity of the tribunitial office. This afforded his adversaries 
 ground for the suspicion that Gracchus was meditating the overthrow of 
 the constitution, for the purpose of assuming the kingly authority. He 
 lost the favor of the misguided people, and was killed in the Capitol, 
 together with 300 of his adherents, during a new election of tribunes. 
 The people discovered their delusion when it was too late, and erected a 
 statue in honor of their high-spirited champion. 
 
 § 128. This result did not deter the younger and more 
 
 U. C. 123. 
 
 able brother, Caius Gracchus, ten years afterwards, from 
 agitating anew for the agrarian law, and, in connection with it, for a corn 
 
92 THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 law, (by wliicli deliveries of corn were to be made to the poorer citizeng 
 for a moderate price), and other popular measures. His great eloquence 
 and his philanthropic exertions gained him a powerful party among the 
 lower class of the people, whose immediate distress he sought to alleviate 
 by the making of roads and public works. But when, at the instigation 
 of his impetuous friend, Fulvius Flaccus, he proposed that the right 
 of Roman citizenship should be extended to the allies, the nobles be- 
 came alarmed and tried to destroy him. A dreadful combat took place 
 at one of the popular assemblies between the aristocratic party, with the 
 consul Opi'mius at their head, and the adherents of Gracchus and Ful- 
 vius. The latter w^ere defeated : Fulvius, with 3,000 of his companions, 
 was killed, and their bodies thrown into the Tiber. Gracchus fled into 
 a wood on the other side of the river, and commanded a slave 
 
 B C 121. 
 
 to thrust a sword into his bosom. Their laws and institutions 
 were annulled, and their adherents punished with death, imprisonment, 
 and banishment. The aristocracy were now, more than ever, the rulers 
 of the republic. 
 
 2. THE TIMES OF MARIUS AND SYLLA. 
 THE JUGURTHINE WAR. B. C. 112-106. 
 
 § 129. The aristocrats disgraced their government by avarice and cor- 
 ruption, and renounced all sentiments of honor and justice. Jugurtha, 
 the grandson of Masinissa of Numidia, a cunning and ambitious man, 
 and experienced in war, trusting to the depravity of morals and the cor- 
 ruption prevalent in Rome, put to death the two sons of his uncle, who 
 had been made co-heirs with himself, seized upon their states, which had 
 been conferred upon them by the Romans, and succeeded, by dint of 
 bribing the most influential senators, in retaining possession of his plun- 
 der, and heaping crime upon crime with impunity. When at length the 
 senate were compelled, by the indignation of the people, to send an army 
 into Africa, the Numidian king actually succeeded in producing such 
 enervation and looseness of discipline among the troops, by bribery and 
 seduction, that they were defeated at the first attack, and obliged to pass 
 under the yoke. This disgrace produced the greatest exasperation in 
 Rome, so that the senate were compelled to adopt more stringent mea- 
 sures, in order to appease the discontent of the people, and conciliate the 
 outraged sentiment of justice, by the punishment of the offender. They 
 accordingly despatched the upright Metellus, with fresh troops 
 into Africa. Metellus restored the discipline of the army, 
 and brought back the military renown of the Romans by successful en- 
 gagements and conquests. But the people were so embittered against 
 
HISTORY OF ROME. 93 
 
 the aristocracy, that they resolved to deprive them of the gOT emment bv 
 
 any means. For this purpose, they required an intrepid leader ; and til 
 
 aspiring and ambitious C. Marius presented himself, a man of obscure 
 
 condition, who was at that time serving as lieutenant in the army of Me- 
 
 tellus, and who joined courage, the talents of a general, and rude military 
 
 virtue, to rough manners, hatred of the nobles, and contempt for their 
 
 cultivation and refinement. Disgusted at the aristocratic haughtiness of 
 
 his commander, Marius returned to Rome, where he was 
 B. c. 107. . . 
 
 chosen consul by the popular party, and intrusted with the 
 
 conduct of the Jugurthine war. Jugurtha, with all his cunning and in- 
 ventive genius, was unable long to withstand the energetic Marius and 
 his army, now hardened by severe discipline. He was conquered, and 
 fled to the faithless Bocchus, king of Mauritania ; but was delivered up 
 by him to the shrewd and dexterous qugestor Cornelius Sylla, and led 
 in triumph to Rome, where he was starved to death in prison. 
 
 § 130. CiMBRi AND Teutones. — Marius had not yet concluded the 
 Jugurthine war, when the Cimbri and Teutones appeared on the borders 
 of the Roman empire. They were a northern people, of Germanic ori- 
 gin, and gigantic stature and strength, who had left their country with 
 their wives, children, and all their property, to seek for a new habitation. 
 They were clad in iron coats of mail and the skins of beasts ; they bore 
 shields the height of a man, with long swords and heavy maces. They 
 first defeated the Romans in a bloody battle inNoricum, passed 
 through Rhajtia, devastating and plundering, and, within 
 four years, cut to pieces five consular armies on the banks of the Rhone 
 and the lake of Geneva. Marius, whom the Romans, against the law, 
 had elected five successive times to the consulate, came forward as de- 
 liverer. With his army, hardened by the labors of digging and hewing, 
 he defeated the Teutones in a bloody engagement at Aquai 
 Sextiaj, (Aix in Provence), in South Gaul. In the mean 
 time, the Cimbri, in a separate body, had penetrated through the Tyrol 
 and the valley of the Adige, into Upper Italy ; but when there, had care- 
 lessly given themselves up to the pleasures afforded by the rich country, 
 till they suffered a similar frightful overthrow on the plains near Ver- 
 cellae, from Marius, who had joined forces with his colleague Lutatius 
 Catulus. The courage of these Germans, who killed themselves and 
 their children, to prevent their being reduced to slavery, made the Ro- 
 mans tremble. 
 
 § 131. The social war. — A sixth consulate rewarded 
 
 B. C. 100. 
 
 Marius, the savior of Italy, the pride and hope of the popular 
 party. By his assistance, this party again gained the superiority, which 
 induced the aristo(;racy to array themselves around Cornelius Sylla, a 
 politic and ambitious man, and versed in war, who united in himself the 
 cultivation and love of art of the nobles, with their vices and excesses. 
 
94 THE ANCIEXT WORLD. 
 
 From this time, two powerful parties, the democrats under Marius, and 
 tte aristocrats under Sylla, stood opposed in arms to each other. The 
 former endeavored to strengthen their ranks by attracting thither the 
 allies, and for this purpose held out to them the prospect of the Roman 
 citizenship. When this was not conceded, the disappointed party took up 
 arms for the purpose of freeing themselves from Rome, or of compeUing 
 the cession of the refused privileges. This occasioned the 
 perilous Social war. All the tribes of Sabellian origin, the 
 warlike Samnites and Marsians at their head, renounced allegiance to 
 the Romans, formed an Italian confederation, and declared Corfmium, 
 which was also called Italica, chief city of the new alliance. Veteran 
 armies marched into the field. In Rome, the people put on mourning, 
 armed the manumitted slaves, and conferred the privileges of Roman 
 citizenship upon the Latins, Etruscans, and Umbrians, who had remained 
 faithful, to prevent their joining with the others. The Romans were 
 successful, after many changes of fortune and many bloody engagements, 
 in gradually mastering their opponents. But the ferment was still so 
 dangerous, that they thought it advisable to prevent a fresh insurrection, 
 by conferring the rights of citizenship upon the whole of the allies. They 
 nevertheless restricted the elective rights of the new citizens. 
 
 § 132. The first war against Mithridates. — The allies were 
 scarcely appeased, before the Romans were threatened from the East, 
 by an enemy as sagacious as he was bold, — Mithridates, king of the 
 Pontus, on the Black Sea. Like Hannibal, an enemy of the Romans, 
 this warlike prince, who was a good linguist, endeavored to unite the 
 Grecian and Asiatic states in a vast confederacy, and to free them from 
 the Roman dominion. By his orders, all the Roman subjects (togati) in 
 Western Asia, 80,000 in number, were put to death in one frightful day 
 of slaughter. At the same time, he seized upon some countries in 
 alliance with the Romans, and sent an army into Greece to protect 
 Athens, Boedtia, and other states that had joined him. Hereupon the 
 Roman senate gave the command against Mithridates to 
 Sylla, who had distinguished himself in the social war, and 
 been rewarded by the consulate. But Marius envied his opponent this 
 Asiatic campaign, and procured a resolution of the people by which he 
 himself was appointed to conduct the Mithridatic war. Sylla, who was 
 with his army in Lower Italy, now marched upon Rome, had Marius 
 and eleven of his confederates outlawed as traitors to their country, and 
 • adopted proper measures for the preservation of peace. He nevertheless 
 behaved with moderation, that he might be able to commence the cam- 
 paign against Mithridates as soon as possible. Marius, after multitu- 
 dinous dangers and adventures, escaped over the marshes of Mintiirnas 
 into Africa. 
 
 § 133. The first civil war. — Sylla now passed over into Greece, 
 
HISTORY OF ROME. 93 
 
 fitormed Athens, that expiated its revoll^y a frightful effusion of blood, 
 seized upon the treasures in the temple of Delphi, and 
 overthrew the generals of the king of Pontus in two engage- 
 ments. He then marched through Macedonia and Thracia into Asia 
 Minor, and compelled Mithridates to a peace, biyvhich Rome not only 
 recovered her dominion over the whole of Wed^^B^sia, but was indem- 
 nified for the expenses of the war by the paJHp of a large sum of 
 money, and the cession of the Pontic fleet. The revolted towns and dis- 
 tricts were severely punished in tlieir property. 
 
 In the mean time, Marius had returned from the ruins of Carthage 
 again into Italy; and surrounding himself with a band of desperate 
 men, had marched to the gates of Rome in conjunction with the demo- 
 cratic leaders, Cinna and Sertdrius. The city, weakened by famine and 
 dissension, was compelled to surrender ; upon which, Marius gave free 
 course to his thirst for vengeance. Troops of rude soldiers marched, 
 plundering and slaughtering, through the streets of the capital ; the heads 
 of the aristocratic party, including the most renowned and respected sena- 
 tors and consuls, were murdered, their houses plundered and destroyed, 
 their estates confiscated, and their dead bodies given to the dogs and the 
 fowls of the air. After this gratification of his vengeance, 
 Marius had himself chosen consul for the seventh time, 
 but died about two weeks after, from the effects of excitement and a dis- 
 solute life. 
 
 § 134. In the year 83 b. c, Sylla landed in Italy after the termina- 
 tion of the first Mithridatic war, and marched, with the support of the 
 aristocracy, upon Rome. In Lower Italy, he defeated the democratic 
 consuls in numerous engagements, drove the younger Marius to self-* 
 destruction in the strong city of Praeneste, by the close siege he laid to 
 the place, and in a murderous battle before the gates of Rome, annihilated 
 the Marian party and the rebellious Samnltes, 8,000 of whom he slaugh- 
 tered before the eyes of the trembhng senate. The civil war had already 
 cost the lives of 100,000 men, when Sylla (surnamed the Fortunate), for 
 the purpose of completing his triumph, made public his proscriptions, 
 upon which were written the names of the Marian party who were to be 
 killed and plundered. Hereupon all the ties of blood, of friendship, of 
 dependence and piety, were torn asunder : sons were armed against their 
 parents, and slaves against their masters ; informations were rewarded ; 
 terror and corruption of morals were everywhere prevalent. Upon this 
 Sylla, who was named dictator for an indefinite period, proclaimed the 
 Cornelian law, by which the whole power of the government fell into the 
 hands of the aristocracy, and the influence of the tribunes was destroyed. 
 After the conclusion of these arran^i^ements, Sylla retired to 
 
 B. C 78. . G 7 J 
 
 his estate, where he shortly after died of a frightful dis- 
 temper. 
 
96 THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 3. THE TIMES OF CNiEUS POMPET, AND M. TULLIUS CICERO. 
 
 § 135. Sylla's death did not bring back repose to the disturbed state. 
 The outlawed and persecuted Marians assembled themselves around the 
 brave and upright democratic leader, Sertdrius, and fought against the 
 Koman armies in Sj^Bfcith fortune and success. It was not until Ser- 
 tdrius had been assasSBRed by his envious associates, that Pompej, who, 
 whilst yet a youth, had joined himself to Sylla, and was now regarded as 
 the head of the aristocratic party, succeeded in overpowering 
 ^* ^' ' the rebels. His mild and placable character, and his courte- 
 
 ous and popular bearing, rendered him an admirable mediator between 
 contending factions. 
 
 § 136. When Pompey returned to Italy from Spain, he encountered a 
 new enemy — the rebellious slaves. Seventy gladiators had 
 fled, in Capua, from the scourge of their task-masters, broken 
 open the slave prisons in Lower Italy, and exhorted the inmates to fight 
 for their liberties. Their numbers soon increased to 70,000. The valiant 
 Thracian, Spartacus, was at their head. Their intention at first was to 
 return to their homes ; but after they had overthrown two Roman armies 
 that opposed their passage, they entertained the hope of destroying the 
 Koman power, and revenging themselves for the injuries they had re- 
 ceived. The danger of the Romans was great. But dissension and 
 want of military discipline produced a division among the 
 slaves, and led to uncombined movements, so that the consul, 
 M. Crassus, succeeded in subduing their ill-armed bands in detail. After 
 the bloody fight on the banks of the Silarus, in which Spartacus fell after 
 an heroic contest, the remainder marched into Upper Italy, where they 
 were utterly destroyed by Pompey. 
 
 § 137. Pompey rendered his name even more illustrious in Asia, 
 B. c. 67. where he brought the war against the pirates, and the second 
 
 B.C. 74-65. Mithridatic war, to a conclusion, than in the expedition 
 against the slaves. In the sterile mountain regions on the south of Asia 
 Minor, lived a daring race of freebooters, who disturbed the whole Medi- 
 terranean by piracy, visited the coasts and islands with plunder and deso- 
 lation, dragged off noble Romans as prisoners, for the purpose of exact- 
 ing a heavy ransom, and interrupted trade and commerce. Hereupon, 
 Pompey was invested with the most unlimited dictatorial power over all 
 seas, coasts, and islands. With a splendidly-equipped fleet and army, he 
 cleared in three months the whole Mediterranean from the pirates, sub- 
 dued the towns and fortresses in their own country, and settled many of 
 the inhabitants in the newly-built town, Pompeidpolis. 
 
 ^ 138. In the mean time, Mithridates, encouraged by Rome's internal 
 disturbances, had begun a fresh war. LucuUus was besieging the rich 
 island town of C;f zicus, and Mithridates attempted to relieve it ; but 
 
HISTORY OF ROME. 97 
 
 Lucullus fell upon him and gave him such an overthrow that he retreatecl 
 
 in haste to his kingdom of Pontus ; and when this also fell a prej to the 
 
 victor, he sought aid and protection from his son-in-law, Tigranes, king of 
 
 Armenia. But Lucullus defeated the enormous host of the 
 
 B. C. 69. 
 
 Armenian king in the neighborhood of his capital, Tigrano- 
 cdrta, jind was already making preparations for overthrowing the whole 
 empire, and extending the Koman dominions as far as Parthia, when the 
 legions refused obedience to their general. Upon this, Lucullus retired 
 to his wealth and his pleasure-gardens, and Pompey united the command 
 of the Armenio-Pontic army to his other dignities. He con- 
 quered Mithridates, who had assembled fresh forces, in a 
 night engagement on the Euphrates, reduced the Armenian king to 
 homage and submission, and then put an end to the rule of the Seleucidae 
 in Syria. Mithridates, deprived of the greater part of his territories, and 
 despairing of a successful issue, destroyed himself. After Pompey, at his 
 own pleasure, had disposed of the conquered lands in Asia, in such a way 
 that the Roman empire was enlarged by three provinces, and some of the 
 more distant lands had been ceded to tributary kings, he returned to 
 Rome, where he held a public entry of two days, and filled the treasury 
 with enormous wealth. 
 
 § 139. A short. time before this, M. TuUius Cicero, Pompey*s friend 
 and the companion of his thoughts, had acquired the honorable title of 
 father of his country. Cicero, born in a provincial town, and of citizen 
 parents, had so distinguished himself by his talents, his industry, and his 
 irreproachable life, that although ignoble (novus homo) he obtained the 
 consulate. He had devoted himself in Athens and Rhodes with such zeal 
 and success to the sciences of the Greeks, and especially to eloquence and 
 philosophy, that he might be compared, both as a statesman and an ora- 
 tor, to Demosthenes, and had composed profound works on rhetoric and 
 philosophy. Though vain, boastful, and weak, he possessed civic virtue, 
 patriotism, and a strong sense of justice. 
 
 During his consulate, Catiline, a man of noble family, but disgraced 
 by an infamous life, and loaded with debts, formed a conspiracy with 
 certain other Romans of desperate fortunes, the objects of which were, 
 to murder the consuls, to set fire to the city, to overthrow the consti- 
 tution, and in the confusion to seize upon the government by the aid of 
 the soldiers of Sylla and the populace. But the vigilant consul Cicero 
 had baffled this atrocious project. By his orations against Catiline, he 
 unmasked the dissembling villain in the senate, and compelled him to fly 
 into Etruria, where he met with his death in a courageous defence against 
 the consular army. His confederates were put to a violent death in 
 prison. 
 
98 THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 4. THE TIMES OF JULIUS CiESAR. 
 
 § 140. The triumvirate. — Sylla's fortune excited ambitious men to 
 imitate it. Every one sought to be first, and to rule the state at his plea- 
 sure. But whilst Pompey, who was now in possession of almost kingly 
 authority, was reposing upon the laurels of his renown, in the full enjoy- 
 ment of his happiness and prosperity, he was gradually overtaken by his 
 great competitor, Julius Cassar. This man united talents of the most 
 varied character, so that he was not less distinguished as a Avriter and 
 orator, than as a general and soldier. His liberality gained him the favor 
 of the people, and his ambition urged him to great deeds. To make him- 
 self a match for the old republican party, at the head of which stood the 
 eccentric M. Porcius Cato, Caisar fornied an alliance with 
 Pompey and Crassus, called the triumvirate (league of three 
 men), in which they pledged themselves to assist each other. From this 
 time, these -three men ruled the state without troubling themselves farther 
 
 about the senate. In a short time, Oiesar had the trovern- 
 B. c. 58. . . 
 
 ment of Gaul, in which he had a long Avar to conduct, 
 
 transferred to himself. That he might not be disturbed in his under- 
 takings, he renewed the triumvirate in a meeting that was held at Lucca. 
 By this means, the government of Gaul was continued to him for five 
 years. Pompey received Spain as his province, but governed it by means 
 of his legates, whilst he himself exercised a dictatorial power in Ptome. 
 Crassus, the richest man in Home, to gratify his avarice, chose Syria with 
 its riches ; but was overthrown by the Parthians in the plains of Mesopo- 
 tamia, and killed in the flight. His more valiant son, and almost the whole 
 of the army, died on the field of battle. The Boman ensigns fell into the 
 hands of the enemy. 
 
 § 141. Caesar's wars in Gaul. — The Celts, a people 
 
 B. C. 58-50. ,..,,. ^ ., , . . \ /. 
 
 divided into many states and tribes, were the ancient inhabit- 
 ants of Gaul (France) and Helvetia (Switzerland). The southern part 
 of this Gaul had already become a Roman province (hence Provence), 
 when the Helvetii embraced the project of leaving their sterile mount- 
 ains, and settling themselves in its south-western portion. The Romans 
 would not permit this, and Cassar in consequence marched into Gaul. 
 He overthrew the Helvetii in a battle, compelled them to return to their 
 burnt villages and desolated country, and reduced them to pay tribute. He 
 then subdued the German leader, Ariovistus, who by means of his hardy 
 troops had severely oppressed the Sequani and iEdui, who were dwell- 
 ing in eastern Gaul, and obliged him to return again to his trans-Rhenish 
 country. After Caesar had subdued the Belgse and other Gaulish tribes, 
 he twice crossed the Rhine for the purpose of terrifying the warlike in- 
 habitants of the rude and woody Germany, and preventing their hostile 
 attacks upon Gaul. It is to this undertaking that we owe the first short 
 
HISTORY OF ROME. 99 
 
 description of Germany, in Caesar's commentaries on the Gallic war. 
 
 But the Roman general never thought of making permanent conquests, 
 
 either in Germany, or Britain on the coasts of which he twice landed. 
 
 After a few enfjagements with the skin-clad inhabitants of the British 
 
 islands, he sailed back again for the purpose of completely subjecting the 
 
 Gauls. For this restless and fickle people were perpetually revolting 
 
 and taking up arms, when Caesar was employed in another quarter. It 
 
 was not till he had put down the last general insurrection, at 
 B c 52. 
 
 Alesia, in Burgundy, that ho succeeded in reducing the whole 
 
 country as far as the Rhine, and converting it into a province of tho 
 
 Roman empire. 
 
 § 142. The second civil war. — In the meanwhile, 
 
 B. C. 49 — 48. 
 
 the rage of party had grown in Rome to the greatest excess, 
 and murder and plunder were matters of daily occurrence. This induced 
 the senate and the old republicans to attach themselves entirely to Pom- 
 pey, and to place the consulate at his disposal. Porapey employed this 
 vast power to depress Cajsar, of whose military renown he had become 
 jealous. At his instigation, an order was sent to Cassar from the 
 senate, at the termination of the w;ar in Gaul, to lay down his command 
 and to quit his army. Two tribunes of the people (Ciirio and Antdnius) 
 who opposed this resolution, and denninded that Pompey should also give 
 np his power, were driven out of the city ; they fled to Caesar's camp, 
 and summoned him to step forward as the defender of the outraged privi- 
 leges of the people. 
 
 After a little hesitation, Cassar crossed the boundary stream 
 
 of the Rubicon, and advanced upon Rome. Pompey, aroused 
 when it was too late from his indolence and careless security, did not ven- 
 ture to await his approach in the city : he hastened to Brundusium with 
 a few troops and a great train of senators and nobles ; and when the vic- 
 tor approached that place, he escaped across the Ionian Sea into Epi'rus. 
 Cxsar did not pursue him, but fell back upon Rome, where he took pos- 
 session of the treasury, and then proceeded to Spain. Here he com- 
 pelled the army of Pompey to a capitulation, the result of which was, 
 that the generals and otficers were allowed to depart, and the greater 
 part of the common soldiers joined the victor. AVhen Caesar on his re- 
 turn, after a close siege, had reduced Massilia, a town that wished to 
 remain neutral, and punished it severely in its possessions and liberties, 
 he again marched to Rome, had himself appointed dictator and consul 
 for the following year, and adopted many serviceable measures. He then 
 passed over the Ionian Sea, for the purpose of making head against 
 
 Pompey. The decisive battle of Pharsalus, in the plains of 
 
 Thessaly, was soon fought, in which Caesar's veteran troops 
 gained a aplendid victory over an army of double their numbers. Pom- 
 pey, with a few faithful followers, fled to Asia Minor and thence to Egypt, 
 
too THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 where, instead of a hospitable reception, he met his death by assassi- 
 nation. Ptolemy, in the hope of obtaining the favor of Csesar, ordered 
 the conquered Pompey to be killed on his landing at Pelusium, and his 
 dead body to be cast unburied upon the shore. 
 
 § 143. Cesar's triumphs. — Shortly after, Ccesar arrived in Italy, 
 He shed tears of compassion over Pompey's death, and refused the 
 instigator of the murder his promised reward. For when he was 
 chosen umpire between Ptolemy and his beautiful sister Cleopatra, 
 in a dispute concerning the throne, he decided in favor of the latter, 
 and by this means got involved in a war with the king and the 
 people of Egypt, that retained him for nine months in Alexandria, 
 and reduced him to great peril. It was only when fresh troops had 
 arrived, and Ptolemy had been drow^ned after an unsuccessful engage- 
 ment on the Nile, that he could place the government in the hands 
 of Cleopatra (by whose charms he had been enchained), and proceed to 
 fresh conquests. The rapid victory that he gained by the terror of his 
 name over the son of Mithridates has been rendered immortal by the 
 memorable letter that announced the event : " I came, saw, conquered ** 
 (Veni, vidi, vici). After a short delay in Rome, he passed over into 
 Africa, where the friends of republican government and the adherents 
 of Pompey had collected a vast army. Here Caesar gained 
 the bloody battle of Thtpsus, where the hopes of the repub- 
 licans were destroyed. Thousands fell in the field; many of the survivors 
 perished by their own hands, and among them, the high-spirited Cato 
 the younger, who put himself to death in Utica with calm composure. A 
 magnificent triumph of four days awaited the victor on his return to 
 Pome, which he, however, soon quitted, for the purpose of attacking the 
 last of his enemies, who had assembled themselves around the sons of 
 Pompey. The last remnants of the friends of Pompey and the republic 
 were destroyed in the frightful battle near Munda, where they 
 fought with the courage of desperation. One of the sons was 
 killed in the flight, and the survivor follow^ed the life of a pirate, till he 
 fell by the hand of an assassin. 
 
 § 144. Cesar's death. — Ca3sar now returned, as chief and ruler of 
 the Roman empire, to the capital, where he was saluted as " Father of 
 the country," and elected dictator for life. He sought to win the sol- 
 diers and people by liberality, and the nobles by offices : he encouraged 
 trade and agriculture, embellished the city with temples, theatres, and 
 public places, improved the calendar, and forw^arded all kinds of good and 
 useful projects ; but his evident attempts to gain the title and dignity of 
 king induced some fanatical friends of liberty to engage in a conspiracy. 
 His friend and flatterer, Marc Antony, off'ered hira the kingly dia- 
 dem during a feast; and despite the feigned distaste with which 
 C99sar rejected it, his secret satisfaction was discernible. At the head of 
 
inSTORT OF HOME. , 101 
 
 the conspiracy stood the high-minded enthusiast for liberty, M. Junius 
 
 Brutus, the friend of Coesar, and the severe republican, Caius Cassius. 
 
 In despite of every warning, Coesar held a meeting of the senate on 
 the ides of March, in the hall of Pompey. It was here 
 that, with the exclamation, " Et in Brute 1 " he fell, pierced 
 
 by twenty-three daggers, at the feet of the statue of his former opponent. 
 
 5. THE LAST YEARS OF THE REPUBLIC. 
 
 § 145. It was soon apparent that the idea of freedom only existed 
 among a few men of cultivated minds, but was quenched in the hearts 
 of the populace. The first enthusiasm for the newly-acquired freedom 
 was soon changed into hatred and invectives against the murderers of the 
 dictator, when Marc Antony, in an artful speech at the funeral of 
 Caesar, extolled his merits and services, and ordered presents of money 
 to be distributed among the poor. The senate, on the other hand, were 
 for the most part favorable to the conspirators, and conferred upon some 
 ot them the government of provinces ; and when Antony attempted to 
 take possession of one of these provinces by force, Cicero obtained, by 
 his Philippic Orations, that the senate declared him an enemy of the 
 country. The senate, at the same time, gave offence to Octavius, the grand- 
 son of Caesar's sister, who was then nineteen years of age, and who, as 
 heir of his uncle's name, (Caesar Octavianus, afterwards Augustus), had 
 all the old soldiers on his side. Octavius, in consequence, raised the 
 standard of CiBsar's venpjeance, and formed a second triumvi- 
 
 B. C. 43. 
 
 rate with Antony and Lepidus, on a little island of the river 
 Reno, near Bologna. New proscriptions took place, which proved par- 
 ticularly fatal to the knightly and senatorial ranks. The most deserving 
 and illustrious men fell beneath the blows of assassins, the dearest rela- 
 tions of blood, of friendship, and of piety were torn asunder. Among the 
 victims of Antony was Cicero, who was killed during an attempt at flight. 
 His head and his right hand were placed upon the rostrum. 
 
 § 146. After the possessors of power in Italy had satiated their ven- 
 geance, they marched against the republicans, who had established 
 their camp in Macedonia, under the command of Brutus and Cassius. 
 It was here, in the plains of Philippi, that a decisive double 
 engagement took place, in which Cassius was obliged to 
 yield to Antony, whilst Brutus repulsed the legions of Octavius. But 
 when Cassius, deceived by false intelligence, had over-hastily fallen upon 
 his own sword, and the triumvirs, twenty days afterwards, renewed the 
 fight with united forces, Brutus, "the last of the Romans," was forced to 
 succumb, and fell, like Cassius, upon his own sword. His wife, Portia 
 (Cato's daughter), destroyed herself with live coals, and many champi- 
 ons of liberty died by their own hands ; so that Philippi became the 
 grave of the republic. Henceforth, the contest was no longer for free- 
 9* 
 
102 THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 dom, but for empire. The victors divided the Roman territory between 
 them ; Antony chose the east, Octavius the west ; the feeble Lepidus, 
 who at first received the province of Africa, but who never possessed 
 much influence, was soon robbed of his share. 
 
 § 147. But whilst the luxurious Antony was leading a voluptuous life 
 at Cleopatra's court in Alexandria, the shrewd Augustus and his high- 
 spirited admiral, Agrippa, were winning the affections of the Roman 
 people by liberal donations and diversions, rewarding the soldiers by a 
 distribution of lands, and keeping up the discipline of the fleet and army. 
 At length, when Antony lavished Roman blood and Roman honor in an 
 unsuccessful campaign against the Parthians, married Cleopatra, and 
 gave the provinces of Rome to her son, the senate, at the instigation of 
 Octavius, deprived him of all his honors, and declared war against Cleo- 
 patra. East and west stood opposed in arms. But the sea- 
 fight of Actium, despite the superiority of the Egyptians, 
 was decided in favor of Octavius. Antony and Cleopatra fled. But 
 when the victor approached the gates of Alexandria, the former fell on 
 his sword, and Cleopatra, finding that her charms produced no impression 
 on the new potentate, destroyed herself by the poison of an 
 asp. Egypt became the first province of the Roman Empire. 
 
 IV. THE KOMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 1. THE TIMES OP C^SAR OCTAVIANUS AUGUSTUS. 
 
 Augustus, § 148. The bloody civil war had swept away all the men 
 
 from 30 b. c. of ability and patriotism ; and the crowd that was left de- 
 manded nothing but food and entertainment, and forgot free- 
 dom and civil virtue in the enjoyment of the moment. This rendered it 
 easy to the dexterous Augustus to change the Roman republic into a 
 monarchy; but he yielded so far to the prejudices of the Romans, as not 
 to assume the title of king, or master, and to retain the republican names 
 and forms, with the appellation of Caesar, whilst he gradually got all the 
 offices and privileges of the senate and people placed in his own hands, 
 and had them renewed from time to time. He united a profound under- 
 standing and talents for government, with clemency, temperance, and 
 constancy ; and as he was a master in the art of dissimulation, and knew 
 how to turn the failings of men to advantage, he gained his ends more 
 surely than his greater uncle, Caesar. It was under Augustus that the 
 Roman empire possessed the greatest power abroad, and the highest cul- 
 tivation at home. It extended from the Atlantic Ocean to the Euphrates, 
 and from the Danube and Rhine to the Atlas and falls of the j^ik ; art 
 
HISTORY OF ROME. 103 
 
 Bnd literature flourished to such a degree, that the reign of Augustus 
 was called the golden age. Vast military roads, provided with mile- 
 stones, connected the twenty-five provinces with Rome, and facilitated 
 intercourse; magnificent aqueducts and canals attested the enterprising 
 spirit of the Roman people; Rome itself was adorned with temples, 
 theatres, and baths, and so much changed, that Augustus was able to say 
 that be found Rome brick, and left it marble. The temple which Agrippa 
 consecrated to all the gods (the Pantheon), is still one of the greatest 
 ornaments of the eternal city. Augustus and his friend Ma3cenas, Pollio, 
 and others, were the favorers of art and literature, and the patrons of 
 poets and authors. The first public library was founded on the Palatine 
 hill ; the citizens, who now no longer marched to the wars, and Avho had 
 relinquished the conduct of state affairs to Ciesar and his ministers, 
 employed their leisure in reading and writing, left actions for words, and 
 performing for thinking ; it was by this means that polished manners 
 soon prevailed among all classes. 
 
 § 149. Roman literature. — Virgil, Horace, and Ovid claim the 
 first place among the poets that adorned the Augustan age. The first 
 composed the ^neid, an heroic poem on the model of Homer (§ 38), 
 pastoral poetry, and a didactic poem on agriculture ; Horace, to whom 
 his patron Maecenas presented a small Sabine farm, wrote odes, satires, 
 and humorous epistles, in which he exhibits his cheerful views of life in 
 a witty and engaging manner ; Ovid, the clever writer of mythological 
 stories (Metamorphoses), was banished by Augustus to the rude shores 
 of the Black Sea, whence he wrote letters of complaint to his distant 
 home. 
 
 Among historians, the most celebrated are Sallust, who, in his account 
 of the wars against Jugurtha and Catiline, gives a true but frightful 
 picture of the corrupt times ; and Titus Livius, the tutor of the grand- 
 nephew of Augustus, who wrote a complete history of Rome, in 142 books ; 
 of which only thirty-five are preserved. We possess a biography of 
 distinguished men, by his contemporary, Cornolius Nepos. The Romans 
 took the Greeks for their models in art and literature, but fell far short 
 of their masters. 
 
 2. THE STRUGGLES OF THE GERMANS FOR LIBERTY. 
 
 § 150. About the time that the Saviour of the world was brought 
 forth in lowliness and humility in Bethlehem, in the land of Judoe'a, to 
 bring the joyful news of salvation to the lost race of man, the Germans 
 were engaged in a severe struggle with the Romans for the preservation 
 of their liberties and national customs. Drusus, the brave step-son of 
 Augustus, was the first Roman who made any conquests on the right 
 bank of the Rhine. He undertook many successful campaigns against 
 the tribes in alliance with the Suevi, between the Rhine and the Elbe, 
 
104 THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 and attemi:)ted to secure the land bj intrencliments and fortifications. 
 Being killed in the flower of his years, by a fall from his horse during 
 his return home, his brother Tiberius completed the conquest of western 
 Germany, rather by dint of skilfully-conducted negotiations w^ith the 
 disunited Germans, than by force of arms ; whereupon the country be- 
 tween the Rhine and the Weser was erected into a Roman province. 
 Foreign customs, language, and laws already threatened to destroy Ger- 
 man nationality ; German soldiers already fought in the ranks of the 
 Romans, and prided themselves on foreign marks of distinction ; when the 
 insolence and indiscretion of the governor, Quintilius Varus, aroused the 
 slumbering patriotism of the people. Several tribes united themselves 
 in a confederacy, under the guidance of Hermann (Arminius), the va- 
 liant prince of the Cherusci, for the purpose of throwing off the foreign 
 yoke. It w^as in vain that Sege$tus, w^hose daughter Thusnelda had been 
 carried off and married by Hermann, against the consent of her father, 
 warned the careless governor. Varus marched with three legions and 
 several auxiliaries, through the Teutoburger forest, for the purpose of 
 quelling an insurrection that had been purposely raised ; but suffered 
 such a defeat from the Germans under Hermann's command, that the 
 defiles of the wood w^ere covered far and wide with the 
 corpses of the Romans. The eagles were lost, and Varus 
 died by his own hands. Augustus, when he heard the news, exclaimed 
 in despair, " Varus, give me back my legions I" 
 
 § 151. Upon the death of Augustus, in his 76th year, at 
 Nola, in Lower Italy, Germanicus, tlfe valiant son of Drusus, 
 again crossed the Rhine, ravaged the lands of the Catti (Hesse), 
 buried the bleaching remains of the Romans in the Teutoburger forest, 
 and carried off into captivity Thusnelda, the high-spirited wife of Her- 
 mann, whom her treacherous father had given up to the enemy. But 
 although he defeated the Cherusci and their allies in two engagements, 
 and at the same time pressed Germany closely by sea, the Roman do- 
 minion was never firmly or permanently established on the right bank of 
 the Rhine. Storms destroyed the fleet, and a pathless country and the 
 swords of the Germans brought the army to the brink of destruction ; 
 and when at length Germanicus, (to whose noble wife, Agrippina, the 
 town of Cologne owes its prosperity), was recalled by his jealous uncle, 
 Tiberius, and shortly after, met with his death by poison in Syria, the 
 Germans were no longer disturbed by the ambition of the Romans. But 
 the Lower German confederation of the Cherusci now turned its arms 
 against the Upper German confederation of the Marcomanni, at the 
 head of which stood Marbodius. This gave the Romans an opportunity 
 of embroiling Germany from the south. Marbodius fell into the power 
 of the Romans, who kept him for eighteen years at Ravenna, as their 
 pensioner; Hermann was killed by envious friends. His deeds survived 
 
HISTORY OF ROME. 105 
 
 in song, and our own age has erected a colossal statue, on the Ten thill 
 at Detmold, in joyful commemoration of the deliverer of Germany. 
 
 TACITUS ON THE MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE GERMANS. 
 
 § 152. About 100 years after Augustus, the great historian Tacitus, 
 after having portrayed the events of tlie Roman empire in his History 
 and Annals, embraced the resolution of describing the manners and cus- 
 toms of the German tribes, and presenting them as models to his degene- 
 rate countrymen. Although the work remained a mere sketch, it is tc 
 this resolution that we are indebted for the first accurate information 
 respecting this region. We learn from it, that Germany was inhabited 
 by numerous independent tribes, sometimes united and sometimes at war 
 with each other, who were perpetually changing their places of residence 
 in obedience to an innate wandering impulse. 
 
 War and the chase were their chief employments ; they built neither 
 towns nor strong-holds ; their huts and farms were scattered about ia the 
 midst of their grounds ; a peaceful life behind stone walls agreed neither 
 with their love of liberty nor their passion for war. They united purity 
 of morals, hospitality, good faith, and honeslj', respect for women, and 
 reverence for the marriage tie, to the external advantages of lofty 
 stature, beauty of person, strength, and courage. The only vices attribu- 
 ted to them are a disposition to drunkenness and gambling. 
 
 3. THE C^SARS OF THE AUGUSTAN RACE. 
 
 § 153. Domestic misfortunes disturbed the happiness of Augustus. 
 The promising sons, who sprung from the marriage of his daughter 
 Julia with Agrippa, died in their youth ; Julia herself occasioned her 
 father such distress by her profligate life that at length he banished her. 
 By the intrigues of the ambitious Livia, the emperor's third wife, the 
 Tiberius, empire descended to Tiberius, the adopted step-son of 
 A. D. 14 — 37. Augustus. The clemency kt first displayed by this hypo- 
 critical prince soon gave way to his natural malevolence, pai'ticulax'ly 
 when his crafty and vicious favorite, Sejanus, assisted him in establish- 
 ing a military despotism. He advised him to unite the praetorian body- 
 guard in a permanent camp before Rome. Here they soon became the 
 oppressors of the people, raised and dethroned emperors, and introduced 
 a military despotism. The assemblies of the people were no longer held, 
 and the dastardly senate sank into a mere tool of the despot. The fright- 
 ful court which took cognizance of cases of high treason, was a means of 
 destroying every man of ability, inasmuch as it inflicted the punishment 
 of death, and imposed fines, not only for actions, but even for words and 
 thoughts. ■ Pensioned spies undermined all faith and trust among the 
 people, and destroyed every spark of freedom by terror. The misan- 
 thropical Tiberius, tortured by fear and the reproaches of his conscience, 
 
106 THE AXCIENT WORLD. 
 
 passed the last years of his life in the island of Capreae (Capri), in Lowei 
 Italy, where he abandoned himself to luxury and the most infamoug 
 pleasures, whilst Sejdnus was practising every vice in Rome. When the 
 latter at length attempted to possess himself of the throne, the emperor 
 sent an order to the senate to put him to death. Tiberius, sick and 
 advanced in years, perished by a violent death on his estate in Lower 
 Italy. During his reign, a dreadful earthquake destroyed many of the 
 richest and most beautiful cities in Asia Minor. 
 
 CaligiiLi, § 154. His successor, Caius Caligula, the unworthy son of 
 
 A. D. 37-41. the noble Germanicus and the high-minded Agrippina, was 
 a blood-thirsty tyrant, who took delight in signing sentences of death and 
 having them executed; a frantic spendthrift, who lavished money in 
 buildings without a purpose ; an insolent boaster, who caused divine 
 honors to be paid to himself, and celebrated magnificent triumphs over 
 the Germans and Britons, whom he scarcely ever saw ; and a glutton, by 
 whose riotous table enormous sums were swallowed up. The Prastorians 
 Claudius, '^^ length killed the crazy tyrant, and raised his uncle, the 
 A. D. 41-54. imbecile Claudius, to the throne. This emperor was led by 
 women and favorites ; th% latter especially the freedmen Narcissus and 
 Pallas, were in possession, of all the offices, and enriched themselves at 
 the expense of the people, whilst his wife Messalina yielded herself up to 
 every lust, and trampled morality and decency under foot. At length, 
 the emperor commanded her to be put to death, and married his ambi- 
 tious and profligate niece Agrippina, who, however, soon got rid of her 
 weak and uxorious husband by poison, for the purpose of raising the 
 depraved Claudius Nero, her son by a former marriage, to the throne. 
 Nero, § 155. The clemency which Nero displayed in the com- 
 
 A. D. 54 - 68. mencement of his reign, soon gave place to the most ex- 
 quisite cruelty. He, who once, when he had to sign an order for an 
 execution, wished that he could not write, now not only persecuted, put 
 to death, and confiscated the property of every man who displayed the 
 virtues of a citizen or the mind of a Roman, but exercised his tyranny 
 at the expense of his nearest relations. His step-brother, Britannicus, 
 died by poison from the imperial table ; his mother was first sunk at sea 
 in a ship, and when she succeeded in saving herself, was put to death by 
 assassins despatched for the purpose ; his virtuous wife, Octavia, the 
 daughter of Claudius, found a violent death in an overheated bath. A 
 conspiracy, in which the republican poet Lucan (whose heroic poem 
 Pharsalia still breathes the old Roman spirit) was implicated, was made 
 use of by the emperor to destroy not only Lucan, but his uncle Seneca, 
 the Stoic philosopher, who had been Nero's own preceptor. Seneca 
 opened his own veins. Nero, at the instigation of his courtiers and 
 mistress (Poppse'a Sabina), perpetrated the most shameful folhes and 
 crimes. Spectacles and riotous processions, in which the emperor him- 
 
HISTORY OF EOME. 107 
 
 self, disguised as a singer and harp-player, took a share along with the 
 companions of his pleasures, luxurious feasts and banquets, and extrava- 
 gances of evfery description, consumed the revenues of the state. The 
 despot, in the plenitude of his insolence and wickedness, ordered Rome 
 to be set on fire,* that he might sing the destruction Of Troy from the 
 battlements of his palace. To divert the hatred of his subjects from him- 
 self, he afterwards attributed the crime to the Christians, who were sub- 
 jected, in consequence, to'the most frightful persecutions. The rebuilding 
 of the city, and Nero's " Golden House," on the Palatine hill, increased 
 the oppression, till at length, repeated enormities induced the Spanish 
 legion to revolt. As the troops under the command of Galba approached 
 the capital, Nero fled to a country house, where he caused himself to be 
 Stabbed by one of his freedmen. 
 
 § 156. The house of Augustus became extinct with Nero. Galba was 
 Galba Otho ^^^ successor. But as the avaricious old man would not 
 Vitellius, gratify the rapacity of the Prajtorians, they proclaimed Otho 
 A. D. 68-70. emperor, and put Galba and the successor he had appointed 
 to death. At the same time, Vitellius raised his standard on the Rhine, 
 marched with his legions into Italy, and defeated the army of his oppo- 
 nent on the banks of the Po. Otho, and several of his adherents, died 
 by their own hands. Vitellius was a mere glutton, who found pleasure 
 in nothing but luxurious banquets. Accordingly, when Vespasian, whom 
 the Syrian legions had proclaimed emperor, approached the gates of 
 Rome, Vitellius was "killed by a troop of rude soldiers, and his body 
 dranr^red with hooks into the Tiber. 
 
 •CO' 
 
 4. THE FLAVII AND ANTOXINES. 
 
 Vespasian, § 1^7. Vespasian, the first in tlie succession of good empe- 
 
 A. D. 70-79. rors, restored the discipline of the army and the Proetoriaus 
 by severe measures, improved the administration of justice after abolish- 
 ing the court of high treason, and by economy and good management 
 gucceeded in replenishing the treasury. At the same time, he embel- 
 lished the city by building the Temple of Peace and the Amphitheatre, 
 the gigantic remains of which (Coliseum) still excite the admiration of 
 travellers, and enlarged the boundaries of the empire by the conquest of 
 Judce'a and Britain. 
 
 § 158. The tyranny of the Roman governor who ruled over the land 
 of Judoe'a had at last driven the people to rebellion. They fought with 
 the courage of despair against the advancing legions, but were forced to 
 yield to Roman superiority and take refuge in their capital, where they 
 
 * This is an exaggerated account of Nero's guilt. It is not probable that he was the 
 author of the conflagration, and Tacitus says there was no authority but a vague rumor 
 among the populace for the story, that Nero showed his indifference or exultation at th« 
 event by playing and singing while the flames still raged. Am. Ed. 
 
103 THE AXCIENT WORLD. 
 
 were now besieged hy Vespjisian's son, Titus. Thousands were soon 
 carried off by famine and pestilence in the over-crowded city. It was in 
 vain that the compassionate general made offers of pardon: rage and 
 fanaticism urged the Jews to a desperate resistance. They defended 
 themselves in tlioir temple with an utter contempt for death, till that 
 magnificent structure was destroyed by fire on the taking of the city, and 
 death raged in every shape among the conquered. The 
 complete destruction of JerUvSalem then took place. Among 
 the prisoners, who followed the triumphal car of the conqueror, was 
 Josephus, the Jewish historian of this war. The triumphal arch of Titus 
 in Rome displays, to this day, representations of the sacred vessels of the 
 Jews that were at this time conveyed to the metropolis of the world. 
 Those who were left behind were exposed to grievous oppression under 
 the Roman yoke. But when a heathen colony, fifty years after the 
 destruction of the city, was transplanted by the emperor Adrian to the 
 sacred soil of Jerusalem, (which from this time was called JElia Capi- 
 tolina), and a temple erected to Jupiter on the eminence once occupied 
 by Solomon's temple to Jehovah, the Jews, deceived by a false Messiah, 
 took up arms once more to prevent this outraf^e. After a 
 " " " * murderous war of three years' duration, in which upwards 
 of half a million of the natives were slaughtered, the Jews submitted to 
 the military skill of the Romans. The survivors left the country in 
 crowds, the land resembled a desert, and the Jewish state was at an elid. 
 Since then, the Jews have been scattered abroad 6ver the whole earth, 
 but without mingling with other people, and faithful to their own customs, 
 religion, and superstitions. 
 
 § 150. It was during the reign of Vespasian, that the high-spirited 
 Agricola, father-in-law to the historian Tacitus, by whom his life has 
 been written, subdued Britain as far as the highlands of Caledonia (Scot- 
 land), and introduced the Roman language, manners, and institutions. 
 Britain remained subject to the Romans for nearly four hundred years. 
 The warlike energy of the people was destroyed by civilization, so that 
 they were afterwards as little able to resist the attacks of the rude Cale- 
 donians (Picts and Scots) as the wall erected by Adrian proved a defence 
 against their inroads. 
 
 Titus, § 160. The simple ^nd energetic Vespasian was succeeded 
 
 A. D. 79-81. by his son Titus, who cast off the failings and crimes of his 
 youth when he ascended the throne, and became so admirable a prince 
 that he was justly called " the delight of mankind." It was during his 
 reign that a frightful eruption of Mount Vesuvius destroyed the towns 
 of Ilerculaneum, Pompeii, and Stabias. The inquisitive natural philoso- 
 pher, the elder Pliny, lost his life by the vapor produced by this eruption, 
 us we learn from two letters, written by his nephew, Pliny the younger, 
 the friend and encomiast of the emperor Trajan, to the historian Tacitus. 
 
HISTORY OF ROME. 109 
 
 TLe exlmmation of these buried towns, which was begun about a hundred 
 years ago, more especially that of Pompeii, has been of the utmost im*- 
 portance to the knowledge of antiquity and to the artistic taste of our 
 own day. 
 
 § 161. The noble Titus was unfortunately followed by his brother, the 
 Doraitiaii, cruel Domitian, a gloomy and misanthropical tyrant, who 
 A. D. 81-98. took pleasure in nothing but the contests of wild beasts and 
 gladiatorial combats. When he was at length murdered at the instiga- 
 Nerva, tion of his wicked wife, the throne was taken possession of 
 
 A. D. OG-98. by Nerva, an old senator. Nerva adopted the energetic 
 Trajan, Spaniard, Trajan, who, by his government at home, and his 
 
 A. 0.98-117. victories abroad, deserved the surname of the best, and the 
 glory of the greatest, of the Caesars. He provided for the proper admin- 
 istration of justice, facilitated trade and commerce by making new roads 
 and harbors (Ci'vita Vecchia), and embellished Rome with public build- 
 ings, temples, and a new forum, in which he ordered the beautiful column 
 of Trajan to be erected. He at the same time reduced the turbulent 
 Dacians on the Danube, and established the province of Dacia (Walla- 
 chia and Transylvania), which was soon peopled by Roman settlers, on 
 the northern bank of the river. In the east, he made war on the Par- 
 thians, conquered Babylon, Seleucia, and other cities, and converted 
 Armenia and Mesopotamia into Roman provinces. The country between 
 the sources of the Danube and the Upper Rhine, (Black Forest), was 
 surrendered to settlers from Gaul and Germany, and was afterwards 
 protected from hostile attacks by a ditch fortified with stakes. It was 
 called Decumatian land, and the ruins of numerous towns, and the anti- 
 quities that are dug up there, show that it must have shared in the civili- 
 zation of its conquerors. 
 
 § 1G2. Trajan's relative and successor, jJElius Adrianus (Hadrian) 
 was more intent upon defending than enlarging the bounds of his em- 
 Hadrian P^^'65 ^"^ found greater pleasure in art and literature than 
 A, D, 117 -138. in war. He was a man of great cultivation of mind, but 
 vain, and open to flattery. His eagerness for knowledge, and love of 
 art, induced him to take journeys of many years' duration, both into 
 the East, where he lingered in Greece, Asia, and Egypt, and into 
 the "West, where he visited Gaul, Spain, Britain, and the Rhine-land. 
 Among the many writers, artists, and interpreters who surrounded the 
 brilliant court of Hadrian, the most distinguished was the Greek Plu- 
 tarch, the author of numerous writings. His biographies, in which he 
 compares together the Greek and Roman statesmen and generals, are 
 especially calculated to excite admiration for the heroic deeds of anti- 
 quity. Hadrian's love of art is borne witness to more particularly, by 
 the ruins of his villa at Tivoli ; his magnificent mausoleum, now the castle 
 10 
 
110 THE AXCIEXT WORLD. 
 
 of St. Angelo at Rome^ and innumerable remains of sculpture and 
 building. 
 
 Antoninus § ^^^* H^^Irian's adopted son, the simple and benevolent 
 
 Pius, Antoninus Pius, was an ornament of the throne. He avoided 
 
 A. D. 138-161. ^yaj. ijjr^i; i^Q might devote all his care to the arts of peace. 
 Marcus His successor, Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, the philosopher, 
 
 Aurelius, was as much distinguished in war as in peace. lie conquered 
 A. D. 1-1 .^j^g Marcomanni on the frozen Danube, and drove back over 
 the frontiers, after a long war, the German tribes who were their confede- 
 rates. He died at Vindobona (Vienna), during a campaign. Marcus 
 Aurelius was a man of simple and hardy habits, who, when on the 
 throne, remained true to his stoic virtue and severity of morals (§ 91). 
 He promoted civilization and useful institutions, and the collection of 
 reflections, which he composed knd dedicated to himself, bears witness to 
 his noble principles and efforts. 
 
 § 164. Cultivation and morals. — During this period, the highest 
 civilization prevailed in the Roman empire, along with the greatest de- 
 pravity of morals. Arts and sciences were encouraged in the courts of 
 the Caesars and the palaces of the wealthy, and were shared in by per- 
 sons of all conditions. Trades and commerce flourished, and prosperity 
 and refinement were visible in the populous cities and elegant dwelling- 
 houses ; establishments for education sprang up in Rome and the more 
 considerable provincial towns. The ruins of buildings, military roads, and 
 bridges that we admire even at this day, not only in Italy, but in many pro- 
 vincial towns (Treves, Nimes), the statues, sarcophagi, and altars with 
 bas-reliefs and inscriptions, the vases of clay and bronze of elegant forms 
 that are dug out of the earth, all bear testimony to the cultivation and 
 feeling for art existing among the people in the times of the Csesars. 
 But this refinement was but a superficial polish ; morality, nobility of 
 soul, and strength of character, were held in no estimation. The people, 
 no longer invigorated by war, or the labors of the field, sank into luxury 
 and effeminacy ; they sought their gratification in the barbarous sports 
 of the amphitheatre, gladiatorial combats, and the contests of wild beasts, 
 and gave themselves up to a relaxing enjoyment of the luxurious baths, 
 with which the city was am^ly provided by the emperors, for the pur- 
 j)Ose of withdrawing the citizens from the consideration of graver mat- 
 ters. It is in vain, that Persius angrily shakes the scourge of his stern 
 satire over the degenerate race, and endeavors to bring back the ancient 
 vigor, simplicity, and morality; — it is in vain, that the witty Juven<il 
 unveils in his sportive satire the frightful depths of crime and wicked- 
 ness, and lashes his degenerate contemporaries ; it is in vain, that the 
 waggish Greek, Lucian, in his witty and satirical writings, jests at all the 
 existing conditions of life and religion, for the purpose of destroying what 
 is old, and thereby making room for something new and better ; — human 
 
HISTORY OF ROME. Ill 
 
 counsel came too late ; nothing but a higher power could save tlie per- 
 ishing world ; the help had already appeared, but the blinded Romans 
 did not recognize it, because it came not in the pomp of authority, but in 
 the garment of humility. 
 
 5. ROME UNDER MILITARY GOVERNMENT. 
 
 Commodus, § 1^5. Rome's downward course commences with C<5m- 
 A. D. 180-192. modus, tlie unworthy son of Aurelius. He was a barbarous 
 tyrant, who delighted in nothing but the combats of gladiators and wild 
 beasts, and who distressed the people in every way, till at length he was 
 Pertinax, put to death by those around him. Pertinax, his valiant 
 A. D. 193. successor, had a similar fate. After his death, the insolence 
 of the praetorians rose to such a height, that they put up the crown to the 
 Septlmius highest bidder. Septimius Severus first restrained their inso- 
 Sevcrus, lence by his inexorable severity, and reestablished the impe- 
 
 A.D. 193-211. rial power. He was a rude soldier, and enlarged the empire 
 by his conquests in the East, where he took Mesopotamia from the Par- 
 thians; and he secured Britain by new defences against the turbulent 
 Picts and Scots. But he deprived the senate of their last remains ot 
 power, and placed his whole reliance on the army, so that he was the 
 actual establisher of the military government. 
 
 § 1G6. The death of Septimius Severus at Eb(jracum (York) wi Bri- 
 Ciiracalla, tain, placed his cruel son, Caracalla, on the throne, who, true 
 A. D. 211-217. to his father's teaching, honored the soldiery, but treated 
 other men with contempt. He killed his brother, Geta, in the arms of 
 his mother, and then put his preceptor, the great jurist Papinian, to 
 death, for refusing to justify the fratricide. For the purpose of augment- 
 ing the revenue, he gave the right of Roman citizenship to all the free- 
 born men in the empire. After the murder of this profligate tyrant by 
 his own soldiers, in a campaign against the Parthians, his relative, Helio- 
 Heliogabalus, gabalus, a priest of the Syrian sun-god, succeeded to the 
 A. D. 218-222. throne. Heliogabalus was a weak and cruel epicure, who, 
 by the introduction of the sensual worship of Baal from Syria, destroyed 
 the last remnants of the ancient Roman discipline and morality. The 
 praetorians at length put the effeminate debauchee to death, and raised 
 Alexander ^^* cousin, Alexander Severus, to the throne. Severus was 
 Severus, a man of respectable character, who adopted many excellent 
 A. D. 222 - 235. measures, and listened to the advice of his sagacious mother: 
 but his powers were inferior to the conduct of such difficult affairs of 
 state. The prastorians killed the great jurist, Ulpian, before his eyes, 
 with impunity; and on the eastern boundary, Ardshir (Artaxerxes) 
 overthrew the Parthian government, and established the new Persian 
 empire of the Sassanida3, who soon pursued their conquests into the Ro- 
 man territory. 
 
112 THE ANCIEXT WORLD. 
 
 § 167. The death of the emperor and his mother, by an insurrection 
 of the soldiers at Mayence, reduced the empire to such confusion, that 
 twelve emperors were raised -and dethroned within the space of twenty 
 years. Philip the Arab, who, like Alexander Severus, was a friend to 
 Philip the Christians, sought to signalize his reign by a magnificent 
 
 ofo'o.n celebration of the thousandth anniversary of Rome. His 
 
 A. D. 243 - 249. , ^ / 
 
 Deoius successor, Decius, persecuted the Christians, but found an 
 
 A. D. 249-251. early death in battle against the Goths, a German tribe who 
 had established themselves on the Lower Danube, and made preda- 
 tory excursions thence, both by land and sea, into the Roman territory. 
 After his death, the empire seemed on the point of dissolution. The 
 generals in the different provinces caused themselves to be proclaimed 
 Gallienus emperors, so that the historians of the period, during which 
 A. D. 259-268. Gallienus reigned in Rome, and his father. Valerian, was 
 pining in captivity in Persia, call this the age of the thirty tyrants. In 
 the mean time, the empire was attacked on the east by the New Per- 
 sians, under the command of the valiant Sapor, whilst the German tribes 
 threatened the other quarters. 
 
 § 168. At this juncture, Aurelian, a man imbued with the old Roman 
 Aurelianus, courage and military discipline, was the restorer of the em- 
 A.D. 270-275. pire. He subdued the rebellious generals, and marched 
 against the kingdom of Palmyrene, which Odenatus had founded on an 
 oasis in Syria, and which was governed, after his death, by his beautiful 
 and heroic wife, Zenobia. Palmyra, the capital city, rich in arts, philo- 
 sophy, and commerce, was taken and destroyed, and Zenobia led in 
 triumph to Rome. Her preceptor and adviser, the gallant philosopher 
 Longinus, died a violent death. At first, a follower of the new Platonists, 
 who joined the Oriental profundity, superstition, and belief in miracles, 
 to the doctrines of Plato, and put the inactive contemplation of the East 
 in place of the practical intelligence of ancient Rome, Longinus had 
 afterwards relinquished this obscure wisdom. The ruins of Palmyra yet 
 enchain the admiration of the traveller. Aurelian again restored the 
 boundary of the Danube on the north, gave up the province on the far- 
 ther side of the river to the enemy, and transplanted the inhabitants to 
 the right bank. Lest his capital should be endangered by any sudden 
 attack, he surrounded Rome with a wall. 
 
 § 169. After Aurelian had been killed by his soldiers, and his suc- 
 Tacitus, cesser, Tacitus (a descendant of the historian), had perished 
 
 A. D. 275 - 276. in an expedition against the Goths, the courageous and up- 
 Probus, right Probus was raised to the throne. He enlarged and 
 
 A.D. 276-282. completed the boundary wall (Devil's Wall), from the Bava- 
 rian Danube to the Taunus, and secured it by means of troops; he 
 planted vineyards on the Rhine and in Hungary, and reformed the affairs 
 of the army. After Probus also had been killed by his troops, and his 
 
HISTORY OF ROME. 113 
 
 successor, Carus, had fallen in an expedition against the Persians, either 
 Cams, by a stroke of lightning or the hand of an assassin, the throne 
 
 A. D. 282-284. ■vvas assumcd by the sagacious Diocletian. 
 
 § 170. Diocletian increased the imperial power, and lowered the dig- 
 Diocletian, nitj of the senate ; he projected a division of the empire, for 
 A. D. 284-305. the purpose of more easily resisting the enemy. He himself, 
 with the title of Augustus, governed the Eastern region, together with 
 Thrace, whilst his assistant in the empire (Caesar), Galerius, was at the 
 head of the Illyrian provinces ; in the same manner, Maximian, under 
 the title of Augustus, ruled over Italy, Africa, and the islands ; and his 
 son-in-law, Constantius (Chlorus), governed the western provinces, 
 Spain, Gaul, and Britain. For twenty years, Diocletian governed the 
 empire with vigor and dexterity, and restored its former strength and 
 stability. But when he allowed himself to be seduced into commanding a 
 bloody persecution against the Christians, he disturbed the evening of a 
 most active life, and stained his name and government with an indelible 
 maVk of infamy. The sword of persecution was still raging among the 
 confessors of the crucified Jesus, when Diocletian abdicated his throne, to 
 pass his remaining years in rural retirement at Salona, in Dalmatia, and 
 to forget the bustle of the world in the arrangement of his palace and 
 gardens. 
 
 § 171. The abdication of Diocletian was followed by a period of con- 
 fusion and sanguinary civil wars, which was only put an end to, when 
 Constantinus, the brave and wise son of Constantius, assumed the 
 government of the West, and marched into the field against Maximian's 
 hard-hearted son, Maxdntius. Constantine, who had been Avon over to 
 Christianity by his mother, Helena, erected the banner of the cross 
 (labarum), overthrew the cruel Maxcntius at the Milvian 
 Bridge, and took possession of Rome, after his opponent had 
 been drowned in the waters of the Tiber. After this period, Constantino 
 ruled over the West, whilst his brother-in-law, Liciuius, govered the East. 
 But the ambition of Constantine soon occasioned another war, in which 
 Licinius lost his kingdom and, at last, his life. It was thus that'Constan- 
 tine became sole governor of the Roman empire, and showed 
 favor to the Christians. But that the doctrines of Jesus had 
 little effect upon his mind, is shown by the cruelty with which he caused 
 whole troops of his captured enemies to be thrown to wild beasts, by the 
 severity he displayed in the execution of his wife and his noble son, Cris- 
 pus, and by the love of vengeance and want of truth displayed in hia 
 character. 
 
 10-^ 
 
BOOK SECOND. 
 
 MIGRATION OF NATIONS AND THE MIDDLE AGE. 
 
 A. MIGRATION OF NATIONS AND ESTABLISH- 
 xMENT OF MONOTHEISM. 
 
 I. THE TRIUMPH OF CHRISTIANITY OVER PAGANIS3^L 
 1. THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH OF THE FIRST CENTURY. 
 
 § 172. The Romans were very tolerant of the heathen forms of 
 religion amongst other nations, as is apparent at once from the fact, that 
 they adopted not only the mythology of the Greeks, but also, by degrees, 
 the theology of the East, of the Chaldeans, Persians, Egyptians, and 
 Syrians. But as Christianity forbade any combination with Paganism, 
 the Christians carefully avoided all participation in the feasts and 
 religious rites of the heathen, and kept themselves separate even in the 
 daily intercourse of life; thus the hatred of the people and the mis- 
 trust of their rulers were roused, and heavy persecutions arose against 
 them. Ten persecutions of Christians are recorded from the days of 
 Nero, when Peter and Paul are said to have met their death, to the first 
 decennium of the fourth century, when Diocletian and Galerius drove 
 the confessors of the crucified Saviour, by rack and axe, to the altar of 
 sacrifice, burnt down the churches, and gave the Holy Scriptures to the 
 flames. Even the noble-minded Marcus Aurelius thought it his duty to 
 break by force the stubbornness of the supposed fanatics ; and the short 
 reign of Decius has become memorable for one of the most violent per- 
 Becutions of the Christians. But the holy joy with which the martyrs, 
 bearing witness by their blood, endured torture and death, multiplied the 
 number of believers, so that the blood of martyrs is justly called "the 
 seed of the Church." The objects of persecution concealed themselves 
 hi subterraneous passages (the Catacombs), near the graves of those they 
 loved, and in caves and mountain clefts. Oppression heightened their 
 trust in God ; and the number of apostate believers who delivered up tlie 
 Bible to be burned, or oifered incense before the statue of Jjie emperor, 
 
CONSTANTINE THE GREAT AND JULIAN THE APOSTATE. 115 
 
 was small when compared with the number of those who stood finn in 
 their faith. During the years of persecution, Christianity continued to 
 spread, by the indwelling force of truth, and favorable circumstances from 
 without, to all quarters of the heavens, so that, as early as the third 
 century, before Constantine raised it to a state religion, it ovei*stepped 
 the bounds of the Roman empire. 
 
 2. CONSTANTINE THE GREAT AND JULIAN THE APOSTATE. 
 
 § 173. CJonstantine, as sole emperor, transferred his residence to 
 Byzantium, which from this time forward was called Constantinople. He 
 fortified the city, which was favorably situated, with walls and towers, 
 and embellished it most magnificently with palaces and churches, race- 
 grounds, and works of art. He then abolished the antiquated constitu- 
 tion of the Koman empire ; vested all power in the imperial throne ; 
 eurrounded himself with a brilliant court of chamberlains, ministers, 
 ofiicials, and servants; and established a galling system of taxation. The 
 better to conduct the management of his vast empire, he divided it into 
 four prefectures or lieutenancies : the East, to which Thrace and Egypt 
 were assigned ; lUyricum with Greece ; Italy with Africa ; the West 
 (containing Gaul, Spain, Britain). Each of these he divided into a 
 greater or less number of districts (dioceses), and these again into state? 
 (provinces). The last years of his life Constantine devoted principally 
 to religious and ecclesiastical matters ; but he deferred the rite of baptism 
 which cleanseth from sin, till shortly before his death. He founded 
 many churches, and endowed them with landed estates. He granted to 
 the clergy an immunity from taxes, and other privileges, and allowed 
 legacies to the Church. From this time forward, the constitution of the 
 Christian Church took a new shape ; whereas before, the Elders and 
 Bishops were chosen from the whole Church-community, and the princi- 
 ple of brotherly equality amongst all Christians was held in honor, now, 
 the priesthood (clergy) separated from the people (laity), and introduced 
 degrees of rank, so that the Bishops of the principal cities were placed 
 over the remaining Bishops as metropolitans, and these again had the 
 Buperintendence of the priests in their immediate neighborhood. At the 
 same time, the Church services, which before consisted only in singing, 
 prayer, and reading the Bible, and concluded with the love-feasts, were 
 made more solemn by the aid of music and other arts. 
 
 § 174. Arianism. — Augustine. — Fathers of the Church. — 
 The doctrine (dogma), also, of Christianity did not long remain in its 
 original simplicity and purity, when many learned men made it the sub- 
 ject of their inquiry and meditation. The first point which they investi- 
 gated was the relation of Christ to God, and the mysterious junction of 
 His divine and human natures. On this question, vehement contentions 
 arose as early as the time .of Constantine, between the Alexandrian 
 
116 THE HISTORr OF THE MIDDLE AGE. 
 
 ecclesiastics, Arius and Atlianasius, the first of whom maintained that 
 Christ, the Son of God, was inferior to God the Father, and dependent 
 on Him ; while the latter laid down the doctrine of the Trinity in Unity, 
 through the principle that God the Son was of the same substance with 
 God the Father. The first general Church Council (GEcumenical Syn- 
 od), which Constantine convened at Nice, declared the opinion of Atha- 
 nasius to be the true (orthodox) faith of the Church ; but the German 
 nations, the Goths, Vandals, Longobards, to whom Christianity had been 
 brought by Arian missionaries, continued in Arianism for another century, 
 and were therefore excommunicated and driven out as heretics from the 
 Catholic (universal) Church. An equally important dispute arose in the 
 fifth century, about original sin and predestination, since Augustine, 
 Bishop of north Africa, laid down the principle that the nature of man, 
 through Adam's fall, has become unable to do good by its own strength ; 
 that this strength is produced only by the grace of God in one portion of 
 mankind, while the other remains abandoned to ruin ; so that one man 
 may be from the beginning appointed (predestinated) to salvation, ano- 
 ther to condemnation. These harsh doctrines were disputed by Pela- 
 gius, a monk residing in Africa, and the principle maintained, that man 
 can, by the strength of his own free will, do good, and become a partaker 
 of salvation. — The Christian writers of the first five or six centuries 
 were called Fathers of the Church. Their works are the more im- 
 portant, because on them depend the traditional doctrines of the Catholic 
 Church. The nearer, therefore, they stand to the time of the Apostles, 
 the greater is their authority, as we assume that the disciples of Jesus 
 made many oral communications to their contemporaries, which are not 
 found in the apostolic writings, but might wxll be known from the works 
 of the Fathers. They wrote partly in Greek and partly in Latin. 
 Constantius, § 175. Of Constantine's three vicious sons, who, according 
 A. D. 357-360. to their father's will, divided the empire, Constantius, after 
 long years of bloody struggles, obtained the sole sovereignty. As he 
 was himself busied in Asia, he sent his cousin, JuliaUy to Gaul, to protect 
 the frontiers of the empire against the Germanic nations. 
 Julian besieged the Alleraanni in Strasburgh, twice passed 
 the Rhine, repulsed the Franks in the Netherlands, and restored the an- 
 cient renown of the Roman arms. Proclaimed emperor by 
 his soldiers in his favorite city, Paris, Julian marched against 
 Constantius, and a civil war would have ensued, had not the latter died 
 Julian just at this crisis. Julian now without hinderance entered 
 
 A. D. 361-363. the imperial castle in Constantinople, as sovereign of the 
 vast empire. He immediately removed all the superfluous officers of the 
 court, reduced the imperial household, and in his dress and mode of liv- 
 ing studied the greatest simplicity ; he provided for the impartial adminis- 
 tration of justice, and restored discipline and military virtue in the army« 
 
THE MIGRATION" OF XATIOXS. 117 
 
 Strongly as he worked by these means on an indolent generation, yet his 
 zeal to revive paganism hindered the success of his efforts. The con- 
 straint which he endured in his youth under Christian masters had pro- 
 duced in him an aversion to the Gospel ; whilst his hvely imaginaticri^ 
 and his love for Plato's philosophy (§ 65, 72), and for the literature and 
 poetry of antiquity, made him a most enthusiastic admirer of paganism. 
 For this reason he was branded by Christian writers with the title of 
 Apostate. Nevertheless, he was too just and too wise to inflict bloody 
 persecutions on the Christians. He contented himself with removing 
 them from his presence, and from public and professional offices, oppos- 
 ing their opinions in writings, and reestablishing the heathen worship, 
 with its feasts and sacrifices. lie himself sometimes offered solemn 
 hecatombs of 100 bulls to the god of the sun. Having, however, with 
 the heroism of old Rome, undertaken an adventurous campaign against 
 the New Persians, he pressed forward victorious over the Eui)hrates and 
 Tigris; but being entrapped into an inaccessible mountainous district, 
 and compelled to commence a difficult retreat, he was wounded mortally 
 Jovian, by an arrow, and his schemes brought to nouglit. His suc- 
 
 A. D. 363-364. (.(.ggQj. J(5vian, in a dishonorable peace, restored the conquer- 
 Valens ^^ territory, and made Christianity again the dominant re- 
 
 A.D. 364-878. ligion. After his death, the empire was divided, the Arian 
 Valentinian ^^l^^s ruling over the East, whilst his brother, the rude and 
 A. D. 364 - 376. warlike Valentinian I., governed the West. 
 
 n. THE MIGRATION OF NATIONS. 
 
 1. THEODOSIUS THE GREAT. 
 
 § 176. Wlien Valens was ruling the East, the Huns, a wild, hideous, 
 well-mounted nomad people, came from the* steppes of Central Asia to 
 Europe. Tuey overthrew the Alaui and the brave East Goths (whose 
 gray-haired king, Ilerinanrich, devoted himself to death), and they then 
 fell upon the West Goths. But this people having been already con- 
 verted to Arian Christianity by Bishop Ulfilas, obtained permission 
 from Valens to cross the Danube, with their wives and children, and to 
 occupy new abodes. Through the venality of the Ivoman officers, tlie 
 West Goths, contrary to agreement, remained in possession of their 
 arms ; and as, from the severity and avarice of the governor, they soon 
 fell into the greatest distress from hunger, they seized the accustomed 
 sword, stormed the city of Marcianopolis, and carried robbery and deso- 
 lation through the land. Valens marched hastily against the enemy; 
 but in the murderous battle of Adrianople he lost the victory, and his 
 
118 THE HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE AGE. 
 
 Kfe, during the fliglit, in a burning Imt. The victors now roved through 
 the defenceless land with unrestrained fury, as far as the Julian Alps, 
 and menaced even the frontiers of Italy. Then was the brave Spaniard 
 Theoddsius chosen sovereign of the East. He terminated the Gothic 
 war, by settling one part of the enemy in the southern Danubian pro- 
 vinces, and enlisting another part as soldiers in the Roman armies. After 
 many contests and military exploits, Theoddsius, henceforth called the 
 Great, at length obtained the sovereignty of the West also, and so united, 
 for the last time, the whole world-wide Roman empire under one sceptre. 
 lie was a powerful, but passionate prince ; and on one occasion, in Thes- 
 ealonica, he put to death 7,000 citizens, because they had slain his gover- 
 nor. For this, the Church's penance was inflicted on him by the un- 
 daunted bishop, Ambrose, of Milan, — a punishment which he willingly 
 underwent. Theoddsius was a zealous champion of the Catholic faith. 
 He denounced and persecuted Arianism, interdicted the use of sacrifices 
 and divinations, and permitted the heathen temples to be plundered and 
 destroyed. Now was extinguished the sacred fire of Vesta — the oracles 
 and sibyls were silent — and the pagan pantheism yielded to the faith in 
 the crucified Saviour. At his death, Theoddsius made over the East, with 
 Illyria, to his son, Arcadius, who was eighteen years old, by whose side 
 stood the Gaul, Rufinus ; while Hondrius, then in his eleventh year, 
 under the guidance of the politic and warlike Vandal, Stilicho, was to 
 be lord of the West. From this time forward the empire remained 
 divided. 
 
 2. WEST GOTHS. BUKGUNDIANS. VANDALS. 
 
 § 177. Alaric, king of the West Goths, invaded the provinces of the 
 Eastern empire immediately after the death of Theodosius. He marched, 
 murdering and plundering, through Thessaly, Central Greece, and Pelopon- 
 ^ nesus, and trod under foot the remains of Greek civilization, 
 
 until, being surrounded by Stilicho's forces, he was compelled to 
 retreat. Eavy of Stilicho now led Eutropius, the successor of Rufinus, to 
 induce Alaric to invade the Western empire. He accordingly fell upon 
 Upper Italy, pursued his devastating course up the banks of the Po, but 
 
 sufiered so much loss in two undecisive battles a2;ain3t Stilicho, 
 A. D. 403. . , ° 
 
 that he retreated upon Illyria, to wait for a more favorable op- 
 portunity. This enemy of the empire had scarcely been repulsed, before vast 
 hordes of Vandals, Alani, Burgundians, Suevi, &c., burst into Italy, under 
 the command of duke Radagaisus, destroyed the towns and villages, and 
 filled every place with cruel slaughter and desolation. But these also 
 
 were overcome near Florence, by the military skill of Stilicho. 
 
 Their leaders were killed ; thousands fell beneath the sworda 
 of the victors, or perished by hunger and disease ; others entered into the 
 "Roman service. The remains of their army threw themselves into Gaul, 
 
THE MIGRATION OF XATIOXS. 119 
 
 >vhere, after repeated acts of devastation, the Burgundians settled on the 
 Rhine and the Jura, and founded ^he kingdom of Burgundy, which ex- 
 tended from tlie Jilediterranean to the Yosges. The Vandals and Suevi, 
 on the other hand, crossed the Pyrenees, and won dwelling-places for 
 themselves by the sword, in Spain and Portugal, which they however 
 gave up again twenty years afterwards, and crossed over into Africa with 
 the Vandal king, Genseric. 
 
 § 178. The brave Stilicho, in his necessity, had entered into a friendly 
 alliance with Alaric,-and consented to pa/ him a yearly tribute. His 
 enemies founded an accusation of high treason upon this, and procured 
 his execution at Ravenna. Hereupon, Alaric, enraged at the withdrawal 
 of the tribute, and appealed to by Stilicho's adherents for protection, 
 marched into Italy, laid siege to Rome, and compelled the terrified in- 
 habitants to purchase the clemency of the conqueror with gold, silver, and 
 costly apparel. But when the court at Ravenna disdainfully rejected 
 Alaric's proposals of peace, the Gothic prince again appeared before the 
 walls of the former mistress of the world, stormed it at length 
 during the night, and surrendered it to be plundered for 
 three days by his army. The hero died shortly after, in the flower of his 
 age, in Lower Italy. There is a legend that declares that his coffin and 
 treasures were buried in the bed of the stream Busento, which had been 
 diverted from its course for the purpose. His brother-in-law, Adolf, 
 concluded a treaty with IIon6rius, by virtue of which the West Goths 
 marched into Southern Gaul. It was here that they founded 
 the kingdom of the West Goths, which at first extended from 
 the Gardnne to the Ebro, and had Tolosa (Toulouse) for its principal 
 city. AVhen, however, the Vandals, some years later, went into Africa, 
 the West Goths gradually conquered the whole of Spain ; but, on the 
 other hand, were compelled to relinquish the territory between the 
 Pyrenees and the GaroQne to the Franks. 
 
 Valentiniau § ^'^* ^'^alcntinian III., followed Honorius with iE'tius 
 
 III., A. D. 425 at his side, for general and influential minister. The go- 
 -455. vernor of northern Africa, Bonifacius, lived in enmity with 
 
 this iE'tius ; and being afraid of his anger, he rebelled, and summoned 
 the Vandals, under their bold and crafty king, Genseric, out of Spain, 
 to his assistai>ce. Ii is true, that, upon their arrival, he repented of 
 this rash act, and opposed them with his forces. But the warlike 
 Vandals overcame hi in, and, in defiance of the court of Ravenna, made 
 themselves masters of northern ATrica, Avhere they established the empire 
 of the Vandals, with its capital, Carthage, conquered Sicily and the 
 Balearic islands, and rendered themselves formidable to all islands and 
 lands near the coast by their piracies. The kingdom of the Vandalj 
 existed for a hundred years in ncrth Africa. Genseric died in 477. 
 
120 THE HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE AGE. 
 
 3. ATTILA, KING OF THE HUNS (a. D. 450.) 
 
 § 180. About the middle of the fifth century, AttiVd, surnamed the 
 Scourge of God, left his wooden residence on the banks of the Theiss, in 
 Hungary, for the purpose of conquering the western empire of Rome by 
 the sword. More than half a milhon savage warriors, partly Huns and 
 partly Germans, who were their subjects or allies, marched through 
 Austria, Bavaria, and Alemannia, to the Rhine, where they annihilated 
 the royal house of Burgundy in Worms, destroyed the Roman towjis, 
 und then carried slaughter and desolation into Gaul. It was here that the 
 valiant ^E'tius, with an army composed of Romans, Burgandians, West 
 Goths, and Franks, succeeded, in the Cataluuiiian plains (Cha- 
 Ions on the Marne), in setting a limit to Attila's victorious 
 course. 102,000 dead bodies, and among them that of Theodoric, the 
 brave king of the West Goths, covered the field of battle. From his 
 camp, fortified with wagons, the Hun bade defiance to the attacks of the 
 enemy, and then retreated into Hungary (Pannonia), wdth 
 the purpose of invading Italy in the following year. Aqui- 
 leia was destroyed ; Milan, Pa via, Verona, and Padua taken by storm ; 
 and the fertile banks of the Po turned into a desert. The unfortunate 
 inhabitants of Aquileia sought for refuge on the rocks and sand-islands of 
 the lagunes, and thus laid the foundation of Venice. Attila was already 
 on his march towards Rome, where he was induced by the prayers of the 
 Roman bishop, Leo I., to conclude a peace with Valentinian, and to 
 retreat. Attila's sudden death, either by haemorrhage, or the vengeance 
 of his Burgundian bride, checked the progress of the Ilunnish empire. 
 The Gstrogoths, the Gepidas, and the Longobards obtained their inde- 
 pendence after a severe struggle, whilst the remains of the nomadic Huns 
 were lost in the rich pastoral steppes of southern Russia. 
 
 4. DESTRUCTION OF THE WESTERN ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 § 181. The Roman power was now rapidly approaching to its fall. 
 Valentinian with his own hand killed ^'tius, the last support of the em- 
 pire. Shortly after, the luxurious emperor lost his ow^n life by Petronius 
 Maximus, whose wife he had corrupted. Petronius, raised to be Valen- 
 tinian's successor, aspired to the hand of the imperial widow, which in- 
 duced tlie latter to summon the Vandals against the murderer of her 
 husband. Genseric landed at Ostia, took Rome, and subjected the city 
 for fourteen days to plunder, during wTiich time the works of art were 
 ruthlessly mutilated (Vandalism). Laden with plunder and prisoners 
 (the empress and her two daughters among the number), the Vajidals 
 returned to the coast of Africa, where they resumed their piratical em- 
 ployments with more audacity than before. After some time, the Sueve, 
 Eicimer, a bold, crafty, but blood-stained man, acquired such power, that 
 
THE MIGRATION OF NATIONS. 121 
 
 to the day of his death, he managed the crown and empire at his pleasure, 
 without even assuming the imperial title. Three years after Kicimer's 
 death, the ambitious general, Orestes, invested his son, Romulus Augiis- 
 tulus, w^ith the powerless crown. Upon this, the German troops in the 
 pay of the Romans demanded a third part of the lands' of Italy ; and 
 when this was not granted, the valiant Odoacer commanded the captive 
 Orestes to be put to death, and, by assuming the title of King of Italy, 
 put an end to the Western empire of Rome. Odoacer be- 
 stowed a yearly pension, and a residence in Lower Italy, 
 upon the inoffensive Romulus Augustulus. 
 
 5. TIIEODORIC THE OSTROGOTH (a. D. 500). 
 
 § 182. Odoacer had reigned, not without renown, for twelve years, 
 ■when Thcodoric, king of the Ostrogoths, with the consent of the Byzan- 
 tine emperor, marched from the Danube upon Italy. He was followed 
 by 200,000 men fit for war, with their wives, children, and goods. 
 Odoacer was unable to resist this force. Overcome by Theodoric near 
 Verona, he concealed himself behind the walls of Ravenna ; and it was 
 only after a gallant defence of three years that he at length surrendered 
 upon honorable conditions. But he was killed not long after, by the 
 Goths, at a riotous banquet. From this time, the empire of the Ostro- 
 goths, which extended from the southern point of Italy to the Danube, 
 "was governed wisely and justly by Theodoric, from Ravenna. lie paid 
 respect to the ancient laws and institutions, employed the original inha- 
 bitants of the country in trade, agriculture, and commerce, and com- 
 mitted war and the use of arms to the Goths. P^ven literature and 
 civilization rejoiced in his protection ; and learned Romans, like the 
 historian Cassioddrus, were advanced to the highest offices of the state. 
 Theddorie's authority was so great abroad, that contending kings brought 
 their differences to his judgment seat. It was only a short time previous 
 to his death, that he was rendered cruel by suspicion, and commanded 
 the worthy senator Boethius, and his father-in-law, Symmachus, to be 
 executed, because they were suspected of having invited the Byzantine 
 court to expel the Goths. It was in prison that Boethius wrote his cele- 
 brated work, the " Consolations of Philosophy." 
 
 6. CLOVIS, KING OF THE FRANKS AND THE MEROVINGIANS. 
 
 § 183. The Franks, a tribe of German origin, had marched from their 
 
 hereditary possessions on the Lower Rhine to the Meuse and the Sambre. 
 
 From this place, their warlike king, Clovis, led them forth to war and 
 
 plunder. After he had conquered and put to death the last Roman 
 
 governor, Syagrius, in Soissons, and made himself master of 
 
 the country between the Seine and the Loire, he advanced 
 
 Bgainst the Alemanni, who were in possession of an extensive kingdom 
 
 11 
 
122 HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE AGE. 
 
 on both banks of the Rhine. He defeated them in the great battle of 
 Ziilpich (between Bonn and Aix), and subjected their 
 country on the Moselle and the Lahn. In the heat of 
 the battle, Clovis had sworn, that if the doubtful combat should ter- 
 minate in his favor, he would embrace the faith of his Christian wife; 
 and in the same year, he, with 3,000 nobles of his train, received baptism 
 in the waters of the Rhine. But Christianity produced no emotions of 
 pity in his savage heart. After he had extended the Frank 
 empire to the Rhone on the east, and to the Garonne on the 
 south, he attempted to secure the whole territory to himself and his pos- 
 terity, by putting to death the chiefs of all the Frank tribes. 
 
 § 184. The wickedness of the father w-as inherited by his four sons, 
 who, after Clovis's death, divided the Frank empire between them ; the 
 eldest received the eastern kingdom, Austnisia, with tlie capital, Metz ; 
 the three younger sons shared the western territory, Neustria, and Bur- 
 gundy, which was connected with it. But the empire was again from 
 time to time united. The history of the kingly house of the Merovingians 
 displays a frightful picture of human depravity. The murders of bro- 
 thers and relatives, bloody civil wars, and the explosion of unbridled 
 passions, fill its annals. The savage enormities of the two queens, Brun- 
 hilda and Fredigonda, are particularly dreadful. These horrors at length 
 destroyed all the power of the race of Clovis, so that they are distin- 
 guished in history as sluggish kings, whilst the steward of the royal pos- 
 sessions (mayor of the palace) gradually obtained possession of all the 
 powers of government. A visit to the yearly assemblies of the people 
 (Marzfelder), upon a carriage drawn by four oxen, was at last the only 
 occupation of the imbecile Merovingians. At first, each of the three 
 kingdoms had its own mayor, until the brave and shrewd Pepin of 
 Ileristal succeeded in uniting the mayoralties of Neustria and Burgundy 
 with that of Austrasia, and making them hereditary in his own family. 
 From this time, Pepin's descendants, who were called dukes of Fran- 
 cdnia, possessed the regal power, whilst the Merovingians were kiiigs in 
 nothing but the name. 
 
 7. THE ANGLO-SAXONS. 
 
 § 185. About the middle of the fifth century, the Roman army left 
 Britain, which it was unable any longer to retain. The inhabitants, who 
 w^ere too weak to resist the attacks of the wild Picts and Scots (§ 159, 
 168), sought assistance from the Angles and Saxons of the Lower Elbe. 
 These obeyed the summons ; but after they had repulsed the enemy, they 
 turned their swords against the Britons themselves, and, after a fearful 
 contest, subdued their country, which was henceforth called England 
 (Angle-land). The greater number of the Celtic inhabitants .perished 
 by the sword; those who were able took refuge in Gaul (Bretagne). It 
 
THE MIGRATION OF NATIONS. 123 
 
 was only in the mountainous districts of Wales and Cornwall that the 
 Celts asserted their independence and national peculiarities, till as late 
 as the thirteenth century. The rest of the kingdom fell into the power 
 of the Anglo-Saxons, who established there seven small monarchies. 
 These existed in a separate state, in the midst of perpetual contests, till 
 the ninth century, when E"rbert united the seven kin^xdcmg 
 (Heptarchy), and assumed the title of King of England. 
 The paganism of Britain had yielded to Christianity as early as the 
 seventh century, when the Benedictine monk, Augustine, with a crowd 
 of missionaries, landed in Kent, led the king and his nobles to baptism, 
 and founded the seat of the archbishopric of Canterbury. 
 
 8. THE BYZANTINE EMPIRE AXD THE LONGOBARDS. 
 
 § 186. The Byzantine empire displays a melancholy picture of moral 
 depravity. A court filled with oriental luxury and magnificence, where 
 women and favorites raise and dethrone weak or vicious emperors by 
 crimes or intrigues ; an insolent body-guard, who carried on the same 
 audacious game with the crown that the pra3torians had formerly done ; 
 and a fickle population, who took pleasure in nothing but questions of 
 religious controversy, and the rude sports of the race-course (hippd- 
 dromus). In these race-courses, two great parties, who mortally hated 
 and persecuted each other, distinguished themselves, according to the 
 colors of the chariot drivers, into the Blue and the Green. It was under 
 Justiniun these circumstances, that Justinian, a man of low origin, 
 A. D. 627 -565. ascended the throne, where he completed several great 
 undertakings. He subdued the Green party, that had raised an insur- 
 rection against him, and closed the race-course for two years ; he ordered 
 the code of laws, known by the name of Corpus Juris and Pandects, to 
 be prepared by his minister, Tribonian ; he procured silk-worms from 
 China by an artifice, and transplanted the manufacture of silk into 
 Europe ; he built the church of St. Sophia in Constantinople, and he 
 persecuted the heathens and Arians. 
 
 § 187. Both the Vandals and Goths had made a profession of Arian- 
 iim. Hence Justinian embraced the project of visiting them with war, 
 and, by the conquest of their lands, of restoring his empire to the same 
 extent it had possessed under Constantine. Belisarius, the great hero of 
 his time, subdued in a few months the kingdom of the Vandals, which 
 was already disturbed by a religious war, and carried the last king, Geli- 
 mer, a prisoner to Constantinople. About this time, Thed- 
 doric's noble daughter, Amalasunta, was murdered by her 
 dastardly husband. Hereupon Justinian assumed the part of her aven- 
 ger, and sent Belisarius to Italy. Belisarius took Rome, and defended 
 it with military skill and heroic courage for a twelvemonth 
 against the Gothic king, Vitiges. The Goths, filled with 
 
124 HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE AGE. 
 
 amazement at the courage of Belisarius, offered him the sovereign 
 authority, and dehvered up to him the chief city, Ravenna. He took 
 possession of it in the name of the emperor, but did not, nevertheless, 
 escape the envy and calumny of the Byzantine courtiers. He was 
 recalled in the midst of a course of victories, to defend the eastern fron- 
 tier against the Persians. After his departure, the Goths, 
 according to the German custom, raised the valiant Totila 
 upon a shield, and saluted him as king. Totila soon reconquered the 
 whole of Italy. Belisarius again made his appearance, but, being 
 slenderly supplied with money and troops by the suspicious emperor, 
 with all his courage he could effect but little. Justinian angrily sum- 
 moned him back, and punished him with his displeasure. He is said, 
 when a blind old man, to have supported his life by begging alms. 
 Ills successor was Narses, a dexterous courtier, but a hero like Beli- 
 sarius. ISTarses gained a victory at Tagina, near the ancient Sentinum 
 (§ 110), where Totila and the bravest of his warriors died in the field. 
 It was in vain that the remainder of the Goths raised the valiant Tejas 
 upon the royal shield; he also, after many bloody encounters, 
 fell at the head of his nobles, near the ancient Cumie ; and 
 it was only a small band who sought an unknown dwelling-place upon 
 the farther side of the Alps. 
 
 § 188. Henceforth, Narses, as the emperor's lieutenant, governed the 
 conquered country from Ravenna. But when Justinian died, and his 
 successor deprived Narses of his office, he called the Longobards out of 
 Pannonia (Hungary), a short time before his death. These advanced 
 to the neighborhood of the Po, which received from them the name of 
 Lombardy, under the warlike Alboin. Pavia was taken by assault after 
 a siege of three years, and erected into the capital of the Lombard king- 
 dom. Alboin died by the bloody \engeance of his wife, the beautiful 
 Rosamunda. He had killed her father, the king of the Gepida3. some 
 years before in battle, and, in accordance with the German custom, had 
 had his skull fashioned into a goblet. He once compelled his daughter, 
 during a festival, to drink from this cup, a proceeding that so enraged 
 her that she procured his assassination. The rude Longobards treated 
 the natives with violence, and deprived them of the greater part 'of their 
 possessions. But the fruitful fields were soon brought to a splendid state 
 of cultivation by the sturdy arms of German laborers. A powerful 
 nobility of dukes and counts stood at the head of this nation, who elected 
 their kings in the assemblies of the people (Maifelder). The Longo- 
 bard kingdom remained independent for two centuries. 
 
 § 189. The glory that Justinian had shed upon the Byzantine empire, 
 was soon obscured by the depravity of the court. Wicked princes 
 ascended the blood-stained throne in the midst of the most revolting hor- 
 rors ; deprivation of the eyes, mutilation of the nose and ears, were 
 
THE MIGRATION OF XATIOXS. 125 
 
 things of daily occurrence in this God-forsaken court. "With all this, 
 Constantinople remained, through the whole of the middle ages, the seat 
 of learning and refinement, and the Byzantine history confirms a fact de- 
 rived from experience, that external civilization and a refined manner of 
 living are frequently conjoined with barbarousness of mind and de- 
 pravity of morals. The affairs of the Church always excited the great- 
 est interest at Constantinople. When the increasing veneration for 
 images and relics threatened to establish a new form of idolatry, inas- 
 Leo the much as the ignorant people worshipped the images thera- 
 
 Isaurian, selves, Leo the Isaurian issued a command to remove them 
 A. D. 717-741. altogether from the churches. This gave rise to a storm 
 that shook throne and empire for more than a century. Two parties, the 
 image worshippers (Iconoduli) and the image breakers (Iconoclasts) stood 
 Constantine ^" hostile opposition to each other. Leo's energetic son, 
 Copronymus, Constantine Copronymus, followed his father's example. He 
 A. D. 741-775. ha^ the worship of images condemned by a council of the 
 Church, and punished the refractory by deatli and banishment. Ilis son 
 Leo IV. A. D. ^Iso, Leo IV., belongs to the number of iconoclastic empe- 
 776 - 780. rors. But after his sudden death, his wife, Irene, abrogated 
 Irene, the former resolutions by a new council, and restored to the 
 
 A. D. 800. churches their ornaments ftf images. This violent woman 
 put out the eyes of her own son from motives of ambition, and was 
 meditating a union with Charlemagne, when she was hurled from the 
 throne by a conspiracy. She died in misery at Lesbos. A later at- 
 Leo the Anne- ^^"^P^ *^ remove images from the churches, undertaken by 
 nian, a. d. Leo the Armenian and his successors, was less violent, and 
 813-820. was'interrupted by the empress Theodora. Shortly after, a 
 new imperial house ascended the throne, in the person of Basilius the 
 Macedonian, which ruled with little interruption for 200 
 years, and restored some strehgth to the empire. In the 
 "West, the decrees against images were not recognized. 
 
 11. MOHAMMED AND THE ARABIANS. 
 
 § 190. On the south-western coast of the peninsula of Arabia, which, 
 on account of its great fertility in coffee, frankincense, cinnamon, and 
 other spices, is called Arabia Felix, lived for ages, in proud independ- 
 ence, a people capable of civilization. Their religion was a rude pagan- 
 ism ; a black stone in the Caaba at Mecca served as the national palladi- 
 um, the care of which belonged to the Koreishites. They were rendered 
 rich by an extensive commerce, and took pleasure in mental cultivation 
 
 11* 
 
126 HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE AGE. 
 
 and poetry. It was in the midst of this people that Molian\med was 
 Mohammed, born, towards the end of the sixth century, from the re- 
 A. D. 571 - 632. spected priestly race of the Koreishites. During his youth, 
 he made journeys with the caravans into foreign lands in the capacity of 
 merchant, and thus became convinced that the religion of the Jews and 
 Christians must be preferable to the idolatrous worship of the Arabs. 
 As soon, therefore, as he had acquired an independent position by his 
 marriage with a rich widow, he withdrew from the bustle of the world, 
 to the recesses of his own bosom, and sought how he might elevate his 
 countrymen from their degradation. The expectation entertained by the 
 Jews of a Messiah, the promise of Christ to send a Comforter to those 
 who loved him, who should guide them into all truth, wrought upon his 
 ardent imagination, and excited within him the conviction, that he must be 
 the person of whom the world stood in need. Ilis epileptic tits favored 
 the pretence that he held communion with angels, and was the subject of 
 divine inspiration. 
 
 § 191. In his fortieth year, Mohammed came forth with his doctrine, 
 " There is but one God, and Mohammed is his prophet." But with the 
 exception of his wife, his father-in-law Abu Bekir, his son-in-law Ali, 
 and a few of his friends and relations, no one at first believed in his 
 mission ; nay, he was even compelled, by a menacing tumult, to fly from 
 Mecca to Medina. (The Mohammedans reckon their years 
 ^^' ""'from this event, which is called Hejira.) He here found 
 adherents with whom he undertook expeditions, and at length, after some 
 victorious encounters, he forced his return to Mecca. In Medina he 
 composed a part of the sentences of which the holy book of the Koran con- 
 sists. Mecca soon acknowledged him as a prophet, and his doctrine, 
 called Islam, was soon predominant all over Arabia. He combined in it 
 the fundamental doctrines of Judaism and Christianity, with maxims that 
 were adapted to the East. He commanded frequent ablutions and 
 prayers, circumcision, fasts, almsgiving, and pilgrimages to Mecca, forbade 
 the use of wine and swine's flesh, and sanctioned polygamy. A chief 
 commandment of the Koran was, to diffuse Islam by every means, and 
 to compel the nations to receive it by fire and sword. Those who fell 
 bravely in battle were promised a paradise of sensual enjoyments. The 
 prophet died in the eleventh year of the Hejira. Mecca, where he was 
 born, and Medina, the place where his grave is situated, are regarded as 
 sacred cities of pilgrimage. Mohammed united gravity and dignity 
 in his carriage and bearing ; he was benevolent, simple in his manner of 
 living, and not devoid of domestic virtues. 
 
 § 192. Ali, the husband of the favorite daughter of the prophet, hoped 
 Abu Bekir *^ become Mohammed's successor (Khalif). But Moham- 
 A.D. G32-634. med's intriguing wife, Ayesha, procured the election of her 
 
THE MIGRATION OF NATIONS. 127 
 
 father Abu Bekir, who was succeeded by the simple and energetic Omar. 
 Omar Under this man, the Arabs, inspired by their new faith, 
 
 A. D. 634 -644. carried their victorious swords beyond the limits of Arabia. 
 Palestine and Syria were conquered, and Mohammed's warriors marched 
 into the Christian cities of Antioch, Damascus, and Jerusalem. Kaled, 
 " the sword of God," and the crafty Amru conducted the valiant bands. 
 Persia was subjected, after a succession of bloody engnge- 
 "*■' ■ ■ ments. The last king, Yesdejird fled (as once Darius before 
 Alexander), with the sacred fire in his hand, to the mountainous high- 
 lands, where he perished by the hands of an assassin. The Arabs now 
 pursued their victorious course through the eastern highlands, and car- 
 ried the doctrines of Mohammed to the Upper Indus. The Persian fire- 
 worship fell before the Koran, and henceforth, Islam was the ruling 
 religion of the East. The new cities of Basra, Cufa, and Bagdad, on the 
 Tigris, soon became the centres of trade, and the seats of oriental luxury 
 and magnificence. Shortly after this, Amru marched from 
 Syria into Egypt, took Alexandria, (by which means the 
 remains of the great library are said to have perished), (§ 125.) burnt 
 Memphis, (in the neighborhood of which the chief city, Cairo, took its 
 origin from the camp of the general,) and thrust aside the Gospel by the 
 Koran. 
 
 § 193. Omar shortly after fell by the dagger of a Persian slave, and 
 Othman Othman, the collector and arranger of the Koran, succeeded 
 
 A. D. 644-658. to the Khalifate. But Othman was also assassinated; and 
 when All at length ascended the sacred chair that had long been his 
 right, the family of the Ommiades rose against him and excited a civil 
 war, in whioli Ali and his whole house perished, and the Khalifate was 
 taken possession of by the Ommiades, who established their 
 residence in the beautiful Damascus. The Arabians prose- 
 cuted their conquests under the Ommiades both by land and water. 
 Cyprus, Rhodes, Asia Minor, all felt the edge of their swords; the capital 
 of the Byzantine empire had to sustain seven attacks and sieges, and was 
 only saved by the newly-discovered Greek fire. The north 
 coast of Africa was subdued at the same time, and the Christ- 
 ian religion and civilization there destroyed in the course of a lengthened 
 war. The Arabians also gained a firm footing in Sicily, whence they 
 made predatory excursions upon the coasts of Italy. 
 
 § 194. It happened about the beginning of the eighth century of the 
 Christian era, that the West Goth, Roderick, deprived Witiza of the 
 Spanish throne. Hereupon, the sons of the banished man called the 
 Arabs out of Africa to revenge him. Tarik, the Arabian general, crossed 
 the straits of the sea, founded the town of Gibraltar (Gebel al Tarik), and 
 
 overthrew the West Goths at the battle of Xeres de la Frontera, 
 A. D. 712. 
 
 where Roderick and the flower of his chivalry were slain in 
 
128 THE HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE AGE. 
 
 the fiekl. Tho Arabians overran the whole of Spain, as far as the rocky 
 
 Asturlas, ill a rapid course of victories. The Saracens crossed the Pyre* 
 
 nees, conquered the south of France as far as the Rhone, and threatened 
 
 France and Christianity with destruction; when Charles Martel, the mayor 
 
 of the palace and son of Pepin of Ileristal (^ 184), overthrew them between 
 
 Tours and Poitiers, in a battle that lasted seven days, and com- 
 A. D. 732. . "^ 
 
 polled them to full back upon Spain. Charles Martel was thas 
 
 the savior of Christian Germany in the AYest. 
 
 § PJ5. Twenty years after Charles Martel's victory, the dynasty of the 
 
 Ommiades was overthrown by the Abbassides, and their family 
 
 destroyed. Abderahman alone escaped. He fled to Africa, 
 
 whence he was invited into Spain. lie there conquered the Abbasside 
 
 governor, and was proclaimed Caliph at Cordova. Spain was prosperous 
 
 under its Mahometan rulers, and the arts and sciences were greatly 
 
 ,^„, cultivated. But after the race of the Ommiades became ex- 
 
 A. D. 1031. . 1 T»T • 1 • Ct • 
 
 tinct, the Moorish power in bpain was broken up into a 
 number of small states, that gradually yielded before the Christians 
 ^f the North. The latter had enlarged their territories by successful 
 wars from their head-quarters, the Asturias, so that, with time, three 
 kingdoms had been established, Castile, Aragon, and Portugal, each of 
 which existed independently of the other, and waged furious contests 
 with the Arabs of the South. These wars produced a spirit of chivalry, 
 religious zeal, and freedom among the Christian Spaniards. The deeds 
 of these God-inspired warriors, particularly those of the great 
 Cid Campeador, were handed down to posterity in heroic 
 songs (Romances), and kept alive the courage' and chivalrous spirit of 
 the Spanish nobility. . Civic freedom was at the same time flourishing in 
 the cities. The victory gained by the united Christian force at Tolosa, 
 in the Sierra Morena, broke forever the power of the Arabians. 
 
 § 196. The arts and sciences flourished in all the countries inhabited 
 by the Arabs, as well as in Spain. Mosques, palaces, and gardens, were 
 to be met with in every Arabian town. Industry and commerce brought 
 wealth, — the source of refinement, but, at the same time, of the love of 
 splendor and effeminacy. Architecture, music (the system of notes), and 
 decorative painting (arabesques), flourished in all the chief Arabian 
 towns. The sciences were taught at Cordova, Cairo, Bagdad, Salerno, 
 and many other cities ; more particularly, grammar, philosophy, mathe- 
 matics, (the Arabian ciphers, algebra), astronomy, and astrology, natural 
 philosophy, (chemistry), and medicine. The Arabians translated the 
 writings of the Greeks, especially those of Aristotle and Euclid, and cul- 
 tivated the art of poetry. The literature and civilization of this people 
 had the greatest influence upon the development of the Christian middle 
 age. 
 
THE CARLO VINGI. 129 
 
 B. THE MIDDLE AGE. 
 
 L THE PERIOD OF THE CAIiLOVINGL 
 
 1. PEPIN THE LITTLE (a. D. 752-768); CHARLEMAGNE 
 
 (A. D. 7G8-814.) 
 
 § 197. The Austrasian duke, Pepin of Heristal, and his son Charles Mar-" 
 tel, had gained the confidence of the nation by their warlike deeds, and the 
 favor of the priests by their zeal in the propagation of Christianity. Both 
 parties were instrumental in raising Pepin the Little, the son of Charles 
 Martel, to the throne of the Franks. For when the assembly of the 
 nation deposed the last imbecile representative of the INIerovingians 
 (Childeric III.), and proclaimed the chief steward, Pepin, king, the pope 
 confirmed the election, in the hope of finding in the Frank ruler a sup- 
 port against the Longobards and the iconoclastic emperor of Byzantium. 
 In return for the royal consecration, which w\as first performed by Boni- 
 face, and afterwards by Pope Stephen himself, Pepin endowed the Ro- 
 man chair with the portion of coast on the Adriatic Sea, southwards 
 from Ravenna. This was the foundation of the temporal power of the 
 pope. 
 
 This Boniface (properly Winfried) was one of those active English 
 missionaries, who, under the protection of the first Carlovingian monarchs, 
 proclaimed the doctrine of a crucified Redeemer to the rude inhabitants 
 of Germany. He preached the Gospel in Ilesse, (where he built the 
 abbey of Fulda), founded bishoprics and colleges for education among 
 the Tliuringians, Franks, and Bavarians, and displayed such zeal that he 
 obtained the name of the "apostle of the Germans." Having been ap- 
 pointed archbishop of Mayence, he undertook in his old age another mis- 
 sion to the heathen Finlanders, among whom he met with a violent death. 
 All the bishoprics and colleges established by Boniface were closely united 
 with the Roman see ; and as these efforts were favored by the Carlovin- 
 gian monarchs, the pope, about the year 800, came to be looked upon aa 
 the head of the Church in Franconia. 
 
 ^ 198. Pepin reigned for sixteen years with vigor and renown over the 
 
 Frank ^empire, which extended far into South and Central Germany, and 
 
 which, at his death, he divided between his two sons, Charles 
 
 and Carloraan. About three years afterwards, Carloman died, 
 
 and Charlemagne (Charles the Great) was declared sole ruler of 
 
 the Franks, by the voice of the estates of the Empire. He 
 
 conducted many wars, and advanced Christian cultivation and civil order. 
 
 For the purpose of securing the boundaries of his kingdom and extending 
 
130 THE HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE AGE. 
 
 Christianity, he made war for thirty-one years on the Saxon confedera- 
 tion, which was formed by various pagan tribes on the Weser and Elbe. 
 Charles took the fortress of Eresbur^, on the south of the 
 
 A D 772 
 
 Teutoburger forest, destroyed the national palladium — the 
 statue of Arminius, and compelled the Saxons to a peace. lie next pro- 
 ceeded against the Longobard king, Desiderius, in obedience to the sum- 
 mons of Pope Adrian. With an army collected together near Geneva, 
 he crossed the St. Bernard, stormed the passes of the Alps, and conquered 
 Pavia. Desiderius ended his days in a cloister. Charles 
 erected the Lombard throne in Milan, united Upper Italy 
 to the kingdom of the Franks, and confirmed the gifts made by Pepin 
 to the pope. 
 
 § 199. During the absence of Charles, the Saxons had expelled the 
 Frank garrisons and reestablished their ancient boundaries. Charles 
 wy^ again marched into their countr}^, subdued them, and com- 
 pelled the chiefs of the tribes to submit at Paderborn. Their 
 warlike duke, Witikind, alone, fled to the Danes and refused to confirm 
 the treaty. In the two following years, Charles fought against the 
 Moors in Spain, took Pampelona and Saragossa, and united the whole 
 country, as far as the Ebro, to his own kingdom, as a Spanish province. 
 But during his return, his rear, under the command of Roland, suffered 
 a defeat in the valley of Roncesvalles, in which the bravest champions 
 of the Franks were destroyed. Poland's battle at Roncesvalles was a 
 favorite theme with the poets of the middle ages. The Saxons took ad- 
 vantage of his absence to make a fresh insurrection, and pursued their 
 devastating course as far as the Rhine. Charles hastened to the spot, 
 gave them repeated overthrows, and subdued their land afresh. But 
 when he attempted to employ them as militia against the Slavonic tribes 
 in the East, they fell upon the Frank troops who were marching with 
 them, at the Suntal (between Hanover and Hameln), and slew them. 
 This demanded vengeance. The Frank emperor marched through the 
 land, plundering and destroying, and then held a court of judgment at 
 Verden on the Aller. 4,500 prisoners expiated with their blood the 
 crime of their brethren. Upon this, hostilities were resumed with fresh 
 violence. But the battle on the Hase, which terminated to the disadvan- 
 tage of the Saxons, put an end to the war. Witikind and the other chiefs 
 took an oath of fealty and military service, and allowed themselves to be 
 baptized. The people followed their example. Eight bishoprics (Osna- 
 bruck, Minden, Verden, Bremen, Paderborn, Munster, Halberstadt, Hil- 
 dersheim,) provided for the maintenance and extension of Christianity 
 among the Saxons. Another insurrection, however, was occasioned a 
 few years afterwards, by the oppressive arriere-han* and the unwonted 
 
 * The summons to all the tenants, even those of secondary rank, to quit their occupa- 
 tions, and follow the king to the wars. Am. Ed. 
 
THE CARLOVINGI. 181 
 
 payment of tithes to the Church, which resulted in 10,000 Saxon families 
 being carried away from their homes, and colonies of Franks being 
 established in their place. To oppose the Slavonic tribes to the east of 
 the Elbe, Charles founded the Margraviate * of Brandenburg. 
 
 § 200. Shortly after, Thassilo, duke of Bavaria, attempted 
 to render himself independent of the Frank power, by the 
 asiJlstance of the Avars who lived to the east. He was overpowered, 
 and expiated his breach of faith by perpetual confinement within the 
 walls of the cloisters of Fulda. Bavaria was hereupon incorporated 
 with the Frank empire, and Charles established the Eastern Margraviate 
 as a check upon the wild Avars. When Charlemagne had reduced all 
 the lands from the Ebro and the Appenines to the Eider, and from the 
 Atlantic Ocean to the Raab and the Elbe, he repaired to Rome at the 
 conclusion of the century. It was here that, during the festival of 
 Christmas, he was invested with the crown of the Roman empire, in the 
 church of St. Peter, by Leo III., whom he had defended against a 
 mob of insurgents. It was hoped, that by this means, western Christen- 
 dom might be formed into a single body, of which the Pope was to be- 
 come the spiritual, and Charles the secular head. It was at this time 
 that the long-exist i4ig variance between the Western (Roman Catholic), 
 and the Eastern (Greek Catholic) churches, terminated in a complete 
 separation. 
 
 § 201. The domestic policy of Charlemagne was not less fertile of 
 results than the foreign. 1. lie improved the government and the ad- 
 ministration of justice by abolishing the office of duke, dividing the whole 
 kingdom into provinces, and appointing counts and deputies for the con- 
 duct of the affairs of justice, and clerks of the treasury for the manage- 
 ment of the crown lands and the collection of imposts. The laws were 
 confirmed by the popular assemblies (maifelder), in which every free- 
 man had a share. 2. He promoted the cultivation of the land, and the 
 education of the people. Agriculture and the breeding of cattle were 
 encouraged, farms and villages sprang up, and barren heaths were con- 
 rerted into arable fields. He founded conventual schools and cathe- 
 drals, had the works of the ancient Roman writers transcribed, and 
 formed a collection of old German heroic ballads. Learned men, like 
 the British monk, Alcuin, and the historian Eginhard, from the Oden- 
 wald, had ample reason to congratulate themselves on his encouragement 
 and support. 3. He favored the clergy and the church. It was by his 
 means that the former obtained their tithes and vast gifts and legacies ; 
 church music was improved, missionaries supported, and churches and 
 monasteries erected. Ingelheim on the Rhine, and Aix, were Charles's 
 favorite places of residence. He lies buried in the latter town. 
 
 ♦ A Margrave (Marquis) was a Count of the frontier, the frontier being called the Mark 
 (March). Am. Eil 
 
132 HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE AGE. 
 
 2. DISSOLUTION OF THE FRANK EMPIRE. 
 
 Louis the § ^^2* "^^^ ^^^ ^^ Charlemagne, Louis the Debonnaire 
 
 Debonnaire, (the Gentle), was better fitted for the repose of a cloister 
 A. D. 814-840. ^jj^j^ foj, ijjg government of a warlike nation. A too hasty 
 division of his kingdom among his three sons, Lothaire, Pepin, and 
 Louis, was the occasion of much sorrow to himself, and confusion to^he 
 empire. For when, at a later period, he proposed an alteration in favor 
 of his fourth son, Charles (the Bald), the fruit of a second 
 marriage, the elder sons took up arms against their father. 
 Louis, faithlessly deserted by his vassals on "the field of lies," near 
 Strasburg, and betrayed to his own sons, was compelled by Lothaire to do 
 penance in the church, and to abdicate his throne ; and was afterwards 
 shut up for some time in a cloister. It is true that Louis procured his 
 father's reinstatement ; but when the weak emperor, after the death of 
 Pepin, by a new division of the kingdom, deprived Louis of Germany, 
 in favor of his brothers, Lothaire and Charles, Louis raised his stand- 
 ard against him. This broke the old emperor's heart. Full 
 of sorrow, he ended his days on a small island of the Rhine, 
 near Ingelheim. The hostile brothers now turned their arms against 
 each other. A bloody civil war depopulated the country, so that at last, 
 after a battle of three days' duration, at Fontenaille in Burgundy, the 
 Frank nobility refused to obey the arriere-ban, and by this 
 means brought about the treaty of partition of Verdun. By 
 virtue of this treaty, Lothaire received the imperial dignity, together 
 with Italy, Burgundy, and Lorraine ; Charles the Bald, western Fran- 
 conia (France) ; and Louis the German, the lands on the right bank of 
 the Khine, — Spire, Worms, and Mayence. 
 
 § 203. This division was followed by a time of great confusion, during 
 which, Europe was severely harassed, on the south by the Arabs ; on 
 the east, by the Slavi ; and on the north and west, by the Normans. To 
 oppose these predatory inroads, the Carlovingian monarchs, who were all 
 men of weak and narrow minds, were obliged to restore the ducal office 
 in the different provinces, and to sanction the hereditary authority of the 
 Margraves, so that, in a short time, all the power fell into the hands of 
 the nobles. By the rapid deaths of most of the posterity of Louis the 
 Charles the Debonnaire, nearly the whole of the empire of Charlemagne 
 Fat, A. D. 876 -devolved upon Charles the Fat, a prince weak and indolent, 
 ^^*^- and simple almost to imbecility. Incapable of resisting the 
 
 valiant Normans, he purchased a disgraceful peace from them. This pro- 
 ceeding so exasperated the German princes, that they decreed his depo- 
 sition, at Tribur on the Rhine, and elected his nephew, the brave Amulf, 
 Amulf A. D. ^^ ^^^^ successor. Arnulf governed with vigor. He over- 
 837 - 898. threw the Normans at Louvain, and called in the aid of the 
 
NORMALS AND DANES. 133 
 
 wild Magyars, or Hungarians, from the Ural, a people expert in horse- 
 manship and archery, and who were now, under their valiant captain, 
 Arpad, occupying the plains on the Danube (named after them Hunga- 
 ry), against the Slavi and Avars. The Avars were either subjected or 
 compelled to retreat. But the strangers (the Hungarians), soon became 
 a more dreadful scourge to Germany than either the Slavi or the Avars. 
 They made their predatory inroads and exacted a yearly tribute, even 
 under Louis the Child, the youthful son of Arnulf, who died in the 
 flower of his age, after a glorious campaign in Italy. This still continued, 
 when, after the early death of this last of the Carlovingian race, the 
 German nobles, among whom the dukes of Saxony, Franconia, Lorraine, 
 Conradl. A. D. Swabia, and Bavai'ia were preeminent for power, met to- 
 911-919. gether and elected Duke Conrad of Franconia, emperor. 
 Germany thus became an elective empire. 
 
 § 204. The rule of the Carlovingians survived longest in France, but 
 Charles the it possessed neither strength nor dignity. Under Charles 
 Suiiple,A. D. the Simple, who had ascended the French throne after the 
 898 - 929. deposition and subsequent death of Charles the Fat, the dukes 
 and counts rendered themselves entirely independent, and one of the most 
 powerful among them, Hugh of Paris, kept the imbecile king in strict 
 confinement. Fi-ance, on the other hand, was delivered from the devas- 
 tating forays of the Is'ormans, by Charles admitting duke Kollo into the 
 province named after them, Normandy, upon condition that he and his 
 followers would suffer themselves to be baptized, and recognize the king 
 as their suzerain (feudal sovereign). The Normans, a people readily 
 susceptible of civilization, soon acquired the language, manners, and cus- 
 toms of the Franks. Charles the Simple was followed by two other 
 kings of the Carlovingian race; but their power was at last so limited 
 that they possessed nothing but the town of Laon, with the surrounding 
 country ; every thing else had fallen into the hands of the insolent no- 
 Hugh Capet, bility. After the death of the childless Louis A\, Hugh 
 A. D. 987 -996. Capet, son and heir of Hugh of Paris, assumed the title of 
 king, and put to death in prison Louis's uncle, Charles of Lorraine, who 
 attempted to assert his right to the throne by force of arms. 
 
 II. NORMANS AKD DANES. 
 
 § 205. The inhabitants of the Scandinavian peninsula belong to the 
 German race, and share with it the violent passion for liberty, love of 
 action, and disposition to wander, as well as language, religion, and man- 
 ners. Divided into numerous tribes, they undertook vast expeditions ta 
 
 12 
 
134 HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE AGE. 
 
 all quarters, and trusted their lives and property on the stormy waves in 
 their light rowing vessels. Under the name of Normans, they ravaged the 
 coasts of the North Sea, sailed up the mouths of rivers in their small 
 ships, and returned laden with booty to their homes ; as Danes, they 
 were feared by the English, from whom they exacted a heavy tribute 
 (Danegeld). The remote island of Iceland was discovered and peopled 
 by Norwegians, who founded a flourishing republic there, with the re- 
 ligion, language, laAvs, and institutions of the mother country ; and Nor- 
 man Varangians* were invited as rulers by the Slavonic inhabitants of 
 the shores of the Gulfs of Finland and Bothnia. Ruric, the warlike 
 prince of the Russians and of the Varangian race, accepted the invita- 
 tion, established himself in Novogorod, and became the progenitor of a 
 race that ruled over Russia till the end of the sixteenth century, but 
 adopted the manners and language of the aborigines. Greenland was 
 discovered and peopled from Iceland. Even America is said to have 
 been known to the Normans. The Normans loved war, the chase, and 
 the exercise of arms ; agriculture and the breeding of cattle they left to 
 the Slavi. Good faith was their most prominent virtue, and a love of 
 poetry the solitary tender feeling indulged by these rude men. The singers 
 (scalds) celebrated the illustrious deeds of their forefathers in melan- 
 choly songs and legends. The most celebrated collection of such sacred 
 and heroic songs is called the Edda. 
 
 § 206. England, under the weak successors of Egbert (§ 185), suffered 
 the most severely from the Danes. They plundered the coasts and the 
 Alfred the shores of the rivers, and destroyed the Christian churches. 
 Great, a. d. Even Alfred the Great was thrust from his throne by them 
 871-901. fQj. 2i short time, until he contrived, by dint "of cunning, 
 courage, and watchfulness, to put. an end to their inroads. Crowds of 
 them, who had been converted to Christianity, were permitted to settle 
 in Northumberland. After this, Alfred devoted himself to the internal 
 improvement of his people. Like Charlemagne, he divided his land 
 into communities and districts, and placed counts and aldermen over 
 them to conduct the a'ffairs of justice ; he founded schools and churches, 
 made a collection of the Anglo-Saxon heroic ballads, and translated the 
 writings of Boethius (§ 182). But when the Anglo-Saxon population, 
 under his successors, slaughtered several thousands of the Danes in 
 Northumberland (the Danish vespers), Sweyn the Fortunate, king o£ 
 Canute tJae Denmark and Norway, recommenced the predatory incur- 
 Great, a. d. sions with such success, that his son, Canute the Great, united 
 1017 - 1035. ^j^g English crown to the Danish and Norwegian. He go- 
 verned justly and wisely. After his death, and that of his son Hardica- 
 Edward the nute, Edward the Confessor, a descendant of the ancient 
 1041 - 1066. royal family, ascended the throne. He had resided a long 
 
 * The name Varangians signifies Corsairs, or Pirates. Am. Ed. 
 
THE GERMANO-ROMAN EMPIRE. 135 
 
 time in Normandy, and imbibed a preference for French Norman cus- 
 toms. It was for this reason, that, during his reign, he encouraged fo- 
 reigners to the prejudice of the natives, and appointed "William, Duke of 
 Normandy, heir to his crown, in the event of his death without issue. 
 This was resisted by the nation, who elected the chivalrous Harold to be 
 kin^. But by the battle of Hastings, in which Harold and the 
 flower of the Anglo-Saxon nobility fell on the field, "William 
 the Conqueror was made master of P^ngland, where he proceeded with 
 great severity to establish a new condition of things. He endowed his 
 Norman knights with the estates of the Anglo-Saxon landlords, intro- 
 duced the French language and the Norman law, and presented the 
 richest benefices of the Church to his friends. 
 
 § 207. A short time before, Robert Guiscard, a Norman 
 
 noble, had made himself master, by his courage and cunning, 
 
 of the greater part of Lower Italy. He called himself Duke of Apulia 
 
 and Calabria, and acknowledged the pope as his feudal superior. His 
 
 heroic son, Bohemond, increased this territory by further 
 
 conquests. But Robert's family soon became extinct, upon 
 
 Roger II., which his brother's son, Roger II., united Sicily with Lower 
 
 A. D. Italy, obtained from the pope the title of king, and esta- 
 
 1130-1154. ijii^shed the kingdom of Naples and Sicily. For fifty-six 
 
 years, these rich and beautiful lands remained in the possession of Roger 
 
 and his descendants ; they then passed to the house of Hohenstaufen. 
 
 III. THE SUPREMACY OF THE GERMANO-ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 1. THE HOUSE OP SAXONY (919-1024). 
 
 § 208. The violence of the nobles, and the destructive inroads of 
 the Hungarians, had reduced Germany to a wild and lawless state. 
 Tlie first freely elected emperor, Conrad of Franconia (§ 203), endea- 
 vored to correct these evils by harshness and severity, and ordered the 
 insubordinate Coant Erchanger and Berthold von Allemanien to be be- 
 headed as examples. But as he saw that his family did not possess sufli- 
 cient political influence, he favored the advancement of his powerful 
 2gj^j.^, rival, Henry I. (the Fowler), of Saxony. This energetic 
 
 the Fowler, prince enlarged the boundaries of the empire on the north, 
 A.D. 9l9-936.^vhere he established the march (frontier) of Schleswig 
 against the Danes; on the west, where he again won back Lorraine 
 to the empire ; and on the east, where the march of Meissen was in- 
 tended to keep the Slavi in check. He purchased a nine years' truce 
 from the Magyars, and employed the time in the improvement of the 
 
136 THE HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE AGE. 
 
 army, and in erecting strong fortresses. By the building of these cita- 
 dels, which grew up with time into towns, Henry became the originatoi 
 of the burgher class, and earned the name of the Founder of Cities. 
 Relying on these preparations, he refused the Hungarians, at the termi- 
 nation of the truce, the tribute that had hitherto been paid ; and when 
 they undertook an expedition for the purpose of revenging 
 themselves, he gave them a severe defeat at the battle of 
 Merseburg. 
 
 Otho § 209. Otho I. the Great, trod in the steps of his father, 
 
 the Great, He sought, like him, to preserve the peace of the empire by 
 A. D. 936 - 973. conferring dukedoms and bishoprics on his friends and rela- 
 tives ; he also enlarged the bounds of his territories, and diffused Christ- 
 ianity; and when the Hungarians again renewed their inroads upon Ger- 
 many, this valiant prince defeated them with such slaughter in the Lechfeld 
 near Augsburg, that only a few out of the vast multitude 
 escaped ; from this time, there was an end of their depreda- 
 tions. Christianity, which, towards the end of the century, in the reign 
 of the Magyar king, Stephen the Pious, the lawgiver and regulator of 
 the country, penetrated even into Hungary, produced gentler manners 
 and a more peaceable disposition. Otho's attainment of the imperial dig- 
 nity was an occurrence pregnant with results for Germany, 
 which, from this time, remained part of " the holy Roman 
 empire of the German nation." By his marriage with Adelheid, queen 
 of Burgundy and Upper Italy, who had appealed to him for protection 
 against the attempts of Berenger of Ivrea, Otho gained the kingdom of 
 Italy, and w<is invested in Milan Avith the Lombard crown. Hereupon 
 he proceeded to Rome, obtained the imperial Roman crown, established 
 the protectorship of the German emperor over the papal chair, and 
 exacted an oath from the Romans, that they would never acknowledge a 
 pope without the knowledge and consent of himself or his successors. 
 This protectorship the popes were afterwards unwilling to allow to be 
 valid. 
 
 Otho II., § 210. The ten years of Otho II.'s reign were filled with 
 
 A. D. 973-983. contests with the turbulent nobility in Germany and Italy; 
 with the French, who wished to get possession of Lorraine ; and with 
 the Greeks in Lower Italy, where he laid claim to the Byzantine pos- 
 sessions, as the dowry of his wife Theophania. Being overcome near 
 Bassantello, he fell into the hands of the enemy, from whom he only 
 Otho III. escaped by his skill in swimming. His son, Otho III., was 
 
 A. D. 983-1002. superior to most of his contemporaries in cultivation and 
 learned acquirements, in which he had been instructed by the celebrated 
 Gerbert, .under the guidance of his mother Tlieophania, and his grand- 
 toother Adelheid, s(5 that he- was called the Imperial Prodigy ; but he 
 was wanting in the vigor necessary to the ruler of a rude and warlike 
 
THE HOUSE OF FRANCONIA. 137 
 
 people. His love for Greek and Italian refinement induced him to enter-« 
 tain the notion of making Rome the metropolis of his kingdom ; but all 
 his plans were thwarted by his early death. 
 
 § 211. After many struggles, Henry II. of Bavaria, a relative of the 
 Othos, succeeded him in the empire. His love for the churcll^and the 
 clergy, which he displayed more particularly in founding the cathedral 
 and bishopric of Bamberg, procured him the surname of Saint. When 
 this cathedral was consecrated by the pope in person, it was from his 
 hands that the emperor received the signs of his imperial power, the 
 sceptre and the golden apple ; and although, during his Roman expe- 
 ditions, he exercised the right of protectorship over the holy city, yet 
 the ceremonies practised on tlie occasion afforded a pretext to suc- 
 ceeding popes to represent the imperial throne as their fief. Under 
 Henry II. and the military bustle of the following age, the civilization 
 that had flourished in Magdeburg, Halle, Bremen, and Bardewick, dur- 
 ing the reign of the Othos, and under the influence of the foreign 
 empress and Otho II.'s sisters, was again extinguished. The mathe- 
 matical science of Gerbert, who was versed in Greek and Arabian learn- 
 ing, and who was raised to the papal chair, a. d. 999, under the title of 
 Sylvester II., the Latin poetry of Khoswitha and others, found little 
 encouragement ; nevertheless, the colleges founded by the Othos still 
 preserved the germs of civilization. 
 
 2. THE HOUSE OF FRANCONIA. 
 
 § 212. Conrad II. was more bent upon enlarging his kingdom and 
 Conrad H. obtaining kniglitly renown, than upon governing in peace. 
 A. D. After he had been invested with the iron crown of the Lora- 
 
 1024-1039. . bards in Milan, and the imperial diadem in Rome, he added 
 to his dominions the kingdom of Burgundy on the Rlione and tlie Jura. 
 This involved him in many quarrels, both with the Burgundian nobles 
 and bishops, who looked upon themselves as independent princes ; and 
 with his son-in-law, Ernest of Swabia, who asserted a more valid claim 
 to the empire, and raised the standard of rebellion in the south of Ger- 
 many, in conjunction with his friend Welf. Both were subdued after a 
 long struggle, and the deeds and fate of the chivalrous duke Ernest sup- 
 plied the materials for poetry and popular legends. Conrad and his suc- 
 cessor lie buried in the cathedral of Spire, of which magnificent struc- 
 Henry HI. ture the former was the coijimencer. Conrad's son, Henry 
 A. D. ^ in.j was a man of great power, under whose reign Germany 
 1039 -I0o6. attained its greatest limits ; even Bohemia, Poland, and Hun- 
 gary acknowledged the supremacy of the Germano-Roman emperor. For 
 the purpose of suppressing the insolence of the turbulent nobles of the 
 kingdom, he entertained the project of founding an absolute, imperial, here- 
 12* 
 
138 THE HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE AGE. 
 
 ditary monarchy, and either of abolishing the office of duke in Germany^ 
 or making it entirely dependent upon the emperor. In the same manner, 
 he took advantage of a division in the church to depose the three con- 
 tending popes, and to raise the German bishops in succession to the 
 papfil chair. He attempted to elevate the imperial power above the 
 princes of Germany, as well as over the court of Rome. He enforced 
 respect throughout his whole kingdom for the "peace of God," according 
 to which, no weapons might be used between the evening of Wednesday 
 and Monday morning ; an arrangement which, in that iron time, was the 
 only means of preserving a vestige of order. He also preserved him- 
 self unspotted from the crime of simony, i. e., disposing of the property 
 or dignities of the church for money or worldly considerations. 
 
 § 213. Henry III.'s son was the highly-gifted but misled Henry IV., 
 who, from the age of five years, was under the tutelage of his judicious 
 mother, till the ambitious Hanno, archbishop of Cologne, succeeded in 
 getting the young emperor into his power. The severe method of educa- 
 tion employed by this prelate disgusted Henry, who was only the more 
 pleased with the magnificent Bishop Adelbert, of Bremen, who snatched 
 him from the hands of Hanno, and made himself agreeable to the young 
 prince by flattery, and the gratification of his sensual inclinations. The 
 emperor established his residence at Goslar, for the purpose of chastising 
 the Saxons, among whom, Henry's rival, Otho of Nordheim, had many 
 adherents. He here established a riotous court ; oppressed and mal- 
 treated both the nobles and people ; and, in the insolence of youth, dis- 
 turbed, with his companions, the security of the neighboring country. 
 The Saxon nobility at length took up arms under the conduct of Otho ; 
 the fortresses were taken, the strong citadel (Jf Harzburg destroyed, and 
 the emperor compelled to take flight. This proved the commencement 
 of a destructive war, which was terminated to the disadvantage of the 
 Saxons, by the superior talents' of Henry, and his victory on 
 the Unstruth. This finally induced them to call in the pope 
 as umpire. 
 
 § 214. The chair of Rome was at that time occupied by Gregory VII., 
 a prelate of resolute will and decided temper, who cherished the purpose 
 of rendering the church independent of the secular authority, and of 
 exalting the papacy above the power of the emperor, and that of every 
 other temporal prince. "With this object, he had induced his predecessors 
 to withdraw the election of pope from the hands of the Roman people, 
 and to transfer it to the newly-created college of cardinals. After his 
 elevation, he turned his attention to the purifying of the church ; he 
 accordingly issued a strict prohibition against all simony, deposed and 
 banished the bishops who had obtained their offices by purchase, and for- 
 bade lay investiture (appointment to church offices by a temporal prince) ; 
 and, for the purpose of binding the clergy more closely to the church, he 
 
THE HOUSE OF FRANCONIA. 139 
 
 passed a law -wliich enforced a rigid observance of celibacy by all per- 
 sons of the priestly condition. The appeal to his arbitration by the 
 Saxons came very opportunely to the daring priest after these arrange- 
 ments ; it served to confirm the principle that the pope, as Christ's vice- 
 regent, was superior to all temporal rulers, and that emperors, kings, and 
 princes, were consequently his vassals. He summoned Henry IV. be- 
 fore his judgment seat. Instead of obeying the summons, the emperor 
 obtained a resolution from a council of the church assembled at Worms, 
 which declared the pope to be deposed, and this resolution he forwarded 
 to Gregory with a contemptuous letter. Upon this, Gregory excommu- 
 nicated Henry and his adherents, and deposed him from the throne. This 
 happened at a time when Henry's conduct towards the Saxons, and his 
 matrimonial quarrel with his virtuous wife, from whom he attempted to 
 get himself separated by the archbishop of Mayence, created universal 
 dissatisfaction. He soon found himself forsaken by his people, and the 
 princes who assembled at Tribur announced to him his deposition, unless 
 he were released from the excommunication within a year. Upon this, 
 Henry hastened across the Alps, in the midst of a severe 
 winter, to the pope, who was residing at the castle Canossa ; 
 but it was not until after waiting three days barefoot, and in the dress of 
 a penitent, in the court of the castle, that he was admitted to an audience. 
 After this humiliation, the excommunication was withdrawn. 
 
 § 215. During Henry's absence, his enemies had raised Rudolf, duke 
 of Swabia, to the imperial throne. A civil war broke out in consequence, 
 in which Henry remained the victor. Rudolf, having lost a hand in the 
 battle of the Elster, died shortly afterwards, upon which Henry under- 
 took an expedition to revenge himself upon Gregory, who, 
 deceived by false intelligence respecting the victory, had re- 
 newed the excommunication. He left the finishing of the war in Ger- 
 many to his son-in-law, Frederick of Ilohenstaufen, whom he had created 
 duke of S^vabia, and then marched with his army over the Alps. A 
 council of the church, assembled by him at Brixen, deposed 
 
 A D 1083. 
 
 Gregory and elected Clement HI., from whom Henry imme- 
 diately received the crown. It is true, that Gregory still maintained 
 himself for some time in the castle of St. Angelo, under the protection 
 of Robert Guiscard (§ 208), with whom be had entered into an alliance; 
 but the dreadful excesses of the Normans produced so much exasperation 
 
 among the Romans, that the pope thought it most advisable 
 * to take refuge in Salerno, where he died in the following 
 year. But Henry's troubles were not yet at an end. Two rival em- 
 perors arose in Germany, and in Italy the successor of Gregory 
 created him a crowd of enemies, and renewed the sentence of excommu* 
 nication. At length, his own misguided children rose against him, 
 Conrad was disowned by him, and died in disgrace ; but in a short time 
 
140 THE HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE AGE. 
 
 after, Henry, who was already crowned, drew the sword against hia 
 fatlier, took him prisoner, and when he escaped from confinement, 
 continued the war against him so long, that Henry IV., bowed down 
 by misery and misfortune, ended his days at Liege. But even now 
 he was not at rest. For five years, his dead body remained unburied 
 in an unconsecrated chapel at Spire, before it was allowed to be interred 
 in the imperial sepulchre. 
 
 § 216. As long as Henry V. continued the disgraceful contest with his 
 Heniy V. A. D. father, SO long he remained the friend of the pope. But 
 1106-1125. scarcely was he in exclusive possession of the imperial digni- 
 ty, before he quarrelled with his ally on the subject of investiture. He 
 seized upon the pope and cardinals, and succeeded, despite the thunders 
 of excommunication by which he was assailed, in effecting a fair com- 
 promise of the subject of dispute, by means of the concordat of "Worms. 
 It was arranged by this contract, that the bishops and abbots should be 
 freely elected and installed in their offices by the pope, but that they 
 should be endowed with their temporalities and privileges by the king 
 with his sceptre. 
 
 The severity with which Henry had humbled the insolent princes of 
 the empire, prevented them from raising to the throne the nearest rela- 
 tive of the house of Franconia, Frederick of Hohenstaufen, upon 
 Lothaire the H^^^^y's death without children. They elected Lothaire the 
 Saxon, A. 1). Saxon, the heir of Otho of Nordheim, but produced a fatal 
 1125-1137. division by this step. For when the brothers of the Ho- 
 henstaufen family refused to do homage to the new emperor, Lothaire 
 united himself with Henry the Proud of Bavaria, of the house of Welf, 
 by giving him his daughter in marriage, and increasing the vast posses- 
 sions of this family by the dukedom of Saxony. The Hohenstaufens 
 were unable to resist such superior power, and they were compelled to 
 acknowledge Lothaire emperor, and to accompany him in his Italian 
 campaign. 
 
 lY. THE ASCENDENCY OF THE CHURCH IN THE TIME OF THE 
 
 CRUSADES. 
 
 1. THE CRUSADES. 
 
 § 217. Ever since the fourth century, it had been a prevalent custom 
 to undertake a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, for the health of the soul and 
 the expiation of a sinful life, and to pray at what was believed to be the 
 site of the sepulchre of Christ, and where, in consequence, the Empress 
 
THE CRUSADES. 141 
 
 Helena had erected a church. These pilgrimages became more numer- 
 ous as the Christian faith acquired more influence over the minds of 
 men. As long as the mercantile Arabians retained possession of tho 
 land, the pilgrims came and went without molestation ; but when Syria 
 and Palestine were conquered by the Seljookian Turks, the native Christ- 
 ians, as well as the pilgrims, were exposed to severe oppression. They 
 were compelled to pay a heavy tax, and were frequently robbed, mal- 
 treated, and killed. At this juncture, a pilgrim, Peter of Amiens, who 
 was returning from Jerusalem, presented himself before Pope Urban II., 
 described the sufferings of the Christians in the East, and received the 
 charge of wandering through town and country, and preparing the minds 
 of men for the great enterprise of recovering the Holy Land from the 
 hands of the infidels. Wonderful was the agitation produced in all 
 lands by the descriptions of the eloquent and meagre-visaged pilgrim. 
 When the pope, in consequence, held an assembly at Cler- 
 mont, in the south of France, at which several bishops and 
 nobles, and a numberless crowd of people of all conditions were present, 
 called upon the West to arm itself against the East, and concluded his 
 passionate address by an exhortation to every one, " To deny himself 
 and take up his cross, that he might win Christ," the shout, "It is the 
 will of God," pealed from every throat, and thousands fell on their 
 knees, and demanded to be at once admitted among the number of the 
 sacred w^arriors. They attached a red cross to the right shoulder, from 
 which the new brotlierhood received the name of crusaders. Complete 
 remission of sins, and an everlasting reward in heaven were promised to 
 them. This was the commencement of the first crusade, 1096 — 1099. 
 
 § 218. A mighty enthusiasm took possession of all minds ; no sex, age, 
 or condition would be left behind. Many were tc^ impatient to wait for 
 the preparations of the princes ; a disorderly and half-armed crowd, 
 under the direction of Peter of Amiens, and a French 
 knight, Walter the Penniless, marched through Germany 
 towards Hungary, on their way to Constantinople. When they were 
 denied the necessaries of life in Bulgaria, they stormed Belgrade, and 
 filled the country with robbery and murder. Hereupon the inhabitants 
 rose upon them, and slaughtered them by thousands. The remnant 
 reached Constantinople with their leaders, but were nearly all destroyed 
 in Asia Minor by the Seljooks. The disorderly crowd, which, after a 
 bloody persecution of the Jews, marched out of the Rhenish towns, 
 Strasburg, Worms, Mayence, &c., under the conduct of the priest, 
 Gottschalk, and the count Emico of Leiningen, fared no better. 
 
 § 219. A hundred thousand men had already perished, when the high- 
 spirited Godfrey of Bouillon, duke of Lorraine, marched towards Con- 
 stantinople by the same path, with his brothers and a vast host of well- 
 appointed knights, whilst Hugh of Vermandois, the brother of the French 
 
142 THE HISTOHY OF THE MIDDLE AGE. 
 
 king, and tlie Norman prince, Bohemoncl of Lower Italy, with his chivaU 
 rous nephew, Tancred, departed by sea to the same destination. After 
 they had promised the Byzantine emperor, Alexius Comnenus, the 
 restoration of all the Greek towns that had formerly belonged to the 
 Eastern empire, they were transported into Asia. A review took place 
 in a plain near Nica^a, and the army was found to consist of 100',000 
 cavalry, and 300,000 foot, fit for battle. The most celebrated of the 
 leaders, besides those already named, w^ere Robert of Normandy, son of 
 William the Conqueror (§ 207) ; Stephen of Blois, who numbered 
 as many castles as there are days in the year ; the rich and powerful 
 Count Raymond of Toulouse, and others. The siege and capture of 
 Nicaja was the first important deed of arms achieved by the crusaders. 
 From this point, their march proceeded southwards through the domi- 
 nions of the sultan of Iconium. The Seljooks suffered a defeat in the 
 battle of Dorylseum. But the Christian army w^as roon reduced to the 
 greatest straits by the want of the necessaries of life, so that many re- 
 turned home, and others, separating themselves from the main body, 
 established independent governments among the pagans. In this way, 
 Baldwin, Godfrey's brother, established himself in Edessa, on the Eu- 
 phrates. At length, the host reached the beautiful territory 
 * of Antioch. But the siege of this strong and amply-pro- 
 vided city presented so many difficulties to the unpractised knights, that 
 that it was only after an investment of nine months that they obtained 
 possession of it, by a stratagem of the crafty Bohemond, who contrived 
 that a door should be treacherously left open to him. The punishment 
 inflicted by the Christians on the conquered city was frightful. But they 
 had scarcely held possession of it for three days before the Seljook sultan 
 of Mosul made his appearance, and inclosed the place with an innume- 
 rable army. The crusaders were in a short time so reduced by famine, 
 that their destruction appeared inevitable. From this perilous position 
 they were rescued by a holy lance, that was found in the church of St. Peter 
 in Antioch, and the discovery of which produced such enthusiasm amongst 
 them, that, sallying out of the city, they put to flight a very superior 
 army of the besiegers, and opened for themselves the road to Jerusalem. 
 The faith in the genuineness of the lance soon however disappeared, 
 when the priest who had discovered it died from the consequences of the 
 divine ordeal to which he was subjected. 
 
 § 220. The army now compelled the contending princes to a rapid 
 march. When they arrived, about the time of Pentecost, at 
 the heights above Ramla and Emmaus, whence Jerusalem 
 first becomes visible, they fell upon their knees in an ecstasy of devotion, 
 Bhed tears of joy, and glorified God with psalms of thanksgiving. But 
 the conquest of this strong city was a difficult undertaking for an army 
 of pilgrims, wearied with travel, and unprovided with the necessary 
 
THE CRUSADES. ^ 143 
 
 engines. The want of water, and tlie burning heat, proved more de- 
 structive than the arrows of the enemy. But the newly-aroused enthu- 
 siasm triumphed over all obstacles. Having endured a siege of thirty- 
 15thJuly,A.D. nine days, Jerusalem was at length taken by the crusaders 
 1099. after a two days' storm, accompanied by the shouts, " It is 
 
 the will of God," " God helps us." The fate of the vanquished was friglit- 
 ful. The steps of the mosques were washed by the blood of 10,000 
 slaughtered Saracens ; the Jews were burnt in their synagogue ; neither 
 age nor sex was spared, the streets were filled with corpses, blood, and 
 mutilated limbs. It was only after the thirst for revenge and plunder 
 had been slaked, that Christian humility again resumed its empire over 
 the mind, and the same men who, a short time before, had been raging 
 like ravenous beasts, might now be seen, with bare feet and uncovered 
 heads, marching with songs of praise to the Church of the Holy Sepul- 
 chre, to thank God with fervent devotion for the success vouchsafed to 
 their enterprise. 
 
 § 221. The next step was to elect a king of Jerusalem. The choice 
 fell upon the pious and valiant Godfrey of Bouillon, who refused, how- 
 ever, to wear a kingly diadem on the spot where the Saviour of the world 
 had bled beneath a crown of thorns. He rejected the outward symbols 
 of power, and called himself the Defender of the Holy Sepulchre. The 
 new kingdom of Jerusalem was arranged according to the principles of 
 the western feudal system (§ 241). Godfrey, moreover, won the glorious 
 August, victory at Ascalon, over the army of the Egyptian sultan, 
 
 A. D. 1099. but died during the following year, from the effects of the 
 climate and his extreme exertions. His brother, Baldwin, succeeded to 
 the government, and assumed the title of king. 
 
 § 222. The kingdom of Jerusalem had severe encounters to sustain 
 with the infidels. When reinforcements no longer arrived from the 
 West, the situation of the Christians became extremely precarious, espe- 
 cially after the powerful sultan of Mosul had taken and destroyed Edessa, 
 » ^ ii,K and threatened their borders from the East. At this iunc- 
 
 A. D. 114<. '' 
 
 ture, St. Bernard, abbot of Clairvaux, in Burgundy, aroused 
 A. D. 1149. afresh the slumbering zeal for religion, and was the origi- 
 nator of the SECOND CRUSADE. The authority of this pious man was 
 so great, that Louis VII. of France yielded obedience to his exhortations, 
 and even Conrad III. was unable to resist the fiery eloquence with which 
 he addressed him in the cathedral of Spire. Conrad assumed the cross, 
 and marched with a stately army through Constantinople into Asia 
 Minor. But here he was decoyed by the artifice of the Greek generals 
 into a waterless desert, where the crusaders were suddenly attacked by 
 innumerable squadrons of Turkish cavalry, who gave them so signal an 
 overthrow, that scarcely a tenth part escaped with Conrad into Constan- 
 tinople. The French army that marched along the coast fared no better. 
 
114: THE HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE AGE. 
 
 The greater number of the pilgrims perished either by the sword of the 
 enemy, or by hunger and fatigue. The shattered forces of the two kings 
 at length reached Jerusalem, but were unable lo perform any action of 
 importance, so that the position of the Christian kingdom became from 
 day to day more difficult, especially as, shortly after their retreat, the 
 magnanimous and valiant Curd, Saladin, made himself master of Egypt, 
 and united in a short time all the lands betAveen Cairo and Aleppo under 
 his sceptre. The kingdom of Jerusalem was soon in distress. Saladin 
 granted a truce ; but when this was violated by a Christian knight, who 
 had audaciously interrupted the passage of Saladin's mother, robbed her 
 of her treasures, and slaughtered her attendants, the sultan took the field 
 with his army. The battle of Tiberias was decided against 
 
 A D 1187 
 
 the Christians. King Guy of Lusignan and many of his 
 nobles were taken prisoners ; Joppa, Sidon, Acre, and many other towns 
 fell into the hands of the conqueror, and at length, Jerusalem was also 
 taken. The crosses were torn down, and the furniture of the churches 
 destroyed, but the inhabitants were treated with forbearance. Saladin, 
 far superior in virtue to his Christian adversaries, did not stain his 
 triumph with cruelty. 
 
 § 223. The news of the taking of Jerusalem occasioned the utmost 
 alarm throughout the whole West, and gave rise to the 
 
 A. ». 1189. * ° ^ , ' . n -r . 
 
 THIRD CRUSADE. From the southernmost pomt of Italy 
 A. D. J . ^^ ^YiQ rude mountains of Scandinavia, armed bands streamed 
 towards the Holy Land. Those who remained lehind paid a tax (Sala- 
 din's tenth). The three most powerful monarchs of the West, Frederick 
 Barbarossa of Germany, Philip Augustus II. of France, and Richard 
 Cceur de Lion (Lion-heart) of England, assumed the cross. The Em- 
 peror Frederick, with a well-appointed army, took the way by land to 
 Asia Minor, defeated the sultan of Iconium in a furious battle near the 
 walls of his chief city, and displayed prudence, courage, and resolution in 
 the whole undertaking. But when the old hero attempted, with the 
 boldness of youth, to cross the rapid mountain stream of the Saleph, into 
 the south of Asia Minor, he was carried away by the torrent. His dead 
 body was dragged on shore near Seleucia. Some of the knights returned 
 home, and others followed the second son of the emperor, Frederick of 
 Swabia, to Palestine, where they took part in the siege of Acre. The 
 kings of France and England, who had taken the sea voyage by Sicily, 
 met shortly after, before this town. Their united efforts were crowned by 
 the fall of Acre, where Richard distinguished himself as much by his seve- 
 rity, pride, and cruelty, as by his valor and heroism. The German ban- 
 ner, that duke Leopold of Austria had first planted on the battlements, 
 was torn down and trampled under foot by the commands of Richard ; 
 and when the stipulated ransom for the captive Saracens was not paid 
 at the appointed moment, he ordered 3500 of these unfortunates to be 
 
THE CRUSADES. 145 
 
 put to the sword. Richard's name was the terror of the East. But de- 
 spite all his strength and bravery, he was unable to take Jerusalem, 
 Quarrels between Richard and Philip Augustus, (who returned home 
 after the capture of Acre), and dissensions among the crusaders, checked 
 the enterprise. After the conclusion of a treaty, by which the sea-coast 
 from Tyre to Joppa, and undisturbed access to the holy places, were 
 assured to the Christians, Richard also turned homcAvards. Having 
 been cast by a storm on the coast of Italy, he attempted to pursue 
 his journey through Germany, but was seized near Vienna, and given 
 up to the avaricious emperor Henry VI., who shut him up in the 
 castle of Trifels, and only released him on the payment of a heavy 
 ransom. 
 
 A. p. 1203. § 224. The fourth crusade had a termination alto- 
 
 A. !>. 1204. gether peculiar. The knights of France and Italy assembled 
 together at Venice, in the beginning of the thirteenth century, under 
 Baldwin of Flanders, for the purpose of getting themselves conveyed to 
 the Holy Land. Whilst here, the Byzantine prince, Alexius, whose 
 father, Isaac Angelus, had been deprived of the throne, rendered blind, 
 and shut up in prison by his own brother, presented himself before them, 
 and implored their assistance against the usurper. Alexius prevailed 
 upon the crusaders, by the promise of vast rewards. They sailed for 
 Constantinople under the command of the blind doge, Dandolo of Venice, 
 who was then in his ninetieth year, took the city, and placed Alexius and 
 his father on the throne. But when they insolently demanded the fulfil- 
 ment of the promises made to them, the populace excited an insurrection, 
 during which Alexius was killed, and his father died of fright, whilst the 
 leader of the tumult was raised to the government. Upon this, the 
 Franks stormed Constantinople, plundered the churches, palaces, and 
 dwelling-houses, destroyed the noblest works of art and antiquity, and 
 filled the Avhole city with te«rror and outrage. They flung the emperor from 
 a pillar, and then divided the Byzantine kingdom. The newly-established 
 Latin empire, with its chief city, Constantinople, fell to the share of the 
 heroic Baldwin ; the Venetians appropriated the lands on the coast and 
 several islands of the iEgean Sea, and gained possession of the v.hole 
 trade of the East ; the count of Montferrat received Macedonia and 
 Greece, under the title of the kingdom of Thessalonica ; Villehardouin, 
 the describer of this transaction, became duke of Achaia ; Athens and 
 other Greek towns were shared among the Frank nobles. As before, in 
 Jerusalem, so here, the feudal monarchy was established under the 
 western forms, by which means the greater part of the old population 
 was reduced to the condition of serfdom. But the new empire had no 
 solid foundation nor any long continuance. It preserved itself with diffi- 
 A D l'>61 ^"^^-^ ^^^ ^^^^^ ^ century, by aid from the West, against its 
 numerous enemies; the greater part of it then returned ta 
 13 
 
146 THE HISTORY OP TUB MIDDLE AGE. 
 
 Hichael Paloeologiis, a descendant of the ancient imperial familj, who 
 had established an independent government in Nicjea. 
 
 § 225. This crusade, however, was without results as f\ir as Jerusalem 
 was concerned ; and as the Latin kingdom also drew away the strength 
 from the Holy Land, the latter soon fell into distress. The separate 
 bands, that, without leaders and without system, from time to time 
 ventured upon this hazardous undertaking, brought as little assistance 
 to the closely pressed kingdom, as did the fanatical enthusiasm that 
 impelled crowds of children to assume the cross. ^Tearly 
 20,00t) children left their paternal homes for the purpose of 
 reaching the holy sepulchre, but either perished by hunger and ex- 
 haustion, or were sold for slaves by rapacious merchants and pirates. 
 The expedition to Egypt, undertaken by Andrew of Hungary and other 
 princes, was also unproductive of any permanent result. With such 
 examples before him, the excommunicated emperor, Frederick IL, under- 
 took the FIFTH CRUSADE, at a time when the sultan of Egypt 
 was engaged in a war with the governor of Damascus, re- 
 specting the possession of Syria and Palestine. But the pope was indig- 
 narit with the excommunicated man, and forbade all Christian warriors 
 to support his undertaking ; and when Frederick nevertheless succeeded, 
 by dexterously availing himself of circumstances, in bringing the sultan 
 to a treaty, by Avhich Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and Nazareth, 
 together with their territories and the whole of the sea-coast 
 between Joppa and Sidon, were ceded to the Christians, the pope fulmi- 
 nated an excommunication against the city and the holy sepulchre, so 
 that Frederick II. was obliged to place the crown of Jerusalem on his 
 own head, without either a mass or the consecration of the Church. 
 Hated and betrayed by the Christian knights and priests in Jerusalem, 
 Frederick, with shattered health, retired from the Holy Land. Fourteen 
 years afterwards, the Carismians, a savage Eastern race, poured them- 
 selves into Palestine, carrying death and destruction in their train. Tliey 
 took Jerusalem, destroyed the holy sepulchre, and tore the bones of the 
 kings from their graves. The flower of the Christian chivalry fell at 
 Gaza beneath their blows. Acre and a few other towns on 
 
 A. D. 1244. 
 
 the coast were all that remained to the Christians. 
 § 22G. Upon receipt of this intelligence, Louis IX. (the Saint), of 
 France, with many of his nobles, took the cross and sailed by Cyprus to 
 Egypt. The strong frontier town of Damietta fell into the hands of the 
 Franks, but when they proceeded up the Nile to attack Cairo, the army 
 was inclosed between the canals and an arm of the river, whilst the fleet 
 was destroyed by the Greek fire. After the king's brother and the bra- 
 vest knights had fallen, Louis and the remainder of the army were taken 
 prisoners, and he \vas compelled to ransom himself and a portion of hia 
 followers by the payment of a large sum of money and the surrender of 
 
THE CaUSADES. 147 
 
 the conquered towns. In the mean while, the government of Egypt had 
 fallen into the hands of the warlike Mamelukes, the former slaves of the 
 Curds. Sixteen years after his return, Louis again undertook 
 another crusade^ which, however, he first directed against 
 the piratical Saracei^ at Tunis in northern Africa, partly to compel 
 them to pay tribute, and partly with a hope of introducing Christianity 
 amongst them. He had already laid siege to their principal city, when 
 the unusual heat produced an infectious disease, which hurried the king 
 himself and many of his warriors into the grave. The French leaders 
 concluded a hasty treaty with the Saracens, and returned home. The 
 feeble remains of the kingdom of Jerusalem were more and more threat- 
 ened by the warlike Mamelukes. When Antioch fell into their hands, 
 raid Acre or Ptolemais was stormed after an heroic defence, the Frank 
 Christians that were still alive voluntarily retired from Syria, 
 
 A. D. 1291. 
 
 that for the last two hundred years had been drenched by 
 the blood of so many millions. 
 
 § 227. The consequences of the Crusades were of vast importance to 
 the progress of the European races. — 1. Cultivation of mind was for- 
 warded by them, inasmuch as an acquaintance with foreign lands and 
 nations enlarged the hitherto contracted sphere of human knowledge, gave 
 men an insiglit into the sciences and arts of other people, and enlightened 
 their minds with regard to the world and human relations. — 2. They 
 ennobled the knightly class, by furnishing a more elevated aim to their 
 efforts, and gave occasion for the establishment of fresh orders, who pre- 
 sented a model of chivalry, and were supposed to combine all the knightly 
 virtues. Of these orders, those which most distinguished themselves 
 were the knights of St. John (Hospitallers), the Templars, and the Teu- 
 tonic knights. They combined the spirit of the knight and the monk ; for 
 in addition to the three conventual vows of chastity, poverty, and obedi- 
 ence, they joined a fourth, — war to the infidels and protection to pilgrims. 
 a.) The order of St. John was divided into three classes: serving 
 brothers, who were devoted to the care of ^ck pilgrims ; priests, who 
 ministered to the affairs of religion ; and knights, who fought with the 
 infidels and escorted pilgrims. After the loss of the Holy Land, they 
 obtained the island of Rhodes, and when they were compelled, after a 
 most desperate resistance, to relinquish this to the Ottomans, 
 the island of Malta was presented to them by the emperor 
 Charles V. — b.) The Templars acquired vast wealth by donations and 
 legacies. After the loss of their possessions in Palestine, the greater 
 number of their members returned to France, where they gave them- 
 selves up to infidelity and a life of voluptuousness, which finally occa- 
 Bioned the dissolution of their order (§ 256). The order of Teutonic 
 knights is less renowned for its deeds in Palestine than for its sqrvices in 
 the civilization of the countries on the shores of the Baltic. Summoned 
 
148 THE HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE AGE. 
 
 to defend the germs of Christianity against the heathen Prussians on the 
 banks of the Vistula, the Order, after many bloody encounters, succeeded 
 in converting the people between the Vistula and the Niemen to Christ- 
 ianity, and introducing the German manners, language, and cultivation. 
 The cities of Culm, Thorn, " Bm ng^ Konigsburg, agd others, arose under 
 the influence of the active traders of Bremen and Lubeck. Bishoprics 
 and churches were founded ; the woods were cleared and converted into 
 arable land ; German industry and German civilization produced a com- 
 plete transformation ; but the ancient freedom of the people was de» 
 stroyed. The knights of the G^^der (who, since 1309, had had their 
 residence in Marienbu**,-) condiicted the government,^and^the peasantry 
 sank into the condition of serfs. 
 
 About the time of the first crusade, the Mohammedan prophet, Has- 
 san, formed the fanatical sect of the Assassins, who dwelt in the ancient 
 Parthia and the mountainous heights of Syria, and were remarkable for 
 the entire renunciation of their own wills. They obeyed the commands 
 of their chief, " the old man of the mountain," with the blindest devotion, 
 executed with subtelty and courage every murderous deed that was 
 intrusted to them, made a jest of the torture when seized, and were the 
 terror of both Turks and Christians. 
 
 § 228. — 3. The Crusades gave rise to a free peasantry, inasmuch as, 
 by means of them, many serfs attained their liberty, and raised and ex- 
 tended the power and importance of the burgher class and of the towns ; 
 whilst a nearer acquaintance with foreign lands and foreign productions 
 gave an impulse to trade, developed commerce, and produced prosperity. 
 4. They increased the power and the authority of the clergy, multiplied 
 the riches of the church, (the clergy aijd the monasteries got possession 
 of vast estates during the Crusades, either by legacies and donations, or 
 by purchase), and exalted the zeal for religion into a gloomy fanaticism. 
 The latter quality was frightfully displayed in the persecution of the 
 Waldenses and Albigenses, a religious sect who were desirous of restor- 
 ing the apostolical simplicity of the church and clergy. Provence and 
 Languedoc in the south of France, where, under a beautiful and serene 
 sky, a prosperous race of burghers had developed their free institutions, 
 where the cheerful Provencal poetry of the Troubadours had indulged 
 its petulant and satirical humor at the 'expense of priests and bishops, 
 was the residence of these Albigenses (so called from the city Alby). 
 Against these men and their protector, Eaimond VI. of Tou- 
 
 A -T) 1905. 
 
 louse. Innocent III. ordered the cross to be preached by the 
 Cistercian monks. Hereupon, bands of savage warriors, with some 
 fanatical monks bearing the cross before them, marched into the blooming 
 land, destroyed the rich cities, towns, and villages, slaughtered the inno- 
 cent with the guilty, lighted up the flames of death, and filled the whole 
 country with murder, plunder, and desolation. Raimond for a long time 
 
THE HOUENSTAUFEXS. 149 
 
 resisted his enemies ; but when Louis YIIL, excited by an ignoble 
 cupidity for extending his possessions, undertook the war against the 
 heretics, the count submitted, and concluded a peace by which he sur- 
 rendered the greater part of his territories to France. But a desolating 
 war of twenty years had destroyed the beautiful culture of the south 
 of France, turned the land into a wilderness, and silenced forever the 
 cheei-ful song of the Troubadour. A few years afterwards, the gallant 
 peasant republic of the Stedingers was visited in a similar manner by 
 a war of extermination, at the instance of the bishops of Bremen and 
 Ratzburg. 
 
 2. THE HOHENSTAUFENS (a. D. 1138-1254). 
 
 § 229. Upon the death of the emperor Lothaire (§ 216), on his return 
 from Italy, his son-in-law, Henry the Proud, believed himself to possess 
 the nearest claims to the throne. But the great power of the house of 
 Welf, who held Bavaria and Saxony, and whose possessions extended 
 from the Mediterranean to the Baltic, together with the arrogance of the 
 haughty duke, induced many of the princes, assembled at the imperial 
 diet at Coblentz, to elect Conrad of Ilohenstaufen. But Henry hesitated 
 to recognize the election, and refused the required homage. Upon this, 
 Conrad nL Conrad pronounced the ban of the empire against him, 
 A.D. and declared the forfeiture of both his dukedoms. This 
 
 -1152. occasioned a renewal of hostilities between the houses of 
 Hohenstaufen and Welf, and a desolating civil war. It was at the siege 
 of "Weinsberg, an hereditary possession of the Welfs, that the war cries, 
 " Hurrah for Welf!" " Hurrah for Waibling!"* which gave rise to the 
 party names, Welfs and Waiblings (Italice, Guelfs and Gliibellines), were 
 first heard. The citadel was obliged to surrender to the emperor, but the 
 garrison was preserved by the wit and fidelity of the women. The war 
 continued till the death of Henry the Proud. It was only 
 when his son, Henry the Lion, received back his paternal 
 inheritance and the two dukedoms of Bavaria and Saxony, that a com- 
 plete reconciliation was, for a time, effected. 
 
 Conrad was a brave and good man ; but his war against the Welfs, and 
 the second crusade in which he engaged, prevented his being of any great 
 service to Germany. A short time before his death, he exerted Iris influ- 
 ence with the princes to procure the election of his high-spirited and 
 energetic nephew, Frederick Barbarossa (Red-beard), who was esteemed 
 the flower of chivalry, and with whose qualities Conrad had made 
 acquaintance during the crusade. This great emperor, Frederick L, gave 
 
 * Waibling was the name of one of the hereditary possessions of the Hohenstanfens. 
 Guelphs and Ghibellines were the names of the two great poHtical parties that divided 
 Italy and Germany during the iliddle Ages, the former adliering to the Pope, the larter ta 
 Ihe Emperor. Am. Ed. 
 
 13* 
 
150 THE HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE AGE. 
 
 . peace and order to the empire "within, and respect and security with* 
 Frederick out. The genius for government displayed by this power- 
 ^ A^D ^^ ^^^^ ^^^ man, who combined severity with justice, awakened 
 1152-1190. everywhere respect and obedience. 
 
 § 230. Frederick found the hardest conflict in Italy, to which country 
 he made six expeditions. The Lombard towns, and the haughty Milan 
 in particular, entertained tlie project of erecting their territories into 
 small republics. Inspired by patriotism and a*love of freedom, they 
 formed an effective burgher militifi, and attempted to rid themselves of 
 the imperial authority. This refractory spirit displayed itself even during 
 Frederick's first campaign, when, in accordance with a long-established 
 custom, he held a review of his troops in the plains near Piacenza, and 
 required the princes and cities of Upper Italy to do him homage. He 
 could not, indeed, at this time, coerce the powerful Milan, but he sought 
 to terrify her by the destruction of some smaller towns, before he had 
 himself invested with the Lombard crown in Pavia, and with the imperial 
 crown in Pome. He only obtained the latter by giving up Arnold of 
 Brescia. This remarkable man wished to bring back the church to its 
 apostolic simplicity. In furtherance of this project, he denounced the 
 worldly possessions and the arrogance of the clergy, and affirmed that the 
 temporal authority of the head of the Church was an infringement on the 
 Holy Scriptures. Inflamed by these discourses, the Pomans renounced 
 their obedience to the pope, and set up a republic in imitation of the 
 ancient government. But when the bold preacher of this reformation 
 was delivered up to the pope and burnt before the gates of the city, the 
 courage of the Pomans w^as subdued. They consented to abolish the new 
 institutions, and again submitted to the power of the pope. 
 
 § 231. After Frederick's departure, the Milanese persisted in their de- 
 fiance, and destroyed several cities that adhered to the emperor (for 
 example, Lodi). Upon this, Frederick undertook a second 
 expedition, had his sovereign rights (regalia) determined by 
 jurists according to the code of Justinian (§ 186), and when Milan 
 refused to submit to the decision, uttered the ban against the refractory 
 city. A fierce war was at length decided in favor of the emperor, 
 Milan was obliged to surrender, after a siege of three years and a half. 
 After the carriage (carroccio) that supported the chief banner of the 
 city had been broken to pieces, and the citizens had humbled themselves 
 before the conqueror, the walls and houses were levelled with the earth, 
 and the inhabitants were " compelled to settle themselves in four widely- 
 separated points of their territory. Terrified at this result, the remainder 
 of the Lombard towns submitted themselves, and received the imperial 
 legate (podesta) wathin their walls. A short time after, Frederick 
 engaged in a violent quarrel with the obstinate pope, Alexander III. 
 The angry priest fulminated an excommunication against the emperoi] 
 
THE nOHEN^TAUFEXS. 15 1 
 
 and united himself with the Lombard cities, which were exasperated 
 with the tyranny of the imperial legate. Under the guidance of the pope, 
 a confederation of Lombard cities was rapidly formed, which was joined 
 by Milan, which had again recovered itself, and by almost all the city 
 communities of Upper Italy. The confederation built the strong city of 
 Alexandria, which was named after the pope, in defiance of the emperor, 
 and defended itself with courage and success against all the attacks of 
 Freierick ; so that the latter, having lost many of his soldiers by the 
 summer fever, and being busied with the affairs of Germany, was obliged 
 to leave Italy for a long time undisturbed. 
 
 § 232. At length, Frederick again crossed the Alps with a vast army, 
 but was detained so long by the siege of Alexandria, that he feared to 
 lose all the fruits of his campaign, and resolved, against the advice of 
 his friends, upon hazarding a battle. But Henry the Lion deserted the 
 emperor in the hour of danger ; he refused his assistance, though Frede- 
 rick implored it at his feet at the lake of Como ; and thus brought about 
 the defeat of the Germans at the battle of Legnano, where the Milanese, 
 united together for the defence of the car which bore the 
 ensign (the legion of death), performed prodigies of valor. 
 The emperor himself was missing for some days. But so great was the 
 respect for Frederick's heroism, that the pope and Lombard confedera- 
 tion willingly accepted his proffer of peace. At a meeting in Venice, a 
 truce of six years, which proved the foundation of the peace of Con- 
 stance, was arranged between the belligerent parties. Alexander 
 was acknowledged as the lawful head of the church, Frederick was 
 released from the anathema, and the confederate towns were required to 
 do homage, and admit the emperor's rights as sovereign. Imperial 
 legates were to fill the chief offices of justice, and the imperial troops 
 were to be supported by the towns during their marches through them. 
 Before Frederick quitted Italy, he married his eldest son, Henry, to 
 Constantia, the heiress of the Norman kingdom in Naples and Sicily. 
 
 § 233. Henry the Lion was much alarmed when the news of Frede- 
 rick's reconciliation with the pope became known in Germany. He had 
 extended his rule over the Slavonic tribes in Pomerania and Mecklen- 
 burg; had made war upon the Frislanders on the Baltic, and the peasant 
 republic of the Ditmarsens, in Ilolstein ; and had got possession of a 
 large kingdom. He had established mines in the Ilarz mountains ; he 
 had founded cities and bishopricks (Lubeck, Munich, Ratzburg), and 
 attracted settlers from the Netherlands. But his ambition and acts of 
 violeijce against princes and clergy were not less known than his great 
 feats in war, so that the brazen lion that he erected before the citadel of 
 his chief city, Brunswick, might be regarded as an emblem of his 
 rapacity, as well as of his strength. The complaints, accordingly, that 
 arose on all sides against Henry, upon the emperor's return, gave the 
 
152 THE HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE AGE. 
 
 latter the opportunity he so much wished for, of summoning him before 
 
 the supreme court of the empire, and upon his neglect of the repeated 
 
 summons, of pronouncing^ a^^ainst him the ban of the em- 
 
 A. D. 1179. ^ r o C3 
 
 pire, and depriving him of his two dukedoms, Bavaria and 
 Saxony. The former devolved to the Wittelsbachs, who were devoted 
 to the Hohenstaufens, and who afterwards received the palatinate of the 
 Rhine; and Saxony was shared between Bernhard of Anhalt, son of 
 Albert the Bear, and the neighboring bishops and princes. But the 
 Lion could only be subdued after a destructive war. For two years he 
 withstood all his enemies. It was not until Frederick himself took the 
 field against him, that he humbled himself before his great adversary, 
 prostrated himself at his feet at Erfurt, and retired into three years' 
 banishment in England. He nevertheless retained for himself and 
 fiimily his hereditary possessions of Brunswick and Luneburg. After 
 Frederick had subdued all his enemies, he undertook the third crusade, 
 that he might finish his heroic course in the same manner that he had 
 commenced it. From this expedition he never returned ; he found 
 his death in the distant East. But he lives still in the legends of 
 his people, in which the restoration of the ancient strength and greatness 
 of the German empire is connected with his return. 
 Henry VI § ^^'■^* Frederick's son, Henry VI., was an avaricious and 
 
 A. D. 1190- cruel prince, who resided more in Italy than in Germany. 
 1197. After the death of the last Norman king, he wished to take 
 
 possession of Naples and Sicily, the inheritance of his wife, Constantia. 
 But the nobility, who were afraid of Henry's ambition and avarice, op- 
 posed this project, and attempted to place one of the native nobles, the 
 brave Tancred, on the throne. It ^vas not until Henry had equipped 
 fresh armaments with the ransom of the English king (§ 223), that he 
 succeeded, with the assistance of the crusaders of Northern Germany 
 and Thuringia, whom he enticed by a promise of a free passage to Lower 
 Italy, in subduing his enemies, and in getting possession of Naples and 
 Palermo. The revenge of the angry ruler was frightful. The prisons 
 were filled with nobles and bishops, some of whom were deprived of 
 their eyes and impaled, while others were burnt, or^buried alive in the 
 earth. The plunder was conveyed by heavily-laden pack-horses to the 
 Hohenstaufen castles. Henry died suddenly a few years afterwards, at 
 the age of thirty-two, leaving behind him a son of two years of age, who 
 was intrusted to the guardianship of the highly-accomplished pope, Inno- 
 cent III. The adherents of the Hohenstaufens elected Philip of Svvabia, 
 brother of Henry YL, to be emperor, Avhilst the Welf faction proclaimed 
 Otho IV., second son of Henry the Lion : the former was acknowledged 
 in the south, the latter in the north. The consequence of this division 
 was a ten years' war, during which the greatest lawlessness and violence 
 nrevailed, and such devastations were committed, that sixteen cathedralji 
 
THE HOHENSTAUFENS. 153 
 
 unci 350 parishes with churches were burnt to the ground. Even after 
 
 Philip had been murdered at Bamberg, from motives of private revenge, 
 
 by the hasty palgrave, Otho of Wittelsbach, peace did not 
 
 return for any length of time. For now a quarrel broke 
 
 out between the emperor Otho IV. and pope Innocent III. 
 
 § 235. Innocent III., a politic prince, endowed with unusual talents 
 
 for government, gave the papacy its highest power by establishing the 
 
 principle, that the church was superior to the state, and its spiritual head 
 
 superior to any temporal ruler ; so that all the princes of the world were 
 
 bound to consider the pope as their liege lord and arbiter. He at the 
 
 same time laid the foundation of an ecclesiastical state, by getting all 
 
 previous donations confirmed by Otho, and inducing him to renounce all 
 
 the imperial feudal rights over Rome and the central provinces of Italy. 
 
 But when the emperor at length attempted to set some limits 
 
 to the ambition of the pontiff, the latter excommunicated 
 
 him, and sent the young Frederick into Germany, to stir up afresh the 
 
 war between the Guelfs and the Ghibellines. The Ghibelline party 
 
 gladly united themselves to the handsome and promising youth, so that 
 
 Frederick 11. of Ilohenstaufen was universally acknowledpjed 
 
 A. D. 1215. 
 
 emperor, even before Otho IV.*s death. Otho IV. died at 
 Brunswick, in the year 1218. But a powerful opponent of the head of 
 Frederick II. ^^^® church arose in the freethinking Frederick II., who had 
 A. D. 1218- been educated in the wisdom of the Arabians, and who en- 
 1250. tertained a favorable feeling towards the professors of Islam, 
 
 and the Oriental mode of life ; so that his reign presents a continual 
 contest between the imperial power and the papacy. Frederick's posi- 
 tion, as king of Upper and Lower Italy, threatened no less danger to the 
 temporal power of the pope, than his sceptical turn of mind to the au- 
 thority of the church. It was for this reason, that Innocent Jind his suc- 
 cessors labored to separate the government of Naples and Sicily from 
 the imperial office. 
 
 § 236. As Frederick for a long time refused to undertake the promised 
 crusade (§ 225), he was first excommunicated by Gregory IX., and when 
 he proceeded to the Holy Land in the following year, without being 
 released from the curse, the pope became more angry than ever, and 
 not only paralyzed all the emperor's undertakings in Palestine, but com- 
 manded his territories in Lower Italy to be attacked by soldiers, who 
 were distinguished by the badge of the keys of St. Peter. This hasten- 
 ed Frederick's return. He repulsed the papist troops, and approached 
 the frontiers of the ecclesiastical territories, upon which Gregory con- 
 sented to a peace, and the removal of the excommunication. After this, 
 Frederick devoted his whole attention to the internal well-being of his 
 kingdom. He restrained the increasing feuds and depredations of tlie 
 knights in Germany ; he gave the inhabitants of Lower Italy a new code 
 
154 THE HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE AGE. 
 
 of laws ; ne encouraged trade, industry, and poetry. But when he at- 
 tempted to compel the inhabitants of the Lombard towns to fulfil the 
 conditions of the peace of Constance (§ 232), and to discharge the rega- 
 lian rights that pertained to him as emperor, a furious war broke out. 
 Frederick, in conjunction with the Ghibellines, under the inhuman tyrant 
 Ezzelino, in Verona, and supported by his trusty Saracens, whom he had 
 settled in Lower Italy, overcame the united army of the Lombards, and 
 reduced most of the towns to submission. But when he pursued his 
 conquest with severity, threatened the Milanese w^ith a fate similar to 
 that which they had experienced from Frederick Barbarossa (§ 231), 
 and presented his natural son, the brave and handsome Enzio, with the 
 kingdom of Sardinia, the aged prince of the church again renew^ed his 
 excommunication, joined the Lombards, and attempted to raise up ene- 
 mies on every side against the emperor, whom he accused of infidelity 
 and contempt for religion. Frederick retorted these accusations in some 
 violent written replies, and repaid invective with invective; but the 
 church carried off the victory. 
 
 § 237. When Gregory IX., at the age of nearly a hundred 
 '^' ^' " ' years, at length sunk into the grave, Frederick's position 
 seemed to become more favorable. But the pope's successor, the resolute 
 Innocent IV., trod the same path. For the purpose of being free from 
 restraint, he left Italy, and called a solemn council of the church, at 
 Lyons. Without hstening to Frederick's defence. Innocent here renewed 
 the sentence of excommunication against the emperor in the severest 
 form. lie denounced him as a blasphemer of God, a secret Mohamme- 
 dan, and an enemy of the church ; declared him to have forfeited his 
 kingdom, released all his subjects from their oath of allegiance, and 
 threatened his adherents with the ban of the church. Upon this, the 
 war broke out afresh in every country. The popish party succeeded in 
 Germany in carrying the election of a rival emperor, Henry 
 A. D. 1246. i^iaspe, of Thuringia ; and wdien, after the unfortunate engage- 
 ment at Ulm, against Frederick's son Conrad, Henry died powerless and 
 forsaken in the castle of Wartburg, the young count, William of Hol- 
 land, allowed himself to be persuaded to assume the title of emperor. But 
 the imperial towns and most of the secular princes sided with Conrad? 
 V § 238. In the mean time, the war between Guelfs and Ghibellines 
 raged furiously in Italy. The fiery temperament of the revengeful 
 southerns occasioned deeds of unheard-of atrocity ; family was arrayed 
 against family, city against city; neither age nor condition refrained from 
 the combat. Ezzelino, the leader of the Ghibelline nobility, perpetrated 
 the most monstrous cruelties in his attacks upon the Guelf cities, till at 
 length he met with the punishment he deserved in the prison of Milan. 
 
 Frederick for a long time maintained his lofty attitude ; the number 
 of his foes only increased his courage. But when his son, Enzio, fell 
 
THE nOHEXSTAUFEXS. 155 
 
 into the hands of the Bolognese, who kept the fair-haired king for twenty 
 years in confinement ; when his chancellor, Peter of Vinea, suffered him 
 eel^to be gained by the opposite party, and then, either from fear or re 
 morse, deprived himself of life in prison, — his heart at length broke 
 He died in his fifty-sixth year, in the arms of his best beloved son^ Man- 
 fred, in Lower Italy. Frederick II. united great cultivation of mind and 
 aptitude for science and poetry, with courage, heroism, and beauty of 
 person. Surrounded by pomp, luxury, and pleasures of all descriptions, 
 he had every pretension to happiness, had not his sceptical spirit resisted 
 the church, and had he only learnt to moderate his desires and bridle his 
 passions. 
 
 § 239. Upon the news of Frederick's death. Innocent IV. returned in 
 triumph to Rome. He declared Naples and Sicily to be lapsed fiefs of 
 the chair of St. Peter, and excommunicated Conrad IV. and Manfred, 
 who wished to take possession of their patei>nal inheritance. Conrad 
 soon sank into an early grave ; but his chivalrous half-brother, Manfred, 
 defended Lower Italy with his German and Saracen troops with such 
 courage and success, that the greater part of the towns tendered their 
 allegiance, and the Guelfic troops were obliged to retreat into the eccle- 
 siastical states. Distress at this hastened the death of Innocent IV. His 
 successor. Urban IV., pursued however the same path. Determined to 
 deprive the Hohenstaufens of Naples and Sicily at any price, he offered 
 this beautiful kingdom, as a papal fief, to the energetic but despotic 
 Charles of Anjou, brother of the French king, Louis IX., under condition 
 that he should conquer it by Guelfic assistance and with French troops, 
 and should pay a yearly tribute to the Roman court. Manfred valiantly 
 resisted his insolent rival. But when the battle of Bene- 
 
 A. D. 1260- 
 
 ventum was decided against him by Italian treachery, he 
 plunged into the thickest of the enemy, and died the death of a hero. A 
 simple grave, to which every soldier contributed a stone, inclosed his 
 remains. 
 
 § 240. After the battle of Beneventum, the power of the Ghibellines 
 was brokan ; Naples and Sicily fell into the hands of the stern victor, 
 who made the unfortunate land feel all the miseries of conquest. The 
 adherents of the Hohenstaufens were punished with death, imprisonment, 
 and banishment ; their possessions were divided among the French and 
 Guelfic soldiers. Upon this, the oppressed people called Conrad IV.'s 
 youngest son, Conradine, from Germany into Italy. Conradine, in whose 
 bosom dwelt the lofty spirit and heroic courage of his ancestors, left his 
 home for the purpose of again conquering the inheritance of the Hohen- 
 staufens, with the assistance of his youthful friend, Frederick of Baden, 
 and a few faithful adherents. Received with rejoicing by the Ghibellines, 
 he marched victoriously through Upper and Middle Italy, put the pope 
 to flight, and crossed the frontiers of Naples. The battle at Scurcola 
 
156 THE HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE AGE. 
 
 terminated in his favor; but liis over-hasty advance threw the victory 
 into the hands of the enemy, who were watching in ambuscade. His 
 troops were either killed or dispersed ; he himself, betrayed into ihe 
 hands of his rival, Charles of Anjou, was beheaded at Naples, along with 
 his bosom friend, Frederick. Thus sank the last scion of a glo- 
 rious race of heroes, robbed of his honor, into an early gra\ e. 
 The still remaining members of the house of Hohenstaufen also expe- 
 rienced a cruel fate. King Enzio died in prison in Bologna (§ 236). 
 The ruthless Charles allowed the sons of Manfred to pine in prison till 
 they died ; and Margaret, the daughter of Frederick IL, was ill-treated 
 and threatened with death by her husband, Albert of Thuringia, called 
 the Uncourteous, so that she fled by night from the castle of Wartburf. 
 In her agony at her separation from her two sons, she bit one of them in 
 the cheek whilst embracing him, so that he retained the mark and the 
 surname of " the Bitten." ♦ 
 
 After Conradine's death, Charles proceeded with cruelty and severity 
 against all his adherents. Upon this, John of Procida, a Ghibelline, who 
 had been deprived of his property, swore vengeance against the tyrant. 
 By his influence, all the French were killed by the Sicilians, on the so- 
 called Sicilian vespers, and the island was given up to Man- 
 
 A. D. 1282. o 1 
 
 fred's valiant son-in-law, Peter of Aragon, by whose assist- 
 ance, the inhabitants successfully repelled all the attacks of Charles, and 
 established an independent kingdom. Peter's second son, Frederick, was 
 the first king of Sicily. 
 
 3. GENERAL VIEV^ OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 
 
 § 241. The institutions which existed during the middle ages originated 
 
 from a mingling together of Roman and Germanic customs and laws, and 
 
 were based upon the greater or less amount of personal freedom or the 
 
 ^ , , want of it. These intricate relations are included under the 
 
 I eudal system. ,> r- i i » * ^» 
 
 general term ot "feudal system. After the conquest of the 
 
 depopulated Roman provinces, the land was generally divided into three 
 portions: the king took one ; another he divided among his companions 
 in the war, as their free property (allodial), under the condition of mili- 
 tary service ; the third was left to the original inhabitants, upon the pay- 
 ment of a tax. But for the purpose of binding the freemen more closely 
 to the throne, the king granted portions of his own lands to a part of 
 them for life. This was called a fief; the giver was the liege lord, the 
 receiver was called liegeman, or vassal. In the same way, rich freemen 
 enfeoffed those who were less wealthy with portions of their estates, and 
 even of their fiefs (sub-infeudation), and thus obtained liegemen or vassals 
 of their own. Bishops and abbots also gave fiefs to knights, subject to 
 the condition of defending the convent and supplying the required con- 
 tingent of troops to the arriere-han. These relations, founded upon 
 
^- 
 
 GENERAL VIEW OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 1-57 
 
 mutual good faith, constituted a chain that bound the men of the middle 
 ages in a Variety of ways, and proved a grievous hinderance to the free- 
 dom of person and property. The vassals of the crown or empire gra- 
 dually obtained possession of their fiefs as hereditary estates, and by this 
 means became so powerful, that they opposed the king as his equals ; the 
 rich proprietors deprived the less wealthy of their lands, so that, in their 
 capacity of free landlords (barons), they belonged to the class of nobles, 
 whilst the freeholders of small estates were degraded to the condition of 
 dependents, and cultivated their former possessions as hereditary tenants. 
 The number of serfs, who were looked upon as belonging to the land, 
 and-S4)rrendered as slaves without rights to the arbitrary will of their 
 masters, was still very great. All who were in the position of dependents 
 or serfs, were under certain obhgations to the land-owner, either to pay 
 tithes on their produce of fruit, wine, or cattle, or contributions of money 
 upon stated occasions, or to perform unpaid labor (soccage duties). These 
 taxes and duties, under the name of "feudal burdens," became more 
 numerous and oppressive with time. 
 
 ^ 242. In the middle ages, society may be said to have been composed of 
 three classes, — warriors, teachers, and producers: — 
 • 1. The warrior class embraced the nobility and the knights with their 
 vassals and ibllowers. The rank of knight depended upon being descended 
 from a knightly family, and the knightly education as page or squire, 
 during which, the spurs were to be earned by some feat of arms, before 
 the candidate could be received into the fellowship by the accolade. The 
 great end of knighthood was war', sometimes for the purpose of displaying 
 strength or acquiring honor; sometimes, to defend religion and its minis- 
 ters, the church and the clergy; and sometimes, to protect women, as the 
 weaker sex. That respect for women, which is the peculiar distinction 
 of the German character, produced the devotion to the fair sex and the 
 services of giUlantry which were the soul of the chivalry and poetry of 
 ^he middle ages. Knightly games or tournaments, in which the prize 
 was presented to the victor by a maiden x)f noble condition, served to pre- 
 serve and invigorate the spirit of chivalry ; and that no unqualified person 
 might surreptitiously introduce himself under cover of his armor, coats 
 of arms were introduced as symbols of names and families. 
 
 § 243. — 2. The teacher class included the whole of the clergy ; not 
 only the manifold grades of the priesthood, but also the monks. In ex- 
 clusive possession of the learning of the time, and invested with the power 
 of deciding the salvation of men's souls, the clergy acquired vast authority 
 over the ignorant and superstitious people of the middle ages. The head 
 Hi rar h - ^^ ^^^^ church, the pope, assumed the command over aU tem- 
 poral princes and kingdoms, and regarded the imperial crown 
 as his fief; the superior clergy, besides their ecclesiastical dignities, were 
 frequently in possession of the most influential offices of the state ; and 
 U 
 
158 THE HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE ACxE. 
 
 tlie greater number of the .irchbislioprics, bishoprics, and abbacies gradu- 
 ally acquired great possessions, so as to be raised to an equality with 
 principalities. Magnificent cathedrals, adorned with all the productions 
 of art, gave evidence of the greatness of the episcopal residences. A 
 luxurious life in splendidly-ornamented houses seemed the chief privilege 
 of the superior clergy. The episcopal power, which at first was very 
 considerable, wxr. perpetually curtailed by the Roman Consistory. The 
 investiture of bishops, which had originally been in the hands of the 
 prince, was gradually claimed as the exclusive privilege of the Roman 
 court; the spiritual jurisdiction of the rural bishops was more and more 
 abridged, whilst the papal court of judicature in Rome decided all impor- 
 tant questions before its own tribunal, and withdrew many cloisters and 
 abbeys from the episcopal authority, and placed them under its own im, 
 mediate jurisdiction. Vast sums were obliged to be paid for all appoint- 
 ments, decisions, and dispensations, by which means much money poured 
 into Rome. For the purpose of keeping a watchful eye upon the affairs 
 of the whole church, and managing every thing from Rome, papal legates 
 were constantly traversing the different kingdoms. By these means, the 
 papal power became unlimited, and the higher it rose, the less did any 
 one dare to raise his voice against it. Every opposer of the existing 
 ecclesiastical institutions was regarded as an enemy of the church, and 
 the audacious offenders were threatened with the most fearful punish- 
 ments of the church in their triple gradation, — excommunication, which 
 affected only the individual ; the interdict, which was pronounced over 
 whole countries, and forbade the exercise of every religious and eccle- 
 siastical function ; and a crusade, with the inquisition, by wdiich whole 
 provinces were given up to utter destruction. This power of the papacy 
 was especially promoted, first, by the spurious Isidorian decretals, a col- 
 lection of ecclesiastical laws and decisions, which, professedly belonging 
 to the first four centuries, were in reality, most of them, produced in the 
 ninth, and which give the whole legislative and judiciary authority of the 
 Church to the pope ; secondly, by the rapid increase of the monks, of the 
 ecclesiastical orders, and of convents ; thirdly, by the learned men of the 
 middle ages, called schoolmen. 
 
 § 244. Monachism took its rise in the East, where a solitary and con- 
 templative life, devoted to the' consideration of divine subjects, had always 
 
 been considered more meritorious than active exertion. This 
 
 Moiificnism. .,. ^ ^^ -, -, ■, , , -, 
 
 calhng was gradually adopted by so many, that, at the end 
 
 of the third century, the Egyptian Antonius, who had cast away his vast 
 
 possessions and chosen the desert for his residence, collected together the 
 
 hitherto dispersed anchorites (monachi) into fenced places (monasteria, 
 
 cccnobia, claustra, cloisters),- that they might live together in fellowship ; 
 
 and his disciple, Pachomius, gave the brotherhood a rule. Monachism 
 
 soon extended to the West. In the sixth ccuturv, Benedict of Nursia 
 
GENERAL VIEW OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 159 
 
 established the first monastery on Mount Casino, in Lower Italy, and be- 
 came by this means the founder of the widely-spread order of Bene- 
 dictines, which rapidly extended itself among all nations, and built many 
 convents. These monasteries, erected for the most part in beautiful and 
 remote situations, and the inhabitants of which were obliged ty take the 
 three vows of chastity (celibacy), personal poverty, and obedience, proved, 
 in those days of lawlessness and barbarism, a blessing to mankind. They 
 converted heaths and forests into flourishing farms ; they afforded a place 
 of refuge (asylum) to the persecuted and oppressed ; they ennobled the 
 rude minds of men by the preaching of the Gospel; they planted the 
 seeds of morality and civilization in the bosoms of the young by theii 
 schools for education; and they preserved the remains of ancient litera- 
 ture and philosopliy from utter destruction. Many of the Benedictine 
 monasteries were the nurseries of education, the arts, and the sciences, 
 as St. Gallen, Fulda, Reichenau, and Corvey (in Westphalia), and many 
 others. When the Benedictine order became relaxed, the monastery of 
 Clugny, in Burgundy, separated itself from them in the tenth century, 
 and introduced a more rigid disci])line. In the twelfth century, the 
 monks of Clugny numbered upwards of 2000 cloisters. But this order, 
 also, soon proved insufficient to satisfy the strong demands of the middle 
 age against the allurements of sin and the seductions of the flesh ; so 
 that, at the end of the eleventh century, the Cistercians, and a few de- 
 cades later, the order of Premonstrants, sprang up ; the former in Bur- 
 gundy (Citeaux), the latter in a woody country near Laon (Premontre). 
 The order of Carthusians, founded about the year 1084, which com- 
 menced with a cloister of anchorites (Carthusia, Chartreuse) in a ruggerf 
 valley near Grenoble, was the most austere in its practice. A life of soli 
 tude and silence in a cell, a spare and meagre diet, a penitential garment 
 of hair, flagellations, and the rigid practice of devotional exercises, were 
 duties imposed upon every member of this fraternity. 
 
 § 2io. The establishment of the so-called mendicant orders, in the 
 Franciscans thirteenth century, was remarkably productive of results, 
 and Domini- Francis of Assisi (a. d. 1226), the son of a rich merchant, 
 cans. renounced all his possessions, clothed himself in rags, and 
 
 wandered through the world, begging and preaching repentance. IIi3 
 fiery zeal procured him disciples, who, like himself, renounced their 
 worldly possessions, fasted, prayed, tore their backs with scourges, and 
 supplied their slender wauts from voluntary alms and donations. Tlie 
 order of Franciscans, or Minorites, founded by him, spread themselves 
 rapidly through all countries. Contemporaneously with the Franciscans, 
 "who in process of time divided into numerous branches, arose the order 
 of Dominicans, or preaching monks, founded by an illustrious and learned 
 Spaniard, Dominicus, and whose dearest objects were the maintenance of 
 the predominant faith in its, purity, and the extinction of heretical opi- 
 
160 THE HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE AGE. 
 
 nions. The conversion of tlie Alblgenses (§ 228), among whom thair 
 founder had resided for a considerable time, was the first attempt of the 
 order, the members of which took a vow of entire poverty, and endea- 
 'vored to win heaven by austerity and the practice of a rigid devotion. 
 It was for these reasons that the court of inquisition, with its frightful 
 examinations, dungeons, and tortures, was committed to them. The 
 mendicant orders were the most powerful support of the pope, by whom 
 they were consequently endowed with the greatest privileges, and with- 
 drawn from the jurisdiction of the bishops. The Franciscans possessed 
 the hearts of the people, with whose joys and sorrows they sympathized, 
 and were principally occupied in the cure of souls : the Dominicans de- 
 voted themselves to the sciences, gradually filled the chairs of the univer- 
 sities, and numbered many of the greatest teachers of the Church among 
 their members. 
 
 § 246. — 3. To the productive class belonged the inhabitants of the 
 towns and country who were engaged in the occupations of peace. The 
 peasantry, who were for the most part in a condition of serfdom, and 
 took no share in public life, were at first exclusively understood by this 
 title. But when the number of the towns was increased by the eiforts 
 of the emperors of the Saxon and Hohenstaufen lines, and many of the 
 inhabitants of the country settled in them, the third class divided itself 
 into citizens and peasants, and obtained various privileges and liberties. 
 These towns were distinguished as imperial towns, which were under the 
 immediate control of the emperor, and represented in the imperial diet ; 
 and provincial towns, which belonged to the territory of a prince. The 
 former were the most ancient, as well as the richest and most powerful, 
 and it was in them that the town policy of the middle ages Was developed. 
 The inhabitants originally consisted, as in ancient Rome, of free patrician 
 families, and a tributary and dependent class employed in trade and agri- 
 culture, who, as tenants and inferior burghers, possessed no share in the 
 privileges of the citizens. It was from the former that the mayor was 
 chosen. After a time, the inferior burghers succeeded in gaining the 
 ascendency over the patrician families. With this object, the artificers 
 formed themselves into guilds and corporations, by which means a public 
 spirit was awakened, and the. inferior class of citizens rendered more 
 powerful. These guilds, whose strength consisted in the stout arms of 
 their members, soon attained such power, that they not only everywhere 
 obtained the rights of citizenship, and a share in the government of the 
 city, but, in very many towns, the rule of the patricians was thrust aside 
 by the power of the guilds. The guilds marched into the field with their 
 own banners, under the conduct of the guild-master, and defended their 
 liberties without, as they had known how to gain and maintain them within. 
 § 247. The literature of the middle ages was of a threefold character : — 
 1. Writings on religion and the Church ; the most important of which 
 
GENERAL VIEW OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 161 
 
 lr?J*3 composed by the schoolmen and the mystics. By schoolmen 
 are to be understood those philosophical writers who made 
 the doctrines and dogmas of the Church the objects of their 
 speculation and inquiry. In doing this, they employed the rules of the 
 Aristotelian dialectics, and invented a number of formulas and scholastic 
 terms (terminologies), and descended at length to trifling subtleties and 
 frivolous definitions and demonstrations. The schoolmen produced works 
 in which we hardly know whether most to admire the acuteness displayed 
 in the divisions of the subject, and in the development and connection of 
 the conclusions, or the diligence, the learning, and the wonderful power 
 of application. In the thirteenth century, scholasticism attained its high- 
 est perfection in the persons of the Dominican, Thomas A^'iinas, and 
 the Franciscan, Duns Scotus ; so that, from this period, the scholastics 
 were all divided into Thomists and Scotists. Men of warm feelings and 
 sensitive natures were not content with the dry logic of these schoolmen ; 
 they opposed therefore a religion of feeling, of poetry, and of imagin:i- 
 tion, to the Christianity built upon philosophical rules and forms of rea- 
 soning. This was first done by St. Bernard of Clairvaux (§ 222), and by 
 the noble Bonaventura (a. d. 1274) ; but in the most comprehensive way, 
 by the mystics. These latter imitated tlie necessitous life of Christ, and 
 sought to overcome the wickedness of the world by the castigation of the 
 body and tlie mortification of tlie fleshly appetites, and strove to effect a 
 spiritual union between themselves and God. Mysticism has 
 had a powerful influence both upon life and literature ; and 
 although the inculcation of meekness and self-humiliation paralyzed 
 active exertion, and a life devoted to the emotions and sentiments occa- 
 sionally produced fanaticism, yet its influence upon a race which was 
 sunk in barbarism and stupidity was, on the whole, beneficial. The 
 " Imitation of the Life of Christ," by the Dominican monk, John Tauler 
 of Strasburg, and the "Book of Everlasting Wisdom,*'* of Henry Suso of 
 Constance, were held in great esteem. The brethren of the Common 
 Life, to whom belonged Thomas a Kempis (a. d. 1471), the writer of 
 the widely-circulated devotional work, called the "Imitation of Christ,** 
 which has been translated into all languages, were the most active among 
 the mystics. 
 
 § 248. — 2. Not only theological and philosophical studies were, and 
 remained, in the hands of the clergy, but also mathematical and natural 
 science, and the writing of history. The Greeks and Arabians exercised 
 the greatest influence in extending and perfecting the material sciences. 
 It was from the Arabian schools that the western clergy drew the greater 
 part of their admired wisdom. Albertus Magnus, a widely-travelled 
 and much esteemed teacher, possessed such a knowledge of physics, che- 
 mistry, and similar subjects, that he was generally regarded as a sorcerer. 
 Among the composers of Latin chronicles and annals, William of Tyrus, 
 14* 
 
162 THE HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE AGE. 
 
 the liistorian of tlie Crusades and the Holy Land, took tlie first place in 
 France ; and Otho of Freisingen, the half-brother of the emperor, Con- 
 rad III., in Germany. By the side of these learned historical composi- 
 tions, there were already, at the time of the crusades, in Italy, France, 
 and Spain, historical descriptions of particular periods and events, in the 
 vernacular tongues, which, although less trustworthy than the former, are 
 more interesting to read, and of more importance to the history of civil- 
 ization. Among these may be mentioned the History of the Fourth 
 Crusade, by Villehardouin (§ 224), Joinville's History and Chronicle of 
 8t. Louis ; and, before all, Froissart's History and Chronicle of his own 
 Times (a. d. 1329-1400). 
 
 § 249. — 0. Whilst learned literature was cultivated by the priests 
 exclusively, the art of poetry passed at an early period into the hands of 
 the knights, chiefly because love (minne), and devotion to the ladies, — ■ 
 feelings, to which the clergy, on account of their condition, dared not de- 
 vote themselves, were the soul and essence of the latter. The poetry of 
 the middle ages was alike, both as to its form and subject-matter, in all 
 the nations of Europe. This was partly occasioned by the great inter- 
 course that took place among people during the crusades, which facili- 
 tated the interchange of legends and poems, and partly by the great 
 dilFusion and general intelligibility of the Romance language. In France, 
 Italy, Spain, and, to a certain extent, in England, languages were then 
 spoken which bore a strong resemblance to each other, so that the lite- 
 rary productions of one country could be understood without difficulty in 
 the rest. The middle-age poetry was divided into three kinds, according 
 to the subject; — Heroic poems and heroic ballads (Epopee, Romance), 
 where the deeds of knights, battles, adventures, and love affairs — the 
 indispensable element of romantic poetry — formed the materials ; son- 
 nets, in which the poet expressed his feelings, emotions, or thoughts, in 
 melodious verses ; and religious poetry, in which the outpourings of devo- 
 tion and religious enthusiasm, the praises of God and the Virgin, or the 
 jjious actions and histories of the saints, formed the subject. The epic 
 poems dealt with certain cycles of legends, partly derived from the 
 ancient world, as the Alexandriad of the priest Lamprecht, and partly 
 i)"jm the Christian period, as the romance of Charlemagne and his Pala- 
 dins (for example, the lay of Roland, by the priest Conrad), and the 
 British king Arthur and his Round Table, with which the Welsh legend 
 of the Grale was afterwards connected. To the latter cycle of romance 
 belong two of the greatest epics of the middle age, the Percival of Wolfram 
 of Eschenbach (a. d. 1200), and the Tristan and Isolde of Gottfried of 
 Strasburg. Bat the glory of German heroic poetry is the Niebclung- 
 eiilied, the materials of which are derived from the migrations of na- 
 tions. The lyric poets, that in Germany were called " rainnesanger," and 
 in France, " troubadours," made the tender emotions of the heart, or the 
 
DECAY OE CHIVALRY AXD CORRUPTION OF THE CHURCH. 163 
 
 feelings of love, the subject of their poems ; or they lashed depravity of 
 morals and the corruptions of the clergy in satirical compositions, called 
 Sirventes. In Germany, the most celebrated of the minnesangers was 
 "Walter Vogelweide, who lived at the court of Hermann of Thuringia. 
 At that time, the castle of Wartburg, near Eisenach, in Thuringia, was 
 the place of assembly for the greatest and most renowned singers. But 
 Italy could display the greatest poet of the middle ages. After the stern 
 Ghibelline, Dante of Florence (a. d. 1321), had moulded the poetical 
 language of Italy in his great epic poem, " The Divine Comedy," Pe- 
 trarch (a. d. 1374) brought it to the highest perfection of harmony in 
 his Odes to Laura, while his contemporary, Boccaccio, became the crea- 
 tor of Italian prose by his tales and novels (Decameron). Dante's sub- 
 lime poem, which consists of three parts. Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise, 
 contains the whole wisdom of the middle ages, the whole treasure of the 
 then acquired science, so that it was said with truth, that heaven and 
 earth had each put a hand to Dante's poem. Petrarch's other works 
 are written in Latin. He, as well a3 Boccaccio, was mainly instrumental 
 in the restoration of the ancient literature and civilization. 
 
 V. DECAY OF CHIVALRY AND CORRUPTION OF THE CHURCa 
 
 1. THE INTERREGNUM (1250 1273). 
 
 § 250. The period after the death of Frederick 11. was a momentous 
 one for Germany. The imperial title was borne by foreign princes 
 without power or influence, whilst at home a state of disorder and law- 
 lessness prevailed, in which the strong alone could obtain justice. After 
 WiUiam of Holland (§ 237) had fallen in battle against the brave Fris- 
 landers, the archbishop of Cologne turned the election to the wealthy 
 Richard of Cornwall, brother of the English king, whilst the archbishop 
 of Treves and his party adorned Alfonso X. the Wise, of Castile, with 
 the title of emperor. The former sailed repeatedly up the Rhine laden 
 with treasures, to satisfy the avarice of the princes who had elected him; 
 the latter never visited the kingdom to the government of which he had 
 been invited. The princes and bishops employed this interregnum in 
 enlarging their territories, and possessing themselves of privileges, whilst 
 the knights and vassals abused their strength by waylaying and plunder- 
 ing. They led a wild and predatory life in their castles, which, as the 
 ruins yet show, were built upon the banks of navigable streams or near 
 frequented highways ; dragged travellers into their dungeons for the 
 purpose of extorting a heavy ransom ; plundered the wagons of tho 
 
164 THE HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE AGE. 
 
 mercantile towns, and bade defiance, from behind their strong walls, to 
 the powerless laws and tribunals. Attempts were made to remedy this 
 state of things, 1. Bj the secret proceedings of the Fehmgericht (secret 
 tribunal), established by the archbishop of Cologne in Westphalia (Dort- 
 mund); 2. By confederations of numerous towns for the purpose of mu- 
 tual defence. The most important of these confederations were the 
 Ilanseatic, in Northern Germany, which included Hamburg, Lubeck, 
 Bremen, Wismar, Rostock, Stralsund, Riga, and many other trading 
 cities ; and the confederation of the Rhine, which embraced the towns of 
 Worms, Mayence, Spire, Strasburg, Basle, and numerous others. 
 
 2. orig;[n of the tower of the house of hapsburg and of 
 the helvetic confederation. 
 
 § 251. During the interregnum, many of the princes and bishops had 
 assumed the rights of sovereignty. To avoid losing what had been ob- 
 tained, the princes to wdiom the right of election then chiefly belonged, 
 and who were in consequence called Electors, sought to prevent the ele- 
 vation of any prince whose lands and vassals rendered him formidable. 
 At the same time, they required an energetic man, who should be able to 
 restrain the prevailing lawlessness, and to break the threatening power of 
 Kudolf of Ottocar, king of Bohemia, Moravia, and Austria. All these 
 Hapsburg, qualities were possessed by Count Rudolf of Hapsburg, 
 A. D. 1273- who was elected emperor by the influence of the archbishop 
 *" * of Mayence, with whom he was then on friendly terms. His 
 
 moderate hereditary estates, in Alsatia, occasioned no alarm to the prin- 
 ces ; his courage, strength, and skill had been long proved and acknowl- 
 ecfged ; but w^hat contributed especially to his election was his piety, and 
 the inclination he had always displayed to the church and clergy. When, 
 therefore, Rudolf had assured to the pope and the German princes the 
 continuance of the privileges and territories that they had either usurped 
 or acquired by violence, his election was generally recognized, and 
 Alfonso of Castile was induced to abdicate. Ottocar alone refused to do 
 homage, and failed to appear at the appointed diet. Upon this, Rudolf 
 declared war against him, marched into the enemy's territories v/ith the 
 aid of his Switzers and Alsatians, and that of the German princes whom 
 he had connected to his house by marriages with his numerous daughters, 
 and won the glorious victory on the Marchfeld. Ottocar 
 "' ' was killed in the fight ; nothing but Bohemia and ^Moravia 
 was left to his son Wenceslaus ; the remaining countries of Austria, 
 Styria, and Carniola, Rudolf settled on his sons, and by this means be- 
 came the founder of the Austrian house of Hapsburg. 
 
 § 252. As Rudolf of Hapsburg avoided all interference in the affairs 
 of Italy, he w^as able to turn his undivided energies to Germany. He 
 Bucceeded, after a succession of campaigns and battles, chiefly in Swabia, 
 
DECAY OF CmVALRY AND COPtRUPTION OF THE CnURCn. 165 
 
 Bgainst the rapacious Eberliard of Wirteinberg, and in Burgundy, in 
 regaining many of the fiefs, lands, privileges, and revenues, that had been 
 alienated from the empire. But his greatest service was his securing the 
 peace of the country and restoring law and order. He traversed the 
 whole empire, and called the robber nobility to a severe reckoning. In 
 Thuringia alone, he had twenty-nine knights executed, and destroyed 
 sixty castles, and reduced, in a single year, upwards of seventy fortresses 
 in Franconia and on the Rhine. He died at an advanced age, at Go- 
 mersheim, during one of these expeditions, and was buried at ISpire. 
 His simplicity, virtue, and honesty gained him no less respect than his 
 intelligence, his impartial justice, and his warlike achievements. He was 
 only wanting in the poetical magnanimity of the house of Hohenstaufen. 
 § 253. The princes, partly out of fear of the power of the Hapsburg- 
 ers, and partly from dislike to Rudolf's cruel and avaricious son Albert, 
 were induced, at the instigation of the archbishop of JMayence, to elect 
 Adolf of Count Adolf of Nassau. But he, like Rudolf, attempted to 
 
 Nassau, A. D. enlarge his own small territories, and made use of the loan 
 ■ he had received from the king of England to assist him in 
 raising German troops, in purchasing Thuringia and Misnia from Albert 
 theUncourteous (§ 240). This disgraceful transaction involved him in 
 a war with Albert's son, " Frederick with the bitten cheek," and Diez- 
 man, whom their degenerate father had attempted to deprive of their 
 patrimony. The public disgust at this dishonest proceeding, and the dis- 
 content of the electoral princes of the Rhine (the Palatinate, Mayence, 
 Treves, and Cologne), whom the emperor had deprived of the unjust!}-- 
 acquired tolls of the river, had aided in forming a party favorable to his 
 opponent Albert. Albert procured the deposition of Adolf and his own 
 election ; he then marched with his arrny upon the Rhine, and was victo- 
 rious in the battle at Gollheim near the Donnersberg. Adolf, 
 hurled from his horse by the lance of his rival, found his 
 Albert of death in the tumult. His body rests in the cathedral of 
 Austria, A. D. Spire. Albert of Austria was an energetic but severe man, 
 '9 -ido . ^vhose inflexible disposition might be read in his gloomy and 
 3ne-eyed visage. He was ambitious, and desirous of enlarging his terri- 
 tories; and he therefore not only prosecuted the war against Thuringia, 
 but attempted to gain other lands besides. Feared and hated, Albert 
 was at length murdered at Windisch on the Reuss, by his own nephew, 
 John of Swabia, (Parricida), just as he was making preparations for the 
 subjugation of the free Swiss. John expiated his deed in a cloister ; but 
 a fearful revenge was taken by the emperor's wife and daughter upon 
 those who assisted in the assassination (Wart, Balm, and Eschenbach), 
 Bnd upon all their friends and relatives. 
 
 § 254. Albert's severity w^as the foundation of the Ilelvctic confederal 
 tion. Helvetia was a component part of the German empire, and was 
 
166 THE HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE AGE. 
 
 under the protection of prefects, who exercised there the highest offices of 
 jurisdiction. This office was at first filled by the rich and powerful dukea 
 of Zahrino-en, — the founders' of Bern and other states. After tlie ex- 
 tinction of this house, the counts of Savoy in the South, and the Haps- 
 burofs in the North, elevated themselves above the other 
 
 A T> 1^18 
 
 families by their power and possessions. The latter, to whom 
 the landgravate of Aargau belonged, exercised, in the name of the em- 
 pire, the functions of protectors over the original cantons on the lake of 
 Lucerne, Schwyz, Uri, and Unterwalden, where they held possessions. 
 
 When the Hapsburgs ascended the imperial throne, they attempted 
 to bring these cantons under the sovereignty of Austria. In further- 
 ance of this purpose, Albert gave permission to the governors (Vogte), 
 who ruled the lands of Hapsburg, to exercise the laws of the empire over 
 the free communities and peasants, and to abuse their position by the 
 oppression of the simple, warlike, and freedom-loving mountaineers. 
 Upon this, the three oldest cantons, under the guidance of Walther Furst, 
 Werner Stauffiicher, and Arnold Melchtal, concluded an alliance on the 
 Rutli for the protection of their liberties, the results of which were, that 
 the fortresses were stormed and the governors expelled, after William 
 Tell (as the legend goes) had killed Gesler, the most tyrannical of their 
 number, with an arrow, because he had compelled him, for some trifling 
 disobedience, to shoot an apple from the head of his son. Albert's assas- 
 sination saved the Swiss from the effiicts of his anger, but his plans were 
 taken up by his son Leopold. He marched against the forest cantons 
 with an army, but suffered a severe overthrow in the narrow 
 pass of Morgarten. The power of the Hapsburgs declined 
 from this period in Switzerland. By the accession of the Austrian town 
 of Lucerne, in 1332, the whole of the shore of the lake of the four can- 
 tons fell into the power of the confederation, which was soon 
 
 A D 1339 
 
 joined by Bern, Zurich, Zug, and many other towns. In the 
 A. D. 1386. ^^^^1^ ^.. Sempach (§261), the allies (like the Athenian 
 democracy at Marathon), underwent a fiery trial against the Austrian 
 and German chivalry, and proved themselves worthy of their freedom. 
 
 3. PHILIP THE FAIR OF FRANCE, AND TELE EMPEROR LOUIS THE 
 
 BAVARIAN. 
 
 § 255. The ambitious Boniface VIII., in whose person the papacy 
 attained its highest glory, was the origin of its downfall. He assumed 
 the office of umpire in a war between Philip IV. the Fair of France, 
 and Edward I. of England; and when Philip declined his interference, 
 he forbade the levying of taxes upon the French ecclesiastics. Upon 
 this, Philip prohibited the exportation of silver and gold from his king- 
 dom, and by this means prevented the receipt of the papal revenue. The 
 quarrel to which these proceedings gave rise, during which Boniface 
 
DECAY OF CniVALHY AXD CORRUPTION OF THE CHURCH. 167 
 
 ileclared every man a lieretic who did not believe that the king was sul> 
 ject to the pope in spiritual as well as temporal matters, and Philip by 
 his deputies solemnly asserted the independence of the throne, ended by 
 an excommunication. Upon this, Nogaret, the chancellor of France, 
 entered Italy, and having hired some troops, seized the pope in his native 
 city Anagni, and held him prisoner. It is true that Boniface was rescued 
 by the country people, who rushed to his assistance, and that he hastened 
 to Rome ; but the impression made by the disgrace upon the proud aAd 
 violent man was so powerful that he went mad and died. 
 
 A D 13C3 
 
 The French party now succeeded, not only in getting the 
 excommunication withdrawn, but in inducing the new pope, Clement V. 
 (hitherto bishop of Bordeaux), to take up his residence at Avignon in 
 the south of France, and thus to put the papacy under the influence of 
 
 the French court. This separation of the head of the church 
 
 from Rome, which was mourned over as a second Babylonian 
 captivity, lasted for nearly seventy years. 
 
 § 25 G. The dissolution of the Order of the Temple (227 b) was the 
 first conscience, of the alliance between the pope and the French king. 
 Dark reports of the blasphemous practices, of the secret crimes and vices, 
 of the infidelity and voluptuousness, of which the Order had rendered 
 itself guilty, gave Philip the Fair a pretext for suddenly seizing upon 
 the persons of the Templars, and confiscating their vast possessions. By 
 an unjust prosecution of six years, and by the tortures of the rack, a con- 
 fession was at length obtained from the prisoners, wliich appeared to prove 
 the crimes laid to their charge ; and when fifty-four of their number 
 retracted the confession extorted from them by torture, as untrue, they 
 
 were condemned as apostates to a lingering death by fire. 
 
 It was in vain that Jacob of Molay, the grand-master, pro- 
 tested against the proceedings, and offered to disprove the whole of the 
 
 accusations. He himself died on the funeral pile, after he 
 
 A. D. 1312. 
 
 had summoned the king and the pope to a higher judgment- 
 seat. The people reverenced him as a martyr, and recognized the judg- 
 ment of God in the death of the two princes which shortly followed. The 
 French king appropriated the largest share of the estates and treasures 
 of the Templars. 
 
 Henry VH. § ^^^' Di^ring these events, Henry VII., of Luxemburg, 
 
 A. D. 1308- was governing Germany, not without renown. After adopt- 
 1313. ing vigorous measures for the preservation of the internal 
 
 peace of the empire, he took advantage of a contest for the crown of 
 Bohemia to add this kingdom to the possessions of his own house, with 
 the consent of the. Bohemian estates, by marrying his son John to the 
 sister of the last king, who was childless. Scarcely had he brought thia 
 affair, which was the foundation of the vast power of the house of Luxem. 
 burg, to a happy conclusion, than he turned his eyes to the long-forgottea 
 
1C8 THE HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE AGE. 
 
 and disunited Italy, and undertook an expedition to Rome. The advenl 
 of the emperor was greeted with joy by the oppressed 
 GhibelHnes ; and the great poet Dante, of Florence (§ 249), 
 celebrated his appearance by a Latin essay on monarchy, and by songs 
 that were soon in the mouths of everybody. Henry received the crown 
 of Lombardy in Milan, collected with rigor the taxes that were due in 
 the towns of Upper Italy, and experienced an honorable reception in the 
 Ghibelline city of Pisa. But despite all his efforts to^ assume the cha- 
 racter of an establisher of peace, the Guelfs and the haughty Florence, 
 with the- king of Naples at their head, rose against him with reason. 
 The j)ope himself opposed him, so that his coronation at Rome only took 
 place after a lengthened contest. Upon marching into Tuscany for the 
 purpose of hum.bling Florence, Henry died suddenly in the flower of his 
 age, near the Arno. The joy displayed upon his death by the Guelfs, 
 gave rise to the belief that he had been poisoned by a Dominican monk. 
 The sorrowing Pisans buried him in the churchyard (Campo Santo) of 
 their town. 
 
 § 258. The death of Henry YII. again produced a contest for the 
 crown in Germany ; for, of the seven princes who now usually exercised 
 the right of election (Palatinate, Mayence, Treves, Cologne, Bohemia, 
 Saxony, Brandenburg), some chose Louis of Bavaria, the others, Frede- 
 rick the Fair of Austria. The consequence of this division was an eight 
 years' war, which was carried on with particular vigor by Frederick's 
 brother, Leopold. Despite the superior strength of the Austrian party, 
 Louis, who was an excellent general, maintained his cause with success, 
 especially after Leopold's force had been weakened at Morgarten (§ 254). 
 It was not, however, till the battle of Muhldorf (or Amfins), 
 
 A. D 1322. \ C!/' 
 
 where Frederick was defeated and taken prisoner by the 
 skill of the Nuremberg general, Seyfried Schwepperman, that Louis 
 attained a decided superiority. Leopold, however, would not submit to 
 a peace. Supported by the pope, John XXIL, who pronounced an 
 excommunication and an interdict against Louis for having aided the 
 Ghibellines in Milan, and by several princes of the empire, Leopold con- 
 tinued the war, and attempted a new election of emperor. Upon this, 
 Louis set at liberty his rival, who was imprisoned in the castle of Traus- 
 nitz, upon condition that he should renounce the imperial dignity, and 
 persuade his party to a peace. - But when neither the pope nor Leopold 
 v,'ould listen to the proposal, Frederick, true to his word, returned to 
 captivity, a conduct which so moved his chivalrous opponent, that he lived 
 with him henceforth in the closest friendship, and would even have shared 
 
 the empire with him, had not the Electors prevented it. Leo- 
 
 A. ». 1326. 1 -, ■,. 1 , 1 r- 11 , . .1 
 
 pold died shortly afterwards, but tlie mipetuous pope retained 
 
 his animosity against Louis, which induced the latter to appoint Frede-i 
 
 rick regent of the empire, and undertake an expedition into Italy. 
 
DECAY OP CHIVALRY AND CORRUPTION OF THE CHURCH. 169 
 
 § 259. Louis was at first successful in Italy. Supported by the Ghi' 
 bellines and the Minorites, he made brilliant progress, and succeeded in 
 gettipg an anti-pope elected ; but when, for the purpose of satisfying his 
 mercenary troops, he exacted heavy levies of money from the Italian 
 towns, matters were quickly altered. His retreat to Germany, where 
 Frederick had in the mean time died, completed the triumph of the papal 
 party. On the other hand, the obstinacy with which John XXII. and 
 his successor Benedict XII. retained the excommunication pronounced 
 against Louis, and rejected all attempts at reconciliation, irritated the 
 German princes to such a degree, that, at an electoral Diet held at Rense, 
 they uttered the declaration, " that henceforth every election of emperor 
 by the princes was valid, without the confirmation of the" pope." The 
 ecclesiastics who obeyed the interdict were treated as disturbers of the 
 public peace, and deprived of their ofiices. The notorious influence exer- 
 cised by the French court upon all the proceedings of the pope, and the 
 avarice and sensuality of the head of the Church and of the cardinals in 
 Avignon, diminished the authority of the court of Rome. But Louis 
 himself very soon forfeited the confidence and affection of the German 
 princes, by allowing his avarice and desire of enlarging his territories to 
 load him into unjust and violent measures. Thence it was that the 
 French and papal party succeeded in gaining over a part of the electoral 
 princes, and getting a rival emperor chosen from the house 
 of Luxemburg. But the greater part of the German people, 
 and particularly the imperial towns, sided with Louis, so that the new 
 emperor, Charles IV. (son of King John of Bohemia), was not g'enerally 
 recognized, until the robust Louis lost his life in a bear-hunt, near 
 
 Munich, and his successor, Giinta* of Schwarzbur;^ elected 
 A. D. 1349. , , V. . ! , 1 . / 
 
 by the Bavarian party,' had sunk into an early grave at 
 
 Frankfort. 
 
 4. THE EMPERORS OF THE HOUSE OF LUXEMBURG. 
 
 C>arlesIV. § 260. Charles IV. was a sagacious prince, who was intent 
 
 upon his own interests and the increase of the power of his 
 house, and in whose mind money and property held a higher 
 place than honor or renown. It was through him that the imperial 
 ^ower lost all respect in Italy, where he permitted the imperial privileges 
 tL be purchased by the towns and princes. The contests between Guelf 
 an 1 Ghibelline ceased from this time, but they only gave place to con- 
 tentions between the princes and free towns concerning the enlargement 
 of their territories ; mercenary troops were now employed (as formerly 
 in Greece) instead of the earlier militia, and the enterprising leaders of 
 these bands (Condottieri) not unfrequently held the fate of states in their 
 hands, and succeeded in getting possession of their government. The 
 efforts of Charles in Germany, also, were chiefly directed to the gratifica- 
 15 
 
 A. r>. 
 1347 - 1378 
 

 < 
 
 170 . THE UISTORY OF THE MIDDLE AGE. 
 
 • 
 tion of his avarice and lust of territory. He sold tli» liberties arid^ privi- 
 leges of the imperial towns; he granted letters of nobility for money; he 
 added Brandenburg and other territories to his patrimonial possessions. 
 His agency was most beneficially felt in Bohemia, which attained by his 
 means to greater prosperity. Artists and artisans were sumwned from 
 Germany and Italy, towns (Carlsbad) and villages were built, agriculture 
 and trade encouraged, roads and bridges planned, and heaths and forests 
 brought into cultivation. Charles, with the consent of the pope and the 
 cooperation of the poet Petrarch, erected the first German 
 university in Prague (§ 240), which soon numbered from 
 5000 to 7000 students. From Charles IV". emanated the first imperial 
 code of laws, known by the name of the Golden Bull, Avhich referred the ^ 
 choosing of emperors exclusively to the seven Electors, and determinea 
 the precedence of the princes. 
 
 § 261. The imperial authority was much decayed, and confusion and 
 lawlessness prevailed all over Germany. The laws respecting disturb- 
 ance of the public peace were little regarded \ club-law (faustrecht)»» the 
 only law attended to, called upon every man to take care of himself, 
 and alliances were formed to do this more effectually. This state of 
 disorder became particularly prevalent und§r Charles's son and succes- 
 Wenceslaus sor, Wenceslaus, a rude, hot-headed man, devoted to drink. 
 A. D, 1378 - For whilst the emperor was leading a dissolute life in Bohe- 
 1400. - ^^y^^ devoting himself to hunting, quarrelling with his nobles 
 and the clergy, and rendering himself hateful and contemptible by his 
 cruelty, and barbarous conduct to the vicar Nepomuk, whom he ordered 
 to be thrown from the bridge of Prague into the Moldau, the German 
 empire, with its battles aiid i^s miseries, was left to its fate. The towns 
 in Swabia, in Franconia, and on the Rhine, united themselves in an alli- 
 ance to preserve the peace of the country, and for defence against the 
 rapacious nobles. The knights, who gained their Hving by plunder and 
 highway I'obberj^, and who w^ere threatened by this alliance, followed the 
 example of their enemies, and strengthened themselves by confederations 
 of knights (called the Schlegler, and the Lowen and Hornerbund). The 
 two confederations were perpetually engaged in war with each other, till 
 at length, the murder of the bishop of Salzburg by a Bavarian duke 
 occasioned the great cities' war, which produced extreme 
 
 A I) 1388 
 
 distress in the south of Germany. The citizens were victo- 
 rious in Bavaria ; in Franconia, the fortune of war w^as rendered dubi- 
 ous by the courage of the Nuremburgers ; but in Swabia, where the 
 valiant enemy of the towns, Eberhard the Grumbler, of Wirtemberg, - 
 stood at the head of the nobility, the burghers suffered great loss near 
 Doflingen, and at Worms and Frankfort, succumbed to the iron ranks of 
 the knights of Hesse and the Palatinate. About the same time, the 
 Swiss confederation was contending with far greater success against the 
 
DECAY OF Cni'\iALItY AND CORRUPTION OF THE CHURCH. 171 
 
 nobles of southera Germany. Duke Leopold of Austria invaded tlie 
 freedom-loving mountaineers, with a host of armed nobles, who reve- 
 renced him as the flower, of chivalry. But in the battle of 
 Sempach, where the heroic Arnold Winkelried of Unter- 
 walden wtnade a path " for his countrymen into the iron-clad ranks of tha 
 knights, by embracing a number of their lances and burying the points 
 in his bosom, the proud duke 
 maces of the Swiss peasants. 
 
 * to pronounce WenceslauVs deposition, " because he had not 
 aided the peace of the Church, had sold the title of duke to the rich and 
 crafty Visconti in Milan, had not maintained the public peace, and had 
 governed tyranically and with cruelty in Bohemia." Rupert of the *Pa- 
 Kupert, A. D. latinate was elected in his place ; he was the grandson of that 
 1400-1410. Rupert who, in the year of the battle of Sempach, had 
 founded the university of Heidelberg. But even he, despite many good 
 qualities, was not equal to the difficulties of the times. He was com- 
 pelled to grant the princes and estates the right of forming confedera- 
 tions, and of maintaining the. public peace in their own way; and when he 
 attempted to restore Milan to the empire, he suffered a defeat from the 
 Italian Condottieri (§ 260), who had discovered a more scientific system 
 of tactics. He was equally unsuccessful in his attempts to rfestore tran- 
 quillity to the Church, an object that was first accomplished with un- 
 speakable difficulty by his successor, Sigismond, the brother of Wences- 
 Sigismund, l^u^' The great council of the Church, that was held by 
 A. u. l4jo- Sigismond for this purpose, exhausted the treasury to that 
 ■^^^'* degree, that the emperor was obliged at first to pledgor the 
 
 ISIarch of Brandenburg, and the electoral dignity, to Frederick of Ho- 
 henzollern, and afterwards to surrender them to him as his private and 
 hereditary property. 
 
 5. THE DIVISION IN THE CHURCH AND THE GREAT COUNCILS. 
 
 § 2G3. It had long been wished that the papal chair should be re-' 
 moved from Avignon to Rome ; but the cardinals who were in tl\e French 
 interest, and who felt themselves i^y^r^"^ XUQre independent ;under the 
 mild and beautiful sky of southern France, prevented the measure. This, 
 at length, induced the Italian party to elect a pope of their own. By this 
 means, the Church got two popes, one in Avignon, the other in Rome, 
 each of whom declared himself the rightfully elected head of the Church, 
 and fulminated anathemas against his rival and his adherents. The 
 whole of western Christendom was divided, consciences perplexed, and 
 the Church rent asunder. It was in vain that the synod of Pisa attempt- 
 ed to heal the evil by deposing one pope and electing another ; — the 
 
 t, w^-r>^» 
 
172 THE HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE AGE. 
 
 former two maintained their claims, so that the Church was now triplji 
 divided. A general discontent spread through the Christian world, and 
 engendered a loud demand for a reformation of the Church, both in its 
 head and members. Whilst the moderate party, and in particular, the 
 learned theologians of the university of Paris (Sorbonne), wished to bring 
 about this reformation by a general council, which should be superior to 
 the pope, the disciples and adherents of the Oxford profes- 
 sor, John WicklifF, aimed at a thorough change both in the 
 doctrine and constitution of the Church. Wickliff had not only declared 
 the papacy to be an unchristian institution, and preached zealously 
 against absolution, raonachism, the worship of saints, and similar matters, 
 but had stood forward as a reformer, by translating the Bible into English, 
 and rejecting many articles of faith, such as auricular confession, celibacy, 
 and transubstantiatlon. The most celebrated of his followers was John 
 Huss, professor in Prague, a man distinguished for his learning, and moral 
 life, as well as by Christian gentleness. He preached against the abuses of 
 the papacy ; against the wealth and secular power of the clergy ; against 
 monachism and absolution : and although the pope excommunicated him 
 and condemned his writings, the number of his adherents, among whom 
 a Bohemian nobleman, Jerome of Faulfisch, distinguished himself 
 by his zeal, increased every day. The Germans in the university of 
 Prague were curtailed of their privileges for showing an inclination to 
 the new doctrines of Huss, for which reason 5000 students and profes- 
 sors quitted the place, and thus brought about the foundation of other 
 universities, that of Leipsic among the first. 
 
 § 2Gi. When at lengtl^.. Pope John XXIIL, importuned by the Empe- 
 ^ ^ .J „ ror Sigismond, called the Council of Constance, troops of 
 Constance, temporal and spiritual dignitaries of all nations poured into 
 A. D. 1414- the town, where the splendor of the whole West was at once 
 ■^^^^' united. 150,000 men are said to have assembled there. 
 
 The unity and reformation of the Church was the -lofty aim of the synod. 
 In the first place, therefore, the three popes were either deposed or per- 
 suaded to resign ; and when John XXIIL seized the opportunity afforded 
 by a tournament to escape in disguise, by the aid of Frederick of Aus- 
 tria, and recalled his abdication, the council declared itself independent 
 and superior to the pope, and united with the emperor in punishing the 
 refractory. Frederick of Austria was outlawed, and deprived of Aargau 
 and other possessions by the Swiss, and John was for a long time held 
 prisoner in the castle of Heidelberg. But the efforts of the French and 
 Germans, who wished in the first place to reform the Church, and then 
 to elect a new pope, were frustrated by the Italians (Ultramontani), who 
 insisted before all things upon an election of pope. Their opinion pre- 
 vailed, and JMartin V., was raised to the papal chair. He was a mode- 
 rate man, who contrived, by abolishing a few abuses, and by skilfully 
 
DECAY OP CHIVALRY AND CORRUPTIOX OF THE CHURCH. 17 
 
 conducted negotiations, to divide the votes and baffle the efforts c»f the 
 council. In this way, the hopes and wishes of the people were disap- 
 pointed ; the pope retained his power, and the Church was left in her 
 corruption. But the Council of Constance has enriched history with one 
 deed of horror, — the burning gf IIuss and Jerome of Prague. The 
 council proceeded at its commencement to an examination of doctrines 
 deviating from those of the Church, and had condemned Wickliff 's wri- 
 tings to the flames, and summoned Huss to answer for his opinions. 
 IIuss proceeded to Constance, provided with an imperial passport, by 
 which he was assured of a safe return to his home, but was imprisoned 
 as soon as he arrived there, and accused of disseminating heresy. It 
 was in vain that he defended himself with dignity against the charges — 
 his judges were his accusers; it was in vain that his friends appealed to 
 the imperial safe-conduct, — the synod laid down 'the principle, that no 
 faith was to be kept with heretics, and demanded an unconditional abjura- 
 tion. When Huss refused to do this, he was condemned to 
 suffer death by fire as an obstinate teacher of heresy ; a 
 doom which he underwent with the firmness and composure of a martyr. 
 A year later, Jerome also endured the agonies of the burning pile with 
 the courage of a stoic. 
 
 § 2G5. The intelligence of this horrible event at Constance incited the 
 Hussites to a furious religious war. Tlie cup, which, according to the 
 views of Huss, was not to be withheld from the laity, was borne before their 
 armies as the symbol of their cause (hence Utraquists and Calixtines) ; 
 and a heavy vengeance was exacted from the priests who refused to 
 administer it. It was in vain that the pope fulminated an interdict 
 against the adherents of Huss, their numbers increased daily ; they 
 stormed the town-house cf Prague, and murdered the counsellors, 
 
 which so enraged the old Emperor Wenceslaus, that he died 
 A. D. 1119. „ - o. . 1 , , , 
 
 ot apoplexy. Sigismond ought now to have become king 
 
 of Bohemia also; but the whole nation flew to arms, to prevent the 
 laithlesij emperor from taking possession of the country. John Ziska, a 
 gon3ral expert in war, valiant, and endowed with a wonderful talent of 
 governing the masses, placed himself at its head. It was in vain that 
 Sigismond led three imperial armies against the Hussites; liis troops re- 
 coiled in dismay before the wild fury of the enraged people. The Hus- 
 sites burnt down the Bohemian churches and convents, and carried their 
 ravages into the neighboring countries. The name of Ziska, the blind 
 general, was a terror to the nations. After his death, the moderate party 
 (Calixtines) separated themselves from the radicals (Taborites). The 
 latter, under the conduct of Procopius the Great and the Little, continu- 
 ed their incendiary course, ravaged Saxony, and extorted tribute from 
 Brandenburg and Bavaria, whilst the Calixtines consented to a peace 
 when the Council of Basle consented to the use of the cup in the Lord's 
 15* 
 
174 THE IirSTORY OF THE MIDDLE AGE. 
 
 Supper, and to preacliing in the vernacular tongue. It was only v/lien 
 the Taborites suffered a defeat near Pra2;ue, and the two 
 
 A. D. 1433. 
 
 Procopiuses were killed, that the emperor, by the dexterity 
 of his chancellor Schlick, succeeded in bringing them to a peace ; 
 whereupon Sigismond was acknowledged king. But the glory of Bohe- 
 mia was humbled to the dust. A few decades later, a small party of the 
 former Hussites separated from the Church and formed a separate sect, 
 since known as the Bohemian and Moravian Brethren, " poor, scripture- 
 proof, and peaceful." 
 
 Council of § ^^^' ^^ ^^^® council of Basle, to the summoning of 
 
 Basle, A. D. which, Martin Y., predecessor of Eugenius IV., had, after long 
 1431-1449. hesitation, consented, the reformation of the Church, which 
 had been interrupted in that of Constance, was to be concluded, and the 
 Hussite controversy arranged. But the proceedings here soon took a 
 course that seemed to endanger the papal power. The assembly, which 
 consisted in part of the lower order of clergy, diminished the money 
 charges that the court of Rome imposed upon the provincial churches, 
 and interdicted the incroachments of the pope in the filling up of bishop- 
 rics and benefices. Eugenius was rendered so anxious by these and 
 other similar resolutions, that he seized the first pretext for removing the 
 council to Ferrara, and afterwards to Florence. But many of the clergy 
 would not attend ; they chose another pope, and again asserted the for- 
 mer principle, that a synod of the Church was superior to the pope, and 
 that the former and not the latter was infallible. Upon this, Eugenius, 
 encouraged by the fears, entertained both by princes and people, of 
 another division in the Church, anathematized the refractory members 
 of the council, and rejected their decisions ; and for the purpose of over- 
 coming more surely the opposition of the Germans, gained over the crafty 
 Italian, ^neas Sylvius (afterwards Pius II.), who was private secretary 
 to the emperor Frederick HI. By the aid of this shrewd man, who is 
 also known as an author, the pope succeeded in winning over the weak 
 emperor to the AschafFenburg concordat, by means of which, the Church 
 remained in its former state, and all the abuses and extortions, with a 
 few trifling exceptions, were continued. It was in vain that the patriot- 
 ically-minded Gregory of Heimburg advocated the liberties of the 
 Church and the rights of Germany with intelligence and eloquence; 
 abandoned by the emperor and most of the princes, the council, after a 
 little hesitation, recognized Eugenius's successor, Nicholas V., as lawful 
 pope, and then dissolved itself. In this way, the papacy came forth, for 
 the second time, victorious from the fight, but less by the inherent power 
 of truth than by unecclesiastical expedients. 
 
DECAY OF CniVALET AND CORRUPTION OF THE CHURCn. 175 
 
 6. GERMANY UNDER FREDERICK III. AND MAXIMILIAN I. 
 
 § 267. When the male line of the house of Luxemburg expired with 
 Albert 11 of Sigismond, his son-in-law, Albert 11. of Austria, ascended 
 Austria, A. d. the imperial throne of Germany, which from this time 
 1437-1439. remained in possession of the Hapsburg-Austrian family, 
 Albert was a well-disposed and energetic man ; but as Bohemia and 
 Hungary engaged the whole of his exertions, he could effect nothing of 
 importance during the short period of his government. His nephew, 
 Frederick III ^^i'e^^'ri<-'k HI-, was his successor in the empire, a prince en- 
 >• D- do wed with domestic virtues, but possessing slender talents 
 
 1440 - 1493. ^^j. government, and who opposed nothing to the troubles of 
 his lengthened reign but a dull and passive indifference. He looked 
 quietly on while the Turks took possession , of Constantinople, and carried 
 tlieir ravages into the hereditary territories of Austria, when Hungary 
 and Bohemia elected native kings, when Charles the Bold of Burgundy 
 extended his dominions to the banks of the Rhine (§ 293), when Milan 
 and Lombardy were separated from the German empire (§ 261). In 
 Germany, the imperial authority fell into utter contempt, the princes* 
 made themselves independent, and exercised the privilege of private 
 warfare without hesitation. The Swabian alliance was engaged in a 
 furious war with Albert (Achilles or Ulysses), the valiant margrave 
 of the Brandenburg territories in Franconia (Bayreuth), a war in which 
 nine battles were fought and 200 villages reduced to ashes. The neigh- 
 borhood of the Rhine and the Neckar was desolated by the war of 
 the Palatinate, during which, the palgrave, Frederick the 
 Victorious, gained a glorious victory near Seckenheim, and 
 made prisoners of his enemies, Ulrifck of Wurtemburg, the margrave of 
 Baden, and the bishop of Metz ; but was unable to prevent the deposi- 
 tion of his ally, the banished archbishop. Dieter of Mayence, 
 * in whose defence he had taken up arms. 
 § 268. This state of disorder and self-redress increased the desire for 
 a fresh constitution of the empire. But as the princes refused to sacrifice 
 any of their real or pretended rights, every proposal that seemed likely to 
 increase the power of the emperor, or diminish that of the princes, encoun- 
 Maximilian I. ^^^^d a resolute opposition. At length, ^Maximilian I. agreed 
 A. D. with the Electors, the secular and spiritual nobles, and the 
 
 1493-1519. representatives of the free towns, at the imperial diet at 
 "Worms, to form a constitution which restrained the rij'ht of 
 
 A. D. 1495. . (. 
 
 private warfare, but completely undermined the authority of 
 the emperor. At this diet, the eternal Land-peace was established, and 
 every act of self-redress by arms forbidden, under pain of ban and out- 
 lawry. An imperial chamber was at once established to compose all 
 quarrels among the members of the empire, and a short time afterwards, 
 
 
176 THE niSTOEY OF THE MIDDLE AGE. 
 
 the empire was divided into ten circles. 1. The Austrian. 2. The Bava 
 rian. 3. The Swabian. 4. The Franconian. 5. The llhenish Elec- 
 torate. G. The Upper Rhenish. 7. The Lower Rhenish Westphalian. 
 8. Upper Saxony. 9. Lower Saxony; and 10. The Burgundian. By 
 this alteration, the pov/er of the princes was raised to a still greater 
 height, so that at last they could act in their own territories as absolute 
 rulers. The Swiss confederates, who were at that time in alliance 
 with France, refused to recognize the imperial chamber, and denied the 
 contingent of troops. Hereupon, Maximilian attempted to compel them 
 by force of arms, but was worsted in the contest, and obliged 
 
 A. D. 1499. ./ 7 7 » 
 
 * to forego his demands in tlie peace of Ba^le, and to admit 
 the independence of the Swiss of Germany. 
 
 § 269. Maximilian's reign forms the transition period between the 
 middle age and the modern time. He himself, with his stately aspect, 
 his bold and dangerous huntings, his valiant deeds in battle and tourna- 
 ment, may well be looked upon as the " last knight " on the imperial 
 throne of Germany ; his love of the decaying chivalrous poetry, his mar- 
 riage with Mary of Burgundy, his wars in the Netherlands and in Italy, 
 are all stamped with the character of the middle age. On the other 
 hand, it was at this time that the commencements of a more refined poli- 
 tical science, and of a greater intercourse among nations, displayed them- 
 selves, which, combined with new discoveries and inventions, brought 
 about the modern period. 
 
 VI. HISTORY OF THE REMAINING EUROPEAN NATIONS DURING 
 THE MIDDLE AGE. 
 
 1. FRANCE. 
 
 a. FRANCE UNDER THE HOUSE OF CAPET. 
 
 § 270. The first successors of Hugh Capet (§ 205) possessed but little 
 power and a narrow territory. The dukes and counts of the different 
 provinces looked upon the king, who, properly, was only lord of France, 
 as tlieir equal, and only allowed him the first rank among themselves, in 
 so far as they were obliged to recognize him as their feudal superior. 
 The nobles dared not weaken the rights that appertained to him in this 
 capacity, lest they should afford an example of breach of faith to their own 
 subjects, and encourage them to similar behavior towards themselves. For 
 the rest, the possessions of the great vassals were independent counties 
 and principalities, which had no closer connection with the French throne 
 than the western territories on the Seine, Loire, and Garonne, which be- 
 longed to the kins of England ; or the eastern (Burgundian) lands on 
 
FRANCE. 177 
 
 the Rhone and the Jura, which were portions of the German empire. 
 But in the attempt to increase the kingly power, the house of Cape^t 
 were not less aided by their good fortune than by their wisdom. It was 
 fortunate, that, owing to the lengthened lives of most of their kings, tli^ 
 throne was seldom vacant, that there was almost always a son of age to 
 succeed his father, and that, consequently, there was never an interregnum. 
 But it was wisdom in the first kings to have their eldest sons crowned 
 during their lives, and to make them their partners in the government, 
 so that, on the death of the father, little or no change was suffered. The 
 Louis Vir. ^^^^ important kings after Hugh Capet were Louis YIL, 
 A. D. who undertook the second crusade, and during his absence 
 
 Ph^r"^^ ^ intrusted the government in France to the politic Abbot 
 Augustus n., Suger of St. Denis ; Philip Augustus II., who wrested Nor- 
 A- !>• mandy and the otlicr territories in the west from the English 
 
 1180-1223. kinjr, John Lackland; and Louis VIII., who enlarjred his 
 Louis VIIL, ... , , , , . 1 . ,, . 
 
 A. D, dommions on the south by the war agamst the Albigenscs 
 
 1223-1226. (§228). But the reigns which had the greatest influence 
 a^d!^^'^' upon the history of France were those of St. Louis and 
 1226-1270. Philip the Fair. The former improved the laws, and caused 
 the royal courts of justice to be looked upon as the highest in the land, 
 and the disputes of the nobles among themselves or with their vassals 
 to be brought before them for decision : tlie latter, on the other hand, 
 Philip the increased the consequence of the towns by granting various 
 Fair, A. D. privileges and liberties to the cflizens, and by being the first 
 1285-1314. who summoned the representatives of the towns to the diet 
 during his contest with the pope. (§ 255). After the death of Philip's 
 ^ three sons, who reigned one after the other, but left no male 
 
 A. D. 1328. ' o ' 
 
 heirs, the French throne passed to the house of Valois. 
 
 b, FRANCE UNDER THE HOUSE OF VALOIS (a. D. 1328-1589). 
 
 § 271. Philip VI. of Valois, brother's son of Philip the Fair, in- 
 Fhilip VL herited the French throne. But Edward III. of England 
 ■A'D. also asserted his claims, as son of a daughter of Philip 
 
 1328-1347.^ the Fair. Without regard to the Salic law, which pro- 
 hibited the succession of females, he assumed the title of king of 
 France, and made war upon Philip. After a bloody con- 
 test of a few years, the battle of Crecy was fought, in 
 which the English were tlie victors, and the flower of the French chi- 
 valry, together with John, the blind king of Bohemia, fell on the field. 
 The possession of the important town of Calais was the fruit of thT3''vic- 
 John the ^^^J' ^^^^^P died in the following year, and his son, John the 
 
 Good, A. D. Good, succeeded to the contested crown. Eager to obliterate 
 1347 - 1364. the memory of Crecy, he attacked the English army, which 
 «7as under the command of Edward III.'s heroic son, the Black Prince, 
 
178 THE HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE AGE. 
 
 but suffered a decisive defeat at Poictiers, and was obliged to pro* 
 
 ceed as a captive to the capital of England. Whilst he was absent, 
 
 the kinjrdom was governed by the crown prince (Dauphin). 
 A. D. 1356. ^ . °. 1 ^. . , . . T^ ^ 1 
 
 During his rule, an insurrection broke out in i aris and over 
 
 the whole land, which was attended with great devastations and outrages, 
 
 until the imperfectly-armed citizens and peasants were sub- 
 
 A. D. 1358. 1 ./ 1 
 
 dued by the French knights, and visited with severe punish- 
 ment. Shortly after this, a peace was established between France and 
 
 England, by wliich Calais and the south-west of France was 
 
 surrendered to the English, and a heavy ransom promised 
 for John, whilst Edward, on the other hand, renounced his pretensions 
 to the French throne. But when the collection of the ransom money was 
 
 delayed, John voluntarily returned into captivity, and died 
 
 in London. 
 Charles V. § 272. John's son, Charles Y. (the Wise), healed the 
 
 A. D. wounds of his country. He quieted men's minds by his good 
 
 1364-1380. r^,^j gentle government, and by prudence and valor, reco- 
 vered the lands that had been lost on the Loire and the Garonne ; so that, 
 
 , ^^ when the Black Prince fell a victim to a wastinfr disease, 
 A. D. 1377. . . " 
 
 and Edward IIL shortly after followed him into the grave, 
 
 nothing remained to the English of all their conquests but Calais. But 
 under his successor, Charles VI., who became insane shortly after coming 
 Charles VI. ^^ ^S^' ^^^"^ce again fell into a state of confusion and law- 
 A. D. lessness. Two powerful court parties, headed by the uncle 
 
 1380-1422. of tjjg li'mg (the duke of Burgund}'), and the king's brother 
 (the duke of Orleans), contended for the government; whilst the burghers 
 rebelled against the heavy imposts, and demanded an increase of their 
 privileges. About the same time in which the towns were waging war 
 against the knights in Germany (§ 261), the Swiss peasants were con- 
 tending against the nobility, and a dangerous popular insurrection, under 
 Wat Tyler and others, was making rapid progress in England, the citizen 
 and peasant class rose against the court and the nobility in Flanders and 
 France also. But want of union amonp; the insurj^rcnts £?ave 
 
 A D 1383 o o 
 
 the latter the victory, and the outbreak was followed by a 
 diminution of the privileges of the people. The Burgundian party 
 favored the citizens, the Orleans party the nobility. 
 
 § 273. The chivalrous king, Henry V. of England, took advanta^ge 
 of these circumstances to renew the war with France. He demanded the 
 former possessions back again ; and wlien this was refused, he entered 
 
 France by Calais, and renewed at Agincourt, on the Somme, 
 A. D. l4lo. ^1^^ ^^^^g ^^ Crecy and Poictiers. The French army, four 
 times the number of its opponents, was overthrown, and the tlowx^r of the 
 French chivalry either fell in the field, or were taken prisoners by the 
 enemy ; nothing stood between the victor and Paris, where party violence 
 
FBSiNCE. 179 
 
 had just now attained its highest point, and murders and insurrections 
 were matters of daily occurrence. The Orleans party joined the Dau- 
 phin, whilst the Burgundian party, with the queen Isabella, united them- 
 selves with the English, and acknowledged Henry V. and his descendants 
 as the heirs of the French crown. The whole of the country to the north 
 of the Loire was soon in the hands of the Enj^lish. But 
 
 A. D. 1422. ° 
 
 Henry V. was snatched away by death in the midst of his 
 heroic course, in the same year in which the crazy Charles VI. sank into 
 the grave, and the Dauphin took possession of the throne under the title 
 Charles VII. ^^ Charles VII. But this made little difference to France. 
 A. D. The English and their alhes proclaimed Henry VI., who was 
 
 1422 - 1461. scarcely a year old, the rightful ruler of the country, and 
 retained their superiority in the field, so that they already held Orleans 
 in siege. 
 
 § 274. In this necessity, the Maid of Orleans, a peasant 
 
 girl of Dom Remy in Lorraine, who gave out that she had 
 been summoned to the redemption of France by a heavenly vision, 
 aroused the sinking courage of Charles and his soldiers. Under her 
 baimer, the town of Orleans was delivered, the king conducted to Rheims 
 to be crowned, and the greater part of their conquests wrested from the 
 English. The faith in her heavenly mission inspired the French with 
 courage and self-confidence, and filled the English with fear and despair. 
 
 This effect remained after Joan of Arc had fallen into the 
 
 hands of the latter, and had been given up to the flames on 
 a pretended charge of blasphemy and sorcery. The English lost one 
 province after another ; and when Philip the Good of Burgundy recon- 
 A.D. 1435. ^^^^^ himself with the king, Calais soon became their last 
 
 and only possession in the land of France. Paris opened 
 A. D. 1436. j|.g gg^fgg j^j^ J received Charles with acclamations. He reigned 
 over France in peace for twenty-five years; but he was a weak man, who 
 suffered himself to be guided by women and favorites. He was followed 
 Louis XL ^y -^^"^^ ^I-j ^ crafty but politic prince, who, by cunning, 
 A. u. violence, and unexampled tyranny, rendered the power of 
 
 1161-1483. ii^Q throne absolute, and enlarged and consolidated his em- 
 pire. He robbed the nobility of all their choicest privileges, and gradu- 
 ally united all the great fiefs with the crown. He then, by the assistance 
 of the Swiss (whose hardy youth he and his successor engaged as merce- 
 naries), overthrew Charles the Bold, and made himself master of the 
 Charles VIII., dukedom of Burgundy. The stings of conscience and the 
 A. D. 1483- fear of men tortured him in the lonely castles where he 
 
 1498 
 
 spent the last years of his life. His two successors, Charles 
 A. D. 1498- "^^m* ^^^ Louis XII., conquered Brittany, but dissipated 
 1G15. the strength of the kingdom in their expeditions to Italy. 
 
a 80 THE HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE AGE. 
 
 2. ENGLAND. 
 
 Heiir'/ n ^ ^^^' ^^^^^ Henry II., of Anjou, the great-grandson of 
 
 A. D. 1154- AVilliam the Conqueror (§ 207), the renowned race of Plan- 
 1189. tagenet ascended the English throne. They possessed much 
 
 land on the Loire and the Garonne, and as Normandy also belonged to 
 the English, the whole of the west of France was in the power of the 
 kings of England. Many quarrels and battles arose from this state of 
 things, for the kings of France laid claim to the rights of feudal suprema- 
 cy over these western lands, which rights the English kings refused to 
 render. Henry IL, a contemporary of Frederick Barbarossa, was a 
 powerful and intelligent sovereign, who acquired especial renown by his 
 improvement in the administration of the laws. In furtherance of this 
 object, he attempted, by the Constitutions of Clarendon, so to limit the 
 ecclesiastical jurisdiction, that the clergy should be subject to the royal 
 tribunals in temporal matters, without any appeal to the pope. Upon 
 this point, Henry had a violent contest with the archbishop of Canterbury, 
 Thomas a Becket. Becket rejected the Constitutions of Clarendon, and 
 dismissed every priest that submitted to them ; and when he was threat- 
 ened with legal proceedings, he quitted England and anathematized 
 Henry. But an arrangement was brought about, for a short time, by the 
 intervention of the pope. But scarcely was Becket returned to Canter- 
 bury, when he resumed all his former severity against the clergy who 
 received the Constitutions of Clarendon. The king, who was just then 
 in arms against France, suffered an exclamation of discontent against 
 Becket to escape him, which induced four of his servants to hasten to 
 England, and to slaughter the archbishop on the steps of the 
 altar. This sacrilegious deed occasioned universal horror, 
 and procured the pope a complete triumph in England. The murderers 
 w^ere punished, the Constitutions of Clarendon abolished, and Thomas a 
 Becket canonized. Thousands made pilgrimages to his altar ; and the 
 king, a few years afterwards, gave a memorable example of his peni- 
 tence, by suffering the monks to scourge his bare shoulders at the grave 
 of the martyr. 
 
 § 276. Two of Henry's sons survived their father; Richard Lionheart 
 Richard Lion- (§ 223), and John Lackland. Much as the former distin- 
 heart, a. d. guished himself by his courage and chivalrous daring, his 
 1189-1199. reign was not advantageous to England. The latter was 
 John Lack- worsted in every contest in which he engaged. In the first 
 land, A. D. place, he lost Normandy, and all the hereditary possessions 
 1199-1216. of his house on the Loire and the Garonne, to the shrewd 
 and enterprising Philip Augustus of France; and when he got involved 
 
ENGLAND. 181 
 
 in a quaiTel with the pope, about the appointment to the chair of the 
 archbishopric of Canterbury, in consequence of which the holy father 
 pronounced an anathema and interdict upon England, released his sub- 
 jects from their oath of allegiance, and summoned the king of France to 
 take possession of the land, John humbled himself, surrendered the 
 throne of England by a solemn act to the pope, and received it back 
 again from the hands of the legate as a papal fief, in return for a yearly 
 tribute of 1000 marks. John was now released from the interdict, and 
 the French king forbidden to prosecute the expedition against him. En- 
 raged at this disgraceful transaction of a king, who, by his severity, arbi-. 
 trariness, and cruelty, had embittered every class against himself, the 
 nobles of England seized their arms and compelled John, by 
 the grant of the great charter (Magna Charta), in a meadow 
 near Windsor (Runny mede), to lay the foundation of the free constitution 
 Henry III., 0^ England. The long reign of John's son, Henry III., was 
 A. D. 1216- favorable to the growth of liberty, melancholy as, on the 
 1272. whole, the condition of the land under him was. His ex- 
 
 travagant profuseness to favorites, and the exactions of the papal legates 
 and the Italian clergy, inflicted grievous wounds on the prosperity of the 
 country, and at length drove the people to rebel and seize upon the king 
 and his family, till the abuses were removed, and fresh liberties granted. 
 § 277. Henry III. was succeeded by his chivalrous son, Edward I., 
 Edward I. whose reign is rendered memorable by a succession of 
 A. D. 1272- bloody wars. He added the hitherto independent Wales to 
 '^^^'^' his dominions, introduced there the laws and constitution 
 
 of England, and was the first who gave the title of Prince of Wales to 
 the heir to the throne. Upon a quarrel for the crown break- 
 
 A T> 1283 
 
 ing out shortly after in Scotland, between Robert Bruce and 
 John Baliol, in which he was chosen umpire, Edward took advantage of 
 the opportunity to establish the much contested feudal superiority of the 
 English kings over Scotland, and decided in favor of Baliol, who was 
 ready to do him homage. This irritated the Scotch, who were proud of 
 their independence. They seized the sword, (ind under the conduct of 
 heroic knights like AVallace, fought many battles for their liberties which 
 are renowned in song and legend. Furious contests drenched the plains 
 of the south of Scotland with the blood of heroes ; Wallace was taken 
 prisoner, and put to death by the hangman. The coronation stone of the 
 Scottish kiui>;s at Scone was brou^^lit to London, were it still ornaments 
 Westmiuster Abbey ; Edward's victorious host marched through the whole 
 of Scotland as far as the Highlands, and yet the Scots still maintained tlieir 
 independence. Robert Bruce, the grandson of the before-mentioned candi- 
 date for the throne, after many changes of fortune, obtained possession of 
 the crown, which became hereditary in his family, and passed at length to 
 the kindred house of Stuart. 
 16 
 
182 THE HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE AGE. 
 
 Edward's son of the same name was a weak prince, who could nelthei 
 Edward XL i^^ke conquests abroad, nor preserve peace and order at 
 A. D. 1307- home. The nobles repeatedly took up arms against him, 
 1327. killed his favorites, and at last looked quietly on, whilst the 
 
 queen and her paramour, Mortimer, thrust the unfortunate monarch from 
 the throne, and had him put to a cruel death in prison. But when his 
 Edward HI. energet-ic son, Edward III., came of age, he punished the 
 A. D. 1327- atrocious deed by executing Mortimer, and banishing the 
 1377. queen to a solitary fortress. 
 
 § 278. Edward III. governed with vigor and renown. He took mea- 
 sures for checking the encroachments of the pope upon the English 
 Church, in which he was actively supported by the Oxford professor, 
 Wicliff, and granted to many towns the privilege of sending represent- 
 atives to parliament, as his predecessors had before done. By this means, 
 the number of representatives increased to such an extent that they were 
 divided, and from this time, the nobles and bishops formed the Upper 
 House (House of Peers), and the members for the towns and counties the 
 Lower House (House of Commons), of Parliament. No tax could be 
 imposed without their consent. The wars of succession which Edward III- 
 and his son, the Black Prince, waged with France, were to the advantage 
 of the English (§ 271). But the government of his grandson and successor, 
 Richard H Richard II., was disturbed by domestic troubles ; a danger- 
 A. D. 1377- ous insurrection of the people was only suppressed with 
 1399. difficulty by the ready courage of the king; and when Rich- 
 
 ard at length banished his cousin, Henry of Lancaster, who was the 
 originator of the disturbances, from the kingdom, Henry formed a party, 
 had the king deposed from the throne by an act of parliament, and then 
 House of assumed himself the royal title. Richard died of starvation 
 Lancaster. in a remote castle, whilst Henry IV., in whose person the 
 Henry IV., house of Lancaster ascended the English throne, was s.ecur- 
 A. D. 1399 - ing to himself and his posterity, by his prudence and valor, 
 ^^^^' the crown he had so flagitiously obtained. An insurrection 
 
 of the English nobles under the duke of Northumberland and his heroic 
 son Percy, surnamed Hotspur, ended with the defeat of the insurgents. 
 The followers of Wicliff, called Lollards, were persecuted for the sake of 
 propitiating the clergy in favor of the royal house. Henry IV. was suc- 
 Henry V ceeded by his more valiant son, Henry V., whose youthful 
 
 A. D. 1413 - follies, as well as his nobleness of soul and heroic greatness, . 
 1^22. have been portrayed in so masterly a way by the great 
 
 British poet, Shakspeare. He conducted successful wars with France, 
 but all that he gained by his fortune and courage was again lost in the 
 reign of his infant son, Henry VI. 
 
 § 279. This sixth Henry was the most unfortunate prince that ever 
 Bat on a throne. The crown of France, which he had received when 
 
SPAIN. 1S3 
 
 R child of one year old (§ 274), was wrested from liim by the Maid of 
 Ilenrv VI. Orleans, and he was deprived of. his English possessions, 
 A.. D. 1422- also, by the wars of the Red and the AVhite Roses. Richard, 
 1461. duke of York, great-grandson of king Edward III., deemed 
 
 that he had better pretensions to the crown of England than Henry VI. 
 He formed a powerful party, unfurled the banner of rebellion, and com- 
 menced the bloody civil war which, from the cognizance borne by the 
 chiefs of the parties, was called the War of the Red (Lancaster) and 
 "White (York) Rose. It is true that Richard was defeated in a furious 
 battle by the forces of the queen, who ornamented his head with a paper 
 House of crown, and placed it upon the battlements of York. But 
 York. Richard's eldest son, the chivalrous Edward, revenged the 
 
 Edward IV., insults offered to his father. He got possession of the throne, 
 A. D. 1461- and, despite the many changes of fortune he met with during 
 
 his reign, he finally maintained hi.mself upon it, after Henry 
 of Lancaster, who had four times exchanged the crown for a prison, had 
 ended his miserable existence in the Tower, and his son had been put to 
 death. But the blood-stained throne brought no blessing to the house of 
 "ilBrk. Edward first got rid of his brother Clarence by assassination ; 
 and when he himself died, leaving behind him two infant princes, his 
 Ilichard lU. joun^or brother, Richard (HI.), had these put to death in 
 A. D. 1483- the Tower, and took possession of the throne, upon which he 
 1485. in vain hoped to secure himself by fresh crimes. Henry 
 
 Tudor, a descendant of the royal house of Lancaster, who had saved him- 
 eelf from the general ruin of his family by flying to France, landed on 
 A D 1485 ^^® coast of England, and won crown and victory in the field 
 
 of Bosworth, where Richard was slain. Upon this, Henry 
 Tudor. VII., with whom the house of Tudor rose to the throne, 
 
 Hemv VII brought about a reconciliation between the Roses by marry- 
 A. D. 1485- ing the daughter of Edward IV. The history of the -jvorld 
 1509. scarcely relates another war in which so many atrocities 
 
 were committed as in the contest between the Red and the White Rose. 
 Eighty members of royal families, and the ornaments of the nobility, fell 
 by the sword. Owing to this, the politic and hard-hearted Henry VII. 
 could give greater power to the crown than it had possessed under the 
 Plantagenets. 
 
 3. SIXAIN. 
 
 § 280. For several centuries, the two kingdoms of Aragon and Castile 
 (§ 194.) stood side by side in separate independence. The former at- 
 tempted to extend itself towards the east, and gained possession, not only 
 Alfonso V. ^^ ^^^® ^^^^^ l^nds of Catalonia, Valentia, and Murcia, and the 
 A. D. 1416— Spanish islands, Majorca and Minorca, but subjected, at difier* 
 liS6. ent times, Sardinia and Sicily, and in the reign of Alfonso V., 
 
184 THE niSTORY OF THE MIDDLE AGE. 
 
 even conquered Naples. Castile, on the otlier hand, enlarged itself on 
 the south, and by successful wars against the Moors, gained possession of 
 Cordova, Seville, and Cadiz. These contests had the greatest influence 
 m the history and character of the Spanish nation. First, They produced 
 A love of war and a chivalrous turn of mind, and were the occasion that 
 the Spanish nation took delight in contests and arms, in tournaments and 
 knightly exercises, and in romantic poetry and minstrelsy. Secondly, 
 They preserved the zeal for religion, and were the foundation of that pre- 
 dominance of the clergy which has always been a characteristic of Spain. 
 Thirdly, They aroused a feeling of liberty and self-reliance among the 
 people, — hence the Spanish Estates, which assembled regularly in the 
 Cortes, and claimed and exercised privileges which were to be met with 
 in no other monarchy. The Estates of Aragon not only possessed the 
 right of legislating and of consenting to the levying of taxes, but the king 
 was obliged to consult them in the choice of his council. Quarrels 
 between the Estates and the king were decided by an independent chief 
 justice (Justitia). 
 
 § 281. The chivalrous Peter III., the conqueror of Sicily (§ 240), is 
 the best known of the Aragonian kings, and Alfonso X., the Wise, of lie 
 Alfonso X., Castilian. The latter occupied himself with astronomy and 
 A. D. 1252- astrology, with music and poetry,, enlarged the university 
 of Salamanca, encouraged the development of the national 
 language, and had works prepared on history and jurisprudence ; but he 
 was wanting in the practical wisdom of life. To gain the shadow of the 
 imperial Roman throne, and to gratify his taste for magnificence and 
 pleasure, he oppressed his people with taxes, and plunged his land into 
 confusion by extravagance, and by debasing the coinage. Alfonso XL 
 Alfonso XI., overcame the Moors on the river Salado, and took the str 
 
 •on 2 
 
 A. D. 1324- 
 
 town, Algeciras, in Andalusia. To defray the expenses of 
 tlie war, tiie Estates introduced the tax, alcavala, which was 
 A. D. 1340. levied upon all movable and immovable property as often 
 as it was sold or exchanged, and which proved extremely detrimental to 
 trade and commerce. This impost has continued to exist in Spain ever 
 Peter the since. Alfonso's son, Peter the Cruel, outraged his wives, 
 
 Cruel, A. D. his brothers and relatives, the nobles and the people, so long, 
 1350-1369. iiy^i r^i leno-th his half-brother, with the assistance of s 
 
 some 
 
 French troops, overcame and killed him, and then assumed his place. 
 Isabella, The marriage of queen Isabella of Castile, with Ferdinand 
 
 A^.D. 1474- ijjg Catholic of Aragon, led to the union of the two king- 
 f'erdinand doms, and consequently to a new epoch for Spain, towards 
 A. D. 1479- the conclusion of the fifteenth cen-tury. 
 
 ^^^^- § 282. Ferdinand and Isabella, directed by the counsels 
 
 of the shrewd cardinal Ximenes, strove for a common object ; — they 
 Bought to diminish the pov/er of the nobility and clergy, and exalt tha 
 
SPAix. 185 
 
 of the crown. For this purpose, Ferdinand obtained from the pope tha 
 grand mastership of the three weahhy orders of Castilian knights, and 
 the privilege of filling up the Spanish bishoprics. He next deprived the 
 nobility of the administration of justice, that he might transfer it to the 
 royal courts, and established the armed Hermandad (police), to preserve 
 the peace of the land, and to abolish robbery and private warfare. Bftt 
 the most important means of raising the power of the throne was the 
 court of Inquisition, in which the king had the appointment of the grand 
 inquisitor and all the judges. This royal court of faith, provided with 
 spiritual weapons, was not only the terror of heretics and secret Moiiam- 
 medans and Jews, but held the nobility and clergy in awe, and imposed 
 heavy chains upon the free activity of the mind. The slightest suspi- 
 cion, the false testimony of an enemy, might lead to the frightful dun- 
 geons of the Inquisition, where the most dreadful tortures of the rack 
 were employed to force a confession of guilt, and wiles, equivocations, 
 and insnaring questions were made use of to entrap the resolute. Num- 
 berless victims were given up to the flames in the midst of pomp and 
 magnificence (auto de fe), or pined away their lives in mouldering dun- 
 geons, whilst the treasury of the state was enriched with their property. 
 Kever were the throne and altar united in a bond so dangerous to the 
 liberties of the people, as in Spain since the establishment of the Inquisition. 
 § 283. The banishment of the Moors is one of the most melancholy 
 phenomena in Spanish history. When the Moorish kingdom of Grana- 
 da, after a war of ten years, fell before the arms of Ferdinand and Isa- 
 bella, the Mohammedans were allowed no alternative but to leave their 
 country or embrace Christianity; hereupon, many of them quitted their 
 native land, others, with inward repugnance, adopted the doctrines of the 
 Gospel, but were driven, by the cruelty of the Inquisition and the op- 
 pression of the government, to repeated rebellions, by which their condi- 
 tion was always rendered worse than before. But their lot was most de- 
 plorable under the fanatical Philip II. and his successor of the same 
 name. A command was first given that they should renounce their lan- 
 guage, their national dress, and their peculiar customs ; and as if even 
 this tyrannical order were not suflTicient to destroy the last traces of their 
 Arabian origin and their foreign fixilh, they were mercilessly driven 
 away from the Spanish territory. 800,000 Moors, men and women, old 
 men and children, left the land of their birth, their blooming fields, and 
 the houses their own hands had built. The flourishing plains of the 
 south soon became a desert, agriculture decayed, and trade stagnated ; 
 prosperous villages were reduced to ruins, towns once animated by com- 
 merce became depopulated, poverty, dirt, and sloth, took possession of the 
 once rich and happy country, the departed splendor of which is still 
 attested by magnificent ruins. A similar fate attended the Jews ; priest! 
 and courtiers divided the possessions and treasures of the banished. 
 16* 
 
186 THE HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE AGE. 
 
 The destruction of the privileges of the Estates and of the libertiea 
 of the people, were also consequences of this mischievous union between 
 the crown and the altar. 
 
 4. ITALY. . 
 
 a. UPPER ITALY. 
 
 § 284. In Upper Italy, the two republics of Venice and Genoa raised 
 themselves by their trade and navigation, to a prosperity that recals the 
 memory of the most flourishing period of ancient Greece. Venice 
 directed her view to the Adriatic and ^gean seas, and sought to make 
 conquests on their coasts for the purpose of obtaining suitable havens, 
 marts, and magazines ; as those in Dalmatia, Greece, the Archipelago, 
 Constantinople, and many other places. This remarkable city, which 
 had originated from the union of several islands, became rich and power- 
 ful by her oriental traffic. Magnificent churches (the cathedral of St. 
 Mark), gorgeous palaces (that of the doge), splendid squares (the place 
 of St. Mark), boldly constructed bridges (that of the Rialto), made 
 Venice a wonder of the world. But magnificence, wealth, and pleasures, 
 could not make amends for the want of freedom. The original demo- 
 cratic constitution was changed, during the thirteenth and fourteenth cen- 
 turies, into an oppressive hereditary aristocracy. An elected doge, with 
 limited authority, stood at the head of the state ; but the whole power 
 rested in the high council, to which only a limited number of noble fami- 
 lies (nobili), whose names were written in the golden book, had admis- 
 sion. For the purpose of preventing any alteration in the constitution 
 of the state, a council of ten persons was furnished with dictatorial 
 power, and provided with a state police of spies and informers, and a 
 state Inquisition with subterraneous dungeons, racks, and leaden roofs. 
 Every motion was watched, every word listened to, every movement of 
 the people observed. 
 
 In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, Venice attempted to extend 
 her rule on the Italian continent, and obtained possession, by the help of 
 skilful generals, of Verona, Padua, Brescia, and many other cities and 
 territories of Upper Italy. By this means, however, she came into hos- 
 tile contact with other European states, and was not unfrequently threat- 
 ened with destruction, particularly in the beginning of the 
 sixteenth century, by the league of Cambray, in which, the 
 emperor Maximilian, Louis XII. of France, Ferdinand the Catholic of 
 Aragon, and pope Julius II., united together for the purpose of dividing 
 the Venetian territory. The French were already threatening the wealthy 
 city, when the Venetian council succeeded in dividing the league, and 
 gaining over the pope and Ferdinand. In this manner, Venice was 
 saved, and the French driven out of Italy. But the wounds which 
 Venice received in her eastern possessions by the establishment of the 
 
ITALY. 187 
 
 Ottoman empire, and in her trade by the discovery of a sea passage to 
 the East Indies, were incurable. Since then, the allegorical marriage of 
 the doge with the Adriatic in the state vessel, the Bucentaur, has been a 
 ceremony without a meaning. 
 
 § 285. Genoa was the proud rival of Venice. The mutual jealousy of 
 the two republics respecting the trade with the East was the occasion of 
 many wars and many bloody naval engagements, in which, however, Venice 
 was generally the victor. Genoa's splendid marble palaces, her havens 
 covered with a forest of masts, and her exchange, bore witness to her 
 wealth. But quarrels between democrats and aristocrats, between Guelfs 
 (Fieschi and Grimaldi) and Ghibellines (Spinola and Doria), weakened 
 her internal strength. Incapable of governing herself, she sought for 
 foreign rulers, till at length she fell alternately under the power of the 
 French and Milantse. The excellent constitution which the 
 
 A D 1528 
 
 naval hero, Andreas Doria, planned in the sixteenth century 
 for his native city, after' he had overthrown the French government 
 there, and brought back the republican forms, restored the state to its 
 outward independence, but by no means to its internal tranquillity. 
 Twenty years later, the handsome, rich, and accomplished 
 Fiesco attempted to deprive the house of Doria of the office 
 of doge ; but the enterprise was frustrated by the unexpected death of 
 the daring conspirator. 
 
 § 286. Milan came gradually under the government of the wealthy 
 family of Visconti, who obtained the ducal title from the emperor, and 
 conquered the greater part of Lombardy by the aid of condottieri and 
 mercenary troops. When the male line of the Visconti became extinct 
 in the middle of the fifteenth century, the Milanese trans- 
 ferred the sovereignty of their beautiful land, which was 
 aimed at both by the French and Spaniards, to Francisco Sforza, the 
 most able of these condottieri. The conquest of the country 
 'by Louis XII. of France was facilitated by quarrels in 
 Sforza's family. Louis carried away the duke (Louis Moro) prisoner, 
 and suffered him to pine for ten years in a subterranean dungeon. The 
 French were indeed di'iven out of Italy a few years later, and the son 
 of the captive Moro raised to the dukedom of Milan ; but the first war- 
 ^,,^ like action of the chivalrous Francis I. was the *' battle of 
 
 A. D. 1d15. 
 
 giants " of Marignano, in which the duke and his Swiss were 
 defeated, and Milan again joined to the French kingdom. Ten years 
 afterwards, the dukedom fell into the hands of the Spaniards, who 
 remained in possession of it for nearly two hundred years. 
 
 § 287. The western states of Upper Italy fell, for the most part, under 
 the power of the counts of Savoy, who, by prudence, good fortune, and 
 force of arms, gradually enlarged their originally narrow territory to a 
 dukedom, which extended northward over the south of Switzerland to 
 
188 THE HISTOllY OF THE MIDDLE AGE. 
 
 Jura (Geneva, Vaud, Yalais), and included on the south, Piedmont, with 
 Turin, the county of Nice, and other territories. But when the warlike 
 Swiss confederates on the north, and on the west, France, which was 
 now united into a powerful kingdom, became the neighbors of Savoy's 
 frontiers, its circumference began gradually to lessen. The Valais was 
 lost in the Burgundian war (§ 293), Geneva freed itself during the con- 
 tests of the Reformation, and in the wars which Francis I. carried on with 
 Charles V., for the possession of Milan, duke Charles III. of Savoy, the 
 ally of the latter, lost the greater part of his hereditary estates, which 
 his son again received, with some loss, at the peace of Cam- 
 bresis. But his successors, by taking advantage of favorable 
 opportunities, amply repaid themselves for their losses by conquests in 
 other quarters (Sardinia, Genoa), and at length obtained possession of the 
 kingly power. 
 
 h. MIDDLE AND LOWER ITALY. 
 
 § 288. The trading town of Pisa was the first to flourish in Tuscany. 
 AVhen this city had fidlen before the army of the Genoese, Florence 
 raised itself above the other towns, and at length reduced Pisa itself to 
 subjection. Florence was at first governed by the nobility ; but when 
 this class had been weakened by the party contentions of the Guelfs 
 (Black) and Ghibellines (White), the government was obtained by the 
 people, who were divided into guilds, and who consisted, for the most part, 
 of masters of manufactories and workers in wool. But scarcely was a 
 complete democracy established in Florence, when a new quarrel for 
 supremacy sprang up between the rich merchants and the poorer artisans, 
 the result of which was, that the state was governed alternately by a 
 money aristocracy and by the democratic guilds. Love of freedom, 
 patriotism, and refinement were developed in the midst of these contests, 
 so that Florence might be compared to the ancient Athens. At length, 
 the wealthy family of the Medici succeeded in so completely winning to 
 themselves the affections of the poor by their kindness and benevolence, 
 Cosmo de ^^^^ those of the illustrious by their friendly affability, that 
 Medici, A. d. Cosmo de Medici, a man of lofty mind and patriotic spirit, 
 1428-1464. without assuming either rank or title, governed the Floren- 
 tine state with almost unlimited power, and rendered it flourishing 
 and powerful by successful wars abroad, and by encouragement of the 
 arts and sciences at home. To him belongs by right the surname of 
 " Father of his Country." 
 
 Lorenzo tlie § ^^^* Cosmo's grandson, Lorenzo the Magnificent, trod 
 
 Magnificent, in the path of his ancestors, and rendered Florence the seat 
 1472-1492. of every art and science, and a seminary for all Europe. 
 His court was ornamented with artists, poets, and writers ; learned men 
 from Byzantium, who were flying from the sword of the Turks, taught 
 
ITALY. 189 
 
 the Greek language and literature in Florence. Under his rule, the 
 arts of sculpture, painting, and music began to unfold their choicest 
 blossoms. After Lorenzo's deatli, the animated discourses of the Domi- 
 nican, Savondrola, induced the Florentines to drive out the Medici, and 
 to restore the democratic republic. But when the pope excommunicated 
 the bold " prophet of Florence," and the priests, against whose wealth 
 and luxurious lives his zeal had been chiefly directed, rose against him, 
 his enemies succeeded in effecting his overthrow ; upon which, he was 
 condemned to be burnt as a disturber of the Church and a corrupter of 
 the people. The Medici soon returned ; and when a demo- 
 cratic spirit, after some time, again awoke, and a second ban- 
 ishment followed, the emperor, Charles V., having an understanding with 
 the Medician pope, Clement VIP., marched upon Florence, compelled it to 
 surrender after a close siege, and placed the cruel Alexander 
 de Medici as duke over the humbled republic. Alexander, 
 after many years' tyranny, was killed by the people, but the government, 
 nevertheless, remained in the hands of the Medici. Among the many 
 Michicl artists and writers that lived about this time in Florence, 
 
 Angelo, A. D. Michael Angelo, who was equally distinguished as an archi- 
 1474— 15G3. tect, sculptor, and painter ; and the clever statesman, Mac- 
 Macchiavelli, chiavelli, author of " The Prinlb," the " History of Flo- 
 A. D. 1527. rence," and " Discourses on Titus Livius," are the most 
 distinguished names. 
 
 § 2U0. During the residence of the popes in Avignon (§ 255), violence 
 and lawlessness, occasioned by the bloody family quarrels of the Colonna 
 and Orsini, had reigned in the ecclesiastical state of Rome. This inspired 
 Cola di Rienzi, a man filled with enthusiasm for ancient Rome, with the 
 project of bringing back peace and the ancient greatness to the state by 
 the restoration of the republican constitution. His fiery eloquence trans- 
 ported the Romans. They established a new republican 
 Rome, raised the popular orator to the office of tribune, and 
 drove the nobles from their walls. But Rienzi's splendid part was soon 
 played out. Pride and vanity blinded him ; oppressive taxes deprived 
 him of the fiwor of the people; so that his enemies succeeded ih procur- 
 ing his overthrow, and compelled him to fly. * He returned, indeed, a few 
 years after, but it was only to meet with his death in a popu- 
 
 A. D. 1354. . .,,...., ^,, , • 
 
 lar commotion. After arrangmg the division in the Church 
 (§ 263), a few distinguished popes made an attempt to heal the wounds 
 of the state and the Church. Among these, may be particularly men- 
 A. D. tioned Nicholas V., the founder of the Vatican library, and 
 
 1450-1460. Pius 11. (iEneas Silvius, § 260), known as a clever and ver- 
 satile writer, — both of them patrons of cultivation and science. On 
 the other hand, Alexander VI. (Borgia) was the scandal of all Chris- 
 tendom by hisabandoneil life, and his family (Caesar and Lucretia Bor- 
 
190 THE HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE AGE. 
 
 gia, in particular) were guilty pf frightful crimes. Alexander's successor, 
 Julius II., possessed a magnanimous disposition^ but his pas- 
 sion for war suited ill with his spiritual office. He marched 
 into the field himself, and enlarged the possessions of the Church by the 
 Addition of Bologna, Ancona, Ferrara, and other towns and territories. 
 Leo X., the highly accomplished son of Lorenzo de Medici, united in 
 the Vatican all the splendor of art and refinement as an inheritance of 
 his house. But in studying the productions of Greek and Roman pagan- 
 ism, he lost sight of the doctrine of the Church and of reverence for the 
 Gospel ; yet he taxed the religious faith of the people by the sale of 
 Kaphael indulgences, that he might be able to support the expense of 
 
 A. D. building the magnificent church of St. Peter, and to reward 
 
 1483-1520. artists with a liberal hand. -The " divine" painter, Raphael, 
 was the ornament of his court. 
 
 In Ferrara, during the fifteenth century, reigned the younger branch 
 of the house of Este, which was not less distinguished for refinement 
 and encouragement of the arts and sciences than the Medici. Ariosto, 
 the writer of " Orlando Furioso," and Torquato Tasso, the poet of" Jeru- 
 salem Delivered," were the ornaments of the ducal court of Ferrara. 
 
 § 291. The descendants of Charles of Anjou reigned in Naples, which, 
 since the fall of the hous% of Hohenstaufen (§ 239, 240), had become a 
 papal fief. The Guelfic party found in them as zealous defenders, as the 
 Ghibelline in the kings of Sicily of the princely house of Aragon. Two 
 wicked queens, Joanna I. and Joanna IL, filled the kingdom 
 A. D. 1343- "^^th acts of cruelty, war, and confusion. The latter, before 
 1382. her. childless departure, named, first, an Aragonian, and after- 
 
 Joanna IL, wards a French prince, for her heir, and by this means pro- 
 A. D. 1414— duced two parties, a French and an Aragonian, that con- 
 ^' tended till the end of the fifteenth century, with great bitter- 
 
 ness and various success, for the possession of Naples, till Frederick the 
 Catholic of Aragon at length gained possession of it by craft 
 and the success of his arms, and again united it with Sicily. 
 The kingdom of Naples and Sicily remained subject to the Spanish 
 sceptre for two hundred years, and was governed by a vice-king. In- 
 crease of taxation, and the destruction of the privileges of the Estates, 
 gradually produced poverty and loss of freedom. 
 
 5. THE NEW BURGUNDIAN TERRITORY. 
 
 Philip the ^ ^^^' I*hilip the Bold had received the dukedom of Bur- 
 Bold, A. D. gundy from his father, king John of France, in fief. He 
 1363-1404. united to this, by inheritance and marriage, the Burgundian 
 John sans Franche Comte, formerly an appanage of the German em- 
 Peur, A. T). pire, and the rich lands of Flanders, together with Artois, 
 1404-1419. Mechlin, Antwerp, and some other towns. His son, Jolm 
 
BURGUNDY. 191 
 
 sans I*eur, and his grandson, Philip the Good, extended their possessions 
 Philip the ^^^^^ farther over the other states of the Netherlands, and 
 GDod, A. D. established a kingdom that, in civilization, industry, and pros- 
 1419-1467. perity, could vie with Italy. Philip the Good was one of the 
 most powerful and richest princes of his time, and his Netherland chivalry 
 were distinguished by their splendor, adroitness, and polished manners. 
 The wealthy trading and manufacturing towns of Ghent, Brussels, Ant- 
 werp, Bruges, Louvain, &;c., possessed great privileges and liberties, and 
 a warlike militia. 
 
 § 293. Philip's son, Charles the Bold, enlarged the dukedom and raised 
 Charles the *^^^ Splendor of the chivalrous court to the highest point. 
 Bold, A. D. He v/as a man of vigor, courage, and warlike spirit ; but 
 14G7— 1477. ambition and violent passions rendered him rash, insolent, 
 and obstinate. His efforts were directed to the enlargement of his duke- 
 dom into a Gallo-Burgundian kingdom, with the Rhine for its eastern 
 boundary. But his undertakings were frustrated by the crafty and faith- 
 less Louis XI. of France. For when Charles the Bold threatened the 
 duke of Lorraine (whose lands and chief city, Nancy, he was longing 
 for), with war, Louis brought about an alliance between Lorraine and 
 the Swiss. Hereupon, Charles, with a stately and splendidly equipped 
 army, marched across the Jura against the Swiss, but suffered such a 
 defeat in the battle of Granson, that the survivors were dis- 
 persed in disorderly flight ; and the admirable artillery, 
 together with a magnificent camp, filled with costly stuffs, gold, silver, 
 and precious stones, fell into the hands of an enemy who did not know 
 their value. Maddened by this disgrace, Charles, a few months after- 
 wards, marched with a fresh army against the confederates. But the 
 battle of Murten ended in the same way : the victors were again enriched 
 with an enormous booty ; Berne wrested the Valais from the ducal house 
 of Savoy, which was in alliance with Burgundy, and the duke of Lor- 
 raine again gained possession of his lands, which had been seized upon 
 by Charles. - Misfortune confused the mind of the Burgundian duke: 
 blind with rage, and meditating nothing but vengeance, he rejected every 
 proposal of accommodation, and marched for the third time against the 
 enemy, who were prepared for the encounter. But in January, 1477, 
 his army suffered a third frightful overthrow in the frozen fields before 
 Nancy, partly by the swords of the brave Swiss, Alsacians, and Lor- 
 rainers, and partly by the treachery of his Itahan condottieri. Charles 
 himself was killed in a frozen morass during the flight. 
 
 § 2^4. After the death of Charles, Louis XL seized upon the proper 
 dukedom of Burgundy (Bourgogne), as a vacant fief of the French 
 crown, and attempted to get possession of the other lands. At this junc- 
 ^ ture, Charles's daughter, Mary, was married to the chival- 
 
 rous Maximilian of Austria, who overcame the Frencli. 
 
192 THE HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE AGE. 
 
 and compelled them to relinquish their purpose. Mary died shortly after* 
 wards by a fall from her horse, whilst hawking. The French king again 
 renewed his treacherous intrigues for the purpose of exciting the towns 
 of the Netherlands against Maximilian, who had been appointed guard- 
 ian of his infant son, Philip of Burgundy. Ghent fell off; the guilds of 
 Bruges kept him for some time a prisoner ; Brabant wavered ; but never- 
 theless, Maximilian, by his courage and conduct, brought the whole of 
 the Netherlands to acknowledge his rights of guardianship. Philip's 
 Bon, Charles (V.), who was born to him by the Spanish Joanna, and who 
 was born in the beginning of the century at Ghent, inheri- 
 ted all the lands of his parents and grandparents. Yet his 
 heart w^as with the rich, cultivated, and industrious Netherlands, which 
 he had united into a whole by the acquisition of Utrecht, Gueldres, and 
 some other towns, and added to the German empire, under the title of 
 the Burgundian Circle. 
 
 6. SCANDINAVIA. 
 
 § 295. After the daring sea expeditions and wanderings of the Nor- 
 mans and Danes (§ 204, 206) had ceased, an enterprising prince was 
 here and there successful in raising himself above the other heads of 
 tribes (fylken kings), and in founding a kingdom by uniting several 
 tribes (fylken) together. This was effected in Norway by Ilarald Fair- 
 A D 875 ^^^^ ' ^^ Denmark, by Gorm the Old ; and in Sweden, by 
 
 the Ynglians. But it was with reluctance that the warlike 
 Norman chiefs bowed beneath the authority of a supreme 
 king, and many of the discontented renewed the expeditions by sea, and 
 sought for a new liome abroad. Thus, Polio (Robert) in Normandy 
 (§ 205). The contests of the kings with the chiefs of the tribes lasted 
 for many centuries, and impeded the rapid and effectual introduction of 
 Christianity into the Scandinavian kingdoms. For although the Gospel 
 had been preached in the three kingdoms as early as the ninth century, 
 by Ansgar, the " Apostle of the North," and single kings, as Harald 
 Bluetooth in Denmark, and Olaf Skotkonung in Sweden, had been con- 
 verted to it as early as the tenth centiiry, yet the pagan worship of Odin 
 still wrestled with Christianity for the mastership, for more than a hun- 
 dred years. In Denmark, Harald's grandson, Canute the 
 *■"'''■ Great (§ 207), and in Norway, Olaf the Saint, gave the vic- 
 tory to the doctrine of a crucified Saviour ; but this did not take place in 
 Sweden till the middle of the twelfth century, in the reign of Eric the 
 Pious, and not till even later than this among the half-savage Fins. 
 Christianity produced the most beneficial effects in the Scfindinavian 
 kingdoms. The Benedictine monks not only laid the germ of spiritual 
 development, but they also improved the manner of living, and made the 
 people acquainted with the advantages of civilization. They introduced 
 
I 
 
 SCAXDINAYIA. 193 
 
 the art of writing, and banished the rude and defective Runic characters 
 by the Latin alphabet; thej encouraged agriculture and planted new 
 kinds of corn ; thej built mills, opened mines, and accustomed the war- 
 like people to the arts of peace, to trade and agriculture. Christianity 
 diminished the vast gulf that had hitherto existed between freemen and 
 slaves, by awakening in every breast the sentiments of the dignity of 
 human nature, and the equality of all men in the sight of God. The 
 clerg}% moreover, obtained great wealth, privileges, and possessions, so 
 that they could place themselves on terms of equality by the side of the 
 freeholders of land. But the peasant class, on the other hand, remained 
 in a state of dependence, and the towns arrived at neither prosperity nor 
 importance. 
 
 § 29G. Denmark, to which Norway was united, acquired a great extent 
 Waldeiriar H. ^" ^^^^ eleventh and twelfth centuries, under a few warlike 
 A. D. 1202 - kings. AValdemar II., the Conqueror, prosecuted tlie con- 
 ^^'*^' quests of his father and grandfather on the coasts of the Baltic 
 
 with such success, that he at last united all the Slavic lands on the 
 south and east coasts of the Baltic, from Ilolstein to Esthonia, — Lauen- 
 burg, Mecklenburg, Pomerania, a part of Prussia, the coast land of 
 Courland, Livonia, and Esthonia, with his other possessions, and could 
 call himself king of the Danes and Slavi, and lord of Nordalbingia 
 (Sleswick-Holstein). But his severity engendered hate and bitterness ; 
 60 that when, whilst engaged in the chase, he fell into the power of count 
 Henry of Schwerin, whom he had deeply injured, and was kept prisoner 
 by him for more than two years in the stronp^ castle of Dan- 
 
 A D 1227 JO 
 
 neberg; the princes who were his vassals revolted from him 
 and maintained their independence with the sword ; so that, in a short 
 time, the proud fabric of Waldemar fell to the ground. Hamburg and 
 Lubeck became free imperial towns; the present republic of the Dit- 
 niarsens regained its independence, and the German provinces returned to 
 the government of the emperor. After Waldemar II.'s death, there oc- 
 curred a time of internal confusion, which was taken advantage of by 
 the aristocracy of nobles to increase their privileges. In addition to 
 Waldemar III. their freedom from taxes, the holders of land now obtained a 
 A. D. 1340- jurisdiction peculiar to themselves. TValdemar HI. again 
 1375. governed with a firm hand : his daughter, Margareta, united 
 
 A. D. 1397. ^^^^ three Scandinavian kingdoms under one sceptre, by the 
 Union of Calmar. 
 § 297. In Sweden also, the power of the kings had been much dimin- 
 ished, and that of the chivalrous nobility increased, by the protracted 
 contests for the crown. Even the powerful family of the Folkungs, 
 which had ascended the throne about the middle of the thirteenth cen- 
 tury, succumbed in a few generations to the strokes of fate which smote 
 all the princely houses of Sweden. Of the seven kings of this royal 
 17 
 
194 THE HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE AGE. 
 
 house, five were dethroned, and died either in prison or banishmenti 
 After the deposition of the last Folkung, Magnus II., the 
 Swedish throne descended upon his sister's son, Albert of 
 Mecklenburg, who, however, after a few years, was conquered and robbed 
 of kis kingdom by the Danish Margareta; whereupon Swe- 
 den concluded the Union of Calmar with Denmark. 
 This Union of Calmar proved a blessing to neither of the three king- 
 doms. In Denmark and Norway, under the weak kings who succeeded 
 Margareta, the power of the state fell more and more into the hands of 
 the rich nobles, whilst Sweden was treated and governed by the Danish 
 kings almost as though it were a conquered country. Dissension soon 
 loosened the bonds of the Union of Calmar, without, however, tearing 
 them completely asunder. The Hanseates, who sought to "prevent a firm 
 union of the three kingdoms by every possible method, encouraged these 
 
 ^, . . _ divisions from interested motives. The house of Oldenburc' 
 Christian I., /^ t-. i • i 5 
 
 A. D. 1448- assumed the government of Denmark, m the person ot 
 
 1481. Christian I. Sweden, also, at the same time, obtained a 
 
 Steno Sture sagacious and valiant ruler in Steno Sture. This prince 
 
 A. D. 1471- curbed the insolence of the nobles, elevated the peasant and 
 
 ^^^^' burgher classes, founded the university of Upsala, and invited 
 
 men of learning and printers from foreign lands into the country. Steno 
 
 Sture governed the kingdom with almost absolute power ; but when his 
 
 second successor, Steno Sture the younger, quarrelled with the archbishop 
 
 of Upsala, the tyrannical Christian II. succeeded, by the aid of the latter, 
 
 in establishing anew the supremacy of Denmark over Sweden. Steno 
 
 Sture was overcome in the field and mortally wounded, 
 
 whereupon Christian 11. commanded ninety-four of the most 
 
 influential and powerful persons to be beheaded in Stockholm. But this' 
 
 cruelty, after a few years, dissolved forever the bonds between Denmark 
 
 and Sweden. 
 
 7. HUNGARY. 
 
 § 298. Shortly after Otho's victory on the Lechfeld (§ 210) 
 had put an end to the incursions of the Plungarians, Geisa 
 became a convert to Christianity, and ordered the doctrines of the Gos- 
 pel to be taught to his own people by German missionaries. What he 
 Stephen the ^^gan was brought to a conclusion by his son, Stephen the 
 Pious, Pious, who received the kingly dignity from the pope. He 
 
 A. D. 1000. provided for the diffusion of Christianity, (to which the Mag- 
 gyars, partly from inherent barbarism, an^ partly from dislike of the 
 Germans, were averse,) by founding monasteries, and calling the Bene- 
 dictine monks into the country ; he reduced the state to order by dividing 
 the kingdom into comitates (shires), and by intrusting the management 
 of the affairs of the army, the government, and the administration of 
 
 o 
 C 
 A. D. 1520. 
 
mns^GARY 195 
 
 justice, to intendants appointed by himself: he became a legislator, inas- 
 much as he accustomed his subjects to civil order, agriculture, and indus- 
 try. But the warlike character of the Magyars, and their repugnance to 
 the Christian worship of the West, which brought servitude, soccage 
 duties, and the troublesome labors of agriculture with it, in place of the 
 old wild freedom, occasioned desolating wars and fresh confusion after 
 the death of Stephen. 
 
 GeisaH., Under Geisa II., troops of Flemish and Low-German 
 
 A. D. 1150. settlers established themselves in Transylvania, who, under 
 the name of Saxons, retain to this day the manners, customs, and institu- 
 tions of their fatherland. By patience and industry, they have con- 
 verted the land from a desert into a blooming region, with rich towns 
 and prosperous villages, and have vigorously defended their liberties 
 against all attacks. In the thirteenth century, the Hungarian nobles 
 (magnates) wrested a charter (" the golden privilege") from 
 the king, Andreas II., which secured important privileges to 
 the clergy and nobility, and, like the Magna Charta of England (§ 276), 
 formed the foundation of the free constitution of Hungary. An infringe- 
 ment of the " golden privilege " by the king justified the nobles in an 
 armed opposition. 
 
 § 299. When the royal hous^f Arpad was extinguished by the death 
 Louis the ^^ Andreas IH., Hungary became an elective kingdom. 
 Great, a. d. Hereupon, Louis the Great, of the royal Neapolitan house 
 1342-1348. Qf Anjou, was raised to the throne. Under this distinguished 
 king, Hungary reached the highest point of its external power and domes- 
 tic prosperity. He obtained the crown of Poland, extended the frontiers 
 of Hungary to the Lower Danube, and made the Venetians his tribu- 
 taries. The hills around Tokay were planted with vines, the adminis- 
 tration of justice was improved, the citizens and peasants were secured 
 against oppression and arbitrary treatment ; schools for education wero 
 established. After the death of Louis, who conducted many wars in 
 Italy, long and violent contests were carried on for the throne, at the ter- 
 mination of which, the German emperor, Sigismond, united the Hunga- 
 rian crown with his others, and arranged the representation of the king- 
 dom by means of 'Estates. Under the weak successors of his daughter, 
 Hungary would have fallen a prey to the Ottoman Turks, had not the 
 heroic Huniades saved the land by his valor and military skill. The 
 nation, out of gratitude, conferred the throne of Hungary upon his ener- 
 Matthias Ck)r- S^^^^ ^o"j Matthias Corvinus, who occupied it for thirty-two 
 vinus, A. D. years, as the worthy successor of Stephen the Pious and 
 1458-1490. Louis the Great. Matthias shone in the arts of peace as 
 well as in those of war. He held the power of the Ottomans in check, 
 enlarged his territories towards Austria and Germany, and improved 
 the affairs of the army. A new university was founded by him in Buda, 
 
196 THE HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE AGE. 
 
 a library established, and the civilization of the people promoted by the 
 introduction from all quarters of men of learning and artists, printers and 
 architects, gardeners, persons skilled in agriculture, and artificers. These 
 advantages were again lost under his successors. The Turks carried 
 their victorious arms over Belgrade, the western acquisitions were sur- 
 rendered by treaties of peace ; at the same time, the royal power was so 
 curtailed, that henceforth, not only the levying of taxes, but even war 
 and peace were dependent upon the National Diet, and at length, the 
 magnates took possession of the whole authority for themselves. The 
 fall of Louis 11. at Mohacs (§ 307) occasioned a contest for 
 
 A. D. 1526. , , T n 1 • 1 1 1 
 
 the crown, the result ot which was, that the country was 
 divided into two halves : Transylvania and East Hungary, as far as the 
 Theiss, which was under the dominion of the Turks ; and West Hungary, 
 which Ferdinand of Austria incorporated for some time with his other 
 dominions, till the whole fell into the hands of his successors. 
 
 * 8. POLAND. 
 
 § 300. The vast plains of the Vistula and the lands on the Oder and 
 the Wartha were inhabited by Slavonic tribes, who were sometimes 
 governed by a single chief, and sometimes divided into several princi- 
 palities. From the time of the conver^ipn of duke Miesco (Mieceslav) 
 to Christianity by German missionaries, Poland was looked upon as 
 a fief of the German empire, but was very slightly connected with itj 
 and in the time of Frederick H. rendered itself entirely independent. 
 The kingdom of Poland was torn and weakened by many divisions, 
 so that, in the twelfth century, the Silesian principality on the Oder 
 was entirely dissevered from it, and united with Germany. Poland 
 Viadislaus ^^^st rose to importance in the fourteenth century, when 
 IV., A. D. 1320. Viadislaus IV. permanently united the principalities on the 
 "Wartha (Posen, &c.), as Great Poland, with the lands on the Vistula 
 (Little Poland) ; had himself crowned in Cracow, and transmitted the 
 Casimir the ^^^^^ ^^ ^mg to his posterity. His son, Casimir the Great, 
 Great, A. D. who extended his domains over Gallicia and Eed Russia, 
 1333 - 1370. ^jj(j built a university in Cracow, also deserved well of Po- 
 land by his merits as a legislator. But despite his' efforts to diminish 
 the power of the nobility and to increase that of the cities, no free bur- 
 gher class could flourish in a nation so addicted to war and so deficient 
 in civilization. The dominion that rested on the sword still remained 
 with the nobles, — money, retail traffic, and trade, with the Jews; the 
 peasant led a wretched life as a serf, and won but a miserable support 
 from the fertile corn-fields of the Vistula. 
 
 §301. With Casimir, the male line of the Piasti became extinct; 
 whereupon, the Poles transferred the crown to his sister's son, Louis the 
 Great of Hungary. From this time forth, Poland became an elective 
 
THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE. 197 
 
 kingdom ; the nation, nevertheless, adhered for two hundred years to the 
 
 Louis the race of the Jagellons, which, however, was obhged to grant 
 
 Great, a. d. i\^q nobles an immunity from taxes and other great privi- 
 
 1?/^' , ' leores in return for its election. Under the first king of this 
 TheJagel ° . . 
 
 Ions A. D. race, Jagello (Vladislaus), Lithuania was added, to the Polish 
 
 1386-1572. empire, after Christianity had been established and the 
 idols overthrown there. The woolen garments that were distributed 
 during baptism attracted thousands of half-willing Lithuanians to the 
 Casimir IV. "Gw faith. Jagello's second successor, Casimir IV., induced 
 A.D. 1447- the German orders to relinquish Culm, Elbing, and Marien- 
 1492. werder, and to recognize the suzerainship of Poland; in doing 
 
 which, he was obliged to purchase by fresh concessions the aid of the 
 nobles, who, in the Polish diet, alone possessed the privilege of con- 
 senting to the raising of taxes and the levying of troops. That every 
 noble might not always be obliged to appear personally at the Diet, it was 
 arranged that a certain number of autliorized deputies should be sent 
 from all the Voiwodeschafts, to whom tlic king added besides a few re- 
 presentatives of the clergy and of the higher otficials. Without the con- 
 sent of this assembly, to which the burgher class was not admitted, the 
 king could adopt no measure, either of taxation or legislation, nor take 
 any important step in tlie government or in the conduct of war. The 
 nobles were regarded as the only true citizens of the state : and the 
 principle that they were all exactly on an equality, raised their power in 
 the same proportion that frequent changes of the throne and wars of 
 succession depressed that of the king. 
 
 In the century of the Reformation, king Sigismond established the 
 suzerainship of Poland over the dukedom of Prussia, which had been 
 recently founded by the grand master of the German Order, Albert of 
 Brandenburg, who was a convert to Lutheranism, and enfeoffed Gotthard 
 Keltler, chief commander of the Order of the Sword, who had also gone 
 over to Protestantism, with Courland : but owing to the selfishness of 
 the nobles and internal dissensions, the Polish kingdom was unable, for a 
 permanency, to afford any sufficient opposition to the advance of the 
 Turks and Russians. 
 
 9. THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE. 
 
 § 302. When the great grandson of the Varangian chief, Ruric (§ 206), 
 Vladimir tlie ^l^tiiii^ii' the Great, who held his residence in Kiow, intro- 
 Great, duced the Greek Christian Church into his dominions, the 
 
 A.D. 1000- latter extended from the Dnieper to the lake of Ladoga and 
 to the banks of the Dwina. But they suffered so much in their union 
 and strength under his successors, by divisions among heirs and internal 
 A. D. 1237. wars, that the Lithuanians, Poles, and Brethren of the Sword, 
 &c., in the West, gained possession of large portions of terri- 
 17* 
 
198 THE HISTOEY OF THE MIDDLE AGE. 
 
 torj, and at length, the Moguls conquered all the land from the Dniepei 
 to the Vistula, and made Russia tributary. The great khan of the Golden 
 Horde of Kaptschak, whose residence, and fixed quarters were on tha 
 east bank of the Volga, exacted, during two hundred years, an oppressive 
 tribute from the Russian princes and their subjects. It was not until the 
 power of the Golden Horde had been broken by dissension, that the chief 
 Ivan Vasily- P^i^^e, Ivan Vasilyevitsch the Great of Moscow, succeeded 
 e^ntsch, A. u. in* freeing his kingdom from tribute, and in extending it in 
 1462-1505. all directions by successful wars. The rich city of Novo- 
 gorod, which belonged to the Hanseatic confederation, and which had 
 possessed, for centuries, a republican constitution, and had known how to 
 defend its liberties by a stout militia, was subjected and robbed of its 
 privileges, and a number of its chief citizens were removed to other 
 towns. Ivan was not only a conqueror, but a legislator and politician, 
 although in mind and manners he remained a rude and cruel barbarian. 
 He adopted measures respecting the succession of the throne, to the end 
 that the kingdom might not be farther divided ; and he invited masons 
 and mechanics from Germany and Italy, to plant the seeds of civilization 
 among his barbarous people. He built the Kremlin (citadel) for the de- 
 fence of his chief city, Moscow. 
 
 Since the destruction of Constantinople by the Turks, the Russian 
 metropolitan (afterwards called Patriarch) had been elected by the native 
 bishops, and thus the independence of the church maintained. Ivan*s 
 
 - ,^ ., erandson, Ivan Vasilyevitsch, who first assumed the title of 
 
 Ivan Vasily- » ^ j ■> 
 
 evitschlL Tzar, or ruler of all the Russians, conquered Kasan and 
 
 ^- ^' Astracan, extended his kingdom to the Caucasus, and made 
 
 preparations for the discovery and subjection of Siberia. He 
 
 laid the foundation of a standing army by the establishment of the bri- 
 gade of arquebusiers (Strelitzes). The male line of Ruric 
 became extinct with Ivan's son, Feodor. 
 
 10. MOGULS AND TURKS. 
 
 Zengis-Klian, § 303. In the beginning of the thirteenth century, Zengis- 
 A. D. 1227. Khan (Temudschin), the chief of a warlike nomadic horde, 
 marched forth to conquest from the elevated plains of Middle Asia. He 
 scaled the Chinese wall and subdued the " celestial empire." Neither 
 Hindostan, nor the vast empire of the Carismans on the Caspian Sea and 
 in Persia, could withstand the savage strength of this advancing pastoral 
 tribe. Bochara, Samarcand, and Balch, with all their treasures of art 
 and science, perished in the flames. Zengis-Khan's sons and grandsons 
 pursued his conquests. Batu subdued the lands to the north of the Black 
 Sea, made Russia tributary, burnt Cracow, and filled Poland and Hun- 
 gary with slaughter and desolation. At length, the Moguls (who arg 
 also called Tatars) crossed the Oder ; Breslau was reduced to ashes, 
 
MOGULS AND TURKS. 199 
 
 duke Henry of Lower Silesia fell, with the flower of his Christian war- 
 riors, on the field of battle near Leignitz, beneath the blows of the pagan 
 nomads; the people took refuge in the mountains; the whole West 
 trembled ; the pope and the emperor, engaged in a furious quarrel 
 (§ 236), did nothing towards aiding Christendom. Happily the enemy 
 proceeded no farther. The bravery of the European warriors and the 
 strength of their castles scared them away. They turned back from a 
 land where there were no riches to attract them, and carried their arms 
 against the luxurious khalifate of Bagdad, for which they prepared a 
 bloody end. After the last khalif, with 200,000 Moslems had fallen, and 
 the ancient seat of the empire of the Abassides had been plundered for 
 forty days, the Tatars pressed forward upon Syria, where they destroyed 
 the magnificent Haleb (Aleppo) and Damascus, and trampled the Chris- 
 tian and Arabian culture under the hoofs of their horses. In a few gene- 
 rations, the empire of the Moguls separated into a number of independent 
 states. But the Russians on the east of the Volga still bore for more 
 than two centuries the yoke of the ** Golden Horde," and Hungary and 
 Poland recovered but slowly from their devastations. 
 
 ^Jk)4. Towards the end of the thirteenth century, the Ottomans, 
 pressed upon by the Moguls, left the region they had hitherto occupied, 
 on the east^coast of the Caspian Sea, and descended upon Asia Minor. 
 They were a warlike, nomadic race, professing the Mahommedan reli- 
 gion, and incited by their priests (dervishes) to make war upon the 
 Christians. Othman marched into Bithynia, chose Prusa 
 (Bursa) for the seat of his empire, and maintained his con- 
 quests against the indolent Greeks and their western mercenaries. His 
 successors improved their army by forming the strongest and handsomest 
 youths, whom they selected from their Christian captives, into an efiective 
 Amuratlil. infantry (janissaries), by means of a military education. 
 A- D- After Amurath I. had reduced the whole of Asia Minor 
 
 under his yoke, he passed into Europe, and subjected, in a 
 few campaigns, the whole country between the Hellespont and the 
 Haemu3. Adrianople was taken, embellished with splendid mosques, and 
 selected for the seat of Amurath's government. His son, the energetic 
 but cruel Bajazet, continued the victorious course of his predecessor with 
 Bajazet, ^^^^ success, that he was called the " lightning." He con- 
 
 A. D. quered Macedonia and Thessaly, penetrated through Ther- 
 
 3 9-1403. mopylae into the desolated Greece and Peloponnesus, took 
 Argos by storm, and allowed his swift horsemen to wander to the south- 
 ernmost point of the ancient Laconia. At length, the West armed itself 
 against this terrible enemy. Sigismond of Hungary, John of Burgundy, 
 the flower of the French chivalry, and many German and Bohemian 
 nobles, together more than 100,000 strong, marched to the Lower Danube, 
 But in the bloody battle of Nicopolis, the Christians, despite their valor, 
 
200 THE HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE AGE. 
 
 Buffered a great defeat. Many counts and knights full into tlie hands of 
 the Turks, and only obtained their liberty by a heavy ransom. 10,000 
 prisoners of inferior rank were put to death by the order of Bajazet. 
 
 § 305. The victorious course of this mighty prince was checked by an 
 enemy who trod a more vast and bloodier path than himself. This enemy 
 was the Mogul ruler, Timour the Lame (Tamerlane), a descendant of 
 Zengis-Khan, whose dilapidated kingdom he determined to restore. He 
 left Samarcand, the charmingly situated seat of iiis empire, at the head 
 of his warlike pastoral tribes, for the purpose of subjecting every nation 
 between the wall of China and tie Mediterranean, by the edge of the 
 sword. After he had marched triumphantly through India and Persia, 
 and destroyed Bagdad and Damascus, he filled Asia Minor with desola- 
 tion and terror. Smoke, ruins, and hills of slain marked his victorious 
 path. At this point, Bajazet relinquished the siege of Constantinople, 
 and marched against the conqueror of the world. A fearful 
 battle was fought near Angora (Ancyra), which, despite the 
 valor and conduct of the Turks, terminated to the advantage of the 
 Moguls. Bajazet was taken prisoner, and died the following year of 
 grief. Timour's empire fell to pieces as rapidly as it had been formed. 
 Arauratlill. § ^^^' I^ajazet's grandson, Amurath II., restored the shat- 
 
 A. D. 1421- tered Ottoman kingdom to its ancient strength and former 
 1451. compass in Asia and Europe. He reduced the Byzantine 
 
 empire to the strong chief city and a few neighboring places, and made it 
 tributary. At this juncture, John VII. (Paloeologus), determined to 
 gain the aid of the West, by uniting the Eastern church with the Roman. 
 With this object, he proceeded to Italy, accompanied by the Patriarch 
 and a few bishops, where, after a long and vehement dispute upon 
 certain religious and ecclesiastical questions, an ambiguous union was 
 effected, which, however, was rejected by the zealous confessors of both 
 churches, and the division made greater than before. Nevertheless, the 
 composition w^as attended with this result, that the pope, by his legate, 
 Julian, united the Christian princes in a campaign against the Turks, 
 and in the mean while, attempted to persuade the Hungarians and Poles 
 to an attack upon the Ottoman empire. Ladislaus, king of Hungary and 
 Poland, and the heroic Huniades of Transylvania, crossed the Danube, 
 but were totally defeated in the bloody battle of Warna. 
 
 A. D. 1444. 
 
 The young king was one of the slain ; his head was carried 
 about on a spear ; the legate, Julian, was overtaken by death during the 
 flight. 
 
 § 307. The last hour of the Byzantine empire was approaching, when, 
 upon the death of Amurath II., his energetic but bloodthirsty son, 
 Mohammed Mohammed II., became sultan of the Ottomans. Resolved 
 II., A. D. upon making Constantinople the seat of his government, he 
 
 1451-1481. advanced to the siege of the city, and harrassed it for fifty 
 
MOGULS AND TURKS. 201 
 
 days by repeated assaults to such a degree, that, despite a gallant defence, 
 it could hold out no longer. When the walls were scaled, the last empe- 
 ror, Constantine, who still possessed some feeling for the old Roman 
 greatness — for freedom, for religion, and for his country, — joined in the 
 comhat, and fell bravely fighting on the walls of his capital. The ancient 
 Beat of Byzantine magnificence became the residence of the sultan. The 
 church of St. Sophia was turned into a mosque, and the half-moon of 
 Islam was planted on the ruins of Christian civilization. Many learned 
 men fled in terror to the West, and were instrumental in diffusing the 
 Greek language and literature. The fall orConstantinople was followed 
 by the conquest of Greece and the Morea (Peloponnesus), and the sub- 
 jection of the countries on the Danube ; it was only in the mountainous 
 regions of Albania and Epirus, that the warlike hero, Alexander Castriota 
 A. D. 1467. (Scanderbeg), maintained an independent authority till his 
 death, whilst the independence of Hungary was secured by 
 Maff^ficent ^^® victory of Huniades at Belgrade. But under Solyman 
 A. D. 1520- the Magnificent, who wrested the island of Rhodes (§ 227) 
 1606. from the knights of St. John, after a most gallant resistance, 
 
 the half of Hungary, together with Buda, fell, after the terrible battle of 
 JMohacs, into the bands of the Ottomans, who now extended 
 their ravages to the walls of Vienna, and alarmed the whole 
 West. It was under Solyman that the Turkish empire attained its most 
 extended limits and its greatest internal strength. In Asia, it embraced 
 Syria and the whofc country as far as the Tigris ; in Africa, Egypt, with 
 the sea-coast, and the piratical states of Algiers, Tunis, and Tripolis. 
 ,^ ^ After Solyman, who died at an advanced age before Si^reth, 
 
 A. D. 1566. ./ ' o o ' 
 
 in Hungary, (in defence of which the magnanimous Zriny 
 met with the death of a hero), the warlike power of the Turks gradually 
 decayed under the exhausting influence of debauchery and sensual indul- 
 gence. 
 
BOOK THIRD. 
 
 THE MODERN EPOCH. 
 
 ^ < 
 
 1. THE EORERUNNEES OF THE MODERN EPOCH. 
 
 1. THE SEA PASSAGE TO THE EAST INDIES, AND THE DISCOVERT OH 
 
 AMERICA. 
 
 § 308. In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, many great inven- 
 tions began to be applied, by which the condition of the middle ages 
 experienced a complete revolution. An Italian, Flavio Gioja, prepared 
 a compass by means of the magnetic needle, by which a mighty impulse 
 was given to navigation ; gunpowder, which, according to some, was the 
 invention of a German monk, Berthold Schwarz, and in the opinion of 
 others, had been known at a remote period by the Chinese and Arabians, 
 came into use in the middle of the fourteenth century, and prepared the 
 downfall of chivalry. But the invention w^hich was most 
 fertile in results was the art of printing, which was called 
 into existence by John Guttenburg of Mayence. His assistants in the 
 work, who alone derived any advantage from the discovery, were Fust or 
 Faust, a goldsmith of Mayence, and Peter SchoefTer, a writer of books. 
 The latter introduced types of metal in place of the wooden ones which 
 Guttenburg had employed. At first, the art was kept secret ; but it was 
 carried by German workmen into all the countries of civilized Europe. 
 By this means, books, which had hitherto been only attainable by the 
 rich, came into the hands of the people, inasmuch as their cost was ma- 
 terially lessened by the ease with which they were multiplied. 
 
 § 309. By the use of the compass, it became possible to extend 
 navigation, which had hitherto been confined to the coast and the Medi- 
 terranean, over the ocean. This was first done by the Portuguese. The 
 discovery of the islands of Porto Santo and Madeira, where the culture 
 of the vine and sugar-cane succeeded admirably, was soon followed by the 
 possession of the Azores and by the discovery of the Cape de Verd and 
 
MARITIME DISCOVERIES. 203 
 
 the coast of Upper Guinea, rich in gold dust, ivory, gum, and Necrro 
 slaves. Lower Guinea (Congo) was also discovered in the reign of king 
 John II. It was from this point that the daring Bartholo- 
 mew Dias reached the southern extremity of Africa, the 
 original name of ,^iefa, " the Cape of Storms," was soon changed by the 
 ganguine king>.irit^Wlt of "the Cape of Good Hope." Eleven years 
 afterwards (14:9Y)i^BPinterprising Vasco da Gama discovered from this 
 point, in the reig^^f Emmanuel the Great, the sea passage to the East 
 Indies, when he sailed from the east coast of Africa over the Indian Ocean 
 to the coast of Malabar, and entered the haven of Calicut. It was here 
 that the Portuguese, after some sharp encounters with the natives, esta- 
 blished the first European commercial colony, — an undertaking which 
 they completed with perseverance and courage. 
 
 After Vasco da Gama and Cabral (who discovered Brazil during the 
 passage, [a. d. 1500], and took possession of it for Portugal), came the 
 gallant Almeida, who reduced many of the Indian princes to pay tribute 
 and compelled them to submit to the establishment of factories in their 
 chief cities. After he had been killed by the wild Hottentots on his re- 
 turn, Albuquerque, in whom heroic courage was united with wisdom, 
 received the governorship of India. He conquered Goa, 
 ^' ^' ' and made it the capital of the Indian colony ; he stormed 
 Malacca, the emponum of the trade of Father India, reduced the ruler 
 of Ormuz in the Gulf of Persia to subjection, and caused the name of 
 Emmanuel to be feared and respected. But the latter rewarded his 
 fiiithful servant with ingratitude ; and grief at this broke the hero's heart. 
 During' the next ten years, the Portuguese established colo- 
 
 A D 1515 nl ' o 
 
 nies and factories on the island of Ceylon, and the coast of 
 Coromandel, and subjected the spice-bearing Molucca and Sunda islands. 
 Lisbon became the seat of the commerce of the world; but avarice and 
 selfishness soon stifled the nobler emotions in the hearts of the Portu- 
 guese. 
 
 § 310. The zeal for discovery, which was awakened by the enterprises 
 of the Portuguese, inspired the bold Genoese, Christopher Columbus 
 (Colon), with the thought of discovering a new way to the vaunted In- 
 dies, by a w^estern passage. He imparted his project to his native city, 
 Genoa, and begged for support ; but there, as well as by the Portuguese 
 and English, he was refused. At length, Isabella of Castile, in the joy 
 of her heart at the fortunate conquest of Granada, allowed herself to be 
 persuaded to fit out three vessels, and to intrust them to the bold voya- 
 ger. The title of Great Admiral and Viceroy of all the lands and 
 islands that should be discovered, and a tenth part of the revenue that 
 might be expected to be received from them, were promised to himself 
 and his posterity, as the reward of his success. On the 3d of August, 
 1492, the little fleet left the Andalusian harbor of Palos, and passed the 
 
204 THE MODERN EPOCH. 
 
 Canary islands, sailing constantly to the westward. The fear and anxie- 
 ty of the seamen increased with the distance they traversed, and at 
 length broke into murmuring and open mutiny. The crew were already 
 threatening their magnanimous leader with death unless he returned, 
 when the discovery of the island Guanahani (since then called St. Sal- 
 vador), on the 12th of October, saved him. They found a beautiful and 
 fruitful country, with naked copper-colored savages, who looked on with- 
 out the slightest suspicion, whilst their land was taken possession of iu 
 the names of the royal pair of Spain, and who exchanged their goods 
 for toys and spangles ; but the anticipated treasures in gold, precious 
 stones, and pearls, were not met with in the abundance that was hoped 
 for, either here or on the two larger islands of Cuba and Hayti (His- 
 paniola, St. Domingo), which were shortly afterwards discovered. After 
 Columbus had established a colony on Hispaniola, he returned to Spain, 
 and after a dangerous voyage, brought back to astonished Europe the in- 
 telligence of a new world, which, in consequence of the original error, 
 received the name of the West Indies. In the course of his three fol- 
 lowing voyages, Columbus discovered more islands (for example, Jamai- 
 ca), and at length, also, the north-east coast of South America, not far 
 from the mouth of the Oronoco. But this new portion of the world did 
 not bear the name of its discoverer, but that of its describer, the Flor- 
 entine, Amerigo Vespucci. Columbus shared the lot of many other 
 great men ; he was not permitted to enjoy the fruits of his labors. The 
 colony that had been left behind in Hispaniola had fallen into confusion, 
 in consequence of quarrels among themselves and with the natives. 
 When Columbus, for the purpose of restoring order, wished to punish 
 some of the most licentious disturbers of peace, the latter made an accu- 
 sation against him at the Spanish court. Hereupon, king Ferdinand 
 sent a narrow-minded official to make inquiries, who commenced his un- 
 dertaking by depriving Columbus of his governorship, and ordering him 
 to be carried in fetters to Spain. Here he was indeed released from his 
 chains, but nothing was thought about the fulfilment of the stipulated 
 contract. Columbus, deprived of his offices and dignities, died, 
 shortly after another and unfortunate voyage, in Valladolid, 
 whence his dead body was afterwards carried to Cuba. The fetters in 
 which he had been brought bound to Spain, were placed with him in his 
 grave, by his son Diego. 
 
 § 311. A new spirit of heroism had been awakened by Columbus; all 
 courageous men who were acquainted with the sea went forth to make 
 discoveries. Who could wish to remain idle when so rich a field for 
 gold, renown, and ambition stood open ? The hardy and enterprising 
 Balboa surmounted the rocky isthmus of Panama under in- 
 credible difficulties, and discovered the Pacific Ocean. The 
 Portuguese Magelhaens, sailed through the straits, named after him, into 
 
CONQUEST OF MEXICO AXD PERU. 205 
 
 the Pacific, reached the East India islands, after enduring the extremities 
 of famine, and thus made the first voyage round th^ world. Both died vio- 
 lent deaths, the former by order of Davila, governor of Darien, the latter 
 by the hand of an assassin on the Philippines. 
 A D w^o ^^^ most remarkable event, however, was the discovery 
 
 and conquest of Mexico by Ferdinand Cortez. The contest 
 A. D. 1521. here carried on was not with savages, but with a people who 
 dwelt in towns, exercised arts and trade, clothed themselves in cotton 
 stuffs, and lived under a regular system of government, with a king, a 
 rich nobility, and a powerful priesthood. With 500 valiant Spaniards, 
 who were accompanied by a few native tribes (the Tlascalans) as allies, 
 Cortez subjected a populous nation, who w^ere deficient neither in warlike 
 spirit nor patriotism, took their king, Montezuma, prisoner in his own 
 palace, and conquered the chief city, Mexico. The frightful effects of 
 the thundering ordnance, the stately cavalry, the splendor of the Euro 
 pean military accoutrements, engendered a notion among the natives, that 
 the Spaniards must be a higher order of beings, whom it was impossible 
 for them, with their feeble strength and miserable weapons (iron was 
 unknown to them), to withstand. "Within two years, Cortez conquered 
 the land, and put an end to the horrible idol-worship, in which thousands 
 of men were every year offered in sacrifice; but he was prevented by the 
 suspicious government from establishing a new and regulated system. 
 He was recalled, and died forgotten in Spain, A. D. 1547. 
 A. D. 1529- AVith still smaller means than Cortez, Pizarro and Alma- 
 
 1535. gro, men of great courage and enterprise, but without culti- 
 
 vation, and governed by selfishness and the coarser passions, effe^ed the 
 conquest of the golden land of Peru. The Peruvians, ruled over by the 
 rich royal race of Incas, were a civilized nation of mild character, un- 
 stained by the frightful idolatry of the Mexicans, but also devoid of their 
 military virtue. A contest for the throne among the royal family facili- 
 tated the conquest of the land by the Spaniards. After the cruel Pizarro 
 liad made himself master of the king, and, despite his promise to set him 
 free in re*urn for an enormous mass of gold, ordered him to be executed, 
 he subjected the beautiful land which abounded in the precious metals, 
 A. D. 1535- and founded the new capital, Lima. Francis Pizarro and 
 1538. his brother soon quarrelled with Almagro (who in the mean 
 
 time had discovered Chili), and they turned their arms against each other. 
 Almagro was overcome and beheaded, but his son avenged the death of 
 his father on Francis Pizarro. The land w^as reduced to the brink of 
 destruction by the wild rage of the discoverers. At this crisis, Charles 
 V. sent a wise and prudent priest, Gasca, as governor to Peru : Gasca 
 1548 subdued the rebellious troops, had the last Pizarro hung on 
 
 the gallows, and then arranged the state anew. 
 § 312. Much as we may admire the heroic courage and the enterprise 
 18 
 
206 THE MODERN EPOCH. 
 
 ing spirit displayed by Europeans in the conquest of the New World, 
 wo must equally deplore the severity and avarice which impelled them 
 to the most cruel ill-usage of the natives. Those who escaped from the 
 sword, the destructive effects of gunpowder, and the multiplied diseases, 
 were mercilessly destroyed by severe labors. They were compelled to 
 take care of the plantations which the conquerors made on their pro- 
 perty, to dig in the gold and silver mines which were opened in their 
 country, and to carry burdens for which their feeble bodies were not 
 fitted. It was in vain that well-meaning priests, who attempted as mis- 
 sionaries to bring Christianity to the savages, preached kindness and 
 humanity, — selfishness hardened the hearts of the Europeans and ren- 
 dered tliem insensible to the teaching of the Gospel ; and when at length 
 the noble priest Las Casas, with the purpose of lightening the lot of the 
 Indians, recommended the more robust African negro for the severe 
 labors of the plantations, this gave occasion to the horrible slave-trade, 
 which was a curse upon the black population, without preventing the 
 gradual extinction of the copper-colored native. The discovery of the 
 New World and the introduction of American productions were attended 
 with vast results on the European manners and mode of living. Have 
 not colonial wares, coffee, sugar, tobacco, &c., since they have been in 
 general use, become indispensable necessaries ? Do not potatoes, which 
 we received from thence, form the most important part of the food of the 
 people ? What influence has not the increased quantity of the precious 
 metals, which the mines of Peru have yielded, exercised upon all the rela- 
 tions of life and upon the value of property ? The natural sciences and 
 geograjphy have been so enriched, that since then they have had an 
 entirely different aspect. Trade also took a different direction: — as 
 formerly the Italian trading towns, so now the western states, Portu- 
 gal, Spain, the Netherlands, and, somewhat later, England, became 
 the centre of commerce and the seat of wealth. But as both the for- 
 mer fettered their trade from its very commencement, and excluded other 
 nations from their colonies, the season of their prosperity was but 
 transient. 
 
 2. THE REVIVAL OF THE ARTS AND SCIENCES. 
 
 § 313. In the fifteenth century, Italy was the central point of Western 
 civilization ; many splendid courts and opulent cities contended for the 
 glory of becoming patrons of the arts and sciences. The Medici in Flo- 
 rence (§ 288, 289), and several popes, caused manuscripts to be pur- 
 chased, and founded libraries and academies ; the printing establishments 
 which arose in all quarters came to the assistance of their efforts. At 
 first, attention was exclusively directed to the Latin language and Utera- 
 ture ; but when, after the taking of Constantinople by the Turks, many 
 of the learned men of Byzantium took refuge in Italy Greek also came 
 
THE REVIVAL OF THE ARTS AND SCIENCES. 207 
 
 into fashion. Dictionaries and grammars were compiled ; the compre- 
 hension of the ancient authors was facilitated by commentaries and trans- 
 lations, and a classical Latin style became the distinguishing mark of an 
 educated man. The next consequence of the revival of classical studies 
 was the establishment of fresh seminaries of education, iSrst, in Italy, and 
 afterwards, in the other countries of Europe. Many universities, gymna- 
 siums, and educational establishments of all sorts arose, especially in Ger- 
 many, which had long maintained a close intercourse with Italy ; and 
 many learned men, as John Reuchlin from Pforzheim (a. d. 1521), 
 Erasmus of Rotterdam (a. d. 153G), and Ulrick of Ilutten (a. d. 1523), 
 rivalled the great Italians in the knowledge of the Greek and Latin lan- 
 guages and of science. The friends of the new culture were called Hu- 
 manists ; their opponents, the supporters of the scholastic wisdom of the 
 middle ages, and above all others, the Dominicans, were named Obscu- 
 rantists. The Humanists of all countries were connected with one 
 another. Latin, then the universal language of all learned and educated 
 men, and a rapid interchange of letters, which supplied the place of news- 
 papers, facilitated this intercourse. The contest between the new culture 
 and the Obscurantists, with tlieir barbarous Latin, reached its liighest 
 point in the dispute which was conducted by Reuchlin with the Domini- 
 cans of Cologne. The latter wished to burn all the Hebrew books, 
 because they were supposed to contain blasphemies against Jesus Christ. 
 Reuchlin, who was appointed umpire in the matter by the emperor, de- 
 clared the charge to be untrue, and opposed himself to the design. This 
 so enraged the monks, that they accused Reuchlin of heresy, openly burnt 
 one of his works, and condemned the study of the Greek and Hebrew 
 languages. This produced a literary war, in which all the friends of 
 education took the part of Reuchlin, and the cause of the Humanists 
 obtained a complete triumph. The pope at length put an end to the con- 
 test : the Dominicans were condemned to pay the costs of the process ; 
 and when they delayed to do this, they were forced to discharge their 
 obligations by Francis Sickingen. From the crowd that assembled 
 itself around Reuchlin, proceeded the Ejyistolce ohscurorum virorurrif 
 which are said to have been chiefly the production of Ulrick von Hutten. 
 In these letters, the proceedings and stupid insolence of the monks are 
 faithfully but satirically displayed in their own barbarous Latin. Hutten, 
 one of the boldest and most powerful advocates of Germany's freedom 
 and independence, died, persecuted and a fugitive, on the island of Uflfiau 
 in the lake of Zurich, in the 36th year of his life. Erasmus of Rotterdam, 
 an elegant scholar in ancient literature, fought, with all the weapons of 
 wit and intellect, against schoolmen and monks. Among his numerous 
 works, the most important are The Praise of Folly, — a satirical compo- 
 sition, and an edition of the New Testament in the original Greek text, 
 with a Latin translation and paraphrase. At first, a friend of Luther 
 
208 THE MODERN EPOCH. 
 
 and Hutten, lie afterwards turned from them and opposed them in vehe- 
 ment controversial writings. 
 
 II. THE TIME OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 1. THE GERMAN REFORMATION. 
 «. DR. MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 § 314. The cry that passed through Europe in the fifteenth century, 
 for a reformation of the Church both in its head and members, had 
 remained unheeded by the popes; and the great ecclesiastical synods 
 (§ 264, 266) had been followed by no results. The Church had refused 
 the voluntary self-purification that had been required of her, and turned 
 a deaf ear to the voice of the people. Since then, the abuses had not 
 been diminished. The court of Rome derived a vast revenue from the 
 churches of other countries ; the lower clergy were lazy, immoral, and 
 ignorant, and took little or no interest in the new culture and the impulse 
 that had been produced by it ; the higher clergy led an entirely worldly 
 life, found their enjoyment in sensual indulgences and princely magnifi- 
 cence, and in the study of works of art and literature, and of the philo- 
 sophy of heathen antiquity, frequently lost sight of the doctrines of the 
 Gospel. Nothing but an impulse was wanting to unite the dissatisfied 
 members of the Church in a mighty opposition. This impulse was given 
 by Pope Leo X. For the purpose of defraying the expenses of the 
 erection of the church of St. Peter, and of other works of art, Leo offered 
 an indulgence for sale, through the Elector, Albert of Mayence, in which 
 forgiveness of sins, reattainment of God's grace, and remission from the 
 punishments of purgatory, were assured to the purchaser. Albert,' who 
 received one half of the profits, employed in Saxony the Dominican monk 
 Tetzel, in the sale, who went so audaciously to work, that the Augustine 
 monk, Dr. Martin Luther, who saw that real penitence and respect for 
 the confessional were thereby endangered, felt himself compelled to affix 
 ninety-five theses to the castle church at Wittenberg, on the eve of All- 
 Saints, with the offer to defend them against any one. In these, he con- 
 tesfed the efficacy of absolution without repentance, and denied the power 
 of the pope to grant remission of sins to any except the penitent. 
 
 § 315. Martin Luther was born on the 10th of November, 1483. Des- 
 tined to study by his father, a respectable miner, he had devoted himself 
 to jurisprudence, for four years, in Erfurt, when anxiety for the salvation 
 of his soul, and the sudden death of a friend during a heavy thunder- 
 storm, determined him to enter a cloister. He once more entertained 
 
THE GERMAN REFORMATION. 209 
 
 himself among his friends with cheerful singing, music, and wine, and 
 then shut himself up in the silent cell of an Augustine monastery at 
 Erfurt. He here submitted himself to all the duties and servile offices 
 of a mendicant monk, but without thereby obtaining alleviation of hia 
 melanclioly, or of the sufferings of his soul. It was not until he arrived 
 at the conviction that man can only be saved, not by his own works, 
 but by the mercy of God in Christ, that his heart found repose. By 
 the recommendation of the chief of the order, Staupitz, Luther was 
 summoned to Wittenberg, in 1508, to give lectures in the University 
 newly established by Frederick the Wise. He had attended with 
 great diligence to his duties as teacher, preacher, and pastor of souls, 
 when he was now called by Providence to a more extended sphere of 
 exertion. 
 
 § 316. This bold stepping forward of Luther, in whom a deep reli- 
 gious earnestness was not to be mistaken, found great sympathy in the 
 whole of Germany. A summons was soon issued to him to come and 
 defend himself in Rome ; but upon the intercession of the Elector of 
 Saxony, who was favorably disposed to the reformer, the papal nuncio, 
 Cajetanus, undertook the examination in Augsburg. Luther, provided 
 with a safe conduct, appeared in a poor plight at Augsburg : the proud 
 Dominican thought to refute the humble monk by his theological learn- 
 ing ; but Luther displayed more depth and reading than the former had 
 given him credit for. After a short disputation, Cajetan commandtMl him 
 to be gone, and not to appear again before him till he (Cajetan) should 
 call him. After drawing up an appeal to the pope better informed^ 
 Luther fled hastily from Augsburg during the night. It was in vain 
 that Cajetan required the Elector either to send the audacious preacher to 
 Rome, or at least to banish him from his states. Frederick replied, that 
 Luther's wish to be brought before an imi)artial tribunal appeared to him 
 to be reasonable. This protection of the Elector was of the more impor- 
 tance to Luther, as the former, since the death of the emperor Maxi- 
 mihan, was conducting the government, until the princes could agree 
 respecting a fresh elections. For as the pope wished to exercise an influ- 
 ence on the election of emperor, he attempted to gain over the Electors to 
 his own side. He sent his chamberhiin, Miltitz, an adroit Saxon noble- 
 man, with a golden rose, to Wittenberg. He was commissioned at the 
 same time to dissuade Luther from farther proceedings against the 
 Church. Luther promised to let the contest drop if the trade in indul- 
 gences was put a stop to, and silence imposed upon his adversaries as 
 well as on himself; and to prove his sincerity, he required, in one of his 
 writings, every man to give respect and obedience to the Roman Church, 
 and assured the pope, in a humble letter, that it had never been hia 
 intention to attack the privileges of the Roman chair. 
 
 § 317. But the wished-for reconciliation did not take place. John von 
 18* 
 
210 THE MODERN EPOCH. 
 
 Eck (Eckius), professor in Ingolstadt, a learned man and skilful in argu- 
 ment, had a disputation with Luther in Leipsic. Here 
 
 June, 1519. -r , . 1 , o ..-.,, 
 
 Liuther, m the heat or controversy, mamtained that the 
 
 bishop of Rome had become the head of the Church, not by the ordi- 
 nation of Jesus, but by human arrangements made centuries later, and 
 threw doubts upon the infallibility of popes and councils. Irritated at 
 this audacity, Eckius at once composed a learned book, in which he 
 attempted to prove that the papacy was derived from Christ himself 
 through Peter, and that, consequently, it must be a Divine institution. 
 Eckius hastened to Rome with this book, and procured a 
 Bull, in which a succession of Luther's doctrines were con- 
 demned as heretical, his writings sentenced to be burnt, and he himself 
 threatened with excommunication unless he recanted within sixty days. 
 This proceeding of the Roman court, which condemned the German 
 reformer upon the accusation of an opponent, without so much as hear- 
 ing his defence, was disapproved of by all Germany. The Bull of 
 excommunication, which was made known by Eckius, produced, there- 
 fore, very little effect ; it was only in Cologne, Mayence, and Louvain, 
 that the order for burning Luther's writings was carried into effect ; the 
 Bull was not even admitted into Saxony. By so much the greater was 
 the effect of some vigorous pamphlets of Luther, " To the Christian 
 Nobles of the German nation," and " On the Babylonian Captivity and 
 Christian Freedom," in which he exposed without reserve the abuses and 
 failings of the existing Church, and demanded their removid. Encouraged 
 by the enthusiasm with which these writings were received, and the cry 
 for freedom that resounded through the German nation, Luther now ven- 
 tured to take a step that separated him by an impenetrable gulf from 
 the Romish Church. He proceeded, at the head of all the students, to 
 December 10, the Elster gate of Wittenberg, and there cast the Bull of ex- 
 1520. communication, together with the canons and decretals of the 
 
 Church, into the flames. 
 
 § 318. In the mean time, Maximilian's grandson, Charles Y. of Spain 
 and Burgundy (§ 294), was elexited emperor* of Germany, and his first 
 undertaking was to be an arrangement of the contentions of the Church, 
 lie appointed a diet at Worms, and ordered Luther, under the assurance 
 of a safe conduct, to appear. Full of courage and confidence in God, but 
 not without fear of experiencing the fate of Huss (§ 264), Luther 
 arrived at Worms in the midst of the sympathizing crowd that was 
 streaming thither. The splendid assembly, in which, besides the emperor 
 and the papal ambassador (Alexander), there were present many princes, 
 nobles, prelates, and deputies from the states, at first disconcerted him. 
 When called upon to recant, he begged till the following day for consi- 
 deration. At his second appearance, he had recovered the whole of his 
 strength and resolution. He declared himself, freely and openly, to be 
 
THE GERMAN REFORMATION. 211 
 
 the author of the writings that were produced before him ; rejected the 
 invitation to recant, with the words " That so long as he should not be 
 convinced out of the Holy Scriptures that he was in error, he could not 
 and would not retract, for that his conscience was imprisoned in God's 
 Word ;" and concluded with the exclamation, " Here I stand, I can take 
 no other course ; God help me. Amen." All attempts to induce him to 
 soften this declaration failed ; yet no violent proceeding was ventured 
 upon. Luther departed in safety ; many princes and members of the 
 diet did the same ; then, the ban of the empire was first uttered against 
 Luther and his adherents, and his writings condemned to the flames. 
 Charles V., at this time in more close alliance with the pope, was deter- 
 mined to exterminate heresy. But Luther was already secure. During 
 his return home, the Elector Frederick had him seized upon, and carried 
 as a prisoner to the castle of "Wartburg, under the title of Bitter George. 
 He lived here nearly a year ; at first, he was lamented by his friends, 
 till some bold fugitive pieces, and an angry letter against Albert of May- 
 ence, who was again practising the sale of indulgences, convinced them 
 that he was still alive and active. Albert repented, and discontinued the 
 traffic. 
 
 § 319. "Whilst Luther, although troubled by sickness and melancholy, 
 was leading an active life at the Wartburg, proceedings calculated to 
 disturb tranquillity arose in Wittenberg, which were not repressed with 
 sufficient earnestness by the pious and peace-loving Elector. Dr. Carl- 
 stadt, a man of confused mind and unsettled in his principles, abolished 
 the mass, extended the cup to the laity, and exercised his zeal against 
 images and ceremonies. He was soon joined by the so-called Zurickhauer 
 prophets, — men without education, and under the dominion of fanatical 
 feelings, — who declaimed against the baptism of infants, insisted upon 
 the robaptism of adults (hence called Anabaptists), and believed in im- 
 mediate inspirations from God. Images, and the garments used in the 
 celebration of the mass, were destroyed in some churches, monks fled 
 from their cloisters, and confusion took possession of men's minds. Lu- 
 ther was no. longer at peace in the castle of Wartburg. He hastened to 
 Wittenberg, preached daily for a week against the overhasty 
 and uncharitable innovations, dismissed the Zurickhauer fa- 
 natics, and won men's minds to a peaceable development of the Reforma- 
 tion. Wittenberg now became the centre of German culture. It was 
 here that Philip Melancthon of Bretten, who, when a youth of twenty, 
 had already fathomed the depths of learning, and by whose means the 
 Saxon schools and church attained a high degree of prosperity, labored 
 by the side of Luther. Luther's impetuous and boisterous energy was 
 well fitted to pluck down, whilst Melancthon's mild and yielding nature 
 was adapted to the work of restoration ; and, as Melancthon, the great 
 adept in, and promoter of, humane studies, sought, by his learned Latin 
 
212 THE MODERN EPOCH. 
 
 writings to establish the new Church doctrines on a scientific basis, so 
 Luther won the hearts of the people by his German writings and songs, 
 and especially by his translation of the Bible. This Lutheran Bible, 
 which was begim in the castle of Wartburg and finished in "Wittenberg, 
 after careful consultation with his friends, appeared completed in 1534, 
 a master-piece of the German language and of the German spirit. 
 
 § 320. The new doctrine soon spread beyond the limits of Saxony. 
 Besides the Elector of Saxony, the energetic landgrave, Philip of Hesse, 
 the founder of the university of Marburg, was, in particular, a zealous 
 promoter of the Gospel. But it was the educated burghers of the imf)e- 
 rial cities who distinguished themselves beyond all others by their zeal. 
 The assembled people would often, of their own accord, set up a psalm or 
 a hymn, and by this means gave an impulse to the abolishing of the 
 mass. Where the church was denied to the evangelically-minded people, 
 they held their devotions in the open air, in, fields and meadows ; and 
 where religious motives were not sufficiently powerful, there the view of 
 the Church property and worldly advantages helped out what was want- 
 ing. The whole of Germany appeared to be hurried away in this 
 church movement, and a national Church, independent of Rome, to 
 spring up from it. But the pope won over Ferdinand of 
 Austria, the duke of Bavaria, and several South-German 
 bishops, to the alliance of Regensburg, in which they vowed mutually to 
 support each other, and to exclude the innovations of Wittenberg from 
 their dominions. Thus were the seeds of an unhappy division spread 
 abroad in Germany at the very moment when the freedom and inde 
 pendence of the nation was the aspiration of her noblest spirits. 
 
 I. THE PEASANT WAR. 
 
 § 321. The general call to freedom and independence, that, since Lu- 
 ther's appearance, had resounded through all Germany, filled the peasants 
 with the hope of alleviating their condition by their own exertions. In 
 this way originated the peasant war. At first, patriotically disposed 
 men, like Sickingen and Hutten, appeared to wish to place themselves at 
 the head of the movement, and to carry through the renovation of Ger« 
 many, both in state and Church, by the sword. But Sickingen's early 
 death during the siege of his castle of Landstuhl, and Hutten's flight, de- 
 layed the outbreak, and robbed it of plan and proportion. The fanatical 
 discourses of the fickle Anabaptist, Thomas Miinzer, who talked of 
 abolishing temporal and spiritual power, and of setting up a heavenly 
 kingdom where all men should be equal, and every distinction between 
 rich and poor, noble and base, should disappear, confused the understand- 
 ings of the excited peasants. It was not long before the people, from 
 the Boden Lake to Dreisam, assembled themselves around Hans Miiller 
 of Bulgenbach, who had formerly been a soldier. He marched in a red 
 
THE PEASANT WAR. 213 
 
 mantle and cap from village to village, at the head of his followers. The 
 chief banner was borne behind him on a carriage decorated with boughs 
 and ribbons. They carried twelve articles with them, the importance of 
 which they were ready to maintain with their swords. By these arti- 
 cles, they demanded the liberty of hunting, fishing, cutting wood, &c.; 
 the abolition of serfdom, soccage duties, and tithes ; the right of choosing 
 their own ministers ; and the free preaching of the Gospel. Their ex- 
 ample was soon followed by the peasants m the Odenwald, and by those 
 on the Neckar and in Franconia, under the conduct of the audadous pub- 
 lican, George Metzler. They compiled the counts of liohenlohe, Low- 
 enstein, Wertheim, Gemmingen, th^superiors of the German Order in 
 Mergentheim, and others to accept the articles, and to concede the privi- 
 leges demanded, to their subjects; whoever dared to resist them, as count 
 Helfenstein von Weinsberg, was put to a cruel death. They marched 
 through the land burning and devastating ; they destroyed the monaste- 
 ries and castles, and took a bloody revenge on their oppressors and ad- 
 versaries. Under the conduct of brave knights, like Florian Geier and 
 Gotz von Berlichingen ofthe Iron Hand, tliey penetrated into Wurzburg, 
 whilst other bands ravaged the lands of Baden. The insurrection soon 
 extended itself over the whole of Swabia, Franconia, Alsacia, and the 
 lands of the Rhine. The spiritual and tem|)oral princes became alarmed, 
 and conceded a part of the demands of the irritated peasants. In Thu- 
 ringia and the Ilarz, the revolt assumed more of a religious character. 
 In Muhlhausen, Thomas Munzer had acquired great respect and the 
 reputation of a prophet. lie rejected Luther's moderate views, girded 
 himself with the sword of Gideon, and wished to establish a Divine 
 kingdom, the members of which should be all free and equal. The peo- 
 ple, excited by his preaching, destroyed castles, monasteries, and the me- 
 morials of antiquity, in their barbarous fury. 
 
 § 322. In the commencement, before the insurrection had yet assumed 
 so formidable an aspect, Luther attempted to restore peace : he represent- 
 ed to the nobles and princes that they had been guilty of acts of vio- 
 lence ; and at the same time, exhorted the peasants to refrain from rebel- 
 lion. But when the danger increased, when temporal and spiritual 
 things were mingled together, he published a forcible tract "against the 
 plundering and bloodthirsty peasants," in which he called upon the magis- 
 trates to attack them with the sword, and to show them no sort of mercy. 
 Upon this, the nobles and knights assembled themselves from all quarters 
 against the rebels. The elector John of Saxony, the landgrave Philip 
 of Hesse, and others, marched into Thuringia and won an easy victory, 
 by means of their artillery, over Thomas Munzer and his half-armed 
 peasants. A place of execution w^as set up before Muhlhausen, on which 
 the Thuringian "prophet" was put to a bloody death after undergoing 
 frightful toi'tures. 
 
214 THE MODERN EPOCH. 
 
 Truchsess of Waldburg, captain of the Swabian league, restored peace 
 m Swabia, and then marched, in conjunction with the Elector of the Pa- 
 latinate and the warlike archbishop of Treves, against the bands of Fran- 
 conia, who were besieging the strong castle of Wurzburg. Here, again, 
 superior military skill and better arms triumphed over the disorderly 
 crowd. The insurgents, after a short defence, betook themselves to a 
 headlong flight, in which most of them were killed; the prisoners were 
 put to death, and a severe punishment inflicted on the citizens of tha 
 Franconian towns, who had sided with the rebels. The axe of the execu- 
 tioner was long busy in Wurzburg. The same was the case in Alsacia, 
 and the Middle Rhine-land, and als^ie Black Forest, and at the sources 
 of the Danube, where the insurrection had lasted longest. At length, 
 Truchsess of Waldburg and the renowned condottiere, George of Frends- 
 berg, succeeded, by dint of severity, in restoring order. In the majo- 
 rity of places, the peasants were again oppressed wdth all their for- 
 mer burdens, and in many spots the cry was loudly echoed, " If they 
 have formerly been chastised with rods, they -h?\\ now be scourged w4th 
 scorpions." 
 
 C. THE PROTESTATION AND THE COIsFESSION OF AUGSBURG. 
 
 § 323. The new Church g|^w stronger and stronger in the midst of 
 battles and disturbances, and Luther's energy increased with oppo- 
 sition. He left the cloister of the Augustines in 1524, and, in the fol- 
 lowing year, married Catherine of Bora, who had been formerly a nun. 
 Surrounded by a circle of sincere friends, and by his brothers in office, 
 he now led the life of domestic happiness which w^as so w^ell suited to his 
 disposition. His energy and "cheerful confidence in God were neither 
 broken nor disturbed by his poverty, or the repeated attacks of illness he 
 experienced. By his two Catechisms he laid the foundation of a uniform 
 confession of faith, and of a better religious education. Melancthon, 
 upon whom the Elector, about this time, devolved the troublesome task of 
 holding a general visitation of the churches all over Saxony, w^as not less 
 active. The Eeformation made such advances by the united efforts oi 
 these two men, that the Catholic princes, both temporal and spiritual, 
 became alarmed. They therefore passed a resolution at the diet of Spire, 
 that no farther innovations should be made in religion, that 
 
 A D 1529 
 
 the new doctrines should not be farther disseminated, and that 
 no impediment should be given to the celebration of the mass. It was 
 against this decree of the Diet, by which the Reformation would have 
 been condemned to a fatal pause, that a Protest was entered by many of 
 the princes and imperial towns. It w^as for this reason that they, in com- 
 mon with all those who rejected the authority of the pope and the doc- 
 trines of the Roman Catholic Church, received the name of Protest- 
 ants. As the emperor would not receive the protestation, which was 
 
UI.RIC ZWINGLE. 215 
 
 brought to him in Italy, the protesting princes and towns would at once 
 have arranged a confederacy for their mutual defence, had not Luther 
 and the evangelical theologians, with " a magnanimous scrupulousness/' 
 rejected every defence of the Word of God by worldly weapons. 
 
 § 324. In the following spring, the emperor opened the splendid Diet 
 of Augsburg. It was here that the protesting Estates presented their 
 Confession, which had been drawn up by Melancthon both in the German 
 and Latin languages, and approved of by Luther. In this Confession, 
 they endeavored to show that they had no wish to establish a new Church, 
 but only to purify and restore the old one. This Confession of faith, 
 which was composed with great temperance and clearness, embraced, in 
 the first part, the doctrines of the Reformers, laid down in as close accord- 
 ance as was possible with the faith of the Catholic Church ; and in the 
 second part, the abuses against which the Reformers were contending. 
 After the reading of the Augsburg Confession, the assembly embra- 
 ced the resolution of justifying the doctrines and usages of the Catholic 
 Church by a refutation, and then seeing if it would not be possible to 
 bring about a composition by a conference between men of moderate 
 tempers selected from both parties. But the " Refutation," drawn up by 
 Eckius, Cochlajus, and some others, produced but little effect, owing to 
 the weakness of its arguments, and was entirely overthrown by Melanc- 
 thon's "Apology;" the conference also led to nothing, since both the 
 pope and Luther, who, during the Diet, had remained at Coburg, were 
 averse to any further concessions. It seemed that the unity of the Church 
 could be only restored by the sword. The protesting princes and the 
 principal imperial towns rejected the decision of the Diet, by which they 
 were prohibited from extending their doctrine and were proscribed as a 
 sect, and quitted Augsburg. The resolution of the Diet that was deter- 
 mined on after their departure, in which the new sect was threatened 
 wuth a rapid extirpation, and the sentence of excommunication denounced 
 against all those who, within a certain space, should not renounce their 
 arbitrary innovations, alarmed neither the princes, the peace of whose 
 consoien^^es was a matter of higher importance to them than the favor of 
 the empsror, nor the reformer of "Wittenberg, whose confidence and 
 cheerful trust in God was at that time at its height, as is testified by the 
 immortal hymn, " The Lord is a strong castle," which was composed 
 during the storms of those days. 
 
 d. ULRIC ZWINGLE. 
 
 § 325. The Protestant Church of Germany was unhappily, even at 
 this time, divided into the Lutheran and Zwinglian. Ulric Zwingle (born 
 1484), a classically-educated, liberally-minded priest of republican princi- 
 ples, exerted himself zealously as canon of Zurich against the sale of 
 indulgences by the Franciscan monk, Samson; against ecclesiastical 
 
216 THE MODERN EPOCH. 
 
 abuses of all kinds ; and against the custom of the Swiss, of engaging 
 themselves as mercenaries in foreign services. Zwingle, a man of prac- 
 tical understanding, without the religious depth of mind or the disposition 
 of Luther, did not busy himself with the reformation of doctrine and 
 articles of faith, but with the improvement of life and morals. He set 
 about the work also with far less ceremony, inasmuch as he wished to 
 restore primitive Christianity in its simplest form. Having a good under- 
 standing with the chief council of Zurich, he undertook a complete revo- 
 lution of ecclesiastical doctrine and practice, banished all images, crosses, 
 candles, altars, and organs, from the churches, and administered the 
 Lord's Supper, in which he recognized nothing but a token of remem- 
 brance and fellowship, after the manner of the early Christian love-feasts; 
 that is, the communicants received the consecrated elements whilst sit- 
 ting. This latter proceeding entangled Zwingle in a fatal controversy 
 •with Luther. Luther would not receive the words employed in institut- 
 ting the sacrament, " this is my body," in the sense of " this represents 
 my body," as Zwingle explained them, but asserted the bodily presence 
 of Christ in the Lord's Supper. It was in vain that Philip of Hesse 
 attempted to prevent this dangerous division by a disputation at Mar- 
 burg. Luther saw a denial of Christ in the doctrine maintained b/ his 
 opponent, and thrust back the brotherly hand that Zwingle offered him 
 with tears. He also opposed himself to any union with the towns of 
 Upper Germany which had adopted Zwingle's views, so that these pre- 
 sented their own confession of faith to the Aunjsburg Diet. 
 
 § 326. The same disturbances succeeded the appearance of Zwingle 
 in Switzerland as had followed that of Luther in Germany. In Zurich, 
 Basle, Berne, in Schaffhausen, the Rhinethal, and other cantons, the 
 Church was reformed according to the principles of Zwingle ; in Appen- 
 zell, the Grisons, St. Gall, Glarus, and other places, the adherents of the 
 old Church contended with those of the new ; but in the four forest can- 
 tons (Schwitz, Uri, Unterwalden, and Lucerne),' and in Zug, the Catholic 
 faith remained predominant. This was occasioned, in addition to the in- 
 fluence exercised on the simple inhabitants of these original cantons by 
 the monks and clergy, by the circumstance that the engaging in foreign 
 military services, a custom opposed by the Reformers, here formed one 
 of the principal means of support. These five places concluded an alli- 
 ance with Austria, and suppressed every innovation with a strong hand; 
 wliilst Berne and Zurich, on the other hand, afforded their assistance 
 with uncharitable zeal and violence in the frontier towns of the Reform- 
 ation. In this excited state of men's minds, a war was inevitable, particu- 
 larly as Zwingle entertained the project of effecting such a political revo- 
 lution in Switzerland as would give the supremacy to the two most power- 
 ful cantons, Berne and Zurich. Mutual revilings of the clergy, which 
 remained unpunished, increased the irritation and provoked hostilities 
 
THE WARS OF THE HOUSE OF HAPSBURG. 217 
 
 Zurich and Berne blocked up the public roads, and prevented the trans- 
 port of goods and of the necessaries of life. This proceeding enraged the 
 Catholic cantons. They made preparations in secret, and fell upon the 
 people of Zurich. The latter, surprised, irresolute, and forsaken by the 
 Bernese, marched with a troop of 2,000 men against an enemy of four 
 times their number, but sustained a bloody defeat in the 
 battle of Kappel. The courageous Zwingle, who had march- 
 ed with them as field preacher, fell beside the banner of the city, and 
 with him fell the staunchcst friends of the Reformation. His dead body, 
 after being exposed tp the insults of the enraged multitude, was at length 
 burnt and the ashes scattered to the winds. This event restored the old 
 Church in many places that were favorably disposed to the Reformation, 
 and was the occasion of the religious divisions that since that time have 
 prevailed in Switzerland. 
 
 2. THE WARS OF THE HOUSE OF HAPSBURG WITH FRANCE. 
 
 Charles V. § ^^^' Charles V. reigned over an empire such as had not 
 
 A. D. existed since the days of Charlemagne. Before arriving at 
 
 " years of maturity, he was already lord of the rich Nether- 
 
 lands, which had devolved upon him as his maternal inheritance ; when a 
 youth (after the death of Iiis paternal grandfather, Ferdinand tlie Catho- 
 lic), he obtained possession of the united Spanish empire, with tlie beau- 
 tiful kingdoms of Naples and Sicily, and the newly-discovered territories 
 in America in the West Indies ; he inherited in early manhood the 
 Hapsburgo-Austrian States (which he relinquished to his brother Fer- 
 dinand), and became the successor of his grandfather, Maximilian, on the 
 imperial throne of Germany, by the choice of the Electors. He might 
 say with truth, that the sun never set in his dominions. He was a man 
 of rare sagacity and indefatigable activity; great in the cabinet, as director 
 of the affairs of state, and brave in the field, as leader of the ranks of 
 war. His antagonist and rival was Francis I. of France, who was as much 
 renowned for his love of the arts and sciences, and for his chivalrous 
 conduct in the field, as he was infamous for his tyranny, his luxury, and 
 love of pleasure, and his devotion to his mistresses. An unextinguish- 
 able jealousy subsisted between Francis and Charles. Each wished to 
 be the first prince in Europe ; and each eagerly contested the possession 
 of the imperial throne of Germany, which could alone procure him this 
 supremacy. Charles triumphed, and from that moment Francis became his 
 decided enemy, and sought every means of weakening his power. Four 
 wars arose out of this contention, which were principally occasioned by 
 Milan. This beautiful dukedom had remained in the hands of the French 
 Bince the battle of Marignano (§ 286) ; but Charles claimed it as a fief 
 of the German empire, and led a vast army, composed chiefly of German 
 peasants, under the conduct of the valiant condottieri, Frundsberg, 
 19 
 
218 THE MODERN- EPOCH. 
 
 Scliartlln, and others, against the French and their allies, the Swiss. At 
 that time, war was carried on with mercenary troops exclusively ; no 
 nation could venture to oppose themselvos to the Helvetians and Ger- 
 mans ; the knightly tactics of an earlier period had fallen before their 
 matchlocks, as the castles before their heavy artillery. The French were 
 conquered. They lost Milan and Genoa, after several bloody encoun- 
 ters, and were forced to retreat over the Alps. It was during the retreat, 
 that the gallant Bayard, "the knight without fear and without reproach," 
 fell by a ball from a German arquebusier. The imperial army, conducted 
 by the Constable of Bourbon, the richest and the. most powerful of the 
 French nobles, who had entered into Charles's service for the purpose 
 of revenging his injuries and wrongs upon the French court, marched 
 into the south of France, but soon found itself compelled to retreat by the 
 gallant resistance of the burghers of Marseilles. 
 
 § 328. Francis I. himself now marched into Italy, at the head of a 
 stately and well-appointed army, for the purpose of wiping off the dis- 
 grace of the defeat, and winning back that which had been lost. But 
 being detained for a long time before the walls of Pavia, the active Bour- 
 bon succeeded in collecting a fresh army of peasants, and uniting himself 
 with the Spanish general, Pescara. But want of money and the neces- 
 saries of life soon reduced the united forces to the greatest distress, whilst 
 the wealthy camp of the French was abundantly supplied with every 
 thing needful. Bourbon and Frundsberg took advantage of this circum- 
 stance to excite the peasants to attempt the storm of the French camp. 
 The bloody fight of Pavia, in which the French were de- 
 feated, originated in a nocturnal attack. Francis I. himself, 
 after a chivalrous defence, was compelled to surrender, and to proceed 
 as a prisoner to Madrid. 10,000 gallant warriors found their deaths on 
 the field of battle, or in the waters of the Ticino. After a year's captivity, 
 Francis, with inward reluctance, consented to the Peace of Madrid, in 
 which he swore to renounce his claims upon Milan, and to surrender the 
 dukedom of Burgundy. 
 
 Scarcely, however, had Francis, after giving up his two sons as host- 
 ages, regained his own kingdom, than the pope released him from his 
 oath, and concluded a holy alliance with him, the king of England, and 
 some Italian princes, for the purpose of delivering Italy from the Span- 
 ish yoke. The flames of war burst forth anew in Italy ; the beat of the 
 drum was again heard in the German states to summon the peasants to 
 the standard. As this was an expedition against the pope, the Lutherans 
 came forward in crowds, so that the brave Frundsberg was soon enabled 
 to lead a gallant army across the Alps, and to unite himself with Bour- 
 bon. But money w^as soon wanting to pay the troops ; a rebellion in the 
 army gave such a shock to Frundsberg that he was deprived of speech 
 by an attack of apoplexy, and shortly after lost his life. The troops de- 
 
THE WARS OF THE HOUSE OF HAPSBURG. 219 
 
 tnanded to be led to Rome, and Bourbon yielded to their wishes. It waj 
 on the 6th of May, 1527, that the Spanish and German soldiers scaled 
 the walls of Rome. Bourbon was one of the first who fell. The licen- 
 tious bands, unchecked by the presence of a leader, dispersed themselves 
 through the city and committed every sort of outrage. The rich palaces 
 and dwelling-houses were plundered, the churches robbed of their ves- 
 sels and ornaments ; the Germans insulted the pope and cardinals by 
 ridiculous processions and mummeries. Clement was obliged to purchase 
 his freedom under harsh conditions, and made use of the first opportunity 
 to escape. The emperor affected a display of grief and displeasure at 
 the injuries suffered by the head of the Church, though inwardly pleased 
 at his humiliation. 
 
 In the meanwhile, the French had made some conquests in upper 
 Italy, and then marched into Naples, for the purpose of wresting this 
 kingdom from the Spaniards. But their army suffering severely from 
 pestilence, and the troops of the emperor being reduced one half by their 
 excesses in Rome, both parties became desirous of peace. The contend- 
 ing kings arranged their differences by the interposition of the mother of 
 Francis and the aunt of Charles, in what was called the 
 
 A. D. 1529. . 
 
 Ladies' Peace of Cambray ; in virtue of which, Francis re- 
 linquished his pretensions to Milan, and paid two million crowns for the 
 ransom of his two sons, but retained possession of Burgundy. The pope 
 also, and the Italian princes, soon made their peace. Charles was 
 invested with the Roman and Lombard crowns by Clement, who lived 
 with him in Bologna under the same roof, and promised, in return, to 
 exterminate heresy, and to bring back the expelled Medici to Florence. 
 The latter project was accomplished ; Florence was conquered and de- 
 prived of its republican constitution (§ 289). But the restoration of the 
 unity of the Church was no longer in the power of man. The Diet of 
 Augsburg, that was appointed for this purpose, did not conduce to the 
 desired result (§ 324). 
 
 § 329. Francis, however, did not relinquish the thought of again 
 recovering the dukedom of Milan, and even entered into an alliance with 
 the Turks a short time after, for the purpose of attaining this object. 
 In the same year in which Charles took Tunis by a gallant attack, 
 l53o P^^ ^^ ^"^ *^ ^^^® piracies of the Mohammedan prince, Hay- 
 raddin Barbarossa, and set 20,000 Christian captives at 
 liberty, Francis made a sudden campaign into upper Italy, and took pos- 
 session, as a preliminary step, of Savoy and Piedmont, the duke of which 
 was a relative and ally of Charles. But in the following year, Charles 
 marched with a stately army into Provence, for the purpose of carrying 
 the w^ar into his enemy's own territorj ; but was compelled to retreat 
 with loss, in consequence of the French general, the Constable Mont- 
 morenci, reducing the whole of the level country between the Rhone and 
 
220 THE MODERN EPOCH, 
 
 the passes of the Alps to a desert, and thus producing scarcity and 
 disease in the emperor's army. But as the whole of Christendom was 
 indignant at the alliance between Francis and the Ottomans, who com- 
 mitted horrible devastations in lower Italy and the Greek islands. Pope 
 Paul III. interposed as a mediator, and brought about the 
 
 A D 1538 ' o 
 
 conclusion of the third war by the ten years' truce of Nice, 
 which allowed every one to retain that of which he was then in posses- 
 sion. A personal interview between the two monarchs was to have obli- 
 terated all their differences forever; and Charles was so 
 convinced of the knightly faith of his rival, that, in the fol- 
 lowing year, when an insurrection in Ghent required his immediate pre- 
 sence in the Netherlands, he took his road thither through Paris. But this 
 friendship was not of long duration. In the year 1541, Charles undertook 
 A D 1541 ^ second African expedition, for the purpose of completely 
 destroying the corsairs, who rendered the Mediterranean 
 insecure from Algiers, as they had formerly done from Tunis. But this 
 time, the attack was frustrated by the storms and rains of the later 
 autumn, and by the attacks of the enemy, which were rendered particu- 
 larly dangerous by the swampy character of the ground. The emperor, 
 who magnanimously shared all the dangers and sufferings of the meanest 
 of his followers, was obliged to retreat without effecting his object, after 
 suffering a considerable loss in ships and troops. This termination of the 
 enterprise may have filled the French king with the hope that he might 
 at length be able to overpower his adversary. He, therefore, after effecting 
 A. D. an alliance with the sultan, commenced a fourth war against 
 
 1542-1544. the emperor. But when the latter marched wdth a vast 
 army out of Germany into Champagne, and approached within two days' 
 
 march of the terrified capital, Francis hastened to conclude 
 
 A. D. 1544. , „ ^ 1-, 1 . . , /, 
 
 the peace oi Lrespy. Irom this tmie, the supremacy of 
 
 the house of Ilapsburg in Italy remained undisputed. Francis I. died 
 
 Henry H. three years afterwards, but his son and successor, Henry II., 
 
 A. D. followed the same path. During the war of religion in Ger- 
 
 1547 - i>o . n^any, he entered into an alliance with the Protestant princes 
 
 (§ 337), whilst in his own dominions he suppressed the new doctrines by 
 
 bloody persecutions. When Charles V. at length quitted the world's stage, 
 
 the war was still continued for a few years between his son, Philip II., 
 
 and the French kinp^, till at length the peace of Chateau- 
 
 A. D. 1559. ^ , . IT , 
 
 Lambresis put an end to the open contest between the two 
 monarchs, without, however, extinguishing the hereditary animosity 
 between the royal houses of France and Hapsburg. 
 
 3. THE WAR OF RELIGION IN GERMANY. 
 
 § 330. This war, and the apprehensions that were entertained of the 
 Turks, who led army after army into the Austrian territories, prevented 
 
THE WAR OF RELIGION IN GERMANY. 221 
 
 the emperor from putting into effect the resolution of the Diet of Augs^ 
 burg against the German Protestants, and compelling them by force to 
 return to the bosom of the Catholic Church. When, in consequence of 
 this order, the imperial chamber began to proceed against the evangelical 
 states on account of their confiscation of ecclesiastical property, the Lu- 
 theran princes and cities, under the conduct of the Elector of Saxony and 
 the landn^rave of Hesse, formed themselves into a league at 
 
 A. D 1£31. o ' o 
 
 Smalcald, in the Thuringian forest, for their mutual defence 
 in case any of them should be attacked for the word of God's sake. In 
 the following year, the emperor concluded the peace of Nuremberg with 
 this league, in which both parties promised to refrain from hostilities till 
 a Council of the Church, the calling of which was vehemently urged 
 upon Clement VII. by the emperor, should be assembled. The law pro- 
 ceedings were, in the mean time, to cease. This treaty bound the hands 
 of the Protestants, without giving them any assurance for the future ; but 
 afforded great facilities for the diffusion of the Gospel over the whole of 
 Germany. The introduction of the Lutheran form of worship into Wir- 
 temberg was an event- of the greatest importance. Duke Ulrick, a hasty- 
 tempered and cruel man, who, from motives of jealousy, had slain a 
 knight of his court (Hans von Hutten) with his own hand, had compelled 
 his wife to take flight by his bad treatment, had oppressed his subjects 
 and conquered the imperial city of Reutlingen, was at length outlawed 
 for disturbing the peate of the country, and driven from his land and 
 vassals by the Swabian league. For fourteen years, Ulrick was com- 
 pelled to lead a wandering life abroad, and to shun his dukedom, which, 
 in the mean time, was placed under the government of Austria, when the 
 landgrave Philip of Hesse embraced the resolution of restoring to Wir- 
 temberg the duke, who was then living at his court. He marched into 
 Svvabia with a well-appointed army, defeated the Austrian governor at 
 Laufen on the Neckar, and reestablished the lawful ruler. Ulrick was 
 received with joy by his people, who had forgotten his former tyranny, 
 and who were easily induced to receive the evangelical doctrines which 
 Ulrick had adopted in his misfortunes, and which he now had dissemi- 
 nated by Brenz and Schnepf. The Church in Wirtemberg soon became 
 Lutheran, and Tubingen was one of the most distinguished seminaries of 
 evangelical learning. 
 
 § 33L But the new Church was not wanting in spurious growths. 
 The doctrine of the Anabaptists, who mistook their own passions for 
 divine inspirations, had not been suppressed by the death of Thomas 
 MiJnzer (§ 322.) Notwithstanding the opposition of the Reformers and 
 the discouragement given by every lawful magistrate, it would re-appear 
 here and there, in places where it had been secretly carried by fugitives. 
 The doctrines of these Anabaptists displayed themselves in their most 
 frightful shape in Munster. It was in this place that the Reformation 
 ID* 
 
222 . THE MODERN EPOCH. 
 
 had made violent way for itself, and had compelled the bishop and canons 
 to take flight. But it soon became evident that Rottman, the most influ- 
 ential of its preachers, entertained Anabaptist notions. When two vaga- 
 bond prophets from the Netherlands, Jan Matthys and his countryman 
 and disciple, the tailor, John Bockhold (called John of Leyden,) joined 
 themselves to him, the Anabaptist party in a short time attained so com- 
 plete a supremacy, that they got possession of all the city offices, drove 
 all the inhabitants who were not of their own way of thinking out of the 
 town in the midst of winter, and divided their property among them- 
 selves. They now established a religious commonwealth, in which 
 Matthys possessed unlimited power, introduced community of goods, and 
 conducted the defence of the city against the besieging army of the bishop 
 of Munster. The fanaticism rose to its height when Matthys was killed 
 in a sally against the enemy, and Bockold was placed at the head of the 
 commonwealth. This man transferred the government of the city to 
 twelve elders, whom he selected from the most violent of the fanatics, 
 and among whom, Knipperdoling, who was burgomaster and executioner, 
 played the most distinguished part. He then introduced the practice of 
 polygamy, and mercilessly put to death those who indignantly denounced 
 this outrage to Christian morality. When this crazy fanaticism had 
 reached its highest pitch, the prophet assumed the title (from Divine 
 inspiration) of " King of the New Israel." This " tailor king," orna- 
 mented with the insignia of his rank (a crown and a globe suspended by 
 a golden chain), and magnificently clothed, held his sittings for the ad- 
 ministration of justice in the market-place of Munster, where the " chair 
 of David " was set up, and introduced a government of mixed tyranny 
 and fanaticism, in which spiritual pride and carnal lust were most repul- 
 sively associated. 
 
 For a long time, the Anabaptists resisted the attacks of their imper- 
 fectly armed enemies with courage and success ; when the besieging 
 army had been reinforced by the empire, and the closely pressed town 
 began to suffer the horrors of famine, they still resolutely maintained 
 their defence ; and even when the enemy were within their walls, they 
 still resisted with the courage of desperation. Rottman fell fighting ; 
 John of Leyden and Knipperdoling were put to death by torture, and 
 their dead bodies suspended in iron cages on the tower ; the others were 
 either executed or expelled the city. The bishop, the canons, and the 
 nobility, returned and introduced Catholicism again in all its rigor, which 
 since that time has retained its preeminence in Munster. 
 
 After a few decenniums, the Anabaptists experienced a wholesome 
 reformation of their doctrines and discipline from Menno, in which they 
 have continued to the present day, under the name of Mennonites. They 
 are still distinguished by simplicity of dress and manner of living, by 
 their rejection of a separate priesthood, of infant baptism, of oaths, of 
 
THE WAR OF RELIGION IN GERMANY. 223 
 
 military service, &c. ; but they have given up those principles of an ear- 
 lier period which were dangerous to morality and the state. They lead 
 a quiet life as tenant farmers and peasants. 
 
 § 332. Shortly after this, the Reformed doctrines gained admission into 
 the duchy of Saxony and the electorate of Brandenburg, by the death 
 of two princes who had hitherto clung resolutely to the Roman Cathohc 
 creed. Duke George of Saxony was followed by his brother 
 Henry, who, like his son Maurice, was devoted to the Refor- 
 mation, and ordered the Reformed worship to be established in Leipsic, 
 Meissen, and Dresden. In the same year, Joachim II. received the 
 Lord's Supper under both forms in Spandau, upon which the countiy 
 embraced the Protestant doctrine. The conversion of Saxony and 
 Brandenburg was decisive for the whole north of Germany. Henry of 
 Brunswick- AVolfenbiJttel, a cruel and profligate man, alone adhered to the 
 ancient CImrch, less from conviction than from animosity to the landgrave 
 of Hesse, the former friend of his youth. 'But the Gospel triumphed even 
 in Wolfenbuttel, when, after a furious controversy, injurious alike to the 
 dignity of princes and human nature, Henry was overpowered by Hes- 
 sian, and Saxon troops and carried into captivity. Otho Ileinrich order- 
 ed the Lutheran doctrines to be taught in the Upper Palatinate, by the 
 Nuremburger preacher, Osiander ; and a few weeks before Luther's 
 death, the Eucharist was administered in both forms in the Palatinate of 
 the Rhine, after the congregation which assembled on the 3d of January 
 to hear mass, in the Church of the Holy Ghost, had set up the evangeli- 
 cal hymn, " Salvation hath visited us." Baden Durlach also acknow- 
 ledged the Reformed confession ; and when the Elector, Hermann of 
 Cologne, proposed a moderate plan of reformation to his Estates, and the 
 duke of Cleves appeared inclined to join the league of Smalcald, it seem- 
 ed that the Catholic Church of Germany must succumb, unless a stop 
 were put to the progress of the Reformation by force. The emperor 
 was convinced that neither Diets nor religious discussions could heal the 
 division in the Church ; his hopes rested entirely on the general Council, 
 which Pope Paul III. had summoned at Trent. But the Protestants, 
 who foresaw that their doctrines would be condemned in a Council that 
 was thus held under the authority of the pope, rejected it, as being nei- 
 tlier free nor impartial, and demanded a general Synod of the Church 
 of Germany. This destroyed the emperor's last hope of an amica- 
 ble arrangement, and determined him to attempt the restoration of 
 Luther dies, the Church by force of arms. One year after Luther's 
 Feb. 18th, death, at his native city of Eisleben, whither he had been 
 ^^*^- summoned to compose a difference, the war of Smalcald 
 
 broke out between Charles V. and the Protestant princes and cities of 
 Germany. 
 
 § 333. When the emperor had determined upon war, he entered into a 
 
224 THE MODERN EPOCH. 
 
 secret alliance with the pope, who promised him subsidies of money, 
 with the spiritual Electors, and with the duke of Bavaria ; but he found 
 the most important of his allies in the Protestant duke, Maurice of Saxo- 
 ny. This young, shrewd, and military prince, who, since 1541, had been 
 the ruler of Albertine Saxony, had long separated himself from the 
 league of Smalcald and joined the emperor, out of envy and hatred to 
 his cousin, John Frederick, although Philip of Hesse was his father-in- 
 law. This alliance was again renewed. Maurice promised obedience 
 and devotion to the emperor, and submission to the resolutions of the 
 Tridentine Council, provided it gave its sanction to the three chief points 
 in the Protestant view, — justification by faith, the cup, and the marriage 
 of the clergy. Charles, in return, held out the prospect of an increase 
 of his territories and the electorship of Saxony. The Protestants had so 
 little suspicion of this arrangement, that when the Smalcald forces march- 
 ed into the field, the Elector, during his absence with the army, made 
 over the government of Courland to his cousin Maurice. The brave 
 Schartlin, whom the Upper German cities had chosen general, wished to 
 bring matters to a conclusion, by making a rapid advance upon Eegens- 
 burg, where the emperor was posted with a handful of troops ; but the 
 council of war, fearful of doing injury to Bavaria, forbade the enter- 
 prise. Upon this, Schartlin turned towards Tyrol, with the purpose of 
 cutting off the advance of the Italian troops, or of dispersing the Coun- 
 cil of Trent ; — but this undertaking was also disapproved of, lest Ferdi- 
 nand should be offended. In this manner, Charles, who had already 
 pronounced the ban against the Elector and Landgrave for treason 
 against the emperor and the empire, gained time to draw his auxiliaries 
 from Italy, and to occupy a strong position at Ingolstadt. Here, also, 
 the Protestants threw away the time in trifling and useless encounters, 
 till the troops of the Netherlands having united themselves to the impe- 
 rial army, Charles was in a position to assume the offensive. He march- 
 ed into Swabia, whither he was followed by the army of Smalcald. The 
 damp and cold weather occasioned sickness among the Spanish and 
 Italian troops, and afforded the Protestants a hope of effecting a favora- 
 ble composition, when the intelligence that Maurice and his friends and 
 companions in the faith had proved traitors, and had marched an hostile 
 army into Courland, changed the whole face of affairs. John Frederick 
 at once hastened back to his states ; the landgrave and the other leaders 
 soon returned, and in a short time the whole army of Smalcald was dis- 
 solved. 
 
 § 334. South Germany now stood open to the emperor. \Yell-inten- 
 tioned advisers endeavored to persuade him to allow free toleration to re- 
 ligious opinions, and by this means to bring back his estates to their 
 former obedience and devotion. But Charles was bent upon bringing 
 back the unity of the Church, and, at the same time, on restoring the 
 
THE WAK OF RELIGION IN GERMANY. 225 
 
 imperial authority to its ancient dignity. With this object, he required 
 the princes and cities of southern Germany to submit themselves, and to 
 renounce the league of Smalcald. The terrified imperial cities soon 
 yielded obedience to the demand. Ulm surrendered her artillery, and 
 purchased the favor of the emperor by large sums of money ; Heilbron, 
 Esslingen, Reutlingen, and many others, did the same. Augsburg was 
 so well provided with artillery and provisions, that Schartlin offered the 
 magistrates to defend it for a year and a day, till Protestant Germany 
 should have recovered itself and be prepared for fresh encounters ; but 
 the pusillanimous council of traders (Fugger, in particular) gained the 
 victory. The emperor took possession of the town, and with it, the ad- 
 mirable artillery and a large sum of money. Frankfort and Strasburg 
 soon followed. The old duke of Wirtemberg humbled himself, paid his 
 contributions to the war, and surrendered his most important fortresses 
 to the imperial troops. The old Elector of Cologne, anathematized by 
 the pope, threatened by the Spanish troops, and at last abandoned by his 
 estates, renounced his office in favor of a follower of the old creed, who 
 soon thrust aside by the mass the German worship of God. By the 
 spring of 1547, the whole of southern Germany was reduced to obedi- 
 ence without a blow being struck. 
 
 § 335. In the mean time, John Frederick had repulsed the troops of 
 Maurice, taken possession of his own territories with but little trouble, 
 and conquered the greater part of Albertine Saxony, as far as Dresden 
 and Leipsic. Wherever he went, he was received with acclamations 
 by the Protestant part of the population, and it would not have been 
 difficult for him to collect a considerable force, and to bid defiance 
 to the enemies of the evangelical doctrines ; but John Frederick 
 was not an enterprising man, and despite the ban, respect for the em- 
 peror was not yet extinguished in his pious heart ; — he rejected the 
 proffered aid. Maurice in his need invoked the assistance of the empe- 
 ror. The latter hastened with his army into Bavaria, in defiance of the 
 gout, and, uniting his forces with those of Maurice and Ferdinand, 
 marched against his enemy, who was posted on the Elbe with 6000 men. 
 Upon the approach of the emperor, John Frederick wished to fall back 
 upon the strong town of Wittemberg, until he could collect the scattered 
 divisions of his army ; but the imperial force, 27,000 strong, crossed the 
 Elbe under the guidance of a peasant, surprised the cavalry, who were 
 engaged in a retreat, on a Sunday morning, when the Elector was attend- 
 ing Divine worship, and won an easy victory in the battle of Muhlberg. 
 John Frederick, a heavy man, was wounded in the face and taken pri- 
 soner after a brave defence. In prison, he displayed the serenity of soul 
 which is the fruit of a good conscience and a firm trust in God. He 
 heard the sentence of death that was pronounced upon him by the empe- 
 ror with the greatest composure, and without even interrupting the game 
 
226 THE MODERN EPOCH. 
 
 of chess in whicli he was engaged. But Charles did not venture to carry 
 the sentence into execution. He proposed to change the punishment of 
 death into that of imprisonment for life, upon condition that John Frede- 
 rick should give up his fortresses to the emperor, and surrender his terri- 
 tories, together with the electoral dignity, to Maurice. In this manner, 
 the electorship of Saxony passed from the line of Ernest to that of 
 Albert. 
 
 It was now the turn of the landgrave of Hesse to be punished. Mau- 
 rice and Joachim of Brandenburg interceded for him, and obtained the 
 assurance, " that if he would make an unconditional surrender, apolo- 
 gize for his proceedings, and deliver up his castles, he should be punished 
 neither with death nor with perpetual imprisonment." These conditions 
 were afterwards modified during a personal interview, and the two princes 
 assured the landgrave of the safety of his person and possessions. In 
 reliance on this assurance, Philip, provided with a safe conduct, present- 
 ed himself at Halle, where the imperial camp was posted. It was here 
 that, after having asked pardon on his knees in the midst of a magnifi- 
 cent assembly, he was invited to supper by the duke of Alba, and on 
 going to the castle, was retained prisoner in spite of all objections. The 
 emperor could not deny himself the triumph of having his two greatest 
 opponents in his power. He shortly afterwards left Saxony, and took 
 his prisoners with him. This proceeding was the first occasion of a cool- 
 ness between Maurice and the emperor. 
 
 § 336. In the meanwhile, the Council of Trent, which was opened on 
 the 13th of December, 1545, had held its first deliberations. But as the 
 proceedings were carried on under the guidance of the papal legates, and 
 the chief part of the assembly consisted of the regular clergy and the 
 uncompromising adherents of the pope, the resolutions assumed such a 
 shape that the Protestants saw in them rather a widening of the pre- 
 vious divisions, than any approach to a reconciliation. This course was 
 highly displeasing to the emperor, who hoped now to have brought about 
 that unity of faith which had so long been wished for ; he remonstrated, 
 and wished the resolutions to be kept secret, as he had just brought the 
 Prot3stant Estates to promise that they would submit themselves to the 
 Council, if the points already determined upon might be reconsidered. 
 But Paul III., who saw clearly that the emperor cherished the wish of 
 limiting the power of the pope, and of introducing such reforms into the 
 Catholic Church that the Protestants should no longer hesitate to join her 
 communion, not only allowed the resolutions to become known, but re- 
 moved the Council to Bologna. The emperor was extremely irritated 
 at this ; he forbade the clergy to leave Trent, but could only retain the 
 emaller number, and for the purpose of paving the way to a reunion of 
 the Church in Germany, he proclaimed an edict, which set forth how 
 matters should be conducted until the termination of the Council. This 
 
THE WAR OF RELIGION IN GERMANY. 227 
 
 was done by the Augsburg Interim ; whicli, at first designed for both 
 religious parties, was afterwards restricted to the Protestants. By this 
 instrument, the use of the cup and the marriage of priests were per- 
 mitted to the confessors of the evangelical Church ; an attempt was made 
 to approach their opinions on the doctrines of justification, the mass, &c., 
 by the use of indefinite modes of expression ; but in the celebration of 
 Divine worship and in the ceremonies, the old usages were retained. 
 This Interim met with great opposition, less from the Protestant princes, 
 than from the towns and preachers. The latter could not be prevailed 
 upon to receive a religion that was offensive to their consciences, either 
 by deprivation of their offices or by loss of their property or freedom. 
 Driven from their posts, they left their homes and household hearths to 
 fly by secret paths to the north of Germany, where the Interim was 
 utterly rejected. Nearly 400 preachers became exiles; Magdeburg, 
 which was under the ban, afforded an asylum to the greater number. In 
 Saxony, also, the cradle of the Reformation, many preachers fled, from 
 dislike to the Leipsic Interim, by the composition of which Melancthon 
 incurred the charge of weakness and want of courage. A multitude of 
 pamphlets, satires, satirical poems, and wood-cuts, proceeded from Magde- 
 burg, which were intended to bring down hatred and contempt upon the 
 Interim and its originators. 
 
 § 337. At the moment when the emperor believed himself to be on 
 the point of attaining the object of his wishes ; when the Council had 
 been again removed to Trent, and even attended by some of the Pro- 
 testant Estates ; when every circumstance seemed to combine to raise 
 him to the position of temporal head of Christendom, in the sense in 
 which the term was understood in the middle ages ; when he already cher- 
 ished the thought of having his son elected as his successor, and thus 
 rendering the imperial throne hereditary in his family, — he suddenly 
 found an unexpected opponent in the man to whom he had been hitherto 
 indebted for his triumphs, — in Maurice of Saxony. This sagacious 
 prince saw plainly in what a perilous position the civil and religious liber- 
 ties of Germany would stand, if Charles should conduct his plans to a 
 successful issue ; he saw clearly that he had incurred the hate of all Pro- 
 testants by his treachery to the common cause, since he had undertaken, 
 in the name of the emperor, to prosecute the ban against Magdeburg, 
 and had already commenced the siege of the city, where alone the pure 
 word of the Gospel had found an asylum. He could only restore his 
 lost reputation by a%reat and daring action. He concluded a secret alli- 
 ance with several German princes, and assured himself of the aid of the 
 French king, Henry II., by a treaty, in virtue of which the latter was 
 permitted to occupy the towns of Metz, Toul, and Verdun, without 
 infringement of the rights of the empire. The chivalrous margrave, 
 Albert of Brandenburg Culnbach, conducted the negotiation. Upon this, 
 
228 THE MODERN EPOCH. 
 
 Maurice granted pardon and the free exercise of religion to Magdeburg, 
 
 which immediately submitted. Warnings were sent to the emperor, who 
 
 was at that time in Innsbruck ; but Maurice, who was a master in the art 
 
 of deception, knew how to dissipate all suspicions as they arose in his 
 
 mind, and Charles, who was practised in the intrigues of Spain and Italy, 
 
 thought it impossible that he should be outwitted by a German. Maurice 
 
 ,r , .rr^ suddenly advanced with three divisions of his army into the 
 March, 1552. ,i. / , . ^ i , -, , , . 
 
 south, took possession or Augsburg, and marched mto the 
 
 Tyrol. He was already approaching Innsbruck with the purpose of mak- 
 ing the emperor prisoner, when a mutiny among the German peasants 
 afforded the latter an opportunity for escape. The Tridentine Council 
 was broken up in confusion, and Charles, after setting the imprisoned 
 Elector, John Frederick, at liberty, fled during the night, ill with the 
 gout and disheartened, over the snow-covered mountains of the Tyrol 
 into Carinthia; leaving to his brother Ferdinand the difficult task of 
 establishing peace. Ferdinand immediately concluded the treaty of 
 Passau with the Protestant princes, by which unconditional religious 
 liberty was granted to the adherents of the Augsburg Confession, the 
 Interim was abolished, the Protestants were declared independent of the 
 Council of Trent, and the landgrave of Hesse was set at liberty. A per- 
 manent peace and amnesty was at the same time decided upon. 
 
 § 338. The treaty of Passau was the last work of Maurice. When 
 his former confederate, Albert of Brandenburg, refused to accede to it, 
 
 and continued his wars and robberies in Lower Saxony, 
 
 A. D. 1553. , r . 11.,. T 1 . A 
 
 Maurice marched against him to compel him to peace. A 
 
 battle was fought near Sivershausen. The active Maurice was victo- 
 rious, but he received a gun-shot wound in the wild confusion of the bat- 
 tle, of which he died two days after, in the flower of his manly strength. 
 He was a man of rare qualities, " prudent and secret, enterprising and 
 energetic." Two years after his death, the Religious Peace of Augs- 
 burg was concluded, by which the Protestant Estates who followed the 
 Augsburg Confession were not only assured of full liberty of conscience 
 and religion, but also of political rights equal to those enjoyed by the 
 Catholics, and the continued possession of the confiscated ecclesiastical 
 property. A free right of departure was permitted to subjects who did 
 not follow the religion of the Electors ; and a free toleration for those 
 that remained. The demaiid made by the adherents of the ancient faith, 
 that, in future, those of the clergy who should join the new Church should 
 lose their incomes and offices, occasioned the most vehement disputes. 
 As it was impossible to come to an agreement, the point was left unde- 
 cided, and admitted as a spiritual reservation into the laws of peace — • 
 " a seed of bloody contests." 
 
 § 339. This religious peacs frustrated the most zealous attempts of the 
 emperor to restore the unity of the Church, and deprived him of tho 
 
PROGP.ESS OF THE REFORMATION THROUGH EUROPE. 229 
 
 interest he had hitherto taken in the affairs of the workl. Oppressed 
 with discontent and bodily suffering, he embraced the resolution of re- 
 nouncing his government, and of passing the remainder of his days in 
 quiet retirement »id monastic penance. With this object, he made over 
 to his son Philip, at a solemn assembly at Brussels, first, the Nether- 
 lands, and a short time after, the kingdoms of Spain and Naples, to- 
 gether with the New "World ; he committed the government of 
 the Austrian states and the affairs of Germany, however, to his brother 
 Ferdinand. After this, he retired to the west of Spain, where 
 he had had a residence built near the convent of Juste, on the pleasant de- 
 clivity of a hill, surrounded by plantations of trees. He lived here for 
 two years in quiet retirement, busied with the practices of religion and 
 with pious contemplation. In the mean time, Ferdinand I. received the 
 imperial throne of Germany by the election of the princes, after he had 
 pledged himself to observe the Peace of Religion, — an engagement ho 
 honestly fulfilled. 
 
 4. PROGRESS OF THE REFORMATION THROUGH EUROPE. 
 a, LUTHERANISM AND CALVINISM. 
 
 § 340. The greatest divisions arose in Germany, where the move- 
 ments in the Church had taken their origin, in consequence of the Re- 
 formation. The Lutheran form of worship strove long with the Catholic 
 for the masteiy. The former extended itself gr.idually from S.oxony and 
 Hesse over the neighlx)ring countries, acquired the supremacy in north- 
 ern Germany, made triumphant progress in Swubia and Franconia, and 
 opened itself a path from Strasburg into Alsacia and Lorraine. The 
 doctrines of Luther had penetrated at an early period to the Vistula and 
 the shores of the Baltic, where the Grand blaster o^ the German Order 
 (§ 227), Albert of Brandenburg, pressed upon by the Poles and deserted 
 by the emperor and empire, had joined the evangelical Church, converted 
 Prussia into an hereditary dukedom, and acknowledged the suzerainship 
 •of Poland. The same thing happened in Courland and Livonia, with 
 th(j Head of the Order of the Sword. The Catholic form of worship 
 found its most zealous partisans in the dukes of Bavaria, in the royal 
 house of Austria, in the spiritual Electors, and in the prince-bishops. In- 
 golstadt was an active seminary for the ancient faith. Nevertheless, as 
 the two emperors, Ferdinand L and Maximilian II., both disdained to do 
 violence to the consciences of their subjects, the evangelical doctrines 
 soon obtained numerous adherents in the hereditary possessions of Aus- 
 tria. The Protestants obtained religious toleration for themselves, and 
 built several churches in the archduchy of Austria, in Carinthia, and 
 Styria. In Hungary and Transylvania, the Reformation made such pro- 
 gress that the e\'angelicdl party outnumbered their opponents, and obtain- 
 ed religious freedom and equal political rights with the Catholics. In Bo- 
 20 
 
230 THE MODERN EPOCH. 
 
 hernia, the old Hussites (Utraquists) mostij embraced the Lutheran doc« 
 trines. But numerous as were the treaties that guaranteed the rights of 
 Protestants in the Austrian dominions, they were disregarded by latei 
 rulers, who restored the Catholic State Church to the f)reeminence. 
 
 The Reformed Church that originated in Switzerland, also found its 
 way into Germany at an early period. It is true that the doctrines of 
 Zwingle were only received and maintained by a few towns in the south 
 of Germany ; but when Calvin, in Geneva, seized upon the principles 
 of Zwingle, and fashioned them into a complete system of doctrine by 
 uniting tliem with his own views, the reformed Church in Germany gain- 
 ed a constant succession of adherents. Frederick HI. introduced this 
 system into his own land from the Palatinate, and ordered Ursinus and 
 
 ^^^^ Olevianus to draw up the Ileidelberoj Catechism, a widely 
 A. D. 1559. /. ^ 
 
 extended compendium of Calvin's doctrine ; the same thing 
 
 happened in Hesse, Bremen, and Brandenburg. Even Melancthon and his 
 
 disciples (Philippists, and Cryptocalvinists) were convinced in their hearts 
 
 of the truth of Calvin's views. The former so embittered the evening 
 
 of his life by promulgating these opinions, that he sank into his grave 
 
 ^.^^ calumniated and full of sorrow, and his disciples brouHit 
 
 A. D. I06O. ... CO 
 
 persecution and imprisonment upon themselves in Saxony. 
 The Form of Concord, a confession of faith that was subscribed, about 
 1580, by ninety-six of the Lutheran Estates of the empire, was intended 
 to restore harmony among the German Protestants; but it merely con- 
 firmed the division between the Calvinists and Lutherans, and increased 
 the unhappy animosity of one party against the other. 
 
 § 341. Switzerland also received evangelical confessions of faith, as 
 well as the Catholic doctrines ; only the system of Zwingle, that was re- 
 ceived in the greater German cantons (§ 32G), differed less from the 
 doctrine of Calvin which was predominant in French Switzerland, than 
 it did from that of Luther. John Calvin, a learned refugee from France, 
 introduced the Reformation and the confederation into Geneva, a 
 town delightfully situated on the frontiers of Savoy and 
 France, and then, like the lawgivers of antiquity, he exer- 
 cised the greatest influence on the government, the religion, the manners, 
 and the education of the city, till his death in 1564. Calvin was a man 
 of great intellect and moral power ; severe to others and to himself, and 
 lioitile to all worldly enjoyments, — he acquired a command over men by 
 the reverence that was due to his strong and pure will. The doctrine of 
 Calvin is impressed with the character of its originator, — severity and 
 simplicity. In matters of faith, he adheres to Zwingle only so far as the 
 latter embraces the severe views of Augustine (§ 174), and holds that 
 men are incapable of doing good by their own wills. Calvin, like Zwin- 
 gle, goes back to the primitive apostolic times, and commands the great- 
 est siraphcity in ceremonies and forms of worship. Images, ornaments. 
 
PROGRESS OF THE REFORMATION THROUGH EUROPE. 231 
 
 organs, candles, crucifixes, all are banished from the churches ; the ser- 
 vice consists in prajer, preaching, and the singing of psalms, which Cal- 
 vin's faithful fellow-minister, Theodore Beza, had translated into French ; 
 there is no church feast except the rigorously observed Sunday (Sab- 
 bath). The constitution of the Calvinistic Church is a republican syno- 
 dial government. The congregation, represented by frcjply elected elders 
 (presbytery), exercises the power of the Church, chooses the ministers, 
 watches over morals by means of the elders, administers the discipline 
 and punishments of the Church, and the distribution of alms. The min- 
 isters and a portion of the elders constitute the synod, whence the coun- 
 try churches receive their laws. Their severity of morals occasionally 
 induced the Calvinists to wage war against lawful amusements, such as 
 the theatre, dancing, and the more refined pleasures of society ; for this 
 reason, their doctrines found less acceptance among the higher than in 
 the middle classes. 
 
 § 342. The Calvinistic doctrines extended themselves from Geneva 
 over the flourishing towns of southern France, where they 
 soon numbered so many adherents that they were able to 
 wage war for many years with the dominant Church. The French court 
 was for some time hesitating which form of religion it should adopt ; 
 political motives swayed the decision in favor of the Catholic Church. 
 Commands were now issued against " the so-called reformed religion," 
 Calvinistic ministers were given over to the flames, and an attempt was 
 made to prevent the diffusion of their doctrine by persecution and pun- 
 ishment. Calvinism penetrated into the Netherlands from 
 France and Switzerland, where, after many struggles, it be- 
 came victorious in the northern provinces (Holland). At the synod of 
 Dort (a. d. 1618), the views of the Arminians, who wished to give a 
 milder form to Calvin's severe doctrine of predestination, were condemn- 
 ed, and the Augustine doctrine of election maintained. Tlie chiefs of 
 the Arminians, particularly the deserving statesman, (Van Olden Barn- 
 veldt), and the distinguislied historian, Hugo Grotius, were punished, the 
 
 one by death, the other by imprisonment (§ 360). In Scot- 
 Scotland. , , , ,. , T /• 1 1 U .1 
 
 land, the evangelical doctrmes were long suppressed by the 
 couil and the clergy, and many courageous confessors perished in tho 
 flames. The regent, Mary of Guise, sprung from a French familj', 
 which was zealously devoted to the Komish Church, in conjunction with 
 Cardinal Beaton, suppressed the innovators by severity. But when the 
 cardinal had fallQii in his own house beneath the blows of a troop of 
 conspirators, and the regent had died after a three years' contest with 
 the people who were striving for the Gospel, the rude preacher, John 
 Knox, who had known Calvin in Geneva, succeeded in rendering the 
 Reformed doctrines triumphant. The doctrines, the form of worship, 
 and the.synodial constitution of the Calvinistic Church, were introduced 
 
232 ' THE MODERN EPOCH. 
 
 into Scotland bj a resolution of the parliament, the mass forbidden a» 
 idolatrous, under penalty of fine and death, and the goods of the Church 
 confiscated. Monasteries, cathedrals, and treasures of art were destroy- 
 ed with a blind fury. At a later period, the Scottish Church received 
 the name of Presbyterian, from its assemblies. In England, similar 
 principles, entertained by the Puritans, succumbed to the power of the 
 High Church; but they were diffused by numerous sects, and received 
 their fullest development on the free shores of North America. 
 
 h. ESTABLISHMENT OF THE ANGLICAN CIIUKCn. 
 
 § 343. In England, the disciples of Luther were at first bloodily per- 
 secuted, and King Henry VIII. obtained such favor withtttie court of 
 Rome, by a learned controversial work against Luther on tlj^subject of 
 the seven sa-craments, that it conferred upon him the title of Defender 
 Henrv VIII ^^' ^^^^ Faith. But Henry's attachment to the pope was con- 
 A. D. verted into hatred when Clement VII. refused to separate 
 
 3i)09-lo4/. i^jj^^ from his Spanish wife, Catherine, an aunt of the em- 
 peror Charles V. Some internal scruples respecting the validity of his 
 marriage with Catherine, who had been the wife of his departed brother^ 
 and a wish* to unite himself to the lovely Anne Boleyn, at length induced 
 Henry toattempt the desired separation by a rupture with Rome. Sup- 
 ported by the opinions of native and foreign universities, and of many 
 learned bodies, as to the invalidity of his marriage, he had had himself 
 divorced from Catherine, and married to Anne, by Thomas Cranmer, the 
 new bishop of Canterbury ; he then compelled the clergy to acknowledge 
 liim as the head of the English Church, and had a number of acts passed 
 by the parliament, by which the pope's authority and influence were de- 
 stroyed in England. The king then set about effecting such alterations 
 in the Church as appeared to him to be useful, or which suited his 
 caprice, with unexampled severity and arbitrariness. The numerous 
 monasteries were violently dissolved, the monks and nuns scarcely pro- 
 tected from hunger, and the conventual property either united to the 
 crown or bestowed u[)on courtiers. The tomb of Becket with its rich 
 altar was desecrated and j)lundered, and the memory of the ancient saint 
 (§ 275) turned to ridicule, by a ludicrous ceremony. The flames, by which 
 I*uLherans as well as [lapists were consumed, were lighted by the wooden 
 images of the saints. On the other hand, he left the remaining institu- 
 tions of the Catholic Church untouched, and commanded, by the statute 
 of the Six bloody Articles, the observance, under penalty of death, of 
 celibac}^, auricuhu- confession, monastic vows, low mass, transubstantia*- 
 tion, and the withholding of the cup. The venerable Bishop Fisher and 
 the intellectual ciiancellor, Thomas More, the author of the " Utopia," 
 died upon the scailbld, because they did not a|)prove the innovations in 
 the Church. Enraged at this, the pope at length fulminated a violent 
 
PROGRESS OF THE REFORMATION THROUGH EUROPE. 233 
 
 anathema against Henry and his adherents, at the moment when tlie dis- 
 content at the dissolution of the cloisters had produced an insurrection 
 among the peasantry in the north of the kingdom, in wliich monks 
 marched at the head of the bands. Upon this, Henry conderanecl tlie 
 friends and relations of Cardinal Pole, who had prepared the anathema, 
 to die upon the scaffold or gallows, and delivered over abbots and monks 
 in the dress of their order to the executioner. 
 
 § 344. But the despotism and sensuality of the king were most clearly 
 displayed in his treatment of his wives. Scarcely had the divorced Cathe- 
 rine died, far from the court, a victim to her sorrows and her wrongs, 
 before her rival, Anne Boleyn, was beheaded by the command of her 
 jealous husband. His third wife, the young and gentle Jane Seymour, 
 died a few days after giving birth to the delicate Edward; upon which, 
 Henry suffered himself to be seduced by the advice of his chancellor, and 
 by a portrait of Holbein's, into suing for the hand of a German princess, 
 Anne of Cleves. But neither her figure nor her disposition suited the 
 amorous king, who accordingly procured another divorce upon grounds 
 altogether frivolous. Catherine Howard, Henry's fifth wife, retained her 
 affection for a former lover after her elevation, and expiated her want of 
 fuitli upon the scaffold ; and Catherine Parr, the last of his queens, had 
 only her pwn shrewdness to thank that she did not fall a victim to her zeal 
 for the Reformation. Since the days of Nero and Domitian, there had 
 hardly been a monarch who had surrendered himself so completely to the 
 promptings of a despotic nature, a passion for blood, and a tyrannical 
 will. Even on his death-bed, he issued orders for executions. 
 Edward VI ^ ^^^' -^^ ^^*® ^"^® of liis father's death, Edward VI. num- 
 
 ^- D- bered but six years ; Henry had, in consequence, appointed 
 
 ' ~ "^"^ • a council, to conduct the government during his son's minor- 
 ity. In this council, Edward's maternal uncle — the duke of Somerset, 
 and the Archbishop Cranmer, attained the greatest authority. The for- 
 mer, raised to the ofHce of Protector of England, gradually got the whole 
 power of the state into his own hands, and favored tlie establishment of 
 an Anglican Church, which had been undertaken with prudence and mo- 
 deration by his friend Cranmer. This consists of J mixture of Catholic 
 and Protestant elements. Public worship was accommodated to the 
 Book of Common Prayer, in the English language, which was compiled 
 from the ancient Mass books ; the Communion was administered in both 
 kinds ; the abolishing of celibacy, and the confession of fai:h in tlic 
 Thirty-nine Articles, is in conformity with other Protestant Churches ; 
 on the other hand, the episcopal constitution, the continuance in the use of 
 colored robes during divine worship, and a few ecclesiastical statutes, call 
 the Roman Catholic system to mind ; only, instead of the pope, the king 
 is the head of the Church, and the bishops and archbishops are appointed 
 by him. 
 
 ^ 
 
234 THE MODERN EPOCH. 
 
 Somerset made many enemies bj his ambition, who first procured his 
 fall, and at length his execution. Dudley, earl of Northumberland, the 
 ambitious chief of the opposite party, stepped into his place, and exer- 
 cised the same unlimited authority over the young king and the country 
 as his predecessor had done. For the purpose of prolonging his sway, 
 he persuaded the dying Edward to alter the will of his father, and ap- 
 point, as his successor, Jane Gray, a grand-niece of Henry VIIT., who 
 favored the evangelical doctrines, instead of Edward's Catholic sister 
 Mary. But hatred to the ambitious Northumberland, whose son, Guilford, 
 was the husband of Jane Gray, and the hereditary reverence for the 
 Mary Tudor legitimate inheritor, operated in favor of Mary. She brought 
 A- D. the people over to her side by the assurance that nobody 
 
 00 . gijQuij i)Q disturbed on account of his religion, and succeeded 
 in gaining the throne. Northumberland died on the scaffold. Dudley 
 and the classically accomplished Jane Gray, who was not less versed in 
 the writings of Plato than in the Bible, after pining for some time in pri- 
 son, were the victims of a similar fate. 
 
 § 34G. Mary did not remain true to her promise. Bred up in the 
 Catholic faith, for vv'hich her mother, Catherine, had suffered, she looked 
 upon the restoration of papacy and the ancient Church forms as the most 
 important of her duties as a ruler. She had the Church Reform of Ed- 
 ward VI. abolished by act of Parliament, and adopted measures, in con- 
 junction with Cardinal Pole, Avhom she raised to the archiepiscopal chair 
 of Canterbury, for the extirpation of heresy and the restoration of the 
 old system. The refractory bishops were deposed ; Cranmer and two of 
 his most zealous coadjutors given over to the flames, and the fires of 
 martyrdom lighted all over the kingdom. To neglect attending mass 
 was to put life in peril. Crowds of refugees fled over the seas, to seek 
 for refuge in Germany and Switzerland. When Mary gave her hand to 
 the fanatical Philip of Spain, the persecution waxed hotter. But grief 
 at the evident dislike of her husband, melancholy, and misanthropy 
 shortened her days. She died at the moment when she was deceiving 
 herself with the idle hope, that she was about to present a Catholic suc- 
 cessor to the nation. 
 
 Her half-sister, Elizabeth, the daughter of the unfortunate Anne 
 Boleyn, exchanged the residence she had hitherto occupied in the Tower, 
 where she had passed a troublous youth in the midst of sorrow and dan- 
 ger, for the royal palace, and restored, by the Act of Uniformity, the 
 Ecformation that had been established under Edward VI. The Book of 
 Common Prayer and the Thirty-nine Articles again resumed their au- 
 thority ; and Elizabeth exercised the influence which she possessed as 
 the spiritual head of the Church, in establishing the Court of High Com- 
 mission. It was in vain that the exiles, on their return home, hoped ta 
 induce the queen to undertake a thorough Reformation, on the model of 
 
PROGRESS OF THE REFORMATION THROUGH EUROPE, 205 
 
 tlie Calvlnistic Church. EHzabetli's lofty spirit, and her love for reli- 
 gious ceremonial and ecclesiastical pomp, despised the simplicity and 
 popular equality of the Calvinists, who, from their insisting upon the 
 purification of the Church, ^Yere called Puritans. When these men 
 found there was no hope for the reception of their doctrines into the An- 
 glican Church, they separated themselves as nonconformists, and esta- 
 blished a religious system of their own, with presbyteries and synods, a 
 religious servic3 from which art and poetry were banished, and a system 
 of Church discipline in which every earthly pleasure was a sin. Per- 
 secution was soon let loose against the Puritans, under which they be- 
 came still more gloomy and morose, and at length increased to a danger- 
 ous party. 
 
 C. THE REFORMATION IN THE THREE SCANDINAVIAN KINGDOMS. 
 
 § 3 17. In the sixteenth century, a complete revolution in the state of 
 affairs took place in the three Scandinavian kingdoms. Christian II., the 
 last king of the united empire (§ 20G), irritated the nobility to such an 
 extent by his sev( riiy and < rut liy. that insurrections broke out at the 
 same time both in Dcnnuuk and Sweden, in consequence of which the 
 union of Calmar was dissolved, and the evangelical Cinu'ch obtained the 
 supremacy. Gustavus Vasa, a courageous youth, endowed with the valor 
 and wisdom of the Stures, who were his relations, was the originator 
 of this ecclesiastical and political revolution in Sweden, and the founder 
 of a vigorous race of monarchs. lie was carried into Denmark as a 
 hostage by Christian II. From this place, however, he soon found an 
 opportunity to escape into Lubock, where he was not oidy protected but 
 provided with money, and encouraged witli prorni-cs of th(i liberation of 
 ^, ^ his native country. In the same wwv In wliich the slauditer 
 
 A. D. 1520. J ^ o 
 
 of Stockholm produced a universal liorror of the Danish 
 government, Gustavus landed on his native shores. In the midst of a 
 thousand dangers and adventures, he escaped the pursuits of Christian's 
 emissaries, wlio were perpetually at his heels, by his own courage'and 
 llie lldelity of liis countrymen, till at length he found aid and protection 
 from tlie rude inhabitants of Northern Dalecarlia. With a band of hardy 
 peasants he conquered Falun, repulsed the troops of the Danes and their 
 allies, and took Upsala. The fame of his name and the attractive call of 
 liberty soon resounded through all lands, and attracted many warriors to 
 his side. Supported by the Lubeckers with troops, money, and artillery, 
 he compelled the Danish garrison to retreat, and then, after having been 
 
 elected king by the Diet of Strengnas, he held his entry into 
 
 ' "" * Stockholm. At first, the new kingdom of Sweden remained 
 
 an elective monarchy, till, twenty years later, the crown was declared by 
 
 the diet to be hereditary in the male line of Vasa. But aa 
 
 the possessions of the throne had been so dilapidated by 
 
236 THE MODERI^ EPOCH. 
 
 neglect as not to be siuTicIent to support the expenditure, tlie new kingly 
 dignity could not be supported with honor except by an augmentation of- 
 the kingly revenue. For this, the Reformation afforded a welcome op- 
 portunity. The people, instructed in the Lutheran doctrines by the 
 brothers Glaus and Laurentius Petri, willingly accepted the new faith, 
 »nd the Diet placed the possessions of the clergy, who during the war 
 had sided with tlie Danes, and shown no interest in the independence of 
 their country, at the disposal of the king. Gustavus, sup- 
 ported by this resolution, gradually introduced the Reforma- 
 tion into the whole country, and deprived the Church of the greater part 
 of its possessions, for the purpose of attaching them to the crown. The 
 nobility, who were enriched by the proceeding, supported the undertak- 
 ing. The bishops, who, after a long resistance, submitted to the new 
 system, remained Estates of the empire and heads of the Church, but 
 were dependent upon the king, and held in check by the consistories. 
 
 § 348. A similar revolution had, in the mean time, taken place in Den- 
 mark. Frederick L, acknowledged as king by the nobility and people, 
 sought, by supporting the evangelical doctrine, to strengthen himself 
 against his rival, Christian II., who, although at first favorable to the 
 Reformation, had afterwards united himself to the emperor and the pope 
 for the purpose of regaining possession of his states. In the same time 
 in which Frederick admitted Protestants to equal civil rights with Catho- 
 lics at the Diet of Gdensee, and established the Danish Church's independ- 
 ence of Rome, Christian IT. made an attack upon Denmark from Nor- 
 way ; but was taken prisoner, and compelled to pine for sixteen years in 
 a gloomy tower, with no other companion than a Norwegian dwarf. 
 Christian III. Under Christian IIL, the son of Frederick L, the Lutheran 
 A. T). form of worship attained a complete triumph in Denmark 
 
 1534-1559. also. The clergy lost the greater part of their possessions 
 to the crown and the nobility, and the bishops, whose titles were retained 
 in tlie Scandinavian kingdoms, fell into complete dependence upon the 
 government. In Norway, the new Church was quietly establislied by 
 the peasantry ; but in Iceland, the Episcopal party fell with the sword 
 in their hands. The Swedish and Danish nobility gained great wealth, 
 power, and privileges by the Reformation. 
 
 § 349. Gustavus Vasa had attempted to establish Sweden's prosperity 
 by wholesome laws, and by the encouragement of trade and industry; 
 but evil times came upon the land under the government of his sons. 
 Erich XIV. ^^^'ich XIV. was of so passionate a disposition that he at 
 A- i>- length became insane. Whilst in this state, he murdered 
 
 lo60- o' . ^^,|jj_^ jjjg Q^yj^ hand several members of the family of Sture, 
 and caused all the nobles to tremble in anticipation of a similar fate ; 
 wdiich induced his brothers to place him in confinement, and at length to 
 Bend him out of the world by poison. His brother, John IIL, a weak 
 
PROGRESS OF THE REFORMATION THROUGH EUROPE. 237 
 
 minded prince of unstable character, succeeded to tlie government. Led 
 JohnHI astray by his wife, a rigid Catholic and the daughter of 
 
 A. D. a Polish prince,' and by a Jesuit who lived secretly in 
 
 1568 -io92. Stockholm as an ambassador, John attempted again to intro^ 
 duce the ancient form of religion into his kingdom, and consented that 
 his son Sigismond, who was to be king both of Sweden and Poland, 
 should be brought up as a Catholic. His scheme proved abortive, from 
 the resistance of the Swedish people to the Catholic ceremonies ; hcTiim- 
 self afterwartk repented of his attempt, when his secoad Avife exerted her- 
 self in favor of the evangelical doctrine. But the attachment to the 
 Catholic Church proved of great detriment to his son, the Polish king, 
 Sigismond III. For when he refused compliance with tl ^ resolution of 
 the Diet, that the evangelical-Lutheran religion should be solely predomi- 
 nant and alone tolerated in Sweden, his uncle, Charles of Sudermania, 
 was named regent. It was in vain that Sigismond attempted 
 to defend his rights by force of arms, he was defeated by his 
 uncle; whereupon the Diet required him cither to renounce popery, and 
 to govern his hereditary kingdom in person; or to send his son to 
 Sweden, that he might be brought up in the religion of the country. 
 When Sigismond refused compliance with this demand, Charles IX. 
 received the crown he had long been sti^ving for, and a new law of suc- 
 cession secured it to his family. 
 
 § 350. At this time, a war arose between Sweden and Poland. This 
 Charles IX. ^""'^^^ which, after Charles's death, was inherited by his son, 
 A. D. Gustavus Adolphus, terminated to the advantage of Sweden, 
 
 1600-1611. ^^.jjQ g^Qj^ united Livonia and a part of Prussia to Finland 
 and Esthonia, her other provinces on the Baltic. 
 
 From this time, the power of Poland gradually decayed. An attempt 
 nt a reformation of the Church, which would have been attended by a 
 renovation of the state, and a more intimate connection with neighboring 
 countrief, was suppressed by a selfish nobility, who thought of nothing 
 but increasing their own power and privileges. It was only a few per- 
 secuted and fugitive teachers of the new doctrines that found protection 
 a id toleration in Poland. They were opposed to the Catholic Poles 
 under the comprehensive term of Dissidents, and succeeded, after' many 
 struggles, in obtaining toleration for their religion, and an equality of 
 civil rights ; possessions in which tliey were afterwards seriously dis- 
 turbed. Several opinions found toleration in Poland that had been 
 rejected by the Eeformers as unorthodox. Among these may be men- 
 tioned those entertained by the sect of Socinians (Unitarians) founded 
 by the Italian Socinus, who denied the Divine nature of Christ and the 
 doctrine of the Trinity. 
 
238 THE MODERN EPOCH. 
 
 d. THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. 
 
 § 351. Traces of the Reformation displayed themselves both in Spain 
 and Italy, but were prevented from extending partly by the character of 
 the people, and partly by the severity of the Inquisition ; the suspected 
 died in frightful dungeons, or at the stake. Among the confessors of the 
 new doctrine were found the most illustrious authors and men of learn- 
 ing, who, for the most part, took refuge abroad. Some adopted princi- 
 ples that were rejected as heretical even by the Reformers; for example, 
 the tvv'o Italian brothers, Sociims;* and the Spaniard, Servetus, who was 
 burnt to death at Geneva, at the suggestion of Calvin, for holding unor- 
 thodox opiniori on the subject of the Trinity (a. d. 1553.) 
 
 The heads and leaders of the Catholic Church did not give up the 
 thought of suppressing the new doctrines: wherever it was in their power, 
 tliey sought to attain this object by persecution and violence ; and when 
 this was not practicable, they opposed and impeded their diffusion in 
 Adrian VI every possible way. Almost all the popes, even those who, 
 A. D. 1522, like Adrian VI. and Paul III., were convinced of the pre- 
 1523. vailing abuses of the Church, and meditated plans for their 
 
 Paul III., removal, displayed great severity against the Protestants. 
 A. D. lo - Thus Paul IV., an octogenarian and a gloomy monk, pro- 
 voked the people to such a degree, that, on the day of his 
 AD 1555- tleath, they mutilated his statues, and burnt down the house 
 1559. of the Inquisition. His successor, Pius IV., brought to a 
 
 Pius IV., termination the twice interrupted Council of Trent, the third 
 
 A. P. 1559- assembling of which commenced with the January of 1562. 
 ^ ^' The resolutions of this Council (in which the Catholics see 
 
 their own Reformation), form the foundation of the Catholic Church. 
 The religious doctrines that had hitherto been regarded as orthodox were 
 here recognized as infallible, and embodied in expressions as indefinite 
 as possible; a purer code of morals was established, the Church disci- 
 pline improved, and a more rigorous supervision of the clergy established. 
 The Council of Trent, which was gradually received in all Catholic 
 countries, is the final conclusion of Catholic doctrine ; from this time, no 
 more synods have been held. In this manner, every attempt at innova- 
 tion was prevented, and the character of stability impressed upon Catho- 
 lidsra ; whilst, on the contrary, the essence of Protestantism is develop- 
 ment and progress. 
 
 Gregory XIII., Gregory XIII., who gave the calendar, which had fallen 
 A. D. 1572- into contusion, its present improved arrangement, by passing 
 ^"^^' at once from the 18th of February to the 1st of March, 
 
 * This is a mistake. Lasliiis Socinus and Faustus Socinus were not brothers, but uncle 
 and nephew. The title of the Bibliotheca Fraiimm Pohnxyi'um, a collection of the Avorks o** 
 the Sociuian theologians, may have led Dr. Weber into this error. Avt. Ed 
 
THE CATUOLIC CHURCH. 239 
 
 ordered a Te Deum to be sung for the extirpation of the enemies of 
 Christ when he heard the intelligence of the massacre of St. Bartholo- 
 mew (§ 363). The most remarkable prince of the Church, during the 
 Sixtus V whole century, was Sixtus V., who, from the condition of a 
 A. r llSi - poor shepherd boy, had risen to be a Franciscan, inquisitor, 
 lc9i:. cardinal, and at length, pope. lie was a man of a strong 
 
 and imperious nature, who maintained the discipline of the Church with 
 inexorable severity, erected several remarkable buildings, drew forth the 
 gigantic works of antiquity from their rubbish, and attempted to restore 
 the ancient splendor to the papal chair. ^ 
 
 § 352. The attempts of the popes to suppress the Reformation, or at 
 least to prevent its diffusion, found their chief support in the Order of 
 Jesuits, which was founded by Ignatius Loyola, a Spanish 
 nobleman of excitable imagination and enthusiastic tempera- 
 ment. Affected by the histories of the saints, which he read during the 
 healing of a wound, Ignatius renounced the profession of soldier, to which 
 he had hitherto belonged, and accomplished a toilsome pilgrimage, with 
 prayers and penance, to the Holy Sepulchre. After his return, he 
 acquired, with incredible perseverance, the education in which he was 
 deficient, in Salamanca and Paris ; and then, together with six associates, 
 swore upon the host not only to be true to the three monastic vows of 
 poverty, chastity, and obedience, but to allow the object of their efforts 
 to be determined on by the pope, and then to submit themselves to his 
 decision with unconditional compliance. A short time after, they pros- 
 trated themselves at the feet of the Roman pontiff, and obtained a con- 
 firmation of the new Order, which received the name of the Society of 
 Jesus. Ignatius became the first general of the Order; but it is not to 
 him, but to his successor, the Spaniard, Lainez, that the Society of Jesus 
 is indebted for its artfully designed constitution. 
 
 This constitution was military-monarchical. The superintendents of 
 the provinces (the provincials), were subject to the general in Rome, and 
 under these again were a multitude of heads in various steps and grada- 
 tions. Obedience and rigid subordination were the soul of the alliance. 
 Ail the members were most heedfully watched over, and were compelled 
 to tear asunder all the bands that connected them with the world. 
 Postulants were required to pass through a long period of probation, 
 during which, the talents and disposition of every individual were mi- 
 nutely scrutinized, so that he might be devoted to his most appropriate 
 sphere of action. The Jesuits, who were endowed with great privileges, 
 soon attained a vast and multifarious activity. The chief aim of the Order 
 was to oppose Protestantism, and to suppress the freedom of inquiry that 
 had been awakened by the Reformation. They attempted these objects 
 by a variety of ways ; they endeavored to lead back the adherents of the 
 new faith into the bosom of the ancient Chui'ch by persuasion and seduce- 
 
240 THE MODERN EPOCH. 
 
 ment ; the confessional was made use of to induce princes and men in 
 autliority to oppose the Reformation, and to put limits to the freedom of 
 belief; and by the education of youth, which they had known how to get 
 into tlieir own hands, they sought to bring up the young in their own 
 principles. The Order was enriched by presents and legacies, and this 
 wealth facilitated the erection of Jesuitical seminaries, wliich, plentifully 
 presided with every tiling that was requisite, imparted instruction gra- 
 tuit^sly, and thus attracted many of the necessitous. Moreover, the 
 object aimed at by the instruction given by the Jesuits was not a free 
 development of tke mind, but only the acquirement of knowledge that 
 might be serviceable in life. It might rather be called training than 
 education. Sciences were presented in a certain contracted form, and 
 free speculation was prevented. Readiness in the Latin language, and 
 an acquaintance with a few sciences that were of practical utility, were 
 the aim of the Jesuitical education; the means — severe discipline and 
 the excitement of ambition : j)hilosophy, on the other hand, history, and 
 every thing that directs men's minds to more elevated or comprehensive 
 views, were either banished or taught with restrictions. But what drew 
 down the curses of the people on the Jesuitical order was, that by its 
 dangerous morality it became the destroyer of truth and faith, and the 
 dissemipator of malicious and false principles. The revolting doctrine 
 that the end sanctifies the means, and that words and oaths might be 
 rendered invalid by a mental reservation, were brought into use by the 
 Jesuits in a most audacious manner. 
 
 5. THE TIMES OF PHILIP II. (A. D. 1556 1598) AND ELIZABETH 
 
 (A. D. 1558 — 1603). 
 
 § 353. Philip 11. of Spain was a gloomy and misanthropical prince, 
 who proposed three objects to himself as the aims of his existence, — 
 the increase of his power, the extirpation of Protestantism, and the anni- 
 hilation of liberty and popular rights. In the attainment of these ends, 
 he sacrificed the happiness of his people, the prosperity of his kingdom, 
 and the affection of his subjects and nearest relations. Ills chivalrous 
 half-brother, Don Juan, who defeated the Turks in the sea- 
 ^'^' "^ • engagement at Lepanto, was surrounded by the suspicious 
 king with such a web of falsehood, intrigue, and espionage, and so fet- 
 tered in all his undertakings, that grief and vexation plunged him into an 
 early grave. Philip's son, the impetuous and passionate Don Carlos, 
 died in the dungeons of the Inquisition, — that mighty spiritual court, 
 which, under Philip, became the terror and horror of the j^eople. By 
 means of this horrible Inquisition, and the dreadful autos dafe, he was 
 indeed successful in destroying every trace of heresy in Spain and jNa- 
 ples, and in depriving the people of their freedom ; but he at the same 
 time annihilated the prosperity, the wealth, and the national greatness of 
 
PORTUGAL UNITED WITH SPAIN. 241 
 
 these countries; and when he attempted to bend the Netherlands under 
 the same yoke, that memorable contest burst forth, out of which liberty 
 came forth triumphant. After a reign of forty-two years, which proved tho 
 grave of Spain's greatness, and burdened the once rich land with an op- 
 pressive national debt, Philip fell a victim to a dreadful di^ase. He had 
 a cruel executor of his tyrannical commands in Duke Alba. The cyise 
 of the people rests on the names of both. M 
 
 a. PORTUGAL UNITED WITH SPAIN. 
 
 § 354. Portugal had a similar fate with Spain. In both countries, a 
 powerful priesthood supported by an absolute king, suppressed the spirit- 
 ual movements of the people, and paralyzed their powers. Freedom 
 and rights were lost, and the ancient heroism, the bloom and the pros- 
 perity of an earlier period, disappeared beneath sloth and slavery. This 
 was particularly the case when Portugal, by a gloomy fatality, was uni- 
 ted to Spain. 
 
 King Sebastian, a young man, and who had blen educated by the 
 priests in rigid faith and obedience to the Church and pope, undertook an 
 expedition against the infidel Moors in northern Africa, with the purpose 
 of gratifying at once both his zeal for proselytism and his love of con- 
 quest. He commenced an impetuous attack, during the 
 burning heat of an August day, upon the superior force of 
 the enejny, in the plain of Alcassar, and suffered a dreadful defeat. 
 12,000 Christian warriors covered the field of battle. Sebastian him- 
 self was among those who were missing, but his body could be nowhere 
 discovered. The crown of Portugal descended to an ancient relative ; 
 and when he died, two years afterwards, without children, Philip II. of 
 Spain made pretensions to the kingdom, and sent Duke Alba with an 
 army against the Portuguese, who, out of national hatred and neighbor- 
 ly jealousy, favored the pretensions of a rival claimant, Antonio. But 
 the latter was not in a position to contest his pretended hereditary claims 
 against the superior power of Spain. He was defeated and compelled 
 to fly, upon which Lisbon and the whole country submitted to the Span- 
 iards. Antonio, after a few unsuccessful attempts, died, poor and haras- 
 sed by perpetual plots, in Paris ; and the false Sebastians that arose from 
 time to time, and endeavored to stir up the Portuguese against their de- 
 tested neighbors, did not meet with the necessary support. The fourth 
 Sebastian, who by many was regarded as the true one, ended his days in 
 A. D. 1580- a Spanish prison. The pernicious domination of Spain over 
 1640. Portugal endured for sixty years. At the end of this peri- 
 
 od, the illustrious duke of Braganza succeeded in bringing the crown 
 into his own family. But in the meanwhile, the navy of Portugal had 
 fallen into decay, and her foreign possessions passed into other hands. 
 21 
 
242 THE MODERN EPOCH. 
 
 h. THE STRUGGLE FOR LIBERTY IN THE NETHERLANDS. 
 
 § 355. The Netherlands, from time imraemoruxl, had possessed char- 
 tered rights and liberties, among which, consent to taxation by ihe 
 Estates of the country, an independent judicature, and the exclusion of 
 Spanish troi|)s and officials, occupied the most prominent place. These 
 rights had been already occasionally infringed during the time of Charles 
 v.; but the love of the emperor for the Netherlanders, among whom he 
 had been born, and for whose manners and customs he retained an affec- 
 tion, prevented any greater hostilities. Philip, on the contrary, was a 
 liaughty Spaniard, who looked upon the Netherlands as a conquered 
 country, and who perpetually violated their hereditary privileges. He 
 appointed his half-sister, Margaret of Parma, a woman of masculine 
 spirit, his viceregent in Brussels ; but placed a state council at her side, 
 in which a foreigner, Cardinal Granvella, was president, and sent a 
 Spanish garrison into the country. But the Netherlanders, many of 
 whom were inclined to the evangelical doctrines, felt themselves most 
 aggrieved, when the king, for the purpose of maintaining the pure faith 
 and the discipline of the Church, ordered the laws against heresy to be 
 rendered more stringent, and appointed fourteen new bishops in addition 
 to the four already existing. These regulations were intended to facili- 
 tate the gradual introduction of the Spanish Inquisition ; and the Car- 
 dinal Granvella, wlio, as archbishop of Mechlin, had all the other bishop- 
 rics under him, already assumed the title of Grand-Inquisitor. All 
 attempts of the patriotic party, at the head of which stood William of 
 Orange and Count Egmont, to induce the king by petitions to respect the 
 institutions of the country, to mitigate the laws against heresy, and to 
 allow freedom of belief, were ineiFectual. Philip replied, " that he would 
 rather die a thousand times, than suffer the slightest change in religion.'* 
 
 § 356. It was among the burgher class alone that any disciples of the 
 new Church were to be met with ; the nobility for the most part adhered 
 to the ancient faith, but were resolute in opposing the Inquisition with all 
 November, their power. With this object, about 400 nobles subscribed 
 1565. the so-called Compromise, and drew up a petition for the 
 
 repeal of the laws against heresy, and the discontinuance of the proceed- 
 ings of the Inquisition. When they presented themselves with this 
 before the palace of the vice-regent, she fell into a state of agitation. One 
 of the council who was standing beside her exclaimed, that she should 
 not be alarmed by these beggars (gueux), a word that was communicated 
 to the confederates, and made use of by them as the sign of their alli- 
 ance. They named themselves iGrueses, and from this time wore a medal 
 with the effigy of the king, and the inscription, " True even to the beg- 
 gar's wallet." The petition remained without result. Heretics were pun- 
 ished in their freedom, property and lives. Despite all this, the new 
 
THE STRUGGLE FOR LIBERTY IX THE NETHERLANDS. 243 
 
 doctrines made more and more progress ; psalms were sung, the preach- 
 ings of the evangelical clergy, which were often held in the open air, 
 were attended by thousands ; monks, images of the Virgin, and holy ob- 
 jects were turned to ridicule. At length, the long restrained wrath of 
 the people at the religious persecution burst its bounds in Antwerp, 
 Brussels, and the whole of Brabant. A mob, consisting of the lowest 
 class of the people, mutilated the crucifixes and images of the saints 
 which were standing in the roads ; but the increasing multitude soon 
 attacked the churches and cloisters, and perpetrated every kind of sacri- 
 legious atrocity. These occurrences produced a division. The moderate 
 party joined the regent, and assisted her in punishing the guilty. Order 
 was in a short time restored, and Margaret recommended gentleness and 
 moderation as the only means by which the tranquillity of the country 
 could be permanently established. But her representations found no 
 acceptance in Madrid. It was determined to send the cruel Alba with a 
 Spanish army to the Netherlands, and to reduce the people by force and 
 severity. 
 
 Alba, A. D. § 357. The intelligence of Alba*s arrival caused the Netber- 
 1567-1573. landers to take flight in crowds. William of Orange, a pru- 
 dent and circumspect man, in the full vigor of life, resolute, energetic, 
 and taciturn, yielded to the storm and retreated to Holland. He parted 
 in tears from Egraont, whom he vainly attempted to persuade to follow 
 the same course. Egmont's happy nature could not give credit to the 
 Spanish treachery, against which Orange warned him. He trusted to his 
 former services to the royal family of Spain, and remained. But Alba 
 had hardly arrived at Brussels, with unlimited powers, before 
 he placed the unsuspecting Egmont and the gallant Horn 
 under arrest, and caused them, with eighteen others of the nobility, to be 
 executed as traitors. He then established a council of rebellion, called 
 by the Netherlanders The Bloody Council, which punished with unex- 
 ampled severity not only the disciples of the evangelical doctrine, but the 
 resolute defenders of their country's rights and institutions. The regent, 
 disgusted with these horrors, resigned her office and retired to Italy. Her 
 memoiy was held in honor. Alba, however, erected a citadel in Antwerp, 
 and for six years (a. d. 15G7-1573) exercised an oppressive tyranny 
 that threatened the greatest danger to hberty and prosperity. Without 
 regard to the laws of the land, which required that the taxes should be 
 allowed by the Estates of every district, and collected in a manner" the 
 best suited to their object, Alba imposed a fixed tax upon the country, 
 and levied it in a manner extremely unfavorable to trade and commerce, 
 inasmuch as, in addition to a property tax, he introduced a high tariff. 
 The discontent and irritation of the people at these oppressive imposts at 
 length produced such a fermentation in the country, that Alba's recall 
 Was decided upon in Madrid. The intelligence that a band of exiles, 
 
244 THE MODERN EPOCH. 
 
 Mofcl 
 
 called Water-Gueses, ha J^ stormed the sea-port, Briel, and that the north- 
 ern states, Holland, Zealand, Utrecht, and Friesland, had united together 
 and recognized William of Oran'^e as their Stadtholder, 
 
 A D 1672 C3 7 
 
 might have convinced the Spanish court that Alba's pro- 
 ceedings were not leading to the desired result. Shortly after the Duke's 
 departure from the Netherlands, the northern states, in the synod of 
 Dort, raised Calvinism to be the religion of the state, received the Heid- 
 elberg Catechism, and erected a Protestant university in the town of 
 Leyden, as a reward for the heroic defence of the citizens against the 
 beleaguering Spanish army. 
 
 Zuniga, A. D. § 358. Alba's successor, Louis of Zuniga and Requesens, 
 1573-1576. abolished the Bloody Council, and attempted by milder mea- 
 sures again to confirm the tottering power of Spain in the Netherlands ; 
 but the hatred of the people against the foreign troops, whose licentious- 
 ness every day increased, prevented a reconciliation. Even his victory 
 on the Mokerheath, where two of the brothers of Orange died as became 
 heroes, failed in producing the expected results. Zuniga died two years 
 afterwards. Before his successor, Don Juan, Philip's gallant half- 
 Don Juan brother, could enter upon his difRcult office, the insolence of 
 A, D. 1576- the savage and unpaid soldiery attained its highest pitch. 
 1578. They filled the wealthy cities of Maestricht and Antwerp 
 
 with murder, plunder, and desolation. At this crisis, the shrewd Orange 
 
 was successful in uniting the whole of the states, by the 
 
 A- T> 1 ^y6 ' *f 
 
 alliance of Ghent, in the resolution of mutually assisting each 
 other, with life and property, in driving out the Spanish troops ; and 
 Don Juan was not in a position, during the brief period of his exertions 
 in the Netherlands, to reestablish firmly the shattered power of Spain. 
 Alexander ^"*' ^^^ Juan, as well as his more experienced successor, 
 Farnese, A. D. Alexander Farnese of Parma, son of the regent, Margaret, 
 1578 - 1592. -yyas intent upon fostering the jealousy and hereditary envy 
 between the northern and southern states, and on maintaining the rights of 
 the Catholic Church in the latter, that the dominioh of Spain might be 
 preserved in the southern states at least. This scheme was seen through 
 by Orange, who, being convinced that even the weak were strengthened 
 by union, united the northern states, (Holland, Zealand, Geld- 
 ers, Utrecht, Friesland), into a closer confederacy for the 
 purpose of mutual cooperation, by the Union of Utrecht. This alliance 
 was", the foundation of the United States of the Protestant Netherlands. 
 On the other hand, matters in the south became every day more confused 
 and divided by the intermeddling of foreign princes and nobles, so that 
 the energetic Parma was enabled in many places to suppress the insur- 
 rection, and to bring back many of the towns to obedience. Philip's 
 wrath was now directed against Orange. He had already outlawed him, 
 and promised a title of nobility and a vast reward to whosoever should 
 
THE TIMES OF PHILIP II. AND ELIZABETH. 245 
 
 deliver him up either alive or dead. This tempting promise, and the ac- 
 tivity of fanatical priests, were followed by several attempts at assassina- 
 tion. Orange escaped one of these, but the bullet of the fanatic, Ger* 
 hard of Fran die- Com te, laid him dead at the door of the 
 royal banqueting-hall of Delft. The murderer was however 
 seized and put to a cruel death. In the place of Orange, the' northern 
 states elected his gallant son, Maurice, as Stadtholder and general. 
 
 § 359. About this time, the religious animosity between Catholics and 
 Protestants was greater than ever in the west of Europe ; and whilst 
 the former placed all their hopes upon Philip of Spain, the latter receiv- 
 ed assistance either private or open from Elizabeth of England. She 
 sent her favorite, Leicester,' with an army into the Netherlands, to pre- 
 vent Parma's complete triumph; she assisted the Huguenots against 
 Philip's allies, the Leaguists and Jesuits (§ 362, 364), and consented to 
 
 the execution of Mary Stuart, when she found that her 
 A. n 1587 
 
 own life was threatened by the daggers of fanatics (§ 368). 
 
 Upon this, Philip determined to annihilate all the enemies of the Catho- 
 lic Church by a mighty blow, and above all, to chastise heretical Eng- 
 land and her excommunicated queen. With this view, he fitted out the 
 Armada or " Invincible Fleet," consisting of 130 large ships of war, and 
 sent them into the Channel, under the command of Medina 
 
 A D 1588 
 
 Sidonia, to the end that, supported by Parma's land force, 
 they might subject, at the same time, England, France, and the Nether- 
 lands. But the undertaking ended in the shame and ruin of Spain. The 
 *^ Invincible Fleet" was destroyed by storms, and the skill and courage 
 of the English ; the greater part of tliat which escaped the fire-ships, the 
 rocks, and the enemy, in the Channel, was wrecked upon the Hebrides 
 and Shetland islands, when Sidonia attempted to return to Spain by 
 sailing round Scotland. It was a fatal blow. Philip admitted this, when 
 he composed the fears of the trembling admiral with the words, " I sent 
 you against men, not against rocks and storms." This event destroyed 
 Spain's supremacy at sea, and secured the independence of the Nether- 
 lands. The war, indeed, continued for twenty years longer ; but the Span- 
 iards, despite the bravery of their troops and the skill of their command- 
 ers, were not in a condition to subject the whole of the country. The 
 northern states, who possessed an admirable leader in Maurice of Or- 
 ange, maintained the struggle for freedom and independence. A short 
 time before his death, Philip presented the Netherlands to his daugliter, 
 Clara Eugenia, on her marriage with the archduke, Albert of Austria, 
 as a fief, under the condition, that the land should revert to Spain in tlie 
 event of her dying without children. The United States of Holland, 
 however, would not consent to this scheme. They still continued the 
 war after the death of Philip II., till at length, by the inter- 
 mediation of Henry IV. of France, a truce was arranged, 
 21* 
 
246 THE MODERN EPOCH. 
 
 by wliicli their independence, religious freedom, and trade with the East 
 Indies were secured to them. But it was not till the peace of Westpha- 
 lia that the independence of the United States of Holland was formally 
 acknowledged. The southern provinces (Belgium), on the other hand, 
 remained for a whole century subject to Spain, and then fell into the 
 hands of Austria. 
 
 § 360. Trade. — Government. — Synod of Dort. — Holland 
 came forth from the struggle flourishing and powerful. Navigation and 
 commerce received a vast impulse, after the Hollanders (particularly the 
 East India Company, established in 1 602) entered into direct commer- 
 cial relations with India, and deprived the Portuguese of many of their 
 colonies. Batavia, in the island of Java, was the centre of their lucra- 
 tive traffic. The Constitution of the United States, which was mainly 
 the work of the great statesman, Van Olden Barnveldt, was republican. 
 The States General, which were formed by deputies from the seven 
 provinces, possessed the power of legislation ; the High Council, with 
 the stadtholder at its head, conducted the government ; the affairs of 
 war, however, and the supreme command over the sea and land forces, 
 belonged to the stadtholder alone. The arts and sciences at the same 
 time flourished prosperously ; the study of antiquity, in particular, met 
 with unusual attention in the Dutch universities. 
 
 But even Protestant Holland did not remain free from the mischiev- 
 ous wars of religion. A dispute respecting the Calvinistic doctrine of 
 predestination divided the country into two parties, — a severe party 
 (Gomarists), to which Maurice of Orange and his adherents attached 
 themselves, and a moderate party (Arminians), whose supporters were 
 Van Olden Barnveldt and Hugo Grotius. The synod of Dort (§ 342) 
 decided in favor of the former ; upon which, Van Olden Barnveldt, who 
 had deserved so highly, and was then in his seventy-second year, perish- 
 ed on the scaffold ; and Hugo Grotius, the learned historian of the strug- 
 gles of the Netherlands for liberty, and the founder of civil and interna- 
 tional law according to the principles of the ancients, was confined in 
 prison till rescued by the cunning and fidelity of his wife. 
 
 C. FRANCE DURING THE WAR OF RELIGION. 
 
 § 361. During this period, furious religious wars were raging in France 
 also. Henry IL, a determined enemy of the Huguenots (§ 342), died in 
 consequence of a wound he received during a tournament. His feeble 
 Francis 11. ^'^^ delicate son, Francis II., was his successor. This prince 
 A. D. was married to the fascinating Mary Stuart of Scotland, 
 
 1559-1560. w'hose uncles, the Guises, in consequence, enjoyed great in- 
 fluence at the French court. The Guises, as zealous adherents of the 
 Catholic Church and the papacy, made use of their lofty position to sup- 
 press the reformed party ; but by doing this, gave their opponents, and 
 
THE TIMES OF PHILIP II. AND ELIZABETH. 24'5 
 
 in especial, the Prince Conde, of the family of Bourbon, and the Admi- 
 ral Coligni, the opportunity of strengthening themselves by joining the 
 Huguenots. The schism increased daily ; the one party strove to over- 
 throw the other, and to secure the victory to their own side by the as- 
 sistance of the king. The day on which the Estates assembled at Or- 
 leans was selected by both parties as a befitting time for the execution of 
 this project. The Guises gained the advantage. The chiefs of the Hu- 
 guenots already found themselves in prison, when a turn was given to 
 affairs by the sudden death of the king. The queen-mother, Catherine 
 of Medicis, placed herself at the head of affairs during the minority of 
 Charles IX., the new king, Charles IX., and the Bourbons assumed a 
 A. D. 1560- position suited to their birth. The Guises, irritated at the 
 
 neglect they experienced, retired with their niece, Mary Stu- 
 art, into Lorraine, whence the latter, shortly after, departed with sorrow 
 and mourning into Scotland. ♦ 
 
 § 3G2. The removal of the Guises from the court was of advantage 
 to the reformed party. They obtained toleration. Enraged at this con- 
 cession, the duke of Guise concluded an alliaiKc with some other power- 
 ful nobles for the preservation of the ancient faith in France, and return- 
 ed to Paris. During this return, a horrible slaughter was perpetrated 
 by the Guises and their attendants upon some Calvinists of the town of 
 Vassy, who were assembled together in a barn, for the celebration of 
 Divine worship. This proved the signal for a religious war. The out- 
 rage given to the conceded liberty of conscience by this bloody act of 
 violence cried for vengeance. France was soon divided into two hostile 
 camps, that attacked each other with bitter aiiimn iiy ;;ih1 religious rage. 
 The most horrible atrocities were committed, and the kingdom disturbed 
 to its inmost depths. The Catholics obtained aid from Rome and Spain, 
 the Protestants were assisted by England ; Germany and Switzerland 
 supplied soldiers. After the undecisive battle of Dreux, and the murder 
 of the Duke Francis of Guise, at the siege of Orleans, peace was for a 
 short time restored, and the Calvinists again assufed of religious tolera- 
 tion — a promise that met with but little attention. The two parties 
 D 1568 ^^^^^ ^^^" again arrayed in arms against each other. But 
 
 despite the bravery of the Huguenots in the battle of St. 
 Denis, where the elder Montmorenci lost his life, the superiority remain- 
 ed on the side of the Catholics; particularly when Catherine de Medicis, 
 who had hitherto sided with neither party, embraced the interests of the 
 latter. The sight of crucifixes and sacred objects broken to pieces, dur- 
 ing a journey undertaken by the queen and her son, and the advice of 
 the duke of Alba, with whom she had an interview in Bayonne, had 
 produced this alteration in her opinions. After several bloody engage- 
 ments in the vicinity of La Rochelle, which the Huguenots had selected 
 as their battlefield, and after their gallant leader, Conde, had been basely 
 
248 TUE MODERN EPOCH. 
 
 assassinated during one of tLem, the peac<e of St. Germain was arrang- 
 ed, by which the Calvinists were again assured of the free exercise of 
 their religion. Conde's nephew, Henry of Beam, who had 
 been bred up in the doctrine of Calvin by his mother, Joanna 
 d' Albret, now placed himself at the head of the Huguenots ; but the 
 Boul of the party was the brave Coligni, who stood by the side of the 
 prince as his guide and adviser. 
 
 § 363. Coligni possessed great influence at the court after the peace. 
 The young king respected him, and favored him with his confidence. 
 For the purpose of bringing about a permanent reconcihation between 
 the religious parties, the king now urged a marriage between his sister, 
 Margaret of Valois, and the Bourbon, Henry of Beam. This offended 
 the Guises, who believed that Coligni had procured the assassination of 
 Francis of Guise, and they resolved upon his destruction. Coligni was 
 fired at one evening, as he was returning to his own house from the 
 Louvre. The ball, however, only shattered his arm, and it was neces- 
 sary to devise a fresh plan of destruction. The Guises, in conjunction 
 with Catherine of Medicis, now entertained the horrible project of taking 
 advantage of the approaching marriage, for the solemnization of which 
 many illustrious Calvinists had hastened to the capital, to destroy the 
 chiefs of the Huguenot party. Thus originated the Bloody Nuptials of 
 Paris, in the night of St. Bartholomew, August 24th, 1572. When the 
 alarm bell of St. Germain I'Auxerrois gave the signal at midnight, bands 
 of armed ruffians fell upon the defenceless Calvinists. The grey-headed 
 hero, Coligni, was the first victim that the Guises sacrificed to their hate ; 
 the murderous bands then marched through all parts of the city, filled 
 the streets and houses with blood and corpses, and laughed to scorn every 
 sentiment of humanity and justice. The butchery lasted for three days, 
 and was imitated in other towns, so that, at the lowest computation, 
 25,000 Huguenots must have perished. The king, to whom the plan 
 was communicated a short time before its execution, listened to the voice 
 of his passions, and himself fired upon the fugitives. After the deed had 
 been accomplished, and the Guises had been fixed upon by the public 
 voice as its instigators, and called upon to answer for their conduct, 
 Charles took the whole affair upon himself, and excused the crime by a 
 pretended conspiracy. Many of the French quilted their homes in hor- 
 ror, and sought for security in Switzerland, Germany, and the Nether- 
 lands. Henry of Bearn saved his life by a compulsatory abjuration, but 
 returned to his old faith as soon as he found himself in security. 
 
 § 364. Charles IX. died two years after the night of 
 
 * St. Bartholomew, troubled with evil dreams. His brother 
 
 Henr TIT Henry, who had been for a twelvemonth the elected king of 
 
 Ai T). 1574- Poland, fled secretly from the rude shores of the Vistula to 
 
 1-^89, take possession of the ftiirer crown of France. Henry IIL 
 
THE TIMES OF PHILIP II. AND ELIZABETH. 249 
 
 was a weak and luxurious prince, without either assiduity or energy. 
 Shut up with his favorites and pet dogs in the Jhmost apartments of the 
 palace, he forgot his kingdom with its disturbance^ and miseries; and 
 when remorse at his sinful life, which was passed in lust and debauchery, 
 seized upon him, he sought consolation in superstitious devotion, in pil- 
 grimages and processions, and in penance and flagellations. To bring 
 the Huguenots to peace, so that he might be able to devote himself to the 
 undisturbed enjoyment of the pleasures of his capital, Henry, immediately 
 upon his accession, granted them freedom of conscience, and equal civil 
 rights with the Catholics. Enraged at these concessions, which destroyed 
 all the fruits of their previous exertions, the zealous Catholics, under the 
 guidance of Henry of Guise, and with the cognizance of Philip II. of 
 Spain, concluded the Holy League for the preservation of the Church in 
 all its ancient rights. Many members were won to this alliance by the 
 insinuations of the priests and monks, and by the intrigues of the Jesuits. 
 The fickle and faithless king, disturbed by this movement, united himself 
 with the Catholic zealots, declared himself the head of the League, and 
 curtailed the religious peace. The duke of Anjou, Henry's younger 
 brother, died a few years after this ; and as he, like the king, was without 
 children, the Bourbon, Henry of Navarre (Beam), became the nearest 
 heir to the throne. This prospect of a Protestant king 
 alarmed the Catholic part of France, and gave fresU vigor 
 to the League. The weak king was obliged to recall all treaties with the 
 Huguenots, to announce the extirpation of heresy, and to approve the 
 arrangements of the League. Henry of Guise, at first, only entertained 
 the notion of putting aside the Protesfant successor to the throne, who 
 had been excommunicated by the pope ; but his courage rose with his 
 increasing power ; he soon made attempts upon the crown himself, whilst, 
 as a pretended descendant of the Carlovingi, he asserted the superiority 
 of his claims to those of the reigning family. A conspiracy was formed 
 in Paris (where the citizens were kept in a state of perpetual agitation 
 by fanatical popular orators) against the freedom or life of the king; and 
 when Henry III. attempted to defend himself by calling in Swiss troops, 
 the agitation burst into rebellion. The people assembled themselves 
 around the Guises, who, against the king's commands, were entering the 
 ^f ,o ^roo capital, barricaded the streets and bridges, and commenced 
 
 May 12, lobo. n ' ... 
 
 a turious contest with single divisions of the troops. The 
 trembling king fled with his favorites to Chartres, and left his capital in 
 the hands of his rival. Henry of Guise now possessed the same power 
 that had belonged to the mayors of the palace in the time of the Mero- 
 September, vingi (§ 184). But even this position did not satisfy the am- 
 1588. bitious party leader. An assembly of Estates, convoked at 
 
 Blois, where the adherents of the Guises were the strongest party, propos- 
 ed not only to deprive the Bourbons of their right to the throne and to ex- 
 
250 THE MODER]^ EPOCH. 
 
 terminate Calvinism, but to change the government, and to place tha 
 whole power in the han3s of the Guises. At this crisis, Henry hazarded 
 a bold stroke ; he had the duke of Guise and his brother, the Cardinal 
 Louis, assassinated, and imprisoned the most influential leaders of their 
 party. This proceeding produced a fearful commotion in the whole 
 nation: in Paris, allegiance was renounced to the God-forsaken king, 
 who had overthrown the pillar of Catholicism ; the pope fulminated an 
 excommunication at him ; revolutionary movements took place in many 
 quarters. Despised and forsaken, Henry III. saw no other way to safety 
 open to him than an alliance with Henry of Navarre and the Huguenots. 
 A frightful civil war burst out afresh, but fortune was hostile to the 
 League. Henry had already laid siege to Paris, and threatened to 
 reduce the faithless town to a heap of ruins, when the knife of a fanatical 
 monk put an end to his life. Henry IIL, the last Valois, died on the 1st 
 of August, 1589, after appointing Henry of Navarre and Beam his suc- 
 cessor. 
 
 § 365. Henry IV. had still a long struggle to sustain before his head 
 was ornamented by the crown of France. Mayenne, the brother of the 
 murdered Guise, placed himself at the head of the League, and offered a 
 vehement resistance to the Calvinistic claimant of the throne. Philip 11. 
 sought to turn the confusion to his own advantage, and commanded his 
 able general, Alexander of Parma, to march his forces from the Nether- 
 lands into France. Henry tried for a long time to get possession of his 
 inheritance by the sword : he laid siege to Paris, and caused 
 the citizens to feel all the horrors of famine ; but he at length 
 became convinced that he never could gain peaceable possession of the 
 French throne by battles and victories. He thought the crown of France 
 was worth a mass, and went over to the Catholic Church in 
 the cathedral of St. Denis, and by this means destroyed the 
 power of the League. Paris now threw open its gates, and welcomed 
 the bringer of peace with acclamations. The pope recalled the anathe- 
 ma ; the heads of the League concluded a treaty with him, and Philip IL, 
 a short time before his death, consented to the peace of Yervins. After 
 ^ foreign and domestic tranquillity had been thus restored to 
 
 France, the king, by the Edict of Nantes, conferred upon the 
 Calvinists liberty of conscience, the full rights of citizenship, and many 
 other privileges ; such as separate chambers in the courts of justice, 
 several castles, with all their warlike munitions (La Pochelle, Montau- 
 ban, Nismes, &c.,) and freedom from episcopal jurisdiction. He next 
 sought to heal the wounds that had been inflicted on the land by the war, 
 by encouraging agriculture, trade, and commerce ; and had the economy 
 of the state and the taxation admirably arranged by his friend and minis- 
 ter, Sully. He won for himself the warmest affections of his people by 
 his genuine French character, and by his cordial and cheerful disposition. 
 
ELIZABETH AND MAEY STUART. 251 
 
 His solitary failing, his too great love for women, was a merit in the 
 eyes of the French. But fanaticism was only slumbering. Henry's 
 tolerant disposition towards heretics awakened it. As he was meditating 
 the vast plan (with the approval of the Dutch Union and other European 
 powers) of founding a Christian community with equal privileges for the 
 three Confessions, and by this means destroying the supre- 
 macy of the royal house of Hapsburg, he fell beneath the 
 knife of Ravaillac. 
 
 d. ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART. 
 
 Elizabeth § ^^^* ^^^i^^^ France was being torn to pieces by the war 
 
 A. D. 1558- of religion, England, under Elizabeth, was making mighty 
 1603. advances in trade and commerce, in navigation, agriculture, 
 
 and literature. Elizabeth was a despotic ruler, who suppressed the 
 ecclesiastical freedom of the people, and who would suffer no opposition 
 to her will in parliament ; but she possessed great talents for govern- 
 ment, a mind invigorated by severe studies, and an understanding that 
 enabled her invariably to recognize and select that which was most pro- 
 fitable for the country. She surrounded herself by sage councillors, 
 among whom, Cecil (Lord Burleigh) held the first rank, and maintained 
 order and economy in the management of the state ; but the dissimula- 
 tion she had been accustomed to practise during her perilous youth, 
 rendered the crooked path of falsehood, and the subterfuges of a dis- 
 ingenuous policy agreeable to her. She displayed the latter more 
 especially, in her conduct towards Mary Stuart, queen of Scotland, who, 
 in character, personal qualities, and history, formed a contrast to her 
 neighboring rival. Whilst Elizabeth, from the misfortunes of her youth, 
 had carried with her into life a dowry of unamiability, severity, false- 
 hood, and envy, the beautiful Mary, after a youth passed in joy and 
 happiness, had brought to the Scottish throne a cheerful and engaging 
 nature, an open heart, and a joyous disposition ; and whilst the English 
 qusen was closely bound to Protestantism, and united in one Church with 
 her people, Mary held fiist to the Catholic faith and the papacy, in the 
 midst of a rude nation, who, with their own hands, had raised the Pres- 
 byterian Church to be the Church of the kingdom, and who detested the 
 mass as idolatry. Her private chapel was attacked, and the stern 
 reformer, Knox, pronounced severe discourses against her from the 
 pulpit of the palace, as the prophets had once done against the idolatrous 
 kings of Israel. 
 
 § 367. Mary united herself in a second marriage with 
 Darnley, a Scotch nobleman, who had been brought up in 
 England. The union, however, proved unfortunate. The vain, unthink- 
 ing husband, abandoned to the counsels of insincere friends, found plea- 
 sure in nothing but hunting and feasting ; and was indignant at finding 
 
252 THE MODERN EPOCH. 
 
 that the queen neglected him, and bestowed her confidence on the singer, 
 Rizzio, from Turin, who conducted her correspondence with the Guises 
 and the pope. Darnley, urged on by jealousy, and a feeling of injured 
 honor, and irritated by malicious friends, formed a conspiracy with some 
 nobles, — and Mary's favorite, pierced by many daggers, fell 
 lifeless before the eyes of his mistress, in her own chamber. 
 This horrible deed filled the heart of the queen with bitterness against 
 her husband, of whose guilt, despite his denial, she felt convinced. She 
 separated herself more and more from him, entertained thoughts of a 
 divorce, and turned her favor upon Bothwell, another Scottish nobleman. 
 It was not till Darnley fell ill that she appeared to lay aside her displea- 
 sure. She attended upon him with the greatest assiduity, in a remote 
 February 10, garden house. But the inhabitants of Edinburgh were 
 1567. awakened one night, during Mary's absence, by a dreadful 
 
 explosion. The garden house was found shattered to pieces, and Darn- 
 ley's body, at some distance, apparently suffocated. The public voice 
 pointed out Bothwell as the perpetrator of the deed ; and three months 
 after, he was Mary's husband. Was it at all wonderful that she was 
 accused of being an accomplice in the murder ? Irritated at this criminal 
 marriage, the Scottish nobility took up arms. Bothwell fled before the 
 battle was fought, and led the life of a freebooter near the Hebrides, but 
 was taken by the Danes, and died in prison, insane. Mary was led in 
 triumph to Edinburgh, amidst the execrations of her people, and then 
 imprisoned in a solitary castle on the island of Lochleven, where she was 
 compelled to abdicate her crown, and to transfer the government to her 
 half-brother, Murray, during the minority of her son, James. Mary, 
 indeed, escaped, and found assistance from the powerful family of Hamil- 
 ton ; but having been overcome in a battle, she would have fallen a 
 second time into the hands of her enemies, had she not fled 
 with the greatest haste into England, to seek protection from 
 Elizabeth. 
 
 § 3G8. The queen of England declined every interview with Mary 
 until the latter should have cleared herself from the charge of having 
 murdered her husband ; and since Mary, as an independent sovereign, 
 would not submit herself to an English tribunal, it was considered neces- 
 sary to retain her in England. But her presence soon endangered Eliza- 
 beth's safety. The duke of Norfolk attempted to gain Mary's hand, but 
 lost first his freedom and afterwards his life. The ancient Church still 
 numbered many adherents in the northern counties ; the earls of North- 
 umberland and Westmoreland raised the standard of rebelHon, with the 
 purpose of setting Mary at liberty, and restoring the Catholic Church. 
 Their undertaking failed. Northumberland, given up by the 
 Scots as a fugitive, died upon the scaffold. Mary was sus- 
 pected as an accomplice ; she was removed from that neighborhood and 
 
ELIZABETH AXD MARY STUART. 253 
 
 more closely patched. All the efforts of foreign courts to procure her 
 liberation were fruitless. The disturbed state of Scotland, where the 
 rage of party was leading to assassination and civil war, and the religious 
 contests on the -continent, seemed to render her continued imprisonment 
 necessary. At this juncture, Babmgton, with a few companions, embraced 
 the project of murdering Elizabeth, and placing Mary, by the aid of 
 Spanish troops, upon the English throne. Their purpose was discovered. 
 The conspirators died upon the scaffold, and when it appeared, upon 
 examination, that Mary was privy to the plot, the court pronounced her 
 guilty, and Elizabeth was requested by the parliament, for the preserva- 
 tion of religion and the peace of the country, and for the security of her 
 own person, to let justice take its course. She wished for the death of her 
 enemy, but she feared the consequences. At length, the struggle ended, 
 Elizabeth signed the death-warrant, and Burleigh had it hastily executed 
 Mary's head fell on the 7th of February, 1587, in the nineteenth year 
 of her imprisonment and the forty-fifth of her life. She died with firm- 
 ness, and true to her faith. Elizabeth, however, complained that her 
 minister had ordered the execution against her commands, and punished 
 her secretary, Davison, by fine and imprisonment, for having let the 
 warrant go out of his hands. 
 
 § 369. The pope and Philip 11. heard of the deed with horror. The 
 former outlawed the heretical queen, and summoned the Catholic powers 
 to vengeance ; the latter fitted out the vast Armada (§ 359), for the 
 purpose of subjecting England and the Netherlands at one blow, and of 
 afterwards founding a Catholic empire in the west of Europe, under the 
 supremacy of Spain. But the destruction of the " Invincible Fleet " 
 raised the renown of England and its queen, and laid the foundation of 
 Britain's empire of the sea and of the greatness of her commerQC. From 
 this time, her trade, her navigation, and her colonies, received a vast 
 impulse. Drake, the celebrated circumnavigator of the globe, and other 
 maritime heroes, had discovered the element on which the power and 
 glory of England were to be raised. 
 
 It was only in Ireland that Elizabeth's undertakings were unsuccessful. 
 This island^which for centuries had been conquered, but never taken 
 possession of, had been raised into a kingdom by Henry VIII., and sub- 
 jected to the religious laws of England. But it was only a small pro- 
 portion of the population, namely, the British colonists, who received the 
 Reformation ; the native Irish remained true to their ancient faith and 
 clergy. Elizabeth attempted to bring about a closer political and eccle- 
 siastical union between the island and England. The earl of Tyrone, 
 one of the military chiefs, opposed himself to this project, and obtained 
 help from Spain and Rome. Upon this, the chivalrous earl of Essex, 
 to whom the queen had transferred the favor she had so long bestowed 
 upon his unworthy father-in-law, the earl of Leicester, received the go* 
 22 • 
 
^54 THE MODERJT EPOCH. 
 
 vernorship of Ireland. But instead of subduing Tyrone, he concluded a 
 disadvantageous treaty with him. Essex, by this means, incurred the 
 displeasure of the queen ; and when, instead of waiting quietly for a 
 more favorable time, he formed a plot with James of Scotland, and at- 
 tempted to compel Elizabeth by an insurrection to appoint James her 
 Buccessor, he was seized, tried, and beheaded in the Tower, at the age of 
 thirty-three. Grief and remorse at the death of her favorite, and the con- 
 eciousness that the affections of her people had much cooled towards her, 
 embittered the last years of the queen's life to such a degree, that she 
 passed days and nights in tears on the cushions with which the floors 
 were covered, till her death, at the age of seventy years, put an end to 
 her sorrows. On her death bed, she appointed Mary's son, James of 
 Scotland, her successor. 
 
 €. CULTURE AND LITERATURE IN THE CENTURY OF THE 
 REFORMATION. 
 
 § 370. Civilization received a mighty impulse during the sixteenth 
 century in all countries. Schools were improved and universities mul- 
 tiplied ; art and literature were fostered and supported. The works of 
 the ancients, which were everywhere translated and explained, awakened 
 new views and cultivated the taste ; and the mental energy that had 
 been called into existence by the disputes respecting religion and the 
 Church, furthered the general cultivation and enlightenment, and exalted 
 literary activity. The interest in intellectual gifts produced marvellous 
 creations in the regions of art and science. Germany and Italy were 
 considered the chief seminaries of civilization. 
 
 1. The science of antiquity was more especially cultivated and devel- 
 oped in the numerous universities of Germany, and those learned semi- 
 naries that rested upon the study of the ancient classical literature were 
 established by the efforts of Melancthon, which extended themselves 
 Copernicus ^^'®^ ^^^ countries. It was in Germany that Nicholas Coper- 
 A. D. nicus, the great astronomer of Thorn, showed that the 
 
 H73-1543. Ptolemaic system of the universe, the truth of which had 
 remained unquestioned for fifteen hundred years, was founded on 
 incorrect data ; that the sun remained stationary in the midst of the 
 planetary system, but that the earth, like the other planets, in addition 
 to the revolution on its axis, had besides an extremely regular motion 
 Kepler, around the sun. And Kepler, one of the greatest thinkers 
 
 A. D 1571- of any age, sought, in the spirit of Plato, for the laws that 
 1630. govern the eternal order of the world, with the inspiration 
 
 of a propliet, and the creative power of a poet. Unappreciated, how- 
 ever, and persecuted by religious zealots, he led a melancholy life, in the 
 
LITERATURE IN THE CENTURY OF THE REFORMATION. 25.5 
 
 midst of oppressive anxieties for the means of living. It fared no bet- 
 g ,» ter with his great contemporary, Galileo of Pisa, who, be- 
 
 A. D. 1565- cause he shared the astronomical opinions of Copernicus, 
 1631. -^as summoned before the tribunal of the Inquisition, and 
 
 compelled to renounce his opinions on his knees. He was obliged after 
 this to linger for some years in the dungeons of the Inquisition, where 
 he contracted an affection of the eyes, which afterwards terminated in 
 blindness. 
 
 In the mean time, the " Meistersong," a kind of burgher poetry in 
 Hans Sachf '^'^ic^ Hans Sachs, a shoemaker of Nuremberg, particularly 
 A. D. ^94^^ distinguished himself, was flourishing in the German towns ; 
 1576. j^nd Sebastian Brandt of Strasburg (author of the " Ship of 
 
 ,.?f W^' Fools"), and John Fischart of Mayence, raised satirical di- 
 
 1458-1521. '' , . 
 
 Fischart A. d. ^actic poetrj' to high peifection. Luther, however, was the 
 1591. creator of German prose by bis translation of the Bible, and 
 
 the founder of German sacred poetry by his spiritual hymns. 
 
 The Germans were also distinguished at this time in the fme arts. 
 The pictures of Albert Durer (a. d. 1548), Hans Holbein (a. d. 15G3), 
 and Lucas Cranach (a. d. 1553), are still much esteemed, although they 
 do not rival those of their great Italian contemporaries, Michael Angelo 
 (a. d. 1563), Raphael (a. d. 1520), Titian (a. d. 157G), Leonardo da 
 Vinci (a. D. 1519), or Correggio (a. d. 1543). 
 
 2. In Italy, the flourishing period of art and literature, which had 
 commenced in the fifteenth century, continued throughout the whole of 
 Macchlavelli the sixteenth. In Florence, Macchiavelli, one of the acutcst 
 A. D. 1527. of thinkers and most politic of statesmen, composed his re- 
 markable works, " Discourses on Titus Livius," " History of Florence," 
 **The Prince," which still excite universal admiration. In the much 
 talk ed-of book "The Prince," Macchiavelli presents the picture of a ruler 
 who, without regard to virtue, morality, or religion, knows how to esta- 
 blish his own absolute power, and to make his own will the law. Freedom 
 and national prosperity are as little regarded in this book as truth and 
 justice ; intellect alone is held in any estimation. For this reason, a 
 Ariosto, faithless system of policy is distinguished by the epithet, 
 A. D. 1474 - Macchiavellian. In Ferrara, Ariosto wrote the fascinating 
 J?^^' , and sportive heroic poem of " Orlando Furioso ; " and tho 
 
 J. oroiitito 
 
 Tasso A. D. melancholy Torquato Tasso celebrated the first crusade in 
 1595. beautiful language in his " Jerusalem Delivered." 
 
 3. The sixteenth century was the golden age of art and literature in 
 Cervantes Spain and Portugal also. Cervantes, in his comico-satirical 
 A. D. romance of " Don Quixote," has represented, with such art, 
 1547-1616. a man who completely mistakes the misty creations of a 
 world of dreams for actual existences, and fights for an object that exists 
 nowhere but in his own imagination, that the name of his hero has be- 
 
256 THE MODEKN EPOCH. 
 
 Lope de Vega, come proverbial. The dramatic poetry of Spain reached its 
 A. D. 1552 - culminating point in Lope de Vega and Calderon. The 
 Portuguese poet, Camoens, has ennobled the great epoch of 
 A^D^lGOO- ^^^ discovery of India in his poem of the " Lusiad." During 
 I687'. ^ passage home from the East Indies, hS lost his property 
 
 Camoens ^7 ^ shipwreck, and saved nothing but his poem, that he 
 A. D. 1524- held fast with his teeth as he swam. In Portugal, he gra- 
 1^69- dually fell into such poverty that he had bread collected by 
 
 an Indian servant to prevent his dying of hunger. 
 
 4. In England, William Shakspeare, one of the greatest poe?ts of any 
 Shakspeare, ^ge^ gave its full perfection to dramatic poetrj||; whether 
 A. D. 1564- tragedy or comedy. His great dramas are founded either 
 1^16- upon historical events ("Henry IV.," " Richard IH."), or 
 
 upon the ordinary events of human life ("Macbeth," "Lear," "Romeo 
 and Juliet," "Othello"); the best known of his comedies are, "Mid- 
 summer Night's Dream," and " The Merry Wives of Windsor ; " in the 
 latter, the fat FalstafF, the companion of Henry V., and the type of a 
 comic character, plays the chief part. 
 
 IIL THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 1. THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR (a. D. 1618-1648). 
 
 a. BOHEMIA, PALATINATE, LOWER GERMANY, TILLY. APPEARANCE 
 OF WALLENSTEIN. 
 
 § 371. Whilst the dark fanaticism of Philip II. was plunging the 
 Ferdinand I., West of Europe into a bloody religious war, arms were at 
 A. D. 1556- rest in Germany under the gentle government of Ferdinand 
 ■^^^*" I. and Maximilian II. Both these princes upheld the Peace 
 
 Maximilian, ^^^ Religion with impartiality and justice (§ 340). But when, 
 1576.' * after the premature death of Maximilian IL, his son, Rudolf 
 
 Rudolf IT ^^'^ ^^^ ^^^ been brought up in Spain, came to the throne, 
 A. D. 1576 - complaints arose of the infringement of the law, and of vio- 
 1612. lation of liberty of conscience. Rudolf, a prince zealously 
 
 ■ devoted to the Catholic Church, but possessed of slender talents for 
 government, neglected the affairs of his kingdom for the study of astro- 
 nomy, painting, and antiquities, and trusted to the advice of the Jesuits, 
 who strewed with busy hands the seeds of religious discord, and called 
 forth strife, party-spirit, and confusion, both in the German empire and 
 in the hereditary states of Austria. When the archbishop, Gebhard of 
 
WAR. 257 
 
 Colo^^ne, went over to the evangelical Church, that he might marry the 
 beautiful countess of Mansfeld, he was deprived of his dignity ; a pro- 
 ceeding that was declared by the evangelical States to be an infringe- 
 ment of the "spiritual proviso." The archduke, Ferdinand, brefl up and 
 guided by the Jesuits, refused the numerous Protestants in Styria, Ca- 
 rinthia, and Carniola, the religious liberties they had hitherto enjoyed ; 
 had the evangelical churches and schools pulled down, and the Bibles 
 burnt, and drove out of the country, without mercy, all those who refused 
 to attend the mass. The imperial ci.ty of Donau worth, which was chiefly 
 Protestant, was placed under the ban for disturbing a procession, taken 
 possession of by the imi)atient duke, Maximilian I. of Bavaria, and 
 deprived of its Protestant worship. It was in vain that the evangelical 
 Estates presented complaints ; the weak and indifferent emperor gave no 
 redress. It was on this account that a number of evangelical princes 
 A D 1608 ^^^ imperial cities concluded a Protestant Union, at the 
 instigation of the Elector of the Palatinate, for mutual 
 A. D. 1609. assistance against aggression and j^olence. This Union was 
 opposed by the Catholic League, formed by 5laxirailian of Bavaria and 
 the spiritual Electors (Mayence, Treves, and Cologne), and some bishops 
 (Wurzburg, Augsburg, &:c.). In this manner, Germany was again 
 divided: the League united itself with Spain; the Union secured the aid 
 of Henry of France and the Dutch. The death of the childless duke of 
 Cleves and Berg, which occasioned a quarrel for his inheritance between 
 the palgrave of Neuburg, who had gone over to the Catholic Church, 
 and the Evangelical Elector of Brandenburg, gave the first occasion for 
 hostilities between the two religious parties. After a long and destruc- 
 tive war, a division was agreed upon, by which Cleves was allotted to 
 Brandenburg, and Berg with Dusseldorf to the Palatinate. 
 
 § 372. The incompetence and carelessness of Rudolf threatened to 
 destroy all respect for the royal house of Hapsburg. His relatives, 
 therefore, compelled him to surrender Austria and Hungary to liis 
 brother, Matthias. Rudolf, who was extremely favorable to the Bohe- 
 mians, whose capital, Prague, Ire had chosen for a residence, maintained 
 them for some time in their allegiance by the granting of letters patent, 
 w^hich gave to the Utraquists and Lutherans freedom of conscience, 
 equality with the Catholics, and their own defenders. But he was 
 obliged at length to relinquish this kingdom also, with its surrounding 
 territories, to Mattliias, so that, when death put an end to his 
 inglorious life, he was in possession of nothing but the power- 
 less imperial throne. 
 
 Matthias "^^^ Matthias, had just as little energy or talents for govem- 
 
 A- »• ment as Rudolf ; and being old and childless, he appointed 
 
 612-1619. j^jg cousin, Ferdinand of Carinthia, his successor in Austria, 
 
 Hungary, and Bohemia. The elevation of this rigid Catholic filled the 
 
 22* 
 
258 THE MODERN EPOCH. 
 
 Protestants (Utraqulsts, Lutherans) in Bohemia with alarm for their 
 religious liberties. This alarm increased, when, upon the building of 
 two Protestant churches on the territories of the abbot of Brunau and 
 of the monastery of Grab, near Toplitz, a decision was given, that no 
 evangelical church should be erected upon ecclesiastical property ; and 
 in consequence of this prohibition, one church was shut up and the other 
 destroyed. The defenders, who saw in this an infringement of the letters 
 patent, held a meeting, and proposed a remonstrance to the emperor, who 
 was then absent in Hungary. The reply confirmed the prohibition, and 
 contained a severe reproof to the complainers. Irritated at this, the de- 
 fenders, under the guidance of the Count von Thurn, marched in arms 
 to the council-house, for the purpose of calling to account the imperial 
 council, to whom they attributed the offensive writing. After a short 
 dispute, the irritated Protestants seized upon two of the councillors who 
 were present, Martinitz and Slawata, who were particularly offensive to 
 them as zealous Catholics, and threw them, together with the secretary, 
 Fabricius, out of the castle window. But notwithstanding the height, 
 and the shots that were* fired after them, they all escaped with their 
 lives. Upon this, the evangelical Estates established a new government, 
 expelled the Jesuits, and fitted out an army under the command of 
 Thurn. The intelligence of these proceedings hastened the 
 '^^ ' ' death of Matthias, who was already ailing. He died at the 
 moment in which Thurn, supported by the brave general, Ernest von 
 Mansfeld, defeated the imperial troops who had marched 
 into Bohemia, and appeared with his army before -the gates 
 of Vienna. Tlie oppressed Protestants of Austria entered into an alli- 
 ance with Thurn, their ambassadors forced their way into the imperial 
 palace, and demanded from Ferdinand, with threats, religious toleration 
 and an equality of their rights with those of the Catholics. The danger 
 was pressing ; but Ferdinand resolutely refused every concession, till the 
 arrival of Dampierre's dragoons freed him from constraifi't. Unfavorable 
 weather and a deficiency in provisions compelled Thurn to retreat. 
 
 § 373. Shortly after this, Ferdinand II. was elected emperor of Ger- 
 many in Frankfort ; but before his coronation took place, the Estates of 
 Bohemia and Moravia fell off from the house of Austria, and chose for 
 king the Elector, Frederick V., of the Palatinate, the head of the Pro- 
 testant Union. It was in vain that well-disposed friends warned him of 
 the dangerous gift ; — the voice of his haughty wife, a daughter of James I. 
 of England, the exhortations of his Calvinistic court preacher, Scultetus, 
 November and his own ambition, determined the result. The vain and 
 1619. weak man assumed the Bohemian throne, and hastened to 
 
 receive homage and be invested with the crown at Prague, where he 
 squandered the time in idle shows, gave himself up to luxurious living, 
 and offended the Utraquists and Lutherans in Bohemia by his zeal for 
 
WAR^ 259 
 
 Galvinism. Ferdinand's conduct was altogether different. He concluded 
 an alliance with the shrewd Maximilian of Bavaria, who had been edu- 
 cated by the Jesuits, and who was the head of the well-provided League; 
 and who soon ordered his able general, Tilly, the Netherlander, to march 
 November 7, with his army into Bohemia. The battle at the White Hill 
 1C20. was soon fought, in which Frederick's exhausted troops were 
 
 defeated by the superior force of the enemy, and sought their safety in 
 headlong flight. A single hour decided the fate of Bohemia. Frederick 
 lost courage and discretion so completely, that he fled with the greatest 
 haste across Silesia to the Netherlands, pursued by the imperial sentence 
 of outlawry, which deprived him of his hereditary possessions of the 
 Palatinate. Bohemia and Moravia were again in a few months sub- 
 jected to Austria. Ferdinand cut the letters patent to pieces with his 
 own hand ; twenty-seven of the most illustrious nobles died on the scaf- 
 fold; hundreds expiated their offences by the forfeiture of their goods; 
 and the confiscated property was bestowed upon the ^Jesuits and other 
 religious orders. Tyranny, oppression, and seduction, gave a complete 
 triumph to the Catholic religion in a few decades, after upwards of 
 30,000 families had left the country. Shortly after this, the Union, 
 which h^d looked quietly on during these proceedings, was dissolved in 
 the midst of universal contempt 
 
 § 374. After the subjugation of Bohemia, Tilly marched against the 
 Palatinate of the Rhine. Three courageous men ventured to take the 
 field in the cause of the outlawed Elector and endangered Protestantism: 
 Christian of Brunswick, administrator of the bishopric of Halberstadt, a 
 rude soldier, who presented himself as the defender of the electoress 
 Elizabeth, and who, having collected a troop .of soldiers, marched plun- 
 dering through Westphalia towards the Maine ; Ernest von Mansfeld, a 
 knightly adventurer, who maintained his troops by plunder and levying 
 contributions, and treated the bishoprics and monasteries on the Maine 
 and Rhine with great severity ; and the margrave, George Frederick of 
 Baden-Durlach. The two latter united gained n, victory 
 over Tilly at Wiesloch (Mingolsheim). But when the vic- 
 tors shortly after separated themselves, George Frederick, 
 the following month, lost the battle of Wimpfen, and would 
 have himself fallen into the hands of the enemy, had not 400 of the 
 citizens of Pforzheim covered his retreat by an heroic death. A few 
 months later. Christian of Brunswick also suffered a defeat 
 near Hochst, from Tilly's veteran troops, and marched in 
 conjunction with Mansfeld into the Netherlands, to obtain help from 
 England, whilst the League general stormed Heidelberg, Manheim, and 
 Frankenthal, sent the Heidelberg library to Rome, and filled every place 
 with blood and plunder. In the following year, Maximilian of Bavaria 
 received the electorship of the Palatinate, as a reward from the Diet of 
 Ratisbon. 
 
^ 
 
 ^ c 
 
 4. 
 260 THE MODERN EPOCH. 
 
 § 375. Ferdinand, not content with the defeat of his enemies, wished 
 to make use of his superiority to restore the Catholic Church and to sup- 
 press Protestantism. This occasioned anxiety, and procured the enemies 
 of the emperor the assistance of England, Holland, and Denmark. Mani- 
 fold, Christian of Brunswick, and the Margrave of Baden, appeared again 
 in the field, provided with troops and money, and were supported by 
 Christian IV. of Denmark, who was induced to assume arms, partly by 
 religious zeal, and partly by the hope of increasing his territories. A 
 new storm burst forth. Upon this, the emperor, to whom the dependence 
 upon the League and the great authority of Maximilian appeared dan- 
 gerous, determined to raise an army of his own. In this undertaking, 
 Albert of Wallenstein, a Bohemian nobleman, offered him his assistance. 
 In possession of a vast property that he had gained by marriage, Wal- 
 lenstein presented himself before Ferdinand with the offer of supporting an 
 army of 50,000 men at his own expense, if he were allowed the unlimited 
 command of them,'^nd the privilege of indemnifying himself from the con- 
 quered lands. After some hesitation, Ferdinand acceded to the proposal of 
 the bold adventurer, and granted him the governorship of Friedland,on the 
 northern frontier of Bohemia, raised him to the office of Elector of the 
 empire, and afterwards conferred upon him the dignity of duke. The 
 w^ar now extended itself into the North of Germany. But when Wal- 
 lenstein with his wild bands took possession of the shores of the Elbe, 
 and effected a junction wdth Tilly, the army of the League and emperor 
 soon obtained the advantage. Mansfeld suffered a defeat from the 
 Friedlanders at the bridge of Dessau, and was overtaken by death in 
 Bosnia, as he was conducting the remains of his army by a difficult 
 march through Hungary into the Netherlands. Christian of 
 Brunswick sunk into the grave in the same year, and Chris- 
 tian IV. was defeated by Tilly at Lutter, near the Baren- 
 berg, and compelled to retreat into Denmark. His ally, the 
 duke of Mecklenburg, was obliged to leave his territories, of which, 
 from thai time, Wallenstein, with the emperor's permission, took posses- 
 sion ; Holstein, Schleswic, and Jutland soon fell into the hands of the 
 imperialists in the midst of horrible devastations; Pomerania and Brand- 
 enburg were compelled to receive imperial garrisons ; the whole north 
 laid subdued at the feet of the emperor, and the Protestant princes and 
 cities awaited with fear and trembling the destiny that it should please 
 Austria and Bavaria to award them. In this strait, Stralsund gave an 
 ennobling example of patriotism and heroic courage. The citizens reso- 
 lutely refused to admit an imperial garrison within their walls. Here- 
 upon, Wallenstein advanced upon the town with his formidable army, 
 and swore that he would take it if it w^ere bound to heaven with chains. 
 But all his attacks were frustrated by the strength of the place and the 
 heroism of the citizens. After he had encamped for ten weeks before 
 
WAR. 261 
 
 the citj, and sacrificed 12,000 men, lie gave up the attempt. This result 
 checked Wallenstein's plans of conquest, and brought the war to a more 
 
 rapid termination. Christian IV. recovered his devastated 
 ^' ^* * lands by the peace of Liibeck, but was obliged to promise 
 that he would refrain from any farther interference in the affairs of 
 Germany. 
 
 § 37 G. Austria was again victorious ; and the more decisive her victo- 
 ry, the greater was to be the triumph of the Catholic Church. The 
 Protestant worship was suppressed by violence in all the conquered and 
 occupied lands, and the supremacy of Catholicism gradually prepared 
 for. With this object, the emperor, at the instigation of the spiritual 
 
 Electors, published the P2dict of Restitution, by virtue of 
 ' ' which, all foundations and ecclesiastical property that had 
 been confiscated since the treaty of Passau (§ 337), were to be restored 
 to the Catholic Church, the Calvinists were excluded from the religious 
 peace, and the Catholic Estates were not to be interfered with in their 
 attempts to convert their subjects. This arrangement, which threatened 
 to wrest a great number of bishoprics, and almost all tlie foundations and 
 abbeys of northern Germany, from the hands of their present proprie- 
 tors, filled the whole of the Protestant part of the country with terror 
 and alarm, and prolonged the • destructive civil war. Many princes and 
 cities refused compliance, and the emperor found himself obliged to re- 
 tain his army under arras to give effect to the execution of the Edict. 
 But this army was no longer under the command of Wallenstein. For 
 when the princes made a general complaint, at the Diet of Regensburg, 
 of the friglitful ravages and barbarous method of warfare pursued by 
 the duke of Friedland, and Maximilian imperatively demanded the re- 
 moval of his presuming and overbearing rival, Ferdinand, who wished to 
 produce a favorable disposition towards the contemplated election of his 
 son, found himself .compelled to pronounce Wallenstein's deposition. The 
 general was informed of the resolution whilst busied with his astrologi- 
 cal studies. He retired to his Bohemian estates, where, in prou'd repose, 
 and in the enjoyment of kingly wealth, he awaited the time when his 
 presence would be again required. Tilly assumed the command over the 
 assembled host, and marched against Magdeburg, which had opposed the 
 execution of the Edict of Restitution. But whilst the Protestant Estates 
 of Germany, helpless and overawed, bent before the superior power of 
 Austria, and looked forward in melancholy expectation for the postponed 
 execution of the Edict of Restitution, a fresh hero made his ap* 
 pearance on the soil of Germany — the Swedish king, Gustavus Adol- 
 phus. 
 
262 THE MODERN EPOCH. 
 
 h. INTERFERENCE OF SWEDEN. GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS AND 
 WALLENSTEIN. 
 
 § 377. Gustavus Adolphus, the grandson of Gustavus Vasa (§ 349), 
 determined to interfere in the war of Germany, partly to defend Pro* 
 testantism, and partly to increase the power of Sweden. He was sup- 
 ported by the shrewd Cardinal E-ichelieu (§ 400), who at that time 
 governed France, and who looked with jealousy upon the increasing 
 power of the house of Hapsburg. As soon as Gustavus Adolphus had 
 
 effected a landinf; on the coast of Pomerania, the old duke 
 June 24, 1630. ° ' 
 
 of the country surrendered his lands, which had been fright- 
 fully ravaged by the imperial troops, to Sweden. The piety of Gustavus, 
 and the strict discipline of his soldiers, who assembled themselves twice 
 a day around their field preachers, formed a striking contrast to the deso- 
 lating mode of warfare pursued by Tilly and Wallenstein, so that the 
 people everywhere greeted the Swedes and their high-minded king as 
 rescuers and deliverers. Not so the princes, who, from fear of the em- 
 February, peror's vengeance, rejected the alliance that was offered 
 1631. them, and at the Diet of Leipsic, embraced the resolution of 
 
 observing a neutral position. The Electors of Brandenburg and Saxony 
 refused permission to the Swedes to march through their territories ; and 
 
 whilst Gustavus Adolphus was delayed by negotiations on 
 May 16, 1631. ,. ,. t.^-,,^ -^ ^ '' ^^ 
 
 this subject, Magdeburg, after repeated assaults, was taken 
 
 and destroyed by Pappenheim and Tilly. The barbarous troops, urged 
 on by a desire for vengeance, and a love of plunder, burst into the luck- 
 less town, which was surrendered to them for three days' plunder, and 
 which now became the scene of the most revolting horrors, till a confla- 
 gration, which extended itself on all sides, converted it at length into a 
 heap of ashes. Two churches and a few fishermen's huts, were the sole 
 remains of this flourishing imperial city. 
 
 § 378. The destroyer of Magdeburg now turned a threatening aspect 
 towards Saxony. The Elector, in the anguish of his heart, concluded 
 an alliance with Gustavus Adolphus, that he might be able, by the help 
 of Sweden, to prevent the entrance of Tilly's incendiary troops into his 
 September 7, territories. The battle of Leipsic and Breitenfeld was soon 
 1631. fought, where the imperial army was completely defeated. 
 
 Tilly, who was himself in danger of his life, was obliged, after a great 
 loss, to retreat rapidly into the south, whilst the Swedes turned towards 
 the Rhine and the Maine. Before the winter was over, the bishopric of 
 Wurzburg, and the greater part of the Lower Palatinate, were in the 
 hands of the Swedes ; and the towns of the Rhine also fell into the 
 power of Gustavus, after he had accomplished the passage of the Rhine 
 at Oppenheim and driven back the Spaniards. In the spring, he marched 
 Upon Nuremburg-on-the-Lech, where Tilly had occupied a strong posl* 
 
THE THIRTY TEARS' WAR. 263 
 
 tion. The Swedes forced a passage across the vigorously defended river. 
 During the storming of the intrenchments, Tilly was so severely wounded 
 by a cannon-ball that he died fourteen days after, at Ingolstadt, his mind 
 busied with military affairs in the very hour of death. War filled the 
 entire soul of this hero. Simple and moderate in his mode of living, he 
 despised wealth and possessions, as well as titles and dignities. Sensual 
 enjoyments were as unknown to him, as high cultivation or nobility of 
 mind. 
 
 After the occupation of Augsburg, where the evangelical form of wor- 
 ship was again restored, Gustavus Adolphus marched into Bavaria, 
 and look possession, as an indulgent conqueror, of Munich, which had 
 been deserted by the court. A fine, and carrying off 140 concealed can- 
 nons, was the only punishment inflicted by the king upon the trembling 
 Bavarians. 
 
 § 379. In the mean time, the emperor, in his necessity, had again had 
 recourse to Wallenstein, and prevailed upon him by prayers and great 
 concessions, to raise a fresh army and to take the supreme command. 
 After a successful campaign against the Saxons in Bohemia, AVallenstein, 
 in conjunction with the Bavarians, marched into Franconia, where the 
 Swedes had occupied a strong position near Nuremburg. Here the hos- 
 tile armies lay encamped opposite each other for months, without coming 
 to an engagement, till at length, all the land for seven miles around the 
 spot was wasted, and even the abundant stores of Nuremburg began to 
 fail. Hereupon, Gustavus resolved to attack the strong camp of AVallen- 
 stein, but the galhmt assailers were driven back by the tremendous dis- 
 charge of artillery. Tlie attempt, after a severe loss, was obliged to be 
 relinquished, upon which the Wallensteiners marched into Saxony. The 
 November 16, Swedes soon followed them hither, and tlie eventful battle 
 1632. of Lutzen, where the Swedes triumphed, but their king 
 
 found the death of a hero in the tumult of the fight, took place upon a 
 foj^y day in November. Pappenheim, the gallant leader of cavalry, 
 was also borne from the field of battle mortally wounded ; and Wallen- 
 fetein f )und himself compelled to leave the field to the enemy, and to 
 retreat into Bohemia with his defeated anny. The Swedes dragged the 
 body of their heroic king, plundered and defaced by the hoofs of horses, 
 from beneath the dead, and had it committed to the earth in his native 
 land. 
 
 § 380. After the death of Gustavus Adolphus, the Swedish chancel- 
 lor, Axel Oxenstiern, a prudent and energetic statesman, undertook the 
 conduct of the war in Germany, after he had prevailed upon a number 
 of the evangelical princes and cities, by the alliance of Heilborn, to 
 continue steadfast in the treaty they had entered into with the 
 king of Sweden. Bernhard of Weimar and the Swedish 
 general, Horn, stood by his side as the chief military leaders. France 
 
264 THE MODERN EPOCH. 
 
 gave supplies of money. Thus this mischievous war continued to rage. 
 Bavaria was severely visited by the Swedes, who, since the death of their 
 king, had not been a whit behind their opponents in the destructive way 
 of carrying on the war ; and the Friedlanders behaved in such a way in 
 Silesia, that the prosperity of the land was for a long time destroyed. 
 But Wallenstein's course was approaching its termination. His dilatory 
 way of conducting the war, and his unintelligible lingering in Bohemia, 
 were made use of by his numerous enemies and enviers to his destruc- 
 tion. He was accused of entertaining the project of entering into an 
 alliance with Sweden, and of placing the crown of Bohemia upon his 
 own head ; it was for this reason that he had set at liberty i^k captive 
 Count Thurn, the hereditary enemy of Austria ; and the contract that 
 had been entered into, by the mediation of Illo, between Wallenstein 
 and the leaders of the different divisions for mutual adherence, pointed 
 to revolt and treachery. The emperor, guided by the friends of Maxi- 
 milian, by monks and Jesuits, who hated the duke on account of the 
 freedom of his religious views, determined upon the destruction of his 
 too powerful general. After the most influential leaders, Gallas, Picco- 
 lomini, and Altringer, had been secured, Ferdinand pronounced Wallen- 
 stein's deposition ; and when the latter marched towards Eger, with the 
 most devoted of his troops, to be nearer a juncture with the Swedes, he 
 was assassinated, together with his most trusty adherents, Illo, Terska, 
 February 25, ^'^^ Kinsky, by the Irishman, Butler, and a few confederates. 
 1634. The vast possessions of the duke and his friends were con- 
 
 fiscated, and presented to his betrayers and murderers. Honors, digni- 
 ties, and wealth were the rewards of the criminals. Thus died Wal- 
 lenstein, the terror of the people, and the idol of the soldiery. He pos- 
 sessed an audacious and enterprising spirit, a commanding character, that 
 was exalted by the taciturnity of his disposition and the gloomy severity 
 of his aspect, and a boundless pride and ambition. When his lofty fig- 
 ure, enveloped in a scarlet mantle, and with a red feather in the hat, was 
 seen pacing through the camp, a strange horror took possession of the 
 soldiers. 
 
 C. TERMINATION OF THE WAR. PEACE OF WESTPHALIA. 
 
 § 381. After the death of. Wallenstein, the imperial army marched 
 into Bavaria, and defeated Bernhard of Weimar in the battle of Nord- 
 Sepiember 6, lingen. Several German princes took occasion from this to 
 1634. conclude the peace of Prague with the emperor. But the 
 
 May, 1635. frig] itful war 'was not yet terminated. Richelieu, who was 
 not willing that the favorable moment for diminishing, the power of the 
 Ilapsburgs, and extending the territories of France, should escape un- 
 improved, promised eificieut assistance, both m money and troops, to tha 
 
TERMINATION OF THE WAR. 26d 
 
 Swedes, and supported Bernhard of Weimar in his under- 
 
 *' ' ' takings on the Upper Rhine. The Swedish general, Baner, 
 
 conquered Saxony and Thuringia, and coftverted the fertile country into 
 
 a depopulated desert. Unspeakable calamities were press- 
 Feb.lSth, . , r. . 1 , T^ !•' 1 
 
 1637. ^"o upon the German nation, when the emperor, 1 erdinand 
 
 Ferdinand III., Hm sank into the grave, and was succeeded by his son of 
 
 A. D. 1G37- the same name. The warlike actions of Bernhard of Wei- 
 
 ^^^'^' mar were crowned with success. He conquered Rheinfelden, 
 
 Freiburg, and Breisach, and entertained the project of establishing an 
 
 independent principality on either side of the Rhine. But Bernhard 
 
 died suddenly in the flower of life, not without suspicion of 
 ' * poisoning ; and the French took %dvantage of the circum- 
 stance to take his army into their own pay, and make themselves masters 
 of Alsace. They soon crossed the Rhine and carried the war into the * 
 south of Germany, whilst the gallant Baner again visited the unfortunate 
 Bohemia with the most frightful calamities. Baner's audacious plan of 
 breaking suddenly from his winter quarters, and seizing upon the Elec- 
 tors and emperor at the Diet in Regensburg, had not the expected result. 
 The breaking up of the frost and tlie arrival of the enemy compelled 
 the Swedish general to a retreat, during which he died from the effects 
 of his exertions and of an intemperate life. 
 
 § 382. Torstenson was Baner's successor ; he was the most talented 
 disciple of the school of Gustavus Adolphus. On account of his suffer- 
 ings from the gout, he was usually carried about in a litter ; nevei:theless, 
 the rapidity of his movements was the astonishment of the world. He' 
 overthrew the imperial army near Leipsic, and at the hill Tabor; pene- 
 A D 1642 trated repeatedly into the heart of the Austrian states, and 
 
 made the emperor tremble in his capital ; he then appeared 
 unexpectedly on the Lower Elbe, took possession of Ilolstein and Schles- 
 wic, and compelled ithe Danish king to a disadvantageous peace. At 
 length, exhausted by illness, he laid down the leading staff, which was 
 obtained by the gallant Wrangel. Wrangel, in conjunction with the 
 
 French general, Turenne, carried the war into Bavaria, 
 
 A. D. 1647. o 7 7 y 
 
 compelled Maximilian to fly, and to conclude a truce, and 
 was about to unite himself with the Swedish general, Ktinigsmark, in 
 Bohemia, when the news of the conclusion of the peace of Westphalia 
 put an end to military operations. The war ended in Prague, where it 
 had also taken its origin. 
 
 § 383. After five years of negotiations in Munster and Osnaburg, the 
 peace of Westphalia, which the people who were wearied out by the war 
 demanded in despair, was at last concluded. France received the Aus- 
 trian portion of Alsace, Sundgau, and Briesach; but was obliged to 
 secure to the imperial cities both their former privileges, and their rela- 
 tions to the German empire. Sweden received Upper Pomerania, the 
 23 
 
26^3 THE MODERN EPOCH, 
 
 island of Rugcn, and the towns of Stettin, Wismar, &:c., the bishoprica 
 of Bremen and Verden, and an indemnification in money. Brandenburg 
 obtained the eastern part of Lower Pomerania, with the bishoprics of 
 Magdeburg, Halberstadt, Minden, &c. Saxony was indemnified by 
 Lusatia; other princes with other cities, foundations, and bishoprics. 
 Bavaria remained in possession of the Upper Pahitinate and of the Electo- 
 ral dignity ; and the Palatinate of the Rhine, with the eighth Electoral 
 dignity, was restored to Charles Louis, the son of Frederick Y., who died 
 in the year 1632. The remaining princes and Estates retained their 
 former possessions; and Switzerland and the Low Cduntries were 
 acknowledged as independent states. 
 
 With regard to the affairs of the Church, it was arranged, after long 
 disputes, that the treaty of Passau, and the religious peace of Augsburg, 
 should be confirmed to the Protestants, the "spiritual proviso" abolished, 
 and the peace extended to the Calvin'lsts. In regard to the possession of 
 ecclesiastical property, and the right of free exercise of religion, the year 
 1G24 was taken as the standard. Everything was to remain, or to become, 
 what it had been at that time. At the same time, the privilege of reform- 
 ation possessed by the princes ceased, and a free exercise of religion and 
 equal civil rights were assured to the three Christian confessions. 
 
 The farther consequences of the Thirty Years' War were : — 1. An 
 increase of the power of the princes, which was the occasion of expensive 
 courts, standing armies, a multitude of officials, and a high and regularly, 
 levied taxation. 2. A purity of faith in the Church, which was not 
 founded upon mere warmth of religious feeling, but upon an unalterable 
 veneration for the literal meaning of the Symbolical Books. 3. A decay 
 of trade, of industry, and of profitable commerce. Though agriculture 
 revived again, and the plough and the mattock restored its former aspect 
 to the desolated country, the aforetime prosperity of Germany never 
 returned. Many of the trading towns sunk into pbverty ; the imperial 
 towns w.ere gradually overtaken by the ' princely residences ; and trade, 
 industry, and wealth established their seats in Holland and England. 
 German art and literature decayed ; everything native was neglected, 
 and fashions, language, and poetry, borrowed from the French. From 
 this period, the old German nationality succumbed to the influence of 
 foreigners. -^ 
 
 d. SWEDEN UNDER CHRISTINA AND CHARLES X. CHANGE IN THE 
 CONSTITUTION OF DENMARK. 
 
 § 381. After the premature death of Gustavus Adolphus, the crown 
 devolvBd upon his daughter Christina, during whose minority the govern- 
 ment was conducted by a senate, and the opportunity made use of to 
 increase the privileges and property of the noble families. 
 ' , When the queen herself assumed the government, she assem- 
 
A. D. 1654. 
 
 SWEDEN UNDER CHRISTINA AND CHARLES X. 267 
 
 bled around her a brilliant court, summoned artists and learned men out 
 of all the countries of Europe to Stockholm, and displayed a masculine 
 spirit and character in everything. Her taste for art and her love of 
 science found little support in the Protestant north, and she consequently 
 never felt herself at home there. It was on this account, that, after a 
 reign of ten years, Christina abdicated tl|B throne of Sweden 
 in favor of her cousin, Charles Gustayijslf Pfalz-Zweibriick- 
 en, reserved an annuity for herself, and quitted the land of her fathers. 
 She was solemnly admitted into the Roman Cath^iJ Church at Innsbruck ; 
 she then travelled through the ]S'etherlands,%France^ftid Italy, and at 
 length established her permanent residence in at^it^^lled with all the 
 splendor of art — Rome. She died there in 16^9. 
 Charles X § ^^^' Christina's successor, Charles (X.) Gustavus, was 
 
 A. d". a great warrior. He undertook a campaign for the conquest 
 
 1654 - 1660. Qf Poland, and made himself master of the western territories 
 of that country, in conjunction with the great Elector, Frederick William 
 of Brandenburg, to whom, in return, he promised the liberation of 
 Prussia from the suzerainship of Poland. He would have gained pos- 
 session of the whole country after the three days' battle of 
 ' ' Warsaw, had not an inroad of the Danes into the territory 
 of Sweden called him to a different scene. He left Poland, and marched 
 with restless haste to the lower Elbe. The Danish army opposed no 
 resistance, so that, before the commencement of the winter, Sleswic and 
 Jutland, with the exception of the fortress of Fredericia, were in the 
 hands of the Swedes. This fortress also was stormed, in the midst of 
 winter, by so daring an enterprise that the king became jealous, and 
 attempted to eclipse the exploit of his general by one still more ventur- 
 ous. He crossed with his army on foot, over the frozen channel of the 
 Little Belt, in January, into Funen, and a few days after, he passed the 
 Great Belt into Zealand, in which passage two companies were drowned 
 before his eyes. Here such confusion was occasioned by the sudden ap- 
 pearance of the enemy, that defence was scarcely thought of, and pro- 
 posals for peace were at once entered into. But great as were the 
 sacrifices that the hardly-pressed Danish king offered to make, they were 
 rejected by Charles, who hoped to bring the three Scandinavian king- 
 doms under his own sceptre. But the gallant attitude of the citizens of 
 Copenhagen, who, for a whole twelvemonth, bade defiance to the besieg- 
 ing Swedes, and the assistance of the Dutch, prolonged the war till the 
 sudden death of the king gave a turn to affairs. The Swedish Diet, that 
 conducted the government during the minority of Charles XL, concluded 
 the peace of Oliva with the Poles, and that of Copenhagen 
 with the Danes. So great at that time was the respect for 
 the military skill of the Swedes, that Sweden obtained large territories 
 and important advantages by both these peaces. Prussia's independence 
 
268 THE MODERN EPOCH. 
 
 of Poland was acknowledged. This war, in which the Danish nobility, 
 who were in possession of great privileges and revenues, made an open 
 display of their cowardice and selfishness, was made use of by the court 
 to overthrow the existing constitution. The elective monarchy was con- 
 verted into an hereditary one, and unlimited power conferred upon the 
 king by the royal law. The nobility lost their former power and inde- 
 pendent position, and were bound to the throne by titles and orders. In 
 Sweden also, the vast power of the nobility was broken by the politic and 
 Charles XI. severe Charles XL, who rigidly demanded back the alien- 
 A. I). 16G0 - ated possessions of the crown ; the ancient institutions, 
 1697. however, he allowed to remain. 
 
 2. THE REYOLUTION IN ENGLAND AND THE EXPULSION OF THE 
 
 STUARTS. 
 
 a. THE FIRST TWO STUARTS (jAMES J. 1602-1625, CHARLES I. 
 
 1625-1649.) 
 
 James T. § '^^^' ^^^^^t's ^^"j James I., was a wea^^nd pedantic 
 
 A. D. 1603- prince, of narrow mind and perverted mental constitution. 
 1625. Bred up amidst the contentions of Presbyterian preachers, 
 
 he was especially furnished with theological learning, and willingly 
 engaged in controversies respecting disputed points of divinity. He was 
 extremely desirous of gaining the repuiatiof^ of a deeplJ^Jearned man, 
 both by his writing and conversation, and composed manj^ books ; but he 
 was utterly wanting in the penetration and shrewdness necessary in a 
 ruler. A lover of peace from timidity, he sacrificed the honor of his 
 country to its external quiet, and he was so prodigal of his favor as fre- 
 quently to give himself up entirely to the guidance of unworthy favorites. 
 Among these, George Villiers, duke of Buckingham, distinguished by the 
 symmetry of his figure, exercised the greatest influence upon him. 
 James entertained the most extravagant notions respecting the kingly 
 power. He was firmly persuaded that it was derived immediately from 
 God, and that it was unlimited ; and he sought for proofs of this in the 
 Old Testament. It was on this account that he hated the Presbyterian 
 Church of Scotland, where the king was nothing more than an ordinary 
 member of the congregation ; bxit he was devoted to the Episcopal Church 
 of England, in -which the king was regarded as the head and source of 
 all spiritual power. " Xo bishop, no king " became therefore the motto 
 of all the Stuarts, and the introduction of the Episcopal Church into 
 Scotland, and the suppression of the Puritans in England, was, hence- 
 forth, the great object of the whole family. 
 
 § 387. There are three points particularly worthy of notice in the 
 reign of James ; the gunpowder plot, the nuptial expedition of the princa 
 
THE EEYOLUTION IN ENGLAND. 269 
 
 ofWales, and the increasing opposition in parliament. 1. James had 
 promised toleration to the English Catholics, for the purpose of rendering 
 them favorable to his ascension of the throne. Scarcely, however, -was 
 the crown firmly settled upon his head, before he, like Elizabeth, levied 
 a heavy capitation tax upon the Catholic non-conformists, that he might 
 enrich his favorites, and defray the expenses of his court festivals. The 
 deluded Catholics were exasperated. A conspiracy was formed for blow- 
 ing up the king and all the members of the Upper and Lower House at 
 the opening of parliament, by means of a mine of gunpowder to be formed 
 in the cellar of the parliament-house, and then for changing the govern- 
 ment. The plot was discovered and frustrated a short time before its 
 execution, by a warning in writing received by a Catholic peer. The 
 chief conspirator (Guy Fawkes) was seized and executed ; the other 
 participators in the plot fled, and excited an insurrection, in which most 
 of them perished. The English Catholics were then compelled to pay a 
 heavy fine, and to take a particular oath of fidelity to the king. 2. James, 
 in his conceit, thought that no one but the daughter of a king of the first 
 rank was a fit spouse for his son, and accordingly made proposals for the 
 hand of one of the Spanish princesses. This project excited great dis- 
 content among the English, both because they' were unwilling to have a 
 Catholic queen, and because the lengthened negotiations with Spain that 
 •were occasioned by it prevented the king from giving any assistance to 
 his exiled Protestant son-in-law, Frederick V. of the Palatinate (§ 373). 
 At length, the pope and the Spanish court gave their consent, ai)d there 
 appeared to be nothing more to prevent the union. At this point, the 
 frivolous Buckingham persuaded prince Charles to make a voyage to 
 Madrid, and the king, who in his youth had surprised his Danish bride 
 in a similar manner, favored the undertaking. They arrived at Madrid 
 under assumed names, and were treated when recognized with great dis- 
 tinction. But Buckingham's loose and insolent behavior gave offence. 
 He made enemies of the Spanish court and prevented the marriage. 
 Henrietta of France became the wife of Cliarles. 3. Elizabeth had 
 given but little liberty to the parliament ; but the greatness of her talents 
 for government, and her frugal administration, had afforded the people a 
 compensation. But when James, in the conviction of his kingly perfec- 
 tion, pursued the same path, abridged more and more the privileges of the 
 parliament, and burthened the importation and exportation of every kind 
 of goods with arbitrary taxes, a vehement opposition arose. It was in 
 vain the king threatened, repeatedly dissolved the pariiament, and placed 
 the boldest speakers under arrest ; every fresh assembly held the same 
 language; and when James at length declared that their supposed rights 
 were nothing but privileges for which they were indebted to the royal 
 k D 1621 g^^^c^j ^^^^ members of the Lower House registered a protest, 
 by which they declared that the making of laws, the consent- 
 23* 
 
270 THE MODERN EPOCH. 
 
 ing to taxes, and the other befitting rights and privileges of parliament, 
 were the undoubted native riglits and inheritance of every Englishman. 
 Enraged at this audacity, the king tore the leaf with his own hand from 
 the record, dissolved the parliament, and ordered a few deputies to be 
 imprisoned ; but the spirit of resistance remained alive among the peo- 
 ple, and displayed itself still more violently, when Charles I., a proud 
 and obstinate ruler, took possession of the throne. 
 
 Charles I., § 388. The government of Charles I. be^in with so vio- 
 
 A. D, 1625- lent a quarrel with the parliament, that the latter was twice 
 ■^^*^' • dissolved during the first two years of his reign. The sup- 
 port afforded to the German Protestants, and a war with France occa- 
 sioned by the fickle Buckingham, occasioned great expenses. The king 
 Avas consequently extremely indignant that the parliament Avas sparing in 
 voting supplies, and had not once, during his whole government, consent- 
 ed to the levying of tonnage and poundage upon exports and imports, as 
 had hitherto been the custom. But when the French war took a disas- 
 trous termination, and the blood and honor of England were ignomini- 
 ously sacrificed, the third parliament threatened Bucking- 
 ham wdth an impeachment. The king, to save his favorite, 
 was obliged to recognize ttys validity of the Petition of Pight presented 
 by both houses, and by this means to grant its ancient privileges to the 
 parliament, and liberty of speech and security of person and 
 property to its members. Buckingham was shortly after as- 
 sassinated, upon which the king removed. Thomas Wentworth, an elo- 
 quent member of the opposition, from parliament into the privy council, 
 made him earl of Strafford and governor of Ireland, and followed his 
 advice in everything. Wentworth, an ambitious and energetic man, now 
 exerted his most zealous efforts to strengthen the power of the throne, 
 and with this object, advised the king to govern for some time without a 
 parliament. For the purpose of raising money for the current expenses, 
 the government levied the usual imposts without the consent of the par- 
 liament, laid heavy indirect taxes upon light wines, salt, soap, and similar 
 articles, and revived ancient and obsolete claims of the throne, such as 
 ship-money, which in former times had replenished the royal treasury. 
 Charles, at the saine time, endeavored to establish the Anglican Church 
 on a firmer foundation, and to suppress the Puritans and Presbyterians, 
 whose democratic opinions were every day extending among the people. 
 In this undertaking, he made use of the services of Bishop Laud of 
 London, whom he appointed to the archbishopric of Canterbury. Laud 
 had the cathedral of St. Paul's consecrated afresh, enriched the churches 
 with images and ornaments, and the worship of God with ceremonies, 
 removed the Puritan preachers from their offices, and had heavy and 
 degrading punishments pronounced by the courts (the High Commission 
 and the judges of the Star Chamber) against all those who opposed the 
 
THE REVOLUTION IX ENGLAND. 271 
 
 existing institutions. Thus Prjnne, a Puritan writer, was condemned 
 to be exposed in the pillory, to lose both his ears, and to be imprisoned 
 for life, because, in a bulky volume he had written, he had condemned 
 dancing, masks, and theatrical amusements, matters in which the court 
 delighted. 
 
 § 389. These measures, which threatened to annihilate the civil and 
 religious liberties of England, excited a great commotion over the whole 
 country. John Hampden, a man of considerate and resolute character, 
 refused payment of the ship-money, and conducted his defence before a 
 court of justice so successfully, that the injustice of the government be- 
 came most apparent. The deposed Puritan ministers wandered about the 
 country, representing the proceedings of Laud as the commencement of 
 the restoration of Catholicism, and, by their passionate exhortations, 
 strewed the seeds of hatred against the court and the clergy. But the 
 king retained his resolution ; and, unwarned by the discontent openly ex- 
 pressed in England, he even attempted to introduce the Episcopal Church 
 and the Anglican form of worship into Scotland, a country ever zealous 
 for its faith. When the first attempt at celebrating divine service under 
 the new form was made in the cathedral church of Edinburgh, a tumult 
 arose against the performance of the " worship of Baal." The crowd 
 
 shouted " Pope ! " " Antichrist ! " " Stone him ! " hurled seats 
 July, 1637. ^ 
 
 at the priest, and drove him from the building. The old 
 
 Covenant " for the protection of the pure religion and the Church against 
 the errors and corruptions of Popery" was renewed amidst fasting and 
 prayer. The bishops were driven away, the Presbyterian form of wor- 
 ship restored, and the people called to arms. Upon this, Charles deter- 
 mined to put down resistance by force ; but his troops gave way power- 
 less before the zealous Scots, who marched into the field with prayer and 
 psalmody ; the hostile squadrons crossed the English borders, and nothing 
 was left to the king but to call together the parliament, after 
 
 A. n. 1640. . 1 ,. 1 Til. r» 1 
 
 an interval ot eleven years, and to ask tlie assistance ot the 
 nation. 
 
 § 390. The parliament now summoned is known in history under the 
 name of the Long Parliament. The most influential members and 
 speakers, as Hampden, Ilollis, Ilazelrig, Cromwell, &c., were opposed to 
 absolute monarchical power and • Episcopal Church government; they 
 wanted security for the ancient privileges of the Estates, and for religi- 
 ous liberty. But during their contest against the absolute power of kings 
 and bishops, they separated from each other : the more violent gradually 
 acquired the democratical views of the Puritans ; and whilst they mingled 
 civil and religious freedom together, they aimed at an object that was 
 only attainable in a free repubhcan commonwealth. The new parlia- 
 ment immediately assumed a hostile attitude against the court and gov- 
 ernment. Instead of at once voting supplies against the Scottish rebels, 
 
272 THE M0DERI7 EPOCH. 
 
 the parliament entered into a secret alliance with them, and was the 
 cause that they maintained their position on the frontiers. It then com- 
 menced its attack upon the arbitrary proceedings in Church and State. 
 Strafford, "the great apostate," and Archbishop Laud, were impeached. 
 It was in vain that the king, for the purpose of saving them, yielded to 
 all the demands of the House ; it was in vain that Strafford defended 
 himself for seventeen days with dignity and presence of mind, and prov- 
 ed, in the most convincing manner, that the charges brought against 
 him could not be regarded as high treason ; — the Lower House declared 
 that he must be considered as convicted of an attempt to destroy the 
 liberties of the country ; the Upper House embraced the same opinion, 
 and the king had the w^eakness to confirm the sentence, and to sacrifice 
 the most faithful of his servants to the rage of the people. , Strafford 
 
 died upon the scaffold with great composure. Laud, his 
 May 11, 1641. . . . ^ • ■, , . 
 
 companion in misfortune, was retained three years in con- 
 finement, before his life also was put an end to by the axe of the execu- 
 tioner. The abolition of the spiritual courts, and the exclusion of the 
 bishops from the Upper House, were the forerunners of the fall of the 
 Episcopal High Church. 
 
 § 391. Shortly after this, intelligence got abroad that the Protestant 
 settlers in Ireland had been set upon and murdered by the Catholic in- 
 habitants. This event was laid to the charge of the court, and especially 
 of the queen, and made use of as a proof that Papists, bishops, and cour- 
 tiers had united in a conspiracy for the destruction of religion and liber- 
 ty. From this point, the struggle assumed more and more of a religious 
 character ; and as the parliament now overstepped the limits of a mo- 
 narchical constitution in their demands, inasmuch as they interfered with 
 the prerogatives of government, and required that the appointment of 
 the higher officers of state, and of the commanders of the army, together 
 with the management of the land and sea forces, should be dependent 
 upon their approval, the two parties became more decidedly adverse. 
 The people called the adherents of the king, who w^ere mostly noblemen 
 and officers, "Cavaliers;" they distinguished their opponents, however, 
 by the nickname of Roundheads, from the cut of their hair. ' The at- 
 tempt of the king to arrest five of the most violent leaders of the oppo- 
 sition during a debate failed. They fled, but were brought back the next 
 day to the parliament-house in triumph by the people. Enraged at this, 
 Civil War Charles retired to York and declared w^ar. The queen fled 
 A. D. 1642 - to Holland to claim foreign assistance ; but as the whole 
 •^^^^" military force of the Continent was engaged in the Thirty 
 
 Years' War, no help could be obtained. The war commenced with une- 
 qual means for the contest. For whilst the king was unprovided with 
 money, and his army suffered from every kind of want, the parliament 
 was in possession not only of all the public revenue, but was amply sup- 
 
THE REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND. 273 
 
 ported by private contributions. At the first summons, families brouglit 
 their plate, women their ornaments ; and every tax and impost, that had 
 been obstinately contested with the king, were cheerfully surrendered to 
 the parliament. Charles's small but practised army was, nevertheless, 
 at first successful against the parliamentary forces, that were led into the 
 field by the earl of Essex. In two encounters, the royal cavalry, which 
 was commanded by Cliarles's nephew, Kupert of the Palatinate, gained 
 the advantage. In the commencement of the second year, the parlia- 
 ment also experienced losses, arao^g which, the death of the upright 
 and gallant Hampden was the most severely felt. But when Oliver 
 Cromwell, a zealous Puritan, formed a resolute band of cavalry from 
 amongst his devout friends, which, in the cause of God, rushed blindly 
 into the fight, matters assumed a different aspect. In the 
 " ^ ' ' battle of Marston Moor, Rupert, by his impetuosity, lost the 
 victory to Cromwell's gloomy squadrons. From this time, the name of 
 Cromwell stood uppermost in the army, and the Puritans took advantage 
 of the favorable opportunity to banish the Book of Common Prayer 
 from Divine worship, and to thrust aside Episcopacy by the Calvinistic 
 discipline and the synodial form of Church government. Images, orna- 
 ments, organs, and so forth, disappeared from the churches, painted win- 
 dows were broken, monuments destroyed, and festivals forbidden. 
 
 § 392. But divisions soon arose in the camp of the conquerors. The 
 Independents, the boldest and most energetic of the Puritans, were dis- 
 contented with the synodial constitution of the Presbyterians; they 
 demanded the entire independence, in religious matters, of every indivi- 
 dual congregation, and refused to recognize the decisions of the synods as 
 laws universally valid. Violent contests took place between the moderate 
 Puritans (Presbyteriaris), and the Radicals (Independents). The latter 
 February, passed the Self-denying Ordinance through the parliament, 
 1645. in virtue of which, no member of either house could fill any 
 
 place of command or oflficial 'situation. Essex was, by this means, com- 
 pelled to lay down his military office, and Fairfax, a talented officer, 
 entirely under the influence of Cromwell, was placed at the head of the 
 army. Cromwell, the head of the Independents, had been one of the 
 most zealous advocates of the Self-denying Ordinance. He repaired to 
 the army to resign his command into the hands of Fairfax ; but the latter 
 at once gave the parliament to understand that Cromwell was indispensa- 
 ble — it was only he who could lead the cavalry; for where he fought, 
 in the name of God, along with his pious squadron, there the victory was 
 sure to be. Parliament consented, and the civil war burst forth afresh 
 , . ...- ^'it^^ redoubled violence. But the battle of Naseby destroyed 
 
 June 14, 1645. n r^^ i ^ 
 
 the last hopes ot Charles : he retreated with the remains of 
 his army to Oxford. When Cromwell and Fairfax prepared to besiege 
 bim there, he embraced a desperate resolution ; disguised as a servant^ 
 
274 THE MODERN EPOCH. 
 
 he escaped with two attendants to the Scottish camp on the northern 
 frontier, in the hope of finding truth and attachment among his own 
 countrymen. But all sympathy for fallen greatness was extinguished in 
 the bosom of the Scots, who were guided entirely by their austere clergy. 
 They watched him narrowly, and compelled him to attend the lengthened 
 discourses of their ministers, w^hose usual text was the misdeeds of him- 
 self and his ancestors ; and when they found tbat it was impossible to 
 prevail upon him to accept the Presbyterian faith, or to subscribe the 
 Covenant, they sold their king for a small price. For the moderate sum 
 of £400,000, Charles was delivered up to the commissioners 
 * of parliament, who confined him in a strong castle. 
 § 393. In the mean time, the division between the Presbyterians, who 
 ■were the superior pajty in the parliament, and the Independents, w^ho 
 prevailed in the army, became every day greater. Cromwell w^as on the 
 side of the latter ; but he knew well how to conceal the falsehood of his 
 heart by an outward appearance of sanctimony.* Whilst he was playing 
 the part of a mediator, the captive Charles was carried off by a zealous 
 tailor, with a troop of horse, and delivered up into the power of the army. 
 Upon this, Cromwell marched upon the capital for the pur- 
 ' ' pose of giving the Independents the superiority in parliament 
 November, also. In the meanAvhilel the king escaped to the Isle of 
 1648. Wight ; and both Presbyterians and Independents sought, 
 
 for some time, to gain him over to their own side, and to make their 
 peace with him in return for certain concessions. But Charles, who 
 relied upon foreign assistance, conducted himself in a deceitful and am- 
 biguous manner, and thus deprived himself of the last chance of a peace- 
 ful release. Cromwell now resolved upon his destruction. The army, 
 acting under his secret directions, made itself master of the king's person, 
 and conducted him to a solitary castle on the sea-coast. Colonel Pride 
 then surrounded the parliament-house with his troops, and commanded 
 December, eighty-one of the Presbyterian members to be excluded by 
 1648. force. After this proceeding, which was known by the name 
 
 of "Pride's Purge," Cromwell took possession of the royal vapartments in 
 Whitehall, — for he was now lord and ruler, and the so-called Rump 
 Parliament, which consisted of Independents, was a mere passive tool in 
 his hand. It was determined to accuse the king of treason before an 
 extraordinary court, for having made w^ar against the parliament. 
 " Charles Stuart " was four times put upon his trial, and condemned to 
 death as a traitor, murderer, and enemy of his country. He was allowed 
 three days to prepare himself, and to take leave of his children. ^ He 
 
 * The character given by Weber in the text to Cromwell cannot be regarded as an 
 impartial one. Cromwell's behavior was certainly not always distinguished by perfect 
 candor, but his worst enemies will scarcely deny that his rehgious professions were, in a 
 great measure, sincere. — Translator. 
 
THE REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND. 275 
 
 was then led forth upon a scaffold constructed in front of "Whitehall, and 
 January 30, Covered with black, where the sentence was carried into exe- 
 1649. cution by two masked executioners. An innumerable multi- 
 
 tude gazed in silence upon the frightful scene. It was only when the 
 executioner seized the blood-dropping head by the hair, and exclaimed, 
 "This is the head of a traitor!" that the assembled people reheved their 
 oppressed bosoms by a hollow groan. 
 
 h. OLIVER CROMWELL (a. d. 1649-1658). 
 
 § 394. The intelligence of the king's death excited a fearful sensatiop 
 in Ireland and Scotland. The Prince of AVales, who was living in 
 Holland, was recalled to Scotland and acknowledged as 
 Charles II., but was obliged, beforehand, to sign the Cove- 
 nant and enter the Presbyterian Church. Ireland also acknowledged 
 the new king, and flew to arms. Upon this, Cromwell, after arranging a 
 republican government in England, in which Milton, the blind composer 
 of " Paradise Lost," occupied a post, marched against the disobedient 
 island. His path to victory lay over blood and corpses ; and when he 
 himself left the country to carry the sword into Scotland, other republi- 
 can generals pursued the same course. In three yeara, the threatening 
 rebellion was quelled; but Ireland became a depopulated country of 
 lawless beggars, where the avenger of blood established his fearful dwell- 
 ing. The arms of the republic were triumphant in Scotland also. The 
 Scottish army had occupied a strong position, which Cromwell could not 
 reach. Hunger and sickness soon diminished the number of his troops, 
 60 that he was already meditating a retreat. At this juncture, the 
 preachers who accompanied the Scottish army, and who were annoyed 
 by the cheerftil military life and the hilarity of the king and his asso- 
 ciates, advised the commanders to make an attack. When Cromwell 
 beheld the movement in the Presbyterian army, he exclaimed, " They 
 are coming down, the Lord has delivered them into our liands ! " The 
 battle of Dunbar, fought upon Cromwell's birthday, Septem- 
 ber 3rd, terminated in the defeat of the Scots. Cromwell 
 took Edinburgh, and penetrated into the heart of the country. The Lord 
 of Hosts, who was invoked both by Presbyterians and Independents with 
 fasting and prayer and hypocritical lip-service, was with the bold and 
 strong. Charles suddenly hazarded a daring undertaking. He marched 
 with his troops across the English border, and called upon the adherents 
 of royalty for support. Few joined him, and thus it happened that the 
 September 3, royal army suffered a complete overthrow at Worcester, 
 1651. exactly a twelvemonth after the battle of Dunbar. This 
 
 battle made Charles a houseless fugitive, for whose capture the parlia- 
 ment offered a large reward. After a thousand dangers and adventures, 
 he escaped in disguise to France. Scotland was compelled to submit to 
 
276 THE MODERN EPOCH. 
 
 the republican government by General Monk. The free state of Eng 
 land was also involved in a war with Holland. During this, the republi- 
 cans showed that they were not only victorious on land, but powerful at 
 sea. Greatly as the maritime heroes of Holland, Tromp and Ruyter, 
 distinguished themselves by their courage and ability, Admiral Blake, a 
 man of the old republican stamp, and of rude virtues, and General Monk, 
 who was equally experienced in land and naval warfare, succeeded at 
 length in carrying off the victory. The Dutch were obliged to consent 
 to a disgraceful peace, whilst the Navigation Act, which was proclaimed 
 October, in England during the. war, and which prohibited foreigners 
 
 1651. from bringing any thing but their own productions to Eng- 
 
 land in their own ships, gave a fresh impulse to commerce. 
 
 § 395. During these proceedings, Cromwell had fallen out with the 
 Lower House, and for this reason he resolved upon dissolving the Long 
 (Rump) parliament. After surrounding the house with troops, he entered 
 the apartment in his dark puritanical dress, delivered a dis- 
 ' ' course which was filled with invectives, and then, with the 
 help of the soldiers who had entered, drove forth those who were present, 
 exclaiming to one, " You are a drunkard ; " to another, " You are an 
 adulterer ; " to a thii-d, " You are a blasphemer of God ! " A state coun- 
 cil, under the presidentship of Cromwell, then undertook the formation 
 of a new parliament. For this purpose, lists of all the God-fearing peo- 
 ple were made out in every quarter, and from these '' saints." the repre- 
 sentatives of the kingdom were chosen. This assembly (named in 
 mockery, Barebones' parliament, from the leather-seller, Praise- God 
 Barebones), gave evidence of its disposition and religious views by the 
 Biblical names of the greater number of its members (Habakkuk, 
 Ezekiel, Stand-fast-in-the-Faith, &c.). But Cromwell was not able to 
 manage these strange men so easily as he had hoped ; and as they wished 
 to introduce several vigorous measures, which would have produced great 
 changes, he took advantage of the openly-displayed discontent to effect a 
 December, violent dissolution by means of his soldiers. After this, a 
 1653. new constitution, projected by General Lambert, came into 
 
 existence, in which a parliament of 400 members composed the legisla- 
 tive body, and Cromwell, as Lord Protector, possessed the executive 
 power and the command of the land and sea forces. As Protector, 
 Cromwell governed energetically and gloriously. His talents for govern- 
 ment and his strength of will procured him respect and authority abroad, 
 and his respectable household, and his frugal and citizen-like mode of 
 life, awakened esteem and confidence at home. But honorably as he 
 filled the lofty situation in which fate had placed him, he nevertheless 
 found many enviers and opponents, both among the republicans and 
 royalists, who embittered the evening of his life, and never suffered him 
 to attain to a quiet possession of the government. Rendered gloomy by 
 
THE REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND. 277 
 
 Fuspicion, and in constant fear of assassination, Cromwell died on hig 
 Septembers, birthday, a day that he had always regarded as particularly 
 1658. fortunate. 
 
 § 39 G. Cromwell's weak son, Richard, inherited the digrrity of Lord Pro- 
 tector, which, however, he did not know how to maintain. Three powers 
 %vere soon arrayed in hostile opposition, the protector, the parliament, 
 and the army, commanded by Monk, Lambert, and others. The military 
 power was victorious ; the parliament was dissolved, and the old Eump 
 parliament again summoned ; Richard Cromwell, who was neither a 
 soldier nor a preacher, was obliged to abdicate, and to seek for 
 ' ' safety in a foreign land. But the Rumj) parliament was 
 also obliged to yield in a short time to the power of the army ; upon 
 which the direction of affairs was undertaken by a committee of safety, 
 under the presidentship of Lambert. During all these constitutional 
 struggles, the opinion gradually gained ground that nothing but the return 
 of the royal family, and the reostablishment of monarchy, could effect the 
 permanent reestablishment of order. For this purpose. General Monk 
 entered into an alliance with Charles Stuart, who was living in the 
 Netherlands, but concealed his plans and opinions most carefull}'. He 
 obtained the arrest of Lambert, the dissolution of the committee of safety, 
 and the assembly of a new parliament. With this assembly, which con- 
 sisted for the most part of royalists, Monk hastened to effect the restora- 
 tion of the Stuarts. An amnesty, and liberty of conscienr-e, Avere all that 
 
 Charles had to promise before his solemn entrance into Lon- 
 May, 29, 1660. 
 
 don, where he was received by an exulting people. But 
 
 even these conditions were not observed. Sentence of death was pro- 
 nounced upon all those who had sat in judgment upon Charles L, and ten 
 of them were actually executed as regicides. The triumph of the royalists 
 at the destruction of their enemies was much diminished by the resolu- 
 tion displayed by the Puritans in their last moments. Cromwell's body 
 was torn from the grave and suspended on the gallows. The Episcopal 
 Church was restored, and the Presbyterian clergy again deprived of 
 their places. 
 
 C. THE LAST TWO STUARTS (CHARLES II. 16G0-1G85, AXI^ 
 
 JAMES II. 1685— 1G88.) 
 
 § 397. The government of the fickle, characterless, and voluptuous 
 Charles was fatal to England. Neither the fate of his father, nor the 
 melancholy passages in his own life, served him either for instruction or 
 warning. Severely as the land was visited by the plague, and by a 
 frightful conflagration that destroyed two thirds of London, no interrup- 
 tion was given to the splendid and joyous life that was led by the royal 
 court; and when extravagant expenditure had produced debts and want 
 of money, and the parliament was not so free in its grants as the king 
 
 24 
 
278 THE MODERN EPOCH. 
 
 desired, Charles sold the honor and interests of his country to the French 
 king, Louis XIV. At that time especially, it was looked upon as a mark 
 of refinement in France if a man left the Protestant Church for the 
 Catholic. This way of thinking found some imitation in England. The 
 duke of York, the brother of the king, openly embraced Catholicism, and 
 Charles was a Catholic in heart, although he outwardly conformed to the 
 English Church, and only betrayed his real convictions when on his 
 death-bed, by receiving the Catholic sacraments. The more, however, 
 the Stuarts favored Catholicism, the more sturdily did the people adhere 
 to the faith of their fathers. The fire of London was attributed by them 
 to the Papists, and this belief was perpetuated by a monument ; and that 
 the public offices should not be made use of as rewards for these changes of 
 religion, the parliament, after a long contest, carried the Test Act, which 
 enacted that none but members of the English Church, and confessors of 
 the Protestant doctrine, should be capable of admission into parliament, 
 or of holding ofiices or military posts. As long as Clarendon, the histo- 
 rian of the English " llebellion," remained at the head of the ministry, 
 the king was in some degree restrained within the bounds of moderation 
 and legality ; but when the former fell into disgrace, and was compelled 
 to end his days as an outlaw in a foreign country, Charles allowed him- 
 self to commit acts of all kinds of violence, tyranny, and lawlessness. 
 A ministry that was formed of talented but unprincipled statesmen, and 
 distinguished by the people as the " Cabal " ministry from the initials of 
 its members, now conducted the government according to the wishes of 
 the king, without regard to the privileges and honor of the people. Cor- 
 ruption and venality were no longer regarded as disgraceful among the 
 higher classes, since the king himself drew a yearly stipend from Louis 
 XIV. for supporting the French in their war against the Dutch. A new 
 contest at this time sprang up between the king and the parliament. 
 For, the more openly the former strove for absolute power, the more did 
 the latter endeavor to protect the privileges of the peoj:»le and the religion 
 of the country. The parliament, anxious lest the English Church should 
 be exposed to danger under a Catholic king, demanded the exclusion of 
 the duke of York from the throne ; and Charles found himself so far 
 obliged to yield, that he sent his brother out of the country for some time, 
 and formed a new ministry, in which the ingenious earl of Shaftesbury, 
 M'ho had gone over from the king's council to the popular party, was the 
 president. It was under his administration that the Habeas 
 Corpus Act, that sacred law for the freedom of person, came 
 into existence. According to this act, no one could be imprisoned, with- 
 out a written order of the court stating the grounds of the imprisonment ; 
 and witliin three days, the prisoner was to be brought before the ordi- 
 nary judge?, and cause was to be shown why he should not be released. 
 Xn the midst of these parliamentary struggles, two parties sprang up, the 
 
THE REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND. 279 
 
 Whigs and the Tories, that exist to the present daj. The VHiigs re- 
 garded the constitution of the state as a mutual compact between the king 
 and the nation, and attributed to the hitter the right of active resistance 
 in case of any infringement of the compact ; the Tories, on the other 
 hand, rejected the principle that the royal power proceeded from the 
 people, and demanded passive obedience from the subject. The Tories 
 gained the upper hand during the latter years of Charles II.'s reign, in- 
 asmuch as tlie court took advantage of a conspiracy contrived by some 
 worthless men against the lives of the king and his brother, to ruin the 
 heads of the Whig party. Lord Russell and Algernon Sidney, two of 
 the noblest and most respected of men, died upon the scaffold; Shaftes- 
 bury fled to Holland ; the duke of York again regained his rights and 
 offices ; and when Charles died a few years afterwards with- 
 out legitimate offspring, the Duke ascended the English 
 throne, under the title of James II. 
 
 James IL, § 398. A few weeks after James's ascension of the throne, 
 
 A. D. 1685 - Monmouth, a natural son of Charles II., attempted, by tlie 
 ^^^^' aid of the Whigs, to deprive his uncle of the crown. The 
 
 insurrection failed of success. Monmouth died on the scaffold, and the 
 frightful cruelty that James displayed against all the supporters and 
 abettors of the enterprise destroyed the last sparks of attachment in the 
 hearts of the people. The name of the chief judge, Jeffreys, who pass- 
 ed through the counties with the axe of justice and a crew of execu- 
 tioners, is written with letters of blood in the annals of P2nglish history. 
 The victory which he had gained so easily, and the terror of the people, 
 induced the king to hope, that by cunning and severity he might gradu- 
 ally restore the Catholic religion to its former supremacy in England. 
 With this object, he made the detested Jeffreys chancellor, presented 
 many offices and military appointments to the Catholics and those who 
 had gone over to the lloman Church, and aimed at neutralizing the Test 
 Act by the introduction of an edict of toleration. But as the parlia- 
 ment, despite the bribery used in the elections, could not be brought to 
 accept this edict, James attempted to destroy the Test Act by another 
 plan ; he declared that the throne possessed the power of granting a dis- 
 pensation from this law; a privilege by which the power and operation of 
 all laws would have been paralyzed. The English people looked on qui- 
 etly for some time at these proceedings, although with inward repugnance, 
 inasmuch as the king being old and having no male descendants, and hia 
 two daughters having been brought up in the English Church and mar- 
 ried to Protestant princes, the elder, Mary, to William of Orange 
 (§ 403), and the younger, Anne, to a Danish prince, they hoped for a 
 speedy deliverance. But when the intelligence of the birth of a prince 
 of Wales put an end to all hope of a release from the yoke of poj^jry, 
 they began to entertain the purpose of freeing themselves by their own 
 
28U THE MODERN EPOCH 
 
 efforts, with the assistance of Wilham of Orange. The genuineness of 
 the young prince was called in question ; crowds of discontented Britons 
 Btreamed towards the Hague ; the Whigs united themselves with William 
 of Orange, and promised him the support of the Protestant part of the 
 nation. James did not perceive the storm that was gathering around his 
 head, until William had landed with a Dutch force on the shores of Eng- 
 land, with the avowed purpose of defending the Protestant religion and 
 the liberties of the country. It was in vain that the king now turned 
 himself to the army and the people, and promised the removal of every 
 measure repugnant to the Constitution ; the ground on which he stood 
 had been rendered insecure by the treachery, hypocrisy, and perjury 
 wdth which the Stuarts had rendered the nation familiar. When a part 
 of the army went over to William, and the general voice declared itself 
 against the king, James sent his wife and son to France, threw the great 
 seal into the Thames, and then fled himself in despair from the land of 
 December, li^s fathers, of whose fair crown he had deprived himself and 
 1GS8. his Catholic olrl^priiig. He lived from this time forth at St. 
 
 Germain, a pensioner of Louis XIV. 
 
 § 399. After the flight of James, the representatives of the English 
 people declared the throne forsaken, and agreed that the Catholic line of 
 the house of Stuart should be excluded from the government, and that 
 this should be placed in the hands of the royal pair, William and Mary. 
 Instructed however by the past, they secured the liberties of the nation 
 against any future arbitrary acts by the Bill of Rights, without at the 
 same time weakening overmuch the power of the king. The J^cots ac- 
 knowledged the new government, and regained their Presbyterian 
 Church ; but the Catholic Irish, suj)ported by France, and led into the 
 field by James II. himself, were first compelled to submis- 
 sion by the bloody battle of the Boyne, and again curtailed 
 of their privileges and property. From this time, England, by her naval 
 power, her trade, industry, and prosj)erity, took-the lead of all other na- 
 A D 1701. tions. AVhen a premature death carried the sickly William 
 . „ , ,, childless to the i^rave, he was succeeded by Anne, the 
 1701 - 1714. younger daughter of James IL, during whose reign the union 
 A. D. 1707. between Scotland and England was completed, so that, from 
 tills time, the Scottish representatives gave their voices in the English 
 parliament. Anne also survived the whole of her children, so that the 
 English crown devolved upon the Elector, George of Hanover, the 
 grandson of Elizabeth, Palgravine and Queen of Bohemia. Two at- 
 tempts of the Stuarts, [a. d. 1715 and 1745], to expel the house of 
 Hanover by violence, and to repossess themselves of the English crown, 
 terminated unsuccessfully. 
 
AGE OF LOUIS XIV. 2S1 
 
 3. THE AGE OF LOUIS XIV. 
 
 a RICHELIEU AXD MAZARIN. 
 
 iouis xm. § ^^^' '^'^^ ^*'^* P^^^ ^^ ^^^^ reign of the weak Louis XIII., 
 
 A. D. 1610- ^Yho only numbered nine years at the time of his father's 
 1643. murder (§ 365), was full of mischief for France. During 
 
 the time the queen-mother, Mary of Medicis, conducted the government, 
 Italian favorites exerted a great influence upon aifairs, enriclied theni- 
 selves at the expense of the French, and irritated the pride of the na- 
 tion by their insolence. Enraged at this, the nobility took up arms, and 
 fdled the country with rebellion and the tumult of war. When at length 
 Louis XIII. himself, upon coming of age, assumed the government, he 
 indeed consented that the foreign favorites should be removed by murder 
 and execution, and banished his mother from the court ; but the people 
 gained little by it. The new favorites in whom the king, who assessed 
 no self-reliance, reposed his confidence, were not distinguishe(i^R)m the 
 former either by virtue or talents ; for this reason, both the nobles of the 
 kingdom and the Huguenots, who felt themselves injured in their rights, 
 again rose against the government, and threw the land into fresh confu- 
 sion. This melancholy condition of affairs was only put an end to when 
 Cardinal Richelieu was admitted into tiie state council, and 
 introduced a complete change of system. This great states- 
 man maintained an almost absolute sway in the court and in the kingdom 
 for nearly eighteen years, though the king never loved him, the queen 
 and the nobility were constantly attempting his overthrow, and a succes- 
 sion of cabals and conspiracies were plotted against him. The .greatness 
 of his mind triumphed over all obstacles. Richelieu's efforts were di- 
 rected towards the extension and rounding of the French territory with- 
 out, and the increasing and strengthening of the royal power within. In 
 furtherance of the former of these objects, he sought to weaken the house 
 of Hapsburg, and for this purpose entered into alliances with the enemies 
 of the emperor not only in Germany, in the time of the Thirty Years* 
 "War, but in Italy and other places ; and, to attain his aims in regard to 
 the latter project, he neglected to call togethci* the estates of the king- 
 dom, broke the power of the nobility and of the independent officials 
 and judges in the parliament, and attacked the Huguenots, who had form- 
 ed an almost independent alliance in the south and west of France, with 
 their own fortresses, an effective militia, and great privileges. After 
 conquering the most important of the Huguenot towns (Xismes, Mon- 
 tauban, Montpellier), and destroying their fortifications, in three wars, 
 and when he had at length taken Rochelle, the bulwark of the Calvin- 
 ists, after a siege of fourteen months, he proceeded to deprive the Pro- 
 testants of their political privileges and of their independent position, 
 24* 
 
2? '2 • THE MODERN EPOCH. 
 
 but granted them, I y the Edict of Nismes, liberty of conscience and 
 equal rights with Catholic subjects. The turbulent nobles had been de- 
 prived of their greatest suppoct by the disarming of the Huguenots, and 
 the war could now be prosecuted against them with success. The most 
 daring were got rid of by banishment and the executioner. Even t^ 
 queen-mother and her second son, the duke of Orleans, who had at- 
 tempted to procure the fall of Richelieu, were compelled to leave the 
 country, and the confidential friend of the latter, Henry, duke of IMont- 
 morency, a scion of one of the most renowned fomilies of France, died 
 at Toulouse by the hand of tlie executioner. A similar fate 
 
 A D 163*^ 
 
 awaited the count of Cinq-Mars and his friend, De Thou, a 
 few jG£irs later, when, in conjunction with the queen and some of the 
 nobles, they formed a conspiracy against the mighty cardinal. The par- 
 liament, the upper tax-offices and courts of justice, which, like the king, 
 claimed an independent authority on account of their offices being he- 
 redita|fc were weakened by the establishment of 'extraordinary courts 
 and higher officers, who were dependent upon the minister. 
 
 § 401. In the year 1G42, died Richelieu, hated and feared by the no- 
 bility and the people, but admired by contemporaries and posterity ; 
 Louis XIII., a prince without either great virtues or great vices, and de- 
 pendent upon every one who could either acquire his favor or render 
 himself formidable to him, soon followed him. His widow, Anne of 
 Austria, the proud and ambitious sister of the king of Spain, undertook 
 Louis XIV. ^^^® government during the minority of his son. But as she 
 A. T>. 1643- reposed the whole of her confidence on the Italian, Mazarin, 
 I'' 1^- the inheritor of the office and the principles of Richelieu, she 
 
 met with vehement opposers among the nobility and in the parliament, who 
 attempted to regain their former power and position. The people, in the 
 hope of being relieved of some of their heavy taxes, and guided by the 
 clever and dexterous Cardinal Retz, embraced their cause, with the in- 
 tent of compelling the court to remove Mazarin, and to adopt a different 
 ^^ p. plan of government. This gave occasion to a furious civil 
 
 1648 - 1653. war, which is knowii in history as " the War of the Fronde." 
 Mazarin was obliged to leave the country for a short time, but so immo- 
 vable were the favor dnd confidence of the queen, that he governed 
 France from Cologne as he had formerly done in Paris. But his ban- 
 ishment did not last long. When Louis XIV. had attained the years of 
 kingly majority, and Turenne, the commander of the royal troops, had 
 conquered his rival, the great Conde, the general of the insurgents, in 
 
 the suburb of St. Antoine, Mazarin returned in triumph. 
 A. D. 1653. TT. 1 ' ^ . . , , , 
 
 His solemn entry into Pans was a sign that absolute power 
 
 had gained the victory, and that henceforth the will of the monarch was to 
 
 be law. Mazarin enjoyed for six years longer the greatest respect in 
 
 France and Europe ; Cardinal Retz, the ingenious composer of the Me- 
 
AGE OF LOUIS XIV. 283 
 
 moirs of this war, was obliged to leave his country, after he had previously 
 expiated his turbulent conduct in the prison of Vincennes ; Conde, poor 
 and unhappy, wandered among the Spaniards, till the grace of his master 
 allowed hiin to return and take possession of his estates ; Mazarin's 
 nieces, Italian females without name or position, were endowed with the 
 wealth of France, and sought for as brides by the greatest nobles ; and 
 the members of parliament adapted themselves without opposition to the 
 directiors they received from above, after Louis had appeared before 
 them in his boots and riding whip, and demanded their obedience with 
 threats. Louis now gave effect to his principle, *' I am the state " {Vetat, 
 A D 1659 "^'^^^ moi). The peace of the Pyrenees with Spain was the 
 last work of !Mazarin. He died shortly after, leaving enor- 
 March 9, mous wealth behind him. Ilis death took place at the mo- 
 ^^^^' ment when Louis began to grow weary of him, and was 
 
 longing to seize the reins of government in his own powerful grasp. 
 
 b. GOVERNMENT AND CONQUESTS OF LOUIS XIV. 
 
 § 402. After the death of Mazarin, Louis XIV., in whom kingly abso- 
 lutism attained its highest point, appointed no prime minister, but sur- 
 rounded himself with men who merely executed his will, and whose 
 highest aim was to increase and spread abroad the renown, glory, and 
 honor of the king. In the choice of these men, Louis displayed judg- 
 ment and the talents of a ruler. His ministers, especially Colbert, the 
 great promoter of French industry, manufactures, and trades, as well as 
 his generals, Turcnne, Conde, Luxemburg, and the engineer, Vauban, as 
 much surpassed, in talent, acquirements, and dexterity, the statesmen and 
 soldiers of all other countries, as Louis XIV. himself was preeminent 
 among the princes of his age, in the greatness of his power, in command- 
 ing presence, and kingly dignity. He rendered the age of Louis XIV. 
 the most illustrious in the French annals, and caused the Court of Ver- 
 sailles (the seat of the royal residence) to be everywhere praised and 
 admired as the model of taste, of refinement, and of a distinguished 
 mode of living. But as he sought nothing but the gratification of his own 
 selfishness, of his own love of pleasure, of his pride, and of his desire for 
 renown and splendor, his reign became the grave of freedom, of morals, 
 of firmness of character, and of manly sentiments. Court favor was the 
 end of every effort, and flattery the surest road to arrive at it ; virtue 
 and merit met with little acknowledgment. 
 
 § 403. Louis XIV. wished to enlarge his empire, and to render his 
 name illustrious by military renown. He took advantage, therefore, of 
 the death of the Spanish king, Philip IV., to make pretensions to his 
 Spanish War ii^^^eritance as the husband of Philip's daughter, and to march 
 A. D. an army into the Spanish Netherlands. By the triple alliance 
 
 1667 - 1668. Qf England, Holland, and Sweden, he was indeed compelledj 
 
284 THE MODERN EPOCH. 
 
 by tlic peace of Aix, to surrender, after a short campaign, the greater 
 . part of his conquests; but many of the frontier towns of 
 
 Flanders remained with France, and Avere converted by Vau- 
 ban into impregnable fortresses. As Holland had been the chief instru- 
 ment in checking the victorious course of the haughty king, so she did not 
 fail to experience the vengeance of the French potentate. He won Swe- 
 den to his side, purchased the favor of the English king by annuities and 
 mistresses (§ 397), and concluded an alliance with the Elector of Colcgno 
 and the bishop of Munster. Thus prepared and protected on every side, 
 Dutch War Louis began a second war, which at first was directed against 
 A. 1). Holland alone, but in which almost all the European states 
 
 16(2- Qtd. y^^f^YQ involved during the seven years of its continuance. 
 After tlie celebrated passage of the Rhine at Tollmis, the French army pur- 
 sued its rapid course of victories into the territories of the States General. 
 Holland was now in extremities. The republicans, who had hitherto con- 
 ducted the affairs of the State with great credit, had been more solicitous 
 about improving the navy than upon maintaining or increasing the land 
 forces ; how could they resist the stately armies of France, conducted, as 
 they were, by tlie most celebrated generals ? Liege, Utrecht, and Upper 
 Issel, fell into the hands of the enemy; French dragoons already 'made 
 incursions into the province of Holland, and approached to within two 
 miles of the capital ; — the terrified republicans implored peace, but were 
 not listened to. But v.diilst the French army was wasting time in the 
 siege of the Dutch fortresses, the republicans, to whom the whole of 
 the mischief was ascribed, were overthrown by the Orange party, their 
 chiefs, John and Cornelius de Witt, murdered in the streets of the capi- 
 tal, and the government then placed in the hands of the shrewd and war- 
 like stadtliolder, William HI. of Orange. This celebrated general aroused 
 the courage and patriotic enthusiasm of the Hollanders; they cut through 
 their dykes, and rendei-ed the inundated country inapproachable by the 
 French ; the walls of Groningen defied all the efforts of the enemy, an'd 
 the marshal of Luxemburg's daring march against Amsterdam, over the 
 frozen waters, was frustrated by a sudden thaw. These and other cir- 
 cumstances saved Holland. For as the great Elector of Brandenburg, 
 Frederick Vv'^illiam, now came to the assistance of the Dutch, and also 
 induced the emperor Leopold to take, an interest in the war, the French 
 were obliged to divide their power, and to send their chief 
 force to the Ilhine. Spain, also, and the German empire, 
 soon entered into the war against France. 
 
 § 404. The military power of France increased with the number of 
 her enemies. Tarenne ci'ossed the Rhine, after having barbarously 
 ravaged the lands of the Palatinate, and pressed forwards, burning and 
 ravaging, into Franconia. The German princes were divided ; the im- 
 perial minister of war was in the pay of Louis, and betrayed the mili- 
 
AGE OF LOUIS XIV. 2S5 
 
 tary plans to the enemy ; the Austrian generals were either incompetent, 
 or, like Montecuculi, engaged in Hungary. The triumph of France 
 would have been complete, had not the great Elector saved the military 
 reputation of Germany. Louis XIV., for the purpose of compelling the 
 lutter to separate himself from the array of the Rhine, had induced his 
 allies, the Swedes, to attack the march of Brandenburg. But the ener- 
 getic Frederick William appeared in his own territories before the 
 enemy entertained the slightest suspicion of his approach, and gave the 
 surprised Swedes a complete overthrow in the battle of 
 ' ' Fehrbellin. This battle was the foundation of Prussia's 
 greatness. A month later, Turenne, the greatest general of his age, was 
 killed by a cannon-ball, near Sasbach, and the enemy compelled to 
 retreat across the Rhine. But the war nevertheless continued for three 
 years longer, and was particularly destructive to the lands on the I^ilosel 
 and the Saar, where the French committed frightful ravages. It was 
 not until the English parliament demanded, with menaces, that the 
 government should dissolve the alliance with France and support the 
 
 Dutch, that Louis resolved to put an end to the war. By 
 A. D. 1079. , . ^^. , T^ , , . , . 
 
 the peace ot iSimeguen, the Dutch, who in the mean time 
 
 had made the office of stadtholder hereditary in the male line of the gal- 
 lant William of Orange, received back the whole of their lost towns and 
 territories. On the other hand, the Spaniards were obliged to relinquish 
 Franche-Comte, and the whole of the fortified places in the line of Va- 
 lenciennes and Maubeuge, to Franpe, and the Gei-man empire lost not 
 only the town of Freiburg in the Breisgau, but was obliged to submit to 
 tiie greatest humiliations. The dukedom of Lorraine, which belonged to 
 Germany, and of which the French had taken possession at the com- 
 mencement of the war, was given back to the duke, who was engaged in 
 the Austrian service, under such degrading conditions, that the latter 
 preferred to allow it to remain still in the hands of the enemy ; and the 
 great Elector saw himself compelled to give up to the Swedes the lands 
 and towns he had conquered with so much difficulty in Pomernnia. 
 
 § 405. The timorous accjihiescence of the German princes inflamed the 
 insolence and ambition of Louis XIV. He asserted that a number of 
 districts and portions of territory, which, at an earlier period, had belonged 
 to the towns and provinces which had fallen to France in the Peaces of 
 Westphalia and Nimeguen, were included in the cession. To arrange 
 this matter, he established the so-called chambers of reunion in Metz and 
 Brcisach, and, supported by their decisions, took possession of a number 
 of cities, towns, boroughdpvillages, mills, nay, even whole provinces, on 
 the left bank of the Rhine. Success only increased the audacity of the 
 French king, so that, at length, in the midst of peace, he wrested the 
 September, ^^'^e town of Strasburg from the German empire. The trai- 
 1681. torous bishop, Francis Egon, of Furstenburg, assisted in the 
 
286 THE MODERN EPOCH. 
 
 Eurprise and occupation of the place. The once free burghers \vere com- 
 pelled, after being disarmed, to take the oath of subjection to the foreign 
 potentate upon their knees. The ornaments of German aichitecture 
 were restored to the Catholic worship, and the arsenal was emptied. In- 
 stead of chastising this insolence with their united forces, Austria, Spain, 
 August 15, and the German empire concluded a truce for twenty years 
 1684. with the tyrannical king, at Rcgensburg, by which all the 
 
 annexed and plundered provinces were given up to Louis, with the 
 single condition, that he should be satisfied with what he had got, and 
 should put an end to his annexations. 
 
 Austria's distress and triumph. 
 
 § 406. During this time, the emperor Leopold was engaged in the 
 eastern portion of his dominions. In Hungary, the oppression exercised 
 by the government upon the Protestants, the burdensome quartering of 
 troops, and some acts of violence against certain magnates, had produced 
 a formidable rebellion at the moment when the Turks were renewinsr 
 
 o 
 
 their former plans of conquest, and some active chief viziers were awak- 
 nlng the warlike spirit of the janisaries. The Austrian government 
 hoped to suppress the insurrection by severity. It condemned the leaders 
 to death upon the scaiFold, and outraged the chartered rights of the 
 nation. But these acts of violence excited the love of free- 
 dom and the military spirit of the Plungarians. Emmerick 
 Tokeli, an active noble, whose property had been confiscated, unfurled 
 the banner of rebellion. In a short time, he had a consider- 
 able army at his command, with which he drove the Aus- 
 trian forces out of Hungary. Louis XIV. afforded him assistance, and 
 the Porte, which recognized him as tributary king of Hun- 
 gary, despatched a powerful army for his defence. The 
 Turks marched, plundering and devastating, to the walls of Vienna. The 
 court fled to Lintz, and the capital of Austria seemed lost. But the 
 courage of the citizens and of their leader, Rudiger von Staremberg, to- 
 gether with the Ottoman's want of skill in ccftiducting sieges, preserved 
 Vienna for sixty days, in spite of all attacks, till at length the imperial 
 army, commanded by Charles of Lorraine, and in conjunction with a 
 Polish force under the heroic king, John Sobieski, came to the help of 
 September, the hardly-pressed town. A bloody engagement under the 
 1G83. walls of Vienna terminated to the disadvantage of the Turks. 
 
 They made a hasty retreat, and left an enormous booty in the hands of 
 the victors. From this time, the fortune of tife war remained with the 
 Austrians. Hungary was conquered, Tokeli compelled to fly, and Buda, 
 which had been in possession of the Turks for 146 years, was wrested 
 from their hands. After the criminal court of Eperies had deprived 
 the Hungarian nobility of their most enterprising leaders, and spread ter- 
 
AGE OF LOUIS XIV. 2S7 
 
 ror tlirough the whole nation, the emperor Leopold was enabled, at the 
 Diet at Presburg, to abolish elective monarchy, and to banish certain 
 privileges from the constitution that interfered with the royal power, 
 without any opposition. In this way, Hungary became the inheritance 
 of the house of Hapsburg. The Turks made great efforts to regain that 
 which had been lost, and streams of Turkish and Christian blood were 
 ghcd around the walls of Belgrade ; but those great heroes, Charles of 
 Lorraine, prince Eugene, and Louis of Baden, held victory 
 firmly to the Austrian banners. By the peace of Carlowitz, 
 Transylvania, and the whole of the land between the Danube and the 
 Theiss, were ceded to the Austrians. 
 
 d. THE WAR OF 0RLEA3IB. 
 
 § 407. For the purpose of creating a diversion in favor of the Turks 
 against the superior power of Austria, Louis XIV. took advantage of* 
 affairs relating to the inheritance of the Palatinate and the election of the 
 Wiir of archbishop of Cologne, to engage in the third war, called the 
 
 Orleans, A. D. war of Orleans. When the elector Charles died without 
 1GS9-1697. male issue, and the land fell into the collateral Catholic line 
 of Pfalz Neuberg, Louis XIV. claimed not only the movable property, 
 but also the immovable estate, as the inheritance q£ Elizabeth Charlotte, 
 the sister of the deceased Elector, and the wife of l!Wis*s brother, the duke 
 of Orleans ; and when this claim was not admitted, he marched an army 
 upon the Rhine. For the purpose of rendering it impossible for the 
 enemy to penetrate into France, Louvois, the hard-hearted minister of 
 war, gave command for creating a desert between the two kingdoms by 
 devastating the banks of the Rhine. Hereupon, the wild troops fell like 
 incendiaries upon the flourishing villages of the Bergstrasse, the rich 
 cities on the Rhine, and the blooming districts of the southern Palatinate, 
 and reduced them to heaps of ashes. The shattered tower of the castle 
 of Heidelberg is yet a silent witness of the barbarity with which Melac 
 and other leaders executed the commands of a merciless government. 
 Towns and villages, vineyards and orchards, were in flames from Ilaardt- 
 gt'birge to !Nahe ; in Manheira, the inhabitants themselves were obliged 
 to assist in destroying their own buildings and fortifications ; a great part 
 of Heidelberg was consumed by fire, after the bridge of the Xeckar had 
 been blown up ; in Worms, the cathedral with many of the dwelling- 
 houses became the prey of the flames ; and in Spire, the French drove 
 . out the citizens, set fire to the plundered city and the ve- 
 ' * nerable cathedral, and desecrated the bones of the ancient 
 emperors. 
 
 The second occasion of the war, in which, beside the German empire 
 and the emperor, the Netherlands, Spain, and the dukes of Savoy and 
 Piedmont became involved, was the appointment to the spiritual elector-* 
 
288 THE MODERN EPOCH. 
 
 Bliip in Cologne, wliere Louis XTV., by dint of bribery, had secured the 
 election of William von Furstenburg, a man in the interests of France ; 
 but both pope and emperor refused confirmation. In this war, also, 
 v/hich lasted for eight years, the French army, which was conducted by 
 the most distinguished generals, maintained its si1[^>remacy over the far 
 superior force of the enemy. In Italy, in the Netherlands, in heavily 
 afilicted Germany, in the north of Spain, the French had generally the 
 A D 169'> advantage ; even at sea they maintained their honor, although 
 
 the battle of La Hogue went against them. It was a cause 
 of m.uch surprise that Louis should consent to the universally desired ter- 
 
 mination of the war, and' should shgw himself far more mo- 
 
 A. D. 1697. , . , 
 
 derate m the peace of liyswick (between Hague and Delft) 
 than in that of Nimegten. The German empire was the only loser, 
 inasmuch as it was obliged to leave Strasburg and all the annexed pro- 
 vinces to France. Louis's reason for concluding the peace so hastily was, 
 that he wished to have his hands free at the approaching vacancy of the 
 Spanish crown. 
 
 e. LIFE AT THE COURT. LITERATURE. CHURCH. 
 
 § 408. It was during the last three decades of the seventeenth century 
 that France stood at ^e culniinating point of her power abroad and of 
 her prosperity at hom^so that the flattering chronicles of those days de- 
 scribed the age of Louis XIV. as the golden age of France. Trade and 
 industry received a prodigious development by the care of Colbert ; the 
 woollen and silk manufactories, the stocking and cloth weaving, which 
 flourished in the southern towns, brought prosperity, the maritime force 
 increased, colonies were planted, and the productions of France were car- 
 ried by trading companies to all quarters of the globe. 
 
 The court of France displayed a magnificence that had never before 
 been witnessed. The palace of Versailles, and the gardens which were 
 adorned with statues, fountains, and alleys of trees, were a model of taste 
 for all Europe ; fetes of all kinds, jovial parties, ballets, fireworks, tlie 
 opera and the theatre, in the service of which the first intellects in 
 France employed their talents, followed upon each other in attractive 
 succession ; poets, artists, men of learning, all were eager to do honor to 
 a prince who rewarded with a liberal hand every kind of talent that con- 
 duced either to his amusement or to his glory. Sumptuous buildings, 
 as the Hospital of Invalides, costly libraries, magnificent productions of 
 the press, vast establishments for the natural sciences, academies, and 
 similar institutions, exalted the glory and renown of the great Louis. 
 The refined air of society, the polished tone, the easy manners of the 
 nobility and courtiers, subdued Europe more permanently and exten- 
 sively than the weapons of the army. The French fashions, language, 
 and literature, bore sway from this time in all circles of the higher classes. 
 
AGE OF LOUIS XIV. 239 
 
 The consequences of the establishment of the French Academy by Riche- 
 lieu were a development of the language, style, and literary composition, 
 that was extremely favorable to tlie diffusion of the literature. The lan- 
 guage, so particularly adapted for social intercourse, for conversation, and 
 for epistolary writing, remained from henceforth the language of diplo- 
 macy, of courts, and of the higher classes ; and although the literar}' pro- 
 ductions are wanting in strength, elevation, and nature, — the polish of the 
 form, and the ease and felicity of the style, gave French taste the supre- 
 macy in Europe, and strengthened the French people in the agreeable 
 delusion that they were the most civilized of nations. In the time of 
 Louis, dramatic poetry reached its highest excellence in Peter Corneille 
 (1G84), whose " Cid" is regarded as the foundation and commencement 
 of classical stage poetry; in J. Kacine (1G99), who, in his Iphigenia and 
 Phtedra ventured to emulate Euripides, and in the talented writer of 
 comedies, JMoliere (1G73), whose Tartuffe, L'Avare, Le Misanthrope, &c. 
 evince a profound knowledge of human nature in its aberrations. Boi- 
 leau (Despreaux) (1711), a dexterous versifier, was admired as the 
 French Horace on account of his odes and satires; Lafontaine's (1694) 
 fables and stories are still familiar in all families as school and children's 
 books, and the adventures of Telemachus by Bishop Fenelon (1715) are 
 translated into all European languages, and have an immense circulation. 
 At the same time, the eloquence of the pulpit was cultivated by Bossuet 
 (1704) and other spiritual orators; the philosophy of scepticism, by the 
 Ilugueiiot, Bayle ; and the literature of polemics by the religious party 
 of the Jansenists, in its contests against the Jesuits and their dangerous 
 morality. In this latter class, the Provincial Letters of Pascal occupy 
 the first rank. 
 
 § 409. But however flatterers may sing the praises of the age of Louis 
 XIV., one spot of shame remains ineradicable — the persecution of the 
 Huguenots. The French king believed that the unity of the Church 
 was inseparable from a perfect monarchy. For this reason he oppressed 
 the Jansenists, a Catholic party, which first contended against the Jesuits, 
 and afterwards against the head of the Church himself; and he compelled 
 the Calvinists, by the most severe persecutions, either to fly, or to return 
 into the bosom of the Catholic Church. Colbert, who esteemed the 
 Huguenots as active and industrious citizens, prevented for Bome time 
 these violent measures ; but the suggestions of the royal confessor. La 
 Chaise, the zeal for conversion of the affectedly pious Madame Main- 
 tenon, who had been first a tuljOress of the court, and afterwards Louis's 
 trusted wife, and the cruelty of Louvois, the minister of war, at length 
 triumphed over the advice of Colbert. A long succession of oppressive 
 proceedings against the Huguenots prepared the way for the great stroke. 
 The number of their churches was restricted, and their worship confined 
 to a few of the principal towns. Louis's paroxysms of repentance and 
 25 
 
290 THE MODERN EPOCH, 
 
 devotion were always tlie sources of fresh oppressions to the Calvinistic 
 heretics, by whose conversion he thought to expiate his own crimes. 
 They were gradually excluded from office and dignities ; converts were 
 favored ; in this way, the ambitious were enticed, the poor were won by 
 money, which flowed from the king's conversion chest, and from the libe- 
 ral gifts of the pious illustrious ; a wide field was opened to the zeal for 
 proselytism by the enactment that the conversion of children under age 
 was valid. Families were divided, children were torn from their parents 
 and brought up as Catholics. Court and clergy, the heartless and elo- 
 quent bishop Bossuet at their head, set, all means in motion to establish 
 the ecclesiastical unity of France. When all other means of conversion 
 failed, came the dragonades. At the command of Louvois, the cavalry 
 took possession of the southern provinces, and established their quarters 
 in the dwellings of the Huguenots. The prosperity of the industrious 
 citizens, whose substance was devoured by the dragoons, soon disap- 
 peared. The bad treatment by these booted missionaries, who quitted the 
 houses of the apostates to fall in doubled numbers upon those who re- 
 mained stedfast, operated more effectually than all the enticements of the 
 court or the seductions of the priests. Thousands fled abj-oad that they 
 October might preserve their faith upon a foreign soil. At last came 
 
 1G85. the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. The religious wor- 
 
 ship of the Calvinists was now forbidden, their churches were torn down, 
 their schools closed, their preachers banished from the land ; when the 
 emigration increased to a formidable degree, this was forbidden, under 
 punishment of the galleys and forfeiture of goods. But despite ail threats 
 and prohibitions, upwards of 500,000 French Calvinists carried their 
 industry, their faith, and their courage to Protestant lands. Switzerland, 
 the Palatinate of the Rhine, Brandenburg, Holland, and England, offered 
 an asylum to the persecuted. The silk manufacture and stocking-weav- 
 ing were carried abroad by the fugitive Huguenots. Flatterers extolled 
 the king as the exterminator of heresy, but the courage of the peasants 
 in Cevennes, and the number of Huguenots who contented themselves 
 with private devotion, show how little religious oppression conduced to 
 the desired end. For when the persecution was carried into the distant 
 valleys of the Cevennes, wliere Waldenses and Calvinists lived, according 
 ♦,o ancient custom, in the simplicity of tlie faith, the oppressors met with 
 un obstinate resistance. Persecution called forth the courage of its vic- 
 tims, oppression urged zeal into fanaticism. Led on by a young mecha- 
 nic, the Camisards, clad in a linen frock, rushed " with naked breast 
 against the marshals." A frightful civil war filled the peaceful valleys 
 of Cevennes; fugitive priests, in the gloom of the forest, exhorted the 
 evangelical brethren to a desperate defence, till, at length, the persecutors 
 grew wear3\ Nearly two millions of the Huguenots remained without 
 rights and without religious worship. 
 
NORTH AMERICA. 291 
 
 IV. THE COLONIZATION OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 [a. d. 1606-1732.] 
 
 § 410. North America, with the exception of Mexico, was not colo- 
 nized by Europeans so c^arly as the southern part of the Continent. Tho 
 discoveries of Cabot had given England a valid claim to the 
 whole coast from Labrador to Florida ; but the country pre- 
 sented none of the allurements that had incited and rewarded the Spanish 
 adventurers. Fertile and well-wooded, indeed, intersected by noble rivers, 
 and inclosing safe and capacious harbors and bays, it seemed a promis- 
 ing region for permanent settlements and agricultural industry, but 
 offered only a faint prospect of wealth to be obtained from gold and silver 
 mines, or from plundering the native inhabitants. There was little 
 chance of glory or gain in subduing feeble and destitute tribes, who had 
 hardly risen above tlie lowest stage of savage life. Buccaneering Eng- 
 lishmen, like Drake, Frobisher, and Hawkins, thirsting for adventure 
 and gold, contemptuously overlooked the North American Indians, pre- 
 ferring to attack and rob the wealthy settlements already formed by the 
 Spaniards at the south. A party of French Huguenots attempted to 
 colonize Florida ; but the Spaniards, who claimed the country, surprised 
 the infant settlement, and massacred nearly all its inhabitants, not sparing 
 even the women and children. This slaughter was soon 
 avenged by a Frenchman, Dominique de Gourges, who cap- 
 tured Fort Carolina, where the victors had established themselves, and 
 hanged all his prisoners ; but he made no attempt to form another colony, 
 and did not even disturb the little Spanish city of St. Augustine, which 
 remained, but did not flourish, as the only permanent settlement of Euro 
 peans on the coast north of the Gulf of Mexico during the sixteenth ccn 
 tury. 
 
 The English, under the direction of Sir "Walter Raleigh and his half- 
 brother, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, attempted to create a settlement on 
 A«D the coast of what was subsequently called North Carolina, 
 
 1583-15S7. Three parties of colonists were sent thither, but they were 
 few in number, and ill provided with necessaries ; one returned, and tho 
 other two perished, either from starvation or the hostility of the natives. 
 Early in the seventeenth century, the French, under De Monts and 
 Champlain, explored the country around the Bay of Fundy and that bor- 
 dering on the St. Lawrence, laying claim to Aeadie (Nova Scotia) and 
 Canada, which together were called New France. De Monts founded 
 Port Royal (Annapolis), on the eastern shore of the Bay of Fundy, in 
 1606; and two years afterwards, Champlain established on the St. Law- 
 rence the post of Quebec. In 1609, the Dutch sent out Henry Hudson, 
 who explored the American coast for a considerable distance, entered 
 
292 THE MODERN EPOCH. 
 
 New York harbor, and sailed up the river which now bears his name. 
 Stimulated by a feeling of rivalry with the French, the English renewed 
 their attempts at colonization on a larger scale. James I. granted the 
 whole country, from Cape Fear to Passamaquoddy Bay, to two companies 
 of merchants and adventurers. The southern portion, from the thirty- 
 fourth to the forty-first degree of latitude was given to the London Com- 
 pany; and the northern part, from the thirty-eighth to the forty-fifth 
 degree, was to be colonized by the Plymouth Company. Neither was to 
 commence a settlement within one hundred miles of a spot already occu- 
 pied by the other. Such associations, looking only to the profits of trade, 
 and intended to remain as commercial corporations within the limits of 
 England, were but ill fitted for the great enterprise of founding and nour- 
 isliins colonies on a distant coast. All their undertakings resulted in dis- 
 appointment and loss ; and they were finally dissolved while the settle- 
 ments which they had created were still in the weakness of infancy. 
 § 411. Virginia. The first band of colonists sent out by the London 
 Company established themselves on a spot which they called 
 Jamestown, on the James river, about fifty miles above its 
 entrance into Chesapeake Bay. The situation was an unhealthy one, 
 and most of the adventurers were poor gentlemen or broken down trades- 
 men, unused to toil, and " fitter to breed a riot than to found a colony." 
 The direction of affairs had been given to a council, consisting of seven 
 persons, nominated by the Company in England. John Smith, a military 
 adventurer of great courage, enterprise, and sagacity, was one of them ; 
 and the incompetency of his colleagues soon becoming manifest, he gra- 
 dually assumed the lead, and several times rescued the feeble settlements 
 from the imminent perils of savage warfare and famine. Half of the 
 emigrants perished during the first six months ; and if the colony had not 
 been fed by frequent supplies of food and additional settlers from Eng- 
 land, the enterprise must soon have been abandoned. In spite of Smith's 
 remonstrances, the settlers wasted their time in seeking for gold and sil- 
 ver, instead of cultivating the ground ; and they actually sent a vessel to 
 England laden with dirt in which glittering specks had been discovered, 
 which they mistook for gold. Smith explored the country, and coasted 
 the bay in an open boat, entering the principal rivers and inlets, and thus 
 obtaining the requisite information for the construction of a chart, which 
 ^vas transmitted to England and published. Li one of these expeditions, 
 he fell into the hands of the savages, and was on the point of being put to 
 death, when he was rescued by the chieftain's daughter, Pocahontas, and 
 after an imprisonment of a few weeks, was sent back to Jamestown. But 
 the colony was soon deprived of his invaluable services ; in 1609, he was 
 severely injured by the accidental explosion of his powder bag, and was 
 compelled to return to England for surgical aid. After his departure, 
 the affairs of the colony again declined, and the settlers more than once 
 
VIRGINIA. 293 
 
 determined to abandon the undertaking, and return home. But they 
 were prevented by the seasonable arrival of ships, bringing fresh sup- 
 plies and a reinforcement of men, whose broken fortunes in their native 
 land made them eager to brave the perils of a desperate enterprise. Thus 
 often rescued from the brink of ruin, the colony struggled on, till its 
 members at last became inured to their novel situation, and acquired the 
 habits of life which alone could meet its exigencies. Novel recruits were 
 sent out from time to time to keep up their numbers. In 1G19, ninety 
 young women arrived, of irreproachable character, who were sold at the 
 price of their passage, to become wives to the planters. Many cargoes 
 of vagrants, thieves, and jailbirds also came, to serve as indented servants 
 for a term of years, and afterwards to become free colonists. Then a 
 more lasting impression was made on the future character anil fortunes 
 of the settlement by the introduction of twenty negro slaves, who were 
 brought by a Dutch trading vessel, and readily purchased by the settlers. 
 Tobacco had now become the staple product of the colony, and slaves 
 were profitably employed in its cultivation. 
 
 § 412. The London Company obtained a new charter in 1G09, which 
 gave them the power of enacting all necessary laws for the Colony, and 
 appointing a governor and other officers to see that the laws were exe- 
 cuted. Whatever discontent may have been excited among the emi- 
 grants by this measure, which gave the whole control of their affairs to a 
 council resident in England, they welcomed the appointment of Lord 
 De la War to be their first governor, as the good abilities and amiable 
 but resolute character of this nobleman seemed to promise a successful 
 administration. Unfortunately he remained in ofHce but a short time, 
 owing to the failure of his health ; and his successors, Dale, Gates, and 
 Argal, governed with a rigor and severity which occasioned loud com- 
 plaints. But they had many dissolute and turbulent subjects to rule ; 
 and the order and discipline which they preserved were favorable to the 
 prosperity of the settlement. Hitherto the land had been held in com- 
 mon, and the products of all labor were thrown into a common stock. 
 But experience having shown that this policy placed the idle and the 
 dissolute on a par with the virtuous and the industrious, besides dis- 
 couraging the latter, each settler now received an allotment of land as 
 his own, and was allowed to work on his own account. The savages had 
 occasionally given much trouble, and in 1622, they were nearly success- 
 ful in a plot which they had formed for the entire destruction of the set- 
 tlements. In one day, they killed three hundred and forty-seven of the 
 whites. A furious war succeeded, in which the Indians, indeed, were 
 defeated and driven back with great slaughter, so that they never became 
 formidable again. But the colony had received a fearful blow, from 
 which it recovered with slowness and difficulty. The number of settle- 
 ments was reduced from eighty to eight, and a famine ensued that de- 
 
 25* 
 
294 " THE MODERN EPOCH. 
 
 stroyed many lives. The first colonial assembly was called by Gov. 
 Yeardley in 1619, and two years afterwards, a special ordinance con- 
 firmed the right of holding such a local legislature. 
 
 The proceedings of the Company in England had now awakened the 
 jealousy of the crown ; and these misfortunes gave King James the 
 pretext that he wanted for depriving them of their charter, and taking 
 the government into his own hands. Of course, it was administered on 
 the arbitrary principles which were then in favor at court. Complete 
 legislative and executive power was given to a governor and a council of 
 twelve persons, all nominated by the crown ; and this power was tyran- 
 nically exercised. Yet the General Assembly, though not formally 
 authorized, was still permitted to meet, though it was much restricted 
 in the exercise of its functions. At one time, the patience of the settlers 
 gave way, and they seized their governor, Sir John Harvey, 
 and sent him a prisoner to England to answer for his mis- 
 conduct. With the native obstinacy of his character, Charles I. resented 
 this act as savoring of audacity and rebellion, and sent back the obnox- 
 ious governor, with a fresh commission, under which he ruled more 
 tyrannically than ever. Still, the prevailing sentiment in the colony was 
 eminently loyal, and during the English Civil War, they took sides, as 
 long as they durst, with the king, against the Parliament. Many of the 
 settlers, as has been said, were decayed gentlemen and unportioned sons 
 of noble families, in whose minds the prejudices of rank were rather 
 heightened than diminished by the want of fortune. The Church of 
 England was established by law, regular stipends being allotted to its 
 ministers in every parish, and the preachers of any other persuasion were 
 not allowed to exercise their functions. The English law of primogeni- 
 ture and entail regulated the descent of property; and the wealthier 
 colonists, directing the labor of many indented servants and slaves, lived 
 apart on their plantations, affecting something of the state of a landed 
 aristocracy. After the ruin of the king's cause at home, in 1645, many 
 of the disbanded cavaliers found refuge in Virginia, bringing with them 
 their sentiment of chivalrous attachment to Church and King. 
 
 § 413. In 1671, Gov. Berkeley estimated the population of the colony 
 at 40,000, including 2,000 negro slaves, and 6,000 indented white ser- 
 vants. Tlie character of his administration may be inferred from a com- 
 munication made by him, this year, to the English Privy Council. " I 
 thank God," he wrote, " there are no free schools or printing, and I hope 
 we shall not have any these hundred years ; for learning has brought 
 disobedience, and heresy, and sects into the world, and printing has 
 divulged them, and libels against ihe best government. God keep us 
 from both!" Yet a few years afterwards, discontent had become so 
 general that a rebellion broke out, and for a few months the insurgenta 
 had entire control of the government. Nathaniel Bacon, a young law- 
 
VIRGINIA. 295 
 
 j^er, distinguished for his talents and activity, was the popular leader in 
 this movement. The people wished to commence hostilities with the 
 Indians, whose conduct had been such as to occasion great excitement 
 and fears of a general conspiracy against the whites. But it is probable 
 that other grievances, some of which were of long standing, were the 
 tree causes of the outbreak, and that the Indian war was only a pretext. 
 
 Six hundred volunteers were collected. Bacon was chosen 
 ▲. D. 1676. . 
 
 their leader, and Gov. Berkeley was asked to give him a com- 
 mission to act against the savages. The governor not only refused, but 
 commanded the men to disperse under pain of being considered as traitors ; 
 and summoning those who were faithful to his standard, he set out in pur- 
 suit of them. But while he was gone, the counties near Jamestown broke 
 out in insurrection, seized the capital, and took possession of the govern- 
 ment. Berkeley was compelled to yield, to dissolve the old Assembly, 
 which had been long in session and had become unpopular, and to issue 
 writs for a new election. Bacon and a large majority of his friends were 
 returned to the new Assembly. Among them were many persons of 
 wealth and influence. A commission to act against the Indians was still 
 refused him, and fearing treachery, he left the city, called together his 
 adherents, returned at the head of 500 men, and dictated his own terms to 
 the enraged but powerless Berkeley. Bacon was appointed general, was 
 authorized to raise an army of a thpusand men, and to prosecute the war 
 vigorously. The Assembly then turned its attention to the redress of 
 grievances. The right of choosing members of the Assembly and of 
 voting in parish matters was restored to the freemen, some unjust exemp- 
 tions from taxes were taken away, tippling houses were regulated, and an 
 act was passed of oblivion and indemnity foi* those who had been engaged 
 in the recent disturbances. But the governor's spirit was not yet sub- 
 dued. After the Assembly was dissolved, he again denounced Bacon as 
 a rebel, retired for a time to Accomac to muster his friends, and then 
 returned with an armed force, and took possession of the capital. But 
 the insurgents besieged him there, and he was again obliged to leave, 
 while th3 town was set on fire and wliolly consumed. But in the midst 
 of these successes, Bacon was suddenly taken sick and died; and no pro- 
 per person being found to take his place, the army was dispersed, and 
 the insurrection abandoned. Berkeley returned in triumph, and punish- 
 ed the rebels with great rigor, some of their leaders being condemned 
 and executed, dnd others were sentenced to pay heavy fines. He then 
 went to England, where, instead of the praise and rewards that ha 
 expected, he was severely censured for his cruelty. He died a few 
 months afterwards, as it was reported, of chagrin. An act of general 
 pardon and oblivion was sent out from England, and other mild and 
 popular measures soon wiped out the memory of Bacon's rebellion. 
 Needy ex»d covetous governors still provoked occasional discont/uit ; bui 
 
\ y 
 
 296 THE MODERN El'OCH. 
 
 the spirit of the people was eminently loyal, so that th uj" wm e tardy and 
 reluctant to acknowledge the revolution of 1688, and only after repeated 
 commands was a proclamation issued announcing the succession of 
 William and Mary to the English throne. 
 
 § 414. Ply3I0UT1I. Far different was the character of the emigrants 
 who founded tlie New England Colonies, under grants from the Ply- 
 mouth Company. These were Puritans of the straitest sect, Independ- 
 ents in their notions of Church government, and now fast verging 
 towards repHblicanism, in consequence of their long continued opposition 
 to the constituted authorities of Church and State at home. The intole- 
 rant spirit of the English hierarchy and the arbitrary proceedings of the 
 court made their residence in England uncomfortable, if not perilous ; 
 and they looked to voluntary exile for deliverance. A company of them, 
 under the llev. John Robinson as pastor, and William Brewster as 
 ruling elder, embarked for Holland in 1G08, carrying their wives, 
 children, and little property along with them. They were kindly 
 received by the Dutch, who were Protestants, and they remained over 
 ten years in peace at Leyden. But Puritans as they were, they were 
 still Englishmen ; they disliked the sound of a foreign language, and the 
 prospect that their children would intermarry with the Dutch, and forget 
 their English parentage and the customs of their forefathers. The 
 greater part of them, therefore, determined to emigrate to America, and 
 for this purpose, returned first to England, where they easily procured 
 the promise of a grant of land from the London Company, as they in- 
 tended to establish themselves within what were then the limits of Vir- 
 ginia. They sailed from Plymouth in the ship Mayflower, and after a 
 tedious and stormy voyage of over two months, arrived at Cape Cod, 
 nearly two degrees north of the place which they had aimed at. The 
 lateness of the season, however, the fatigues of the voyage, and the perils 
 of coasting along a shore which had been but imperfectly explored, pre- 
 vented them from putting to sea again, and they sought a spot for their 
 settlement in that neighborhood. But as they were then without the 
 limits of the Virginia Company, and the Crown had refused to grant 
 them a charter, they deemed it necessary, before leaving the vessel, to 
 sign an ngreement, promising to submit to whatever "just and equal 
 laws and ordinances might be thought convenient for the general good." 
 They selected Plymouth, which ofFei-ed a tolerably good harbor in the 
 southwestern part of Massachusetts Bay, as a suitable place for, the com- 
 mencement of a colony; and on the 22d of December, 1620, the Pil- 
 grims, as they might now well be termed, landed there, numbering only 
 one hundred and one, including the women and children. John Carver 
 was chosen their first governor, and Miles Standish their military leader, 
 as they had some apprehensions of the savages. Divided into nineteen 
 families, they immediately began to fell trees and construct houses, in 
 
PLYMOUTH. 297 
 
 which to find shelter against the rigors of the winter. But their expo- 
 sure was necessarily great, and they had but a slender stock of provisions 
 and other necessaries. Sickness came upon them, and during the first 
 five months, they lost more than half of their number. 
 
 One of their associates, who had been left behind in England, obtained 
 for them a grant of land from the Company wliich was now incorporated, 
 under a new charter, as " The Council established at Plymouth, in the 
 County of Devon, (England,) for tlie Planting, Ruling, Ordering, and 
 Governing of New England in America." This grant authorized the 
 colonists to choose a Governor, Council, and General Court, for the 
 enactment and execution of laws. Strictly speaking, however, tiie Com- 
 pany had no right to give them any thing more than the property of the 
 soil. A charter from the Crown was necessary to complete their politi- 
 cal organization ; and this they never obtained. But the necessity of the 
 case compelled them to act as if they had received full powers; and their 
 remoteness and insignificance prevented the authorities at home from 
 questioning their right. The agreement which they had signed on board 
 the Mayflower was the basis of their legislation ; and for some time, all 
 the settlers came together in a general assembly, to enact the necessary 
 laws. Thus, in its origin, the colony was the purest democracy on earth. 
 Time showed the inconveniences of such an arrangement, and the legisla- 
 tive power was then delegated to an Assembly, composed of representa- 
 tives from the several towns. Land and other property were at first 
 held in common, the Company in England being entitled to a specified 
 share of the total profits. But this experiment turned out like the simi- 
 lar one in Virginia ; finding that industry was discouraged by it, the 
 Colonists succeeded in purchasing, on credit, the share of tlie London 
 partners. A division was then made of the land and movable property, 
 and henceforth each one reaped the fruits of his own toil. The people 
 were united in religious faith, and wished not to be disturbed by theolo- 
 gical controversies ; so, when one Lyford, a clergyman of the Church of 
 England, was sent out to them as a suitable pastor, in place of Robinson, 
 who had died at Leyden, they refused to receive him, and exercised their 
 undoubted right of ownership of the soil, by expelling him, and two who 
 adhered to him, Oldham and Conant, from their territory. These 
 banished persons established themselves at Nantasket, just beyond the 
 limits of the Plymouth colonists. The soil around Plymouth was thin 
 and poor, and the people had brought but few worldly goods along with 
 them ; thus, the progress of the settlement was slow. Some of their old 
 companions, who had been left behind in Holland, now came out to join 
 them; and a few others, attracted by similarity of worship, and by the 
 prospect of driving a little trafiic in fish and peltry, were added to their 
 number. But ten years after the landing at Plymouth, the population 
 numbered only three hundred. Their territory, indeed, was but small, 
 
 r/' 
 
2PS THE MODERN EPOCH. 
 
 being bounded on the land side by a line drawn northerly from the moutl 
 of Narraganset river, till it met one carried 'westerly from Cohasset 
 rivulet, " at the uttermost limits of a place called Pocanoket." 
 
 § 415. Massachusetts. But encouraged by the growth of thi3 
 colony, feeble as it was, the Council of New England proceeded to make 
 lavish grants of their remaining lands, and to send out other bands of 
 emigrants, taking little care to define the boundaries of the new grants, 
 or to avoid ceding to one company or individual the very tract already 
 bestowed upon another. This negligence was the cause of much subse- 
 quent dispute and difficulty. A few persons also established themselves 
 at various points along the coast, who had no formal title to any land, but 
 who were afterwards generally admitted to have an imperfect right, 
 founded on occupancy and prescription. Some few fishing settlements 
 were thus established; but their inhabitants had not the disposition to 
 toil, the habits of order and self-denial, or the indomitable perseverance 
 which characterized the Puritans. All their establishments were subse- 
 quently absorbed by the Massachusetts colony, which became the chief 
 agent in the settlement of New England. 
 
 The persecution of all who would not conform to the Established 
 Church still continuing in England, and king Charles having avowed his 
 purpose to govern without a Parliament, many of the wealthier class of 
 Puritans now determined to emigrate to America, A company was 
 formed at the instigation of Mr. White, a clergyman of Dorchester; 
 among its members were John Humphrey and Isaac Johnson, two bro- 
 thers-in-law of the Earl of Lincoln, John Winthrop, a gentleman of 
 landed property in Suffolk, Sir Richard Saltonstall, John Endicott, 
 Thomas Dudley, William Coddington, Richard Beliingham, Matthew 
 Cradock, and other merchants and lawyers of wealth and influence in 
 London and some of the northern and midland counties. They obtained 
 from the Council for New England a grant of a tract of land, bounded 
 by two parallel lines running westward to the Pacific Ocean, one draw^n 
 three miles north of any part of the Merrimac river, and the other, three 
 niilss south of any portion of the Charles. Soon afterwards, their organ- 
 ization v/as completed by a charter from the Crown, which incorporated 
 them under the title of the " Governor and Company of Massachusetts 
 Bay in New England," with pov;er to admit what new members or free- 
 men they might choose. They were supposed to be a private trading 
 corporation, resident in England, where they were to make laws and 
 regulations for the government of their colony in America. A governor, 
 deputy-governor, and eighteen assistants were to have the management 
 of their affairs ; and these officers were to be chosen, and all important 
 law^s enacted, at a " Great and General Court" of all the freemen, to be 
 held quarterly. A company of sixty or seventy persons, under John 
 Endicott, were sent out in 1628, who commenced a settlement at Salem; 
 
MASSACHUSETTS. 299 
 
 and these were followed, the next year, by six ships, bringing about two 
 hundred colonists, of whom many were indented servants, together with 
 a stock of cattle and other necessaries. It was soon manifest, however, 
 .that a colony, to be prosperous, must have the management of its own 
 affairs, without being obliged to wait for orders from a distance. John 
 Winthrop and many other leading stockholders offered to emigrate, if 
 they were allowed to carry the charter and the government along with 
 thsm. The legality of such a measure was at least doubtful ; but the 
 urgency of the case removed all scruple, and the colonists probably hoped 
 that the remoteness of their new home would screen their proceedings 
 ()'om public notice. New officers were therefore chosen from those who 
 were disposed to emigrate; and in April, 1630, a fleet of fifteen ships, 
 equipped at an expense of £20,000, sailed from the Isle of Wight, hav- 
 ing on board Winthrop and Dudley as governor and deputy-governor, 
 together with most of the assistants, and a company of about one thou- 
 sand persons. They began a settlement at Charlestown, but soon removed 
 to the neighboring peninsula of Trimountain, which they named Boston, 
 after the English town whence some of the chief emigrants came. The 
 hardships of the first winter, which was a severe one, caused disease to 
 break out among them, and over two hundred died, among whom were 
 Isaac Johnson, and his wife, the lady Arabella. But after this period, the . 
 order and industry which prevailed iii the colony, the commencement of 
 trade with Virginia and the Dutch at Manhattan (New York), and the 
 rapid influx of settlers, driven away from England by the religious and 
 political persecution which still raged there, laid the foundations of steady 
 growth and permanent prosperity. During the first ten years after the 
 settlement of Massachusetts, about twenty-five thousand persons left their 
 native land to find a home in New England. 
 
 § 416. The government of the colony was theocratic in many of its 
 features, modified at first by an aristocratic or patriarchal element, which 
 was soon eliminated, however, by the force of circumstances, that set 
 strongly towards republican institutions. The few men of wealth and con- 
 sideration, who were the leaders of the emigration, naturally strove to 
 retain the chief power and influence in their own hands, and to govern 
 aecoiding to their notions of what religion and the word of God required; 
 and in this attempt, they were strongly seconded by the ministers of the 
 churches. At first, the people, with the instinctive respect of English- 
 men for rank and station, gave way to them, and conferred the whole 
 power of legislation on the governor and the assistants, who were fami- 
 liarly known as " the magistrates." Even a council for life at one time 
 was instituted, but it continued only for a few years, and the freemen 
 also resumed the pov/er of enacting laws. Still, they were moderate in (^ 
 the exercise of their functions ; aud persons once chosen to the board of 
 magistrates were usually reappointed, no one being left out but for some 
 
300 THE MODERN EPOCH. 
 
 extraordinary cause. Purity of faith and worship was the chief motive 
 for establishing the colony. The people wished to be free, not only from 
 persecution, but from the presence of other sects and from theological con- 
 troversies. Only such persons were to be admitted to be freemen, or voters, 
 as those who were already freemen should designate ; and tliis privilege 
 was soon confined by law to those who were members of the churches. 
 But as there was little difference among them in point of religious opi- 
 nion, and as most of the adult males, or at least, nearly all tlie head.] of 
 families, were church members, this exclusive privilege created no gene- 
 ral discontent. The magistrates exercised their large powers resolutely 
 to keep out heretics and schismatics, and to maintain rehgious worship 
 and practice in all their purity. Those who did not agree with them 
 were required to go elsewhere, and establish a colony for themselves. 
 Iloger Williams, and some followers of Mrs. Hutchinson, did so, and 
 founded a new settlement in Rhode Island. Others took refuge in New 
 Hampshire ; but Massachusetts claimed the land there as a part of her 
 own territory, and from 1640 to 1G80, the claim was made good. A few 
 Quakers gave great annoyance by their fanatical and outrageous conduct; 
 they were once and again dismissed, with threats in case they returned. 
 They did come again, and then three of them were hanged. The magis- 
 trates, on this occasion, published a defence of their conduct, dwelling 
 especially on the case of Mary Dyer, who was a third comer, and had 
 been once reprieved when already on the gallows, as a proof that they 
 desired, not the death, but the absence, of the Quakers. Some adherents 
 of the Church of England, who had come out without invitation to join 
 them, were summarily sent back to the mother country. Two hundred 
 years ago, the principles of religious toleration were but little understood; 
 yet as the Company owned the territory, and had emigrated for the 
 avowed purpose of forming a religious community by themselves, it is 
 perhaps harsh in us to charge them with intolerance. They had a right 
 to expel intruders. 
 
 § 417. Of course, great severity of manners and punctiliousness of reli- 
 gious observances were enjoined. Various sumptuary laws were eaact- 
 ed ; the Sabbath was observed with Jewish strictness ; blasphemy, witch- 
 craft, and adultery, were punished with death ; slanderers were whipt, 
 cropped, and banished. But except in these particulars, and a few others 
 of no great importance, the Mosaic law was not established in the colony. 
 The people had good sense enough to see that it was not adapted to the 
 circumstances and the times. No restriction was imposed upon them 
 except that contained in the Charter, that no laws should be made repug- 
 nant to the laws of England ; and this was construed very liberally, to 
 mean that no part of the English law was in force there till it was 
 expressly reenacted. At first, the magistrates governed without any 
 other rule than their own sense of right and their interpretation of the 
 
MASSACHUSETTS. 301 
 
 law of God. But the people becoming jealous of so large a discretion, a 
 code, or " Body of Liberties," was established, consisting of 
 one hundred articles, drawn up with sing'ular brevity and 
 clearness, embracing many of the best and most liberal provisions of the 
 English Common Law, and, in some respects, in advance both of English 
 and American law at tlie present day. This code became the basis of 
 legislation, not only in Massachusetts, but throughout New England, the 
 other colonies adopting many of its most important provisions. In one 
 important respect, the Mosaic rule was followed in preference to the 
 English law ; the estates of persons dying without a will were divided 
 equally among the children, except that the eldest son received a double 
 share. This law, favoring the distribution rather than the aggregation 
 of property, made the establishment of a territorial aristocracy impossible, 
 kept up the idea of equality among the people, and tended strongly to the 
 development of republican sentiments. 
 
 Another circumstance, which silently fostered the democratic spirit of 
 the people, was the great extent of their territory in comparison with 
 their numbers, and the disposition that has characterized them from that 
 day to this, to spread themselves over the face of the country, instead of 
 remaining together on one spot. When as yet they were only a few hun- 
 dred in number, instead of seeking pro(x3Ction against the savages and 
 other perils of the wilderness by union and concentration, they colonized 
 a dozen or twenty distinct townships, the extremes of which were some 
 thirty miles apart. Eight townships were represented in a General 
 Court held only two years after Winthrop landed ; and before the colony 
 was ten years old, or contained in all more than 15,000 settlers, at least 
 twenty distinct settlements were formed. But the most remarkable 
 instance of this tendency to segregation took place as early as 1634, when 
 Mr. Hooker and his whole church at Newtown petitioned for leave to 
 remove to Connecticut, the avowed reason for this step being the want 
 of pasturage for their cattle ; and " it was alleged by Mr. Hooker as a 
 fundamental error, that the towns were set so near to each other." The 
 settlements being thus scattered, and the colony as a whole being imper- 
 fectly organized, each town was obliged from the first to direct its own 
 expenditures and manage its own affairs. The inhabitants held town- 
 meetings, levied taxes to provide for their common wants, chose execu- 
 tive officers, afterwards termed " selectmen," and in fact created a little 
 republic nearly complete in organization. It is now generally admitted, 
 that the tone of American politics and the general character of American 
 institutions have been more controlled by the influences of the township- 
 system of New England than by all other causes united. 
 
 In the main, also, there was great equality among the colonists in point 
 of fortune and social position. Many English gentlemen and wealthy 
 merchants, as we have seen, favored the emigration, and some embarked 
 
 26 
 
302 THE MODERN EPOCH. 
 
 in it. But the Imppy and the powerful do not often go into exile, and 
 the perils and hardships of a home in the wilderness prevented many 
 persons of wealth from joining in the enterprise, and caused others to 
 leave it after a brief sojourn in New England. Humphrey, Salfonstall, 
 Vane, and Vassall returned to their native land after a short stay, and 
 the Johnsons died. The great bulk of the colonists were of the middling 
 and lower classes of English society ; very few were wealthy, nearly all 
 were dependent on the labor of their hands. Equality of social claims 
 was the natural basis of equality of political rights. There was a germ 
 of republicanism in the colony from the outset, — a natural tendency 
 towards universal eligibility and universal suffrage. 
 
 § 418. The first care of the settlers of Massachusetts was to provide 
 for universal education and universal worship. The several townships 
 that were organized were so many distinct churches, which admitted their 
 own members, chose their own pastors, and managed their own affairs. 
 Each town, either by levying a tax or by voluntary contributions, pro- 
 vided buildings for public worship and salaries for their ministers. When 
 Boston was but six years old, the General Court passed an order, appro- 
 priating a sum, equal to the amount raised by a year's taxation to defray 
 all the public expenditures of the colony, for the establishment of a col- 
 lege at Newtown ; and two years afterwards, John Harvard, a clergyman 
 of Charlestown, bequeathing half of his estate for the same object, Har- 
 vard College was founded. Free schools were established in several of 
 the towns; and in 1649, a general system of popular education was esta- 
 blished throughout the colony, each township being required to maintain 
 a free school for reading and writing, and every town of a hundred house- 
 holders a grammar school, " to fit youths for the university." The pre- 
 amble of this law declares that the motive for passing it was to provide 
 " that learning may not be buried in the grave of our fathers," — " it be- 
 ing one chief project of that old deluder, Sathan, to keep men from the 
 knowledge uf the Scriptures, as in former times keeping them in an 
 unknown tongue, so in these latter times by persuading men from the use 
 of tongues." The grim Puritan of those days believed his child's soul 
 would be in danger if he were not enabled to read the Bible for himself; 
 and thus care for general education naturally grew out of care for the 
 interests of religion. As the democratic spirit spread among the people, 
 they reclaimed the legislative authority for themselves ; and a body of 
 representatives, consistino; of two or three delegates from each 
 
 A. D. 1634. ^ .-,,,,'', . „ n , 
 
 town, were united with '* the magistrates for the purpose of 
 enacting laws. At first, the representatives sat and voted in the same 
 chamber with the assistants; but in 1644, a division was made, and the 
 two classes afterwards formed separate houses of legislation. 
 
 § 419. During the first few years in the history of the settlement, the 
 Indians had given no cause for alarm. Just before the arrival of the 
 
MASSACHUSETTS. 303 
 
 whites, a contagious disease had raged among the native tribes, nearly 
 exterminating some of them, so that the territory seemed providentially 
 left vacant for occupation by the English. But as the white settlements 
 increased in number, the jealousy of the Indians was aroused; and in 
 1G37, the Pequods, a tribe dwelling on the banks of what is now called 
 the Thames river, in Connecticut, began hostilities. But as they were 
 yet very imperfectly provided with fire-arms, they formed but a con- 
 temptible enemy. A band of eighty men, under Captain Mason, were 
 sent against them, who, with the aid of a few friendly Indians, attacked 
 their pallsadoed village in the grey of the morning, forced their way into 
 it, set fire to the wigwams, and killed about six hundred of the savages. 
 The next month, another band attacked the remainder of the tribe, who 
 had taken refuge in a swamp, killed many of them, and took about two 
 hundred prisoners, who were afterwards kept as slaves, a portion being 
 Fent to the West Indies to be sold. The few who escaped found a home 
 among the Narraganset and Mohegan Indians, and the Pequod tribe 
 ceased to exist. 
 
 To guard against the dangers apprehended not only from the Indians, 
 but from the Dutch and the French, a confederacy was formed in 1G43, 
 between the four colonies of Massachusetts, Plymouth, Connecticut, and 
 New Haven, to form rules for regulating intercourse with the savages, 
 and to render mutual aid if a war should break out. In consequence of 
 this union, the whites became more respected and feared by the native 
 tribes, several of whom sought their alliance and protection. But in 
 1G75, Philip of Mount Hope, a chief of the Wampanoags in Rhode 
 Island, began hostilities, in which he was soon joined by nearly all the 
 native tribes in New England. The Indians were now well supphed 
 with fire-arms, and were expert in the arts of ambush and forest waifare, 
 in which as yet the whites were very deficient. A fearful contest ensued, 
 which brought all the white settlements to the verge of destruction. It 
 lasted nearly a year, in the course of which, upwards of two thousand 
 Ijidians were killed or taken, and some of the New England tribes were 
 exterminated. The whites sutfered terribly ; twelve or thirteen of their 
 towns were entirely ruined, six hundred houses had been burned, and 
 about six hundred men had fallen in battle. No assistance was received 
 from England, and the expenses of the war burdened Massachusetts with 
 a heavy debt. But henceforward, no great danger was apprehended from 
 the Indians, except when they acted as allies of the French. 
 
 § 420. Frequent complaints were made to the Privy Council in Eng- 
 land, that the acts of trade were generally disregarded by Massachusetts, 
 and that the conduct and laws of the colony in many other respects were 
 in violation of the charter and subversive of the authority of the crown. 
 Commissioners were sent out to make inquiries respecting these subjects 
 of complaint. But the breach was only widened by this measure, as the 
 
304 THE MODERN EPOCIL 
 
 commissioners were captious and insolent in their language and conduct, 
 and the General Court was obstinate and not over respectful. Charles 
 II., who had just triumphed after a long contest with the popular party 
 at home, had taken away the franchises of the city of London, and confis- 
 cated the charters of nearly all the boroughs in the realm, was in no 
 humor to be bearded by a few daring sectaries in New England. Legal 
 proceedings were instituted, and before Massachusetts could engage coun- 
 sel in her defence, judgment was entered by default, and the charter de- 
 clared to be forfeited. The government of the colony was thus thrown 
 entirely into the hands of the king ; and James II., who had now come to 
 the throne, appointed Sir Edmund Andros to be governor of all New 
 England, the charters of the other colonies being either forfeited or in 
 abeyance. The popular legislative assemblies were dissolved, and Sir 
 Edmund, with authority to appoint and remove the members of his coun- 
 cil at pleasure, enacted laws and governed as he saw fit. For more than 
 two years, his yoke was heavy upon the necks of the people. Then came 
 a rumor that a revolution had taken place in England, and that the Prince 
 of Orange already was, or would soon be, on the throne, in place of the 
 deposed James II.; and without waiting to learn whether it was any thing 
 April, more than a rumor, the inhabitants of Boston seized their 
 
 A. D. 1689. arms, imprisoned Andros and his chief adherents, and rein- 
 stated their beloved charter government, with the venerable Simon Brad- 
 street at its head. Then ensued a negotiation with the government of 
 "William and Mary, for the restoration of the old charter. But the king 
 and his ministers were determined to strengthen the royal prerogative, 
 and they would only offer a new charter, far less liberal in its provisions 
 than the old one, with the significant intimation that the colony might 
 take that or none. Finding that they would otherwise be governed at 
 the royal pleasure, the people very reluctantly accepted the new instru- 
 ment, by which Plymouth and Maine were united to Massachusetts, and 
 the appointment of the governor, secretary, and all admiralty oliicers was 
 reserved to the crown. The governor might convoke and adjourn the 
 General Court at pleasure ; he had a negative upon the election of coun- 
 cillors and the enactment of laws, and a right to nominate all judges and 
 military officers. The laws were to be transmitted to England, even 
 after he had sanctioned them; and if disapproved by the king within 
 three years from the time of their enactment, they became void. The 
 right of suffrage was no longer confined to church members, but was 
 given to all who had 40 shillings income from freehold property, or 40 
 pounds of personal estate. 
 
 § 421. The first royal governor appointed was Sir William Phips, 
 
 whose administration was distinguished only by the unhappy, popular 
 
 delusion, usually called the Salem Witchcraft. Some children 
 
 were, or pretended to be, thrown into convulsions ; and they 
 
NEW ENGLAXD. 305 
 
 accused certain persons of bewitching them. The mania spread ; others 
 declared that they were afflicted, pinched, and bruised, and when the wit- 
 nesses and the accused were confronted in open court, the former seemed 
 to be thrown into an agony, and charged the latter with tormenting them 
 by diabolical means. Every one against Avhom they "cried out" was 
 arrested, and the •prisons were soon filled. Some weak-minded persons 
 among the prisoners were persuaded or terrified into a confession of 
 guilt, and tiien bore witness against others ; and upon this accumulation 
 of evidence, many were convicted. Twenty persons were hanged, among 
 whom was Mr. Burroughs, a clergyman ; and one old man, aged eighty 
 years, was pressed to death. Many others were cried out against, and 
 lied for their lives. At last, the extravagance of the evil began to work 
 its cure. The witnesses accused some persons who stood so high in 
 character and station, that the belief even of the credulous mob was 
 hocked. A reaction took place, juries refused to convict, the jails were 
 emptied, and some of the judges and those who had been active in the 
 prosecutions made a public profession of their errors and their peni- 
 tence. 
 
 § 422. Other New England Colonies. Having sketched the 
 liistory of Virginia, Plymouth, and Massachusetts, during the seven- 
 teentli century, a few words must suflice for the other Colonies. Roger 
 AVilliams and some other religious exiles from Massachusetts colonized 
 Rhode Island in 1638, having purchased the land of the Narraganset 
 Indians, They obtained a patent from the Long Parliament six years 
 afterwards, and in 1GG3, Charles II. granted them a very liberal charter, 
 under which they chose their own ofiicers and enacted their own laws 
 Avith almost as much freedom as if they had been an independent 
 republic. By the influence of Williams, perfect religious toleration was 
 established in this Colony, men being held responsible for their religious 
 opinions and practice only to their God. The territory of Connecticut 
 was granted, in 1630, to the Earl of Warwick, who soon assigned his 
 right to Lord Say and Scale, Lord Brook, and others. Several settle- 
 merts were formed on the Connecticut river, in 1635-6, by Mr. Hooker 
 and other emigrants from Massiichusetts, who at first acknowledged tlie 
 authority of the Colony they had just left, but soon established a govern- 
 ment for themselves, modelled on that of Massachusetts. Hartford was 
 their chief town. About the same time. Lord Say and Scale with his 
 associates sent over John Winthrop the younger, with instructions to 
 build a fort at the mouth of the Connecticut, and erect buildings to 
 accommodate such settlers as might come thither. This was the origin 
 of Saybrook. In 1637, Mr. Davenport, with a company of emigrants, 
 some of them men of wealth, arrived in New England, and after some 
 hesitation as to the choice of a place, they founded a settlement at New 
 Haven. They were rigid Puritans, who wished to establish a community 
 26* 
 
306 THE MODERN EPOCn. 
 
 conforming in all tilings to their peculiar principles. They admitted 
 only church members to be freemen, and resolved that the Word of God 
 should be the only rule in their administration. The Dutch laid claim 
 to the whole country, and the dispute between them and the English 
 settlers was more than once on the verge of breaking out into open war. 
 Charles II., soon after his restoration, granted to CoHnecticut a charter 
 quite as liberal as that given to Rhode Island ; but as this instrument 
 brought together the two distinct settlements of Hartford and New 
 IIave;i, the people of the latter place were very reluctant to accept it, 
 and only yielded, after some years' delay, to the fear that a general 
 governor might be sent out from England to rule them. From the 
 period of this union, 16G5, the progress of the Colony was steady and 
 l^rosperous. The territory of New Hampshire was granted by the 
 Plymouth Company to Capt. John Mason, in 1G29. But few settlements 
 were formed under his management, principally by fishermen and exiles 
 from Massachusetts, w^ho remained for some time without any govern- 
 ment but such as they established for themselves. Exeter, Dover, and 
 Portsmouth, then called Strawberry Bank, w^ere the only towns that con- 
 tained many inhabitants. In 1641, they voluntarily placed themselves 
 under the protection of Massachusetts, who had always claimed the land, 
 and who continued to govern them till 1G79, wlien, by a decree of the 
 king in council. New Hampshire was made a separate province, to be 
 governed by a President and Council, appointed by the king, and a 
 House of Representatives elected by the people. Frequent disputes 
 ensued, both with their rulers, and with Mason and his heirs respecting 
 the titles to their lands. But after the Revolution of 1 688, most of these 
 controversies were quieted, and excepting frequent hostilities with the 
 Indians, the people prospered. Maine was originally granted to Sir 
 Ferdinando Gorges, and was purchased of his heirs, in 1677, by Massa- 
 chusetts, for £1,200, it having been governed by that Colony for many 
 years previous, under a disputed title. The controversy ending with tliis 
 purchase, Maine remained a part of Massachusetts till a very recent 
 period. 
 
 § 423. New York. The Dutch, founding on the explorations of 
 Henry Hudson a claim to the Hudson river and an indefinite extent of 
 territory through which it Hows, built some fortified trading posts near 
 its mouth as early as 1613. They also explored the northern coast of 
 Eong Island Sound, and both shores of Delaware Bay ; and on the 
 strength of these discoveries, an Amsterdam company obtained from the 
 States General an exclusive grant to trade along the coast between the 
 40th and 45th degrees of latitude, a region by them called New Nether- 
 iand. The English never allowed their claim, which only became im- 
 portant w^hen, in 1621, it passed into the hands of the Dutch AVest India 
 Company, a wealthy association with large privileges, and capable of 
 
NUW YORK. 307 
 
 conducting extensive operations. Under their direction, Fort Orange 
 was built where Albany now stands; and in 1626, the island of Man- 
 hattan was purchased of the Indians, and Fort Amsterdam erected at 
 its southern extremity. As yet, traffic with the savages in peltry was 
 the only object of these establishments ; but in 1629, a scheme was ma- 
 tured for forming Dutch settlements in the country. Extensive grants 
 of land were offered to any member of the Company, who, under the 
 name of Patroon, should establish a colony of at least fifty persons upon 
 it ; and as much land as they could cultivate was offered to any free 
 settlers who should remove thither at their own expense. Under these 
 offers, some of the most inviting lands were taken up; but the progress 
 of cMonizatioa was slow, agriculture being made secondary to trade with 
 the Indians. A port was established on the Connecticut, near Hartford, 
 which soon led to a sharp dispute with the English settlers in that 
 region. The Swedes also came into collision with the Dutch, by attempt- 
 ing, under the sanction of the renowned Gustavus Adolphus, to found a 
 settlement and trading post on the west shore of Delaware Bay, a region 
 claimed by the Hollanders. The Swedes bought some land of the 
 Indians, and built a fort called Christina, — the germ of the Colony of 
 New Sweden, now the State of Delaware. The infant settlement was 
 prudently managed, and might in a few years have become prosperous, 
 if the Dutch had not attacked it, in 1655, with a force of six hundred 
 men, who captured all the Swedish posts, and the region was again 
 absorbed into New Netherland. 
 
 A destructive Indian war was added to the other embarrassments of 
 the Dutch. The latter showed themselves as great savages as their red 
 opponents, who nearly overmatched them, and destroyed many of their 
 most flourishing "boweries," or plantations. The people were harshly 
 governed, being allowed no voice in the administration, and they com- 
 plained that " under a king they could not be worse treated." The 
 English were determined to monopolize the coast, and in 1664, Charles 
 11. granted to his brother a large region, including New Netherland, to 
 be called, in future, in honor of the Duke, New York. An expedition 
 of six hundred men, under Sir Robert Nicholls, was fitted out to take 
 possession ; and so many English were now settled in the Colony, the 
 Dutch also being lukewarm towards their own government, that no op- 
 position was offered. Liberal terms of capitulation were granted, and 
 the territory was annexed without a blow to the domain of England. 
 No popular representation in the government was allowed till 1684, the 
 Duke of York appointing a governor who ruled arbitrarily ; and even 
 after that period, the administration continued to be distasteful to the 
 people. When the news of the revolution of 1688 arrived, the inhabit- 
 ants of New York rose in arms, like their brethren of Boston, and under 
 the guidance of Jacob Leisler, a wealthy German merchant, deposed the 
 
308 THE MODERN EPOCH. 
 
 former authorities of the place, and instituted a government of their own. 
 The colony remained under Leisler's rule till March, 1691, when Col. 
 Sloughter arrived, with a commission as governor, and his agent de- 
 manded peremptorily the surrender of the fort. Leisler hesitated and 
 delayed, and when at last he did obey, he was seized, together with his 
 son-in-law, Milbourne, tried for rebellion, and executed. This proceed- 
 ing was a harsh and hasty one ; and the king subsequently restored their 
 confiscated estates to their heirs, and allowed their bodies to be takeu 
 up and reinterred with pomp, while the people cherished their memory 
 with affection and respect. • 
 
 § 424. Maryland. George Calvert, Lord Baltimore, a Roman Catho- 
 lic by religion, obtained from Charles I., in 1G30, a grant of tlm tlten 
 uninhabited shores of Chesapeake Bay, as an asylum for the persecuted 
 Papists. The charter, which secured liberty of conscience, and equal 
 privileges to the members of all Christian sects, was not issued till after 
 this lord's death, and was then given to Cecil, his eldest son and heir. 
 He sent out his brother, Leonard Calvert, as governor, with 
 about two hundred emigrants, mostly Roman Catholics, and 
 a settlement was formed at St. Mary's, the new colony being called 
 Maryland, in honor of Queen Henrietta Maria. The proprietary had 
 full power to enact all necessary laws, not repugnant to the laws of Eng- 
 land, and not without the advice and approbation of the freemen of the 
 province or their representatives; — this being the first provision in any 
 colonial charier for giving a legislative power to the people. The province 
 was wisely and moderately governed, liberal grants of land being oSered 
 to all comers, to be held by the payment of a quit rent to the proprietor. 
 Baltimore did not wish to shut out heretics from his colony ; Puritans 
 and Church of England men were invited to come, under a promise of 
 enjoying equal privileges with the Catholics ; thus Maryland became a 
 general asylum for the persecuted of all sects. We are not surprised to 
 learn, therefore, that, before Lord Baltimore's death in 1676, he was in 
 receipt of a considerable income from the province, which then contained 
 about sixteen thousand inliabitants, most of whom were Protestants. TIiq 
 people wisely sought support from agriculture rather than mining and 
 trade. Yet they did not pass through the tirije of the Civil War and the 
 domination of the Long Parliament without annoyances and contests. 
 During this period, of course, Lord Baltimore's principles were not in 
 favor, and his colony was regarded with a jealous eye. William Clay- 
 borne had obtained a royal license to trade in all those parts, and he and 
 his associates denied the legality of the Maryland grant. The Parlia- 
 ment sent out commissioners who displaced the officers of the proprietary, 
 and put the government into the hands of the Puritans, who soon passed 
 an act that excluded papists and prelatists from the benefit of the act of 
 toleration. A civil war at one time raged in the colony, Roundheads 
 
THE CAROLIXAS. 301) 
 
 and Cavaliers being opposed to each other, as in the mother land. But 
 with the restoration of Charles II., these troubles ceased, and the pros- 
 perity of the settlement for a long period suffered but little interruption. 
 Yet an order was passed in 1681, for intrusting all offices to Protestants, 
 so that the Catholics were disfranchised a second time in the colony they 
 had founded. 
 
 § 425. The Carolixas. The territory on the coast south of Virgi- 
 nia, extending nominally as far south as St. Augustine, was granted, in 
 1 663, to the great Lord Clarendon, the Earl of Shaftesbury, ftnd six 
 other eminent individuals. The whole region was to constitute one pro- 
 vince, under the name of Carolina, the proprietors receiving, together 
 with the grant of the land, ample powers of government. But a settle- 
 ment had already been formed near Albemarle Sound by some religious 
 exiles from Virginia, and another one, near the mouth of Cape Fear 
 river, by some adventurers from New England, afterwards reinforced by 
 a band of emigrants from Barbadoes. In 1670, three ships were fitted 
 out with colonists from England, under the command of William Sayle, 
 who formed a settlement at Port Royal, which lie soon removed to the 
 peninsula at the mouth of the Ashley and the Cooper rivers, giving to the 
 town that he founded there the name of Charleston. As this place was re- 
 mote fron Albemarle, it obtained a separate government, and thus were 
 created the two colonies of Nortli and South Carolina. The proprietors 
 gave public assurance that the settlers should enjoy unrestricted religious 
 liberty, and that tlieir representatives should have a voice in the enact- 
 ment of laws. Unluckily, they employed the celebrated philosopher, John 
 Locke, to devise a scheme of government for the colony ; and he gave 
 them, under the name of the "Grand Model," the most complicated and 
 fanciful system that the wit of man ever contrived, and which was a per- 
 petual source of trouble and confusion for the quarter of a century dur- 
 ing which it was in partial operation. It established two orders of nobi- 
 lity, landgraves, and caciques; it assigned two fifths of the land for 
 seignories, baronies, and manors, to be cultivated by a race of tenants 
 attached to the soil, and tlie remaining three fifths were allotted to private 
 freeholders ; and it erected a formidable bureaucracy, with officers and 
 titles enough for a populous kingdom of the Old World. This rickety 
 system could never be put into full operation, and in 1693, it was entirely 
 abrogated. The motley i)opulation was swelled by two ship-loads of 
 Dutch emigrants from New York, and by a cargo of slaves from Barbadoes. 
 After the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, many Huguenots came to 
 South Carolina, and settled along the Santee ; they had been preceded 
 by some Presbyterian settlers from the north of Ireland, and by a Scotch 
 colony led by Lord Cardross. Religious toleration and the prospect of 
 obtaining land oq easy terms were the lures which drew so many differ- 
 ent classes of immigrants. The population thus formed did not show 
 
310 THE MODEEISr EPOCH. 
 
 themselves very tractable. They persisted in keeping up an illegal traf- 
 fic with New England, they grumbled at paying quit rent to the proprie- 
 taries, and they quarrelled with the arbitrary and rapacious governors 
 who were sent to rule over them. But in spite of these interruptions, 
 the two colonies prospered, advancing steadily, though not rapidly, both 
 in population and wealth. 
 
 § 426. New Jersey. The territory between the Delaware and Hud- 
 son rivers, being included in the surrender by the Dutch to the English 
 in 1664, was granted by the Duke of York, under the name of New 
 Jerset, to Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret. They sent over 
 Philip Carteret as governor, with a liberal constitution for 
 the new colony, and bountiful offers of land to all settlers 
 who would come thither. Lord Berkeley sold his right, after he had held 
 it ten years, to a company of Quakers, who, wishing to govern separately 
 a region which might be an asylum for the persecuted of their sect, made 
 an agreement with Carteret for the partition of the territory. The west- 
 ern portion was assigned to them, the eastern to Carteret. A large com- 
 pany, consisting principally of Quakers, then came from England, and 
 settled in Burlington and its neighborhood, ample privileges being secured 
 to them by a new constitution. A dispute. ensued with the Duke of York 
 respecting the title to their lands, as he pretended that, under a new 
 patent which he had obtained from the crown, his original rights were 
 restored. But the commissioners in England, to whom the matter was 
 referred, adjudged his claim to be invalid, and new settlers continuing to 
 arrive, the colony became very prosperous. East Jersey, also, in 1682, 
 was sold by the heirs of Carteret to William Penn and twenty-three asso- 
 ciates, mostly Quakers, who appointed Robert Barclay governor, and 
 endeavored to attract emigrants thither. Many of the Scottish Cove- 
 nanters, now suffering a deplorable persecution under Lauderdale and 
 Claverhouse, fled from their native land, and found a pleasant and safe 
 asylum in East Jersey. The numerous proprietors, weary of quarrelling 
 with each other and with the people, surrendered their rights to the 
 crown in 1702 ; and the two divisions were then united under one govern- 
 ment. 
 
 § 427. Pennsylvania. Another Quaker colony was established, on 
 a larger scale, by the celebrated William Penn, a man of great ability 
 and integrity, resolute in purpose and energetic in conduct, a keen con- 
 troversialist, and one who displayed on many occasions more shrewd- 
 ness, knowledge of the world, and practical talent than are often found 
 united with, a fervor and sincerity of religious behef which had the 
 appearance of an unruly fiuiaticism. The Quakers, indeed, while pre- 
 serving with great steadfastness most of their inoffensive external pecu- 
 liarities, had quietly undergone a considerable change in the manner and 
 spirit of their proceedings, — a change attributable in some degree to 
 
PENNSYLVAXIA. 311 
 
 tlK influence of Penn himself. They were no longer the wild and ex- 
 travagant sectaries, whose outrageous conduct, twenty years before, had 
 troubled the peace of Massachusetts. Their manners had become quiet 
 and discreet, and though they remained fearless of persecution, they no 
 longer courted it. In consideration of the services of his father, a dis- 
 tinguished admiral, Penn obtained from Charles II. a grant 
 'of the territory on the west bank of the river Delaware, ex- 
 tending five degrees in longitude, and bounded by the 40th and 43d 
 parallels of latitude ; and the king insisted on naming it Pennsylvania. 
 The charter gave him the absolute property of the soil and ample powers 
 of government, but required the advice and consent of the freemen of the 
 province for the enactment of laws. The sturdy and independent spirit 
 of the New England colonies having taught the crown lawyers a lesson 
 of caution in drawing up colonial charters, it was stipulated in this case 
 that the king might negative any enactment of the assembly, that parlia- 
 ment might levy taxes, and that an appeal might be made to the crown 
 from the decisions of the courts of justice. 
 
 Acting under this charter, Penn drew up a very liberal " Frame of 
 Government," and also published a body of laws, that had been examined 
 and approved by a company of proposed emigrants in England. He 
 also advertised the lands for sale, asking forty shillings, besides a perpe- 
 tual quitrent of one shilling, for every hundred acres. Unlimited free- 
 dom of conscience, and the right to be governed by laws enacted by 
 themselves, were secured to the people. As the terms were liberal, and 
 the advantages of the territory, in respect to cHmate, situation, fertility 
 of the soil, and the friendly disposition of the neighboring Indians, were 
 considerable, a crowd of emigrants presented themselves, comprising 
 many Quakers and a number from Holland and Germany. The Duke 
 of York, afterwards James II., with whom Penn was high in favor, made 
 over to him all his own right to the tliree lower counties on the Dela- 
 ware, first peopled by the Swedes, which had lately been governed as 
 an appendage to the Duke's province of New York. These counties 
 belonged geographically rather to Pennsylvania than New York, and 
 posseseion of them was important for the new colony, as they already 
 contained about 3,000 inhabitants, Swedes, Finns, and Dutch, steady and 
 industrious in their habits, and inured to their situation. Besides these, 
 a number of Swedish, Dutch, and English settlers were already establish- 
 ed in other portions of the territory, by whom the new government was 
 favorably received. William Markham, one of Penn's kinsmen, was 
 sent out in 1G81, with three ships and about three hundred emigrants, 
 bearing a plan of the city which was to be founded at the confluence of 
 the Schuylkill with the Delaware, and a very friendly message to the 
 Indians, whose good will the new proprietor was anxious to concili- 
 ate. Penn himself came out the next year, in the course of "which 
 
312 THE MODERN EPOCH. 
 
 twentj-tliree vessels arrived laden with goods and emigrants. lie held 
 a friendly conference with the savages, under a large elm at Kensington, 
 v/hich afterwards became an object of much curiosity and respect, as 
 marking the site of this famous interview. A treaty was made by which 
 the Indians sold their lands on terms satisfactory to them, and stipulated 
 to maintain peace and friendship, which promise was long religiously 
 observed. The savages named him Onas, and though they gave the 
 same title to the subsequent governors of the colony, they alwuys referred 
 to him as the great and good Onas. After laying cut the new city of 
 Philadelphia, so called from the spirit of brotherly love which was to 
 animate its inhabitants, and holding a conference with Lord Baltimore 
 about the disputed boundary between Delaware and Pennsylvania, Penn 
 returned, in 1G84, to England. lie did not visit America again till 
 1G99, and then made but a short stay. The progress of the new pro- 
 vince was as rapid as its commencement had been auspicious. In lG8-i, 
 it contained twenty settled townships and seven thousand inhabitants ; 
 and not many years afterwards, the population was estimated at thirty 
 thousand. Some of the laws proposed by Penn and adopted by the 
 Assembly bore the imprint of his quaint and benevolent disposition. 
 To prevent lawsuits, three arbitrators were to be appointed by the county 
 courts, to hear and determine small controversies; children were to be 
 taught some useful trade, to the end that none might be idle ; agents 
 who wronged their employers should make restitution and one third 
 over ; and the property of intestates was to be divided equally among 
 the children, except that the eldest son should receive a double share. 
 And yet Penn reaped little but disappointment and vexation from his 
 connection with the colony. His great mistake seems to have consisted 
 in reserving a quitrent, instead of making over the land abso'lutely to the 
 settlers. Tliough the annual payment was but small, and was justly due 
 to him, as in no other manner could he be remunerated for his actual 
 outlay, the demand of it was a fruitful source of annoyance and discon- 
 tent. Penn had great difficulty in collecting it, became impoverished, 
 and was at one time im])risoned for debt. The impossibility of satisfying 
 all the demands of the people while their uneasiness really proceeded 
 from this annual exaction, and the boundary controversy vvith Lord 
 ] Baltimore, embittered all the hitter part of his life. lie founded a pros- 
 j.'erous colony, but he sacrificed his own interests and his peace of mind 
 in the undertaking. Tlie lovrer counties on the Delaware, complaining 
 that their peculiar interests were not attended to, were allowed to dissolve 
 the legislative union with Pennsylvania, but remained subject to the 
 same governor. 
 
 § 428. Georgia was founded in 1732, under a plan formed by Gene- 
 ral Oglethorpe and some other benevolent gentlemen, in order to esta- 
 blish a place of refuge for poor debtors and other indigent persons from 
 
b 
 
 GEORGIA. 313 
 
 Great Britain, and for persecuted Protestants from all nations. A grant 
 was obtained from the king of the unoccupied territory on the right bank 
 of the Savannah river, the land to be apportioned gratuitously among the 
 settlers, charitable donations being made to defray the expense of trans- 
 porting them across the Atlantic, and supporting them during the first 
 Beason. Funds were freely contributed for this generous purpose, under 
 the hope that the measure*\vould reduce the poor rates in England, and 
 empty the workhouses and debtors' jails. But the class of [»ersons thus 
 sent out were very unfit for the work of creating a new settlement and 
 subduing the wilderness. They were chiefly broken-down tradesmen 
 and impoverished debauchees ; while sailors, agriculturists, and laborers 
 from the country were needed. A company of persecuted Lutherans 
 from Salzburg, and one of Scotch Highlanders, who settled respectively 
 the towns of Ebenezer and New Inverness, formed industrious and thriv- 
 ing colonists. Oglethorpe brought over the first band of emigrants, and 
 founded the city of Savannah. The colony being regarded as in a state 
 of pupilage, its affairs were administered, for the first twenty years, by a 
 board of trustees, nominated in the charter, who were to appoint their 
 associates and successors, and had the exclusive right of legislation. The 
 generous motto on their official seal, noji sibif sed aliis (not for them- 
 selves, but for others,) showed the benevolent purposes with whicli they 
 acted. Some of their measures were wise, others were preposterous. 
 They strictly forbade the introduction of negro slaves ; the use of rum 
 was prohibited; no grant "of land was to exceed five hundred acres; the 
 land was not to be sold or devised by the holders, but was to descend to 
 male children only, and in case of the failure of such heirs, was to revert 
 tOjthe trustees. But these laws did not long remain in force; slavery 
 was introduced from the neighboring province of Carolina ; females were 
 allowed to inherit, and the land became subject to the same regulations 
 as other property. So long as the colony was managed by trustees, and 
 considered as an object of charity, it languished, and large sums were 
 expended upon it in vain. At last, the government was abandoned to 
 the crown, its institutions were assimilated to those of the other colonies, 
 and it then had a steady and jjrosperous growth. The Methodists and 
 Moravians were numerous in Georgia, the two renowned preachers of 
 the former denomination, "Wesley and Whitefield, residing in it for seve- 
 ral years. 
 
 § 429. It is apparent from this review, that the English colonies in 
 North America, with the exception of Virginia and New York, wva-q 
 founded and peopled chiefly by religious exiles. The English Puritans 
 were most numerous in New England, the Quakers in New Jersey and 
 Pennsylvania, the Roman Catholics in Maryland, Scotch Presbyterians, 
 French Huguenots, and Methodists in the south, and German Lutherans 
 in Pennsylvania and elsewhere. Earnestness, sobriety, an independent 
 27 
 
314 THE MODERN EPOCH. 
 
 spirit, and a determined hatred of oppression thus cliaracterized the 
 people from the beginning. Whatever emigrants came out solely in 
 quest of wealth were soon disabused of their error, and either returned 
 to the Old World, or learned to labor and to endure in their new home. 
 Property was very evenly distributed, and there were no marked inequa- 
 lities of rank or social position. Protected by their feebleness and insig- 
 nificance in the outset, and by their distance from the mother country, 
 the colonists were, in the main, allowed to enact their own laws, and 
 manage their own affairs. Without any marked purpose of deviating 
 fj'om the policy, or shaking off the yoke, of England, they were, from the 
 commencement, semi-republican and semi-independent. Disciplined by 
 privation, exile, and peril, thrown on their own resources, governing 
 themselves, their situation developed in them the elements of a thought- 
 ful, vigorous, and resolute character. After they had overcome the first 
 difHculties and obstructions in the way of founding a new home in the 
 wilderness, their habits of endurance, industry, and frugality soon gave 
 prosperity to their undertakings. Agriculture and commerce flourished, 
 and they increased rapidly in population and wealth. They were no 
 longer the feeble dependencies of a remote power; they could boast that 
 they had hiid the foundations of a great empire. 
 
 V. THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 1. THE. SPANISH WAR OF SUCCESSION (1702-1714). 
 
 § 430. When the childless Charles II., the last of the house of Haps- 
 burg in Spain, was near his end, he suffered himself, from a feeling of 
 irritation towards the European powers who had arranged a partition of 
 his lands during his life, to be persuaded by the French ambassadors to 
 make a secret will, by which the second grandson of Louis XIV., duke 
 Philip of Anjou, was named heir to the whole Spanish monarchy, to the 
 exclusion of Austria, which, according to an earlier family compact, had 
 the nearest claim upon the vacant throne. Charles II. died 
 at the commencement of the new century, and Louis XIV., 
 guided by his council and his second wife, Madame Maintenon, a woman 
 of inferior birth, determined, after some hesitation, to adopt the will, 
 much as his exhausted kingdom required repose. This resolution was 
 followed by the most desperate war that had hitherto taken place. The 
 Leopold, emperor Leopold took up arms for the purpose of securing 
 
 A. i>. the inheritance of the Hapsburgs for his second son, Charles, 
 
 i6o7 - 1705. 1^^. force. On the side of Austria were ranged, not only the 
 
WAR OF THE SPANISH SUCCESSION. 315 
 
 greater part of the princes of Germany, particularly the Elector, Frede- 
 rick of Brandenburg, who for this assistance was adorned with the title 
 of king of Prussia, and Hanover, for which a ninth Electorate had re- 
 cently been made, but the maritime powers, England and Holland ; the 
 latter, out of fear of the threatening superiority of France, the former, 
 from anger that the French king had recognized the Pretender, James 
 (III.) Stuart, on the death of his father, as king of England. The Elec- 
 tor of Bavaria and his brother, the Elector of Cologne, were the only 
 princes that sided with France. Spain was divided. The eastern pro- 
 vinces, Aragon, Catalonia, Valencia, were for the Austrian claimant of 
 the throne ; Castile, on the other hand, and the rest of the kingdom, took 
 up arms to defend the Bourbon king, Philip V., who was descended on 
 his mother's side from the Hapsburgs, and whose character bore the im- 
 press of Spain. 
 
 § 431. The reason that the fortune of the war remained this time so 
 closely bound to the banners of Austria and England, was, that their 
 armies were conducted by the two greatest generals of the age, prince 
 Eugene of Savoy, and the duke of Marlborough. The former at once 
 increased the renown he had already acquired in the war against the 
 Turks by a masterly campaign in Italy, where he drove back the gallant 
 General Catinat and brought over the duke of Savoy and 
 Piedmont to the side of Austria ; while Marlborough, who 
 was the chief of the Whigs, (who since Anne's coming to the govern- 
 ment had guided the political helm,) and consequently, endowed with 
 almost unlimited power, was distinguished both as a warrior and states- 
 man, but stained his glory by avarice and love of gain. The duke 
 of Savoy brought the calamities of war upon his own land by his 
 alliance with Austria. Vendome, a skilful general, subdued Pied- 
 mont and the fertile plains of Lombardy, and thought to unite himself 
 with the Elector of Bavaria who had marched into the Tyrol ; but the 
 darinj' rise of the ;:^allant Tyrolese, who, from their inaccessi- 
 ble mountain heights and the crevices of their valleys, 
 attacked the Bavarians with their rifles, and prevented their advance by 
 a well- managed guerilla warfare, prevented this plan. The Elector was 
 ccmptilled, after severe loss, to evacuate the Tyrol ; whereupon he joined 
 the French army, which had marched through the Ivinzigthal in Swabia, 
 under the command of the marshals Villars and Tallard. It was here 
 that Eugene, and Louis of Baden, the commander of the imperial forces, 
 opposed themselves to the enemy. Marlborough, after a masterly march 
 on the Rhine and the Mosel, soon joined the other two, upon which, 
 Eugene and Marlborough despatched the old and cautious Louis to the 
 siege of Ingoldstadt, and then defeated the French and Bavarian army 
 August 13, ^t the battle of Hochstadt, (or, as the English call it, the 
 1704. battle of Blenheim). Tallard, and a great part of his force. 
 
316 THE MODERN EPOCH. 
 
 were made prisoners ; the whole of the munitions of war fell into the 
 hands of tlie enemy. The Elector of Bavaria was obliged to follow the 
 French over the Rhine, and expose his territories to the Austrians, who 
 exercised the most frightful oppression there ; so that, at length, the peo- 
 ple, driven to despair, made an insurrection, which, however, had only 
 the effect of increasing the measure of their sufferings. For the purpose 
 of chastising the unpatriotic sentiments of the princely house of Bavaria, 
 Josoli I., the new emperor, Joseph I., who trod the same path his 
 A. r>. father had done, pronounced the ban against Max Emma- 
 
 3705- 1711. jj^^i^ ^^^Y his brother, the Elector of Cologne. 
 
 § 432. Fortune was also adverse to the French both in the Nether- 
 Iklay 23 lands and in Italy. In the former country, Marlborough 
 
 1706. gained the splendid victory of Kamillies from the incompe- 
 
 tent marshal Villeroi, the favorite of Madame JMaintenon ; upon which, 
 the Spanish Netherlands acknowledged the Austrian competitor for the 
 September 7, throne : and in Italy, prince Eugene defeated the superior 
 1706. force of the French at Turin ; whereupon, Milan and Lom- 
 
 bardy, together with Lower Italy and Sicily, fell into the hands of the 
 victors. The glory of Eugene spread far and wide, and his name be- 
 «ime henceforth familiar in the mouths of the people, who celebrated his 
 deeds in their songs. It was in Spain only that Philip of Anjou main- 
 tained himself against the English and Austrian army. It is true, that 
 the provinces of the ancient kingdom of Aragon, out of national hatred 
 to Castile, sided, for the most part, with the Austrian claimant of the 
 throne, when the latter landed in Catalonia. Barcelona, Valencia, and 
 all the cities of importance united themselves to him, whilst 
 tlie English fleet took Gibraltar. Philip V. .nevertheless 
 maintained his supremacy by the adherence of the Castilians, and visited 
 the revolted provinces with a severe chastisement after the victory of 
 April 25, Almanza. The beautiful plains of Valencia were ravaged, 
 
 17U7. the resolute inhabitants, who were prepared to undergo the 
 
 worst extremities rather than submit themselves to the detested Casti- 
 lians, suffered death in all its forms ; and, to avoid ihe insults cf their 
 enemies, they even set fire to their own houses, and perished, like the 
 citizens of Saguntum and Numantia, beneath the ruins. When at length 
 resistance was broken by the capture of Saragossa and Lerida, and the 
 heads of the boldest had fallen beneath the axe of the executioner, the 
 three proviiices of Valencia, Catalonia, and Aragon lost the last remains 
 of their rights, and were governed henceforth by the laws of Castile. 
 Barcelona, however, maintained a gallant resistance to the end of the 
 Vv'ar. 
 
 § 433. In the year 1708, the two great generals, Eugene and Marl- 
 July ii, borough, increased their military renown by the victory of 
 1708. Oudenarde on the Scheldt. At this point, Louis XIV. began 
 
WAR OF THE SPANISH SUCCESSION. 317 
 
 to despair of tlie successful termination of the war ; and, taking the ex- 
 hausted condition of his kingdom into consideration, he now wished for 
 peace. But, by the influence of Eugene and Marlborough, who wished 
 to take advantage of their success for the humiliation of France, condi- 
 tions of great severity were demanded of him. It was not only required 
 that the French king should renounce all pretensions to the collective 
 empire of "Spain, but that he should surrender Alsace and Strasburg; 
 and, hard as this abasement must have appeared to the proud potentate, 
 hs would have accepted the conditions, had not his enemies added the 
 degrading demand, that liOuis should himself assist in driving his own 
 grandson out of Spain. This appeared too severe to the French court, 
 September 11, ^"^ ^^^ ^^^'^^ continued. But in the murderous battle of 
 1709. Malplaquet, France lost more troops than in any previous 
 
 engagement, and would have been compelled to accept peace under any 
 conditions, had not Divine Providence now wished to chastise the inso- 
 lence of others, that men might learn moderation. 
 
 § 134. A quarrel between the proud and ambitious wife of Marl- 
 borough and queen Anne, and the intrigues that sprung from it, had 
 occasioned the exclusion of the duchess from the court, and the expul- 
 sion of the Whig ministry by the Tories. The latter, with the cele- 
 brated statesman and writer Bolingbroke at their head, now wished for 
 the termination of the war, in order that Marlborough, who was at the 
 head of the opposite party, might be no longer indispensable ; and with 
 this object, entered into negotiations for peace with France, which were 
 brou;;ht to a more rapid termination by the death of the em- 
 
 A.D. 1710. ° , IT., 11- . , n „ . 
 
 peror Joseph I. without male heirs, in the following year, 
 Charles VI., and by the succ(4^|^ion of his brother, Charles, who was the 
 \^^' .» ^ intended inheritor of the Spanish monarchy. It could now 
 
 be no longer the interest of the foreign powers to add the 
 territories of Spain to those of Austria, and thus to establish the supre- 
 macy of the house of Ilapsburg in Europe. A truce between England 
 and Spain, after the conclusion of which Marlborough lost all his offices, 
 May 11, and was accused in parliament of embezzlement, was the 
 
 1713. forerunner of the peace of Utrecht. By this, the Spanish 
 
 and American possessions were Iqft to the Bourbon king, Piiilip V., 
 under the condition that the crowns of France and Spain were never to 
 be united ; England received Nova Scotia and other possessions in North 
 America from France, and Gibraltar, and certain commercial advantages 
 from Spain ; the duke of Savoy received the island of Sardinia and the 
 title of king. 
 
 The emperor and the German empire did not join in the peace of 
 
 Utreclit, and continued the war for some time longer. But the emperor 
 
 quickly became convinced that he was unequal to conduct the war by 
 
 himself for any lengthened period, and gave his consent to the peace of 
 
 27* 
 
318 THE MODERN EPOCH. 
 
 Eastadt, to wliicli also the German empire acceded at Baden in tlio 
 March 7 Aargau. By this, Austria obtained the Spanish Nether- 
 
 1714. lands, and JNIilan, Naples, and Sicily, in Italy ; the Elect- 
 
 September, ors of Bavaria and Cologne were again restored to their 
 ^'^^^' lands and titles, and the royalty of Prussia generally ac- 
 
 knowledged. 
 
 September 1, § 435. FRANCE. Louis XIY. died in the following year, 
 1714. weary of life, and borne down by severe strokes of fate. 
 
 Within two years, he had lost his son, his grandson, and his intellectual 
 Louis XV. "^vife, and his eldest great-grandchild, so that his youngest 
 A. D. great-grandchild, then five years of age, succeeded to the 
 
 1715-1774. throne, under the title of Louis XV. During his minority, 
 Orleans, the government was conducted by Philip duke of Orleans. 
 
 Regent, A. d. This prince, like his former preceptor, cardinal Dubois, 
 ,~ * M'hom he raised to the ministry, was a man of intellect and 
 talent, but of most profligate morals, who despised religion and virtue, 
 and by his dissolute and voluptuous life outraged decency and morality, 
 and squandered the revenues of the state. The Mississippi scheme, 
 which was established by the Scotchman, Law, and which not only 
 promised a high rate of interest, but held out hopes of vast profits in 
 America, produced an incredible intoxication of mind throughout all 
 France, which the unprincipled regent and his companion well knew how 
 to take advantage of. Almost all the gold coin flowed into the bank, 
 and was exchanged for paper money, till at length a bankruptcy took 
 place, which deprived thousands of their property, whilst the greedy 
 magnates were enriched by the spoils. 
 
 § 436. Spain. The Spanish king, Philip Y., was a weak prince, who 
 Avas governed by women, and who at length fell entirely into melancholy, 
 and surrendered the government of his empire to his ambitious second 
 wife, Elizabeth of Parma, and the intriguing Italian, Alberoni. These 
 two contrived, by dint of war and intrigue, that Elizabeth's eldest son, 
 Charles, should receive the kingdom of Naples and Sicily ; and her 
 second son, Philip, the dukedom of Parma, with Piacenza and Guastalla. 
 In this w^ay, these states received Bourbon rulers. When Philip V. 
 Ferdinand VI. ^^^^j ^^^^ ^^ trouble, into the grave, he was succeeded by 
 A. i>. his son, Ferdinand VI., who inherited his father's hypo- 
 
 ' - '^ ' chondria, and at length sunk into an incurable melancholy, 
 which, like that of Saul, could only be relieved by singing and play- 
 ing on the harp ; hence the singer Farinelli obtained great influence at 
 the court. 
 
 § 437. England. The free constitution of England obtained such 
 Georo-el. Stability during the reigns of the kings of the house of Hano- 
 
 A- ^' ver, George I., II., and III., that the personal character of 
 
 1<14-1<2<. j^i^g monarch exercised but little influence upon the course of 
 
SWEDEN AXD RUSSIA. 319 
 
 events. Tlie government, which was responsible to parliament, had 
 George II., more regard to the prosperity of the kingdom and to the 
 ir^ - 1760 greatness of the nation, than to the wishes of tlie court. It 
 Georf-e UI ^^'^^ ^^^ ^^^'^ reason that trade, industry, navigation, and pros- 
 A. 1). perity received an immense development. Under George I., 
 
 1760-1820. ^^,jj^ restoiHid the Whigs to his confidence, James (III.) Stu- 
 A. D. 1715 -17. ^^j. attempted, with the aid of the discontented Tories (Jaco- 
 bites), to regain the English throne ; but his undertaking failed, and in- 
 volved his adherents in heavy penalties. The same thing took place in a 
 second attempt, which was hazarded by James's son, Charles Edward, in 
 
 the rei":n of Georjire II. Aided by France, he landed in Scot- 
 August, 1745. , , ", , ^° , -,, , , 
 
 land, where he found numerous adherents among the gal- 
 lant Highlanders. His first successes encouraged him to march upon 
 
 Enghuid. But fortune soon forsook him, and the battle 
 " ' of Culloden destroyed tlie hopes of the Stuarts for ever. 
 Charles Edward, upon whose head the English government had set a 
 price, was saved, as once Charles II. had been, by the friends and adher- 
 ents of his house, in a wonderful and romantic manner. His abettors were 
 proceeded against with frightful severity ; there was no end to executions 
 and confiscations of property ; the prisons were filled with Jacobites from 
 Edinburgh to London. 
 
 2. CHARLES XII. OF SAVEDEN AND PETER THE GREAT OF RUSSIA IX 
 THE NORTHERN WAR (1700-1718). 
 
 § 438. Sweden and Russia. At the commencement of the eight- 
 eenth century, Sweden stood at the highest point of her power. The 
 possessions of the crown had been increased, and the treasury filled, by 
 the prudence and frugality of Charles XI. ; the fleet and army were in 
 good condition ; the coast lands of the Baltic, with the rich towns of TVis- 
 mar, Stralsund, Stettin, Riga, and Revel, and the effluxes of the Weser, 
 Oder, Dwina, and Neva, were included in the Swedish territory, the site 
 now occupied by St. Petersburg being a swampy hollow on Swedish 
 land. In courage and military spirit the Swedes were mferior to none. 
 Imperial house But a powerful neighbor had arisen in the East, since the 
 of Romanof, Russians had united and strengthened themselves under the 
 1613. rule of the house of Romanof; and they now began to extend 
 
 their frontiers in every direction. This was especially the case under 
 Alexis Alexis Romanof and his two sons, Feodor and Peter. Alexis 
 
 A. D- conquered Smolensk and the Ukraine, compelled the warlike 
 
 1640-16 6. ^^^^ well-mounted Cossacks to acknowledge the supremacy 
 of Russia, and encouraged the civilization and industry of the country ; 
 Feodor ^"^ ^^ ^^^® Feodor who established the absolute power of the 
 
 A- 1>- Tzars, by destroying the genealogical registers upon which 
 
 1676-1682. ^^^ noble families founded their pretensions. 
 
oZU THE MODERN ErOCII. 
 
 § 439. Peter the Great. Peter the Great perfected that wliich 
 Peter the ^^^^ predecessors had commenced. By his extensive travels 
 Great, a. d. through the countries of Europe, he made himself acquainted 
 1689- l72o, y,'^^Yi the customs of civilized nations, and with the advan- 
 tages of a regular government ; by this means he obtained a love for 
 civilization, and directed the whole of his efforts to convert Russia from 
 an Asiatic state, which it had hitherto been, into a European one. With 
 this object, he encouraged the immigration of foreign artisans, mariners, 
 and officers into Russia, without regard to the hatred of foreigners enter- 
 tained by his countrymen ; that he might himself be able to share their 
 labors, he made himself acquainted with the art of ship-building in Hol- 
 land and England, and inspected the workshops of artists and of the art- 
 isans of mills, dams, machinery, &c. An insurrection of the Strelitzes, 
 produced by the exasperation occasioned by these innovations, was sup- 
 pressed, and taken advantage of by the emperor for reforming the affairs 
 of the army upon the European model. By the frightful punishments 
 inflicted upon the guilty, the hangings, beheadings, and breakings upon 
 the wheel, which continued for weeks, and in which the Tzar himself 
 took a share, Peter showed that civilization had not penetrated his own 
 heart. Despite all his efforts to introduce European refinement into his 
 dominions, and despite his European dress, which he commanded to be 
 worn by all his subjects, he remained, in manners, in mind, and in his 
 mode of governing, a barbarian, devoted to brandy, coarse in his desires, 
 and frantic in his wrath. 
 
 § 440. Poland under Frederick Augustus the Strong. Whilst 
 
 Russia was raising and confirming her power, Poland, by her v/ild and un- 
 
 governed freedom, was proceeding towards her downfall. After the dealli 
 
 of the military king, John Sobieski, a furious contest arose 
 
 respecting the election of another sovereign, from which 
 
 Frederick Augustus, Elector of Saxony, a prince distinguished for his 
 
 bodily strength, as well as for gallantry and love of magnificence, at 
 
 length came forth victorious. He was called to the throne 
 
 'of Poland, after having gone over to the Roman CatlioHc 
 
 Church. But the Polish nobility, who alone were in possession of any 
 
 political rights, whilst the peasants pined in serfdom and the citizens were 
 
 unable to raise themselves from their subordinate position, had already 
 
 so contracted the royal power, that the state had acquired the form of an 
 
 aristocratic republic, in which the elected chief was little more than the 
 
 executor of the resolutions of the Diet. 
 
 § 441. When Charles XII. ascended the throne, at the age of sixteen 
 Charles XK. J^^'^''"^' ^^^^ rulers of Russia, Poland, and Denmark thought 
 a. d. the time was arrived for depriving Sweden of the lands she 
 
 1697-1718. Yi^^ conquered. The Russian Tzar, Peter the Great, wished 
 to obtain a firm footing on the shores of the Baltic; the elective king of 
 
SWEDEN AND RUSSIA. 321 
 
 Poland, Frederick Augustus the Strong, Elector of Saxony, endeavored 
 to get possession of Livonia; and the Danish king, Frederick IV., 
 attempted to wrest Schleswic from the duke of Holstein-Gottorp, a bro- 
 ther-in-law of Charles XII. They accordingly concluded an alliance by 
 the mediation of the Livonian, Patkul, after which, Frederick Augustus 
 marched with a Saxon array to the frontiers of Livonia, and threatened 
 Riga ; whilst the Russians attacked Esthonia and besieged Narva ; and 
 the Danish king waged war with the duke of Holstein-Gottorp. But to 
 the astonishment of Europe, the young king of Sweden, who had hitherto 
 been looked upon as obtuse and of weak intellect, suddenly displayed a 
 lively and energetic spirit and distinguished military talents. Enraged 
 at the unprincipled attempts of his enemies, he rapidly crossed over to the 
 island of Zealand with his gallant army, commenced at once 
 the siege of Copenhagen, and spread such terror among the 
 Danes, that Frederick IV. renounced the alliance against the Swedes, in 
 the peace of Travendal, and promised to indemnify the duke of Holstein. 
 Hereupon, Charles directed his arms against his other oppo- 
 nents. On the 30th of November, with 8,000 Swedes, he 
 defeated a force of the Russians of ten times that number, before Narva, 
 and captured a number of cannon and a large quantity of ammunition. 
 He then marched across Livonia and Courland into Poland, repeatedly 
 defeated the united armies of Saxony and Poland, and took one town 
 after another. The trembling citizens of Warsaw surren- 
 dered him the keys of their capital, and paid the military 
 levies imposed upon them ; Cracow fell into his hands, and the fertile 
 plains of the Vistula, with Thorn, Elbing, and Dantzic, were soon in the 
 power of the Swedes. Charles now demanded of the Poles that they 
 should depose their king, Frederick Augustus, and undertake 
 'a new election ; and despite the resistance of the nobi- 
 lity, the Swedish king, supported by the Polish party spirit, compelled 
 the required deposition, and obtained the election of Stanislaus Leczinski, 
 voiwode of Posen, a creature of his own, in an elective 
 * assembly which was surrounded by Swedish soldiers. 
 § 442. After a few difficult campaigns in the southern provinces of 
 Poland, where the Swedish king, despite the boggy soil and the poverty 
 of the country, drove back the superior forces of the enemy, Charles de- 
 termined upon seeking his opponent, Frederick Augustus, in his own ter- 
 ritories. Without asking permission of the emperor, he marched across 
 Silesia into Lusatia, and was soon in the heart of Saxony, which, not- 
 withstanding the severe military discipline of Charles, was dreadfully 
 desolated by the hostile force. The inhabitants of the plains fled into the 
 towns, the royal family sought refuge in the neighboring state. Angus- 
 September 24, tus, for the sake of saving his land, gave his consent to the 
 1706. disgraceful peace of Altranstadt, by which he engaged to 
 
322 THE MODERN EPOCH. 
 
 r-^nounce the crown of Poland for himself and his posterity, to dissolve 
 I'ls alliance with the Tzar, and to give up the Livonian, Patkul, to the 
 king of Sweden, who put him to a cruel death upon the wheel. Never- 
 theless, the hostile army still remained for a whole year in Saxony, to 
 the great detriment of the country, which suffered from the extravagance 
 of the court of Dresden, as well as by the quartering of troops and mili- 
 tary levies. Whilst the Estates consented with sighs to the heavy taxes, 
 •and the impoverished peasant was almost starving, the Elector gave one 
 nagnificent court banquet after the other, and squandered enormous 
 sums upon his country-seats. What did not the entertainment and sup- 
 port of the mistresses and illegitimate children of the gallant prince 
 cost! 
 
 Charles XII. was a remarkable contrast to this luxurious and frivolous 
 prince. He possessed the nature of a perfect soldier ; his temperance 
 was so great that he refrained from all spirituous liquors, and whilst in 
 the field, contented himself with the slender rations of the army ; he 
 wore the same plain dress both in summer and winter — a soldier's long 
 frock, with brass buttons, and horseman's large boots ; during a march or 
 in battle, he subjected himself to the greatest toils, privations, and dan- 
 gers ; he avoided the company of women ; the only thing that possessed 
 any charms for him was the military life and its dangers ; the noise of 
 battle, the whistling of balls, and the neigh of the war-horse were more 
 congenial to him than operas, court-banquets, and concerts. 
 
 § 443. Whilst Charles XII. was lingering in Poland and Saxony, 
 Peter the Great w^as making preparations for subjecting the possessions 
 of Sweden on the Baltic, and adding them to his own dominions. He 
 built the fortresses of Schlusselburg and Kronstadt, had the swampy 
 hollows of the Neva drained by serfs after unspeakable exertions, and 
 laid the foundation of the new capital city, St. Petersburg. 
 Nobles, merchants, artisans and their families, from Moscow 
 and other cities, were compelled to settle there, and foreigners were 
 encouraged to emigrate thither. Had Charles XIL, when he at length 
 left Saxony to turn his arms against the last and greatest of his foes, 
 chosen the lands of the Baltic for the scene of his military operations, 
 Peter's new plans and creations might easily have been destroyed; but 
 fortunately for him, Charles decided to march upon Moscow, and to pene- 
 trate into the heart of the Russian dominions. He captured 
 
 A 1") 1 7 R 
 
 Grodno and Wilno, crossed the Beresina in June, and pur- 
 sued his course towards Smolensk. No Russian army opposed the fool- 
 hardy king, who, at the head of his gallant forces, waded through streams 
 and marched across pathless morasses. But now came the turning point 
 in the life of Charles. Instead of waiting for his general, Lowenhaupt, 
 who was on his w^ay to join him with fresh troops, and with clothing and 
 provisions for the exhausted army, he suffered himself to be persuaded 
 
SWEDEN AND RUSSIA. 323 
 
 "by the old Cossack chief, Mazeppa, to undertake a toilsome march in the 
 woodj and desert Ukraine. Lowenhaupt, attacked by a superior force 
 of Russians, despite his distinguished military talents, was obliged to 
 sacrifice the whole of his artillery, his baggage, and his provisions, to 
 enable himself, with a small host, to reach the king, who was restlessly 
 hastening: forward. The autumnal rains were followed by 
 
 A jj 1 708 — 9 
 
 an unusually severe winter, in the course of which, many 
 hardy warriors perished of cold, and the hands and feet of thousands 
 became frost-bitten. At length, Charles advanced to the siege of the 
 strong city of Pultowa, which, however, was protracted by the want of 
 artillery, till Peter himself approached with a vast army. The battle 
 
 of Pultowa, which terminated in the total defeat of the 
 ' ' Swedish army, was now fought; all the baggage and the 
 rich military chest fell into the hands of the enemy, and the surviving 
 officers and soldiers were made prisoners. Charles XII., the once proud 
 conqueror of three kings, was now a helpless fugitive, who by his utmost 
 exertions barely succeeded in saving himself, with about 2,000 followers, 
 in a foodless and shelterless desert in the dominions of Turkey. Lowen- 
 haupt collected the remainder of the fugitives, but as retreat was im- 
 possible from the want of provisions and artillery, he was obliged to 
 surrender himself with 1G,000 men. Not one of these brave warriors 
 ever revisited his home ; they were dispersed over the vast empire, and 
 some died in the mines of Siberia, others as beggars on the highways. 
 Thus perished this heroic band, as admirable in their endurance as in 
 their triumphs. 
 
 § 444. Cliarles XII. was honorably received and generously treated 
 
 by the Turks. In his camp before Bender, he lived in royal 
 
 fashion as the guest of the sultan. But the thought of 
 returning as a vanquished man, without an army, to his kingdom, was 
 unendurable to his haughty soul. He wished to persuade the Turks to 
 a war with Russia, and then to march at their head through the terri- 
 tories of his enemy. Whilst he was wasting his time and energies at 
 Bender in furtherance of this project, and employing every means to 
 gain over tlie Turks to his plans, his three opponents renewed their 
 former alliance ; upon which, Frederick Augustus again made himself 
 master of the throne of Poland, the Tzar Peter extended his conquests to 
 the Baltic, and the king of Denmark again took possession of Schleswic. 
 Prussia and Hanover, also, soon united themselves, and seized upon the 
 Swedish possessions in Germany. At lengthy the plans of Charles 
 seemed about to succeed. A Turkish army marched into Moldavia, and 
 
 reduced the Tzar to so critical a position on the Pruth, that 
 A. D. 1711. , J,.,, . , ^,. 
 
 he and his whole army were m great danger or becommg 
 
 prisoners of war. But Peter's wife, Catherine, who, from a slave of the 
 
 Russian minister, Menzikoff, had become empress of all the Russias, 
 
324 THE MODERN EPOCH. 
 
 found means to corrupt the Turkish army, and to bring about the con- 
 clusion of a peace. Charles XII. foamed with rage at finding the end 
 he thought so near now farther removed than ever. He however still 
 adhered to his purpose, and even remained at Bender after the Porte 
 had withdrawn its hospitality, discontinued the supplies of money it had 
 hitherto furnished, and commanded him to quit the Turkish territory. 
 He allowed the Porte to supply money for his journey, and nevertheless 
 remained. At length the janisaries stormed his camp, set fire to the 
 house in which he defended himself like a lion, and took him prisoner as 
 he made a furious sally. But he still remained ten months longer in 
 captivity in Turkey, and wasted his strength in childish obstinacy. Was 
 it to be wondered that people at length began to look upon him as 
 deranged ? It was not until news was brought him that his possessions 
 in Germany, as far as Stralsund, were in the hands of the enemy, that 
 he suddenly quitted Turkey, after a residence of five years, and arrived 
 October unexpectedly before the gates of Stralsund, after a journey 
 
 1711. of fourteen days, performed on horseback without the slight- 
 
 est interruption. 
 
 § 445. Stralsund was defended, by dint of the greatest exertions, for 
 December, upwards of a year by the brave Swedes ; at length, the city 
 1715. was compelled to yield, w^hereupon Pomerania, with the 
 
 island of Rugen, fell into the hands of the Prussians. But still the 
 obstinate king would not listen to a peace. By the advice of the intrigu- 
 ing Baron von Gorz, he caused paper money to be prepared to defray 
 the expenses of his new preparations for war, and without 
 awaiting the result of the negotiations that Gorz had entered 
 into with the Russian emperor, he fell upon Norway with two divisions 
 of his army, for the purpose of chastising the king of Denmark for his 
 breach of the peace. It was here that Charles met with his death before 
 the fortress of Fried richshall, which he was besieging in the midst of 
 winter. As he was leaning at night upon a breastwork, inspecting the 
 operations in the trenches, he was killed by a bullet, which came, appa- 
 rently, from the hand of an assassin. The Swedish nobility now assumed 
 December 11, all the power to themselves, excluded the rightful heir to 
 1718. the throne (Frederick of Holstein-Gottorp) from the govern- 
 
 ment, and presented it, under great restrictions, to Charles's younger 
 sister, Ulrica Eleonora, and her husband, Frederick of Hesse-Cassel. 
 From this time forth, Sweden was a monarchy in nothing but name ; the 
 power was all in the hands of a senate of nobles. The barbarous execu- 
 tion of the count Gorz, and the hasty conclusion of a succes- 
 
 A. D. 1719. 
 
 sion of treaties of peace, by which Sweden, in return for an 
 indemnification in money, gave up all her foreign posses- 
 sions, with the exception of a small portion of Pomerania, 
 was the commencement of the government of a selfish aristocracy, wha 
 cared nothing for the honor or well-being of the country. 
 
SWEDEN AND RUSSIA. 325 
 
 § 446. "Whilst Sweden, broken and exhausted, was thus escaping from 
 the contest, Russia w^as rising into European importance. The acquisi- 
 tion of the Swedish provinces of Ingria, Esthonia, and Livonia, to which 
 Courland was also added a few decades later, was the commencement of 
 R new epoch for Russia. As long as Moscow had remained the capital 
 city, the views of the Tzars had been directed towards Asia, to the 
 inhabitants and customs of which the Russians were more assimilated 
 than to those of Europe ; but since Petersburg, which lay nearer to the 
 civilization of the west, had become the scat of the government, and risen 
 into importance by the magnificence of its plan and of its buildings, 
 Russia had become a European empire. 
 
 The restless activity of the great emperor produced a total revolution. 
 Trade and navigation were encouraged by the formation of roads, canals, 
 and harbors ; internal industry, trades, manufactories, and mining met 
 with special encouragement; and even learning and a higher grade of 
 refinement were provided for by the foundation of an academy oi 
 sciences. The government and police were also remodelled upon the 
 pattern of other free states, so that the power of the emperor was in- 
 creased and that of the nobles (Boyards) diminished. One of the inno- 
 vations of Peter the Great, which was followed by the most important 
 consequences, w'as the abolition of the dignity of Patriarch, and the 
 creation of the sacred synod as the chief ecclesiastical court, to which the 
 emperor communicated his orders. 
 
 § 447. Whilst Peter was thus reforming his kingdom, he saw, with 
 grief, that his only son, Alexis, was disinclined to the alterations, restrict- 
 ed his intercourse entirely to the friends of the old system, and cherished 
 the intention of again removing his residence to Moscow. It was in vain 
 that the emperor attempted to bend the stubborn and defiant spirit of his 
 Bon, and to make him a friend to European civilization ; Alexis retained 
 his opinions, and at length disappeared from the kingdom. Upon this, 
 Peter, anxious for the permanence of his institutions, ordered his son to 
 be arrested, brought home as a prisoner, and condemned to 
 death. Whether Alexis was put to death, or whether he 
 died before the execution of the sentence, is disputed. An ukase declared 
 the appointment of a successor to the throne to be dependent upon the 
 Catherine L ^^'^^^ ^^ ^^® reigning emperor. After Peter's death, his wife, 
 A. D. Catherine I., succeeded him in the government. Under her 
 
 1725-1727. and her successor, Peter II., Menzikoff, who had risen from 
 Peter H., the lowest condition to be the favorite of the emperor and an 
 A- D- all-powerful minister, exercised the greatest influence upon 
 
 1727-1730. ^jjg government. But he was overthrown at the moment 
 Anna, when he imagined that he was about to marry his daughter 
 
 rr ^' ? ft ^^ ^^^ you"o emperor, and ended his days in exile in Siberia. 
 Anna, the successor of Peter II., reposed her confidence in 
 28 
 
\ ^ V 
 
 326 THE MODERN EPOCH. 
 
 two energetic Germans, Ostermann and Munnich, of whom the former was 
 at the head of the cabinet, the latter conducted and arranged the affairs 
 of the army. But these, as well as Anna's favorite, Biron, who was to 
 have managed the government after her death, were banished to Siberia, 
 ESzabeth when Elizabeth, the youngest daughter of Peter the Great, 
 A. D. was raised to the throne by a revolution in the palace. Ivan, 
 
 1741 - 1762. a child one year old, whom Anna had named her successor, 
 was thrown into prison, where he grew up like a brute without the slight- 
 est education. Elizabeth gave herself up to a voluptuous and profligate 
 life, and relinquished the government to her favorites. 
 
 § 448, Under Frederick Augustus IL, the love of magnificence, the 
 luxury and debauchery, that prevailed in Dresden, penetrated into Po- 
 land, and destroyed the remaining moral power of the nobles. New 
 vices were associated to the old ones, and proved the more pernicious, 
 inasmuch as the Polish nobility possessed merely the outward polish of 
 European civilization, and that inward barbarism and sensual excitability 
 were united with refinement. Frivolity, arrogance, and religious intole- 
 rance were now more prevalent in Poland than ever. The Jesuits suc- 
 ceeded in depriving the Polish Dissidents of their civil and 
 religious privileges by an extraordinary Diet, and when the 
 general hatred broke forth in a popular insurrection in the Protestant 
 town of Thorn against the Jesuitical colleges, the burgomaster w^as put 
 to death and the town severely punished. After the death of Frederick 
 Au^^ustus II. arose the Polish war of succession. Stanislaus 
 
 A D 1733 
 
 Leczinsld (who, flying from Poland after the battle of Pul- 
 towa, had wandered in poverty about Alsacia, till he was delivered from 
 want by the marriage of his daughter with Louis XY.) again made 
 claims to the crown, and, trusting to aid from France, travelled in dis- 
 guise to Warsaw. But Russia and Austria supported the claim of 
 Fredeick Frederick Augustus III. of Saxony. Stanislaus, although 
 Augustus, acknowledged by the majority of the Polish nation, M^as 
 A. D. obliged to yield the field to his opponent when the Russian 
 
 " army, under the conduct of Munnich, marched into Poland. 
 
 He fled in the dress of a peasant to Konigsburg, and from thence to 
 France. After some time, however, a peace was concluded 
 which was extremely favorable both to France and Stanis- 
 laus. "When the house of Medici was nearly extinct in 
 A D 1737 
 
 Florence, the emperor Charles VI. wished his son-in-law, 
 
 Francis Stephen, to exchange his hereditary dukedom of Lorraine for 
 Tuscany, so that the former might devolve upon Stanislaus, and, after 
 his death, upon France. Charles YI. made this sacrifice to secure the 
 accession of the French king to the Pragmatic Sanction. Stanislaus 
 Leczinski lived for twenty-nine years after this in Nancy, a bene- 
 factor of the poor, and a patron of the arts and sciences. But Poland, 
 
RISE OF PRUSSIA. 327 
 
 nnder the government of the weak and indolent Frederick Augustus 
 IJL, was approaching every day nearer to its dissolution. 
 
 3. RISE OF PRUSSIA. 
 
 Frederick ^ ^^^* Frederick William, the great Elector of Branden- 
 
 Williaa, ^urg, enlarged his territories on the east and west by sue- 
 A. D. cessful wars, and secured the lofty position of his state by 
 
 1640-1688. ^YiQ formation of a considerable army; he, at the same time, 
 encouraged the internal prosperity and civilization of his dominions, by 
 giving efficient aid to industry and the arts of peace, and by favoring im- 
 migration from civilized foreign countries, especially that of the French 
 Huguenots, into his own states. After this energetic and sagacious 
 Frederick III P""c<^j ^*^* splendor-loving son succeeded. Elector Frederick 
 as king. HI., to whom the outward magnificence with which Louis 
 
 Frederick L, XIV. had surrounded the court of Versailles appeared the 
 A. D. greatest triumph of earthly majesty. lie accordingly attach- 
 
 1688-1<13. ^j ^YiQ highest importance to a splendid court and magnifi- 
 cent feasts. He looked with envy upon the Electors of Hanover and 
 Saxony, who had obtained that, which, in his eyes, was the most inesti- 
 mable of possessions — a royal crown, the former in England, tlie latter 
 in Poland; and great was his joy when the emperor Leopold showed 
 himself disposed to confer upon him the title of king of Prussia, in return 
 for his assurances of vigorous support in the war of tlie Spa- 
 
 A. D. 1700. . , . Ai- 1 • • 1— • t • 
 
 nish succession. After a solemn coronation hi Jvonigsburg, in 
 which the Elector placed the crown upon his own head and upon that of 
 his wife, and after a succession of splendid banquets, the new king, Fre- 
 derick I., held a magnificent entry into Berlin, which he attempted to 
 render a suitable residence for royalty, by public buildings, pleasure 
 grounds, and monuments of art. The arts and sciences were encouraged. 
 In the country seat of Charlottenberg, where the highly accomplished 
 queen Sophia Charlotte held her gracious rule, there was always an 
 assemblage of distinguished and intellectual people. Societies for the 
 cultivation of the arts and sciences were established in Berlin, under the 
 auspices of the great philosopher Leibnitz ; a flourishing university arose 
 in Halle, distinguished by a noble freedom of spirit, and became the 
 scene of the labors of such men as Christopher Thomasius, the powerful 
 advocate of reason, and of the German language and mode of thinking, 
 the pious Hermann Franke, the founder of the orphan asylum, that 
 " trophy of trust in God and love to men," and the philosopher, Christo- 
 pher Wolf. 
 
 § 450. This expenditure, combined with the support of a considerable 
 army in the service of the emperor, pressed hard upon the impoverished 
 land; the citizen and peasant class were oppressed with heavy taxes; 
 the new splendor of the royal house appeared to be full of evil for the 
 
328 THE MODERN EPOCH. 
 
 countiy ; fortunately, the extravagant Frederick I. was succeeded bj the 
 Frederick fi'ugal Frederick William I., who was in every thing the 
 William I., opposite of his predecessor. The jewels and costly furniture 
 A- !>• that had been collected by the father were sold by the son, 
 
 who paid the king's debts with the proceeds ; every thing in 
 the shape of luxury was banished from the court, the attendants were 
 reduced to those that were absolutely necessary, and every superfluous 
 expense avoided. The king and his court lived like citizens, the meals 
 consisted of household fare, and the queen and her daughter were obliged 
 to occupy themselves in domestic duties. The clothing and furniture 
 were simple. The smoking-club, in which Fredr^rick William and his 
 "good friends " practised coarse jests at the expense of the simple or 
 good-natured, and where every one was obliged to have a pipe in his 
 mouth, usurped the place of the intellectual circle with which Frederick 
 I. and his wife had surrounded themselves ; the opera-singers and actors 
 were discharged ; French heaux espritSy as well as teachers of languages 
 and dancing, were banished; poets, artists, and men of learning were 
 deprived of their pensions in part, or entirely ; Wolf, whose philosophy 
 was offensive to the orthodox and pious, received notice to quit Halle 
 within twenty-four hours, " under penalty of the rope." But offensive as 
 this severity and coarseness on the part of the king might be, as well as 
 his contempt for all cultivation, learning, and refinement, it must be con- 
 fessed that his powerful nature, his sound judgment, and his sparing 
 housekeeping gave strength and firmness to the young state. He relieved 
 the peasants for the purpose of raising agriculture ; he encouraged in- 
 ternal industry, and forbade the importation of foreign manufactures ; 
 he settled the Protestants, who had been driven from their houses by the 
 bishop of Salzburg, in his own dominions ; and although his severity was 
 occasionally exercised at the expense of personal freedom, it also com- 
 pelled judges and officials to an efficient performance of their duties. 
 The king's own example affords a proof of how much may be effected by 
 frugality and good management ; for although he spent enormous sums 
 upon his Potsdam guards, for which he had " tall fellows " enlisted or 
 kidnapped from ail the countries of Europe, and although he called many 
 useful institutions into existence, he left, at his death, a sura of money 
 amounting to 8,000,000 thalers, a great treasure in silver plate, a regu- 
 lated revenue, and a large and admirably organized and disciplined 
 army. 
 
 § 451. His great son, Frederick II. pursued a different path; whilst 
 Born January lii* father was engaged in his wild hunting parties, or pursu- 
 24, 1712. ing his coarse amusements with his companions, the talented 
 
 and intellectual prince was busied with the writers of France, and with 
 his flute, which he passionately loved. The difference of their disposi- 
 tions rendered them strangers to each other. Frederick was offended 
 
FREDERICK II. MARIA THERESA. 329 
 
 by his father's harshness, and the latter was angry with his son for pur- 
 suing a different course, and would willingly have forced him from it by 
 Beverity. This coldness and aversion increased with years ; so that 
 Frederick, when his father, out of caprice, refused to sanction his intended 
 marriage with an English princess, embraced the resolution with a few 
 young friends of flying to England. An intercepted letter 
 * of Frederick's to his confidant, the lieutenant von Katte, 
 revealed the secret. The king foamed with rage. He commanded the 
 crown prince to be confined in a fortress, and Katte to be executed before 
 the windows ; all those who were suspected of being implicated were 
 severely punished by the irritated monarch. It was not until Frederick 
 had penitently implored his father's pardon, that he was released from 
 the fortress, and had his sword and uniform restored to him. Shortly 
 after this, followed the marriage of Frederick with a daughter 
 of the princely house of Brunswick-Bevern. But his spirit 
 found little pleasure in the narrow bounds of domestic life; he seldom 
 visited his wife, especially after his father had relinquished the little 
 town of Rheinsberg to him, where, from this time, he led a cheerful life 
 amidst a circle of intellectual, accomplished, and free-thinking friends, 
 in which wit, jest, and lively conversation alternated with grave and 
 diversified studies. He read the works of the ancients in French trans- 
 lations, and derived from them a noble ambition of emulating the heroes 
 of Greece and Rome in their mighty deeds and their mental cultivation ; 
 he admired French literature, and conceived such a veneration for Vol- 
 taire, that he addressed the most flattering letters to him, and, at a later 
 period, summoned him to his presence. They Avere both, however, soon 
 convinced that no personal intercourse could long endure between men 
 of such similarly sarcastic natures, and separated from each other in 
 anger ; but they still kept up a correspondence in writing. Frederick 
 displayed his free way of thinking by receiving a number of French 
 authors, who had been banished from France on account of the hostihty 
 of their writings to the Church ; and, after his ascension of the throne, 
 proved the liberality of his views in regard to religion, by 
 recalling Wolf to Halle, with the well-known expression, 
 ** that, in his kingdom, every man might be happy in his own way." 
 
 4. THE TIMES OF FREDERICK II. AND MARIA THERESA. 
 a. THE AUSTRIAN WAR OF SUCCESSION (a. D. 1740 1748). 
 
 § 452. The emperor Charles VI., a good-natured but in no ways dis- 
 tinguished prince, died shortly after the accession of Frederick II., 
 6eptemb3rl8 having, however, concluded the disgraceful peace of Bel- 
 1739. grade wich the Turks previous to his death. As he had 
 
 28* 
 
o30 THE MODERN EPOCH. 
 
 no male heirs, it had been his anxious care through his whole reign, to 
 secure the succession of his only daughter, Maria Theresa, wife of 
 Francis Stephen of Lorraine, to the hereditary states of Austria. With 
 this object, he purchased, by great sacrifices, the acknowledgment from 
 all the courts of the domestic law known as the Pragmatic Sanction, by 
 virtue of which, the Austrian hereditary lands remained undivided, and, 
 in the event of the male line becoming extinct, descended upon the 
 female branch. Scarcely had the emperor closed his eyes, before Charles 
 Albert, Elector of Bavaria, who was descended from the eldest daughter 
 of the emperor Ferdinand I., made claims upon the Austrian patrimo- 
 nial states, not only in right of his descent, but upon some pretended 
 testamentary intentions of the emperor. Charles Albert, who was a 
 weak, narrow-minded man, devoted to superstition and ostentation, 
 would not have been in a position to make his claims valid by the 
 resources of his exhausted land, had not the French court, despite its 
 acknowledgment of the Pragmatic Sanction, supported him with money 
 and troops, in the hope of thereby rendering the emperor and the Ger- 
 man nation dependent upon France. In the treaty of Nymphenberg, 
 the Bavarian Elector sold himself to France, as his predecessor, Charles 
 Emmanuel, had done before, for gold for his vanity, and troops for 
 the acquisition of "the throne. Frederick II. of Prussia, also, was not 
 willing to let slip the favorable opportunity of urging the established 
 pretensions of his family to the inheritance of the Silesian principalities 
 of Jagendorf, Leignitz, Brieg, and Wohlau ; and accordingly supported 
 the Bavarian Elector in his claims upon Austria, Hungary, and Bohemia, 
 and in his suit for the imperial crov»'n. Saxony, also, would not relin- 
 quish her ^share of the expected booty ; the indolent and stupid Augus- 
 tus III., who left his government entirely in the hands of the extravagant 
 and unprincipled count Brijhl, raised claims to Moravia, and brought 
 inexpressible misery upon his wretched and heavily oppressed country 
 by his participation in the w^ar. 
 October 10, § 453. A few weeks after the death of Charles VL, Fre- 
 
 1740. derick II. marched with his admirable army into Silesia. 
 The king himself accompanied his troops, more for the sake of learning 
 the art of war, and of exciting the courage of the soldiers by his pre- 
 sence, than with any purpose of assuming the chief command, which he 
 ^ ^ rather relinquished to the two experienced generals, Schwe- 
 1740-1742. rin and Leopold of Dessau. This first Silesian war soon 
 April 10, showed that a fresh spirit had come over the Prussians. 
 
 1741. After their victory in the battle of Molwitz, they took pos- 
 session of the greater part of Upper and Lower Silesia. 
 
 The French army, under Belleisle, shortly after marched into Ger- 
 many, and being supported by Bavaria and Saxony, made themselves 
 masters of the territories of Upper Austria and Bohemia. Charles 
 
FREDERICK II. MARIA THERESA. 33 1 
 
 October Albert received homage as archduke in Linz, and was in- 
 
 1741. vested with the royal crown of Bohemia at Prague, in the 
 midst of magnificent coronation banquets. He now stood at the summit 
 Ch rles VII ^^ ^^^ happiness. The election of emperor had terminated in 
 A. D. his favor, and he was already making preparations for a 
 1741-1745. gpiendid coronation in Frankfort. 
 
 § 454. In this distress, Maria Theresa turned towards the Hungarians. 
 At a Diet in Presburg (where, according to a widely-circulated legend, 
 she is said to have appeared with her young son, Joseph, in her arms), 
 she excited such an enthusiasm among the magnates by the description 
 of her distresses, and by gracious promises, that they rose up with an 
 unanimous shout of " Vivat Maria Theresa Rex," and called their war- 
 like countrymen to arms. The Tyrolese, also, in a similar manner, 
 announced their ancient truthfulness to Austria. A gallant force soon 
 marched into the field from the lowlands of Hungary. The warlike 
 tribes of the Theiss and the Marosch, the wild bands of the Croats, 
 Slaves, and Pandours, under the conduct of KhevenhuUer and Barenklau 
 (Pereklo), marched into Austria, drove back the Bavarian and French 
 troops with little difficulty, and pressed forward, plundering and ravag- 
 ing, into Bavaria. At the very moment at which Charles Albert, by 
 French assistance, and in the midst of splendid banquets, was invested 
 January 24, "^'i^^^ ^^^ much-covetcd imperial crown, the enemy entered 
 
 1742. his capital, Munich, occupied Landshut, and foraged the 
 country as far as the Lech with their wild horsemen. Deprived of his 
 hereditary possessions, the new emperor, Charles VII., was soon reduced 
 to such extremities, that he could only support himself by the assistance 
 of France. 
 
 § 455. At the same time, an Austrian army marched into Bohemia to 
 
 drive the French out of this country also ; and Maria Theresa, to deprive 
 
 them of the assistance of the Prussians, consented, though with a heavy 
 
 heart, to the peace of Breslau, by which almost the whole of 
 
 July 28, 1742. ^^ ' , _.^ o-, • -, i t^ i • i t 
 
 upper and Lower bilesia was surrendered to Frederick. In 
 a short time, the greater portion of Bohemia was again in the hands of 
 the Austrians; the capital,. where Belleisle lay with a considerable army, 
 was already besieged. At this juncture, Belleisle, by his daring retreat 
 from Prague to Eger, in the midst of winter, showed that the military 
 spirit of the French was not yet extinguished. The road was indeed 
 strewed with dead or torpid bodies, and even those who escaped bore the 
 seeds of death within them. 
 
 In the following spring, Maria Theresa was crowned in 
 
 Prague, and at the same time acquired a powerful confede- 
 
 ^ rate in George 11. of Hanover and England. After the 
 
 " ' ' battle of Dettingen (near Aschaffenburg), where the Enghsh 
 
 and Austrian troops bore off the victory, the French retreated over the 
 
332 THE MODERN EPOCH. 
 
 Rhine, and Saxony embraced the cause of Austria, and received subsi- 
 dies from England. 
 
 § 456. The success of the Austrians rendered Frederick II. anxious 
 for the possession of Silesia, and he therefore commenced a second Sile- 
 A. D. sian war against Maria Theresa. Whilst he was hastily 
 
 1744-1745. advancing upon Bohemia, as a confederate of the emperor, 
 with a strong army of imperial auxiliaries, Charles VII. found an oppor- 
 tunity of regaining his hereditary territory of Bavaria, and of returning 
 January 20, to his capital, Munich, where, however, he shortly after died. 
 1745. His son, Maximilian Joseph, renounced all claim to the Aus- 
 
 April. trian heritage in the treaty of Fiissen, and at the election of 
 
 emperor, gave his voice for the husband of Maria Theresa, whereupon 
 the latter was crowned in Frankfort as Francis I. In the mean while, 
 Frederick II. had lost the greater part of Silesia to the brave Austrian 
 field-marshal, Traun ; but the splendid victory of Hohenfried- 
 
 June 4. , . -I -I . 1 . . rnt .1. 
 
 berg agani restored hira the superiority. I he military re- 
 nown of the Prussian monarch, and of his generals, Ziethen, Winterfeld, 
 and others, had spread far and wide, and prince Ferdinand of Brunswick 
 gave the first proof of his talents as a general at Sorr. When the old 
 Dessauer conquered the Saxons in the midst of winter, in the bloody 
 field of Kesselsdorf, and Frederick marched into the capital of Dresden, 
 December 25, which had been deserted by Augustus III., Maria Theresa, 
 * in the peace of Dresden, again consented to the cession of 
 
 IrancisL, Siksia ; and Frederick, in return, acknowledged her hus- 
 1745-1765. band as emperor. 
 
 § 457. The war, which was ended in Germany, continued for some time 
 longer in the Netherlands. It was here that the French, under the con- 
 duct of the talented and brave, but immoral and dissolute, marshal Saxe, 
 A. D. a natural son of Frederick Augustus II., gained a succession 
 
 1745-1747. of splendid victories in the battles of Fontenoy, Raucoux, 
 and Laffeld, by which the Austrian Netherlands fell almost entirely into 
 October their power. But as the exhausted states were all longing 
 
 18-20, 1748. for a cessation of hostilities, the peace of Aix was at length 
 arranged, by which the Austrian hereditary territories were awarded to 
 Maria Theresa, with the exception of Silesi', which remained with Prus- 
 sia, and a few possessions in Italy, which sh i gave up to Sardinia and to 
 the Spanish-Bourbon prince, Philip. The other states resumed their 
 former relations, and France gained nothing by this expensive war but 
 military renown. 
 
 h. THE SEVEN YEARS* WAK (a. D. 1756 - 1763). 
 
 § 458. Maria Theresa could not forget the loss of Silesia. She there- 
 fore took advantage of the eight years of peace that followed the conclusion 
 of the Austrian war of succession, to form alliances that produced impor 
 
WAR. 333 
 
 tant consequences. Russia's dissolute empress, Elizabeth, offended by 
 the sarcasms of Frederick, was easily induced by her minister, Bestu- 
 cheff, to enter into a confederation with Maria Theresa ; as was also 
 Augustus III. of Saxony, by count Bruhl, who likewise felt himself 
 injured by the scorn with which the great king always spoke of him. But 
 it was a master-stroke of crafty policy that Maria Theresa, by her shrewd 
 and dexterous minister, Kaunitz, induced the court of Vereailles to re- 
 nounce the ancient policy of France, which had always been directed to 
 weakening the house of Hapsburg, and to unite itself with Austria 
 against Prussia. For many years past, Louis XV. had allowed himself 
 to be led into a profligate course of life by the pleasure-seeking and dis- 
 solute nobles. In the society of his licentious fjivorites and shameless 
 mistresses, he gave himself up entirely to his sensual nature, and plunged 
 from one pleasure into another. In the excesses of the table, and the 
 joys of the chase and the bottle, he forgot his kingdom and the welfare 
 of his people. Maria Theresa made use of these circumstances for her 
 own advantage. The proud empress, who stood upon her morality and 
 virtue, descended so far as to write a flattering letter to Louis's all-pow- 
 erful mistress, madame Pompadour, for the purpose of winning her over 
 to her interest. An alliance was accordingly entered into, by means of 
 the Pompadour and her creatures, by France and Austria, the object of 
 which was to deprive the king of Prussia of his conquests, and to re- 
 Septembcr, duce him again to the condition of an Elector of Branden- 
 1751. burg. 
 
 § 459. Frederick, who received accurate information of all the plots 
 laid aj^ainst him from a secretary of Bruhl's, whom he had 
 corrupted, determmed to anticipate his enemies by an unex- 
 pected attack. He fell suddenly upon Saxony, took possession of Leip- 
 sic, Wittenberg, and Dresden, which had been deserted by the court, and 
 established the Prussian form of government. The taxes and all the 
 public rents were seized, the magazines thrown open to the Prussian 
 army, and the arms and artillery sent to Magdeburg. For the purpose 
 of justifying these proceedings, he published the documents which he had 
 discovered in Dresden, and which contained the plans of his opponents. 
 The Saxon troops, who had taken up a strong position at Pirna, on the 
 Elbe, were blockaded by the Prussians, and compelled by hunger to sur- 
 render. 14,000 gallant warriors were made prisoners. Frederick com- 
 pelled them to enter the Prussian service ; but they fled in troops at the 
 first opportunity into Poland, where the Saxon court remained during 
 the whole war. Frederick lingered in Dresden, and exacted heavy con- 
 tributions in money and recruits from the conquered country, for which, 
 war was declared against him by the German empire, for breach of the 
 Land-peace ; and the aristocratic government of Sweden, which only 
 acted according to the instigations of France, also joined the enemies of 
 
831 THE MODERN EPOCH. 
 
 Prussia. It was only England and a few German states (Hanover, Bruns* 
 
 wick, Hesse-Cassel, Gotha) that adhered to the cause of Frederick. 
 
 § 460. In the spring of the following year, Frederick marched with 
 
 ,^^^ his chief force towards Bohemia, whilst his allies advanced 
 A.. D. 1757. 
 
 against the French, who were between the Rhine and the 
 
 Weser. By the gallant efforts of his troops, and by the heroic courage 
 
 M£7 6 1757. ^^^ heroic death of Schwerin, Frederick won the splendid 
 
 but dearly bought victory of Prague. But no later than the 
 ane 18. following month, the defeat at Collin, by the brave Austrian 
 
 field-marshal Daun, deprived the Prussian king of all his advantages. 
 Ilis melancholy, both before and after the day of Collin, gave evidence of 
 the weight of care by which he was oppressed. A short time after, the 
 _ , French also gained a victory over Frederick's allies at Hast- 
 
 enbeck, on the Weser, and prepared to take up their wmter 
 
 quarters in Saxony along with the German imperial army. The prince 
 
 of Soubise, a favorite of madame Pompadour, and a confidential associate 
 
 in the orgies of Louis XV., was already on the Saale with a large army, 
 
 when Frederick made an unexpected attack, and in the battle 
 
 November 5. n t^ ^ i • ^ \ tt • im • • i 
 
 or Kosbach, gamed a most splendid victory, ihe imperial 
 
 army fled so hastily at the very commencement of the battle, that it re- 
 received the name of the Runaway Army from the jests of the witty ; 
 the French soon followed, abandoning their baggage, which was rich in 
 articles of luxury and fashion. Seydlitz, the leader of the cavalry, had 
 particularly distinguished himself A month later, the Prus- 
 sian king also won a famous victory from Daun, in the battle 
 of Leuthen, and again occupied Silesia. But in the mean time, the mis- 
 eries of war pressed heavily upon poor Germany ; Hanover, Brunswick, 
 and Hesse-Cassel, in particular, were harshly treated by the extravagant 
 and dissolute duke of Richelieu, by exactions and military levies. 
 
 § 461. Since the battle of Rosbach, Frederick had been 
 * no less the idol of the people in England, than in France 
 and Germany. The English ministry, in M'hich the elder Pitt (Lord 
 Chatham) possessed the greatest influence, accordingly determined to 
 support the king of Prussia more liberally with troops and money ; and 
 to leave the appointment of generals in his hands. He named the cir- 
 cumspect Ferdinand of Bruns\yick the leader of the allied force, who 
 drove back the French over the Rhine in the commencement 
 of the spring, and secured the north of Germany against 
 their predatory inroads. In the mean while, the Russians, under Bestu- 
 cheff, had penetrated as far as the Oder ; but as this general behaved 
 in a very ambiguous manner during a dangerous illness of the empress 
 Elizabeth, he was banished, and Fermor appointed in his stead. The 
 latter occupied East Prussia, compelled Konigsburg to do homage, and 
 advanced with his wild hordes, ravaging and plundering, into Branden- 
 
THE SEVE>f years' WAR. 835 
 
 burg. Hereupon, Frederick executed a masterly march upon the Oder, 
 
 and, in the bloody battle of Zorndorf, gained a victory that 
 
 * was certainly dearly purchased. After this, Frederick wished 
 
 lo march into Saxony to the assistance of his brother Henry ; but being 
 
 surprised in an unfavorable position by the superior force of Daun, he 
 
 lost the whole of his artillery and many brave soldiers in the attack at 
 
 Hochkirk. He nevertheless effected a juncture with Henry 
 
 October 14. , , ,-,.,, i 
 
 by a dexterous march, and agam drove the enemy out ot 
 
 Silesia and Saxony. 
 
 § 4G2. Frederick's means of continuing the war began to 
 dwindle. Whilst he was with difTiculty filling up the gaps in 
 his ranks by oppressive levies of young and inexperienced recruits, and 
 could only supply his want of money and' necessaries by severe war- 
 taxes and imposts, Maria Theresa was constantly receiving fresh supplies 
 of money and men from France and Russia. 
 
 For the purpose of preventing the union of the Russians and Austrians, 
 Frederick advanced to the Oder, but was so completely defeated by the 
 August 12, Austrians under their skilful general, Laudon, in the bloody 
 1759. engagement of Kunersdorf, after h^ had already victoriously 
 
 repulsed the Russians, that he began to despair of a successful termination 
 of the war. Dresden and the greater part of Saxony was lost to the 
 Prussians. But the want of union between the Russians and Austrians 
 prevented the proper advantage being taken of the victory. In the mean 
 time, the allies of Frederick, under Ferdinand of Brunswick, had been 
 more successfully engaged against the French. It is true, that Broglio 
 April 13, had obtained the advantage in the battle of Bergen at Frank- 
 1759. fort-on-the-Main, but Ferdinand's victory at Minden drove 
 
 back the French over the Rhine, and saved Westphalia and Hanover. 
 
 § 463. The war had already so weakened the Prussian 
 A. D. 1760. , , , . ^ / .. 
 
 army, that the kmg, contrary to his usual custom, was com- 
 pelled to remain on the defensive. It is true that Frederick's name, and 
 the dexterity of his recruiting officers, brought troops of soldiers from all 
 quarters to the Prussian standard ; but even Frederick's military talents 
 could not entirely replace the loss of expert officers and veteran troops. 
 To defray the expenses of the war, he was obliged to have recourse to 
 the rnost oppressive taxes and to a debased coinage. Whilst Frederick 
 was in Saxony, the brave Fouquet, the friend of the king, suffered a de- 
 feat in Silesia, in consequence of which the Austrians took possession of 
 the whole country. Upon this, Frederick relinquished Saxony, that he 
 might again conquer Silesia. He gained this object by the vic- 
 tory over Laudon at Liegnitz on the Katzbach ; but he was unable 
 to prevent the Austrian and Russian troops from breaking into Prussia, 
 taking possession of Berlin, and visiting the hereditary lands of the king 
 with plunder and desolation. Daun now occupied a strong position on an 
 
336 THE MODERN EPOCH. 
 
 eminence near the Elbe, for the purpose of wintering in Saxony. To 
 
 prevent this, Frederick hazarded a desperate attack upon Daun's camp, 
 
 though his brave soldiers fell in crowds before the artillery. By the 
 
 dearly boudit victory of Torpjau, which was gained by the 
 November 3. . ^ .. r^. , ,, -r, • i • • -jo 
 
 assistance of Ziethen, the Prussaan kmg agam regamed bax- 
 
 ony, and could make his winter quarters in Leipsic ; but 14,000 of his 
 soldiers required no shelter ; Daun's camp had been their burial place. 
 
 §464 (1761-1763.) In the year 1761, it appeared that Frederick 
 must succumb before the disasters that were pouring in upon him on all 
 sides; for not only had his numerous enemies taken possession of a great 
 part of his lands, but England, after the accession of George III., had 
 refused all farther assistance. Frederick indeed resisted with vigor the 
 enemies that were pressing upon him ; but his melancholy and despon- 
 dency are betrayed in his letters to his friends, and in his poetry. It ap- 
 peared that Silesia must fall to Austria, and Prussia to Kussia. But in 
 the very extremity of Frederick's distress, the empress Elizabeth died, 
 January 5, and her nephew, who was a great venerator of the Prussian 
 
 1762. king, ascended the throne of Russia. This change produced 
 a sudden alteration in the state of affairs. Peter, a good-natured but in- 
 considerate prince, who acted over hastily, at once concluded a treaty of 
 peace with Frederick, and united his Russian army with the Prussian. 
 This connection, however, did not last long. Peter made enemies of his 
 subjects by imprudent innovations in the Church and State, and by re- 
 modelling the army upon the Prussian pattern. A conspiracy was formed 
 against him, with the knowledge of his wife, whom Peter treated harshly 
 on account of her dissolute behavior, in consequence of which, Peter III. 
 was barbarously murdered by some Russian noblemen, and Catherine II. 
 
 made herself mistress of the government which belonged by 
 ^ ^ ' " right to her son, Paul. The empress recalled her army from 
 Prussia, but confirmed the peace that had been concluded with Freder- 
 ick ; and the Russian general, before his departure, assisted the Prussian 
 king in obtaining -a victory. 
 
 § 465. The exhausted states were now all anxious for the conclusion 
 of the war. The Germans, whose lands had been ravaged, whose in 
 dustry had become stagnant, whose agriculture had been ruined, and 
 whose prosperity had been destroyed, demanded peace in despair ; this in 
 duced the greater number of the princes to withdraw from the alliance 
 against Frederick ; and, as the finances of ^ustria were also deranged, 
 Maria Theresa no longer opposed the peace that was universally desired. 
 February 21, A truce afforded an opportunity for negotiations, which, in 
 
 1763. the following February, led to the peace of Hubertsburg. In 
 this, the possession of Silesia was secured to the king of Prussia for ever. 
 The fluctuating land and naval war, that had been carried on between 
 England and France in America, was, at the same time, terminated by 
 
THE GERMAN EMPIRE. 337 
 
 the peace of Paris, bj which England got possession of Canada. From 
 this time, Prussia assumed her position among the five great powers of 
 Europe. 
 
 C. THE GERMAN EMPIRE AND THE AGE OF FREDERICK. 
 
 § 46C. The German empire had so entirely lost all respect as a jo- 
 litical body, that it was not represented at the peace negotiations at 
 Ilubertsburg, and the sentence of outlawry pronounced against Frede- 
 rick II. was received with scorn and ridicule. The power of the Empe- 
 ror was sunk to an empty shadow, and his revenue to a few thousand 
 florins. Nearly 350 princes and commonwealths, with the most varied 
 powers and the most unequal extent of territory, ruled in Germany with 
 all the rights of sovereignty, and left nothing to their common chief but 
 the confirmation of mutual compacts, promotions, declarations of majority, 
 and the determination of precedence. During war, the German princes 
 not unfrequently embraced the hostile cause. Bavaria was always in 
 alliance with France. The Diet, which had, for a long time, been held in 
 Regensburg, and which consisted of representatives of the princes and im- 
 perial towns, had lost all respect, since it was too much occupied with 
 speeches and debates to come to any decision, or if it came to any, was 
 unable to give it authority. Obsolete rights were contended for with a 
 little-minded jealousy ; rank, title, and the right of suffrage, were watched 
 over with the greatest care, and all time and energy devoted to doctrinal 
 disputes without object ; whilst foreign nations made Germany the thea- 
 tre of their wars, and treated the imbecile body politic with insolence and 
 contempt. The state of tribunals of justice was not less melancholy. 
 The imperial chamber of Wetzlar, in which the complaints of Estates of 
 the empire against each other or against their vassalS were examined, 
 proceeded with such tediousness and prolixity, that causes were often 
 pending for years before judgment was pronounced, the suitors either 
 died or fell into poverty, and the records increased to an immeasurable 
 extent. The judges were chiefly dependent upon the fees for their re- 
 muneration, and in this way a door was thrown open to corruption. An 
 attempt on the part of the emperor, Joseph IL, to improve and accelerate 
 Joseph II., the progress of justice in the imperial chamber, was frustrated 
 1765 - 1790. by the selfishness of the interested parties. As regards the 
 lower courts, the great diversity in the laws, the number of small states, 
 and the unlimited power of the judges and officials, rendered it extremely 
 difficult for the humble man to procure justice. The weak were exposed 
 without defence to every injustice of the crafty and the strong. It was 
 the golden age of jurists and advocates. 
 
 § 467. Whilst the German empire was sinking lower and lower, Prus- 
 sia, under her sagacious and energetic king, rose to ever increasing power 
 and prosperity. Frederick attempted to heal the wounds inflicted by 
 
 29 
 
S3S THE MODERN EPOCH. 
 
 the seven years' war, to the best of his ability, by supporting the decayed 
 land proprietors and the manufacturers in Silesia and the March with 
 money, by remitting their taxes for a few years, and by relieving the lot 
 of the peasants. He encouraged agriculture, planting, and mining ; 
 established colonies in the uncultivated portions of his dominions ; and 
 fostered industry, trade, and commerce with the greatest care. By these 
 means, the country became prosperous, and he was enabled" to increase 
 his taxes without oppressing the people. His own frugality, the simplicity 
 of his court, and the well-regulated economy of the state, were the occa- 
 sion that the public treasury was every year better replenished. It was 
 not until a later period that he adopted severe and oppressive measures. 
 Among these, his management of the customs and excise may be par- 
 ticularly mentioned. He made the sale of coffee, tobacco, salt, &;c., a 
 royal monopoly, and forbade the free trade in these articles. For the 
 purpose of preventing any clandestine traffic, he appointed a number of 
 French excise officers, who, by their insolence, made the regulation, which 
 was otherwise so oppressive to the citizens and peasants, utterly detes- 
 table. The affairs of the Church and of education gained the least by 
 the attention of the king. In a small place, the situation of public in- 
 structor was frequently a retiring post for a discharged petty officer, 
 Vv'hilst the higher institutions were often left to the management of 
 Frenchmen. The free-thinking king took little interest in the affairs of 
 Christianity or the Church ; but we must admit that he procured the 
 universal admission of the principle of Christian toleration in his domi- 
 nions. Frederick devoted great attention to the affairs of justice. The 
 rack and the horrible and degrading punishments of the middle age were 
 abolished, the course of justice simplified, and the laws improved. The 
 new book of laws' that was introduced under his successor, Frederick 
 William II., as the Prussian code, was prepared under Frederick. More 
 important, however, than all these laws and arrangements was the fact, 
 that Frederick II. inspected every thing himself, and narrowly inquired, 
 during his journeys, after the administration of justice and the manage- 
 ment of affairs, ejected the negligent and chastised the dishonest. By 
 his untiring activity from early morning till late at night, he acquired a 
 comprehensive knowledge of all the affairs of his kingdom, and his com- 
 manding character, which scrupled not at corporal punishment, terrified 
 the slothful and the unjust. One peculiarity of the great king has often 
 been blamed with justice — his love for what was foreign, and his neg- 
 lect, nay contempt, for the things of his own country. It was not only 
 in literature that Frederick gave the preference to the French, so that 
 he wrote his own letters and works in their language ; the whole proceed- 
 ings of this nation were admired, and, as far as possible, imitated by him. 
 French adventurers, by the hundred, found honor and support in Prussia; 
 and as this admiration of foreigners became the mode in other courts, all 
 
THE AGE OF FREDERICK. 339 
 
 quarters of Germany swarmed vrith hare-brained Frenchmen. Parisian 
 barbers, dancing-masters, and boasters were often preferred to the most 
 deserving natives in the appointment to the higher offices of the court 
 and government. 
 
 § 468. Frederick, in his old age, was once more involved in a wnr 
 with Austria. At the close of the year 1777, the Bavarian line of the 
 house of Wittelsbach became extinct with Maximilian Joseph, and the 
 electorship devolved to the next heir, Charles Tlieodore of the Palatinate. 
 This licentious, profligate, and bigoted prince, who, despite his many 
 failings and vices, is still affectionately remembered by the people of the 
 Palatinate, and whose love of art is borne witness to by many remarkable 
 erections in Mannheim, Schwetzingen, and Heidelberg, possessed neither 
 legitimate offspring nor love for the land he inherited. He consequently 
 easily allowed himself to be persuaded by the emperor Joseph II. to a 
 treaty, in which he acknowledged the validity of Austria's claims to 
 Lower Bavaria, the upper Palatinate, and the territory of Mindelheim, 
 and declared himself ready to relinquish these lands in return for certain 
 advantages being assured to his natural children. Frederick II., alarmed 
 at this aggrandizement of Austria, attempted to interfere with the project 
 by inducing the future heir, duke Charles of Zweibrucken, to protest 
 against the contract in the Diet ; and as this was attended by no results, 
 he ordered an army to march into Bohemia to prevent any change in the 
 existing state of things. This gave occasion to the Bavarian war of suc- 
 A. D. 1778, cession, which was carried on more with the pea than the 
 1779. sword, inasmuch as both parties attempted to prove them- 
 
 selves in the right by learned treatises- But as all the states were 
 averse to a general war, Russia and France succeeded in persuading 
 Maria Thei*esa, who had no liking for the zeal for innovation displayed 
 by her son, to the peace of Teschen, by which Bavaria was secured to 
 the house of the Palatinate, Innviertel with Braunau to Austria, and the 
 succession of the Margravate of Anspach and Bayreuth to Prussia. The 
 emperor, irritated at this, made a second attempt, after the death of 
 Maria Theresa, to possess himself of Bavaria, offering in exchange the 
 Austrian Netherlands (Belgium) as the Burgundian king- 
 dom. Charles Theodore allowed himself to be persuaded to 
 this also. But Frederick II. now attempted to frustrate this project, and 
 to secure the succession in Bavaria to the house of the Palatinate, by 
 establishing an alliance of princes, which was gradually joined by most of 
 the princes of Germany. This princely confederation increased the 
 power and consequence of the king of Prussia, in the same proportion 
 that it entirely undermined the authority of the emperor. Each prince 
 Bought for independent and unlimited power ; each formed a miniature 
 court, to which, in magnificence and profusion, in morals and fashions, in 
 language, literature, and art, the court of Versailles served as a pattern. 
 
340 THE MODERN EPOCH. 
 
 d. THE INTELLECTUAL POPULAR LIFE IN GERMANY. 
 
 § 469. Prejudicial as this division of Germany was to its external 
 power and greatness, it was in an equal degree advantageous to the de- 
 velopment of the arts and sciences. Many princes were patrons and 
 encouragers of literature and cultivation ; they sought to attract men of 
 celebrity to their capitals and universities, and encouraged poets and men 
 of learning to undertake great works by rewards and distinctions. Thus 
 it happened, that in the second half of the eighteenth century, when Ger- 
 many's political and military consequence was entirely lost, literature, 
 poetry, science, and the entire spiritual life, received a mighty impulse, 
 and created a degree of refinement such as has scarcely been equalled in 
 Klopstock modern history. Poetry especially flourished. Klopstock, 
 A. D. by his great epic poem, the " Messiah," and by his odes and 
 
 1724-1803. war-songs, awakened a warmth of Christian feeling, and a 
 patriotic spirit of liberty ; he formed his severe and solemn diction and 
 Lessing ^^^ rhj^mless metre upon the model of the ancients. Lessing, 
 
 A. D. the great thinker and critic, in his " Hamburg-Dramaturgy," 
 
 1729-1781. g^,g^ exposed the weakness of French dramatic literature, 
 and by his own pieces for the stage (" Minna von Barnhelm," " Emilia 
 Galotti," " Nathan the Wise,") showed the way by which it was possible 
 to attain to genuine dramatic poetry ; he at the same time, in his " Lao- 
 coon," opened the eyes of thinkers to the essence of poetry and plastic 
 Winckelmann ^^^' ^^^^ understanding of which was revealed during the 
 A. D. same period by Winckelmann, in a different way ; and in his 
 
 17 7- 7 . remarkable controversial writings against the pastor Goze of 
 Hamburg, on the Wolfenbiittel fragments, he displayed a vigor of lan- 
 guage and a clearness of argument which are astonishing. Upon his 
 Herder shoulders stands the poetical and intellectual Herder, who 
 
 A. D. went back to the original sources of language and poetry, and 
 
 1744-1803. revealed with fine taste the beauties of the Oriental poetry 
 of nature ("On the Spirit of Hebrew Poetry," "Palm-leaves," (fee), and 
 displayed the deep merit of the artless popular songs of different nations 
 (in the " Cid," 'Voices of the People in Songs"), and gave a mighty im- 
 impulse to further inquiries by his " Ideas towards a Philosophy of the 
 Wieland History of Man." AVieland, the cheerful philosopher of life, 
 
 A. D. in his romances (" Agathon," " The Abderites," " Aristip- 
 
 1733-1813. pus"), which are for the most part based upon the ancient 
 Greek manners, with a modern coloring, addressed the sentiments and 
 mode of thinking of the upper classes, which were formed upon the 
 French model, and preached the wise enjoyment of life in loose and wag- 
 gish language, a doctrine well suited to the higher ranks of society, and 
 introduced German literature into a circle that had hitherto read nothing 
 but French works. He, at the same time, renewed the romantic epic 
 
THE INTELLECTUAL POPULAR LIFE IN GERMANY. 341 
 
 poetry of the middle age in his " Oberon." German prose received a 
 complete revolution from these three men : Leasing gave it strength, 
 sharpness, and perspicuity ; Herder, elevation and richness of imagery ; 
 Wieland, fluency and grace. It was on the ground prepared by these men 
 Goethe *^^*' ^roethe, the great genius of the century, brought forward 
 
 A. D. his creations, in which the spiritual life of the nation and the 
 
 1/49-1832. progress of his own culture are reflected. At the genial and 
 energetic age of seventeen, when the youth who was pressing onwards 
 with violence, despised all the rules of art and usage, set no value on 
 any thing but the productions (even when formless) of genius, praised 
 the depths of original and natural poetry, delighted in popular ballads, 
 and gazed in wondering admiration upon Ossian and Shakspeare, " The 
 Sorrows of AVerther," a romance in letters, and the drama of " Gotz von 
 Berlichingen," in which these poets served as models, awakened a 
 storm of enthusiasm ; when Lessing and Winckelmann had revived the 
 interest for ancient art in Germany, the classical dramas, " Tasso " and 
 " Iphigenia," in the spirit and in the clear and harmonious form of anti- 
 quity, appeared in a time adapted for them ; and the impressions and feel- 
 ings that the poet had received during his travels in Italy are reflected in 
 the unsurpassable popular scenes of the tragedy of " Egmont." The idyllic 
 epic, " Hermann and Dorothea," touched upon the mighty period of the 
 French revolution and the sorrows of the emigrants; the romance of '* Wil- 
 helm Meister,*' in which the life of a plaj'er is described, and the novel of 
 " Elective Aflinities," belong to the new romantic time, which found plea- 
 sure in the mysterious, the wonderful, and the fabulous. In '' Poetry and 
 Truth," Goethe displays the progress of his own life and mental develop- 
 ment ; and in the magnificent dramatic poem of " Faust," with which 
 we find him engaged through his whole hfe, he has left to posterity a 
 picture of the most inward conditions of his soul. In the mean while, 
 the political world had experienced violent convulsions, and the at- 
 tention of the people was directed towards history and the affairs of 
 Schiller State. At this juncture, Schiller, by his historical dramas, 
 
 A. D. that presented before the soul of the nation similar tempest- 
 
 1769-1303. ^^jjg periods taken from foreign and domestic history, and by 
 his enthusiasm for fi-eedom, fatherland, and human happiness, struck the 
 chords that found the deepest response in the bosoms of the people. His 
 first three tragedies, " The Robbers," " Love and Intrigue," and " Fiesko," 
 belong to the stormy period of youth ; with the drama of " Don Carlos " 
 begins a more refined period ; during his residence in Jena as professor 
 of history, he occupied himself with the " Thirty Years' War," with the 
 "Revolt of the Netherlands," and with the trilogy of " Wallenstein ;" and 
 in the last years of his life, in Weimar, which were rendered gloomy by 
 sickness and anxieties about the means of subsistence, he composed 
 " Maria Stuart," the " Maid of Orleans," the " Bride of Messina," and the 
 
 29* 
 
342 THE MODERN EPOCH. 
 
 magnificent drama of " "William Tell." Schiller gained the friendship of 
 Goethe by the purity of his feelings and the truthfulness of his efforts, 
 different as the natures of the two men were. Their united activity 
 marks the culminating point of German poetry. 
 
 § 470. Not poetry alone, hut the science of religion, philosophy, his- 
 tory, the affairs of education, in a word, the whole spiritual life, expe- 
 rienced a mighty revolution. Protestant theologians searched through 
 the Bible, and presented systems of Christianity in accordance with the 
 Lavater direction of their own minds. Some, like Lavater, the pastor 
 
 A. D. of Zurich, sought to preserve the world in a rigid faith by 
 
 3741-1801. ujeans of religious writings, and to establish the conviction 
 that man is brought into immediate union with God by prayer ; others, 
 Nicolai ^^^^ *^^ Berlin bookseller and author, Nicolai, would admit 
 
 A. D. no other judge in spiritual things than human reason and the 
 
 1783 - 1811. pQ^ej. of reflection, and declared that every thing that was 
 opposed to this was superstition. The f orme r class were called Super- 
 naturalists, the latter Rationalists. A third paMj'j which included Hamann, 
 the philosopher, Fr. H. Jacobi, and the poet Fr. Stolberg, li^e the mys- 
 tics of the middle ages, made religion a matter of feeling. Lavater was 
 also the inventor of the dubious science of physiognomy, which teaches 
 how to discover men's characters from the contour of the head and fea- 
 tures of the countenance, but which was exposed to some severe attacks 
 from the clever humorist and satirist, Lichtenberg of Gottingen. In phi- 
 Kant A. D. losophy, the great thinker, Kant of Konigsburg, erected a 
 1724 - 1804. system that soon penetrated into all the sciences, and excited 
 and swayed the learned world of Germany. Spittler, by his perspicuity 
 and acuteness, and the Swiss, John MQller, by his learning and artistic 
 descriptions, established a new epoch in historical writing ; and in the 
 affairs of education, Basedow, by the model seminary of Dessau (Phi- 
 lanthropium), and Campe and Salzmann, by their writings for children, 
 called a new method of instruction into existence, upon which the Swiss, 
 Pestalozzi, founded his system of infant education and of popular schools. 
 
 YL THE PROGRESS OF THE NEW WORLD. 
 
 l contest of the english with the french for the posses- 
 sion of north america, 
 [a.d. 1700-1763.] 
 § 471. The French regarded with some uneasiness and alarm the en- 
 largement and prosperity of the English colonies in North America. 
 Their own settlements in Acadie (Nova Scotia), along the shores of the 
 Bay of Fundy, and in Canada, though formed before Jamestown was 
 built or the Pilgrims had landed at Plymouth, seemed to have no element 
 
THE FRENCH AND ENGLISH IN AMERICA. 343 
 
 of life or progress ; they were military or missionary posts, rather than 
 agricultural colonies firmly rooted in the soil. Among the French were 
 found excellent pioneers, bold explorers of the wilderness, and devoted 
 and successful missionaries. Fond of rambling and adventure, averse to 
 the prolonged labors of agriculture, and satisfied with moderate gains and 
 much amusement, they pushed their explorations and their alliances with 
 the Indians far beyond the English, but gained no permanent possession 
 of the country. The plastic nature of the Frenchman fitted him to be- 
 come a friend and ally of the red men ; he did not do much towards civil- 
 izing the savages, but was in some danger of becoming a savage himself. 
 He joined them in the chase and the dance, built a wigwam in their vil- 
 lage for his dusky concubine, and trained his children to become members 
 of the tribe, and to adopt every peculiarity of Indian costume and man- 
 ners. Still, he did not lose his nationality, but preserved his loyalty and 
 his religious faith, and rendered cheerful obedience to the representative 
 of his monarch, the governor of Canada. The Jesuits and Recollet mis- 
 sionaries braved all the perils of the wilderness in their zeal to Christ- 
 ianize the natives ; they made converts of many, — that is, they baptizeo 
 them, hung crucifixes about their necks, and taught them to repeat the 
 simplest formulas of prayer. While in company with their spiritua 
 guides, the Indians were docile and devout ; separated from them, the^ 
 soon relapsed into all the excesses of barbarism. The French mission- 
 aries made many geographical discoveries ; they were the first to explore 
 the Great Lakes, the first white men who beheld the great Falls of the 
 Niagara. As early as 15G5, Father Allouez reached the outlet of Lake 
 Superior, and, three years afterward, in company with Marquette and 
 Dablon, he visited the tribes on the southern border of this lake, and tra- 
 versed the country between it and the foot of Lake Michigan. Trading 
 and missionary posts were established by the French in this region, and 
 they became the rallying points of civilization for the country around the 
 upper Lakes. In 1673, Marquette and Joliet discovered the Missis- 
 sippi, finding their way to it by the Fox and the "Wisconsin rivers ; they 
 sailed down the great stream to Arkansas, and on their return, passed up 
 the Illinois, and thence found their way back to Green Bay. Nine year^ 
 afterwards, Robert de la Salle accomplished the work which they had 
 A 1 la^i ^^o"") by passing down the river to its entrance into the 
 Gulf of Mexico, and taking possession of the country on its 
 banks and at its mouth in the name of his king, in whose honor he called 
 it Louisiana. Louis XIV. granted him a commission to found a colony 
 there, and an expedition on a liberal scale was fitted out from France for 
 this purpose. The vessels arrived in the Gulf of Mexico, but were not 
 able to find the entrance of the Mississippi, and the company were obliged 
 to land on the coast of Texas, where they formed a temporary settlement. 
 While conducting an expedition by land to discover the great river, La 
 
344 THE MODERiS' EPOCH. 
 
 Salle was murdered by one of his companions, and his associates in 
 Texas were attacked and massacred by the Indians. So disastrous was 
 the failure of this expedition that the French did not renew, for some 
 years, the attempt to colonize Louisiana. 
 
 § 472. But Louis XIV. was anxious to complete the glories of his 
 reign by creating for France a colonial dominion on the banks of the 
 great " Father of Waters," which should rival or eclipse the flourishing 
 colonies of England on the Atlantic coast, that had been planted for her, 
 in their penury and homelessness, by the hard hands and stout hearts of 
 her political and religious exiles. After the peace of Ryswich, therefore, 
 a brave French officer, Iberville, assisted by his two brothers, Sauvolle and 
 Bienville, was sent out in command of four vessels, and a band of about 
 200 emigrants, to renew the attempt made by La Salle. 
 Aided by Father Anastasius, who had been one of La Salle's 
 companions, he succeeded in fmding the entrance of the Mississippi 
 from the Gulf. But the low and marshy banks of this river appearing 
 an unsuitable position for a settlement, he chose rather the barren and 
 sandy shore of Biloxi bay, at some distance to the eastward from the 
 river's mouth, and there disembarked his companions. As the emigrants 
 thought not at all of agriculture, but only of mining and trade with the 
 Indians, they readily accepted a spot where no green thing could ever 
 grow, any more than on the desert of Sahara. Expecting to receive 
 their chief supplies from France, their first object was to secure easy 
 communication with the ships. But even this end was imperfectly ob- 
 tained, for owing to the shallowness of the water, vessels could not come 
 within a league's distance of the shore. The colony was afterwards 
 transferred to an island over against the bay, where also the soil was a 
 fme sand, white and shining as snow. About the same time. Mobile was 
 founded, at the head of the bay of that name. An offer of four hundred 
 Huguenot families, already inured to exile, hardship, and toil, to join 
 the settlement, was rejected by the bigotry of the king and his ministers; 
 and the colony was left to consist of Canadian hunters, vagrant specula- 
 tors, intent only upon trafficking in furs and hunting for the precious 
 metals, and indolent office-holders who thought of nothing but their sala- 
 ries. We are not surprised to learn, therefore, that, in 1708, the colonists 
 hardly equalled in number those who first came out with Iberville, 
 though a fresh band of emigrants had joined them almost every year. 
 In 1723, the French government was informed that the inhabitants 
 could not subsist if they did not receive a supply of salt provision. A few 
 years before, an eye-witness says the fixmine was so great at Biloxi, that 
 over five hundred people died of hunger. The lavish supplies furnished 
 by the mother country alone preserved the colony from extinction. But 
 the government, growing weary of such a burden, sold the settlement, in 
 1712, to a v/ealthy merchant, who, in return for the exclusive right of 
 
THE FRENCH AXD ENGLISH IN AMERICA. 345 
 
 trade and other privileges, undertook to defray its expenses ; and five 
 years afterwards, this merchant transferred his right to the famous Mis- 
 sissippi Company, which was projected and managed by John Law. The 
 money lavished upon Louisiana for a few years by this gigantic corpora- 
 tion, and the involuntary or hired emigrants who were sent thither, gave 
 it for a time a gleam of prosperity. New Orleans was founded, and a 
 fort and settlement be;'un hidier up the river, where Natchez 
 
 A. D. 1718. , o o 1 J 
 
 now stands. 
 
 § 473. On the possession of this sickly colony, and on the previous 
 explorations which had made known the course of the great river and 
 the country around the great Lakes, the French founded their claim to 
 the whole valley of the Mississippi. But the English always maintained 
 that their possession of the seacoast gave them a valid title to tlie coun- 
 try in the interior for an indefinite extent to the west ; and in conformity 
 with this idea, the charters of several of the Colonies made their territory 
 stretch across the whole breadth of the continent, from sea to sea. The 
 Five Nations, a powerful Indian confederacy, the steadfast fi'iends of 
 the English and enemies of the French, also claimed by right of conquest 
 the whole country of the northwest, lying between the Allcgiianies, the 
 Great Lakes, and the Mississippi ; and England sought to perfect her 
 title by annexing to it this pretension of the savages. So long as the 
 two countries were at peace with each other, this controversy led only 
 to a series of border disputes, encroachments, and intrigues with the na- 
 tive tribes, neither party being numerous enough to colonize the territory 
 which both coveted. But when England and France were at war, their 
 respective Colonies in America also engaged in a murderous and protrac- 
 ted conflict, which, because the savages were enlisted in it, was fearfully de- 
 structive of life and property. The details of this warfare in the wilder- 
 ness are shocking to humanity. It spared no sex, profession, or age, and 
 through the mutual exasperation that it provoked, both parties in it were 
 guilty of excesses which shamed their pretensions to Christian civilization. 
 
 § 474. The first struggle took place during the war which began with 
 the accession of William of Orange to the English throne, and ended 
 •with the peace of Ryswick, in 1697. The weight of it, in America, fell 
 chiefly upon New England and New York, the other Colonies being 
 protected by their distance from the French settlements, and the mother 
 country having too much employment for its arms in Europe, to be able 
 to send much aid to its suffering children in America. At .this period, 
 and during the subsequent wars, the people of New England had their 
 own peculiar grounds of quarrel with the French, who were their rivals 
 in the fisheries, who encroached upon their boundaries, endangered their 
 outlying settlements, and stirred up the savages against them, and whom, 
 as Roman Catholics, they feared and hated even more than if they had 
 been pagans. The French in Acadie and Canada, too feeble and few in 
 
346 THE MODERN EPOCH. 
 
 number to accomplisli much by their own efforts, placed their chief de. 
 pendcncc upon their Indian allies, the native tribes at the eastward 
 being uniformly on their side. They thus succeeded in desolating the 
 frontier, while Massachusetts retaliated by fitting out regular expeditions, 
 and striking heavy blows against the chief settlements of the French. 
 Dover, in New Hampshire, was burned by the Indians, and its inhabi- 
 tants were killed or carried off as prisoners ; the fort at Pem- 
 aquid was taken, and though an attack upon Casco was re- 
 pulsed, all the settlements further east were desolated. The next year, 
 Schenectady, on the Mohawk river, was attacked at midnight, burned, 
 and most of the people were massacred, while another party of French 
 and Indians destroyed Salmon Falls, in New Hampshire, and a third re- 
 duced Casco. Massachusetts, in return, sent out a Httle fleet, conveying 
 about 700 men, under Sir William Phips, against Acadie ; he easily sub- 
 dued Port Royal, and by ravaging that place and the neighboring settle- 
 ments, obtained plunder enough to defray all the expenses of the ex- 
 pedition. He then sailed with 32 ships and 2,000 men, to attack Que- 
 bec, while a little army of Massachusetts and New York troops, under 
 Fitz John Winthrop, marched against Montreal. Both were unsuccess- 
 ful, being defeated by the great activity and vigilance of the aged Count 
 Frontenac, then governor of Canada. The expenses of these bootless 
 expeditions proved a heavy burthen to Massachusetts, obliging the Gene- 
 ral Court to make a considerable issue of paper money. The war then 
 languished, though a sickening contest was kept up by small parties on 
 the frontiers, which caused great misery, and ruined many flourishing 
 settlements. Peace was made in 1697, the treaty stipulating that each 
 party should retain the possessions it had before the war. 
 
 § 475. Four years afterwards, hostilities were renewed by the war of 
 the Spanish Succession, which ended only with the Treaty of Utrecht, 
 in 1713. The Spaniards had a few small settlements in Florida, and 
 as they were now the allies of the French, some of the disasters of the 
 war fell upon the English Colonies at the south. Governor Moore, of 
 South Carolina, led 600 men against the fort and settlement at St. Au- 
 gustine ; but before the fort had surrendered, the appearance 
 of two Spanish men-of-war in the offing induced him to re- 
 treat precipitately, leaving behind his vessels and stores. Three years 
 afterwards, he conducted fifty white volunteers and about a thousand 
 friendly Creek Indians against St. Marks, Florida, and the Spanish mis- 
 sionary villages in its vicinity, where a portion of the Appalachian tribe, 
 half civilized and converted to Christianity, were established. The fort 
 could not be taken, but Moore desolated the Indian villages, robbed and 
 burned the churches, and gave up the country to his Creek allies, the 
 Appalachians removing their settlement to the banks of the Altamaha. 
 In retaliation, a French frigate and four Spanish sloops made an attack 
 
THE FRENCH AND ENGLISH IN AMERICA. 347 
 
 upon Charleston ; but the governor of South Carolina assembled 900 
 men, captured the French vessel, and beat off the assailants 
 ^'^' ' with great loss. At the north, the war was conducted, as be- 
 fore, by small parties of Canadians and Indians, who made daring in- 
 roads into the English settlements, plundered and burned one or two 
 towns, massacred half of the inhabitants, and carried off the others into 
 Canada, before a force could be collected to oppose them ; while the Colo- 
 nies, with a little help from England, sent out formidable expeditions 
 against Acadie, Montreal, and Quebec, which were generally unsuccess- 
 ful, though they sometimes inflicted great suffering upon the enemy, espe- 
 cially upon the Acadians. Deerfield and Plaverhill in Massachusetts were 
 thus sacked and burned by a party of French and Indians under De 
 Rouville, and the alarm spread even to the towns in the near vicinity of 
 Boston. The government offered a considerable reward for Indian prison- 
 ers or for scalps, — a fearful act, which shows how the atrocities committed 
 during the war had broken down all the feelings of a common humanity. 
 Indeed, after the terrible scenes which had taken place at Schenectady, 
 Deerfield, and Haverhill, the colonists had come to regard the French 
 and Indians as wolves that should be hunted down without pity. Stimu- 
 lated by these rewards, a class of forest scouts and Indian hunters was 
 gradually formed and trained, who soon rivalled their savage foes in all 
 the arts of bush-fighting and in disregarding the cry for mercy. Massa- 
 chusetts, assisted by Rhode Island and New Hampshire, sent 
 out an expedition of a thousand men, under Colonel March, 
 against Acadie, hoping thus to check the destructive war on the eastern 
 frontier. March did not succeed in capturing Port Royal, but he rava- 
 ged all the settlements along the coast, and did much to cripple the ene- 
 my^s strength in that quarter. Much greater preparations were mada 
 two years afterwards, by a combination of the northern Colonies, for an 
 attack on Montreal and Quebec, under the expectation that a British 
 fleet and army would be sent to cooperate with them. But the Bri- 
 tish ministry did not keep their promise, and after waiting a long time 
 for the appearance of the fleet, the forces were disbanded without at- 
 tempting anything. At last, in 1711, the Tory ministry of Queen Anne 
 did make an effort against Canada for the relief of the suffering Ameri- 
 cans. A powerful fleet under Sir II. Walker, and a large body of troops 
 commanded by General Hill, brother of the celebrated Mrs. Masham, 
 arrived at Boston when nobody was expecting them. But some provi- 
 sions and Colonial forces were hastily got together, and embarked in the 
 fleet, while a large force was collected at Albany to proceed against 
 Montreal, as soon as they should hear of the fall of Quebec. But the 
 British commanders proved to be wholly incompetent for so important a 
 trust. Through the obstinacy and negligence of Walker, eight or nine 
 of the transports were wrecked in the St. Lawrence, and a thousand men 
 
348 THE MODERN EPOCn. 
 
 were drowned. The disheartened admiral immediately turned about and 
 made sail for England, and the troops at Albany were dismissed before 
 they had seen the enemy. The disgraceful failure of this enterprise ex- 
 cited much grief and indignation both in the Colonies and in the English 
 House of Commons, where the whole undertaking, so suddenly begun 
 and lightly abandoned, was denounced as a flagrant political job. The 
 treaty of Utrecht put an end to the war, and afforded a little guaranty 
 for the future, as it ceded the province of Acadie or Nova Scotia to the 
 English, and recognized the Five Nations as subjects of England. But 
 it was long before the northern Colonies recovered from the disasters 
 they had experienced in the murderous and ill-managed conflict. 
 
 § 476. Sir Robert Walpole's ministry maintained peace for about a 
 quarter of a century, a peace broken in America only by a few short and 
 comparatively insignificant contests with the Indians. ]3ut this minister 
 was driven against his will into a war with Spain in 1739, and three 
 years afterwards, France also became a party in the contest. Gen. 
 Oglethorpe was appointed military commander in Georgia and the Caro- 
 ^^,^ linas ; and with about 1,200 men, and a body of Indians, he 
 
 A. D. 1740. o * 
 
 made an attack upon St. Augustme, but was unsuccessful. 
 All the Colonies were then required to furnish their quotas for a force of 
 about 4,000 men, to aid Admiral Vernon in his unfortunate expedition 
 against Carthagena. They readily complied, furnishing both men and 
 money, and were thus deeply concerned by the failure of that ill-starred 
 enterprise. Then the Spaniards, in their turn, became the assailants, 
 and sent a considerable force against Georgia and Carolina, which was 
 repelled by Oglethorpe without much difficulty. At the north, the chief 
 incident of the war was the capture of the strong French fortress of 
 Louisburg, on Cape Breton, by an army fitted out in great part from 
 Massachusetts, and commanded by an enterprising militia 
 officer, Colonel Pepperell. This place had been so heavily 
 fortified as to be deemed impregnable, and it was called the Dunkirk or 
 Gibraltar of America. In war, it was a source of great annoyance to 
 the New England Colonies, as it gave shelter to the .privateers which 
 swarmed upon the coast, destroying their fisheries and breaking up their 
 general commerce. Its unexpected capture, after a siege of six or seven 
 weeks, by a force seemingly very inadequate to make an impression upon 
 it, was about the only gleam of good fortune that illustrated the arms of 
 Great Britain during this inglorious war. Col. Pepperell received a 
 baronetcy as his reward. Again a project was formed to capture Que- 
 bec by a fleet and army from England, to be joined at Louisburg by 
 troops from New England, while an army furnished by the other Colo- 
 nies should proceed against Montreal ; and again, after a large Colonial 
 force had been collected, and great expense incurred, the English fleet 
 and army failed to appear, and the enterprise was abandoned. As Mas 
 
THE FRENCH AXD ENGLISH IN AMERICA. 349 
 
 sacliusetts guarded her frontiers witli as much energy as she had sho\\-n 
 in acting against Louisburg, she suffered comparatively little from the 
 incursions of the French and Indians. The war was ended in 1748 by 
 tlie treaty of Aix la Chapelle, which, to the great chagrin of the New 
 Englanders, ceded back Louisburg to the French. 
 
 § 477. The decisive struggle between France and England for the 
 possession of the country on the Mississippi and the Great Lakes began 
 in 1753, though war was not formally declared till three years later. 
 Louisiana had at last gained wealth and strength, and the French mis- 
 sionary and trading establishments on the Lakes had been converted into 
 military posts, formidable not so much from the strength of their garri- 
 sons, as from the savage allies by whom they were surrounded, or who 
 could be quickly summoned to their defence. A plan was formed to 
 connect Canada with Louisiana by a line of forts, extending from Lake 
 Erie along the upper waters of the Ohio, and thence by the course of 
 that river to the Mississippi ; thus hemming in the British settlements, 
 which occupied a narrow strip of land on the Atlantic coast, and had 
 nowhere passed the Alleghanies. This project soon brought the French 
 into collision with the Ohio Company, an association formed in London and 
 Virginia, which had obtained from the crown a grant of a large tract of 
 land along the Ohio, and had erected trading houses there. The French 
 warned the English traders off, or sent them prisoners to Canada ; and 
 complaint was therefore made to the Governor of Virginia, who sent out 
 George Washington, then a ^ young officer in the militia service, on a 
 message to the French commander, requiring him to withdraw his troops 
 from that region. An unsatisfactory answer was returned, and Col. 
 Washington was again despatched, at the head of four hundred men, to 
 
 drive otf the intruders. He captured a scouting party that 
 A. D. 1754. . , . , *^ ^ M 1 V 
 
 'vvas sent agamst him, but was soon after assailed by a very 
 
 superior force of French and Indians, and after a brave defence, was 
 obliged to capitulate on honorable terms, and return to the eastward. 
 Preparations for war were now made by both parties, though the con- 
 test seemed a very unequal one. The population of the English colonies 
 amounted to a million and a half, while the French scarcely num- 
 bered one hundred thousand. But the latter were difficult to be reached, 
 as their forts were remote points in the wilderness, surrounded by a cloud 
 of Indian allies ; and from these forest fastnesses, they menaced the 
 whole English frontier. The British army of that day was an unwieldy 
 and cumbrous machine, overburdened with baggage and the munitions 
 of war, led by brave but pedantic officers, and likely to be thrown into 
 inextricable confusion and distress by the difficulties of hewing a path 
 through the forests and over the mountains, in constant danger of surprise 
 by a hght-heeled and enterprising foe. 
 
 § 478. General Braddock was sent from England with two regiments, 
 
 ao 
 
350 THE MODERN EPOCH. 
 
 to be joined by some provincial troops from Virginia, and then to march 
 against Fort du Quesne, which the French had lately built 
 at the head of the Ohio, where Pittsburgh now stands. 
 He crossed the mountains in June, with about tAvo thousand men. Colonel 
 Washington acting as his aid-de-camp. The difficulty of making a road 
 through the wilderness induced him, at Washington's advice, to leave 
 behind his heavy baggage under a rear guard, and press forward rapidly 
 with a band of 1,200 men, to secure the post before French succors 
 could arrive. Neglecting the precautions which he had been urged to 
 take against surprise, when near his journey's end, he fell into an ambus- 
 cade formed by only 250 French, with a large party of Indians, and was 
 totally routed, more than half of his troops being killed or wounded. 
 Braddock himself was slain ; and the panic being communicated to the 
 rear guard, all the artillery and baggage were abandoned, and the feeble 
 remains of the army fled in great disorder across the mountains, leaving 
 the border settlements defenceless. The other expeditions planned by 
 the British ministry and the Colonies for this year had but little success. 
 Acadie, or Nova Scotia, indeed, was easily reduced, the French inhabit- 
 ants of this province, notwithstanding its cession to England thirty years 
 before, having assisted the operations of the enemy. For this act, and 
 September, ^0^ refusing to take the oath of allegiance, they were now in- 
 1755. humanly punished ; seven thousand of them were forcibly 
 
 put on shipboard, and transported to the English colonies, where they 
 were scattered round, and maintained as paupers. Their villages were 
 burned, their fields devastated, and the few that remained were driven 
 for shelter to the woods and mountains. An army under Sir William 
 Johnson, directed against Crown Point, was encountered, near Lake 
 George, by Baron Dieskau, who had recently arrived with fresh troops 
 from France. An English party that had been sent in advance fell into 
 an ambuscade, and was routed with great loss. But when the French, 
 flushed with this success^ advanced to attack Johnson's main body, who had 
 now thrown up a slight entrenchment, they were very w^armly received, 
 and, after an obstinate conflict, were driven from the field, and totally dis- 
 persed, their commander being wounded and taken prisoner. Satisfied 
 with this victory. Sir William Johnson gave up the movement against 
 Crown Point ; and the expedition to Niagara also proved a failure, the 
 troops not being able to reach that place, owing to the lateness of the 
 season. 
 
 § 479. A meeting of delegates from seven of the Colonies had been 
 held at Albany, to secure the friendship of the Indian ^con- 
 federacy of the Five Nations, and to take other measures for 
 the common safety. A plan of union between the several Colonies, drawn 
 up by Dr. Frankhn, was proposed at this convention, and accepted by the 
 delegates. Had it gone into operation, it would have given greater unity 
 
THE FRENCH AND ENGLISH IN AMERICA. 3ol 
 
 to the efforts of the Colonists in war, and might have led to important 
 consequences by cultivating among them, at this early day, a feeling of 
 nationality and a sense of mutual dependence. But the project fell to 
 the ground, being disliked in England because it gave too much power to 
 the people in the Colonies, and in America, because it conceded too much 
 to the crown. 
 
 § 480. The year 175G passed away without any thing of consequence 
 being attempted by the English in America ; while th(j French, under 
 the able guidance of the Marquis de Montcalm, now their commander- 
 in-chief, struck one vigorous and important blow. This was directed 
 against Oswego, a strong English post on the southern shore of Lake 
 Ontario, which the French suddenly invested with a large armament, 
 and compelled it to surrender, with a garrison of over a thousand men, 
 and a great quantity of artillery and stores. The western Indians, sus- 
 tained and guided by the French at Fort Du Quesne, wasted the frontiers 
 of Pennsylvania and Virginia with a pitiless and desolating war, and their 
 scalping parties came within thirty miles of Philadelphia. The next year 
 was marked by equal inactivity and feebleness on the part of 
 the English, and by another successful enterprise of the French. 
 Several of the Colonies showed great energy in raising men and money ; 
 but their efforts were paralyzed by the want of concert with each- other, 
 by the necessity of waiting for orders from England, and by the pompous 
 and dilatory proceedings of the incompetent generals who were sent over 
 to command them. On the other hand, Montcalm, not obliged to take 
 council with any one, suddenly collected a force of 8,000 men, crossed 
 Lake GeOrge, and laid siege to Fort William Henry at its southern ex- 
 tremity. The garrison was 2,000 strong, and General AVebb was at 
 Fort Edward, only fourteen miles distant, with 4,000 more. But not a 
 man did AVebb send to the relief of the beleagured fort ; and after six 
 days' siege, the garrison was compelled to surrender, on condition of being 
 allowed to retire to Fort Edward unmolested. But as soon as they were 
 disarmed, IMontcalm's Indian allies fell upon them, massacred a consider- 
 able number, and drove the others into the woods, where many perished 
 before reaching the settlements. The capture of this post created greai 
 alarm in New England and New York. Pepperell, the captor of Louis- 
 burg, was called out from his retirement and made Lieutenant-General 
 of Massachusetts, where 20,000 men were collected in arms. But satis- 
 lied with the success already obtained, Montcalm retired to Canada with- 
 out attempting any thing further. 
 
 Thus far, the war had been very disastrous to the English. After 
 three campaigns, the French not only retained possession of every foot 
 of the disputed ground, but had captured Oswego, driven their opponents 
 from Lake George, and, through their savage confederates, had carried 
 the brand and the tomahawk into the heart of the Endish settlements. 
 
352 THE MODERN EPOCH. 
 
 § 481. To remedy this train of disasters, the elder Pitt was called to 
 the head of the English ministry, and his vigor and determination soon 
 gave a new aspect to the war. Abercrombie, who was 
 called to the command in America, found himself at the 
 head of 50,000 men, of whom about ope half were provincial levies. 
 All the Canadians who could bear arms did not exceed 20,000, and these 
 had been kept so constantly in service that agriculture had been almost 
 entirely neglected, and the horrors of a famine were added to those of 
 war. An attack was first made on Louisburg, which was soon com- 
 pelled to surrender by a large fleet and an army of 14,000 men, under 
 General Amherst. Forbes marched against Fort Du Quesne with so 
 considerable a force that the garrison, reduced by the desertion of most 
 of their Indian allies to less than 500 men, did not venture to await his 
 approach, but set fire to the works, and retreated down the river. Aber- 
 crombie, who advanced with the main body of the army against Ticon- 
 deroga, was not so successful. Montcalm had thrown himself into that 
 fortress with a strong garrison, and had so obstructed the approaches to 
 it by an abatis of felled trees, that the place was really impregnable ex- 
 cept by the regular operations of a siege. The English rashly attacked 
 at once, and in front, with bulldog courage ; but after a gallant struggle, 
 they were beaten off with heavy loss, and compelled to retreat in dis- 
 order to Fort William Henry. But Bradstreet, at the head of a pro- 
 vincial force from New England and New York, made amends for this 
 repulse by the capture of Frontenac, which gave the English the com- 
 mand of Lake Ontario, and shut off Montreal and Quebec from the 
 French posts at the west. The Indian tribes along the Ohio and the 
 upper Lakes now sued for peace ; and a treaty, formed with them at 
 Easton, once more gave security to the frontiers of Virginia and Penn- 
 sylvania. 
 
 § 482. Stimulated by the successes of this year, Pitt resolved to make 
 a great effort, the next campaign, for the conquest of Canada. The 
 Colonies, their former expenditures having been promptly reimbursed by 
 the English government, nobly seconded his endeavor by bringing 
 20,000 men into the field, and raising a large sum in money for their 
 outfit. The command of the main expedition against Quebec was given 
 to Wolfe, a young general of much gallantry and promise, 
 who appeared in the St. Lawrence in June, with a powerful 
 fleet, and an army of 8,000 regular troops. Two subsidiary expeditions 
 were organized, one, under Amherst, to proceed by way of Lake Cham- 
 plain against Montreal, and the other, under Prideaux, against Fort 
 Niagara. The want of vessels impeded Amherst's operations ; but 
 Ticonderoga and Crown Point fell into his hands without a struggle, the 
 danger of Quebec having caused the garrisons to be withdrawn ; and a 
 detachment from his army attacked and burned the Indian village of St. 
 
THE FREXCH AND ENGLISH IN AMERICA. 353 
 
 Francis, whence many of those scalping parties had issued which had 
 desolated the frontiers of New England. Prideaux was killed at the 
 giege of Niagara by the bursting of a gun ; but his successor, Sir TVilliam 
 Johnson, defeated a force of 1,200 French who advanced to relieve the 
 place, and pressed the siege with so much vigor, that the garrison soon 
 surrendered. He should then have proceeded down the Lake and the 
 St. Lawrence, to cooperate in the attack upon Quebec ; but the want of 
 vessels frustrated this part of the project also, and Wolfe was thus left 
 to his original resources. His force, indeed, outnumbered that of the 
 enemy, and was better disciplined ; but the latter had the advantage of 
 one of the strongest positions in the world, well fortified, and were com- 
 manded by a general who had merited the highest honors in war. As 
 long as "Wolfe attacked the French intrenchments below the city, along 
 the banks of the St. Charles, on which side alone he was expected, 
 Montcalm easily frustrated all his efforts. But the British general con- 
 ceived the bold plan of secretly passing up the river, and scaling by sur- 
 prise the Heights of Abraham, as the lofty plateau is called on a pro- 
 jecting point of which lies the upper town of Quebec. The project was 
 gallantly executed, though the lofty bank of the river was so precipitous 
 that the men could with difficulty pull themselves up by clinging to pro- 
 jecting roots and stones. Finding that the English had thus got in his 
 rear, where his defences were weak, Montcalm drew out all his troops 
 before the city, and put the fate of Canada upon the arbitrament of a 
 single battle. The issue was not long doubtful ; the undisciplined and 
 half famished levies that formed the greater part of the French army, 
 fled hastily after a few vollies, and were pursued with great execution to 
 the gates of the city. Montcalm and Wolfe both fell on the field, mor- 
 Septcmber 18, tally wounded. Quebec surrendered in less than a week, 
 i''o9- and the war in North America was virtually at an end, 
 
 though Montreal was not taken by the English till the following year. A 
 capitulation was then signed by the French governor-general, which sur- 
 rendered to the English all the remaining posts in western Canada. The 
 
 peace of Paris soon followed, by which France ceded to 
 A. D. 1762. ,^ i , „ T.T 1 » . ^ ,,,... . 
 
 England all North America east of the Mississippi, except 
 
 the island and city of New Orleans, which, with all Louisiana west of 
 the great river, were given to Spain. England also received Florida 
 from Spain, in exchange for the Havana. 
 
 § 483. The war between the Europeans was at an end ; but the Eng- 
 lish Colonies had still to sustain a desperate struggle of the Indians, who 
 could not be easily won to respect the authority of their new masters. 
 The Cherokees had previously broken out into a war, after 
 
 A. D. 1760. . 
 
 suffering some gross wrong from the Enghsh; had ravaged 
 the frontiers of Virginia and the Carolinas, and defeated a considerable 
 detachment of troops, and were finally driven to sue for peace only by 
 30* 
 
354 THE MODERN EPOCH. 
 
 the presence of an overwhelming force. Hardly had the English taken 
 possession of the posts at the west and around the Lakes, when Pontiac, 
 an Indian chief of much activity and address, was able to unite all the 
 northwestern tribes in a conspiracy against them. The secret 
 was so well kept that, at the appointed time, the savages took 
 by surprise all the posts at the west, except Detroit and Fort Pitt (Du 
 Quesne), and massacred the garrisons. The border settlements were 
 swept with a more destructive war than they had ever before experienced. 
 Several detachments of troops, that were sent out to relieve the two belea- 
 guered forts, were intercepted and cut to pieces. At last, two consider- 
 able expeditions were fitted out, the one to advance through Pennsylvania, 
 and the other to proceed along the Lakes ; and after some hard fighting 
 with the former one, the Indians submitted, and made peace 
 
 A. D. 1764. , , ' . 1 r. -, 
 
 upon the terms that were required oi them. 
 § 484. The protracted contest with the French and the Indians being 
 brought to a close by the complete triumph of the English, the American 
 Colonies were seemingly in the full tide of prosperity. The great exer- 
 tions they had made during the last war had taught them the secret of 
 their strength ; that war had cost them, it was computed, about 30,000 
 lives and over sixteen millions of dollars, of which only five millions 
 were repaid by the British ministry. Immigration rapidly increased, and 
 the vast forest in the interior began to be explored by those who were in 
 search of a new home. The Delaware and Hudson rivers were crossed 
 by a thronging multitude, the Alleghanies were surmounted, and white 
 settlements were formed upon the upper tributaries of the Ohio. No 
 longer hemmed in, as with a ring of iron, by the French and the savages, 
 the internal principle of expansion, which has been at work ever since, 
 received its first free development, and carried the limits of civilization 
 every year farther west. Trade flourished on the sea-coast ; Boston had 
 long been distinguished for enterprising traffic, and Newport, New York, 
 Philadelphia, and Baltimore w^ere rising rapidly in commercial impor- 
 tance. Printing presses and newspapers, schools and colleges, flourished, 
 though the literature of the Colonies as yet existed only in the humble 
 form of sermons. Yet the metaphysical writings of Jonathan Edwards 
 slowly acquired a European reputation, and the fame of Dr. Franklin 
 was carried, by his brilliant discoveries in electricity, to the bounds of 
 the civihzed world. 
 
 2. THE WAR OF AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE, AND THE ESTABLISHMENT 
 OF THE AMERICAN CONSTITUTION. 
 
 § 485. But the prosperity of America was now to receive a sudden 
 check, and a contest to begin more important to her, and more momentous 
 in its consequences, than any which the world had ever witnessed. Eng- 
 land was oppressed by a heavy debt, which had been more than doubled 
 
THE AMERICAN EEVOLUTION. 355 
 
 by the heavy expenses of the late war, and the people were overbur- 
 dened with taxes. In an evil hour, it occurred to the Chancellor of the 
 Exchequer that this pressure might be lightened, if the American Colo- 
 nies could be made to contribute to the general expenses of the empire. 
 The war, though not undertaken for their relief or advantage, but to gra- 
 tify the ambition of the mother country by enlarging the bounds of her 
 colonial dominion, had still, by its successful termination, contributed 
 largely to their prosperity ; and it was plausibly urged that they ought 
 to bear a portion of the weight which it had entailed upon the nation. 
 It was forgotten that they had expended blood and treasure during the 
 contest at least as freely, in proportion to their means, as England ; that 
 if the war had benefitted them more, it had also cost them more ; and 
 that they were already heavily taxed by their assemblies, to pay the inte- 
 rest on their colonial debts and defray the necessary expenses of these 
 provincial governments. Though they had never been taxed by the 
 authority of England, they bad made liberal contributions to the king's 
 service when asked to do so, and when they, were invited to judge of the 
 exigency of the case, and to determine how the money should be raised. 
 They did not refuse to give, but they insisted that their money should 
 not be given without their consent, — that they should not be taxed with- 
 out their consent. But the British ministry refused to listen to these 
 considerations; they thought only of the paramount authority of parlia- 
 ment, and of the means of lessening their own unpopularity by alleviating 
 the taxes at home. The late war had thrown new light upon the magni- 
 tude of the resources of the Colonies ; and to the argument that they had 
 never been taxed before, the minister had no better answer to make than 
 the insolent plea of Dr. Johnson, that " the ox had no reason to complain 
 of the aggravation of the burdens laid upon the calf." They forgot that 
 the horns of the ox had grown ; that if the Americans were now more 
 able to pay taxes, they were also more able to defend themselves against 
 unjust impositions. Yet was the step not taken without some hesitation. 
 The plan had been proposed before, to the ministry of Sir Robert "Wal- 
 pole and to that of the Pelharas. But those sagacious statesmen had 
 refused to hazard so dangerous an experiment. Even George Gren- 
 ville, the author of the present scheme of parliamentary taxation, would 
 not reduce it to practice till he had tried the temper of the people, and 
 ascertained by parliamentary measures how much they were able and 
 willing to bear. 
 
 § 486. The Americans had always admitted, in general terms, that 
 parliament had a right to regulate their trade; but practically, and 
 favored by their insignificance and remoteness, they had always evaded, 
 these regulations, and had enjoyed almost as much license in commerce 
 as in the management of their domestic affairs. A large part of the trade 
 maintained by the northern Colonies was known to be contraband, and 
 
356 THE MODERN EPOCH. 
 
 the occasional endeavors of the government to enforce the Navigation 
 Act and other laws of commerce had no other effect than to harass and 
 irritate the people. A vigorous attempt to enforce these laws to the let- 
 ter was to be the prelude to direct taxation. Cruisers were stationed on 
 the coast, and enjoined to be vigilant ; custom-house officers and informers 
 were stimulated by the offer of rewards; and Writs of Assistance were 
 granted, which empowered an officer to enter any shop or dwelling house, 
 and search for contraband goods. So gross a violation of the principle of 
 English law that every man's house is his castle, could not fail to make a 
 ferment ; no name or occasion being specified in the writ, the officer who 
 held it could select any dwelling that he saw fit, and thus, perhaps, gra- 
 tify some personal grudge. The legality of these writs was denied, and 
 on as good ground, apparently, as that on which the validity of " gen- 
 eral warrants " was afterwards questioned in England. "When the cause 
 Febniaiy, which was to determine their legality came on for trial at 
 1761. Boston, James Otis, a lawyer of great ability, high reputation, 
 
 and an eager and impetuous spirit, resigned his lucrative office of advo- 
 cate-general for the crown, which would have obliged him to argue in 
 favor of the writs, and appeared as counsel for the petitioners in opposi- 
 tion to them. The speech which he then delivered, for boldness and elo- 
 quence in asserting and defending the rights of the Colonies, was a 
 memorable one, and produced a marked effect on public opinion in Mas- 
 sachusetts. John Adams, who was present at its delivery, says, " Every 
 man of an immense crowded audience appeared to me to go away, as I 
 did, ready to take arms against Writs of Assistance. Then and there was 
 the first scene of the first act of opposition to the arbitrary claims of Great 
 Britain. Then and there the child Independence was born. In fifteen 
 years, that is, in 1776, he grew up to manhood, and declared himself 
 free." The court postponed judgment on the case, and never delivered 
 it; but these writs were never afterwards used in the Colony. 
 
 § 487. After this scene, and many others of similar tendency, had cre- 
 ated much alarm and awakened a spirit of determined resistance in 
 February 6, America, Mr. Grenville introduced into parliament his bill 
 A. D. 1765. for imposing a stamp tax on the American Colonies, and it 
 became a law with little opposition. Stamped papers, upon which a con- 
 siderable impost was to be paid, were required for all judicial proceed- 
 ings, clearances at the custom-house, bills of lading, and even the diplo- 
 mas granted by seminaries of learning. The law was not to take effect 
 for about seven or eight months after its passage. The news that the 
 bill had become a law arrived in Boston early in April ; and the effect 
 was as if a cannon had been fired so near the ears of the people that 
 they were all stunned by the explosion. They seemed stupified at 
 first; there was nO popular outbreak, no meeting for the passage of vio- 
 lent resolutions. But it was the lull which precedes, and not that which 
 
THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 357 
 
 follows the tempest. The General Court assembled in May, and they 
 immediately resolved that the other Colonies should be invited to unite 
 with them in sending delegates to a Congress, to be held in New York 
 in October, to consult together on the present state of affairs and the 
 recent acts of parliament. This was a significant intimation that the 
 Colonies were at last aware of the strength and firmness which they 
 might acquire by concert and union. As this Stamp Act Congress, as it 
 was called, was not to meet till the month before the time appointed 
 for the law to go into operation, the people meanwhile took the affair 
 into their own hands. Newspapers, pamphlets, sermons, and associa 
 tions served to kindle and to manifest their indi«rnant feelinojs. An 
 agreement not to import any more goods from England till the obnox- 
 ious act should be repealed was very generally signed in the com- 
 mercial towns ; and combinations were also formed to encourage Amer- 
 ican manufactures, to wear American cloth, and to increase the supply of 
 wool by ceasing to eat lamb or mutton. Such a ferment of opinion could 
 not long prevail without leading to acts of violence ; though the patriot 
 leaders deplored this result, and exerted themselves to prevent it, fore- 
 eeeing its injurious effect upon the cause. Mr. Oliver, who had accepted 
 the post of distributor of stamps in Boston, was hung in effigy, a building 
 designed for his office was demolished, his house was assaulted, and he 
 was so much frightened that he consented to appear before the people 
 and publicly resign his commission. A few days afterwards, the mob 
 entered the houses of two officers of the customs, and damaged the fur- 
 niture, and then proceeded to the residence of Lieut. Governor Hutchin- 
 son, which they completely gutted, and burned his furniture in the street 
 A town meeting was held the next day, at which the citizens expressed 
 their detestation of these outrages, and offered aid to the magistrates in 
 their endeavors to prevent a repetition of them. In the other Colonies, 
 also, the stamp distributors resigned their offices, enough of popular vio- 
 lence being shown to intimidate them. The Virginia Assembly, as soon 
 as the news of the passage of the Stamp Act arrived, passed a series of 
 resolutions, under the influence of Patrick Henry, one of which declared 
 that " the sole right and power to lay taxes was vested in the General 
 Assembly," and could not be transferred to any other persons whatever. 
 But this resolution passed by a majority of only one vote, and the next 
 day, it was reconsidered and expunged from the journals. Delegates 
 
 ^ ^ , ^ from nine of the Colonies assembled at the Confj;ress in New 
 October 7. „ . . ° . 
 
 xork, and assurances were received from two other Colonies 
 
 that they would acquiesce in the result. The proceedings of this Con- 
 gress were singularly moderate, considering the excited temper of 
 the people. They only published a declaration of the Rights and 
 Grievances of the Colonies, and addressed a petition to the king, and me- 
 morials to the two houses of parliament; and the tone of these documents, 
 
y^ 
 
 358 THE MODERN EPOCH. 
 
 though firm, was mild, argumentative, and respectful. They claimed 
 all the privileges of British subjects, and especially that of not being taxed 
 without their own consent. When these papers were signed, the Con- 
 gress was dissolved, after a session of little more than a fortnight. The 
 chief advantage derived from it was, that it made the patriot leaders 
 from the different Colonies acquainted with each other, and enabled them 
 to give assurances of mutual support. November came, but the stamps 
 were nowhere used, and the business even of the courts of justice, after a 
 short suspension, was resumed. The act was practically nullified, with 
 the assent, either free or enforced, of the judges and the governors. 
 
 § 488. The cause of the Colonies, which they pleaded with much ear- 
 nestness and ability, soon found sympathy in the whole of Europe ; and 
 in England itself, it was embraced by a powerful party, which opposed 
 the measures of government both in speech and writing. At the head 
 of this opposition stood the great statesman and orator, the elder William 
 Pitt, afterwards Earl of Chatham ; and he was actively supported by 
 Conway, Col. Barre, and Lord Camden, afterwards Lord Chancellor, 
 and, next to Lord Mansfield, the highest legal authority in the realm. 
 This powerful opposition produced a change of ministry in July, 1765, 
 and, after a vehement debate, after Dr. Franklin had undergone a memo- 
 rable examination before the House of Commons, in which he declared 
 that the Act could never be enforced, the Stamp Act was repealed. But 
 a bill was passed at the same time, declaratory of the power 
 and right of parliament to bind America in all cases what- 
 soever. In the Colonies, the news of the repeal was received with great 
 rejoicing, the accompanying act being justly regarded as a mere contri- 
 vance to save the honor of government. Lord Camden, indeed, in the 
 House of Lords, had strenuously opposed the declaratory bill as " ab- 
 solutely illegal." " Taxation and representation," he declared, " are 
 inseparably united ; God hath joined them, and no British parliament 
 can put them asunder." Indemnity was demanded from the Colonies for 
 those officers of the crown who had suffered from the late riots ; and 
 both New York and Massachusetts granted them full compensation. 
 
 § 489. But the joy of the Americans was of short duration, for in 
 little more than a year, another act was passed by parliament, imposing 
 duties on all tea, paper, glass, paints, and lead, that should be imported 
 into the Colonies. This was an avowed attempt to raise a revenue, 
 though, in form, the bill was like other acts for regulating trade ; and it 
 was hoped that, on this account, it would escape censure. But the prin- 
 ciple first advanced by James Otis was now generally adopted by the 
 Colonists, that revenue bills under the form of regulations of trade vio- 
 lated their rights quite as much as direct taxation. Thus the flame of 
 opposition was kindled anew, and raged as hotly as ever. Non-importa- 
 tion was an obvious and legal means of escaping these taxes ; and ex 
 
THE AMERICAN REVOLUTIOX. * 359 
 
 tensive combinations were therefore formed to refrain from the use, not 
 only of the taxed articles, but. as far as possible, of all other British com- 
 modities. Able leaders and defenders of the popular cause were not 
 wanting. Besides James Otis, there were the two Adamses (Samuel 
 and John,) and John Hancock in Massachusetts, John Dickenson in 
 Pennsylvania, (the author of the celebrated " Farmer's Letters," an able 
 plea for Colonial rights,) Patrick Henry and R. H. Lee in Virginia, and 
 Gadsden and Rutledge in South Carolina, besides Dr. Franklin, whose 
 reputation and abilities were of great weight in London, where he resi- 
 ded for many years as agent of several of the Colonies. The profits of 
 British merchants were soon so much diminished by the non-importation 
 agreements, that they petitioned for a repeal of the law ; and in deference 
 to their wishes, not to the rights of America, the duties were taken off 
 from all the articles except tea, the impost on that being avowedly re- 
 tained for the sole purpose of asserting the authority of parliament to 
 pass such a law. This duty was very small, only three pence on the 
 pound ; and as a drawback was now allowed, of a shilling on the pound, 
 originally paid on the importation of the article into Great Britain, the 
 Colonists might actually receive their tea at a lower price than they had 
 formerly paid. But the principle was at stake ; the Americans saw very 
 well, that if they submitted to this law, all imported conmiodities would 
 soon be subjected to heavy duties. No tea was imported; and other sub- 
 jects of controversy also coming up, a furious contest, fn speech and print, 
 raged both in England and America. But public sentiment in the former 
 country was generally turned against the Colonies ; high notions of govern- 
 ment and unfounded opinions in political economy, the pride of national 
 dominion and a disposition to stretch the authority of parliament to the 
 utmost, all served to nourish the fatal error. As Dr. Franklin observed, 
 "every man in England seems to consider himself as a piece of a sove- 
 reign over America ; seems to jostle himself into the throne with the king, 
 and talks of ^ our subjects in the Colonies.' " George IIL al?o, with the high 
 notions of prerogative that had been instilled into him before he came 
 to the throne, and with the dogged obstinacy of a dull intellect, adhered 
 to the delusion long after the nation, the parliament, and even the minis- 
 try, had been cured of it, and wished to retract. 
 
 § 490. The war of pamphlets, newspapers, and speeches, the sharp 
 controversies between colonial assemblies and royal governors, and occa- 
 sional outbreaks of popular violence continued for four or five years, till 
 the Americans were well nigh weaned from their old affection for the 
 land of their forefathers, and had ceased to glory in the British name. 
 Boston was the head quarters of opposition to the policy of the English 
 ministers, and several regiments of British troops were accordingly sent 
 thither to dragoon the inhabitants into submission. But this measure 
 served only to increase the irritation, and to make the breach irreparable. 
 
360 ^ THE MODERN EPOCH. 
 
 An affray soon took place between tlie mob and the soldiers, in which 
 
 •r , WW the latter fired, and killed three of their unarmed assailants, 
 March 5, 1770. , . ., , , -,. ^ -, t t • 
 
 besides dangerously woundmg hve others. It was late in 
 
 the evening ; the alarm bells rang, the citizens rushed into the streets, 
 and an open battle between the people and the troops was with difficulty 
 prevented. The next day, the irritation of the people was so strongly 
 manifested in a town meeting, that the governor and the military com- 
 mander consented to remove the troops to an island in the harbor, and 
 quiet was restored. The soldiers who had jSred, with their officer, were 
 brought to trial for murder ; but Adams and Quincy, two of the most 
 distinguished advocates of popular rights, nobly consented to act as 
 their legal defenders, and made out so clear a case for them, that they 
 had acted under strong provocation, that the jury acquitted them of mur- 
 der, and only two were convicted of manslaughter and slightly punished. 
 Yet the story of " the Boston Massacre," as it was called, served long to 
 inflame the passions of the multitude against their British oppressors. 
 
 § 491. As yet, no revenue had been received from the dnty on tea, 
 because the Americans would not import any of that commodity, the 
 little which they consumed being obtained by smuggling. But the con- 
 test was brought to a crisis, in 1773, by the East India Company, which, 
 instigated by the English ministry, sent several cargoes of tea to the 
 Colonies, supposing with good reason that it would be purchased if it could 
 only be landed and offered for sale. But the patriots were on the alert, 
 and immediately formed combinations to prevent the landing of the tea, 
 and to force the consignees to send it back. In New York and Phila- 
 delphia, popular vengeance was denounced against any persons who 
 should receive the article, and even against the pilots if they should guide 
 the ships into the harbor ; and the vessels were thus obliged to return to 
 England, without even effecting an entry at the custom-house. At 
 Charleston, the tea was landed and stored in damp cellars, where it was 
 quickly spoiled. At Boston, Governor Hutchinson and Admiral Montague 
 succeeded in preventing the vessels from leaving the harbor, in spite of the 
 menaces of the inhabitants ; whereupon, about fifty persons disguised them- 
 selves as Mohawk Indians, boarded the ships at the wharf, and, in the pre- 
 sence of a great crowd of people, drew up the cliests of tea from the holds, 
 and emptied their contents into the water. When the news of this act 
 arrived in England, the indignant ministry resolved to punish the contuma- 
 cious Bostonians, and for this purpose, introduced three bills into parha- 
 
 ment, one of which shut up the port of Boston, and removed 
 March, 1774. , ' , o , , • n , . i xi 
 
 the custom-house to Salem ; another virtually abrogated the 
 
 charter of Massachusetts, by giving to the crown or to the governor the 
 
 appointment of the Council and of all officers, and even the selection of 
 
 juries, and by prohibiting town meetings from being held without the 
 
 governor's consent ; and a third provided that persons accused of mur- 
 
THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 36l 
 
 der might be sent to England for trial. These bills were strenuously 
 opposed by Fox, Burke, Barre, and Dunning, but were carried by ma- 
 jorities of more than four to one. Another law 'provided for the quar- 
 tering of troops in America. Four more regiments were sent to Boston, 
 so that the town was now strongly garrisoned ; and Gen. Gage being ap- 
 pointed governor, in place of Hutchinson, the people of the province 
 were virtually placed under military law. The Quebec Act passed at 
 the same session, for the purpose of preventing Canada from taking part 
 with the other Colonies, extended the boundaries of that province to the 
 Ohio and the Mississippi, established the old French law in all judicial 
 proceedings, and secured to the Catholic Church there the enjoyment 
 of all its lands and revenues. A short time before, as if the feelings 
 of the people of Massachusetts had not been sufficiently irritated, 
 their agent in London, Dr. Franklin, was made the object of an in- 
 decent and scurrilous invective before the Privy Council by the Soli- 
 citor General, Wedderburn, the avowed intention being to insult him and 
 his constituents. He was charged with having transmitted to Massachu- 
 setts certain letters, written by some officers of the crown in that province, 
 on public subjects, to their friends in office in England, which letters had 
 been given to Franklin by some person who had obtained them by strata- 
 gem or unfair means. But before making this charge, the ministers 
 themselves had repeatedly intercepted the letters of Franklin and other 
 Colonial agents, and read them. 
 
 § 492. Tlie passage of the Boston Port Bill was the virtual commence- 
 ment of the American Revolution, though a collision with arms did not 
 take place till another year had elapsed. The agreements to import no 
 more British goods, and to abstain from the consumption of them, were 
 renewed with greater solemnity and strictness than before. Another 
 general Congress was called by Massachusetts, to meet at Philadelphia 
 in September ; and committees of correspondence were instituted, to 
 render the action of the diffigrent Colonies harmonious, and to keep 
 them advised of each other's proceedings. Closing the harbor had de- 
 prived the people of Boston of their usual means of livelihood; but 
 Salem and Marblehead generously tendered them the use of their wharves, 
 and subscriptions for the more indigent were obtained all ovtr the coun- 
 try. The Congress met at the appointed time and place, and twelve 
 Colonies were represented in it, only Georgia sending no delegates. 
 Among the members were the two Adamses from Massachusetts, and 
 Washington and Patrick Henry from Virginia. Memorials and ad- 
 dresses were sent fcMh, as by the former assembly ; and the tone of these 
 papers was naturally firmer and more decisive than on the former occa- 
 sion, though it was still moderate. A dignified and eloquent Address to 
 the People of Great Britain, written by Mr. Jay, was much admired. 
 The Declaration of Colonial Rights was precise and comprehensive, and 
 31 
 
362 THE MODERN EPOCH. 
 
 it included a protest against the employment of a standing army in tLe 
 Colonies without their consent. Professions were made of perfect loyalty 
 to the king, and of great solicitude for the restoration of former harmony 
 with Great Britain ; and, from a majority of the delegates, these profes- 
 sions were undoubtedly sincere. After a session of eight weeks, the dele- 
 gates separated, having first recommended that another Congress should 
 meet in the ensuing May, if the difficulties with England were not previ- 
 ously adjusted. 
 
 § 493. In Massachusetts, hostilities seemed to be on the point of break- 
 ing out. Governor Gage prorogued the General Court before it had 
 come together ; but the members met at Salem, in spite of the proroga- 
 tion, organized themselves into a provincial congress, chose John Han- 
 cock for their president, and proceeded to business. In an address to 
 the governor, they protested against the presence of British troops and 
 the erection of the fortifications in Boston. They appointed a committee 
 of safety, to take measures for the defence of the province, and anothe^ 
 committee to obtain provisions and military stores. They forbade tlie 
 paj-ment of any more money to the late treasurer, and ordered all tax;GS 
 to be collected by an officer whom they had appointed.^ Three generals 
 were commissioned by them, to take the command of the militia, who 
 were organized and disciplined with much diligence. Gage issued coun- 
 ter.orders and proclamations, but no one out of the range of his soldiers* 
 muskets listened to them. His power was limited to Boston, which he 
 held by a considerable military force, and had carefully fortified ; but the 
 people throughout Massachusetts rendered strict and cheerful obedience 
 to the provincial congress. Later in the year, 12,000 "minute men" 
 were enrolled, being volunteers from the militia, who pledged themselves 
 to be ready for service at a minute's notice. Minute men were also en- 
 rolled in the other New England colonies, where, also, measures were 
 taken to procure artillery and military stores. 
 
 § 494. A striking peculiarity of the early part of the contest was the 
 hearty and spontaneous cooperation of the larger and smaller towna 
 throughout New England. The movement did not begin in a conspiracy 
 first organized in the metropolis, and gradually diffused, by the action of 
 a secret society, throughout the land. In fact, there was no secrecy, no 
 conspiracy, in the case. The opposition to the offensive acts of parlia- 
 ment was open and avowed from the first ; it was manifested with as much 
 spirit in little villages — in such places as Hingham, Bedford, Concord, 
 and Danvers — as in Boston. The common people, the farmers and 
 mechanics, of these little communities acted in concert with the only 
 authorities whom they were wont to recognize, — with their own select- 
 men. They held town meetings, in which they concerted measures of 
 defence, and passed resolutions declaratory of their opinions and their 
 rights, and expressing sympathy with the people of Boston. Having 
 
THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 363 
 
 made their rude military preparations, they waited patiently, with armg 
 in their hands, for the first act of aggression on the part of the British. 
 From the commencement of the difficulties, their attitude was strictly a 
 defensive one ; they waited till the first blow should be struck by their 
 opponents. They were not entirely unanimous ; in most of the towns, 
 there were individuals known to favor the cause of the crown. But these 
 persons were watched with great vigilance, and whenever their move- 
 ments became suspicious, they were seized and placed in custody. There 
 were some popular outbreaks ; but the mob did not seize obnoxious per- 
 sons, and hang them up to a lamp post, or to the next tree, and then 
 make targets of their bodies. In a few instances, the houses of known 
 Tories were roughly visited, and their furniture was injured or destroyed ; 
 but the greatest \nolence ever done to their persons was to tar and fea- 
 iher them. And even these outrages were discountenanced or sharply 
 reproved by the most influential patriots. The machinery of popular 
 agitation on a large scale had not then been invented. The people con- 
 sequently manifested but little enthusiasm ; but they adhered to their 
 purpose with a cool'^nd dogged determination, and an unflinching forti- 
 tude, which bore them ^triumphantly through the long struggle. Other 
 wars, before and since, Imve been waged for the people, and in the name 
 of the people ; but the American revolution was the first war actually 
 waged hy the people, that is recorded in history. Because town and coun- 
 try acted heartily together, neither absolutely taking the lead, and nei- 
 ther being wholly dependent on the other, the occupation of Boston by 
 the British was no greater detrilnent to the patriot cause than if the 
 troops had been stationed aaywhere else in the province. The object 
 was to get rid of them altogether; and in their measures for obtaining 
 this end, the people were as careful to keep law and justice on their side 
 as to provide for defence against unprovoked aggression. The Port Bill 
 went into operation in June, 1774, and the battle of Lexington was not 
 fought till the following April. During the intervening months, the atti- 
 tude of the whole people was calm and watchful ; they did not collect 
 together in large bodies, they made no menacing demonstrations, but 
 waited patiently till their opponents should commit the first overt act of 
 hostility. 
 
 § 496. It was the firing of the king's troops on Lexington common 
 
 A M -,« ,».Nr which rancr the alarm bell of the revolution, and the hitherto 
 April 19, 1775. . ° . ^ , , . ^ rr,, . 
 
 seemingly quiescent Colony burst at once into a flame. This 
 
 event took place at four o'clock in the morning; and before noon, the hills 
 
 and roads were alive with "minute men," hurrying from all quarters 
 
 to the scene of conflict. General Gage had sent out Colonel Smith, 
 
 the night before, with 800 men, to destroy some military stores which 
 
 the patriots had collected at Concord. On arriving at Lexington, Colonel 
 
 Smith found a company of " minute men" collected on the common, who 
 
364 THE MODERN EPOCH. 
 
 were ordered to disperse, and almost at the same moment, were fired upon 
 by the British, who killed or wounded eighteen of them. A few shots 
 were fired in return, and the king's troops then passed on to Concord, 
 where they destroyed a few stores, were attacked by the provincials, and 
 commenced their retreat to Boston about noon. But the minute men 
 were now rapidly coming up from the neighboring towns, and each com- 
 pany, as it arrived, without waiting for orders, or stopping to concert 
 action with those already on the field, took the best position it could find 
 for annoying the enemy, and opened its fire. The woods and stone walls 
 on each side of the road were lined with sharp shooters, who availed 
 themselves of every advantage of the ground as skilfully as if they had 
 been directed by an able general. When the British, on their retreat, 
 had reached Lexington, they were met by a reinforcement of 1,200 men, 
 without which they would probably have been cut off. But as soon as 
 they resumed their march, they were again attacked, and the affair con- 
 tinued as it had begun, each company of the rustic soldiery finding its 
 own station and fighting on its own hook. The action ended only when 
 the harassed king's troops reached Charlestown, where they found safety 
 under the guns of their shipping. They lost about 270 in killed, wounded, 
 and missing, while the American loss was but 93. 
 
 § 496. The manner in which this battle was fought was a type of the 
 whole contest in New England, from the time when the tea was destroyed 
 till Boston was evacuated. It is the most striking, perhaps the only com- 
 plete, instance which all history affords, of the whole population of a coun- 
 tr}^, self-moved and self-governed, acting together with great unanimity and 
 vigor, yet acting patiently, prudently, and with even a punctilious regard 
 for the laws, while their excitment was intense, and while they were 
 bravely defying a powerful empire, and setting at nought an authority, 
 which, when exercised within the bounds of justice, they and their fathers 
 had always implicitly, and even lovingly, recognized. The first action 
 of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress, after the battle of Lexington, 
 was characteristic of the men and the times. They appointed a commit- 
 tee to take the depositions of those who were present, in order to prove 
 that the British Jired first. If they had been conducting a lawsuit about 
 the title to a farm, they could not have been more anxious to collect testi- 
 mony, and show that " the law " was on their side. Most of the resolu- 
 tions which they passed at this period were accompanied by formidable 
 preambles, in which the justice and legality of the measure proposed were 
 demonstrated at length, though often with more earnestness than logic. 
 The time for action had now arrived, and it soon appeared that the spirit 
 which the people had shown at Lexington was no transient feeling. 
 Within a few days, an army of about 16,000 men had come together, and 
 the siege of Boston was begun. This, again, was a spontaneous and un- 
 concerted movement ; they assembled before preparations were made for 
 
THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 365 
 
 them, before a commander-in-chief had been appointed, or any plan oi 
 action formed. Rhode Island and Connecticut retained the control of 
 their own troops, and the care of providing them with arms and suste- 
 nance, merely instructing them to cooperate with the Massachusetts army. 
 But for the excellent spirit of the men, the army would have been mere- 
 ly an armed mob. But the ranks were filled with steady farmers and 
 mechanics, who were brought thither by their attachment to the cause, 
 and who needed little discipline to keep them in order. 
 
 § 497. Ammunition and artillery were yet wanting, though great ex- 
 ertions had been made to obtain military stores. But this want was par- 
 tially supplied by an enterprise of the " Green Mountain Boys," as the 
 inhabitants of the country which is now the State of Vermont were then 
 called. It was known that the fortresses of Ticonderoga and Crown Point 
 had but slender garrisons and were imperfectly guarded. Ethan Allen 
 and Seth Warner, who commanded some armed volunteers in that region, 
 undertook upon their own responsibility to take these forts by 
 ' * surprise, and they succeeded. Two hundred pieces of artil- 
 lery and a considerable supply of powder were thus obtained for the 
 camp near Boston. The British army at that place had been reinforced, 
 and now amounted to 10,000 men, under Generals Howe, Clinton, and 
 Burgoyne. To straiten their quarters. Col. Prescott was sent, with about 
 a thousand men from the American army, to throw up an entrenchment 
 on Bunker's Hill in Charlestown. A small redoubt was constructed 
 there in the night time, on which, as soon as it was discovered 
 in the morning, the English ships in the harbor opened their 
 fire. This produced but little effect ; and the reinforcements sent to 
 Prescott during the forenoon enabled him to throw up an imperfect breast- 
 work, and other slight fortifications outside of the redoubt. Generals 
 Putnam, Poraeroy, and Warren joined him at this time, but did not take 
 the command out of his hands. Three thousand men were sent over at 
 noon from Boston, led by Howe and Pigot, to take the hill by assault. 
 They advanced bravely, but the fire of the Americans was so close and 
 well-sustained, that the British wavered, and fell back in great disorder. 
 Gage then ordered the village of Charlestown, which was near the foot of 
 the hill, to be set on fire, and while the flames were raging, the troops again 
 moved forward. Again, as they approached the redoubt, the murderous 
 fire of the Americans, many of whom were practised marksmen, burst 
 forth, and again the assailants were driven back to the landing place. 
 They formed and advanced a third time, and as the ammunition of th« 
 Americans was now nearly spent, they succeeded in getting possession of 
 the hill. But their opponents retired in a body, and were not pursued, 
 though they suffered much from the fire of the shipping in their retreat 
 The victory of Howe might well be considered a defeat, for he lost ovei 
 a thousand men in killed and wounded, while the American loss was nol 
 31* 
 
366 THE MODERN EPOCH. 
 
 half as great. But Gen. Warren was among the shiin. The battle was 
 as characteristic as that of Lexington ; a Colonel commanded, and three 
 Generals either served under him, or acted independently in directing 
 the troops. The result was very encouraging to the Americans, as it 
 proved that their raw levies were capable of waging a desperate conflict 
 with regular troops. 
 
 § 498. Congress had again assembled at Philadelphia, at the appointed 
 time, and it began to exercise all the functions of a govern- 
 ment, though there was no formal union of the Colonies, and 
 the cheerful acquiescence of the people was the only basis of its authority. 
 But the delegates were not yet prepared for a total rupture with England ; 
 they voted to send another petition to the king, and an address to the people 
 of Great Britain,' in which they declared that they did not intend to throw 
 off their allegiance, and professed an anxious desire for peace. At the 
 same time, they resolved to put the country in a state of defence, and to 
 complete the organization of an army. George Washington, a delegate 
 from Virginia, was chosen commander-in-chief, the members from New Eng- 
 land heartily concurring in his nomination, from their wish to secure the co- 
 operation of the southern Colonies. Ward, Lee, Schuyler, and Putnam were 
 commissioned as major-generals, and ten brigadiers were appointed, among 
 whom were Gates, Greene, Montgomery, and Sullivan. Most of these 
 officers had seen service in the French and Indian Avars. Bills of credit, 
 or paper money, were issued to the amount of three millions of dollars ; 
 a post-office department was organized, and a committee was appointed to 
 secure, if possible, the neutrality of the Indians. Massachusetts asked 
 the advice of Congress, in reference to its form of government ; and it 
 was advised to establish a provisional government, that should conform as 
 nearly as possible to the charter. The governors of most of the Colonies 
 had now either abandoned their posts, or were cooperating with the ene- 
 mies of the country ; and the direction of affairs had generally fallen into 
 the hands either of the most numerous representative body under the old 
 organization, or of such an assembly created for the occasion. It may be 
 observed here, by anticipation, that new constitutions of government were 
 established by all the Colonies, except Connecticut and Rhode Island, 
 during the progress of the war. New Hampshire formed such a consti- 
 tution in 1775 ; New Jersey, South Carolina, Virginia, Pennsylvania, 
 Delaware, Maryland, and North Carolina, in 1776, — the first three be- 
 fore the Declaration of Independence ; Georgia and New York, in 1777 ; 
 Massachusetts, in 1780. The forms of government thus established were 
 not arbitrary and novel. They supplied omissions, it is true ; but they 
 made no unnecessary innovations. They were the old forms of pohty, 
 adopted by the first settlers, or created for them by charter, with such 
 modifications only as were rendered necessary by the transition from a 
 Btate of partial, to one of total, independence. Connecticut and Rhode 
 
THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 367 
 
 Island did not find it necessary to make any change ; their charters were 
 BO liberal that the people, in fact, had always chosen all their own officers, 
 and enacted all their own laws; and under these charters, the government 
 continued to be administered for nearly half a century after the Revo- 
 lution. 
 
 § 499. Washington assumed the command of the army before Boston 
 about a fortnight after the battle of Bunker Hill, and immediately en- 
 deavored to improve its organization and discipline, and to obtain supplies 
 of arms and military stores. The troops at first consisted entirely of 
 volunteers, and so many of these left and went home after a short stay, 
 that it was feared the camp would be deserted. An attempt was now 
 made to enlist soldiers for definite periods, to form them into regiments, and 
 accustom tliem to disciphne and the use of their arms. The most pressing 
 want was that of powder, of which there was not enough to furnish nine 
 rounds to a man, and the whole supply in the country was so inadequate 
 that active operations could not be undertaken for some months. At- 
 tempts were made to establish manufactories of saltpetre and to import 
 powder and lead from the West Indies ; and a small supply of military 
 stores was obtained from captured vessels. The patience and firmness of 
 the commander-in-chief were severely taxed by the many discouraging 
 circumstances of his position, at the head of a motley collection of troops, 
 with insufficient means of paying them and of providing many necessa- 
 ries of war. Reserved and dignified in his demeanor, inflexible in pur- 
 pose, circumspect and yet enterprising in his plans, industrious and me- 
 thodical in business, he united the highest qualifications for the elevated 
 post which he was called to fill. His equanimity was seldom ruffled, 
 and no failures or disasters could dishearten him or paralyze his energies. 
 A keen judge of character and qualifications, he was generally fortunate 
 in selecting his agents and giving his confidence. Under his direction, 
 and in spite of the most adverse circumstances, the raw levies were gra- 
 dually converted into disciplined and effective troops, and the eflTorts of an 
 enemy greatly superior in means and equipment were successfully foiled. 
 § 500. Congress had projected an expedition against Canada, iii the 
 hope of obtaining the sympathy and aid of the French inhabitants of that 
 province, or perhaps of inducing them to unite with the other Colonies in 
 resistance to the' British ministry. Schuyler and Montgomery, at the 
 head of a small body of troops, advanced by way of Lake 
 ° ' ' Champlain against Montreal, whilst Arnold, with about a 
 thousand men, was detached from the camp before Boston, to ascend the 
 Kennebec river, and then make his way through the wilderness to the 
 banks of the St. Lawrence opposite Quebec. Schuyler being prevented 
 by illness from advancing farther than St. John's on the Sorel, the com- 
 mand devolved on Montoromery, who, after a few weeks* 
 Novembers. . -, o -r . , , , , ■■ . ,, 
 
 siege, captured St. John s, and then advanced agamst Mon- 
 
368 THE MODERN EPOCH. 
 
 treal, wliicli was surrendered to him without resistance. Arnold's troops, 
 
 after suiFering great hardships from exposure and want of food while 
 
 passing through a wild and uninhabited region, reached the southern 
 
 ^ ^ ^ bank of the St. Lawrence, where they were joined by Mont- 
 December 1. , . . . "^ , rr-, 
 
 gomery, who came down the river to meet them. Their 
 united forces hardly exceeded a thousand men, while Carleton, the Bri- 
 tish commander, by landing the sailors and organizing the citizens into 
 military companies, had garrisoned Quebec with 1,200. The artillery of 
 the Americans not being sufficient to make any impression on the works, 
 they resolved to attempt to carry the place by assault. Under cover of 
 
 ^ , „. a snow-storm, the men advanced to the attack with erreat gal- 
 December 31. , -,.>-,,. . , , , , 
 
 lantry, and forced their way into the lower town ; but Mont- 
 gomery was killed, Arnold's leg was broken by a musket ball, and after 
 some desperate fighting, the party in the streets found themselves sur- 
 rounded and were obliged to surrender. Arnold, with about 600 men, 
 retreated a few miles up the river, and there kept up the blockade of 
 Quebec through the winter. Eeinforcements were sent to him ; but after 
 the spring opened, a large body of British troops arrived at Quebec, and 
 the Americans were forced to retire, first to Montreal, and afterwards to 
 St. John's. 
 
 § 501. Howe's army in Boston, having learned caution from the battle 
 of Bunker Hill, made no attempt at offensive operations during the 
 autumn and winter ; and the want of cannon and powder in the Ameri- 
 can camp prevented Washington from attacking them. But through the 
 great exertions of Colonel Knox, over fifty pieces of artillery were 
 dragged on sleds, over the frozen lake and the snow, from Crown Point 
 and Ticonderoga ; and active measures were then adopted to drive the 
 British out of the place. On the evening of the 4th of March, 
 
 A. D. 1776. - . n ■, i.T T,-l T 
 
 the attention of the enemy being drawn by a brisk cannonade 
 to the opposite quarter, a large body of troops secretly took possession 
 of Dorchester heights, and erected a line of fortifications there which 
 commanded the harbor and the town. The English general made imme- 
 diate preparation to attack these works ; but a furious storm of wind and 
 rain, that prevailed for two days, prevented the troops from crossing in 
 boats to Dorchester, and when this had ceased; the intrenchments seemed 
 too strong to be forced. General Howe consequently resolved to evacu- 
 ate the town ; and on the 17th, the fleet sailed, carrying off the whole 
 army, and about one thousand inhabitants of the place and its vicinity 
 who adhered to the king's cause. The recovery of Boston caused great 
 rejoicing throughout the country ; the thanks of Congress were voted to 
 the general and his army, and a gold medal was ordered to be struck in 
 commemoration of the event. After a delay of a few days, Washington 
 marched with the main body of the army to New York. The Loyalists, 
 or Tories, as the favorers of the British cause were called, were nume- 
 
THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 369 
 
 reus in that place and its neigliborhood, and for this reason, among others, 
 it was supposed that Howe would carry his army thither. In reality, the 
 British troops sailed for Halifax, where they remained inactive till the 
 end of June, and then, after receiving large reinforcements, proceeded 
 to New York. 
 
 § 502. A year had now elapsed since the battle of Lexington ; it had 
 been passed in active hostilities, the exasperation of both parties had in- 
 creased, and there seemed to be no longer any hope of a reconciliation 
 with England. Lord North's ministry, supported by the obstinacy of the 
 king and by a large majority in both houses of Parliament, evinced no 
 disposition to change its policy ; on the contrary, treaties had been formed 
 with several of the minor powers of Germany, in virtue of which about 
 17,000 Hessians, Waldeckers, and Hanoverians were collected by crafty 
 recruiting officers, and hired out to England for the purpose of putting 
 down the rebellion in America. Of course, the news that these merce- 
 naries were to be employed greatly increased the irritation of the Colo- 
 nies. Thomas Paine, a very coarse but vigorous writer, published his 
 famous pamphlet, called " Common Sense," to prove that a final separa- 
 tion from England was inevitable and ought not to be delayed. "Written 
 in an eminently popular style, it had an immense circulation, and was of 
 great service in preparing the minds of the people for independence. A 
 proposition to dissolve all connection with Great Britain was first intro- 
 duced in Congress by Richard Henry Lee, of Virginia, and was warmly 
 supported by John Adams and other members from New England. But 
 it was not carried without difficulty; New York, Pennsylvania, Mary- 
 land, and South Carolina hesitated. Indeed, the legislatures of the two 
 former Colonies had expressly instructed their representatives in Congress 
 to vote against it. But the tide of popular opinion now set strongly 
 towards independence, and the waverers were carried along with it, in 
 spite of their effi^rts. Tlie recusant Colonies recalled their instructions, 
 and on the 4th of July, 1776, the Declaration of Independence, written 
 by Tliomas Jefferson, and revised by a committee, of which John Adams 
 and Dr. Franklin were members, was solemnly adopted in Congress by a 
 vote of the whole .Thirteen States. This memorable Declaration asserts 
 in grave and dignified language the right of the people to institute, alter, 
 or abolish any form of government ; to justify the exercise of this right 
 at the present time, it enumerates at length the wrongs which had been 
 inflicted on the Colonies by the king of Great Britain, and concludes that 
 he is no longer worthy to be the ruler of a free people ; and it ends "with 
 the formal assertion, that " these United Colonies are, and of right ought 
 to be, free and independent States, and that they are absolved from all 
 allegiance to the British crown:" — in support of which declaration, the 
 signers of the instrument mutually pledge to each other tlieir lives, theif 
 fortunes, and their sacred honor. 
 
1570 THE MODERN EPOCH. 
 
 § 503. The progress of the contest had been watched with great atten- 
 tion on the Continent of Europe, where the efforts of the Americana 
 were naturally regarded with favor and sympathy, partly out of jealousy 
 of England, but still more from the enthusiasm which a gallant contest 
 for freedom always awakens in the hearts of the people. Among the 
 French particularly, this feeling was very strong, as the success of the 
 patriots would humiliate and weaken the haughty rival that had recently 
 triumphed over France, and deprived her of nearly all her colonial domi- 
 nion. Congress had previously appointed a " Committee of Secret Cor- 
 respondence," to keep up intercourse with the friends of the cause in 
 various parts of Europe ; and now that the United States had become an 
 independent power, it seemed proper to extend this intercourse, and to 
 establish diplomatic relations with other governments. Three commis- 
 sioners, of whom Dr. Franklin M'as one, were sent to Paris, and Arthur 
 Lee was deputed by them to visit Prussia and Spain. These agents 
 were not formally received at court, for no European power was yet pre- 
 pared for war with England. But the French ministers treated them 
 with much courtesy, and agreed to furnish the Americans with secret 
 supplies of money, arms, and military stores, to a considerable amount. 
 Many shipments were consequently made, and the aid thus received was 
 very seasonable. The appearance of Dr. Franklin, with his high repu- 
 tation as a philosopher, his plain garb, and agreeable manners, as an 
 envoy from the combatants for freedom in the New World, created a 
 great sensation among the excitable people of Paris. Honors and atten- 
 tions of all kinds were lavished upon him. " Men imagined," says La- 
 cretelle, " that they saw in him a sage of antiquity, come back to give 
 austere lessons and generous examples to the moderns. They personified 
 in him the republic of which he was the representative and the legislator." 
 The young and wealthy Marquis of Lafayette, inspired with a noble 
 enthusiasm, crossed the ocean to hazard life and property in the cause of 
 American freedom. Some Germans, also, among whom Kalb and Steu- 
 ben, were best known, and the gallant Pole, Kosciuzko, with a number 
 of volunteers from other nations, went to the aid of the Americans. 
 
 § 504. The campaign of 1776 was very disastrous to the American 
 arms, and but for the surpassing fortitude and magnanimity of their great 
 military leader, it would have been ruinous to the cause. Washington's 
 army was very weak when it arrived in New York ; several regiments had 
 been left behind to garrison Boston, and others were detached to strengthen 
 the northern army, then lying near Montreal. Unfortunately, also, the 
 men had been enlisted for very short periods, owing to the uncertainty 
 how long the war would continue ; and now, when their services were 
 .nost wanted, and they had been trained and disciplined, whole regiments 
 had to be disbanded and sent home, and their places were taken by raw 
 recruits. Frequent drafts were made from the militia, to meet pressing 
 
TEE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 371 
 
 emergencies ; but these raw troops could not be depended upon for effi- 
 cient service. The Continental troops under "Washington at New York 
 did not number more than 8,000, while the British army, which Howe 
 led thither in June, including the German mercenaries, amounted to 
 24,000. Among them were the troops lately employed against Charles- 
 ton, South Carolina, where they had attempted to land, but the fleet 
 had been driven off by the heavy fire from the forts. The fortifications at 
 New York did not prove so formidable, as the British vessels passed 
 them without damage, and entered the Hudson river. Howe landed most 
 of his troops on Long Island, where the Tories were very numerous, and 
 marched to attack the Americans, who were in an entrenched camp at 
 the western end of the island, opposite New York. A battle followed, in 
 which the British army succeeded in gaining the rear of the Americans 
 by an unguarded road, and totally defeated them, taking over a thousand 
 prisoners. The remainder of the army secretly retreated, on the second 
 night after the battle, from Long Island to New York. Leaving a gar- 
 rison in the town, Washington placed the body of the troops on Ilaerlem 
 heights, a strong position at the northward. But the garrison was soon 
 obliged with loss to quit New York, as the place was not tenable except 
 by a large force, and even the troops on tlie heights behaved so ill that a 
 fartlier retreat became necessary. Discouragement was now very gene- 
 ral ; the militia deserted by companies, and the Continentals, as the regu- 
 lar troops were called, began to follow their example. Washington 
 adopted the only system of warfare which was practicable under these 
 gloomy circumstances ; he resolved to risk no general engagement, to 
 encamp only in strong positions, to weary out the enemy by frequent 
 
 ^^ , marches, and not to meet them except in skirmishes. A par- 
 
 October 28. . . . ' - , „^, . ^, V . , , . . 
 
 tial action was tought at W hite Flams without any decisive 
 
 result, and most of the Americans were then withdrawn to the western 
 shore of the Hudson, as an invasion of New Jersey was threatened. A 
 large garrison was left in Fort Washington, on New York island, about 
 ten miles above the city ; but the British attacked it before the fortifica- 
 tions were completed, and the commander was obliged to capitulate, giv- 
 ing up the place and stores, and over 2,000 prisoners. The enemy then 
 crossed the Hudson in force, and Washington was obliged to abandon 
 Fort Lee, on the Jersey shore, with a great quantity of baggage and 
 artillery. He then retreated rapidly southward through New Jersey as 
 far as Trenton, where, for safety, the army crossed the Delaware into 
 Pennsylvania, At this gloomy period for the American cause, Sir Wil- 
 liam Howe issued a pi-oclamation, offering pardon to all who would return 
 to their allegiance within sixty days, and commanding all persons who 
 had taken up arras, and all congresses and associations to desist from 
 their treasonable proceedings and give up their usurped authority. Many 
 mdividuals, among whom were two former members of Congress, were 
 
6/2 THE MODERN EPOCH. 
 
 weak enough to accept the proposal. As the British army approached 
 Philadelphia, Congress adjourned to Baltimore, having first granted to 
 the commander-in-chief almost dictatorial power. 
 
 § 505. Washington perceived that some bold stroke was necessary to 
 revive the spirits of his countrymen. Some reinforcements had joined 
 him, and the English army had gone into winter-quarters, being stationed 
 in detachments at several places in New Jersey. On Christmas night, at 
 the head of 2,500 men, he recrossed the Delaware with great difficulty, 
 as the river was full of floating ice^ surprised a body of Hessians in Tren- 
 ton, took 900 prisoners and then returned to his former position with 
 only a trifling loss. A week afterwards, he reoccupied Trenton with a lar- 
 ger force ; but Lord Cornwallis came up to meet him with a large portion 
 of the British army, and it appeared too hazardous either to stand an en- 
 gagement, or retreat when the enemy were so near. "Washington devised 
 a manoeuvre which was completely successful. Leaving the watch fires 
 burning in the deserted camp, the troops were led by a circuitous route 
 into the rear of the British, and then conducted to Princeton, where they 
 fell unexpectedly upon three regiments that were stationed there, drove 
 them out of the town with great loss, and took 300 prisoners. Cornwal- 
 lis heard the firing in his rear, and divining the cause, hurried off in pur- 
 suit ; but before he could overtake the Americans, they were encamped 
 on unassailable ground at Morristown. These exploits taught Sir William 
 Howe to respect an opponent whom he had begun to contemn ; and he 
 therefore withdrew his troops from the greater part of New Jersey, and 
 concentrated them round New York. Washington stationed his army 
 at Morristown, Princeton, and in the Highlands on the Hudson ; and 
 the next six months were spent in organizing it anew, and reducing it to 
 discipline. The British had taken possession of the southern part of 
 Rhode Island, and had surprised and captured Gen. , Lee. On the other 
 hand, privateers and national cruisers had been fitted out in the ports 
 of Massachusetts, and had captured many valuable British ships, which 
 were carried to the West Indies and the harbors of continental Europe, 
 and sold. 
 
 § 506. The next year was the turning point, or critical period, of the 
 war. It was checkered by good and evil fortune. It was 
 a period of much financial difficulty and great suffering both 
 by the army and the people ; but towards its close, the unexpected and 
 great success of the American arms at the north really decided the fate 
 of the contest, and showed that the attempt of Great Britain to reduce 
 the Colonies by force to their former allegiance was a hopeless undertak- 
 ing. About the end of May, the American army, now much strength- 
 ened by recruits, left its winter quarters, and took a strong position at 
 Middletown, Howe manoeuvred for some time, in the hope of inducing 
 or compelling it to figlit a battle on equal ground. But finding that 
 
THE AMERICAN REYOLUTIOX. 373 
 
 Washington was too cautious to run this hazard, he suddenly embarked 
 his army on board tlie fleet, and carried it round to the head of Chesa- 
 peake Bay, where he landed and began his march for Philadelphia. He 
 was obliged to take this route, as the American fortifications on the Dela- 
 wai"e made it too hazardous for the fleet to ascend that river. Anxious 
 to save the city which was the seat of Congress and was regarded in some 
 measure as the capital of the country, Washington marched hurriedly south- 
 ward to intercept him. After passing through Philadelphia, he first at- 
 tempted to check the progress of the enemy at Brandywine, where a creek, 
 everywhere fordable, guarded the front of the American position. The Bri- 
 tish passed this stream in two divisions, at considerable distance 
 ^ * from each other ; and "Washington's army being thus attacked 
 
 in front and on the flank, some regiments broke and fled, and the rest were 
 forced to retreat in some disorder. The Americans again offered battle five 
 days afterwards, but a violent storm interrupted the engagement almost 
 as soon as it began. The hope of saving Philadelphia was then aban- 
 doned ; Congress adjourned to Lancaster, the magazines and public 
 stores were removed, and Howe entered the city on the 25th, leaving 
 the bulk of his army ten miles off*, at Germantown. It was a barren 
 conquest ; experience was now teaching the British that they could hold 
 no more ground in America than what they actually occupied with their 
 troops ; and these were not to be too much scattered, or they were liable 
 to be cut off* in detail. To raise the sinking spirits of his men, Washing- 
 ton planned a surprise of the British army in Germantown. The enter- 
 
 ^ , prise seemed successful at first ; but the troops erot scpara- 
 
 October 4. , /. , , . , i , /. , . , . 
 
 ted Irom each other, m the darkness ot the morning, by the 
 
 inequalities of the ground, a panic seized upon some, and the whole were 
 then driven to make a disorderly retreat. Ilightly deeming that Wash- 
 ington could not soon make another attack after this repulse, Howe re- 
 solved to attack the forts on the Delaware, in order to establish com- 
 munication with his fleet, which had not yet been able to pass up the 
 river. Count Donop, with 1,200 Hessians, assaulted the post at Red 
 Bank, on the Jersey shore, but fell in the attempt, and his 
 men were driven off* with great slaughter ; and of the ships 
 which assailed Fort Miflen, on an island in the Delaware, a sixty-four 
 was blown up, a frigate was burned, and the others were much injured 
 and compelled to retire. The enemy then erected land-batteries, which 
 kept up so heavy a fire that the fortifications were ruined, and the gar- 
 rison was withdrawn. Red Bank was also evacuated, and the Dela- 
 ware was thus opened to the British fleet. 
 
 § 507. But the most important military operations of this year took 
 place at the north. Gen. Burgoyne received the command in Canada, 
 with a finely appointed army of 10,000 men, and was instructed to force 
 his way down Lake Champlain, and then cross to Albany, and descend 
 
 32 
 
374 THE MODERN EPOCH. 
 
 the Hudson, to join the British forces in New York. This plan, if exe- 
 cuted, would have cut off New England from the other Colonies, and 
 have rendered the subjugation of the Americans extremely probable. 
 And there was great danger for a time that it would be executed. 
 Burgoyne summoned the Indians to his standard, and easily drove 
 the feeble and disorganized army of St. Clair before him, captured 
 
 Ticonderoga and Skenesborough, and prepared to force his way 
 
 through the wilderness, from the head of the lake to the Hud- 
 son. St. Clair had brought a poor remnant of his army to join Schuyler 
 at Fort Edward, on the Hudson ; but their united forces did not number 
 5,000, most of them were militia, and both ammunition and provisions 
 were wanting. The news of the loss of Ticonderoga and the rapid pro- 
 gress of Burgoyne created great consternation ; the militia of New Eng- 
 land came forward readily, and in considerable numbers, to strengthen 
 the northern army, which also received some detachments from the posts 
 in the Highlands. Schuyler was superseded by Gen. Gates, and under 
 liim were placed Arnold, Morgan, Lincoln, and others, who were among 
 the best officers in the army. Burgoyne had succeeded in reaching the 
 Hudson after immense labor and fatigue, but he found that difficulties were 
 now beginning to thicken around him. He had sent out a strong detach- 
 ment of regular troops, Tories, and Indians, to his right, to turn the alarm 
 to the western frontier of New York, and lay siege to Fort Schuyler 
 at the head of the Mohawk. Arnold was sent against him, and the fear 
 of his approach caused so many of the Indians to desert, that St. Leger 
 
 was compelled to raise the siege and retire so precipitately 
 
 ^' * that most of his stores and baggage fell into the hands of the 
 
 Americans. Another and stronger detachment was sent out to the left, 
 
 under Col. Baum, to try the temper of the people and to obtain horses 
 
 and provisions ; this was encountered, at Bennington, by some 
 "^* ' New Hampshire militia and Green Mountain Boys, under 
 
 Col. Stark, and totally defeated, most of the German soldiers being taken 
 prisoners. Col. Breyman, who had been sent with 500 men to aid Baum, 
 came up two hours after the battle was fought, was himself attacked by 
 the victorious party, and obliged to make the best retreat he could, with 
 the loss of all his baggage and artillery. Thus both of Burgoyne's wings 
 were clipped, and he found himself at Saratoga, on the west side of the 
 Hudson, in the heart of a difficult country, short of provisions, and with 
 an enemy constantly increasing in numbers on all sides of him. He iirst 
 
 tried an attack upon Gates' camp, upon Behmus's Heights, 
 Sept. 19. .^ ^.^ ^^^^^ _ ^^^ ^^^ ^^^^^^ ^^^^g ^ drawn battle, in which he 
 
 lost 500 men, and gained not a single advantage. A party of Lincoln's 
 mihtia had got into his rear, surprised the posts around Lake George, and 
 besieged Ticonderoga, so that his communications were cut off. But he 
 was encouraged to hold out, as a letter reached him from Clinton in New 
 
THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 375 
 
 York, saying that the latter was about to make an expedition up the Ilud- 
 Bon, which would operate as a diversion, and might reach Albany, so as 
 to place Gates between two fires. The promise was kept, the passes of 
 the Highlands were forced, and the British had proceeded as far north as 
 Esopus, when they learned that they were too late, and found it prudent 
 to return. Burgoyne offered battle again on the 7th of October, and his 
 troops were defeated and driven back into his camp, his entrenchments 
 in one quarter were forced, and a part of his artillery and ammu- 
 nition were captured. His position was thus rendered untenable, and 
 he secretly drew back in the night to a rising ground in the rear. Thence 
 he retreated, two days afterwards, to Saratoga, and found that the diffi- 
 culties of the country and the position of the American parties were sucli 
 that he could go no further. He held out a week longer ; and then, his 
 provisions being exhausted and his camp surrounded and hard 
 pressed, he was obliged to capitulate. He had already lost 
 about 4,000 men, and 5,642 others were now surrendered as prisoners of 
 war, all his arms, baggage, and camp equipage also passing into the hands 
 of the victors. The garrison of Ticonderoga, when they heard of this cala- 
 mity, hastily retreated into Canada, and the Americans again took posses- 
 sion of this renowned fortress. 
 
 § 508. Two days after the news arrived at Paris of the capture of 
 Burgoyne and the battle of Germantown, the French ministry intimated 
 to Dr. Franklin that they were willing to consider the project of a treaty 
 of alliance with the American States. Two treaties were accordingly 
 framed, in one of which France acknowledged the independ- 
 ' * ence of the States, and formed relations of amity and com- 
 merce with them ; in the other, which was to go into effect if Great 
 Britain should make war upon France, the two contracting parties bound 
 themselves to aid each other as good friends and allies, to maintain the 
 sovereignty and independence of the American States, and not to make 
 a truce or peace except by mutual consent. About the same time, the 
 British ministry caused two laws to be enacted, declaring that no tax 
 should hereafter be imposed by parliament on the Colonies, and appoint- 
 ing commissioners to treat with them on almost any terms short of absolute 
 independence. The concession was ample, but it came too late ; Congress 
 refused even to hold a conference with the commissioners before tho 
 British armies were Avithdrawn and the independence of the country ac- 
 knowledged. England therefore declared war against France, and pre- 
 pared to keep up in America some years longer a useless, expensive, and 
 murderous conflict, in which she had hardly a hope of ultimate success. 
 The Colonists were indeed compelled to pay a heavy price for their free- 
 dom. The public finances were in a deplorable state ; recruits could not 
 be obtained except by enormous bounties, and the troops were but half 
 fed and half clothed ; and the people generally were suffering from the 
 
376 THE MODERN EPOCH. 
 
 interruption of trade and agriculture, and the scarcity of breadstuffs. 
 There was hardly a family in the land to which the war had not already 
 brought privation and bereavement. And yet the spirit of ihe people 
 continued high; they expected much from the French alliance, and, ex- 
 cept among the Tories, hardly a wish was breathed for peace on any 
 terms short of independence. For the army, which had passed the winter 
 in miserable huts at Valley Forge, suffering from cold and disease, and to 
 some extent also from hunger and nakedness, Washington set apart a day 
 for rejoicing when the news of the treaty with France were received. 
 Losses and hardships were then forgotten in the general exultation ; 
 "every heart was filled with gratitude. to the French king, and every 
 mouth spoke his praise." 
 
 § 509. The quarters of the British army were now found to be too 
 much extended ; and it was resolved to evacuate Philadelphia and retreat 
 to New York. The American army, w^hich had been reinforced in the 
 spring, and somewhat trained and disciplined through the great efforts of 
 Baron Steuben, a brave and skilful Prussian officer, hung upon their rear 
 and gave them much trouble. A battle between them was fought at 
 Monmouth, with indecisive results, thounrh the British loss 
 considerably exceeded that of the Americans. Many of the 
 German soldiers, also, took the opportunity to desert. Count D'P!Lstaing 
 soon arrived with a powerful fleet, having 4,000 French soldiers on board, 
 and a scheme for a combined attack on New York having failed because 
 the pilots would not conduct the heavier ships over the bar, an expedition 
 against Newport was agreed upon, that place being held by Gen. Pigot, 
 at the head of 6,000 men. The fleet blockaded the harbor, and forced 
 the English to sink some of their frigates; but the Conti- 
 nental troops and New England militia did not arrive soon 
 enough to cooperate with the ships, which w^ere compelled to put to sea 
 by Lord Howe's fleet, and were also crippled by a storm. The under- 
 taking was abandoned, and Gen. Sullivan had much difficulty in bringing 
 off the American troops, as the British had received a large reinforcement. 
 These were the only military operations on a large scale during the year; 
 though as the w^ar was now prosecuted both by the British and the Tories 
 in a less hopeful and more revengeful spirit, several predatory expeditions 
 were sent out that did much w^anton injury, and in some skirmishes no 
 quarter was given, and acts of sickening barbarity were committed. 
 Wyoming, a flourishing settlement in Pennsylvania, was desolated by an 
 incursion of Indians and Tories, the male inhabitants were massacred, 
 the houses burned, and the cattle killed or driven off. Some towns on 
 the coast of Massachusetts were burned, and a heavy contribution was 
 levied on a defenceless island. In New York, Baylor's troop of dragoons 
 were surprised, and the men bayonetted, under Gen. Gray's orders to 
 give no quarter ; and the same fate befell the infantry of Pulaski's legion. 
 
THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION". 377 
 
 There was some excuse for the Tories in tliese proceedings ; their pro- 
 perty had been very generally confiscated, they often had rough personal 
 treatment, and on slight pretexts, some of them had been hanged. 
 
 § 510. During the next two years, the war was chiefly carried on by 
 the British in the southern States, where the population was more scat- 
 tered and divided in opinion, and the country offered fewer means of de- 
 fence. At the close of 1778, Savannah was taken by an expedition from 
 New York, and another body of royal troops coming up from Florida, 
 nearly completed the conquest of Georgia. Gen. Lincoln was sent to take 
 the command in this department, and by great exertions he 
 protected Charleston and South Carolina from the enemy till 
 September, when D'Estaing, with a French fleet and 6,000 men, arrived 
 on the coast, and the two armies in concert laid seige to Savannah. But 
 as the French could remain but a short time, the attack was made prema- 
 turely, and the besiegers were beaten off with great loss, the 
 gallant Count Pulaski being among the slain. Gen. Mat- 
 thews was sent from New York, with 2,500 men, on a plundering expe- 
 dition to Virginia. He took possession of Portsmouth and 
 Norfolk, burned some ships of war and many private vessels, 
 and brought off a large quantity of tobacco, after destroying private pro- 
 perty to the amount of two millions of dollars. At the north. Congress 
 took measures to punish the Indians for the atrocities they had committed 
 at Wyoming, and other places. Gen. Sullivan led an expedition of 
 4,000 men into the heart of their country, in the western part of the 
 
 State of New York, destroyed their villaj^es, cut down their 
 September. ^ . _ ' •', , . , , . , , 
 
 truit trees, and so devastated the region, tljat the miserable 
 
 savages could attempt nothing more till the close of the war. Some 
 British troops under Gen. Tryon paid a marauding visit to the Connecti- 
 cut shore, plundered and burned several towns, and destroy- 
 ed a large amount of property. About the only legitimate 
 military exploits of the year, at the north, were the capture by the Bri- 
 tish of Stony Point and Verplanck's Point on the Hudson, thus rendering 
 the communication between New England and the Middle States more 
 circuitous and diflicult, and the recapture of Stony Point in a very gallant 
 manner by the Americans under Gen. Wayne. 
 
 § 511. Spain had now joined the alliance against England, though 
 J -WKQ with no very definite purpose, except the hope that, while the 
 attention of the British ministry was occupied by so many 
 enemies, she might regain possession of Gibraltar. For a short time, 
 the united French and Spanish fleet swept the British seas ; but it was soon 
 compelled to go into harbor. The next year, 1780, added another Euro- 
 pean power to the list of England's enemies, and brought ■ her assumed 
 empire of the seas into great danger. To check the maritime superior- 
 ity of the British, who, during the war, had greatly disturbed the neutral 
 32* 
 
878 THE MODERN EPOCH. 
 
 trade at sea, and molested the ships of every country by an oppressive 
 search for contraband goods, Catherine 11. of Russia concluded an alli- 
 ance with the several neutral powers, which should maintain the princi- 
 ple of " free ships, free goods," and thus secure the trade of the neutral 
 states on the coasts and in the harbors of either of the belligerent powers. 
 The confederacy also declared that no blockade of any port should be 
 deemed effectual, so as to exclude neutral vessels from entering it, if there 
 were not an adequate naval force present to maintain the blockade and ren- 
 der it very dangerous for any ship to attempt to enter. This neutral alli- 
 ance was constituted successively by Russia, Denmark, Sweden, Prussia, 
 Austria, Naples, and Portugal. But Holland, whose adherence was very 
 important from her situation and maritime strength, hesitated so long that 
 England got information of the project, and declared war against the 
 Dutch before they could give in their adhesion at St. Petersburg. Hol- 
 land thus disappeared from the list of the neutral powers, and the alli- 
 ance was deprived of her aid towards accomplishing their great purpose. 
 § 512. A powerful British armament, under Clinton and Arbuthnot, 
 appeared before Charleston in February, 1780, and laid siege to it, with 
 a view^ to the ultimate conquest of the whole State. Gen. Lincoln's means 
 of defence were very inadequate, and though he made every effort, he 
 was compelled, after a resistance of 42 days, to surrender the city and 
 give up his whole army as prisoners of war. The enemy then easily 
 overran South Carolina ; and many of the inhabitants, to avoid the extre- 
 mities of war, took " protections " from them, and thereby avowed them- 
 selves to be British subjects. Lord Cornwallis was then left to command 
 at the South, while Clinton returned to New York. Congress appointed 
 Gen. Gates to oppose the former, and by great exertions an army of 
 4,000 men was collected for this purpose, mostly militia, who Vv^ere ill 
 fed and ill armed, and not at all disciplined. With the rash confidence 
 inspired by his success against Burgoyne, Gates advanced hastily and 
 
 with little precaution, was attacked under unfavorable cir- 
 August 16. , ^ 11. /-(I 1 1 • 
 
 cumstances by Cornwallis, near Camden, and his army so 
 
 completely routed that not a fourth part of them could be again brought 
 together. The southern States were thus rendered almost entirely de- 
 fenceless, though the British for the present were not able to invade North 
 Carolina from the want of supplies. Sumter and Marion, also, noted 
 partizan officers, gave them great annoyance by collecting bands of irre- 
 gular troops, and waging a kind of guerilla warfare against their outposts^ 
 and detachments. One motley collection of such troops, chiefly mounted 
 backwoodsmen with their rifles, under Shelby and Sevier, intercepted 
 Ferguson, an active Loyalist, at the head of about 1,000 
 Tories, at King's Mountain, and totally defeated him, taking 
 most of his men prisoners, and hanging some of them as traitors. At the 
 end of the year, Gen. Greene was sent to take Gates's place, and a small 
 
THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 379 
 
 regular army was collected for him, which he led with consummate ahili* 
 ty. At the north, a French fleet and army, the latter under Rochambeau, 
 arrived at Newport, but were blockaded there by a superior British fleet, 
 60 that they accomplished nothing. Another remarkable incident of the 
 year was the treason of Gen. Arnold, a very bmve officer, but dissolute, 
 wayward, and extravagant, who sold himself to the British for £10,000 
 and a general's commission, covenanting to give into their power, also, 
 West Point and the other American fortresses in the Highlands. The 
 conspiracy was detected just before the time fixed for its exe- 
 ep m er. ^.^j^j^j^^ Arnold succeeded in making his escape ; but Major 
 Andre, a gallant English officer whom Clinton had sent to negotiate with 
 him, was seized when in disguise within the American lines, and was 
 tried and executed as a spy. The want of pay, and the impossibility of 
 complying with the just demands of the soldiers, caused some Pennsylva- 
 nia regiments, who were encamped near Morristown, to break out into open 
 revolt. They were invited to join the British, as Arnold had done ; but 
 they refused, and after the matter had been compromised by Congress, 
 Bome of their grievances being redressed, they gave up the emissaries of 
 the enemy, who were hanged as spies. Some New Jersey troops quickly 
 followed this example of insubordination ; but their revolt was crushed 
 with a strong hand, and a few of the ringleaders were executed. 
 
 § 513. The comparative ease with which Georgia and South Carolina 
 had been subdued caused great effiarts to be made, in 1781, for the con- 
 quest of North Carolina and Virginia. In January of this year, the 
 traitor Arnold was sent with 1,G00 men, chiefly Tories, to plunder and 
 devastate the country on the Chesapeake and the James river, in order 
 to cripple the resources of the State ; and after he had accomplished this 
 service, he was joined by Gen. Phillips, with 2,000 troops from New 
 York. But these marauding expeditions did not help the British cause 
 much ; they caused great misery, but they incensed the people so much 
 that they lost all thoughts of acquiescence and submission, and made des- 
 peiate efforts to repulse the destroyers. The plan was, that Cornwallis 
 should march north, to join Phillips and Arnold, their united forces being 
 deemed sufficient to crush all opposition at the South. But Cornwallis 
 had now an able and determined opponent in Greene, who gave him 
 enough to do in the Carolinas. Half of Greene's force, under Morgan, 
 who had been sent to put down the Tories in the west, encountered the 
 British light troops under Tarleton, at the Cowpens, and gave them a 
 signal defeat, killing or taking prisoners over 600 of them. Cornwallis 
 instantly started off" in great haste, to overtake and punish Morgan before 
 he could rejoin his commander. But the activity of the Americans baffled 
 him. Still the British general pushed on ; and Greene's whole force be- 
 
 xjt ui' ^"S much inferior, he was obliged to make a rapid retreat into 
 March lo. . . ' =" ^ 
 
 Virgmia. Me soon returned, however, with some reinforce* 
 
April 2c 
 
 380 THE MODERN EPOCH. 
 
 ments, and offered battle at Guilford Court House, where Cornwallis in- 
 deed defeated him, but the victory was equivalent to a defeat. The Bri- 
 tish loss was greater than the American, and Cornwallis was obliged to 
 retire to Wilmington, near the sea. Greene pursued him for a while, and 
 then took the bold step of marching directly into South Carolina, which 
 had been left in charge of Lord Kawdon with a small force. Finding it 
 impossible to overtake him, Cornwallis imitated his bold policy by march- 
 ing north, to join the king's troops in Virginia. Greene and liawdon came 
 in conflict with each other at Ilobkirk's Hill, and the former 
 was again defeated, though his loss was no greater than the 
 enemy's, and the advantages of the encounter were all on his side. Lee 
 and Marion, with other partizan officers, encouraged by his presence, 
 roused the inhabitants to arms, nearly all the British posts in the upper 
 country were captured or abandoned, and the larger part of South Caro- 
 lina was restored to the Americans. Their irritated opponents shot as 
 deserters all whom they captured in arms that had once accepted British 
 protection ; among these victims was Colonel Hayne, an eminent citizen 
 of Charleston, whose fate caused much sorrow and indignation. The 
 conflict on both sides had all the aggravated features of a civil war. 
 
 § 514. The arrival of a powerful fleet under Count De Grasse having 
 given the French a temporary superiority at sea, the French forces at 
 Newport were released, and an attack upon the British in New York was 
 projected for the combined army of Washington and Rochambeau. But this 
 came to be thought an enterprise beyond their strength, and it was resolved 
 in preference to strike a blow at Cornwallis at Virginia. That enter- 
 prising general, after vainly endeavoring to overtake and crush the small 
 American force commanded by Lafayette, had retired to Yorktown, a 
 peninsula at the mouth of York river, where he had strongly intrenched 
 himself at the head of 8,000 men. Here he was blockaded by De 
 
 ^ ^ , Grasse's fleet, and, a fortnight afterwards, was invested by 
 
 September. , • i x-. i » 
 
 the combmed i^rench and American army, 16,000 strong. 
 
 About the same time, also, the ever active Greene had fought another 
 battle with the British in South Carolina, at Eutaw Springs, the imme- 
 diate result of which was indecisive, the loss on each side being about 700 ; 
 but the general consequence was, that the British were thenceforward 
 cooped up in Charleston and the small district between the Cooper and 
 Asliley rivers. CornwalHs was vigorously pressed, his intrenchments be- 
 ing ruined and his guns dismounted by the fire of heavy breaching bat- 
 teries. He tried a sally without improving his situation ; and then, all 
 hope of aid from New York having failed, he was obliged to capitulate 
 and surrender his whole army, still about 7,000 strong, as prisoners of 
 war. This grand stroke was virtually the end of the armed contest in 
 America ; having sacrificed two large armies, and protracted the struggle 
 for six years, the British could no longer hope to retain a foothold in the 
 United States, far less to bring them back to their former allegiance. 
 
THE AMERICAN REVOLUTIOX. 38i 
 
 § 515. Sucb now came to be the general opinion even in England, where, 
 indeed, for the last three years, the war had been very unpopular. It had 
 added over one hundred millions sterling to the national debt ; it had sullied 
 the military reputation of the kingdom, which had never stood higher than 
 in 1760, and never lower than after the capture of Cornwallis ; it had 
 brought France, Spain, and Holland into a league of hostilities against her, 
 and had combined the other, professedly neutral, powers in an alliance 
 hardly less injurious to her interests and her fame. Even the signal vic- 
 tory obtained by the English admiral. Lord Rodney, over De 
 ' ' Grasse's fleet in the West Indies, and the equally signal 
 defeat of the Spaniards in their last and desperate attempt to take Gi- 
 bralter, failed to restore English self-complacency, or to re- 
 * concile the nation to that ministry, (Lord North's,) which had 
 brought them into so humiliating a position. These successes were but 
 casual gleams of good fortune that came to lighten the close of a long 
 perio(^l of disaster and shame. The phalanx of Lord North's parliament- 
 ary supporters was broken, his ministry was driven from office, the king's 
 obstinacy was overcome, and the Whigs, under the guidance of Lord 
 Rockingham, were established in power, with the express understanding 
 that they were to make peace by submitting to the independence of the 
 United States. Negotiations were immediately commenced with the 
 American commissioners at Paris, Franklin, Adams, Laurens, and Jay ; 
 they were protracted by points of form, and by the breaking up of the 
 Whig ministry through the death of Rockingham ; but provisional arti- 
 cles of peace were signed on the 30th of November, 1782, and the ces- 
 sation of hostilities was agreed upon in January following. Owing to the 
 necessity of including the Continental powers of Europe in the pacifi- 
 cation, the definitive treaty of peace was not concluded till the next Sep- 
 tember. In this, the independence of the United States was acknowledged, 
 their boundaries adjusted, and a share in the fisheries secured to them ; 
 while the claims of the other belligerent powers were adjusted by the 
 surrender or return of the conquered towns and islands. 
 
 § 516. The peace came not too soon for exhausted and bleeding Ame- 
 rica. The impossibility of satisfying the just demands of the army, the 
 consequent sufferings both of officers and men, and the prospect of being 
 disbanded at the peace and sent home in utter poverty, created a deter- 
 mination among many of them to insist upon the payment of their duea 
 wath arms in their hands. Nothing but the moderation, wisdom, and firm- 
 ness of their great commander-in-chief saved the country from the horrors 
 of military usurpation. Some of the officers so far misjudged Washing- 
 ton as to think that he might be tempted to play the part of Cromwell ; but 
 his prompt and stern rebuke put an immediate end to the project. He 
 then exerted himself, and with success, to soothe the passions that had 
 been excited, and to lead the army back to moderate and patriotic coua- 
 
382 THE MODERN EPOCH. 
 
 sels. The officers and men were persuaded to accept certificates of debt, 
 with interest, for the arrears that were due to them, and to rely upon the 
 efforts of Congress and the gratitude of the people for their redemption. 
 The troops were quietly disbanded in the course of the sum- 
 mer and autumn, and towards the close of the year, after the 
 British had evacuated every place upon the seaboard, "Washington was 
 admitted to a public audience by Congress, when he resigned his commis- 
 sion, and took a final leave, as he supposed, " of all the employments of 
 public life." Universal gratitude and respect, which amounted almost to 
 veneration, attended him to his retirement at Mount Vernon, 
 
 § 517. At the close of the war, the United States were burdened with 
 a heavy debt, of which they had not the means even of paying the interest, 
 the public credit was annihilated, commerce and manufactures were in a 
 torpid condition, and the country was almost without a government. 
 During the greater part of the struggle, Congress had possessed no au- 
 thority but what was tacitly granted to it from the necessity of the case. 
 The individual States were unwilling to give up any portion of that inde- 
 pendence which they were striving to vindicate against a foreign power. 
 They claimed complete sovereignty, and were unwilling to appear only 
 as the members of a confederacy, under the general control of a central 
 government. Besides, it was hard to adjust the terms of such an alli- 
 ance. Perfect equality was hardly to be expected among states that dif- 
 fered so widely from each other in regard to population, wealth, and ex- 
 tent of territory ; yet on no terms short of equality would any one State 
 consent to a union with the others. There were also many unadjusted con- 
 troversies between them, in respect to boundary, and the ownership of that 
 vast territory beyond the Alleghanies which had been wrested from the 
 French. In 1777, a plan of union had been framed and adopted in Con- 
 gress, after two years' discussion, not as the best which could be imagined, 
 or as adapted to all exigencies, but as the only one " suited to existing 
 circumstances, or at all likely to be adopted." It was not to go into effect 
 until it was ratified by all the States ; and only four of them could be induced 
 at first to adopt it. Slowly and reluctantly the others gave in their adhe- 
 sion, the consent of New Jersey and Delaware not being obtained till 
 1779, and that of Maryland not till 1781, when, at last, the final sanction of 
 the articles of Confederation, as they were termed, was joyfully announced 
 by Congress. But the union thus effected was very inadequate for the 
 ends in view. It did not establish a central government ; it was only a 
 league of several independent sovereignties. Congress was the only 
 organ of the confederacy ; each State had but one vote in this body on 
 the decision of any question ; and in respect to many subjects, the consent 
 of nine States was requisite before the measure could go into effect. 
 And after all. Congress had no power but to recommend measures ; it 
 could not enforce them. It could " ascertain the sums necessary to be 
 
THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 383 
 
 raised for the service of the United States," and determine the quota or 
 proportion which each State ought to pay ; but it depended upon the 
 States whether the specified amount should be raised and paid, or the re- 
 commendation entirely neglected. The fact generally was, that they 
 refused compliance, or paid no attention to the demand ; of the many re- 
 quisitions of Congress, not one fourth were complied with. Excuses or 
 palliations of such conduct were not wanting ; the States were very poor, 
 and had heavy debts of their o\mi to provide for. Again, Congress could 
 not impose duties upon imports, and the circumstances of the case pre- 
 vented even the individual States from exercising this power. If im- 
 ported goods'were taxed by one, they were admitted free by another, 
 which thus obtained a larger share of domestic and foreign trade, while 
 the ports of its rival were deserted. Treaties with foreign powers could 
 not be negotiated, as there was no power in the country to enforce the 
 provisions made in them, the authority of Congress and that of the sepa- 
 rate members of the confederacy just serving to paralyze each other. 
 There was no common tribunal to which the States could appeal for the 
 adjustment of their controversies with each other; and the ill compacted 
 league was therefore liable to be broken by the first serious dispute 
 which might grow out of many conflicting interests. It was obvious that 
 this stale of things could not long continue without bringing upon the 
 country all the evils of anarchy and civil war. 
 
 § 518. The condition and temper of the people increased this hazard. 
 The vast exertions they had made during the armed struggle had ex- 
 hausted their energies, and, to a certain extent, had demoralized them. 
 On the one hand, there was a general feeling of lassitude, an indisposi- 
 tion to make any further sacrifices or efforts, and on the other, a fierce 
 impatience of any act or movement which should even seem to limit their 
 recently acquired, universal freedom. The load of public and private 
 debt was enormous. Of what use was it, that the people had successfully 
 resisted English bayonets, if they were now to be called upon to respect 
 implicitly the orders of the sheriff and the staff of the constable? To 
 what purpose, had they braved the wrath of the crown and the parlia- 
 ment, if creditors were still to distress them, and county courts sentence 
 them to fine and imprisonment? Or why tax themselves millions of 
 hard dollars, when they had just gone through a seven years' war because 
 they would not pay an impost of three pence a pound on tea ? It is no 
 cause for wonder that such questions were frequently asked, or even that 
 a majority of the people were inclined to answer them in a way most con- 
 sonant with their present feelings. It was a period of general anxiety 
 and gloom, — a true crisis in the history of free institutions, not only in 
 this country, but throughout the world. It was now to be determined 
 whether national independence was to prove a blessing or a curse ; — 
 whether the people, after throwing off all foreign restraint, would be wise 
 
384 THE MODERN EPOCH. 
 
 and magnanimous enough to impose laws upon themselves, and to respect 
 them when made, or whether they would follow that course of anarchj, 
 license, and civil war which has subsequently rendered the history of the 
 South American republics and of the ephemeral republican governments 
 of the Old World a warning to mankind. 
 
 § 519. The matter was brought to a crisis in 1786, by the breaking 
 out of a rebellion in Massachusetts, the object of the insurgents being to 
 close by violence the courts of law, thus putting a stop to legal measures 
 for the collection of debts, and to compel the government to issue paper 
 money, in order that all obligations might be discharged ip a much de- 
 preciated currency. Job Shattuck and Daniel Shays, formerly a captain 
 in the revolutionary army, were the leaders of the disaffected party, and 
 it was at least doubtful whether they did not count a majority of the 
 people among their followers. Job Shattuck, at the head of an armed 
 force, took possession of the court-house at Worcester, and sent a written 
 message to the judges, " that it was the sense of the people that the courts 
 should not sit." At last, by great exertions on the part of the govern- 
 ment and the well-affected citizens, an army of 4,000 men, under Gene- 
 ral Lincoln, was fitted out, and after a very severe campaign in the midst 
 of winter, this dangerous insurrection was suppressed with but little loss 
 of life. An indirect but happy consequence of this rebellion was, that it 
 convinced a majority of the people throughout the United States that a 
 strong central government was indispensable, not merely for their well- 
 being, but for the preservation of society itself from anarchy and ruin. 
 " You talk, my good Sir," wrote Washington from Mount Vernon, " of 
 employing influence to appease the present tumults in Massachusetts. I 
 know not where that influence is to be found ; and, if attainable, it would 
 not be a proper remedy for these disorders. Influence is not govern- 
 ment. Let us have a government, by which our lives, liberties, and pro- 
 perties will be secured, or let us know the worst at once." 
 
 § 520. Accordingly, a Convention of delegates from eleven of the 
 States was held at Philadelphia in May, 1787, to revise the Articles of 
 Confederation, or, in other words, to frame a Constitution of government 
 for the whole country. The delegates from New Hampshire did not 
 appear till the Convention had been two months in session, and Rhode 
 Island was never represented at all. Among the members present were 
 Dr. Franklin, then in his 81st year, and Washington, who was unani- 
 mously chosen president of the Convention. After they had been in ses- 
 sion four months, with closed doors, strict secrecy being observed as to 
 all their proceedings, they framed and published the present Constitution 
 of the United States, approved by the signatures of all but three of the 
 delegates who were then present, and which was to go into effect after it 
 had been ratified in nine of the States, by conventions that v, ere to be 
 called for the occasion. Not without great difficulty, and many compro- 
 
THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 385 
 
 mises of conflicting opinions and interests, had this great step been taken. 
 The central government established by the Constitution was to consist of 
 three departments, legislative, executive, and judicial. The legislature, 
 called the Congress, was to consist of two branches, the Senate and the 
 House of Representatives. In the former, the representation was equal, 
 each State having two senators; in the latter, the number of represent- 
 atives was to be proportioned to the population, which was to be ascer- 
 tained every ten years by adding to the whole number of the freemen 
 three-fifths of the slaves. Two classes of opposing claims were thus ad- 
 justed by concessions on both sides. The executive power was vested in 
 a president, chosen for four years, by electors equal in number, for each 
 State, to all its senators and representatives in Congress. The President 
 was allowed a qualified negative on the enactments of the legislature, as a 
 bill to wliich he refused his consent wa« to become a law only when ap- 
 proved by two-thirds of the votes in both branches. The judicial power 
 was vested in a Supreme Court, and such inferior courts as Congress 
 might establish ; and it extended to all cases arising under the Constitu- 
 tion, the laws of Congress, and treaties made with foreign powers, to all 
 cases of maritime jurisdiction, and all controversies between States, be- 
 tween citizens of different States, and between foreigners and citizens. 
 Congress was not to prevent the importation of slaves till the year 1808, 
 and slaves escaping from one State to another were to be delivered up. 
 Congress received the power to declare war, to raise and support armies, 
 to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises, to coin money, to 
 establish post-offices and post-roads, to provide and maintain a navy, 
 and to call forth the militia for the purpose of executing the laws, sup- 
 pressing insurrections, and repelling invasions. The States were prohi- 
 bited, generally, frorft exercising any of the functions that were conferred 
 upon Congress. In general terms, the States retained the power of do- 
 mestic legislation upon all subjects in regard to which their interests 
 were not likely to conflict, or which could be effectually disposed of with- 
 out the cooperation of the whole Union ; while the Federal government 
 assumed the functions which the States were deprived of, and received 
 whatever other authority was needed to enable it 'to negotiate effectively 
 with foreign powers as the representative of one nation. Numerous pro- 
 visions were borrowed from Magna Charta and the more liberal portions 
 of the English Common Law, and incorporated into the Constitution, to 
 protect the liberty and the rights of individuals, and to guard against acts 
 of oppression and injustice on the part either of the Federal or the State 
 government. The instrument was very practical in its character, and fai 
 more simple and concise than could reasonably have been expected, con- 
 sidering the complicated subject with which it had to do, and the diffi- 
 culty of adjusting the relations of the Federal government to the indi- 
 vidual States, and of so distributing power between them that they could 
 33 
 
386 THE MODERN EPOCH. 
 
 work together harmoniously and effectively. As a whole, if judged either 
 by the most approved maxims of political science, or by the light reflected 
 upon it from that experience of more than sixty years to which it has 
 been subjected, it may claim a high place among the best models of go- 
 vernment that have been devised in ancient or modern times. It has 
 required but few and slight amendments, and it has accomplished the 
 whole work which it was designed to perform. 
 
 § 521. Great difficulties were again experienced in obtaining its ratifi- 
 cation by the conventions in the several States to which it was soon sub- 
 mitted. The two parties which were then formed, of its advocates and 
 opponents, divided the people very equally between them, and, with some 
 modifications, these parties have subsisted to the present day. The con- 
 sent of nine States was necessary ; five ratified the instrument soon and 
 with little difficulty. Then the question came up in Massachusetts, where 
 the parties were nearly equal, though the democratic and independent 
 spirit of the people seemed to incline the balance against the Constitu- 
 tion. Every thing was thought to depend upon the decision in this State 
 and Virginia, on account of their great weight in the Union, and the in- 
 fluence which they would respectively exert at the north and the south. 
 Governor Hancock and Samuel Adams, the former being the president 
 of the Convention, and the latter one of its most influential members, wa- 
 vered. The Convention at last decided to propose certain amendments 
 for adoption in the form prescribed by the Constitution itself; these served 
 as an anodyne for the scruples of the two leading patriots, and the rati- 
 fication was finally carried, though by a very slender majority. The con- 
 sent of Maryland, South Carolina, and New Hampshire was then obtain- 
 ed, and next came that of Virginia, though after as warm a struggle as in 
 Massachusetts, the opposition being led with great effect by Patrick Henry. 
 The question was now virtually decided, and New York therefore gave 
 a tardy and reluctant assent, which would probably have been a refusal 
 if the measure could thereby have been defeated. North Carolina would 
 only ratify upon certain conditions, and Rhode Island would not even hold 
 a Convention to consider the subject ; but as eleven States had adopted 
 the Constitution, their approval was not absolutely necessary, and it was 
 finally given after the new form of government had been some time in 
 operation.* It must be granted, in favor of the opposition, that they 
 showed no factious spirit, but calmly acquiesced in the decision of the 
 majority of their countrymen. Congress appointed the first Wednes- 
 day in January, 1789, for the choice of electors, the first Wednes- 
 day in February for those electors to choose a president, and the first 
 Wednesday in March for the new government to go into oper^v- 
 tion. As had been anticipated, George Washington was unanimously 
 elected president ; indeed, the certainty that he would be chosen to this 
 office induced many to vote for the Constitution who would otherwise have 
 
THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 
 
 387 
 
 opposed it. John Adams was elected Yice-President, and senators and 
 representatives were also chosen to form the first Congress. Proceedings 
 were commenced at New York on the 4th of March, 1789 ; ^ut a quorum 
 of both houses did not come together till April, and on the 30th of this 
 month, President TTashington was sworn into office, and the new govern- 
 ment went into full operation. 
 
BOOK FOURTH 
 
 THE LATEST PERIOD 
 
 A. THE FORERUNNERS OF THE REVOLUTION. 
 
 1. THE LITERATURE OF ILLUMINATION. 
 
 § 522. In the course of the eighteenth century, a shock was given to 
 all existing ideas by the literature of France. Ingenious, but, in part, 
 mistaken men, opposed religious constitutions and ecclesiastical order, at- 
 tacked the forms of government, and represented the conditions and shapes 
 of society in the light of antiquated abuses. Whilst, at first, they laid 
 hold of real blemishes and faults as points of attack, in religion and the 
 Church, in politics and law, in civil regulations and social relations, they 
 undermined by degrees all the foundations of human society and con- 
 vulsed all rules of customary ordinance ; whilst they sought to annul im- 
 munities, privileges, and class prerogatives, and to give freedom and per- 
 sonal merit their due value, they weakened also the force of old statutes 
 and rights, and the strength of authority; and whilst they assailed super- 
 stitious prejudices and worn-out opinions, they perplexed at the same 
 time faith and conscience, destroyed the veneration and esteem for things 
 holy and customary in the hearts of men, and propagated the idea that the 
 happiness of the world could blossom only on the ruins of existing things. 
 This was done especially by Voltaire, Montesquieu, and Rousseau, whose 
 ingenious writings, owing to the charm of beautiful language and powers 
 of description, were read by the whole of educated Europe. The paths 
 were different, but the result the same. 
 
 § 523. Voltaire, a versatile and ingenious author, who had distinguished 
 Voltaire, himself in all kinds of literature, attacked with the arms of 
 
 A. D. wit and a sharp intellect every thing customary and long- 
 
 1694-1778. established, all dominant opinions and existing regulations, 
 without concerning himself about what should come in their place. In 
 poems, dramatic and epic, ( " Mahomet," " The Henriad," " The Maid 
 
THE LITERATURE OF ILLUMINATION. 389 
 
 of Orleans," ) in satires and romances, in historical and pliilosopliical 
 works (" Essay on the Customs and Genius of Nations," " Times of 
 Louis XIV.," " History of Charles XII. of Sweden," «kc.) he laid down 
 his views and doubts, his thoughts and criticisms, his investigations and 
 conclusions. Religion and the Church, priesthood and popular belief, 
 experienced the most violent attacks ; and if it cannot be denied that Vol- 
 taire's sarcasm and wit have destroyed many prejudices, removed many 
 superstitions, and exhibited ecclesiastical exclusiveness in all its naked- 
 ness, so also it is to be lamented that he has broken down religious feel- 
 ing in many a heart, sown doubt and unbelief in many a mind, together 
 with cold, worldly wisdom, and therewith selfishness, and represented 
 self-love and self-interest as the highest motives of human actions. 
 .J . Montesquieu, a more earnest writer, drew attention to the 
 
 A. D. faultiness and absurdity of the existing state of things, with 
 
 1689-1755. a view to its improvement and reorganization in accordance 
 with the spirit of the age. In the " Persian Letters," he attacked with 
 the same wanton scorn as Voltaire the faith of the Cliurch, and the whole 
 form and system of government in France, and in the same way, by wit 
 and irony, turned the customs and social position of his contemporaries 
 into ridicule. In his ingenious treatise " On the Causes of the Greatness 
 and the Decline of the Romans," he tried to prove that patriotism and 
 self-reliance rendered a state great, but that despotism brought it to de- 
 struction. His third work, " On the Spirit of Laws," presents the con- 
 stitutional government of England as that best suited to the present race 
 of men. 
 
 J.J.Rousseau, J* J« Rousseau, the son of a watchmaker of Geneva, com- 
 ^- D. batted existing conditions of society by an alluring descrip- 
 
 1712-1/72. ^Jqj^ q^ ^^ opposite state of things. After a youth full of 
 mutations and abounding in necessities and errors, which he has display- 
 ed to the world with singular candor in his " Confessions," he arrived, by 
 the solution of a prize question on the influence of the arts and sciences 
 upon manners, at the fundamental doctrine of his whole life and eflforts, 
 — - namely, the principle, that a high degree of civilization is the occa- 
 sion of all the misery and all the crimes of mankind ; and that, con- 
 sequently, it is only by a return to a state of nature, full of innocence 
 and simplicity, and by shaking off all the fetters imposed by civilization, 
 education, and custom, that the world can arrive at happiness and safety. 
 This principle forms the central point of all his writings, which are more 
 distinguished by sentiment and attractive descriptions, than by profundi- 
 ty or truthfulness. In the " Nouvelle Heloise," a romance written in po- 
 etical language and in the epistolary form, he contrasts the pleasures of 
 a sentimental life of nature with the perverted relations of actual exis- 
 tence and the compulsions of society. In the " Emile," he attemptet^ to 
 establish a rational system of education, founded upon nature and parental 
 33* 
 
391) THE LATEST PERIOD. 
 
 affection, and thus expiated the sin he had committed by allowing hia 
 own children to be taken to the foundling hospital. The " Confession of 
 Faith of a Savoyard Vicar," which is to be found in this work, and in 
 which he taught and recommended a religion of the heart and feelings in 
 opposition to the predominant Church doctrine, brought banishment and 
 persecution upon him. In the " Social Contract," he represented the 
 equality of all men as the condition of a well-ordered state, and found 
 the most estimable government in a perfect democracy, with legislative 
 popular assemblies. In all these writings, golden truths are contained side 
 by side with many essential errors and seductive fallacies. His words are 
 the expression of a deep inward feeling, and penetrate to the heart be- 
 cause they come from the heart. The effect of his writings was immea- 
 surable, and every spot which his foot had trod, or where he had resided 
 as a persecuted fugitive, was gazed upon with reverence by the rising 
 generation. A feeling for nature, simplicity, and the domestic affections 
 was awakened in France by Rousseau ; but at the same time, there was 
 aroused a passionate longing for the lauded state of primitive liberty and 
 equality, which could only be slaked by the destruction of existing 
 arrangements and relations. 
 
 § 524. The influence of these men upon the opinions of all Europe 
 was so much the greater, inasmuch as Paris then gave the fashion in 
 every thing ; the French language and literature were alone read or 
 spoken by the higher classes, and these writings excited universal atten- 
 tion by their agreeable form and ingenious descriptions. Princes, like 
 Frederick II., Gustavus III. of Sweden, Charles III. of Spain, Catha- 
 rine II. of Russia, the greatest statesmen of all countries, and many per- 
 sons of influence, were in personal or epistolary correspondence with Vol- 
 taire and many of his similarly-minded contemporaries. Among these 
 contemporaries, D'Alembert, mathematician and philosopher, and the 
 wanton poet, Diderot, are particularly well known. They were the origin- 
 ators of the Encyclopasdic Dictionary, which was a clear, large-minded, and 
 unprejudiced summary of all human science, but hostile to every lofty 
 effort. From this work, they and their coadjutors received the name of 
 Encyclopaedists. 
 
 The first consequence of this literary activity was the triumph of en- 
 lightenment in most of the countries of Europe. This victory shortly 
 displayed itself in religious toleration, in the successful struggle of reason 
 against superstition and prejudice, in the vigorous reforms of many princes 
 and ministers, and, above all, in the abolition of the order of 
 
 A D 1773 
 
 the Jesuits, in the formation of the society of Illuminati, in 
 the Latin work of the suffragan bishop, Hontheim of Treves (who, under 
 the name of Febronius, pointed out the origin of the papal power and 
 attempted to derive a new canon law therefrom), and in the attempts of 
 several German prelates, in the Congress of Ems, to procure for the Ca 
 
FORERUNNERS OF THE REVOLUTION. 391 
 
 tholic Church of Germany a free position in regard to the Roman See. 
 The Order of the Jesuits, the great effort of which was to hinder 
 ^ ^' ^ * this enliglitenment, to retain the people in a state of pupilage, 
 and to oppose every reform and innovation, could not long exist at a time 
 •when the whole educated world was striving in the contrary direction. 
 Accordingly, when the minister, Pombal, in Portugal, closed the colleges of 
 the Jesuits, and sent the members of the Order to the States of the Church, 
 and when his example was followed in all the countries governed by the 
 house of Bourbon (Spain, Naples, Parma,) Pope Clement XIV., a libe- 
 ral and sensible prince of the Church, saw himself con- 
 strained to abolish the Order. This obliged Maria Theresa, 
 who had long attempted to retain the Order in Austria, to consent to its 
 dissolution, and the papal order was also carried into effect in Bavaria 
 and the other Catholic countries of Germany. But the activity of the 
 members of the Order was not thereby destroyed. Ex-Jesuits prose- 
 cuted the objects of the society with undisturbed perseverance, and strove 
 against the spirit of the time. For the purpose of paralyzing their efforts, 
 Adam Weishaupt, professor in Ingolstadt, in conjunction 
 with Knigge and others, founded the secret society of Illumi- 
 nati, whose objects were the enlightenment of the people, and the im- 
 provement of humanity. Their contest against the ex-Jesuits, monks, 
 and clergy, was soon checked by the legal prosecutions of the Bavarian 
 government. 
 
 § 525. In the war which the British Colonies of North America had car- 
 ried on against their mother country, Europe, which was filled with tho 
 ideas and dreams of Rousseau, saw the beginning of that great struggle by 
 which mankind were to enter into a state of paradisiacal happiness ; a 
 struggle, by the victorious termination of which the inborn rights of hu- 
 manity and the people were to attain validity. The North American 
 "War of Independence was the first contest of young freedom against the 
 ancient prerogatives, forms, and institutions ; and for this reason it had 
 a particular interest for Europe. 
 
 Holland, where the hereditary Stadtholder, William V., and his former 
 guardian and constant adviser, Ernest of Brunswick, were entirely de- 
 voted to the English, whilst the aristocracy, from regard to the interests 
 of commerce, were in alliance with the French, was injured in its trade, 
 in its navigation, and in its colonies, by this war. Besides the irrepara- 
 ble losses incurred by the East and West Indian trading companies, the 
 Dutch possessions in the East Indies suffered a diminution. Holland 
 afterwards entered into more intimate relations with France. Her people, 
 excited by the notions of republicanism and democratic freedom, which, 
 since the American war, ha*d spread over Europe, gave vent to the ani- 
 mosity they felt against their government, which was favorably disposed 
 towards England, by an insurrection. Duke Ernest of Brunswick was 
 
392 THE LATEST PERIOD. 
 
 obliged to leave the country, the Stadtholder'and his wife were threatened, 
 
 and armed mobs committed violence in some of the towns. 
 
 ■ At length, Frederick William 11. of Prussia, brother of the 
 
 A. D. 1787. Stadtholder's wife, marched troops into Holland, who quickly 
 
 put an end to the insurrection and restored order. 
 
 2. INNOVATIONS OF PRINCES AND MINISTERS. 
 
 § 52G. The French illuminative philosophy and the Parisian spirit of 
 the age exercised the greatest influence upon the views and measures of 
 princes and governments. Not only were all the productions of French 
 literature eagerly read and admired in the higher circles of Europe, but 
 it also became the fashion for the well-born youth to spend some time in 
 Paris to complete their education, and no man of consequence could 
 reckon upon consideration or regard if he had not been admitted into the 
 intellectual circles of the French capital. All the princes and statesmen 
 of Europe strove for the favor and friendship of the French literati and 
 philosophers. Is it then to be wondered at, that, in the three last decen- 
 niums which preceded the French Revolution, many reforms and innova- 
 tions were undertaken, which had their origin in that spirit of the times 
 which had been formed in France ? The endeavor was to apply practi- 
 cally that which, in speech and in writing, was allowed to be the truth. Zeal- 
 ous efforts were accordingly made on all sides to revolutionize ancient 
 forms and institutions, laws and customs, and to adapt them by fresh 
 arrangements to the spirit of the age. In the region of religion and the 
 Church, this spirit first displayed itself in the establishment of the liberal 
 and magnanimous principle of toleration in matters of faith, in the abolition 
 of the Order of the Jesuits and of the Inquisition, and in the moderation 
 of all principles and institutions dangerous to philanthropy or the rights 
 of mankind. This new epoch of humanity exhibited itself most actively 
 and with the best results in the affairs of law, where efforts were every- 
 where made to establish, as far as possible, the equal administration of 
 justice to every man, and to ameliorate or abolish the statutes and bur- 
 dens which had descended from the n^iddle ages. In many countries, serf- 
 dom was abolished, feudal duties were done away with, oppressive or de- 
 grading relations removed ; new codes and ordinances respecting the ad- 
 ministration of justice annulled the cruel punishments of a stern and 
 gloomy period, such as the rack, wheel, &c., and conferred the privileges 
 of humanity even on the criminal. In regard to the economy of the 
 state, nev/ principles were established in France, which were adopted in 
 many countries. According to these, money is the great lever of state 
 science, and, consequently, the great object is to raise as large a revenue 
 as possible by labor and by making use of natural agents. If this prin- 
 ciple, on the one hand, was the occasion of the encouragement of agri- 
 culture, mining, and planting, and that trade, industry, and useful inven- 
 
INNOVATIONS OF PRINCES AND MINISTERS. 393 
 
 tions were patronized, it led, on the other, to oppressive duties, to the 
 royal right of preemption, to indirect taxation, and to paper money. 
 
 § 527. The first who reorganized the relations of the state upon these 
 Joseph Em- principles was Pombal, in Portugal, the all-powerful minis- 
 mannel, a. d. ter of Joseph Emmanuel. An attempt to murder the king, 
 1750-1777. which was ascribed to the powerful family of Tavora and 
 A. D. 1759. ^^Q instigations of the Jesuits, was made use of to drive the 
 members of this Order out of Portugal, and afterwards to effect the en- 
 lightenment of the people by new seminaries of education and by the dif- 
 fusion of printed books. The pervading activity of this able man was 
 felt in every quarter. He had the affairs of the army and those relating to 
 war placed on a better footing by the German marshal, Wilham of Lippe- 
 Schaumburg ; he encouraged agriculture and industry, to draw the people 
 from dirt and indolence ; and when a fearful earthquake destroyed 
 November, 30,000 houses in Lisbon, he was indefatigable in repairing the 
 1755. mischief. Pombal united the severity and arbitrariness of a 
 
 despot to the. courage and the penetrating will of a reformer. All the 
 prisons were filled with those who opposed him. When these regained 
 their Hberty under the reign of the weak Maria, they united themselves 
 for the overthrow of the minister, after which, Portugal was again plung- 
 ed into the same wretched state as before. In Spain, similar attempts 
 were made to i-eorganize the affairs of Church and State by 
 A. D. ' liberal ministers, like Aranda and others. "When the Jesuits 
 1759-1785. opposed these innovations, Aranda ordered 5,000 of them to 
 be arrested in a single night, embarked on board shi})s, without distinc- 
 tion of age or rank, and carried off like criminals, with great harshness, 
 to the States of the Church. Their property was confiscated and their 
 establishments closed. During the latter years of the reign of Charles 
 III., however, the clergy and Inquisition again acquired great influence, 
 and destroyed or disturbed the greater number of the reforms. In 
 France. France, the minister Choiseul belonged to the promoters of 
 
 Choiseul. enlightenment and progress ; but under the government of a 
 voluptuous king, like Louis XV., no improvement could take place. 
 After the ascension of the throne by Louis XVL, two men were ciilled 
 to the ministry who possessed both the power and the will to heal the 
 shattered constitution of the state by effectual , reforms — Tuigot and 
 
 ^ Malesherbes. They proposed that a new mode of taxation 
 
 Malasherbes, should be introduced, that the nobility and clergy should 
 A. D. 1776. i^pjjj. j^j^^jj^. gjjj^j.^ Qf ^i^Q burdens of the state, and that the 
 institutions of the middle ages should be modified so as to suit the 
 present times. Civil equality before the law, without regard to person, 
 rank, or religion, was to be everywhere maintained ; but their plans 
 were shipwrecked by the selfishness of the nobles and the clergy, and by 
 the blindness of the court. 
 
394 THE LATEST PERIOD. 
 
 § 528. Similar attempts at reform were made about the same time 
 Christian VII. ^" *^^® North and East of Europe. In Denmark, under the 
 A. ». imbecile king, Christian VII., the German physician, Struen- 
 
 see, arrived at the dignity of count of the empire and prime 
 minister, bj the aid of the queen, Caroline Matilda, a daughter of the 
 royal house of England. Furnished with unheard-of powers, so that all 
 orders signed by him and provided with the seal of the cabinet possessed 
 the same validity as if the king himself had subscribed them, Struensee 
 adopted a multitude of arrangements, in the spirit of the age, for the re- 
 lief of the citizen and peasant classes, for the curtailment of the power 
 of the nobility, and for the improvement of the proceedings of justice. 
 A man without remarkable qualities, without strength of character, with- 
 out courage or resolution, he soon laid himself open in such a way that his 
 fall was readily accomplished. His confidential relations with the high- 
 minded although imprudent queen received an unfavorable interpretation ; 
 he offended the national feeling of the Danes by his use of the German 
 language in all official proclamations ; and by the want of courage he 
 displayed on the occasion of a trifling tumult among the military and sail- 
 ors, he rendered himself contemptible, and inspired his opponents with 
 confidence. Whilst the minister was at a ball, Juliana, Christian's step- 
 mother, pressed into the king's bedchamber with some of her confidants, 
 and, by her description of the dangers that were threatening, induced him 
 to sign a number of orders of arrest that were already prepared. Upon 
 this, Struensee and his friend Brandt were committed to prison, and, after 
 a most ini^uitously conducted trial, punished, the one by being beheaded, 
 August 28, the other by the loss of his right hand. Caroline Matilda, 
 1772. • betrayed by the weakness of Struensee, was separated from 
 
 A. D. 1775. the king, and died, after three years of wretchedness, in 
 Celle. After the death of Struensee, Juliana took possession of the gov- 
 ernment, and ordered, through her favorite Guldberg, all the offensive 
 reforms to be repealed. But when the Crown Prince, Frederick, came 
 of age, he conducted the government in his father's name, and made over 
 the conduct of the ministry to the gallant Bernstorf. 
 
 § 529. In Sweden, the power of the aristocracy attained its full deve- 
 Adolf Frede- lopment under the reign of the good-natured king, Adolf Fre- 
 rick, A. D. derick. The council of state, which had the management of 
 1/57-1771. every thing, consisted of men without either honor or patriot- 
 ism, who sold themselves to foreign powers, and served the interests of 
 those states from which they drew the largest sums of money ; the honor 
 and well-being of the country was a point they never considered. Two 
 parties, called " Hats " and " Caps," the former in the pay of France, the 
 latter in that of Russia, hated and persecuted each other even unto blood- 
 shed, and made the Diet the scene of their hostile attacks. The king 
 possessed neither power nor respect. This state of things came to an end;. 
 
IXN0VATI0X3 OF PRINCES AXD MINISTERS. 395 
 
 »rhen, after the death of Adolf Frederick, the adroit and popular Gus- 
 tavus III. ascended the throne. Brave, chivalrous, and elo- 
 *' quent, he easily gained over the Swedish army and people to 
 1771-1791 ^^^ ^'^^^' ^"^ ^^^^ compelled the state council, after he had 
 surrounded their house of assembly with troops, to consent to 
 alterations in the government. By this bloodless revolution, the execu- 
 tive power was restored to the crown, and the council of state reduced 
 within the bounds of a deliberative assembly. The disposition of the 
 land and sea forces, and the appointment of state and military officers, 
 were in the hands of the- king. lie was to collect the votes of the Es- 
 tates before levying a tax, declaring war, or concluding a peace. But 
 after a few years, he freed himself from this restraint also, by an arbitra- 
 ry exercise of power, and gave absolute authority to the throne. En- 
 dowed with many talents and kingly qualities, Gustavus III. took ad- 
 vantage of his lofty position to introduce many reforms in the govern- 
 ment and administration of justice, which contributed to the welfare of 
 his people, and were in accordance with the spirit of the times. But 
 many of his proceedings were the result of a love of magnificence, a de- 
 sire to imitate French fashions, and an attachment to the departed times 
 of chivalry. The founding of an academy upon the French model, the 
 erection of theatres and opera houses, the revival of tournaments and 
 running at the ring, occasioned great expenses to the impoverished 
 country. The king's unseasonable dreams of heroism, and his chivalrous 
 whims, gave a distorted turn to his activity. When he declared that the 
 distillation of brandy was a privilege of royalty, and compelled the Swedes 
 to buy their accustomed beverage, which hitherto almost every family 
 had prepared for itself, for a high price af the royal distilleries, and when 
 he undertook a useless and expensive war, both by sea and land, with 
 Russia, the affection of his people gradually decayed ; and 
 when, at lenojth, before the former wounds had ceased to bleed, 
 
 A. D. 1790. , ,. f . , T^ ^ , n 
 
 he meditated a war with r ranee, for the purpose or opposing 
 
 the Revolution, and saving the crown of Louis XVL, a 
 1792 ' conspiracy was formed, in consequence of which Gustavus 
 
 III. was shot at a masked ball by Ankarstrom, a forraei 
 officer of the guard. 
 
 . § 530. In Austria, Maria Theresa, in conjunction with the 
 
 enlightened minister, Kaunitz, was the first to abolish many 
 abuses, and to introduce many timely reforms. The affairs of the army 
 and of war were reorganized, the administration of justice was in every way 
 improved ; new seminaries of education were established, and the econo- 
 my of the state properly arranged. But she proceeded with prudence 
 and discretion, and treated with forbearance not only the national faith, 
 but the national rights, and the established usages and customs. Not so 
 her son Joseph II. Scarcely had he become the absolute ruler of the 
 
396 THE LATEST PERIOD. 
 
 vast Austrian empire, before he undertook a series of reforms which 
 offended the clergj and the zealous friends of the Church, 
 os^p II., prejudiced the privileged nobility, and outraged the national 
 1780-1790. feelings of the subjects of the imperial house. He first in- 
 troduced religious toleration, and afforded the adherents of 
 the Lutheran, Calvinistic, and Greek Churches the free exercise of their 
 religion, and equal civil and political rights with the Catholics ; he then 
 diminished the number of monasteries, and applied the property of the 
 Church which was thus obtained to the improvement of schools, and to 
 the erection of establishments of general utility ; he limited pilgrimages 
 and processions, and embarrassed the communication and intercourse of 
 the clergy with Rome. It was in vain that pope Pius YI. endeavored to 
 bring the emperor to a different course by the unexampled proceeding 
 of a journey to Vienna. Joseph received him with the greatest respect, 
 but remained firm to his purpose. Not less fertile of results were his 
 reforms in civil and political matters. He established personal freedom 
 by the abolition of serfdom, and civil legal equality by the introduction 
 of an equitable system of taxation, and of equality in the eye of the law, 
 without regard to rank or person. Joseph II. had the noblest intentions 
 in these innovations ; but he proceeded with too great haste, and too little 
 regard to existing relations, customs, and prejudices, and did not allow 
 the seed the necessary time to ripen. He thus placed in the hands of 
 the opponents of progress the means of throwing suspicion upon his ac- 
 tions and efforts, and of depriving his measures, which were calculated 
 for the happiness of mankind, of all their fruits. When he attempted to 
 introduce his reforms into the Austrian Netherlands also, established a 
 new high court of justice in Brussels, and commenced the reorganization of 
 the university of Louvain, which was under the guidance of the clergy, 
 disturbances arose that at length terminated in a universal rebellion. 
 The Netherlanders refused the taxes, drove the Austrian re- 
 gency, along with the weak garrison, out of the country, and 
 declared in a congress the independence of the Netherlands. This event, 
 
 ^ ^ which had been brou^rht about by the nobility and clersry, 
 
 A. D. 1790. . ° "^ J nJ J 
 
 and similar occurrences in Hungary, broke the heart of the 
 
 Febmary 20, irritable emperor, and hastened his death, the seeds of 
 1790 
 
 which he had imbibed in the unhealthy lands of the Danube, 
 
 during the Turkish wars, when he was the ally of Russia. Joseph's 
 
 indefatigable exertions, and the activity with which he superintended 
 
 every thing himself, the freedom with which he admitted both high 
 
 and low to his presence, and his abolition of the tyranny of officials, met 
 
 with no appreciation; his views were misunderstood and misrepresented, 
 
 Leopold n., his noblest plans were frustrated, and his name calumniated. 
 
 A.. B. But posterity, which can appreciate more justly his intentions 
 
 1790-1792. ^^^^ yg efforts, will ever bless his memory. His brother and 
 
WAR OF RUSSIA WITH THE TURKS. 397 
 
 luccessor, Leopold II., restored most of the ancient usages, and thus 
 brouglit back peace in Belgium and Hungary. 
 
 Russia. § 531. Even uncivilized Russia felt the influence of the 
 
 Catherine H., spirit of the age, under the long and splendid reign of Cathe- 
 A. D. rine II. The empress possessed great talents for govern- 
 
 1762-1796. ment, and a susceptible mind ; she maintained a correspond- 
 ence with Voltaire and others of similar sentiments, invited Diderot to 
 St. Petersburg, and encouraged sciences and arts. She improved the 
 administration of justice, founded schools and academies, and adopted 
 many arrangements that gave an air of civilization to the country, and 
 which were loudly applauded by the French authors. But the greater 
 part was mere illusion ; the celebrated journey of the empress to Tauris, 
 during which, artificial villages, shepherds and their flocks driven to the 
 spot, and country festivals along the road, were to produce the belief that 
 the land was blooming and prosperous, is an image of her whole reign. 
 As regards the private life of the empress and her court, the same immo- 
 rality, dissoluteness, and luxury reigned in St. Petersburg as in Paris. 
 After Gregor Orloff, to whom the voluptuous empress had surrendered 
 both her person and her empire in return for the share he had taken in 
 the murder of her husband, followed a succession of other paramours, 
 who were all loaded with wealth and honors. The situation of the fa- 
 vored lover of the empress was at length disposed. of like a court-office. 
 No one, however, enjoyed her favor so long as Potemkin the Taurlan. 
 For a space of sixteen years, he conducted the affairs of government and 
 Potemkin, the plans of conquest, lived during the whole of the time in 
 A. D. 1791. a state of magnificence that bordered on the fabulous, and 
 displayed the wealth that was showered upon him by his liberal mistress 
 in a manner truly remarkable. It was only a man with a spirit of en- 
 terprise so daring as to. spare neither money nor human life, who, in the 
 eyes of the empress, was capable of giving the befitting glory and renown 
 to her government. The rebellion of Pugatschcff, a Don Cossack, who 
 called himself Peter III., and who found many adherents in 
 the neighborh-»od of the Volga, was speedily sui)pressed. 
 
 PujiratscheiF, bet.ayed by his bosom friend, was beheaded in 
 A. D. 1775. __ ° \ , . -, . 
 
 Moscow, and his body cut to pieces. 
 
 3. THE PARTITIONS OF POLAND, AND RUSSIA'S WAR WITH 
 THE TURKS. 
 
 § 532. The kingdom of Poland had long been a rotten structure, which 
 was preserved upright only by the divisions and jealousies of the neighbor- 
 ing states, and not by its own strength. The elective constitution was the 
 misfortune of the country ; every vacancy of the throne produced the 
 most violent contests, by which the nation was divided into parties, bri- 
 bery and corruption became predominant, and the nobles attained such 
 34 
 
398 THE LATEST PERIOD. 
 
 privileges as were inconsistent with any well organized state policy. The 
 throne was powerless; the Diet, from which « Republican Poland" re- 
 ceived her laws, became proverbial from the vehement party contests 
 that rendered every debate fruitless ; the whole power was placed in the 
 hands of the armed confederation. A kingdom, where it was only the 
 noble who possessed liberty or the privilege of bearing arms, and who, 
 relying upon his sword, despised the law ; where enslaved peasants were 
 held in a condition of serfdom ; where commerce, which in other lands 
 is carried on by a cultivated class of citizens, was in the hands of sor- 
 did f.nd avaricious Jews, must needs have excited the cupidity of ambi- 
 tious neighbors. 
 
 Augustus in., After the death of Augustus III., the Polish empire again 
 A. D. 1763. became the prey of the old elective tempests, till at length, 
 Stanislaus Poniatowski, one of the former lovers of the empress Cathe- 
 rine II., was chosen king in the plain of Wola, amidst the clash of Rus- 
 September, 4, sian sabres. Poniatowski was a connoisseur and patron of 
 1764. literature and the arts, and an amiable and accomplished gen- 
 
 Poniatow?ki tleman, but without strength of character or power of will. 
 A. D. Weak, and with no consistency of character, he was a mere 
 
 17M-Ira5. tennis-ball in the hands of the powerful. The Russian am- 
 bassador in Warsaw possessed greater power than he did ; and, to pre- 
 vent the possibility of Poland's escape from this state of disorder and 
 feebleness, Russia and Prussia determined upon maintaining the ancient 
 constitution unaltered. 
 
 § 533. It happened at this crisis, that the Polish Dissidents, under 
 which term were included not only the Protestants and Socinians, but 
 also the adherents of the Greek Church, petitioned the Diet for the resto- 
 ration of the ecclesiastical and civil privileges of which they had been de- 
 prived by the Jesuits. Their petition, although supported by Russia, 
 Prussia, and most of the Protestant governments, was rejected at the 
 Diet by the Catholic nobility, at the instigation of the clergy. The Dis- 
 sidents, in combination with the " discontented," now formed the General 
 
 ^ ^ Confederation of Radom, called upon Russia for assistance, 
 
 July23, 17G7. T -, , r . J ,. . -. . . /> 
 
 and extorted the tree exercise oi religion, admission to ot- 
 
 fices, and the churches they had before possessed, from the Diet. Sur- 
 rounded by Russian troops, the representatives subscribed, under the 
 portrait of the empress, the act of toleration, that was greeted by all 
 Europe, and which was the sign of the impotence of Poland. That this 
 impotence might be permanent, it was decided that no change should be 
 made in the existing constitution without the consent of Russia. 
 
 These proceedings offended the national feeling of the Polish patriots, 
 «md aroused the religious hatred of the Catholic zealots. The ante-con- 
 February 28, federation of Bar was formed, which was to free the Poles 
 1768. from Russian supremacy, and to wrest from the Dissidents 
 
"WAR OF RUSSIA iflTH THE TURKS. 399 
 
 the riglits that had been conceded them. France supported it -with 
 money and officers. A furious war now arose between the two confede- 
 rations. But the Russian army, which had remained in the country for 
 the protection of the Diet and the Dissidents, carried off the victory. 
 Bar and Cracow, the chief strongholds of the enemy, were stormed, and 
 they were compelled to take refuge in the Turkish dominions. The Rus- 
 sians followed them over the borders, and did not refrain from murder- 
 ing, plundering, and devastating even on a foreign soil. 
 
 § 53i. This infringement of territory indijced the Porte, which was 
 urged on by the French ambassadors, to declare hostilities against Rus- 
 First Turkish si^? whereupon the Turkish war burst forth, which for six 
 War, A. D. years fearfully convulsed the east of Europe both by land 
 1768-1774. and sea. Whilst RomanzofT, after two bloody encounters, 
 was conquering Moldavia and Wallachia, and the dreadful storm of Ben- 
 der was filling all Europe with astonishment, the Morea, where the 
 Greeks, relying upon the assistance of Russia, had risen against the rule 
 of the Turks, was horribly ravaged with fire and sword by the latter, so 
 that whole districts were covered with ruins and corpses ; and in the 
 haven of Tschesme, opposite the island of Chios, the whole Turkish 
 July, 16, fleet was destroyed by fire. At the same time, Moscow and 
 A. D. 1771. its neighborhood were visited by a desolating pestilence, and, 
 in Poland, the civil war still raged with increasing fury. It was only 
 by a miracle that Poniatowski escaped from some conspirators, who 
 wished to carry him off from Warsaw. On every side the eye encoun- 
 tered plains soaked with blood, villages burnt to the ground, and weep- 
 iftg inhabitants. The impotence and divisions of Poland invited the 
 neighboring powers to attempt a partition of her territory. After a per- 
 sonal interview between Frederick II. and Joseph II. (the rightminded 
 Maria Theresa was hostile to the scheme,) and a visit of prince Henry of 
 August 5, Prussia to St. Petersburg, a treaty of partition was arranged 
 1772. between Russia, Austria, and Prussia, in consequence of 
 
 which each of these states took possession of the portion of Poland which 
 adjoined their own territories. It was in vain that the Diet opposed it- 
 self courageously and resolutely to the execution of this project, and 
 showed that the pretended rights and claims which the powers insisted 
 upon had long been given up by contracts, surrenders, and treaties of 
 peace ; it was in vain that it solemnly protested before God and the 
 world against such an abuse of superior power, and against a proceeding 
 which outraged truth and good faith ; surrounded and threatened by 
 Russian arms, it at length yielded to force, and consented to the surrender 
 of the country. It was thus that Polish Prussia, together with the dis- 
 trict of the Netz, and the fertile lands of the Vistula (Elbing, Marien- 
 burg. Culm, &;c.) became the property of Prussia; Galicia, with the 
 rich mines of Wielicza, of Austria; and the lands on the Dwina and 
 
400 THE LATEST PERIOD. 
 
 Dnieper, of Russia. The establishment of a " perpetual council " that 
 was completely under Russian influence, deprived the king of the last 
 remains of power. From this time forth, the Russian ambassador in 
 "Warsaw was the real governor of the Pohsh republic. Shortly after, 
 Russia, by the peace of Kudschuck Kainardsche Avith the Porte, obtained 
 the riglit of passage through the Dardanelles, and the protective gov- 
 ernment of Moldavia and Wallachia, and the peninsula of the Crimea. 
 
 § 535. Russia's thirst of conquest was not satisfied with this. A few- 
 years afterwards, the khan of the Tartars was compelled to lay down his 
 oflice ; upon which, Potemkin conquered the Crimea, after 
 dreadful devastations, and united it, with the other lands on 
 the Black Sea, into one territory, distinguished by the ancient name of 
 Tauris. Colonists were called forth from Germany into the desolate 
 steppes, the trading towns of Cherson and Odessa arose, and deceived the 
 world by the outward appearance of civilization. But the happiness 
 and prosperity of the inhabitants disappeared with freedom ; the once 
 splendid city of tents degenerated into a camp of gypsies ; and the houses 
 and palaces of stone fell into ruins. The threatening neighborhood of 
 Second Turk- Russia was a cause of anxiety to the Porte. Before long, a 
 ish War, A. d. second furious war broke out, by land and sea, between Rus- 
 1787-1792. gj^ ^^^ Turkey. But this time, also, victory accompanied 
 the Russian army and its dreadful leader. In the midst of winter, Po- 
 December 17, temkin stormed the strong city of Oczakow, after he had 
 1788. filled the trenches with blood and dead bodies ; and the brave 
 
 SuwarofF took the fortress of Ismael under circumstances of similar hor- 
 December 22, ror. The road to Constantinople now stood open to the Rus- 
 ^'^^0- sians, and the name of Catherine's second grandchild, " Con- 
 
 stantine," was supposed to indicate the secret intention of the empress to 
 introduce a Christian prince into the Byzantine capital. This love of 
 conquest displayed by Russia occasioned uneasiness to the other states. 
 England and Prussia assumed a threatening aspect ; Gustavus III. of 
 Sweden attacked the Russians by sea and land ; and Poland thought 
 that the favorable moment had arrived for withdrawing herself from the 
 dictatorial influence of Russia, and for again regaining her political inde- 
 pendence. In alliance with Prussia, the Poles dissolved the perpetual 
 council, turned the elective empire into an hereditary mon-^ 
 ' ' archy, gave themselves a constitutional government with 
 two chambers, and a stricter separation of the executive, legislative, and 
 judicial powers. 
 
 § 536. This constitution, appropriate to the age, and the work of pa- 
 triotically-disposed men, was received with applause by the whole of 
 Europe. The king swore to observe it. Frederick William II. ex- 
 pressed his favorable wishes : even Catherine concealed her vexation. A 
 new spirit seemed to have taken possession of the nation. But party- 
 
THE PARTITIONS OF POLAND. 401 
 
 spirit and selfishness destroyed the good work. Many of the noblea 
 were discontented with the change ; a party was formed for the preserva- 
 tion of Polish " liberty," as they, in their delusion, called the ancient sys- 
 tem, and they invoked the aid of the empress. The latter had just concluded 
 the peace of Jassy witli the Porte, and embraced with avidity the oppor- 
 tunity of marching her army upon the frontiers. Trusting to this assist- 
 Januarj', ance, the Russian party formed the confederation of Targo- 
 1792. wicz, for the restoration of the old constitution. A Russian 
 
 May 14, army soon stood in the heart of Poland. In vain the patri- 
 
 1792. ots called upon Prussia for assistance ; opinions had changed 
 
 in Berlin ; an alliance with Russia was preferred to the frienship of Po- 
 land, more particularly as an imitation of the new French ideas and 
 forms of government was detected in the new constitution. Nevertheless, 
 the Poles did not despair of their righteous cause. Kosciuzko, a brave 
 soldier, who had fought in the cause of freedom under Washington in 
 America, placed himself at the head of the patriots, and encountered the 
 July 17, superior force of the Russians at Dubienka. But party-c^ptnt, 
 
 1792. dissension, treachery, and want of system impeded every un- 
 
 dertaking, and paralyzed every power. The king, hitherto an enthusias- 
 tic adherent of the new constitution, soon fell into his old irresolution and 
 faint-heartedness, and allowed himself to be so terrified by a threatening 
 letter of the empress, that he joined the alliance of Targowicz, and re- 
 nounced all further hostilities. The gallant warriors laid down the sword 
 in wrath, and left their homes to escape the scorn of the victors. 
 
 But a new act of violence followed the victory. In April, Russia and 
 Prussia declared that it was necessaiy to inclose Poland 
 
 A. D, 1793. ... ,..,., n .r.. 
 
 withm narrower limits, for the purpose of stifling the intoxi- 
 cation of liberty which had penetrated into the republic from France, and 
 of preserving the neighboring states from every taint of democratic Jaco- 
 binism. It was in vain that the Diet assembled at Grodno opposed itself 
 to this new treaty of partition. Every opposition gradually ceased, when 
 Russian troops surrounded the house of assembly, and violently carried 
 oiF the boldest speakers. Thus followed the second division of Poland, 
 July 22; hy which Russia obtained the most important of the eastern 
 October 14, districts (Lithuania, Little Poland, Volhynia, Podolia, Ukra- 
 ' ine) \ Prussia gained possession of Great Poland, along with 
 
 Dantzic and Thorn. The republic of Poland retained scarce a third of 
 her former territory. • 
 
 § 537. The partitioned land was occupied by Russian and Prussian 
 troops ; and Catherine's ambassador, the coarse and brutal Igelstrom, 
 ruled with pride and insolence in "Warsaw. The national spirit of Poland 
 was once more aroused. A secret conspiracy was formed, which ex 
 tended its branches over the whole country. Kosciuzko and the emi 
 grant- patriots returned, and placed themselves at the head of the move* 
 
 34* 
 
402 THE LATEST PERIOD. 
 
 ment, the central point of which was Cracow. It was from this place 
 that Kosciuzko, who had been named the absolute chief of the national 
 force, issued a summons to the people, in which he->rep^esented the restora- 
 tion of the freedom and independence of the country, the reconquest of 
 the separated territories, and the introduction of a , onstitutional govern- 
 AprillT, ment, as the objects of the struggle^ The insurrection 
 1794. quickly extended itself to the capital, x e Russian garrison 
 
 in Warsaw was attacked on Maundj-Thursdaj, and "'ither cut to pieces 
 or made prisoners. Igelstrom's palace was destroyed ' y fire ; four of 
 the most illustrious adherents of Russia died upon ti^ gallows. The 
 provinces followed the example of the capital ; the king approved the 
 revolt of the misused nation ; and every thing promised a successful is- 
 sue. The Prussians, who had marched into the neighborhood of War- 
 saw, were compelled to a hasty and disastrous retreat hj the brave 
 generals Kosciuzko, Dombrowski, and Joseph Poniatowski "(the nephew 
 of the king.) But the success of the Poles increased the enemy's de- 
 sire of vengeance. Catherine, with the consent of Austria and Prussia, 
 sent her most redoubted general, Suwaroff, into Poland. Kosciuzko was 
 obliged to yield to the superior strength of his opponent. After an un- 
 successful engagement, he fell, wounded, from his horse, with the excla- 
 OctoberlO, mation, " the end of Poland ! " and was carried off a prisoner. 
 1794. On the 4th of November, the suburb, Praga, was stormed by 
 
 Suwaroff; 12,000 defenceless people were either slain or drown-^d in 
 the Vistula. The shrieks of the slaughtered terrified the inhabitants of 
 the capital, and made them willing to surrender. On the 9th of Novem- 
 ber, Suwaroff made his splendid entry into Warsaw as a conqueror. 
 Poniatowski was obliged to surrender the crown. He lived in St. Pe- 
 tersburg, on an annuity, till his death in 1798, an object of deserved con- 
 tempt. A few months later, the three powers declared that 
 ' out of love for peace and the welfare of their subjects, they 
 had decided upon the partition of the whole republic of Poland. Ac- 
 cordingly, the south, with Cracow, went to Austria ; the land on the left 
 of the Vistula, with the capital, Warsaw, to Prussia ; Russia took pos- 
 session of all the rest. Thus the once renowned and powerful Poland 
 disappeared from the ranks of independent States, a victim to a weakness 
 for which she was indebted to herself, and a violence that despised the 
 rights of foreign nations. Kosciuzko, after being set at liberty by Paul 
 I., died as a private man in Switzerland (October, 1817). His dead 
 body was conveyed to Cracow. 
 
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 403 
 
 B. THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 
 
 1. TH , LAST DATS OF ABSOLUTE MONARCHY. 
 
 § 538. Louis "^V. at first possessed the affections of his people to suck 
 Louis XV. a d' o^66> t^^t ^6 was named the " Much-beloved ; " and when 
 died 1774. jjp ^vas attacked by a dangerous illness in Metz, the whole 
 land went ir Jiouming, and his recovery was celebrated by the greates/ 
 rejoicings. Lut this love gradually changed into hatred and contempt 
 when the k*ng gave himself up to the most shameless debaucheries, and 
 surrendered the government of the country, the command of the army, 
 and the decision upon points of law and state policy, to the companions 
 of his orgies and the ministers of his lusts and pleasures ; and when 
 mistresses, without ifaorals or decency, ruled the court and the empire. 
 Among these women, none possessed greater or more enduring influence 
 than the Marchioness of Pompadour, who guided the whole policy 
 of France for a period of twenty years, filled the most important offices 
 with her fiworites, decided upon peace or war, and disposed of the revenues 
 of the state as she did of her private purse, so that, after a life passed in 
 luxury and splendor, she left millions behind her. She and her creatures 
 encouraged Louis's excesses and love of pleasure, that he might plunge 
 continually deeper in the pool of vice, and leave to them the government 
 of the state. For the rest, the Pompadour used her position and her in- 
 fluence with a certain dignity, and with tact and discretion ; but when the 
 countess Du Barry, a woman from the very dregs of the people, occupied 
 her place, the court lost all authority and respect. 
 
 § 539. This reign of lust and extravagance, together with the useless 
 and costly wars in Germany, exhausted the treasury and increased the 
 burden of debts and taxation. And as all these taxes and imposts press- 
 ed entirely upon the citizen and peasant class, whilst the wealthy no- 
 bility and the clergy enjoyed an exemption, the man of moderate means 
 was very heavily burdened, especially as the government did not super- 
 intend their collection, but left it in the hands of the farmers-general of 
 the revenue and of their blood-sucking subordinates. The land and 
 property-tax, the capitation-tax, the house-tax, the tolls and duties upon 
 salt, wrested from the lower classes (who, in addition, had to pay tithes, 
 labor-dues, and other feudal taxes to their landlords), the fruits of their 
 industry, and prevented the rise of a prospe'rous middle class. It was 
 the custom that all laws and ordinances relating to taxes should be re- 
 gistered in the parliament of Paris ; hence it followed, that in default of 
 the States-General, which since 1614 had no more been summoned, the 
 validity of taxes and orders depended upon its sanction ; and that it also 
 the right of opposing the laws and edicts relating to taxes by 
 
404 THE LATEST PERIOD. 
 
 refusing their registration. This produced a violent contest between the 
 parliament and government at every new tax, which was usually termi- 
 nated by the king holding a " bed of justice," and overpowering resistance. 
 Beside the lax edicts, the arbitrary lettres de cachet were another source 
 of contention between the court and the parliament. These terrible let- 
 ters, which were easily to be obtained by any one possessing any influ- 
 ence at court, were a despotic attack upon the liberty of the person, in- 
 asmuch as by their means any one might be arrested and imprisoned 
 without a hearing. For ten years did the parliament struggle against 
 the court and government, till Louis XV., weary of the perpetual opposi- 
 tion, at length gave a new direction to the matter, and ordered 
 A. D. 1771. ^j^^ members of the opposition to be arrested. But they 
 again assumed the same attitude under his successor. 
 
 § 540. "When Louis XV., in consequence of his excesses, was carried 
 off in the midst of his sins by a frightful distemper, the treasury was ex- 
 hausted, the country in debt, credit gone, and the people heavily oppress- 
 Louis XVI. 6^ by their burdens. It was under these melancholy cir- 
 A. D. cumstances, that an absolute throne descended to a prince 
 
 1774-1793. ^Ijq certainly possessed the best of hearts, but a weak un- 
 derstanding ; who w^as good-natured enough to wish to relieve the condi- 
 tion of the people, but who possessed neither strength nor intellect for 
 efficient measures. This prince was Louis XVL Weak and indulgent, 
 he allowed the frivolitj'- and extravagance of his brothers, the count of 
 Provence (afterwards Louis XVIIL), and the count of Artois (Charles 
 X.) ; and permitted hiT wife, Marie Antoinette, the highly-accomplished 
 daughter of Maria Theresa, to interfere in matters of state, and to exert 
 a considerable irflnence upon the court and government. The queen, by 
 her pride and haughty bearing, incurred the dislike of the people, so that 
 they ascribed every unpopular measure to her influence, and put a bad 
 construction upon every liberty she allowed herself in private. Even in 
 the celebrated story of the necklace, in which some swindler made use 
 of her name to gain possession of a splendid ornament, many believed 
 her participation in the guilt. 
 
 The prevailing want of money, and the disordered state of the revenue, 
 could only be remedied by including the nobility and clergy in the taxa- 
 tion, by large reforms in the whole system of government, like those pro- 
 posed by Turgot and Malesherbes, and by order and economy in the ex- 
 penditure. But Louis XVL had neither strength nor resolution to carry 
 out such decisive measures ; and as for economy, the extravagant court of 
 Versailles would not listen to it. The Genevese banker, Necker, who 
 Keeker's first ^^^^^rtook the management of the finances after Turgot, was 
 ministry, as littl'j in a position as his predecessor to reduce the disorder 
 A. D. in the state economy ; and when, upon the occasion of a loan, 
 
 he exposed the financial condition of France in a pamphlet, 
 
THE FKENCH REVOLUTION. 405 
 
 he drew upon himself the displeasure of the court and the aristocracy to 
 such a degree, that he was obliged to resign his office. This 
 happened at the time when the American war had increased 
 the scarcity of money, and aroused the feeling of liberty and republican- 
 ism in France. It was, therefore, a great misfortune for the French 
 monarchy, that just at this critical moment the frivolous and extrava- 
 gant Calonne undertook the management of the finances. This man de- 
 parted from the frugal plan of Necker, acceded to the wishes of the queen 
 and the necessities of the princes and courtiers, and deluded tlie world 
 with high-sounding promises of putting an end to all difficulties. The 
 most splendid festivals were celebrated in Versailles, and the talents of 
 Calonne loudly extolled. But his means, also, were soon exhausted. Ho 
 was obliged to resolve upon calling an Assembly of Notables, consisting 
 of nobles, clergy, high state officials, parliamentary council- 
 ® J"*'^' lors, and a few representatives of the towns. They rejected 
 the proposal of a universal taxation, which should embrace 
 both the nobles and clergy, and threatened the minister of finance with 
 impeachment, who thereupon resigned his situation and j^roceeded to 
 London. 
 
 § 541. Calonne's successor in the management of the finances, Lo- 
 menie de Brienne, was in a difficult position. To cover the deficit in the 
 revenue, he was obliged to have recourse to the usual measures, increas- 
 ing the taxes and raising a loan, but encountered so violent an opposition 
 from the parliament of Paris, that the government determined, since the 
 worn out method of compulsion — a royal sitting — no longer availed, 
 
 to arrest the boldest speakers and banish them to Troves. 
 August, 1787. ^, . ,. . , . , -^ 
 
 Ihis proceedmg excited a great commotion among the peo- 
 ple, which induced the government to arrange a compromise with the 
 banished members, and to again sanction the assemblies. But the spirit 
 of opposition had become too strong, and had already seized upon the 
 people. They formed a tumultuous meeting around the house of as- 
 sembly, and saluted the speakers of the opposition with acclamations and 
 the government party with abuse. They burned the detested minister 
 of finance every day in effigy, and in several towns displayed the excited 
 state of their minds by riotous proceedings. The cry for the States-Gen- 
 eral was heard in the streets as well as in parliament. It was in vain 
 that the ministry attempted to overcome the opposition by converting the 
 
 . .^o« parliament into an upper court (cour pleniere) and several 
 Augiist, 1788. . ^ . \ r / 
 
 mterior courts ; a new spirit had taken possession of the na- 
 
 ^ tion, that was at length to gain the victory. Brienne was 
 
 second minis- compelled to resign at a time when the scarcity of money 
 
 try, had become so great that all ready money payments were 
 
 *•• ^' ^ suspended, and a state bankruptcy appeared inevitable. The 
 
 popular favorite, Necker, was a second time summoned to the 
 
406 THE LATEST PERIOD. 
 
 ministrj. He first allayed the irritation by repealing tlie resolutions 
 against the parliament, and then made preparations for summoning the 
 Estates. Owing to this, there soon arose a division between him and the 
 parliament and Notables, whom he had again consulted. The latter w^ere 
 of opinion that the new assembly should conform itself, both as to the 
 number of representatives and the mode of procedure, to the Estates of 
 1614, whilst Necker wished to allow a double representation to the third 
 Estate, and that they should vote individually, and not as a class ; a 
 view that was supported by some of the ablest writers of the nation in a 
 multitude of pamphlets. (Abbe Sieyes: "What is the third Estate?") 
 Necker's opinion triumphed. An order of the king fixed the number of 
 noble and ecclesiastical members at 300 each, that of the citizens at 600, 
 December ^^^ appointed the following May as the time of opening. 
 1788. Necker was the hero of the day, but he was not the pilot of 
 
 the ship, he only " drove with the wind." 
 
 2. THE PERIOD OP THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY. 
 
 § 542. In the beginning of May, the deputies of the three Estates, and 
 among them some of the ablest and most accomplished men of France, 
 assembled at Versailles. The third Estate, irritated by the neglect 
 of the court at the opening and during the audience, came to a 
 rupture with the two privileged Estates at the first sitting, when the 
 latter required that the Estates should carry on their debates separately, 
 whilst the former insisted upon a general council and individual votes. 
 After a contest of some weeks, the third Estate, which had chosen the 
 astronomer, Bailli, the freedom-inspired representative of 
 Paris, for its President, but which was guided by the superior 
 talents of Sieyes and Mirabeau, declared itself a National Assembly, 
 upon which it was joined by portions of the other Estates. The Assem- 
 bly at once passed the resolution of allowing the levying of the present 
 taxes only so long as the Estates should remain undissolved. This pro- 
 ceeding disturbed the court, and inspired it with the thought of granting 
 a constitution to the nation, and thus rendering the Estates unnecessary. 
 For this purpose, a royal sitting was appointed, and the hall 
 of assembly closed for a few days. Upon the intelli- 
 gence of this, the deputies proceeded to the empty saloon of the Tennis 
 Court, and raised their hands in a solemn vow not to separate till they had 
 given a new constitution to the nation. When this Court also was closed, 
 the meetings were held in the church of St. Louis. The royal sitting took 
 place on the 23d of June. But neither the speech of the king, nor the 
 sketch of the new constitution, afforded due satisfaction, and they were 
 consequently rec6ived with coldness. After the termination of the sitting, 
 Louis dissolved the Assembly. The nobility and clergy obeyed, but the 
 citizen class retained their seats, and when the master of the ceremonies 
 
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 407 
 
 called upon them to obey, Mirabeau exclaimed, " Tell your master that 
 
 we sit here by the power of the people, and that we are only to be driven 
 
 out by the bayonet ! " The weak king did not venture to en- 
 
 counter this resolute resistance by force, but rather advised 
 
 the nobility and clergy to join the citizens. 
 
 § 543. The Storming of the Bastille. — During these proceed- 
 ings, the fickle populace of Paris were kept in a state of perpetual excite- 
 ment by journals, pamphlets, and inflammatory harangues. In the open 
 squares, in the coffee-houses, in taverns, and especially in the Palais- 
 Royal, the dwelling of the profligate, ambitious, and wealthy duke of Or- 
 leans, violent discourses were held upon popular freedom, the rights of 
 men, and the equality of all classes, by seditious demagogues, and the as- 
 sembled crowds were excited to obtain these advantages by violence. 
 Among these popular orators, the accomplished advocate, Camille Des- 
 moulins, a fanatic in the cause of liberty, was especially preeminent. The 
 military who were present in the capital were hurried away by the enthu- 
 siasm for liberty, and a portion enrolled themselves in the newly-formed 
 National Guard. The government of the city was made over to a demo- 
 cratic municipality, at the head of which stood Bailli, as mayor. The court, 
 alarmed at this increasing ferment, determined upon retiring to Versailles 
 with a few regiments of German and Swiss troops. In this proceeding, 
 the leaders of the movement believed they saw the purpose of some act of 
 violence, and made use of it -accordingly to excite fresh irritation. The 
 intelligence was spread abroad in Paris, that Necker had been suddenly 
 dismissed and banished from the country, and a favorite of the queen 
 placed in his office. This was interpreted as the first step in the contem- 
 plated outrage, and proved the signal for a general rise. Crowds of the 
 lowest mob, wearing the newly-invented national cockade, (blue, white, 
 and red,) paraded riotously through the streets, the alarm-bell was 
 sounded, the work-shops of the gunsmiths plundered ; tumult and confu- 
 sion reigned every where. On the 14th of July, after the populace had 
 taken 30,000 stand of arms and some cannon from the Hospital of the 
 Invalides, took place the storming of the Bastille, an old castle that served 
 as a state prison. The governor, Delaunay, and seven of the garrison, 
 fell victims to the popular rage ; their heads were carried through the 
 streets upon poles ; and many men who were hated as. aristocrats were 
 put to death. The banished Necker was recalled, and his entrance into 
 the towns and villages of France was celebrated as that of a hero crowned 
 with victory. In this joyous reception of the minister, the people dis- 
 played their enthusiasm for liberty and their hatred to the court and the 
 aristocracy. Lafayette, the champion of the liberty of America, was ap- 
 pointed commander of the National Guard, and whilst the king returned 
 to Paris, and exhibited himself to the assembled people from the balcony 
 of the council-house with the cockade in his hat, the count of Artois, 
 
408 THE LATEST PERIOD. 
 
 nnd many nobles of the first rank, as Conde, PoUgnac, left their country 
 in mournful anticipation of coming events. 
 
 § 544. The New System. — Since the storming of the Bastille, the 
 laws and magistrates had lost their authority in France, and the power 
 lay in the hands of the populace. The country people no longer paid 
 their tithes, taxes, and feudal dues to the clergy and nobles, but took ven- 
 geance for the long oppression they had suffered by destroying the ma- 
 norial castles. When intelligence of these proceedings spread abroad, it 
 was proposed, in the National Assembly, that the upper classes should 
 prove to the people by their actions, that they were willingto lighten their 
 burdens, and that, with this purpose, they should renounce, of their own 
 free will, all the inherited feudal privileges of the middle ages. This 
 proposal excited a storm of enthusiasm and self-renunciation. None 
 would be behind-hand. Estates, towns, provinces, each strove 
 for the honor of making the greatest sacrifices for the com- 
 mon good. This was the celebrated 4th of August, when, in one feverish 
 and excited session, all tithes, labor-dues, manorial rights, corporate 
 bodies, &;c., were abolished, the soil was declared free, and the equality 
 of all citizens of the state before the law and in regard to taxation was 
 decreed. These resolutions, and the necessary laws and arrangements 
 required for their reduction to practice, which were gradually adopted, 
 produced in a short time a complete revolution in all existing conditions. 
 The Church lost her possessions and was subjected to the state ; monas- 
 teries and religious orders were dissolved, and the clergy paid by the state, 
 the bishoprics newly regulated, and religious freedom established. Priests 
 were required to swear allegiance, like officers of state, to the new con- 
 stitution ; but as the pope forbade it, the greater number refused the oath, 
 which was the occasion of the French clergy being divided into sworn 
 and unsworn priests ; the latter lost their offices and were exposed to all 
 kinds of persecutions, but enjoyed the confidence of the faithful among 
 the people. The noble forfeited not only his privileges and the greater 
 part of his income, but he also lost the external distinctions of his rank, 
 by the abolition of all titles, coats of arms, orders, &c. Upon the prin- 
 ciple of equality, all Frenchmen were to be addressed as " citizens/' For 
 the purpose of annihilating every remnant of the ancient system, France 
 received a new geographical division into departments and arrondisse- 
 menis; a new system of judicature with jurymen ; equality of weights, 
 measures, and standards; and lastly, a constitutional government, in 
 which the privileges of royalty were limited more than was reasonable, 
 and the legislative power committed to a single chamber, with a universal 
 right of suffrage. 
 
 § 545. The King and the National Assembly at Paris.— 
 When the king hesitated to promulgate the resolutions of the Assembly 
 RS laws, the report was again propagated of a contemplated stroke of 
 
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 409 
 
 itate policy. This report gained strength when the Flemish regiment 
 was ordered to Versailles, and the king was indiscreet enough to show 
 himself, with the queen and dauphin, at a feast given by the body-guard 
 to the newly-arrived officers, and thus to give occasion to imprudent 
 speeches, toasts, and songs, among the assembled troops, who were heated 
 with drinking. This occurrence was soon made known by busy tongues 
 in Paris, and added to the popular excitement, which had besides been 
 increased by a scarcity of bread. Accordingly, on the 5th of October, an 
 immense multitude, chiefly of women, proceeded to Versailles to de- 
 mand from the king relief from the scarcity of bread, and a return of 
 the court to Paris. The king at first attempted to pacify tliem by a con- 
 ciHatory answer. But a wing of the palace was stormed during the 
 night, and the guard put to the sword ; the arrival of Lafayette, with 
 the National Guard, prevented any further mischief. Upon the follow- 
 ing day, the king was obliged to consent to proceed to Paris with his 
 family, under the escort of this frightful crew, and to take up his resi- 
 dence in the Xuileries, which had for many years remained unoccupied. 
 Shortly after, the National Assembly also followed, for whom the riding- 
 school in the neighborhood of the palace had been prepared. The power 
 now fell more and more into the hands of the lower class, who were 
 kept in perpetual excitement by licentious journahsts and popular lead- 
 ers, and were goaded to hatred against the court and the " aristocrats." 
 The " Friend of the People," of the insolent Marat, a physician from 
 Neufcbatel, was distinguished by its violence. The democratic clubs, 
 which increased every day in extent and influence, also aided the revolu- 
 tion. The Jacobin club, in particular, which had branches in all the 
 towns of France, acquired a place in the history of the world. The 
 members, '^vho wore the red cap of the convicts of the galleys as a distinc- 
 ^tion, ainved at a republic, with freedom and equality for all the *' citizens." 
 "With these was joined the club of Cordeliers, which numbered some of 
 the most daring men of the revolution, as Danton and Camille Desmou- 
 lins, among its members. The Constitutional club, on the other hand, to 
 which Lafayette had joined himself, declined in importance every day. 
 § 546. The Ceremony of Federation. — Flight of the King. 
 On the day of the year in which the Bastille was taken, a 
 grand federative festival was arranged in the Champ de 
 Mars. It must have been a moving spectacle, when Talleyrand, at the 
 head of 300 priests, clothed in white, and girded with tri-colored scarfs, 
 performed the consecration of the banner at the altar of the country ; 
 when Lafayette, in the name of t\ie National Guard, the president of 
 the National Assembly, and, at length, the king himself, vowed fidelity 
 to the Constitution ; when the innumerable multitude raised their hands 
 aloft and repeated after Jiim the oath of citizenship, and the queen her- 
 lelf, carried away by enthusiasm, raised the Dauphin in the air and 
 
 35 
 
410 THE LATEST PERIOD. 
 
 joined in the acclamations. This was the last day of happiness for ths 
 king, whose situation after this grew constantly worse. Necker, no longer 
 equal to the difficulties, left France and retired to Switzerland. Mira- 
 beau, won over by the court, opposed farther encroachments upon the 
 kingly power with the whole of his eloquence, inasmuch as he believed 
 a constitutional monarchy and not a republic to be the best government 
 
 for France. Unfortunately for the king, this great man died, 
 ^" ^' ' * in his forty-second year, of a sickness brought on by his dis- 
 orderly life and by over-exertion. A splendid funeral ceremony gave 
 evidence of the influence of the man in whom sank the last strong pillar 
 of the throne. Weak and unselfreliant as Louis XVI. was, he now 
 lost all firmness. By his refusal to receive a sworn priest as his con- 
 fessor, or to declare the emigrants traitors, who were endeavoring from 
 Coblentz to excite the European courts to a crusade against France, 
 he excited a suspicion that he was not honestly a supporter of the con- 
 stitution he had sworn to maintain, and not altogether ignorant of the 
 efforts of the emigrants. The more this suspicion gained ground with 
 the people, the more perilous became the position of the king. At this 
 crisis, Louis embraced the desperate resolution of secretly flying to the 
 northern frontier of his kingdom. Bouille, a resolute general in Lor- 
 raine, was let into the secret, and promised to support the scheme with 
 his troops. Leaving behind him a letter, in which he protested against 
 all the acts which had been forced from him since October, 1789, the 
 king happily escaped, with his family, from Paris in a large carriage. 
 
 But the clumsily executed project nevertheless miscarried. 
 ' * Louis was recognized in St. Menehould by the postmaster, 
 Drouet, stopped by the militia at Yarennes, and led back to Paris at the 
 command of the National Assembly, who - sent three of their members, 
 and among them, Petion, to receive the royal family. The suspension 
 of the royal authority, which had already been pronounced by the As- 
 sembly, remained in force, till Louis proclaimed, and swore to observe, 
 the Constitution completed at the end of September. 
 
 3. THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY AND THE FALL OF THE MONARCHY 
 (OCTOBER 1, 1791 SEPTEMBER 20, 1792.) 
 
 § 547. The Girondists. — As the members of the Constituent As- 
 sembly had voluntarily excluded themselves from the new Chamber, the 
 elections to the Legislative Assembly, which were carried on under the in- 
 fluence of the Jacobins, mostly terminated in favor of the republicans. 
 These latter, however, soon divided into a radical-democratic and a mo- 
 derate party : the former, from its position in the House, was called the 
 Mountain ; the latter received the name of Girondists, because many of 
 its speakers were from Bordeaux and the department of the Gironde 
 
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 411 
 
 Among the latter, who, at the commencement, assembled themselves 
 around the minister, Roland, and his intelligent and high-minded wife, 
 were men of great oratorical talents and exalted civic virtues, as Verg- 
 niaud, Lanjuinais, Barbaroux, Brissot, &c. The Girondists formed the 
 majority, and the ministry, consisting of Roland, Dumourier, &;c., be- 
 longed to this party. 
 
 The attention of the government and the Assembly was particularly 
 directed to the priests, who had refused the oath, and to the emigrants. 
 Both were endeavoring to overthrow the existing order of things : the 
 former by exciting hatred and discontent among the French people ; the 
 latter by making military preparations at Coblentz, and endeavoring to 
 stir up foreign powers to an armed invasion of France. The Assembly 
 therefore determined upon seeking out and arresting the unsworn priests, 
 and declaring the emigrants traitors and conspirators, and punishing them 
 by the loss of their estates and incomes. The king put his veto upon 
 both these resolutions, and prevented their execution. This refusal was 
 ascribed to the secret hopes, entertained by the court, of assistance from 
 foreign powers and of the triumph of the emigrants, and thus the temper 
 of the people grew continually more hostile. It was also known that the 
 queen was in correspondence with her brother, the emperor of Austria, 
 and that she looked for support and safety to the emigrant nobility. Nei- 
 ther was it any longer doubtful that war must soon break out, since the 
 emperor of Austria and the king of Prussia, after a conference in Pillnitz 
 (August, 1791,) were making preparations, and demanded of the French 
 government not only to make befitting indemnification to the German 
 princes and nobles who had suffered loss by the abolition of tithes and 
 feudal burdens, and to restore the province of Avignon, that had been 
 wrested from the pope, but to arrange the government upon the plan 
 proposed by the king himself in June, 1789. These demands were fol- 
 April 20, lowed by a declaration of war against Austria and Prussia 
 1792. on the part of the French government, to which the king 
 
 yielded his consent with tears. For the purpose of securing the capital 
 and the National Assembly against any attack, it was resolved to sum- 
 mon 20,000 of the federates from the southern provinces, under pretence 
 of celebrating the festival of the Bastille, and to commit the defence of 
 Paris to them. But Louis refased his consent to this resolution also. 
 Upon this, the Girondist ministers laid down their offices, after Madame 
 Roland had reproached and reprimanded the king in a letter that was 
 soon in the hands of every body. These proceedings increased the irri- 
 tation to such an extent that it became easy for the republicans to ex- 
 cite a popular insurrection. On the 20th of June, the anniversary of 
 the meeting in the Tennis Court, the terrible mob, armed with pikes, 
 marched from the suburbs, under the conduct of the brewer, Santerre, 
 and the butcher, Legendre, into the Tuileries, to force the king to con- 
 
412 THE LATEST PERIOD. 
 
 firm tlie decree against the unsworn priests and for the summoning of 
 the National Guard. But here also Louis remained firm. He defied 
 for several hours all threats and dangers, and endured the insolence of 
 the mob, who even placed the red Jacobin cap upon his head and ga^waA. 
 him wine to drink, with the courage of a martyr. The rather lardy f 
 arrival of Petion with the National guard at length freed him f^^^o^^^i^ I^ J 
 perilous position. ^ rv Jyi 
 
 § 548. These proceedings were the prelude to the eventful TK^rTth^^^^^ 
 August. War had already commenced, to the great joy of the Ji^^^VT 
 sian officers, who promised themselves great glory and little trooble fronaLO^ 
 the "military promenade," as they called the French campaign. T!ie 
 Prussians marched into Lorraine under the command of duke Ferdinand 
 of Brunswick, who had become known in the Seven Years' war. An 
 Austrian force, under Clerfait, was placed at his command ; 12,000 emi- 
 grants joined themselves to him, who were burning with eagerness to 
 overthrow the " government of advocates," and to have v^engeance upon 
 their enemies. On setting out, the duke published a manifesto, drawn 
 up by one of the emigrants, full of injurious menaces against the National 
 Assembly, the city of Paris, the National Guard, and all the French 
 who favored the new system. The insolent tone of this proclamation 
 made an indescribable impression upon the people, who were enthusiastic 
 for the new order of things, and produced the fiercest rage against the 
 emigrants and their defenders. This feeling was taken advantage of by 
 the Jacobins for the overthrow of the king. Supported by the declara- 
 tion of the Assembly, " The country is in danger," they summoned from 
 Marseilles, Brest, and other maritime towns, crowds of the lowest refuse 
 of the people, even galley-slaves, to Paris, then formed a committee of 
 insurrection, and prepared the rude and sturdy inhabitants of the su- 
 burbs for a decisive blow. The alarm sounded at midnight on the 10th 
 of August. A fearful mob proceeded, in the first place, to the Hotel de 
 Ville, for the purpose of establishing a new democratic municipality, and 
 then marched to the royal palace, which was defended by 900 Swiss, 
 and the Parisian National Guard under the command of Mandat. The 
 honest Mandat was resolved to check the advancing masses, which were 
 ever assuming a more menacing aspect, by force ; his destruction was 
 consequently resolved upon by the demo'crats. He was commanded to 
 appear at the Hotel de Yille, and assassinated on his way thither ; upon 
 which the National Guard, uncertain what to do, and disgusted by the 
 presence of a number of nobles in the palace, for the most part dispersed. 
 The mob constantly assumed a more threatening aspect ; cannon were 
 turned upon the palace, the pikemen pressed forwards upon every en- 
 trance, the people loudly demanded the deposition of the king. At this 
 crisis, Louis suffered himself to be persuaded to seek for protection with 
 his family in the hall of the National Assembly, where they passed six- 
 
THE FRENCH REVOLUTIOJT. 413 
 
 teen hours in a narrow closet. The king had scarcely left the palace, 
 before the tumultuous multitude pressed forward more violently; the 
 Swiss guard maintained a gallant resistance, and defended the entrance. 
 When the report of musketry was heard in the adjoining Assembly, the 
 indignant representatives of the people compelled the intimidated king 
 to give his guard orders to cease firing. By this order, the faithful de« 
 fenders of monarchy were doomed to destruction. Scarcely had the 
 furious mob observed that the enemy's fire had ceased, before they 
 stormed the palace, slaughtered those they found in it, and destroyed the 
 fui-niture. Nearly 5,000 men, and among them, 700 Swiss, fell in the 
 struggle, or died afterwards, the victims of the popular fury. In the 
 mean time, the National Assembly, upon the proposal of Vergniaud, 
 embraced the resolution " to suspend the royal authority, to place the 
 king and his family under control, to give the prince a tutor, and to 
 assemble a National Convention." The Temple, a strong fortress 
 erected by the knights templars, soon enclosed the imprisoned royal 
 family. 
 
 § 549. The Days op September. — After the suspension of the 
 king, a new ministry was formed by the National Assembly, in which, 
 by the side of the Girondist, Roland, and others, the terrible Danton 
 held office as minister of justice. This ministry, and the new Common 
 Council of Paris which had appointed itself, and which, after the 10th 
 of August, had strengthened itself by members who might be depended 
 upon as hesitating at no wickedness, now possessed the whole power. 
 The Municipal Council ordered the police of the capital to be conducted 
 by pikemen, and the prisons were quickly filled with the " suspected " 
 and "aristocrats." It was now that the frightful resolution was matured 
 of getting rid of the opponents of the new order of things by a bloody 
 tribunal, and of suppressing all resistance by terror. After the recusant 
 priests had been slaughtered by hundreds in the monasteries and prisons, 
 the dreadful days of September were commenced. From the 2d to 
 the 7th of September, bands of hired murderers and villains were collected 
 round the prisons. Twelve of them acted as jurymen and judge, the 
 others as executioners. The imprisoned, with the exception of a few 
 whose names were marked upon a list, were put to death by this in- 
 human crew under a semblance of judicial proceedings. Nearly 3,000 
 human beings were either put to death singly, or slaughtered in masses, 
 by these wretches, who received a daily stipend from the Common Coun- 
 cil for their " labors." Among the murdered was the princess Lamballe, 
 the friend of the queen ; a troop of pikemen carried her head upon a 
 pole to the Temple, and held it before Maria Antoinette's window. The 
 example of the capital was imitated in many of the departments. The 
 barbarous destruction of all statues, coats of arms, inscriptions, and other 
 memorials of a former period, formed the conclusion of the August and 
 
 35* 
 
414 THE LATEST PERIOD. 
 
 September days, which were the transition period between the French 
 
 monarchy and republic. The autumnal equinox was distinguished as 
 
 the commencement of the reign of liberty and equality under 
 
 p em er . ^^^ republican National Convention. 
 
 Lafayette, who was serving with the northern army, and who, after 
 the days of June, had returned to Paris on his own responsibility, for 
 the purpose, if possible, of saving the king, was now summoned before 
 the National Assembly to answer for his conduct. Convinced that the 
 Jacobins were seeking his death, he fled, with some friends who shared 
 his sentiments, to Holland, that he might escape to America ; but he fell 
 into the hands of enemies, who treated him like a prisoner of war, and 
 allowed him to live for five years in the dungeons of Olmutz and Mag- 
 deburg. Talleyrand repaired to England, and thence to America, where 
 he awaited better times. 
 
 4. REPUBLICAN FRANCE UNDER THE GOVERNMENT OF THE NATIONAL 
 CONVENTION (SEPTEMBER, 1792 OCTOBER, 1795). 
 
 § 550. Execution of the King. — The new Assembly, 'which, 
 under the influence of the Jacobins, had been elected by universal suf- 
 frage, was composed almost exclusively of republicans, but of different 
 dispositions and opinions. The moderates, Girondists, who were aiming 
 at a republican form of government upon the model of antiquity, or upon 
 that of the North Americans, and who abhorred bloodshed as a means, 
 gradually fell before the radicals and democrats, who first overthrew by 
 violence all the existing arrangements, and then sought to found a new 
 system of " liberty and equality " upon the levelled surface. They acted 
 upon the principle, " that he who is not for us is against us," and at- 
 tempted to bear down all opposition by terror and bloodshed. Strong in 
 the Jacobin clubs and in the wild bands . of the numerous defenders of 
 the revolution, who were distinguished by the name of " Sans-Culottes," 
 and who were maintained in a constant state of excitement by songs 
 (Marseillaise, Ca ira), revolution festivals, trees of liberty, and such 
 matters, the destructive party soon obtained the upper hand. The trial 
 of the king, " Louis Capet," was one of the first proceedings of the 
 National Convention. An iron safe had been discovered in a wall of 
 the Tuileries, containing secret letters and documents, from which it was 
 apparent that the French court had not only been in alliance with 
 Austria and the emigrants, and had projected plans for overthrowing the 
 Constitution that had been sworn to by Louis, but that it had also at- 
 tempted to win over single members of the National Assembly (for exam- 
 ple, Mirabeau), by annuities, bribery, and other means. It was upon this 
 that the republicans, who would willingly have been quit of the king, 
 founded a charge of treason and conspiracy against the country and the 
 people. Louis, with the assistance of two advocates, to whom the noble 
 
THE FKENCH REVOLUTION. 415 
 
 Malaslierbes, of his own free impulse, associated himself, appeared twice 
 before the Convention (11th and 26th December), but despite his own 
 dignified bearing and defence, and despite the efforts of the Girondist 
 party to have the sentence referred to a general assembly of the people, 
 January 17, Louis was Condemned to death in a stormy meeting, by a 
 1793. small majority of five voices. The party of the Mountain, 
 
 where the advocate, Maximilian Robespierre, the former marquis St. 
 Just, the frightful Danton, the lame Couthon, and the duke of Orleans, 
 who had assumed the name of Citizen Egalite, were the leaders and 
 chiefs, had left no means unattempted to produce this result by terror ; 
 they would, nevertheless, have failed in their purpose, had they not car- 
 ried a resolution beforehand in the Assembly, that a bare majority should 
 be sufficient for a sentence of death, and not, as had heretofore been the 
 custom, that two thirds of the votes should be necessary. The murder 
 was thus veiled by a show of justice. On the 21st of January, the un- 
 fortunate king ascended the scaffold in the square of the Revolution. 
 The drums of the National Guard drowned his last words, and " Robes* 
 pierre's women " greeted his bloody head with the shout of " Vive la 
 Republique." 
 
 § 551. DuMOURiER. — In the mean time, the Prussians had marched 
 through Lorraine into Champagne. But the duke of Brunswick, accus- 
 tomed to the slow and circumspect proceedings of the Seven Years* war, 
 wasted time in the conquest of unimportant fortresses, and entered 
 Champagne in an unfavorable period of the year, when the roads were^ 
 impassable from the rain, and the army was weakened and destroyed by 
 September 20, the use of unwholesome provisions and of unripe fruit. After 
 I7y2. ii^Q battle of Valmy, where Dumourier and Kellerman suc- 
 
 cessfully repulsed the attack of the enemy, the Prussian generals relin- 
 quished the idea of any farther advance, and concluded a compromise 
 with Dumourier, by which the Prussians were assured of an uninter- 
 rupted retreat. The Austrians, who had marched from the Netherlands, 
 met with no better success. After the battle of Jemappes, 
 Dumourier conquered Belgium and Liege, and threatened 
 the frontiers of Holland, whilst the hussar-general, Custine, made him- 
 October 21, self master of the towns on the Rhine, and gained the for- 
 1/92. tress of Mayence, where there were many adherents of the 
 
 ideas of freedom and equality, for the French republic. The citizens of 
 Mayence, deserted by their elector, their clergy, and the nobility, received 
 the French troops with enthusiasm. George Fo.-ter, the circumnavigator of 
 the globe, was the soul of the republican party in Mayence. This success 
 of the French arms inspired the republicans with fresh courage, and the 
 powers of Europe with fresh alarm. Were they to look quietly on, 
 whilst a king was murdered in a revolting manner in Paris, whilst the 
 revolutionists, intoxicated with success, called upon the people every- 
 
416 THE LATEST PERIOD. 
 
 where to overthrow their monarchical governments, and promised them 
 the protection of the French nation in establishing their republics ? The 
 enthusiasm of the people for the new ideas gave great assistance to the 
 republican arms : not only the thrones of kings and the dominions of 
 princes, but the privileges and possessions of the nobility and clergy, 
 were in peril. Fresh armies from all parts of Europe were therefore 
 marched across the French frontiers, for the purpose of suppressing a 
 revolution which endangered the peace and security of other states. Eng- 
 land, where the Tories, under the guidance of the younger Pitt, were in 
 possession of the government, and where the orator, Edmund Burke, 
 once the advocate of the American War of Liberty both in speech and 
 writing, took the field against the Revolution, and solemnly separated 
 himself from his old friend, Fox, the leader of the liberal Whigs, headed 
 the "Coalition" against France. English subsidies soon gave fresh life 
 to the war. An Austrian army appeared in the Netherlands under the 
 prince of Coburg, who was assisted by Clerfait and the Archduke Charles, 
 March 18, drove back the French over the Maase, and defeated Dumou- 
 1793. pjer at Neerwinden. This defeat was ascribed by Dumou- 
 
 rier principally to the Jacobins, because they had corrupted the army, 
 had neglected the necessary military supplies, and had placed an incom- 
 petent coadjutor by his side. In his disgust, he allowed it to appear 
 pretty unequivocally that he meditated the overthrow of the republican 
 constitution, and the reestablishment of a king (for which office he had 
 selected the duke of Orleans, or his son, Louis Philippe.) The Conven- 
 tion, apprised of this intention, impeached the general, and required his 
 presence in Paris to answer for himself. But instead of obeying the 
 summons, Dumourier ordered the ambassadors of the Convention to be 
 seized and delivered up to the enemy, and then went over with a part 
 of his troops to the Austrians. 
 
 About the same time, Mayence, after the most obstinate defence, and 
 after enduring the extremities of famine, fell again into the hands of the 
 Prussians, who once more approached the frontiers of France. 
 
 § 552. Dumourier's treachery was employed by the Jacobins for the 
 overthrow of the Girondists, to which party Dumourier had belonged. 
 The Girondists, enraged at the increasing power of the populace in Paris, 
 and the unbridled acts of violence committed by the mob, entertained the 
 project of converting France into a republican union like North America, 
 and by this means, destroying the supremacy of the capital. The Moun- 
 tain and the Jacobins, who saw that this scheme would weaken the revo- 
 lutionary power of France, and endanger the future of the democratic re- 
 public, commenced a war of life and death with the Girondists (also cal- 
 led Brissotins) upon this point. They accused them of an understanding 
 with Dumourier, they reproached them with weakening the power of the 
 people, and destroying the republic at a moment when France was 
 
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 417 
 
 threatened with enemies both within and without ; and when all these 
 attacks were ignominiously repulsed by the victorious eloquence of the Gi- 
 rondists, the savage Marat, in his " Friend of the People," called upon 
 the populace to rise against the moderate and lukewarm, and thus gave 
 occasion to daily riots and tumults, which disturbed the capital and en- 
 dangered life and property. All moderate and reputable people were 
 in continual pei:il. It was in vain that the Girondists succeeded in 
 having Marat brought before a court of justice, he was acquitted by the 
 Jacobins, and carried back to the Convention in triumph by the people ; 
 it was in vain that the Girondists procured the appointment of a Com- 
 mission of Twelve, who were to discover and punish the exciters of the 
 tumult. "When the Commission ordered Ilebert, who, in his vulgar and 
 libellous journal, " Fere Duchesne," excited the people to tumult and 
 murder, and some of his associates, to be imprisoned, the raging mob 
 compelled their release, and then arranged the great insurrection of the 
 81st of May and 1st of June. They made the branded Ilenriot, who 
 had first been a lacquey, then a smuggler, and lastly a spy of the police, 
 commander of the National Guard. Under his guidance, the innumerable 
 multitude of the sans-culottes surrounded the Tuileries, where the Con- 
 vention was holding its meeting, and demanded with threats the abolition 
 of the Commission of Twelve, and the exclusion of the Girondists and 
 the moderates. It was in vain that the latter employed the whole force 
 of their eloquence to induce the Assembly not to consent to the demands 
 of the people: the mob pressed into the hall and the galleries, and de- 
 manded its sacrifice with wild shouts and cries. It was in vain that the 
 majority of the Assembly, the courageous president, Ilerault, at their 
 head, attempted to leave the apartment where they could no longer de- 
 bate in freedom; driven back by Henriot, nothing was left to Ihera but 
 to consent to the demands of the people and the party of the Mountain, 
 and to admit the supremacy of the mob. Thirty-four Girondists were 
 immediately thrust out and imprisoned ; twenty of them (Pution, Guadet, 
 and Barbaroux, were of the number) escaped, and summoned the inhabit- 
 ants of Normandy, Bretagne, and the maritime cities of the south, to 
 take up arms against the Jacobins ; the remainder died some time after 
 on the guillotine. The assassination of Marat, by the noble Charlotte 
 Corday, who was inspired by a spirit of genuine liberty, and a frightful 
 civil war, were the first results of this act of violence. Most of the 
 escaped Girondists also died violent deaths, by their own hands or those 
 of others. Thus died Roland, Petion, Barbaroux, Condorcet, and 
 others. Madame Roland also died on the guillotine. Seventy-three 
 members of the Convention, who had sided with the Girondists, were 
 al^o expelled, so that the Convention was now entirely ruled by the demo- 
 crats of the Mountain. 
 
 § 553. The Reign of the Jacobins. — The National Convention 
 
418 THE LATEST PERIOD. 
 
 acquired greater unanimity by the exclusion of the Girondists and the 
 moderates ; so that, from this time, it was enabled to develop a frightful 
 power and activity. For the purpose of better superintending and con- 
 ducting its multitudinous affairs, it resolved itself into committees, of 
 which the committee of public safety and that of public security acquired 
 a frightful celebrity by the persecution of every one opposed to the new 
 order of things. A revolutionary tribunal, consisting of twelve jurymen 
 and five judges, to which that man of blood, Fouquier Tinville, occupied 
 the office of public accuser, seconded the activity of these committees by 
 a cruel and summary administration of justice. At the head of the com- 
 mittee of public safety stood three men, whose names became the terror 
 and horror of all just men ; the envious and malignant Kobespierre, the 
 bloodthirsty Couthon, and the fanatic for republican liberty and equality, 
 St. Just. They pursued their bloody object without regard to human 
 life; every thing that ventured to oppose their storm.y course was unpity- 
 ingly hurled down. Thus originated the terrible period of the years '93 
 and '94, which displayed itself in three different directions — within, by 
 a cruel persecution of all citizens who were known as aristocrats or fa- 
 vorers of royalty, and by a bloody suppression of insurrections in the 
 south and west ; without, by a vigorous defensive war against innumerable 
 enemies. 
 
 § 554. — 1. Persecution op Aristocrats. — Since the municipal 
 government in Paris had been in the exclusive possession of Jacobins 
 and democrats of the extreme class, since democratical committees had 
 had the political supervision of all the sections, since, besides the National 
 Guard, a revolutionary army of sans-culottes had stood at the disposal of 
 the republican government, the whole power had been in the hands of 
 the populace and their frantic leaders. The Jacobin clubs in Paris and 
 the provincial cities possessed the government ; their orators and presi- 
 dents executed, with the aid of the people, the most sanguinary outrages 
 upon all who were not of their own party. The most effectual means 
 of destroying all opponents was the frightful law against the suspected, 
 which threatened with death all " enemies of the country," all who mani- 
 fested any attachment to the former condition of things, or to the priest- 
 hood or the nobility. In consequence of this and similar laws, the pri- 
 sons were filled with thousands of so-called aristocrats ; and forty or sixty 
 men were daily dragged to the guillotine. All those who were distin- 
 guished from the ruling democracy by rank, wealth, refinement, or no- 
 bility of mind, stood in continual peril of their lives. The malicious 
 slander of an enemy, the accusation of a spy, the hatred of a sans-culotte, 
 were sufficient to bring an innocent man to prison, and from prison to 
 die scaffold. The transition was so sudden, that death lost its terrors, 
 and the prison became the scenes of cheerful and refined society, and of 
 mtellectual conversation. The most noble and distinguished men of France 
 
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 419 
 
 were among the victims. The former minister, Malasherbes, the mem- 
 bers of the Constituent Assembly, Bailli, Barnave, &:c., ail who belonged 
 to the old monarchy, and -who had not saved themselves by flight, died 
 by the guillotine. Among them was the severely-tried queen, Marie 
 Antoinette, who displayed, durinf]j her trial and at her exe- 
 cution, a firmness and strength oi soul that was worthy oi 
 her education and her birth. Her son died beneath the cruel treatment 
 of a Jacobin ; her daughter (the duchess of Angouleme) carried a gloomy 
 spirit and an embittered heart with her to the grave. Louis XVI.'s 
 May 10, pious sister, Elizabeth, also died on the scaffold ; the head 
 
 1794. of the profligate duke of Orleans, whom even the favor of 
 
 Dan ton could not preserve from the envy of Robespierre, had fallen be- 
 fore her own. 
 
 § 555. — 2. Outrages in the South. — The bloody rule of the 
 Mountain party displayed itself in its most frightful excess in the sup- 
 pression of the revolt against the reign of terror. When the inhabitants 
 of Normandy and Bretagne rose in support of the excluded Girondists, 
 the committee of public safety ordered the district between the Seine, 
 the Loire, and the extreme sea-coast, to be visited with blood and 
 slaughter by the terrible Carrier. This monster ordered, at Nantes, his 
 victims to be drowned by hundreds in the Loire, by means of ships with 
 movable bottoms (noi/ades). The proceedings of the Jacobins in the 
 cities of the south, Lyons, Marseilles, and Toulon, were still more barba- 
 rous. In the first of these towns, Chalier, who had formerly been a 
 priest, and now was president of the Jacobin club, excited the people by 
 scandalous placards to plunder and destroy the "aristocrats." Irritated 
 at this audacity, the respectable and wealthy citizens of Lyons, who were 
 thus menaced in their lives and property, procured the exe- 
 cution of the demagogue. This deed filled the Parisian ter- 
 rorists with fury. A republican army appeared before the walls of the 
 town, which, after an obstinate contest, was taken and fearfully punished. 
 Freron, a companion of Marat, Fouche, Couthon, and others, caused the 
 inhabitants to be shot down in crowds, because the guillotine was too 
 tedious in its operations ; whole streets were either pulled down or blown 
 into the air with gunpowder. The goods of the rich were divided 
 among the populace ; Lyons was to be annihilated, reduced to a name- 
 less common. The republicans raged in a similar way in Marseilles and 
 Toulon. The royalists of Toulon had called upon the English for assist- 
 ance, and surrendered to them their town and harbor. Confident in 
 this assistance, and in the strength of their walls, the citizens of Toulon 
 bade defiance to their republican enemies. But the army of sans-culottes, 
 in which the young Corsican, Napoleon Bonaparte, exhibited the first 
 proofs of his military talents, overcame all obstacles. Toulon was storm- 
 ed. The English, unable to maintain the town, set fire to the fleet, and 
 
420 THE LATEST PERIOD. 
 
 left the unfortunate inhabitants to the frightful vengeance of tha 
 Convention. Here also the barbarous Freron ordered all the wealthy 
 citizens to be shot, and their property to be divided among the sans- 
 culottes. The respectable inhabitants fled, and abandoned the city to the 
 mob and the galley-slaves. Tallien behaved in a similar manner in 
 Bourdeaux ; and in the north of France, Lebon marched from place to 
 place with a guillotine. 
 
 § 556. Scenes of blood ix La Vendee. — But the fate of La 
 Vendee was the most frightful. This singular country, situated in the 
 west of France, was covered with woods, hedges, and thickets, and inter- 
 sected by ditches. Here dwelt a contented people, in rural quietude, and 
 in the simplicity of the olden time. The peasants and tenants were at- 
 tached to their landlords ; they loved the king ; and clung with reverence 
 to their clergy and their church usages, which had been dear and sacred 
 to them from their youth. When the National Assembly slaughtered 
 ©r expelled their unsworn priests, when the blood of their king was 
 poured out on the guillotine, when the children of the peasants were 
 called away, by a general summons, to the army — then the enraged 
 people roused themselves to resistance and civil conflict. Under brave 
 leaders, of undistinguished birth, as Charette, Stofflet, Cathelineau, who 
 were joined by a few nobles, Laroche-Jaquelein, D'Elbee, &c., they at 
 first drove back the republican army, conquered Saumur, and threatened 
 JSTantes. Upon this, the Convention despatched a revolutionary army to 
 La Vendee, under the command of Westermann and the frantic Jacobins, 
 Ronsin and Rossignol. These fell upon the inhabitants like wild beasts, 
 set fire to towns, villages, farms, and woods, and attempted to overcome 
 the resistance of the " royalists " by terror and outrage. But the courage 
 of the Vendean peasants remained unsubdued. It was not until 
 general Kleber marched against La Vendee with the brave troops who 
 had returned to their homes after the surrender of Mayence, that this 
 unfortunate people gradually succumbed to the attacks of their enemies, 
 after the land had become a desert, and thousands of the inhabitants had 
 saturated the soil with their blood. La Vendee, however, was only re- 
 stored to tranquillity when Hoche, who was equally renowned for his 
 courage and philanthropy, assumed the command of the army, offered 
 peace to those who were weary of the contest, and reduced the refractory 
 to submission. StoflSet and Charette were made prisoners of war, and 
 shot. 
 
 § 557. Fall of the Dantonists. — The rage and cruelty of the 
 Jacobins at length excited the disgust of the chiefs of the Cordeliers, 
 Danton and Camille Desmoulins. The former, who was rather a volup- 
 tuary than a tyrant, and who was capable of kindly feelings, had grown 
 weary of slaughter, and had retired into the country for a few months 
 with a young wife, to enjoy the wealth and happiness that the revolution 
 
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 421 
 
 had brought him ; but Camille Desmoulins, in his much read paper, 
 " The Old Cordelier," applied the passages where the Roman historian, 
 Tacitus, describes the tyranny and cruelty of Tiberius, so appropriately 
 to his own times, that the application to the three chiefs of the committee 
 of safety and tlieir laws against the suspected was not to be mistaken. 
 This enraged the Jacobins ; and when, 'about this time, several friends 
 and adherents of Danton (Fabre d'Eglantine, Chabot, &c.) were guilty 
 of deceit and corruption in connection with the abolition of the East In- 
 dia Company, and others gave offence by their sacrilegious proceedings, 
 the committee of safety made use of the opportunity to destroy the 
 whole party of Danton. For since the Convention had altered the ca- 
 lendar and the names of the months, had maJe the year commence on 
 the 22nd of September, had abolished the observance of Sunday and the 
 festivals, and introduced in their place the decades and sans-culotte feasts, 
 many Dantonists, like Hebert, Chaumette, Momoro, Cloots, and others, 
 had occasioned great scandal by their animosity to priests and Christian- 
 ity. They desecrated and plundered the churches, ridiculed the mass 
 vestments and the church utensils, which they carried through the streets 
 in blasphemous processions, raged with the spirit of Vandals against all 
 the monuments of Christianity, and at length carried a resolution 
 through the Convention, that the worship of Reason should be intro- 
 duced in place of the catholic service of God. A solemn festival, in 
 which Momoro's pretty wife personated the Goddess of Reason in the 
 church of Notre Dame, marked the commencement of this new religion. 
 Robespierre, who plumed himself upon his reputation for virtue, because 
 he was not a participator ii\ the excesses or avarice of Danton and his 
 associates, took offence at these proceedings. He determined to destroy 
 their originators, and in their fall to involve the destruction of Desmou- 
 lins and Danton, before whose poweiful natures his own spirit, which was 
 filled with envy and ambition, stood abashed. Scarcely, therefore, had 
 
 Danton resumed his seat in the Convention, before St. Just 
 March, 1794. , , . , , , i , , i • i • i 
 
 began the violent struggle by a remarkable proposal, m which 
 
 he divided the enemies of the republic into three classes, the corrupt, 
 the ultra-revolutionary, and the moderates, and insisted upon their pun- 
 ishment. This proposal resulted in nineteen of the ultra-revolutionaries, 
 and among them Cloots, Momoro, Ronsin, and several members of the 
 Common Council, being led to the guillotine on the 19th of March. On 
 the 31st of April, the corrupt were placed before the Revolutionary Tri- 
 bunal, and Danton, Camille Desmoulins, Ilerault de Sechelles, &;c. were 
 maliciously distinguished as their partisans and involved in their fate. 
 But Danton and Desmoulins, supported by a raging mob that were de- 
 voted to them, demanded with vehemence that their accusers should be 
 confronted with them. For three days, Danton's voice of thunder and 
 the tumult among the populace rendered his condemnation impossible 
 36 
 
422 THE LATEST PERIOD. 
 
 For the first time, the bloody men of the Revolutidnary Tribunal be« 
 came confused. The Convention at length, by a law of its own, gava 
 the Tribunal the power of condemning the accused who were endeavor- 
 ing to subvert the existing order of things by an insurrection, without 
 further hearing ; upon which the blood-stained heroes of the 10th of 
 August and the days of September, who during their trial had shown 
 that a lofty spirit might dwell even in the bosom of criminals, were led 
 to the guillotine and beheaded, with a crowd of inferior He- 
 ' ' * bertists. They died with courage and resolution. 
 § 558. — 3. Wars of the Republic. First Coalition. — Whilst 
 these bloody proceedings were going on within, the armies of almost all 
 the nations of Europe were marching upon the frontiers of France. 
 The Dutch, Austrians, and English were in the Netherlands ; Dutch, 
 Prussian, and Austrian troops crossed the Rhine ; Sardinia threatened 
 the south-east ; and Spanish and Portuguese armies occupied the Pyre- 
 nees : at the same time, the English government, conducted by Pitt, 
 sought to destroy the naval power of France, to conquer her colonies, 
 and to keep the war alive by large subsidies to the continental powers. 
 At first, the arms of the allies met with some snccess ; Alsace and Flan- 
 ders fell into their hands, and the way to Paris stood open. But want 
 of union and want of system prevented any brilliant success, although 
 the new method of warfare had not yet been created in France. The 
 republicans wished to gain the victory by terror. General Beauharnois, 
 who arrived too late to relieve Mayence, died on the guillotine ; Custine 
 and his son experienced the same fate ; Houchard, the victor over the 
 September 8, Dutch and Hanoverians at Handschooten, had a similar fate 
 1793. when he was afterwards obliged to retire before the superior 
 
 November force of the enemy ; and Hoche expiated in prison the de- 
 feat suffered by the Hollanders and Prussians at Kaiserslau- 
 tem. But the brave and active Carnot now took his seat in the commit- 
 tee of safety, and gave unity and system to the military operations. The 
 whole nation was interested in the war by a general summons ; the newly 
 acquired freedom awakened courage and enthusiasm among the troops ; 
 fanatical bands were now opposed to the enemy in masses, and no longer 
 in small divisions ; and the greatest commanders of the century rose from 
 the ranks. The generals with their antiquated tactics, and with soldiers 
 who fought for pay, and not for liberty or their fatherland, could not 
 maintain their ground. Jourdain compelled the evacuation 
 ' of Belgium in June, after the battle of Fleurus ; and, by the 
 beginning of autumn, the Austrian Netherlands and the frontier fortresses 
 of Holland were in the hands of the French. It thus became practica- 
 ble for General Pichegru to undertake a daring expedition in December 
 and January across the frozen waters, against the States-General of 
 Holland. Pichegru, with an army that was suffering from a want oi 
 
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 423 
 
 clothing and provisions, made himself master of the rich land, drove the 
 hereditary Stadtholder to England, and brought about the establishment 
 of a Batavian Republic, with democratic rights, with trees of liberty, 
 and popular Clubs. From this time, Holland remained united with 
 France; and not only were the French troops clothed and maintained at 
 the cost of the country, and vast sums sent to Paris to defray the expen- 
 ses of the war, but the English at the same time seized upon the Dutch 
 ships and colonies, so that the unfortunate country was a sufferer on all 
 Lands. 
 
 § 559. The Peace of Basle. — The French arms were equally 
 successful on the Rhine. The Austrian and Prussian troops retreated 
 across the German riv.er in October, and abandoned the 
 further side to the French. Shortly after, the Prussian 
 government, which was busied with the proceedings in Poland 
 ^ commenced negotiations with France which led to the peace 
 ' ' of Basle. By this disgraceful peace, not only was the left 
 bank of the Rhine, together with Holland, abandoned to the enemy, but 
 the northern portion of Germany separated by a line of demarcation 
 from the southern. Whilst the war was carried on in the latter, the 
 former was declared neutral territory. The Austrians, on the other 
 hand, under the conduct of the brave leaders Clerfait and Wurmser, con- 
 tinued the war with greater energy. After Clerfait's victory over 
 Pichegru at Plandschuchsheim, the imperialists took Heidelberg, which 
 September 24, was in the possession of the French, and, after a frightful 
 
 1795. bombardment of several days, the strong town of Mannheim, 
 which, with its abundant military provisions, had been disgracefully sur- 
 rendered to the enemy at the first summons by the governor, Palgrave 
 Oberndorf. A part of the town was in ruins when the Germans again 
 entered it. The archduke Charles, the brother of the emperor, gave 
 September 3, splendid proofs of distinguished military talents. He de- 
 i*^^^- feated Jourdain at Wijrzburg, and compelled him to a hasty 
 retreat upon the Rhine. The inhabitants of Spessart and Odenwald, 
 enraged at the oppressions and exactions of the French, rose upon their 
 retreating enemies, and destroyed them wherever they appeared singly. 
 Moreau was more fortunate ; he was indeed driven back from Bavaria 
 and Swabia,but he gained the Rhine without any^reat loss by a masterly 
 September 19 ^^^^eat through the valleys of the Black Forest. The Ger- 
 — October 24, man governments, far from encouraging the people in this 
 
 1796. rising against the enemies of the empire, imitated, for 
 the jmost part, the example of Prussia, and concluded a peace with 
 France. 
 
 § 560. Robespierre's Fall. — Since the fall of Danton, the com- 
 mittee of safety had ruled with wellnigh unlimited sway, and by re- 
 peated executions and arrests had brought the reign of terror to its high- 
 
424 THE LATEST PERIOD. 
 
 est point^ But its chiefs had lost the confidence of the people and oothe 
 Convention. The friends of Danton were on the watch for the favorable^ 
 moment of attack, and the number of their enemies was increased, when 
 Robespierre^tg^Ttlt' -nii w d tQ^QjjJa;^itfnaa.nn«ip'06€>6di.Hg3 .of the ad- 
 herents of the worship of Reason, had a resolution passed by the Con- 
 vention in May, "That the existence of a Supreme Being and the im- 
 mortality of the soul were truths:" and rendered himself at once hateful 
 and ridiculous by his pride at the new festival in honor of the Supreme 
 Being in the Tuileries, at which he officiated as high priest. • Among his 
 opponents was Tallien, who at a former period had been guilty of ex- 
 cesses in Bourdeaux, but who had been brouglit to adopt different principles 
 by the fascinating Fontenay Cabarrus. "With him were joined Freron, 
 Fouche, Yadier, the polished rhetorician Barrere, and others. 
 ' ' On the 9th Thermidor, a battle for life or death commenced 
 in the Convention. Robespierre and his adherents were not allowed to 
 speak ; their voices were drowned in the cries of their enemies, who car- 
 ried through a stormy meeting the resolution, " That the three chiefs of 
 the committee of safety, Robespierre, St. Just, Couthon, and their confede- 
 rate, Ilenriot, should be denounced, and conveyed as prisoners to the 
 Luxembourg palace." They were liberated by the mob on their way ; 
 whereupon the drunken Henriot threatened the Convention with the 
 National Guard, whilst the others betook themselves to the Hotel de 
 Viile. But the National Assembly was beforehand with them by a hasty 
 resolution. A loudly proclaimed sentence of outlawry suddenly dispersed 
 Henriot's army, whilst the citizens who were opposed to the Jacobins 
 arranged themselves around the Convention. The accused were again 
 secured in the Hotel de Ville. Henriot crept into a sewer, whence he 
 ■was dragged forth by hooks. Robespierre attempted to destroy himself 
 by a pistol-shot, but only succeeded in shattering his lower jaw, and was 
 first conveyed, horribly disfigured, amidst the curses and execrations of 
 the people, before the Revolutionary Tribunal, and then guillotined, with 
 
 ^ , ^ twenty-one of his adherents. On the two followinj^ days, 
 
 July 28. '' . o J ■) 
 
 seventy-two Jacobins shared the fate of their leaders. 
 
 § 561. The Last Days of the Convention. — Robespierre's over- 
 throw by the " Thermidorians " was the commencement of a return to 
 moderation and order. The assemblies of the people were gradually 
 limited, the power of the Comm.on Council diminished, and the lowei 
 classes deprived of their weapons. Freron, converted from a republican 
 bloodhound into an aristocrat, assembled the young men, who from their 
 clothing were called the "gilded youth," around him. These, with the 
 heavy stick they usually cai-ried about them, attacked the Jacobins in the 
 streets and in their clubs at every opportunity, and opposed the song of 
 the " Awakening of the People " to the Marseillaise. At length, the 
 club was shut up and the cloister of the Jacobins pulled down. The 
 
FRANCE UXDER THE DIRECTORY. 425 
 
 (Convention strengthened itself by the recall of the expelled members and 
 of such Girondists as were still left, and ordered the worst of the Terror- 
 ists, Lebon, Carrier, Fouquier Tinville, &c., to be executed. But when 
 four of the most active members of the committee of safety (Barrere, 
 Vadier, Collot d'Herbois, and Billaud-Varennes) were denounced, the 
 Jacobins collected the last remains of their strength, and drove the 
 people, who were suffering from a scarcity and want of money, to a 
 frightful insurrection. Crowds of grisly wretches surrounded the house 
 March 31. of assembly, and demanded, with threatening cries, the 
 April 1, 1795, liberation of the patriots, bread, and the constitution of 
 1793. Pichegru, who was just at this moment in Paris, came to the as- 
 Bistance of the distressed Convention with soldiers and citizens, and dis- 
 persed the crowd. The still more formidable insurrection of the 1st 
 
 « ,.. - Prairial, in which the mob held the Convention surrounded 
 May 20, 1795. , , . , . , . , ^ ,,,-., 
 
 both withm and without, irom seven o clock m the morning 
 
 till two at night, for the purpose of enforcing a return to the reign of 
 terror, was also suppressed by the courageous president, Boissy d'Anglas. 
 From this time, the power of the Terrorists was no more. Many Jaco- 
 bins died by their own hands ; others were beheaded, imprisoned, or 
 transported. By so much the stronger became the party of the royalists, 
 who wished to have a king again ; and when the new government was 
 shortly after determined upon, by which the executive power was to be 
 delivered to a Directory of five persons, tlie legislative power to a 
 council of Ancients and a council of Five Hundred, the republican 
 members of the Convention feared that in the new election they might be 
 thrust aside by the royalists. They therefore made additions to tho 
 original charter of the constitution, wherein it was declared that two- 
 thirds of the two legislative councils must be chosen from members of 
 the Convention. The royalists raised objections against this and some 
 other limitations of the freedom of election ; and when these were un- 
 attended with success, they occasioned the insurrection of the Sections. 
 Hereupon, the Convention made over to the Corsican, Napoleon Bona- 
 parte, the supression of the insurgent royalists, who were joined by all 
 the enemies of the republic and of the revolution. The victory of the 
 Octobers, 13th Vendemiaire, which was fought in the streets of Paris, 
 1795. gave the supremacy to the republicans of the Convention, 
 
 and the command of the Italian army to Napoleon, who was then twenty- 
 six years of age, and who, a short time before, had married Josephine, 
 the widow of General Beauharnois. 
 
 5. france under the directory (october, 1795 november 
 
 9th, 1799). 
 
 § 562. Napoleon in Italy. — The French army in Savoy and on 
 the frontiers of Italy was in a melancholy condition. The soldiers were 
 
 36* 
 
426 THE LATEST PERIOD. 
 
 in want of every thing. At this crisis, Napoleon appeared as their com- 
 mander-in-chief, and in a short time contrived so to inspirit the despond^ 
 ing troops and attach them to his person, that undp his guidance they 
 cheerfully encountered the greatest dangers. Whe^'e th^ love of giory and 
 the sentiment of honor were not sufficient, there the tKcagVi'ies of woialthy 
 Italy served as a stimulus to valor. 'fn'^A.pril, Napoleon 
 defeated the octogenarian Austrian general, Bqaulieu, at 
 Milesimo and Montenotte, separated, by this victory7"the Austmns from' 
 the Sardinians, and so terrified the king, Victor Amadeus, that n# con- 
 sented to a disadvantageous peace, by which he surrendered ISavoy and 
 Kice to the French, gave up six fortresses to the general, and submitted 
 to the oppressive condition of allowing the French array to march 
 through his land at any time. By these and other oppressive conditions, 
 the country became entirely dependent upon France, so that, upon the 
 king's death, which took place soon after, his son, Charles Emmanuel 
 (1796 — 1802), surrendered Piedmont to the enemy, and settled himself 
 and his family in Sardinia. The course of Napoleon's victories in Up- 
 per Italy was equally rapid. After the memorable passajre 
 May 10, 1796. ^^ , / . , n -r -,. ■, , -. • * . ti^-i 
 
 01 the bridge or Liodi, he marched nito Austrian Milan, 
 
 subjected the Lombard towns, and so terrified the smaller princes by the 
 success of his arms and his insolence, that they were only too happy to 
 make peace with the victor at any price. Napoleon extorted large sums 
 of money, and valuable pictures, treasures of art and manuscripts, from 
 the dukes of Parma, Modena, Lucca, Tuscany, &:c. He behaved as the 
 Roman generals, with whose lives he was acquainted from the descrip- 
 tions of Plutarch, had once done ; he enriched the French capital with 
 the productions of the mind, that he might please the vain and spectacle- 
 loving Parisians. He supported the weak Directory with the extorted 
 supplies of money. 
 
 AVurmser now took the place of the old Beaulieu. But he also was 
 
 defeated at Castiojlione, and afterwards besiepred in Mantua. 
 August 5. o J o 
 
 The army under Alvinzi that was sent to his relief sustained 
 
 January, three defeats (at Areola, Rivoli, La Favorita), by which the 
 
 February, whole Austrian force in Italy was destroyed, dispersed, or 
 
 1^^*^* captured. This compelled the gallant Wurmser to deliver 
 
 up Mantua to the glorious victor. Bonaparte, respecting the courage 
 
 of his enemy, permitted a free retreat to the gray-headed marshal, his 
 
 staff, and a part of the brave garrison. Pope Pius VL, terrified at these 
 
 T^ 1- ,« rapid successes, hastened to purchase the peace of Tolentino 
 
 Febraary, 19. ^ . r. . ^ , ^ ^ 
 
 by cessions or territory, sums of money, and works of art. 
 
 Archduke Charles now assumed the command of the Austrian army 
 
 in Italy. But he also was compelled to a disastrous retreat, and was 
 
 pursued by Bonaparte as far as Klagenfurt, with the view of falling 
 
 upon Vienna. The emperor Francis, anxious for the fate of his capital, 
 
FRANCE UNDER THE DIRECTORY. 427 
 
 allowed himself to be persuaded by female influence to conclude the dis* 
 advantageous preliminary peace of Leoben, at the very mo- 
 ^" ' ' ' ment when, by the non-arrival of the expected reinforce- 
 ments, and the threatening movements of the Tyrolese, Styrians, and 
 Carinthians, the position of the French army was becoming critical. 
 About the time this treaty of peace was concluded, a popular insurrec- 
 tion arose in the rear of the French army, in the territory of the republic 
 of Venice, in consequence of which many Frenchmen were murdered 
 in Verona and its neighborhood, and even the sick and wounded in the 
 hospitals were not spared. This was taken advantage of by Napoleon 
 to destroy the Vcnc tjatt republic. The cowardice of the aristocratic 
 councillors, who, instelWRffering a brave resistance and falling with 
 honor, humbly implored the grace of the proud conqueror, and surren- 
 dered the government to a democratic council, facilitated the enterprise. 
 As early as May, the French marched into Venice, carried off the ships 
 and the stores of the arsenal, robbed the churches, galleries, and libraries 
 of their choicest ornaments and most valued treasures, and kept posses- 
 sion of the city till the negotiations with Austria were so far advanced, 
 October 17, ^^^^^ the peace of Campo Formio, by which Upper Italy fell 
 1797. into the hands of France under the name of the Cisalpine 
 
 Republic, was concluded. Austria, who by this peace also surrendered 
 Belgium to the French republic, and consented to the cession of the left 
 bank of the Rhine with Mayence, received the territory of Venice, 
 together with Dalmatia, as a recompense for this loss. The princes, 
 prelates, and nobles, who suffered by this abandonment of the farther 
 Rhineland, were to be indemnified on the right bank of the river, and 
 this, as well as all other points relating to Germany, were to be settled 
 December, at the Congress at Rastadt. Napoleon opened this congress 
 1797. himself, and then returned to Paris where he was received 
 
 with acclamations. 
 
 § 563. Gracchus Babceuf. The Royalists. — The reign of the 
 five directors, among whom La Reveillere-Lepeaux (founder of the 
 Society of the Theo-Philanthropists, Friends of God and Men) and 
 Carnot possessed the greatest influence, was detested by the violent re- 
 publicans as well as by the royalists, and had, consequently, to sustain 
 the attacks of both parties. The first attempt to overthrow it was made 
 by the republicans, under the guidance of Gracchus Babceuf, who, like 
 the Roman tribune whose name he had assumed, wished to establish an 
 equalization of property, and a new division of lands. He was joined 
 by some of the old Jacobins, particularly by Drouet. The conspiracy 
 was discovered. After some legal proceedings, which attracted a great 
 deal of attention, Babceuf and one other were executed, the others were 
 banished. But greater than this was the danger with which the direc- 
 toral government was threatened by the royalists. When, in accordance 
 
428 THE LATEST PERIOD. 
 
 with tlie cliarter of the Constitution, at the expiration of the first year, 
 a third part of the council vacated their seats, and were replaced bj a 
 fresh election, the royalists, who had founded the club of Clichy, succeed- 
 ed, almost entirely, in returning people of their own way of thinking to 
 the legislative assembly. Among them was Pichegru, who as commander 
 of the Rhine army, had 'been connected with the emigrants, and now, 
 as president of the Council of the Five Hundred, was seeking to effect 
 the restoration of the king. This caused anxiety to the republicans hi 
 the Directory and in the legislative chamber. They accordingly sought 
 assistance from Bonaparte. The latter despatched a division of his 
 army to Paris, under the conduct of the shrewd Bernadotte and the 
 gallant Augereau, ostensibly to convey thither the conquered standards, 
 September 4, ^ut in reality to assist the Directors against the royalists. 
 1797. On the 18th Fructidor, Augereau surrounded the Tuileries 
 
 with his troops, and ordered the royalist deputies to be arrested ; upon 
 which, eleven members of the. Council of Ancients, forty-two of the Five 
 Hundred (among them Pichegru), and two Directors, were sentenced to 
 deportation. The royalist elections were then declared invalid, the re- 
 turned emigrants again banished, and many journals suppressed. The 
 directoral government, however, possessed neither respect nor confi- 
 dence. Trade, industry, and agriculture fell into decay, and the national 
 finances were in a dilapidated state. At the commencement of the 
 llevolution, the government had ordered paper money to be issued, 
 for the security and guarantee of which they assigned the confiscated 
 property of the Church and of the emigrants. These notes were called 
 assignats. A want of confidence in the stability of the revolutionary 
 government soon produced a depreciation of this paper money, especially 
 as the increasing number of assignats rendered their redemption every 
 day more improbable. During the reign of terror, no one refused an 
 acceptance that was commanded by law, and the assignats had thus a 
 compulsatory circulation. But after the fall of Robespierre, and the 
 decline of terrorism, this paper money sank daily in value ; and, despite 
 the efforts made by the directoral government to restore the confidence 
 of the people by discharging the old assignats and issuing fresh bills 
 (mandats, inscriptions), the new notes were soon as worthless as the old 
 ones. The losses were enormous ; property had fled from the rich and 
 the illustrious to the lower classes. To defray the expenses of war and 
 other outlays, the Directory established a complete system of plunder in 
 the conquered countries. 
 
 § 5G4. The Republicans in Italy. Changes in Switzerland. 
 Italy and Switzerland were particularly exposed to the insolence and 
 rapacity of the directoral government. In the winter of 1797, repub- 
 lican commotions took place in Rome and other parts of the States of 
 the Church, which were occasioned by French influence. During the 
 
FRANCE UNDER THE DIRECTORY. 429 
 
 Euppression of these by the papal troops, general Duphot, who was present 
 in Rome, lost his life. This afforded the French government an oppor- 
 tunity of ordering Berthier to march with an array into Rome. A tree 
 Februar}^, of liberty was erected in the midst of the Roman Forum, 
 1798. the Pope was deprived of his temporal power, which was 
 
 made over to a republican government, consisting of consuls, senators, 
 and tribunes. The French then imposed severe military levies and im- 
 posts upon the town, and carried off the most valuable works of art to 
 Paris' : and when this proceeding occasioned some popular commotions, 
 
 the erey-headed pope, Pius VI., was led away to Paris, 
 August, 1799. ,/-,.,.,/„. T , ,. , 
 
 where he died m the tollowmg year, and the cardinals were 
 
 subjected to severe persecutions. Lucca and Genoa also received demo- 
 cratical constitutions, and paid for them with their treasures. But the 
 most remarkable occurrences took place in Naples. The hard-hearted 
 and cowardly king Ferdinand governed there, and devoted himself en- 
 tirely to hunting and fishing, whilst he left the business of the state to his 
 impetuous wife, Caroline, a daughter of Maria Theresa, who, on her 
 side, allowed herself to be entirely guided by the notorious courtezan, 
 Lady Hamilton, the wife of the English ambassador. Filled with deadly 
 hate against France and the regicide republicans, and informed that the 
 European powers had determined upon a fresh campaign, the queen 
 persuaded her husband to allow a Neapolitan army, under the command 
 of the Austrian general Mack, to march into the States of the Church. 
 The French were -at first driven out of Rome, and the town taken pos- 
 session of; but in a few days they -again returned, under Charapionnet, 
 put the Neapolitans to flight, and marched into the territory of their 
 enemy. Confused and helpless, the Neapolitan court fled to Sicily, or- 
 November dered its own fleet to be set on fire, and abandoned the capi- 
 December, tal and the whole country to the conquerors. But the popu- 
 l'^^- lace of Naples, excited by the monks and clergy, now arose. 
 
 Troops of ragamuffins (lazzaroni), united with peasants and galley-slaves, 
 took possession of Naples, and sf>rcad such alarm, that the viceroy fled 
 to Sicily, and Mack sought protection among the French. Championnet 
 then marched over blood and corpses into the stubbornly defended town, 
 
 ,^ and established the Parthenopeian Repubhc. All the re- 
 January 1799. ^ '^ 
 
 spectable and educated Neapolitans, who were inspired with 
 
 any feeling of patriotism, delighted to escape from years of kingly and 
 priestly despotism, attached themselves with enthusiasm to the new order 
 of things. 
 
 La the year 1798, Switzerland also experienced a change in her con- 
 stitution. Bern, and its associate, Vaud, were governed by an aristo- 
 cratic council, all the members of which belonged to patrician families. 
 The Vaudois, excited by the French republicans, seized their arms foi 
 the purpose of freeing themselves from the government of the Ber- 
 
430 THE LATEST PERIOD. 
 
 nesp. But as tliej were not a match for their opponents, they claimed 
 the assistance of France ; upon which general Brune took possession 
 of Bern, made himself master of the rich treasures and of the arsenal, 
 and extorted large sums from the land by military levies. Supported 
 by the democratic party, with Ochs of Basle and Laharpe of Yaud at 
 Uieir head, the French converted Switzerland into the single and 
 \ndivisible Helvetic Republic, with a form of policy borrowed from 
 Uie directoral government of France. It was in vain that the Catholic 
 ?antons on the lake of Lucerne, excited by their priests, opposed 
 themselves to this arrangement and 'took up arms ; they were defeated, 
 and compelled to conform to the new system. Geneva was united to 
 France. 
 
 § 565. The War of the Second Coalition. — These proceedings, 
 and the simultaneous expedition of Napoleon to Egypt and Syria, pro- 
 duced a fresh coalition of the three great European powers, Russia, Eng- 
 land, and Austria, against France. Russia had been governed since the 
 year 1796 by Paul, the eldest son of Catherine, a prince with a mind 
 somewhat deranged, who cherished the bitterest hatred against the Re- 
 volution; and who, as a great admirer of the Order of Malta, to the 
 Grand Mastership of which he had had himself appointed, saw, in the 
 capture of that island by Napoleon, a cause for war. England feared 
 danger to her foreign possessions from the Egyptian expedition, and 
 scattered money with a liberal hand to raise up fresh enemies against 
 France. Austria was at variance with the directoral government, be- 
 cause the house of the French ambassador in Vienna, Bernadotte, had 
 been broken open, and the tricolor flag torn down and burnt, during a 
 popular festival, without the Austrian government having afforded the re- 
 quired satisfaction. 
 
 War was waged, at the same time, in Germany, in Italy, in Switzer- 
 land, and in the Netherlands. After the French had been defeated at 
 
 nf 1. «- -Ko^ Stockach by the archduke Charles, and forced over the Rhine, 
 
 March 25, 1799. "^ ' ' 
 
 the French ambassadors (Roberjot, Bonnier, Jean Debry), 
 
 who had hitherto conducted the affairs of peace in Rastadt, and rendered 
 themselves universally odious by their pride and insolence, wished to re- 
 turn. But scarcely had they left Rastadt at the commencement of night, 
 . before they were attacked, in defiance of all the riglits of na- 
 
 tions, by Szekler hussars, robbed of their papers, and treated 
 in such a way that two died immediately, and Jean Debry, who was 
 severely wounded, only saved his life by crawling into a ditch. This 
 deed excited universal disgust, and was taken advantage of by the Direc- 
 tory to excite the people to vengeance. In Italy, also, the French had 
 the disadvantage. The Russians, under Suwarrow, conquered the Cisal- 
 pine Republic in a few weeks, after Moreau had been defeated at Cassano, 
 and Macdonald, who had led the French army out of Naples, at Trebia, 
 
FRANCE UNDER THE DIRECTORY. 431 
 
 famous for the victory of Hannibal. The bloody defeat of the French 
 
 in the battle of Novi, where the younj' o^eneral Joubert died 
 »une 17 — 19. o o 
 
 the dearii of a hero, completed the loss of Italy. This change 
 
 August 5. jjj affairs was a death-blow to the Parthenopeian Republic. 
 Scarcely had the French army left Naples, before the barbarous cardinal 
 Ruffo stormed the city with bands of Calabrian peasants and 
 exasperated lazzaroni, and the court returned from Sicily. 
 The republicans of Naples were now visited by a frightful punishment. 
 Supported by Admiral Nelson, who lay with his fleet before the city, and 
 who, seduced by the charms of Lady Hamilton, allowed himself to be 
 made the instrument of an ignominious vengeance, the priesthood and the 
 royal government practised deeds, before which the atrocities of the 
 French reign of terror retreat into obscurity. After the murderings and 
 plunderings of the lazzaroni were over, the business of the judge, the 
 executioner, and the gaoler commenced. Every partisan, adherent, or 
 favorer of the republican institutions was persecuted. Upwards of 
 4,000 of the most respectable and refined men and females died upon the 
 scaffold or in frightful dungeons. For it was precisely the noblest por- 
 tion of the nation, who wished to redeem the people from their degrada- 
 tion and ignorance, that had joined themselves with patriotic enthu- 
 siasm to the new system. The grey-haired prince, Caraccioli, the 
 former confidant of Ferdinand and the friend of Nelson, was hanged 
 at the yard-arm, and his body plunged, loaded with weights, into 
 the waves. The republican government was also dissolved in 
 Rome, whereupon the new pope, Pius VII., again took possession of 
 the Vatican. ^ ^ 
 
 After the conquest of Italy, Suwarrow surmounted the pathless ice- 
 bergs of the Alps, with the purpose of driving the French out of Switz- 
 erland. The Russian army had incredible difficulties and dangers to 
 encounter in this expedition. Combats were sustained on the Gothard 
 and at the Devil's Bridge against the enemy and natural difficulties, that 
 may be classed with the most daring feats in the world's history. But 
 despite all their efforts, the Russians, owing to not being sufficiently sup- 
 ported by the Austrians, were defeated by the French in the battle of 
 September 25, Zurich. (During the capture of Zurich, which followed, 
 2G, 1799. Lavater was mortally wounded.) Suwarrow conducted the 
 
 remains of his army across the frozen heights of the Grisons to their 
 Ma 1800 ^^™^j where he shortly after died. The simultaneous at- 
 tempt of the English to drive the French out of the Nether- 
 lands, and restore the Stadtholder, had a disastrous termination. The 
 unskilful general, the duke of York, purchased the retreat of himself 
 October 1799 ^"^ ^^^ ^^^^ ^^ ^ disgraceful convention, without troubling 
 * himself about his alhes, the Russians. This ignoble and 
 selfish behavior of the English and Austrians exasperated the Russian 
 
432 THE LATEST PERIOD. 
 
 emperor, Paul, so much against the allies, that he retired from the 
 coalition. 
 
 § 566. Bonaparte in Egypt and Syria. — During these trans- 
 actions, Bonaparte found himself in Egypt, at the head of a consider- 
 able army. In the June of 1708, he had sailed from the island of 
 Malta, which had been wrested from the knights of St. John by treach- 
 ery, towards the land of the jS^ile. The chief inducements to this strange 
 and adventurous undertaking were the wash to inspire the excitable 
 French nation with enthusiasm for himself by extraordinary actions, the 
 desire of glory, and the thought of being able to weaken the maritime 
 power of England, and to threaten her possessions in the East Indies 
 from Egypt. After his disembarkation at Alexandria, the whole of the 
 French fleet at Aboukir, owing to the carelessness of the admiral, was 
 defeated and captured by the English naval hero. Nelson ; and Napoleon 
 was in consequence obliged to make arrangements for a longer stay. In 
 July, he marched from Alexandria through the Egyptian desert to Cairo. 
 The distress of the army, unprovided with water or sufficient necessaries, 
 
 in the burning heat, was very great. In the battle of the 
 ' ' Pyramids, " from the tops of which 4,000 years looked down 
 upon the combatants," the Mamalukes, who at that time swayed Egypt 
 under the Turkish government, w^ere defeated ; whereupon Bonaparte 
 marched into Cairo, and established a new government, police, and taxa- 
 tion, upon the European pattern, and ordered the curiosities of this won- 
 derful land to be examined, and its monuments and antiquities to be col- 
 lected and described, by the artists and men of learning who accompanied 
 his army. In the meanwhile, although Bonaparte and his troops treated 
 the religious customs of the Mahommedans with every possible forbear- 
 ance, and showed all outward respect to their priests, mosques, cei'erao- 
 nies, and customs, fanaticism w^as, nevertheless, raging in the bosoms of 
 the Mussulmans, and rendered the rule of the Christians detestable to 
 them. This hatred w^as increased when the French general levied taxes 
 and imposts ; and the Porte, which would not allow itself to be deceived 
 by Napoleon's false shows of friendship and devotion, called upon the 
 Mahommedans to fight against the Christians. A dreadful insurrec- 
 October2l ^^^^ broke out in Cairo, which could only be su]:»pressed 
 ^'^^' with difficulty by the superiority of European tactics, after 
 
 nearly 6,000 Mahommedans had been slain. Napoleon made use of the 
 February, victory to extort money, and then marched with his Turkish 
 1799. troops against Syria. After the conquest of Jaffii, where he 
 
 ordered 2,000 Arnauts, whom he had a second time taken prisoners, to 
 be shot as perjured, he proceeded to the siege of Jean d'Acre. It was 
 
 there that the fortune of Napoleon met with its first rebuff. 
 
 The Turks, provided with artillery by the English admiral. 
 Sir Sidney Smith, repelled the assaults of the enemy, despite their 
 
FRANCE UXDER THE DIRECTORY. 43S 
 
 v/onderful valor. At the same time, a Turkish army threatened the 
 European soldiers m the mterior of the country. The former was, in- 
 deed, defeated and dispersed by Junot at Nazareth, and at Mount Tabor 
 by Kleber ; nevertheless, upon the plague breaking out among his troops, 
 Napoleon found himself compelled to give up Acre and to commence a 
 retreat. The horses were laden with the sick ; the soldiers suffered the 
 most dreadful privations ; the dangers and distresses of the waf were 
 frightful. Napoleon shared all the fatigues with the meanest of his 
 army ; he is even said to have visited a hospital filled with those sick of 
 the plague. He again reached Cairo in June, and in the following 
 month, defeated a Turkish army of three times his number, 
 at Aboukir. A short time after this, he learned the disasters 
 of the French in Italy from some newspapers ; and the intelligence pro- 
 duced such an effect upon him, that he determined upon returning to 
 France. He quietly made his preparations for departure with the 
 greatest expedition. After transferring the command of the Egyptian 
 ai*my to Kleber, Napoleon sailed from the harbor of Alexandria with 
 two frigates and a few small transports, and about 500 followers, and, 
 October 9 guided by the star of his fortunes, reached the coast of France 
 1799. undiscovered by the English, and landed at Frejus amidst 
 
 the acclamations of the people. 
 
 § 567. The Eighteenth Brtjmaire. — Upon his arrival in Paris, 
 Napoleon embraced the resolution of overthrowing the directoral gov- 
 ernment, which had lost all authority and consideration. With this pur- 
 pose, he made himself secure of the officers and troops that were in 
 Paris, and consulted with Sieyes, one of the directors, and his own 
 brother, Lucien Bonaparte, who had been elected president of the Five 
 Hundred, on the means of carrying his plan into execution. Lucien 
 transferred the sittings of the council to St. Cloud, for the purpose of 
 bringing the members within the power of the soldiers. There, Napo- 
 leon first attempted to win over the members to his plans by persuasion; 
 when he found that he could not succeed in this, but rather, that he was 
 overwhelmed with threats and reproaches, he commanded his grenadiers 
 to clear the room with levelled bayonets. The republicans, who pre- 
 sented a bold front to the danger, were at length compelled to yield to 
 Buperior force, and sought their safety through the doors and windows. 
 November 9, This done, a commission of fifty persons was appointed to 
 1799. draw up a fresh constitution. Thus ended the violent pro- 
 
 cedure of tlie 18th Brumaire, in consequence of which Napoleon Bona- 
 parte took the conduct of affairs into his own strong hands. 
 
434 TIIE LATEST PERIOD. 
 
 C. GOVERNMENT OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 I. THE CONSULATE (1800-1804). 
 
 § 568. According to the consular constitution, the power of the state 
 was divided in the following manner : — 1. To the Senate, which consisted 
 of eighty members, belonged the privilege of selecting from the list of 
 names sent in by the departments the members of the legislative power, 
 and the chief officials and judges. 2. The legislative power was d#ided 
 (a) into the Tribunate, which numbered one hundred membeA^ apfMvhosojl 
 office it was to examine and debate upon the proposals (tf the *^oi-«rn^ 
 ment ; and (b) the legislative bodies, who had only to receive or reject 
 these proposals unconditionally. 3. The government consisted of three 
 Consuls, who were elected for ten years. Of these Consuls, the first, 
 Bonaparte, exercised the powers of government, properly so called ; 
 whilst the second and third Consuls (Cambaceres and Lebrun) were 
 merely placed at his side as advisers. Bonaparte, as first Consul, sur- 
 rounded himself with a state council and a ministry, for which he se- 
 lected the most talented and experienced men. Talleyrand, the dexter- 
 ous diplomatist, was minister of the exterior ; the astute Fouche super- 
 intended the police; Berthier held the staff of general. The Code 
 Napoleon, in the composition of which the most renowned lawyers of 
 France were employed, is an illustrious proof of the sagacity of the 
 state council. 
 
 § 569. Marengo and Hoiienlinden. — After the arrangement of 
 the new constitution, Bonaparte wrote a letter with his own hand to 
 the king of England, in which he made an offer of peace ; he did the 
 same to the emperor. But this unusual proceeding found little sympa- 
 thy. A cold answer, in measured terms, spoke of the restoration of the 
 Bourbons, and of a return to the ancient boundaries. The contrast be- 
 tween the apparent warmth, openness, and magnanimity of Napoleon, 
 and the repulsive coldness of the cabinets of London and Vienna, ex- 
 cited the greatest enthusiasm and military ardor among the fiery 
 French. Napoleon was more successful in his attempts to gain over the 
 czar of Russia to his cause. Paul's love for soldiers, and his disgust at 
 the Austrians and English, who would not exchange the captured Rus- 
 sians, were dexterously made use of by Napoleon. He sent some 
 thousands of these prisoners, fresh armed and clothed, back to their 
 homes, without ransom. By this means he won the heart of the em- . 
 peror, who, with all his eccentricities, possessed a chivalrous spirit ; so 
 that the latter entered into a friendly alliance with Bonaparte, and 
 withdrew himself entirely from his former allies. 
 
 The First Consul now assembled a large army, with all secrecy, in 
 
GOVERNMENT OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 435 
 
 the neighborhood of the Lake of Geneva, and undertook the wonderful 
 passage of the great St. Bernard with the main body, whilst 
 * other divisions penetrated into Italy by the Simplon, St. 
 Gothard, and other passes. This bold undertaking, with its difficulties 
 and dangers, recalls to mind the heroic age of Hannibal. The army 
 marched past tlie Hospice, placed in the midst of snow and icebergs, 
 down into the valley of the Dora Baltea, where the fortress of Bard, 
 which was occupied by the Austrians, appeared to present insurmounta- 
 ble difficulties. But Napoleon's genius discovered an escape. The 
 troops surmounted the neighboring heights by a sheep-path, whilst the 
 artillery was conveyed secretly under the guns of the fort by an artifice. 
 In this way the French descended, quite unexpectedly, upon Upper 
 Italy, at the very moment when the Austrians had compelled Genoa to 
 surrender, and were in possession of the whole country. But the posi- 
 June 9. tion of affairs was soon changed. Five days after the fall 
 
 June 14. of Genoa, the Austrians received a defeat at MontebelIo,and 
 a short time after, the battle of Marengo was fought near Alexandria, 
 where the Austrians under Melas were completely routed. The unex- 
 pected arrival of the brave Desaix from Egypt produced this change, 
 and snatched the victory that was deemed secure from the hands of the 
 Austrians. Desaix, one of the greatest and most noble men of the time 
 of the Revolution, died the death of a hero at Marengo. Milan and 
 Lombardy were the prize of the day. At the same time, an army 
 under Moreau had forced its way into Swabia and Bavaria, driven back 
 the Austrians in several encounters, and compelled them to a truce ; but 
 it was the glorious march of IMacdonald and Moncey over 
 J^^y- the icy Grisons, and Moreau's splendid victory in the bloody 
 
 December 3. field of Hohenlinden, that first compelled the Austrians to 
 
 accept, in the peace of Luneville, the conditions that had 
 February 9. , ^ , . ^ t^ . , , , -. , 
 
 been entered mto at Campo lormio, and to acknowledge the 
 
 valleys of the Rhine and the Adige as the boundaries of the French 
 empire. The formation of an Italian republic under the presidentship 
 of Bonaparte, and the indemnification of the losses of the German 
 princes and the imperial estates, by the secularized Church property 
 and the abolished imperial cities on the right side of the Rhine, were 
 the most important articles in the peace of Luneville. The arrange- 
 ment that was made, two years later, in the territories of the German 
 States, by the so-called decree of the Imperial Diet, was the first step 
 February 25, towards the dissolution of the German empire, and the es- 
 1803. tablishment of sovereign kingdoms and principalities. 
 
 § 570. The I^ace of Amiens. — After the peace of Luneville, 
 England alone retained her arms, and as the Russian emperor, Paul, out 
 of hatred to the selfish and insolent islanders, had only a short time be- 
 fore renewed the alliance with Prussia, Sweden, and Denmark, for an 
 
436 THE LATEST PEEIOD. 
 
 armed neutrality, and by this means stirred up enemies again3t the 
 British in the Baltic, the English people also were longing for rest and 
 refreshment. Negotiations for peace were accordingly entered into, but 
 were attended for a long time by no result, inasmuch as the parties could 
 not agree respecting Egypt. For Kleber, angry as he was at Napoleon's 
 retreat, had successfully maintained himself against the Turks and the 
 English, and in the battle near Ileliopolis, had defeated an 
 
 ' army of six times his numbers. But after he had fallen by 
 the dagger of a fanatical Mussulman, in the garden of his palace at Cairo, 
 on the day of the battle of Marengo, the French army, under the con- 
 duct of his incompetent successor, Menou, who had embraced Islamism, 
 fell gradually into such distress, that the English entertained the hope of 
 compelling it to surrender, and consequently delayed the negotiations for 
 peace. It was not until the gallant English general, Aber- 
 
 ' 'crombie, had fallen in the battle of Canopus, that they were 
 convinced that neither their own land force, which was composed of re- 
 cruits from all nations, nor the undisciplined Turkish squadrons, were in 
 September, ^ condition to overcome the tactics of the French in Egypt. 
 1801. A treaty was concluded, by virtue of which the French 
 
 army, 24,000 strong, with arms, munitions, and all the treasures of 
 science and art, were conveyed back to France in English vessels. This 
 was the preliminary to the peace of Amiens, by which the English 
 
 promised to surrender the greater part of their foreij]fn con- 
 March 27, 1802.^ , ,. .-,,.,-,,.,,-■, ^ ■, . , , 
 
 quests, and to relmquish the island oi Malta, or which they 
 
 had gained possession, to the knights of St. John. This peace, which 
 was concluded with great precipitation on the part of England, met with 
 violent opposition in the country. The press raised its voice loudly 
 against it, and adopted at the same time a hostile tone towards Napoleon. 
 These attacks irritated the First Consul, who could bear neither censure 
 nor opposition ; he replied in a similar stfain by the French government 
 paper (Moniteur). This occasioned a mutual ill-temper, which promised 
 a speedy renewal of hostilities ; and the English accordingly delayed the 
 evacuation of Malta, and the execution of the disadvantageous conditions 
 of the peace. The dread of Russia had passed, since Paul had met with 
 a violent death. The cruelty, the arbitrary measures, and the gloomy 
 suspicions of this emperor, had increased to such an extent, that there 
 could be no longer a doubt that his mind was incurably affected. A con- 
 spiracy was therefore formed amongst those around him, the threads of 
 which were guided by the powerful count Pahlen. The result of this 
 "vyas, that the emperor Paul was attacked in his bed-chamber by SubofF, 
 Benningsen, and others, and when he refused the required abdication of 
 
 *c o. ,o«-. t^^® throne, he was cruelly stranded, and his son Alexander 
 May 24, 1801. i • , i • tt , , 
 
 proclaimed as his successor. Under these circumstances, the 
 
 May 18, 1803. peace of Amiens had no permanence. At the expiration o^ 
 
GOVERNMENT OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 437 
 
 R year, the Englisli again declared war, and Pitt reentered the ministry. 
 A short time before'^ Napoleon had reduced Switzerland to the same 
 Btate of subjection as Holland and Italy. By the so-called Act of 
 Mediation, he had effected such a change in the constitution 
 ' of the Helvetic republic, that the cantons had again become 
 independent, but a Landaraman and a Diet represented the confederation 
 as a collective state. 
 
 § 571. The new Court and the Concordat. — Bonaparte was 
 at first engaged in reconciling the old with the new, in combining the 
 results of the Revolution with the forms and manners of the monarchical 
 period. But he very soon made known his preference for the ancient 
 system, by the restoration of all the former arrangements and customs. 
 The times and fashions of a previous period, the forms of the old 
 etiquette, the elegance of the kingly period, were soon to be seen at the 
 court of the First Consul in the Tnileries. An aristocratic demeanor, 
 a dignified bearing, and polished manners, were again held in estimation, 
 as the advantages of good society. The social gifts of his wife, Josephine, 
 the beauty and amiability of his step-children (Eugene and Ilortense 
 Beauharnais) and sitters (Pauline, Elise), assisted him in this matter.* 
 The reductions in the emigrant lists brought back many royalists to their 
 homes, and the favor shown to them made them courteous and pliant in 
 the service of the new court. Madame de Stael (daughter of Necker) 
 collected, as in the old time, a circle of accomplished and illustrious men 
 in her saloon. The vanity of the French favored Napoleon's efforts ; 
 when he instituted the Order of the Legion of Honor, republicans and 
 royalists grasped eagerly at the new plaything of human weakness. 
 
 One of the first cares of the Consul was the restoration of Christian 
 
 worship m the French churches. After he had abolished the republican 
 
 festivals (10th August, 21st January), and introduced the 
 
 ' * observance of the Sabbath, negotiations were opened with 
 
 the Roman court, which at length led to the conclusion of the Concordat. 
 
 April 8. By this Concordat, the French clergy lost their early inde- 
 
 * Genealogical Table of the Bonaparte ftimily of Ajaccio, in Corsica. 
 
 Charles Bonaparte, = Laetitia n^e Ramolini, A. D. 1736, at Rome. 
 
 1. Joseph B., 2. Napoleon B,, 3, Lucien B., 4. Eliza Bacciochi, 
 
 Count Surv'illiers, a. d. 1769 - 1821. Prince Canino, A. D. 1777 - 1820. 
 
 A. D. 1767 - 1844. A. D. 1772 - 1841 . 
 
 5. Louis B., 6. Pauline Borghese, 7. Caroline Murat, 8. Jerome B., 
 
 Duke of St. Leu, A. d. 1781-1825. a. d. 1781-1839. born 1784, 
 
 A. D. 1778-1846. _^ Duke of Monfoit 
 
 Napoleon Bonaparte, = Josephine Beauharn^, n^e Tascher de la Pagcrie, 
 A. D. 1763-1814. 
 A. D. 1837. 
 Eugene, Duke of Leuchtenberg, Hortense, Duchess of St. Leu, = Louis B 
 
 A. D. 1781-1824. Louis Napoleon, 
 
 President of the French Bepublic- 
 
 37* 
 
438 THE LATEST PERIOD. 
 
 vendence, and were subjected to the head of the Church as well as t« 
 the ruler of the state. 
 
 No less attention did Napoleon devote to the affairs of education ; but 
 he particularly patronized the establishments for practical science, as the 
 Polytechnic School in Paris. An arbitrary and power-loving man, 
 Napoleon wished to guide and govern every thing himself, and thus be- 
 came the creator of the pernicious system of centralization, by which the 
 vital circulation was suppressed, and the seeds of death were planted in 
 the whole body of the state. 
 
 § 572. Conspiracies. — Napoleon possessed a despotic nature, that 
 found no pleasure in a life of freedom ; he accordingly curtailed the 
 liberty and political rights of the citizens, persecuted the Jacobins and 
 Republicans, whom he called " Ideologists," and reposed his confidence 
 in his guard, and in a vigorous triple police, under the superintendence 
 of the crafty Fouche. Repeated conspiracies against the life of the First 
 Consul, sometimes undertaken by the republicans and sometimes by the 
 royalists, were always followed by fresh restrictions and a more rigorous 
 system of espionage. The most desperate undertaking of this kind was 
 the attempt, by means of the so-called infernal machine, — a cask filled 
 December 24 "^ith gunpowder, bullets, and inflammable materials, to blow 
 1800. up Bonaparte on his way to the opera-house, — an attempt 
 
 which he escaped by the rapidity with which his coachman was driv- 
 ing, but which destroyed many houses and killed several people. In 
 consequence of this atrocious deed, a great number of Jacobins were con- 
 demned to deportation, though it afterwards turned out that the plot was 
 undertaken by the royalists. Still more dangerous and extensive were 
 the conspiracies against I^poleon, when the office of Consul was conferred 
 
 .<. .o. ^von him for life by the voice of the people, with the privi- 
 August 2, 1802. . ^ . . , . "^ t^ , . 
 
 lege ot nammg his successor. By this means, the Bourbons 
 
 were cut off from the last hopes of a return, and the emigrants accord- 
 ingly left no means untried of destroying him. The desperate George 
 Cadoudal, and Pichegru, who was residing in England, and who was as 
 strong as a giant, allowed themselves to be employed as tools. They 
 conveyed themselves secretly to France, but were discovered and arrest- 
 ed, with about forty confederates. Before their fate was decided. Napoleon 
 allowed himself to be hurried into the commission of a revolting crime. 
 It had been represented to him that the duke d'Enghien, the chivalrous 
 grandson of the prince of Conde, was the soul of all the royalist conspi- 
 racies. Accordingly, this young nobleman, who was residing at Etten- 
 heim, a small town of Baden, was seized at Napoleon's command, by a 
 troop of armed men, conducted with the greatest haste through Stras- 
 burg to Paris, condemned to death by a hurried court-martial, and, 
 M h 21 1804 ^^^P^*® ^ magnanimous defence, shot in the trenches of 
 Vincennes. This deed, which placed Bonaparte on a level 
 
NAPOLEON, EMPEROR. 439 
 
 with the men of the reign of terror in 1793, revolted all Europe, and 
 put an end to the praises of his admirers. The poet Chateaubriand, the 
 author of the " Genius of Christianity," resigned the official situation 
 tliat had been conferred upon him by Bonaparte's sister, Eliza, and 
 retired to Switzerland. The fate of the conspirators was shortly after 
 decided upon. Pichegru had already died a violent death in prison, 
 whether by his own hand or that of another is uncertain. George 
 Cadoudal, with eleven confederates, ascended the guillotine. General 
 Moreau, who .wds implicated, retired into voluntary banishment in 
 America. J^ 
 
 /^ II. NAPOLEOX, EMPEROR (a. D. 1804-1814). 
 1. THE EMPIRE. 
 
 § 573. The royalist conspiracies were made use of by Bonaparte to 
 
 establish an hereditary monarchy. At the instigation of his adherents, 
 
 the making over the herediftiry dignity of emperor to Napoleon was 
 
 proposed to the Tribunat, sanctioned by the Senate, and confirmed by the 
 
 whole people by the subscription of their names. Whilst the minds of 
 
 ,, ,o ,o.. °^6" were still painfully excited by the late bloody execu- 
 May 18, 1804. . t., , ,.-, /,,-r^ 
 
 tions, iSapoleon was proclamied emperor of the French, and 
 
 at the end of the year, solemnly anointed by the pope in the church of 
 Notre Dame. The crown, however, he placed on his own head, as well 
 as on that of his wife, Josephine, who knelt before him. This magnifi- 
 cent coronation appeared to be the conclusion of the Revolution, since 
 the whole ancient system, for the extinction of which thousands of humaij 
 lives had been sacrificed, gradually returned. The new emperor sur- 
 rounded his throne with a brilliant court, in which the fortner titles, 
 orders, and gradations of rank were revived^under different names. lie 
 himself certainly retained his old military *mplicity, but the members 
 of his fiimily were made princes and princesses ; his generals became 
 marshals ; the devoted servants and promoters of his plans were con- 
 nected with the throne as the great officers of the crown, or as senators 
 with large incomes. The establishment of a new feudal nobility, with 
 the old titles of princes, dukes, counts, barons, completed the splendid 
 edifice of a magnificent imperial court, which soon outshone the courts 
 of princes. The republican arrangement gradually disappeared. The 
 old calendar was again restored ; the new nobility were at liberty to 
 establish the right of primogeniture, the press was placed under a censor- 
 ship, and civil freedom was more and more restricted. Any opposition 
 was intolerable to the ruler ; for this reason, he first reduced the number 
 A D 1807 ^^ Tribunes to fifty, and then abolished the whole Tribunat, 
 Obedience was henceforth the only thing ; and France was 
 placed under a tyranny more severe than that of the ancient monarchy. 
 But then the tyrant was a great man, and therefore the people willingly 
 
440 THE LATEST PERIOD. 
 
 Bubmitted to liim ; and liardly as the rigorous conscription, the severe 
 restrictions upon trade, and the heavy taxation might press upon them, 
 the burden was the more lightly borne, inasmuch as the great ends at- 
 tained by the Revolution — equality before the law, the peasants' right 
 of property in the soil and other possessions, remained untouched. In- 
 dustry made great progress, civil arts and trades received a vast impulse ; 
 and an unaccustomed prosperity made itself everywhere visible. Mag- 
 nificent roads, like those over the Alps, canals, bridges, and improve- 
 ments of all kinds, are, to the present day, eloquent memorials of the 
 restless activity of this remarkable man. Splendid palaces, majestic 
 bridges, and noble streets, arose in Paris, every thing great or magnifi- 
 cent that art had produced was united in the Louvre ; the capital of 
 France glittered with a splendor that had never before been witnessed. 
 The university was arranged upon a most magnificent footing, and ap- 
 pointed the supreme court of supervision and control over the whole sys- 
 tem of schools and education. The glory that was conferred by the em- 
 peror upon the nation rendered every yoke light to the latter ; she forgot 
 that the voice of freedom was dying away amidst the clash of arms and 
 the clang of trumpets, and that the high-flown tone of bulletins, and the 
 ornate language of the senate and legislative body, were destructive of 
 truth and justice. 
 
 2. AUSTERLITZ, PRESBURG. CONFEDERATION OF THE RHINE. 
 
 § 574. Tlie English took advantage of the renewal of the war with 
 France to make an unexpected seizui-e of Dutch and French ships, and 
 then sought to unite Russia and Austria in a new coalition. Napoleon, 
 on the other hand, ordered his troops to advance upon the 
 Weser, and to occupy the electorate of Hanover, which be- 
 longed to the king of England. The Hanoverian people and army were 
 resolved to liazard life and property in defence of their country ; but the 
 selfish aristocracy and officials preferred a disgraceful capitulation, which 
 surrendered the whole country to the French, to fighting. The gallant 
 army was forced to retreat across the Elbe, and there to disband. Arms, 
 munitions of war, and splendid horses, fell into the hands of the French, 
 who forthwith occupied the country with their troops, and exhausted it 
 by military levies and exactions. Tlie threatening attitude assumed by 
 Napoleon in Hanover against the whole north, as well as his arbitrary 
 proceedings in Holland, Italy, and other countries, were sources of anxi- 
 ety to other powers. In Italy, not only was the Italian republic changed 
 March 17, i'^to the kingdom of Italy, and Eugene Beauharnais, the step- 
 1805. son of the emperor, placed there as viceroy, but Napoleon 
 
 bIso enlarged it by the addition of Parma, and gave Lucca to his sister 
 Eliza, the wife of the Corsican, Bacciochi. In Spain and Germany, also, 
 Napoleon acted in the same imperious and arbitrary manner. These, 
 
NAPOLEON, EMPEROR. 441 
 
 and other causes, united Russia, Austria, and Sweden with England 
 against France, and renewed the war w^ith greater vigor. In Prussia, 
 also, there was a strong party, headed by the high-spirited queen Louisa 
 and prince Louis Ferdinand, in favor of an alliance with the united 
 powers against Bonaparte ; but the three ministers, Ilaugwitz, Lucche- 
 sini, and Lombard, who were inclined to France, and utterly wanting in 
 any feehng of patriotism, still possessed the confidence of the irresolute 
 and peace-loving king. Thus Prussia remained neutral, to its own de- 
 struction. 
 
 § 575. Whilst the attention of all Europe was directed to the western 
 coast of France, where Napoleon was fitting out ships of every kind with 
 the greatest diligence, and assembling a vast camp at Boulogne, with the 
 purpose, as was believed, of effecting a landing on the English coast, he 
 ■was making preparations, in all silence, for the memorable campaign of 
 1805. Never were Napoleon's talents for command or his miUtary 
 genius displayed in a more brilliant light than in the plan of this cam- 
 paign. Assured of the assistance of most of the princes of southern 
 Germany, Bonaparte crossed the Rhine in the autumn with seven divi- 
 sions, commanded by his most experienced marshals, Ney, Lannes, Mar- 
 mont, Soult, Murat, &c., and marched into Swabia ; whilst Bernadotte, 
 disregarding Prussia's neutrality, pressed forward through the Branden- 
 burg Margravate of Anspach-Bayreuth upon the Isar. Tliis violation of 
 his neutral position irritated the king, Frederick William IIL, to such a 
 degree, that he entered into closer relationship with the allies, and as- 
 sumed a threatening aspect, without, however, actually declaring war. 
 The Electors of Baden, Wirtemberg, and Bavaria, on the other hand, 
 strengthened with their troops the army of the too-powerful enemy, from 
 whose grace they had as much to hope as they had to fear from his 
 frowns. The dukes of Hesse, Nassau, &c., did the same. After Ney's 
 
 successful en^ajirement at Elchin<]jen, the Austrian general, 
 October 14. ,_ , i . • t-, ^ . iv r .i • 
 
 Mack, "was shut up in ulm, and cut ori from the mam army. 
 
 Helpless, and despairing of deliverance, the incompetent commander com- 
 menced negotiations with the French, which terminated in the disgrace- 
 ful cjipitulation of Ulm. By this arrangement, 33,000 Austri- 
 ans, including thirteen generals, became prisoners cf war. Cov- 
 ered with shame, the once-brave warriors marched before Napoleon, laid 
 down their arms before the victor, placed forty banners at his ieetj and 
 deliveied up sixty cannon with their horses. When too late, it was seen 
 in Vienna that Mack was not equal to his lofty position, and he was de- 
 prived of his honor, his dignities, and the advantages of his office, by a 
 court-martial. Napoleon's joy at this unexampled good fortune was, 
 however, diminished by the contemporaneous maritime victory of the 
 English at Trafalgar, which annihilated the whole French 
 fleet, but which also cost the life of the great naval hero, 
 Nelson. 
 
442 THE LATEST PERIOD. 
 
 § 57G. The war-jiarty had gained the upper hand in Prussia since the 
 violation of the neutral territory by Bernadotte. The king renewed the 
 bond of perpetual friendship with the sensitive emperor Alexander, in 
 the church of the garrison at Potsdam, over the coffin of Frederick the 
 Great, at night, and then sent Haugwitz with threatening demands to 
 Kapoleon. The French emperor, in the meantime, proceeded along the 
 Danube towards the Austrian states, not without many bloody engage- 
 ments, of which the battles of Dirnstein and Stein against the Russians 
 under KutusofF and Bagration were of especial importance, 
 overa er . ^^ ^^^^ French found brave and circumspect opponents in the 
 Russians in these encounters, they had the easier game in Austria. 
 Murat took possession of Vienna without the slightest trou- 
 ble ; and the prince of Auersburg, who had orders either to 
 defend the bridge over the Danube, which was fortified and filled with 
 gunpowder, or to blow it into the air, allowed himself to be so completely 
 deceived by the bold cunning of the French general, and by pretended 
 negotiations of peace, that he surrendered it to the enemy uninjured and 
 undefended. The irresolution of the emperor Francis, and the divisions 
 between the Austrians and Russians, facilitated the victory of the French, 
 who, laden with enormous booty, pursued the Austro-Russian array, in 
 the midst of perpetual engagements, into Moravia. In Moravia, the 
 December 2 battle of Austerlitz, in which three emperors were present, 
 1805. was fought on the day of the year in which the emperor was 
 
 crowned, and in which the winter sun shone upon the most splendid of Napo- 
 leon's victories. The emperor Francis, wishing for the termination of the 
 war, suffered himself to be persuaded to pay a humble visit to Napoleon 
 in the French camp, and then consented to a truce which stipulated for 
 
 the retreat of the Russians from the Austrian states. Upon 
 December 26. , . . . i i . i • . t • i 
 
 this, negotiations were commenced which terminated m tlie 
 
 peace of Presburg. 
 
 By this peace, Austria lost the territory of Venice, which was united 
 to the kingdom of Italy ; Tyrol, which fell to Bavaria ; and a portion of 
 Austria, of which the Briesgau and the lands of the Black Forest were 
 allotted to Baden. Bavaria and Wirtemberg received the rank of king- 
 doms ; Baden, that of an archduchy ; and all three were joined to the 
 imperial house of Napoleon by the ties of relationship. The daughter of 
 the new king, Max Joseph of Bavaria, was married to the emperor's 
 adopted son-in-law, Eugene Beauharnois, in Wirtemberg; Catherine, 
 the noble daughter of a princely house, was obliged to consent to a mar- 
 riage with Napoleon's frivolous brother, Jerome, who had shortly before 
 been separated from his citizen wife ; and in Baden, Charles, the grand- 
 son of the excellent archduke Frederick, w^as united to Stephanie Beau- 
 harnois, a niece of the empress Josephine, -(vho had been adopted by 
 Napoleon. The lands on the Lower Rhine were united into the arch- 
 
NAPOLEON, EMPEROR. 443 
 
 duchy of Cleve-Berg, with the capital, Dusseldorf, and presented to the 
 emperor's brother-in-law, Joachim Murat. Holland also was compelled 
 to exchange her republican constitution for a monarchy, and to beg a 
 creature of Napoleon's for a ruler ; upon which, the French emperor 
 named his brother Louis king of Holland. The royal family of Naples 
 experienced the wrath of the potentate beyond all others. During the 
 war, an Anglo-Russian fleet had landed at Naples, and been received by 
 Ferdinand and Caroline with joy. Hereupon, Napoleon, the day after 
 the conclusion of the peace of Presburg at Schonbrunn, subscribed the 
 decree which contained the notorious decision, " The dynasty of the Bour- 
 bons has ceased to reign in Naples." Upon- this, Joseph 
 Bonaparte was named king of Naples, and installed in his 
 new dignity by a French army. The royal family, who vainly strove to 
 avert the loss of the beautiful land, at first by entreaties, and afterwards 
 by stirring up the lazzaroni and Calabrese, fled with their friends and 
 treasures to §icily, where they lived under the protection of the English 
 till Napoleon's downfall. A number of imperial fiefs, with considerable 
 revenues, were established in the conquered and surrendered provinces 
 of Italy, and conferred upon French marshals and statesmen, together 
 with the title of duke. 
 
 After the battle of Austerlitz, the Prussian ambassador, Haugwitz, did 
 not venture to convey the charge of his court to the victorious emperor; 
 without asking permission in Berlin, he allowed himself to be induced, 
 partly by threats, and partly by the engaging afl*ability of Napoleon, to 
 subscribe an unfavorable contract, by which Prussia exchanged the Fran- 
 conian principality of Anspach, some lands on the Lower Rhine, and the 
 principality of Neuremberg in Switzerland, for Hanover. It was in 
 vain that the king resisted the exchange, which threatened to involve 
 him in hostilities with England ; separated from Austria by the hasty 
 conclusion of the peace of Presburg, nothing was left to the king but to 
 submit to the dictation of the victor. The news of the sudden change in 
 affiiirs produced by the battle of Austerlitz produced such an 
 effect upon the English minister, Pitt, that he shortly after 
 4Jed. 
 / § 577. The constitution of the German empire was already dissolved 
 by the elevation of the Elector of Bavaria and of the duke of Wirtemberg 
 into independent monarchs. Napoleon, in consequence, entertained the 
 project of entirely removing the south and west of Germany from the 
 influence of Austria, and of uniting them to himself by the formation of 
 •the Confederation of the Rhine. A prospect of enlarging their territo- 
 ries and increasing their power, and fear of the mighty ruler from whose 
 side victory appeared inseparable, induced a great number of princea 
 and estates of the empire to separate themselves from the German em- 
 pire and to join France. Self-interest was more powerful than patriot- 
 
444 THE LATEST PERIOD. 
 
 ism. On the 12tli of July, the treaty was signed in Paris, by virtue of 
 which Napoleon, as protector of the Confederation of the Rhine, recog- 
 nized the full sovereignty of the individual members, upon condition of 
 their maintaining a certain contingent of troops ready at the emperor's 
 disposal. Bavaria, Wirtemberg, Baden, Hesse-Darmstadt, Nassau, and 
 several otliers, formed the kernel around which the lesser principalities, as 
 Hohenzollern, Leichtensten, Solms, &;c., collected themselves, till at length 
 almost all the German confederate states of the second and third rank gave 
 in their adhesion. The Elector arch-chancellor Dalberg, who had been 
 made pi-ince-primate, and who had received Frankfort, together with 
 Ilanau and Fulda as a principality, was chosen Napoleon's representa- 
 tive in tlie Confederation of the Rhine. By the subjection of many 
 small and formerly independent states of the empire under the govern- 
 ment of the great princQ, the power of the larger number of the mem- 
 bers of the confederation was considerably increased. Francis II. now 
 abdicated the title of emperor of Germany, and called himself Francis I., 
 emperor of Austria, and withdrew the whole of his states from the Ger- 
 man Union. By this proceeding, the " Holy Roman empire of the Ger- 
 man nation " was dissolved. It had been long since reduced to a shadow 
 by internal dissensions and a powerless supreme government. Its might- 
 iest limbs were now the vassals of a foreign tyrant. The sense of degra- 
 dation pressed heavily upon many a German breast ; but who w^ould 
 dare to utter his thoughts after the bold bookseller. Palm, of Nuremberg, 
 had become the victim of a diso-raceful judicial murder, for 
 
 August 26. ^ . . , ^ n , , , ,. , 1 1 
 
 refusing to give up the author or a pamphlet published by 
 liim on the abasement of Germany? 
 
 ■"^ 3. JENA. TILSIT. ERFURT. 
 
 § 578. The wavering conduct of Prussia had filled Napoleon with the 
 deepest anger, and convinced him that the king would be untrustworthy 
 as a friend, and cowardly and innocuous as an enemy. He accordingly 
 flung aside all respect and forbearance, and purposely inflicted mj*ny 
 mortifications upon the Prussian government. The irritation produced 
 by this was soon aggravated into a complete rupture by two causes. 
 ] . The formation of the Confederation of the Rhine appeared to indicate 
 an intention of gradually rendering Germany as dependent upon the 
 French empire as were Italy and Holland. Prussia accordingly at- 
 tempted to frustrate this plan by the establishment of a northern confede- 
 ration, to which all the estates of the empire which had not yet joined 
 that of the Rhine might connect themselves ; and felt herself deeply 
 aggrieved when Napoleon prevented the execution of the project. 2. It 
 v.-as made known in Berlin that the French emperor, during the renewal 
 of the negotiations for peace with the English government, had offered to 
 lestore the Electorate of Hanover, that had been surrendered to Prussia 
 
NAPOLEON, EMPEROR. 415 
 
 without consulting with the Prussian government on the subject. This 
 intelligence, together with numerous violations of territory, convinced 
 the Prussian government that thej had the worst to expect from France. 
 A redress of all grievances was demanded in the so-called Ultimatum, 
 the army was placed upon a war-footing, and all connection with France 
 broken off. 
 
 § 579. "Whilst people in Berlin were expecting the final answer of 
 France, the French troops under Napoleon and his experienced marshals 
 were already in the heart of Thuringia and Saxony, the Elector of which 
 had united himself, after some hesitation, to Prussia. The first engage- 
 ment at Saalfeld, where the gallant prince Louis found his 
 death, went against the Prussians ; but the defeat suffered 
 by the aniiy under the command of the old duke of Brunswick, in the 
 great double battle of Jena and Auerstadt, was terrible and 
 fatal. It decided the fate of the countries between the Rhine 
 and the Elbe. The former presumption of the officers and young nobles 
 was suddenly turned into despondency, and the greatest confusion and 
 helplessness took possession of the leaders. Hohenlohe, with 17,000 men, 
 
 laid down his arms at Prenzlow : the fortresses of Erfurt, 
 October 28. _ ^ . , _, . ^ . » -, , . , . n 
 
 Magdeburg, bpondau, btettm, &c., surrendered withm a few- 
 days, with such wonderful celerity, that the commandants of many of 
 them were suspected of treachery, so utterly unaccountable,did such cow- 
 ardice. and such entire want of self-reliance appear. B18kj|ier alone 
 saved the honor of Prussia by the bloody combat in and around Lubeck, 
 though he could not prevent the horrible storming of this slightly-forti- 
 fied town ; in Colberg, also, Gneisenau and Schill, supported by the 
 brave citizen, Nettlebeck, courageously resisted the superior force of the 
 enemy. Thirteen days after the battle of Jena, Napoleon marched into 
 Berlin, and issued his mandates from thence. The elector of Hesse, 
 who wished to remain neutral, and who had witiidrawn his forces from the 
 contest, was obliged to surrender both land and army to the enemy, and 
 to seek for protection as a fugitive in a foreign land. He took if^ his 
 residence in Prague. The duke of Brunswick, who had been severely 
 wounded, and who was carried into his capital on a litter after the battle 
 of Jena, was compelled to seek for refuge in Denmark to die in peace. 
 Jena and East Friesland were united to Holland ; the Hanse towns, as 
 well as Leipsic, were oppressed by the deprivation of all English wares, 
 and by severe military taxes ; and treasures of art and science, and the 
 trophies of former victories, were carried away from all quarters. It 
 was only to the Elector of Saxony, whose troops had fought at Jena, that 
 Napoleon showed any favor. He set the Saxon prisoners at liberty, and 
 
 granted the Elector a favorable peace ; upon which the latter, 
 
 dignified with the title of king, joined the Confederation of 
 the Rhine, like the other Saxon dukes. From this time, Frederick 
 38 
 
446 TUB LATEST PERIOD. 
 
 Augustus, to the misfortune of himself and his people, felt himself bound 
 bj the ties of gratitude to the French emperor. 
 
 § 580. The king of Prussia had fled to Konigsberg, where he vainly 
 attempted to obtain peace. Napoleon's demands rose with his fortunes. 
 In his necessity, Frederick William turned to his friend Alexander, who 
 immediately despatched a Russian army under Benningsen and others 
 into East Prussia, to prevent the French passing the Vistula. Upon this, 
 Napoleon issued a proclamation to the Poles, pretendedly in the name of 
 Kosciusko, by which these misused people were summoned to fight for 
 liberty and independence. The Poles willingly made the greatest sacri- 
 fices, and strengthened the ranks of the French by their brave soldiers 
 under the command of Dombrowski. Napoleon marched into Warsaw 
 amidst the rejoicings of the people ; but the Poles discovered, only too 
 soon, that the foreign potentate was more intent upon the gratification of 
 his own ambition and love of power, than upon the restoration of their 
 empire. Murderous battles were now fought on the banks of the Vistula, 
 and torrents of blood shed at Pultusk and Morungen. But the great 
 February 8 blow was Struck in the battle of Preuss-Eylau, where the 
 1807. martial spirit of the French and Russians gave rise to a 
 
 contest which in loss of men equals any event of the sort in the w^orld's 
 history. Both parties claimed the victory, and their efforts and exhaustion 
 were so great, that the war suffered an interruption of four months. 
 During this interval, negotiations w^ere again renewed ; but much as the 
 king, who was waiting with his family in Memel, might desire the ter- 
 mination of the war, that he might free his subjects from the dreadful ex- 
 actions of the French, he was too honest to dissever his own cause from 
 that of his ally. But when the Silesian fortresses on the Oder, Glogau, 
 Brieg, Schweidnitz, and Breslau, fell into the hands of the French by the 
 cowardice of their commandants, and even Dantzic was sur- 
 
 May 24. 
 
 rendered to the marshal Lefebvre by the gallant governor 
 Kalkreuth, the king lost all confidence in a successful issue. When, 
 after tlie recommencement of hostilities, the French gained a brilliant 
 victory over the Russians in the battle of Friedland, on the anniversary 
 of the battle of Marengo, and took possession of Konigsberg, the allied 
 monarchs, after a personal interview with Bonaparte on the Niemen, 
 ^_ thought it prudent to consent to the peace of Tilsit, oppressive 
 
 as w^ere the conditions. By this peace, Frederick William 
 lost half his states ; he was compelled to surrender all the lands between 
 the Rhine and the Elbe, to consent to the establishment of a dukedom 
 of Warsaw under the supremacy of the king of Saxony, to the elevation 
 of Dantzic into a free state, and to the payment of the unheard sum of 
 150 millions to defray the expenses of the war. Napoleon formed the 
 Btates ceded by Prussia, along with electoral Hesse, Brunswick, and 
 South Hanover, into the new kingdom of Westphalia, with the capital. 
 
NAPOLEOJf, EMPEROR. 447 
 
 Cassel, and placed there his youngest brother Jerome as king, under con^ 
 dition, that, as a member of the Rhine Confederation, he should supply 
 tlie emperor with Westphalian troops, and make over to him one-half 
 the receipts of his treasury. 
 
 § 581. Austerlitz and Jena had broken the power of Austria and 
 Prussia, so that the destinies of Europe were now guided by France, 
 England, and Russia. These three great powers were unanimous in 
 this, that they paid no regard to right except where there existed the 
 power of self-defence, as .was shown by the proceedings in Sweden and 
 Denmark. Gustavus IV. of Sweden would not accede to the peace of 
 Tilsit; but, supported by England, continued the war alone against Na- 
 poleon. Although his conduct at first displayed strength of character 
 and magnanimity, his boundless conceit, and his total misapprehension of 
 his position and powers, soon showed that his mind must be in a deranged 
 state. Strongly impressed with the sanctity of the kingly dignity, he re- 
 fused the title of emperor to the ruler of France, and only addressed 
 him as General Bonaparte ; involved in the meshes of religious fanati- 
 cism, .he believed himself ordained by Providence to re-instate the 
 Bourbons, and to overthrow the " beast of the Revelations" (Napoleon). 
 lie carried his hatred against Bonaparte so far as mortally to offend 
 Russia and Prussia by sending back their orders, and banishing their 
 ambassadors from Stockholm, because these powers had concluded a 
 peace with the usurper. The French conquered Stralsund and the 
 island of Rugen, whilst the Russian army penetrated into Finland and 
 made themselves masters of the country. The attempts of the French 
 emperor to destroy the trade of Great Britain by a continental blockade 
 made the Swedish war a matter of importance to the English. They 
 feared lest the French should establish a firm footing on the Baltic, and 
 exclude their ships from its shores by shutting up the Sound. They ac- 
 cordingly made a proposal to Denmark to enter into an alliance with 
 them, and to yield up her noble fleet to their keeping. This proposal 
 was rejected with indignation ; whereupon the English fleet appeared in 
 September the Sound, bombarded Copenhagen, laid a part of the town 
 2-5, 1807. in ashes, and carried off the whole Danish fleet as their prey. 
 This breach of the rights of nations enraged the king of Denmark to 
 such a degree, that he united himself closely to France, and declared war 
 against the English and their ally, the king of Sweden. At this time, 
 Napoleon and Alexander were allies. They held the celebrated meeting 
 September 27, ^^ Erfurt, where the whole splendor of European magnifi- 
 1808. cence was displayed, and where four kings and thirty-four 
 
 princes were assembled together out of Germany, for the purpose of 
 paying their homage to the mighty potentate. Here the two emperors 
 promised not to interrupt each other in their plans of conquest, so 
 that Napoleon was to be left unfettered in Spain, and Alexander in 
 
448 THE LATEST PERIOD. 
 
 Finland, Moldavia, and Wallachia. The kingdom of Sweden was now 
 threatened on all sides. The Russians were already approaching the 
 capital, the Danes, and the Spanish troops, who, under the command of 
 La Ivoraana, were serving Napoleon, were upon the frontiers ; the army 
 and military aifairs of Sweden were in the most wretched condition ; the 
 heavy taxes could not be raised from the exhausted land ; and yet the 
 king obstinately refused all proposals of peace. At this crisis, a conspi- 
 racy was formed in the army and capital, in consequence of which Gus- 
 tavus IV. was violently seized in his palace, compelled to abdicate his 
 throne, and then conducted to an old insular castle. Hereupon the 
 Diet declared Gustavus IV. and all his posterity to have 
 ' forfeited the crown, invited his uncle, Charles XIII., to the 
 throne, and restricted the monarchical power. This revolution was fol- 
 lowed by a peace, by which Finland and the Aaland islands remained 
 with Russia. The election of a successor to the throne, which was ren- 
 dered necessary by the childless old age of the king, fell upon the mar- 
 shal Bernadotte (Ponte-Corvo), w^ho, by his friendly treatment of the 
 Swedish troops during the Prussian war, had gained many friends among 
 the officers. Bernadotte was, with the unwillingly yielded consent of 
 August 21, Napoleon, declared successor to the Swedish throne, and, 
 1810. after his accession to the Lutheran church, adopted by 
 
 Charles XIII. 
 
 4. THE EVENTS IN THE PYRENEAN PENINSULA. 
 
 § 582. Led astray by the success of his arms, Napoleon now proceeded 
 from one enterprise to another. Like Charlemagne, whom he adopted as 
 his model, he wished to unite the Southern and Western states of Europe 
 into a vast empire under the supremacy of France. With this object, 
 he sought to gain possession of the Spanish peninsula, and to make him- 
 self master of the provinces still left unconquered in Italy. In the first 
 place, he demanded of the Portuguese government to renounce the alli- 
 ance with England, and to close their harbors against English vessels. 
 When the court of Lisbon refused to yield submission to this mandate. 
 Napoleon bought over the all-powerful favorite of the royal pair of 
 Spain, the " prince of peace," Godoy, by the prospect of a principality 
 in Portugal, and sent marshal Junot with an army directly through Spain 
 into that country. The dastardly court of Lisbon did not await the 
 Xoveraber, coming of the French, but fled, with all its treasures, in 
 
 1807. English ships, to the Brazils; upon which Junot, who had 
 been created duke of Abrantes, took possession of the capital and the 
 whole country, and then declared, in the name of his commander, ''that 
 the house of Braganza had ceased to reign." Godoy, who, without 
 February 1, either virtue, talent, or merit, had become the absolute ruler 
 
 1808. of Spain by the mere favor of the profligate queen and the 
 
NAPOLEON, EMPEROR. 449 
 
 boundless weakness of Charles IV., now delivered up his country into 
 the hands of Napoleon. Spanish troops under La Romana entered into 
 the service of the emperor, and fought on the Danish islands against the 
 Swedes, whilst the soldiers of France were occupying Spain in great 
 numbers. This caused commotions amongst the Spanish people ; dis- 
 turbances broke out in Aranjuez and Madrid, in which the palace of the 
 detested favorite was plundered and destroyed, and he himself roughly 
 handled ac.d threatened with death. Terrified by these occurrences, the 
 weak Charles abdicated his throne in favor of his eldest son 
 ' * Ferdinand, who, as the enemy of Godoy, was loved by the 
 people, but, for the same reason, mortally hated by his parents. But 
 notwithstanding the humility with which Ferdinand attempted to gain 
 Napoleon's consent to this change of the crown, and at the same time be- 
 came a suitor for the hand of one of his relatives — the French emperor 
 concealed his sentiments, ordered Murat to take possession of Madrid, 
 and then invited the royal })air, along with the "prince of peace" and 
 Ferdinand, to a personal conference with him in Bayonne. Ferdinand 
 did not dare to resist the summons of the potentate, although warned by 
 his friends, and though the people sought to restrain him from undertak- 
 ing this fatal journey. Once in Bayonne, the royal family of Spain was 
 entangled by Napoleon in the meshes of a false and insidious state policy. 
 Charles was prevailed upoi^to revoke his abdication, and to transfer the 
 regained crown to Napoleon and his family. Ferdinand, incapable of a 
 vigorous resolution, allowed himself to be induced by the emperor's 
 threats and intrigues to acknowledge this arbitrary act. He resided 
 henceforth in France, in the enjoyment of an annuity; whilst Charles* 
 IV. and his family settled in Rome. Napoleon then named his brother 
 
 Joseph kinp; of Spain, and sought to win over the people to 
 June 6, 1808. i o i ' o i i 
 
 the new system by the restoration of the Cortes Constitu- 
 tion, and by improving the affairs of government, and of the adminis- 
 tration of justice. But the frightful insurrection in Madrid, by which 
 
 1200 French soldiers of Murat's army were killed, whilst 
 
 the intrigues in Bayonne were yet pending, showed that the 
 nation would not submit so easily to the foreign yoke as the imbecile royal 
 family. 
 
 § 583. Even before Joseph, after the surrender of the kingdom of 
 Naples to his brother-in-law, Murat, held his solemn entry into ^Madrid, 
 juntas were formed in several towns, which, as provisional governments, 
 took the regulation of affairs into their own hands, and refused obedience 
 to the new king. Armed bands under daring leaders, served them for 
 defence ; and, favored by the ravines and mountain heights of their coun- 
 try, began a guerilla war against the French soldiers. Whilst the edu- 
 cated and enlightened were more attached to the new system, which 
 afforded a life of political freedom, than to the kingly absolutism and 
 
 38* 
 
450 THE LATEST PERIOD. 
 
 priestly rule of the former period, and were consequently nicknamed 
 " Josepliinos," the great mass of the people blindly followed the exhorta- 
 tions of fanatical monks and priests, who held the sacrilegious French in 
 horror. It is true that Napoleon's army possessed sufficient power to 
 maintain the king and his minister in Madrid, but their laws were re- 
 spected no further than they could be supported by French bayonets. 
 The more remote towns and provinces followed partly the juntas, which 
 had their central point in the grand junta of Seville, and partly their 
 own will, without recognizing any government whatever. But anarchy 
 was the very thing that saved Spain in this stormy period. Europe 
 gazed in astonishment upon a people who courageously faced death for 
 their nationality and independence, for their ancient manners and reli- 
 gious usages, for their superstitions and customary arrangements. The 
 leaders of the bands, with their brave but undisciplined followers, avoided 
 open battles ; their strength consisted in unexpected attacks and petty 
 warfare. And whilst the French dissipated their strength in these single 
 encounters, and in the seige of well-defended towns, the English, sup- 
 ported by the natives, began the first successful war by land against Na- 
 poleon. At first, the French arms were successful. Bessieres drove 
 back the unpractised troops of Spain at Rio Secco, and it 
 
 July 14, 1808. . , . . 
 
 seemed as if the assumption of arms by the Spanish people 
 was only to increase the triumph of the military emperor, — when sud- 
 denly the report spread abroad of Du pout's capitulation at Baylen, in 
 Andalusia, by which 20,000 Frenchmen were made prisoners 
 of war, and perished miserably. This blow filled the nation 
 with enthusiasm and military ardor. Joseph left Madrid, the French 
 army retreated beyond the Ebro, and intelligence was shortly after 
 brought that, in Portugal also, the French were obliged to retreat before 
 the English, under AVellington, Moore, and others, and that they would 
 have experienced a fate similar to that of Dupont's army, if the English, 
 August 30, by the over-hasty capitulation of Cintra, had not allowed 
 1808. Junot's troops a free passage to France. The aifairs of the 
 
 French in the Spanish peninsula seemed ruined. 
 
 § 584. Napoleon himself now marched at the head of a mighty army 
 into Spain. The unpractised troops of the insurgents, who opposed 
 themselves without any regular plan to the great winner of battles, were 
 defeated in several engagements, so that the emperor, in four weeks, was 
 December 4, ^^le to enter Madrid and to give back the crown to his 
 
 1808. brother Joseph. Whilst Napoleon was making fresh arrange- 
 ments in the capital, attempting by kindness and threats to induce the 
 Spaniards to acknowledge Joseph, and inflicting severe punishments upon 
 «orae of the most refractory, his marshals were sustaining bloody en- 
 Februaiy 20, Counters with the guerilla chiefs and the English. Saragossa 
 
 1809. was taken after the most desperate resistance, and the gallant 
 
NAPOLEOXj EMPEROR. 451 
 
 defender of the city, Palafox, conveyed to France ; the 
 brave general Moore was killed whilst embarking his troops 
 at Corunna ; and although Wellington obtained the advantage in the 
 battle of Talavera, yet the English army restricted itself 
 for some time to the defence of Portugal. Seville, also, and 
 the whole of Andalusia and Granada, fell into the hands of the French. 
 S2)ain, nevertheless, held herself erect. The national government re- 
 moved to Cadiz, which bade defiance to every storm ; and the Spanish 
 general, La Romana, who, upon the news of his country's rise, had 
 escaped with his troops from Denmark in English ships to his native soil, 
 brought system and order to the guerilla warfare. 
 
 When, in the year 1809, the new war with Austria called the emperor 
 from Spain, he left behind him a large army, consisting for the most part of 
 Germans. At the conclusion of the Austrian war, this force was increased 
 to nearly 300,000 men, who, under the command of his most experienced 
 marshals, (Soult, Massena, Suchet, Ney, St. Cyr, Marmont, Macdonald, 
 &c.), traversed the peninsula in every direction, and raised the renown 
 of the French arms. But victories only increased the hatred towards 
 the French ; the petty war, under the daring leaders, Ballasteros, 
 Empecinado, jMorillo, O'Donnel, Mina, Moreto, assumed a more sangui- 
 nary character, and no courage was of avail against the assassinations to 
 which the revengeful Spaniards were driven by rage and fanaticism. 
 The most heroic deeds that were performed by Napoleon's warriors, 
 under the fervid sun of Spain, now in th^ battle-field, and now in toil- 
 some marches, through mountains and ravines, and again in sieges and 
 storms (Valencia, Gerona), contributed nothing to the quiet possession 
 of the country. In the meanwhile, the Cortes Assembly in Cadiz pro- 
 jected the liberal constitution, which is known as the Constitution of 
 the year '12, and which was to have destroyed absolute monarchy 
 and the power of the priests in Spain for ever. But this Constitution, 
 owing to the hatred of the priests, remained unknown and detested by 
 the people. 
 
 § 585. The Russian campaign of 1812 compelled the emperor to 
 diminish the Spanish army. Wellington took advantage of this to march 
 into Spain with a larger force. Supported by the guerilla bands, the 
 British army soon obtained advantages over their opponents, who were 
 suffering from every kind of want. After Marmont's defeat 
 at Salamanca by Wellington, the English took possession of 
 Madrid and drove out the French king. Suchet, duke of Albufera, and 
 Soult, both alike brave and rapacious, held fortune firm to their standards, 
 and Joseph was once more able to take possession of his tottering throne ; 
 but the frightful catastrophe produced by the Russian campaign com- 
 pelled the French army in the western peninsula also to retreat, and 
 obliged Joseph to quit the Spanish territory. After the victory of 
 
452 THE LATEST PERIOD. 
 
 Vittoria, Wellington followed the retreating forces over the Pyrenees, 
 but found a brave opponent in Soult, even on French ground. 
 " ' 'So late as the 10th of April, 1814, when the allies v/ere en- 
 camped on the Eljsian fields of Paris, the marshal still resisted the ad- 
 vancing enemy at Toulouse, although compelled to yield the field to the 
 superior enemy. 
 
 § 586. Imprisonment of the Pope. — The hatred against the 
 French, and the fanatical fury of the Spaniards, were the work of the 
 priests. Napoleon might have learned from this what power the religion 
 he denied, and its venerable usages, were capable of exerting upon the 
 minds of believers ; but in his pride he refused to recognize any bonds 
 that could limit his ambition. When the pope refused to lay an embargo 
 upon the English ships in the ports of the States of the Church, and to 
 enter into an offensive and defensive alliance with France, Napoleon in- 
 flicted upon him a succession of injuries, and united some portions of the 
 ecclesiastical States to the kingdom of Italy. This, however, in no ways 
 subdued the resolution of the inflexible prince of the Church ; on the 
 contrary, he was thereby induced, in the second war with Austria, to 
 make common cause with the opponents of the emperor, against the 
 supremacy of France. Hereupon, Napoleon, in a decree 
 published at Schonbrunn, declared that the temporal power 
 of the pope had ceased ; and when the holy father, irritated at this, ful- 
 June IG. minated an excommunication against the emperor. Napoleon 
 
 Jul 6 ordered him to be carried off from Pome by violence, ba- 
 
 nished the cardinals, and united the States of the Church with 
 the French territory. Pius YII. lived in several towns, till at length a 
 residence was allotted him in Fontainbleau. As he obstinately refused, 
 whilst in a state of captivity and deprived of his council of cardinals, to 
 fill up the vacant bishoprics, or io arrange any ecclesiastical affairs, Na- 
 poleon found himself again compelled to arbitrary and despotic measures. 
 The pope, how^ever, at length allowed himself, in an unguarded mo- 
 ment, to be persuaded to an arrangement by which his authority was 
 diminished. 
 
 5. THE second AUSTRIAN WAR. HOFER. SCHILL. (1809.) 
 
 § 587. Napoleon's arbitrary proceedings in Italy, and his increasing 
 influence in Germany, awakened the anxiety of Austria. The cabinet 
 of Vienna, therefore, resolved once more to try the fortune of war. The 
 popular war in Spain, in which the French emperor w^as obliged to em- 
 ploy a considerable portion of his forces, the universal discontent at the 
 restrictions upon commerce, the deep movement in Northern Germany, 
 all this seemed to point out that the fiivorable moment was arrived for 
 Austria to regain the power she had lost, and to break to pieces the 
 foreign despotism. The landsturm was called out, and an attempt was 
 
JTAPOLEOX, EMPEROR. 453 
 
 made, by means of vehement proclamations, full of fine promises, to 
 awaken enthusiasm and patriotic feeling. But the magic of the imperial 
 name was still too powerful. The princes of the Rhine Confederation 
 strengthened the I^rench army with their brave troops, and the soldiers 
 of South Germany poured forth their blood for a foreign despot against 
 the warriors of their own race. 
 
 In April, Austria ordered its army, which was placed under 
 
 the command of the archduke Charles, to march into Bavaria 
 and Italy. But the first encounters decided the fate of the war. Napo- 
 leon, supported by AVirtemberg and Bavaria, marched down tlie Danube 
 with a considerable force, drove the enemy over tlie Inn by a succession 
 April 20—22, of victorious encounters (Abensberg, Eckmuhl), and marched 
 1S09. for the second time into the heart of the Austrian dominions. 
 
 On the 10th of May, the emperor stood before the walls of the capital, 
 which, three days after, he entered as a conquerer. Below Vienna, the 
 north bank of the Danube, which is there crossed by numerous bridges, 
 was defended by the archduke Charles. Upon the French army attempt- 
 ing to cross the river from Lobau, an island in the stream, they met with 
 
 such opi^sition in the two days' combat of Aspern and Es- 
 
 lingen, that they were obliged to relinquish the attempt. 
 This bloody, though indecisive battle, where 12,000 French soldiers, in- 
 eluding marshal Lannes, were left upon (he field, gave the first shock to 
 the belief in Napoleon's invincibility, and increased the confidence of the 
 oppressed people. It was only when the emperor had received recnforce- 
 ments, and Eugene Beauharnais had united himself to the grand army, 
 after the victory at Raab, that the French again, and this time with 
 
 more success, attempted the passage of the river, and defeated 
 
 July 6, 6. 
 
 the archduke in the jrreat battle of "VVafjrram. The loss on 
 
 both sides was tolerably equal, and it was not to be disputed that the French 
 no longer retained their former superiority in the field. Austria, a few 
 d'dys later, concluded, over hastily, the truce of Zuaym, that 
 *" she might open negotiations for a fresh peace. 
 
 § 588. This truce was fatal to the Tyrolese. The warlike inhabitants 
 of the mountainous region of the Tyrol, who were attached with the 
 truest devotion to Austria, had risen at the commencement of the war to 
 free themselves from the detested government of Bavaria, under which 
 they had been placed by the peace of Presbqrg. Tlie stimulating exhor- 
 tations of their priests, who possessed great influence over these simple 
 mountaineers, and the enticements and promises of Austria, produced a 
 general insurrection. Trusting to the assistance of Austria, the Tyrolese 
 Beized the familiar rifle, and, like the Spaniards, directed from the moun- 
 tain heights and gullies the unerring tube against the French and Bava- 
 rians, hazarding life and property in defence of the customs of their fathers. 
 At their head stood Andreas Hofer, a publican in the Passeyrthal, a man 
 
454 THE LATEST PERIOD. 
 
 of great consideration among his countrymen both on account of his bodily 
 strength and Courage, as well as his piety, his patriotism, and his honor- 
 able character. Shrewder and more far-sighted men, as Hormayr, the 
 historian of the Tyrol and of this war, made use of Hofer's influence with 
 the people to carry the movement through the whole land. By the side 
 of Hofer stood Speckbacher, the soul of the confederation. A frightful 
 war broke out ; the Bavarians were compelled to evacuate the German 
 Tyrol, and Hofer took possession of Innspruck as the Austrian com- 
 mandant. The truce of Znaym produced discouragement and irresolution 
 among the insurgents, without, however, putting an end to the war. But 
 when the conclusion of the peace of Vienna or Schonbrunn, by which 
 Austria again lost 2000 square (German) miles and three millions of 
 subjects, deprived the Tyrolese of all hopes of assistance, and the Bava- 
 rians and French, with increased forces, marched into the land from three 
 different quarters, the insurrection was quelled. Innspruck again fell 
 into the hands of the Bavarians. Speckbacher and other leaders sought 
 their safety in flight ; but Hofer, who, led astray by bad counsel, had 
 again taken up arms, was discovered in a cave where he had concealed 
 Februaiy 18, himself for two months with his family, and shot in Mantua. 
 1810. He died with the courage of a hero, and highly reverenced 
 
 by his countrymen. Tyrol was divided into three portions. 
 
 § 589. During the second Austrian war, attempts were made in various 
 parts of Germany to shake off the foreign yoke. In Kurhessen, the 
 colonel. Yon Dorenberg, attempted to overthrow the king of Westphalia by 
 an insurrection. The failure of this attempt did not deter the brave major 
 Von Schill from hazarding a similar one in Prussia. With a troop of 
 bold volunteers, he hoped, to arouse the North of Germany against the 
 foreign despotism. But fear of the great emperor of battles paralyzed 
 the arms of the people. Pursued by the enemy, Schill threw himself 
 May 31, into the strong towti of Stralsund, in the hope of being able 
 
 1809. to take ship fix)m thence to England. But he fell during an 
 
 assault, together with most of his companions in arms, beneath the sabres 
 of the enemy's cavalry ; the rest were made prisoners of war, the officers 
 shot in Wfisel and Brunswick, and the privates condemned to the French 
 galleys. 
 
 Duke William of Brunswick, the heroic son of the field-marshal, was 
 more fortunate. He had marched to the aid of Austria with his " black 
 band ; " but treating the truce of Znaym with contempt, because in it he 
 had only been regarded as an Austrian marshal, and not as an independent 
 princeof the empire, he fought his way with incredible bravery through 
 hostile lands and armies to the North Sea, whence he escaped with his 
 October 12, followers to England. The intense excitement of men's minds 
 1809. was evinced by the attempted assassination of Napoleon by a 
 
 young man of Hamburg named Staps. Being seized by General Rapp, 
 and confessing his intention, he was lead to death. 
 
NAPOLEON, EMPEROR. 455 
 
 If the enterprises of Schill and Dorenberg were foolhardy and incon- 
 Eiderate, they were nevertheless of importance as proofs of the sentiments 
 prevailing among the people, and of the newly-aroused patriotism. These 
 sentiments were encouraged and fostered chiefly in Prussia. It was here 
 that patriotically disposed men had assumed the conduct of affairs after 
 the disastrous days of Jena and Tilsit, and driven the characterless old 
 Prussian party from the councils of the king. The high-minded baron 
 Von Stein attempted to elevate the citizen and peasant class by introduc- 
 ing a liberal municipal government, rendering the possession of landed 
 property attainable by every one, and limiting the class privileges of the 
 middle ages. Scharnhorst completely revolutionized the affairs of the 
 army : the employment of mercenary troops was superseded by the 
 universal obligation to bear arms, the feelings of honor were excited 
 among the privates by throwing open the rank of officer to all, and by (he 
 abolition of degrading punishments. It is true that the king, in a short 
 time, found himself compelled to remove his patriotic advisers, when the 
 mandate of Napoleon outlawed the baron Von Stein, and compelled him 
 to take refuge in Kussia. But their works, nevertheless, remained, and 
 formed the groundwork of a system of government which was founded 
 upon the legal equality of the whole of the citizens. Stein's successor, 
 the astute chancellor Von Hardenberg, proceeded, as much as possible, 
 upon the same principles ; and the Tugendbund, which was joined by some 
 of the noblest men of the country, aroused and encouraged patriotism and 
 love of freedom among the people and the ardent youth. 
 
 § 590. The French Empire at its height. — Napoleon stood at 
 the summit of his power and greatness after the peace of Vienna. It 
 was only the reflection that he had no heir that occasioned him any dis- 
 quiet; he accordingly got himself divorced from Josephine, upon the 
 December 15 gi'ound of some informality in their nuptials, and married 
 1809. Maria Louisa, daughter of the emperor of Austria. It was 
 
 on the 1st of April, 1810, that he celebrated his nuptials with the "daughter 
 of the Caisars." Five queens supported the train of the bride, and an 
 unexampled magnificence was displayed. But a fire during the ball that 
 was given by the Austrian ambassador, Schwarzenberg, in honor of tlie 
 newly-married pair, and in which his sister perished in the flames, was 
 regarded as an omen of evil promise. When a son was born to the em- 
 March 20, peror in the following year, who received the pompous title 
 1811. of king of Rome, Napoleon's fortune seemed to be complete 
 
 and the future of France secured. But pride and ambition drove him on 
 from one act of violence to another ; there was no end of the alliances, 
 separations, and interchanges of lands and territories : what the despot 
 created to-day, he destroyed on the morrow ; him whom he made a great 
 man one year he humbled in the following. The blockade of the continent 
 became daily more rigid, to the despair of merchants and traders. When 
 
456 THE LATEST PERIOD. 
 
 king Louis of Holland resisted this, and permitted his people some relax^ 
 ation, he was so unkindly and unworthily treated by his imperial brother 
 that he renounced the throne, upon which Napoleon united the kingdom 
 of Holland with France. A few months later, he also added the Hanse 
 towns, Hamburg, Bremen, Lubeck, and, besides these, the dukedom of 
 Oldenburg and the provinces between the Rhine and the Elbe, to the 
 French empire, which now ruled the whole coast of the North Sea, and 
 numbered 130 departments. Hamburg was made the capital of the new 
 territory, and the cruel Davoust placed there as ruler. The slavery 
 within increased with the extension without. A formidable state-police sup- 
 pressed the last remains of freedom, and threatened every suspected person 
 with persecution and imprisonment. Arbitrariness, passion, and despotism, 
 usurped the place of popular rights ; restrictions on trade, oppressive tax- 
 ation, and military conscriptions were the burdens imposed upon friendly 
 states ; the calamities of war, exactions, and the quarterings of troops, were 
 the miseries of the hostile. 
 
 6. THE WAR AGAINST RUSSIA. 
 
 § 591. The extension of the empire of France even to the shores of the 
 Baltic, by which means the duke of Oldenburg, a near relation of the im- 
 perial family of Russia, was deprived of his lands, completely destroyed 
 the friendship between Alexander and Napoleon, which had already 
 grown cold since the increase of the dukedom of Warsaw by the peace 
 of Vienna. This hostile feeling, which was first displayed in the angry 
 language of diplomatists and in newspaper articles, v/as increased when 
 the Russian government proclaimed a new tarliF unfiivorable to the im- 
 portation of French goods. Both parties prepared themselves for a des- 
 perate struggle. The emperor of Russia concluded a peace with the 
 Turks by the mediation of the English, and brought over to his side 
 Bernadotte of Sweden, whom Napoleon had greatly injured ; the P^rench 
 emperor, on the other hand, arranged a treaty with Prussia and Austria, 
 by which he obtained a considerable increase of his forces. Alexander's 
 defiant demand, that the French garrisons should at once evacuate Pome- 
 van ia and Russia, produced a declaration of war. 
 
 § 592. In May, Napoleon, accompanied by his wife, made his appear- 
 ance in Dresden, where the princes of th« Rhine Confederation, the em- 
 j)eror of Austria, and the king of Prussia, were likewise present to pay 
 their homage to the potentate who was now summoning half Europe to 
 arms against Russia. After a residence of ten days among this brilliant 
 assemblage of princes. Napoleon hastened to his army, nearly half a 
 million strong, and which, with more than a thousand cannon and 20,000 
 baggage waggons, was lying scattered along between the Vistula and tha 
 Niemen. The left wing, consisting for the most part of Poles and Prus- 
 sians, under the command of Macdonald, was placed upon the banks of 
 
NAPOLEOX, EMPEROR. 46^ 
 
 the Baltic ; the right, formed by the Austrian auxiliaries led by Scliwar- 
 zenberg, with a division of French and Saxons under Eegnier, stood on 
 the Lower Bug, opposite the southern army of the Russians ; the body, 
 commanded by Napoleon himself, and under him by the most experienced 
 marshals of his school, crossed the Niemen in June and marched into 
 "Wilna. Tlie appearance of the French awakened the mo.^t sanguine ex- 
 pectations and warlike enthusiasm among the Pok>s. The diet of YN'ar- 
 saw declared the restoration of the kingdom of Poland, and determined 
 upon the formation of a general confederation. But popular n^iovenients 
 were not to Napoleon's taste; he forbade a rise e;i w?r/,?.sv, and damped 
 the enthusiasm by declaring, that, out of regard to Aust;i;;. !, ■ ci.uld iK)t 
 consent to the restoration of the Polish republic in its whole extent. 
 Nevertheless, Polish warriors under Poniatowski and others fought with 
 their accustomed valor beneath the eagles of Napoleon, and the Polish 
 people supported, to the best of their power, the foreign troojis that were 
 now marching in the midst of dreadful rains from Wilna to AVitep.-k. 
 Moscow, "the heart of Russia," was Napoleon's aim; but he soon dis- 
 covered what powerful allies the Russians were possessed of in the nature 
 of their country. The roads wrva impassable, supplies did not arrive, 
 the poor and badly cultivated soil afforded little means of subsistence ; 
 diseases diminished the number of troops and filled the hospitals. 
 
 § 593. The Russian generals, Barclay de Tolly and Bagration, avoided 
 a fixed battle, and lured the emperor onwards deeper into the country. 
 August 17, 'i'^ie fir.-t hatth,' was fought at Smolensk ; hut after fij'itinL'' a 
 1812. whole day without any decisive result, the Russians, in the 
 
 night, left the town, which was in flames. On the following morning, 
 the French found the site of the town drenched with hloed aiid covered 
 with corpses. A council of war was held in Smolensk, but, despite the 
 number of voices that were raised against the continuance of the cam- 
 paign, Napoleon insisted upon the conquest of Moscow, where he intended 
 to pass the winter, and to force Alexander to a peace. The Russians 
 murmured at Barclay's mode of conducting the war, as the Romans had 
 once done at the delay of Fabius; for which reason, Alexander appointed 
 General Kutusoif to the command, who, as a native of the comitry, was 
 nearer to the people, and who was much beloved by the lower class of 
 Russians for his attachment to the religious customs, and to the old Rus- 
 sian manners and usages. Kutusoff dared not allow the holy city of 
 Moscow, with its innumerable towers and golden cupolas, to fidl into 
 the hands of the French, unless he wished to forfeit all the affections of 
 the people. He halted his troops, and by this means brought about the 
 
 murderous battle of Borodino, on the Moskwa, in which the 
 beptember ' • t^ , . , , 
 
 i^rench mdeed remamed in possession of the field, but were 
 
 obliged to allow the Russians to retire in good order. Upwards of 70,- 
 
 000 bodies covered the field ; Ney, " the prince of the Moskwa," was the 
 
 39 
 
458 THE LATEST PERIOD. 
 
 hero of the day. On the 14th of September, the French entered Mos- 
 cow. The nobility and the better class of citizens had left the place. 
 A secret horror fell upon the soldiers as they entered tlie town, and saAV 
 nothing but a few of the rabble creeping about; but who can describe 
 their terror when the four days' conflagration of Moscow, which, in the 
 absence of all means of extinguishing it, soon became a sea of flame, re- 
 duced the city, which was built of wood, and the ancient Kremlin, which 
 Kapoleon himself had chosen for a residence, to ashes ? The governor 
 of Moscow, Rostopschin, had given orders for this horrible deed, without 
 the command of the Tzar, for the purpose of depriving the grand army 
 of its winter quarters, and of compelling it to a disastrous retreat. For- 
 getful of all order and discipline, the soldiers rushed into the burning 
 houses to gratify their passions and love of plunder. 
 
 § 594. From all this it was apparent that the Russians were waging 
 a war of extermination ; and yet Napoleon, from some unaccountable 
 delusion, suffered himself to be decoyed, by the artfully sustained hopes 
 of a peace, into remaining thirty-four days in Moscow without perceiving 
 that KutusofF was seeking to detain him till the commencement of winter, 
 that during the retreat the cold might destroy the half-clad soldiers, who 
 were suffering from want of the necessaries of life. At length, late in 
 October, was commenced that fatal retreat of the grand army, which has 
 no parallel in the history of the sufferings of war. The plan at first 
 contemplated, of marching upon Kaluga, was given up after 
 the dreadful battle of Malo-Jaroslowetz, and the road towards 
 Smolensk over the corpse-covered battle field of Borodino was entered 
 upon. In November, the cold reached 18, and afterwards became 27 
 degrees below zero. Who can describe all the sufferings, battles, and 
 fatigues, by which the grand army was gradually destroyed in the midst 
 of the stern winter? Hunger, cold, and exhaustion produced greater 
 ravages than the bullets of the Russians or the lances of the Cossacks. 
 It was a horrible sight to see thousands of starved or frozen soldiers lying 
 in the public roads, or on the desolate steppes covered with snow and ice, 
 intermingled with fallen horses, abandoned arms, and rich articles of 
 plunder. Kutusoff, who, in a proclamation, ascribed the burning of 
 Moscow to the French, to inflame the hatred of the people still more 
 against them, never left their flank, and forced them to contest every 
 yard of ground. When Smolensk was reached, about the middle of No- 
 vember, the army still numbered about 40,000 men, fit for service ; these 
 were followed by upwards of of 30,000 unarmed stragglers, without dis- 
 ciphne, order, or leaders ; a picture of wretchedness and horror. And 
 yet it was here that the greatest misery began, inasmuch as, by some 
 error in the orders, the expected supplies of arms, clothes, and necessaries 
 were not forthcoming in the town, and the enemy with increased forces 
 were obstructing the path of march. The hero of the retreat was Nej, 
 
GERMAN WAR OF LIBERATION. 459 
 
 the commander of the rear, the " bravest of the brave." His passage 
 over the frozen but partly thawed Dnieper, during the night, was one of 
 the most daring feats recorded in history. On the 25th of November, 
 the army arrived at the ever-memorable river Beresina. Two bridges 
 were thrown across the stream in the presence of the hostile army, and 
 the small remnant that still preserved its discipline passed over in the 
 midst of innumerable dangers ; but nearly 18,000 stragglers, that did not 
 arrive in time, fell into the hands of the enemy. How many were 
 drowned between the masses of ice in the cold waves of the river, or were 
 trampled down and destroyed in the dreadful press, no one can tell. Af- 
 November ter the passage of the Beresina, Napoleon had still 8,000 
 26 - 29. soldiers fit for service. Ney w^as the last man of the rear- 
 
 guard. According to the official account, 243,000 enemies* bodies were 
 buried in Russia. Half of Europe had cause to mourn. On the 3d of 
 December, Napoleon published the celebrated 29th bulletin, which in- 
 formed the expectant people, who had been without intelligence for 
 months, that the emperor was safe and the grand army destroyed. Two 
 days afterwards, he made over the command to Murat, and hastened to 
 Paris to arranjje fresh armaments. 
 
 D. DISSOLUTION OF THE FRENCH EMPIRE, AND 
 ESTABLISHMENT OF A FRESH SYSTEM. 
 
 1. THE GERMAN WAR OF LIBERATION, AND THE FALL OF 
 NArOLEON. 
 
 § 595. The saying attributed to Talleyrand, that the Russian cam- 
 paign was " the beginning of the end," soon proved true. No doubt, 
 oppressive conscriptions soon filled up tlie chasms in the French army, 
 but the faith in Napoleon's invincibility was gone ; and fresh armies 
 formed from young and inexperienced men were opposed to an enemy 
 inspired to great actions both by the victory they had attained, and by 
 the newly-awakened feeling of 'patriotism. So early as the 30th of De- 
 cember, the Prussian general, York, who commanded under Macdonald, 
 on the east coast, had entered into an understanding with the Russian 
 marshal, Diebitsch, and had desisted, together with his troops, from any 
 further hostilities. It is true that this proceeding was publicly censured 
 in Berljn ; but the king's journey to Breslau, where many patriotic men 
 assembled themselves around him, was the first step towards the alliance 
 with Russia, which was completed in the following February. The 
 Febraary 3, boundless ill-usage experienced by Prussia had excited such 
 1813. a detestation of the foreign despotism, that the king's " Call 
 
 to his people" to take up arms awakened an incredible ardor for war. 
 
460 THE LATEST PEEIOD. 
 
 Tlie enthusiasm seized upon all ages and conditions. Youths and men 
 withdrew themselves from their wonted occupations, and from the circles 
 of affection, that they might dedicate their strength to the liberation of 
 their fatherland. Students and teachers left the lecture-room, officials 
 left their posts, young nobles the homes of their fathers ; they seized the 
 musket and knapsack, and placed themselves in the ranks as common 
 soldiers, along with the mechanic Avho had come forth from his workshop, 
 and the peasant who had exchanged the ploughshare for the sword. 
 
 § 596. The allied monarchs attempted to win over the king of Saxony 
 to their cause. But Frederick Augustus resisted the invitation. Grati- 
 tude for the many proofs of favor and confidence which had been shown 
 him.by Napoleon, and fear of the anger of that potentate, bound him fast 
 to his alliance with the French emperor. He placed his lands, his for- 
 tresses, and his troops at his disposal, and Saxony accordingly became the 
 Beat of the war. In the first battles at Lutzen, the French indeed re- 
 tained possession of the field, and drove back their opponents 
 as far as the Oder ; but the heroism of the young German 
 May 20. warriors, who fearlessly presented tlieir breasts to the storm 
 
 of balls, showed the enemy that a different spirit had taken possession of 
 the Prussians from that displayed at Jena. Scharnhorst breathed forth 
 his heroic soul at Lutzen. Among the thousands who strewed the field 
 in these two engagements were Bessieres and Duroc. The death of the 
 latter, whom Napoleon loved and esteemed above all others for his amia- 
 bility, fidelity, and attachment, was a great shock to the French emperor. 
 For the first time, a dark presentiment of the mutabilities of life seemed 
 to take possession of his breast. But pride and presumption hurried 
 him onwards. It was in vain that Austria endeavored, during a short 
 cessation of hostilities, to negotiate a peace at the Congress of Prague ; 
 Napoleon insolently refused to surrender any of the con- 
 quered countries. This was followed by a breaking up of 
 August 12. tlie truce, and by Austria's declaration of war against France. 
 
 ^ It is true that Napoleon, in the battle of Dresden, once more 
 Au "113120-27. 
 
 chained victory to his eagles, and had the pleasure of seeing 
 
 his opponent, Moreau, whom Alexander had summoned from America, 
 
 carried from the field mortally wounded ; but the fruits of the Dresden 
 
 victory were destroyed (1) by Bliicher's simultaneous engagement on the 
 
 Ivatzbach in Silesia, ao;ainst Macdonald, a battle in which 
 
 Marshal " Forwards " gained the title of a prince of the 
 
 battle-field ; (2) by the French general, Vandamme, being defeated and 
 
 made prisoner with his whole army, in the hotly contested battle of 
 
 Cylm, a catastrophe that was brought about by Kleist's daring march 
 
 A <^ "9-30 ^^^'^•■'^ ^^^® heights of Nollendorf, and by the pertinacious 
 
 courage of the Russian guards under Ostermann ; and (3) 
 
 August 23. by the splendid feats of the Prusso-Swedish army at Gros- 
 
 September 6. Beeren and Dennewitz. 
 
GERMAN WAR OP LIBERATION. 461 
 
 § 597. By the ai^tumn, the result of this great struggle was scarcely 
 doubtful ; the princes of the Confederation of the Rhine gradually fell 
 off* from Napoleon, and joined the allies; thus Bavaria, who 
 concluded the treaty of Ried with Austria. In October, the 
 armies united themselves together in the broad plain of Leipsic ; the 
 Austrians, under prince Schwarzenberg, in whose hands the management 
 of the whole was placed ; the Russians, under Barclay, Benningsen, and 
 others ; tlie Prussians, under Blucher ; aod the Swedes, under Berna- 
 dotte. The forces of the allies (300,000 men) were superior to the array 
 conducted by Napoleon himself by 100,000 men. It was in vain that the 
 French emperor, to whom the god of battles had so often been propitious, 
 unfolded his mighty talents ; it was in vain that the most distinguished 
 marshals of his school, Ney, Murat, Augereau, Macdonald, the Pole 
 Poniatoweki, and many others, exerted their strength to the utmost. The 
 October 16-18. ^^^^^ days' battle fought in Leipsic and the neighboring vil- 
 lages was the grave of the French empire. After suffering 
 an enorrao-js loss. Napoleon, in the night of the 10th October, quitted the 
 town, which was immediately taken possession of i)y the allies. The 
 over-hasty destruction of the Elster bridge delivered up 18,000 soldiers 
 fit for battle into the hands of the victors, to say nothing of the sick and 
 the wounded. Poniatowski, who during the battle had been made mar- 
 shal, found his death in the waters. The French, closely pursued by the* 
 enemy, advanced by hasty marches by Erfurt to the Rhine. Their pas- 
 sage was opposed at Ilanau by "Wrede, with Bavarians and Austrians ; 
 but by this he only gave the "dying lion" an opportunity of displaying 
 October 30, liis mihtary skill. The victory that was gained at Ilanau 
 21- over the wounded Wrede opened to* the French the passage 
 
 to the Rhine by the way of Frankfurt. But the unfortunates all carried 
 the germs of mortal disease in their breasts, and half of them died before 
 the end of the year in over-crowded hospitals. The dissolution of the 
 kingdom of Westphalia, the return of the Elector of Hesse, and of the 
 dukes of Brunswick and Oldenberg, to their own dominions, tlie impri- 
 sonment of the king of Saxony, and the breaking up of the Confederation 
 of the Rhine, now followed in quick succession. Dalberg renounced his 
 archdukedom of Frankfurt ; Wirtemberg, Baden, Hesse-Darmstadt, con- 
 cluded treaties with Austria, and arrayed their troops beneath the stand- 
 ard of the allies. It was only in Hamburg that the French maintained 
 themselves, under the cruel Davoust, till the May of 1814, and practised 
 dreadful exactions and oppressions. The king of Denmark was punished 
 for his adherence to Napoleon by the loss of Norway, which was given 
 January 14, to Sweden by the peace of Kiel. The same th.ing happened 
 1814. in Italy. The viceroy, Eugene, left the beautiful lands of the 
 
 Po to the Austrians, after a gallant defence, and joined his father-in-law 
 in Bavaria. The archduke Ferdinand returned to Tuscany, and tho 
 39* 
 
462 THE LATEST PEPJOD. 
 
 States of tlie Churcli received the severely-tried Pope Plus VII. Naplea 
 alone remained for a sliort time in the hands of the cavalry leader, Murat, 
 who, having quarrelled with his brother-in-law, joined himself to Austria. 
 § 598. The allied monarchs held a council with their ministers and 
 generals in Frankfurt, established a provisional government over the con- 
 quered lands, and again made the French emperor an offer of peace, if 
 he would content himself with the Rhine as the boundary of France. As, 
 however, the vast preparations that Napoleon was making, by means of 
 a severe conscription, convinced the allied powers that their adversary 
 was going once more to try the chances of battle, it was determined to 
 January 1, cross the Rhine. It was on new-year's night that Bliicher 
 1814. crossed the German river, at several points between Mann- 
 
 heim and Coblentz, with the Silesian army, whilst Schwarzenberg marched 
 with the main body through Switzerland to the south-east of France, and 
 a second Prussian army, under Bulo\v, freed Holland, and enabled the 
 Stadtholder to return to his states. In Champagne, the armies of Bliicher 
 and Schwarzenberg met together, and won the battle of 
 ^ ' Brienne (la Rothiere). But, as the difficulty of obtaining 
 provisions compelled the two armies again to separate, whilst Schwarzen- 
 berg marched along the Seine, and Bliicher followed the course of the 
 Marne, the French emperor, whose military talents again blazed forth in 
 their fullest lustre, succeeded in repeatedly defeating the Silesian army 
 (at Montmirail, Chateau-Thierry), and compelling it to retreat. After 
 this, he suddenly threw himself upon the main army, and 
 drove this also back upon Troyes by the victory of Monte- 
 reau. These events made such an impression upon the allies, that it 
 would not have been difficult for the emperor, in the fresh negotiations 
 for peace that were opened at Chatillon, to have secured himself upon 
 the throne of France, if he would only have given up the other conquered 
 countries. But, as he increased his demands with every favorable turn 
 of fortune, only gave limited powers to his ambassador, Caulaincourt, 
 and paralyzed the negotiations by ambiguous and undecisive declarations, 
 the decision was delayed until Blucher, Napoleon's most 
 implacable enemy, had gained fresh advantages over the de- 
 bilitated French army at Craonne and Laon. The negotiations were 
 iiow^ broken off", and the dethronement of Bonaparte resolved upon. The 
 
 ., , „ battle of Arcis on the Aube, convinced the French emperor 
 lluruli 20 21. 
 
 that his weakened and exhausted army would avail no longer 
 
 against the iron ranks of the enemy ; and this conviction made him irre- 
 solute. Whilst the allies were marching upon Paris, and his presence 
 in the capital was imperatively called for, he wasted his time in daring 
 but fruitless marches. The heroic exertions of a few thousand National 
 Guards at Fere-Champenoise was the last display of popular energy. A 
 few days later, the hostile army stormed Montmartre. Upon this, Joseph, 
 
THE RESTORATION AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 463 
 
 to whom Napoleon had entrusted the defence of the capital, placed his 
 authority in the hands of Mortier and Marmont, and retired with the 
 empress and the regency to Blois. The two marshals were soon com- 
 P^^^^^ ^0 yield to superior force, and to surrender the city by 
 treaty. Hereupon followed the entrance of the allies into 
 Paris, and the establishment of a provisional government under the pre- 
 sidentship of Talleyrand. This astute diplomatist, a master in every in- 
 trigue and artifice, now devoted himself to the interests of the royal 
 family, and attempted, by the employment of the principle of legitimacy, 
 to exclude Napoleon, and to bring about the restoration of the Bourbons. 
 
 2. THE IlESTORATIOX AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 § 099. In the meanwhile, Napoleon, with his Guard and his friends, 
 the number of which diminished every day, was lingering in Fontain- 
 bleau. He changed helplessly from one resolution to another, till, at 
 length, the news of Marraont's defection decided him upon abdicating 
 the throne in favor of his son. But this conditional abdica- 
 tion was not received by the allied powers ; he could not 
 continue the contest, for even his nearest friends, Berthier, Ney, Oudmot, 
 and others, had deserted him, and turned towards the new sun. In this 
 extremity, Napoleon signed the unconditional act of abdica- 
 tion as dictated by the allies. lie re(( i\( d ilie island of 
 Elba as his property, an income of 2,000,000 francs, and the permission 
 to retam 400 of his faithful guard around his person. Hts wife, Maria 
 Louisa, obtained the duchy of Parma. On the 20th of April, Napoleon 
 ordered the grenadiers of his guard to be drawn up in the castle-yard of 
 Fontainbleau, and, with a broken heart, took an affecting leave of them, 
 amidst the sobs of the veteran heroes. On the 4th of May, he landed 
 at Elba. Shortly after, to the great joy of the people, who were weary 
 of war, the first Peace of Paris Avas concluded, by which 
 France received Louis XVIII. as king, a new constitutional 
 government, and the boundaries of 1792. The foreign armies left the 
 French territories, and the Congress of Vienna was to have placed the 
 new order of things in Europe upon a firm foundation. 
 
 § 600. It was a splendid assembly this Vienna Congress. Emperors 
 and kings, princes and nobles, the most celebrated men of all countries, 
 were there assembled, and rejoicing over their victory. The majesty 
 and civilization of all Europe there displayed themselves in their fullest 
 lustre; and the magnificent festivals, the riotous feasts, splendid balls, 
 and evening assemblies, had no end. But the establishment of the new 
 Fystem was no light task j and, in the midst of all this splendor and re- 
 joicing, violent passions were in motion, Avhich threatened to destroy the 
 work of peace before its completion. The return of the legitimate royal 
 families to their lost thrones, and the most complete destruction that was 
 
 May 30. 
 
464 THE LATEST PEEIOD. 
 
 possible of the republican constitutions, were tlie two principles on which 
 all parties were soon agreed; but when questions respecting the division 
 of the conquered and vacated lands, and the indemnification of the allies, 
 came to be discussed, envy, selfishness, avarice, and all impure motives 
 ■\vere aroused. The court of Berlin demanded the union of Saxony with 
 the Prussian kingdom, and Russia entertained the view of getting entire 
 possession of Poland ; both demands met with vehement opposition ; the 
 dispute seemed to threaten a renewal of hostilities, and the armies were 
 placed upon a war footing. These appearances, and the proceedings in 
 France, where the constitution granted by Louis XVIII. afforded but 
 little defence against the reaction, awakened new hopes in Napoleon. 
 The Bourbons showed by their proceedings "that they had learned 
 nothing, and forgotten nothing." The memory of the Revolution and 
 of the empire was, as far as possible, destroyed. The tricolored national 
 cockade was thrust aside by the white ; the old aristocracy treated the 
 new nobility with insolence and contempt, and drove them from the 
 neighborhood of the court, where the tone was given by the polite count 
 of Artois and the gloomy duchess of Angouleme (daughter of Louis 
 XVL), whose heart was filled with hatred and venom against the men 
 of the Revolution. The guards were discharged, and their places sup- 
 plied by well-paid Swiss; the officers of the grand army were dismissed 
 upon half-pay; the Legion of Honor was rendered mean and contempti- 
 ble by the distribution of innumerable crosses to the unworthy; the 
 compact with the banished emperor himself was not adhered to ; the 
 clergy and the emigrants, who met with particular favor in the palace, 
 began to dream of a restoration of their lost estates, tithes, and feudal 
 privileges ; great discontent took possession of the nation ; the wish for 
 a change again became lively, particularly when nearly 100,000 French 
 soldiers, some who had been prisoners of war, and others from foreign 
 fortresses, returned to their country, and diffused their Bonapartist sen- 
 timents over the whole land. 
 
 § 601. When Napoleon heard of these errors of the Bourbons, when 
 he learned that there was a wish to restore their lands to the emigrants 
 because "they kept the straight path," when he was instructed by 
 Fouche, Daroust, Maret, the duchess of St. Leu, and others of his ad- 
 herents, who kept up a constant correspondence wath him, of the dispo- 
 sition of the people, he resolved once more to try his fortune. He 
 
 nc , . .o.r landed on the south coast of France with a few hundred 
 March 1, 1815. 
 
 men ; he soon won all hearts to himself by some shrewdly 
 
 planned and rapidly diffused proclamations. The tricolor was in a short 
 
 time again predominant everywhere, the troops that were sent to oppose 
 
 him deserted to him in crowds; the citizens of Grenoble threw open 
 
 their gates when he approached their town, and Colonel La- 
 
 bedoyere placed the garrison at his disposal. It was in vain 
 
THE RESTORATION AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 465 
 
 that the count of Artois hasted to Lyons, and attempted to gain the 
 soldiers by confidence. The shout of "Vive TEmpereur!" rang every- 
 where in his ears ; and when even Ney, who had sworn to bring the 
 usurper in chains to Paris, went over to his former companion in arms, 
 the Bourbons, helpless and confounded, quitted for the second 
 time the land of their home. Louis XVIIL, with a few 
 faithful adherents, took up his residence in Ghent, whilst Napoleon once 
 more entered the Tuileries, and formed a new ministry from among his 
 followers. Thus began the reign of the Hundred Days, and Europe was 
 threatened with fresh convulsions. Clubs were again formed, and the 
 songs of the Revolution were again heard. But Napoleon had not yet 
 laid aside his dislike to popular movements ; he also had learned nothing 
 and forgotten nothing. The imperial throne, with its splendor and its 
 national nobility, was again to arise. This, however, was resisted by 
 the people. The new constitution, which was sworn to at the 
 festival of the Champ de Mai, did not satisfy their demands. 
 § 602. These events produced the greatest confusion in the Viennese 
 Congress, and restored the unanimity which had been disturbed. Austria 
 and Russia did not at first appear disinclined to open fresh negotiations 
 with Napoleonj who promised to abide by the conditions of the Peace of 
 Paris and never again to disturb the tranquillity of Europe, and to leave 
 either him or his son in possession of the crown of France. But the 
 activity of Talleyrand and the imprudence of Murat again gave the 
 victory to the principles of legitimacy. Murat had at first joined the 
 allies, and made war on the viceroy of Italy. But he soon felt that this 
 w^as an unnatural proceeding ; such treachery to the common cause re- 
 volted his honest military feelings. Napoleon's landing and triumphant 
 course were the signal for his taking up arms. The emperor in vain 
 warned him against over-hasty proceedings. Without waiting to see 
 what course events would take, Murat declared war against Austria, and 
 called the people of Italy to arms to defend the unity and independence 
 
 of the beautiful land of the Apennines. The battle of To- 
 Alay 23, 1815. . . . , . , . , , , , ., 
 
 lentmo went agamst him ; his army melted away, and whilst 
 
 ho was flying in haste to the south of France, the Austrians marched 
 into his capital and gave back his crown to its former possessor, Ferdi- 
 nand. After the battle of Waterloo, Murat wandered for some time 
 around the south coast of France, only carefully concealing himself from 
 the pursuit of the Bourbons. At length he escaped to Corsica, and un- 
 dertook from thence a voyage to Calabria, for the purpose of exciting 
 the people to revolt against Ferdinand. But he and his few followers 
 were easily overpowered, and Murat paid the penalty of his attempt with 
 his life. On the 15th of October, Joachim Murat, who by his courage 
 and good fortune had been raised from the son of an innkeeper to be tha 
 king of the most beautiful of lands, was shot at Pizzo. 
 
406 THE LATEST PERIOD. 
 
 § 603. Napoleon's fate was decided even earlier. The European 
 powers set upwards of lialf a million of men in motion against the out- 
 lawed usurper. Before they had all marched forth, Napoleon, after the 
 opening of the Chambers of Paris, advanced, with the soldiers that flocked 
 to him from all quarters, into the Netherlands, to make head against the 
 armies of Wellington and Bliicher. The commencement of the cam- 
 paign was favorable to the French. At Ligny, the Prussi- 
 ans were forced back after the most desperate resistance ; 
 whilst at Quatre Bras, Nej resisted Wellington's army, composed of 
 English, Dutch, Hanoverians, &c. Blucher was wounded in the former 
 place, and in the latter, the chivalrous duke William of Brunswick found 
 his death. Even on the decisive day, the victory was long doubtful. It 
 was not till the Prussians, at the critical moment, came to the assistance 
 of the hardly-pressed army of Wellington, whilst marshal Grouchy, who 
 had been despatched by Napoleon to follow Blucher, kept aloof from the 
 field, that the French, despite the heroic bravery of the veteran warriors, 
 were totally defeated in the battle of Belle-Alliance or 
 Waterloo. The struggle on the height of Mount St. Jean, 
 from whence the French name the battle, was terrible ; and the words 
 which were afterwards* attributed to General Cambronne, " The guard 
 dies, it never surrenders ! " were retained by the nation in honorable re- 
 membrance ; whilst the disgrace which Bourmont incurred by his treach- 
 ery, and Grouchy by his ambiguous conduct, could be obliterated by no 
 defence. Napoleon, pale and confused, allowed himself to be led out of 
 the battle by Soult, and hastened to Paris. The flight soon became gene- 
 ral ; the whole of the artillery fell into the hands of the enemy ; only a 
 fourth part of the brave army was able to escape. 
 
 § 604. The Chambers of Paris, in which Fouche was exhibiting a 
 wretched display of intrigue and deceit, proposed to the emperor, on his 
 return, that he should renounce the crown. After some resistance, the 
 humbled potentate yielded to the proposal ; he laid down the govern- 
 ment in favor of his son, Napoleon II., and then fled to 
 Rochefort, with the purpose of escaping to America, when he 
 saw the victorious enemy a second time approaching the walls of Paris. 
 As the English, however, held the harbor blockaded. Napoleon, trusting 
 to the generosity of the British people, sought shelter in one of their 
 ehips (Bellerophon). But the statesmen who then guided the helm had 
 no compassion for fallen greatness. Arrived at the coast of England, 
 Napoleon received the terrible information that he must pass the remain- 
 der of his life as a state prisoner on the island of St. Helena. All pro- 
 testations were useless: on the 18th of October, he landed on the place 
 of his banishment, in the midst of the Atlantic ocean. 
 
 Here Napoleon lived, a chained Prometheus, separated from his friends 
 iu an unhealthy climate, and under the rigid guardianship of the un • 
 
THE RESTORATION ANE| THE HUNDRED DAYS. 467 
 
 friendly governor, Sir Hudson Lowe. A few friends, among them General 
 Bertrand and his family, Montholon, Las Casas, shared his banishment. 
 Grief at his fall, want of his accustomed activity, and irritation at the 
 unworthy treatment he received, broke his proud and strong spirit before 
 its time. After six years of suffering, he found that quiet in the grave, 
 to which during life he had been a stranger. He died on the 5th of May, 
 1821. His ashes were afterwards conveyed to Paris (1842), and buried 
 in the Hotel of Invalides. 
 
 § 605. After Napoleon's abdication, a provisional government was 
 established under the direction of Fouch^. The latter arranged with 
 "Wellington and Blucher that no man was to be punished for his actions 
 or opinions, and then surrendered the capital. A few days 
 ^ ^ * later, the Bourbons again entered the Tuileries, under the 
 
 guard of foreign bayonets. The people were quiet and indifferent. The 
 armies were disbanded, the Chambers dissolved, and by a succession of 
 proscriptions, a number of men, who had hitherto guided the fate of 
 France and of her armies, were either deprived of their offices, thrust 
 into banishment, or, as in the case of Ney and Labedoyere, condemned to 
 death.* The allied monarchs again established their residence in Paris, 
 and assisted the Bourbons in settling the new system. At length, when 
 November t^i® Restoration appeared secure, the second Peace of Paris 
 20, 1815. was arranged, by which France was confined to the bounda- 
 
 ries of 1790, restored all the plundered treasures of art and science to 
 their former owners, paid 700,000,000 francs for the expenses of war, 
 and was obliged to support an allied army of 150,000 men in the frontier 
 fortresses. These garrison troops remained for three years in the French 
 fortresses. 
 
 * Labedoyere and Ney were condemned to death by the Court of Peers, and shot. 
 The execution of the renowned marshal of the Moskwa, who, when he was shot, with 
 military spirit gave the word of command himself, was looked upon as an infraction 
 of the treaty arranged with Wellington, and brought great disgrace upon the court of 
 Paris. Lavalette also, who, in his capacity of director of the post, had exerted himself 
 for Napoleon's restoration, was condemned to death, but was delivered from prison 
 by his faithful Avife. Among the banished were to be found all the members of Na- 
 poleon's family ; the marshals and statesmen who had joined him during the hundred 
 days, as Soult, Claret, Thibaudeau, Mouton, &c. ; and finally, all the regicides, ». e. 
 the members of the Convention who had voted for Louis XVI.'s death ; Fouchd was 
 one of these, and he was accordingly obliged to relinquish the office of minister of 
 police, which he had at first been allowed by the Bourbons to retain, and to retire 
 abroad. Camot, Sieyes, Cambac^res, and others did the same. Most of them resided m 
 Brussels. -h 
 
 % 
 
468 THE LATEST PERIOD. 
 
 E. THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 
 
 PROM THE FORMATION OF THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION, TO THB 
 PEACE OF 1815. 
 
 Washington's Administration. [1789-1797.] § 606. George 
 "Washington, having been unanimously reelected at the expiration of his 
 first term of office, was President of the United States for eight years, — • 
 a period long enough to fix, in many respects, the policy of the govern- 
 ment, and to determine the practical character of the new constitution. 
 The country was doubly fortunate in securing his services for so long a 
 period, and at this particular crisis in its affairs. Others may have been 
 equally patriotic and disinterested; but no other person could have 
 brought to the office an equal weight of character and influence, or so 
 happy a combination of calmness of judgment, equanimity in good and ill 
 fortune, impartiality towards individuals, and inflexibility of purpose. 
 The friends and opponents of the Federal Constitution were already 
 arrayed against each other as two political parties, styled respectively 
 the Federalists and the Democrats, between whom the people were very 
 equally divided, and who contended vehemently with each other for the 
 control of affairs, each hoping to imprint its peculiar principles upon the 
 early measures of the administration, and upon the organization of the 
 government. The Federalists were reproached as being anti-republican 
 and even monarchical in their notions and their measures ; and they, in 
 return, charged their adversaries with hostility towards any stable form 
 of government or any effective union of the States, with indifference as 
 to the preservation of the public faith and credit, and with carrying their 
 democratic principles so far as to undermine eve^ry species of authority 
 and reduce the nation to anarchy. Washington's election to the presi- 
 dency was not a party triumph ; in the opinion even of his opponents, 
 he was without and above all party ties, — the only man in the Union 
 who possessed the confidence of the whole people. He had no personal 
 preferences or prejudices ; but politically, he was a strong Federalist, an 
 avowed defender of every thing which tended to give unity and strength 
 to the central government. He deplored the excesses of party spirit, 
 and it was his constant endeavor to moderate or prevent them. Upon 
 this principle, he formed his first cabinet, appointing Jefferson, the Demo- 
 cratic leader. Secretary of State, and Hamilton, the ablest of the Fede- 
 ralists, Secretary of the Treasury. Knox and Randolph, the Secretary 
 of War and the Attorney-General, were also opposed to each other in 
 politics, and strongly contrasted in personal character. But under Wash- 
 ington's firm, dignified, and impartial guidance, these men worked to* 
 gether zealously and efficiently ; and through them, the President main* 
 
THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 469 
 
 tained his influence with parties, and preserved the national and equally 
 balanced character of his administration. 
 
 § 607. To establish a revenue for the maintenance of government, and to 
 provide for the debts contracted during the Revolutionary war, were the 
 first objects that claimed the attention of Congress. Hamilton's financial 
 talents were of the highest order, and the plans which he proposed for 
 the accomplishment of these ends, though vehemently contested, were 
 finally approved and carried into effect with the happiest results. As 
 the government for more than ten years had been bankrupt, the public 
 securities, or evidences of its indebtedness, had passed from hand to 
 hand at prices far below their nominal value ; and the Democrats now 
 strenuously maintained that they should be redeemed at no higher rate 
 than their present possessors had paid for them. But Hamilton declared 
 tliat the public faith must be kept by paying the whole amount which 
 the government had originally promised, and also by assuming the debts 
 which the individual States had contracted in support of the common 
 cause. The aggregate debt was a portion of the price which the whole 
 nation had paid for its freedom ; and the burden of it, therefore, ought 
 to be equally borne by the whole people. It was the dictate of sound 
 policy, also, as well as of abstract justice, that all pecuniary obligations 
 should be faithfully discliarged ; for public credit would thus be main- 
 tained for any future exigency, and the government would be strength- 
 ened, as the great body of the public creditors, the wealthiest and most 
 influential class in the community, would be directly interested in its 
 support. These views ultimately prevailed by a small majority, — a 
 majority obtained in one case only by an agreement to transfer the seat 
 of government from Philadelphia to the banks of the Potomac, thus con- 
 ciliating the favor q^some members of Congress from the southern 
 States. The whole amount of debt thus consolidated and funded was 
 about eighty millions of dollars. At Hamilton's recommendation, also, a 
 Bank of the United States was chartered, with a capital of ten millions, 
 one-fifth of which was subscribed by government, while individuals, who 
 contributed the remainder, were allowed to pay but one-fourth in cash, 
 and the other three-fourths in public stocks. A revenue act was also 
 passed, imposing duties on goods imported into the United States and on 
 tonnage, due discrimination being made so as to encourage American 
 manufactures and shipping. The effect of these measures upon public 
 confidence and the interests of commerce was almost magical. The 
 large amount of public stocks thus created furnished capital and cur- 
 rency, neariy as available as coin, and far more secure than paper money. 
 The funding system afforded a guaranty of the stability of the Union, 
 and encouraged merchants to undertake the large enterprises, an opening 
 for which was created by the country's release from the shackles of colo- 
 nial dependence. A trade sprang up with India, China, and the north- 
 40 
 
470 THE LATEST PERIOD. 
 
 west coast of the American continent; and the flag of the new nation 
 was soon displayed in every sea, in friendly competition with that of the 
 great naval power, which threatened, a few years before, almost to mono- 
 polize the commerce of the earth. The population continuing to multi- 
 ply and expand, new States were successively formed and admitted into 
 the Union, and the strength of the chain seemed to increase with every 
 addition to the number of its links. Thus, a long pending controversy 
 between New York, New Hampshire, and the " Green Mountain Boys," 
 respecting the ownership of the territory between the Connecticut river 
 and Lake Champlain, was at length adjusted by the creation of the new 
 State of Vermont ; and soon afterwards, Kentucky was ad- 
 mitted into the Union, the first State formed in the great 
 valley of the Mississippi. 
 
 § G08. The progress of the settlements at the west, however, was much 
 retarded by hostilities with the Indian tribes on the banks of the Ohio, the 
 Miami, and the Wabash. These claimed the Ohio river as the boundary 
 of their territory, being encouraged to put forward this claim, and to 
 support it by making w^ir upon the Americans, by the British authorities 
 in Canada and at those military posts on the Lakes and the upper tribu- 
 taries of the Mississippi, which were still retained as a security for the 
 due performance of certain articles in the treaty of peace. The United 
 States had too hastily disarmed themselves at the close of the Revolution- 
 ary struggle ; weary of the war, and unable to pay the troops, the whole 
 army, with an insignificant exception, had been disbanded. The only 
 force, therefore, which could now be sent against the savages, was com- 
 posed almost entirely of militia, who could not be relied upon for the 
 great hazards and exposures of a conflict with the Indians in their forest 
 home. Gen. Ilarmer was first sent against them, with 1,100 men ; but 
 several of his detachments were surprised and defeated, and he returned 
 October, in disgrace, before he had accomplished any thing. Further 
 
 l''90- attempts to settle the difficulties by negotiation having failed, 
 
 St. Clair was next sent, with an army of 2,000 men, into the Indian 
 country; but when he had reached the banks of the Wabash, the savages 
 November 4 attacked his camp by surprise in the grey of the morning, 
 1791. and after some hard fighting, in which about half of the 
 
 army were killed or wounded, the others were compelled to make a pre- 
 cipitate flight. Gen. Wayne, an officer of much experience and reputa- 
 tion, was then placed in this difficult command, and great exertions were 
 made to raise an adequate force to support him. One year he spent in 
 unavailing negotiations for peace, limiting his military operations mean- 
 while to the protection of the frontiers. In August, 1794, he advanced, 
 at the head of more than 3,000 men, totally defeated the Indians in one 
 hard-fought engagement, ravaged their principal settlements, destroyed 
 their stores, and left a fort well garrisoned in the heart of their country. 
 
THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 471 
 
 This decisive blow effectually cowed the native tribes, who soon con- 
 sented to a peace, the faithful observance of which for many years 
 left no check to the marvellously rapid growth of the settlements at the 
 west. 
 
 § G09. Another difficulty which the government had to contend with was 
 the disaffection created by the excise taxes that had been imposed to eke 
 out the revenue obtained from duties on imported goods. The tax on 
 distilled spirits, especially, bore hard upon the western counties of Penn- 
 sylvania, where the people, from the imperfect means of transportation, 
 could not obtain a market for their grain except by distilling it into whis- 
 key ; and as they were rude and turbulent backwoodsmen, little accus- 
 tomed to the restraints of government and civilized life, they could not 
 understand the necessity of paying a heavy excise on the most profitable 
 article which they prepared for sale. They set the law at defiance, at- 
 tacked the revenue officers, drove back the few soldiers who were sent 
 to defend them, and entered into extensive combinations to resist the 
 government. A proclamation of the President, calling on the magistrates 
 to execute the laws, had no effect ; and it was computed that there were 
 over 7,000 insurgents prepared to carry out their purposes by force of 
 arms. Washington then resolved to vindicate the majesty of the laws 
 by employing a force large enough to prevent any show of resistance. 
 The militia of four of the States was called out, to the number of 15,000 
 
 ^ , ^ men, and Gen. Lee, of Virginia, marched at their head into 
 October, 1794. , ' ^ , . , ^ „ , , . 
 
 the disanected counties, and enectually put down the msur- 
 
 rection without bloodshed. Some leaders of the movement were tried 
 and convicted of treason ; but they were all pardoned, and this lenity 
 won back the affections of those who had gone astray, while the vigor 
 and promptitude that had been shown made a great addition to the 
 strength of the government. 
 
 § GIO. Mr. Jay, who had been appointed minister to England for the 
 purpose, succeeded at last in forming a treaty with that power, which ad- 
 justed many subjectsof controversy between the two nations, though it left 
 others still pending. The treaty of peace of 1783 had been very imper- 
 fectly observed on both sides. Debts to British subjects, contracted be- 
 fore the war, could not be recovered until the national judiciary had been 
 established under the Federal Constitution, and many of them remained 
 still undischarged, and the Loyalists could not recover their confiscated 
 estates ; on the other hand, the British troops, when they evacuated the 
 country, had carried off many slaves, for whom compensation was de- 
 manded, and the military posts on the northwestern frontier had not been 
 delivered up. The possession of these forts enabled the British to con- 
 trol the trade with the Indians, and even, as was supposed, to incite them 
 to hostilities against the United States. The breaking out of the war 
 between revolutionary France and England opened t^ie immense profits 
 
472 THE LATEST PERIOD. 
 
 of a neutral trade to the Americans, but also exposed tliem to the many 
 annoyances and vexations that resulted from the exercise of belligerent 
 rights against neutrals. American seamen, not being easily distinguish- 
 Rble from Englishmen, were often impressed to serve on British men-of- 
 war, and American ships were overhauled to search for contraband goods. 
 Naval stores, also, were asserted by the English to be contraband of war, 
 though in other treaties they were regarded as free goods. Jay's treaty 
 was the best that could be obtained at the time, though it had many ac- 
 knowledged deficiencies ; but as it removed many subjects of dispute, and 
 averted a renewal of the war between the two countries, which seemed 
 to be imminent if no treaty were framed, the Senate approv- 
 "°' ' ^* ed it by a very close vote, and it was ratified by the Presi- 
 dent. A storm of popular indignation immediately burst forth, in which 
 were united all the old feeling of hostility towards England and the ill 
 will that had been nursed by the recent controversies. The discussion 
 of the subject agitated the whole country during the autumn, and it soon 
 appeared, when Congress came together in the winter, that a large num- 
 ber, if not a majority, of the Representatives were fiercely opposed to 
 the execution of the treaty. But the President firmly maintained his 
 ground, against the insane clamor out of doors and the fierce opposition 
 in Congress ; and after a vehement debate, the appropriations that were 
 needed to carry out the compact were made by a majority of two, and 
 the treaty went into effect. Its happy results soon proved that Wash- 
 ington's course had been as enlightened and far-sighted, as it unquestion- 
 ably was dignified and independent. 
 
 § 611. The troubles growing out of the French Revolution were not con- 
 fined to the European side of the Atlantic. The agitation reached the United 
 States also, and, for a time, the republican institutions of America seemed 
 to reel under that shock which had prostrated so many monarchies in 
 the Old World. New bitterness and violence were added to the former 
 dissension between the two great parties into which the people were 
 divided ; the Democrats generally espoused the cause of France, with a 
 pardonable preference for what seemed to be the cause of freedom and 
 enlightenment against the old powers of despotism and darkness ; while 
 the Federalists, deploring the excesses into which the revolutionists of 
 France had plunged, and foreseeing the anarchy and final triumph of mili- 
 tary usurpation which would be their inevitable result, — animated also 
 by a lingering attachment for the land of their forefathers, their language, 
 and their faith, — by a love which ten years of conflict had failed to ex- 
 tinguish, and which a rapid extension of the commercial ties between the 
 two countries was now kindling anew, — generally looked with favor and 
 hope towards England. Unfortunately, belligerent France and England, 
 in the fury of their contest with each other, both disregarded, or rather 
 designedly trampled upon, the neutral rights of America. There was, 
 
THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 473 
 
 perhaps, legitimate cause of war against both countries ; but the Demo- 
 crats clamored for war against England, and were disposed to overlook 
 or excuse all slights and injuries received from her opponent ; while the 
 Federalists were hostile to France, and palliated every wrong which 
 Great Britain could commit. Again the firmness, moderation, and wis- 
 dom of Washington were the means of saving the people from the disas- 
 ters and sufferings of another war, and from the effects of their own 
 furious party conflicts and ill regulated passions. He saw no causes of 
 dispute, which had yet arisen, that could not be removed or palliated by 
 patience and amicable negotiation ; he saw, also, that the country abso- 
 lutely needed repose and an opportunity to recruit her energies, before 
 she could engage in another struggle with one of the great powers of 
 Europe, with any hope of success, or even of safety. Jay*s treaty had 
 averted for a time the hazard of war M-ith England ; and Washington 
 had also issued a memorable proclamation of Neutrality, ad- 
 ' ' monishing the people of their duty to observe the strictest 
 impartiality between the two belligerent powers, and to abstain from 
 every act which could justly give umbrage to either. This naturally 
 gave great offence to the party, which, remembering the obligations of 
 America to France for aid bounteously given in the hour of her necessity, 
 and sympathizing with those who assumed to defend the riglits of the 
 people everywhere against the oppression of their hereditary rulers, was 
 eager to defend by arras the cause of the French Revolution. They 
 were insanely desirous of plunging into the vortex of European politics 
 and a foreign war. The French republican government, also, adopted 
 an insolent and overbearing tone in its diplomacy, whicli added fuel to 
 the flame of excitement in the United States. Citizen Genet, the French 
 envoy to America, was received with a popular ovation in Charleston 
 and other places, which so inflamed his ardent temper and republican 
 zeal, that he authorized privateers to be fitted out to cniise against the 
 enemies of France, and when checked in his outrageous conduct, threat- 
 ened to appeal from the government to the people. But this was going 
 too far ; even his friends resented this insult to their great President, 
 and Washington demanded and obtained his recall. The conduct of his 
 successor, M. Fauchet, though more moderate, was still offensive ; and 
 the administration had a difficult task in preventing him from stirring up 
 the people to the commission of acts which would afford England a just 
 pretext for hostihties. But the vast influence and reputation of the 
 President, and the evident interest which the country had in the pre- 
 servation of peace, moderated the excitement, and the aggressive conduct 
 of the French, in making many captures of American vessels on very 
 Blight pretexts, soon weaned the nation from its excessive admiration for 
 their principles. The government had the wisdom and good fortune also, 
 40* 
 
474 THE LATEST PEEIOD. 
 
 after the difRculties with Spain had risen to an alarming height, to form 
 a treaty with that power, which not only secured the continu- 
 ance of peace, but gave to the United States the frae navi- 
 gation of the Mississippi, and the privilege of depositing cargoes at New 
 Orleans. 
 
 § G12. When the close of the second period of his administration was at 
 hand, Washington determined to seek that repose in private life of which he 
 had long been desirous. He prepared and published a Farewell Address 
 to his countrymen, in which he announced to them this resolution, and 
 added wise and affectionate advice respecting their future course, and the 
 evils with which the young republic was menaced. Especially he warned 
 them against foreign influence and interference in the controversies of 
 European nations ; against all measures which tended to a separation of 
 the Union, or to array parties against each other by geographical discri- 
 minations ; against the excesses of party spirit, and the first symptoms of 
 disregard for the authority of the laws. " The very idea of the power 
 and right of the people to establish government, presupposes the duty of 
 every individual to obey the established government." This Address 
 was received and read throughout the Union with sentiments approaching 
 to veneration, and has probably contributed more than any state paper 
 that was ever framed to guide the conduct and control the destiny of a 
 whole people. Washington retired to his estate at Mount Vernon, where 
 he spent the short remaining period of his life in arranging his papers 
 and cultivating an extensive farm. He died on the 14th of December, 
 1799, leaving a reputation unequalled in the world's history as a patriot 
 leader and statesman, " first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts 
 of his countrymen." 
 
 Adams's Administration, [1797-1801.] § 613. John Adams, the can- 
 didate of the Federal party, was elected President for the third term, by 
 a majority of only two votes over Thomas Jefferson, who was supported 
 by the Democrats. His administration was a turbulent and rather un- 
 fortunate one. In spite of his eminent services during the Revolutionary 
 period, and his acknowledged abilities and integrity, he did not enjoy so 
 much consideration with his own party as Hamilton, who was an admirable 
 political leader ; and his opponents wrongly attributed to him arbitrary 
 and monarchical notions of government. HiS own views of policy were 
 generally sound ; but his quick, vehement, and self-willed disposition sel- 
 dom allowed him to seek or follow the counsels of others, so that he often 
 suffered more in the estimation of his friends than in that of his oppo- 
 nents. Dissension soon appeared in the ranks of the Federalists, and 
 they lost ground with the people, while the other party every day 
 acquired fresh strength. The relations of the country with France still 
 formed the chief difficulty of the government, and the principal subject of 
 dispute between the two parties. The Directory were now in power at 
 
THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 475 
 
 Paris, and their feeble, but aggressive and rapacious, policy -u as nowhere 
 more signally manifested than in their conduct towards America. They 
 refused to receive Thomas Pinckney, who had been accredited to them as 
 minister by Washington, and even ordered him to quit the territory of 
 the repubhc ; and this insult was given at the very time when their pri- 
 vateers were capturing scores of American vessels, upon pretexts so slight, 
 that, in several cases, they were compelled to admit that they owed repa- 
 ration for the wrong. Congress manifested a proper spirit, and imme- 
 diately adopted measures to vindicate the national honor. Laws were 
 passed to hold 80,000 militia in readiness, to fortify the harbors, to fit 
 out vessels of war, and to put the country generally in a state of defence. 
 Still, to manifest the sincerity of their desire for peace, Pinckney, Mar- 
 shall, and Gerry, (the last named being a Democrat, and therefore re- 
 garded as friendly to France,) were sent out as joint envoys to the 
 French Republic, to seek for a reconciliation. On their arrival at Paris, 
 a reception was denied them ; but it was intimated to them unofficially, 
 that, on the payment of a heavy bribe to the individual members of the 
 Directory, and the loan of a considerable sum to the republic, a negotia- 
 tion might be opened. This proposal excited general disgust and indig- 
 nation in America. " Millions for defence, but not a cent for tribute," 
 was the almost universal cry ; and vigorous preparations were instantly 
 made for war, to which the Democratic party offered hardly any opposi- 
 tion. Large additional grants were made for the increase of the navy, 
 the purchase of arms and ammunition, and the fortification of the harbors ; 
 and the President was authorized to raise, when necessary, an army of 
 10,000 men, besides accepting the services of volunteers. There was a 
 great revulsion of opinion throughout the country, which contributed 
 largely to postpone the decline and fall of the Federalist party. Ships 
 of war were authorized to capture any armed vessels which had com- 
 mitted depredations on American commerce, or which were found cruis- 
 ing near the coast with the apparent purpose of committing such acts. 
 There were many French emigrants in the country, and some of these 
 were suspected of acting as government emissaries or spies ; the Presi- 
 dent was therefore authorized to send out of the country any foreigner 
 whose residence in it he might consider to be dangerous. Another act 
 was passed, to define more precisely the crime of treason, and to define 
 and punish that of sedition, which subjected to fine and imprisonment any 
 person who, by writing, printing, or speaking, should attempt to justify 
 the hostile conduct of the French, or to defame or weaken the govern- 
 ment or laws of the United States. These two laws, known as the Alien 
 and the Sedition Acts, passed while the people were in a feverish state 
 from the vehemence of party controversy, and only to be justified by the 
 magnitude of the war then deemed to be imminent, were afterwards the 
 objects of bitter reproach, and contributed largely to the downfall of tha 
 Federalists. 
 
476 THE LATEST PERIOD. 
 
 §614. The authority given to act against French armed vessels, now 
 extended to permission to capture them under any circumstances, did not 
 long remain unexercised. The frigate Constellation, Captain Truxton, 
 captured the French frigate, L' Insurgente, of superior force, after an 
 hour's action. Truxton afterwards engaged a still heavier French frigate, 
 La Vengeance, and nearly disabled her, though she succeeded in escaping 
 in the night. Some other French cruisers were taken, and, under the 
 commissions granted to private armed vessels, over fifty French privateers 
 were captured and brought into port, and many American merchantmen 
 were re-captured. Still, war was not formally declared, and the probability 
 of its occurrence was now much lessened by a sudden and eccentric act on 
 the part of President Adams, who, contrary to the wishes of his party, 
 and without even consulting the members of his cabinet, surprised every- 
 body by nominating another minister to France, to make another attempt 
 at negotiation. This act occasioned an irreparable breach in the Federal 
 party. Hamilton, Pickering, and other leaders of it made hardly any 
 secret of their aversion to the President. Owing to the reverses in war 
 which the French had lately experienced, and to a consequent change in 
 the Directory, assurances were sent that the new mission from the United 
 States would be kindly received. In fact, on their arrival in France, the 
 ministers found that a revolution had taken place, and that Bonaparte 
 was now at the head of affairs, who, not wishing to have another enemy 
 on his hands, was eager to negotiate. Difficulties obstructed the conclu- 
 sion of a perfect treaty ; but a convention was agreed upon, by which all 
 captured property not already condemned was to be restored, the indem- 
 nities mutually claimed were referred to future negotiations, and all pre- 
 sent hazard of war was averted. 
 
 § 615. The dissensions of the Federalists had already foreshadowed the 
 defeat of their party at the approaching presidential election. Adams and 
 Pinckney, their candidates, received but sixty-five electoral votes, w^hile 
 seventy-three were cast for Jefferson and Burr, the favorites of the Demo- 
 cratic party. As these two had an equal number, it devolved upon the 
 House of Representatives, as the Constitution then stood, to decide which 
 of them should be President, and which, Vice-President. The Federal- 
 ists, who then had the control of the House, formed the strange and fac- 
 tious project of electing Burr instead of Jefferson to the higher office, in 
 order to spoil the victory of their opponents, and because they entertained 
 a faint hope that the former, owing his unexpected elevation to them, 
 might adopt a policy more favorable to the views of their party. The 
 scheme was indefensible either on moral or political grounds, and most 
 of the people rejoiced when it was frustrated. After remaining in session 
 seven days, and balloting thirty-six times, some of the Federalists gave 
 way, and Jefi'erson was chosen. The office of Vice-President then de- 
 volved of right upon Burr. To prevent the repetition of so discreditable 
 
THE UXITED STATES OF AMERICA. 477 
 
 a scene, an amendment of the Constitution was soon effected, which re- 
 quired each elector to vote separately for a President and a Vice-Presi- 
 dent. 
 
 Jefferson's Administration. [1801-1809.] § 616. The country 
 was in a very prosperous state when Jefferson's party came into power. 
 The serious difficulties that obstructed the formation of the government 
 had all been removed ; the finances and the several departments of- the 
 government had been fully organized, and the system was in complete 
 and successful operation. The responsibility of devising the requisite 
 measures for these ends had fallen upon the Federalists, the odium which 
 many of them had occasioned had been spent, and the Democrats now 
 entered upon the enjoyment of their predecessors' labors. The revenue, 
 commerce, and population of the country had increased with unexampled 
 rapidity. The census of 1801 showed that the population amounted to 
 5,300,000, being an increase of nearly a million and a half in ten years. 
 Within the same period, the exports had risen from nineteen to ninety 
 millions, the tonnage had doubled, and the revenue was increased from 
 four to twelve millions. At the same time, also, there was a lull in the 
 storm of European warfare. The peace of Luneville was concluded 
 early in 1801, that of Amiens followed a year afterwards, and hostilities 
 were not recommenced till May, 1803. Thus, all the perplexing and 
 dangerous controversies respecting impressment and neutral rights were 
 temporarily put at rest, and the United States reaped the full benefits of 
 a prosperous and uninterrupted commerce. Even the prospect of a re- 
 newal of hostilities operated in one respect to the advantage of the Ame- 
 ricans. Louisiana had recently been transferred from Spain to France ; 
 and as Bonaparte foresaw that he could not defend so distant a possession 
 against the naval power of England, he listened favorably to a proposal 
 for selling the territory to the United States, who were very anxious to 
 obtain it, as it would secure to them the uninterrupted navigation'of the 
 Mississippi. A treaty was concluded in April, 1803, which made over 
 Louisiiuia to the United States upon the payment of fifteen millions of 
 dollars, one-fourth of this sum being retained to meet the claims for the 
 French spoliations of American commerce. Congress had no power ex- 
 pressly granted in the Constitution to purchase additional territory; and 
 as the Democratic party had always maintained that all powers not spe- 
 cifically enumerated were reserved to the States, it was a little awkward 
 for Jefferson to complete this contract. But as no one doubted the great 
 utility of this vast accession of territory, or that it had been obtained on 
 reasonable teriiis, he swallowed his scruples, and his adherents did the 
 same. 
 
 § 617. The depredations of the Barbary powers upon the commerce of 
 the United States in the Mediterranean, gave rise, in 1801, to a war with 
 Tripoli. Peace had hitherto been purchased with several of these pira* 
 
478 THE LATEST PERIOD. 
 
 tical stcates by the payment of a heavy annual tribute ; but their demands 
 having become inordinate, a considerable naval force, commanded at first 
 by Morris, and afterwards by Preble, was sent out to blockade Tripoli, 
 and to act as occasion might require against the other Barbary powers. 
 Several naval actions took place, in which the officers and crews dis- 
 played great gallantry, and which caused the American flag to be highly 
 respected in the Mediterranean ; while the blockade kept the piratical 
 cruisers in port, and thus protected the commercial shipping. But the 
 Tripolitans were at length brought to terms through a very hazardous 
 and romantic enterprise, undertaken by a gallant American adventurer, 
 named Eaton. The rightful bashaw of Tripoli had been deprived of his 
 government, and exiled, by a younger brother, some years before. Eaton 
 entered Into a compact with him to reconquer his dominions, invading 
 them from the side of Egypt. A few hundred men were collected for 
 this purpose, only one-fourth of them being Christians, and of these but 
 nine were Americans. This insignificant and motley troop crossed the 
 desert, suffering frightful hardships by the way, captured the 
 ' ' important Tripolitan port of Derne, maintained it against an 
 attack by a vastly larger force of the enemy, and so frightened the reign- 
 ing bashaw, that he hastily concluded a peace, conceding all the demands 
 of the Americans. A great, indirect advantage obtained from these 
 operations in the Mediterranean was, that they -prevented the American 
 vessels of war from going to decay, or being sold, by the ill-judged eco- 
 nomy of Jefferson's administration. The ipSirty in power were hostile to 
 the existence of a navy, partly because they wished to diminish the ex- 
 penditures of the national government, and partly because they w^ere 
 averse or indifferent to the growth and prosperity of the foreign com- 
 mercial interest of the country, and sought to develope only the agri- 
 culture and home trade of the States. Jefferson wished to limit the 
 defensive efforts of the country to some very feeble and absurd attempts 
 to protect the coasts and harbors by gun-boats, which could act only in 
 shallow waters, the idea being probably borrowed from Bonaparte's 
 curious maritime preparations at Boulogne. If merchants asked that their 
 ships might be protected, they were told to keep their ships at home. 
 Had not the insults and depredations of the Barbary pirates roused the 
 national spirit so much that it became necessary to make some effort to 
 punish them, it is probable that, before the close of Jefferson's adminis- 
 tration, the United States would not have had a single ship of war afloat. 
 § 618. The renewal of the war in Europe, the constantly increasing 
 aggressions of the belligerent powers upon neutral commerce, and the dif- 
 ferent schemes proposed by the two rival parties in the country to meet and 
 repel these aggressions, renewed the vehemence of party controversy 
 during the second term of Jefferson's administration, and gave a serious 
 check to the commercial prosperity of the United States. The Demo- 
 
THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 479 
 
 crats retained their old feelings of hostility towards Great Britain, and 
 their predilection for France, though the latter country, under the impe- 
 rial sway of Napoleon, was now, in truth, governed by despotic power. 
 The strength of the Federal party lay in the commercial States, cities, 
 and towns ; and the intimate relations of an extensive foreign trade dis- 
 posed them to resent but slightly the domineering and aggressive policy 
 of England, while they looked with horror upon the conduct of the em- 
 peror of the French. But if war should break out with either of the 
 rival powers, it was very certain, from the administration policy of break- 
 ing up the navy, and limiting all efforts to coast and harbor defence, that 
 American commerce would be swept from the ocean. The Federalists, 
 therefore, were bent upon preserving peace at all hazards ; the Demo- 
 crats, who depended chiefly upon agriculture, manufactures, and the 
 home trade, who saw no risk that the country would be invaded, and 
 who, after the acquisition of Louisiana, were eager to gain possession of 
 Canada also, by conquest, believing that the EngHsh had too much to do 
 in Europe to be able to defend so distant a colony, were clamorous for 
 war. In these opposite feelings and desires, we find a key to the party 
 controversies and the domestic and foreign policy of the United States 
 down to the general pacification in 1815, 
 
 § GIO. In 1806, Monroe and Pinckney succeeded in negotiating a treaty 
 with the English ministry, which, like Jay's in 1794, though it left many 
 subjects of dispute undetermined, still adjusted the most pressing contro- 
 versies, opened the trade between the United States and the European 
 possessions of Great Britain on a footing of entire reciprocity, and 
 afforded a tolerable assurance, that peace might be maintained for many 
 years. This treaty President Jefferson rejected, without even con- 
 sulting the Senate, because it did not directly prohibit the impress- 
 ment of seamen from American vessels by the British cruisers, though 
 there was a tacit understanding on the subject, which would have led to 
 the gradual abandonment of the practice. Events soon showed tliat the 
 rejection of this treaty was an act pregnant with a long series of impor- 
 tant and disastrous consequences. France and England, endeavoring to 
 retaliate upon each other, published a succession of decrees, the combined 
 effect of which was almost to annihilate i^utral commerce, and to subject 
 every American vessel engaged in foreign trade to capture and confisca- 
 tion by one or the other party. To comply with the regulations made 
 by one of the belligerents, was to afford grounds for seizure by the other. 
 November, The Berlin decree, pubUshed by Napoleon, declared the 
 
 1806. British islands in a state of blockade, and subjected to cap- 
 ture every neutral vessel that attempted to trade with them ; this was 
 a retaliatory act, because England had blockaded several Continental 
 November, poi'ts which she had not invested by her ships of war. Great 
 
 1807. Britain now proceeded to decree, that neutrals should not 
 
480 THE LATEST PERIOD. 
 
 trade with France or her allies till they had paid her a tribute. The 
 December, French emperor retorted by a decree, issued at Milan, sub 
 1807. jecting every vessel to confiscation which should pay this 
 
 tribute, or submit to be visited by a British cruiser. The United States 
 December, then engaged in this game of prohibitions, by passing the 
 1807. noted Embargo Act, which closed the American ports to all 
 
 foreign trade whatever, either by native or foreign vessels ; even vessels 
 engaged in the coasting trade w^ere required to give heavy bonds that 
 they would reland their cargo within the limits of the United States. 
 This was punishing one's self a great deal for the sake of punishing an 
 opponent a very little. America renounced the w^hole of her own foreign 
 trade, for the sake of depriving foreign nations, France and England par- 
 ticularly, of a portion of theirs. But as a great effect had been produced, 
 during the contest which preceded the Revolutionary war, by the Non- 
 Importation agreements, Congress had now a vague impression that 
 Great Britain might quickly be brought to terms by a refusal to buy 
 her manufactures, or to sell American produce. This impression was 
 totally unfounded ; the feelings of the people not being enlisted in sup- 
 port of the Embargo, a considerable illicit traffic was kept up, which alle- 
 viated the effect of the measure upon England, though the commercial 
 interest of the United States suffered a ruinous depression. Our own 
 unemployed shipping rotted at the wharves, while enormous prices were 
 paid for British goods to smugglers. The pressure upon the country 
 was too great ; in New England, even the Democratic party opposed the 
 February, l^^w. After it had been in force little over a year, the Em- 
 1809. bargo was repealed, and a Non-Intercourse Act was substi- 
 
 tuted for it, prohibiting all trade with Great Britain and France, and 
 their dependencies, up to the end of the next session of Congress. 
 
 Madison's Administration, (1809 - 1817.) § 620. While the public 
 mind was agitated by these subjects, the end of Jefferson's second term of 
 office approached, and James Madison, the Democratic candidate, was 
 elected his successor, by 122 out of 176 electoral votes. This event did 
 not materially affect the policy of the country, as the new President 
 generally followed the steps of his predecessor, though he was somewhat 
 more moderate in his political opinions, and if he had not been pughed on 
 by the excited feelings of the younger members of his party, he would 
 probably have averted or postponed a war. As it was, however, the 
 relations between Great Britain and the United States every day assumed 
 a more hostile aspect, and it was evident that peace could not long be 
 
 maintained between them if the war in Europe should not 
 April, 1809. . ^ 
 
 cease. A negotiation with Erskine, the British minister at 
 
 Washington, produced an arrangement of the more pressing subjects of 
 controversy ; but it soon appeared that Erskine had exceeded his instruc- 
 tions. The English ministry disavowed his act, and the dispute remained 
 
THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 481 
 
 in a worse condition than ever. The American frigate Chesapeake, two 
 years before, had been attacked and captured by the Leopard, a British 
 ship of superior force, under Admiral Berkley's orders, because her cap- 
 tain refused to surrender some seamen who were alleged to be deserters 
 from the British navy ; and though the frigate was returned, and Berk- 
 ley's orders were disavowed, the terms of reparation for the injury and* 
 insult could not be agreed upon, and the affair impeded all subsequent 
 negotiations. It was the main cause of the rejection of Erskine's arrange- 
 ment. 
 
 § 621. The Non-Intercourse Act expired in May, 1810, when an offer 
 was made that, if either England or France would revoke its edicts against 
 neutral commerce, the act should be renewed and enforced against the 
 other belligerent, till its edicts also were revoked. France had recently 
 given additional provocation, by a decree issued at Rambouillet, confis- 
 cating all American vessels and their cargoes tlien found in ports under 
 the control of the French, and directing that, if any should enter a French 
 harbor in future, it should also be seized and sold. Under this decree, 
 American property valued at eight millions of dollars fell into the hands 
 of the French. But Napoleon now took a conciliatory step ; he assured 
 the American minister at Paris that the Berlin and Milan decrees were 
 revoked, though the revocation was not to take effect till the first of 
 November next. Relying on this assurance, Mr. Madison, 
 early in November, issued a proclamation restoring the free- 
 dom of commerce with France, and prohibiting all intercourse with Great 
 Britain. The English ministry refused to rescind their Orders in Council, 
 under the pretext that they had no official evidence that the French em- 
 peror had kept his promise to rescind the Berlin and Milan decrees. The 
 Orders were enforced more rigorously than ever, English cruisers being 
 stationed along the American coast, which boarded and searched all 
 American merchantmen, impressed many of their seamen, and often con- 
 fiscated both vessel and cargo, if the former was bound to a French 
 port One of these cruisers, the Little Belt, of 18 guns, fell in v*'ith the 
 
 American friojate President, and an action commenced be- 
 \lay 16 1811. ° 
 
 tween them, both parties alleging that the other fired first. 
 
 The British vessel was soon reduced almost to a wreck, when her oppo- 
 nent" ceased firing, and she was allowed to pursue her voyage. This 
 affair was passed over on both sides, as an unfortunate mistake, and terms 
 of reparation were at length offered for the attack on the Chesapeake, 
 which were accepted. 
 
 § 622. In the autumn of 1811, the Indian tribes round the Upper Lakes 
 showed a hostile disposition, and Governor Harrison was sent against 
 them, with 800 men, to make a treaty, if possible, otherwise to strike a 
 blow which should prevent hostilities in future. "When he arrived near 
 Tippecanoe, their principal town, he was met by a deputation of tho 
 41 
 
482 THE LATEST PERIOD. 
 
 savages, who said that they desired peace, and agreed to return for an 
 amicable conference the next day. The troops therefore encamped where 
 
 they were, but took strict precautions against an attack by 
 November 7. gyj.pj.jgg^ j^ ^^^g ^^^ ^hat they did so ; for just before day- 
 break, the Indians in considerable numbers made a furious assault upon 
 them, and were repulsed with difficulty, after an hour's fighting. Their 
 town was then burned, and Harrison, being encumbered by his wounded 
 men, retreated to Vincennes. The savages caused greater alarm at this 
 time, as it was believed that the British traders and agents from Canada 
 held secret intercourse with them, and urged them to hostilities. 
 
 § 623. As the impressments and captures by the English cruisers con- 
 tinued and even increased in number, Congress was called together early in 
 November, and, at the recommendation of the President, they made active 
 preparations for war. It was hoped that Great Britain, thus seeing that 
 America was in earnest, would be unwilling to increase the number of 
 her enemies, and would recede from her imperious and aggressive posi- 
 tion. This hope was fallacious; the English ministry was obstinate, their 
 majority in Parliament was subservient, and the spirit of the nation was 
 high. After waging a stubborn war for many years, at least on equal 
 terms, with the great subverter of monarchies and conquerer of half of 
 Europe, they were not to be driven from their position by the menace of 
 hostilities from a young and feeble nation on the other side of the Atlan- 
 tic. Congress, after spending the winter and spring in warm debates, 
 and in passing bills for augmenting the army and navy, received a secret 
 
 messao:e from the President on the 1st of June. It was con- 
 
 A T> 1812 
 
 sidered in secret session by both Houses, and on the 18th of 
 June, the doors were thrown open, and it was announced that the United 
 States had declared war against Great Britain. 
 
 § 624. Though it had been voted to raise an army of 35,000 men, the 
 United States had but 10,000 men under arms when the contest began, and 
 with these it was resolved to attempt the conquest of Canada. The coast 
 was not fortified, and the navy consisted only of three or four frigates and 
 a few sloops of war ; but the chief reliance was placed upon privateers, as 
 a means of annoying the enemy. This expectation was justified by the 
 event ; during the two years and a half that the war continued, over 1,500 
 British merchantmen were captured by American privateers. The pub- 
 lic vessels of war, also, slowly increased in number by a few frigates and 
 smaller ships, though detained in port much of the time by a large block- 
 ading force, in a few cruises and encounters at sea were very successful, 
 and acquired just fame by destroying the common belief of British in- 
 vincibility on the ocean. The American navy fought itself into popularity 
 during this war, and has ever since been regarded with peculiar affection 
 and pride by the people. But the attempt to conquer Canada led only 
 to a series of petty and inglorious conflicts on the frontier, not honorable 
 
THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 483 
 
 to either party, leading to no important results, and the details of which 
 are almost beneath the notice of history. The British Orders in Council 
 were revoked June 23d, before the news of the American declaration of 
 war arrived in England ; but though an attempt was then made to nego- 
 tiate, hostilities were finally allowed to continue on the ground of impress- 
 ment alone. Never was a more meaningless contest ; after fighting two 
 years and a half, a treaty of peace was made, leaving this question about 
 impressment precisely where it was before. 
 
 § 625. General Hull, who commanded the northwestern army at De- 
 troit, marched a few miles into Canada, with about 1,800 men, 
 Jane 12, 1812. , , ., . /. ,r ,i t. , /. i 
 
 and laid siege to a petty tort at Maiden. But before the 
 
 August 8. place surrendered, he was obliged to recross the river, and 
 
 take post at Detroit, where his army was soon invested by a superior 
 
 force of Canadian militia and Indians. The British had 
 
 hardly opened their fire, before Hull offered to capitulate, 
 
 and surrendered to them his whole force, thus leaving the Territory of 
 
 Michigan open to them and the Indians. The absolute want of supplies, 
 
 the consequent inability to stand a siege, and the distance from all means 
 
 of succor, were the reasons alleged for this mortifying step. Another 
 
 American army had been collected on the Niagara River, commanded 
 
 by Van Rensselaer, who sent over a detachment of about 1,000 men, to 
 
 , . attack the British village of Queenstown. They effected a 
 
 October 16. , ,. , , , ° ^ ^ , , .;. . ^ , 
 
 landmg, and had some success at first ; but the militia refused 
 
 to pass over to their aid, for the constitutional reason that they could be 
 
 called out only to repel an invasion, not to invade another country. 
 
 Thus deserted, the party who had crossed the river, after some sharp 
 
 fighting, were compelled to surrender, the total loss to the Americans 
 
 being about 1,000 men. Another attempt was made on this frontier, 
 
 about six weeks afterwards, by General Smythe, which proved so 
 
 ludicrous a failure that the contriver of it was oblifired to 
 November 29. , . 
 
 resign his command, and became an object of general ridicule. 
 
 The third army, the most numerous and best appointed of all, commanded 
 by General Dearborn, on the fi-ontier near lake Cham plain, attempted 
 little and accomplished nothing. The British and Americans vied with 
 each other, during this season, in their efforts to construct a naval force 
 which might obtain the command of the two Lakes, Erie and Ontario ; 
 but no action of importance took place between them till the next year. 
 § 626. To make up for these disasters and failures on land, the Ameri- 
 cans had signal success at sea. Yet so little hope was entertained of the 
 little navy effecting anything against the immense maritime power of Eng- 
 land, that the Democratic administration was on the point of ordering all the 
 ships to remain in port, to secure them from inevitable capture ; and 
 Captains Bainbridge and Stewart with difficulty obtained leave to put to 
 sea. Hardly two months elapsed before their confidence was justified 
 
484 THE LATEST PERIOD. 
 
 by events. The frigate Constitution overtook and captured, after a 
 August 19. short action, the British frigate Guerriere, of . slightly 
 inferior force. Of the English crew, 79 were killed or wounded, and 
 their ship was so much injured that it was set on fire and blown up. 
 The Constitution sustained but little injury, and lost only 14 of her sea- 
 men. The American sloop of war Wasp, of 18 guns, Cap- 
 tain Jones, captured the English war brig Frolic, of 22 guns, 
 after an action of 45 minutes. The Wasp had but five killed and five 
 wounded, while the loss of the enemy was about 80, only 20 of her crew 
 remaining uninjured. Before the Americans could repair damages, a 
 British 74 came up and captured both vessels. A few days 
 later, the frigate United States, Captain Decatur, encoun- 
 tered and captured the British frigate Macedonian, of slightly inferior 
 force, the disparity of loss being quite as great as on former occasions. 
 A fourth victory was obtained on the 29th of December, when the Con- 
 stitution, then commanded by Captain Bainbridge, made prize of the 
 British frigate Java, after a bloody action of three hours, the killed and 
 wounded in the Java numbering 161, while the loss of the Americans 
 was but 34. The effect of these naval victories was very great ; they 
 proved that the English had at last found their match on the ocean, and 
 they wholly overcame the prejudice of the Democratic American party 
 against a navy. Congress forthwith ordered the construction of four 
 seventy-fours, six frigates, six sloops of war, and as many vessels on the 
 Lakes as might be needed. 
 
 Congress met early in November, and voted to increase the regular 
 army, and to dispense with the volunteer force, which was found to be 
 both costly and inefficient. Additional pay and bounty were offered, but 
 recruits were still- obtained with great difficulty. The finances of the 
 country were already in great confusion, the ordinary revenue being 
 quite insufficient for the expenses of the war, and the loans could not be 
 filled up except at usurious rates. Internal taxes were very unpopular, 
 and Congress naturally hesitated to impose them ; but the necessities of 
 the government were so great, that an act was finally passed to raise five 
 millions of dollars in this manner, though the taxes were not to com- 
 mence till 1814. 
 
 § 627. The military operations of 1813, though a little more honorable 
 to the American arms than those of the year before, were equally destitute 
 of any important results. There were many skirmishes and actions of 
 minor importance, that need not be noticed. At the northwest, General 
 Winchester advanced with a portion of Harrison's army, in the hope of 
 January 22, driving the enemy out of Michigan. But he was encoun- 
 1813. tered at Frenchtown by a superior force of British and 
 
 Indians, under Colonel Proctor, and entirely defeated, most of his troops 
 being obliged to surrender. The wounded prisoners were left behind, 
 
THE IJXITED STATES OF AMERICA. 485 
 
 and most of them were butchered the next day by the Indians. About 
 300 men perished in the battle and massacre, and 600 more were taken 
 prisoners. Harrison then advanced with the rest of the army, but was 
 obliged to stop on the Maumee River, where he garrisoned Fort Meigs, 
 and was besieged in it by the British under Proctor. In May, 1,200 
 Kentuckians came to his relief, half of whom, after capturing the batteries 
 of the enemy, were surprised and made prisoners, while the others, 
 uniting with Harrison, obliged Proctor to retire to Maiden. 
 
 On the St. Lawrence frontier, Ogdensburgh was attacked and carried 
 by the British, and a great amount of public and private 
 ' property destroyed or carried off. On the other hand, Com- 
 modore Chauncey had succeeded in fitting out a small fleet which gave 
 the Americans the command of Lake Ontario. A party of 1,600 picked 
 men were embarked in this fleet, and transported over the Lake, to 
 attack York, the capital of Upper Canada. This enterprise was success- 
 ful, a garrison of 800 men being driven out of the place, 
 several vessels of war captured or burned, and many naval 
 and military stores destroyed. But the explosion of a magazine killed 
 or wounded 200 of the assailants, among whom was their brave com- 
 mander. General Pike. Another expedition, fitted out in the 
 same manner, caused the evacuation of all the British posts 
 on the Niagara River, including Fort George and Fort Erie. But when 
 a portion of the Americans advanced in pursuit of the enemy, they were 
 surprised by a night attack, and Generals Chandler and 
 Winder, with about 100 men, were made prisoners- Another 
 misfortune followed; Colonel Boersller, who had been sent with 600 
 men to attack the British at Beaver Dams, fell into an am- 
 buscade, and his whole force was obliged to surrender. The 
 enemy, having launched a new frigate, now recovered the command of 
 the Lake, Chauncey was blockaded, and an attack was made on Sacket's 
 Harbor. General Brown succeeded in repelling this attack, but during 
 the alarm, several ships and many naval stores of the Americans were 
 destroyed. The war then languished in this quarter, a few incursions 
 on both sides leading to no important result. But splendid success 
 awaited the Americans on Lake Erie, where Commodore Perry had 
 succeeded in fitting out a little squadron, composed of two war brigs, the 
 Niagara and the Lawrence, of 20 guns each, and seven smaller vessels. 
 He sailed in August to meet the enemy's squadron, commanded by Cap- 
 tain Barclay, and consisting of two ships, one of 19 and the other of 17 
 guns, and four smaller vessels, one of which mounted 13, and another 
 10, guns. The force on both sides was about equal ; for though the 
 Americans had in all but 55 guns, while their opponents had 63, the 
 weight of metal was in favor of the former. The two 
 ' squadrons met near the western end of the lake, and after a 
 41* 
 
486 THE LATEST PERIOD. 
 
 furious combat of about three hours, in the course of which Perry's ship^ 
 
 the Lawrence, was disabled, and he shifted his flag to the Niagara, all 
 
 the enemy's vessels were compelled to surrender. The loss on either 
 
 side was about 150 killed and wounded. Perry announced his success 
 
 in a very laconic epistle : — " We have met the enemy, and they are 
 
 ours." As this victory gave the Americans the command of the Upper 
 
 Lakes, Harrison's army advanced and crossed the river, by the aid of 
 
 Perry's fleet, into Canada, where they found that Proctor had hastily 
 
 evacuated Maiden, after dismantling the fort and burning the barracks. 
 
 Harrison soon marched in pursuit, and found the enemy, who were about 
 
 800 in number, with a large body of Indians, posted near the Moravian 
 
 ^ , ^ town on the river Thames. A rapid charoje of the Americans 
 October 5. , i / , , 
 
 broke the British line on both flanks, when the greater part 
 
 of the enemy threw down their arms and surrendered, though Proctor, 
 
 "vvith about 200 men, eflTected his escape. The noted Lidian chief, 
 
 Tecumseh, who was the instigator of the war on the part of the savages, 
 
 was killed in this battle, which was also the means of gaining back all 
 
 the ground that had been lost by Hull, and of bringing about a peace 
 
 with the northwestern tribes. Harrison then embarked, with 1,300 men, 
 
 for Buffalo, to strengthen the army of the centre, as the one on the 
 
 Niagara frontier w^as called. This army was now ordered to advance 
 
 upon Montreal. On its way, the British, in about equal force, 
 
 ' were encountered at Chrystler's Fields, and a severe battle 
 
 was fought with indecisive results. The troops advanced no farther than 
 
 St. Regis, where the army from Plattsburg failed to join them, and the 
 
 expedition was consequently given up. 
 
 § 628. Meanwhile British squadrons were blockading the Delaware 
 and Chesapeake bays. New York, Charleston, and other ports, often 
 landing small parties, which burned several villages and did much wan- 
 ton injury. The Chesapeake, indeed, was permanently occupied by a 
 powerful fleet of the enemy, which kept up a harassing warfare along the 
 coast, without attempting any enterprise of moment. The bitter fruits 
 were now reaped of that wretched economy on the part of the govern- 
 ment, which had so long left an immense line of seacoast almost totally 
 unprovided with fortifications. In spite of the blockading force, a few 
 American ships of war succeeded in getting to sea, eager to rival the 
 naval exploits of the former year. The sloop-of-war Hornet captured 
 Febnia 24 ^^^ ^^^^ *^^ British brig Peacock, of nearly equal force, in 
 
 a very short action. But the unlucky Chesapeake frigate, 
 with a discontented and undisciplined crew, having sailed from Boston 
 to accept a challenge from the British frigate Shannon, was captured by 
 
 her after a short but furious action, — the first instance of 
 
 the American flag at sea being struck to a force which was 
 not decidedly superior. But again, the Argus sloop-of-war was cap- 
 
THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 487 
 
 tured by the British brig Pelican, of somewhat superior force, 
 ° " after a severe engagement. The Americans soon had their 
 revenge, however, as the Enterprise, of 12 guns, encountered the Bri- 
 tish brig Boxer, of 14 guns, and compelled her to strike after a desperate 
 conflict. 
 
 § 629. The only other important operations of this year grew out of a 
 war with the Creek and Cherokee Indians, against whom Gen. Jackson 
 was employed, with a militia force from Georgia, Tennessee, and the pre- 
 sent state of Mississippi. He first marched against them in October, and 
 in a two months' campaign, captured many of their villages, and defeated 
 several bands of them with great slaughter. So many of Jackson's men 
 then left him, from weariness of the hard service, that he was reduced to 
 inactivity. The consequence was, that in January, 1814, his troops were 
 thrice attacked, and the savages were repulsed with great difficulty. 
 More militia were then called out, and Jackson, having succeeded in 
 cooping up a large body of the Indians in a peninsula formed by a bend 
 of the Tallapoosa river, forced their breastwork, and made frightful havoc 
 among them. About 600 of the savages were killed or drowned, and 
 250 taken prisoners. Their spirit was thus efiectually broken, and the 
 remainder of the tribe sued for peace on any terms. 
 
 § 630. The campaign of 1814 was, in general, honorable to the Ameri- 
 can arms, though some great reverses were sustained ; the troops were now 
 better disciplined, and were led by more experienced and skilful officers, 
 than in the earlier part of the war. Yet the country labored under great 
 difficulties, and a tone of discouragement was perceptible even in the 
 President's message to Congress. The finances were in great disorder, 
 and the public credit had fallen so low that money could not be obtained 
 on loan except at a ruinous sacrifice. The whole Atlantic coast was 
 now blockaded by the British fleet, the slaves in the southern States were 
 encouraged to desert to the ships, and the only mode of preventing the 
 enemy from being supplied with food and other necessaries from the 
 shore was to pass a law absolutely forbidding all exports. The large 
 cities on the coast were kept in constant apprehension of an attack, and 
 the militia had to be called out in great numbers to defend them. New 
 England had always been opposed to the war, and seemed determined 
 to do little but defend her own borders, and sullenly obey the requisitions 
 of Congress. The cessation of the war in Europe, through the overthrow 
 of Napoleon and the entrance of the allies into Paris, early in the spring 
 of 1814, put the fleets and army of England at liberty, and enabled the 
 British ministers to make large detachments to carry on the war in 
 America. On the part of the Americans, all idea of conquering Canada 
 had to be given up, and the war became entirely defensive in its cha- 
 racter. But the spirit of the people rose with their difficulties, an obsti- 
 nate resistance was made at many points, and the resolution was formed 
 and adhered to, not to submit to peace on disadvantageous terms. 
 
488 THE LATEST PERIOD. 
 
 § 631. The military operations of the year were distributed over so vast 
 a theatre, and comprehended so many petty conflicts, that only the more 
 important events can be noticed. On the Niagara frontier, the Ameri- 
 can army, after it had been rigidly disciplined for several months by 
 Gen. Brown, who was admirably seconded by Scott, Ripley, Jessup, and 
 other able officers, was led across the river, 3,000 strong, and encoun- 
 tered the enemy, of equal force, under Gen. Riall, at Chip- 
 July 5, 1814. * ^ . ' -, , n . , , , 
 
 pewa. A furious engagement ensued, the first pitched bat- 
 tle of the war ; after great loss on both sides, the British gave way, and 
 retreated in disorder to their retrenchments in the rear. The next day, 
 they abandoned these also, and retired to Burlington heights. Large 
 reinforcements from England, under Gen. Drummond, arrived to 
 strengthen Riall's position, and on the 25th, the two armies again met in 
 a pitched battle at Bridgewater, very near Niagara Falls. The conflict 
 lasted from noon till midnight, the ground being obstinately contested on 
 both sides, and the result not very decisive, though the Americans had 
 the ai^lvantage. They captured Gen. Riall himself and many other pri- 
 soners, took the whole of the British artillery, and retained possession of 
 the battle-field for some time after the enemy retired. The British loss 
 ■was 878, and the American, 743. The army, not strong enough to 
 advance, and unwilling to retreat across the river, then took shelter in 
 Fort Erie, and Gen. Gaines came to take the command. Drummond 
 advanced with a much larger force, and laid siege to the fort, on which 
 
 he at length made a furious attack by niofht. After some 
 August 15. f JO 
 
 hard fighting, he was repulsed with the loss of nearly a thou- 
 sand men, while the Americans lost but 84. Brown then came to re- 
 sume the command, and found that the enemy were pushing forwards 
 tlieir works for a regular investment of the place. He resolved to try 
 Se tember 17 ^ ^^^'^^^> which was completely successful. The guns of the 
 
 besiegers were spiked, their magazines blown up, and 400 
 prisoners brought off, the killed and wounded amounting to 600 more. 
 The American loss was not half so great. The desired efiTect soon fol- 
 lowed, as Drummond hastily raised the siege and retired behind the 
 Chippewa. This was the end of active operations on the Niagara fron- 
 tier, as Izard, who next assumed the command, brought the army back 
 to the American shore. 
 
 § 632. Events equally honorable to the Americans took place on Lake 
 Champlain. From their camp at Plattsburg, most of the troops had 
 been drawn away to aid the operations on Lake Ontario and the Niagara. 
 Macomb was left in command, with only 3,000 men, many of them inva- 
 lids, and some militia. Sir George Prevost, the governor of Canada, 
 led an army of 12,000 regular troops over the frontier towards Platts- 
 burg, while the British squadron, under Downie, numbering sixteen ves- 
 sels, and carrying ninety-five guns and 1,000 seamen, sailed down the 
 
THE UXITED STATES OF AMERICA. 489 
 
 lake to the same point. McDonough, the American Commodore, had 
 moored at Plattsburg his fleet, consisting of four vessels and ten gunboats, 
 carrying in all eighty-six guns and 850 men. Macomb's force was 
 strongly posted behind the river Saranac, a rocky and unfordable stream. 
 The attack by land and water took place simultaneously. In 
 " two hours and a half, all of Downie's larger vessels were 
 obliged to strike to the Americans, and his gunboats escaped with diffi- 
 culty. Prevost's attack on land had been a feeble one, and immediately 
 after the capture of his fleet, it was abandoned, and the army retreated 
 that night in great haste, leaving baggage and stores, and even the sick 
 and wounded, behind them. A panic seems to have seized Prevost and 
 his troops, neutralizing their great superiority of force. 
 
 § 633. But this was the end of American success for the year ; the rest 
 is a story of disaster, with a gleam of light at the close. In July, the enemy 
 took possession of Eastport, in ISIaine, and in September, they sailed up 
 the Penobscot, burned the frigate Adams, that had taken refuge there, 
 and " annexed " all the country east of that river to the British domi- 
 nions. Early in August, the English fleet in the Chesapeake was 
 largely reinforced, a considerable body of English troops having arrived 
 from Europe. Great alarm was caused on shore, and the militia were 
 called out in force for the defence of Wa^^hington and Baltimore, there 
 being very few regular troops in that region. Most of the British fleet 
 passed the Potomac, and sailed up the Patuxent to Benedict, where 
 Gen. Ross landed with about 5,000 men, and commenced his 
 
 ° ' march for Washington, which was about forty miles distant, 
 the road passing through a thinly populated country. Several bodies of 
 militia fell back before him, and a flotilla of gunboats was blown up, the 
 Bailors who had manned them being landed and joined to the troops, for 
 the purpose of serving the artillery. At Bladensburg, the British en- 
 countered a motley array of militia and a few regulars, 
 
 " ' under Gen. Winder, assisted by the President and the mem- 
 bers of the cabinet, most of whom fled before the first shot reached their 
 ranks. But the artillery, served by the sailors, did good execution, until 
 deserted by the other troops, when the guns were necessarily abandoned. 
 Koss then marched on and occupied Washington, where two new vessels 
 of war and the magazines of stores had already been set on fire and de- 
 stroyed. The capitol, the President's house, and the public offices were 
 burned by the enemy, who also destroyed some private property. Hav- 
 ing effected this waifton injury, and being fearful that troops enough 
 might be collected to impede their retreat, the English hastily returned 
 to their shipping. Three days afterwards, their frigates passed up the 
 Potomac as far as Alexandria^ and extorted a heavy ransom from that 
 city. The British fleet next appeared off the Patapsco, and the troops 
 were landed ^gain for an attack on Baltimore. A skirmish ensued with 
 
490 THE LATEST PERIOD. 
 
 an advanced body of the militia at North Point, Gen. Ross was killed, 
 and the Americans were not driven from the ground till 
 * several hundred had fallen on either side. The cannonading 
 of the forts by the ships having produced but little effect, and the militia 
 ajipearing to be strongly intrenched about the city, the enemy concluded 
 to retire without effecting any thing. 
 
 § 634. The next attempt was made upon New Orleans. Jackson, who 
 commanded in that quarter, had been compelled, in October, to storm the 
 fort and seize the city of Pensacola, because the Spaniards there had admit- 
 ted British troops into the place, who had begun to train the refugee 
 Creek Indians for hostilities against the United States. He heard, soon 
 afterwards, that a powerful expedition was on its way to attack New 
 Orleans, and he marched thither, and took very energetic measures to 
 provide for its defence. The militia were called in, martial law was pro- 
 claimed, and all able-bodied persons were compelled to work upon the 
 fortifications or to bear arms. Gen. Pakenham, with 8,000 British regu- 
 lars, approached the city by way of Lake Borgne, while 
 Jackson had but 5,000 men to oppose him, of whom four 
 fifths were militia. When the enemy had taken post about fifteen miles 
 
 ^ below New Orleans, the American creneral drew out most of 
 
 December 23. , . , . , f 
 
 his troops to make a night attack upon their camp. He 
 
 threw them into great confusion, and then made good his retreat, with a 
 loss of 220 in killed and wounded, the British loss being somewhat 
 greater. This check made Pakenham more cautious, and he waited for 
 reinforcements and artillery from the fleet, thus giving the Americans 
 time to strengthen their position. During this interval, also, 2,000 Ken- 
 tuckians arrived, and Jackson was enabled to throw up fortifications on 
 the other side of the river, fearing an attack in that quarter. On the 
 8th of January, the grand attack was made, the British with 
 true bulldog courage marching up in front to storm a position 
 that had been made almost impregnable. A tremendous fire was opened 
 upon them, Pakenham was killed, two other generals were wounded, one 
 mortally, and at last the enemy were compelled to retire, with a loss of 
 over 2,000 men. The Americans, who fought under shelter, lost but 71. 
 The effect of this blow was decisive, and the enemy, as soon as they 
 could bury their dead, retreated to their shipping. 
 
 § 635. The battle of New Orleans was the closing event of the war. On 
 the 11th of February, a vessel arrived at New York, bringing an unex- 
 pected treaty of peace, which had been negotiated %t Ghent between the 
 English and American commissioners, and already ratified by the British 
 government. Never were tidings more welcome ; bonfires and illumi- 
 nations were made in the principal cities, and the strifes of opposite 
 factions were forgotten in the general rejoicing. The treaty was a very 
 simple on3 ; nothing was determined in it respecting neutral trade and 
 
THE HOLY ALLIANCE. 491 
 
 impressment, the discussion of these subjects having been rendered unne- 
 cessary by the general pacification of Europe, and most of the lesser 
 subjects of dispute being referred to subsequent negotiation. The two 
 parties, at the close of the war, remained just as they had been, with 
 respect to each other, at its commencement. Both were exhausted by 
 the prodigious efforts they had made, and were weary both of victories 
 and defeats, of glory, hazard, and suffering. Excepting some petty con- 
 flicts with the Indian tribes, the United States, after the conclusion of the 
 treaty of Ghent, remained at peace with all the world for thirty years, — ■ 
 a period long enough for a new generation to arise, which could learn 
 only by hearsay the story of the few triumphs and many disasters of the 
 war of 1812. 
 
 F. THE PEOPLE AND STATES OF EUROPE FROM THE 
 HOLY ALLIANCE TO THE PRESENT TIME. 
 
 1. THE HOLY ALLIANCE AND THE POSITION OF PARTIES. 
 
 § G36. The upper strata of society, which, in the ordinary course of events, 
 suffer little from the mutations of life, had, through the Revolution and 
 the military despotism of Napoleon, been visited by severe strokes of 
 fortune. A more profound consideration of the revolutionary movement 
 pointed to the supervision of a Higher Power, which brings to nought 
 every impious endeavor, and every presumptuous self-reliance. Reli- 
 gious feeling again returned to the bosoms of men, and gave predomi- 
 nance to piety and Christian faith among the upper classes. Penetrated 
 by this feeling, the three allied monarchs, Alexander of Russia, Francis 
 of Austria, and Frederick William III. of Prussia, before their departure 
 September 25, from Paris, concluded the Holy Alliance, which was joined 
 1815. by all the sovereigns of Europe, with the exception of the 
 
 pope and the king of England. In this holy alliance, which was formed 
 without sincere reference to religious views, the three potentates sworCj 
 " That in accordance with the words of Holy Scripture, which commands 
 all men to love each other as brethren, they would remain united in the 
 bands of trae and indissoluble brotherly love ; that they would mutually 
 help and assist each other ; that they would govern their people liko 
 fathers of families, and that they would maintain religion, peace, and jus- 
 tice." This alliance, beautiful in theory, was soon made the instrument 
 of a faithless and liberty-endangering policy, which sought, by means of 
 religion, to establish the absolutism of princes, and the omnipotence of 
 governments, and to suppress the doctrine of the sovereignty of the peo* 
 pie, and the democratical and constitutional forms of government which 
 are its necessary result. Whilst the Holy Alliance made use of Christi" 
 
492 THE LATEST PERIOD. 
 
 nnity to establish reactionary principles, it drew upon the whole work 
 the reproach of hypocrisy, and the hatred of the people. 
 
 § G37. Whilst princes and governments were, for the most part, striv- 
 ing after absolute monarchical forms, the wishes of the people were 
 directed to the establishment of constitutional governments. According to 
 the constitution which has grown up on the free soil of Britain, the right 
 of voting taxes, and of having a share in the government and the legisla- 
 tion, belongs to the people, as represented by their members cf parliament. 
 As the authority of the king and the rights and liberties of the people 
 are alike discerned in this representative constitution, this form appeared 
 best suited for civilized states. The chief efforts of the European na- 
 tions were accordingly directed to the establishment or enlargement of 
 this constitutional form of government, and public energy was almost ex- 
 clusively turned to affairs of state and internal political life. Two pow- 
 erful parties were formed, the one (called sometimes aristocratic, some- 
 times conservative, sometimes servile) which wished to grant the people 
 as few, the other (called democratic, liberal, and, when its views were 
 extreme, radical) which wished to grant the people as many, privileges 
 as possible ; and whilst the former hindered, as far as it could, the intro- 
 duction of constitutional forms of state, or, if introduced, attempted to de- 
 prive them, by any means, of their democratical elements, the efforts of 
 the latter were directed to the founding and developing of the constitu- 
 tional life, and to increasing the privileges of the people. Governments 
 were, in general, in the hands of the former ; consequently, the liberals 
 formed the opposition. Of the five great European powers, England and 
 France alone possessed constitutional governments.; Russia, Austria, and 
 Prussia lield fast their monarchical absolutism. In Germany, Italy, and 
 the Pyrenean peninsula, history turns principally upon these constitutional 
 contests, by which now one, and now the other, of these state principles 
 obtained the upper'hand. 
 
 2. FRANCE. 
 
 § 638. A remarkable revolution in opinions and mode of thinking took 
 
 place in this much convulsed country after the Restoration. The party 
 
 of zealous royalists (Ultras, or " White Jacobins," as they were called 
 
 by their opponents) acquired such predominance, that the king had some 
 
 difRculty in maintaining the constitutional charter. In the place of 
 
 the freethinking opinions, and the hostility to the Church, which prevailed 
 
 at a former period, a fanatical religious credulity made its appearance, 
 
 which, combined with the most enthusiastic loyalty, called into existence 
 
 horrors which surpassed the bloodiest deeds of the Revolu- 
 Septcraber lu. . t nr mi m ■■ -^ta m -. -. -. 
 
 tion. in Marseilles, Toulon, Nimes, Toulouse, and other 
 
 ■places, a furious and fanatical mob fell upon such inhabitants as were 
 
 known to be Protestants, Bonapartists, or Republicans, and murdered hun 
 
FRANCE. 493 
 
 dreds of them (among others, Marshal Brune) in a most barbarous man- 
 Febmary 13, ner. The assassination of the Due de Berri, that nephew of 
 1820. ijjg \i\ug upon whom all the hopes of the Bourbons were 
 
 placed, hy Louvel, a political fanatic, facilitated the efforts of the reac- 
 tionary party, at the head of which stood the count of Artois and the 
 duke of Angouleme. The king found himself compelled to dismiss the 
 
 moderate ministry of Decazes, and to consent to a limitation 
 ' * of the freedom of the person, of the press, and of the right 
 
 of voting. The zeal of the royalists reached its climax under 
 
 the ministry of Villele. The Chamber expelled the liberal 
 deputy, Manuel, from their body, and the army, conducted by Angou- 
 Icrae, crossed the Pyrenees at the command of the Holy Alliance, for 
 the purpose of restoring unlimited monarchy in Spain. 
 
 § C39. On the ICth of 8t'i)tember, 1824, Louis XVlII. concluded his 
 varied and severely-tried existence. Stern experience had taught him 
 compassion and moderation ; the impetuous violence of the other mem- 
 bers of the royal family filled the heart of the dying man with melan- 
 choly augurids for the future. His brother, the count of Artoi<, became 
 
 king of France as Charles X. By his solemn corona- 
 ' ^" ' tion and anointing in Rheims, he appeared to indicate that 
 he intended to govern after the manner of the old " Most Christian " 
 kings. He accordingly turned his affections towards the nobility and 
 clergy, and surrendered himself entirely to the reactionary party, with 
 the watchword " Throne and altar." The emigrants who had suffered 
 losses during the Revolution received 1,000 million francs from the 
 royal Chambers as an indemnification ; and a series of laws in favor of 
 the Church and of the Cliristiaii religion announced the intention of 
 the king to erect a mighty barrier against revolutionary notions by the 
 ecclesiastical regeneration of France. Charles X. thought to establish 
 this regeneration by founding rich prelacies, by restoring to the clergy 
 their former influential position, by favoring the system of Orders, and 
 by bringing back that holiness of the Church which is founded upon 
 works, together with the whole of the new Romish pomp. The Jesuits, 
 who had long been re-established by the pope, returned, although not 
 publicly ; they founded meetings for pious exercises (congregations), 
 and attempted to get the education of youth into their hands. By these 
 means, the king strengthened the liberal opposition, inasmuch as all men 
 of philosophical education, every friend of light and of enlightenment, 
 turned from a government that favored obscurantism. Whilst the delud- 
 ed monarch believed that he could impose the old fetters upon the minds 
 of the people by inopportune missions and penitential processions, or by 
 compulsory laws and limitations, the assiduous youth were listening to 
 the liberal discourses and doctrines of the enlightened professors of the 
 University of Paris (Guizot, Villemain, Royer-Collard, &c.,) or reading 
 42 
 
494 THE LATEST PERIOD. 
 
 the bold and free discussions of tlie opposition press ( Globe, National, Con* 
 stitutionnel), or delighting themselves with Beranger's songs of freedom, 
 and the satires of the Hellenist, Paul Louis Courier; whilst the citizen 
 read the widely-spread works of Voltaire and the Encyclopjedists, or 
 the histories and memorials of the Revolution, and of the renowned reign 
 of Napoleon (Thiers, Mignet, &c.) 
 
 3. THE CONSTITUTIONAL STRUGGLES IN THE PYRENEAN PENINSULA 
 
 AND IN ITALY. 
 
 § 640. In Spain and Italy, the new political ideas had made no pro- 
 gress among the people, who were ruled by their priests ; they existed in 
 the heads bf the educated, and, as it was dangerous to avow them openly, 
 they were disseminated in secret societies. Such political associations 
 w^ere the " Freemasons " in Spain and Portugal, and the " Carbonari " in 
 Italy. Abolition of priestly power, introduction of free constitutional 
 forms, enlightenment of the people, arousing patriotism and a feeling of 
 nationality, were their great objects. Their influence was first attended 
 with results in Spain. Ferdinand, a false and suspicious man, and a 
 master in dissimulation, overthrew, after his return, the Cortes* 
 * " Constitution in Spain, and brought back the unlimited monar- 
 chy of the old time and all its evils. Nobility and clergy again recovered 
 their exemption from taxes ; the monasteries were restored ; the Jesuits 
 ventured to make their appearance; the Inquisition reappeared, and 
 with it the rack and all the horrors of a dark age. A frightful persecu- 
 tion now arose, not only against all the adherents of France (Afrances- 
 ados), and all who had filled offices under Joseph, or had in any way 
 served him, but against the chiefs and adherents of the Cortes, against 
 the leaders of the bands who had shed their heart's blood for king and 
 country, and who now claimed, as a well-deserved reward, a share in the 
 government and civil freedom. Many of these heroic warriors died by 
 the hand of the executioner, others wandered in foreign countries as out- 
 laws and fugitives ; those who remained behind concealed their views 
 and their resentment in the silence of their own bosoms. A camarilla, 
 consisting of the selfish privileged class, fanatical priests, obsequious cour- 
 tiers, and intriguing women, secured Ferdinand's confidence, and incited 
 him to the most cruel persecution of every liberal. The government and 
 the affairs of justice were in a most deplorable condition, the treasury was 
 exhausted, despite the oppressive taxes, trade was stagnant, the South 
 American colonies renounced allegiance to Spain, and engaged in a war 
 which ended in the independence of the separate states, and the establish- 
 ment of several republics. 
 
 § 641. At this juncture, it happened that, on the New Year's Day of 
 1820, a military conspiracy broke out among the regiments assembled at 
 Cadiz for embarkation for South America. The standard of rebellion 
 
SPAIN, POKTUGAL, AXD ITALY. 495 
 
 was raised and the Constitution of the Cortes proclaimed. Colonel Iliego 
 was the soul of the undertaking ; Quiroga, who had been liberated from 
 prison, undertook the conduct of the whole. The insurrection soon spread 
 to every quarter of Spain; the Constitution of the year '12 was every- 
 where demanded, and nothing was left to the king but to yield to the de- 
 mand, to summon the Cortes, and to swear to the constitution, 
 ' " * This triumph of the Spanish democrats excited their party in 
 Portugal and Italy to imitation. Popular tumults took place in Lisbon 
 and Oporto, and resulted in the removal of Lord Beresford, who governed 
 the country in the name of the king, who was still lingering in Brazil, the 
 summoning of the Estates (Cortes), and the introduction of a constitution 
 January 26 ^^ the model of that of Spain. John VL returned to Lisbon, 
 1821. and swore to the new constitution for Portugal and Brazil. 
 
 The Carbonari excited a military conspiracy in Naples, which soon made 
 such progress, that king Ferdinand found himself compelled to consent to 
 the introduction of the Spanish constitution. "William Pepe and Caras- 
 cosa, the heads of the conspiracy, marched in triumph, at the 
 ' * head of the insurgent troops and the Carbonari, who had 
 joined them, into Naples. A revolutionary movement broke out also in 
 Piedmont against the absolute monarchy, supported by the aristocracy 
 
 „ , and priesthood, in consequence of which Victor Emmanuel 
 
 March, 1821. , ,. , •.,<-..! . . 
 
 abdicated, and the Spanish constitution was introduced into 
 
 the kingdom of Sardinia also. 
 
 § 642. The chiefs of the Holy Alliance, disturbed by this new revolu- 
 tionary spirit, that seemed to have seized upon the German youth also, 
 embraced the resolution, at the instigation of Metternich, of suppressing 
 
 ^^^^ the liberal movement. At the conj^ress of Laybach, at which 
 January, 1821. -r-. t i /» t..t i , 
 
 king h erdinand of Naples was also present by the invitation 
 
 of the monarchs, it was determined to overthrow the constitutional govern- 
 ment in Naples by violence. Ferdinand approved the proposal. An 
 Austrian army was marched in ; the dastardly forces of Pepe and Caras- 
 cosa w^ere quickly overpowered, and either dispersed or forced to surren- 
 der, upon which the king again abolished the constitutional government. 
 From this time, priestly power and absolute monarchy, supported by 
 mercenary troops and a system of police, were united together for the 
 suppression of every movement of freedom by terror and the bondage of 
 the intellect. 
 
 This result decided the fate of the Piedmontese constitution. It is true 
 that the enthusiastic liberals, under Santa Rosa, resisted their enemies at 
 A "1 1821 ^O'^^r^ "ot without glory ; but their strength was soon broken. 
 Turin and Alessandria were occupied by the Austrians ; and 
 unlimited monarchy in its severest form, and with all the horrors of the 
 reaction, was again restored in Sardinia. 
 
 § 643. Not much more splendid was the end of the Spanish Cortes. 
 
496 THE LATEST PERIOD. 
 
 When the liberals abused their victory, placed undue restrictions upon 
 the kingly power, and proceeded with great violence against the priest- 
 hood, the privileged classes, and the ancient and traditionary privileges 
 and usages, the priests and the adherents of absolute power stirred up 
 the people to resistance. A bloody civil war once more threatened to 
 tear the unhappy country to pieces. At this juncture, the members of 
 the Holy Alliance at the Congress of Verona required the 
 ' * Cortes in Madrid to alter the constitution, and to give the 
 king greater powers. The Cortes rejected this demand with defiance. 
 A French army, under the command of the duke of Angouleme, now 
 Febraary, marched over the Pyrenees. It was in vain that the Cortes 
 1823. summoned the nation to arms ; constitutional freedom was a 
 
 word without meaning for people led by priests and monks, and the new 
 system was opposed to their habits and feelings ; the popular war, the 
 old renowned guerilla, on which the Cortes had placed its confidence, 
 did not arise ; the people and the camarilla saluted the French as deli- 
 verers from the detested rule of the Freemasons. It was in vain that a 
 few leaders, like Mina in Barcelona and Quiroga in Leon, resisted with 
 courage and spirit the foreign army; the soldiers showed little love for 
 fighting, and sought to secure themselves betimes by capitulations. The 
 French marched triumphantly into Madrid, and, as the Cortes and king 
 had fled to the south, they appointed a regency. The strong city of 
 Cadiz was the last place of refuge for the friends of the constitution ; 
 August 5, the French appeared before the town. The courage of the 
 1823. members of the Cortes sank ; instead of burying themselves 
 
 beneath the ruins of the town, as they had formerly grandiloquently 
 expressed it, they concluded a treaty with the besiegers, by which they 
 consented to their own dissolution and set the king at liberty. Ferdi- 
 nand VII. was now replaced in the fulness of his power by foreign 
 bayonets ; the constitution and all its arrangements fell into desuetude, 
 and the apostolic party let loose all the demons of rage and vengeance 
 vr 1, , K against its opponents. Riego and many of his confederates 
 died by the hands of the executioner, thousands wandered 
 about in foreign countries as starving and houseless fugitives and 
 outlaws, and an equal number were compelled to expiate in mouldy 
 dungeons the crime of having attempted to rob the people of the 
 institutions to which three hundred years of despotism had accustomed 
 them. 
 
 § 644. The lamentable end of the Cortes government of Spain in- 
 spired the queen of Portugal (sister of Ferdinand VII.) and her second 
 son, Don Miguel, with the project of getting rid, at the same time, of their 
 detested constitution by an act of violence. They induced the weak 
 king, John VL, to abolish the Constitution of the Cortes, and to sanction 
 the persecution of the Constitutionalists and the Freemasons. Shortly 
 
GREAT BRITAIX. 497 
 
 after this, Don Miguel excited a rebellion against his own father, with 
 
 the purpose of obtaining the regency, but gained instead a 
 
 ^" ' * sentence of banishment from the country. John VI. died 
 
 . two years afterwards. His eldest son, Don Pedro, who, 
 Marchl0,1826. . -^ ,.,,•! f -n m n . . *i 
 
 bemg constitutional emperor or lirazil, could not at the same 
 
 time become king of Portugal, made over the government of the mother 
 country to his daughter, Donna Maria da Gloria, who was a minor, and 
 granted the Portuguese a liberal constitution. His brother, Don Miguel, 
 having returned from banishment, succeeded, some time after, in again 
 overthrowing this constitution by the aid of the apostolic party. He 
 robbed his niece of her right to the throne, had himself pro- 
 ' * claimed absolute king, and proceeded by banishment, impri- 
 sonment, and death, against the friends and adherents of constitutional 
 order. But his reign was short. Don Pedro, compelled in Brazil 
 to surrender his crown to his son, who was under age, landed in Portugal 
 ^. D. with the soldiers he had raised, and reduced his tyrannical 
 
 1832 1834. brother to such extremities in a war of two years' duration, 
 that he at length renounced the crown and retired abroad. Upon this, 
 Pedro again restored the Cortes government, which, after his early death, 
 however, underwent many attacks and alterations. 
 
 4. GREAT BRITAIN. 
 
 § 645. England had come forth from the long struggle with France 
 powerful and victorious. She had destroyed the fleets of other nations, 
 and put her own marine on such a footing that her empire of the sea 
 was incontestable ; she had increased her colonies in the "West Indies, 
 had raised Canada, had planted colonies in the west and south of Africa, 
 and had created an empire in the East Indies, after the conquest of the 
 mighty sultan Tippoo Saib, that far surpassed the mother country in size 
 and population, and was an inexhaustible source of trade and- commerce. 
 Distant islands, opened to the view of the astonislied world by daring 
 navigators, like Cook and others, bowed themselves beneath the sceptre 
 of the island empress of the sea. The possession of Gibraltar and Malta, 
 the protective government of the Ionian Isles, the free pfissage through 
 the Dardanelles, secured to her, after the peace of Paris, the dominion 
 of the Mediterranean and intercourse with the Levant. By her firmly- 
 established constitution, with the liberty of the press and of speech, 
 and the narrowly defined limits between the rights of the king and of 
 the people, England excited the envy of other nations. But with all 
 this power and prosperity without, the state was suffering from incurable 
 wounds. 1. Whilst a small proportion of the people had amassed 
 enormous wealth, the larger number of thefn were sunk in the most op- 
 pressive poverty. The expensive land and naval wars, and the enormous 
 subsidies that the government sent to the Continent, had raised the 
 42* 
 
498 THE LATEST PERIOD. 
 
 national debt to sucli a sum that the yearly interest amounted to thirty- 
 four million pounds. This burden of debt, together with an extravagant 
 court and excessive salaries, increased the expenditure of the state to such 
 a degree that the necessary sums could only be obtained by a^perpetually 
 increasing taxation of articles of trade, necessaries of life, income (in- 
 come-tax), houses, and landed property. This occasioned the impover- 
 ishment of the small landed proprietors and of tradesmen with moderate 
 capitals. The lands fell into the hands of the rich nobles, who discovei'ed 
 the means of increasing their incomes by raising rents and preventing 
 the importation of foreign corn by the corn-laws. Trade fell into the 
 liands of the. rich manufacturers, who, by enlarging their business, outdid 
 men of smaller means ; the middle class of citizens decreased, while the 
 number of artisans, who lived from hand to mouth, increased to a for- 
 midable amount. Heavy poor-rates imposed upon the. public, and oc- 
 casional contributions by the government, were not sufficient to counter- 
 act the evil. The lower orders, excited by want and misery, made re- 
 peated attempts to improve their condition by insurrections, but their 
 illegal proceedings invariably resulted in their own injury. The un- 
 armed crowd was easily dispersed by the military ; but the sanguinary 
 punishments inflicted upon the insurgents of Manchester 
 
 A. D. 1819. ^ , , rr., . 
 
 brought severe censure upon the government. Ihe lower 
 classes soon began to strive for political influence also. To give them- 
 selves a voice in the legislature, they demanded universal suffrage, 
 yearly parliaments, and vote by ballot. They laid down their principles 
 in a people's charter, whence they received the name of Chartists. It is 
 to their exertions that the relaxation of the corn-laws, by which the in- 
 troduction of foreiojn corn was facilitated, is to be ascribed. 
 
 A. D. 1842. ° 
 
 In 1846, the corn-laws were entirely repealed. 
 § G46. 2. After the severe contest against Napoleon, there came a 
 Court and period of torpor in England. George IV., a king sunk in 
 Government, vice and pleasure, who in his youth had gone with the oppo- 
 sition, put his confidence in the cold-blooded Tories who had grown grey 
 in the state-wisdom of Pitt, and turned away his eyes and his heart fi'om 
 the people. The latter rewarded him with aversion and hatred, especially 
 when he gave notoriety to the first year of his independent reign by a 
 scandalous action for divorce, before the Upper House, 
 against his wife, Caroline of Brunswick, w^ho was living in 
 unwilling separation from him. When the queen died, in 
 the following year, the sympathy and compassion of the 
 nation followed her to the grave, little as her conduct or morals were 
 rieserving of praise. . Castlereagh, the old associate of George, and the 
 August 12, supporter of a false and faithless policy, died by his own 
 1822. hand during a paroxysm of melancholy. This was a great 
 
 shock to the king, who was burdened by so many sins of youth, and 
 
GREAT BRITAIN. 499 
 
 made him shun society. He passed the last years of his life in gloomy 
 retirement, whilst the great statesman, Canning, who approached the 
 principles of the Whigs, restored its former preeminence to the insular 
 empire of England. George IV.'s only daughter, the intelligent and 
 amiable princess Charlotte (wife of Leopold of Coburg, afterwards king 
 of the Belgians), having died young and without children, William IV., 
 the king's brother, a plain, homely man, ascended the throne afte? 
 WiUiamlV. C^eorge's death. Under him, the Whigs got the manage- 
 A. D. 1830 - mcnt of affairs into their hands, and the important measure 
 1S37. Qf parliamentary reform, by which the elections for parlia 
 
 ment were arranged afresh according to the number of the population 
 and the right of suffrage was made dependent upon a certain income^ 
 March 1,1831. was carried after the most violent opposition, and formed the 
 August, 1835. triumph of the middle class over the aristocracy. Shortly 
 after this, slave emancipation, at which Wilberforce and other philan- 
 thropists had been working for years, was carried. England, after vast 
 sums paid in indemnifying the planters, set tlie slaves at liberty in her 
 colonies, and has since endeavored with all her strength to induce other 
 nations to take a similar step, and to entirely suppress the 
 ' * slave traffic. After William IV., his niece, Victoria, married 
 since (the 10th of February, 1840) to prince Albert of Coburg, received 
 the crown of England. Under her government, the great statesman, 
 Sir Robert Peel, attempted to give a fresh impulse to trade by moderat- 
 ing the import duties. Since then, "free-trade" has been the watch- 
 word of the day. 
 
 § 647. Ireland to the present hour is the sore spot in the body politic 
 of England. The maltreatment of former generations has 
 produced a gulf between England and Ireland which never 
 permitted a perfect union between two people different in race, religion, 
 and institutions. Two things especially, produced by an old injustice, 
 excited the liatred of the irritable Irish, — the harsh treatment of the 
 poor peasants by their noble English landlords, and the unnatural con- 
 dition of the Church, where Anglican priests are in possession of the 
 Irish Church temporalities, whilst the poor Catholic population are 
 obliged to maintain their unpaid clergy from their necessity. The com- 
 plaints of the Irish were unheard ; the insurrections that were attempted 
 were suppressed, and increased the oppression. It was not 
 until admission jnto the English parliament was granted to 
 Irish Catholics by the Emancipation Act, that the Irish people had an 
 opportunity of demanding an abolition of abuses. Daniel O'Connell, who 
 now entered parliament with a " tail" of more than forty similarly-minded 
 Irishmen, threatened a Repeal of the Union, unless attention was paid 
 to the righteous demands of the Irish people. The increasing poverty 
 which, owing to the failure of the potato crop, produced pestilence and 
 
500 THE LATEST PERIOD. 
 
 famine, required stringent remedies for the prevailing abuses. Owing to 
 the irritable and excitable nature of the Irish, it was 'an easy task for the 
 great popular orator and demagogue, O'Connell, to keep the country in a 
 perpetual ferment, and, by the watchword of " repeal," to direct the 
 whole energy of the people to a single object. Repeal associations were 
 formed in every spot and corner, with a common fund for furthering the 
 aims of O'Connell ; the Catholic priesthood, who exercised an unlimited 
 power over the ignorant people, were in his service ; his word was law 
 in Ireland. The principal demand of the Irish was the abolition of the 
 tithes, which were paid in Ireland to the English clergy. When their 
 proposals were not received by the English parliament, the tenants re- 
 fused to pay the tithes, and opposed the distraints ; and, when the English 
 had recourse to force, they employed force in return. Bands of armed 
 men marched through the country, marking their course with blood and 
 fire. These things pressingly admonished the government to give its 
 best attention to " starving and revolutionary Ireland, the land of passions 
 and of misery." The country was threatened with a state of warfare by 
 the Irish Coercion Bill, in order to maintain obedience by terror ; and an 
 attempt was made by the Irish Church Bill, and the so-called appropria- 
 tion clause, to abolish or moderate the Church payments of the tenants, 
 and to apply a portion of the Church property to secular purposes, 
 namely, to the improvement of public education. But this project en- 
 countered such resistance from the High-Church party and the aristo- 
 cratic Tories, that it was not till after a parliamentary contest of a twelve- 
 month that the Tithes Bill was passed, and even then in a mutilated 
 shape. The High-Church opposition formed the so-called Orange clubs, 
 which attempted to frustrate all concessions to the Irish, and kept re- 
 ligious and national hatred in constant activity. 
 
 5. GERMANY. 
 
 § 648. Germany, after the Congress of Vienna, was weaker and less 
 united than she had been during the empire. It is true that the number 
 of independent principalities and states had been lessened by more than 
 a hundred, and that the bishoprics, abbacies, and imperial towns had been 
 deprived of their independent position ; but, on the other hand, thirty- 
 ?ight territories which had been included in the German Union received 
 sovereign powers, as far as their internal affairs were concerned. In 
 place of the old imperial Diet appeared the Federative Diet of Frankfort- 
 on-the-Maine, composed of representatives of the different governments, 
 under the presidentship of Austria. But, as this assembly was entirely 
 directed by the wishes of single governments, it had no independent 
 power ; and the German Union was an impotent member among Euro- 
 pean states, dependent upon the influence of the two great powers, Austria 
 and Prussia, which assumed the first rank, in virtue of their German 
 
GERMANY. 501 
 
 provinces. Even foreign kingdoms sent representatives to the Frankfort 
 Diet, as Denmark for Holstein, and the Netherlands for Luxemburg. 
 This powerless condition of Germany gave as little satisfaction abroad as 
 the internal arrangements sufficed at home. Instead of a strong union, 
 ■with a united federative government and a popular representation, such 
 as patriotic men had hoped and striven for, the creation of the Viennese 
 Congress was a union formed of a number of sovereign states, in which 
 the governments, but not the people, were represented; and the 13th 
 article of the Union Act, by which a general promise was given of the 
 introduction of a state constitution, without any distinct notice of the time 
 and manner of its accomplishment, did not satisfy the expectations of the 
 people. As Prussia, where the men of the retrograde movement, Haller, 
 Schmalz, and others, soon obtained the upper hand of the patriots of the 
 war of liberty, delayed bringing forward the promised state constitution, 
 and at length, instead of the desired imperial legislature, granted only 
 provincial estates with consulting voices, without either publicity or gen- 
 eral interest, the discontent of the German people became every day 
 greater. Austria, under the influence of Metternich, was governed in a 
 spirit of complete absolutism, and kept as far aloof from Germany as pos- 
 sible ; and Prussia gave herself up more and more to the same views, 
 and allowed herself to be made the instrument of the execution of most 
 unpopular measures. As there was no general system of management 
 or debifte, the constitutions that were gradually introduced into Saxe- 
 Weimar, Baden, Wirteraberg, Bavaria, Hesse, and many other small 
 states, turned out very different from each other, so that, in this respect 
 also, Germany appeared torn and divided. And then the duties between 
 different countries, which acted as a bar to their intercourse ! It seemed 
 as though Germany was about to be broken up into its separate races 
 and states ! 
 
 § 649. This state of things filled the German people with discontent, 
 and shook their confidence in the patriotism of the governments. The 
 liberal party, which was aiming at a progressive development of state 
 affairs in a democratic direction, and kept alive the idea of German unity, 
 gained ground daily. But, above all, the German youth, who had been 
 filled with an admiration of the middle ages by the new romantic poetry, 
 were dissatisfied with the present. They longed for the empire of the 
 middle age, and for the former unity and greatness of Germany ; and 
 sought to give life to the neW* ideas of popular government under the old 
 German forms and titles. Without clearness of aim, and without know- 
 ledge or respect for obstacles, the youths who, in the German high schools, 
 had formed the fraternal alliance of the " General Burschenschaft," strove 
 after an ideal world and state creation upon the old German system. This 
 October 18, feeling first displayed itself during the festival of the Wart- 
 1817. burg. On the day of the battle of Leipsic, a festival was 
 
i^02 ' THE LATEST PERIOD. 
 
 celebrated as an introduction to the 300th anniversary of the Heformation, 
 which is always solemnized with great enthusiasm in Protestant Germany ; 
 and at the same time, in remembrance of the struggle for liberty, a num- 
 ber of students held a meeting at the Wartburg, near Eisenach, at which 
 fiery speeches were made by the young men, and at the conclusion, fol- 
 lowing the example of Luther, certain writings of Kotzebue, Kamptz, 
 Haller, Jarke, and others, which were offensive to their views, together 
 with some symbols of an antiquated and feudal period, such as pigtails, 
 breast-laces, corporals' canes, were, with youthful wantonness, committed 
 to the flames. If an undue importance was attached by the government 
 to this occurrence, yet it is not to be wondered at that the bloody deed 
 of one of these confederates of the Wartburg, George Sand, should be 
 looked upon as the act of a great political conspiracy, and give rise to a 
 series of legal investigations and prosecutions, on account of " demagogic 
 intrigues." Sand, of Wunsiedel, a pious and patriotic youth, but full of 
 fanaticism and governed by vanity, embraced the criminal resolution of 
 killing the Russian councillor, Augustus Von Kotzebue, who was suspected 
 March 23, of endangering Germany's fmedom and politic development 
 1819. by conveying information to St. Petersburg ; he wished to 
 
 rid the German nation from this " Russian spy," this " traitor to the 
 country." He approached the unsuspecting man in Mannheim with 
 a letter, and pierced him through with a stroke of a dagger as he was 
 reading it. The attempt to kill himself was not successful, ^and, re- 
 September, covered from his wounds, ended his life on the scaffold. After 
 1819. this followed the decrees of Carlbad, which restrained the 
 
 freedom of the press by the censorship, established a court of investiga- 
 tion in Mayence, for the suppression of " demagogic intrigues," interdicted 
 the alliances of the Burschenschaft with their gymnasia, placed the univer- 
 sities under the supervision of special government officials, and finally 
 gave unconditional validity to the resolutions of the Diet for all govern- 
 ments. Bounds were at the same time set to the democratical spirit of 
 i^r 1- -.o^A file south German provinces by the concludinc]^ act of Vienna. 
 
 may lo, 1820. -p, . . 
 
 Prussia, which had been so long the hope and confidence of 
 all German patriots, now took the lead in the reactionary and unpopular 
 measures. Men like Arndt, Jahn, &c., whose voices and example had 
 had such influence in time of need, were now brought to judgment as 
 favorers of demagogic intrigues, deprived of their offices, and watched by 
 the police. From this time, the unity of Germany was looked upon as a 
 dream ; he who expressed a wish of the sort made himself suspected of 
 demagogic efforts. Every separate state was regarded as an independent 
 whole, and governed without relation to the general interest of the coun- 
 try ; and, although many excellent arrangements were adopted in the 
 government administration of justice, and in the affairs of religion and edu- 
 cation, little or nothing was done for arousing the feelings of nationality 
 and patriotism. 
 
GREECE. 503 
 
 6. Greece's struggle for liberty. 
 
 § 650. "While the public energies of the nations of Europe were held in 
 firm bonds by the Holy Alliance, the news of Greece's rise against tLe 
 Turks produced great enthusiasm, and aroused a fresh political interest 
 among the torpid people. Alexander Ypsilanti, a Moldavian noble in 
 the military service of Russia, was the first who rose up in his country as 
 a liberator, and published a call to his countrymen, which referred to the 
 protection of Russia, to shake off the Turkish yoke. A society, Iletoeria, 
 with widely-spread ramifications, the secret object of which was a separa- 
 tion from Turkey, came to the aid of the project. In a short time, Morea 
 (Peloponnesus), Livadia (Hellas), Thessaly, and the Greek islands, were 
 in arms. But the expected aid of Russia did not arrive. 
 ' * Willingly as the emperor Alexander woulc^have favored the 
 movement, both from religious sympathy and political interest, the in 
 fluence of Metternich, who, at the Congress of Lay bach, placed the insur- 
 rection of the Greeks on a par with the simultaneous democratical move- 
 ments in Italy and Spain, prevented any support being given to them. 
 The Turks foamed with rag^, and took a bloody vengeance. The Patriarch 
 of Constantinople, the supreme head of the Greek Church, was torn from 
 the high altar on Easter-day by the infidel Maiiommedans, and hung up 
 along with his bishops at the principal door of liis church ; the greater 
 number of the Greek families of the capital died by violence, or were 
 obliged to wander forth as beggars into banishment. The sacred band 
 of Greeks, under the conduct of Ypsilanti, succumbed to the 
 ' " 'superior power of the Turks in Wallachia, ai]d were totally 
 annihilated in the desperate battle of Dragaschan, where they fought with 
 the heroic coui*age of a Leonidas. Ypsilanti fled to Austria, but was 
 doomed to pine for years in a Hungarian fortress. The fall of these mag- 
 nanimous warriors showed that they were animated by a different spirit 
 from that of the Spanish and Italian champions of freedom. 
 
 § G51. A frightful national war now broke out in all quarters ot 
 Greece. In Morea, the wild and warlike Mainotes of the Taygetus rose 
 up under the conduct of Mauromichali and Kolokotroni, and the other in- 
 habitants of Peloponnesus shortly after followed, restrained to a more 
 systematic plan of warfare by Demetrius Ypsilanti, the brother of Alex- 
 ander. At the same time, the Greeks in Livadia and the islands fought 
 with glory and success ; their valor recalled to recollection the deeds of their 
 ancestors, little of the Hellenic blood as may flow in the veins of the 
 modern Greeks. Europe gazed in sympatliy upon this war in the east, 
 and hastened to collect money and troops by means of Philhellenic unions 
 to support the courage of the warriors, who, in the beginning of the year 
 1822, had united themselves into a republic under Ypsilanti and Mav- 
 rokordato. The object was to support civilization and Christianity 
 
504 THE LATEST PERIOD. 
 
 against savage barbarians. Whilst tbe princes of the Holy Alliance, 
 from a regard for their ease, were exposing a Christian people to the 
 attacks of infidel bands of murderers, crowds of foreign Philhellenists, 
 under the conduct of Normann and others, marched to the ancient birth- 
 place of Christian civilization. The English poet, Bjron, devoted his 
 talents, his wealth, and his energy, to the affairs of Greece, 
 ' " ' where the climate and exertion occasioned his death. 
 Despite the dissentions and selfishness of the Greek leaders, their 
 arms were generally successful till the June of 1825. At that period, 
 the Porte obtained a powerful supporter in Mehemet Ali, who, as Pasha 
 of Egypt, had destroyed the power of the Mamalukes, and established 
 an army and govclB^ent upon the plan of those of Europe, by which 
 means Western civilization and Oriental despotism were placed in hor- 
 rible conjunction. This man sent his son, Ibrahim, with a considerable 
 army of mingled materials to Peloponnesus, on the business of the sultan. 
 The small and disunited body of Greeks was unable to resist him ; one 
 town after another fell into his hands ; the march of Ibrahim and his bru- 
 tal troops proceeded onwards over blood, corpses, and burning houses. 
 Peloponnesus and the coasts of Livadia were, frightfully ravaged for two 
 years, from the strong city of Tripolizza, which they had chosen as their 
 point of support, whilst cabinets were in vain endeavoring to restrain the 
 war by diplomatic negotiations. Tlie fall of Missolonghi first produced 
 a chanofe in affairs. When that hardly-pressed town was unable 
 
 April 22, 1826. ° -,..-,. , ,. i ,..,,. . , , . 
 
 any longer to defend itself, the heroic inhabitants with their 
 v.'ives and children made a sally upon the beleaguring enemy ; the third 
 part were slain, Missolonghi disappeared in flames, and all who remained 
 in it perished beneath the ruins. The cry of anger that passed through ali 
 Europe at this event, awakened the governments from their lethargy. 
 December 1, § ^52. A short time before this, the emperor Alexander 
 1825. had descended to his grave, and as the elder brother Con- 
 
 s.tantine had already renounced the throne, his brother Nicholas obtained 
 the Russian sceptre, after the bloody suppression of a military conspiracy 
 that was to have changed the government and the succession to the 
 throne. In England, the rudder of state was intrusted to the skilful 
 hands of the high-minded Canning, who, in the maturity of his life, had 
 not forgotten the dreams of his youth or his enthusiasm for the liberation 
 of Greece. In France, the government thought itself obliged to pay some 
 attention to the loud clamors of the Philhellenists, especially as, at this 
 
 time, the bloody destruction of the Janissaries in Constanti- 
 ' " ' nople, by which 15,000 Mahommedans died a violent death, 
 filled civilized Europe with horror at the inhumanity of the Turks. At 
 the proposal of Canning, therefore, the three European powers, Russia, 
 England, and France, concluded an alliance, by which they agreed to 
 employ their common exertions to induce the Porte to allow the Greeks 
 
THE NEW ROMANTIC LITERATURE. 505 
 
 their liberty. A combined fleet appeared in the waters of the Morea, 
 and demanded from Ibrahim the evacuation of the peninsula ; upon the 
 October 20, rejection of this demand followed the battle of Navarino, 
 1827. where the Turko-Egjptian fleet was annihilated by the Euro- 
 
 pean. This decision came so quickly that the allied powers were aston- 
 ished at the " unexpected event." The battle of Navarino consequently 
 Augusts, remained without results, and as, after Caniiini;'s dea'h, the 
 1^27. English, who were anxious about their trade, showed them- 
 
 Belves more favorably disposed to the Porte, the resolute sultan ]^.Iahniud 
 remained firm to his purpose of not giving the Greeks "^tlieir ]!b;ity, and 
 behaved so insolently to the Russians that they declared war ai;;iiiist him. 
 This roused the hopes of the Greeks. AVliilst the fo^s of the Ottomans 
 were marching into the lands of the Danube, Ibrahim was at length 
 compelled by the French fleet to evacuate the Morea, whereupon Capo 
 dTstria, from Corfu, was appointed president of the G n c!v -kilc. The 
 July, 1829. daring military achievements of the Russians, who, under 
 September 14, Diebitsch (Sabalkanski), surmounted the Balkan, at length 
 1^29* compelled the Porte, by the peace of Adrianojile, to grant 
 
 the Russians favorable conditions, and to acknowledge the independence 
 of Greece. But as it was long before the question of boundaries could 
 be settled, the war still continued for some time in Greece, during which 
 time the admiral, Miaulis, blew up the Greek fleet rather than allow it to 
 fall into strange hands. At length, the three powers agreed in London to. 
 form a constitutional kingdom out of Morea, Livadia, a j)art of Thessaly, 
 Euboea, and the Cyclades, over wliicli (;;- ( apo d'Lstria had in the mean- 
 time been murdered by the brothers Mauromichali) Otho I., of the royal 
 house of Bavaria, was ■ placed as kinj;. Since then, Greece 
 
 Miv 1832 
 
 has striven to elevate herself to the position of a civilized 
 state, the forms of which she has assumed, without however being able 
 to free herself entirely from the conditions of barbarism and a life of 
 plunder. At a later period, the Greeks, from national jea- 
 lousy, drove away the German foreigners that had come in 
 the train of the court, and thus deprived themselves, at tlie same time, 
 of the supports of modern civilization. 
 
 7. THE NEW ROMANTIC LITERATURE. 
 
 § 653. The years of the Holy Alliance were the flourishing period of 
 romantic literature and art, the chief creators and supporters of whicL 
 The Schle- were the brothers, Augustus William and Frederick Schle- 
 gels. gelj the poet Novalis, and Ludwig Tieck. They quitted the 
 
 Novalis. path of religious illumination and of political candor, and 
 
 Ludwig Tieck. escaped to the ideas of the middle age and the religious con- 
 templation of the East. The faith in miracles and the religious mysti- 
 cism of an early period of Christianity, the love affairs and the sensual 
 43 
 
506 THE LATEST PERIOD. 
 
 religious worship of the departed days of chivalry, the sacred art of the 
 middle ages, the flowery poetry of the East, the popular songs and the 
 meditative world of fable of the distant past, permanently engaged their 
 interest. It was for this reason that their views were directed to the 
 forgotten productions of the literature of romance, whilst, following the 
 example of Herder, they collected and elaborated the legends, traditions, 
 and popular songs of German antiquity, and then sought to introduce 
 the chivalrous poetry of the Italians and Spaniards into Germany by 
 means of translations ; and drew the mythology, and the poetry founded 
 upon it, of the East and of the Scandinavian North, within the circle of 
 their activity. The profound Dante, the profuse Shakspeare, the Span- 
 ish poet Calderon, Cervantes, and many others, were admirably transla- 
 ted by the romanticists, and naturalized in Germany. The Schlegels, 
 in particular, distinguished themselves by their critical and a^sthetical 
 writings, by their intelligent researches in the region of the history of 
 literature, by translations, and by references to the language, literature, 
 and " wisdom " of the Indians. Tieck obtained his greatest fame by his 
 elaboration of old popular legends and tales (Genoveva, Kaiser Octavi- 
 anus, Fortunatus, &c.) ; and the prematurely deceased Francis Yon 
 Hardenburg (Novalis,) by his melancholy poems and poetical essays 
 (" Bliithenstaub," " Spiritual Songs,"), and the unfinished romance, 
 Henry of Ofterdingen. In the same spirit sang the lyric poets, Matthi- 
 6on, Chamisso, Max Von Schenkendorf, the romance writer Arnim, de 
 la Motte Fouque, Clemens Brentano, Hoffmann, &c. The orientalist, 
 Hammer-Purgstall, excited by the romanticists, undertook the transla- 
 tion of the Arabian and Persian poets, and the great collective work, 
 " Fundgruben des Orients ; " and Fr. Euckert, renowned as a lyric poet 
 ("Harnessed Sonnets," " Eastern Roses,"), brought the art of translation 
 and imitation to perfection (" Nal and Damijanti," " Die Makamen des 
 Hariri"). The brothers Grimm, (Jacob and William), were excited by 
 the romanticists to their successful inquiries into the old German lan- 
 guage and literature, and to their collection of popular and domestic tales. 
 At the same time, the romanticists elevated poetry and literature gene- 
 rally to a loftier station, gave it dignity and nobleness, and awakened 
 love and sensibility for the fine arts ; on the other hand, they afforded 
 l)ernicious examples in regard to public morality and decency of life. 
 An unbridled and restless life of wandering and travels, to which most of 
 them gave themselves up without restraint, favored the sensual appetites 
 and passions. Not misled by the romanticists, and treading in the path of 
 Schiller, Theodore Korner, Ludwig Uhland, Moriz Arndt, H. Zschokke, 
 Seume, and others, composed poetry ; and the lyric and dramatic wri- 
 ters in the spirit of Aristophanes, like Augustus Von Platen ("The 
 Romantic GEdipus," "The Fatal Fork"), paid homage to the spirit of 
 progress. The party of the liberals and the great mass of the German 
 
THE JULY KEVOLUTION OF PARIS. 507 
 
 people took m^t pleasure in the freer, if less vigorous, poetry of the 
 latter. 
 
 8. THE JULY REVOLUTION OF PARIS, AND ITS CONSEQITENCES. 
 
 § 654. Charles X. proceeded in the path of reaction without regard to 
 public opinion. The liberal ministry of Martignac had been obliged, 
 since January, 1828, to yield to an ultra royalist one, under the presi- 
 August 8, dentship of Polignac ; and when the Chambers, in their open- 
 1829. ing address, expressed their discontent at the policy of the 
 
 government, they were dissolved and a new election followed. In vain 
 the men of the opposition re-appeared in increased numbers, and con- 
 firmed the mistrust of the people in the new ministry. Charles X. would 
 
 not learn wisdom. He vamly hoped that the military re- 
 Mavie, 1830. , . , , -r^ . 11.-., ,.. . 
 
 nown which the r rench troops had gained about this time m 
 
 Africa,— where, to revenge the insults offered by the Dey of Algiers to 
 the ships and consul of France, they had taken possession of his capital, 
 and planted the French banners upon the battlements of the 
 old city of robbers,— would produce a fiivorable feeling in 
 the nation. Scarcely had the "Moniteur" published the three celebra- 
 ted ordinances, by which the freedom of the press was sus- 
 pended, the new Chambers dissolved, and the order of elec- 
 tion of tlie next arbitrarily changed, before the July Revolution broke 
 out, by which the people, after an heroic contest of three days, obtained 
 tlieir release from the royal house of Bourbon, and from the rule of the 
 priests. The deputies who were present in Paris estabhshed a provis- 
 ional government on the 29th July, whilst the contest in the streets was 
 at the hottest, in which .the banker Lafitte, Casimir Perier, Odillon-Bar- 
 rot, and others, bore a part, until the constitutional party triumphed 
 over the republican, and Louis Philippe, duke of Orleans, was named 
 regent of the empire. When it was too late, Charles X. offered to recal 
 the obnoxious ordinances, and to summon a popular ministry ; but he 
 was obliged for the third time to go into exile with his family, whilst his 
 more sagacious relative, Louis Philippe, after he had sworn to observe 
 the hastily revised charter, ascended the throne as king of the French. 
 The restoration of the national colors, and the reestablishment of tlie 
 Kational Guard, under the command of Lafayette, marked the commence- 
 ment of the new citizen monarchy established by the people. Charles 
 X. died in the year 1836, at Gorz. 
 
 § 655. The revolution of July occasioned the total fall of the Holy 
 Alliance, which had already received a shock by the death of Alexander, 
 and called forth a movement throughout all Europe which produced an 
 important change in affairs. It is true that the government of the "citizen 
 king " soon assumed a pacific attitude in regard to other states, and the 
 liberals who had arrived at power in Paris preferred moderate and con- 
 
50S TUE LATEST PERIOD. 
 
 ciliatoiy modes of procedure to waging war, and attempred to win over 
 all the moderate and undecided to the support of the existing system, by 
 establishing the principle of " the ^lis^e milieu;" but the tumult of the 
 first storm was strong enough to give a severe shock to the artful struc- 
 ture of the Viennese Congress. In Belgium, Germany, Poland, Italy, 
 &:c., insun-ections broke out that could only be suppressed or composed 
 after a two years' contest ; and though the influence of the absolute powers 
 of the east — Russia^ Austria, and Prussia — was strong enough to pre- 
 serve or bring back the old system in most states, free opinions, from this 
 time, acquired greater importance, and public opinion increased to a power 
 that bade defiance to all efforts of "state police " anc^" bureaucracy." 
 In the west of Europe, owing to the influence of England and France, 
 constitutional government and the civil freedom which is allied to it 
 maintained the preeminence. 
 
 § 65G. The Revolution in Belgium was the first consequence of 
 the Parisian July days. The Congress of Vienna, without regard to 
 religion, language, or national interest, had united the Flemish and Bra- 
 bant provinces to the States- General of Holland, in one kingdom of the 
 Netherlands. The Hollanders regarded themselves as the rulers ; they 
 compelled the Belgians not orily to share the great national debt and the 
 high taxes, but attempted to force their own language and laws upon 
 them, and placed the education of the Catholic people under the super- 
 vision of Protestant courts. When the press allowed itself to adopt a 
 hostile tone against the government, the writers were proceeded against 
 with fine, imprisonment, and banishment. Upon this, the French liberal 
 party, which was struggling for a free political life, and which was in 
 alliance with the chiefs of the Paris opposition, formed a confederacy with 
 the Catholic ultramontane party, which demanded freedom of education, 
 against the Dutch government, — which the king in his speech from the 
 throne designated as "infamous." The dissatisfliction thus produced 
 had already reached the highest pitch, when the news arrived in Brus- 
 sels of the July events, and set the whole land in a flame. On the even- 
 ing of the 2oth August, after the representation of the opera, " The Mute 
 of Portici," the mob destroyed the printing-house of a journal favorable 
 to the interests of Holland, the palace of the minister of justice, the dwell- 
 ing of the director of police, &c. To restrain any farther devastations on 
 the part of the people, a civic guard and committee were formed, till the 
 radical and ultramontane parties united themselves in a National Con- 
 gress, under the guidance of Potter. The example of the capital was 
 followed, so that, in a short time, the standard of Brabant was waving 
 over the whole of Belgium. An attack of the Dutch upon Brussels was 
 repulsed, and the Belgian insurgents even marched against Antwerp, to 
 deprive their detested neighbors of this town also. Upon ' this, the Dutch 
 general, Chasse, retired into the strong citadel and fired upon the unfor- 
 
THE JULY REVOLUTIOX OF PARIS. 509 
 
 tunate town for seven hours, with 300 cannon, by which a vast amount 
 
 of goods of great vahie was destroyed. Irritated at this proceeding, the 
 
 National Con;;ress now declared the independence of Bel^riura, 
 
 November. . 07 
 
 and the exclusion of the house of Orange from the Belgian 
 
 throne. During the continuance of the war between Belgium and Hol- 
 land, the five great powers held a conference in London. It was here 
 
 resolved, after lon^ dii)lomatic nej^otiatious, to separate Bel- 
 June, 1G31. . o 1 o ' t 
 
 gium from Holland, and to arrange the boundaries in an 
 
 equitable manner. In accordance with this, Leopold of Saxe-Coburg, 
 who was related to the royal family of England, and who was shortly 
 after united, by a second marriage, to a daughter of Louis Philippe, 
 received the Belgian throne, and attempted to conciliate the liberals by 
 granting a free representative constitution, and the Catholic clergy by the 
 complete independence of the church of the state. It was in vain tliat 
 tlie Hollanders attempted again to subject the rebels by force. Threatened 
 and opposed by the French and English, they were compelled, despite 
 December the bravery of tlieir array and the courage of their sailors, to 
 1832. desist from the contest. Belgium, on the other hand, nou- 
 
 rished under the influence of free institutions and energetic industry. 
 
 § G57. The successful termination of the French and Belgian revolu- 
 tions urged the Poles to an insurrection. Raised to a kingdom by the 
 Congress of Vienna, and placed under the government of th« emperor of 
 Russia, Poland was in a better position than when subjected to the old 
 anarchy. T!ic constitution, with diets and a national armament, afforded 
 the pec; 'ilated freedom; industry increased, literature flourished, 
 
 passable roa i., iacilitated intercourse; but all these advantages, which, to 
 say the truth, suffered much prejudice from the despotic character of the 
 viceroy, Constantine, were not sufficient to prevent the Poles from che- 
 rishing the thought of again revivifying their divided country ; and the 
 hope that tlic French, after the revolution of July, would not neglect to 
 hasten to the assistance of their old confederates, confirmed them in the 
 belief that the moment for the regeneration of the old Poland was again 
 come. It was six o'clock on the evenin^r of the 20th Novem- 
 ber, when twenty armed young men of the Cadet school, 
 members of a widely-spread military conspiracy, rushed into the palace 
 of the viceroy far the purpose of dispatching him, whilst other conspirators 
 called the inhabitants of the capital to arms. It was only with dilHculty 
 that the prince escaped the fate designed for him. He yielded to the 
 storm, and retired from the country with his Russian soldiers and officials. 
 A provisional government, with Czartoryski, Niemcewicz, General Chlo- 
 piki, and others at its head, undertook the conduct of affairs in Poland. 
 Instead, however, of employing the newly-aroused military spirit and the 
 fresh enthusiasm of the people in a spirited attack upon unprepared Rus- 
 sia, the regency, which belonged to the aristocracy of Poland, chose the 
 43* 
 
510 THE LATEST PERIOD. 
 
 path of negotiation, and placed tlieir hopes upon the promises of French 
 diplomatists. It made little difference that Chlopiki was shortly ai'ter 
 named dictator, and entrusted with the supreme command of military 
 affairs; and that the diet, which was hastily called together, invested the 
 prince Radzivil with the most unlimited power; the irresolute aristocracy, 
 discontented with the violence of the republican and democratic clubs, kept 
 things in check, and paralysed every undertaking by hesitation and dis- 
 sensions. Whilst the emperor of Russia ordered an army of 200,000 
 January 25 ^len to march into Poland, under the command of field-mar- 
 1831. shal Diebitsch, the diet pronounced the dethronement of the 
 
 house of Romanoff in Poland, but rejected, from selfish motives, that 
 f^hich could alone save the country, the liberation of the peasants and the 
 excitement of a popular war. What mattered it that the Polish army 
 again gave the most splendid proofs of courage in the field, that Chlopiki 
 and Skrzynecki fought like heroes, and that Dwernicki, who wished to 
 excite- Volhynia to insurrection, astonished the world by his daiing retreat 
 upon the Austrian territory ? When Diebitsch carried off the victory 
 
 from the army of Skrzynecki, in the battle of Ostrolenka, 
 
 Mav26,1831. -p, , , ,, \ .. . ' . ., , , , ' 
 
 Poland, through dissension, party spirit, treachery, and the 
 
 siren voices of French go-betweens, went rapidly to her downfall. Die- 
 bitsch died of the cholera. His successor was the enterprising Paskewitsch 
 (Eriwanski). He crossed the Prussian Vistula and approached the walls 
 of Warsaw. The inhabitants of the capital, believing that the miscarriage 
 of the revolution had been occasioned by treachery, gave the reins to 
 their fury against the aristocrats and friends of the Russians, and slaugh- 
 tered thirty of these unfortunates. Czartoryski, in whose 
 hands the government had been placed, fled in horror to the 
 camp of Dembinski. Krukowiecki was now named president of the 
 government by the diet, w^ith dictatorial power, and thus the supreme 
 authority was placed in the hands of a man who was either a fool or a 
 traitor. When Paskewitsch approached the capital, the dictator gave 
 evidence of his cowardice and despair by the most contradictory orders 
 and preposterous arrangements. The Polish a^rmy made a gallant resis- 
 tance to the attacks of the enemy at Wola, the ancient place of election 
 of the kings, and the heroic deeds of the fourth regiment have since been 
 September celebrated in songs ; but after a storm of two days, Kruko- 
 6, 7, 1831. wiecki surrendered Warsaw and Praga by capitulation, 
 whereupon the government and the diet, with the troops that were still 
 left, fled to the Prussian territory. Here the bold warriors were dis- 
 armed, and detained till the complete subjection of Poland; they then 
 obtained permission to return, under the assurance of an amnesty. But 
 thousands among them rejected the grace of the emperor, and turned their 
 backs upon their fatherland, preferring to eat the bread of affliction upon 
 free, if foreign ground, rather than to gaze quietly upon the gradual ex* 
 
^ THE JULY REVOLUTION OF PARIS. 511 
 
 tinction of the nationality of their country. The sympathy of the German 
 people, who received and entertained the unfortunates in their melancholy 
 journey, was an alleviation of their misery. Severe punishments were 
 inflicted upon the guilty in Poland, Lithuania, Volhynia : the mines of 
 Siberia grew populous with the condemned. Poland then lost her con- 
 stitution, her diet, and her state council, by the " organic statute," and 
 was attached to the great Muscovite empire, with a separate government 
 and administration of justice. Since then, Paskewitsch reigns as impe- 
 rial lieutenant, with iron sceptre, in humbled Warsaw. The Poles had 
 once more shown that they were capable of magnanimous, patriotic emo- 
 tions, and of gallant deeds ; but not of a united effort or of noble self- 
 sacrifice. The emigrants, however, in vain attempted, in the sequel, to 
 effect the restoration of their country by conspiracies and insurrections in 
 Cracow, Gallicia, and Posen. Fresh persecutions, and at length, the in- 
 corporation of the free state of Cracow with the ^Austrian empire (1846), 
 were the consequences of their foolhardy attempts. 
 
 § 658. In Germany, also, the news of the July revolution called forth 
 a mighty movement. The princes, anxious lest the well-known hanker- 
 ing of the French for the boundary of tlie Rhine should be the occasion 
 of a new war, saw with uneasiness the existing divisions between subjects 
 and governments, and hastened to allay irritation and prevent a general 
 movement, partly by reasonable concessions, and partly by the hasty 
 recognition of successfully accomplished reforms. The insurrections in 
 the kingdoms of Hanover and Saxony were appeased by granting liberal 
 constitutions, and by abolishing oppressive abuses and restrictions; in 
 Brunswick, where the people destroyed the palace and compelled the 
 tyrannical duke Charles to fly, his brother assumed the government, and 
 conciliated the minds of his subjects by improving the constitution of the 
 country. In Hesse- Cassel, the Elector, William II., was compelled by 
 an insurrection to give the country a free constitution. But 
 the hatred which the people shortly after displayed against 
 the countess Reichenbach (Lessonitz), his wife, a woman of inferior 
 birth, offended the Elector to that degree, that he raised his son, the elect- 
 oral prince, to the co-regentship, and removed with his wife and treasures 
 from Hesse. The freedom of the press was introduced in Baden, the 
 liberals obtained the upper hand in the Chambers of southern Germany, 
 and insisted upon alterations and reforms in the constitution and govern- 
 ment. But their increasing audacity in speech and writing, which was 
 May 27, particularly displayed at the Hambacher festival in Rhenish 
 
 1S32. Bavaria, soon brought about a reaction and restriction. The 
 
 peaceful character of the July monarchy and the fall of Warsaw relieved 
 the German governments from the apprehension that the liberal move- 
 A -1 o icoo ™ents might be supported from abroad; and the incon- 
 siderate attempts of a few young madcaps, students, literary 
 
512 THE LATEST PERIOD. 
 
 men, and political refugees, to disperse the Diet, and to produce a violent 
 revolution by the conspiracy of Frankfurt, aided the cause of the retrogres- 
 sive party. This foolish attempt and its lamentable result gave a deep 
 wound to the cause of liberalism, and brought a severe persecution upon 
 its chiefs and leaders. The guilty and the suspected were visited by 
 numberless arrests and judicial examinations; prisons and fortresses were 
 filled with political offenders ; numberless fugitives vrere wandering in 
 France. and Switzerland; the censorship was again employed with the 
 greatest severity; the book trade watched, and the privileges of the Es- 
 tates circumscribed. Thus again were the efforts of the progressive 
 party frustrated by the violence and indiscreet zeal of some of its cham- 
 pions. The governments obtained tlie most complete triumph ; but by 
 the use they made of it, they outraged the people's sense of justice and 
 insulted public opinion. This was especially the case, when, by the 
 ascension of the throne of England by queen Victoria, the crown of 
 Hanover fell, according to the prerogative of German princes, to her 
 uncle, Ernest Augustus of Cumberland,- who abolished the constitution 
 which had been granted by his predecessors to the Estates, and restored 
 
 the former arrangements. Undeterred by the opposition 
 June, 1837. , ^. , *=. . , . , . "^ -,: ,, 
 
 that was displayed agamst this arbitrary proceeding from 
 
 every quarter, the king ordered an oath of obedience and 
 homage to be tendered to all servants of the state ; and when seven pro- 
 fessors of the Gottingen university, among them, Dahlmann, Gervinus, 
 and the brothers Grimm, would not yield to the demand, they were 
 deprived of their chairs, and some of them banished from the country ; 
 when the assembled Estates were incompetent to pass resolutions from a 
 deficiency of numbers, the absentees were replaced by the election of 
 the minority. By these measures, a deep gulf was formed between the 
 people and the government, and a profound dissatisfaction with the 
 " police state " took possession of the nation. The existing government 
 was attacked by means of the press, literature, and poetry, and every 
 opposition to the state officials was saluted by the nation with joy. One 
 single effort was visible in the midst of contests and divisions, and was 
 the " red thread " that ran through the whole public hfe of the people — 
 the striving after national and poHtical unity ; and this effort the Prus- 
 sian government came forward to assist by establishing the Zollverein, 
 the foundation-stone of German unity. 
 
 § 659. In Italy also, the July revolution occasioned some serious 
 commotions. But the hopes of the patriots found an early grave. The 
 insurrections in Bologna, Modena, and Parma, M'ere soon suppressed by 
 Austrian troops ; and the regents, who had been driven from the two 
 latter places, were restored to their governments. In the States of the 
 Church the papal troops, who were reinforced by bandits and convicts, were 
 employed in keeping down the rebellious provinces. These men be- 
 
THE JULY REVOLUTION OF PARIS. 513 
 
 haved in such a way that it was necessary to call in the forces of Austria 
 to protect the land against its own soldiers. To prevent the Austrians 
 February, 23, getting the whole power ov^er Italy into their own hands, the 
 
 1832. French seized upon Ancona by a coup de main, and held it 
 for several years. An attack upon Savoy, from Switzerland, undertaken 
 by a troop of refugees under the command of the Polish general, Ramo- 
 rino, with the purpose of overthrowing the Sardinian throne, and, in 
 conjunction with " young Italy," of exciting the whole land to a revolu- 
 tion, had a lamentable result. 
 
 In Spain, the liberals, after the July revolution, again got the upper 
 hand, not by their own strength, however, but in consequence of a quar- 
 rel for the crown. King Ferdinand had allowed himself to be induc- 
 ed by his fourth wife, Maria Christina, to abolish the Salic law which 
 March 29 prevails in all Bourbon states, and which excludes females 
 1830. from succeeding to the throne, and thus to secure the in- 
 
 October heritance of the crown to his daughter, Isabella, who was 
 
 1830. born in the same year. This alteration displeased the apos- 
 
 tolic party, which had placed all its trust on Ferdinand's younger 
 September 29, brother, Don Carlos. Scarcely tlierefore had the king closed 
 
 1833. his eyes, before the absolutists (Carlists) called Don Carlos 
 to the throne as Charles V., and excited a civil war. They ibund sup- 
 port in the north, especially among the rude mountaineers of the 
 October, Basque provinces. Inflamed by priests and monk.<, and led 
 1833. by bold and enterprising chiefs (Zumalacarreguy, Cabrera), 
 the warlike Basques drew the sword for an absolute king who sought 
 for refuge among them. For the purpose of resisting them with success, 
 the queen, Maria Christina, who had been- appointed to the regency 
 until the majority of her daughter Isabella, sought to win the ])arty of 
 the constitution and the liberals to her cause by again introducing the 
 Cortes constitution, and permitting the fugitives and oiftlaws to return to 
 their homes. In this manner, the contest for the throne tool* the shape 
 of a civil war and a struggle of opinions. After many bloody battles, 
 August 31, the " Christines" gained the upper hand. General Espar- 
 1S39. tero compelled the Carlist leader, Maroto, to lay down his 
 arms by the treaty of Pergara, whereupon Don Carlos, with his family 
 and several officers and priests, took refuge in France. In Spain itself, 
 Espartero fell into a quarrel with the queen mother, which produced a 
 fresh crop of party contests, alterations of the constitution, and intrigues 
 
 of the palace. Espartero, created duke of Vittoria, waa 
 
 ^^^ ' suiliciently powerful to effect the removal of Christina for 
 
 some time, and to get the government into his own hands. But he waa 
 
 soon overthrown by general Narvaez, an adherent of the queen mother, 
 
 and compelled to fly to England. After this, Christina, and 
 
 ' ^ ' her daughter, when she came of age, carried on the govern- 
 
 Pient in entire accordance with the wishes of France. 
 
514 THE LATEST PERIOD. 
 
 9. OVERTHROW OF THE THRONE OF JULY, AND THE LATEST 
 KEVOLUTIONARr TEMPESTS. 
 
 a. THE YEARS OF POLITICAL AND SOCIAL AGITATION. 
 
 § 660. France. — The July monarchy, erected upon the unstable 
 foundation of the sovereignty of the people, was exposed to many attacks. 
 Both the adherents of the Bourbons and of monarchy " by the grace of 
 God" (Legitimists, Carlists), and the republicans, grumbled at the new 
 system, and attempted to overthrow it. It was only the prosperous 
 middle class, which, intent upon gain and the peaceable enjoyment of its 
 earnings, could find its safety and object in a constitutional monarchy, 
 that was content with the government of July ; and it was upon this 
 class in especial that Louis Philippe leaned for support. But, as the 
 king neglected to give the less wealthy class of citizens a share of politi- 
 cal power by extending the suffrage, the number of his adherents was 
 not great. Neither did the king understand how to win the hearts of the 
 French by greatness of mind and noble actions. In the possession of 
 enormous wealth, he made use of his lofty position for the constant in- 
 crease of his property, and thereby incurred the reproach of selfishness, 
 avarice, and cupidity. This reproach also attached more or less to his 
 councillors, ministers, and officials, who were accused of covetousness and 
 venality ; so that, in the eyes of the people, the stain of " corruption" 
 infected the whole July government. The first hostilities against the 
 citizen throne and the ministry of the ^^ juste milieu'^ proceeded from 
 the legitimists. But the hatred of the people against the Bourbons was 
 February 15 ^^^^^ ^^^ recent for their attempts to be successful. The erec- 
 
 1831. tion of the white banner on the anniversary of the death 
 of the due de Berri excited a disturbance, in consequence of v»'hich 
 November ^^^^ archiepiscopal palace was destroyed. Just as little suc- 
 
 1832. cess attended the attempt of the duchess of Berri to rouse the 
 faithful Vendeans to arms. When she was arrested and the secret of a 
 private marriage came to light, the romantic magic that had hitherto 
 attached to the royal family gradually melted away. The legitimists, with 
 the grey-haired poet, Chateaubriand, at their head, now gave up the 
 hope of raising to the throne their favorite, the duke of Bordeaux 
 (Chambord), whom they had bedecked with the ostentatious name of 
 Henry V., and retired sullenly into the suburb of St. Germaine. 
 
 The undertakings of the republicans were more perilous to the throne 
 A. D. 1831. of July. After the public insurrections in Lyons and Paris 
 A.D. 1832. had been suppressed by the military power, and their origi- 
 A.D. 1834. nators and participators punished, they refrained from any 
 further attempts by open violence, but made constant efforts to increase the 
 
THE LATEST POLITICAL REVOLUTIOXS. 515 
 
 number of their adherents by diffusing their opinions in journals, and by 
 means of secret societies. The " National," conducted by Armand 
 Carrel, and, after his death in a duel, by Marrast, was the much perse- 
 cuted and much punished organ of their party. But the republicans 
 soon separated in different directions. Whilst the moderate (honest) 
 republicans only sought to attack the existing government, and aimed at 
 revolutionizing the affairs of state, others (hke Proudhon) declared pro-* 
 perty to be robbery, and threatened war to all who were in possession of 
 anytljing ; or (like Louis Blanc) they flattered the self-love and self- 
 respect of the working-classes by an over-estimate of their functions 
 and importance, preached up the equality of capital and labor, and 
 demanded better payment and greater security to the latter from the state. 
 These men sought to revolutionize social relations, and to reduce to prac- 
 tice the systems of Socialism and Communism, devised by a few vision- 
 aries and men of perverted intellects. Without any conception of the 
 vast machinery of human intercourse, they applied to society the petty 
 measure of the workshop and the club. Liberty, equality, fraternity, 
 were their watchwords ; and hatred to the bonrgeoiste (sli«pkeepers, mid- 
 dle class,) the essence of their doctrine. These Communistic and Social 
 ideas spread and increased ; shrouded in the veil of the forbidden and the 
 mysterious, they seemed to narrow minds and stunted natures the depth 
 of wisdom, the anchor of salvation from poverty and wretchedness. 
 Influenced by the notion that the French government was only held 
 together by the skill and dexterity of its chief, the members of the secret 
 union sought the life of the king, that they might proclaim a republic in 
 the moment of confusion, and then proceed at once with their social re- 
 forms. Eight attempts at assassination were made upon Louis Philippe, 
 from the whole of which he escaped with wonderful good fortune. The 
 most dreadful of these was that made in the Boulevards, on 
 the celebration of the July days, 1835, by the Corsican, Fies- 
 chi, by means of the so-called infernal machine, by which twenty-one 
 paople who were near the king, and, among others, the grey-haired mar- 
 ehal Mortier,Jost their lives. Fieschi and his two confederates died by 
 the guillotine ; but their death did not deter others from similar attempts. 
 Restrictions of the press, of the privilege of forming unions, and of per- 
 sonal liberty, were the result of each of these designs. It was a hard 
 
 fate for Louis Philippe that his eldest son, the beloved duke 
 JulvlS, 1842. _ _ , . , , . , , , ^ ,, ^ 
 
 01 Orleans, met with his death by a fall from his carriage. 
 
 § G61. In the second half of the fifth decennium, all the States of 
 
 Europe were powerfully excited by events of varied character. In Italy, 
 
 Pope Pius IX. took the lead of all other princes by his timely reforms, 
 
 and again made the papacy the political centre of the country. He gave 
 
 greater freedom to the press, improved the affairs of government and the 
 
 administration of justice, gave the city of Kome a liberal municipal 
 
516 THE LATEST PERIOD. 
 
 government, and took preparatory measures for a confederation of tlie 
 Italian States. A mighty enthusiasm seized upon the excitable Italians, 
 and fresh hopes sprang up in the bosoms of the patriots. Sicily raised 
 January, the Standard of independence, and commenced a fierce war 
 1818. against its oppressor ; the king of ^Naples sought to appease 
 
 the threatened insurrection of his subjects by giving them a constitution, 
 and thus obliged the other princes to take a similar step. Archduke 
 Leopold of Tuscany, and Charles Albert of Sardinia, followed his ex- 
 ample. The duke of Modena, a zealous defender of the divine right of 
 princes, withdrew himself from the hatred of his people by flight ; and 
 December 18 i" Parma, the throne became vacant by the death of the 
 1847. duchess Maria Louisa, the little-loved and little-respected 
 
 wddow of Napoleon. These events filled the Italians w^ith the hope of 
 national unity and civil freedom. Only two powers, a spiritual and a 
 secular, seemed to stand in the way of this object — the Jesuits and the 
 Austrians. The fiery hate of the Italians was consequently directed 
 against both. Vivas for Gioberti, the enemy of the Jesuits, and " Death 
 to the Germans," against Austria, were mingled with the shouts for Pio 
 Nono. 
 
 In Germany, the opposition between the people and the governments 
 had risen to the uttermost. The polite literature of "young Germany ;" 
 the stirring poetry of Herwegh, Hoffman Von Fallersleben, and other 
 singers of political freedom ; the daring daily press ; the freethinking and 
 anti-church writings of young philosophers and theologians ; the dis- 
 courses and doctrines of the "friends of light" in the Protestant Church, 
 and of the " German Catholics " in the Catholic — all these spiritual striv- 
 ings betrayed the profound discontent of a large portion of the German 
 people with the existing conditions of State and Church, and their aver- 
 sion to the system retained and defended by the governments. Frederick 
 "William IV., w^ho, since 1840, had borne the crown of Prussia, a prince 
 of high accomplishments and active mind, deemed himself obliged to make 
 some concessions to the spirit of the age. He threw open the courts of 
 justice, and permitted oral pleadings ; he diminished ecclesiastical 
 restraints by an edict of toleration ; and by the patent of the 
 3d of February, he summoned the " United Estates " to a Diet 
 in Berlin. It was here that, despite all the restrictions contained in the 
 patent, so violent an opposition was displayed, former promises were so 
 emphatically referred to, the righteous claims of a civilized nation to 
 liberty of the press and the other privileges of a free state, were so elo- 
 quently urged, that the old system of government appeared no longer 
 tenable. The nation followed with pride the proceedings of an assembly 
 which displayed such splendid powers of oratory and such a fulness of 
 intelligence and judgment. Whilst the educated and wealthy were follow- 
 ing with intense ^interest these inward struggles in the region of Church 
 
THE LATEST POLITICAL KEVOLUTIOXS. 517 
 
 and State, and looking with anxiety on the disturbances in the trading 
 world, where a succession of banlcruptcies had deprived thousands of their 
 property, the cry of famine sounded in the huts of the starving, who, in 
 the increasing dearness of provisions, were unable to supply their neces- 
 sities. The intelligence of the fearful distress which, in Upper Silesia, 
 had engendered pestilence, and in many trading and manufacturing places 
 had produced scenes of Irish misery, together with the exciting literature 
 in the hands of the lower classes, and the suffering that was everywhere 
 prevalent, produced a vast irritation, which at leng;h burst forth in insur- 
 rections in Stuttgardt, Munich, and other towns. It is true that these 
 were suppressed by the military and the police, and the benevolence of the 
 wealthy and an abundant harvest soon put an end to the temporary dis- 
 tress ; but the increasing poverty, and the great inequality in property 
 and in the enjoyments of life, were now for the first time revealed in 
 their full extent. Men gazed into the abyss of misery and wretchedness 
 in which the lower classes were found. The irritation and discontent 
 thus excited against the political arrangements, to which the whole of 
 the mischief was ascribed, was increased to the highest pitch by the in- 
 telligence that the old king, Louis of Bavaria, had been entangled in the 
 snares of a Spanish dancer, Lola Montez, and had allowed himself to be 
 led by her into acts of folly and enormous extravagance. The ultramon- 
 tane party, which had ruled the king and the country for years, quar- 
 relled with this courtesan, who had been created countess of Landsfeldt, 
 and suddenly found itself threatened with loss of power. The ministry 
 of Abel and the heads of the ultramontane party in the universities were 
 dismissed. This occasioned a commotion among the Bavarian people ; 
 and when the king, indignant that the students attached themselves to the 
 ultramontane party, and did not show the respect he required to the in- 
 solent dancer, ordered the university of Munich to be closed, and com- 
 manded the students to leave the place, an insurrection broke out, by 
 which Louis found himself obliged to recal the suspension, and to get rid 
 of the countess. 
 
 About this time there prevailed a great enmity in Switzerland be- 
 tween the Catholics and Protestants, and the conservatives and radicals. 
 In the Aargau, the radical government had abolished the eight monas- 
 teries of the country as " meeting-places of rebellion," and confiscated 
 their property. The protests of the seven Catholic cantons (Schwytz, 
 Uri, Unterwalden, Lucerne, Zug, Freiburg, Yalais,) produced no effect 
 at the Diet. The division was increased when the ultramontane govern- 
 ment of Lucerne, with the aid of the people of the canton, called in the 
 Jesuits to superintend the education of the youth, and repulsed the radi- 
 cals, who wished to produce a revolution by means of a volunteer expe- 
 dition. The contest now resolved itself into a desperate 
 March, 1843. , , . t • • i i- i- rr^, 
 
 struggle between Jesuitism and radicalism. ihe seven 
 
 44 
 
518 THE LATEST PERIOD. 
 
 Catholic cantons demanded punishment of the volunteers, and legal pro. 
 tection against similar undertakings, and the restoration of the monas- 
 teries of the Aargau; and when their demands were not acceded to, 
 formed a " special confederation" for mutual defence against attacks from 
 within and without. The radicals, who, bj means of the " Putsche," had 
 a majority in the Diet at Vaud, Geneva, and other places, procured a 
 resolution which dissolved the special confederation, as incompatible with 
 
 the government of the union, and banished the Jesuits. As 
 
 ' ' the members of the special confederation refused submission 
 
 to the decisions of the Diet, the sword became the arbiter. Contrary 
 
 to expectation, the struggle was soon over. A confederate army, under 
 
 November 4 I^"^*^"^> subdued Freiburg and Lucerne with little resistance, 
 
 whereupon the other cantons freely submitted. They were 
 ecem er . ^i^jjgg^j ^^ renounce the Sonderbund, to banish the Jesuits, to 
 alter the cantonal government, and to pay the expenses of the war. When 
 too late, the three great powers, Austria, France, and Prussia, offered 
 their mediation. The French found the Sonderbund already diss'" ed ; 
 and the discovery that the minister, Guizot, took the part of thp csuits, 
 increased the dissatisfaction in France with the July governn^-' t. The 
 Swiss took advantage of circumstances to remodel their cor„ .ution, and 
 to create a stronger federative governinent. 
 
 h. THE PARIS EEVOLUTION OF FEBRUAKY AND IT;o CONSEQUENCES. 
 
 § 662. About the time that the events in Italy and Switzerland were 
 exciting a strong feeling in France, and the policy of Guizot was giving 
 great offence to the liberals, an action for bribery against General Cubieres 
 and the minister. Teste, and the dreadful murder of the duchess of Praslin 
 in her bed-chamber by her own husband, revealed the total want of 
 morality in the upper classes that were grouped around the throne of 
 July. The feeling that a system of government founded upon such rotten 
 supports could not endure, became more and more prevalent among the 
 nation ; and the call for elective reform, by which it hoped to infuse fresh 
 vigor into the Chamber and the government, became the watchword of 
 the day. Reform banquets were arranged in all corners of the land, in 
 w^hich the sins of the existing government were mercilessly exposed in 
 daring speeches and toasts. The government not only prohibited this 
 reform festival, but censure was cast in the speech from the throne on a 
 movement that was excited by blind or hostile passions. Despite the 
 prohibition, the chiefs of the opposition in the Chambers, and some of 
 the leaders of the liberals and moderate republicans, proceeded with their 
 preparations for a reform banquet, and published a programme of the 
 procession and the arrangement of the dinner; when, however, the 
 government adopted military measures to ensure respect to its orders, the 
 greater number of the arrangers of the festival desisted from their pur* 
 
THE LATEST POLITICAL REVOLUTIONS. 519 
 
 pose, and the members of the Left (opposition) resolved to bring forward 
 a motion in the next session for impeaching the ministry for injuring the 
 constitution. 
 
 But the people were already too much excited to be pacified by such 
 a measure as this. Crowds of artisans, men in blouses, students, and 
 the refuse of the streets, paraded through the squares and thoroughfares 
 of the capital, with the cry of " Reform ! " and " Down with Guizot ! " 
 Their numbers increased from hour to hour ; the military acted w ith 
 forbearance, the police was no match for the multitude ; in -some 
 streets, barricades were erected and maintained. The contest had con- 
 tinued for two days with increasing bitterness, when the king dismissed 
 February 22, the ministry of Guizot and promised reform. This news 
 23. occasioned unspeakable pleasure among the excited populace. 
 
 The crowds marched through the streets with songs and shouts of joy, 
 the barricades disappeared, and the houses were illuminated. At this 
 point it happened that a troop of people marched through the Boule- 
 vaifls, about ten o'clock, with banners and torches. Tliey halted before 
 the foreign office, and demanded the illumination of the house. At this 
 moment a shot was heard, and occasioned a belief, among the military 
 posted in the building, that they were attacked. A volley was suddenly 
 fired upon the crowd, fifty-two of whom fell to the ground either killed 
 or wounded. An indescribable fury took possession of the people. A 
 bier was covered with dead bodies, and paraded through the streets of 
 the city with torches, in the midst of the cries, " To arms ! " " We are 
 slaughtered ! " The alarm-bell was sounded at midnight, and by the morn- 
 ing of the 24th of February, the whole of Paris was closed up with bar- 
 ricades. Victory, after a violent contest, inclined to the side of the peo- 
 ple. Louis Philippe abdicated in favor of his gmndson, the count of 
 Paris, and fled with his wife to England, where the other members of 
 his family also arrived by different ways and after many perils. Here- 
 upon, a republican government was established in Paris, under the pre- 
 sidentship of the old Dupont de I'Eure, and in which the poet Lamar- 
 tine, Ledru-Rollin, the leader of the Left, Arago, Garnier-Pages, and 
 the socialist Louis Blanc had a share. 
 
 But the new form of government did not bring the anticipated happi- 
 ness. The intoxication of the republican festival, with its joyous feasts 
 and consecration of banners, and the enthusiasm for the watchwords, 
 " liberty, equality, fraternity," passed away, and sober practical life 
 brought with it many difficulties. As the Revolution was the work of 
 the laboring classes, it was necessary to give some thoughts to their ele- 
 vation and improvement. National workshops were established, where 
 the unemployed were to find occupation and support. It was now that 
 the utter instability of Socialism became apparent. The expenses of tha 
 state rose incredibly, and the number of paupers increased daily. It 
 
520 THE LATEST PERIOD. 
 
 was soon clear to every one that such a system must, in a short time, lead 
 to the ruin of the state, the impoverishment of those who possessed any 
 thing, and the destruction of civilization. Accordingly, when a constituent 
 Kational Assembly, elected by the voices of the whole people, met together 
 in May, one of its first measures was to close these shops and to with- 
 draw the assistance of the state from the workmen. Upon this, the work- 
 men attempted a new revolution, for the purpose of giving the supreme 
 power to the fourth estate. This led to the dreadful scenes of June, 
 when the supporters of the "red republic" disgraced themselves by 
 deeds of savage brutality. They murdered general Brea and the arch- 
 bishop of Paris, and filled the barricades with the dead bodies of their 
 opponents. Horrified at this barbarity, the National Assembly invested 
 general Cavaignac with dictatorial power. Cavaignac defeated the rebels, 
 had crowds of them arrested and deported, and put Paris under mili- 
 tary law. Protected by these measures, the Assembly then completed 
 the republican government with a single Chamber, and a president, who 
 was to be elected every four years. It would willingly have given., the 
 majority of votes, also, to general Cavaignac at the election of president ; 
 but the people, dazzled by the lustre of the imperial name, chose Louis 
 Bonaparte, the same nephew of Napoleon who had before twice attempted 
 to overthrow the government of Louis Philippe by insurrections, and 
 who had paid the penalty of his folly by long imprisonments. 
 
 § 663. The news of the Paris revolution of February occasioned a 
 violent shock all over Europe. Popular commotions took place in Ger- 
 many, Hungary, Italy, and other places, which, in extent and violence, 
 far surpassed all previous disturbances. A propaganda, which had its 
 seat and centre in Paris, stirred the revolutionary fire, and diffused re- 
 pubKcan ideas, with, a tincture of Communism and Socialism, as the 
 means of exciting the lower classes. The first eftects displayed them- 
 selves in Baden. The active political life which has always distinguished 
 the Grand Duch}^ appeared to give it the right of marching foremost 
 with the banner of progress and reform. Urgent petitions, tumultuously 
 presented to the Estates of the country just then assembled, demanded 
 freedom of the press, juries, a militia under freely elected leaders, and a 
 German parliament, as a popular house, by the side of the Diet. The 
 Baden government not only granted these demands so far as laid in its 
 power, but even adopted other conciliatory measures. The example 
 of Baden acted upon the other states of Germany. The same demands 
 were gradually made every where, and yielded to, and others joined with 
 them. In Wirtemberg, Saxony, and other states, the heads of the liberal 
 opposition were summoned to the ministry and the reins of government 
 placed in their hands. But the Austrian empire suffered the greatest 
 
 »r 1 .o convulsions. An insurrection in Vienna, occasioned by some 
 March 13. . . ^ J 
 
 students and young rioters, and supported by the rabble, had 
 
THE LATEST REVOLUTIONS. 521 
 
 Bucli unexpected success that prince Metternich laid down his exalted 
 office, and sought refuge as a grej-headed fugitive in England. Upon 
 this the old system was dissolved, and a state of lawlessness took posses- 
 sion of the capital. The freedom of the press soon produced a revolu- 
 tionary daily literature ; the right of assembly was made use of for form- 
 ing tumultuous mobs and democratic clubs ; the great number of unem- 
 ployed workmen facilitated the schemes of the revolutionary party. Thus 
 it happened, that, by the activity of the democrats, who streamed together 
 into Vienna from all quarters, insurrections and street figlits were 
 
 crowded upon each other. The emperor retired, witli his 
 "^* court, to Innspruck ; and only returned to his capital when the 
 
 Diet, which had in the mean time been chosen by universal 
 
 ^ ^' suffi-age, assembled, and required him by pressing messages 
 
 to resume his seat in Vienna. 
 
 Berlin had its March days as well as the imperial city. After long 
 
 hesitation, the Prussian government at length consented to fieedom of 
 
 the press and other reforms, and held out a prospect of a 
 March 17. , • • , i - c .i n r i *• 
 
 revolution m the relations of the German confederation. 
 
 But as hostile encounters had, for several days past, taken place between 
 the military and the people, these concessions did not restore tranquillity ; 
 the removal of the troops and the formation of a militia were demanded. 
 Poles and other foreign agitators increased the hatred and excitem^it by 
 inflammatory discourses. Tlie assemblies in front of the 
 palace increased, and the threats against the soldiery became 
 constantly louder. A division of infantry now marched out of the palace, 
 to drive back the increasing masses. Two shots were fired, by whom or 
 from which party is uncertain. 'They gave the signal for a desperate 
 street battle of fourteen hours. On the morning of the lOtli of March, 
 the contest was yet undecided, although most of the barricades had been 
 taken or destroyed by the courage of the soldiers and by the effects of the 
 grape-shot. The king at length gave command for the retreat of the 
 military, dismissed the ministry, and consented to the formation of a 
 militia for the defence of the city and the guard of the palace. An un- 
 conditional amnesty, which was shortly after announced, and which was 
 imitated in the other states of Germany, freed from punishment all those 
 condemned for political crimes or offences, and permitted the return of 
 
 fuf^itives : and three days later, the king promised in a pro- 
 March 21. ° . , , . , . ., , .1 •. 
 clamation, and during a solemn procession through the city, 
 
 that he would place himself as constitutional king at the head of a free 
 and united Germany. A constituent National Assembly, elected by 
 universal suffrage, undertook, a few weeks later, the great work of fram- 
 ing a representative constitution for the Prussian monarchy. 
 
 § 664. In the mean time, a niighty revolution had taken place in all 
 the German states. . The Diet had experienced an increase of liberal 
 44* 
 
522 THE LATEST PERIOD. 
 
 members, and seventeen trustworthy men were commissioned to design a 
 new constitution. In Bavaria, king Louis gave way before 
 public opinion, and resigned the government to the crown 
 prince, Maximilian : a similar change took place in Hesse-Darmstadt. In 
 Hanover, Hesse-Cassel, and the greater number of states, the often-per- 
 gecuted leaders of the liberals were now called to the ministry, and re- 
 forms were introduced in a democratic spirit and with destructive haste. 
 But the movement soon became so powerful that reforms were no longer 
 sufficient, and, here and there, the path of revolution was entered upon. 
 In some neighborhoods, the peasants drove away the stewards, destroyed 
 the land and tithe registers, and the seats of the landlords. It was not 
 sufficient for the lovers of radical reform that the parliament of Fraiik- 
 furt-on-the-Main, which assembled by its own authority in the beginning 
 of April, laid down the principle of the sovereignty of the people, and 
 embraced the resolution that a freely elected National Assembly should 
 prepare a new constitution for collective Germany, and that a perpetual 
 committee of fifty should watch over the strict execution of this resolu- 
 tion on the part of the government ; a radical party, with Hecker, Struve, 
 and others at its head, called the people to arms in the upper part of 
 Baden, for the purpose of establishing a German republic. The republi- 
 can arms, however, made little progress. After a few expeditions, in 
 whicli the union general, Frederick Von Gagern, lost his life, the insur- 
 rection was quelled and the leaders obliged to fly. 
 
 On the 18th of May, the sittings of the National Assembly, which was 
 to frame a constitution, were opened* The assembly in the church of 
 St. Paul in Frankfurt, distinguished by its talent and eloquence, was 
 a worthy expression of German opinion and civilization. One of the 
 first acts of the Frankfurt parliament was to set aside the Diet, and 
 establish a new central power. After some sharp parliamentary con- 
 tests, in which the " bold grasp" of the president, Henry Von Gagern, 
 determined the result, it was finally arranged that the National Assembly 
 should choose an irresponsible regent, who was then to surround himself 
 with a responsible ministry. The election, which took place on the 29th 
 ^ , _ of June, was decided in favor of archduke John of Austria, 
 
 July 11. . . 
 
 who, after his entrance into Frankfurt, received from the 
 hands of the president of the Diet the power exercised by that body. 
 
 § 6G5. Not less violent were the convulsions and mutations produced 
 in Italy by the revolution of February. In Sicily, the war against 
 Naples was continued for upwards of a year with great vigor and perse- 
 verance, without, however, the unfortunate island being able to attain its 
 asserted independence. The king of Naples, strong in his mercenary 
 Swiss troops, reduced the Sicilians to submission, and then destroyed by 
 violence the constitutional government in Naples, which he had granted 
 m a moment of necessity. 
 
THE LATEST REVOLUTIOXS. 523 
 
 In Rome, the movement soon became too powerful for the weak Pope, 
 Pius IX., to control. It was in vain that he promised a constitutional 
 government to the Ecclesiastical State, and summoned an assembly of the 
 Estates to the capital. His minister, Rossi, was killed by the thrust of a 
 November 15, dagger in the throat on the steps of the House of Assembly, 
 
 1848. after which the democrats took the whole power into their 
 own hands. The pope, filled with terror, fled in disguise to Gaeta, and 
 February, relinquished the eternal city to the populace and the volun- 
 
 1849. teers, who now established the Roman republic and seized 
 upon the property of the church. Mazzini, the energetic chief of Young 
 Italy, and Garibaldi, the daring leader of the volunteers, ruled in Rome. 
 The pope now addressed himself to the protecting powers of the Church, 
 and succeeded so far that a French army, under the command of General 
 Oudinot, marched to the walls of Rome, and demanded the restoration of 
 the former system. When this was refused, the French proceeded to lay 
 siege to the city, but encountered so fierce a resistance, that it was only 
 after weeks of sanguinary attacks and encounters that they got possession 
 I r 3 1849 ^^ *^^ place. The republicans sought for safety in flight; 
 
 and the old state of things gradually came back under the 
 protection of bayonets. 
 
 In Tuscany, also, the democrats gained the upper hand for a short 
 time, and compelled the Grand Duke to take flight ; but the republican 
 government lasted but a few weeks. 
 
 The most remarkable revolution in affairs took place in Upper Italy. 
 
 „ , In Milan and Venice, the Austrian j^arrisons were driven out 
 
 March, 1848. , ,...-, ^ , 
 
 by popular msurfections and street-fights, whereupon the 
 
 standard of independence was raised throughout the whole of Lombardy. 
 This filled the king, Charles Albert of Sardinia, with the hope of making 
 himself master of the Lombard- Venetian kingdom. He declared war 
 against Austria ; and being supported in the first moments of enthusiasm 
 and surprise by numerous Italian volunteers, he drove back the enemy 
 to the northern frontier of Italy. But the state of affairs soon changed. 
 On the 25th of July, field-mamhal Radetzky, who was eighty-six years 
 of age, gained a victory at Custozza, which was followed by the recon- 
 quest of Milan and the whole of Lombardy. The king of Sardinia fled 
 during the night to his own. dominions, and concluded a truce with tlte 
 victors. Urged on by the democrats, Charles Albert again tried the for* 
 March 20-24, tune of arms in the following spring. But the old Radetzky's 
 1849. campaign of four days on the Tessino and near Novara 
 
 brought the enterprise to a rapid termination, and rendered abortive the 
 hopes of the Italian patriots. Charles Albert, despairing of success, ab- 
 dicated his throne in favor of his son, Victor Emmanuel, and fled by secret 
 paths from the land of his fathers, till he found a refuge in Portugal, 
 where he shortly after died.' The young king then concluded a disad- 
 vantageous peace with Austria. 
 
, 24 THE LATEST PERIOD. 
 
 Venice, rendered impregnable by its position, withstood for soma 
 months longer the besieging army of Austrians, till dissensions within 
 and sufferings without gave back the renowned city of the 
 August 2o. j.jgynes to its ancient possessors. Things now everywhere 
 returned to their former state, but the honor of Italy had been redeemed 
 by the struggle. 
 
 § GG6. In the mean time, Germany and Hungary experienced still 
 more violent revolutionary storms and convulsions. Whilst the constituent 
 National Assembly was consulting in Frankfurt over the new confederate 
 constitution, a sanguinary national war was going on in Schleswic-Holstein 
 against Denmark. Supported by a good old settlement, according to 
 which the duchies Schleswic-Holstein were to remain united, and to descend 
 as a heritage to the male line of the princely house of. Oldenburg only, the 
 sturdy inhabitants of these duchies wished, upon the approaching extinc- 
 tion of the royal family of Denmark, to be united to their German rela- 
 tions under the legitimate and native duke of Augustenburg. This hope 
 the kin<2: of Denmark, incited by tlie strong Danish party, had 
 
 Tii1v S 1F4f? I- ^ ' 
 
 ' ' destroyed by the " public letter," in which he announced the 
 indissoluble connection of Schleswic with Denmark and the undisturbed 
 integrity of the Danish monarchy. When, in consequence of the Febru- 
 ary revolution, a mighty movement was communicated to all nations, the 
 duchies also thought that they must gain their rights by their own 
 strengtli. Trusting to the assistance of Germany, which had been pro- 
 mised to them in many addresses, they erected a provisional government 
 till their legitimate position should be secured. The central government 
 of Frankfurt recognized their right, and appointed a lieutenancy. This 
 was the signal for war. The German people interested themselves for 
 the land attacked by the Danes. Volunteers, among whom were many 
 students and promising youths, perilled life and health in the unequal 
 contest ; the German confederate troops, under the command of Prussia, 
 cleared Schleswic of the Danes. But the strife was rendered unequal 
 by the want of a German fleet, and the maritime trade of the north suf- 
 fered much loss and disturbance. This circumstance, and the threatening 
 attitude of Russia and England, operated in favor of the Danes ; so that 
 the Prussian government, which had committed the management of the 
 Schleswic-Holstein question to the central authority of Germany, entered 
 into diplomatic negotiations, and concluded the not very creditable truce 
 August 26, ofMalmo. When this truce, after long and violent opposi- 
 1848. tion, was sanctioned by the National Assembly at Frankfurt, 
 
 the German republican party, which had long been dissatisfied with the 
 prudent moderation of the parliament, made this decision a pretext for 
 attemj)ting to disperse the assembly in the church of St. Paul by means 
 of an insurrection and street-fight, and then to bring about a revolution 
 and a republic. The project was frustrated by calling in the confederate 
 troops ; but the frightful murder of two members of the parliament, Auers 
 
THE LATEST REVOLUTIONS. 523 
 
 wald and Lichnowsky, in the Bornlielmer wood, by the mob, 
 ' afforded a fearful proof of the height to which rudeness and 
 barbarism had already risen among the irritated populace. 
 
 § 667. This barbarism shortly afterwards displayed itself in the Austrian 
 empire by two deeds not less horrible. The Hungarians, who had for 
 some time past been excited against Austria by Magyar agitators, strove 
 to obtain national independence. The kingdom of Hungary was to have 
 its own government and a separate political existence, totally indepen- 
 dent of the imperial government in Vienna, and to share neither in the 
 military system, the national debt or the finance, tax, or trade legislation 
 of tlie rest of the empire. These efforts of the Magyai-s, by which tlie 
 kingdom of Hungary was to have retained merely a "personal union" 
 with the Austrian empire, were now developed with greater energy, bat 
 encountered a' vehement resistance, not in Vienna alone, but among the 
 Slavish races, Croats, Shwonians, Servians, &;c., which were united with 
 the Magyars in the Hungarian kingdom. Jellachich, Ban of Croatia, 
 took the field against the Magyars ; his undertaking met with secret 
 encouragement from the court and ministry. This excited tlie rage' of 
 the Magyars to such a height, that the furious mob put the imperial corn- 
 October 3, missioner, Lamberg, to a frightful death upon the bridge of 
 1848. Buda-Pesth. This deed called forth an imperial war mani- 
 
 festo, in consequence of which a portion of the Austrian army received 
 orders to march upon Hungary. But the Viennese democrats, who saw 
 their own cause in the insurrection in Hungary, prevented the march, 
 and excited a rebellion in the capital that surpassed in vrolence and im- 
 portance all that had preceded it. A crowd of people, furious with Latour, 
 the minister of war, who had had communications Avith Jellachich, forced 
 their way into the war-office and killed the unfortunate man with blows 
 of hammers and thrusts of pikes. This was the commence- 
 ment of the Vienna October days, the most .violent catastrophe 
 of this deeply-moved time. Horrified at the fierce proceedings of the 
 aroused masses, the king again left the capital and retired to Olmutz in 
 Moravia. Thence he issued his commands to prince Windischgriitz, who, 
 a few months before, had displayed his vigor and resolution 
 by the energetic suppression of a Slavish insurrection in 
 Prague, to reduce the insurgent capital to submission. Thus commenced 
 the memorable siege and storm of Vienna. For three weeks, the demo- 
 crats, who were supported by a licentious press, by clubs, and public 
 speeches, defended themselves against the besieging troops. Volunteers 
 and democratic leaders, united together from all parts in the capital, kept 
 alive the spirit of contest. At length, the military superiority of the 
 army carried off the victory. The town was taken by storm and put 
 under martial law ; and the leaders and promoters of the revolutionary 
 movement severely punished. Many found their death from wdiat, in 
 military law, is called '• powder and lead." Among these was Ptobert 
 
526 THE LATEST PERIOD. 
 
 Blum, a member of the Frankfurt National Assembly, and chief speakei 
 of the *' Left." He had taken a sliare in the struggle ; his character ag 
 representative of the people could not save him from the iron severity of 
 the general ; the German democrats regarded him as the martyr of liberty, 
 and celebrated a general funeral solemnity. The Austrian legislative 
 National Assembly was removed from Vienna to Kremsier in Moravia. 
 § 668. These proceedings, and the violent contest that sprang up 
 in Hungary, when Windischgratz, with the proud consciousness of a 
 victor, led the Austrian array against Pesth, confirmed the majority of 
 the Frankfurt parliament in the persuasion that it would be advantageous, 
 as well for the Germans as the Austrian confederacy, if each were sepa- 
 rately to erect its new system of government upon a liberal basis, and 
 then to conclude farther federative relations with a trade and customs 
 legislation common to both. Prussia was to be at the head of tlie Ger- 
 man union. This project found its most decided supporter in the presi- 
 dent, Henry Von Gagern, who, for the purpose of carrying out the 
 scheme more effectually, assumed in December the presidentship of the 
 imperial ministry. The plan, however, encountered the greatest opposi- 
 tion from the Austrian delegates, who discovered in it the exclusion of 
 Austria from Germany ; from the Catholics, who feared the preponde- 
 rance of Protestant Prussia ; and from the republicans, who saw, in a 
 powerful hereditary monarchy, an insuperable obstacle to the realization 
 of their principles, and who were irritated with the Prussian government 
 on account of the dissolution of the constituent imperial assembly in Ber- 
 lin. The king of Prussia had long been a witness of the senseless pro- 
 ceedings of the democrats ; he had repeatedly changed his ministry in 
 accordance with their wishes, he had offered no impediment to the debates 
 of the Diet where the democratic party was in a majority, he had surren- 
 dered the capital to the defence of the militia. But when the presump- 
 tion of the populace, who were kept in a constant state of fermentation by 
 foreign and native agitators, by placards on the walls, and by public 
 orators, exceeded all bounds ; when the popular unions ruled the city ; 
 when crowds of noisy rioters surrounded the National Assembly, and 
 exercised an influence upon the course of the debates by intimidation, 
 the king at length resolved to put an end to these proceedings. The new 
 Brandenburg-Manteuffel ministry adjourned the National Assembly, and 
 removed the next sitting to the town of Brandenburg ; and when a con- 
 siderable number of the members refused obedience to the command, and 
 continued their meetings in Berlin, despite the state of war with which 
 November ^^® ^'^^J ^'^^ threatened, and, at length, when driven out by 
 and December, the military, declared the levying of taxes to be contrary to 
 ^ ^^' law, the dissolution took place. At the same time, the 
 
 government itself proclaimed a constitution upon an extremely liberal 
 basis, which was to be submitted to a new elective assembly with two 
 chambers, fpr its examination and approval. 
 
THE LATEST REYOLUTIOXS. 527 
 
 § 669. It was not long before a similar measure followed in Austria. 
 For the purpose of getting a free field, the emperor Ferdinand, who, at 
 the time of the disturbances, had made many promises, had been induced 
 to resign the government as early as December, whereupon his youthful 
 nephew, Francis Joseph, obtained the imperial throne. He dissolved the 
 constituent Diet of Kremsier, in March, 1849, and then proclaimed an 
 " octroyed " * constitution, and a law respecting seignorial rights and the 
 indemnification for feudal dues. Hungary was at the same time to be 
 restrained by fresh exertions of power. But the Austrians encountered 
 a noble resistance from this warlike and hardy equestrian and nomadic 
 people, the Magyars. Excited by the fiery eloquence of Kossuth, and 
 supported by Polish leaders, like Dembinski and Bern, the Hungarians 
 compelled the hostile forces to retreat, captured Buda, and got possession 
 of all the fortresses. Gorgey, a brave and able general, was at the head 
 of the forces. The army of the insurgents was strengthened by the native 
 militia (Honveds), and by foreign volunteers; Hungarian bank-notes, 
 prepared by Kossuth, were paid and accepted as money. Full of proud 
 April 14, confidence, the Diet of Debreczin declared Hungary's inde- 
 
 1S49. pendence of Austria, and established a provisional govern- 
 
 ment under the direction of Kossuth. It was now discovered in Austria 
 that Windischgratz had undertaken a task to which he was not equal ; he 
 was recalled, and field-marshal Ilaynau appointed in his place. As the 
 Austrian court was convinced that he could not, with his own forces, sup- 
 press the Hungarian insurgents, who were now approaching the frontiers 
 of Austria, it called upon Russia for assistance. The hostile armies now 
 marched into Hungary from three quarters: on the. north, Paskewitsch 
 with his Russians ; on the west, Haynau with his Austrian troops ; and 
 on the south, Jellachich with his Croats. The Hungarian army never- 
 theless resisted for many months, and Gorgey, Klapka, and other brave 
 generals yet gained many a splendid victory. But internal dissensions 
 among the Polish and Magyar leaders, and a division that had arisen 
 between Kossuth and Gorgey, paralyzed the strength of the insurgents. 
 Pressed upon on all sides, Gorgey, who had been named dictator, laid 
 August 11, down his arms to the Russians at Vilagos, and thus brought 
 1849. about the subjection of the country. Kossuth and many of 
 
 the insurgent leaders found refuge in Turkey ; but who can tell how 
 great was the number of those who died by the sentence of courts martial, 
 or pined away in dungeons, or who served in the baggage and convey- 
 ance department of the Austrian army ? Gorgey has since lived in 
 Carinthia ; but the public voice of his nation accuses him of treachery to 
 the cause of his country. 
 
 § 670. Hungary's fall, by the catastrophe of Vilagos, was the close of 
 
 « 
 
 * That is, granted by the sovereign, of his own free will, and therefore owing its validity 
 to his authority, instead of being formed and decreed by the people themselves or by theii 
 representatives. 
 
528 THE LATEST PERIOD. 
 
 the revolutionary movement that had spread over Europe after the Paris 
 ian revolution of February. It had reached its termination some time 
 previously in Germany. 
 
 In the midst of many contests, the Frankfurt National Assembly had 
 at length accomplished the solution of its task. It had established and 
 made known the "fundamental rights of the German people," and had 
 at last accomplished the formation of an imperial constitution. The 
 Gagern party, -which was striving for a German confederacy, M'ith an 
 hereditary emperor, and a legislative assembly divided into a government 
 and popular house, had at last carried their proposal by a small majority, 
 after they had won the support of many members of the Left by accept- 
 ing a democratic elective law with universal right of suffrage. The new 
 imperial constitution was brought to a conclusion by this 
 " compromise," and the transference of the hereditary dig- 
 nity of the emperor to the king of Prussia was also carried. A solemn 
 deputation, headed by the worthy president Simson, now conveyed the 
 resolution of the Assembly to the king of Prussia, and made him an oiFer 
 of the imperial crown, upon condition of his accepting the constitution in 
 all its details. It was a great historical moment when, on the 3d of 
 April, king Frederick William IV. met the deputation in the great hall 
 of his palace in Berlin ; the results of this event were looked for with 
 the utinost eagerness by the German nation. But the king first gave an 
 ambiguous answer, and at length decisively rejected the dignity offered 
 him by the people. The deputies of parliament had gone forth, as it 
 were, in triumph ; they returned to Frankfurt very like scattered fugi- 
 tives. When the Prussian Assembly of Estates, which, in the mean 
 time, had been again summoned, voted an address to the throne, in which 
 the acceptance of the imperial office and constitution was recon^mended 
 as the wish of the nation, the second chamber was dissolved and the first 
 adjourned, and then followed an alteration of the elective 
 law, so that, in future, an election arranged upon the three 
 tax-paying classes was to take place of the universal right of suffrage. 
 
 § 671. This rejection of the imperial constitution brought fresh vevo 
 lutionary storms upon Germany. The democrats, who had hitherto been 
 satisfied neither with the Frankfurt parliament, with the imperial con- 
 stitution, nor with the " historical sentimentality " of an hereditary em- 
 peror, now took advantage of the rejection for again assuming arms. 
 Violent insurrections and sanguinary street-fights took place, for the pur- 
 pose of "carrying through the imperial constitution;" and even first 
 of all in those states which had opposed its introduction — in Saxony, in 
 the Bavarian Palatinate, and in some parts of Rhenish Prussia. Other 
 states also were soon hurried away by the movement ; and when a 
 mutiny bi'oke out among the soldiers in the fortress of Rastadt, in the 
 grand duchy of Baden, where the government had acknowledged the 
 imperial constitution, which extended itself to Carlsruhe, and in conse- 
 
THE LATEST REVOLUTIONS. 529 
 
 quence of which the grand duke was compelled to take flight, and th^ 
 government fell into the hands of the democratic and republican, party, 
 the revolution had gained a broad foundation. In the Frankfurt National 
 Assembly, also, the Left was constantly gaining power by the opposition 
 of the governments to the work of the constitution ; especially when 
 many of the conservative and constitutional party voluntarily resigned 
 their seats, and others yielded obedience to the calls of their governments. 
 In this melancholy position, Germany was saved from ruin by the 
 bravery of the Prussian army. Prussian troops first repressed the iso- 
 lated outbreaks in Eberfeld, Dusseldorf, and many other places ; Prus- 
 sian troops marched to Dresden, at the call of the Saxon government, 
 and rescued the city, after a barricade-fight of six days, from the hands 
 of the provisional government ; lastly, Prussian troops and militia 
 marched into Baden and the Bavarian Palatinate, when the grand duke 
 sought assistance from Berlin, and suppressed the revolution at the mo- 
 ment when it threatened to seize upon the kingdom of Wirtemberg. For 
 whilst these proceedings were taking place, the Frankfurt National As- 
 sembly was gradually losing its conservative members, so that, at last, the 
 whole authority devolved upon the men of the Left. These determined 
 to support themselves upon the revolution, and accordingly removed 
 their sittings from Frankfurt to Stuttgart, to be nearer the revolutionary 
 mass. The *' Rump Parliament," scarcely a hundred men strong, went 
 over to Wirtemberg, established an " imperial regency " of five members, 
 and gave a weight to the revolutionary movements, till the minister, 
 
 Homer, a man of firfh hand and resolute temper, put a term 
 June 18. , . ,. , ,, , , , , , . 
 
 to their proceedings, and compelled them to leave the king- 
 dom. At the same time, the Prussian soldiers, supported by the imperial 
 forces, marched through the grand duchy of Baden, defeated the revolted 
 troops and volunteers, under the Polish adventurer, Mierolawski, in seve- 
 ral engagements, and again restored the old system. Some promoters 
 of the insurrection, and among them the parliamentary member, Trutsch- 
 ler, were shot by the sentence of a court-martial ; but the immediate 
 originators and leaders saved themselves by flying to republican countries. 
 Whilst the movement was still raging unsuppressed in the open field, the 
 king of Prussia issued a proclamation to his people, which was calculated 
 to awaken their confidence. He promised to satisfy the longing for Ger- 
 man unity by establishing a union with a popular representation ; arid, 
 shortly after, appeared a new imperial constitution on the basis of the 
 Frankfurt proposal, in the name of the three kingdoms, Prussia, Hanover, 
 and Saxony. The approval with which this proffered gift was received 
 by all the moderate party, and in favor of which a large number of the 
 Frankfurt parliament, assembled in Gotha, (the after parliament), declared 
 themselves, contributed materially to the pacification of the disturbed 
 countries. It was not long, however, before Saxony and Hanover, sup- 
 45 
 
530 THE LATEST PERIOD. 
 
 ported by Austria, retired from the " league of the three kings ; " upon 
 which Prussia, who, since swearing to the new constitution on February 
 6, 1850, has entered into the number of constitutional monarchies, 
 attempted, at the Erfurt Diet, to unite the German States, which still 
 adhered to the league, into a confederacy. But this plan also met with 
 opposition from Austria and the other kingdoms, which required the restor- 
 ation of the old Diet. 
 
 § 672. Owing to these divisions and parties, affairs in Schleswic- 
 Ilolstein took a disastrous turn. The contest had begun anew in March, 
 1849, and the news flew like lightning in the dark night through the 
 country, that German troops had sunk the Danish ship of the line, 
 " Christian VIII.," by means of strand batteries ; and that the proud 
 frigate, " Gefion," had been compelled to surrender, after the 
 loss of her rudder. The victorious Germans soon marched 
 to Frederica, and laid siege to this frontier fortress. But the activity 
 of the alHed troops of Prussia and Germany being paralyzed by the 
 peace negotiations commenced with Denmark, the enemy found an op- 
 portunity to reinforce the garrison of Frederica, and afterwards to drive 
 back the German army by an unexpected sally, and to make themselves 
 masters of the trenches and the artillery. A fresh truce was now 
 arranged, in consequence of which, Schleswic was placed 
 under a neutral government, and garrisoned with German and 
 Swedish troops. This truce became a peace in the following year, by 
 which Schleswic-Holstein was to have resumed its former relations with 
 Denmark. But the lieutenancy, that had been established there during 
 the war by the German central power, would not accede to the peace, 
 and determined, after the retreat of the Prussian garrison, to maintain 
 its right by its own strength, and the voluntary assistance of the German 
 nation. 
 
 Conclusion. The revolutionary storms of the years 1848 and 1849 
 have now reached their termination. These two years were rich in 
 hopes and experiences, in disappointments and griefs. Providence has 
 once more placed the conduct and shaping of affairs in the hands of 
 princes ; may they employ this power wisely, and to the benefit of their 
 people, that confidence may be once more restored to the minds of men ! 
 For, true as it is, that no political or social arrangement can secure the 
 true happiness of the people, unless a deeper morality and religion, a 
 more active sense of civil and domestic virtue, and a warmer feeling of 
 duty, preexist in their minds ; so true is it also, that states can only 
 prosper and flourish when the public faith between a prince and his peo- 
 ple is firmly established, and the confidence in the honest and benevolent 
 intentions of the government is exposed to no disturbance. 
 
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 
 
 B.C. 
 
 NiMROD builds Babylon 2100 
 
 Ninus builds Nineveh 2000 
 
 Abraham flourished . 2000 
 
 Joseph do. . . • 1800 
 
 S^sostris king •••.. 1500 
 
 Moses flourished 1500 
 
 Joshua do. 1450 
 
 Trojan war • . . • • 1184 
 
 Samuel flourished 1150 
 
 Hcraclidse return to Peloponnesus 1104 
 
 Saul flourished 1095 
 
 Moeris and Cheops 1080 
 
 Codrus, king of Athens, dies 1068 
 
 David flourished 1050 
 
 Solomon do. 1000 
 
 Rehoboam do. 975 
 
 Jeroboam do. 971 
 
 Sardanapalus destroys himself 888 
 
 Lycurgus reforms the Spartan constitution 884 
 
 Carthage founded ' 880 
 
 Foundation of Rome 753 
 
 Decennial Archons at Athens : 752 
 
 First Messenian war 743 — 724 
 
 Salmaneser flourishes . . .730 
 
 Salmaneser subdues Phoenicia 730 
 
 Ten Tribes of Israel removed by Salmaneser 722 
 
 (Judah remains 130 years longer.) 
 
 Sennacherib flourishes 720 
 
 Sennacherib besieges Jerusalem, biit his army is destroyed . , . 720 
 
 Archilochus the poet born at Paros 700 
 
 Numa Pompilius king of Rome 700 
 
 Second Messenian war 687 — 670 
 
 Psammeticus puts down the power of the Egyptian priests by Greek 
 
 mercenaries 650 
 
 Tullus Hostilius king of Rome 650 
 
 Ancus Martius do. 625 
 
t)32 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 
 
 B. C. 
 
 Draco legislator 624 
 
 Nineveh destroyed 605 
 
 Nebuchadnezzar begins to reign over Babylon 600 
 
 Nebuchadnezzar plunders the temple at Jerusalem, and removes the 
 
 chief inhabitants 600 
 
 Periander reigns in Corinth 600 
 
 Sappho the poetess born at Lesbos 600 
 
 Alcaeus the poet born at Mitylene 600 
 
 Tarquinius Priseus king of Rome . 600 
 
 Nebuchadnezzar's attempt on Tyre fails 590 
 
 Judah taken into captivity by Nebuchadnezzar, and remains therein 
 
 seventy years : Jerusalem destroyed . 588 
 
 Pythagoras flourishes, born at Samos . . . . • . . 584 
 
 Astyages the Median king flourished ...... . 5 75 
 
 Cyrus the Great do. ...... . 560 
 
 Pisistratus tyrant of Athens . . . . . . . . 560 
 
 Servius Tullius king of Rome ........ 550 
 
 Polycrates tyrant of Samos ..... . . . . 550 
 
 Babylon taken by the Persians, and Cyrus gives the Jews leave to 
 
 return home . 638 
 
 Tarquinius Superbus reigns ...... from 533 — 509 
 
 Cambyses conquers Egypt, and flourishes .... from 529 — 521 
 
 Hippias and Hipparchus begin to rule at Athens . . . . 527 
 
 Darius Hystaspes comes to the throne, and reigns . . from 521 — 485 
 
 The Temple at Jerusalem completed in the reign of Darius . . . 515 
 
 Republic established at Athens . . . . . . . . 510 
 
 Abolition of royalty in Rome ........ 509 
 
 Oppression of the plebeians by patricians for debt . . .' . 495 
 
 Secession to the Sacred Mount . 494 
 
 Destruction of Miletus . . 494 
 
 Coriolanus banished from Rome 490 
 
 Battle of Marathon n / 490 
 
 Battle at the Pass of Thermopylae . . / Victories gained V ^g^ 
 
 Battle of Salamis ( by the Greeks j ^g^ 
 
 Battle of Plat^a ) over the Persians. ( ^^^ 
 
 Banishment of Themlstocles for ten years 471 
 
 Earthquake at Sparta . . . . . . . . . . 465 
 
 Ezra and Nehemiah rebuild Jerusalem . . . . . . 460 
 
 Cincinnatus taken from the plough to be dictator 458 
 
 Ap:ibassadors sent to Graecia Magna and Athens, to collect the laws of 
 
 Solon and select others 452 
 
 Decemvirs appointed , , . , 450 
 
 Herodotus bom 450 
 
 Battle of Conorea . . . . , . . , . . 447 
 
 The peace of Pericles 445 
 
 The plebeians obtain a share in the consulate 444 
 
 Military tribunals appointed . . . . , . . . . 442 
 
 Isocrates flourished ♦ , .436 — 838 
 
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 533 
 
 B. C. 
 
 Thucydides bom 430 
 
 Plato flourished . . . .429—348 
 
 Death of Pericles by the plague which visited Athens . . . . 429 
 
 Athenians under Demosthenes capture Pylos 425 
 
 The peace of Nicias with Sparta 421 
 
 The Athenian expedition against Syracuse 415 
 
 Destruction of the Athenian fleet at iEgos Potamos .... 405 
 
 Athens compelled to surrender to the Spartans 404 
 
 Xenophon born 400 
 
 Socrates dies by poison 399 
 
 Antisthenes flourished 396 
 
 Veii subdued by Camillus 396 
 
 Demosthenes flourished 385 — 332 
 
 Peace of Antalcidas (Corinthian War) 387 
 
 Deathof M. Manlius (Capitolinus) 883 
 
 Battle of Leuctra '371 
 
 Aristippus flourished 370 
 
 Battle of Alantinea 362 
 
 Destruction of Sidon . • . 350 
 
 War between the Romans and Latins 342 
 
 Peace between the Romans and Samnites 340 
 
 The Latins are defeated by the patriotism of Decius .... 338 
 
 Battle of Chaeronea, liberty of Greece ended 338 
 
 Battle of Granicus (Persians defeated) 334 
 
 Darius Codomanus defeated at Issus 333 
 
 Destruction of Tyre by Alexander . . . . . • . 332 
 
 Battles of Arbela and Gaugamela . . ^ 331 
 
 Agis IL, king of Sparta, defeated at Megalopolis 330 
 
 Rupture between the Romans and Samnites 325 
 
 Diogenes flourished ... 324 
 
 Alexander the Great dies at Babylon 323 
 
 Demosthenes destroys himself 322 
 
 An tigonus assumes the chief power after Alexander's death . . . 821 
 
 Syracuse besieged by the Carthaginians 817 
 
 An tigonus is acknowledged regent of Alexander's empire . . . 316 
 
 iEschines flourished . . . 314 
 
 The Stoics flourished 312 
 
 Battle of Ipsus. Defeat of Antigonus 801 
 
 Samnites defeated by the devotion of the younger Decius . . . 295 
 
 Samnites acknowledge the supremacy of Rome 290 
 
 The Mamentines seize Messina, and devastate Syracuse . . . 289 
 I'he translation of the Bible from Hebrew to Greek, called the Septu- 
 
 agint Version . . . . . . ^ 284 
 
 Pyrrhus engaged in war with Rome 281 
 
 Theocritus the poet flourished 280 
 
 Euclid the mathematician flourished in Alexandria .... 280 
 
 Pyrrhus defeated by the Romans at Beneventum * 2 75 
 
 Pyrrhus dies before Argos 272 
 
 45* 
 
534 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 
 
 B.G 
 
 The Romans win their first naval battle at Mylae 261 
 
 The Epicureans flourish 260 
 
 Aratus the Sicyon chosen commander-in-chief of the Achaean league . 250 
 The Romans make a successful sally against the Carthaginians from 
 
 Panormus 242 
 
 The Carthaginians, defeated at the -Slgatian islands, consent to peace, 
 
 and give up Sicily . . . . • 242 
 
 Agis ni., king of Sparta, flourished 240 
 
 Sicily made a Roman province 238 
 
 Cleomenes III., king of Sparta, flourished 230 
 
 The Cisalpine Gauls make an inroad into Etruria, but are defeated. 
 
 The Roman province, Gallia Cisalpina, established .... 222 
 Defeat of the Spartans by the combined forces of the Achaeans and 
 
 Macedonians at Sellasia 221 
 
 Hannibal crosses the Apennines 217 
 
 Defeat of the Romans at Cannas, by Hannibal 216 
 
 They successfully engage twice with the Carthaginians . . . . 215 
 
 Marcellus besieges Syracuse 214 
 
 Archimedes the mathematician flourished in Sicily . . . . 212 
 Syracuse, by the aid of Archimedes, holds out three years before it is 
 
 taken and destroyed 212 
 
 The Capuans, deserted by Hannibal, surrender to Rome . . . 211 
 
 Hasdrubal crosses the Alps to join Hannibal 208 
 
 Philopcemen reduces Sparta and destroys it 207 
 
 Hasdrubal is slain, and his army destroyed at the river Metaurus . . 207 
 
 Scipio passes over into Africa 204 
 
 Battle of Zama. Defeat of the Carthaginians 202 
 
 Philip compelled by the Romans to acknowledge the intdependence of 
 
 Greece 1&7 
 
 Perseus defeated at Pydna by Paulus -33milius 168 
 
 Macedonia made a Roman province by Metellus 148 
 
 Corinth destroyed by Mummius 146 
 
 The Maccabees are governors and high priests of Judea . . 142 — 135 
 
 Numantia taken by the younger Scipio 135 
 
 Tib. Gracchus proposes the renewal of the agrarian law . . . 133 
 
 His brother, Caius Gracchus, proposes the same after his death . . 123 
 
 The attempts of C. Gracchus utterly defeated 121 
 
 The Romans defeated by the Teutones and Cimbri . . , . 113 
 Metellus is sent into Africa against Jugurtha, and retrieves the character 
 
 of the Roman army 109 
 
 C. Marius chosen consul by the people 107 
 
 The Teutones are defeated at Aquae Sextiae by Marius . . . 102 
 
 Manus chosen consul for the sixth time . . . . . . 100 
 
 The Social war &0 — 88 
 
 Sylla sent against Mithridates (first Mithridatic war) .... 88 
 
 Athens captured. Delphi plundered by Sylla . . . . '. 87 
 Marius gratifies his revenge : is chosen consul for the seventh time, but 
 
 dies a few months after 86 
 
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 535 
 
 B. C, 
 
 The death of Sylla 78 
 
 The second Mithridatic war 74 — 65 
 
 Pompey puts down the rebels under Sertorius 73 
 
 The revolt of the slaves 72 
 
 They are defeated by M. Crassus 71 
 
 Lucullus defeats Tigranes at Tigranocerta 69 
 
 Pompey subdues the Armenians and defeats Mthridates . . . 66 
 
 Pompey turns his arms against the pirates in the East . . . . 67 
 
 The Triumvirate formed (Pompey, Caesar, Crassus) . . . . CO 
 
 Caesar made governor of Gaul 58 
 
 Caesar's wars in Gaul 68 — 50 
 
 The last insurrection put down at Alesia, by Caesar . . . . 52 
 
 The second civil war at Rome 49, 48 
 
 Caesar advances upon Rome with his army 49 
 
 Pompey defeated at Pharsalus : is assassinated in Egypt ... 48 
 The hopes of the republicans at Rome and their army destroyed at 
 
 Thapsus 46 
 
 The remnant of Pompey's friends defeated at Munda , . , . 45 
 
 Caesar assassinated . • 44 
 
 Second Triumvirate formed (Octavius, Anthony, Lepidus) . . . . 43 
 
 The republicans defeated at Phillppi 42 
 
 The victory of Octavius at Actium 81 
 
 Egypt becomes a province of the Roman empire 30 
 
 Augustus, emperor . • • ' j b. c. 30 
 
 A. D. 
 
 The Roman legions under Varus defeated by the Germans ... 9 
 
 Augustus dies at Nola 14 
 
 Tiberius emperor 14 — 37 
 
 Caligula do 37 — 41 
 
 Claudius do 41 — 54 
 
 Nero do. 54 — 68 
 
 Galba, Otho, Vitellius, emperors 68 — 70 
 
 Vespasian emperor 70 — 79 
 
 Jerusalem destroyed by Titus . , 70 
 
 Vespasian succeeded by his son Titus 79 — bl 
 
 Domitian emperor 81 — OG 
 
 Nerva do 96 — 98 
 
 Trajan do 98 — 117 
 
 Adrian do 117 — 138 
 
 The Jewish nation, as a state, at an end 1 25 
 
 Antoninus Pius emperor 138 — 161 
 
 Marcus Aurelius do 161 — 180 
 
 Conunodus do 180 — 192 
 
 Pertinax do 193 
 
 Septimius Severus do. . 193 — 211 
 
 Caracalla do. 211 — 217 
 
536 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 
 
 A. D. 
 
 Heliogabalus emperor 218 — 222 
 
 Alexander Severus do. 2*22 — 235 
 
 Philip the Arab do. 243 — 249 
 
 Decius do. 249 — 251 
 
 Gallienus do. . • 259 — 268 
 
 Aurelianus do. 270 — 275 
 
 Tacitus (descendant of the historian) do 275,276 
 
 Probus do. 276 — 282 
 
 Cams do. • . • . . 282 — 284 
 
 Diocletian do. . 284 — 305 
 
 Constantino overthroAvs Maxentius at the Milvian bridge, and takes 
 
 possession of Rome 312 
 
 Constantine becomes sole emperor. Pie favors the Christians . 325 
 
 Constantin us emperor 357 — 360 
 
 Julian restores the renown of the Roman army in the Netherlands 357 
 
 Julian proclaimed emperor "> 
 
 Constantius' death > 
 
 Julian reigns as emperor 361 — 363 
 
 Jovian do. do 363, 364 
 
 The empire divided | ^'^^'"'. ^.^^^' ^^^^ *^^ ^""'^ ' ' -364-378 
 ( Yaleutinian I. rules over the West . . 364 — 395 
 The Goths devastate Thessaly, Central Greece, and the Pelopon- 
 nesus: made to retreat by Stilicho 396 
 
 Alaric devastates the banks of the Po, but is obliged to retreat . 403 
 
 Duke Radagais and his barbarous horde defeated by StiUcho . 406 
 
 Rome besieged, taken, and plundered by Alaric . . . . 410 
 
 Adolf founds the kingdom of the West Goths in South Gaul . 412 
 
 Valentinian III. reigned 425 455 
 
 Clovis defeats the Alemanni at Zulpich 49 G 
 
 JStius defeats Attila on the Catalaunian plains . . . '. 451 
 
 Attila retreats into Hungary . . . . . . . 452 
 
 An end is put to the Western Empire of Rome by Odoacer . . 467 
 Clovis, king of the Franks, conquers the country between the Seine 
 
 and Loire 486 
 
 Clovis puts to death the chiefs of the Frank tribes ... 507 
 
 Justinian emperor of the Byzantine empire 527 — 565 
 
 Amalasanta, Theodoric's daughter, murdered .... 534 
 
 Belisarius defends Rome against the Goths . . ... . 537 
 
 Totila made king of the Goths . . . . . . , 540 
 
 JTejas made king of the Goths, but slain in a battle with Narses . 554 
 
 Mohammed flourished . 571 — 632 
 
 Mohammed's flight from Mecca (Ilegira), 16th July . . . 622 
 
 Abu Bekir succeeds Mohammed 632 — 634 
 
 Omar khalif 634 644 
 
 Persia becomes subject to the Moslems 634 
 
 Alexandria taken by the Mohammedans under Amru ... 640 
 
 Othman succeeds to the khalifa te .644—656 
 
 The Ommiadcs take the khalifate 660 
 
CHEONOLOGICAL TABLE. 5§7 
 
 A. D. 
 
 rhe Mohammedans carry their arms through Cyprus, Khodes, Asia 
 
 Minor, and attack Byzantium GGS — 675 
 
 Leo the Isaurian emperor of Byzantium 717 — 741 
 
 Charles IVIartel defeats the Saracens between Tours and Poictiers . 732 
 
 Constantine Copronymus emperor of Byzantium .... 741 — 745 
 
 The dynasty of the Ommlades overthrown ..... 752 
 
 Pepin dies, and divides his kingdom between his sons . . . 768 
 
 Charlemagne made sole ruler of the Franks 771 
 
 The West Goths overthrown at Xeres de la Frontera by the 
 
 Arabians . ......... 712 
 
 Charlemagne takes the fortress of Eresburg, and compels the Sax- 
 ons to make peace 772 
 
 Charles conquers Pavia, and unites Upper Italy to his empire . 774 
 
 Leo IV. emperor of Byzantium 775 — 780 
 
 Charles the second time subdues the Saxons 777 
 
 Thassilo, Duke of Bavaria, attempts to throw off the Frank yoke . 788 
 
 Irene empress of Byzantium ....*.. 800 
 
 Leo the Annciiiiin riuiicr')!- of Byzantium 813 — 820 
 
 Louis the Debonnaire liourished ....... 814 — 840 
 
 Egbert abolishes the heptarchy in England 827 
 
 The sons of Louis take up anns against him ..... 836 
 
 Louis dies near Jugelheim 840 
 
 The treaty of partition of Verdun 843 
 
 Basilius the Macedonian emperor of Byzantium . . .• . 867 
 
 Alfred the Great flourished 871 — 901 
 
 The kingdom in Norway founded jDy Ilarold Fairhair; and in Den- 
 mark, by Gorm the old ........ 875 
 
 Charles the Fat flourished 8-76 — 887 
 
 Arnulf flourished 887 — 898 
 
 Charles the Simple flourished 898 — 929 
 
 Kingdom formed in Sweden by the Ynglians .... 90C 
 
 Conrad I. elected emperor of Germany 911 — 919 
 
 Henry the Fowler 916 — 936 
 
 He defeats the Hungarians at Merseburg 933 
 
 Otho the Great flourished 936 — 973 
 
 lie puts an end to the depredations of the Hungarians . . . 955 
 
 The victory of Otho over the Hungarians on the Lechfield . . 9 73 
 
 Otlio II. emperor of Germany 973 — 983 
 
 Otho in. do. 9^3 — 1002 
 
 Hugh Capet king of the Franks < 987 — 996 
 
 Stephen the Pious king of Hungary . 1000 
 
 Vladimir the Great emperor of Russia 1000 
 
 Canute the Great flourished 1017 — 1035 
 
 Conrad IL emperor of Germany 1024 — 1089 
 
 Canute the Great of Denmark and Olaf of Norway become Chris- 
 tians 1025 
 
 The Moorish dynasty in Spain divided 1038 
 
 Henry HI. emperor of Germany . . ... 1039 — 1056 
 
538 
 
 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 
 
 Edward the Confessor ........ 
 
 Robert Guiscard (a Norman noble) becomes master of part of 
 
 Lower Italy 
 
 William the Conqueror overthrows Harold at Hastings 
 Robert Guiscard's son, Bohemond, increases his territory . 
 Henry IV. defeats the Saxons at Unstruth 
 He personally implores the withdrawal of the ban of excommuni- 
 cation at Rome ........ 
 
 Gregory deposed, and Clement HI. elected Pope 
 Henry's expedition against pope Gregory 
 
 Pope Gregory dies at Salerno 
 
 At the Assembly at Clermont, pope Urban 11. calls upon Europe 
 
 to recover Palestine 
 
 The first Crusade ........ 
 
 A large army under celebrated leaders arrives at Antioch on its 
 
 way to Jerusalem . 
 
 They come in sight of Jerusalem ...... 
 
 Jerusalem taken by the Crusaders, July 15 . . . 
 
 le Cid (Campeador) flourished 
 
 Henry V. emperor of Germany ..... 
 Lothaire the Saxon emperor of Germany .... 
 Roger II. flourished, and forms the kingdom of Naples and Sicily 
 
 Louis VII. king of France 
 
 Conrad III. Emperor of Germany 
 
 Henry the Proud (House of Guelph) dies 
 The second Crusade originated by St. Bernard 
 
 ^' Grisa II. king of Hungary 
 
 Frederick Barbarossa emperor of Germany 
 Henry H., of Anjou, king of England .... 
 Frederick undertakes a second expedition against Milan . 
 Death of archbishop Thomas-a-Becket . ... 
 The Germans, under Frederick, defeated at Legnano 
 Frederick deprives Henry the Lion of his dukedoms . 
 Philip Augustus H. king of France .... 
 
 The Crusaders, defeated at Tiberias, and many towns, together 
 
 with Jerusalem, taken by Saladin . . 
 Itichard Lion-heart ascends the EngHsh throne . 
 
 '' Henry HI. emperor of Germany 
 
 The news of the taking of Jerusalem gives rise to the third Cru 
 
 sade 
 
 John (Lackland) king of England 
 
 / Waldemar II., the Conqueror, king of Denmark 
 
 Tlie fourth Crusade 
 
 The Cross is preached, by order of the Pope, against Ralmond 
 
 VI. and the Albigenses 
 
 Philip of Swabia murdered . . . . . 
 
 Innocent HI. renews the war between the Guelphs and Ghibel- 
 
 lines 
 
 
 A. D. 
 
 1041- 
 
 -loea 
 
 
 1060 
 
 
 1066 
 
 
 1072 
 
 
 1075 
 
 
 1077 
 
 
 1081 
 
 
 1083 
 
 
 1084 
 
 
 1085 
 
 1096- 
 
 -1099 
 
 
 1097 
 
 
 1099 
 
 
 1099 
 
 
 1099 
 
 1106- 
 
 -1125 
 
 1125- 
 
 -1137 
 
 1130- 
 
 -1154 
 
 1137- 
 
 -1180 
 
 1138- 
 
 -1152 
 
 
 1142 
 
 
 1149 
 
 
 1150 
 
 1152- 
 
 -1190 
 
 1154- 
 
 -1189 
 
 
 1158 
 
 
 1170 
 
 
 1176 
 
 
 1179 
 
 1180- 
 
 -1223 
 
 
 1187 
 
 1189 
 
 1190 
 
 1190 — 
 
 -1197 
 
 
 1192 
 
 1199- 
 
 -1216 
 
 1202- 
 
 -1241 
 
 1203, 
 
 1204. 
 
 
 1205 
 
 
 1208 
 
 1210 
 
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 539 
 
 A. D. 
 
 Twenty thousand cliildren leave their homes for the Holy Land . 1218 
 
 Magna Charta granted 1215 
 
 Henry III. king of England 1216 — 1272 
 
 Frederick n. emperor of Germany 1218 — 1250 
 
 The House of Zahringen becomes extinct . . : . . 1218 
 
 Louis VHI. king of France 1223—1226 
 
 St. Louis do. 1226 — 1270 
 
 Woldemar, king of Denmark, . made prisoner by Henry of 
 
 Schwerin 1227 
 
 Zengis Khan chief of the Moguls, or Tartars .... 1227 
 
 The fifth Crusade undertaken by Frederick H. ... 1228 
 
 Jerusalem and a part of Palestine ceded to him . . . 1229 
 Charter (" The Golden Bull ") obtained by the Hungarians from 
 
 Andreas U 1234 
 
 Russia made tributary to the Moguls 1237 
 
 J'ope Gregory IX. dies ^ 1241 
 
 The Christians are defeated at Gaza by the Carismians . . 1244 
 
 Henry Raspe, of Thuringia, rival emperor to Frederick H. . 1246 
 
 Alfonso X. king of Spain 1258 — 1284 
 
 Manfred defeated at Beneventum by treachery .... 12G0 
 
 Conradine falls into the hands of Charles of Anjou . . . 1268 
 
 Egypt falls into the hands of the Iklamelukes .... 1270 
 
 Edward L king of England 1272—1307 
 
 Ottocar, king of Bohemia, defeated at Marchfield . . . 1278 
 
 Rudolf of Hapsburg chosen emperor of Germany . . . 1273 — 1291 
 
 The French are slain on the SicUian vespers . . . . "> 
 
 Peter of Aragon frees Sicily of Charles of Anjou . . . ) 
 
 Dispute between Bruce and Baliol for the Scottish crown . . 1283 
 
 Philip the Fair king of France 1285 — 1314 
 
 Adolf of Nassau emperor of Germany 1291 — 1298 
 
 The Christians retire from Syria, when the Mamelukes take 
 
 Antioch 1291 
 
 Adolf of Nassau is defeated and slain in the battle at Gollheim . 1298 
 
 Albert of Austria emperor of Germany 1298 — 1308 
 
 Osman makes Prusa in Bithynia his capital, and carries on war 
 
 against Greece . 1299 
 
 Pope Boniface VIH. dies . 1303 
 
 Pope Clement V. removes his court from Rome to Avignon . 1305 
 
 Edward IL on the English throne 1307 — 1327 
 
 Henry VH. of Luxemburg emperor of Germany . . . 1308 — 1313 
 
 The persecution of the Templars by Philip the Fair . 
 
 Molay, their Grand ^Master, tried upon various charges 
 
 Henry VH. makes an expedition into Italy . . , . 1310 
 
 Molay condemned and burnt 1312 
 
 Leopold defeated by the Swiss at Morgarten . . . . 1315 
 
 Vladislaus IV. king of Poland 1320 
 
 Frederick the Fair defeated at Miihldorf 1322 
 
 Alfonso XI. king of Spain 1324 — 1340 
 
540 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 
 
 A. D. 
 
 Death of Leopold, the brother of Frederick the Fair . . . 1326 
 Kdwardlll. king of England . . ... . . .1327 — 1377 
 
 Philip YI. king of France 1328 — 1347 
 
 Casimir the Great king of Poland 1333 — 1370 
 
 The tax, Alcavala, introduced into Spain 1340 
 
 Waldemar III. king of Denmark 1340—1375 
 
 Ix)uis the Great (of Anjou) elected king of Hungary . . . 1342 — 1348 
 
 Johanna I. queen of Naples . . . . . . . 1343 — 1382 
 
 Louis of Bavaria has a rival for the empire in the son of John of 
 
 Bohemia 1346 
 
 Battle of Cress}' (English victorious) ...... 1346 
 
 A new republican Rome established 1347 
 
 Charles IV. emperor of Germany 1347 — 1378 
 
 John the Good king of France 1347 — 1364 
 
 Charles IV. opened the German University in Prague . . 1348 
 
 Louis of Bavaria lost his life in a bear-hunt near Munich . . 1349 
 
 Peter the Cruel of Spain 1350 — 1369 
 
 The death of Cola di Rienzi, instigator of the rebellion at Rome . 1354 
 
 Victory of the English at Poictiers 1356 
 
 Insurrection in Paris . . . .. . . . 1358 
 
 Calais and the south-west of France ceded to the English . . 1360 
 Murad I., chief of the Ottomans, subdues Asia Minor, and passes 
 
 into Europe .... 1361 — 1389 
 
 Philip the Bold Duke of Burgundy 1363 — 1404 
 
 Magnus 11. deposed from the Swedish throne . . . . 1363 
 
 John the Good returns to his captivity, and dies .... 1364 
 
 Charles V. king of France 1364 — 1380 
 
 Louis the Great made king of Hungary ..... 1370 — 1382 
 
 Death of the Black Prince 
 
 Calais alone left to the English '' 
 
 Richard 11. king of England 1377 — 1399 
 
 Wenceslaus emperor of Germany 1378 — 1400 
 
 Charles VL king of France 1380 — 1422 
 
 Wickllff flourished 1384 
 
 Battle of Sempach 1386 
 
 The Jagellons retain the crown of Poland 1386 — 1572 
 
 The great cities' war commenced 1388 
 
 Bajazet, chief of the Ottomans, continues the victories of his 
 
 father Murad L ...... • . 1389 — 1403 
 
 The three Scandinavian kingdoms under one sceptre by the 
 
 union of Cal mar 1397 
 
 Henry IV. (Lancaster) king of England 1399—1413 
 
 Zurich, Berne, and Zug join the Swiss Confederation . . 1399 
 The electors depose Wenceslaus from the empire of Germany . 1400 
 Rupert of the Palatinate is chosen emperor .... 1400 — 1410 
 The Turks are defeated, and Bajazet made prisoner by the Mo- 
 guls, under Tamerlane, at Angora 1402 
 
CHROXOLOGICAL TABLE. 541 
 
 A. D. 
 
 John, Sans Peur, duke of Burgundy 1404 — 1419 
 
 Sigismond emperor of Germany 1410 — 1437 
 
 Henry V. king of England 1413 — 1422 
 
 Council of Constance . . 1414 — 1418 
 
 Joanna 11. queen of Naples 1414 — 1435 
 
 IIuss condemned . . . 1415 
 
 Victory of the English under Henry V. at Agincourt . . . 1415 
 
 Alfonso V. of Spain 1416 — 1456 
 
 Wenceslaus died of apoplexy 1419 
 
 rhilip the Good, duke of Burgundy 1419 — 1467 
 
 Murad n. restores the Ottoman empire 1421 — 1451 
 
 Death of Henry V. of England, and Charles VI. of France . 1422 
 
 Henry VI. succeeds to the English throne 1422 — 1461 
 
 Charles VH. to that of France 1422 — 1461 
 
 Cosmo de Medici (Florence) 1428 — 1464 
 
 Joan of Arc delivers Orleans 1429 
 
 She is captured by the English and burned . . , . 1431 
 
 Council of Basle 1431 — 1449 
 
 The Taborites defeated at Prague 1433 
 
 Calais remains the only English possession in France . . - . 1435 
 
 Charles's entry into Paris 1486 
 
 Albert H. of Austria, emperor 1437 — 1439 
 
 Frederick HI. do. 1440 — 1493 
 
 John Guttenburg of Mayence invents printing .... 1440 
 
 Hungarians and Poles defeated by the Turks at Warna . . • 1444 
 
 Casimir IV. on the Polish throne 1447 — 1492 
 
 Christian I. (Oldenburgh) of Denmark 1448 — 1481 
 
 Nicholas v.. Pope, founder of the Vatican library . . . 1450 — 1460 
 
 The House of Visconti extinct in Milan ..... 1450 
 Mohammed II. on the Ottoman throne : he takes Constantinople, 
 
 and puts an end io the Byzantine empire .... 1451 — 1481 
 
 Sebastian Brandt, poet of Strasburg, flourished .... 1458 — 1521 
 
 Matthias Corvinus (son of Huniades) made king . . . 1458 — 1490 
 
 Palgrave Frederick's (the Victorious) victory .... 1461 
 
 Louis XT. on the French throne 1461—1483 
 
 Edward IV. (York) king of England 1461 — 1483 
 
 Ivan the Great throws off the Mogul yoke 1462 — 1505 
 
 Alexander Castriota (Scanderbeg) maintains his independence 
 
 against the Turks 1467 
 
 Charles the Bold, duke of Burgundy 1467 — 1477 
 
 Stt no Sture, king of Sweden (separated from Denmark) . . 1471 — 1504 
 
 Lorenzo de' Medici the Magnificent (Florence) .... 1472 — 1492 
 
 Copernicus, the astronomer, flourished 1473 — 1543 
 
 Isabella queen of Spain 1474 — 1504 
 
 Ariosto the poet flourished 1474 — 1533 
 
 Michael Angelo flourished 1474 — 1563 
 
 Charles of Burgundy defeated at Granson by the Swiss . . 1476 
 46 
 
542 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 
 
 A.D. 
 
 Maximilian of Austria foiled the attempt of Louis XI. upon the 
 
 dukedom of Burgundy 1479 
 
 Ferdinand king of Spain 1479 — 1516 
 
 Raphael the painter flourished 1483 — 1520 
 
 Kichardm. of England 1483 — 1485 
 
 Charles Vm. of France 1483 — 1498 
 
 Battle of Bosworth 1485 
 
 Henry VII. (House of Tudor) king of England . . . . 1485 — 1509 
 
 Bartholomew Diaz reaches the Cape of Good Hope . . . 1486 
 
 Discovery of America by Columbus 1492 
 
 Louis XII. of France 1498 — 1515 
 
 Maximilian L emperor of Germany 1493 — 1519 
 
 Hans Sachs, the shoemaker poet, flourished .... 1494 — 1576 
 
 The land-peace established at the Diet of Worms . . . 1495 
 
 Cabot explores the coast of North America . . . . 1497 
 
 The return of the Medici 1498 
 
 Maximilian admits the independence of the Swiss . . . 1499 
 
 Louis Xn. of France conquers Milan 1500 
 
 Charles V. of Burgundy 1500 
 
 Ferdinand of Aragon gets possession of Naples .... 1504 
 
 Death of Columbus at Valladolid 1506 
 
 The League of Cambray, for dividing the Venetian territory . 1508 
 
 Henry vm. of England 1509 — 1547 
 
 Julius 11. the warlike pope 1503 
 
 Albuquerque founds a Portuguese colony in India . * . 1510 
 
 Balboa discovers the Pacific Ocean 1514 
 
 The Portuguese establish colonies and factories in Ceylon and on 
 
 the Coromandel coast * . 1515 
 
 " Battle of the Giants " of Marignano. Swiss defeated . . 1515 
 
 Luther denies the supremacy of the pope 1519 
 
 Leonardo da Vinci flourished ' . 1519 
 
 Steno Sture slain ; Sweden reunited to Denmark . . . 1520 
 
 Soliman the Magnificent on the Ottoman throne . . . 1520 — 1566 
 
 Conquest of Mexico by Cortez 1521 
 
 Luther's doctrines denounced as heretical, and his writings sen- 
 tenced to be burned June 16, 1520 
 
 Luther burns the bull of excommunication Dec. 10, 1520 
 
 Slaughter at Stockholm 1520 
 
 The Knights of St. John, expelled from Rhodes, receive Malta . 1522 
 
 Luther establishes peace at Wittemberg March, 1522 
 
 Adrian VI. pope ... 1522, 1523 
 
 Gustavus made king of Sweden by the Diet of Strengnas . . 1523 
 
 Camoens the Portuguese poet 1524 — 1569 
 
 The defeat of the French at Pa via 1525 
 
 Hungary divided on the death of Louis II. at Mohacs . . 1526 
 
 Macchiavelli, the statesman, flourished 1527 
 
 Rome taken by the Spaniards and Germans .... May 6, 1527 
 
 Gustavus introduced Christianity into his dominions . . . 1527 
 
CHKONOLOGICAL TABLE. 
 
 543 
 
 Andrea Doria frees Genoa of the French . 
 
 Half of Hungarj' falls into the power of the Ottomans 
 
 PIzarro and Almagro conquer Peru . 
 
 Diet of Spire 
 
 The Ladies' peace of Cambray .... 
 Charles V. restores the Medici, expelled a second time 
 The men of Zurich defeated and Zwingle slain . 
 League between the Landgrave of Hesse and Elector 
 
 at Smalcald 
 
 Ivan Yasilyevitsch 11. the first Czar . 
 The Bible completed in German by Luther 
 Christian III. introduces Christianity into Denmark 
 Contest between Pizarro and Almagro. Discover)' of 
 Charles V. captures Tunis .... 
 
 The ten years' truce of Nice .... 
 The Reformation established at Leipsic and Dresden . 
 Charles V. sends a second expedition to Africa . 
 Francis I. commences a fourtli war against Charles V 
 The order of the Jesuits founded by Ignatius Loyola 
 
 Paul III. pope of Rome 
 
 Corregio flourished 
 
 The peace of Crespy 
 
 The crown of Sweden given, to the male line of Vasa 
 
 Council of Trent opened 
 
 Death of Luther 
 
 Fiesco attempts the overthrow of the house of Doria 
 Henry IL on the French throne 
 
 Edward VI. of England 
 
 Cervantes flourished 
 
 Gasca sent to settle the affairs of Peru 
 Albert Durer flourished . . 
 Maurice of Saxony rises against Charles V. 
 Lope de Vega, Spanish poet .... 
 The victory of Maurice over Albert of Brandenburg 
 Mary Tudor queen of England .... 
 
 Lucas Cranach flourished 
 
 Paul IV. pope 
 
 Philip II. of Spain 
 
 Ferdinand I. emperor of Germany 
 
 Elizabeth queen of England 
 
 Peace of Chateau Cambresis .... 
 
 The Heidelberg Catechism drawn up . . 
 
 Pius IV. pope 
 
 Francis II. on the French throne 
 
 Death of Melancthon 
 
 Erich XIV. king of Sweden .... 
 Charles IX. king of France .... 
 Hans Holbein flourished 
 
 of Saxony 
 
 Chili 
 
 A. D. 
 
 1528 
 1529 
 1529 — 1535 
 1529 
 1529 
 1530 
 1581 
 
 1533 — 
 
 1534 — 
 
 1535 — 
 
 1542 — 
 
 1543 — 
 
 Dec. 13, 
 
 Feb. 18, 
 
 1547 — 
 1547 — 
 1547 — 
 
 March, 
 
 1552 — 
 
 1553 — 
 
 1555 — 
 155G — 
 
 1556 — 
 1558 — 
 
 1559 — 
 
 1559 — 
 
 1560 — 
 1560 — 
 
 1531 
 1588 
 1534 
 1539 
 1538 
 1535 
 1538 
 1539 
 1541 
 1544 
 1540 
 1549 
 1543 
 1544 
 1544 
 1545 
 1546 
 1547 
 1559 
 1553 
 1616 
 1548 
 1548 
 1552 
 1635 
 1553 
 1558 
 1553 
 1559 
 1598 
 1564 
 1603 
 1559 
 1559 
 1565 
 1560 
 1560 
 1568 
 1574 
 1563 
 
544 CimONOLOGICAL TAiJLE. 
 
 *• A. D. 
 
 Shakspeare, the English dramatist 1564 — 161G 
 
 Maximilian II. emperor of Germany 1564 — 1576 
 
 400 nobles petition against the Inquisition 'm the Netherlands . Nov. 1565 
 
 Mary Stdart marries Darnley 1565 
 
 Galileo flourished . . . 1565 — 1031 
 
 Death of Soliman at Sigeth (Hungary) 1566 
 
 Mary's favourite, Rizzio, murdered 1566 
 
 Duke Alba of Spain sent to subdue the Netherlands . . . 1567 — 1573 
 
 Death of Darnley, Mary's husband Feb. 10, 1567 
 
 John III. king of Sweden 1568 — 1592 
 
 Egmont and others put to death in the Netherlands . . . 1568 
 
 The Huguenots defeated at St. Denis by the Catholics . . 1568 
 
 Mary Stuart's flight into England 1568 
 
 Earls of Northumberland and Westmoreland fail to set Mary at 
 
 liberty . . . . 1569 
 
 Henry of Beam takes the lead of the Huguenoits . . . 1570 
 
 Kepler flourished 1572 — 1631 
 
 Gregory XIII. pope (arranged the present calendar) . . . 1572 — 1585 
 The Northern States of the Netherlands recognize William of 
 
 Orange as Stadtholder 1572 
 
 Louis of Zuniga succeeds Alba in the Netherlands . . . 1573 — 1576 
 
 Henry III. king of France 1574 — 1589 
 
 Don Juan succeeds Zuniga 1576 — 1578 
 
 The Pacification of Ghent 1576 
 
 Titian flourished 1576 
 
 Iludolf II. emperor of Germany 1576 — 1612 
 
 King Sebastian of Spain defeated by the Moors . . . . 1578 
 
 Alexander Farnese succeeds Don Juan . . . . . 1578 — 1592 
 
 The Union of Utrecht 1579 
 
 The domination of Spain over Portugal lasts sixty years . . 1580 — 1640 
 
 William of Orange assassinated . 1581 
 
 Sixtus V. rose from a shepherd boy to be pope .... 1585 — 1590 
 
 Execution of Mary Stuart in England . . . • . . 1587 
 
 The Invincible Annada sent against England . . . . 1588 
 
 Henry of Guise creates a rebelhon in Paris .... May 12, 1588 
 
 Henry IV. besieges Paris 1590 
 
 John Fischart, poet of May ence, flourished 1591 
 
 Henry IV. becomes a Catholic 1593 
 
 Tasso the poet died . . 1595 
 
 Henry allows liberty of conscience to the Calvinists by the Edict 
 
 of Nantes 1598 
 
 First permanent French settlement in America . . . . 1607 
 
 First settlement of Virginia at Jamestown 1607 
 
 Champlain discovers Lake Champlain 1609 
 
 Charles IX. king of Sweden 1600 — 1611 
 
 Calderon, Spanish poet 1600 — 1687 
 
 James I. (Stuart) king of England 1603 — 1625 
 
 The Protestant Union in Germany concluded .... 1608, 1609 
 
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 543 
 
 A. J> 
 
 A. truce between the Netlierlanders and Spaniards ; the indepen- 
 dence of the former acknowledged 1609 
 
 Henry IV. murdered by Ravaillac 1610 
 
 Louis XIII. of France .... ... 1610 — 1643 
 
 Matthias on the imperial throne 1612 — 1619 
 
 The Dutch erect some trading posts at the mouth of the Hudson 
 
 river 1613 
 
 Imperial House of Romanoff (Russia) 1613 
 
 Death of Matthias May 20, 1619 
 
 Frederick V. of the Palatinate made king of Bohemia . . Nov. 1619 
 
 First settlement of New England, at riymouth . . . . Dec. 22, 1620 
 Ernest of Mansfield defeats Tilly, the imperialist general, at 
 
 Wiesloch April, 1622 
 
 Richelieu changes the government in France . . . . 1624 
 
 Charles I. of England 1625 — 1649 
 
 Frederick of Bohemia defeated by Ferdinand n. . . . Nov. 7, 1625 
 
 Ernest of Mansfield and Christian of Brunswick die . . . 1626 
 
 Christian IV. defeated by Tilly at Lutter Aug. 27, 162G 
 
 The validity of the Petition of Right acknowledged . . . 1628 
 
 Settlement of Salem, in Massachusetts 1628 
 
 Duke of Buckingham assassinated 1628 
 
 Christian recovers his lands by the peace of Lubeck . . . 1629 
 
 The Edict of Restitution published by Ferdinand II. . . . 1629 
 
 Pomerania surrendered to Gustavus Adolphus .... 1630 
 
 Settlement of Boston, in Massachusetts 1630 
 
 Diet of Leipsic Feb. 1631 
 
 Magdeburg taken by Tilly May 16, 1631 
 
 The imperial anny defeated at Leipsic and Breitenfield . . Sept. 7, 1631 
 
 The victory of the Swedes at Lutzen Nov. 16, 1632 
 
 Alliance of Ileilbron (Swedes and Germans) .... 1633 
 
 Settlement of Maryland 1633 
 
 Wallenstein, the general of Ferdinand 11., murdered . . . Feb. 25, 1634 
 The peace of Prague between the German princes and the 
 
 emperor . . . . 1634 
 
 Richelieu encourages the Swedes in their undertakings in Ger- 
 many 1635 
 
 Settlement of Hartford, in Connecticut 1636 
 
 Saxony anQ Thuringia conquered by the Swedes . . . 1636 
 
 War with the Pequod Indians in Connecticut .... 163 > 
 
 Ferdinand III. emperor of Germany 1637 — 1657 
 
 Settlement of New Haven, in Connecticut 1637 
 
 Episcopal form of service repelled from Scotland . . . 1637 
 
 Rhode Island colonized by Roger Wilhams .... 1638 
 
 Death of Bernhard of Weimar • . 1639 
 
 Charles I. (Stuart) calls a parliament after eleven years* delay . 1640 
 
 Formation of the New England Confederacy .... 1643 
 
 Frederick William elector of Brandenburg .... 1640 — 1688 
 
 Strafford and Laud attainted of high treason . . . . 1641 
 46* 
 
646 CmiONOLOGICAL TABLE. 
 
 A. D. 
 
 Civil war between Charles and the parliament .... 1642 — 1646 
 
 The Swedes defeat the imperial army at Leipsic . . 1642 
 
 Louis XIV. on the French throne . ... 1643—1715 
 
 Christina queen of Sweden 1644 
 
 Battle of Marston-Moor July 3, 1644 
 
 Contests between the Presbyterians and Independents . . Feb. 1645 
 
 Charles defeated at Naseby June 14, 1645 
 
 Alexis reduces the Cossacks to subjection ..... 1645 — 1676 
 
 Charles dehvered prisoner to the parliament .... 1646 
 
 Peace of Westphalia . .' 1647 
 
 Cromwell marches upon London to give the Independents the 
 
 superiority in Parliament June, 1647 
 
 Escape of Charles I Nov. 1 648 
 
 Eighty-one Presbyterians expelled from Parliament . . . Dec. 1648 
 
 War of the Fronde 1648 — 1653 
 
 Execution of Charles I Jan, 30, 1649 
 
 Prince of Wales recalled from Holland, and acknowledged as 
 
 Charles II. by the Presbyterians 1650 
 
 Cromwell's victory over the Scots at Dunbar .... 1650 
 
 The royal army overthrown at Worcester 1651 
 
 Navigation act passed in England ...... 1651 
 
 Long parliament dissolved by Cromwell April, 1653 
 
 Cromwell dissolves by force his second parliament . . . Dec. 1653 
 
 Mazarin's return to Paris 1853 
 
 Christina abdicates in favor of Charles Gustavus . . . 1654 
 
 Charles X. of Sweden 1654 — 1660 
 
 Battle of Warsaw July, 1656 
 
 Emperor Leopold takes up arms to secure the crown of Spain for 
 
 his son 1657 — 1705 
 
 Cromwell's death . . . .^ Sept. 3, 1658 
 
 Rump parliament restored and dissolved by the army . . April, 1659 
 
 Charles IL returns as king May 29, 1660 
 
 Casimir, king of the Poles, makes peace with Sweden . . 1600 
 
 Charles XL of Sweden . . . . . . . . 1660 — 1697 
 
 Death of Mazarin . . . . . . . . . March 9, 1661 
 
 T!>c English wrest New York from the Dutch ..." 1664 
 
 Spalement of New Jersey 1665 
 
 Spanish war 1667 1668 
 
 Louis XIV. compelled to surrender the greater part of his con- 
 quests in the Spanish Netherlands ....*. 1668 
 The AjMrian government executes the leaders of the insurrec- 
 tion in Hungary 1671 
 
 Louis XIV. carries his arms agahist Holland .... 1672 — 1679 
 
 Marquette and Joliet discover the ilisslssippi nver . . . 1673 
 
 Moliere died 1673 
 
 Spain and Germany join in the war against France . . . 1674 
 
 The Swedes defeated by Frederick William . . . . 1675 
 
 King Philip's war in New England 1675 
 
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 547 
 
 A. D. 
 
 Bacon's rebellion m Virginia 1676 
 
 Feodor czar ' . 1676 — 1682 
 
 The peace of Nimeguen 1679 
 
 Habeas Corpus act ... . .... 1679 
 
 Strasburg taken from the Germans by Louis XIV. . . So.pt. 1681 
 
 Pennsylvania granted to William Penn . . . . . 1681 
 
 La Salle sails down the Mississippi 1682 
 
 The Turks defeated before the walls of Vienna Sept. 1683 
 
 Peter Corneille, French dramatic poet ... . 1684 
 
 Peace concluded with France at Regensburg .... Aug. 15, 1684 
 
 James IL ascended the English throne 1685 
 
 Revocation of the Edict of Nantes by Louis XIV. . . . Oct 1685 
 
 James II. fled from England Dec. 1688 
 
 Sir Edmund Andros deposed at Boston, Massachusetts . . 1689 
 
 Frederick L king of Prussia 1688 — 1713 
 
 The French take and burn Spire June, 1689 
 
 Montesquieu flourished 1689 — 1755 
 
 War of Orleans 1689 — 1697 
 
 Peter the Great czar 1689 — 1725 
 
 Expeditions fitted out by Mas^chusetts against Acadle and 
 
 Quebec 1690 
 
 New Charter of Massachusetts . 1691 
 
 French defeated in the battle of La IlogUe . . . . 1692 \ 
 
 Witches hanged at Salem . . 1692 
 
 Lafontaine died . . 1694 
 
 Voltaire flourished 1694 — 1778 
 
 Death of king John Sobieski of Poland • 1696 
 
 Frederick Augustus chosen king of Poland .... 1697 
 
 Charles XIL of Sweden 1697 — 1718 
 
 Peace of Ryswick 1697 
 
 James II. and the Catholic Irish defeated at the Boyne . . July, 1690 ' 
 
 Peace of Carlowitz 1699 
 
 Racine died 1699 
 
 Settlement of Louisiana 1699 
 
 Death of Charles IL of Spain 1700 
 
 Charles of Sweden besieges Copenhagen ... . 1700 
 
 Frederick I. solemnly crowned at Konigsburg .... 1700 
 
 Anne queen of England 1702 — 1714 
 
 General Catinat defeated, and Savoy and Piedmont made allies 
 
 of Austria by prince Eugene 1701 
 
 Charles of Sweden defeats the Prussians near Narva . . . 1701 
 
 War of the Spanish succession 1702 — 1714 
 
 Surrender of Warsaw to Charles XII. 1702 
 
 The revolt of the Tjrolcse 1 703 
 
 Charles XIL deposes Augustus king of Poland .... 1 703 
 
 Peter the Great founds St. Petersburg 1703 
 
 Bossuet died 1 704 
 
 Battle of Hochstadt (Blenheim) . . . Aug. 13, 1704 
 
548 CHRCNOLOGICAL TABLE. 
 
 A. IX 
 
 Stanislaus Leczinski elected king of Poland .... 1704 
 
 Capture of Gibraltar by the English 1 704 
 
 Joseph I. emperor 1705 — 1711 
 
 Defeat of the French at Kamilies by Marlborough . . . May 23, 1706 
 
 The French defeated at Turin by prince Itlugene . . . Sept. 7, 1 706 
 
 Peace of Altranstadt Sept. 24, 1706 
 
 Scottish representatives admitted into parliament . . . 1707 
 
 Victory of Almanza Apr. 25, 1707 
 
 Battle of Oudenarde won by Marlborough and prince Eugene . July 11, 1708 
 
 Charles Xn. makes an expedition against Moscow . . . 1708 
 
 Charles's army suffers greatly from the severe winter ... 1 708 
 
 The Swedish army defeated at Pultowa July 8, 1709 
 
 Battle of Malplaquet. Defeat of the French . . . . Sept. 11, 1709 
 
 Death of Joseph 1 1710 
 
 Charles XII. escapes into Turkey 1710 
 
 Boileau died ^ 1711 
 
 Abortive expedition against Canada, under Walker and Hill . 1711 
 
 Charles y I. emperor of Germany 1711 — 1740 
 
 The army of Peter the Great almost made prisoners on the Pruth 
 
 by the Turks 1711 
 
 Charles XII. arrives before the gates of Stralsund . . . Oct. 1711 
 
 Frederick II. born Jan. 24, 1712 
 
 Rousseau flourished 1712 — 1778 
 
 Peace of Utrecht May 11, 1713 
 
 Frederick William I. king of Prussia 1713 — 1740 
 
 Peace of Eastadt, between the Germans and French . . . Mar. 7, 1714 
 The Spanish Netherlands, Milan, Naples, and Sicily, given to 
 Austria. The electors of Bavaria and Cologne restored to- 
 
 their lands and titles Sept. 1714 
 
 Death of Louis XIV Sept. 1, 1714 
 
 George I. of England 1714 — 1727 
 
 Archbishop Fenelon died 1715 
 
 Louis XV. of France 1715 — 1774 
 
 Philip of Orleans regent 1715 — 1723 
 
 James (HI.) Stuart attempts to gain the throne . . . 1715 — 1717 
 
 Stralsund surrendered to the Prussians Dec. 1715 
 
 Insurrection in Thorn against the Jesuits 1717 
 
 Winkehnann flourished 1717 — 1 768 
 
 Charles XIL killed before Friederichstadt Dec. 11, 1718 
 
 Execution of Baron de Gorz . . . . . , . 1719 
 
 Sweden surrenders nearly all her foreign possessions . . . 1719, 1720 
 
 Alexis condemned to death by Peter the Great, his father . . 1722 
 
 Klopstock the poet 1724 — 1803 
 
 Kant the philosopher 1724 — 1804 
 
 Catherine I. empress of Russia 1725 — 1727 
 
 George IL of England 1727 — 1760 
 
 Peter n. emperor of Russia 1727 — 1730 
 
 Lessing flourished 1729 — 1782 
 
CKROXOLOGICAL TABLE. 545> 
 
 A. D, 
 
 Anna empress of Russia 1730 — 1740 
 
 Greorgia founded by general Oglethorpe 1732 
 
 The Polish war of succession 1 783 
 
 Frederick Augustus m. king of Poland 1733 — 1763 
 
 Wieland lived . . . : 1733 — 1813 
 
 Frederick II. marries into the House of Brunswick ... 1 734 
 
 Francis Stephen exchanges Lorraine for Tuscany . . . 1737 
 
 Charles VI. concludes the peace of Belgrade .... Sept. 18, 1739 
 
 Frederick II. ascends the Prussian throne 1740 
 
 He makes an expedition into Silesia Oct 1 740 
 
 First Silesian war 1740 — 1742 
 
 Battle of Molwitz. Victory of the Prussians . . .April 10, 1741 
 
 Elizabeth empress of Russia 1741 — 1762 
 
 Charles Albert crowned king of Bavaria at Prague . . . Oct. 1741 
 He is elected emperor of Germany, and reigns . : . .1741 — 1745 
 
 His capital, Munich, taken by the enemy Jan. 24, 1742 
 
 Peace of Breslaw July 28, 1742 
 
 Maria Theresa crowned at Prague 1 743 
 
 French defeated at the battle of Dettingen .... June 27, 1743 
 
 Second Silesian war 1 744, 1 745 
 
 Herder 1744 — 1803 
 
 Death of Charles Vn. at Munich . ... . . . Jan. 20, 1745 
 
 - Treaty of Fiissen April, 1 745 
 
 Victory of Frederick II. at Ilohenfriedberg .... June 4, 1 745 
 Battle of Kesseldorf. Frederick marches to Dresden. Silesia 
 
 ceded to him in the peace of Dresden Dec. 25, 1 745 
 
 ♦Francis I. emperor of Germany 1745 — 1765 
 
 Victories of the French at Fontenoy and LafTeld . . . 1745 — 1747 
 Charles Edward the Pretender lands in Scotland . . . 1745 
 Capture of Louisburg, on Cape* Breton, by troops from Massachu- 
 setts 1745 
 
 Ferdinand VI king of Spain 1746 — 1759 
 
 Defeat of the Pretender at Culloden April 16, 1746 
 
 Peace of Aix la Chapelle with the French .... 1748 
 
 Goethe flourished ......... 1749 — 1832 
 
 Joseph Emmanuel king of Portugal 1750 — 1777 
 
 Alliance between Maria Theresa and the French king against the 
 
 king of Prussia Sept. 1751 
 
 Braddock's defeat by the French and Indians .... 1755 
 
 Earthquake in Lisbon . . . . . . , . . Nov. 1 755 
 
 The French driven into exile from Acadie 1 755 
 
 Frederick of Prussia falls suddenly on Saxony .... 1 756 
 
 He marches against Bohemia 1757 
 
 He is victorious at the battle of Prague May 6, 1757 
 
 He is defeated a't Collin June 18,1757 
 
 The French defeat his allies at Hastenbeck July, 1757 
 
 He gains a splendid victory at Rosbach ... . Nov. 5, 1757 
 
 He defeats Daun at the battle of Beuthen . . Dec. 1757 
 
550 
 
 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 
 
 Capture of Fort William Heniy by Montcalm . 
 
 Adolf Frederick of Sweden 
 
 Unsuccessful attack on Ticonderoga, by Abercrombie . 
 Frederick of Prussia receives support from England . 
 
 His victory at Zorndorf 
 
 He is worsted at Hochkirk 
 
 He is defeated by the Austrians at Kunersdorf . 
 Ferdinand defeats the French at Minden . 
 
 Schiller flourished 
 
 The Jesuits expelled from Portugal .... 
 Battle of Quebec and death of Wolfe 
 
 Charles III. of Spain 
 
 Ferdinand defeats Laudon and regains Silesia . 
 
 George III. king of England 
 
 Ferdinand obtains the dearly-bought victory of Torgau 
 
 Elizabeth, empress of Russia, dies 
 
 Peter HI, emperor of Russia, murdered 
 
 Catherine II. of Russia 
 
 Frederick concludes the peace of Hubertsburg . 
 The English obtain Canada by the peace of Paris 
 Death of Augustus IH. of Poland .... 
 War with the Indians, usually called Pontiac's war . 
 Poniatowski chosen king of Poland .... 
 Passage of the Stamp Act for taxing America . 
 Joseph n. ascends the imperial throne of Germany 
 Stamp Act Congress at New York .... 
 
 Repeal of the Stamp Act 
 
 Christian VII. of Denmark 
 
 The General Confederation of Radovi formed 
 
 The Confederation of Bar, in Poland, defeated . 
 
 The war between Russia and Turkey 
 
 Affray with the soldiers at Boston .... 
 
 Gustavus III. comes to the throne of Sweden 
 
 Moscow visited by pestilence, and civil war in Poland . 
 
 Louis XV. orders his opponents in the parliament to be arr 
 
 Neckar's first ministry 
 
 The treaty of partition of Poland between Russia, Austria 
 
 Prussia 
 
 The abolition of the Order of Jesuits .... 
 Destruction of the Tea in Boston harbor . ... 
 The English increase their forces, and shut up the harbor of 
 
 Boston 
 
 A Congress of the American Colonies meet at Philadelphia 
 Rebellion of Pugatscheflf, a Don Cossack ... 
 
 Louis XV. of France dies 
 
 Battle of Lexington, in Massachusetts 
 
 Battle of Bunker's Hill 
 
 Juliana, stepmother of Christian, directs the Danish government 
 
 1757 
 
 A. D. 
 
 1757 
 
 1771 
 
 1758 
 
 1758 
 
 Aug. 25, 1758 
 
 Oct. 14, 1758 
 
 Aug. 12, 1759 
 
 April 13, 1759 
 
 1759 — 1805 
 
 1759 
 
 1759 
 
 1759 — 1788 
 Aug. 15, 1760 
 
 1760 — 1820 
 Nov. 3, 1760 
 Jan. 5, 1762 
 July 9, 1762 
 1762 — 1796 
 
 Feb. 21, 1763 
 
 1763 
 
 1763 
 
 1764 
 
 Sept. 1764 — 1795 
 
 1765 
 
 1765—1790 
 
 October, 1765 
 
 March, 1766 
 
 1766—1808 
 
 July 23, 1767 
 
 Feb. 1768 
 
 1768 — 1774 
 
 March 5, 1770 
 
 1771 — 1791 
 
 1771 
 
 1771 
 
 1771 — 1781 
 
 ested 
 
 and 
 
 Aug. 5, 1772 
 1773 
 1773 
 
 1774 
 
 Sept. 17, 1774 
 
 1774 
 
 1774 
 
 April 19, 1775 
 
 June 17, 1»775 
 
 1775 
 
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 551 
 
 A. D, 
 
 Montgomery killed In an attack on Quebec . . . . Dec. 31, 1775 
 
 Pugatscheff is betrayed and suffers death 1775 
 
 The British troops evacuate Boston March 17, 1776 
 
 Turgot and Malasherbes (ministers) reorganize France . . 1776 
 The Dc(,'laration of Independence adopted by the American Con- 
 gress July 4, 1776 
 
 Battle of Long Island and defeat of the Americans . . . Aug. 27, 1776 
 
 Battle of Trenton Dec. 25, 1776 
 
 Battle of Bennington Aug. 16, 1777 
 
 Battle of Brandywlne Sept. 11, 1777 
 
 Battle of Germantown Oct. 4, 1777 
 
 Burgoyne's army capitulates at Saratoga Oct. 15, 1777 
 
 The Bavarian war of succession . ' 1778 — 1779 
 
 The French form an alliance with America .... Feb. 6, 1778 
 
 Battle of Monmouth June 28, 1778 
 
 Spain forms an alliance with America June 26, 1779 
 
 The French and Americans repulsed at Savannah . . . Oct. 9, 1779 
 
 Gen. Lincoln capitulates at Charleston May 12, 1780 
 
 Gates defejited by Corn wallis at Camden .... Aug. 16, 1780 
 
 England declares war against Holland . . . . . Nov. 1 780 
 
 Joseph IL of Austria 1780 — 1790 
 
 Battle of Guilford Court House March 15, 1781 
 
 Neckar obliged to resign his office 1781 
 
 Cornwallis surrenders to the French American army . . . Oct. 19, 1782 
 The attempt of the Spaniards to take Gibraltar foiled . . Sept. 1782 
 
 The independence of America acknowledged by the English in 
 
 the peace of Versailles Nov. 30, 1782 
 
 Nicolai of Berlin 1783 — 1811 
 
 Crimea conquered by Potemkin 1 783 
 
 A democratic insurrection in Holland 1 784 
 
 Joseph n. offers the Austrian Netherlands in exchange for Bavaria 1 785 
 
 Shays's rebellion in Massachusetts 1786 
 
 Frederick William n. restores order in Holland . . . 1787 
 
 The Netherlanders expel the Austrians 1787 
 
 Second Turkish war J. 787 — 1792 
 
 Calonne calls an Assembly of Notables Feb. 1787 
 
 The boldest speakers against taxation in the parliament of Paris 
 
 arc arrested and banished to Troyes Aug. 1787 
 
 Gustavus UI. wages war with Russia 1 788 
 
 Brienne compelled to resign his ministry Aug. 1788 
 
 Neckar's second ministry 1788,1789 
 
 The Estates summoned Dec. 1 788 
 
 Oczakow stormed by Potemkin . Dec. 1 7, 1 783 
 
 The Federal Constitution of the United States of America ffoes 
 
 into effect March 4,1789 
 
 George Washington, President of the United States . . .1789 — 1797 
 The Third Estate declares itself a National Assembly . . June 17, 1789 
 The Hall of Assembly closed June 20,1780 
 
552 
 
 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 
 
 Mirabeau opposes tlie dissolution of the Assembly 
 
 Storming of the Bastille 
 
 The equaUty of citizens declared 
 
 Gustavus meditates war with France . 
 
 The Netherlands declare their independence 
 
 Death of Joseph IL 
 
 Leopold n. of Austria 
 
 The fortress of Ismail stormed by Suwaroff . 
 
 Feast of the Federation at Paris 
 
 Prince Potemkin, favorite of Catherine II., died 
 
 The death of Mirabeau 
 
 The Poles reorganize their government 
 
 Louis attempts to escape from Paris . 
 
 The Russian party in Poland form the Confederation of 
 
 gowicz ........ 
 
 Gustavus is murdered by Ankerstrom 
 France declares war against Austria and Prussia 
 A Russian army advances into Poland . '. 
 Kosciuzko defeated by the Russians . 
 The assault on the Hotel de Ville 
 The Prussians defeated at Yalmy 
 Repubhcanism established in France . 
 Custines obtains possession of jMayence 
 
 Battle of Jemappes 
 
 New partition of Poland between Russia and Prussia 
 
 Condemnation of Louis 
 
 llis execution ....... 
 
 Dumourier defeated by the Austrians at Neerwinden 
 
 Chalier, the demagogue, executed at Lyons 
 
 The Dutch and Hanoverians defeated at Handschooten 
 
 Trial and execution of Marie Antoinette 
 
 The French, under Hoche, defeated at Kaiserslautern 
 
 Insurrection of the Poles under Kosciuzko . 
 
 Execution of Danton and Desmoulins 
 
 Execution of Elizabeth, sister of Louis XYI. 
 
 Jourdain compels the evacuation of Belgium 
 
 The Jacobins denounced in the Convention 
 
 Execution of Robespierre, St. Just, Couthon, Henriot, 
 
 Jacobins, 
 
 Defeat of Kosciuzko 
 
 The French compel the Prussians to retreat 
 
 Poland divided between Austria, Prussia, and Russia 
 
 The Convention surrounded by the Mob 
 
 Peace of Basle 
 
 The insurrection of the 1st Prairial 
 
 The Austrians get possession of Heidelberg 
 
 The Royalist party suppressed .... 
 
 Bonaparte defeats Beaulieu at Milesirao and Montenotte 
 
 and 
 
 A. D. 
 
 . June 27, 1789 
 
 . July 14, 1789 
 
 . Aug. 4, 1789 
 
 1790 
 
 1790 
 
 . Feb. 20, 1790 
 
 . 1790—1792 
 
 . Dec. 22, 1790 
 
 . July 14, 1790 
 
 1791 
 
 . Apr. 2, 1791 
 
 . May 3, 1791 
 
 .June 21, 1791 
 
 Tar- 
 
 other 
 
 iMar. 
 
 Jan. 1792 
 
 ]VIar. 29, 1792 
 
 April, 1792 
 
 May, 1792 
 
 July 17, 1792 
 
 Aug. 10, 1792 
 
 Sept. 20, 1792 
 
 Sept. 21, 1792 
 
 Oct. 21, 1792 
 
 Nov. 6, 1792 
 
 1793 
 
 Jan. 17, 1793 
 
 Jan. 21, 1793 
 
 Mar. 18, 1793 
 
 July 16, 1793 
 
 Sept. 8, 1793 
 
 Oct. 1793 
 
 Nov. 1793 
 
 Apr. 1794 
 
 Apr. 5, 1794 
 
 May 10, 1794 
 
 June 26, 1794 
 
 July 27, 1794 
 
 . July 28, 1 794 
 
 . Oct. 10, 1794 
 
 Oct. 1794 
 
 Jan. 1795 
 
 31, Ap. 1, 1795 
 
 . Apr. 5, 1795 
 
 . May 20, 1795 
 
 . Sept. 24,1795 
 
 . Oct. 5, 1795 
 
 1796 
 
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 
 
 653 
 
 Bonaparte's victory at the Bridge of Lodi . 
 
 Wurmser defeated at Castiglione 
 
 Jourdain defeated at "Wurzburg .... 
 
 Retreat of Moreau through the Black Forest 
 
 Peace concluded between the Germans and French 
 
 French victories at Areola, Rivoli, La Favorita . 
 
 Pope Pius VI. concludes the peace of Tolentino . 
 
 Austria concludes the peace of Leoben with Bonapart 
 
 The royalist deputies arrested at the Tuileries . 
 
 The peace of Campo-Formio . . . , 
 
 Bonaparte opens the congress at Rastadt . 
 
 Pius VI. deprived of his temporal power . 
 
 Mamelukes defeated by Bonaparte near the Pyramids 
 
 Insurrection at Cairo against the French . 
 
 Rome retaken from the Neapolitans . 
 
 The Parthenopeian repubUc established at Naples 
 
 Bonaparte marches against Syria 
 
 He besieges Jean d'Acre, but is repulsed . 
 
 French defeated at Stockach by Archduke Charles 
 
 The French ambassadors assaulted on leaving Rastadt 
 
 The Russians conquer the Cisalpine republic 
 
 Cardinal RufTo storms Naples .... 
 
 Bonaparte defeats the Turks at Aboukir 
 
 Pope Pius VI. dies in Paris .... 
 
 French defeated at the battle of Novi . 
 
 Russians defeated by the French at Zurich 
 
 The Duke of York's retreat from the Netherlands 
 
 Bonaparte returns to France .... 
 
 He forms a new constitution in France, and takes the 
 
 of affairs into his own hands .... 
 Victory of Kleber at Heliopolis .... 
 
 Death of SuwarofF 
 
 Napoleon's passage of the Great St. Bernard 
 
 The Austrians defeated at Montebello 
 
 The rout of the Austrians at Marengo 
 
 March of Macdonald and Moncey over the Grisons 
 
 Defeat of the Austrians at Ilohenlinden 
 
 Attempt to kill Bonaparte by the infernal machine 
 
 I*eace of Luneville 
 
 Battle of Canopus in Egypt. Death of Abercromble 
 The French clergy made subject to the Pope 
 Alexander, son of Paul, declared emperor of Russia 
 The Concordat concluded with Rome 
 The French conveyed by the English from Egypt 
 
 Peace of Amiens 
 
 Bonaparte made consul for life .... 
 The Imperial Diet (Germany) .... 
 The cantons in Switzerland are made independent 
 47 
 
 A. D. 
 
 . May 10, 1796 
 . Aug. 5, 1796 
 Sept 3, 1796 
 Sept. 19, 1796 
 . Oct. 24, 1796 
 Jan., Feb. 1797 
 Feb. 19, 1797 
 Apr. 18, 1797 
 Sept. 4, 1797 
 Oct. 17, 1797 
 Dec. 1797 
 Feb. 1798 
 July 21,1798 
 Oct. 21, 1798 
 Nov. 1798 
 Jan. 1799 
 Feb. 1799 
 Mar. 20, 1799 
 IMar. 25, 1799 
 Apr. 28, 1799 
 June, 1799 
 June 13, 1799 
 July 25,1799 
 Aug. 1799 
 Aug. 5, 1799 
 Sept 25, 26, 1799 
 Oct. 1799 
 Oct 9, 1799 
 
 direction 
 
 Nov. 9, 1 799 
 
 Mar. 20, 1800 
 
 May, 1800 
 
 May, 1800 
 
 June 9, 1800 
 
 June 14, 1800 
 
 July, 1800 
 
 Dec. 3, 1800 
 
 Dec. 24, 1800 
 
 Feb. 9, 1801 
 
 Mar. 21, 1801 
 
 April 8,1801 
 
 May 24, 1801 
 
 July 15, 1801 
 
 Sept 1801 
 
 Mar. 27, 1802 
 
 Aug. 2, 1802 
 
 Feb. 25, 1803 
 
 Feb. 1803 
 
654 
 
 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 
 
 War declared by the English against the French 
 Bonaparte's troops advance upon Hanover 
 Execution of the Duke d'Enghien 
 Napoleon proclaimed emperor . 
 Republicanism in Italy changed into monarchy 
 The Austrian general, Mack, shut up in Ulm 
 The capitulation of Ulm .... 
 Battle of Trafalgar. Death of Nelson 
 Napoleon defeats the Russians at Dirnstein 
 
 Murat enters Vienna 
 
 Victory of Napoleon at Austerlltz 
 The peace of Presburg .... 
 The dynasty of the Bourbons ceases in Naples 
 Death of Pitt 
 
 The Prussians defeated at Saalfield by the French 
 The double battle of Jena and Auerstadt . 
 Hohenlohe and 1 7,000 men surrender at Prenzlow 
 Napoleon makes peace with the Elector of Saxony 
 Battle of Eylau between the French and Russians 
 Dantzic surrendered to marshal Lefebvre . 
 Napoleon abolishes the tribunate . . " . 
 
 Peace of Tilsit concluded 
 
 Bombardment of Copenhagen. Capture of the Danish 
 
 the English ....... 
 
 The flight of the Lisbon court to the Brazils. Junot 
 
 session of Lisbon 
 
 Godoy delivers Spain to Napoleon 
 
 Charles IV. abdicates the throne of Spain . 
 
 1,200 French killed in the Insurrection at Madrid 
 
 Napoleon names his brother Joseph king of Spain 
 
 The Spaniards driven back at Rio Seco by Bessi^res 
 
 Dupont's capitulation at Baylen, in Andalusia 
 
 Capitulation of Cintra 
 
 Meeting at Erfurt of Alexander and Napoleon . 
 
 Napoleon enters Madrid, and restores Joseph 
 
 Saragossa taken by the French .... 
 
 Gustavus IV. deprived of the crown of Sweden . 
 
 Austria sends an army into Bavaria and Italy 
 
 It is defeated at Abensberg and Eckmuhl . 
 
 The two days' combat at Aspern and Eslingen . 
 
 Napoleon destroys the temporal power of the pope 
 
 Major Von Schill falls during the assault of Stralsund 
 
 Pope Pius VII. taken from Rome by violence 
 
 The Austrians defeated at Wagram . 
 
 Napoleon unites the States of the Church to the French 
 
 The Austrians conclude the truce of Znaym 
 
 The French defeated by Wellington at Talavera 
 
 . May 18 
 
 . . May, 
 
 . Mar. 21 
 
 A. D. 
 
 1803 
 1803 
 1804 
 
 . May 18, 
 . March, 
 
 1804 
 1805 
 
 . Oct. 14 
 
 1805 
 
 . Oct. 20, 
 
 . Oct. 21, 
 
 Nov. 
 
 1805 
 1805 
 1805 
 
 . • . Nov. 13, 
 . Dec. 2, 
 
 1805 
 1805 
 
 . Dec. 26, 
 . Dec. 27, 
 
 1805 
 1805 
 
 . 
 
 1806 
 
 . Aug. 26, 
 
 1806 
 
 . Oct. 10, 
 
 1806 
 
 . Oct. 14, 
 
 . Oct. 28, 
 
 Dec. 
 
 1806 
 1806 
 1806 
 
 . Feb. 8, 
 
 1807 
 
 . May ^4, 
 
 1807 
 1807 
 
 June 7-9, 
 fleet by 
 . Sept. 2-5 
 
 1807 
 1807 
 
 kes pos- 
 
 Nov. 
 
 1807 
 
 . Feb. 1, 
 . March, 
 
 1808 
 1808 
 
 . May 2, 
 . June 6, 
 
 1808 
 1808 
 
 . July 14, 
 
 . . July 22, 
 
 . Aug. 30, 
 
 1808 
 1808 
 1808 
 
 . Sept. 27, 
 . Dec. 4, 
 . Feb. 20, 
 
 1808 
 1808 
 1809 
 
 . Mar. 13, 
 
 1809 
 
 , 
 
 1809 
 
 . April 20- 22, 
 
 . May 21, 22, 
 
 . May 27, 
 
 . May 31, 
 
 . June 16, 
 
 1809 
 1809 
 1809 
 1809 
 1809 
 
 July 5, 6, 
 
 territory July 6, 
 
 . July 12, 
 
 . July 26, 
 
 1809 
 1809 
 1809 
 1809 
 
CHRONOLOGICAL lABLE. 
 
 555 
 
 
 A. D 
 
 . July 28, 1809 
 
 
 . Oct. 12, 1809 
 
 
 . Dec. 15, 1809 
 
 
 . Feb. 18, 1810 
 
 the < 
 
 iuchy 
 
 
 . July 9, 1810 
 
 
 . Aug. 21, 1810 
 
 
 . Mar. 20, 1812 
 
 
 . July 16, 1812 
 
 
 . July 22, 1812 
 
 
 .Aug. 17, 1812 
 
 
 . Sept. 7, 1812 
 
 
 . Sept. 14, 1812 
 
 
 . Oct. 24, 1812 
 
 
 Nov. 26-29, 1812 
 
 
 . Feb. 3, 1813 
 
 
 May 2 and 20, 1813 
 
 
 . June 21, 1813 
 
 
 . July 12, 1813 
 
 
 >Aug. 12, 1813 
 
 Death of Sir John Moore at Corunna 
 
 The attempted assassination of Napoleon by Staps 
 
 Napoleon diyorced from Josephine 
 
 Hofer, the Tyrolese, shot at Mantua . 
 
 Napoleon annexes Hamburg, Bremen, Lubeck, and 
 
 of Oldenburg to the French empire 
 Bernadotte declared successor to the Swedish throne 
 Birth of a son (the king of Rome) to Napoleon . 
 The French cross the Nlemen, and enter Wilna 
 Wellington defeats Marmont at Salamanca 
 The battle of Smolensk fought .... 
 The French gain the battle of the Borodino 
 The French army enters Moscow 
 The battle of Malo-Jaroslowetz .... 
 The passage of the Beresina .... 
 Prussia forms an alliance with Russia 
 The French victorious at Lutzen and Bautzen . 
 The English gain the battle of A^ittoria 
 Austria negotiates at the congress of Prague 
 Austria declares war against France ... 
 The Prusso-Swedish army victorious in the battles of Gros-Beeren 
 
 and Dennewitz Aug. 23 and Sept. 6, 1813 
 
 NaiX)leon wins the battle of Dresden Aug. 26, 27, 1813 
 
 Macdonald defeated on the Katzbach, in Silesia .... Aug. 26, 1813 
 Vandamme and his whole army surrounded and made prisoners 
 
 at Culm Aug. 29, 30, 1813 
 
 The allied armies unite in the plain of Leipsic .... Oct. 8, 1813 
 The French defeated at the battle of Leipsic . . . Oct. 16, 18, 1813 
 Victory gained by the French at Ilanau .... Oct. 30, 31, 1813 
 
 Blucher crosses the Rhine Jan. 1, 1814 
 
 Norway given to Sweden by the peace of Kiel . . . Jan. 14,1814 
 
 The armies of Blucher and Schwarzenberg meet in Champagne, 
 
 and gain the battle of Brienne 
 
 Napol[;on obtains the victor}' of Montereau 
 
 Blucher gains fresh advantages over the French at Craonne and 
 
 Laon Mar. 7 and 9, 
 
 Negotiations between the allies and Napoleon broken off, and 
 
 his dethronement resolved on . . . . . . Mar. 20, 21, 1814 
 
 The allies enter Paris .* . . Mar. 31, 1814 
 
 Napoleon resolves to abdicate in favor of his son .... April 4, 1814 
 
 He signs an unconditional act of abdication April 7, 1814 
 
 Soult defeated by Wellington at Toulouse April 10, 1814 
 
 Napoleon lands at Elba May 4, 1814 
 
 Ferdinand restores unlimited monarchy in Spain . . . May 10, 1814 
 
 First peace of Paris concluded May 30, 1814 
 
 Louis XVni. placed on the French throne .... May 30, 1814 
 
 Napoleon lands on the south coast of France .... Mar. 1, 1813 
 Grenoble opens her gates to him .... Mar. 20, 1815 
 
 Feb. 1, 1814 
 Feb. 18, 1814 
 
 1814 
 
556 
 
 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 
 
 Willi 
 
 Murat defeated in the battle of Tolentlno . 
 
 The French compel the Prussians to retreat at Ligny . 
 
 Battle of Waterloo 
 
 Kapoleon resigns in favor of Napoleon II. . 
 Paris surrendered to Wellington and Blucher 
 Alexander of Russia, Francis of Austria, and Frederick 
 
 III. of Prussia form the Holy Alliance 
 Napoleon arrives at St. Helena ..... 
 
 Second peace of Paris arranged 
 
 Democratic display at the festival of the Wartburg 
 James Munroe, President of the United States . 
 George Sand assassinates Kotzebue .... 
 
 Sand is executed 
 
 Riots at Manchester suppressed by the military . 
 Insurrection of the soldiers at Cadiz .... 
 
 George IV. king of England 
 
 Assassination of the due de Berri by Louvel 
 
 Dismission of the moderate ministry of Decaze . 
 
 Ferdinand of Spain obliged to summon the Cortes and swear to 
 
 the constitution 
 
 Pepe and Carascosa, with the insurgents, enter Naples 
 George IV. attempts to divorce his wife 
 The Holy Alliance suppresses the liberal movement . 
 Missouri admitted into the Union by a compromise on the 
 
 of slavery 
 
 John VI. returns to Lisbon, and swears to a new constitution 
 
 Portugal and Brazil 
 
 A revolution in Piedmont. Victor Emmanuel abdicates 
 
 Greece rises in arms . . 
 
 The Piedmontese liberals resist at Novara . 
 
 Napoleon Bonaparte died 
 
 The sacred band of the Greeks destroyed by the Turks in 
 
 Wallachia 
 
 Queen Caroline (of England) died 
 
 Lord Castlereagh committed suicide .... 
 
 The Holy Alliance requires the Spanish Cortes to alter 
 
 stitution . . . . . . • . 
 
 A French army, under the duke of Angouleme, crosses 
 
 Pyrenees . . . ♦ . . - . 
 
 They appear before Cadiz 
 
 Ferdinand VII. replaced on the Spanish throne . 
 Byron dies in Greece ....... 
 
 Don Miguel is banished from Portugal 
 Gen. Lafayette visits the United States 
 
 Louis XVHI. dies 
 
 John Quincy Adams, President of the United States . 
 Count of Artois becomes king of France, as Charles X. 
 Emperor Alexander dies 
 
 subject 
 
 the 
 
 A. D. 
 
 May 23, 1815 
 June 16, 1815 
 June 18, 1815 
 June 22, 1815 
 July 8, 1315 
 
 Sept. 25, 
 Oct. 18, 
 
 Nov. 20, 
 
 Oct. 18, 
 1817 — 
 
 Mar. 23, 
 Sept. 
 
 Jan. 1, 
 
 1820 — 
 
 Feb. 13, 
 
 March, 
 
 for 
 
 1815 
 1815 
 1815 
 1817 
 1825 
 1819 
 1819 
 1819 
 1820 
 1830 
 1820 
 1820 
 
 Mar. 7, 1820 
 
 July 13, 1820 
 
 1820 
 
 Jan. 1821 
 
 1821 
 
 Jan. 26, 1821 
 
 March, 1821 
 
 March, 1821 
 
 April, 1821 
 
 May 5, 1821 
 
 June 19, 1821 
 
 Aug. 7, 1821 
 
 Aus. 12, 1822 
 
 con- 
 the 
 
 Oct. 1822 
 
 Feb. 1823 
 
 Aug. 5, 1823 
 
 Nov. 7, 1823 
 
 April 19, 1824 
 
 April, 1824 
 
 1824 
 
 Sept. 16, 1824 
 
 1825—1829 
 
 May 29, 1825 
 
 Dec 1, 1825 
 
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 
 
 557 
 
 A. D. 
 
 John ^a of Portugal dies iMar. 10, 1826 
 
 Missolonghi taken April 22, 1826 
 
 The destruction of the Janissaries at Constantinople . . . June, 1826 
 
 Canning, prime minister of England, dies Aug. 8, 1827 
 
 Battle of Navarino Oct. 20, 1827 
 
 Don ^Miguel is proclaimed king of Portugal .... June, 1828 
 
 Irish Catholics admitted to parliament . . . . . 1829 
 
 Gen. Andrew Jackson, President of the United States . . 1829 — 1837 
 Capo d'Istria appointed President of the Greek States . . July, 1829 
 
 The French Chambers dissolved Aug. 8, 1829 
 
 The Russians surmount the Balkan Sept. 14, 1829 
 
 William IV. on the English throne 1830 — 1837 
 
 Frederick of Spain abohshes the Salic law Mar. 29, 1830 
 
 Algiers taken by the French July 5, 1830 
 
 The Revolution of July broke out ..... . July 26, 1830 
 
 Louis Philippe appointed regent July 29, 1830 
 
 Louis Philippe king of the French 1830—1847 
 
 A conspiracy against Russia breaks out in Poland . . , 1830 
 
 Isabella, daughter of Frederick of Spain, born .... Oct. 1830 
 Antwerp bombarded by the Dutch general, Chass6 . . . Nov. 1830 
 
 A free constitution given to Hesse Cassel 1831 
 
 A Russian army of 200,000 men marches into Poland . . Jan. 25, 1831 
 
 A disturbance excited in Paris on the day of the due de Berri's 
 
 death, by the raising of the white flag Feb. 15, 1831 
 
 The Refonn Bill passed Mar. 1, 1831 
 
 Insurrections in Paris and Lyons suppressed . . . 1831, 1832, 1834 
 
 Batde of Ostrolenka May 26, 1831 
 
 Belgium separated from Holland ...*.. June, 1831 
 
 Thirty friends of the Russians murdered at Warsaw. Czar- 
 
 toryski flies to the camp of Dembinski Aug. 1831 
 
 Warsaw and Praga surrender Sept. 6, 7, 1831 
 
 Don Pedro compels Don Miguel to renounce the Portuguese 
 
 crown, and leave the country 
 
 The French seize on Ancona, and keep it several years 
 
 Otho elected king of Greece ..*.... 
 
 The Hambacher Festival, in Rhenish Bavaria .... 
 
 The duchess of Berri unsuccessful in raising Vendee . 
 
 South Carolina attempts to nullify a law of the United States . 
 
 Holland desists from the contest with Belgium .... 
 
 The German liberals attempt to disperse the diet 
 
 Frederick VH. of Spain dies 
 
 The Basques, led by Zumalacarreguy and Cabrera, rise in favor 
 
 of Don Carlos 
 
 Twenty-one persons lose their lives by the attempt of Fieschi to 
 
 murder Louis Philippe 
 
 Slave Emancipation Bill passed 
 
 Charles X. dies at Gorz 
 
 Martin Van Buren, President of the United States . • 
 
 1832 — 1834 
 
 Feb. 23, 1832 
 
 May, 1832 
 
 May 27, 1832 
 
 Nov. 1832 
 
 Nov. 19, 1832 
 
 Dec. 1832 
 
 Aprils, 1833 
 
 Sept. 29, 1833 
 
 Oct. 1833 
 
 July 28, 1835 
 
 Aug. 1835 
 
 1836 
 
 1887 — 1841 
 
5ipS CHEONOLOGICAL TABLE. 
 
 A. D, 
 
 Ernest Augustus becomes king of Hanover . . . . 1837 
 
 Victoria ascends the British throne June 20, 1837 
 
 The old constitution of Hanover restored . . ... . July, 1837 
 
 The Carlist leader, Maroto, lays down his arms .... Aug. 31, 1839 
 
 Frederick William IV. king of Prussia 1840 
 
 Queen Victoria marries prince Albert of Saxe Coburg, . . Feb. 10, 1840 
 Gen. W. H. Harrison, President of the United States. His 
 
 death April 4, 1841 
 
 Espartero effects the removal of Christina from Spain . . May, 1841 
 
 The English corn laws relaxed 1842 
 
 Duke of Orleans killed by an accident . . . . . July 13, 1842 
 Treaty of Washington, negotiated by Mr. Webster and Lord 
 
 Ashburton, settles the north-eastern boundary of the United 
 
 States . Aug. 1842 
 
 The Greeks drive away the Bavarians 1843 
 
 Switzerland disturbed by a sft-uggle between Jesuitism and Badi- 
 
 calism March, 1843 
 
 Espartero being overthrown, Christina and her daughter carry 
 
 on the Spanish government July, 1843 
 
 Annexation of Texas to the United States March, 1845 
 
 James K. Polk, President of the United States .... 1845 — 1849 
 War between Mexico and the United States .... April, 1846 
 Gen. Taylor defeats the Mexican army at Palo Alto and Besaca 
 
 de la Palma . ^ May 8, 9, 184G 
 
 The king of Denmark destroys the hope of the Schleswic- 
 
 Kolsteiners of being united to Germany July 8, 1846 
 
 Oregon Treaty with Great Britain settles the northwestern 
 
 boundary of the United States July, 1846 
 
 Capture of Monterey and defeat of the Mexicans by Gen. 
 
 Taylor Sept. 21, 23, 1846 
 
 Battle of El Paso; Mexicans defeated by Col. Doniphan . Dec. 25, 1846 
 
 Frederick William IV. makes some concessions to the Prussians 1847 
 
 Battle of Bucna Vista ; Santa Anna with 22,000 men defeated by 
 
 Gen. Taylor with 5,000 . Feb. 23, 1847 
 
 Battle of Sacramento ; Col. Doniphan defeats the Mexicans . Feb. 28, 1847 
 
 Vera Cruz surrendered to Gen. Scott Mar. 29, 1847 
 
 Mexicans defeated at Cerro Gordo by Gen. Scott . . . April 18, 1847 
 The Swiss radicals dissolve the Sonderbund .... July, 1847 
 Battles of Contreras and Churubusco ; Mexican army defeated 
 
 with great slaughter Aug. 20, 1847 
 
 Bloody batde of Molina del Bey; Mexicans defeated by Gen. 
 
 Worth Sept. 8, 1847 
 
 Chapultepec stormed and the city of Mexico taken by assault 
 
 by the American army under Gen. Scott . . . Sept 12, 14, 1847 
 A confederate army subdues Freiburg and Lucerne . . . Nov. 4, 1847 
 
 The other cantons obliged to submit Dec. 1, 1847 
 
 Death of the duchess Maria Louisa Dec. 18, 1847 
 
 Bicily revolts from the king of Naples Jan. 1848 
 
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 559 
 
 A. D. 
 
 Louis Philippe dismisses Guizot, and promises reform . . Feb. 22, 23, 1848 
 Louis Philippe abdicates in favop of the Count of Paris. A republi- 
 can government formed Feb. 24, 1848 
 
 An insurrection in Vienna causes Metternlch to resign . . Mar. 13, 1848 
 The Prussian government consents to freedom of the press, and 
 
 other reforms Mar. 17, 1848 
 
 Disturbances in Berlin Mar. 18, 1848 
 
 King Louis resigns the crown of Bavaria Mar. 20, 1848 
 
 After an undecided street-fight of fourteen hours, the king of 
 
 Prussia grants an unconditional amnesty . . . Mar. 21, 1848 
 
 The Austrian garrisons in Milan and Venice expelled by popular 
 
 insurrections IMarch, 1848 
 
 The emperor of Austria and his court retire tolnnspruck . . May, 1848 
 Treaty of Guadaloupe Hidalgo, making peace between Mexico 
 
 and the United States May 30, 1848 
 
 The emperor returns on the invitation of the Austrian Diet . July, 1848 
 Archduke John of Austria is elected regent of Germany, and 
 
 enters Frankfurt July 11, 1848 
 
 Radetzky gains a victory at Custozza July 25, 1848 
 
 The truce of Malmii concluded by Prussia Ang. 26, 1848 
 
 The German republicans attempt in vain to disperse the National 
 
 Assembly, and bring about a revolution and republic . . Sept. 18, 1848 
 The Magyar mob, enraged at Jellachich taking the field against 
 
 Hungary, murder Lamberg at Bada-Pesth .... Oct. 3, 1848 
 
 Latour murdered at Vienna Oct. 6, 1848 
 
 Rossi, the pope's minister, murdered Nov. 15, 1848 
 
 Francis Joseph becomes emperor of Austria .... Dec. 2, 1848 
 
 A liberal constitution granted in Prussia ..... Dec. 5, 1848 
 
 The pope flies to Gaeta. A republic is established in Rome . Feb. 1849 
 Charles Albert takes up arms for the Italians, but is soon de- 
 feated by Radetzky . ... . . . March 20 -24, 1849 
 
 The dignity of emperor of Germany offered to the king of 
 
 Prussia March, 1849 
 
 A Danish llne-of-battle ship and frigate destroyed by the Ger- 
 mans at Eckernford April 5, 1849 
 
 The Diet declares Hungary to be independent of Austria, and 
 
 appoints a provisional government April 14, 1849 
 
 The dissolution of the second, and prorogation of the first, cham- 
 ber of the German Assembly April 27, 1849 
 
 Prince Windischgratz sent to reduce Vienna June, 1849 
 
 The minister, Romer, puts a stop to the revolutionists, and com- 
 pels them to leave Germany ...... .June 18, 1849 
 
 A truce completed between Schleswic and Denmark . . . July, 1849 
 The French, after a fierce resistance, enter Rome . . . July 3, 1849 
 Gorgey surrenders to the Russians at Villagos .... Aug. 11, 1849 
 
 Venice retaken by the Austriaas Aug. 25, 1849 
 
 THE END. 
 
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